In November, we are called on to experience the Scorpio energy of loss, coldness, rage and death. But it’s hard to do when it’s still sunny and in the 80’s here in Las Vegas.
I catch myself longing for my New England falls, with that first touch of coldness in the air, the winds biting through my coat, the balance shifting to greyer days and darker nights. Maybe it’s because I’m a Taurus, but I love Scorpio energy and weather!
I live in the desert now, and I am learning to see its stark beauty – and will eventually appreciate it just as I finally fell in love with winter. Yet, I find myself missing Rhode Island’s juicy springs and autumns most. I love the shifting energies of these seasons, the weather there creating the in-between times, when transformation is happening in nature as well as bone-deep within us.
If you live where there are 4 distinct seasons, the weather puts you in touch with the cycle of life (birth-growth-death-transformation) in a visceral way that you can’t duplicate in warmer climates.
Which makes it more imperative that those of us who aren’t experiencing [weather-wise] the cold, dark and death aspects of this Scorpio new moon acknowledge them internally. We can do this because this instinct, this connection to the Earth’s seasons and cycles, still operates in our genetic memory and our soul history as well as in the collection unconscious. Working with that bone-deep instinct that winter is upon us allows us to meditate on the symbolic aspect of the season, and focus the fires of our consciousness on illuminating the process of death.
When we consciously work with the True Imagination about the meaning of this yearly death in our lives, we connect with the Earth’s energetic systems, filtered through the Sun’s journey through Scorpio.
Scorpio is the astrological sign that demands the death of those parts of life that have used up their life energies. Plants, trees, animals, societies, people or parts of our psyches, it makes no difference. We are all called to death, so that we might have new life.
Dane Rudhyar in The Pulse of Life, says that Scorpio’s death-aspect - in its highest form - is regeneration. But it is not just a personal regeneration of ego and values. Rudhyar says that Scorpio’s essential character is “the urge in the individual to merge in absolute union with other individuals in order to constitute together a greater organic whole.” The need to be a separate individual is overwhelmed with dramatic emotional intensity by the need to be more than oneself. It manifests best in the type of sex that is almost mystical – “a yearning for self-forgetfulness and union through another with the greater whole, and even with ‘God’ . . .” (p. 81)
But for the most part, we are afraid of losing our identities. We don’t want to change. “It is where the free-play of energy in Taurus did not occur that the unfulfilled personality, when confronted with its new birth as participant in the life of society, recoils from the step represented by the positive Scorpio. Instead of that exalting union with others through which regeneration would come, a sense of frustration prevails which unfits the individual for that step. Resentment against society, or against the whole of life, prevails.” Rudhyar, p. 84.
We create death in life by fleeing death. Pluto, in his rulership of the Scorpionic realm of death, decay and transformation, will have his way with us, as he did with Persephone. We can go kicking and screaming into his dark realm through illness or a life defeat, or be ravished away by his dark, sensual passion, or we can choose to walk into Death’s realm with our eyes (both inner and outer) opened. There we must confront our fear of letting go of what we’ve “outgrown – a job, a relationship, a way of seeing ourselves and the world – whatever has been stifling to our souls.” Stephanie Austin, MA, Oct/Nov 2007)
When the veils between the worlds open on All Hallow’s Eve each year, and again on the Scorpio New Moon, we are called to consciously descend, like the Sumerian goddess Inanna to meet her dark sister Ereshkigal, into the underworld of our unconscious to face the raging, repressed energies that this letting go uncovers – all the old hurts, beliefs, and thoughts that are sucking the energy out of our lives. If we work through this mini-death and go through the process, we will experience an ego-death that comes with change. We will be reborn and enlarged. If we allow ourselves to go through this process, we have the knowledge – because we are part of the Earth’s energy system as well – that there will be a rebirth at Winter Solstice.
Something new will be born into this world at Winter Solstice, a divine child of light that will be the Light of the World – it is your choice if it is a feeble light or a bright shining one. Each of us has a part to play in this energy cycle, because if we work consciously with the Life cycle, we can ultimately heal ourselves and the Earth.
Each of us carries a unique destiny that no one else on Earth can fulfill. If there was ever a time to really believe this, IT IS NOW! Let go and let something die.
And since it is the Earth – Global Warming – that is endangered, as we balance and heal our own internal energies working with the Earth’s energies, we will give back power to the Earth’s energy grid and help heal Our Mother the Earth. It’s all about green energy – which takes into account the Earth’s cycle of life.
Now for the astrological news.
This Scorpio New Moon takes place at 18 degrees of Scorpio. Check to see where this falls in your chart – it shows where you are releasing something so something new can be born. The Sabian Symbol is: “A path through woods brilliant with multicolored splendor; the exalted feeling of a work well done and a truly consummated life.”
Honor the part of you that you are releasing, for it has taught you the life lessons you needed to learn.
Ceres, the new dwarf planet/asteroid, is opposite this new moon in Taurus. Ceres is the Roman name for Demeter, who is the mother of Persephone, who was ravished away by Hades/Pluto to the underworld to confront death and transform her awareness and gain her power. As the Goddess energy of the Harvest, Ceres in Taurus awakens our spiritual connection to the Earth and to our physical bodies. This new moon provides an opportunity for us to transform our relationship to our bodies and to the Earth. This new moon asks us to take responsibility for our health and for the health of our environment. And not a moment too soon!
Neptune at 20 Aquarius, which just turned direct on October 31st, , squares this new moon, keeping the veils between worlds open. This waning square is called a ‘crisis in consciousness’ by Dane Rudhyar, and it demands that we shift our perspective to incorporate the spiritual aspects of life and community. We’ve been trying to bridge the gap between a spiritual vision of life and our concrete ‘reality’. Now is the time to leap over the abyss and come down solidly on the side of a spiritual reality that acknowledges our innate divinity and the underlying unity of all life.
Uranus in Pisces, and Mars in Cancer form a Grand Trine with this Scorpio New Moon. With all four planets (Sun, Moon, Mars, Uranus) in water signs, our intuition, ideals and feelings will play a big part in what we discover about ourselves. This watery energy calls us to compassion and courage in the face of difficulties. Meditate, watch your dreams and do your inner work. It will bear fruit.
Mars at 12 Cancer is going retrograde on November 15th until January 30th. Mars goes retrograde every 26 months, and it doubles its time in Cancer this year. Cancer is the sign concerned with the Mother, with feelings, family, the Feminine and with building our personality. So make peace with your past, reassess your primary needs and learn what is and is not healthy for your growth. Mars retrograde often generates elevated tensions and conflicts on a collective level and selfish behavior, impatient driving, competitiveness and courage on a personal level. It’s time to work with your Mars energy and transform any anger into determination, any aggressiveness into assertion and any desire into action. See where you have planets or angles at 11-14 degrees of Cardinal signs. These are the areas of your life that will be affected by this Mars retrograde. What needs to be revamped in your life? Mars will give you the energy to do it.
Pluto/Jupiter conjunction at 29 Sagittarius on December 11, 2007. Pluto has just completed its 3rd transit over the Galactic Center, making us ill at ease and out of sorts – because new information is being processed by our unconscious. Now Jupiter, the planet of expansion, luck, curiosity and spirituality will pass over the Galactic Center and meet up with Pluto, the planet of death, rebirth and evolution at the end of its stay in Sagittarius for the first time since 1758. More about this major stellar configuration in the next newsletter.
Uranus turns direct on November 24th on the day of the Full Moon in Gemini. Uranus is the planet of Awakening. It’s been retrograde since June 24th, creating inner awakenings about our life purpose and destiny. When it turns direct, it will begin to create in the outer world what we have transformed in our inner world. More news in the next newsletter.
If you have dreams you’d like to understand, a project you want to get off the ground, or would like an astrological reading to see how these cosmic energies are affecting your life, call me and set up an appointment. I do most of my appointments over the phone.
Blessed Be.
Cathy Pagano
310-741-7013
702-243-3705