♊Happy Full Moon in Gemini, St Andrews Day and Marcescence 🍂

As we emerge from the dark depths of Scorpio season, a look ahead towards the twinkly lights of Yule and musings on the essence of marcescence - the dance between holding on and letting go✨🎄

Hello lovely one,

I hope this newsletter finds you well as we emerge from a turbulent watery Scorpio season into a more expansive fiery Sagittarius season which began on Wednesday. When we talk about ‘seasons’ in Western Astrology this is referring to when the sun is in this particular sign. So people born between 22 November and 21 December will perhaps identify as ‘a Sagittarius’ which simply means that the sun was in the sign of Sagittarius when they were born - it is their sun sign. We also all have moon signs and rising signs which help give us clues about our dominant traits and ways that we are in the world. I’ll tell you more about this in my last newsletter of 2023 which comes out on the eve of Capricorn season and the final Pagan festival (or sabbat) of 2023 - Yule on 21 December.

Speaking of festivals, after writing to you about Michaelmas (29 September) and Martinmas (11 November), I’ve been exploring the different festivals with the suffix ‘mas’, especially as there’s a big one approaching for some of us on 25 December(!). Since we’re still in November, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and forget the one before then which is particularly celebrated in Scotland, Andermas, more widely known as St Andrew’s Day.

St Andrews Abbey, St Andrews, Scotland

This festival has held much importance for our Scottish neighbours since 1320 - the year that St Andrew officially became the patron saint of Scotland when the country's independence was declared with the signing of The Declaration of Arbroath. In 2006 the Scottish Parliament declared a national holiday in Scotland on 30 November every year since, to honour their patron saint.

According to visitscotland.com St Andrew:

• He was a fisherman and one of Jesus' first Apostles.

• He was sentenced to death by crucifixion by the Romans in Greece, but asked to be crucified on a diagonal cross as he felt he wasn't worthy to die on the same shape of cross as Jesus.

• This diagonal cross is now used on the Scottish flag - the Saltire.

• Records suggest Scotland adopted St Andrew as the patron saint by the year AD 1000.

• In 1286, the Seal of the Guardians of Scotland (used to authenticate legal documents and communications) had a representation of St Andrew on his X-shaped cross.

• In 1390, St Andrew first appeared as a national symbol on a coin of the realm, a five-shilling piece minted during the reign of Robert III. ¹

Read more about St Andrew’s Day and its link to wolves in my newsletter from 1 year ago here:

St Andrews Day, the Day of the Wolves and 3 weeks until Yule

Next we’ll dive into the energies of tonight’s Full Moon in Gemini followed by a look at why some trees hold onto their Autumn leaves (marcescence).