If your plans feel singed at the edges, you’re not imagining it. We walk straight into a two-part Mercury retrograde that opens with Mars-fueled friction, then sinks into Scorpio’s depth where the real healing and alignment begin. Big visions get stress-tested in Sagittarius, and the edits can feel personal in Scorpio—because they are. The point isn’t to punish your ambition; it’s to craft a story you can actually live.
We unpack the rhythm of the week so you can use it. First, a burst of buoyancy as the Sun trines Jupiter invites hope and generous thinking. Then Saturn steps in—not to shut it down, but to shape it into something workable. Venus trines the North Node, hinting at fated connections and value-led choices, while Uranus sextiles Neptune opens a rare portal for rebel-artist creativity. Think original, intuitive, slightly wild ideas that deserve a notebook and a little faith.
The hinge moment lands with the Scorpio new moon conjunct Mercury retrograde. New moons plant seeds; this one plants them deep, tying the next month—and the next six months—to the revisions you’re making right now. We guide you to set emotionally honest, Mercurial intentions around writing, communication, learning, contracts, and digital craft, with room to refine as Mercury retraces its steps. Expect a mixed bag: some mess, real tenderness, and piercing clarity. The reward is alignment—plans that match your nervous system and your next chapter.
Join us for practical timing, grounded coaching, and a compassionate take on a complicated week. If this helped you breathe easier, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs cosmic context, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find us. What intention are you setting under this Scorpio new moon?
If you're interested in booking a session with me, you can find information and contact me through PiscesMoonAstrology.
I do natal readings, relationship readings, career/money readings, and medical astrology...among other things. I'd love to work with you!
You can read my weekly FREE content on Substack here PiscesMoon. And leave comments! This is a good way to talk with me.
Episode Transcript
Hello and welcome to Pisces Moon Astrology.
I'm your astrologer, KateLeonard, and I'm excited to
explore the stars with you.
Hi everyone, welcome to the weekof November 16th through
November 22nd.
I am so glad to be back and soglad to be talking to you again
(00:25):
and with you.
And I want to um take a quickminute and just thank you all
for the texts, the emails, thecomments on Substack, all the
different ways that you reachedout to express condolences for
the loss of my dog.
He was amazing.
(00:46):
He was my best friend, and Imiss him desperately.
And you all taking time to sendthose kind words really did
matter and really did touch myheart.
And so thank you.
And before I forget, thank youfor being here.
I know that it's hard when welose the rhythm of me missing a
(01:08):
week and when things like thathappen, pattern gets broken.
And so, for all of you who arehearing this, thank you so much
for being here.
And I am really bummed that Idid miss the week when the
Mercury retrograde startedbecause boy howdy, is this a
(01:29):
Mercury retrograde.
And I feel like I've been sayingthat for the last couple of
them, right?
But this one is really intense.
I think we're through the worstof it, and I'll explain that in
just a minute.
But the Mercury conjunction withMars while Mercury was
(01:51):
retrograde, I mean, I can't eventell you what I've been hearing
from clients, you know,breakups, rage quitting jobs.
I did my usual when Mars isinvolved.
I have a second degree burn onone arm.
So it is, it was intense.
It was intense.
And like I said, by the timeyou're hearing this, we're
(02:16):
probably past the worst of theMars part of it.
But the focus this week is thatthis is really a two-part
Mercury retrograde.
And it's big on both sides ofit.
The reason I say it's two partis because it started in
(02:38):
Sagittarius and it does thatwhole shebang with Mars, and
then it's going to move intoScorpio.
Depending on where you're at,that's gonna happen right around
the 18th.
So, of course, when a planetchanges signs, it changes um how
(02:59):
it expresses itself.
And there is quite the hugedifference between Sagittarius
and Scorpio, right?
So we're gonna get into it.
I know it sounds like reallyoverwhelming right now, and
we're all pretty much over thiswhole Mercury retrograde thing
anyway, because the beginning ofit has been so intense.
(03:21):
So, yeah, let's just jump in.
It's I I don't even know how totell you how intense this week
is.
It is far from just the Mercuryretrograde as well.
So, on top of that whole thing,there's a whole lot of other
stuff going on.
(03:41):
Also, Mercury is not justretrograde, he's making about a
gazillion aspects while he'sretrograding.
And in fact, he's doing so muchthat I can't even talk about it
all in this episode.
Or, you know, I know none of youwant to listen to me for the six
hours it would take.
(04:02):
So yeah, just know it's going tofeel like there's a lot going
on.
There's gonna be a lot ofenergy.
It's it's gonna have, I think, Idon't know how to put it, maybe
like an emotionally clutteredfeel to it.
So this is one of those weeksthat if it's feeling
overwhelming, yeah, it is.
(04:23):
So self-care, take time off,just do whatever it is you need
to do to take care of you.
All right, so a few of the otherthings that are gonna be
happening.
Um, we've got the sun in Scorpiothat's going to make a trine,
the most auspicious aspect toJupiter in Cancer, that's
(04:45):
happening right around the 16th.
This is beautiful.
This is just expansive joy.
So grab it while you can becausethe very next day the sun is
going to trine Saturn in Pisces.
Now, a trine is a good aspect.
So I think what that's gonna dois sort of illuminate where we
(05:10):
need to put the hard work in.
The other thing it might do, SunJupiter, trine can be a lot.
We can almost like get too bigin what we think we want to
accomplish.
And having the next day bringingSaturn in in a positive way, it
might help us rein it in alittle bit and make things a
(05:34):
little bit more manageable.
So I'm not hating that at all.
I have to say so.
Um, of course, the Mercuryretrograde is going on during
all of that, but still, we'lltake the good we can get, right?
On the 19th, we have Venusmaking that trine to the north
node of destiny.
(05:55):
This is faded love.
I don't even know what else tosay.
So look at where that's going onin your charts.
And I didn't tell you wherethat's going on, did I?
Venus will be in Scorpio,trining the north node in
Pisces.
On the 20th, I am loving thesextile between Uranus in Taurus
(06:19):
and Neptune in Pisces.
Now, you know, I normally don'tlike anything having to do with
Neptune, but this I have to say,a lot of astrologers are not
loving this, but I am.
This is like creativity runwild.
I think it's gonna be brilliant.
(06:40):
It's the rebel artist.
It that's what it is.
It's the rebel artist.
So art from our true authenticvoice.
All right, there is so muchgoing on.
I mean, Mercury this week ismaking something like six
different aspects.
We can't even, right?
It's too much already.
(07:02):
Um, so let's get into the heartof it.
So the first couple of days ofthis week, we're still in this
original Mars Mercury kind ofthing going on in Sagittarius.
So, whatever you've been goingthrough with all of that, I
would imagine that's how theweek starts off.
(07:24):
Not gonna say a whole lot aboutthat.
Sagittarius is about long-termplans, big visions, that kind of
thing, right?
So when Mercury's retrograde,it's all the rewords,
rethinking, replanning, all ofthat, which already can be kind
(07:44):
of frustrating.
It's not bad.
Just remember, Mercuryretrogrades aren't bad.
Okay, you know what?
I can't even believe my own selfon this one because this Mercury
retrograding into Mars has beenpretty brutal.
But in general, when we lookback on them, the energy is good
(08:04):
for something, right?
And it's good for the redoing.
The problem in Sagittarius isthat these are our big picture
ideas, and we generally don'twant to redo them, right?
It's like, no, I have thisfive-year plan and I'm on it and
I love it, and it's my plan.
And then Mercury retrogradesays, yeah, that's that's cool.
(08:30):
Yeah, that's that's kind of cutehow you had that that plan and
everything all laid out.
Now you have to go do somerevision.
Yeah, it's not always so muchfun.
We're not always, you know, justembracing that with open arms,
but that's kind of where we'reat.
Mars in the mix is just makingit intense.
(08:51):
So we may be feeling angry andfrustrated and whatever.
I've also seen a lot recently oflike blame happening.
So, for some people at least, ifyou're feeling like you're angry
because it's somebody else'sfault that you have to rethink
(09:14):
something or another going on inyour life, step back from that.
My guess is, I mean, sometimes,yes, it's somebody else's fault,
right?
But my guess is a lot of thatjust has to do with because this
meetup with Mars is just reallyintense.
And when I say intense, I meankind of horrible for the most
(09:37):
part.
Now, ideally, it can just beenergizing.
It can give that oomph that weneed to get in there and and do
that reworking of whatever kindthat we're having to do.
But that's not that's not whatI'm hearing people talking
about.
And I, yeah, I don't know.
(09:59):
If that's you, count your luckystars.
The thing is, that's only thefirst couple of days of the
week.
Around the 18th, depending onwhere you are, Mercury's going
into Scorpio.
So we leave that big picturekind of wide-angle lens of Sag,
and we're going into the deepdive.
(10:21):
Scorpio is fixed water, it isdeep, emotional territory.
But even when a planet is doinga two-parter, so this Mercury
retrograde has some Sag, hassome Scorpio.
I don't think it's going to betwo different stories for almost
(10:43):
anybody.
I would be super surprised.
It could be, but really, I don'tthink so.
This is one Mercury retrograde.
I think we're going to have adifferent focus.
So we've been looking out withSagittarius, and Scorpio is
saying, now go deep.
What is your emotional truth?
(11:05):
How do you need to rethink youremotional position to whatever
this other sad story is?
So if you're having to reviselike your five-year goal in for
your marriage, for your homelife, for your career, whatever
it is, depending on what houseit's hitting in your chart.
(11:27):
If you're having to revise somebig goal, how do you have to
adjust your emotional trutharound that?
When something's really big inthat sad kind of way, it's not
like we change it and don't haveto change ourselves to some
extent as well, right?
(11:49):
And I think that's what thissecond bit of the Mercury
retrograde is gonna do.
So, in some ways, I feel likeit's going to be really, really
challenging and intense, but ina different way.
The good thing that happens iswe are leaving Mars behind.
(12:10):
So the anger, the impulsivity,the sort of lashing out aspect
of it, I'm thinking that's gonnapretty much be done by midweek.
But there is gonna be the, Idon't want to say challenge, but
when it's Mercury retrograde,sometimes it feels that way of
(12:32):
going deep inside.
So for a lot of people, theMercury-Mars thing has been some
kind of a breakup.
That's not always a love affairbreakup, right?
That I, like I said before, youknow, I've known people who have
rage quit jobs.
I do know a lot of relationshipsthat have ended, all that kind
(12:53):
of stuff going on.
It makes sense then.
If you're one of those people,it makes sense that you have to
then go inside and do that kindof emotional repair.
Repair is a reword, right?
So just know that this might bethe more emotionally intense
(13:16):
part of it, not you know,excluding the anger, aligning
our inner world with thatoutward movement we want to do.
Now remember, on the 29th ofNovember, Mercury is gonna go
direct and he's gonna pass backover whatever it is that's
(13:36):
coming up this week.
So we're not done.
We're not done actually tillmid-December, really, um, when
Mercury finally leaves shadow inScorpio, when the whole entire
story is played out.
So just know we've got a lot oftime in this.
That's why I'm saying this weekis super cluttered.
(13:58):
Take your time, rest.
I think with Mercuryretrograding through Scorpio,
you'll be able to do that.
I think you'll want to do that.
The goal might be like, don'tonly rest.
You do have to get out of bed atsome point and do some other
stuff.
Now, here's the good news.
Okay, there is good news.
(14:19):
I I you know I'm always gonnaget to it.
I probably should have led withthat at the beginning.
Sorry.
Anyway, maybe I'll go back andtry to edit that in.
But I don't want to take awayhow complex I think this is.
But on the 19th, so this isright after Mercury crosses into
(14:40):
Scorpio, what does he hit?
The new moon.
So the 19th, we get a new moonin Scorpio, and that is gonna be
conjunct the Mercury retrograde.
You get what I'm saying?
All three moon, sun, mercuryretrograde together.
(15:00):
Wow, oh wow, this is complicatedand kind of wonderful.
So, what this means is this newmoon story that we know goes on
most dramatically for a wholemonth, but actually, new moon
energy is a six-month cycle.
(15:23):
I've explained that in otherepisodes, but in case just for a
quickie, we actually completethat story when we get the full
moon in Scorpio, which happensin about six months.
Okay.
So, whatever this Mercuryretrograde story is for you,
whatever you're grappling with,revising, this is gonna actually
(15:49):
be part of a whole newbeginning, a new life cycle
that's gonna be intense for amonth but go on for six months.
That Mercury retrograde story ispart of this.
So think really optimisticallyas you're facing these issues,
what new beginning do you want?
(16:11):
If there have been endings,especially for those people out
there who have been strugglingwith the breakups and things
like that, or even if it's notsomething like a relationship
breaking up or a job ending, butjust you breaking up with a
project, maybe, you breaking upwith a goal, whatever that is,
(16:34):
it is inviting in something new,something new that comes from
that is born out of thisrevision.
Does that make sense?
I mean, I know new is alwaysborn out of endings, right?
That's how the lunar cycleworks, but this is more intense.
It's like that on steroids,because it's whatever this
(16:57):
revision process is, what newphase of life does it launch?
Does that make sense?
It's very complicated, andsometimes I don't know if I have
all the words, but there we go.
So as Mercury finishes theretrograde, moves forward, all
(17:19):
of that, you might want tojournal and see how are those
new moon intentions that youset, how are those playing out?
And I will remind you again, ifyou're that intention-setting
kind of person, this is Scorpio,deep emotions.
If you're setting intentions,make sure they align with this
(17:44):
revision process you're goingthrough and also with what
Scorpio is able to manifest.
If you're setting all kinds oflike outward, hardworking, big
goal-oriented kinds of things,Scorpio's not as much about
that.
It's gonna have problemsdelivering for you.
(18:05):
But the other thing to keep inmind is with Mercury right
there, set intentions that arearound mercurial topics.
What are those?
Writing, communicating,thoughts, ideas, contracts,
business, short distance travel,all of those kinds of things are
(18:27):
fair game for this new moon.
Writers, content creators,anybody who communicates for a
living, you know, all the socialmedia people and all of that,
this is your new moon.
Set those intentions and oh wow.
But also remember, Mercury'sstill retrograding.
(18:50):
So whatever these intentionsthat you're setting are, expect
that you're gonna tweak them,right?
But not to worry that that isnot even an issue because at the
time of the new moon, we haveMercury making brilliant angles
to Neptune, which is creativity,and Jupiter, the expander, the
(19:15):
luckiest planet, the greaterbenefic.
It's pretty glorious, all rolledup in this crazy, crazy Mercury
retrograde.
So, do you see why I say, like,I don't even know exactly how to
talk about this week and make itmake sense?
I think the first part of theweek is going to be the hardest.
(19:38):
That's when we still have Marsclose enough that I hate it.
Then we go into the Scorpioemotional deep dive.
I think there's some complexitywith that.
But we also have the Grand Trineand the new moon.
(19:59):
So it is just a very mixed bag.
It's emotional, it's complex,it's frustrating as hell.
And oh my gosh, what do you say?
But you get it.
I really do think that when wefinally get to the other side of
(20:20):
all of this, I think that somegood is gonna come out of it.
I really, really do.
I just honestly don't think mostof it's gonna be that much fun.
So I hope that was helpful.
I know it's a little bit allover the place this week because
honestly, I haven't even touchedon how all over the place it
(20:43):
really is.
But just stay focused on gettingthrough it and learning the
lessons, right?
Stay focused on what thisMercury story is really giving
you the opportunity to makebetter because that is really
what it's about, even if it'sdoing it the hard way.
(21:05):
That's all I got.
Aren't you glad?
Aren't you glad there's no more?
Well, there is, I just don'thave time.
So that's all I'm gonna do, Ishould say.
And until next week, go out andseize the energies of the stars.
This is my wish for you always.
And we'll we'll make it throughto the other side.
(21:27):
We always do, yeah?
Talk to you next time.
Bye.
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