Saturn and Mercury enter Scorpio

 In this rather wonderful photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope we see double auroras - one at Saturn's north pole and one at its south pole. Do they represent the actual boundaries there are in life,  our ability to reflect and learn through that which happens during our lifetime...or do these auroras represent 'mirages' we tend to set ourselves up for and heed even if we are capable of going higher and farther? Does achievement equal happiness?

(photo credit: NASA-JPL-Caltech, Jan 2009)

Saturn and Mercury are currently in a transiting conjunction. You probably felt things getting more tense – maybe more intense – and more serious, more real, even more dire as of a couple of days ago…say around Monday or Tuesday (October 1st or 2nd)?

Wednesday and Thursday (October 3rd and 4th) pushes this to yet another level.

Critical issues will seem…feel…sound critical. Even non-critical issues will seem more prickly. This is the last gasp moment of Saturn in Libra (at 29 Libra) which, as Mercury reaches 29 Libra as of early evening (UT/+0 time) on October 4th brings all to a head.

Mind you, Mercury and Saturn’s exactitude of conjunction won’t be reached until mid-morning (call it 9:30-10:00 a.m. UT/+0 time) on the 5th. But Saturn conjunct Mercury – under anyone’s measure – is hardly the definition of a frivolous time.

Expect arguments and disagreements. Hard times and tough choices. Confrontations of any time – personal, national, in commerce, in traffic – it doesn’t matter, this is a moment where how ‘cause’ meets ‘effect’ becomes clear. And in becoming clear, it may become clearly not workable, not lovable, not admirable, not profitable, not popular, not honest, not fun, not acceptable…or maybe just not good for our forward path.

Then comes Friday. And on Friday, October 5th, both Saturn and Mercury move into Scorpio.

For Mercury, this isn't all that infrequent a thing. After all, Mercury is never more than two signs away from the Sun and the Sun makes it once around the zodiac in a year.

Which yes, is why a year is a year. (Duh!)

But Saturn is different. For Saturn, reaching Scorpio is one of twelve steps in an orbital cycle which takes 29.46 years to complete. Saturn being the symbol of all we do (and all it takes) to build and maintain a life…a family…a society…our world…Saturn in Scorpio is a time of being tested through interactions with others with everything we hold dear – individually or productively – feeling like it’s on the line.

Is it on the line? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Learning which is which is part of the work we do during the two years of Saturn transiting through Scorpio. Sometimes just hearing someone else say they think differently feels like a threat – Saturn in Scorpio will teach us something about that. Sometimes realizing you need to change your headlong charge towards some end or your cherished, polished plan feels like invalidation, whether it really is or not. 
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During the next couple of years Scorpio our willingness to be tested against the measures and drives of our own ego become an across-the-board theme in life and life's events, opportunities and trials. Those who come into this time having ‘clung’ to some old way of being or some old attitude will find this period far more difficult than those who began evolving on a personal level four or five years ago.

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The question is willingness versus willfulness. Those who would be willful will find others less than willing. That sounds simple and it can be simple, but only if you’re willing to let down whatever walls your ego has built up – whether recently or since childhood. 

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This also shouldn't be unexpected. All we have to do is look around to see that our lives and our world are going through an unsettled and unsettling time. Things become unsettled so that we can learn to 'right' them...and thus Saturn in Scorpio provides us with a nitty-gritty period all about finding ways that everybody can get focused on their opportunities, however they may choose to define that term. Since in Scorpio, Saturn teaches us how earning our own respect depends on earning the respect of others, this may be disorienting to some and signal the upsetting of many an apple cart. But in truth, the garnering of satisfaction and growth of personal security and respect-for-Self which is the aim of the fixed sign cycle requires an occasional fracturing of walls, barriers and ceilings so that we can restructure.

If and where our life structures have been badly built, or built on shaky or false foundations, this transit will unsettle or unseat you - or cause you to unseat yourself. 

At its best, the 1996-2008 transit of Pluto in Sagittarius combined with the early 2000's passage of Neptune through Aquarius inspired us to universal connectivity and functionality. Where it instead created emulation and status consciousness, with Pluto now being in Capricorn - a sign ruled by Saturn, Saturn's passage through the signs signal the questions being raised in our life asking us whether we're on the right course. While Saturn was in Libra, the focus was relationships. Now that Saturn is entering Scorpio, the arena is anything and everywhere were we are invested...be that a measure of the money, emotionality, time or faith we have involved in any given venue. These questions are multi-faceted, asking us whether we're doing enough, whether others are doing their part, whether we're involved with the right people or doing the right thing with our time, our faith, our energy our life.

And beyond all this...everything we are involved in now tests us - prompting us to think. Poking us until we feel, until we have some sort of reaction - to them and the situation yes. But also to why we got involved to begin with. The combination of Pluto and Saturn in their current signs spells a lot of changing. A lot of rethinking. A lot of restructuring. A lot of letting go. Many people will realize they should have changed their career a long time ago - or never have gotten into it to begin with. Marriages will form up and marriages will be broken up. People will restructure their lives and let go of current lives in order to (Pluto) recreate themselves in a manner which is more in keeping with who they really (Saturn) are and who they (Saturn/Capricorn) intend to be.

Note: not want to be - intend to be. There is a reality implied in this Saturn passage of Scorpio which has Pluto in Capricorn written all over it. The clouds are parting. We recognize time's passage and we get real - first and last with ourselves.

And those who don't?

They will be horribly disappointed and miserable. Lacking the courage to have (Saturn) structure or to (Pluto) change their (Capricorn) life structures, they will (Scorpio's negative) blame others and dislike others and maybe even strike out at others.

That will fix nothing. To borrow from the Bard, the answer lies not in our stars, but in our Selves.
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 Saturn's rings, as photographed by spacecraft Cassini

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

In short, that old saying 'nothing succeeds like success' which for so many has come to be external, isn't external at all. Our lives don't make us into what we are, what we are becomes the engine and motivation for what our life becomes and rich or poor, nothing feels as satisfying as self respect. Yes we will see many try to turn power, money, sex and such into compensations for their own feelings of vulnerability, weakness or lack of control and yes, the weakest among us will try to belittle others.

Brutality, marginalization, objectification, materialism and the need to judge others as a means of self-justification are strong weapons, but those who wield them are not the strongest among us. To be beaten down and remain unfazed because you know truth is better than the lie and caring about more valuable than winning is the signature of human nobility.

Saturn in Scorpio asks us to own our boundaries. It's about about learning that control is about us. It’s about our learning how we control our own reactions and why self control, especially with regards to others is not just a good idea, but ultimately the only workable idea which exists. We are going to be asked to investing in things which work for everybody from which we will be accorded our lot, our share, our responsibilities and rewards. Those who refuse to feel ‘how the other guy’ lives will, under Saturn in Scorpio, pay a very high price – literally or figuratively. It is to be understood here that such people are afraid mostly of being made to feel anything painful, anything fearful, especially in regards to themselves.

Saturn in Scorpio teaches that pure happiness is an opiate, and that those who refuse to understand pain and deprivation, who have no experience of same will come to understand loss and lack in ways they couldn’t suspect. Money and position cannot guard you from grief, confusion and self-doubt. All the hedonistic pleasures of the flesh cannot dismiss the knowing that you have not lived up to your potential. You can have all the faith in the world and yet feel lost in everyday life.
What we seek to earn now is a reconciliation with our humanity.

A NASA file photograph of Mercury

(photo courtesy of NASA) 

It’s just that getting there isn’t likely to be all that simple.
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Mercury enters Scorpio at 10:36 a.m. on October 5th (UT/+0) time. Saturn reaches Scorpio later on that same date (in the UT/+0) zone, crossing into Scorpio at 8:34 p.m. During the hours between, cataclysms may occur in the form of realizations corporeal, mental and emotional as Mercury’s hitting 0 Scorpio activates Industria and Pandora. This is a symbol of one of two things: either that we have done (Industria) turns into something more than we could have imagined (Pandora) or we recognize that there are a huge number of things (Pandora) which need attending to if we hope to proceed with whatever we’re doing.

Maybe even just to tread water.

This all sounds very dire because for the past two-plus years we have been dealing in the Saturn-in-Libra theoretical realm. Skating and debating, making shows and bantering, we have skimmed and skirted and made it all work.

Now we hit reality - an emotional reality. Scorpio represents the polarity of emotional hot-and-colds. Even more than that, Scorpio is the emotional stability which we tread at our own risk while risking being plunged into our personal abyss.

Whatever that abyss is for you, that’s what you now face.

And you have plenty of time to face it as Saturn doesn’t fully commit to leaving Scorpio until September 2015.
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In the meantime, a word to the wise…in all things, no matter what seems to be at stake, remember: Scorpio is a test of your having earned your own respect of Self. Whatever happens now challenges your ability to better your standards and abilities in fulfilling your finer potentials. Scorpio discomfiture is painful only to the extent that we are disappointed with external response to our display of inner values which have been judged as wanting.

In many senses, having Mercury and Saturn entering Scorpio in tandem represents a training of our (Mercury) thoughts, concerns and focus on problems in our world and the world which cause us to feel our own power - or lack thereof. And no matter where along the vastness of that scale we consider ourselves, there is always more that we can do. More that we can be. More that we can not ask of others, but require of ourselves. The negatives we feel now, the many things we may think are 'wrong' in life define the very opportunities we have to do and be more, inspiring others not with our charm but with our determination to do the right thing - not just that which serves our personal purpose.

Mercury will move on into Sagittarius before this month is out. For these next few weeks, things will be intense, upsetting, unpredictable, maybe even amazing, stunning and incredibly moving.

This painting - 'The Saturnic Library' (Saturnische Bibliothek) by Paul Mersmann de Jungere (1960) - is very much a 'half full/half empty' sort of image. Some will see this as dark and depressing where others will see this as an image of much coming into being. Which you see depends on how your inner emotionality works and whether it interprets tests of emotional tolerance as an opportunity to learn or not - part of the Scorpio lesson, a lesson Saturn teaches through challenging means and those types of challenges to our means which touch on our sense of personal security.

Whatever they are, the totality of the moment metaphysically aims to stir in every one of us a realization of how we feel about whatever is at hand, at stake, of the moment. From that, from the conscious realization of our own feelings on the subject and those of others we can gauge what we need to do.

Saturn in Scorpio teaches us values often by proving to us what isn't valuable or worth our time. In the process of doing that, life will no doubt exacerbate excesses and allow us to lead ourselves along paths of self-will which come to blind ends.

The lesson is that we cannot succeed on our own - or for our own purposes. Saturn in Scorpio suffers the tyrannical in order to drive the cowering into acts of courageous self-empowerment - through which tyranny ends.

Power is a metaphysical flow and is now in metaphysical flow. Don't catch it - use it to greatest effect and you will indeed be repaid many times over, though your rewards may take some time to earn.

Know that this is a time of doubt. But it doesn't need to be one clouded over by shame, regret or loss of self respect. Like the Phoenix, we all have the ability to be reborn, most particularly in our own regard, though we may have to come to ashes first.

Mercury in Scorpio tempts us to maneuver, fudge, evade and deny. Such gains are temporary. Those who choose instead to be honest and bravely open may stun and startle others, but in the end inspire them too.

Add Saturn in Scorpio and we may end up stunning and startling ourselves as well. The transiting conjunction of Saturn and Mercury will end as of Tuesday, October 9th. But the effects of these days will live long and color our outlooks.

Ends we are pushed to now will teach us lasting lessons in capacity, endurance and how to achieve that which had we asked, we wouldn't have predicted we would want until we work through these months ahead.
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