How are you doing with this Mercury retrograde in Scorpio, especially now that the Sun is in this sign? Are you encountering forgotten passions or revisiting old hang-ups? Reenacting old patterns of thinking and communicating, or perhaps realizing how far you’ve come sexually? Aspects that involve Scorpio both directly and indirectly are at play today, offering up material for transmutation.
First up, Mars (the traditional ruler of Scorpio) is in Virgo, making a square to the asteroid Psyche in Sagittarius. Mars is the planet of physical action, drive and desire; Psyche often represents some kind of psychological ‘wound’ we erroneously fear we can never heal.
The square between them suggests a question: When your desire gets stuck on the mental plane and you’re convinced you’re spiritually/psychologically wounded, how do you get back in your body? When push comes to shove in that situation, how do you ground yourself back in your senses?
Squares naturally ask us to take action, something Mars specializes in. The Mars-Psyche square says that deciding to do something specific and physical is key. Choose; then do. If you’re with a partner, choose, then communicate it precisely, then do exactly what you’ve described. As mentioned, Mercury, which rules communication, is in Scorpio — the sign of sex and deep transformation. Use it.
Lending a helping hand, Pluto in Capricorn is trine Mars (earth to earth; a sense of flow). Pluto is the modern ruler of Scorpio and is kind of like a rumbling earthquake in Capricorn, bringing change from deep below. Think of it as opening up space for doing things a new way. Change is good in sex!
Psyche in Sagittarius, however, might be presenting something of a red herring in this square with Mars, acting as though being ‘spiritual’ is better than or cancels out our very human, very creative sexual energy. Eric put it like this:
“I propose a caution against the ‘spiritual solution’ to the puzzle of sex: ‘god’s love is better, I can transcend this, I can escape’. Mars is demanding physicality and intellectual integration.
“Psyche seems to be saying: ‘Jesus (or free-floating cosmic love or the mystical longing) is a lot simpler. I need to escape this sense of injury by sidestepping the whole messy business of sex, mud and grit.’”
But how often does sidestepping our messy sexual material really work — especially with Mercury, the Sun, Saturn and an approaching eclipse all in Scorpio?
Speaking of Mercury and Saturn, tomorrow they form a conjunction in Scorpio, exact at 4:48 pm EDT. Mercury-Saturn conjunctions generally bring a depth of mind and a degree of seriousness — not a bad thing, especially given how fast Mercury (and our attention spans) can move.
In deep, brooding, sexy, potentially jealous Scorpio, however, things could get a little depressive. It’s not an absolute, but it’s one potential manifestation. Mercury being retrograde could intensify the sense of inward pull and the urge to dwell in or relive the past, or a tendency to get lost in one’s own sexual history and feel isolated in that. By no means are you ‘doomed’ if you lean this way naturally, but if you find yourself in that space, be gentle with yourself, know that it will pass (and that you’re not alone in it), and that it can actually be very constructive.
There’s a methodical and ambitious side to Mercury-Saturn. Can you use it to focus on the healing goal at the end of the tunnel? That focus — or intense focus on any project you’ve been trying to make progress with — can have real results now (and if not now, potentially in a few weeks when Mercury conjoins Saturn again in direct motion).
We’re approaching a New Moon and eclipse: a cosmic re-start button. It’s a chance to take what you learn and step through a wormhole to a new level of understanding and integration. So what are you learning?
I second that e-motion, Lizzy. Going to bed, and hopefully staying there till sun up. The moon and the still invisible comet woke me at 4 am.
Love this report, Amanda. My body is putting the brakes on and everything else says Go for it. There must be a path through and forward.
I won’t stay in bed till sun up. Have you seen the predawn sky in North America? It’s splendid!
“dissers fail no matter how right they are. In the act of dissing you shut the door on the kiss of the cosmos and throw your divine gifts into the gutter.”
thanks, yeti, for the reminder — and good luck and congratulations on your continued musical self-discovery and growth! i really appreciate hearing how things are unfolding for you these days. sweet.
Learning: a line in a novel I’ve been reading illuminates a glitch I used to nourish: resentment at not being respected combined with insecurity about not having done enough to earn that respect. As I’ve dismissed the disser to clear space for the practice a respectable human emerges. Musically this is growing respect from my community for my skills. I used to complain a lot about not getting the respect I thought I deserved, but the same dissing habits I used against the world prevented me from practicing enough to get the respect I thought I deserved.
In the astro lens it’s my lunar nodes that light up: between the mean and true the picture on the South node in Sabian language is a bankrupt mockingbird. In Gemini this is the stage of the game where I’m learning cover songs to strengthen skills, or just spinning my wheels collecting shiny objects that add up to a pile of trash I can’t sell and don’t know what to do with. On the north node is a socially respectable old bridge: when I finally cooled off enough to respect elders enough to learn from them I began learning the roots of musical practice whereas before all I had was a bag of shiny objects, a morass of decorations that wrecked the roots of my musical skills and bombed me back to the stone age. My original songs are bringing out reflections of respect and love from the people who hear them, more so than the covers, but only after a few years of playing backup instruments with musicians far more skilled than me, singing with my iPod (mockingbird!), and then after a couple of years picking up guitar practice so I could provide my own support for vocals and star crafting songs again.
The main lesson: dissers fail no matter how right they are. In the act of dissing you shut the door on the kiss of the cosmos and throw your divine gifts into the gutter.
thank you Amanda – your words are a balm for the fevered brow – and Michele for putting it into song.
Many thanks for this, dear Amanda! Am llearning a lot but find it pretty overwhelmong, feel like going to bed for the rest od the week, to be honest!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmBA7e-G21Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dpwJS1-uYM
transformation.