Venus and the Sun are kazimi this afternoon in Scorpio…meaning Venus has moved into exact conjunction with the Sun (just now fading). Meanwhile the Moon has just passed its conjunction with Saturn and is now void of course, and Mercury has turned direct.
It’s a good day to talk about the sign of the Scorpion. For the past two years Saturn has been in the sign of Scorpio, and with the powerful Uranus/Pluto square it’s felt like nothing but Scorpio energy for quite some time now. Recently one of my students said, “I’m so sick of the very word “Scorpio,” right now that I don’t even want to say it when I look at people’s charts.” That might be a little extreme, but for those who know astrology it’s one of those remarks you can’t help but laugh at when you hear.
Perhaps the reason we get tired of talking about the scorpionic archetypes is because we’ve become resigned to use cliches when talking about Scorpio. Words like “deep and dark,” or “transformational” and “intense.” These words have now become like an embarassing kool aid mustache at the new age kickball game.
The etymological roots of the word “Scorpion” are shared with the word “scalpel.” And just like scorpions hide beneath rocks or move around stealthily in the dark, scalpels are instruments of high precision that cut below the surface with laser like precision. In fact, the pin-prick tail of the scorpion is constantly referred to as “laser like,” and when combined with the lethal poison of its stinger, Scorpions are imagined alongside of assassins and daggers in the night.
Now, from here it’s a big leap to start talking about a word like “transformation.” For the most part, from this simple etymological exercise, all we’ve really discovered is that Scorpio has something to do with darkness, lethality, precision, control, cunning, and cutting below the surface. How do we get to transformation from here? And the answer is that we don’t unless we tend to resist these qualities in ourselves or the world around us. The Scorpion’s archetypal qualities seem to only leap out and terrify people who lose touch with or block out the reality of these elements in the human psyche. Granted this happens to most of us at some point or another no matter how well we’re in touch with the scorpionic realm…Scorpions can surprise and sting anybody at any time; this is just part of life.
So when Scorpio season rolls around, we tend to feel the Scorpionic qualities enhancing. The leaves are falling from the trees (here in the northern hemisphere), the death of the solar year is in its most rapid descent, and all that has lay below the surface is now returning to our awareness…the death and cold and barren landscape of winter is coming back. We may feel depressed or cold inside. We may start to see through overly optimistic forecasts or opinions and into the stark uncertainty that lies beneath even the sunniest temperaments. For some people the rapid descent of the Sun moving into Scorpio can be accompanied by a general paranoia..the sense of loss and the literal declining of the light create a kind of despair that projects itself into our relationships or work projects or moods…we see only worst case scenarios and we adopt a “zero tolerance for bullshit” stance toward anyone and everything.
Other times we get more quiet, our power draws inward toward the velvety black center, and we begin to concentrate and store our thoughts, feelings, and actions..listening for a focalizing voice that will slowly start to come through and constellate by the time of the winter solstice.
Around Halloween time our love for the darkness finds the right moment for celebration. As if Scorpio is only about the desolation of life and light. “Hell” no! How unimaginative! Scorpio is also about the freedom that only death lovers can truly appreciate. The see your breath first frost, and the cold night atmosphere kind of freedom.
Speaking of such freedom, we might take a brief moment to digress into a meditation on the popular love of serial killers (even a serial killer who kills serial killers). Scorpio has an obvious relationship to serial killers that is commonly spoken about by astrologers. But why? Is it as simple as death and lethality? Not quite. The fascination with serial killers and its connection to Scorpio comes more appropriately through images like the “steady hand of the surgeon who wields the scalpel,” or the image of ice, which killers and assassins emulate through their almost amoral control and lack of emotion, their calculated cunning juxtaposed with their blood lust.
The important thing to remember, again, is that the word “transformation” only really applies to Scorpio when we’re completely out of touch with these killer qualities.
So consider the killer in you right now. When winter is coming, we embrace death and we prepare for survival. Even though its modern times and we live in heated houses, the psychic reality persists. Right now many of us are beginning to calculate our next long term moves. We are clarifying goals, evaluating what needs to be released or what is dying or dead, and doing so in a manner that is intensely introverted, deep, controlled, and calculating. We are just beginning our long hour, all night talks with Hades. We are taking oaths by the river Styx, where we know the penalty for not keeping these oaths is to drink from the river and lose our voice.
When we aren’t in touch with this killer instinct, this fallen landscape within ourselves, then we’ve lost touch with our soul. The scorpion sting is the fear that reminds us of our heartbeat, and our breath. Rapid and extreme at first because what else can the Scorpion do but pierce the heart and chill the blood when we forget? The Scorpion reminds us that control is not the same as ignoring or denying what is real, and the Scorpion reminds us that cunning is not about deception but rather a frost like sharpness of the mind…an ice cold clarity that keeps us in contact with the ever present darkness.
While new age know it alls bang gongs and sage rooms talking about purification and transformation of the darkness toward the light, the Scorpion watches and waits, content in unknowing, stoic in memory and thought, drawing more power into its center.
These are all images and words that will hopefully take us deeper into the Scorpionic world that is opening right now…they aren’t meant to be completely definitive or exhaustive…
Prayer: “Take me down, to the underground, why don’t you take me down, to the underground. Why oh why, there is no light. And if I can’t sleep, can you hold my life?” (The Smashing Pumpkins)
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