Mother, guide me in your truth and illuminate my path
Introduction
This is a particularly detailed New Moon entry since I believe the tranformational energy of Pluto and Scorpio is vital to the healing of the Earth.
At this New Moon in Scorpio, we are invited to enter the dreamtime of our deep emotional life with intention. We have the opportunity to nurture wholeness in ourselves by honoring and acknowledging the rich, life affirming vitality and emotional depth that is possible when we are tuned into the inner life. We are invited, as well, to connect consciously to the transformational power, rich truths, and regenerative, life-giving, healing sexuality hidden in the often murky internal emotional atmosphere of wounded passion. Scorpio is often justly and unjustly maligned energy, for when it is bad, it is very, very bad, but when it is good, it is a superpower for Truth, Justice and the way of Light. In Shamanic Astrology, Scorpio energy is described as ‘Life Force Energy as a Path to God/dess.’ When you are tuned into it, you are capable of deep emotional intimacy and compassion for the other and all Life.
It is the Force, our Power, with a capital P, and like Anakin Skywalker in the modern mythology of our time, Star Wars, we must be trained to use it as a Jedi Knight or Priestess. Like Anakin, we have the choice, if contaminated by its dark side, to let this energy consume us and create more darkness, or train ourselves to use it as a Force for Light. Wounded by abandonment, death and betrayal, Anakin finds himself faced with the deeply disturbing and destructive emotions of vengeance and righteous retribution. It’s not always immediately apparent that there is another choice when faced with such emotions. Because they are so powerfully disturbing, it often seems that vengeance is righteous and Justice will be served. But instead of being released from the body and the psyche as a purification, as vengeance so short-sightedly promises, perpetuation of these emotions in destructive actions or thought forms causes the wound to fester and deepen and Darth Vader is born. True Justice is Libra's domain(Venus)and the Justice card in the Tarot (VIII); unless vengeance is purified in the heart, it turns against the perpetrator, a karmic balancing, as a sick malaise of body, mind and spirit.
As Star Wars illustrates, turning our back on Darth Vader won’t eliminate the energy from our lives. We must use the light face of the Force to bring Darth Vader to healing, so that the full power of our Life Force energy is focused toward Life and Love. Thus directed, the healing power of Kundalini energy is released from the sacrum to the third eye.
Scorpio energy is associated with the Priestesses of Isis, of which Mary Magdelene and Mother Mary were initiates. Some of the Priestesses of Isis were trained to use the power of intentional sexual pleasure to purify the emotional and etheric bodies of emotional wounding. Tantric practices are used by many initiates today for the same purpose. The work of David Deida explores how raising the vibration of love in sexual union can be directed intentionally to raise the vibration of love in the world.
Another manifestation of Scorpio is the person who is deeply tuned into the forces of life, death and rebirth in Nature and healing. Scorpio is the sign of the Shaman and wise woman, the Crone,the energy healer and psychotherapist.
The Scorpio path describes an initiation in the use of this energy; if you have Scorpio planets or Ascendant or a prominent Pluto, you are an initiate in the use of life force energy. But everyone has Scorpio and Pluto somewhere in the chart. There are many reasons why Scorpio is feared, historical and complex, some of which I’ll address below. The important thing to know now is that we are being asked to look beyond the word Scorpio and the negative connotations it holds and bring our compassion to the real emotional difficulties that all of us experiences in life. It’s my opinion that embracing the emotional depth of the inner life will lead to great healing for all Life on this planet. Some keywords to illustrate the Scorpio Path, from immature to mature (exerpt from New Millenium Being: The Scorpio Path by Guru Rattana, Ph.D.):
Denial->acceptance, awareness
Distrust -> trust
Black and white thinking -> see things the way they are¸ embrace all
Double standards ->non-judgment
Addiction to drama ->intense engagement in real life
Commotional emotions -> connection to the pulse of life
Inner torment, troubled -> strong emotional core
Overpowering fear and anger -> inner truth, insight
Exhaust self with efforting -> magnetize opportunities
Downward spiral to depression -> focus on the Light and transformation
Deceitful -> ability to recognize deception
Corrupt -> naked honesty
Controlling -> inspiring
Manipulative -> strategic thinking
Need to control -> ability to surrender
Power struggles -> profitable and meaningful collaboration
Desire for control -> desire for highest good
Annoying poking at -> offer penetrating wisdom
Fear of dissolution -> able to hold on to identity and oneness
Manipulate -> collaborate, merge
Stuck -> flow with natural cycles
Isolated and alone -> deep intimacy with transformative powers
If you are interested to read a detailed analysis of the evolution of the Scorpio Path, I refer you to this entry:
The Scorpio Path
What is the Path of the Initiate or the Jedi Warrior/Priestess?
Have you ever been somewhere familiar in the dark? Objects that were clearly delineated by the Sun lose their solid shapes. When you try to use your eyes in the dark, you perceive the shadows of things. The mind fills in details according to its predisposition. A hat rack becomes a ghoul waiting for unsuspecting children in the corner. The branches of a tree become the tentacles of a forest monster waiting for your approach to grab you into its clutches. At the dawn, these same objects lose their mystery and we are no longer afraid. In reality, has anything changed? No. Only the way we perceive ourselves when we can only ‘see’ shadows.
There are several possibilities for dealing with perception in the dark. You can wait for the light so you can see clearly or you can react as if the shadow truth is reality or you can face the fear of the imagination and use other senses to perceive the truth.
A perspective on the nature of the split
A long time ago, we lived in nature with both the day and the night. During the day we let our eyes guide us. At night, without the full use of our eyes, we opened to the other senses. Hearing and smell became more acute. We allowed the body to be calm and grounded so we could navigate forest terrain. We calmed the fear of the imagination to listen to our gut instincts to guide us. In esoteric teachings, the differences in the modes of perception describe Solar and Lunar orientations. Perhaps there has always been a predisposition in humanity to over-value Solar perception, I suspect that’s true, but it’s clear that for the past 5000 years or so, there has been a trend towards honoring only what can be seen in the light and fearing the mystery of the dark. The development of monotheism and Akhenaton, the Sun God, turned the orientation of humanity, en masse, towards a deification of what we could ‘see’ in the light of the Sun. Eventually, the Moon and Her mysteries were demonized, just as the connection to deeper modes of perception were rejected as less than accurate. Certainly, for the past few thousand years, there has been an evolution towards exclusively esteeming the perceptions of the mind, which is linked to the Sun god.
An invitation to come home
At its very core, the battle between the Sun god and the Moon goddess represents an internal conflict between our instinctual natures and the intellect. But before I get too far off track here and start going off on the Lemurians and the Atlantians, Wilhem Reich and rejection of the animal nature, I’d like to invite you to come into the dark for a moment. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths…connect to the places in your body where the breath can’t reach…this is the place where wounded Scorpio lives in you. When the breath and energy flow freely in these places, there is an ecstatic appreciation of life and emotional intensity. In order to reach the wounded places and connect to your emotional depth you have to learn how to ‘see’ in the dark. You can only reach these places by turning off the light, facing the shadows your mind creates, tune into your other senses and breathe perception into them. Your perception is, as my dark moon sister Anna so beautifully described it…In-Sight.
The power of Pluto
Back to the mind for a moment, but I promise to bring you back to your Scorpio shortly. Pluto rules Scorpio and for me she is the dark Goddess in all her manifestations: Kali, Hecate, Cerridwen, Lilith, etc. What is her role and why has she become so important to us at the present time? The planet Pluto was discovered in the 1930’s and as an archetype, it is my belief She represents the power of nuclear energy behind our repressed animal natures. During the last century, the destructive power of unconscious Plutonian energy was experienced as three world wars and a severely suicidal attitude towards the health of humanity and the Earth. In astrology, where you find Pluto in the chart is where you have the raw power of atomic energy to transform the area of life in the house Pluto tenants and the planets it aspects. Pluto is like The Tower card in the Tarot(XVI); whatever it touches crumbles to its constituent elements to be reborn as the Phoenix. As a transpersonal planet, Pluto’s destruction is meaningful: whatever is destroyed is meant to be re-oriented towards the collective good.
Pluto represents the raw transformational power of the wounded animal nature, the eternal power of the cycles of life, death and rebirth. In mythology, the wounded healer, Chiron, half man and half horse, was mortally wounded in his flank, or animal nature. Esoteric Astrology tells us that in order to heal the Chiron part of us, or that part of us that is wounded and divided as Solar and Lunar, Atlantian and Lemurian, we must heal the heart of the animal part and the solar plexus of the human part of us. We must relax our bodies and face the fear of our dark places and breathe perception into them and use our will to intentionally direct our life force energy with our In-Sight.
Some excercises to practice
But how can we reach this part of us and what does all this light/dark stuff really mean in practical terms? I invite you to close your eyes again and take a few deep breaths. Now bring yourself to a recent time when you have experienced yourself in one of the following ways: betrayed, victimized, manipulated, controlling, jealous, vengeful. Take a few more deep breaths and pay attention to what is going on in your body and where the breath can’t reach. Pay attention to the emotions that you are feeling. And acknowledge the raw power of these emotions. Kali guides you here; the power itself is neither good nor bad, it is simply power, your power. You may want to open your eyes and go pour a stiff drink or start planning your revenge strategy to dissipate the uncomfortable feelings outward, but stay with me. Don’t give your power away. Take a few more deep breaths with the intention that you will feel your way through the shadows of this place to an inner perception of truth. This mode of perception isn’t like turning on the light; you must practice listening deeply and compassionately in order to calm the mind and bring light to the shadows. You must reach it with your heart. Allow yourself to reach a peaceful place inside yourself. If this isn’t possible, promise yourself you will come back to it when you feel you have more practice.
Let’s do another exercise: Imagine you are walking through the dark forest at night. Take a moment to breathe deeply and connect to your feelings. Hear the mind and listen to how it wants to create monsters from the shadows; listen to your body, ground yourself so you can navigate the dark forest terrain with your other senses. You may want to pick up a stick to fight imagined predators. Calm the mind. Do you really need the stick? If you believe the mind that the woods are filled with predators, what will you do with the stick if you happen upon another being? Will the stick become a weapon that’s used to hurt or be turned against you? Calm the mind and ground the body and continue walking through the dark woods. Do you hear anything? It’s just the owl who’s hooting in the tree. Continue walking, breathing into the hard places, grounding. Listening, feeling, responding with your full attention. The mind doesn’t help you here and soon it is quiet. As your senses take over, you notice the fear has dissipated; you feel safe. More than simply safe, you feel awake and alert and alive. You are responsive to your full accessible senses and fully in your power.
Summary
This is the Scorpio path. It is the dreamtime, the West, the shadow parts of the psyche. It lives in our feeling self. We must meet it with our feeling self. We cannot reach it with the mind because the mind will create monsters and predators from the shadows. The only way to illuminate it and access its power of life, death and rebirth is to feel your way through it to heart. When we keep these emotions in the dark, they fester in the body and are released as destructive tendencies in relationship or towards ourselves. When we meet it with the heart, it is transformed to the raw power to transform bile into honey that can be intentionally directed towards Love and Life.
There are some very good suggestions for working with difficult Scorpio emotions at the end of this entry: The Scorpio Path. Another resource is 'Healing Pluto Problems' by Donna Cunningham. In this book, there are many exercises to help channel difficult emotion. Color therapy is also very helpful; deep purple can soothe and purify harsh Scorpio emotions.
For those who have walked the Scorpio healing path and are living an ecstatic, emotionally rich life of service, I thank you for paving the way for Life.
Peace, love and blessings, Helen
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