"You didn't come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here." - Alan Watts
As October unfolds, I find myself in an interesting season of transition. Since returning from Canada, where the nip of autumn was present in the morning air, I’ve been sitting with what feels like both an ending and a beginning. You may have noticed a subtle shift – what began as “From The Chrysalis” newsletter is becoming “From the Water’s Edge.” It feels fitting somehow, this movement from the enclosed space of transformation to the meeting place between earth and water, that liminal zone where different worlds touch. Sometimes we need the chrysalis, that safe container for becoming. And sometimes we need to emerge and find ourselves at the water’s edge, where we can see our reflection whilst also accessing something deeper.
My daughter has settled back into university life, Magnus the dog is thriving as her companion, and my son’s Jamaican adventure continues to unfold in ways that delight and occasionally worry me! The house feels different with its new emptiness – not sad exactly, but spacious in ways I’m still learning to inhabit.
The Hunters’ Full Moon – 7th October
Tonight’s Full Moon in Aries arrives at a potent moment, standing opposite the Sun in Libra and asking us perhaps the most fundamental question of all: how do we honour both self and other without losing ourselves in either direction?
Aries energy is fierce, courageous, direct – that part of us that knows what we want and isn’t afraid to claim it. Yet this moon doesn’t rise in isolation. With the Sun in Libra, we’re invited to hold something quite complex: the understanding that true courage sometimes looks like cooperation, that authentic self-expression must dance with genuine connection.
Coming just after the equinox, when light and dark stood in perfect balance, this lunation feels like it’s asking: what needs your decisive action right now? Where have you been waiting for permission that will never come? And equally important – where might your fire need tempering with consideration for the whole?
There’s something liberating about Aries energy. It cuts through confusion and hesitation with remarkable clarity. But tonight, with Libra’s influence, we’re reminded that clarity doesn’t have to mean isolation. You can be clear about who you are and what you need whilst remaining beautifully connected to others.
Gate 48 – The Well: Depth and Freshness
How perfect that tonight’s moon arrives with the Sun in Gate 48 – The Well illuminated in the Human Design chart. This gate speaks to something we all need right now: access to knowledge that refreshes rather than depletes, wisdom that flows from a natural source rather than forced understanding.
The imagery offers something we all need: a well that taps into underground streams that never run dry, offering not surface knowledge but the kind of understanding that comes from going deep and staying connected to something essential.
Gate 48 reminds us that replenishment isn’t about constantly seeking new information or the next exciting insight. It’s about knowing where to return, again and again, to draw from an unending source. This is an inner source fuelled by nature, contemplation, creative practice, meaningful conversation – whatever genuinely refreshes your spirit rather than just filling time.
Line 6 – Replenishing carries particular wisdom: Great fulfilment comes from the openness to share your extensive gifts with others. There’s something here about overflow. You can’t share from an empty well, but neither can you hoard what naturally wants to flow. When you’re truly connected to your source, sharing doesn’t deplete you – it deepens the connection.
The shadow of this gate is inadequacy – that exhausting sense that you never know enough, can never be enough. But the gift is resourcefulness, and the ultimate teaching is wisdom. Not the accumulated facts kind of wisdom, but the embodied, lived, deeply-felt knowing that comes from touching something real.
Unconditional Love
Bottle C12 Heart Chakra – Love (Lilac/Pink) arrives like a gentle embrace this month. These colours speak to the union of heart and spirit, that sacred space where our human love meets something much larger.
Lilac and pink together create such tenderness. This isn’t the dramatic, passionate love of romance novels – though there’s nothing wrong with that. This is the quiet, steady, all-encompassing love that recognises itself in everything and everyone. The bottle asks: what if you are already one with all of humanity? What if your individual journey of healing and growth is really part of something much larger?
The lilac speaks to your connection with spirit, that part of you that knows you’re more than just this body, this story, this collection of experiences. The pink reminds you to be gentle as you remember – to hold yourself with the same unconditional care you’d offer someone deeply precious.
This bottle may stir up feelings about mothering – being mothered, being a mother, the Divine Mother energy that exists beyond any individual relationship. If grief surfaces, it’s welcome here. Sometimes recognising our oneness with all things means feeling more deeply, not less. The tears that come aren’t a sign you’re doing something wrong; they’re often the heart’s way of clearing space for more love.
If this bottle calls to you, try this: each morning, place your hand on your heart and ask, “What wants to be shared today?” Not what you think you should share, but what your heart genuinely wants to offer. Then trust whatever arises. Your inner beauty isn’t something you need to manufacture or perfect – it’s already there, waiting to be recognised and expressed.
Working with October's Energy
This combination of Aries fire, Libra balance, the replenishing well, and the heart’s oneness offers us something quite special. Here’s how you might work with these energies:
Find your well: What genuinely replenishes you? Not what’s supposed to work or what worked five years ago, but what fills your well right now? Once you know, protect that connection fiercely.
Share from overflow: Notice the difference between giving because you think you should and sharing because your cup is so full it naturally spills over. One depletes, the other deepens.
Balance courage with connection: Where do you need Aries’ decisive action? And where might your fire benefit from Libra’s consideration of how your choices affect the whole? Both are valid; both are needed.
Trust your inadequacy: Sounds strange, I know. But what if those moments when you feel you don’t know enough are invitations to go deeper, to establish fresh connection to your source rather than scrambling for surface answers?
Let your heart lead: Not in that impulsive, throw-caution-to-the-wind way, but in the quiet certainty that comes from knowing you’re connected to something much larger than your individual concerns.
New Moon – 21st October
Looking ahead, the New Moon in Libra on 21st October arrives at 19:25 BST, offering a moment to plant seeds around relationship, balance, and beauty. After this month’s emphasis on courageous action and deep replenishment, the Libra New Moon invites us to set intentions around how we want to be in relationship – not just with others, but with ourselves, with our work, with life itself.
This feels like a powerful moment to consider: what kind of connections do you want to cultivate? Not based on obligation or habit, but on genuine resonance and mutual nourishment? In 2026, I will be hosting a New Moon Circle on zoom together with a couple of colleagues – more details to follow.
Book Corner
This month I’m sharing “The Wisdom of Insecurity” by Alan Watts. Written in 1951, this slender book feels more relevant now than ever, particularly as we work with Gate 48’s teaching that not-knowing is a doorway to wisdom.
Watts writes about something we all experience but rarely talk about openly: the exhausting attempt to find security and certainty in a world that is fundamentally changing. He suggests – quite radically – that our insistence on knowing, on being certain, on having everything figured out is what keeps us from accessing real wisdom.
This speaks directly to Gate 48’s shadow of inadequacy. How much energy do we spend trying to prove we know enough, are enough, have enough depth to draw from? Watts invites us to consider that the well of wisdom isn’t found by accumulating more knowledge or achieving more certainty. It’s accessed by becoming comfortable with not-knowing, by staying present to what actually is, rather than what we think should be.
Final Thoughts
As I write this, autumn is settling in properly here, and I keep returning to that image of the well – how it serves the whole community, not just the individual. Your gifts and wisdom aren’t meant to be perfected in isolation but shared from overflow. The Aries Moon tonight might ask you to be brave enough to share from your well even if you worry it’s not deep enough, while the Libra Sun reminds you that we’re all drawing from the same source and learning to share from the heart.
I’d love to hear what’s emerging for you this month. What wells are you returning to? What’s ready to be shared? Where are you finding the balance between courageous self-expression and genuine connection?
With love from the water’s edge,
