New Moon in Scorpio November 14 10:08 pm MST sextiles Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn, Venus in Libra squares Pluto
Scorpio Season
I spoke in my last post about Scorpio season (the sun has been here since Oct 23), and now it’s the moon’s turn to join the sun (as it always does at a new moon) in this sign of the depths, the underworld, the subconscious, the repressed, the taboo—in another word, the shadow.
The Shadow gets a bad rap, sounds spooky and scary and nefarious, and while, yes, Scorpio can own and work with (and even be) malevolent forces, it’s also the place in our lives and the part of our psyche that is really able to face and address these aspects of ourselves and our worlds.
It’s also the aspect of ourselves that can hold everything we weren’t, at one time, ready to process, to transmute. Scorpio can feel malicious, but it’s actually doing a lot of work to protect and keep us safe.
Scorpio is fixed water, and like other water signs Cancer and Pisces, it treads the emotional oceans of our inner landscapes—and Scorpio, above all, is not afraid to traverse the deepest and darkest caverns of our psyches. Scorpio thrives on the intensity—but its ultimate goal is to transform and heal the pain we have been unable or unwilling to reckon with.
Every Scorpio season, and every Scorpio moon, we are asked, again, to travel into our personal underworlds and retrieve some part of ourselves that has been left behind there—in response to trauma, to rejection, to repression. Each season we coil one layer deeper, dredge one more level, on our path to reclaiming what we (and/or our culture, our families, our pasts) have demonized, neglected, or abandoned.
Because, as Carl Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will rule your life and you will call it fate.”
Moon in Scorpio
The moon is in its fall in Scorpio (it’s a difficult place for the moon to be, in other words).
As a person with a lot Scorpio energy in my own chart, including a Scorpio moon, I recognize the challenges here—how easy it can be to become attached to a victim mentality, to blame others, to become obsessed with reveling in our own pain, and also how we can wield our suffering as cruelty against others or ourselves.
And, I also resonate deeply with the power that comes from owning our suffering and past deeds, looking at them with clarity, and allowing them space at the table—rather than relegating back into the whirlpools of our unconscious.
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.” - Frederich Nietzsche (Scorpio rising)
We must acknowledge the pain that was struck against us, and the pain we are guilty of sowing—acknowledge it, witness it, and then make our way back to the surface, with some sense of meaning from the meaninglessness, some purpose the torment has served.
This does not mean we have to like what happened to us, or forgive the perpetrators who harmed us. It means, that without this reckoning with our hurt, we will remain fractured.
Shame is also ruled by the realm of the shadow—anything we reject, deny, cordon off of ourselves, often because of someone else’s ridicule or rejection or even direct harm (or our whole society’s sexism/homophobia/racism/transphobia)—lives here. Shadow work is moving through shame, and embracing and reclaiming that which we have lost and abandoned.
That is the work of Scorpio—finding the splintered parts of ourselves that we can again be made whole—even if that whole is some new mosaic of who we once were or wanted to be.
Jupiter and Pluto sextile the Moon and square Venus
Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, denizen of power and control, and god of transformation (and the modern ruler of Scorpio), plays no small part in this lunation, with a sextile to the moon + sun and a square to Venus. Jupiter and Pluto are conjunct (exact on November 12) bringing expansion (for better or for worse) to the transformational Pluto vibes.
The Venus-Pluto square can bring manipulation, gaslighting, control-issues, power struggles, and deep-seated insecurities to bear in relationships, personally, and also on the world stage.
In addition, Mars, the traditional ruler of Scorpio has also (finally) just stationed direct on November 13, bringing its own brand of intensity and aggression back into play in the outer world.
Which is all to say, these will be intense times. In the public and private spheres. Inside and out. Above and below.
Go easy on yourself. But also, do the work: dance with your demons, reckon with your shadow, recognize yourself in others. Find meaning in your suffering—in order to transform it into the power with which you will fight for a better world, for yourself and for others.
Creative Ritual—Scorpio Shadow Tarot Spread
- Gather one or more of the following crystals obsidian, malachite, amethyst, hematite, and/or carnelian. A black candle and benzoin or myrrh incense. And oracle cards of your choice.
(If you don't have oracle cards, you can use this site: https://atarotcards.com/3cards/)
- Light the candle and/or incense.
- Pull three tarot cards. Read each card and write the responses that come through based on the cards and any thoughts and intuition that pops in for you.
1. What past story of suffering are you still carrying but now ready to release or transform?
2. How has your pain, and/or what you’ve learned from it, aided and supported you in becoming who you are today?
3. What does the part of you that was harmed need now in order to heal?
- After reading and writing on the tarot cards, think of an aspect of yourself, perhaps a younger version of yourself, who was affected by this story (the one that came up in the first card, or one of your choosing if that didn’t resonate). A part of yourself that was harmed or left behind as you tried to cope with the shame and/or pain of the event or events (sometimes there is no specific event, but a long process of devaluing parts of ourselves, put in motion by the collective narratives we all swim in of who is good and valuable, and who is not).
- Write a letter from the perspective of that part of yourself. What does that self need, what would they ask of you? What are they feeling (angry, sad, abandoned, alone)? Allow them voice, allow them to speak.
- Now write a letter to that aspect of yourself.
- Read both letters aloud (if that feels comfortable). You can save the letters, throw them away, or put them in the mail, whatever feels most appropriate.
- Snuff out your candle when you’re finished.
* If this exercise is triggering, please back off the bigger, more traumatic events and go with stories that are easier for you to work with. And always seek the support of a trained therapist or counselor for working through trauma.
Creative Writing Exercise—Sex, Death and the Other Side—Exploring the Scorpio in your World
1. Choose one of the following topics and freewrite on it for 10 minutes.
2. After the freewrite, write a scene that depicts a character encountering or interacting with some aspect of this topic. Perhaps participating in some ritual or festival, having a dialogue, or telling a story that deals in some way with this aspect of the world/society.
+ How does your world/society/character feel or think about sex? How are sexuality and sexual acts handled, seen, and treated in your world? What (if anything) is taboo? What are the rules and norms of sex? Who/what sexualities are considered “wrong” and “right”? Where/when/how is sex sanctioned? When forbidden or discouraged? How does society treat sex/sexuality at different ages? How do sexual mores determine or affect family, community and social shapes and structures? How does this differ amongst different communities, nations, races, castes, classes, groups, etc.?
+ How does your world/society/character feel or think about death? How is death handled in your world? What are feelings and beliefs around death? What are the rituals and routines (funerary and/or other)? What is done with corpses? Where does death take place? And afterdeath? What are stories and beliefs about what happens after death (Afterlife, or not)? How does this differ amongst different communities, nations, races, castes, classes, groups, etc.?
+ What does your world/society/character feel or think or believe about spirits, ghosts, ancestors, beings beyond our world? What are their mythologies? Are they treated as reality or stories or both? What does your main character(s) believe? Are there any rituals or practices for communing with spirits or ancestors (or protecting oneself from the same)? What are people afraid of in your world? What are its monster stories?
Photo by Tania Medina on Unsplash