The Flow State Herald: Edition 3, the Adventurer (Sagittarius rising)
The Flow State Herald
24 to 31 October 2026 · Edition 3 · Vol. I · No. 3
The Adventurer's edition, for Sagittarius rising
Allons! the road is before us!
Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road, in Leaves of Grass
Read this first
- The week: Venus, retrograde, returns to Libra on Sun 25 Oct, the Full Moon in Taurus follows on Mon 26 Oct, and Mercury squares Mars on Fri 30 Oct.
- For you: The Courtyard, 11th house: sort which friendships fit next year.
- Dates: Sun 25 Oct, 5:09 am ET; Mon 26 Oct, 12:11 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
Just Another Diamond Day, Vashti Bunyan, 1970. 31 minutes. Listen on Spotify. Wikipedia.
Recorded in London in November and December 1969 with producer Joe Boyd, with players from Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band, and released on Philips in December 1970. The songs come from Bunyan's 1968 journey by horse and wagon through Scotland with Robert Lewis; the record was largely overlooked on release.
The Road Atlas: your sky this week
You are the Adventurer: Venus turns back toward your friends on Sunday 25 October, and early on Monday the Full Moon lights your daily routine.
Venus, retrograde, backs out of Scorpio and into Libra on Sunday 25 October at 5:09 am ET, so it returns to your 11th house of friends, groups and shared hopes after a spell in your 12th. It finishes the week in Libra, going back over ground you covered with those people recently. Early on Monday 26 October, at 12:11 am ET, the Full Moon in Taurus lights your 6th house of routine and health, opposite the Sun in Scorpio, in your 12th house of rest and solitude. Work and recovery are set side by side. On Friday 30 October at 1:20 pm ET, Mercury, retrograde in your 12th house in Scorpio, squares Mars in Leo, in your 9th house of travel, beliefs and the big picture: private second thoughts collide with a push to go somewhere.
Which of your friendships still fits the year you are planning?
Sun 25 Oct
Venus returns to Libra and your friends · Sun 25 Oct, 5:09 am ET (09:09 UTC)
THE COURTYARD · 11th house · friends, groups and shared hopes
Venus, retrograde, crosses back from Scorpio into Libra, which is your 11th house of friends, groups and shared hopes. It stays in Libra all week.
In the Courtyard, an old tie comes up for review: a friend who drifted, a group chat gone dull, a club you joined for the company and kept out of habit. Venus going backward over them makes it a fair week to check which ones still fit next year's plans.
♀︎ Venus (retrograde) in Libra, your 11th house
Mon 26 Oct
The Full Moon in Taurus lights routine and rest · Mon 26 Oct, 12:11 am ET (04:11 UTC)
THE BATHHOUSE AND APOTHECARY · 6th house · daily routines, health and small remedies
THE SECRET GARDEN AND CHAPEL · 12th house · rest, dreams, solitude and what you keep out of sight
The Full Moon in Taurus falls in your 6th house of daily routines, health and small remedies. It opposes the Sun in Scorpio, in your 12th house of rest, dreams and solitude, setting working habits against recovery.
In the Bathhouse and Apothecary, the early alarm, the gym slot and the prescription you forgot to refill are all in plain view. The Secret Garden and Chapel is where sleep and unscheduled hours come from, and they have to come out of the calendar.
☽︎ Moon Full Moon in Taurus, your 6th house, opposite ☉︎ Sun in Scorpio, your 12th house
Fri 30 Oct
Mercury squares Mars across your travel plans · Fri 30 Oct, 1:20 pm ET (17:20 UTC)
THE SECRET GARDEN AND CHAPEL · 12th house
THE OBSERVATORY TOWER · 9th house · travel, beliefs, higher learning and the big picture
Mercury, retrograde in Scorpio, in your 12th house of rest and solitude, squares Mars in Leo, in your 9th house of travel, beliefs and the big picture. Private rethinking runs into a strong push to go.
In the Observatory Tower, a trip, a course or a conviction gets pushed hard by Mars, while Mercury, from the Secret Garden and Chapel, keeps turning up details you missed. A sharp exchange with someone about where you are heading could come with it.
☿︎ Mercury (retrograde) in Scorpio, your 12th house, square ♂︎ Mars in Leo, your 9th house
In the Courtyard, an old tie comes up for review: a friend who drifted, a group chat gone dull, a club you joined for the company and kept out of habit.
Tarot
Stalled transition, baggage, a rough passage. The Six of Swords is the card of the crossing: leaving trouble behind for calmer water. Reversed, the crossing is stalled and some of the baggage comes along. With Venus back in Libra on Sunday, you set out from the place you keep saying you have already left.
Hope, renewal, calm. The Star is the card of hope after a hard stretch: calm, renewal, a sense of being guided. Upright, it is healing. Under the Full Moon on Monday, what you carry is a quiet faith that the rough part is over.
Attachment, temptation, habit. The Devil is the card of attachment: a habit, temptation or dependency that feels like a choice and is not one. Upright, it is seeing the chain clearly, which is the first loosening. With Mercury squaring Mars on Friday, what arrives is a plain look at what you keep going back to.
Cards: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909.
Planet of the week
Venus is retrograde this week and backs into Libra on Sunday.
Greek writers named two lights where there is one. Hesperus was the bright star low in the west after sunset, and Phosphorus the one before dawn. Who first said they were the same body is disputed. Diogenes Laertius, in the third century CE, says Parmenides was thought to be first, citing Favorinus, and notes that others say Pythagoras. Both lights are Venus, which swaps roles as it moves around the Sun, and the Romans later called the dawn one Lucifer, the light-bringer. Sappho had already written to Hesperus, so the name was older than the idea. The Suda, a Byzantine encyclopedia, has its own entry: Suda entry on Hesperos.
Chinese astronomy knew Venus as Taibai, the Great White Star.
Museum object
This terracotta flask has a short neck with a broken rim, two loop handles and a round medallion on the front. In the medallion a figure stands with both arms held out, inside a border of raised dots, with creatures at his feet.
The Cleveland Museum's record titles it Pilgrim's Flask with Saint Menas and dates it to 400 to 600 CE, Egypt, Coptic period. Menas was an early Christian martyr whose shrine, Abu Mina, stood in the desert southwest of Alexandria, and small flasks like this were sold to pilgrims there to carry home oil or water from the shrine.
The relief is low and worn. Menas is usually shown between two camels, and the creatures here are hard to make out.
The long read
In 1507, the last time the Mexica held the New Fire ceremony, a procession left Tenochtitlan for a hill south of the city. Its name was Huixachtecatl, now Cerro de la Estrella in Mexico City, and the Museo Nacional de Antropología's entry on the year bundle describes the ceremony. The dates are well recorded: World History Encyclopedia lists ceremonies at the hill in 1351, 1403, 1455 and 1507, the last under Motecuhzoma II. Tenochtitlan fell before the next was due.
The question is what happened once the fire was lit, because a flame on a hilltop is no use to a city. Beforehand every fire was put out, old pots and hearthstones thrown away, houses swept, and people waited on rooftops. When the Pleiades crossed the meridian high in the sky, accounts say a fire was kindled on the chest of a sacrificed captive and used to light a bonfire on the summit, visible across the lake basin.
Then it travelled. According to Wikipedia's account of the ceremony, runners carried burning torches from the bonfire to each ward of the city. The first hearths relit were in the twin temple at the Templo Mayor, then other temples, and last the private houses. The accounts here do not name the road. The causeway from Iztapalapa toward the island city is the obvious candidate, but that is inference.
Why do it at all? The Mexica kept a 260-day ritual count and a 365-day solar year, and they fall back into step every 52 years: 18,980 days either way. Sahagún's Florentine Codex, Book 7, as cited in León-Portilla's article on the Pleiades, gives the fear that the sun would not rise again and the star-demons called tzitzimime would descend and devour people. That is the belief as the Mexica recorded it; how the tzitzimime should be read is interpretation. Every household's new fire came from the same summit.
Go further: The Aztec New Fire Ceremony, World History Encyclopedia
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 (Genesis 12:1 to 17:27). Source.
- Sun 25 Oct: Hindu: Sharad Purnima: Families leave kheer under the full moon, eat it next morning, and light lamps; in Toronto it falls Sunday into Monday. Source.
- Mon 26 Oct: Buddhist: Pavarana Day: Monks end the rains retreat by inviting each other to point out faults, and lay people offer robes. Source.
- Wed 28 Oct: Hindu: Karwa Chauth: Married women fast from sunrise to moonrise after a pre-dawn meal; in India it falls on Thu 29 Oct. Source.
Take this with you
Who would you ask for a light if every fire in your house went out?
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.
