Navigating Change: Scorpio New Moon, Mercury Direct, And A Second Chance At Samhain

If your heart already wandered to Yule lights or you’re still sitting with the Samhain veil, you’re not doing it wrong—cross‑quarter days are fluid by nature. Let’s choose the rhythm that keeps our practice alive rather than forcing a schedule that drains it.

I unpack how I read The Tower for the collective—more wake‑up than wipe‑out—and why meeting change on purpose can soften the edges. Small shifts like taking a new route home or discovering a new artist prepare your nervous system for bigger transformations. From there, we ground into accessible magic: yoga flows tailored to lunar energy, cozy collective tarot on YouTube when your cards feel heavy, and free ritual support through your local library or the Libby app. 

For the days when energy is low, I share rituals that still work beautifully: coloring pages as spellwork with sigils tucked in the lines, guided meditations and sound baths that continue even if you drift to sleep, dream magic with tea and lavender, and kitchen witchery where soup becomes a simmering cauldron of intention. We finish with journal prompts to welcome Sagittarius season’s spark: the change you seek, the joy you want to invite, the shadows to witness, and the boundaries that protect your peace. Listen, take what serves, and craft the version of the path that fits the life you’re living today. If this resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—what low‑energy ritual will you try next?

Use code SAMHAIN for 20% off annul and semi-annual Our Coven memberships https://our-coven.mn.co/landing

Join me for the free The Way of the Witch private podcast collection on the elements: https://www.bruja.us/audioseries

Chapters

• 0:23 Setting Intentions For Slow Living
• 1:55 What Lunar Samhain Really Means
• 4:01 Fixed Versus Lunar Cross‑Quarter Days
• 7:05 Scorpio New Moon And Mercury Direct
• 8:38 Embracing Choice In Your Practice
• 10:58 Fresh Starts And Gentle New Moon Work
• 13:02 The Tower Card As Collective Shift
• 15:42 Inviting Change With Small Rituals
• 17:22 Coven Sale And Free Audio Series
• 19:01 Low‑Energy Ritual Alternatives
• 23:02 Cozy Magic: Soup, Foraging, And Ease
• 24:51 Journal Prompts For New Beginnings

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

Hey witches, welcome to another Cozy Coven Chat. I am your host, Jenny C. Bell, and we are still in November. This is for the week of November 16th. But like I've said before, whenever you listen, trust. You know, these podcast episodes aren't very long for a reason. So that if you wanted to listen to a whole bunch in one day, you could to catch yourself up or however. But whenever you find it, it's meant for you, right? The whole point of me doing this podcast is to I don't want to use the word force, but it's sort of like that. It's a way to make it so that I am living slowly, that I am tuning in weekly, seasonally to the moons. Because if I have to talk about it every week with you, I also have to do it, right? Like I don't, I don't just talk, I want to talk the talk, I want to walk the walk. Um so this podcast is for me as much as it is for you, and I appreciate you listening. This week, um we have a lot of good stuff going on. Uh, we have lunar salwin. So let me explain what that means. So lunar salwin is on 11, 19, or August. August, November 19th. Some people will say November 20th. It is a new moon. Now, what's interesting is this is like one way to do the Sabbaths. So, the Witch's Wheel of the Year, we have the quarter days and the cross quarter days. The quarter days are sort of fixed because they are the equinoxes and the solstices, and you just have to kind of you don't have to, but we observe them on those days, and then those seasons begin around those days because that's when the sun is doing its thing. Those are very solar holidays. Now the cross-quarter days are up for negotiation, up for interpretation. So some people will celebrate the cross-quarter days on the solar day. So for instance, Sowin on November 1st or 2nd, it's a fixed day. Others will wait till the new moon or the second new moon, kind of depends on the theory, um, around that season. So lunar sowin is on November 20th. Now, I feel like it's totally up to you what you want to do. And the only reason why I know this information is because for years I've been using the Wee Moons calendar. And you can go to their Wii Moons website, it's like one word, W-E-M-O-O-N-N-S, Wee Moons, like instead of women's, it's Wii Moons. They are the ones that always kind of calculate the lunar sabbath for me, which I appreciate, um, because I just wouldn't know them otherwise, right? Because, like I said, I always thought it was the new moon closest to the actual like date, holiday, but some people say the second new moon for Sawin. I don't know. Regardless, everyone on the internet seems to agree that lunar Sowin is on November 20th. Now, this means that if you didn't celebrate Sawin yet, you have another chance. If you already celebrated Sawin and you're kind of in the winter solstice Yule mode, which happens, I don't know if it happens other places, definitely happens in here in America where you know Halloween happens and people decorate for Christmas. Like I'm walking around, I was walking around, I think it was November 2nd, and I already noticed Christmas trees. My daughter, like, we went somewhere on November 2nd and she was she sleeps in because she's a teenager. And I was like, I know when we get home, she's gonna be decorating her room for Christmas, and sure enough, she was. So some people are already looking forward to Yule, and for them, they celebrated Salwin. They understand that you know we're still in the season of Salwin, but that's not where their heart is. And so if you're feeling that, you're like, oh, lunar sowing, like I'm not really feeling that. Like I already have my Yule decorations out, I have my Yule card decks or whatever. That's okay, right? This is an individual path, and I think in some ways that makes it tricky for a lot of people. There's so much free choice that for some people it's a little overwhelming, especially if you've come from a religion with strict rules and like this is what you do and why you do it, kind of a thing, right? If you come from a more strict religion, sometimes all this freedom is like scary, right? And so I'll just tell you, you have choices. You can celebrate the cross-quarter days on the calendar date, that's a fixed day, or you can choose to celebrate it on the lunar date, which is always a new moon. Or you could do both, right? It's totally up to you. So we have this lunar soin on November 19th. It's a new moon in Scorpio, and on the same day, Mercury is out of retrograde. So Mercury stays in its like shadow period for a couple days, so you still might feel some of its messing around with you, but we're out of the woods, right? And we'll all refrain from singing. But if you know that song from The Wizard of Oz, that's the song I'm thinking about. So we're sort of out of the woods. And then on November 21st, Sagittarius season begins, which I personally really love. Like Q the Archer by Taylor Swift. Like, I just I like that. I don't know, Sagittarius is always so fun and free and fiery. I really I enjoy that season. And then we get into Capricorn season and I feel like heavy and like I need to work more. Which, you know, let's just enjoy Sagittarius season here. So, yeah, so November 19th, I suggest doing something for yourself for the new moon. If you want to tune in with Scorpio energy, we can look at boundaries, you can look at shadow work, you can look at some sort of release. If you want to tune in with Sawin, you can be working with divination, you could be working with ancestors. If you didn't do an ancestor altar or silent supper, and you were like, I really want to do that, this is your second chance. You can also thank Mercury if you survived Mercury retrograde. You could also be looking at, you know, for us, this Salwin marks the new year. So you may want, might want to start manifesting some new year type things, right? With some new year energy. You could do a year-ahead card reading, you could start focusing on, you know, your intentions for next year. You don't have to put them out there yet, but you can at least start thinking about them. So I like to always treat new moons like a fresh start. So you can either release some things, you could manifest some things, you can rest. I talked about this recently. Um the full moon after Sawin, it was a Taurus full moon, and everyone in our coven, I asked, was tired and drained. I personally was really tired. We went through a lot of changes that week, um, a lot of missteps and whatever. Mars was messing with me and my chart where my kind of sense of scheduling and routine is, and it was totally disrupted. It was just, and it was a super moon. I don't know, I just didn't feel up to my normal kind of moon magic. I was really tired. And so it's okay, you know, it doesn't have to be a grand show every time. It can be as small as lighting a candle, saying a quick prayer, and going to bed with and you know, safely with the candle after. You know, it's really like that. We don't, it's your practice. So I'm gonna talk about later in the episode some free kind of resources for when you need guidance, like you need like a ritual or something, but because you don't want to think for yourself. And that's okay, right? Sometimes we just want an idea or we want to follow along with someone, and we just don't want to like have to come up with something, and but we still want to be in the spirit of the moon or the season. Let's look at our card. So we have the tower, which let's not panic. Um immediately, what I'm thinking is we've had a lot of planetary shifts. Mercury's coming out of retrograde. We have this new moon, which is new energy. We have us going into Sagittarius season. I feel like for me, it's feeling like a quick good change is here. But tower energy is definitely significant. It usually means like an abrupt change. And because we're I read for a collective here, it makes me wonder if something's gonna happen in the world or at large or in the collective in general, some sort of larger shift that will affect all of us. So let's not doomsday, let's not put on our tinfoil hats just yet, but let's be prepared for maybe something, and you're like, oh wow, this is the tower moment, right? That's how it happens. Like you pull this card and something abrupt, some abrupt change will happen, or something shocking to you, and you'll be like, this is it, this is the tower moment. It's not always personal, right? So if we think about something like if you're a kid from the 90s, your mom was probably like all obsessed about the Princess Diana death, right? Like all of our moms had the funeral on, they were all crying. Like it was such a huge, it hit all of our moms as like this collective thing. For some reason, that hit so many women in their age group. It really just felt significant to them. That would be a collective tower moment where it was like this unpredictable kind of freak thing, a change. And it seemed to affect people individually, even though they didn't know her personally, right? And I'm American, but they were still like so many people I talk to will talk about Princess Diana, like our moms just being so sad about that. It was such a huge loss for, I think, women. Moms saw themselves in her or wanted to be a princess. You know, there was a lot going on. So don't think this is an individual, like I don't think this is a personal tower moment. It's a it's a collective tower moment. And for transparency, I record these ahead of time. And so next like next week's um podcast, I won't know what the tower moment was. So I won't be talking about what it was. But if it happens and you're like, oh, this is it, please comment. Comment here, um, wherever you're listening, on my YouTube or our coven, or give me an Instagram or TikTok comment. I'm curious. We'll see what happens. I'm not scared. I don't feel when I pulled the card, I didn't feel um fear. I felt like, oh, okay. You know, it's been a lot of abrupt changes since even I would say pre-2020, but that definitely 2020 was like that collective tower moment too. I'm not saying that's gonna happen again. Um, but yeah, it's just some sort of conscious shift. I think a lot of people feel it too. I feel talk to several people who are feeling like this something's gonna shift. Okay, um, wow, so we have lunar sowen, we have this tower moment, Mercury coming out of retrograde. Definitely feels like some kind of change is ahead. And I'm gonna talk about this more at the journaling section. But when I get a tower card or a chariot card or something where I know change is gonna happen, I often will make peace with it and then start changing up little routines or daily habits as a way of inviting positive change into my life. Like taking a different route home, listening to a new music artist, like just opening myself up to the change really helps me shift consciously. I wanted to share a couple things before I jump into today's kind of like little chat. Um I still am running my sale for the Archoven membership, the annual and semi-annual membership. You can take 20% off with the code SAWEN, S-A-M-H-A-I-N. Just go to jennycval.com, click on the Archoven community page, and it'll take you there. I also am part of a really fun series called The Way of the Witch, a five-day audio series. And it starts November 17th. It's free. I'll have the link here. Um, and it's a really great collection of a lot of different witches from different backgrounds, and we're all talking about the elements. So my talk is about calling on the elements daily, like not just for virtual circle, and like getting to know the elements, and then I have a little free resource for you to create your own element prayer. So it's like a little fill-in-the-blank. But there's all kinds of chats on working with the elements. And what I really like about this series is one, it's free, but two, I like that it's just candid. It's women, it's people through audio just sharing like their actual practice. It's not like no one's out here pretending that they don't, you know, pretending to do something they don't do. This is all people talking from personal experience with lots of experience on what they actually do, how they actually practice. And so I think it's kind of cozy. I'm excited. I'm gonna listen. There are some um people in there that I admire and will enjoy for sure. I wanted to talk today about um like when you're not feeling up for a ritual, right? So when you're feeling like a moon is here, a new moon or a full moon or Sawin or Yule, and you're just like, I'm tired. I don't want to do this, like I'm I'm or you're sick, or you're busy with family. And I think you know, life gets in the way. Celebrating all the moons, there's 13 moons in a year, so 13 new moons, 13 full moons, and then the eight Sabbaths, like it's a lot more than other people um just kind of doing the regular holidays because you probably chances are do the regular commercial holidays on top of the spiritual witchy holidays. And so it sometimes feels like a lot can be a little overwhelming, a lot of pressure. So I wanted to share a couple of resources on YouTube first that I think are helpful. So, number one is the Yogi Witch. Um, just put her and put that into YouTube. She's this lovely young woman from the UK, and she puts out great yoga videos for some of the new moons, full moons, and the Sabbaths. And you can go back and like look at her library, but you'll you can find a video. Like, let's say, you know, the new moon comes and you're like, I don't really know what to do. You can do a new moon video with her. She often will speaks, she always says calls us witches and little coven. She often will have like little intentions that you can set or affirmations. She will, um, if it you're doing them when they come out, she'll talk a little bit about that particular moon or that holiday. And what's nice is you're also getting your exercise. So if you're having a really busy day and you're like, I don't really have time, that's two things in one, right? You're tuning in with the moon or the holiday, and you're getting exercise. And I really like her. I've been coming to her videos quite often actually. And then um, if you're too tired to do your own card reading or divination, but you'd like to have a good reading, I really love on YouTube um the channel Charmed Intuition Tarot. Now, by the way, I don't know either one of these people, but I'm fans. And so Charmed Intuition Tarot, Myra, my best friend, got me into her channel like a while back. And I just love her name's Liz. She's got such a cute personality, so bubbly and sweet. She uses a combination of tarot, oracle, and charms, sometimes pogs. It's very cozy, it's very um sweet. She'll do love readings, she does week by week, she does month ahead. So if you're just like, I'm really tired, I don't want to pull cards, but I would love to know, try it out. And if that one doesn't work for you, try a different one. But they I really believe these collective readings work. Like, I do them for our coven for a reason. I think it is possible to collectively learn. They pull in the energy and it works. So those are really great. Um, another great resource is your local library or Libby, the Libby app, which is works with your local library card. Getting books um for free is awesome. But and also like turning to a book for a moon ritual or a you know, a Sabbath ritual is great. Like it doesn't have to be complicated and you don't have to think of things on your own. So turning to a book that you got to the library and being like, let me just see what they have for this moon and be like, oh yeah, I'll try that. Like it doesn't, it's just kind of fun sometimes. I think Pinterest has a lot of good free stuff. I have a Pinterest. Um, you can find my Pinterest through my website, but I have like a board for every holiday and a moon board, but there's a lot of good information sharing on there that maybe will spark an idea for you. Um, some other really simple things to do is one is coloring. I have some coloring pages in our coven, and I also have some in my Etsy um shop too, but basically you pick out colors with intention and you color as the spell. So you think, you know, if it's um you're manifesting for wealth, you pick out colors that are wealthy to you or feel wealthy, you can embed runes or sigils into the coloring and you color with intention. And when you're done, the coloring is a spell, which is very relaxing, very low energy. Um, another low energy option is a meditation. So many free meditations on both Insight Timer and YouTube that you know you can find like a sound bath for a moon, or um you can find like actual like new moon guidance meditations. And like if you fall asleep, who cares? Like it's fine. Like that's maybe that's what you needed, right? Another option is dream magic, right? Like saying getting to bed, having some crystals, maybe putting some like lavender spray on your pillow, maybe prior to drinking some tea, and then setting an intention and asking for the message to come in the dreams or for the spells to happen in the dreams. Insight timer, like I talked about, there's a lot of free meditations on there. But something I did, I did a whole Sabbath series, and a lot of all of the Sabbath meditations, I tried to basically do spells within the meditation. So there's times where I have people light candles in the spell, but it's all in the meditation. And so it's very low physical energy, right? So it's things you can envision, and I would say it's just as powerful as physically lighting a candle on your altar as visualizing lighting a candle in your mind's eye, right? In your heart of your altar. Um, so those are options. Making a soup, like again, where we can do these twofer type things, right, with the yoga. It's like we're getting physical exercise, we're doing also spiritual things. Same with making a soup. It's soup season, so putting in things like bay leaves or basil or other herbs that have intentions that you want to associate with them, stirring the soup clockwise, putting intentions into it, and just creating magic. So you're feeding yourself and you're also doing a spell. And what's nice is I make most of my soups in my crock pot. And so that's early in the morning when I have more energy. And I love that because I will say I'm so grateful for pastgenny because it's I have a soup going right now. So past Jenny's got me covered. I don't have to worry about what's for dinner. It's already done. It sits all day and cooks, and it's like all this intention bubbling in there, right? It's our cauldrons, our modern cauldrons. Um, and then another free thing to do is to forage for altar decorations, right? So you can get outside in your yard, in your neighborhood at a local park if you're allowed. Not everyone's allowed to forage at local parks. Collecting a few leaves and acorns, like nothing crazy, and just kind of being like with intention, letting things find you, and bringing them back to your altar, sprucing it up. And that's enough. The thing is, is it's always enough. Like whatever you decide to do, it doesn't have to be these big complicated things. You don't have to do like tune into the astrology of the moon if you don't want to, or the you know, the Sabbath season. You don't, you can just treat it as just like fresh start, like simple. I'm just gonna light a candle for a fresh start. New moons are really good time, like I've said before, to cleanse too. So it's like a simple incense or smoke cleanse. It doesn't have to be hard, right? We're here to like make this a lifelong practice. If we make things hard, we won't make it a lifelong practice, right? It's something I used to be a personal trainer at a gym. If you make things too complicated for someone to be healthy and exercise, they won't come back, right? It's gotta be something easy for them to follow and you add on as it goes, right? And that's how it is. There's so many options with crush, it can feel with witchcraft, it can feel overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. It can be simple, it can be pared down. So I'm gonna leave you with some journal questions. So we have the tower, and so I'm gonna ask you, what change are you seeking? What change would bring you joy? Are you afraid of any changes? And for our new moon in Scorpio, I'm gonna ask you what shadows are rising? And are there any boundaries you need to put into place? And for Sagittarius season, I'm gonna ask you, how can you invite more fun into your life? I feel like I'm constantly asking myself that. I hope you have a lovely week. I hope the tower is kind to all of us, and I hope the change is for the better. Plusity.