Ceres in Scorpio

Beim Mahen (Le Faucheur) by Georges Seurat

(oil on panel, c 1883, Metropolitan Museum of Art)

There are different ways to think of Ceres in Scorpio. Ceres speaks greatly to all which we do and all that it takes for an idea or some other kind of ‘seed’ to develop and grow to fruition. And when Ceres enters Scorpio on August 7th at 3:44 in the morning (UT/+0 time) it will mark a time when many an effort may bear fruit.

But maybe not. As the sign of Scorpio is as likely to deny as to allow, as likely to mark times of decay, delay and loss as to reward us with opportunities, rewards and that singular feeling of having survived our own foibles long enough to find our way to the light.

So to put it simply, while these next months of Ceres in Scorpio may be all about facing what it takes to seed and grow our way to success, they may also be filled with reaping the results of what was previously sown... sometimes long, long ago. Ceres’ cycle being 4.6 years long, for some of us that’s how far back we’ll need to look to see the genesis of what we face now. For others, today merely ties back to last February.

February 3rd, to be exact. Why February 3rd? That would be because this upcoming Ceres/Scorpio ingress is actually the third in a series which began back on February 3rd.

Ceres enters Scorpio for the first time during 2014

Feb 3, 2014 - 5:20 p.m. (UT+0) - glyph chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

Ceres enters Scorpio for the first time during 2014

Feb 3, 2014 - 5:20 p.m. (UT+0) - text chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

In this February chart, Ceres was tightly bound up with the North Node - and so we too were ‘bound up’ with matters which raised feelings of power and impotence, posing any number of struggles on said subject. Such challenges may have come to us through others, or merely through our times - and most of them (at least those which were started back around the February period) will not yet have come to any solidly defined point where we could be said to be ‘reaping what we have sown’...a singularly Scorpio sort of concept.

After all, Scorpio is karmic. Scorpio is not the more ‘linear’ cause/effect of airy Libra. Libra’s cause/effect is akin to the scientific statement ‘for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction’...with such ‘opposite and equal’ reactions running the gamut from personal to professional and from appreciation and applause to snarls, jeers and flat-out rejection. Libra is the ‘what’ where Scorpio is the ‘why’ - and with Scorpio, all those ‘why’s always feel personal. Scorpio is all about testing our inner emotional balance and that works well with Ceres providing we’re balanced enough at the moment to contain our reactions to whatever arises now in favor of thinking things through and working calmly... even thoughtfully... towards our aims.

Ceres’ retrograde pass back out of Scorpio feel on March 22nd with the North Node having passed over Ceres indicating societal interactions which rewarded, incited, promoted and provoked in accordance with how prepared we were to be “cut off” from some emotional turf war. That turf war was something we were having with our Self and was in regards to (or because of) our relationship to  standards and opinions of [Scorpio] others.

Yes, the differences were between our Self and something or someone other than our Self. But the feelings which erupted...those were ours. The feelings which erupted between early February and March which by March 22nd had by then turned around and were forcing us to rethink or reconsider.

Having gone direct back on June 1st at 18 Libra Ceres emphasized abilities, talents and our ability to honor our own essence along with that of others...

Ceres, having just retrograded out of Scorpio into Libra

March 22, 2014 - 2:52 p.m. (UT+0) - glyph chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

Ceres, having just retrograded out of Scorpio into Libra

March 22, 2014 - 2:52 p.m. (UT+0) - text chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

...which may or may not have gone well in your world depending on where (and how) Libra and Ceres are positioned in your natal chart.

And now Ceres is moving back into Scorpio.

Ceres enters Scorpio for the third and final time during 2014

August 7, 2014 - 3:44 a.m. (UT/+0) - glyph chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

Ceres enters Scorpio for the third and final time during 2014

August 7, 2014 - 3:44 a.m. (UT/+0) - text chart

Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

With all the (Sun-Mercury-Jupiter-Black Moon Lilith) energy currently in Leo, this ‘the third time is the charm’ passing of Ceres into Scorpio will test our ability to be our own person while maintaining connection with others and some sort of ‘relatable’ quality/quotient which provides a basis for interaction.

Plus there is the little fact that as Ceres enters Scorpio it ‘activates’ 0 Scorpio - the degree of this October’s solar eclipse.

This can mark a time of great contention or physical-emotional tension...or it can mark a time of breakthrough. With Mars, Saturn and Vesta already in Scorpio that which is failing to bear fruit is doing so at substantial [Vesta] cost. With Mars (in Scorpio) squaring Jupiter (in Leo) at Ceres’ ingress suggests spectacular things, but such moments are likely to be positive only if and where the awareness of others, long term repercussions and the truth of the moment (the cold truth, not some heated ‘my truth’) are being taken into account.

We know our own plan - that’s what got us here. Now we need to [Ceres] consider the plans of others, and how we deal with that...theoretically, that would be what determines the measure of emotional profit and loss as part of our months to come.

Ceres entering Scorpio is the first part of a series of shifts to happen over the next week or so - and that Ceres is the leading factor speaks to qualities which will call our focus to things we don't control but which may well make us want control...which in Ceres terms speaks to the need to think through how to proceed coolly, as Scorpio succeeds best when our Scorpionic choices are rationale as opposed to passionate or passion/desire-driven.

If we believe all things happen for a reason and things happen as and in the order they should, then Ceres bringing even more attention to Scorpio speaks to what we cannot deny (whether we want to or not) and how that which confounds us most is less about the 'thing' (or person) and more about why we respond as we do.

We may not like that. And certainly this ingress will signal a rise in the intensity of many and a blind instinct on the part of some to try and stop or limit certain efforts. These efforts may be ours. Then again, they may be efforts being directed by someone or something totally disconnected or separate from our Self. Whatever happens, the message of the moment would seem to be that things we meet now require plans which consider the needs and aims and feelings of others.

Ceres does not represent our essential sense of generosity or miserliness. Neither does Scorpio, except as a signature of what we are able (or willing) to tolerate emotionally. Scorpio's karma - as opposed to Libra's 'cause/effect' is the essence of all we love to (and know to) quail at in Scorpio as it isn't predictable and won't 'come back to us' from the direction or from the area of life in which we have earned our karmic response.

Some of us will heed this reminder, some won't. Some of us think we can plan for contingencies and some of that will bear fruit...but some of it won't. Leo against Scorpio is the challenge to express one's truest nature while inspiring others - or learning why our nature is, or has become not so very inspirational.

Why that is, what that represents in our character - all the notes about that which we need to take stock of, that's what Ceres' transit of Scorpio is likely to time out, bring out, point out and root out. Throughout 2014 (to date) our plans have gone back and forth between the theoretical and practical, from the idea of the thing to the reality.

Now our feeling consciousness is coming into focus...a focus which is likely to underlie much (if not most) of what we do for much of the balance of this year. Letting go of what hasn't worked and recognizing our own feelings on the subject, or how those differ from values held by others is a process of this moment and moving forward.

It's also the basis of that which, in true Scorpio form, will point to the necessity to nurture our Self and - to some extent - to confront that Self in the spirit of understanding where our standards of security (personal or otherwise) come from, lest our denials or choices be based on that which is past and no longer applicable. 

Where we opt for things which no longer hold validity, this passage of Ceres through Scorpio is likely to manifest in the dismantling of what we had thought of as our plan, our defense, our means of pushing ahead. On the other hand, for those who learn from history or past events without remaining "married" to the literal will like as not see and avoid at least a few stumbling blocks during these months to come...allowing them to arrive at some moment of fruition without having some short term cause shrivel the long-term efforts we had hoped for and worked towards as our harvest.
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Dateblog: November 2013

November starts with Saturn, the Sun and Mercury all in Scorpio, with Mercury retrograde….and the big clue to all is that Mercury will not be going direct until November 10^th, meaning it will be retrograde when the November 3^rd Solar Eclipse happens.

If nothing else, this is a sign that this particular solar eclipse is greatly (read: vastly) about how we operate on the inside. Things which happen to us, situations we have managed to put ourselves into – wherever they are producing stress, strain or untoward emotionality (of either the plus OR minus type)…that’s where we should be asking ourselves whether we are being truly realistic about who we are and what shape our personal self worth is in.

This is one of those times when anything we are in denial about…or things which we don’t want to deal with (but really need to deal with) are likely to either cause problems – or cause us to put our Self into some really ‘deep water’ situation which is going to compromise our ability to move forward in our life as we might have wanted to.

There is likely to be a huge amount of free-floating ‘fear energy’ wandering around. Some you should care about, some you should be smart enough to recognize and avoid. The only risks which are advisable as November starts out are those which are based on facts – preferably intellectual facts and thus which are simply about doing that which is known.


It’s the unknowns…that which we are thinking of as ‘possible’…the thing which we crave but which is all about taking a risk our psyche (or other body part) can’t “afford to pay for” which is what’s likely to get us.

That Ceres – a major asteroid – enters Libra about an hour after the eclipse strongly suggests that once our ‘old ways’ and the emotionally non-functional is cleared out of our way we are free to make new plans and new alliances. For those who have used the whole of the eclipse lead-in to get to the root of some issue which is not yet cleared out, this is also a good time to lay groundwork and investigate how to move forward with doing that clearing out or ‘detoxifying’ of that which is so problematic.

As of November 5^th, Venus will move into Capricorn – and this is worth noting because Venus is going to go retrograde in Capricorn come mid-late December (think: Christmas). Considering Capricorn is the third sign (3^rd harmonic) from Scorpio, this lends credence to the idea of making plans on how to move ahead – if slowly. Don’t plan on anything happening lickety-split and look more to intrinsic quality than alluring ‘qualities.’

Think of it this way: the book cover counts. But if the book isn’t any good, not even the glossiest cover is going to get you to the best seller’s list!

Venus’ shift into Capricorn happens just as the ‘window’ for Jupiter’s station-retrograde begins. That happens on November 7^th – a sure sign that we all have enough on our plate for the moment. That Pallas (dispassionate wisdom) moves into Virgo on the 9^th – the other end of the Jupiter station gives us a set of earth-sign “bookends” to this Cancerian Jupiter station, which means some people will be battening down the hatches, some will be clearing out the mental (or life) garage and some of us will simply know where we’re going. Whatever is afoot, it has to be workable if it’s going to work.

And let’s be real here…considering that we just had a solar eclipse in Scorpio, with the ‘choice of personal investment ruler of Scorpio (Mars) in Virgo and the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio (Pluto) in Capricorn, we have a perfect mirror of ‘factoring factors’ surrounding this Jupiter station. Stability is only as good (or as lasting) as we are foundationally. That’s the crux of Jupiter in Cancer – it’s about foundations. Wherever Cancer is in your chart and wherever the Moon (as ruler of Cancer) is in your chart, the good or bad, the easy or difficult of this time is all about how well you deal with those factors.

Mercury goes direct at 2 Scorpio on the 10^th, pushing us to deal with our issues and with whatever may be bollixed up at this point…and there are likely to be a few days of confusion or not knowing as we move through the period of November 11^th through the 15^th which surrounds Neptune station-direct moment on the 13^th.

Considering Neptune’s station ends in the onset of the Leonid meteor shower (a brief if interesting period of possible ‘sparking’ of ideas and realizations) with Vesta entering Libra on the 15^th and a Full Moon in Taurus occurring on the 17^th, this is a really good time to be dealing with matters which pertain to security.

For some of us, that will be securing something or getting it done. For others, this will be a time of working through our insecurities in order to learn the truth of how things work and that we can actually deal with something we were thinking was just ‘too hard’ for us. There will be a few folks who think they’ve ‘gotten past’ (ignored, evaded, successfully denied) the warnings portrayed by the solar eclipse who will come crashing down to earth at this Full Moon, but for most of us this will be an ‘interim capitalization point’ on something which is already in process…and considering this Full Moon is in Taurus, we hope that results are satisfactory.

Those which are will be very satisfying indeed. Those which aren’t will lead to a bit of frustration and then (hopefully) the resolution to try, try again as Chiron goes direct on the 19^th (which means its station-direct influences begin on the date of the Full Moon).

But let’s be pragmatic about this: where Chiron is concerned we have to ‘master’ our emotionality and get that hooked into trying – and whatever it is we’re trying to achieve, it’s not going to be anything we feel we’re all that good at.

Still, we only win through by trying. And that’s part of the Chiron message: we can’t always know how to do something before we attempt it. Some things can only be learned…and mastered…and appreciated…through the doing of them.


Chiron’s station (which is in Pisces, guaranteeing emotionality of some sort, even if it’s denied emotionality) ends on the 21^st – a day before the Sun enters Sagittarius.

And interestingly enough….that’s pretty much the last astrological announcement for the month. So everything which has happened during November leads into this 21^st-through-the-30^th period of finding out how well things work…or don’t work…and learning better in the process.
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