Mercury-North Node at 7 Scorpio

Venus over Otter Lake from Goddard Bay by Darren Baker

A ‘heads up’ in case you care...planet Mercury (that scamp) is going to be exactly conjunct that lunar North Node which none of us seem to take so kindly to as of November 3 at 1:51 in the morning UT/+0 time.

Which would put it just some hours before the eclipse. Sounds like confluence…and yet, I’m never sure whether to be gleefully fascinated or frightened as all get-out when I see one of these harmonic notices scribbled across maps of our heavens.

Leaving that to be what it is, Mercury (which if you remember is in retrograde) will remain in its 7 degrees of Scorpio through the whole of November 3rd (UT/+0) eking backwards into 6 Scorpio at about half-past nine in the evening. (Yes, that means 9:30-ish in the UT/+0 zone.)

The degree 7 Scorpio is a degree of enduring, almost imperceptible motion capable of changing entire landscapes, natural or social. There is a deceptive sheen to all things 7 Scorpio, the most common illustration of which is the astounding task which in the hands of a Master somehow looks so simple that…well! Surely anyone can do that, right?

No.

There is a huge positive and equal negative to this degree – as there are to most things astrological. And yes, there are often four (one per element) degrees which embody various concepts like ‘as much good as bad.’ So 7 Scorpio is just one of those degrees.

Except that it’s the ‘as much good as bad’ as experienced in the water (read: emotion) department.
And this is Scorpio we’re talking about.

The Nodes always represent relationships. So the energetic of November 3rd is greatly about Mercury (communication, information, ideas) as being experienced or thought about in conjunction with relationships. That would be relationships personal, relationships business, relationships philosophical – all of it.

Indeed, this is a busy time – and convoluted or complicated where not exactly busy. But that’s not the heart and soul to Mercury-North Node, and certainly not with Mercury retrograde.

Not to mention all of this happening not just days before an eclipse, but where the eclipse is going to hit. (Within conjunction distance, anyway.)

At its best, this is a revelation – the flowering of some understanding as if by epiphany.

At it’s worst, this is the realization that things just made known are not in your favor.

These effects will be more or less apparent depending on how your chart answers to the degree 7 Scorpio with the essence of this moment being Mercurial: a matter of thought, ideas or about the quality, frequency or context of communication.

With this comes the North Node, the relationship marker which is about what we should do…as opposed to what we might like to do, find comfortable to do, find easy or even personally feasible to do. The premise of the North Node has, no doubt, given rise to many a questing tale where some hero undertakes the job no one else wants to do. Or the job they don’t think can even be done.

And that’s the thing about the North Node which may come to us today in whatever form or format: the North Node asks that we try…despite what others say, despite what we ‘know,’ despite any misgiving we may have.

But when you combine this idea with an eclipse…? The solar eclipse is its own emblem in its own right, and it has an intrinsic meaning. To add a North Node-Mercury conjunction is that is to add a sincere commentary that it is through our relationships and how we relate to our world…the way we see things or communicate / don’t communicate who we are to others or communicate with others or hear what they actually say as opposed to what we want to hear.

Having to hear is one very true Mercury-North Node concept. And yet…when we get to a situation of necessity, that begs us to ask whether this is simply ‘new news’ or whether we’ve been reluctant to hear others…or that niggling little voice inside…or our better sense…in making our changes.

One, this conjunction says, must be worthy of the other. To evolve apart from our world is no better than being a slave to its unfeeling ministrations. If all the many intense Scorpionic tests are imbedded in this conjunction – even just for the day – then the question becomes whether we are willing to understand that people come to us and become part of our lives to enhance that life not through agreeing with us, but by getting us to think and test our own boundaries…particularly those we accept as ‘good enough’ when we know we can do – and be better.

The Mercurial touch here (of course!) is likely to be of the self-revelation type since Mercury is in retrograde. So this is about understanding something beyond all else. Something we learn through interactions. Or about relationships or a particular relationship. This is about what we didn't want to know or see about ourselves.

Retrograde, remember? This Mercury/North Node is not about "them" - it's about each and every one of us and what we experience because we know them, or through direction interaction with them.

Scorpio is, among other things, the zodiacal land of tough love. Under a heavy Scorpio influence, it's hard just 'to love' freely and openly. Scorpio is the sign of passion yes - but it's also the sign of heartache and heartbreak unintended and otherwise.

With Scorpio, there's always something. If you have a planet in Scorpio you know that it represents an area which for you oozes drama. Even when you try to ignore that subject the ignoring becomes an issue.

With Scorpio, something always makes the thing downright complicated. Right people aren't right, right activities don't feel like we imagine they should, the very thing yearned for so often feels unrewarding.

It is ours to listen...and hear through the veil, through the permeable barrier of dimensionality to that place where we instinctively comprehend the very thing which seems so hard and the sense of its existence.

Scorpio is the essence of the medicine tasting bad. And with Scorpio here expressed through what we think of our relationships, our ability to relate and how well we even relate to our thoughts (or whether our thoughts have even the remotest bearing on reality) this is the Scorpio way. Once we get past thinking of the Scorpio thing not as That Which Is To Be Avoided but rather That Which Can Be Learned From (or About), then we make progress.

No, we won't always think those 'Scorpio Things' are 'right.' But whether they're right or wrong, learning about what they are and understanding from that why they work well for us...or maybe even why we continue doing things which don't work but rather alienate us from others is a way forward now. Maybe we don't like someone. Okay - why? Do they remind you of someone you knew and didn't like? Do they embody something you wish you were doing in your own life? And you don't want to deal with the reality of why you would rather do anything rather than go after what you really want because your real goals would ask you to step it up and take on new challenges?

Scorpio is many things to many people. At every level however, the test of Scorpio - here given to us mentally and experiential is meant to evoke an emotional response.

It's through our responses that we will now recognize what relationships really are. And aren't. And what really matters to us, whether or not somebody else approves of it or not. That is Scorpio's mission: through relationship to force us to identify who we are and get us to solidify our hold on ourselves through the process of being in the presence of others...or sometimes, a single Other.

It's not that easy. Scorpio is relating as medicine, a medication of our own making which hits us only in the guts that we know are most sensitive. Here applied through the nodal energetic which moves through our connections, our connective efforts and our connectivity of manifestation, who we are with and who we are to others...through what we are willing to hear or think or ignore, deny or accept...through all of this we will carve a path at its best will embrace us while liberating our insight through heartfelt and quixotic, challenged efforts, all of which force us to care, lest we lose ourselves altogether to some nebulous fear of being who we truly are.

Sometimes we only realize that through things which happen to others. Or what we feel helpless to respond to. 

We respond deeply to the blindness and hurts of those we love.

However we need to be 'gotten to' so that we will (Mercury) think about things we need to think about as part of the greater (solar eclipse) process of changing and being changed by things going on in our world...those are the things which are likely to happen now.

Or be somehow preoccupying your (Mercury) mind.

Or maybe you're thinking about (nodes) relationships more or differently in light of what you've (Mercury) learned about yourself, the way you think or communicate (or don't think or communicate!) with others...or something you've learned about yourself in relationship from someone else. Or from some other relationship.

Mercury/North Node: our relationship to the concepts which work for us in the long run.

Mercury/North Node in Scorpio: our relationship to whatever works for us in the long run either as experienced (and/or) learned through interactions with others.

Considering the solar eclipse...

Mercury/North Node in Scorpio as part of the solar eclipse complex: our emotionally challenging (even difficult) relationship to the concept that 'what works for us in the long run often requires difficult, even painful emotional self-confrontations as we struggle to achieve true autonomy and thus independent security (and a basis for further satisfaction) based on our most authentically individual convictions...in other words, those capable of inspiring support through sheer honesty.'

It may not be achievable, but that would seem to be the theme here.

What can I tell you?
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Eclipse Prequels, Eclipse Sequels

Sunrise, looking towards a downpour from Loutra Harbor (Kythnos, Greece)

(photo credit: Takaway, September 2007)

So there’s this solar eclipse about to happen when the Sun and Moon meet up at 11 Scorpio. (Yes, we’re back to that again.) Said event happens on November 3rd – a fact we’ve already established.

But what we haven’t talked about is one of the reasons why your month leading into the eclipse might have been truly terrible…where the month your friend has been having has only been mildly awful.

Call it the eclipse of a different perspective, maybe.

(Very maybe.)

But whatever: take the following two charts…both of which have Scorpio Moons natally, meaning they will have a lunar return within 24 hours of the eclipse.

Here’s the first chart:

Person One/Moon at 7 Scorpio (Nov 2 @ 11:05pm PST)

Here’s the second chart:

Person Two/Moon at 14 Scorpio (Nov 3@ 9:55 PST)

These charts are both drawn as Aries wheels (with 0 Aries at the Ascendant and zero degrees of each sign on each following cusp)...so the 'shape' of the wheels or what is being emphasized isn't the focus here. No, all I'm talking about is the degree of the Moon - which in this second chart is 13 Scorpio.

If we start by saying both natal Moons are in position to be eclipsed by conjunction on November 3rd, then we come to one very important difference shown in the two above charts.

The chart at 7 Scorpio is a return which happens before the eclipse. The other (the chart at 13 Scorpio) is a return which happens after the eclipse.

(And by the way, in case you’re curious, the second lunar chart belongs to esteemed astrologer Robert Hand.)

So saying…remember that old rule about planetary stations?

As you come into the orb of time described by the station, things which happen before the object changes direction concern things yet to happen while things which happen afterward are a playing out or result of things which have already taken place.

By taking this ‘before/after’ theorem which we know from stations and applying it to the two lunar returns above, we understand that the lunar month cycle embracing the eclipse’s effects will be strongest prior to the eclipse for the second chart (the one at 14 Scorpio) because the new lunation is after the eclipse. In other words, when the eclipse happens, the Moon in the 7 Scorpio chart (which happens to me mine, if you care) has not yet reached 11 (the degree of the eclipse) and thus the ‘crux of the matter’ is still to come.

I’m taking a deep breath as I’m writing this (a bit in advance of the actual day of posting) because what this says is that the strongest shift I am likely to experience in conjunction with this eclipse hasn’t (shudder) even happened yet. Really? And here I thought my life had just imploded. Last time I checked, I was still shaking.

So…what now, more? Really? Well, okay….

(Sometimes being an astrologer is no help at all.)

AND….(getting back to biz)….back to the central theory and we arrive at the idea that if your personal natal Moon falls between 0 and 10 Scorpio (the degree after the eclipse)…then you too have also not hit the point where ‘letting go’ turned to ‘rebuilding in a mode which is more true to who you are as a person, never mind society and life conveniences.’

Conversely, those with a natal Moon beyond the degree of the eclipse (11 Scorpio) have theoretically already found (or even fallen into) come gap in your plan, some crack in your wall of plans…something.

There is even a school of astrological thought which would extend this theorem out through the rest of the zodiac. So what I’ve said about degrees beyond the eclipse…at some level that applies all the way through Scorpio into Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius Pisces, Aries and Taurus up to 10 Taurus (11 Taurus being the opposition point to 11 Scorpio). Since we’re using the eclipse’s position as dividing point, that means everything from 12 Taurus on through the balance of Taurus and Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra and 0 through 10 Scorpio – if your Moon falls anywhere in this grouping, you have yet to ‘reach’ your eclipse point.

This may sound counter-intuitive until I remind you that the Moon, being a satellite to Earth, is Earth’s natural and metaphysical ‘timer.’

Then again, maybe I should have left well enough alone?

In any case, this is an interesting idea to thing through as this rather trying eclipse comes running towards us along the river of time.

For some of us, the worst of the ‘shake up’ is over and we are about to feel life pushing us forward into a ‘rebuilding’ space. Whether you do well or terribly with that is a whole other matter, but for some of us, the hardest of the hard parts is over.

And for some of us, it hasn’t even shown its coronal filament yet. Call it the 'prequel versus sequel' eclipse effect.

Whichever group you fall in, whichever group your cherished loved ones fall in, this may also help explain why whatever happens over the next few weeks happens.

And why what you might be expecting just might not happen at all.
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Scrawls From Detox II: The Recapping Again

  Edith Head as photographed by the Los Angeles Times at the opening

of LA's Museum of Science and Industry's retrospective of her work

(pub 02241976) courtesy unit proj.library.ucla.edu)

Edith Head was many things, to be sure, but the quality her presence lastingly imparted to me was the stiffened resolve of someone who not only knew her mind, but who was also determined to know her mind.

It was an extraordinary moment, that meeting of a moment with her. Studio brass (part one) was trying to woo my father (the producer) into a contract to work for Universal Studios, that megalithic grey celluloid factory known lastingly in my house as ‘the Un-Studio.’

In committing said woo, the studio was showing my father around the lot. And for some reason unbeknownst to me (at the time or at any time since), my father had decided to tote me along.
Call it fortune.

In those days, Universal Studios was a lot of open parking lots, a few big (steel and glass office) buildings and a whole spaghetti bowl worth of bungalows which, like so many sauce-draped, tree shaded meatballs, littered the lot.

 Ingrid Bergman (dressed by Edith Head) and Cary Grant in

the Horseracing track scene from the "Notorious" Trailer

It was into one of these bungalows I had innocently and dutifully followed. With a cluster of boring studio people making nice on my father (which always struck me as a game of Russian Roulette for those trying to get anything from him) a far more interesting happening seemed to be occurring as a door to the left of me opened, and out strode Edith Head barely ahead of a second flock of studio suits (brass part two).

Stridently headed across the rotunda at the bungalow’s center, headed from its eastern to western wing, the famous head swiveled and the eyes fixed on me…small and observing me as I stood by my father’s right hand, being invisible as possible.

But no…here came Edith Head.

As bright eyes and clarifying eyeglasses came close, a well-dressed fingernail rose into pointer position, indicating undying emphasis. ‘It doesn’t matter how popular it is, if it doesn’t look good on you, don’t wear it.’

I’ve followed that advice. After all, it came from Edith Head.

Edith Head was born October 28, 1897 and she died on October 24, 1981. Her birthday would have been today.

 Bette Davis (dressed by Edith Head) in All About Eve

Edith Head proved that it didn’t matter where you came from or what your life circumstances were, you could have a sense of existing in this world. Her striking determination is a gift to us all…and personally, something I find myself admiring very much.

It doesn’t really matter what our difficulties are. They all hurt. Would that we were kinder to one another about it. Would that we had the courage to feel and see each other for who we each are…so that we could dress each other with the fabric of our  communications and the strength of our willingness to be who we are, each and every one of us.

The degree 5 Scorpio – the degree of Edith Head’s Sun – is a degree which says that you’ll try and yes, maybe you’ll accomplish a lot. But there will always be more. The job is never going to be done.

So…are we willing to do our part when that moment comes?

Of course like anyone, Edith Head had personal problems. She’s one of those really famous people who proves that sometimes there’s an all-too mortal tale to go with the brilliance of the talent.

But boy…was she talented!

Did you happen to see “The Incredibles”?

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The Pluto Part and the Scorpio Eclipse

Girl with Parrot from the Arabian Nights 1580 by Indischer Maler

This is going to be a very obtuse post. If you’re not into the math behind astrology (plus a few of its esoteric traditions), you probably won’t even know what the fern I’m talking about.

But I will attempt to explain, of course. (That's just the kind of girl I am, after all...)

For those of you who are sort of into the math, the thing I’m referencing – or at least that which began this line of thought is the concept of Arabic Parts.

For everybody who isn't into the math, maybe you're wondering what the pepperoni an Arabic Part is. Well, an Arabic Part is a form of triangulation using given points in your chart. And what's the benefit of that? Triangulation being how you find things in space (or in the case of astrology, time/space) Arabic Parts uses three separate points in your chart to synthesize where in (time)space you will encounter your Self in something of a fateful way which....IF you're paying attention, you can learn from.

Like, vastly.

Arabic Parts:

a whole nifty little study of its own.

(Sounds like a commercial, doesn't it?)

The symbol (glyph) for 'Fortuna' or Part of Fortune 

 

There is one Arabic Part in particular most people do seem to know...that would be the Part of Fortune – or “Fortuna” as it is sometimes known. The formula for Mizz Fortuna (or the POF, as those of us tired of writing it out so many times scrawl) is:

Sun – Moon + Ascendant = POF

In other words, the Part of Fortune is the number of degrees from your Sun to your Moon projected from your Ascendant.

And that Ascendant...? The Ascendant is ‘now.’ Quite literally the Ascendant of any given moment is the degree which is 'rising' at the point to the east of you on the horizon where by revolving, Planet Earth is turning into the flow of time.

(Think about how time zones work and this may be a little more obvious.)

It is because of this ‘now’ concept that the Ascendant (the point which was to your east when you were born)  becomes the signature of actions, personality and moment-to-moment experience...in other words, your personal now.

(And yes, the ruler of your Ascendant counts too.)

The Sun is consciousness and intellect, the Moon is memory and emotions. So Fortuna is essentially the difference or distance from your (Sun) conscious understanding (of who you are and other things) and what you are capable of (or capable of understanding) and thus embracing, being, doing or gleaning from....TO your (Moon) emotional standing, reaction to memory, desires, nature, value/values – all that.

That 'from Sun to Moon' distance, when projected from the ‘now’ (Ascendant) is the Part of Fortune – the triangulated focal ‘fine tuning’ point where your mind (Sun), humanity (Moon) ability to recognize the value of who and what you are being finds an important ‘gateway’ into the world, into life.

This is why our Fortuna is considered something we each need to ‘go through’ (be it physically, emotionally or any other which way) in order for you to achieve the fullness of our essence.

For the "let me live up to the trust placed in me as an astrological professional" record, there is one technicality here: the above is the Part of Fortune for people born during the daytime. There’s a whole pile of lore about how the formula should change to 'Moon – Sun + Ascendant = Part of Fortune' for people born at night.

And just to irritate you, in the abstract, the first is the Part of Fortune and the second is the Part of Spirit no matter when you're born.

Whether you were born during the day or during the night, both hold, both have meanings, etcetera, etcetera.

Still with me?

The kind of nifty thing about Arabic Parts is that they're akin to an astrological DIY project. The Arabs (bless their burnooses) (Or is that one burnoose and two burneese?) …were great mathematicians. They really did the heavy lifting when it came to the whole casting of horoscopes thing with all the included trigonometric calculations and such. And when it came to the Arabic Parts, their thinking became a sort of winner-take-call mathematical limbo party since Arabic Parts with any three points you want to correlate: two objects and where you want to project them from. In other words, if you’re into your sex life, instead of using the Ascendant, you might want to use the 8th house cusp as your 'project from' point...or the 12th house cusp if you were into the romance and seduction quotient.

Or maybe you're in a really funky 'who needs feelings?' mood because of the incoming eclipse. I'm with you...so let's keep the Ascendant and use the distance from Moon to Venus to see what degree the (Venus) value of (Moon) feelings is. 

Or maybe you're really ticked off with your partner? Keep the Moon and Venus distance (Moon - Venus) and project it from the 7th house: the house of established (connective) relationships.

It’s a mix-and-match fest, to be sure…which reminds me of when I worked on ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2’ down in Austin, Texas. As you’d head into the building housing the art department, there was this big sign drawn in tastefully old-timey lettering and slightly drippy red paint. It read:

PARTS IS PARTS

And on that movie, they meant it. It was occasionally pretty much a gore fest….and that’s before we got to the real and fake blood. But in the world of Arabic Parts, there always be Parts you ain't never done taken part of yet!

This is where the whole Arabic Part thing got me - with regards to the incoming eclipse, I mean. In chart casting around (all puns intended) for another way to see what the eclipse means (now that it's given me three totally separate and stupendous headaches), I came up with the Pluto Part for this Solar Eclipse:

Pluto – Solar Eclipse + Mars
= Plutonic Eclipse Point

So, okay...now for the math. (I'm into math, can you tell?) The eclipse will be a 11 Scorpio. On the day of the eclipse, Pluto will be a 9 Capricorn and Mars will be at 16 Virgo.

Translate all that into 360 (zodiacal degree) notation, do the math and voila! The “solution” of the eclipse becomes 14 Scorpio.

Why did I choose Pluto and Mars? That would be because the eclipse is in Scorpio and Pluto is the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio while Mars is the action point, which sort of (on a rather theoretical and esoteric level) 'takes the place' of the Ascendant in this equation.

And solar eclipses are the very essence of metaphysical esoteric theory, don't you know.

So this Plutonic Eclipse Part should, though we like to think of ourselves as controlling our environment and getting what we want our of life (anyone laughing?) would be expected to reference more of our experience of being transformed BY life situations which end up getting us in touch with and transforming our Self, lest we dedicate our lives to being a cast-in-concrete, stuck whatever.

So what about 14 Scorpio?

14 Scorpio speaks to being ruled more by the heart than the head. This vibe helps with insight into the motivations and desires of others, but doesn't necessarily help you do anything with it or do anything other than sell yourself out for same. Despite the fact that indiscretion is a temptation in either the 'giving it out' or 'receiving' mode here, there is a deal of compassion, which like as not goes to wanting things to be good rather than having the (Scorpio) determination to make them good.

Considering this information, an Arabic Part structured to correlate the eclipse and Pluto, might well ask about the (Mars) choices we're made and if that's what's causing some of the problems we have whether we're being too strong or not strong enough.

Remember...it's not external events which count here - it's why you were led to be in the place where those events took place. Even if its an illness, metaphysics teaches that there will be something you will learn through the experience of being sick or injured, and that's more of what we're looking at here.

Then there's the world of totem animals, which is particularly interesting when it comes to Scorpio, as Scorpio has three (count 'em) totem animals: the scorpion, the gray lizard and the high flying, sharp-eyed eagle. Considering the traits which go with this degree, this would seem not be the eagle or the scorpion, but rather the lizard which lives in survival mode like the scorpion does but unlike the scorpion is not "poisonously driven" by instinct alone.

Then there's the Sabian Symbol for 14 Scorpio: CHILDREN PLAYING AROUND FIVE MOUNTS OF SAND  with its keynote ‘Early steps in the development of a mind seeking to be attuned to the higher level of human evolution.’

Five is known as the number of mankind, perhaps giving us a clue about this 'transformation' being about how we treat mankind, how we regard mankind, our human values, what we decide we will commit to with regards to human kind...or (on a totally different level) what it means to follow or not follow the traditional course of human kind. (Cultural or family traditions, perhaps)

The would seem to be an attempt to 'build' or perhaps a need to 'smooth' out the sand in this image, with sand being the idea of something solid yet easily shifted - and maybe a bit irritating, too.

The reference to children could refer to something we do, have done or have run across simply through being 'an innocent.' Or it could be a reference to some quality or habit we picked up in the course of our childhood. Or perhaps it's someone we relate to playfully and without all the judgments and boundaries we meet up with in adult society. 

Since the equation we’re dealing with is an Arabic Part, it means that through this means we assist ourselves in arriving at the ‘solution’ to the intensely felt experiences which are part of this eclipse.

While thinking about these ideas broadly, understand that when we talk about Arabic Parts this is not about two parties. No, this is all you, all me, all each one of us...and fully to do with what we are doing to yourself, or about who you are being in your life, or how you are dealing with how you came to be where you are...

Or not.

If we were doing this exercise with your chart, it would be even more personalized (and yes, I invite you to try it out and let me know what you think about the solution).

About orbs...Arabic Parts are purely theoretical, as opposed to the Ascendant, which at least is a real point on a real horizon at any particular real point in time. But this is just math. So the orb should be small - one...maybe two degrees plus or minus at most.

Some use squares, oppositions and the rest of the aspects to Arabic Parts. I don't - but if you feel a yen, feel free to! 

My perspective means that anyone with a planet, dwarf planet, axis point or node at (we'll be generous) 12 to 16 Scorpio should take note here: this Arabic Part would seem to have your eclipse number! 

• How the eclipse operates is described by the actual eclipse with the underlying meaning of the eclipse being a constant (having the outmoded stripped away so that we need to be/become more true to Self).

• The degree of the eclipse tells us the psychological factors which will be focused on (11 Scorpio: the tendency to be overcome by greater forces because you're over-focused on nuances, personal suspicions regarding self or others and the experience of possessive/jealous affections so noted with Scorpio).

• Objects, axis points ‘set off’ in our charts (planets, dwarf planets, cusps or nodes) describe the thematic avenue through which the energy will travel in your life...don't expect anyone else to have the same eclipse experience you do!

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Try it! I’ll even start you off by saying that 11 Scorpio – the degree of the eclipse – translates to 221 in what is known as “360 notation” (zodiac degrees as numbered all the way around the cycle).

Let’s make it simpler yet…here are the degrees for zero of every sign:

Aries – 0

Taurus – 30

Gemini – 60

Cancer – 90

Leo – 120

Virgo – 150

Libra – 180

Scorpio - 210

Sagittarius – 240

Capricorn – 270

Aquarius – 300

Pisces - 330

For whatever placement you have in any given sign, just add it’s degree to the above. Example: a Saturn at 18 Libra would be 180 plus 18 which equals 198. Once you have anything in 360 notation you can add and subtract to your heart’s content, remembering that if you end up with a number over 360 you just subtract “one full circle” of 360 and you’re back in business.

Arabic Parts are funny things. I study them a lot, though I don’t tend to use them a lot…except for what we might call “special occasions.”

Of which this is one…so give it a try. You may learn a lot about what you need to ‘go through’ to learn what you actually need to learn about yourself over the 3-year span of this eclipse.

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Sun-Node Connecting

Atlas Turned to Stone by Edward Burne Jones (1882)

 

From October 25th through November 4th, the Sun will be in conjunction with the North Node.

Why would we care about a little thing like that?

We would care because all nodal locations (and every planet has nodes, which gives you an idea of what you don’t know is operative out there…) …all nodal locations represent connections. And since they (by the definition of what a node is) represent where the orbit of the planet’s moon intersects the orbit of the planet itself around the Sun, planetary nodes represent where the ‘essence of the thing’ (the planet) where that intersects or attempts to work with the ongoing processes of life.

And when you consider that ol’ Luna Moon up there represents our feelings and memories and money and all we hold dear…(including but not limited to the positive stuff)…those lunar nodes represent the ‘stirring of connections’ and some of our prime or primary energetic opportunity ‘nodules’ (if you will) to create, work on, change, reinvigorate, alter or otherwise hone our relationships with anybody and/or anything in our world.

Which is why, oh you who read, nodes are of such infinite interest – even to astrologers. They represent our connections, our interactions with our world…and why we intersect others – why we attract certain people to interact with.

You know…as we’re also interacting with everybody else. And as they’re intersecting with and interacting with everybody else in their world.

The particular set of days I’m talking about here would be greatly present tense because we’re talking about the Sun rolling through the North Node’s position. So matters of the moment are pretty much how we’re going to handle things in the moment, though the repercussions of what we do now may have extensive or expansive meanings up and down our personal food chain.

(Take a bite out of that, why don’t you…?)

And as we discuss all this, it is worth noting (and bearing in mind) that anyone with planets/dwarf planets, node or axis cusp points in the early-to-middle degrees of Scorpio are probably liking this period less than the rest of us due to the solar eclipse. Things in their lives (and others whose charts are being fixated on by the eclipse as well) seem intent and intense enough, thank you. They’re busy feeling more…and dealing with whatever it is which causes them to feel more – which in the case of some also causes them to consider why they try to avoid their feelings all the time.

It just depends. In general, this is a period all about feeling ourselves succumbing to our own feelings.

Okay, and that’s just what it is.

As for this passage, it starts with the Sun crossing 2 Scorpio, thereby entering the 5-degree standard orb to the North Node, which are at this October 30th point is at 7 Scorpio, a degree about an almost mystical depth of strength capable of dealing with flexing situations. 7 Scorpio is a degree which has an unquenchable draw which requires complete surrender to the experience of experiencing whatever this degree (or matters associated with its activation) stirs up…and that’s tough for a lot of us. We’re intrigued, but we are wary. And let’s face it, it’s easy to think that the person who invites us to experience something 7 Scorpio is doing it for their own reasons, their own gain.

That’s part of the vibe as well – and this is a degree I happen to know a particular amount about as it’s the degree of my Moon.

'Motherless' a young child in loving arms

(by Luke Fildes, c 1914)

So trust me: this degree tends to cause people to think you’re doing things for reasons which haven’t even occurred to you. What they’re reacting to is an odd ‘mirroring’ effect which goes with 7 Scorpio which causes them to think that what is going on in them because their psyche has been tripped has anything to do with the intent of your psyche.

It doesn’t. But that isn’t going to stop them from thinking it does…and that you have some devious, underhanded plan which is bent on taking advantage of same.

And you may have some devious plan and you may be planning something underhanded. But it’s not a definite, and where 7 Scorpio is concerned there is a quality of ‘revelation’ which arises… unbidden… from the unformulated depths of this energetic.

The North Node is going to be at 7 Scorpio throughout this period. In fact, the North Node is going to be at this degree until mid-December – which should tell us all this is a time to be using our relationships to plumb our own depths and elicit those revelations and realizations which will allow us to clear out our mistakes and avoid some of our more poignant karmic errors.

So there’s the North Node, and along comes the Sun. And when we combine 7 Scorpio with the Sun at 2 Scorpio we get the sort of energetic which promotes the ability to do more than tread water. Real accomplishment can be promised here, specifically to those who though influenced by their surroundings (lifestyle, life path) and whatever else are not ruled by any of it.

This could also be a time when those who are ‘stuck’ in the material or the manifest see the trick…the veil which material focus throws over greater purposes and power which is not detracted on by having come into the limits of fixed, materialistic form.

The conjunction of Sun and North Node occurs on October 30th just shortly after dawn, UT/+0 time. The Sabian Symbol here is not unlikely: A CALM LAKE BATHED IN MOONLIGHT (keynote: a quiet openness to higher inspiration - keyword/Dane Rudhyar: quiescence)…as the image of his degree suggests that it is one where the different ‘levels’ of Scorpionic experience separate enough to be noted.

Though the ideal in this symbol is calm, do we know what every person brings to this degree in their natal chart? No. So perhaps this is not a time of calm in (Nodal) relationships (platonic-intimate or business-personal) in your (Sun) life? Maybe it’s a moment in which relationships or your ability to relate is face to face (in conjunction with) situations which serve to evidence things which calls your attention to vulnerabilities and therefore your (Scorpio) attitude towards and ability to handle power.

Okay…so maybe this is when you are finally getting in touch with those unexpressed little pock holes in your most feeling (Scorpio) makeup. And maybe that’s making you feel somehow (Scorpio/Taurus polarity) sensitive to your own standards and thoughts about (Taurus) self worth/vs/”worth.”

Not you? That’s okay too. There’s something in your life where the tar is seeping out from under the tiles, where, try as you may, you know you aren’t in control.

Something could still get you.

Ah yes, Scorpio. The sign which asks us to accept the risk and walk right into the emotional realm which governs how…or whether…we react to what we feel.

How we can feel secure or be secured…which includes but is not limited to manipulation.

And maybe why we fear…as distinct from feeling fear, of course.

Or maybe our instinct regarding instinct.

Given such concepts, it would seem likely that as October closes out a new sense of our own awareness seems likely. You may well have been reading these columns for weeks now…and you may be absolutely, pozzolutely certain you know what these energies are ‘about’ by now.

And then comes along an innocent day or two and…well, let’s just say your outlook may change. This is a time when many changes become upon you because for whatever reason, you have arrived at a moment when you benefit from getting a different perspective.

Thus, one is magically provided.

Will you look at what is shown? Could you dare to stand in a hall of mirrors where every surface reflects your suppositions, your assumptions, your yearnings, your hungers, your instinct to survive?

Hope in a Prison of Despair by Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919)

If you had to spend a day or two experiencing things which would cause you to realize that life is – at some level – that very hall of mirrored aspects, all arranged so that you would encounter them without (generally) recognizing at first glance that what you were seeing was your Self….

…how would your opinion of knowing you change?

By November 4th the eclipse is over and we start feeling not the experience of life’s energies but our feelings about who was doing all that experiencing.  We come to some greater feeling of freedom to be who we are and respect for the world.

Or at least we recognize how to have our freedom and be responsive too once we accept that whatever we have attracted we have attracted because we needed to respond as we have.

And we needed to do all those things and respond as we have so that we can mix all our thoughts about who we are, who we aren’t, who we could be, who we’d like to be…we can mix all that in with the next phase of building our own recognition of the beautiful beast and beastly beauty of being part of a world, a life, an existence which we help manifest for better and for however we think we’re cursed.
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Breathe the Scorpio

Baby star HH 46-37 blowing 2 bubble jets

(image courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA, JPL, 

Caltech, T Veusamy, November 2007)

 

Have you perhaps come by the blog and wondered when I was going to post again?

Or maybe…over the past day or so you’ve come to some degree of realization that being made to wait is perhaps the greatest essence of Scorpio manifestation?

Every person I know with a Scorpio anything (and yes, I’m on this list) goes through life either feeling pain or feeling pained by knowing pain exists just beyond….you know, there.

Waiting…the feeling the pain and the dreading of the moment when change comes upon you unexpectedly, all that is Scorpio.

So yes…sometimes in Scorpio terms…. sitting with the same information and just never thinking about moving on is the very thing through which you feel yourself testing your ability to resist against your ability to defend (your Self) first and last.

It is in feeling the surge, the concern, the weight of necessity or loss or the massive unknown…the fact that we’re meant to feel and how that has all sorts of implications…

That’s all simply the essence of Scorpio.

So yes, the blog will move on. But first, first we will pause here for yet a little while more...with the controlling thought of Scorpio capturing you at an ever deeper, ever tighter level of internal knowing.

Scorpio always fascinates. Starting out, we are  fascinated by the wonder of allure allied by sizzling cord to the risk and possibility, the danger and salvation we experience when we are helplessly enveloped by the depths of experiential emotion.

But then...after a time we finally learn that Scorpio's greatest glory is knowing that we can fall. We can afford to fall because we know we will survive. Maybe it won't be pretty. But maybe we won't be thinking about how pretty anything this once something of true life value rears its head.

Ultimately the spells we weave we are either entirely unaware of casting...or unable to escape from. We are spun by that which we spin in the hopes of never having to be spun. 

Let us pause. Let us be held just longer than we would like to be held where in the last few moments wondering turns to internal conflict as to the truth of this or that - the Scorpio of it all.

Let us want that which we know we should simply ask for. And when we don't ask, let us feel ourselves simmering in self-willed pain which we (no doubt!) will claim we had part in creating.

We are all fools. We are all brilliant, knowing fools when confronted by what we really are.

No wonder we all like Scorpio. It's not the good or bad or the doing against the stasis. Its the feeling alive in the moment when dread triggers an ecstatic angst of quivering insecurity.

In that moment, we are all Scorpio.

Feel its potency and breathe in the drama which Scorpio is...for it is upon you.
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Sun in Scorpio: The Edict Human

  A solar prominance as photographed by NASA (September 2006)

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I make no bones about it: the following post is written in an entirely
subjective voice. My feelings are passionate, obvious and one-sided,
which is the gist of where we all start with Scorpio, a sign which stirs us
internally and which challenges us to then merge and marry that to the
world around us through the people and opportunities we encounter.

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Whether we are able to be honest with ourselves is where we start.
Then Scorpio evolves, becoming a journey through finding out
how honest we are willing to be with others - and how honestly
we will deal with them and grow ourselves to our full emotional potential.
 ----
Wherever Scorpio is in your chart (by house cusp) symbolizes the
manner in which  you will experience Scorpio. That house describes both
the positive and negative tools you will tend to utilize in the various forms
of interaction Scorpio asks that we master and the area of life in which
you will either grow...or where you will experience your greatest
defeats - defeats which amount to self-incarceration through
succumbing to those weaknesses you refuse to face.

******************************  

A few weeks ago now, I had come to a breaking point with my own ability to deny an emotional truth. That truth had to do with my own feelings, the emotional intensity of a relationship which was a faceted ball of glittering silence, the deeply buried emotionality of the other person…and why it all wasn’t working.

Like Scorpionic magma, words forced their way up through a throat which was helpless to be constrained as his isolation translated into my torture, as so often is the undermining mechanism which manifests through Scorpio fusions. The layers of emotions melted and refrozen which had become our shroud of lies would have been our Scorpio wealth had we not converted them into a toxic source of excuses.

We had borrowed from our souls, creating an unpayable emotional debt which in the beautiful if cruel realm of Scorpio meant that instead of working on mutual compromises we were instead pitting our ideals (social, societal or otherwise) against the reality of life including the messy realities so very much a part of what life is.

And thus, instead of facing our own fears in each other's presence, allowing the understanding of ideas and ideals to bring to flower something beautiful and intimately reconciled by our very human imperfections...

…instead we ended up compromising ourselves.

Instead of conceiving our Scorpio rebirth to mutuality, we each choose our conceptualized death of Self.

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I have a Scorpio Moon, so I know from what I speak. Anyone with any significant placement in Scorpio (and you know who you are) understands how the Scorpio process will always tempt us to deny the reality of the necessity to be human.

Our temptation to run away. That will always tempt us just as surely as the ease with which - in our Scorpio fears - we can be flagrantly diverted into falling prey to someone else’s manipulated truth – a truth they generally preach while we stand there starkly afraid of...and for our naked, human, life.

And where courage can't sustain us, our fears will drive us mad.

Scorpio tempts us to be the person who preaches but does not practice, much as Scorpio tempts us to practice what is preached even though that will deny us the full experience of being human.

Sometimes I think such ‘rules’ are made up just because someone was so sorely afflicted by their own fears that they couldn’t cope. So they come up with a ‘rule’ and hope that by stamping ‘that’ out, they won’t have to think about it any more.

That isn’t to say Scorpio doesn’t support rules. Well, not rules per se, but boundaries. Rules are theoretical – and thus the providence of air signs.  “Boundaries” is an earth term, and that’s still not Scorpio, though because Scorpio is water in its ‘fixed’ mode, we do think of it astrologically as ice – and who hasn’t experienced iciness as someone’s emotional expression of their absolute solid boundary?

One of the Crystal Ice Caves in California's Lava Beds National Monument

(photo credit: National Park Service)

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(If you haven’t, please take one halo from petty cash and thank your lucky stars.)

But when it comes to dealing with the ‘you can’t, because’ power of rules, with Scorpio this becomes a duality sort of thing – which is fitting, as Scorpio is one of three zodiac signs with dual rulers.

Note to anyone human reading this: two of those three signs are water signs. That’s probably a good clue as to how hard our emotional lives are…and on a metaphysical level, how hard they’re supposed to be.

And here so many of us think feeling should just be easy. Uh, no. Apparently not.

But back to the Scorpio duality…the operational imperatives of Scorpio in the world of ‘you can’t, because’ has the choice part of the equation (to do or not to do) which astrology sees as set off by Martian motion…and the response-reaction-implication OF the choice, that thing which comes of choosing to – or choosing not to (or which you choose) which none of us can known going in.

That would be the Pluto part.

The thing about Scorpio situations which we see pictured there is that they are and aren’t all about us. We do get choices. We can choose to opt in or opt out…and we can choose what we opt into or opt out of.

Many is the time I have said that Scorpio is all about the testing of our self worth, our security, our satisfaction with our lives and our self respect. And here’s where that comes in. Those who choose productively, grow in security and life power. Those who don’t – those who ‘play it safe’ are using some of that Scorpio energy to build a wall.

The problem with those walls is that by definition, they are limiting. And if you know anything about the power of ice…or in Scorpio’s alternative natural guise – a swamp – you know you are dealing with the power of glaciers and massive icebergs or the power of quicksand to pull you in and bury you in immobility.

In Scorpio – the boundaries you mind or don’t mind are emotional. They may be voiced as ideas (to you or by you), but we interpret them as emotional “edicts” and we respond to them – and thus decide whether to follow or not follow (aka comply or not comply) with them based on where we stand with our own emotionality.

That basis of judgment is the Taurean polarity for Scorpio – the ‘individual “learned” basis’ upon which we formulate our opinion of self, from which we derive self worth or insecurities galore. And when that gets ‘activated’ in a Scorpio situation, the ‘interactive’ quality of Scorpio forces us back on that personal basis of judgment – our inner Taurean security…and thus all Scorpio decisions and feelings about our decisions rely on our self worth and inner security…which once tapped and activated, reacts.

ENTER THE SCORPIO QUANDARY…our purpose for following or not following the ‘rule’ is also emotional – it’s all about the solidity of our convictions, with convictions being the stuff of which Scorpio determination and decision making is made.

Again, this is a two-part system. Part One is known as “how well do you know yourself?” and Part Two is “how realistic are you about what you need in order to thrive and grow as a healthy human being?”

This is where – especially in our modern, interconnected society – most of us seem to get our mental knickers in a twist (which is a really evocative mental image, if nothing else). There is so much pressure to adhere and accede to societal images and “judgments” about what matters to us that we often neglect our real Self in the process of, or effort to comply with some ‘you should want this’ or ‘you should operate in this manner’ which may not be consistent with not just our needs, but the very situation.

That brings up the Scorpio requirement to know ourselves, and to know when we can support the idea but not participate in it for ourselves. Or when we need to stop and examine the situation as so often situations look one way, but in reality are another thing altogether. If we simply look at the 'edict' ('edict' being a truly Scorpio word) we realize that as situations, relationships, interactions evolve…they may or may not be within the original scope of the most important edict of all in this lift: the one which says we need to be who we are, for that is the person we bring - and need to bring - to any situation, effort or relationship.

What Scorpio brings to bear here is the energetic which seeks to lure us with the allure to want to follow not because it's 'right,' but because it’s easier to negate, sell out and sublimate ourselves...even if that means we’re back at that Scorpio denial thing.

But being a martyr is good, you say? Well...usually not in ScorpioLand. The idea of being ‘the martyr for the cause’ is either a Sagittarian (to stand as a lightning rod for the idea) or Piscean (to embody and lead mass emotionality) thing.

Which really means that true martyrdom is done in the cause of ‘many,’ not Self. And Scorpio is not truly pluralistic. That’s the providence of the last four signs of the zodiac (Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces), not the second four signs (Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio).

In constellation Sagittarius, the star nursery of M17 reveals new stars

(photo credit: ESO)

The quadruplicities (groups of four zodiac signs) are all about just that – groupings. The first four (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer) are singular/individual, the second four (Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio) are me-and-thee or small 'group units' and that sort of thing. But ‘mass movements’ are the purview of the last quadruplicity: Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.
 
So if you’re thinking of martyring yourself under some Scorpio banner…while I’m tempted to make a Dante-esque joke of ‘it should be labeled Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here’ type (yes, I’m a fan of Dante’s very not funny ‘Divine Comedy’ – didn’t you know?) the truth is that the the only witness to your martyrdom in the Scorpio sense is generally the same person who will pay the price of it: you.

In other words, this is an influence which often causes us to sacrificing our self respect and the value we could have placed in our individuality by martyring ourselves to some cause which is either entirely temporal or doesn’t give squat about you.

Ideas usually don’t give a squat, after all. Ideas and ideals aren’t human and aren’t feeling. They’re a theoretical standard which human beings have shown to have tens of millions of exceptions, as in "the exception which makes the rule."

And now that I’ve had my chance to do the Dance of the Diatribe all over the Scorpio premise, this applies…why? 

And…to what?

Answer: to the Sun entering Scorpio on October 23rd at 6:11 in the morning, UT/+0 time.

By now, everyone who is the least bit into astrology has heard about the impending Scorpio solar eclipse. You probably felt the onset of its ‘breaking down of your situational walls’ back in early September – there’s a two-month lead-in to solar eclipses and frankly, this one has been particularly trying.

Yes, even painful.

As Venus passed through Scorpio (September 11 – October 7) our hearts were tried and tied and rent by things and situations which apparently we had washed and which now we couldn’t to a darn thing with.

Or about.

This was doubled up on – or even trebled as Mercury entered Scorpio on September 29th, a moment which is now emblazoned on my brain since in the next 48 hours I not only had of the worst headaches of my life, but got reports from at least a dozen other people about headaches and stomach aches in their lives.

In part, Scorpio refers to our ability to handle toxicity and to purge ourselves of that which is toxic. Scorpio asks that we ‘reclaim’ our lost Self (the respect and worth part) – which often…in very much a Scorpio manner… dictates that we will lose before we reclaim. So there was a lot of loss, a lot of reactions to loss, a lot of pain and anguish about what was (and maybe still is) missing in our lives…and all of it took place in this cauldron of Scorpio mentality which, according to Mercury’s schedule, is going to be with us until December.

Yes, December. And my headache, heartache and general life toxicity is so not glad to hear this.

Once Venus moved on into Sagittarius, some of us have moved into a ‘reconsidering’ mode, asking ourselves how we can make our life work better. What will it take? Have we misjudged? Did some idea get in the way of greater truths?

The Sun is the emblem of life and enlightenment; as it enters Scorpio on October 23rd our mental waters will become stiller…and yet deeper. With Mercury having gone retrograde (in Scorpio) on the 21st, this opens the door for a whole new level of intense reflection on what life is, and is for.

It will be a very personal and powerful time. During the near-month of Sun in Scorpio we are all likely to ‘break through’ to some new area of realization, some new recognition of what life is, and isn’t. We will let go of old assumptions and like children emerging from some mythic chrysalis, begin exploring our potentials, our power and our willingness to be who we are on a whole new level and in a whole new way.

I still hold some hope that this evolutionary passage will open a path for my friend and I to reconnect. Our differences are entirely about their desire to adhere to an externalized ethic which in truth we had – in simply knowing each other – eclipsed as people.

Eclipsing happens.

But sometimes the process is hard. And sometimes it takes longer for one person to work through their eclipse work than another.

Learning that what we do doesn’t define us is a primary recognition we all learn at some point. I learned that a long time ago when as a newbee astrologer I did all the busy little calculations to figure out when my Saturn Return was going to be. (Back then we didn’t have computers and astrology programs – it was all paper-and-pencil math.)

My Saturn is in Scorpio, you see…and within twenty minutes of the calculated time, I got hired to write my first “official” motion picture screenplay.

Saturn shown in a false color image as photographed by Voyager 1

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

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Saturn: emblem of time and earning and career…I had finally hit the big time.

Or so I thought.

As I stood there on the driveway of the producer’s house marveling at what felt to me in that moment like some anointment from on high…it suddenly dawned on me: getting the job was just the start of the work.

So no, the angels didn’t sing. Apparently they were booked for some other gig somewhere else.

Now as my second Saturn return has just completed (and yes, I congratulated myself on getting this far) the real writing which is not about ‘the job of writing’ but about bringing the story I’ve wanted to tell for the whole of my life to life in text.

It's now been shipped off to the press.

Publishing the book (a four-part epic fantasy) is the Saturn work of it. Having invested my time, the intensity of my spirit and my effort to believe I know how to tell this story...that I care enough about it as spend so long crafting a real life very un-fairy tale fantasy embodying all I believe and care about as a human living among other human beings…that’s the Scorpio part.

That being said, it strikes me as ironic (irony is a favorite Scorpio emotion) that in the midst of coming to loggerheads with this person, as I felt the world cracking away around me, I heard them make a reference to the book – as if its publication would compensate me for losing their companionship, their presence, the knowing they were part of my life.

About then, I knew they needed the space, the solitude, even the iciness of Scorpio isolation in which to consciously feel themselves realizing and coalescing their feeling human nature, and why our life as human beings is more important…and worth more…than any theoretical rule.

That’s the real Scorpio edict: we matter. Simply as very human human beings, we matter. And when we matter to each other, that matters more than just about anything else.

To my friend…who may at some point in time read this post…blessed be. Though we may not agree on each and every thing - or its priority - I will love you forever, inclusive of whoever you are in whatever moment. When I left, you looked scared, which reflects in me as an overwhelming fear to think that is the image of you which will forever remain, haunting me until I die my twenty-trillionth death.

I can succumb to being crushed abjectly as happens under Scorpio. I can beg and still be denied resuscitation and Scorpionic redemption through the courage you would need to have to forgive me my frailties. As a person nurtured on the sadistic milk of abandonment, I know how to grieve. As one who has been bound and tied beyond conception, I know you can condemn me to waiting and grieving, eternally seduced by wondering if like Scorpio's mythic Phoenix, our conversation can be resurrected from the ashes and our hearts yet be healed by the touching essence of each other’s emotion-laden, deeply felt, very Scorpionic human existence.

The choice ultimately must be yours, for in my mind I know I will always stand in your presence.

Lost in being found, I merge, I exist.

And without you I will forever yearn, long and wish.

*********************************

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Whether you relate to the depths of feeling expressed above...

...whether you think they're real or not...

understanding how they represent Scorpio's depth of passion

and the many things in life which force us to get in touch with

our emotions and emotional status is a valid Scorpio statement.
Or it could just be me doing a Scorpio number on you.
Do you know the difference - and which would be which?
Are you sure?

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None of our lives are perfect. And while granted, some of us experience

traumas or horrible mistakes which would seem to scar us forever, the

basic teaching of metaphysics remains true. If 'unbeknownst to us, the

universe is unfolding as it should' has any meaning, it means that the

experience of good and bright of life has equal merit with that which is

dark, painful and frightening.
----

I remain of the conviction that human connectivity is our best strength,

and that it cannot accomplish its goal at a shallow level. We have not

been created to have things easy - 'from those to whom much is given,

much is expected' means we have the responsibility to accept who we

are, as difficult as that may be.
.----

Power and potency of existence are found where they are found.

They may or may not take the shape that you think they 'ought' to

take, and sometimes our path to enlightenment requires of us that

we walk a road which tests our popularity with everyone but our Self.
----

That too is valid. We need to be what we need to be, regardless

of what others say, like or find convenient

As the Zen masters say...walk on.

That is the Scorpio ethic and our edict most human.

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