Tag Archives: Scorpio

Weekly Forecast February 3: Mercury Retrograde, Ceres Enters Scorpio

Artist’s conception of Ceres. Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab.

Anyone feeling a little fuzzy headed? I’m having trouble writing a coherent sentence, and I’m definitely slow.

As the week begins, Mercury is slowing down to station retrograde on Thursday, just a degree shy of Neptune in Pisces. Traffic moves slowly, whether it’s cars on the road, bytes on the Internet, or electrical impulses in your brain.

Then, slowing down can be a good thing.

In astrology, Neptune is the planet of sleep and dreams, and Mercury is the planet of communications, including communications between the conscious and the unconscious. One of the times when we can be aware of that connection is between wakefulness and sleep and vice versa – the hypnagoic and hypnopompic states of consciousness. Often, we get ideas, visions, and solutions to problems in that fleeting space between worlds. It’s not hard to understand how mythological Mercury (Greek Hermes) was the only god who could come and go freely in and out of the underworld – and swiftly, by virtue of his winged sandals.

We don’t always remember our dreams, but when we do, it’s often in that in-between place. That’s why it’s important to record dreams as soon as you wake up. Dreams can contain important symbols that help us understand what our unconscious is processing, and that knowledge can be powerful. When we’re awake, the conscious mind takes over, and most of us lose access to that power. With Mercury stationed so close to Neptune in his own sign of Pisces, the “signal” is stronger. The flip side is that it might be hard to stay awake during the day, and concentrating could be a real challenge. However, if you start to doze, you’re in that in-between state and have even more opportunities for creative ideas and visions to surface into your conscious mind. I’ve also experienced long-distance contact with friends in that space.

Mercury will be retrograde until February 28, the last day of the month, meaning that most of February will be slow going. It’s a good time for reviewing, revising, rewriting – anything that requires going back over something. Although he returns to Aquarius, Mercury stations direct the day before the New Moon in Pisces, so we might get messages similar to the kind that come up this week. The Messenger returns to Pisces on March 17 and conjoins Neptune on March 22.

On Monday, Ceres enters Scorpio, and she’ll be in a trine with Mercury on February 12 and a conjunction with the lunar North Node on February 11. She won’t quite reach a trine with Neptune before turning retrograde on February 27, and she’ll return to Libra in late March. In the meantime, it’s worth looking at what this could mean. I’m still observing the role of Ceres in mundane astrology, as I don’t think we’re sure yet what her influence might be. She has been prominent in charts for environmental disasters and events relating to the food supply, which is what we might expect, give the role of Ceres in classical mythology as a Mother Earth figure associated with crops and vegetation in general. As you may recall, Demeter, the Greek equivalent of Roman Ceres, lost her daughter Persephone to Hades/Pluto, who kept her in the underworld for several months out of the year. During that time, Demeter was so depressed that nothing grew.

In modern astrology, Pluto rules Scorpio, sign of death and regeneration. However, the goddess Ceres also was associated with cycles of death and rebirth, and so we might look for evidence that dwarf planet Ceres has something to do with cycles of nature and other cyclical occurrences, such as the birth, rise, and fall of civilizations. Although Ceres couldn’t go into the underworld to get her daughter – only Mercury could do that – she was the only deity who could negotiate with Pluto (essentially her son-in-law) to get what she wanted. That gives Ceres a special relationship with Scorpio. During the negotiation period, she was mad as hell. It’s typical for people coming out of depression and grief to get angry before they can heal. Anger, by the way, is the function of Mars, ancient ruler of Scorpio and co-ruler with Pluto in modern astrology. Educated people laugh at how our ancient ancestors thought disasters were the work of angry gods, but I contend that it wasn’t entirely superstition; they were just personifying invisible energies that otherwise defied description. Astrology is a way to “see” and measure these energies.

As for depression, it’s growing worldwide at an alarming rate. When you’re depressed, you can barely do what needs to be done in a day, with no time or energy left over to protest abuse of government power and other societal injustices. I believe this is one of the reasons that more people aren’t out in the streets protesting the never-ending giveaways to the rich and cuts for the poor and middle class – a repeating cycle, incidentally. I don’t know what it will take for people to start getting angry enough to take back their government. Shortages of food and water and sometimes cited as the trigger. Because we don’t know enough about how Ceres functions in mundane astrology, it’s hard to predict if and when this might happen. However, we’ll want to monitor her position in the charts.

Ceres will return to Scorpio in August and will remain there until October. However, it will be interesting to observe world events in February and March to look for correlations. This can be tricky, because there are so many planetary energies in play at any given time that it’s difficult to distinguish which might be the main signatures for an event. I’ll be watching for possible correlations to her conjunction with the lunar North Node on February 11, plus or minus a few days.

A couple of other interesting facts about dwarf planet Ceres: Recently she was discovered to have water. Scientists were caught off guard, as they didn’t expect the bodies in the asteroid belt to contain water. What they think they’ve found is what they would have expected of a comet. There also is some speculation that Ceres might have had different origins than the other asteroids and that she and Pluto might be more related than anyone thought.

Those are the only major astrological events this week, but we’re still within the influence period of a strong cardinal T-square as Jupiter moves toward an exact square with Uranus later this month. With Mercury’s turn retrograde, we might expect to see headlines that refer back to events and situations last August. One event that comes immediately to mind is the chemical attack in Syria on August 21. Supposed proof that the attack was launched by the troops of President Bashar al-Assad is now acknowledged to be less certain, and yet conservatives are still calling for a military strike. Talk about déjà vu.

Much love and courage to all,
Pat

Scorpio Rising: The Scorpio Soul

The Irish Goddess Morrigan as Scorpio. © Karen MacKenzie, 2013. Details below.

As we contiue our journey exploring the love-base expressions and fear-based reactions of each zodiac sign, we arrive at the beautiful and enigmatic sign of Scorpio.

The intense sign of Scorpio is most commonly associated with sex, death and regeneration. It is also associated with other people’s money and resources, and even cruelty, so why beautiful? Because when we understand the underlying soul dynamics in Scorpio, we see that there is a beautiful, natural, and inevitable process of integration, healing, and transformation happening.

To connect the dots and see what these seemingly diverse associations have in common, we have to understand a little about the stages of development of our soul through the signs and what particularly is happening at this stage of our soul’s journey. In Esoteric Astrology, it is said that the soul “does battle” in two signs, Leo and Scorpio. In Leo, the battle is for our individuality; in Scorpio, the battle is for our soul. Esoterically, what happens in Scorpio is a process of personality-soul fusion. This explains the depth and intensity of Scorpio, for it is in this sign that we need to face the depths of our own soul and succumb to the surrender of the ego that happens as a result.

The Woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~ Robert Frost

The individuality that we fought so hard to gain in Leo appears in Scorpio to be dissolving in the light of the soul and, at the ego-personality level of instinct, when we feel threatened it is natural to fight. To onlookers this can also appear cruel. When our Scorpio friends feel fear, it is felt at a depth and intensity that few of us can even imagine – as though their very survival is at stake, which, from the ego’s perspective, it is!

When we instinctively fight for survival, things can become really viscious. If you have ever tried to take a terrified cat to the vet, you’ll know what I mean. The claws come out, there’s hissing and spitting, and it will grasp and claw at anything to try and get away. This is an instinctive fear-based reaction, and in the case of the cat, we can clearly see that it isn’t personal. The cat doesn’t even know who you are; it will just scratch anybody or anything that is getting in the way! This is a clue to the solution and the power of healing and transformation in Scorpio.

To get beyond our fear-based reactions, we need to look at the roots of fear itself, and this is why Scorpio will often merrily go where angels fear to tread – to go as deep as possible and uncover the root of an issue. The root cause of our fear is actually our inability to tell illusion from reality. The ego, our personality as we know and think about ourselves, is actually a complex illusion created by our mind. In our earlier post on Leo, we outlined the process whereby at a certain point in early childhood development we form a mental concept of ourselves that we call “I.” This is the idea that there is a “person” in here that we call “me.”

When our Scorpio friends, or indeed any of us, are attacking, grasping, and clawing, we are suffering from a false sense of separation where we feel we have to defend our illusory sense of self by attacking an illusory “other.” Going deeper, beneath this illusion of “me” to discover the underlying reality of our existence and hence the Universe, is the soul purpose of Scorpio. This is how we discover the point of light in the darkness and that ultimately everything is light. The higher purpose of Scorpio is to transform darkness into light. But first, our attachment to the idea of “me” must finally be overcome.

[quote cite=”~ Kalu Rinpoche”]You live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality, but you do not know this. When you understand this, you will see that you are nothing, and being nothing you are everything. That is all.[/quote]

When our frightened Scorpio is fighting for survival, other people’s money and resources seem to be of great importance. It can feel as though we have to fight or compete with others to get our share. One of the ego challenges of Scorpio can also be a tendency to become overly dependent on other people’s resources to meet their needs. This is part of the illusion: that what we need is outside of us and under the control of others. When our Scorpio friend discovers the true nature underlying the illusion, there is a softening and a realization that there is nothing and nobody to fight. We are only ever fighting reflections of ourselves.

[quote cite=”~ Nisargadatta”]Contemplate life as infinite, undivided, ever present, ever active, until you realize yourself as one with it. It is not even very difficult, for you will be returning only to your own natural condition.[/quote]

In Leo we experienced the process of self-realization. In Scorpio that self-realization turns to self-reliance. Everything we need is already within us. We have heard that phrase so often it can seem like a cliché, yet it really does point to a deep spiritual truth. Once our Scorpio friend discovers the reality that everything they have is already within them, they will have discovered the very thing that they can always rely on: their own Divine presence.

There are many names for this unchanging presence that we can always rely on: awareness, God, Great Spirit, Quantum Intelligence, the Divine, consciousness, the Self or even simply life itself. Whatever we call it, if we go deep enough in our journey, we find that it is always there. It can always be relied upon, and it is who we are. This is why Scorpio is also associated with birth, death, and regeneration; it is in Scorpio that we have the potential to discover within ourselves this everlasting presence that permeates and supercedes all forms and all lifetimes.

If you have Scorpio Rising, you can consider yourself to be a Scorpio soul, and your soul’s purpose is to transform darkness into light. You do this by confronting the apparent darkness within yourself. When you have the courage to face your fear directly, the illusion dissolves and what remains is your light. You recognize “the point of light” in the darkness as your own awareness, and you realize once and for all that your true nature really is one of light. You realize oneness with all that is and clearly see that there is no enemy outside of yourself. There is no one to fight. All fear naturally subsides (for there is nothing left to fear) and you are transformed. Then, as a result of your own personal journey of healing and transformation, you naturally become an inspirational source of healing and transformation for others.

Ruth

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Ruth Hadikin – Soul Astrologer

To get your personal Soul Sign/Life Purpose Report (FREE with a consultation), contact Ruth via her website. You can also request a FREE mp3 download, “The Energetics of Soul Astrology.”

Karen MacKenzie is working on a series of astrology inspired paintings using goddesses from different cultures. For more information about the symbolism in this print and to view other works in her ongoing series, check out her website, Karen MacKenzie Art.

Weekly Forecast November 11: Neptune Direct, Full Moon in Taurus

Small treasures. © Pat Paquette, 2013.

I don’t recall ever trying to write a forecast while Mercury was exactly stationed. Coaxing out the words is a bear … maybe like a bear coming out of hibernation.

It doesn’t help that I’m exhausted after an emergency situation that called me away from home unexpectedly the week before last. That’s why this forecast is late and there was none at all last week. I was able to post a quick note on Facebook, so readers who are following RealAstrologers on FB at least got notice. If you’re on FB and haven’t yet “liked” RealAstrologers, please take a moment to do so, as I post short notes there from time to time and also occasionally share meaningful posts from my FB connections. I promise not to clog up your feed with bumper-sticker slogans and cat videos.

Delays and obstructions tend to be more persistent for a couple of days on either side of Mercury’s station, so you may need a lot of patience as the week begins. Give yourself extra time to commute, get to the airport, or make connections. If you’re in the United States, there should be less traffic on Monday, since federal offices are closed in observance of Veteran’s Day. The downside is that many cities reduce public transportation services on holidays, so if you do have to work, it could take you longer to get to your shop or office. It’s also a bank holiday, which can cause delays in receiving electronic transfers and payments by check.

Mercury trines Neptune on Monday, with Neptune stationed to return direct on Wednesday. We’re already feeling that shift. I get extremely sleepy around Neptune stations and have a hard time focusing. We’re all exhausted from the relentless stress of the past year and especially the past two weeks. If you can get some extra sleep, do try to make that a priority. Keep your dream journal handy, too, because you might get in touch with some long-buried memories, whether from this incarnation or others. The Moon is in Neptune-ruled Pisces on Monday and Tuesday, amplifying the sleepy, dreamy atmosphere.

Neptune and Pisces are also about escapism. If you need to “get away from it all,” try to do so in a way that doesn’t involve a lot of alcohol or mind-altering substances. “Under the influence” takes on a whole new dimension under the astrological influence of Neptune and Pisces. If you’re a highly sensitive type, you’ll probably want to avoid the stuff altogether.

On Tuesday, the Sun in Scorpio trines Jupiter in Cancer, with the Moon in Pisces making a trine to both. Jupiter went retrograde last week and is moving slowly, too (from our perspective here on Earth). Nevertheless, a Sun-Jupiter trine is just what we need after the hair-raising couple of weeks we’ve just traversed. Think back to mid-July. What was going well in your life? Did you start a new project or come across a new opportunity? If so, you may get some related news on Tuesday or Wednesday.

On Thursday and Friday, Venus squares Uranus and conjoins Pluto. Even in staid Capricorn, Venus is a beneficial influence. Not everyone is feeling the Uranus-Pluto square personally, but if you are, you’re probably going through some kind of a crisis that is forcing change at a fundamental level. It may be so deep within you that you haven’t been able to identify or name it. Venus helps connect the dots. That’s not to say that what comes up will be easy, and indeed it might be intense, but you might find that something suddenly “clicks” or makes sense and that you can confront issues that have been too difficult to acknowledge or deal with.

With the Full Moon approaching, you also might experience events related to the lunar eclipse on October 18 and the solar eclipse on November 3. If you didn’t notice anything unusual around either of those dates, it’s possible that eclipse-related events were stalled, since Mercury was retrograde. Besides that, we often don’t get the full picture that eclipses represent until 30 or 60 days later.

Click on image to enlarge

Venus rules Sunday’s Full Moon in Taurus, which reminds us about our material needs and desires, including the need to feel safe and secure. So many people are in precarious economic circumstances and fear for their survival. The Sun, Saturn, and Mercury are in Scorpio, which, among other things, represents the primal will to survive. Many years ago, when I lived in the redwoods in California, I encountered a scorpion in a wood pile. I’ll tell you, that tiny creature put the fear of God in me. The image is burned in my memory of how it stood its ground, tail curled, ready to strike if I stepped an inch closer. I could have smacked it with a log or shovel, but I backed off and let it be, and I made damn sure after that to wear gloves when I went out for firewood.

Taurus is more concerned about living well. The economy still being in the toilet, many people have had to revise their definition of what it means to live well. Now, that’s not entirely a bad thing, especially in the United States, where consumption has been totally over the top for far too long. It’s possible to live simply and well. Ironically, it’s the folks at the bottom of the financial food chain who are being forced to learn that lesson and not the wealthiest few who are consuming far more than their share of the national wealth. This imbalance is eventually going to have to correct itself, but if history is any indication, a correction of this nature usually involves violence. That scenario is all the more likely during the Uranus-Pluto square, which continues into 2015.

I’ve been too out of the loop for the past week to connect planetary cycles to world events, but many of you are quite adept at mundane astrology and can see the correlations. Hopefully by next week, I’ll be back up to speed.

In the meantime, hang in there, and get some extra sleep this week if you can.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

Weekly Forecast October 28: Uranus Square Pluto, Solar Eclipse in Scorpio

Deep woods. © Osk Ingad Alden, 2013.

Ghosts, goblins, and witches are everywhere this week. Skeletons pop out of graves (and probably some closets, too).

In any given year, the last week of October is dominated by themes related to death, which is the dark domain of Scorpio and its modern ruler, Pluto. For thousands of years, people have felt something mysterious about this time of year, when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest, and we can peer into other dimensions of time and space. The dead “reappear,” and we may even get glimpses of our own past lives.

However, this is not just any year, astrologically speaking. The coming week is arguably the most intense of 2013, with an exact square between Uranus and Pluto, a total eclipse of the Sun in Scorpio, and Mercury retrograde in the sign of death and transformation. This is Pluto on steroids.

There’s no question that we’re in scary times. The world seems to be disintegrating; civilization as we know it is falling apart. An image comes to mind from when I first moved to the Pacific Northwest. We don’t get much snow here, but winters are cold and wet. One day, walking into town, I noticed a dead raccoon in the ditch. Normally, animal removal crews would have cleaned it up, but it remained there. Weeks went by. It struck me as very strange that it wasn’t decomposing. Then, literally overnight, the outer shell collapsed, revealing a maggot-ridden mass rotting from the inside out. Within a week, all that was left was a layer of melted fur clinging to the grass.

There have been times in history when civilizations were destroyed by outside forces such as invading armies or natural disasters. But many slowly collapsed from within, usually due to corruption. Rot and corruption are synonymous. I often think of the raccoon when I observe how forces of corruption are rotting our system, feeding on the structure until, one day, the whole thing will collapse.

Saturn, ruler of Capricorn and the planet most often associated with structure, has been in Scorpio for just over a year. That means we’ve have Saturn in the sign of Pluto and Pluto in the sign of Saturn, a relationship called “mutual reception.” Under this rare configuration, corruption becomes more rampant, acting like force of voracious maggots.

At the same time, Uranus is squaring Pluto in a cycle that averages nearly 130 years from conjunction to conjunction. Uranus in a square with Pluto represents rebellion against authority or a sudden event that shakes up the power structure. A corrupt system won’t be able to withstand the challenge.

So, here we have a rare convergence of a Uranus-Pluto square and mutual reception from Saturn to Pluto. Add to that a solar eclipse and Mercury retrograde, both in Scorpio, and you’ve got the astrological equivalent of a Pacific Northwest winter. Oh, and did I mention an approaching comet?

The current Uranus-Pluto square began in June 2012, and it extends to March 2015, with seven exact alignments during that time. The exact square this Friday is the fourth of seven, so we’re exactly halfway through. As it also happens, we’re halfway through Mercury’s retrograde phase on Thursday. Although each retrograde seems to have its own rhythm, I’ve observed during some cycles that nothing much happens in the first half of the retrograde period, and then all hell breaks loose at the midway point. Likewise, Ray Merriman writes that the halfway mark for the Uranus-Pluto square tends to be the crisis period.

We’re certainly poised for such a crisis. Although the United States narrowly avoided default in a congressional deal that included restarting the government after a two-week shutdown, it’s not the end of the story. There are many possible breaking points, but one that comes immediately to mind is further cuts in entitlement programs such as food stamps and Social Security, both of which provide safety nets for the poor and elderly. Combined with the low minimum wage and high rate of unemployment, we’ve got a ticking time bomb in this country. We can be fairly sure that the plutocrats know this. So far, they’ve been able to count on infighting among the citizenry over who gets the bones with the most scraps of meat. But their thugs are ready, just in case people should unite and try to storm the Bastille.

Scorpio also is concerned with the nation’s wealth. In Greek mythology, Hades was lord of the underworld, but he also was called Plouton, meaning “giver of wealth.” The meaning could be quite literal, in that gems and minerals, a source of great wealth, came from underground. Incidentally, that’s how we get the words “plutocrat” and “plutocracy,” which means rulership by a small number of people who control all the wealth – a corrupt system by definition.

Click on image to enlarge

The above themes are amplified by the solar eclipse on November 3, which falls in close conjunction with Saturn and sextile Pluto. Mars, the ruler of Scorpio before Pluto was discovered in 1930, also makes a sextile with the Sun and Moon by exact degree. The trine from Mars to Pluto is exact on Thursday. Sextiles and trines are supportive aspects and provide paths to release pent-up energies. Mars in Virgo supports practical measures for necessary reforms. As it so happens, Virgo is associated with healthcare as well as computer programming, so hopefully we’ll get some good news about the Affordable Health Care website. Mercury retrograde periods are great for re-doing work and finding the glitches. That said, it remains to be seen how the program is received once people are actually using it.

As I already mentioned, Mercury is halfway through his retrograde cycle on Thursday. Two days earlier, he conjoins Saturn – more reinforcement for themes of breakdown and collapse, especially in financial systems. In the New Moon chart, Mercury is conjunct the North Node by exact degree. Astrologers use the North Node as a pointer to destiny, both in individual and mundane charts. What’s happening now in international economics is going to have long-lasting implications. Decades from now, when geopolitical alignments have shifted, people will look back at this period as critical.

There are several individual aspects over the weekend, but I’ve pretty much covered them above. The only other one I’d like to mention is Monday’s sextile from Pluto to Chiron in Pisces. This is an aspect for deep healing, especially psychological wounds that are so deep we might not even realize they exist. Pisces is associated with the collective unconscious and past-life memories. It’s also the sign of mental health. Due to the retrograde cycles of both planets, Pluto and Chiron are sextile by exact degree from the first week of October through the last week in November. The “conversation” they’re having is quiet but powerful. The New Moon eclipse falls in a trine with Chiron. This is yet another indication that, while intense, this week’s aspects hold a huge potential for bringing us toward wholeness, within ourselves as well as in how we connect within our communities and to the planet.

The thing about deep healing, of course, is that it requires going into the dark places we’d rather not venture. That’s the basic premise of the mythological underworld journey. The monsters we find there can be every bit as scary as the Medusa or the Minotaur, and the treasures we find can be worth their weight in gold.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

Pluto, Mars and the Inner Journey of Scorpio, Part II

Detail from Hercules, by John Singer Sargent, 1921.

In Part I, we discussed how material desires, fear, cruelty and other destructive emotions are distractions that keep us from fulfilling our life’s purpose.

We can see how such obsessions keep us from our spiritual path, and how evident they are as dominating factors in our current world age. It is a misuse of our divine energy. While we are lost in the pursuit of these activities, we remain unaware of our spiritual nature.

In The Labours of Hercules, by Alice Bailey, the ninth labor, in which Hercules enters a stagnant swamp to battle a nine-headed Hydra, is symbolic of this battle in Scorpio. Whenever Hercules cut off one of the heads of the Hydra, another would grow in its place. The only way Hercules triumphed was by lifting the Hydra above ground, into the light, whereupon it withered and died. This symbolizes our struggle with the desires of the personality which have control over us for as long as they remain in the dark, unseen.

The relentless activity of Mars magnifies these desires to the degree we can no longer ignore them, and then the activity of Pluto brings them into the light of our awareness. We cannot change what we cannot see. Once we see and fully understand the nature of desire, and the source of the struggle, it is transformed. The struggle itself lies in our trying to hold onto something which needs to change.

This is similar to the symbolism of the lotus. A lotus usually grows in a filthy, stagnant swamp. The symbology is that, just like the battle of Hercules with the hydra, our own spiritual essence blossoms as a result of our inner struggles. Interestingly, in addition to being known as the lord of the underworld, the mythological figure of Pluto was also known in some traditions as a lord of abundance, riches, or wealth. The symbolism here is the spiritual wealth that arises when we emerge victorious from our struggle with our own underworld (our lower nature).

Soft conquers hard,

weak conquers strong.

The flexible is always superior to the immovable.

This is the principle of controlling things

By bringing oneself into tune with them,

The principle of mastery through harmony.

~ Lao Tzu

Once Pluto and Mars have done their work at personality level, by revealing this darkness to not be our true nature but a result of the misdirection of our mind and energy, we are now receptive to a higher octave of Mars which transforms passion into spiritual energy through awareness, thus revealing our true divine nature. When Mars has conditioned the passions at personality level and Pluto has brought illumination, Mars at soul level reveals knowledge through awareness.

At soul level, Mars brings the higher consciousness that is pure awareness beyond the five senses. From this perspective, it becomes clear that all our darkness is the result of our misinterpretation of energetic influences as perceived by our five senses and misinterpreted through our ignorant, fearful and confused lower mind. With the illumination of Pluto, we are then able to use this higher wisdom of Mars to perceive through our senses our own divine energy and that of others. Once this happens, we naturally correct any excesses and misapplications of our energy, and use the power of our mind to direct our energy to the highest good.

The sage avoids excesses, extremes, and complacency.

~ Lao Tzu

In Esoteric Astrology, the Tibetan refers to Scorpio as a sign of discipleship. The word disciple and discipline come from the same root, which means learning or knowledge. With the knowledge gained through these tests in Scorpio, we acquire deep wisdom and understanding of our role as a spiritual being. We are ready to renounce worldly pursuits, those activities that misuse our spiritual energy, and dedicate our lives to our spiritual path and purpose. As the soul develops through the 12 zodiac signs, the first four signs are signs of preparation, the middle four are signs of crisis and challenge (for the purpose of growth and learning), and the final four signs are the signs of service to humanity. Scorpio is the last of the signs of challenge.

The self-indulgence which was initiated in Taurus gives way in Scorpio to the selfless attitude of the disciple; ambition gives place to the executive quality of the soul, whilst attachment to personality desires, likes and dislikes is transmuted into the tenacity of soul purpose. The hidden powers of the soul nature – misused because misunderstood and misapplied and, therefore, misdirected – are superseded by … the practical understanding of the energies.

~ The Tibetan, Esoteric Astrology

Due to the revelatory action of Mars and Pluto, we will all sooner or later undergo these trials and tribulations in Scorpio, as we continue our soul’s journey. The soul’s purpose in Scorpio is to transform darkness into light. The activity of Mars and Pluto elevates and illuminates, lifting our collective “Hydra” to the light so we can see that we are not our darkness, and that we truly are an emanation of divine love and light.

Ruth

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Ruth Hadikin – Soul Astrologer

To get your personal Soul Sign/Life Purpose Report (FREE with a consultation), contact Ruth via her website. You can also request a FREE mp3 download, “The Energetics of Soul Astrology.”

Pluto, Mars and the Inner Journey of Scorpio, Part I

Detail from Hercules, by John Singer Sargent, 1921.

Scorpio season is upon us once again, bringing with it another opportunity to look more deeply into our own psyche than we have ever done before. The enigmatic sign of Scorpio is associated with such intense themes as sex, death, cruelty, rebirth, power, regeneration, money, and the deepest darkest depths of our own minds. Jolly good fun!

Scorpio goes where angels fear to tread and for this reason is also the sign of priests and psychologists. All seven so-called “deadly sins” can be explored in Scorpio, with a couple more thrown in for good measure.

So what is it all about? It is time to take courage, dive deeply, and understand the spiritual significance of this vitally important sign and the deepest mysteries of existence. The following information applies to everyone, not just people with planets in Scorpio. This is an important stage in the evolution of humanity, and it concerns every one of us.

Following the journey of the soul through the 12 signs of the zodiac, after the point of balance between body and soul has been reached in Libra, the final struggle takes place in Scorpio. This is a kind of birthing and, just like the contractions in physical childbirth, this spiritual rebirth happens in waves. As the personality gradually comes under the command of the soul, there are waves of depression where the personality feels as though it is being squashed, followed by waves of rebellion where it fights back. The personality doesn’t give up easily without a fight! The personality isn’t being squashed, however; it is being gradually assimilated, as more spiritual energy is able to enter into the being. The end result of this struggle is total fusion of soul and personality, body and soul. The personality is the interface, the meeting place between the body, with all its animal urges and instinctive impulses, and the finer energies and ethereal vibrations of the soul.

Three planetary rulers, or space-holders, are the guardians of this birthing process, which is vital for the evolution of humanity from an animalistic being into a fully awakened soul-centered being. Both Mars and Pluto are guardians of this process at personality level, while Mars is the guardian at soul level. In Esoteric Astrology, Mars is considered a great beneficent planet, not malefic as is thought in some astrological systems. It is through the activity of Mars that this final struggle between personality and soul is fought and won, with the fully integrated (fused) soul emerging victorious. Triumph and victory are keywords with Scorpio, and it is important to remember this especially when the going gets tough. Mercury is the planetary ruler at hierarchical level, which we won’t explore here except to notice that this again hints at the vital importance of Scorpio for the spiritual evolution of humanity.

It is in Scorpio that the preponderance of the spiritual energy is
imposed upon the lower personal forces
~ The Tibetan, Esoteric Astrology.

The combined effect of Mars and Pluto at personality level serve to bring awareness to the potency of desire working through the form nature and that, although we experience desire, it is not fundamental to our nature and can be brought under control through illumination. At this level Mars governs life-force energy: stirs the blood, agitates and activates our animal instinct, and arouses the passions. It is the fuel that feeds the fire of desire.

Pluto, at personality level, brings somatic awareness, the instinctual felt-sense in the body. Otherwise known as the great revealer, Pluto is able to hold our animal urges up to the light for healing and understanding. While in the dark they have control and power over us. Once they are brought to light, the soul has victory. It is this dual effect of Mars and Pluto that brings about both the tests and the triumph in Scorpio.

The tests in Scorpio and the activity of Mars are potent to arouse the entire lower nature and bring about its final rebellion and the last stand, so to speak, of the personality against the soul.
~ The Tibetan, Esoteric Astrology

The tests in Scorpio are the temptations of desire that keep our attention trapped in the cycles of materialistic existence. In Esoteric Astrology they are listed as nine, in three groups. The first test is appetite which relates to sex, physical comfort and money; the second is desire and relates to fear, hatred and ambition; and the third test is of the lower mind and relates to pride, separativeness and cruelty.

When explored deeply with the light of awareness, these tests – which Christian theologians called the seven deadly sins and in Buddhism are known as the destructive emotions, or kleshas – can clearly be seen to be faults of attention, or discipline, and are not inherent in our nature. They are distractions which sway us from our path. We can see that it is not the activities themselves that cause problems, but the tendency within our own psyche to become attached, obsessed and addicted to them. Then we make the mistake of identifying with them and not recognizing our true spiritual nature.

In Part II, we’ll explore the roles of Mars and Pluto in bringing awareness to the unconscious tendencies that divert us from the spiritual path.

Ruth

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Ruth Hadikin – Soul Astrologer

To get your personal Soul Sign/Life Purpose Report (FREE with a consultation), contact Ruth via her website. You can also request a FREE mp3 download, “The Energetics of Soul Astrology.”

Weekly Forecast October 29: Full Moon in Taurus, Venus Square Pluto

At this time of year, the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. It’s not hard to imagine how this phenomenon gave rise to All Hollow’s Eve, the Day of the Dead, All-Saints Day, and other traditions involving ghosts and goblins.

These days, though, when we talk about the thinning of the veil, it’s not just about Halloween but often is in the context of what some people refer to as past lives. I call them “other lives,” in acknowledgement that “past” depends on the illusion of linear time. As more people have these memories, we begin to understand how everything is connected and how relationships can survive across many lifetimes. However, it’s one thing to say we’re all connected, but quite another to feel it deeply in our bones.

If you’re having these memories or thinking along these lines, this week’s Full Moon in Taurus may bring up new and important information. The popular notion of “karma” is that we did something terrible in a past life and have to pay for it this one. Given the violent history of humankind, it’s possible and even likely that many of us did do something horrendous, and as we begin accessing these other lifetimes, we may recall situations that are hard to face.

However, it’s also possible that what bubbles up into our consciousness, while distressing, isn’t our fault. I recently had a client who was freaking out because he thought he murdered his girlfriend in a previous lifetime. With some digging, I uncovered an alternative explanation in which both of them contributed to her demise by having an illicit romance in an era when adulterous wives of nobility were put to death. Did he kill her? We can imagine that, at the time, a man in those circumstances would have thought so and felt crushing guilt in addition to the grief of losing his beloved.

These kinds of memories are so powerful that they can survive physical death. Another theory is that trauma registers in our DNA, and the memories are from ancestors. We don’t know exactly how this recall works, but it’s my theory that when we have a traumatic experience, it registers in our energy field and ripples across dimensions of time and space to other incarnations – and not necessarily in a one-way direction. The psychic underworld, where these events are registered, falls within the realm of Pluto and Scorpio. There are many ways of looking at Saturn and Pluto in mutual reception, not the least of which is collective financial reckoning. However, it’s also a perfect setup for karmic reckoning, and there’s no more fitting time for full disclosure than the Full Moon.

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The chart for this Full Moon isn’t an easy one, with Saturn closely conjunct the Sun in Scorpio and opposite the Moon in Taurus. Painful endings and being forced to let go will be themes for many. The good news is that both Sun and Moon are in favorable aspect with Pluto, Scorpio’s ruler and planet of transformation and rebirth. The old cliché “an ending is but a new beginning” definitely applies. With Pluto in favorable aspect, there’s also a good possibility that accessing other dimensions will help access and release negative karma. The close trine from the Sun and Saturn to Neptune and Ceres provides additional support for recognizing the cyclical nature of life and for approaching difficult memories with compassion and acceptance.

There are several oppositions and squares in the Full Moon chart, including the Uranus-Pluto square, the defining aspect of our time. Ceres opposes Pluto and forms a cardinal T-square (you can’t see it in the chart, because I’m not able to isolate aspects to Ceres in Kepler software). Once again, we may revisit issues that dominated our lives in the summer of 2010. From Wednesday to Friday, Venus in early Libra forms a fourth leg, turning the T-square into a grand cross. At the peak of the cardinal T-square in August 2010, Mars and Saturn were conjunct in early Libra. Venus rules Libra and is a much gentler energy, so it’s possible that we can make further progress in the new directions that many of us began taking back then, especially within our closest relationships. With Uranus in the mix, there’s still an element of volatility and unpredictability, but that also means the door is wide open to revolutionary change.

The fourth opposition in the Full Moon chart involves Mars in Sagittarius and Jupiter retrograde in Gemini. This is not an inherently “bad” opposition and can represent a burning quest for knowledge. The downside is that it’s a classic setup for war and aggression, with a tendency to overreach.

We also have a square between Neptune and Mercury, who enters Sagittarius earlier on Monday. Blurting out the truth and confused thinking – not a good combination, especially if you happen to be running for political office. Then, who knows? Maybe one of the candidates in their sleep-deprived end-of-campaign state will accidentally tell the truth. This is the first of three squares between Mercury and Neptune between now and the middle of December, due to the Messenger’s retrograde phase. Mercury is moving in slow motion this week as he approaches retrograde on November 6. We’re well into the pre-retrograde shadow period, so be sure to wrap up projects, sign important contracts, and back up computer data early this week. Don’t wait!

So, here we are, heading into the darkest days of winter, with a stressful Full Moon and, on top of that, a potentially catastrophic storm heading for the East Coast of the United States. Meteorologists have commented that the gravitational force of the Full Moon threatens to make the storm worse. With the addition of a difficult astrological chart, it does look like a perfect storm. To all of my dear friends and clients in harm’s way, please take measures to stay safe.

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

Weekly Forecast October 22: Sun Enters Scorpio, Venus Enters Libra

What is transformation? We talk about it a lot, but what does it mean to transform? How does it happen?

Many of us will have transformational experiences in the next few weeks as we move deeper into the realm of Scorpio, the sign of death, transformation, and rebirth. Saturn entered Scorpio on October 5 for the first time in nearly 30 years, and for the first time in more than 230 years is in mutual reception with Pluto, the ruler of Scorpio in modern Western astrology. When the Sun enters Scorpio on Monday, the individual and collective transformation process intensifies (after all, what is the collective but a “collection” of individuals?).

As part of the research for my documentary, I’ve been familiarizing myself with the work of Stan Grof, a psychiatrist best known for his experiments with LSD in the 1970s, when medical use was legal. A friend lent me Grof’s latest book, When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities. It’s the first time I’ve read accounts of Grof’s own sessions with LSD. In some of these sessions, he had past-life memories, and in some cases, these memories triggered deep healing in his personal relationships. His accounts validated my own experiences, which I had without the use of psychedelics.

In fact, in my astrology work, I’ve observed that an increasing number of people are having such memories, which I prefer to call “other lives,” because I believe they aren’t happening in chronological succession according to human perception of time. Grof came to the same conclusion – and he’s a Ph.D. psychiatrist who never believed in past lives. Incidentally, as he ventured further into non-ordinary states of consciousness, he also came to accept the validity of astrology.

In his work, Grof observed time and again the transformation that occurred in patients as a result of entering what he calls the “holotropic state of consciousness” – a state of mind in which we can heal past wounds, whether from early childhood, the birth process itself, or events prior to birth in this incarnation. While in this state, some patients had other-life experiences that explained fears and anxieties that previously had no name and no known source. Some of them also discovered karmic relationships that helped explain their current relationship difficulties. Once LSD was outlawed, he worked with breathing techniques to achieve an altered state of consciousness. Of course there are other ways to do it, too, which he readily acknowledges.

Once Grof began working with LSD, it didn’t take long for him to realize that conventional “modern” psychiatry and psychology was inadequate. It couldn’t address spiritual experiences, and it completely ignored human consciousness. In the mid-60s – right around the time of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction – Grof got together with some colleagues and laid the foundation for transpersonal psychology. It’s still not entirely in the mainstream, but with Uranus and Pluto now in a square, it’s making inroads in one form or another and is the way of the future for psychology. The profession is being transformed, and that means people who seek therapy for mental health issues also have an increased chance of being transformed.

In the meantime, though, many people are going through spontaneous transformation, and from what I’m seeing, a lot of it is related to a growing awareness of other lives – in particular, of relationships that exist beyond this incarnation. Often, meeting another person with whom one has karmic ties is the trigger for those memories. I don’t believe it’s any coincidence that the increase in the number of people having these experiences is happening now. This is quite possibly the Apocalypse – not doom and destruction, but a lifting of the veil to higher consciousness and the resulting transformation of society that by definition must happen when enough people understand that the energy patterns underlying the material world are inextricably linked to physical reality.

Anyone who has had Pluto transit their Ascendant has a good idea of what transformation is and how it works. It’s usually a slow process, even if a sudden event triggers it, and that’s good. For transformation to take place, a part of us must die, and that part usually is the ego – the structures that your mind has developed to survive in your environment and circumstances. Breaking down isn’t pretty. For some people, it might even mean a literal mental breakdown that has to occur before their body/mind can be reassembled in wholeness. Sometimes, other-life memories or sudden realizations can be so foreign to what they “know” that the breakdown happens all by itself. That said, with Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn, it’s time to take responsibility for our healing and transformation.

The human race as a whole is going through a major change, and we’re seeing it as breakdowns in whole societies. These changes are well under way, so whether we’ll see more of them during this intensive Scorpio period or whether more people will just become aware of what’s happening, I can’t say – maybe some of both.

Part of what makes transformation so hard is that it usually requires going back to the source of a wound. That in itself has been hard, because until we recognize that some wounds are in our energy field and may have been imprinted before our birth in this incarnation, we can’t address the source, even if we want to. Past-life regression therapy has been around for a while, and although there weren’t a lot of controls in the early days, the field is attempting to police itself and weed out unqualified and unethical practitioners.

Looking at this week, the Sun enters Scorpio at 8:14 p.m. EDT on Monday, and immediately trines Neptune on Tuesday and conjoins Saturn on Thursday. Sun-Saturn aspects can be intimidating, but I see this three-way aspect between the Sun and Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces as a huge opening for taking responsibility for your own transformation. With Neptune in Pisces, we don’t even need the LSD but can go into altered states through meditation and occult practices such as working with the Tarot. Of course, sex is always an avenue, too, as long as you’re aware of what you’re doing. As with all things Scorpio, the portal is your own fear. What are you most afraid of? And how is that fear self-limiting? Do you even know? I’d suggest that if you’re in therapy already, you might want to do some extra work with your therapist. If you’re not in therapy but think you could benefit, this is a great time to do the heavy lifting. As an added bonus (um, right) there’s a trine from the Sun to Chiron on Saturday. I know, opening an old wound may be incredibly uncomfortable, but the pain is temporary, and with Saturn in Scorpio, we can bite the bullet.

Also on Thursday, Mercury in Scorpio sextiles Venus in Virgo – a great time to get to the bottom of issues in your love life. Do take some care in how you approach the subject. Finding fault or being overly critical isn’t the way to get heard. Better still, wait a couple of days, until Venus enters her own sign of Libra. This is much better energy for give-and-take, compromise, and accommodation. Just don’t be so willing to avoid conflict at any cost that you don’t say what you’ve got to say.

Ten minutes before Venus enters Libra on Sunday, Mars in Sagittarius opposes Jupiter in Gemini. This is about big ideas and adventurous thinking, to hell with the details for now. It’s time for back-of-the-envelope calculations and taking phone numbers to get together for further discussion.

Speaking of big ideas, if you’d like to know more about Stan Grof’s work, he has a substantial article archive on his website.

Wishing you all much love and the courage to heal,
Pat

Weekly Forecast August 27: Full Moon in Pisces, North Node Enters Scorpio

Where did August go? I’m reminded of the bumper sticker I saw long ago (or maybe it wasn’t): Time flies, whether you’re having fun or not.

I find myself wondering how children are experiencing time right now. I have a feeling it may be different than the adult concept of time. For us, opening up to an expanded view of time and space is harder. Not only have we been conditioned to view time a certain way, but we have to grow new neural pathways in our brains.

There are lots of theories out there on how to do this. Personally, my experience is that certain activities promote the growth of new neural pathways, including learning a musical instrument and studying the Tarot. During my interview with Laura Nalbandian for The New Astrologers, she told me that she believes learning astrology is another way to do it. I have to agree. Maybe that’s why readers of RealAstrologers are such a smart bunch.

Speaking of The New Astrologers, I worked with three different templates this week to create a new website. The first was a free WordPress theme, just to get something online. But you really have to have the bells and whistles these days to make an impression, so I bought a theme I thought would work, only to discover that basic functions were supposed to have been built in required additional programming. Maybe if I’d waited until Mercury goes into Virgo this week, I wouldn’t have blinked. But he’s been in Leo, so I was a little more demanding and bought a lovely new theme with a flashy full-screen video homepage. The site is still a work in progress, but let me know what you think and whether you like it better than last week’s version.

In other news this week, I finally got time to see my doctor, who says I’m suffering from adrenal fatigue – hardly a surprise, she said, given that I’ve been doing the work of three people with almost no rest. Moreover, she told me that everyone who comes to see her right now is completely stressed out. It’s not an easy time for the human species, and the stress isn’t going to be alleviated anytime soon, not with Uranus and Pluto in a conflicting square through 2015. The doctor’s advice was to prop myself up the best I can and get through this period, keeping in mind that the more I try to do in a depleted state, the longer it’s going to take to recover. I mention this not for sympathy, but because I suspect many of you are in a similar state.

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Looking at this week, Friday is the Full Moon in Pisces, with the Sun and Moon in close positive aspect with Pluto. This also means the Sun and Uranus are inconjunct. This is a classic “breakdown to breakthrough” configuration. If you’re frustrated with a particular situation, person, or relationship, rather than trying to force your own will on everyone and make things go the way you think they should, step back and see how a change might actually be to your advantage. With a better grasp of the underlying source of the issue, you will have more power to advance your own cause – although with the usual caveat that when Pluto is involved in an aspect, attempts at power and control for selfish reasons will backfire big-time. Before you can take full advantage of Pluto’s power, you need to know the difference between selfishness and enlightened self-interest, and you need to be honest about your motivation.

The Sun and Moon also are in positive aspect to Mars in Scorpio. Before Pluto was discovered in 1930, Mars was considered the ruler of Scorpio, so there is reinforcement here not only for a breakdown and breakthrough, but the means for you to take action. The trick with Mars, of course, is that he’s the ego planet. When you put ego and power together, you have to be quite careful to make sure you’re acting for the “highest good” and not just to further your own selfish goals. I would add (as I often do) that you may need to stretch beyond your current beliefs, including your political and religious beliefs. This is going to be an increasing theme over the next three years.

The Moon also conjoins Chiron, which recently completed a conjunction of several years with Neptune. It’s becoming more evident to me that for some people, healing requires delving into what I call “other lives.” That’s why it’s so important that we learn to see into other dimensions. Many of the wounds we carry in our energy fields extend beyond this incarnation, and before we can heal, we need to understand what’s going on outside what we deem to be “reality.” This is the watery realm of Neptune and Pisces, along with the shadow world of Pluto and Scorpio. It can be scary territory, to be sure; it’s also what the age-old story of the journey to the underworld is all about.

Adding to the intensity and the theme of transformation, the lunar North Node leaves Sagittarius on Thursday and sits at 29 degrees Scorpio as of the Full Moon. The North Node will be in Scorpio until early 2014, covering much of the period of the Uranus-Pluto square. There’s a scientific theory that stress can cause genetic mutations almost immediately, as opposed to the long-term evolutionary process. When we think of Pluto and Scorpio, we usually think of a lengthy transformation process. But Uranus is all about sudden change. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine that the pressure we’re under now could indeed create genetic mutations. Of course, you never know what you’re going to get.

As of the Full Moon, Mercury is in late Leo, about to enter Virgo. If, like me, you’re working on a project involving programming or detail-oriented computer work of any kind, this is your chance to speed through lines of code. However, Mercury opposes Neptune on Saturday, which according to conventional interpretations is supposed to be a day of confusion and aversion to detailed work. This could go either way. On one hand, you might find that you get into a zone and can write until the wee hours without realizing you’ve been sitting in the chair all that time. On the other, it might be better to go to bed early on Saturday and keep your dream journal handy to see what comes up. For some people, dreams are the way to access those other dimensions I’ve been writing so much about. The trick – and there’s often one when Mercury is involved – to separate the bits of divine inspiration from the space junk. When we’re in unfamiliar territory, it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s the product of an overly active imagination.

Wishing you all much love and courage – and some rest, too, if you can get it,
Pat

Scorpio-Taurus: The Sacred Path of the Spiritual Warrior, Part 2

To embark upon the soul path of Scorpio, you need to turn your attention inward and begin the real battle: the battle with your own desire-nature, your ego. Although Scorpio does need to battle, the focus is really on the victory. The experience in Scorpio is one of test, trial and triumph. It is not an easy path.¹ It is as though sometimes your life seems to be nothing but struggle, yet that is exactly how the chick frees itself from the egg: by constantly chipping away at it.

The noble and courageous path of Scorpio is one fraught with psychological and emotional challenges. At any time, without her light, the Scorpio personality can become trapped in the illusions of her own subconscious. We can see how hatred for example, has lead to Scorpio’s reputation for revenge, and no imagination is needed to see what can happen when the desire for power, money, or lust gets out of control. This happens when Scorpio misdirects her energy outward, toward others.

What others think and do is not your business, Scorpio. You are here to literally “mind your own business,” in a very focused and directed way. And your “business” is to develop your own mind to the highest degree, to discover your own Soul-light and soar like the eagle that you are. Challenging they may be, but the trials and tribulations in Scorpio are a necessary part of our evolution, in our journey to becoming Soul-centered beings.

Scorpio is the great constellation which influences the turning point both in the life of humanity and the life of the individual human being. ~ Alice A. Bailey²

Transforming desire is not about suppressing it. Desire is not wrong in itself; it becomes a hindrance through our attachment, ignorance, and lack of skill. For example, when our desires are uncontrolled, we experience addictions. When we master desire by appropriately channelling our passion, it is a vital tool for spiritual growth and evolution. Our passion then becomes a vehicle that carries our spiritual energy out into the world in meaningful ways.
Suppressing desire would be a suppression of your life force and spiritual energy, a hindrance to your spiritual growth. The Buddha recognized this when he turned away from the ascetic lifestyle and advocated the middle way. Suppressing desire is a denial of who you are and why you are here.

Water signs are about mastery of emotions, and fixed energy brings stability. So, as the fixed water sign, Scorpio is all about stabilizing emotions. We cannot master our emotions by suppressing them. The key to mastering emotions is to allow ourselves to feel. In order to master the energy of desire so it can be transformed, Scorpio has to first experience each face of desire for herself.

The ability to fixate on an emotional state is a dual-edged sword. When used with skill and mastery, it gives you the ability to abide in higher states of consciousness for prolonged periods of time, as masters at meditation do. For the Scorpio personality, it can manifest as brooding and even depression. If you have Sun, Moon, or Rising Sign in Scorpio, remember you are here to master your emotions by shedding light on your emotional world.

It is worth noting that people with Moon in Scorpio may have a particularly hard time facing their emotions, which can then show up in those around you. If you have Moon in Scorpio, and you find that people around you often explode emotionally (particularly if they are very empathic like Cancerians), consider that maybe you need to look at where you are not facing your own suppressed emotions.

Emotional energy needs to release. If it is being suppressed (held in place by one person) it will often find an outlet in the system through another, because energy is dynamic and has to move; it cannot truly be held. It is vital for your well-being and spiritual growth that you allow yourself to feel and express your own feelings. Allowing yourself to fully experience and recognize your different emotional states is the first step toward this mastery. Emotions need to flow.

You can’t learn to drive without getting behind the wheel. Through practical experience, the fuly integrated Scorpio Soul learns to stabilize the emotions of desire and channel their energy for spiritual purposes. According to the Tibetan,² “points of crisis” and “moments of reorientation” are necessary experiences on Scorpio’s journey, as the Scorpio Soul learns to focus and channel her energy in the right direction: firmly directed toward spiritual goals.

Awakened heart comes from being willing to face your state of mind, ~ Chogyam Trungpa³

The destiny of Scorpio is somewhat fixed, in the sense of Scorpio’s role in these changing times. Scorpio has mysterious esoteric connections with Sirius and Antares (one of the four royal stars of Persia⁴) and is one of the four signs of the fixed cross.⁵ The Divine Energy currently pouring through Scorpio is vital for our collective transformation; without the fearless courage of Scorpio in facing our darkest fears, we can never experience a full and complete heart awakening. When we bury and suppress any aspect of our own true nature, we close off a part of our heart at the same time.

The Soul’s journey through the sign of Scorpio is indeed a “rite of passage” for our collective spiritual evolution. The Scorpio group of Souls play a vital role in the evolution of human consciousness by freeing the energy that humanity has tied up in negative and self-serving emotional states so that it can be reused for spiritual transformation.

So, Scorpio, your path is not meant to be easy. Will you allow your precious life-force energy to be wasted in conflict with your human family? Or will you turn your attention inward and, like the Spiritual Warrior that you are, master your emotions and allow your inner eagle to soar? By entering the battle with courage and deep reverence, you will fulfil your spiritual mission: transforming the darkness within our human hearts into warm, radiant light. All this is accomplished by finding your own heart’s desire. Step up, Scorpio. Your time is now.

Ruth

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Footnotes:
1. In Esoteric Astrology Scorpio is also called the sign of crucifixion, because it is in this sign that the personality is finally “crucified” and the individual becomes fully Soul-centered.
2. Esoteric Astrology, The wisdom of the Tibetan (Master DK), channelled through Alice A. Bailey.
3. Shambhala: The Sacred Path of The Warrior, by Chogyam Trungpa
4. Read about Antares in Scorpio and the role of the four “royal stars” in this online article on SouledOut.org.
5. The three crosses in Esoteric Astrology refer to stages in the development of human consciousness. The first stage, the mutable cross, is where we are fully personality identified and personality-driven. This currently refers to most of humanity. The fixed cross refers to those who are awakening. There is awareness of Soul as well as personality, but they are separate and so there is still duality there. A growing minority of spiritually-inclined people on the planet are beginning this awakening process. The cardinal cross refers to full Soul-personality integration. Very few people on the planet are at this fully awakened state. They would be the enlightened beings and spiritual teachers who come to lead us into the next stage of our development. Divine energy is focused through the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) to stabilize and anchor this awakening process into the planet.

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Ruth Hadikin – Soul Astrologer

To get your personal Soul Sign/Life Purpose Report (FREE with a consultation), contact Ruth via her website. You can also request a FREE mp3 download, “The Energetics of Soul Astrology.”

The Energy of Scorpio is Vital On The Planet At This Time!
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