2013’s Scorpio Solar Eclipse

 Partial solar eclipse in space taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

(photo credit, NASA, February 2012)

One of the things which running an astrology blog will teach you is that people are very into anything which we might call ‘anticipation’…which with Things Astrological very often translates into the fine-toothed leap between 'satisfaction of desire' and ‘threat.’

And yes, this is about me being about as real with you as I can be. You may think it’s callous, but astrologers know that if we say any of these three words…

Scorpio – 8th house – Nodes

…that we’re going to get listened to. Give a lecture on one of these subjects and you'll have lines around the corner and down the block.

Why? Because even astrologers are fascinated by the many forms of allure which have that delicious Scorpio ‘dangerous’ quality to them...that very special thing which prompted a guy I know to say ‘I like women who are a bit crazy. Crazy is a bit dangerous - and I like that.’ 

Granted, he has a bit more of that yen than most of us, but we all have a bit of it in our makeup.

After all, life is full of shiny surfaces. So much of life is about whether we will or won't respond to something which presses our buttons...which triggers our instincts while also turning off our mind.

Did you think the zodiac was any different? It absolutely isn't. One of the 'shiniest surfaces' around is the zodiacal gleam which so tempts people to just read the sign, read the planetary attribute and be thee on your way!

Well, actually...you can do that. You can actually do that and have it be true and accurate.That depends on you. More specifically, it depends on how willing you are to hold yourself to being thoughtful in the face of the 'hidden sides' of each and every sign...each and every object...each and every facet.

Our potentials are limitless. Therefore we are not to be limited in either the good or ill any given thing can teach us. Or the good and rancid we can experience through any given attribute.

That we know it's really possible for something to 'hurt so good' is proof that our experiences can flux. That we can simultaneously hold ourselves in positive and negative regard.

That's Scorpio.

If the zodiac was clarified in a 'truth in advertising' sort of way, Scorpio (and your 8th house) would have to be labeled ‘RADIOACTIVE.’

But wait...! If Scorpio (and the 8th) was labeled RADIOACTIVE, no one would willingly get into, get to or deal with that stuff.

Make no mistake…Scorpio is radioactive. It’s everything about human experience which could possibly twist and corrupt us. It’s everything which can melt the very flesh off our psychic bones.

And once we're burned clean, then Scorpio can recreate us…empowering our rebirth to Self as a Phoenix rising from our soul's own ashes in utter glory and living self-empowerment.

But first comes the dismantling, the bringing everything about our life which is toxic and damaging bubbling and boiling out, overwhelming us with the stench and fumes of our vulnerabilities and biases, the stickiness of our fears, the acid of our anger, the wrenching of our angst, and the painful echoing of tears uncried and those long-suppressed, unholy wails.

Scorpio is radioactive. But if you knew that, if you understood what the Scorpio arena is really like, you’d never go there. We’d all be alive on this planet avoiding each other for fear of our Selves. Not for all the power, money or orgasms would anyone buy into the kind of torture Scorpio can deliver.

No, not even for the ecstasy which might lie beyond.

 Image based on a star map of constellation Scorpio by Torsten Bronger.

And yet…the Scorpio process is one we all need to endure. As 8th sign of the zodiac, Scorpio embodies all which purifies our unrealistic lack of understanding of what it takes to be who we are. Beyond Scorpio lies the four signs of worldly accomplishment and maturity where, in disrobing our ego, in becoming willing to be nakedly who we are, we get to become who we’re supposed to be in a real and worldly sense. 

So nature tempts us with our own most basic cravings...which means that in our most human nature, it’s that very nature which tempts us. And so we walk in that door. We ignore the big sign...if we even notice it at all.

With some people the Scorpio and 8th house part of this tends to be actually dangerous. But that generally has to do with really ill-placed rulers of the 8th – or Scorpio, for that matter.

I know someone whose Cancerian 8th house is ruled by a Scorpio Moon placed at their 12th house cusp. Not only is this Moon conjunct Mars (ruler of Scorpio) but also conjunct Ixion, a combination that promises that until this person learns to walk past their fears, they will have painful periodic episodes which amount to 'sticking it to myself.' And that pattern will either continue until this person either executes the perfect self destructive act (validating the desire not to feel) or learns that Scorpionic (emotionally driven) issues are not about being led by one's emotions but by choosing to manage them.

Scorpio is a choice. It's about who or what we choose to invest in...and what stirs that choice, what causes us to crave, desire, long for something...? THAT gets to the heart of Scorpio as the concept we all love to hate…and hate, but so love.

In other words, the enticement and excitement - the sense of 'danger’ is not about them. It's about us. Its about something...some need to feel ourselves feeling which causes us to choose.

Read that last sentence carefully. If you do, you will understand why so much which is based on choices made in passion, lust, desire, excitement...why they so often go so far astray.

Before I go on, here’s a link to the salient article on Ixion:

- link to -

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

…and remember – Ixion is in all of our charts. We all have some way in which we ‘Ixion’ ourselves, where we repeat and repeat the same mistake or format until we realize that we want something which works.

Moreover, if you were born between November 1967 and November 1996, you were born with Ixion in Scorpio, which means you will tend to experience your Ixion issues through intensely evocative Scorpionic venues, the details of which are etched in your personal natal chart.

There’s some Sherlock Holmes quote which applies here…I don’t remember it exactly, but he says something like ‘when we take away all the answers which aren’t true, what remains – however unlikely – is actually the truth.’

Our human challenge is that with Scorpio we always seem to think ‘they’ have our answer. Or that they are our answer. Or that they’ll help us feel better. Or feel how we yearn to feel.

And that’s not how it works. This sign of passion, this sign of intimacy which requires us to let go, be vulnerable and become naked to others...it’s where we tend to want control. Where we would so much prefer that others become/be vulnerable in our presence rather than going through the angst, the anxiety, the feeling vulnerable when we let our guard down in front of them.

The feeling of ‘danger’ where Scorpio is concerned, when we feel ‘they’re’ dangerous…that’s our instinct telling us that they may be dangerous TO US. To our ability to risk, to the reality of who we are.

The feeling of being in danger of feeling our own feelings on the other hand – that’s Scorpio in its utmost potency. That’s where Scorpio seeks to lead us through our own fears to where we realize that our humanity is innately vulnerable and that to have someone…anyone…with whom we can be vulnerable, with whom we can be helpless…is the most worthwhile thing we can find in this world, this life.

And how that doesn’t take getting nude in any sense. Naked? Yes. But nude? No.

The scariest thing in life isn’t what others think of us…it’s what we think of ourselves. What we fear in our Self can eat us from within.

Scorpio is not about precisely about feeling desire. Or passion in the flesh. It’s about anything or anyone which can evoke our deepest, most personal feelings…feelings which evoke a passionate response. And when we get there, then we have to think through Mars and Pluto as the rulers of Scorpio. Mars’ primary sign of rulership is Aries – the sign in which Mars energetics are all about being who we are and discovering more about who we are through what we do.

Pluto is the outcome ruler. So if you jump off a cliff without a parachute, Pluto will teach you that that’s a deadly bad lesson. And yes, it is likely to be a very hard lesson – one which makes a lot of impact on you.

The balance between Mars and Pluto reflects the necessity to understand that choices (Mars) have consequences (Pluto) and that we are most in danger when we make the choice without considering that consequence. Or, considering how Mars is so very much about the ‘self’ when in Aries’ oppositional sign of Libra, how to choose on the basis of what ‘they’ (Libra) want (Mars) is by definition an abdication of self, in which case Plutonic forces become ranged in such a way as to totally negate and smash you.

With thanks to astrologer Rob Hand, who I quote here: “Use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.”

Scorpio decisions (and) decisions in Scorpio situations are best made coolly. When in doubt, rely on facts and not emotions. Untruths and manipulations do very badly in Scorpio situations as they tend to stir up karma – that energy which comes back to thwack you not from the direction you put it out from, but most often the direction you were thinking you would protect.

Karma is definitely the universe’s way of yelling “SUCKER, YOU’RE SO BUSTED!!!”

(Ugh.)

What we cannot do in a Scorpio trial is sell our Self out. And that tells us why the top three “dangerous” drives are money, sex and power.

Is the light bulb beginning to glow yet?

Mind you…understanding all this (which I obviously do) doesn’t make life a snap. I understand the premise pretty well...and yet that doesn't make my walking through my fears any easier than walking through yours would be for you.

I just understand the necessity to do it. If Scorpio is about opening ourselves to our own vulnerabilities (which it is) and its an interactive sign (which it is) then however it happens, when the radioactivity begins to click, click, click then we're bound to get scared.

Trust me...I do it to. I've scared myself more than several times by taking off my brightly polished social mask so as to admit my scary truths.

And sometimes I was liked just as much for doing it. Once or twice someone has been there to witness my 'coming clean' about my life and they have liked me just as much - even more for revealing my human fears.

"I'm sure you get scared," a neighbor told me one night early in my detox when I was thoroughly weirded out. He'd spent about a half hour acting out the scenes of a book he's working on writing (much to my delight) after which we sat down to talk about our lives. "You've been through some really bizarre stuff. But when you get scared, I want you to remember who you are in the present and that your friends love you for who you are. We think you're a star."

He's kidding of course - I'm no star. Except maybe to him, I guess.

No, it isn’t easy for any of us. It isn’t any easier for me than you. I've tried to run away - just like I bet you have.

Where Scorpio is concerned, we try to preserve the status quo. But can we control it - or someone else? One of the best examples I can offer here comes from a magical moment when I heard someone say ‘I refuse to bid you good-bye. I’m going to stand here, and I hope you will keep to what you agreed to.’

That's an important Scorpio lesson - how the freedom to stay and be vulnerable is at least as important as the freedom to go…or run away. Or hide. Or deny. Or ignore.

It's all in how you phrase it, in how you present it...in the emotions you extend under Scorpio. Whatever your Scorpio thing is, the reality of it is that you would like to be welcomed in spite of it.

But there are some times when people want to you to be vulnerable and then refuse to return in kind. They're not ready to be equals – not with you, but with their own emotional nature. Sometimes its not enough to make the emotional Scorpio connection which is the initial bridge.

After that comes the walking over our own emotional gulfs. And some of us can't look down and can't walk straight ahead on faith.

It isn't about you. It's about their faith in their Self.

I've even seen this happen with a person who has read the RADIOACTIVE sign. They know what Scorpio is. But for whatever reason, they think they can solve their Scorpio in isolation. They haven't yet realized that Scorpio is a dualistic AND interactive sign yet, particularly in the sense that we never solve our Scorpio issues by ourselves…and how by definition we can never solve them by taking the ‘comfy’ way out.

Not to mention how there’s always a set of steps to even our side of the process.

The 11 Scorpio Solar Eclipse of November 3, 2013

(Aries Wheel, Location Not Specific)

 

The very best Scorpio relationships – defining this as a partnership or an intimate (i.e., sexual) relationship, or any relationship where you invest yourself, be that at a financial or friendship level – they all have to be two-way. That’s the Scorpio thing. It has to be mutual – and naturally so, there can’t be eternal compromises. If she doesn’t like toast crusts, the romantic in him may say ‘I’ll take the crusts’ but if he isn’t actually a lover of crusts and screw the middle of the bread, eventually that will result in trouble.

This is where romance…or the romantic notion…becomes the reality of life and life’s realities.

Except in Scorpio, those are always emotional realities. So many of us compromise our emotionality and security for something we call emotional security which is really giving up on ourselves.

When we will opt for the compromise of our inner emotional power for the appearance of power which might seem to validate us, we’re always skating on thin ice. That's what's so odd about Scorpio...the greater the urge, the allure, the passion, the thinner the ice. ‘Fixed’ as an astrological modality, Scorpio is the water sign which represents where we are either nurtured to emotional health, back to emotional health or where we destroy ourselves through some corrosive manipulating of the term ‘safe.’ In the world of Scorpio, not facing our feelings or refusing to face them isn’t safe – it’s toxic. When psychologists say ‘the power of the secret lies in keeping it secret’ that’s what they’re talking about.

And though we may run from the person who makes us feel, or who – because we emotionally connect with them is someone we know could end up exposing us to our own feelings…that’s not safety.

That’s death in the guise of avoidance. And yes, Scorpio is the sign of conception, birth and death.

It's also the sign of all those things which scare us half past living death - particularly in relationships.

Why relationships? Because that's where we see how Scorpio really functions as its through relationships that we confront the greatest need to tolerate our own deep emotionality and our willingness to interact with someone capable of evoking our truth of emotionality.

And it doesn't even have to be an intimate relationship to get to us intimately. Far from it - some sexual relationships are terribly shallow. Or based on a virtual agreement to ignore each other's need to hide.

Some friendships and business relationships, on the other hand, can be closer than close. 

That has been what I think has driven the rise in readership here at the blog over the past couple of months. It shows up in a graph bloggers see when they log. So I know…every time a solar eclipse looms, you and your friends and people half way around the world from you start checking the blog.

And the moment the eclipse is over…you think that the threat, the urgency, the depth of the feeling is all over.

Well, you’re wrong. The two months leading into this period are merely the start of the process. They were merely about getting your attention, about your hopefully coming to grips with what needs focus in your life.

Where you have dug into the emotional issues or the things which caused feelings to swell up like some bad emotional reaction to a cosmic bee sting, you have just embarked on a long journey through realizing that while life needs to have structure and rules, it also needs to be compassionately interactive. Those who comfort you may not be who you can comfort. Those who can witness your pain may not be those whose pain you can witness.

And those who make life easiest for you may be your worst enemy. Or not. Where they urge you to be dispassionate, they are saying ‘don’t feel yourself’ and that is the road to behaviors narcissistic...even sociopathic.

There’s a lot of it going around, you know. The sign of how high the human stakes have gotten in this time of such technological genius is the very dehumanization we are all seeing throughout society, whether in relationships or business.

Life isn’t supposed to be all happy. It isn’t supposed to be all easy. There is a difference between being allowed to work through your stuff (or do your work) and being supportive. That difference is all about motivation – another spiffy Scorpio word.

Because Saturn is involved in this eclipse (the eclipse is at 11 Scorpio and Saturn will be at 13 Scorpio) we know there is some ‘paring away’ to be done and that forward growth is going to be slow.

And it should be slow, in order to be able to ‘build in’ supports which don’t just sound good, but which will work. That ‘work’ thing is important here. The eclipse having Mercury conjunct the North Node (both obviously in Scorpio) points to to Mars as that ‘choice’ ruler of all things Scorpio. And Mars is in Virgo and in opposition to a Pisces Chiron in retrograde.

It’s a time for taking on how deeply afraid we are of ourselves. (Or our Self.) To not do that is to run a long term risk (or a risk of something which will last a long time) which stems from not having done what you think you ‘don’t know how to do’ in the emotional realm (that’s the Chiron part) which in every likelihood will surface through some Mars in Virgo facet: the in ability to do something…or get it done.

The eclipse itself occurs at 11 Scorpio, a degree which tends to manifest by our being ‘married’ to some status quo or assumption of validity that we miss something vitally important – you know, that Scorpio factor which can just kill us.

Or at least the situation.

Or the relationship.

Or our career or job or whatever else we’ve decided to blindly tie ourselves to or be blind in tying ourselves to.

And Saturn? Saturn is sitting at 13 Scorpio, a degree which one book describes as a solitary existence which treats with us not gently at all, an existence where we either feel isolated or are isolated.

And yet, in this position, in this isolation there exists a potency of feeling which the Sabian Symbol TELEPHONE LINEMEN AT WORK INSTALLING NEW CONNECTIONS plainly speaks to.

The effect of the eclipse will tend to manifest as (Saturn) work or commitments which interrupt communications, the effort we put into making new connections in life…and as outlined in the keynote for this degree (“the need to establish new channels of communication”) references as a need to go outside of the established, our norm…even our understanding. By definition, Scorpionic growth isn’t easy or easily undertaken. Once you’re there, it may be perfectly easy, but getting yourself into the process can be gag-worthy.

I’d also like to be clear here, at least in how this astrologer interprets this reference: when I said ‘channeling’ to someone not long ago, they took that to be ‘working with existent energy’ which is not what I tend to think this is about at all – especially not as presented here in the form of Saturn, Saturn being the planet at the edge of ‘unaided human sight.’ To channel in the Saturn sense means channeling from beyond Saturn – which plainly means from beyond the known, the established, the regulated, the defined.

Because this is Saturn – our emblem of structures, time, career and achievements – I would also say this matters most particularly in our working lives, and doubly so if you’re anyone who works with energy, energetics or any of life’s structures…that reaching all the way from construction workers, architects and engineers through to farmers, shippers to spiritualists, doctors, mediums, shamans, chiropractors, dentists, parents, teachers and anyone in the government or military around the world.

Did I leave anyone out? (Probably not…but it’s polite to ask.)

Furthermore, acting as link (or blockade) between the Sun/Moon of the eclipse and Saturn we have a coagulation of the following points at 12 Scorpio: Sabine, Sisyphus, Deucalion and Amphitrite. Not to put too fine a point on this, these points can act as either the link OR the blockade…or both.

12 Scorpio is a defensive sort of degree known for attracting energetics to be defended against (which seems logical, right? If you’re all about defending, you’ll attract something to defend against…naturally!) Lore has it that this degree evokes feelings of compassion offset by indignation of the sort we might refer to as ‘I’ll give in when you give me a good enough reason to give in, and not a moment sooner!’

The medium all this is being poured into at the moment is a ‘having captured’ (Sabian) quality which has a bit (!!!) of snarkiness (Sisyphus) to it, which is like as not about an inability to get one’s own head high enough above the emotional high tide level(Deucalion/Amphitrite) to get proper perspective and bearings.

All of this we are likely to BOTH use to blockade others while resolutely going about our business.

Except…well, except for two things. The first is that Scorpio isn’t about the ‘other guy,’ remember? It’s about how life sets up situations so that we interact with others and thus our emotionality is evoked…which is why that the people who don’t ruffle you are often the least constructive people in your life.

I believe I put this to someone rather recently by saying ‘that’s not feeling good, that’s being numb.’

It’s not quite that extreme for most of us, but it certainly is for some. Absence of feeling is not ‘feeling good,’ it’s not feeling – and that I can assure you, having had a young life which so destroyed me emotionally that I simply shut down in my late teens, not to re-emerge as a full-fledged feeling (nervous, vulnerable if loving) person until decades later.

In the process, I pretty much lost my entire middle life. Truthfully, that’s one of the big reasons I sit and type this blog day after day after day. If I can help one person… hopefully you… to not turn away from your feelings and all the difficulty of feeling them…if I can help you through to where you can have the life which was beaten, raped and abused out of me for the whole of my young life, then what I will have gone through will not have been for naught.

I don’t want you to have the life I have. My life – whether you respect me, love me or hate me – in a sense, it’s pretty bleak. People are as off-put by my the intellectualism I retreated into during those decades of no emotions as they are of the stunted, rather overly young emotions I mostly show when I meet someone who for some reason I can afford to feel in the presence of.

My wish for you is that you find the courage to go all the scary places not in this world, but in your heart, your soul, your head and your spirit.

Which brings us to the other reason why this eclipse isn’t likely to formulate as a successful blockade against those who cause us to feel. The answer is already right there in that last sentence: it’s because what we’re talking about is a solar eclipse. Eclipses explode our myths and wipe away our defenses.

So in essence, the more it hurts…the tougher this period is, the more opportunity you have to break through to your more essential being. You just have to not go with the easy stuff…you have to go towards that which hurts the most.

And if it’s someone you’re in relationship with, may you have a better time getting them to talk to you than I’ve had. 

But it’s more than that, as we probably can best see in the following diagram I constructed after sitting and staring at the chart of this eclipse in preparation for writing this (yes, rather lengthy) post.

From the eclipse to Uranus is a 6th harmonic derivation. We obviously know we have to do something. It’s quivering our insides. The South Node in Taurus represents our longing to have things be easier, but the South Node is the road to personal dissipation, so let’s not go there.

Besides, the celestial promise (aka the ‘cause-effect’ of universal function) is that if we will do our North Node stuff, we will automatically have all the South Node stuff we could want.

Pluto in Capricorn is something of the ‘other side’ of the Scorpio coin from Mars in Virgo as Pluto is (as we’ve discussed) the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio. Here poised in at 9 Capricorn, the question would seem to be between the pursuit of wisdom (which fits Scorpio’s positive side) against the pursuit of material gain (the ‘money’ reference in that Scorpio list we’ve talked about). That Pluto is at 9 Capricorn should probably be taken very seriously here, as lore tells us that efforts to opt for material gain end up in disaster…or being a disaster.

The (Plutonic) requirement is that we cultivate patience and humility…which pretty much seems to answer the Sabine-Sisyphus-Deucalion-Amphtrite at 12 Scorpio thing.

Snark not, my friends. Try to get past your hurts to where you are your most human and humane Self – to others no less than to yourself. Own your vulnerabilities as you so want others to own theirs. Beware of focusing on materialism, money and power.

You can try that route, but to use a phrase favored by a friend back in Pittsburgh, PA, it won’t go well.

Juno at 9 Aquarius is in square to the eclipse and semi-sextile Pluto and Chiron, displaying the discomfort most of us feel right now and how we must prevail in some public sense despite that discomfort.

After that comes a list of fixed stars – the real reason I found this diagram so intriguing. Aldebaran, Alhena, Diadem and Antares (and Facies, right next to Pluto) all lend an extraordinary background…an emotional backdrop to everything we’re experience composed of questions of integrity (Aldebaran), our worldly Purpose as currently tested against our personal sense of Purpose (Alhena)…that which we want to hold high and aspire to as well as be inspired by (Diadem) and the ability to lead and be the leader who leads by example even when we don’t have all the answers (Antares)…we look around and say ‘no one else can manage it – why is anyone expecting me to?’

The answer there is simple: because you’re you.

And if everyone would get over thinking it is about someone else needing to be better, if we could all just come out from behind our masks – be they shiny and android like, doused with tears, stern and unfeeling, frightened and fettered…if we could come out from behind that mask long enough to see it’s our mask and therefore about us…

…then, just maybe we’d be poised to face our own vulnerabilities and out of that grow a better understanding of others…and how to have a better life and better world.

And let’s get back to where I started with this chat…this is NOT the end of the eclipse process. We are just entering in to another just-shy-of-three-months of rapid evolution and continued shifting values.

That Ceres is entering Libra scant hours prior to the eclipse is both a signal that it’s time to make a (new) plan. Considering that entering Libra means Ceres will be passing into, over and through the rather magical ‘through-the-looking-glass’ zone occupied by M87 (Messier 87), this plan is probably going to be skewed in a new direction. Or be as a result of coming to see something from a new perspective.

Since I happen to be the astrologer here, I’ll also note that three months takes us to February 3, 2014, which will be a few days after Venus goes direct (which yes, means it’s going to go retrograde) at 13 Capricorn…a degree which is conjunct Pluto’s position here at the date of the eclipse.

So it ain’t over yet. The eclipse of November 3, 2014 at 11 Scorpio will begin at 12:47:26 in the afternoon (UT/+0) and will continue for 1.67 minutes. It is an annular/total eclipse, which means that it will be total for those directly in the eclipse path, and partial (an annular eclipse) for the rest of us.

Those of us with planets, nodes, dwarf planets, axis points or other important astrological tra-la anywhere between 6 and 16 Scorpio are going to feel a vital nuclear melting at the core. This is the remaking of Self through inexplicably difficult, soul wrenching situations which cannot be escaped from partly because they're native to one's Self and partly because (as anyone in this position knows) such issues have been ignored long enough.

It's time to face the music, radioactive though it may be.

Those with placements (as above) between 6 and 16 Taurus will feel confronted by factors beyond their control.

Those with placements between 6 and 16 Aquarius and/or Leo will be having to deal with life factors totally off the line of what they had hoped to be dealing with but which cannot be ignored.

 The path of the November 3rd solar eclipse as rendered by Solar Fire's solar map module. The red line is that of totality.

In the sky...a couple of minutes, and then all will be over. But astrologically, the fat lady (as they say) hasn't sung yet. Scorpio's essence is operatic to be sure, and the diva's name is Dame Karma.

One hopes the song she sings for you isn’t a sad one.
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