The Flow State Herald: Edition 1, the Knight (Aries rising)
The Flow State Herald
10 to 17 October 2026 · Edition 1 · Vol. I · No. 1
The Knight's edition, for Aries rising
Read this first
- The week: A Libra New Moon opens the week on Sat 10 Oct, Venus squares Mars the same day, and Pluto turns direct on Thu 15 Oct.
- For you: Your 7th house, the Great Hall, gets the New Moon, so one conversation with a partner or rival matters most this week.
- Do this: On Sun 11 Oct, start one difficult conversation with a question and let the other person answer first.
- Dates: Sat 10 Oct and Thu 15 Oct.
Your birth chart is a castle: twelve rooms for twelve areas of life. Each week the planets open different doors, and this paper tells you which rooms are worth entering.
New to the rooms? They are explained on the castle page.
Album of the week
Germfree Adolescents, X-Ray Spex, 1978. About 40 minutes. Source for the story.
Poly Styrene, born Marion Joan Elliott-Said, started the band after seeing the Sex Pistols play Hastings Pier on her birthday in July 1976.
The Muster Roll: your sky this week
You are the Knight: this week the Libra New Moon falls in your 7th house, the Great Hall, and Pluto turns direct in your 11th house, the Courtyard.
Which argument this week is worth having, and where should you listen instead?
A New Moon seats someone opposite you · Sat 10 Oct, 11:50 am ET
THE GREAT HALL · 7th house · partners and close one to one relationships
A new moon is a start, and this one falls in the house of partners and rivals. There is nothing to win yet. Notice who you deal with closely and what they are asking of you, and save your effort for what matters.
- Sun 11 Oct: Start one difficult conversation with a question and let the other person answer first.
New Moon in Libra, 11:50 am ET (15:50 UTC), your 7th house; ☉︎ Sun sextile ♃︎ Jupiter exact Thu 15 Oct, 4:22 am ET (08:22 UTC)
Venus and Mars clash over the bill · Sat 10 Oct, 5:31 pm ET
THE VAULT · 8th house · shared money, trust, what is kept private and what changes
THE GARDEN AND BALLROOM · 5th house · play, romance, making things and being seen
Venus squares Mars across your 8th and 5th houses: shared money and what is owed pull against pleasure and spending. Expect friction over money or favours, and sharper words than you meant. Do not raise an old debt just to win an argument.
- Sun 11 Oct: Send one reply or payment you owe someone.
♀︎ Venus retrograde in Scorpio (your 8th house) square ♂︎ Mars in Leo (your 5th house), exact 5:31 pm ET (21:31 UTC); ♂︎ Mars trine ♄︎ Saturn Fri 16 Oct, 4:32 am ET (08:32 UTC)
Pluto turns direct in the Courtyard · Thu 15 Oct, 10:40 pm ET
THE COURTYARD · 11th house · friends, groups and shared hopes
After months of going backward, Pluto moves forward in your house of friends and groups. You may notice a change in who leads a group you belong to. Decide which groups you still want to support.
♇︎ Pluto stations direct in Aquarius, your 11th house, Thu 15 Oct, 10:40 pm ET (Fri 16 Oct, 02:40 UTC)
Expect friction over money or favours, and sharper words than you meant.
Tarot
Look. A figure lies face down, ten swords in his back, under a black sky edged with yellow.
Ask yourself. The worst has landed on this figure; which fight of yours is already over?
Show the reading
Then read. Ten of Swords, upright, is an ending already complete; nothing more can be taken. With the New Moon in your Great Hall, leave the fight for now.
Look. An angel blows a trumpet hung with a red-cross flag while people rise from coffins with raised arms.
Ask yourself. The trumpet calls these figures up; what would you answer honestly if called?
Show the reading
Then read. Judgement, upright, is a call to answer honestly. Against Venus squaring Mars, it says hold the line by staying for the whole conversation and saying what is true.
Look. A figure in an orange tunic leans on a long hoe beside a bush bearing seven gold pentacles.
Ask yourself. He leans and waits beside his bush; what slow thing are you rushing?
Show the reading
Then read. Seven of Pentacles, reversed, is patient waiting turning restless. With Pluto turning direct in your Courtyard, let the slow thing take the time it takes.
The thread. Let the old fight end. Answer honestly. Give slow things time.
Cards: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909. Drawn at random from one shuffle.
Planet of the week
In your chart. Pluto is in your 11th house, the Courtyard, the room for friends, groups and shared hopes.
This week. Pluto stations direct in Aquarius on Thursday 15 October at 10:40 pm ET (02:40 UTC Friday), after turning retrograde on 6 May. It stands for what lies beneath: power, endings that clear the ground, buried material and slow rebuilding.
Greek. Hades was the Greek god of the dead. In the Cratylus, a dialogue by the philosopher Plato, people call him Plouton, 'giver of wealth', because the name Hades frightens them.
Hindu. A Hindu text, the Katha Upanishad, tells of a boy named Nachiketa who visits Yama, god of death, to ask what follows death. Offered wealth and long life to stop asking, he refuses.
Egyptian. Osiris was the Egyptian god of the dead. He presided as each dead person's heart was weighed against the feather of Maat, the goddess of truth.
Correspondences
Colour: black
Modern sources give black, with dark red or maroon borrowed from Scorpio, the sign Pluto co-rules.
Metal: plutonium
A modern link: plutonium was found in 1940 to 1941 and named after the planet.
Gems: red spinel, garnet, obsidian, black tourmaline
These are modern attributions from gem retailers, not classical doctrine.
Plants: the pomegranate
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hades gives Persephone pomegranate seed and binds her to the underworld for part of every year.
Foods: pomegranate, leeks, onions, mushrooms
Pomegranate comes from the myth, and the others from a modern astrological folk list.
Part of the body: elimination and reproduction
Modern astrologers assign these to Pluto's sign; no old text gives them.
Altar suggestions
Ideas, not rules:
- A black cloth
- A piece of obsidian
- A pomegranate
- A small iron key
- A stick of myrrh
- A dark red candle
In Vedic astrology
Pluto is absent from Vedic astrology, whose nine grahas are the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.
The Relic Chest: the museum object
Look first. A white ram stands in profile on dark green grass, with one curled grey horn and black patches on its face and chest. A red collar hung with tiny gold bells circles its neck, and a thin gold chain runs to a peg at the left.
Context. A Mughal painting from India, about 1585, in gum tempera and gold on paper, with a border probably added in the 1700s. The ram was probably kept in the royal menagerie.
Notice. Look at the two puffs of fleece, one on the shoulder and one at the tail, both coloured with henna.
Sources: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013.298.
The deep dive
The last labour of Hercules was to go down to the underworld and bring up Cerberus, the three-headed dog of Hades. Hans Sebald Beham engraved the scene in 1545 and signed it HSB.
Clyde Tombaugh found Pluto on plates taken at Lowell Observatory in January 1930, using a blink comparator, which flips between two photographs. The discovery was announced on 13 March 1930.
In Oxford, eleven-year-old Venetia Burney heard the news from her grandfather Falconer Madan and suggested Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. Madan told the astronomer Herbert Hall Turner, who cabled Lowell, and the name was announced on 1 May 1930.
Greek Plouton means 'the rich one', a gentler title for Hades, whose name people feared to say. The Romans had Dis Pater, 'Rich Father'.
The International Astronomical Union voted in 2006 that Pluto is a dwarf planet, but the name stayed. New Horizons passed Pluto on 14 July 2015 carrying a dust counter named for Venetia, built and run by students.
To think about: What would you rename with a gentler word?
Go further: The Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter, LASP, University of Colorado Boulder
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine: how Pluto got its name; APS News: Tombaugh and the discovery of Pluto; Scientific American: Pluto's namer, 2009; Pluto (mythology).
Movement
Try ten minutes of hard effort, such as a fast walk, a punch bag or stairs, then finish slowly.
Look up. Mars rises about 1 am and passes right in front of the Beehive Cluster on 11 October, visible in binoculars. Saturn, at its brightest this year, is in the eastern sky after sunset, and Jupiter rises before 3 am in Leo; Venus is too low to see.
This week's calendar
- Sat 10 Oct: Hindu: the last day of the ancestors' fortnight (Mahalaya Amavasya).
- Sun 11 Oct: Hindu: Navratri begins (Sharad Navratri).
- Sun 11 Oct: Jewish: new month of Cheshvan (Rosh Chodesh, day 1 of 2).
- Mon 12 Oct: Civil (Canada): Thanksgiving.
- Wed 14 Oct: Eastern Christian: Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God (Pokrova).
Hindu festival days differ by region; Bengali Durga Puja counts some days a day apart from other calendars.
Eat & wear
Eat. Leeks and mushrooms softened in butter, over lentils, with pomegranate seeds. In the Greek myth, Hades gives Persephone a pomegranate.
Wear. Scarlet, oxblood, black, gold and bone white: a red top with a black leather jacket. Warm: a dark red wool coat. Cool: red linen.
A line to keep
Restrain also the keen fury of my heart which provokes me to tread the ways of blood-curdling strife.
Homeric Hymn 8, to Ares, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914
How this was made. The sky is calculated with the Swiss Ephemeris, tropical zodiac, whole-sign houses from the rising sign. Times are ET with UTC in brackets, for the window from Saturday 10 October 11:50 am ET (15:50 UTC) to Saturday 17 October 11:50 am ET. Tarot cards are drawn at random from one shuffle.
Pictures are public domain or CC0 from museum open access collections (cma:170791, cma:127818, cma:96053, cma:133294, cma:98873, cma:122515); the mother of pearl band is cropped from The Met object 40526.
The paper is for reflection and enjoyment and is not medical, financial or legal advice.
