The Flow State Herald: Edition 3, the Herbalist (Virgo rising)
The Flow State Herald
24 to 31 October 2026 · Edition 3 · Vol. I · No. 3
The Herbalist's edition, for Virgo rising
Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself", section 51 (later editions of Leaves of Grass)
Read this first
- The week: Venus (retrograde) returns to Libra Sun 25 Oct, the Full Moon in Taurus follows Mon 26 Oct, Mercury squares Mars Fri 30 Oct.
- For you: The Treasury and Pantry, 2nd house: Venus moves in; review what you pay for.
- 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
Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, Laraaji, 1980. Third in Brian Eno's Ambient series. Source.
Brian Eno heard Edward Gordon, who performs as Laraaji, busking with an amplified zither in Washington Square Park, New York, in 1979 and proposed a recording. It came out on Editions EG in August 1980, with Laraaji on hammered dulcimer and zither and Eno adding treatments.
Field Notes: your sky this week
You are the Herbalist: Sunday's retrograde Venus lands in your 2nd house, so the jars, the bills and the standing orders all get counted again.
Venus, retrograde, backs out of Scorpio and into Libra on Sunday at 5:09 am ET, moving from your 3rd house of everyday messages into your 2nd house of money, food and values. Retrograde Venus in the 2nd reopens purchases, subscriptions and what you pay for out of habit. Early Monday, at 12:11 am ET, the Full Moon in Taurus peaks in your 9th house of study, travel and beliefs, while the Sun in Scorpio sits opposite in your 3rd house of errands, notes and short trips. Mercury, retrograde in Scorpio, is in that same 3rd house, so those messages and plans come back for another look. On Friday at 1:20 pm ET, Mercury in Scorpio squares Mars in Leo, in your 12th house of rest and solitude. A sharp reply or a restless mind can use up time you had set aside to recover.
What are you still paying for, in money or shelf space, that has sat untouched since the summer?
Sun 25 Oct
Venus (retrograde) returns to Libra · Sun 25 Oct, 5:09 am ET (09:09 UTC)
THE TREASURY AND PANTRY · 2nd house · money, food, what you value
Money, food and what you value are the business of your 2nd house, and retrograde Venus backs out of Scorpio into it as Libra begins. She had been in your 3rd house of everyday messages, and ends the week in Libra.
In the Treasury and Pantry the retrograde sends you back over what is stored: the app that bills monthly, the spice nobody reaches for, the tin past its date. The bank statement lists most of them.
♀︎ Venus (retrograde) in Libra, your 2nd house
Mon 26 Oct
The Full Moon in Taurus sets study against errands · Mon 26 Oct, 12:11 am ET (04:11 UTC)
THE OBSERVATORY TOWER · 9th house · travel, beliefs, higher learning and the big picture
THE LIBRARY · 3rd house · learning, siblings, short trips and everyday messages
An opposition: the Sun in Scorpio, in your 3rd house of everyday messages, siblings and short trips faces the Full Moon in Taurus, which peaks in your 9th house of travel, beliefs and higher learning.
In the Observatory Tower a course, a trip or a long-held view reaches a high point. In the Library the notes, forms and errands behind it are still in a pile, and retrograde Mercury sends some back for correction.
☽︎ Moon Full Moon in Taurus, your 9th house; ☉︎ Sun in Scorpio, your 3rd house; opposition
Fri 30 Oct
Mercury (retrograde) squares Mars · Fri 30 Oct, 1:20 pm ET (17:20 UTC)
THE LIBRARY · 3rd house
THE SECRET GARDEN AND CHAPEL · 12th house · rest, dreams, solitude and what you keep out of sight
Rest, dreams and solitude belong to your 12th house, where Mars in Leo takes an exact square from retrograde Mercury in Scorpio, in your 3rd house of messages and learning.
In the Library a message goes round again and the reply comes out sharper than intended. The cost shows in the Secret Garden and Chapel, where the time set aside for rest gets used up by the argument or the redraft.
☿︎ Mercury (retrograde) in Scorpio, your 3rd house; square ♂︎ Mars in Leo, your 12th house
In the Library a message goes round again and the reply comes out sharper than intended.
Tarot
Heartbreak, grief, hard truth. The Three of Swords is the card of heartbreak: a hard truth that cannot be argued away and has to be felt. Upright, the pain is clean and passes. When Venus returns to Libra on Sunday, what can be pruned is an attachment you already know has stopped bearing anything.
Teamwork, craft, collaboration. The Three of Pentacles is the card of skilled teamwork: a job done properly because other people check, advise and build alongside you. Upright, it rewards collaboration. The Full Moon on Monday lights what needs watering, and it grows best when someone else can see it.
Clear sight, honesty, independence. The Queen of Swords is the card of clear sight and honest speech: independence, no flattery, and boundaries stated plainly. Upright, she cuts to what is true. With Mercury squaring Mars on Friday, what is ready to harvest is a plain answer you can finally give.
Cards: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909.
Planet of the week
Venus, retrograde, crosses from Scorpio back into Libra on Sunday.
In Hindu tradition Venus is Shukra, a god whose name means "bright" in Sanskrit. Later texts make him the guru and priest of the asuras, the rivals of the devas. He holds Mritasanjivani, the knowledge of reviving the dead, and uses it to restore asuras who fall in battle, so they keep coming back from defeats, until the devas gain the knowledge too. He has a daughter, Devayani, and Friday is named for him: Shukravara. Wikipedia's article on Shukra summarises these sources.
Museum object
A child with yellow hair rides a bristly boar, drawn in blue dots and strokes, and holds a long-handled tool with a small blade. The scene sits in a cloud-shaped panel, with a scrolling pattern at the neck, orange bands and a ribbon across the foot lettered DIA IRIS.
The Cleveland Museum of Art's record gives it as an albarello, a pharmacy jar made in Siena about 1510, in tin-glazed earthenware called maiolica and 22.6 centimetres tall. Jars of this shape held herbs, spices and ointments on Renaissance pharmacy shelves, and the flared lip gave a place to tie on a cover of parchment or cloth.
One way to read the ribbon is that the jar once held a medicinal iris compound. The prefix dia- turns up in many Renaissance remedy names and means made from, so the label reads roughly as made from iris.
The long read
In 1507 priests climbed Huixachtlan, the Hill of the Star south of Tenochtitlan, to watch for the Pleiades. It was the last New Fire ceremony that the World History Encyclopedia lists, after earlier ones in 1351, 1403 and 1455. Tenochtitlan fell before the next was due.
A household's job was to empty the house. Every fire in the district was put out. Hearthstones, cooking pots and old clothes were thrown away, houses were swept, and bundles of 52 reeds were tied, one for each year of the cycle that was ending. Then people waited, many of them on rooftops.
The 52 comes from two calendars running side by side, a 260-day ritual count and a 365-day solar count. They start together again after 18,980 days, which is 52 solar years and also 73 rounds of the ritual count; the sums are 52 × 365 and 73 × 260. The New Fire ceremony article on Wikipedia gives the same figure.
The moment itself was set by the Pleiades, called Tianquiztli, "marketplace", crossing the meridian high in the sky at the turn of the day. The friar Bernardino de Sahagún recorded the fear behind it in the Florentine Codex, whose Book 7 covers the sun, moon, stars and the binding of the years. At stake was whether the sun would rise again; star-demons called Tzitzimime were said to come down and devour people if it did not. Accounts say a fire was then kindled on the chest of a sacrificed captive, and runners carried the flame to the temple of Huitzilopochtli on the Templo Mayor and on to every hearth.
Interpretation, not a source claim: for a household it amounted to a full clear-out followed by a relighting from one flame.
Go further: Mexicolore: the New Fire ceremony
This week's calendar
- Sat 24 Oct: Jewish: Shabbat Lech-Lecha: Congregations read Genesis 12:1 to 17:27, which opens with Abram told to leave his country. Source.
- Sun 25 Oct: Hindu: Sharad Purnima: Families leave kheer out 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 each other to name faults, and lay people 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
What would you put out with the old fires if you had to relight only what you still use?
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.
