The Energy of November

Maybe you’ve been circling the same decision for a week. Maybe a conversation you thought was finished opened back up in October, and you’re still waiting to see where it lands. Maybe you’re just tired in a way that sleep on the weekend doesn’t fix, and you keep wondering why the end of this year feels so heavy.

If that sounds familiar, you’re right on time. November brings some of those open questions toward an answer, and gives you permission to slow down.

On November 7, the Chinese calendar marks 立冬, the Start of Winter, and we leave the Earth Dog for Ji Hai, the Earth Pig month. The Pig is a Water branch, and this is the first Water month of the whole Fire Horse year. After ten months of heat and speed, Water finally cools things down and asks the Fire to rest.

The month’s stem is Ji, soft Earth, sitting on top of the Pig’s Water. I picture a riverbank, the earth that gives a river its shape. So when November slows you down, there’s a reason for it. It’s a month to put some structure around what you want to bring into next year, before the year itself turns.

And the sky is doing its own version of the same thing. Mercury and Venus both start November retrograde, wrapping up the review October started, and they both turn direct within hours of each other on November 13.

In the Chinese system, the Pig marks the start of winter, the season when farmers stored their seed instead of planting it. You’re allowed to have plans you don’t act on yet. That’s what winter is for.

Here’s where November gets interesting, because the planets aren’t slowing down with the season. Right after the retrogrades end, Mars meets Jupiter in Leo on November 16, the boldest day of the month and one of the most confident of the year. Mars brings drive, and Jupiter makes things bigger, and in Leo that energy wants to be seen. It’s a good day to pitch an idea, ask for what you want, or share something you’ve been holding back. Jupiter also tends to exaggerate, so say yes to what you can actually deliver. Then on the 24th, the Full Moon lands right on Uranus, the planet of surprises. That could bring surprising news or a sudden change of plans.

So the calendar under your feet says rest, and the sky over your head says go. I don’t think you have to pick one. Make the plan in November, make it big if you want to, and let the pace stay gentle. The Fire Goat year begins in February, and you’ll want to arrive at it rested.

What are you carrying into winter? What deserves to be planted in spring? What can you stop forcing right now?

The first week of November is still autumn, still the Lung’s season. On November 7, winter begins and the Kidney and Bladder take over. Winter is Water, the deepest and most conserving of the five elements, and this year it shows up after ten months of Fire. Your body may be more than ready to rest. Let it.

Fear is Water’s emotion, the way grief belongs to Metal. In winter it can show up as worry about money or the future, not wanting to commit, or a low mood that comes out of nowhere. If those feelings surface, give yourself room to notice them without demanding an immediate answer. Warmth, rest, and a gentler routine can be places to start.

A few things that may help:

• Keep your lower back and your feet warm. The Kidney sits behind the lower back and its channel begins on the sole of the foot, so Chinese medicine treats both as winter’s front door. Warm socks in the evening are real care.
• Eat dark, warm, and slow-cooked: black beans, black sesame, walnuts, chestnuts, seaweed, bone broth, slow-braised root vegetables. A bowl of black sesame soup in the afternoon is classic winter care.
• Try going to bed a little earlier. The Huangdi Neijing, the oldest classic of Chinese medicine, says winter is the season to sleep early and wake with the sun. If your mornings allow it, let yourself sleep a bit longer while it’s still dark out.
• Move gently every day. A walk, slow stretching, tai chi, or qigong keeps you warm from the inside. Save the hard sweating and the training to exhaustion for spring.
• Go easy on cold, raw, and iced food, and on heavy salt. Salty is the flavor of Water, and a little supports the Kidney while a lot strains it.

My favorite practice for the month is also the simplest: soak your feet in warm water for ten minutes before bed, with a slice of fresh ginger if you have one. It pulls warmth down into your body and settles your mind. Do it on the nights you feel most wired, especially around the 16th and the 24th, when the sky pulls against the season. If your energy’s running ahead of your body, go with the season.

The solar terms are set by the position of the sun, so the Earth Pig month and everything in the sky applies to you exactly the same. What changes is the weather your body’s living in.

November is your turn from spring into summer, when the Heart and Small Intestine take over, so flip the food guidance. Reach for leafy greens, cucumber, watermelon, mung beans, mint, and a little bitterness from greens like rocket, and go easier on heavy, greasy, and very spicy food. Rest for ten minutes in the middle of the day, and keep your bedroom cool and dark.

Let the month guide your decisions and the season guide your plate.

Those are the dates the sky hands everybody. There’s a second timing system running underneath them, and it’s much older.

For more than a thousand years, people across China have kept a calendar called the 黄历, the old almanac. It tells you which days are good for starting something that matters, and which days to leave alone. It’s what people checked before picking a wedding date, opening a shop, signing a contract, or moving house.

November’s a leaner month than October. There are ten good days compared to October’s fourteen, and three Dire days to step around. That suits the season. Winter’s a time for storing, and the almanac reads that way: fewer peaks, more steady ground. The best days are also packed into the first half. All four Excellent dates fall in the first sixteen, so if something important is yours to schedule, do it before the Full Moon.

But a day that looks wonderful in the general almanac might not suit your chart. Every day has an animal, and if it clashes with one of the four in your own chart, that day can work against you. The workbook breaks down all thirty days of November, rated against your own chart, so you don’t have to work it out on your own. Monthly workbook subscribers also get the whole month as a digital almanac for iCal or Google Calendar, so the good days are already sitting in the calendar you actually look at.

October asked what you were keeping. November asks you to decide, and then to rest once you have.

Sign the thing you’ve been going back and forth on. Send the message you’ve rewritten five times. Then put on warm socks, go to bed early, and let the seeds wait for spring.

You don’t have to arrive at the end of this Fire year with everything done. You only have to arrive with a clear idea of what you’re carrying forward.

As the month unfolds, keep returning to the question:

What am I ready to choose, and what can wait for spring?

Your mantra for the month: decide, store, rest.