The new moon in Scorpio arrives Monday, November 9, at 2:02 am Eastern, and it arrives with both Mercury and Venus retrograde. That combination changes the usual new moon advice. A Scorpio new moon is the darkest, most private seed-planting night of the year; a double retrograde says review before you launch. So this is a new moon for writing the intention down, in full, and not signing anything until the planets turn back around. Here is how we work it, and the three stones on the table.
What a Scorpio new moon asks
A new moon is the dark moon: the moon sits between us and the sun and gives back no light. In practice it is the night for intentions: the blank page, the thing you want and have not said out loud.
A new moon in Scorpio is all of that with the lights off. Scorpio is fixed water, ruled by Pluto in modern astrology and by Mars in the older tradition. It governs the hidden: what has ended, what you are ashamed of, what you want badly enough not to admit it. On the ninth both the sun and the moon sit in Scorpio, which means the conscious self and the feeling self are in the same deep water. We wrote about the whole season in Scorpio Season 2026; the new moon is the night it turns on.
That is the gift. Scorpio intentions are not resolutions. They are the ones you would be embarrassed to post. Power. Intimacy. Money, honestly. Being done with someone. If the intention makes you a little nervous to write, you are in the right sign.
Two planets retrograde: what to start, what to wait on
Mercury retrograde is the one everyone knows: the tradition says communication, travel and technology get tangled, and that it is a time to review, revise and reconsider rather than begin. Venus retrograde is quieter and, for Scorpio, more pointed. Venus rules love, beauty, money and what we value, and when she appears to move backward the tradition says old relationships resurface, taste shifts, and the things you thought you wanted get re-examined.
Neither is a reason to hide. They are a reason to change the verb. The usual new moon verbs are start, launch, sign, send. The retrograde verbs are review, revise, return, repair. Put those together with Scorpio and you get a new moon for one specific thing: deciding, in private, what you actually want, and letting the paperwork wait.
What to start now:
- The intention itself. Write it. Tonight is for the seed, not the sprout.
- The audit. Go back through the last year of a relationship, a job, a habit, a bank account, and tell yourself the truth about it.
- The conversation you have been avoiding, as long as you are listening more than declaring. Reconnecting with an old friend is textbook Venus retrograde work.
What to wait on, if you can:
- Contracts and big purchases. The tradition is review, do not sign.
- Launching the new thing publicly. Announce it when Mercury is direct.
- Final decisions about people. Feelings run high under a Scorpio moon and run backward under Venus. Let the decision sit until both planets move.
If you are not an astrology person, the short version still holds: write it down, do not sign it yet.
Three stones for this new moon
Labradorite, black onyx and clear quartz are the three we set out for a Scorpio new moon.
Labradorite is a feldspar with a gray face and a flash of blue, gold or green hidden inside, and it is the stone of transformation and the hidden self. On a dark moon it is the stone for seeing what you cannot see yet. The Serpent Queen Necklace sets one inside the ouroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, and there is no better image for a new moon: the end feeding the beginning.
Black onyx, a banded chalcedony, is the stone for holding your ground. Scorpio new moons bring things up, and onyx is what keeps you steady while they do. It is also the stone traditionally worn for boundaries, which is useful in a season when the old flame may text.
Clear quartz is the amplifier, silicon dioxide, the stone that holds whatever intention you give it. Hold it while you write, keep it with the paper, and let it do the remembering.
Browse the Lunar collection for the pieces we built around the dark and the light of the cycle.
A written-intention ritual for the dark moon
It is designed for the retrograde. You will need paper, a pen, one stone or a piece set with one, and a candle if you like one.
- Sit in the dark for a minute first. Turn the lights off, let your eyes adjust, and notice what comes up when nothing is lit. That is the Scorpio part.
- Light the candle and write the intention as a full sentence in the present tense, specific and a little uncomfortable. Not "I want more money" but the real one.
- Now write the retrograde clause underneath: one line about what you will review before you act. "Before I sign, I ask the question I have been avoiding." This is what makes it a Scorpio intention and not a wish.
- Read the whole thing out loud once. Fold the paper. Set the stone on top of it, or put the ring on, and leave them together somewhere you will see them until the moon is full again on November 24.
- Do nothing else. No announcement, no post, no text to the person. Let it be dark.
When Mercury and Venus turn direct, take the paper out and read it again. If it still makes you nervous, act on it then.
In the studio
I built this studio on the idea that a piece of jewelry can hold an intention the way paper does, except you can wear it into the meeting. On new moons I reach for the Serpent Queen almost without thinking; the ouroboros is the cycle I keep coming back to, and the labradorite in it only shows its flash when you move. That feels right for a night when nothing is visible yet.
Questions we get about the new moon in Scorpio
What should I do on a new moon in Scorpio? Set one deep, specific intention, in private and in writing, about something that matters more than you usually admit: power, intimacy, money, endings. Sit with the dark for a few minutes first. Cleanse your stones if you cleanse at the new moon, and keep the night small; Scorpio rewards honesty over performance.
Can I set new moon intentions during Mercury retrograde? Yes. The tradition says not to launch, sign or send under Mercury retrograde, but writing an intention is the opposite of launching. Retrograde new moons suit intentions about reviewing, repairing and returning to something. Write it now; act when Mercury is direct.
Which crystals are best for a new moon? We reach for labradorite for intuition and transformation, black onyx for grounding and boundaries, and clear quartz to hold the intention through the cycle. Rainbow moonstone and smoky quartz are the gentle alternatives if those feel like too much. The best stone is the one you will actually touch every day until the full moon.
Plant it in the dark, read the fine print later, and let Scorpio do what Scorpio does.
From the studio
The three stones we set out for the dark moon, in the pieces that carry them.
- Serpent Queen Necklace: natural labradorite inside the ouroboros, in sterling silver
- Moon Phase Shield Ring: smooth black onyx in a sterling shield ringed by the moon phases
- Crystal Ball Pendulum Necklace: a clear quartz sphere in a hand-fabricated sterling frame
- Moon Maiden Necklace: labradorite in sterling silver, her talisman for awakening
