The Flow State Herald: Edition 3, the Alchemist (Scorpio rising)
The Flow State Herald
24 to 31 October 2026 · Edition 3 · Vol. I · No. 3
The Alchemist's edition, for Scorpio rising
Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave.
Song of Solomon 8:6, King James Version
Read this first
- The week: Full Moon and Sun square Pluto on Mon 26 Oct; Mercury (retrograde) squares Mars Fri 30 Oct.
- For you: The Great Hall, 7th house: the Full Moon puts one person across the table, so book the talk you've put off.
- Dates: Mon 26 Oct, 12:11 am and 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
The Marble Index, Nico, 1968. Released on Elektra Records. Listen on Spotify. Wikipedia.
Nico's second studio album came out at the end of 1968. John Cale arranged it, Frazier Mohawk of Elektra is credited as producer, and Nico played harmonium on it.
The Laboratory Log: your sky this week
You are the Alchemist: a Full Moon, the Sun's square to Pluto and a retrograde Mercury square to Mars all run through your partnerships, your home and your work.
Venus, retrograde, backs out of Scorpio and into Libra on Sunday 25 Oct at 5:09 am ET, leaving your 1st house for your 12th. The Full Moon in Taurus follows on Monday 26 Oct at 12:11 am ET, in your 7th house and opposite your Sun in the 1st, so one person is set directly across the table from you. Eight hours later the Sun, in Scorpio, squares Pluto in Aquarius, in your 4th house, and home and family run into your own agenda at a hard angle. On Friday 30 Oct at 1:20 pm ET, Mercury, retrograde in Scorpio, in your 1st house, squares Mars in Leo, in your 10th, so what you say about yourself collides with work and reputation, and a reply sent that day may need a second look.
Who is the one person the Full Moon sets across the table from you?
Mon 26 Oct
The Full Moon lights both chairs · Mon 26 Oct, 12:11 am ET (04:11 UTC)
THE GREAT HALL · 7th house · partners, close one-to-one relationships
THE DRESSING ROOM · 1st house · how you present yourself and start things
The Full Moon falls in Taurus, in your 7th house, opposite the Sun in Scorpio, in your 1st. The 7th covers partners and one-to-one relationships, the 1st how you present yourself. Both houses are lit at once.
In the Great Hall, the Full Moon sets one person across the table: a partner, a client, a co-signer. Something that has gone unsaid between you comes up on Monday, and the version you've been presenting from the Dressing Room gets tested.
☽︎ Moon in Taurus, your 7th house · opposite ☉︎ Sun in Scorpio, your 1st house
Mon 26 Oct
The Sun squares Pluto · Mon 26 Oct, 8:11 am ET (12:11 UTC)
THE DRESSING ROOM · 1st house
THE BEDCHAMBER · 4th house · home, family and roots
The Sun in Scorpio, in your 1st house, squares Pluto in Aquarius, in your 4th. The 1st covers how you present yourself, the 4th home, family and roots. Pluto moves slowly, so the 4th-house matter outlasts the day.
In the Bedchamber, the house itself or someone's family story cuts across your plans. A lease, a repair put off, a relative's old grievance: whichever it is, it takes more of Monday than you allowed for.
☉︎ Sun in Scorpio, your 1st house · square ♇︎ Pluto in Aquarius, your 4th house
Fri 30 Oct
Mercury squares Mars · Fri 30 Oct, 1:20 pm ET (17:20 UTC)
THE DRESSING ROOM · 1st house
THE THRONE ROOM · 10th house · work, reputation and what you are known for
Mercury, retrograde in Scorpio, in your 1st house, squares Mars in Leo, in your 10th. Retrograde Mercury goes back over words already said or sent. The 10th covers work and reputation, and Mars brings heat to it.
In the Throne Room, a line you wrote or said earlier about your own role comes back for a second reading, from someone senior or someone watching. Your reply is likely to come out sharper than you intend.
☿︎ Mercury in Scorpio, retrograde, your 1st house · square ♂︎ Mars in Leo, your 10th house
A lease, a repair put off, a relative's old grievance: whichever it is, it takes more of Monday than you allowed for.
Tarot
Burden, overload, responsibility. The Ten of Wands is the card of burden: responsibilities piled up until the load is the whole journey. Upright, it is nearly at its destination. Under the Full Moon on Monday, what is dissolving is the habit of carrying everything yourself, and putting some of it down will feel odd at first.
Delayed recognition, private victory, pride. The Six of Wands is the card of public victory and being cheered. Reversed, the recognition is late or never comes, and pride is tested. When the Sun squares Pluto in your sign on Monday, what you are holding is a win only you know about, and it still counts.
Suppressed feeling, moodiness, hidden depth. The King of Cups is the card of emotional mastery: feeling held steady under pressure. Reversed, the calm is a surface and the feeling underneath moves unseen. With Mercury squaring Mars on Friday, what emerges is a feeling you have been managing quietly, and it wants to be said.
Cards: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909.
Planet of the week
On Sunday, Venus, retrograde, backs out of Scorpio and into Libra.
Qur'an 2:102 mentions two angels, Harut and Marut, teaching magic at Babylon and warning each learner that they are only a trial. Later commentators grew a longer tale around them. In the versions reported by early scholars such as al-Tabari, the angels are sent to earth after objecting to human wickedness, and a woman called Zohra comes to test them. She is identified with Venus, whose Arabic name is al-Zuhara. The Qur'an never names her, and many scholars rejected the tale, so it is a story told about the verse. Source: Wikipedia, Harut and Marut.
Museum object
A bearded man in a red cap, a pale blue cloak and a salmon pink robe sits on a flat rock under a tree, a red jug beside him. A dark raven stands in front of him, two deer wait at the right edge, and a figure bends over the stream below. Persian text fills the gold-ruled panel at the top.
The Cleveland Museum of Art's record dates the page to 1602 to 1604 and places it in Allahabad, made for Prince Salim, who became the Mughal emperor Jahangir. It is folio 72 recto from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir'at al-quds), a life of Christ compiled in Persian by the Jesuit Father Jerome Xavier.
The man is the prophet Elijah, who in 1 Kings 17 is fed bread and meat by ravens beside a brook until it dries up. Here a single raven stands in front of him. One way to read his seated pose is as that of a holy man of the Mughal court, not a European prophet.
The long read
In 1507, the last time the Mexica kindled the New Fire, the work began days earlier with an emptying. Every fire in the Valley of Mexico was put out, old hearthstones, cooking pots and clothes were thrown away, and houses were swept (World History Encyclopedia). Why throw out the pots?
The reason is the calendar. The Mexica ran a 260-day ritual count beside a 365-day solar year, and the two return to the same starting day together only after 18,980 days: 52 solar years, or 73 ritual rounds. That arithmetic is certain. The ceremony, Toxiuhmolpilia, the Binding of the Years, marked each return (Wikipedia). Sahagun's informants, in Book 7 of the Florentine Codex, feared that at the close of the cycle the sun might not rise and star-demons, the tzitzimime, would come down to eat people (Leon-Portilla). Fire, pots and clothes all belonged to the old cycle, so they went first.
Then the priests climbed Huixachtlan, now the Cerro de la Estrella in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, and watched the Pleiades, which they called Tianquiztli, the marketplace. When the cluster crossed the meridian high overhead, the fire was lit. Accounts say it was kindled on the chest of a sacrificed captive, and runners then carried flame in pine torches to the Templo Mayor and on to every hearth. The ceremonies known at the hill fall in 1351, 1403, 1455 and 1507, the last under Motecuhzoma II (Mexico City government). Tenochtitlan fell before the next.
Certain: the dates, the 52-year arithmetic and the order of events, fires out, watching, one flame, relighting. Interpretation: how the tzitzimime are best understood, and what exactly the priests did on the hill.
Go further: Cerro de la Estrella archaeological zone, Mexico City government
This week's calendar
- Sat 24 Oct: Jewish: Shabbat Lech-Lecha: Congregations read the portion in which Abram is 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 in the moonlight and eat it next morning; calendars list the day as Sun 25 or Mon 26 Oct, since the full moon tithi spans both. Source.
- Mon 26 Oct: Buddhist: Pavarana Day: Monks end the rains retreat by inviting one another to point out faults, and laypeople offer robes and light lamps. Source.
- Wed 28 Oct: Hindu: Karwa Chauth: Married women fast from sunrise to moonrise and break the fast on sighting the moon; in India it falls a day later. Source.
Take this with you
If your home had to be emptied before a fresh start, what would go 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.
