The Moon is in Pisces today, void of course. Meanwhile the Sun has just entered Scorpio, taking us here in the northern hemisphere into the middle of Autumn.
Let’s discuss the symbolism of the Sun’s entrance into Scorpio. Scorpio is one of the most seductive, powerful, and subversive signs of the zodiac. It’s hard to talk about Scorpio without suspicion. It’s hard to talk about Scorpio without power in your voice, and it’s hard to talk about Scorpio without making somebody, somewhere, uncomfortable. On the simplest level, the Scorpion is a creature associated with fierce protectiveness, secrets and hidden motives, invisibility and poison, stingers, laser like acuteness, and the homeopathic cure or the venom become medicine. Though there are a variety of interesting associations with other animals this sign has, like the Eagle or the Phoenix, it’s important that we put our foot down about a few things. First, Scorpio’s significations are almost always better associated with death, depth, mystery, defensiveness, eruption, power, secretiveness, poison, and hidden cures, than it is with the word “rebirth” or the soaring spiritual symbols of birds.
People get obsessed in an ironically Scorpionic way with the word rebirth, and often what it points to isn’t Scorpio’s tendency to “rebirth” but rather people’s love of emotional redemption. Rebirth is a powerful word that’s become the red-headed step child of new age astrological dramatists constantly seeking the next emotional salvation. Let’s try to rarely use the word “rebirth” when talking about this sign, and let’s remember that many Scorpios are entirely suspicious of anything that would seek to destabilize, dramatize, or catalyze things unnecessarily. Being a fixed water sign, in fact, the Scorpion is prone toward a very deep level of stoic solidity, especially when it comes to the darker, deeper, and colder realities of biological life. Rather than wanting to catalyze some kind of holy roller altar call or born again spiritual experience, Scorpio is more like the perfectly clean and clear image of the green leaves of plants as seen through the first killing layer of frost in October or November. There is an emotional lucidity that comes by our intimacy with death…like the emptiness of the Buddha sitting under the Moon at nighttime, contemplating impermanence with perfect, frosty detachment. With this heightened instinctual awareness of death in nature there is also tremendous power, like the life force drawing back below the ground, into the seeds or roots. The feeling of potential nuclear detonation or “rebirth” we sense with Scorpio is therefore about mistaking Aries and the eventual return of spring with the middle of Autumn. The fact that both signs are Mars ruled does in fact connect the idea of coagulated inner power with an eventual explosion or outward thrust of the same energy, but to assign too much of this outward explosiveness to Scorpio is to try to make death into life, or Autumn into Spring prematurely. Can’t we find just a little more patience with how we think about these things? What would the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe have been without the spell of winter, no Christmas, and the white witch?
Meanwhile, the wiles of Scorpio aren’t to be underestimated. We hate talking about these things because we’re always trying to make every sign as rosy and virtuous as possible…this tendency in fact betrays an important facet of earthly reality…namely the cold, deep, uncomfortable, scary, truths we live in the presence of each and every day. Scorpio isn’t generally a fan of this rosy tendency, and more than most signs the Scorpion can smell out the presence of betrayal, deception, lies, and happy horse shit. Consequently, Scorpio is a sign that is often related with lies, dishonesty, secrets, viciousness, deceit, cunning, hidden plots or motives, vindictiveness and revenge, violence, evil or darkness, envy, greed, malicious intent, possessiveness and power lust. As much as we want to rescue every sign by saying, “it has both a light and a dark side,” the Scorpion is justifiably suspicious of this happy making or all balancing perspective. Why are we so obsessed with balance? What’s below that equilibrium fixated smile? Sniff…sniff….smells like paranoia. Smells like someone who only likes the nice things, and balance is simply the new word for “nice.” But you can’t hide from me…because I’m death…
I am the cold rigor mortis that finally stops all attempts to avoid, delay, change, uplift, or encourage above and beyond…and if you don’t stop for me, ritually, if you don’t grieve, mourn, fear, suspect, and grow cold and still…when I come it will feel all the more like a predator stalking you…
Prayer: no more tom foolery…help us to stop and smell the death
Let’s discuss the symbolism of the Sun’s entrance into Scorpio. Scorpio is one of the most seductive, powerful, and subversive signs of the zodiac. It’s hard to talk about Scorpio without suspicion. It’s hard to talk about Scorpio without power in your voice, and it’s hard to talk about Scorpio without making somebody, somewhere, uncomfortable. On the simplest level, the Scorpion is a creature associated with fierce protectiveness, secrets and hidden motives, invisibility and poison, stingers, laser like acuteness, and the homeopathic cure or the venom become medicine. Though there are a variety of interesting associations with other animals this sign has, like the Eagle or the Phoenix, it’s important that we put our foot down about a few things. First, Scorpio’s significations are almost always better associated with death, depth, mystery, defensiveness, eruption, power, secretiveness, poison, and hidden cures, than it is with the word “rebirth” or the soaring spiritual symbols of birds.
People get obsessed in an ironically Scorpionic way with the word rebirth, and often what it points to isn’t Scorpio’s tendency to “rebirth” but rather people’s love of emotional redemption. Rebirth is a powerful word that’s become the red-headed step child of new age astrological dramatists constantly seeking the next emotional salvation. Let’s try to rarely use the word “rebirth” when talking about this sign, and let’s remember that many Scorpios are entirely suspicious of anything that would seek to destabilize, dramatize, or catalyze things unnecessarily. Being a fixed water sign, in fact, the Scorpion is prone toward a very deep level of stoic solidity, especially when it comes to the darker, deeper, and colder realities of biological life. Rather than wanting to catalyze some kind of holy roller altar call or born again spiritual experience, Scorpio is more like the perfectly clean and clear image of the green leaves of plants as seen through the first killing layer of frost in October or November. There is an emotional lucidity that comes by our intimacy with death…like the emptiness of the Buddha sitting under the Moon at nighttime, contemplating impermanence with perfect, frosty detachment. With this heightened instinctual awareness of death in nature there is also tremendous power, like the life force drawing back below the ground, into the seeds or roots. The feeling of potential nuclear detonation or “rebirth” we sense with Scorpio is therefore about mistaking Aries and the eventual return of spring with the middle of Autumn. The fact that both signs are Mars ruled does in fact connect the idea of coagulated inner power with an eventual explosion or outward thrust of the same energy, but to assign too much of this outward explosiveness to Scorpio is to try to make death into life, or Autumn into Spring prematurely. Can’t we find just a little more patience with how we think about these things? What would the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe have been without the spell of winter, no Christmas, and the white witch?
Meanwhile, the wiles of Scorpio aren’t to be underestimated. We hate talking about these things because we’re always trying to make every sign as rosy and virtuous as possible…this tendency in fact betrays an important facet of earthly reality…namely the cold, deep, uncomfortable, scary, truths we live in the presence of each and every day. Scorpio isn’t generally a fan of this rosy tendency, and more than most signs the Scorpion can smell out the presence of betrayal, deception, lies, and happy horse shit. Consequently, Scorpio is a sign that is often related with lies, dishonesty, secrets, viciousness, deceit, cunning, hidden plots or motives, vindictiveness and revenge, violence, evil or darkness, envy, greed, malicious intent, possessiveness and power lust. As much as we want to rescue every sign by saying, “it has both a light and a dark side,” the Scorpion is justifiably suspicious of this happy making or all balancing perspective. Why are we so obsessed with balance? What’s below that equilibrium fixated smile? Sniff…sniff….smells like paranoia. Smells like someone who only likes the nice things, and balance is simply the new word for “nice.” But you can’t hide from me…because I’m death…
I am the cold rigor mortis that finally stops all attempts to avoid, delay, change, uplift, or encourage above and beyond…and if you don’t stop for me, ritually, if you don’t grieve, mourn, fear, suspect, and grow cold and still…when I come it will feel all the more like a predator stalking you…
Prayer: no more tom foolery…help us to stop and smell the death
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