We entered the Scorpio new moon phase last night at 11:39pm ET, and I had trouble sleeping.

Anxiety, fears, shadow aspects coming up.

Scorpio is all about the dark places, the hidden and unseen, our innermost motivations and desires. It’s intensity, death, lust, magick, psychism, power, deep emotions, and manifestation.

Scorpio moons tend to have a powerful effect on me, but especially the new moon which occurs here in the North during what’s considered the descent – the dark time of the year – before the reemergence of the sun’s power at the winter solstice.

It’s a time for introspection and preparation – but for what? For an inevitable healing and growth period.

If we follow the wheel of the year, we’ve spent the first three quarters working towards our goals and harvests, actual or symbolic. It’s an active time of doing, achieving, failing, succeeding, and continuing on. Sometimes we stay on track, sometimes we stray. And sometimes, we discover that what we’ve been working towards isn’t quite what’s working for us or making us happy.

This time of year forces us to pause, reflect, and take a good hard look at what’s in the darker parts of ourselves. Our fears, shames, insecurities, ignored intuitions, lack of attention, are all things that are part of what make us human, and also the building blocks for what holds us back.

We like to avoid these things, and yet, if we approach them as teachers, they are enormous healing allies.

Crystals that help you to face and converse with your fears isn’t as popular a topic as crystals that help you to diminish your feelings of anxiety, or protect your energy. Let’s be real: we like to avoid what feels like sh**.