This is tomorrow, the 7th December, at about 7.20 am GMT.
It ushers in the holiday season. Sagittarius is a fun, enthusiastic, outward-looking sign. It's ruled by Jupiter, the gas-giant guru of the solar system, who embiggens everything he touches. Jupiter has just moved into his home sign, so there'll be a heavy emphasis on Sagittarian themes this year: travel, higher education, philosophy and religion, anything that broadens your perspective and fires up your enthusiasm.
So Jupiter in Sagittarius is pretty damn fantastic overall. It's a multinational party vibe (with Shammi Kapoor as Jupiter).
But it can be too much of a good thing. There is a big propensity to go overboard, to leap before you look and get yourself into trouble. It's something to watch out for at this new moon, which is about an exciting, idealistic new beginning which may be completely delusional. Big dreams, but big blind spots as well.
The sun, moon and Jupiter are conjunct in Sagittarius, and that's all very buoyant and fun and enthusiastic. But they're being hit by a square from Mars and Neptune in Pisces, exactly conjunct at the time of this new moon. This is the delusion part. Mars in Pisces can be slippery, underhanded, manipulative, passive-aggressive – a false guru, or lying, cheating, drunk dude who passes himself off as a victim. Conjunct Neptune, the effect is magnified.
It's likely people will be using deception and emotional manipulation to get what they want. Be careful who and what you put your faith in, and hold onto your discernment. People are not always what they seem to be.
Be aware also of your own capacity for self-deception. And as always with Neptune and Pisces, beware of boundary dissolving substances: drink, drugs, religion, fairy-tale romance. You want your bullshit detector to be functioning and unclouded, because there's going to be a lot of bullshit flying around this month.
Mercury is direct again as of the 6th December, and he's in the probing, no bullshit sign of Scorpio, which should help you to see through the smokescreen. He's also part of a grand water trine involving the north node in Cancer and Chiron in Pisces. Chiron, the wounded healer asteroid, will station direct on the 8th December - so the new moon is bookended by Mercury and Chiron both stationing direct.
It's very significant that they end their retrogrades in exact aspect to each other and as part of this beautiful grand water trine, which is about deep insight into old emotional wounds, especially ones involving family and upbringing. It's cathartic and healing, and I think it's nice to have this as we head into a month that is all about dealing with your crazy family.
It's also nice that we have a bunch of slower-moving planets in the signs they rule: Jupiter in Sagittarius, Saturn in Capricorn, and Neptune in Pisces. This is not a common situation. It should help us to feel more stable and grounded in ourselves.
So however much bullshit you encounter, there's a lot of deep solidity and realism to draw upon as well. The trick is knowing which is which. I think you'll know the false because it will be cloaked in overblown emotion and appeals to sentimentality. The truth will be quieter and darker, but you'll know it in your bones.
We'll have a full moon in Cancer on the 22nd December, just at the winter solstice. It doesn't look terrible, but it doesn't look stress-free either. But when are the holidays ever stress-free? If you stay off the sauce and away from political discussions, it might just be fun. I'll write more about it closer to the time.
This is exact this evening, the 19th October, at 8:15 pm GMT.
It's an important one. Expect instability in close relationships. The equilibrium will be upset, in potentially dramatic ways. Energy imbalances and abuses of power will be exposed. If they can't be addressed, sudden breakups and endings are likely. (And as new moons signify new beginnings, sudden new beginnings are also likely – one door shuts, another opens.)
One things is certain – we are doing partnerships differently from now on. Relationship issues have been under the microscope for the past month, but now we're at a breaking point. Existing relationships must adapt and deepen, or die. New relationships will have to be an abrupt departure from what we've always done. There's no point continuing to stay stuck in the same patterns.
For this new moon, Uranus (planet of shock, upheaval and rebellion) will exactly oppose the sun and moon in harmony-seeking, relationship-oriented Libra. As Uranus is unpredictable, this will play out in unexpected ways, but the main element here is shock. This is tough for Libra, which wants to keep everything lovely and nicey-nicey. But it's necessary. Libra is also associated with fairness and justice, and the point of this upset is the rectification of old, buried wrongs – especially stuff associated with sex, power, pathology, the Shadow, the taboo.
That's all Scorpio stuff. Jupiter is in Scorpio as of the 10th October, and maybe you'll have felt the tone shift since then – surface pleasantry is just not cutting it anymore. Jupiter expands whatever he touches, and in Scorpio, he expands awareness of the hidden, taboo undercurrents and the rot beneath the pretty surface.
And so we've seen the Harvey Weinstein scandal erupt and expand – people are calling the Hollywood mogul's exposure as a serial sexual predator “the tip of the iceberg”. The iceberg is an entrenched cultural system of inequality, exploitation, domination and abuse – and people are refusing to accept it as normal or keep silent about it anymore. This is progress – a rebalancing of some very skewed scales.
It is also a very good illustration of the cosmic weather this new moon. We can expect more of this sort of thing in the month ahead. In the year ahead, actually – as Jupiter will be in Scorpio till November 2018.
Mercury is conjunct Jupiter in Scorpio right now, so this is a good time for deepening your awareness of the Shadow side of relationships – and communicating it. Scorpio involves healing, but it's the kind of healing that follows lancing a boil. It's not pretty. Something poisonous has to be brought to the surface to be released.
So if you want to correct an imbalance in your relationships and yourself, the rotten, pathological stuff you'd rather pretend away has to be brought into conscious awareness. And with Mercury in Scorpio, it has to be talked about. And with Saturn in Sagittarius aspecting the new moon, you'd better be truthful; you'd better be walking your talk. It'll be pretty obvious if you aren't – cover-ups and excuses aren't going to work.
It's a very uncomfortable process but it's what's called for here. Uranus is likely to spark it off with a lightning flash of shock and clarity.
Heavy weather! But with Jupiter in Scorpio, your good fortune is dependant upon your willingness to engage with stuff you'd rather not look at. And for the month ahead, it's a matter of relationship life or death.
Something very deep and intense – and healing – is going on here. Deep emotional insight, deep communication.
And as Mercury is in magical, witchy Scorpio, conjunct the moon – this is not necessarily verbal communication. It's a knowing that runs deeper than words – a kind of chthonic snake-wisdom.
There is great potential for regeneration and transformation here. New moons represent pure potential and new beginnings, and this one is in Scorpio, the sign of death, rebirth, intensity and transformation – so it looks like a rebirth to me. A fierce jolt of magical, regenerative energy. A second wind, just when you thought you couldn't take much more of this “life” crap. Power and knowledge coming from a very deep, silent, internal source.
The sun, moon and Mercury will be conjunct in the mid-degrees of Scorpio. And aside from a tense-looking inconjunct to Uranus in Aries, this new moon is very well aspected – it is supported by Pluto in Capricorn (deep restructuring), Chiron in Pisces (the wounded healer) and Jupiter in Virgo (humility, service, attention to detail).
So there is absolutely the potential for deep psychological healing here – of yourself or others. Granted, Uranus in Aries inconjunct the new moon means there will likely be some shock and upheaval associated with this. But mostly it looks very profound and beneficial.
I keep thinking of Hexagram 49 from the I Ching in relation to this. It's about revolution, which is compared in the hexagram to moulting. Shedding the past like an old skin.
I'm thinking also of the magical stones traditionally called serpent's eggs -- because there is really something very earthy, concentrated, snaky and Kundalini about this energy.
Or the Omphalos of Delphi, the ritual center that the Oracle of Delphi spoke her prophesies from. (She was also associated with snakes – her official name was “Pythia”: pythoness.)
Or the Black Stone of the Kaaba, the holiest of holies in Islam, and a very female (and sexual) looking power-object.
Yes, that is really what it looks like.
And here's a snake-dance for you, while we're at it:
Anyway, you get the idea. Deep, chthonic, witchy power. Intense, dangerous, secret, female – what the serpent promised to Eve. It's the kind of thing that can kill or cure - a pharmakon. But this new moon mostly looks like a curative to me.
I think this is a good set-up for recovering any energy or power you may have lost over the last while – especially if you feel you've hit rock bottom. Scorpio is a sign that needs to go to the absolute depths in order to regenerate and recover power. It is about power coming via the acceptance of degredation and pain, uncomfortable as that sounds. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”, per Blake. If you feel all cleared out and exhausted, this looks like your turning point.
Scorpio is also about purgation. What do you purge? Whatever drains your vitality - be it a habit, a situation, a relationship. Whatever dead (and deadening) crap you are still dragging around with you.
It has been a draining year for sure. I don't suppose it'll be getting any easier, so getting rid of the deadwood now is a good idea.
Neptune, big dreamy whirlpool headfuck planet, will resume direct motion on the 19th November, and Saturn is bearing into a square with Neptune, exact on the 26th. The Saturn-Neptune square is something we'll be dealing with into 2017. Saturn in Sagittarius demands fidelity to the truth – while Neptune dissolves the boundaries between 'true' and 'false'.
So this is some disillusioning, depressing energy - the big dissolve. More draining suckage.
You think you have solid ground under your feet? You think you're a solid character, you think you're incorruptible? You think you know reality from unreality? Ha!
We are written on water.
“so ingenious are the arrangements of the state of flux we call our moral history are they not almost as neat as mathematical propositions except written on water –” -Anne Carson
Keats's grave
What do you believe, what do you base your perspective on, what do you hold true and moral? My god, it's getting kind of hard to know anymore, isn't it?
Is there a design, a larger perspective in which your life has meaning? Is it something you can have faith in? Can you build a future on it?
And did you ever imagine your life would turn out like this? It must be some kind of dream, right? Could it get much weirder? Is there anything solid in this phantasmagoria?
I really don't know. What an interesting movie it all is though – if you have the stomach for it.
“No it's not going to clear up is it or make sense or come out into the open somewhere this welter of disorder and pain is our life.”
--Anne Carson again
And yes it is -- it's our life and it's messy. I suppose it has to be.
Messy few months ahead: we are headed into a Uranus square Pluto redux this holiday season. The old dynamo of destruction will be forming a close square from December to February. These planets won't square exactly again, but this is a reminder of the pressure-cooker we've been through over the past few years.
Plus Mars and Venus will be filing through Cardinal t-square territory in Libra over the next month. This is a real firing-line, and I think it will be tough on relationships. And just in time for the holidays – what fun.
It doesn't mean things are gonna be awful. Just pretty intense. But they've been intense forever now, so big deal. You're not going to be bored, anyway.
Re. relationships: the north node finally moves out of relationship-oriented Libra, where it has spent the past 18 months, a few hours after the new moon. It moves into Virgo, joining Jupiter there.
The dispositors of the nodes, Mars and Venus, will be conjunct the north node as it shifts signs. This looks like a big alchemical wedding at the end of the long and bizarre fairy tale this year has been. It's a big deal; too weird and improbable to gloss over.
This is where you quit ditzing around and sort out your relationship karma – you get real about what you're doing, who you're travelling onward with, what you value. What (or who) you want to 'marry'.
It's a choice-point, maybe. A commitment. Fateful, not to be taken lightly.
Anyway, it's not about anything or anyone being perfect – you must know that by now. 'Perfect' doesn't exist and if it did, it would be pretty dull.
It's about what you can work with and trust in – what is sturdy enough to go the distance, however uncomfortable it might sometimes feel.
(Most of the happily married people I know fight and bicker constantly. It's like harmony requires conflict and periodic blowouts. Notice there is a volcano behind the couple on that card.)
Anyway, this looks like a new start for real – or a decisive ending. Pretty heavy stuff, especially coming as it does exactly at the new moon – and a new moon in Scorpio to boot, a sign that is all-or-nothing, black or white, on-or-off. No bullshit, no pretending, no dithering, no leading anyone down the garden path. This demands radical honesty - with yourself first and foremost.
Re. the node change: the north node in Libra was about a need to attain balance, harmony, fairness, justice and right relationship. With the south node in Aries, this effort was undermined by knee-jerk rage and conflict. Selfishness and war were the path of least resistance. We've had 18 months of this and frankly it has been a pain in the ass.
Now we're moving on from this heavy focus on interpersonal relationship. With the north node shifting to Virgo (and the south node to Pisces), the arc of the story for the next 18 months is about attending to daily reality, staying humble and focused on the small stuff, taking care of others, keeping the whole show of everyday life running – even as reality dissolves beneath our feet.
This is the same theme as the Saturn-Neptune square that's happening over the next year and a half. The sky is really driving home this theme of the dissolution of what we took to be solid and secure. It applies to the collective and also to people in their little lives – which are microcosms of the collective really. I think it's fairly serious, sobering stuff, and it will be hard to navigate.
But it will be interesting, for sure. Interesting times.
The moon in Taurus will be facing off against a stellium of planets in Scorpio: the sun, Venus, and Saturn. Taurus-Scorpio axis issues will be all lit up.
Taurus-Scorpio issues have to do with money, sex, power, personal and shared resources, possessions, values. Taurus is about holding onto things in order to create security and stability, and Scorpio is about letting go of what has become dead or outworn. Acquisition vs. purgation. Or anabolism (the processes that build and grow body tissues in an organism) vs. catabolism (the processes that break tissues down).
Obviously, these polarities require each other. Taurus can become overly materialistic and complacent without Scorpio's drive toward transformation. And Scorpio can be all perpetual upheaval and crisis without a bit of Taurean calm and stoicism to ground it.
The scenario we are looking at with this full moon puts me in mind of clearing a space with a bulldozer and then building something new there, from the ground up. We are nearing the 6th exact Uranus-Pluto square, and this is part of a protracted cycle of change and upheaval. And we just had a new moon at zero degrees Scorpio a couple of weeks back, opening up a focused opportunity for purgation and transformation.
By now if you've been doing your work, you are hopefully opening up a space in your life where all your old shit and garbage used to be. What are you going to grow or build there? That's the question this full moon shines a bright light on. What do you want this open space to become? How do you develop it?
Because Venus is tied up with the full moon, new developments likely have to do with relationships. They could also be about money, investments, possessions, personal values – or art. But relationships really are a big focus right now with the north node in Libra.
Anyway, the message here is: there's no need to rush into anything. Taurus is slow and steady...and realistic. Keep your feet on the ground. Invest your resources carefully and cautiously.
There's definitely a danger of going kinda overboard: the full moon will be forming a t-square with Jupiter in Leo, and Jupiter magnifies anything he's involved with. So beware of drama and over-the-top emotional bombast. Stay calm and let things develop slowly, no matter how urgent it all might feel. Try to curb your enthusiasm.
Here are some I Ching hexagrams relevant to these themes: 53 ('Gradual Development') is about the steadiness and patience you need to build something lasting. The next hexagram (54 – 'the Concubine'), is its opposite: it's about rushing things, skipping stages, letting desire lead you into situations where your integrity is compromised. Becoming a slave to desire. Needless to say, you want to avoid that scenario.
There is a real builder's vibe going on with this full moon - solid and deliberate. We have a Mars-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn harmoniously aspecting the moon and the sun, and this represents an intense drive to construct something step by step, and to get it right. I really like the way it looks – absolute determination to build something real and true.
Mars and Pluto rule Scorpio, and are in a mutual reception with Saturn (Capricorn's ruler) in Scorpio – and I think you could conceivably build the Great Pyramid of Giza in your backyard with this stuff going on.
Or a viable new business, or a relationship that isn't as fucked up as all the others have been...
Or the Death Star...
Kidding! What I mean is, you can use this to really challenge and surpass yourself.
That said, Mars-Pluto can be very violent and destructive - it can be the Death Star all right. War (Mars) plus death (Pluto)... and this conjunction is presently squaring Uranus (shock). Please be very careful and mindful of sudden accidents over the next two weeks – especially around the 11th November, which looks like a really tense day.
Drive defensively. If you start feeling full of murderous rage, try to translate it into physical activity – go run 10 miles or hit a punching bag or break dishes or something. Don't kill anybody if you can avoid it, and try to avoid angry people and sharks and rabid dogs etc.
We have Mercury moving into Scorpio on the 8th November, and heading into a square with Jupiter – and with this aspect, you can blowtorch people with your words. So maybe try to be mindful of what comes out of your mouth.
There's a lot of heaviness and intensity over the next two weeks - the stinging tail end of Scorpio season. It doesn't look like the easiest fortnight ever. But it's definitely a huge amount of energy, and I think if you can channel it into constructive activity, you'll be doing well.
We have a new moon at 0 degrees Sagittarius on the 22nd November, and this should lighten things up considerably. It'll be the second in a series of four new moons at 0 degrees of their signs, which is really kind of amazing and exciting. Like a series of magical portals, or phase shifts.
We are doing some focused work in the context of these four successive signs (Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius) over the next few months - moving stepwise from psychological purgation and clearing-out (Scorpio) toward the establishment of a new status quo - something radically new and hopeful (Aquarius).
The overall theme echoes the theme of this full moon: catabolism (breakdown) and anabolism (building). Getting rid of what's outworn, dreaming up a new kind of life, building it in stages. Razed earth and the blueprint for something new, and the will to make it a reality.
I would advise going as deeply as possible into the themes of these signs while each is in ascendancy. Doing your Scorpio work as fully as possible over the next two weeks - however heavy and dark it might feel - will clear the ground for the next phase.
(That means dealing with your shit in a ruthless, focused way. Getting rid of whatever drains and devitalises you.)
So tomorrow (17th November) we have a full moon at 25 degrees Taurus.
Taurus is a fixed earth sign concerned with material and physical stability, money, solidity, self-esteem, values. Like Libra, Taurus is Venus-ruled...but the Taurean Venus is a different creature than the Libran. In Libra, Venus's role is intellectual and airy and somewhat impersonal: she interrelates. She bridges gaps between people and creates social unity and harmony.
But in Taurus, Venus is all about personal pleasure and satisfaction...and groundedness. What do you actually love--not intellectually, but physically? What gives you pleasure and a sense of profound unshakeable satistfaction/security; what is the ground of your self-esteem?
Knowing the answers to these questions in a deep-down, physical way is what Taurus is all about.
A Taurus moon is about an emotional need for stability and solidity. And this particular Taurus moon is disposited by Venus in Capricorn, which is all about rock-hard standards and security in relationships: are your relationships strong enough to last and to build on? Can you rely on them for the long haul?
The Taurus moon will be facing off against the sun in Scorpio, sign of deep soul truth, intuitive understanding, healing and absolute trust. And the Scorpio sun is disposited by Pluto in Capricorn: so there's not much room for covering over or avoiding what's rotten here. No whitewashing. The rot is too deep and too systemic: it has to be addressed. You cannot put a band-aid on a bunch of pustulent gangrene or throw a pretty floral rug on the freakin' Death Star.
Likewise, you cannot continue giving energy to people or situations you know to be toxic and rotten. I mean, you can try--you can go on wasting your energy on these dynamics that you already know to be unbalanced and screwed-up. By all means do that if you need to...but understand that it can't work for long. You are going to have to face the music sometime....
So how about RIGHT NOW. It's the full moon after all: whatever's happening should be all lit up and in your face like a hundred watt lightbulb.
The alternative is to keep doing this:
Driving this message home, Venus, dispositor of the Taurus moon, is in Capricorn and conjunct Pluto in Capricorn, dispositor of the Scorpio sun. It doesn't get much more clear-cut than this.
So I will write it again in caps: VENUS IS CONJUNCT PLUTO IN CAPRICORN. That's really what this full moon is all about. Love and death.
(Sorry!!!)
But seiously: love and death. Or the death of love. Or till death do us part: rock solid devotion. Or dead loves coming back (unexpectedly! courtesy of Uranus in Aries) to haunt you and force you to exercise your Scorpionic skillset of bullshit-detecting and rot-amputation.
But this doesn't even have to be about relationships necessarily: remember that a Taurean Venus is also about money and values. It might be time to really sit down and sort out your financial situation. It might be impossible to avoid doing so.
Or it might be time to really look at what your values are about, and how they build or undermine your character.
Anyway, Venus is going to be in Capricorn for a good while. Until March actually...and nit-picky Mars in Virgo will be hitting her with trines till early December. Meaning: it's time to get real picky and high-maintenance and somewhat ruthless about who and what you choose to relate to and spend your energies on.
It's OK to be picky and have high standards! In fact it's very important. This is all about building something solid that will see you through. Life is not easy and it doesn't get easier as you get older. So who the hell needs fellow-travellers who are only going to make it harder: more full of needless drama and headgames and bullshit? Nobody! Unless you're into that sort of thing, in which case you are welcome to it...but it won't work out so great, I'm telling you now. And the whole sky is behind me on this...
Re. Uranus: Mr. crazy rebel planet is tightly squaring the Veuns-Pluto conjunction, adding an element of wild unpredictability to the mix. Maybe there are some shocks to your self esteem or your money situation or your relationships in store. But I would also take it as meaning it's a good time to cut your losses and get the draining, lousy crap out of your life. Like NOW. There is just no room for that stuff, going forward.
It can feel dull sometimes to be harping on about what these times mean. One week after another, and the theme stays pretty much the same. Heavy Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces: deep, redemptive, traumatic, transformative, ruthlessly magical times. Stripped-down and simple, yet dreamlike and strange. Horrible/beautiful in equal measure...
Maybe life is always this way, but I don't think so.
And sometimes I don't feel there is much to say about it all - the words don't go deep enough. They can't. Mercury is in Scorpio conjunct the north node, after all: maybe the less said, the better. Holding back verbally is a necessary form of energy conservation...
But it's definitely a time of all the chickens coming home to roost, all the crappy old karma coming due (Saturn in Scorpio). Payback time...and you will know by the shape of your life right now what the payback is.
Anyway it's amazing enough just to be here and watching it play out, right? We're very lucky.
To sum up: the take-home message re. this full moon is this. Better get your values straight already. Know who and what you would trust with your life; get your committements stripped down to basics and nailed down. And get the energy-suckers and manipulators and day-trippers out of your life pronto, if you haven't done so already. Maybe you could make them a delicious cake, Taurus style:
Hasui Kawase "Autumn at Funatsu, Near Lake Kawaguchi"
On the 4th of October, we have a new moon at 11
degrees Libra. New moons represent new beginnings, and this one looks like it’s
about making a commitement to confront difficult, covert relational issues and
energy imbalances—even if it hurts. It’s a kind of verbal and intellectual
surgery that is required here. Clear-sightedness and honest, direct
communication that cuts through the bullshit and rot.
Let’s break it down. Libra is an airy, intellectual sign
ruled by Venus, planet of relation and values. Libra energy is all about
finding the balance-point between different people and their differing needs
and values. Bridging the gaps between people and creating harmony.
As a high-powered cardinal sign, and one so concerned with
beauty and pleasure (Venus), Libra can be controlling and shallow. Libra energy
can lazily whitewash out difference instead of doing the difficult work of
enacting a fair balance. It can insist on a superficial show of outward harmony
even when everything’s rotten underneath the pretty façade.
Thankfully, this kind of strategy is just not an option
under these skies. Or say: it’s an option, it’s always an option. But it won’t
work, so whitewash at your peril!
Why won’t it work? For one thing, Libra’s ruler, Venus, is
in Scorpio, a no-bullshit sign that sees straight to the core and strips away
the layers of rot surrounding it, cutting in order to heal. Venus in Scorpio is
just not ok with superficial relation. It requires something volcanic, molten,
metamorphic; something from the depths.
For another, Mercury, planet of thought and communication is
in Scorpio too…and conjunct Saturn and the north node in Scorpio. This is the
conjunction Venus passed over last month, the day before the full moon in
Pisces. The karmic direction of the current story is in Scorpio, and Scorpio
doesn’t whitewash. Scorpio transforms.
But with Scorpio, this transformation involves stripping
away what’s dead or amputating it. Flaying the dead from the living tissue so
that regeneration is possible. Scorpio is about surgery: careful, precise,
unsentimental… and necessarily painful. But at best it is a form of compassion,
bloody and wounding though it may be.
Venus’ conjunction with Saturn and the north node last month
highlighted the need for sorting out our values, especially regarding love and
money. With Mercury involved this month (and until December, as Mercury
retrogrades through Scorpio), necessary relational transformations are effected
via careful, precise, unsentimental thought and communication.
And in case there were any doubt as to what it this story is
about, the sun and moon in Libra form a cardinal t-square with the ongoing
Pluto-Uranus square, the traumatic and transformative aspect which defines
these years.
It’s very simple really. Transform or die. No illusions, no
excuses. Break free of what you already know is draining and depleting you, cut
your losses, get out of unbalanced energetic exchanges. If words are called
for, be simple and honest and direct; lay the situation bare, but try to stay
balanced and kind. With Mercury conjunct Saturn in Scorpio, less is more in
terms of verbal communication.
It’s beautiful when the
sky is this unambiguous. Not to say it is easy. There is really not much
ease or let-up to be had here—it’s all pretty hardcore. And just wait till we
hit November and the fourth exact Uranus-Pluto square, and a new moon in
Scorpio that pounds home these same themes, in case you haven’t been listening!
But awareness of just how much is required of us these days
is a great fortifier. Knowledge is power: that’s a perfect phrase for Mercury
in Scorpio. And there will never be a better, more powerful time to transform
how you relate to the world than right NOW.
There is really not much choice. “The fates lead him who
will; him who won’t they drag”, as Seneca wrote.
--As an aside, Seneca was a Roman poet and dramatist of the
1st century AD. Stoic philosophy combined with a life full of
political intrigue and scandal, culminating in a forced suicide after an
alleged plot against the emperor Nero. The skies make me think of him, speaking
as they do (as he did) of stoicism, perseverance and integrity. Here are
some more quotes, very relevant to the current astro-weather:
What progress have I made? I am beginning to be my own friend.’ That is
progress indeed. Such a person will never be alone and you may be sure he is a
friend to all.
Throughout the whole of life one must continue to learn to live and what
will amaze you even more, throughout life you must learn to die.
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
Choose as a guide one whom you will admire more when you see him act than
when you hear him speak.
You want to
live-but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying-and, tell me, is the
kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?
Every day, therefore, should be regulated as if it were the one that brings
up the rear, the one that rounds out and completes our lives.
What view is one likely to take of the state of a person's mind when his
speech is wild and incoherent and knows no constraint?
Rehearse death. To say this is to tell a person to rehearse his freedom. A
person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above,
or at any rate, beyond the reach of, all political powers.
What is required is not a lot of words, but effectual ones.
Retire into yourself as much as possible. Associate with people who are
likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The
process is a mutual one. People learn as they teach.
A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.
You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good
becomes a disposition to good.
So called pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but
punishments.
I am telling you to be a slow-speaking person.
Be harsh with yourself at times.
Ok, enough heaviness! (But no question, it's all very heavy. No way around it.)
