The Flow State Herald: Edition 1, the Sovereign (Leo rising)
The Flow State Herald
10 to 17 October 2026 · Edition 1 · Vol. I · No. 1
The Sovereign's edition, for Leo rising
Read this first
- The week: The week begins with a Libra New Moon on Sat 10 Oct and its main action ends when Mars trines Saturn on Fri 16 Oct.
- For you: Your 3rd house, the Library, gets the New Moon: a good week to speak clearly and thank people who helped.
- Do this: On Mon 12 Oct, send someone a short note thanking them for one thing they did.
- Dates: Sat 10 Oct and Fri 16 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
Step II, Sylvester, 1978. About 40 minutes. Source for the story.
Sylvester James Jr. spent most of the 1970s in San Francisco with the drag troupe The Cockettes and a rock band before signing to Fantasy Records in Berkeley.
The Court Circular: your sky this week
You are the Sovereign: this week the Libra New Moon falls in your 3rd house, the Library, and Mars trines Saturn on Fri 16 Oct.
Who helped you get where you are, and have you thanked them?
The New Moon opens the Library · Sat 10 Oct, 11:50 am ET
THE LIBRARY · 3rd house · how you think, talk and learn, and the people close by
A new moon is a small start in your house of words, and a good week to thank people clearly. Notice who did the early work that your own success rests on.
- Mon 12 Oct: Send someone a short note thanking them for one thing they did.
New ☽︎ Moon in Libra, Sat 10 Oct, 11:50 am ET (15:50 UTC), your 3rd house; ☉︎ Sun in Libra, also your 3rd house
Venus squares Mars between bedchamber and mirror · Sat 10 Oct, 5:31 pm ET
THE BEDCHAMBER · 4th house · home, family and where you come from
THE DRESSING ROOM · 1st house · how you present yourself and start things
Venus squares Mars across your 4th and 1st houses: home and how you present yourself pull apart. You may feel one way in private and act another in public. Notice the gap before you act on either.
♀︎ Venus square ♂︎ Mars, exact Sat 10 Oct, 5:31 pm ET (21:31 UTC): Venus retrograde in Scorpio (your 4th house), Mars in Leo (your 1st house)
Mars and Saturn agree before dawn · Fri 16 Oct, 4:32 am ET
THE DRESSING ROOM · 1st house
THE OBSERVATORY TOWER · 9th house · travel, study, beliefs and big questions
Mars trines Saturn across your 1st and 9th houses: your drive meets study and plans. Expect a plain burst of useful effort.
♂︎ Mars trine ♄︎ Saturn, exact Fri 16 Oct, 4:32 am ET (08:32 UTC): Mars in Leo (your 1st house), Saturn retrograde in Aries (your 9th house)
Notice who did the early work that your own success rests on.
Tarot
Look. A cloaked figure in red and green stands among three tall wands, with sea and sky beyond.
Ask yourself. The figure looks out past the wands; which plan of yours is still in harbour?
Show the reading
Then read. Three of Wands, reversed, is a plan held in harbour: expansion delayed or still being drafted. With the New Moon in your Library, finish the draft before you crown it.
Look. A knight in armour and a patterned yellow tunic rides a rearing horse, holding a leafing wand.
Ask yourself. The knight rides out first; whose courage would you applaud this week?
Show the reading
Then read. Knight of Wands, upright, is all charge, a rider who has chosen speed and heat. For Venus squaring Mars, he is the courage of the person who goes first.
Look. A figure in a red cloak and staff walks past eight stacked cups toward hills, under a crescent moon.
Ask yourself. He walks away from the stacked cups; what could you hand on and leave?
Show the reading
Then read. Eight of Cups, upright, is a deliberate walk away from something complete that no longer feeds you. With Mars in trine to Saturn, delegate that task and go.
The thread. Finish the draft. Applaud whoever goes first. Hand on what is done.
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 7th house, the Great Hall, the room for partners and close one-to-one relationships.
This week. Pluto stations direct in Aquarius on Thursday 15 October at 10:40 pm ET (Friday 16 October, 02:40 UTC), after moving backward since 6 May. In Western astrology it stands for transformation, power, buried material and endings that clear space.
Hindu. In the Katha Upanishad, an old Hindu text, a boy called Nachiketa goes to Yama, the god of death, and asks what happens after death. Yama offers him riches and a long life to drop the question, but he keeps asking.
Greek. Hades was the Greek god of the dead. People were afraid to say his name, so they called him Plouton, 'the rich one', instead.
Mesopotamian. In an old Mesopotamian story, the goddess Inanna goes down into the underworld to her sister Ereshkigal, queen of the dead. At each of seven gates she gives up a piece of clothing, until she has nothing left.
Correspondences
Colour: black, and dark red
Modern sources give black for Pluto, and dark red comes from Scorpio, the sign it co-rules in modern astrology.
Metal: plutonium
The element was named after the planet following its discovery in 1940 and 1941, so the link runs from the planet to the metal, unlike the seven ancient metals.
Gems: spinel, garnet, obsidian, tourmaline
Modern gem lists give red spinel, dark garnet, obsidian and black tourmaline, none with a classical use behind it.
Plant: the pomegranate
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, a pomegranate seed binds Persephone to the underworld, and later writers call the fruit his.
Foods: leeks, onions and mushrooms
Modern astrology cookbooks give Scorpio, Pluto's co-ruled sign, strong foods such as onions and leeks, and mushrooms.
Body: elimination and renewal
Modern astrologers assign Pluto, through Scorpio, the organs of elimination and reproduction. The link is symbolic, not medical.
Altar suggestions
Ideas, not rules:
- A black cloth and a gold coin
- A garnet
- A pomegranate
- A black pillar candle
- A stick of myrrh
- A vase of dark red roses
Vedic note: no Pluto
Jyotish has nine grahas and leaves Pluto out, so a Vedic reader would look to Mars and Saturn this week.
The Vitrine: the museum object
Look first. A U-shaped string of round gilt silver beads, some smooth and some engraved, hangs from an orange cord. At each upper end an amber-coloured bead sits on a cone-shaped, patterned cap, and the cord is knotted at the top.
Context. A muriya necklace from Harar, Ethiopia, made in the late 1800s or early 1900s from gilt silver and tree resin. Worn only by Muslim women there, it was part of the bridal trousseau.
Notice. Look at the fine ridges and patterns cut into some of the gold beads, and at the warm yellow of the two large beads at the top.
The deep dive
In March 1930 an eleven-year-old in Oxford, Venetia Burney, heard at breakfast that a ninth planet had been found, and she suggested its name.
Clyde Tombaugh photographed the sky at Lowell Observatory in January 1930, and on 18 February spotted a moving dot with a blink comparator, announced on 13 March. Venetia's grandfather, Falconer Madan, a former Bodleian librarian, read the news in The Times and mentioned it to her. Madan passed her suggestion to Herbert Hall Turner, Oxford's Savilian Professor of Astronomy, who cabled Lowell.
The director, Vesto Slipher, announced the name on 1 May 1930. Greek Plouton means the rich one, and Plato says in the Cratylus that people preferred it to Hades because Hades is a frightening word.
In 2006 the International Astronomical Union ruled that Pluto is a dwarf planet, yet the name stayed. New Horizons flew past on 14 July 2015 and carries the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter, the first instrument on a NASA planetary mission designed, built and operated by students.
To think about: Whose good idea could you pass to someone who can act?
Go further: Smithsonian Magazine on how Pluto was named
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine: How Pluto got its name; American Physical Society: Tombaugh and the discovery of Pluto; Scientific American: Pluto's namer outlives planet's status; LASP: Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter; Pluto (mythology), Wikipedia; Cleveland Museum of Art: Pluto, Bustelli.
Movement
Walk with your head up and your spine long, and do not hurry.
Look up. Saturn is the easiest to find, bright in the eastern sky after sunset and up until sunrise after its opposition. Mars rises ahead of the Sun, passing in front of the Beehive star cluster on 11 October, best seen in binoculars, and Jupiter rises ahead of the Sun too. Venus is too low in the twilight to see.
This week's calendar
- Sat 10 Oct: Hindu: Mahalaya Amavasya, the day for all ancestors. Source.
- Sun 11 Oct: Hindu: Navratri begins (Ghatasthapana). Source.
- Sun 11 Oct: Jewish: the new month of Cheshvan begins (day one). Source.
- Mon 12 Oct: Canadian: Thanksgiving. Source.
- Wed 14 Oct: Eastern Christian: Pokrova, the feast of the Virgin's protecting veil. Source.
Navratri days vary by regional calendar.
Eat & wear
Eat. Roast squash with pomegranate seeds and a spoon of honey. The pomegranate is the fruit of the underworld god's myth, and it is in season now.
Wear. Gold, amber and champagne: a gold knit with light trousers. Warm: a long camel coat over the knit. Cool: a champagne silk shirt.
A line to keep
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.
William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 5 (Malvolio reads a letter)
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:692273, cma:125330, met:451270, met:844987, met:72302, met:361899); 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.
