Daykeeper Journal: Skywatch

by Maya del Mar

The Harvest Moon of the night-morning of October 1-2 is the most glorious full moon of the year. It rises very obliquely, so that it is close to the horizon for a longer time and appears extra large. The timing here is perfect for the evening ferry, and my special treat of the year is to be in the middle of the Bay and see the Moon rise to my left over the Bay Bridge and the Sun set to my left behind Golden Gate Bridge. The Sun and Moon within myself comes very much alive then.

Mars lingers low in the west in the early evening, but it is very faint now. Royal Star Antares, however, is still bold and scarlet in the southwest. It is the main star of Scorpio, and it looks the part.

Saturn rises in the late evening, in Taurus. By midnight it’s quite visible in the southeast. Early on the morning of October 8, Moon occults Saturn, another of our monthly Saturn eclipses this year. This eclipse is visible in parts of Asia and in Japan. These regular eclipses of Saturn are aiding the current planetary process of huge structural change.

Moon will eclipse many of the stars in the star cluster called The Hyades, in Taurus, in the late evening of October 6. This too has been occurring every month during most of this year. The Hyades are known as a malefic star grouping. Ebertin has a lot of unpleasant things to say about its effects, including:

"...staggering increase in the need for self-preservation…greediness…a striving for prestige leading to power politics. It is doubly important that power and strength must not be used to exploit other people."

Hitler had his Pluto conjoined The Hyades.

Jupiter rises two hours after Saturn, and both of them are visible high in the early morning sky.

Venus, the jewel of the sky, rises about an hour before the Sun. Look low in the east for the crescent Moon near Venus on October 15.

By the end of the month Mercury makes a fleet appearance as it joins Venus low in the early morning sky. They have a spectacular conjunction on the morning of October 29, the day after the end of daylight saving time. Mercury has just turned direct, and it’s lovely that Mercury is now graced with Venus’ beauty as it moves forward with its new messages.