November 6, 2015

A Sweeter Side of Scorpio: November’s Merciful New Moon.

0 Boost Score Emily Price (1,510,185)

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Moon in space. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

*Eleditor’s note: Astrology isn’t a religion. We’re not sure it’s a science, either. It’s magic, maybe. But, as with feng shui, say, things affect things. So as long as we don’t go blaming our problems on the stars, as long as we assume responsibility for our own actions…well, hell, a little auspicious coincidence and applicable wisdom can’t hurt. And so, with that grain of salt…enjoy!

This week brings an unsurprisingly quiet new moon in Scorpio.

Scorpio is the sign of stealth, secrets and deep connection—most of what occurs now may be below the surface. The new moon occurs at 9:47 a.m. PST on November 11th (see local times below) and brings the possibility that comes with each new moon. A fresh lunar cycle is a great time to plant seeds and recalibrate our consciousness in the direction of our highest good, by becoming attuned to the energies at play and collaborating with the new moon energy.

Jupiter will be sextile to the Moon and Sun at this time, a sweet and lovely aspect helping us to see the abundance and good fortune around us, which is especially helpful as this new moon also trines the asteroid Chiron, giving us access to some knowing around a major area of life where we are knotted or bearing a wound.

The new moon is associated with beginnings, yes, but sometimes we start something new only to come face-to-face with a necessary ending or closure. This new moon may reveal some subtle discomforts, and the best thing we can do is become curious observers and allow the insights to come.

This moon offers opportunity for healing.

Scorpio gets a bad rap sometimes, but what is Scorpio energy really? She is a water sign, and I think it’s appropriate to compare her power to that of the oceanIs the ocean a power to be feared or respected? It depends who you ask, and if you know how to swim.

If I had to pick a favorite sign, it would be Scorpio every time because I’ll take interesting and challenging over light and purely pretty any day. The complexity of Scorpio can be seen in the three symbols used to represent it: the scorpion, the eagle, and the phoenix. I have even seen sources correlating the symbolism of spider, serpent, lizard, and wolf with the sign of Scorpio, making seven symbols total. So, there are obviously layers here, with themes of shedding, solitude, power, passion, death and, yes, transformation.

I feel deep reverence and awe considering the mythology of the Phoenix. Scorpio is the sign of magic and the Phoenix the essence of magic itself. The phoenix is, essentially, a magical bird, powerful enough to live hundreds of years, and then when it feels the time of its end approaching, the phoenix gathers rich aromatic wood and builds itself a nest to light on fire, burning itself to ashes, from which a new Phoenix is born. The phoenix embalms her old ashes in a myrrh egg and leaves it on the altar of the Sun god in the city of Heliopolis. Other versions of the myth simply describe death and then rebirth from the decomposed ashes.

It is easy to feel enamored of this mythology in dark times, to feel inspired by the glimmering possibility of total rebirth, but do we have the true desire to follow the Phoenix’s lead, to willingly burn down all that we have been? Here is where I find the true complexity of Scorpio and its desire to transcend. On one hand, there is tremendous power in regeneration, and Scorpio craves this power. On a basic level, Scorpio has a tendency to cling. At its core, Scorpio is a fixed sign, a sign yearning for steadiness, honesty, transparency, with unfailing and unconditional loyalty, a sign prone to jealousy and covetousness.

When are we most loyal to ourselves then? When we hold onto the pieces of our identity, and fashion a space for ourselves in the world based on this truth of who we are? Or when we release the need for an identity, and surrender to the transformational currents entirely? I don’t think there is one right answer, it is dependent our life’s purpose—and these weeks with Mercury in Scorpio (November 2nd-20th) are a good time to do some look deeply and consider what this means for us personally.

Which level of Scorpio, if any, are we identified with?

Is it the scorpion? The steely desert survivor, focused on protection, solitude, defensiveness and control? Or the equally solitary eagle, who carries with it a sense of vision, power, command and transcendence? Or maybe, this time, it’s the phoenix we choose to work with. Only an honest self-inventory can tell us what we truly need. Scorpio is somewhat amoral in the sense that this sign values truth most, no matter how ugly. What feels true, according to Scorpio, is right.

One teacher who has helped me come to a deeper and wiser understanding of all my Scorpio traits, is the Hindu goddess Kali, who is as widely misunderstood as the sign of Scorpio itself. She is often called the goddess of death, and this is partially true, in the sense that she lives in the powerful realm of death energies, but more than that of a physical death, Kali represents the death of the ego as the illusory self-centered view of reality. She is a compassionate provider of liberation. She wears a garland of skulls not to scare us into compliance, but to warn of overidentification with the physical body, so that we remember we are souls moreso than flesh. We are spirit. Kali knows this, and she will liberate us from anything standing in the way of our true merging and oneness.

What do you know deep in your heart it is time to release? What does surrender look like for you? How can you more fully let go, so as to have a truly empowered seeding stage?

The new moon offers us this, and the depth of power is up to us, determined by how much we will willingly let go in these dark moon days.