The Flow State Herald: Edition 3, the Sovereign (Leo rising)
The Flow State Herald
24 to 31 October 2026 · Edition 3 · Vol. I · No. 3
The Sovereign's edition, for Leo rising
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
Proverbs 15:1, King James Version
Read this first
- The week: Venus returns to Libra on Sunday, the Sun squares Pluto on Monday, and Mercury squares Mars on Friday.
- For you: THE BEDCHAMBER, 4th house: raise the family question on Monday, before Friday turns it into a row.
- Dates: Sun 25 Oct, 5:09 am ET; Mon 26 Oct, 8:11 am ET; Fri 30 Oct, 1:20 pm ET.
New here? Your chart is a castle of twelve rooms, explained on the castle page.
Album of the week
They Say I'm Different, Betty Davis, 1974. 33 minutes. Listen on Spotify. Wikipedia.
Betty Davis recorded her second album at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, in 1973, and Just Sunshine Records released it in 1974. Merl Saunders played keyboards.
The Court Circular: your sky this week
You are the Sovereign, and this week's business sits in the family rooms: Venus backs into Libra on Sunday, then the Sun squares Pluto on Monday.
Venus, retrograde, leaves Scorpio and re-enters Libra on Sunday 25 October at 5:09 am ET, moving out of your 4th house of home and into your 3rd house of siblings, neighbours, short trips and everyday messages. Because Venus is retrograde, the 3rd house business is old business: replies owed, local arrangements, a relative you last spoke to badly. On Monday 26 October at 8:11 am ET the Sun in Scorpio, in your 4th house, squares Pluto in Aquarius, in your 7th, setting home and family against partners and close one-to-one bonds. By Friday 30 October at 1:20 pm ET, Mercury, retrograde in Scorpio, in your 4th house, squares Mars in Leo, in your 1st. Mars in your 1st house gives you the speed, and the temper, to answer household talk at once.
Which message from your family have you left unanswered the longest?
Sun 25 Oct
Venus turns back into Libra · Sun 25 Oct, 5:09 am ET (09:09 UTC)
THE LIBRARY · 3rd house · learning, siblings, short trips and everyday messages
Venus, retrograde, moves from Scorpio back into Libra and ends the week there. Libra is your 3rd house: learning, siblings, short trips and everyday messages. Retrograde Venus goes back over affection and agreements in those channels.
In the Library, Venus going backwards brings back an unanswered message from a sibling, cousin or neighbour, the kind you meant to reply to and didn't. Two kind lines will do more than a long explanation.
♀︎ Venus (retrograde) in Libra, your 3rd house
Mon 26 Oct
The Sun squares Pluto · Mon 26 Oct, 8:11 am ET (12:11 UTC)
THE BEDCHAMBER · 4th house · home, family and roots
THE GREAT HALL · 7th house · partners, close one-to-one relationships
The Sun in Scorpio, in your 4th house of home, family and roots, squares Pluto in Aquarius, in your 7th house of partners and close one-to-one relationships. A square sets two houses against each other.
In the Bedchamber the household runs on one set of habits; in the Great Hall a partner expects another. Who hosts, who pays and whose relatives come first stop being settled by default on Monday morning and have to be said aloud.
☉︎ Sun in Scorpio, your 4th house, square ♇︎ Pluto in Aquarius, your 7th house
Fri 30 Oct
Mercury squares Mars · Fri 30 Oct, 1:20 pm ET (17:20 UTC)
THE BEDCHAMBER · 4th house
THE DRESSING ROOM · 1st house · how you present yourself and start things
Mercury, retrograde in Scorpio, in your 4th house of home and family, squares Mars in Leo, in your 1st house of how you present yourself and start things. Both sit at the same point, so the square is exact.
In the Bedchamber an old household question gets reopened, and in the Dressing Room you want it settled by your own hand, right now. Expect a short temper at home. Someone may read a text as sharper than you meant it, and you may have meant it a little.
☿︎ Mercury (retrograde) in Scorpio, your 4th house, square ♂︎ Mars in Leo, your 1st house
Mars in your 1st house gives you the speed, and the temper, to answer household talk at once.
Tarot
Renewed interest, awareness, accepting offers. The Four of Cups is the card of apathy: offers ignored because nothing seems worth reaching for. Reversed, the boredom lifts and the offer is finally noticed. With Venus back in Libra on Sunday, what deserves the crown is the thing you had stopped looking at because it had been there so long.
Stubbornness, score-keeping, misused wealth. The King of Pentacles is the card of steady, generous provision and earned wealth. Reversed, the steadiness turns stubborn and the generosity slips into keeping score. On Monday, when the Sun squares Pluto, applause belongs to the one who keeps giving without keeping a tally.
New opportunity, seed, prosperity. The Ace of Pentacles is the card of a real, solid opening: a new job, resource or chance with something concrete in it. Upright, it is ready to be used. With Mercury squaring Mars on Friday, delegate the chore that is crowding it out, so the chance has room to grow.
Cards: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909.
Planet of the week
Venus, retrograde, crosses back into Libra on Sunday.
On the eve of the battle of Pharsalus in 48 BCE, Julius Caesar vowed a temple to Venus, first as Victrix, the bringer of victory, and later as Genetrix, the ancestress. The Julian family claimed descent from Venus through Aeneas and his son Iulus. Caesar dedicated the temple on 26 September 46 BCE, the last day of his triumphs, in his new Forum of Caesar, which was still unfinished and was completed under Octavian. The cult statue was by the Greek sculptor Arkesilaos. It is lost, and a coin image and Roman copies identify the type. Wikipedia on the temple gives the ancient sources.
Babylonian astronomers logged the risings and settings of Venus on a tablet from the reign of Ammisaduqa, which survives in later copies.
Museum object
A gilded brass lion stands on its hind legs on an ebony base, one forepaw resting on a small dial. The dial is silvered and marked with Roman numerals, the mane is chased in fine lines, and the platform under his feet is engraved with a grid.
The Met's record names the maker as Karl Schmidt and dates the clock to about 1620 to 1635. It lists gilded brass and gilded silver for the case, ebony and ebony veneered on fruitwood for the base, silvered brass for the dial and an iron and brass movement.
The lion's lower jaw hangs open on what looks like a small linkage, which fits the Met's title, automaton clock. Glazed windows in the sides of the base show the works inside.
The long read
In 1507, with Motecuhzoma II ruling Tenochtitlan, the Mexica held the last New Fire ceremony known to history, on a hill southeast of their island city that is now Cerro de la Estrella in Mexico City. Earlier ceremonies are recorded for 1351, 1403 and 1455, each 52 years after the one before (Mexico City's tourism site lists the dates).
The 52 years have a simple cause. The Mexica ran two calendars side by side, a 260-day ritual count and a 365-day solar year. They return to their shared starting point after 18,980 days, which is 52 solar years and also 73 rounds of the ritual count. That much is arithmetic and well established; the ceremony was called Toxiuhmolpilia, the Binding of the Years, and tied a bundle of 52 reeds for the cycle that had ended (World History Encyclopedia).
Why the Pleiades? The cluster, called Tianquiztli, the marketplace, was the signal. Priests on the hill watched for it to cross the meridian at midnight, and only then was the fire kindled.
Before the signal, every fire in the city was put out, old hearthstones and cooking pots were thrown away, houses were swept and people waited, some on rooftops. The fear, recorded by the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagun in the Florentine Codex, was that the sun would not rise and the star-demons called Tzitzimime would eat the people (Wikipedia: New Fire ceremony). Accounts say the fire was kindled on the chest of a sacrificed captive, then carried by runners with pine torches to the temple of Huitzilopochtli on the Templo Mayor and on to every hearth.
The gold serpent labret shown here is Mexica work, and the Met dates it 1325 to 1521, which covers the centuries the ceremony was held. Its tongue is articulated.
Go further: Mexicolore: the New Fire ceremony
This week's calendar
- Sat 24 Oct: Jewish: Shabbat Lech-Lecha: Congregations read of Abram told to leave his country for a land he will be shown. Source.
- Sun 25 Oct: Hindu: Sharad Purnima: Families leave kheer under the full moon, eat it next morning and light lamps for Lakshmi. Source.
- Mon 26 Oct: Buddhist: Pavarana Day: Monks end the rains retreat by inviting one another to name faults, and laypeople offer robes. Source.
- Mon 26 Oct: Hindu: Valmiki Jayanti: Devotees honour the sage credited with the Ramayana with recitation and charity. Source.
- Wed 28 Oct: Hindu: Karwa Chauth: Married women fast from sunrise to moonrise and break the fast on sighting the moon. Source.
Take this with you
Which pot or pan in your kitchen would the Mexica have thrown out first?
Border: Box decorated with flowers and clouds, Korea, 18th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
How this was made
Times are Eastern (ET), with UTC in brackets. The sky is calculated with the Swiss Ephemeris. Pictures come from museum open access collections and are credited in each caption. For reflection and enjoyment, not medical, financial or legal advice.
