We will be judged by our values and our actions.
Last month’s Scorpio New Moon:
But first, it’s time for some shadow work. Jung defined the shadow as that part of our personality we don’t see, which we reject as too painful, but which contains new life if we consciously relate to it. The dark emotions that Scorpio deals with bring up shadow issues.
With last month’s Scorpio New Moon bringing up some shadow issues (especially around November 15th, when one of its rulers, Mars, went retrograde), raise you hand if you had an encounter with a shadow element of your personality.
Well, my hand is raised, so I’ll report back to you. There’s always more to learn about yourself, always more room for greater consciousness. Don’t berate yourself for falling into your shadow complex as long as you recognize it and see the old patterns it relates to. As a matter of fact, you have to experience your shadow to become conscious of it. These past two weeks have given us a chance to recognize and release any old patterns that have been hiding out within our psyches. Now we need to acknowledge and let go of them and open our mind to new paradigms of behavior and belief. What served us before no longer works. It might even get us into trouble. So ask why your shadow developed – usually to help you survive in some way – honor it as an unloved aspect of yourself, and start working on transforming its energies.
The shadow can stop you from stepping into these new energies that are building up as so many planets pass over the galactic center. My experience was enlightening to me, because I failed to listen to a dream that showed me how to act in a certain situation that sudden confronted me this past week. My dream told me to stay silent, but my old shadow compelled me to respond, telling me that speaking my truth was more important. And of course it backfired. Even better, as I was explaining to a friend how I should have heeded my dream message, I heard a loud screech, and looking up, saw a hawk circling above me. He stayed there circling until he was sure I got the message! Sometimes truth is best served by not being drawn into conflict. Sometimes silence is the better way.
Mars Retrograde – November 15th to January 30th.
Let’s talk about Mars again, since its retrograde will be very important this year, as it opposes Pluto, Jupiter and the Galactic Center three time this fall and winter, taking the instructions we get from the Jupiter/Pluto/GC conjunction and acting on it. Mars began its retrograde at 13 Cancer, and people with Sun or Moon in Cancer, or Cancer rising will be especially prone to introspection, where they will be pushed to reconsider personal views and opinions about life, giving them an opportunity to gain insight into their unconscious motivations. Mars in Cancer wants to be loved and to love, to nurture and to be nourished, to feel safe and to keep safe those they love. Why and how they do it will be up for review and renewal.
Mars is the urge to DO something, to change and transform the outer world, by either building or destroying. Mars symbolizes all things masculine in the world and within our own psyches. Mars energy is assertive, aggressive, argumentative, energized, sexual and desirous. Mars in Cancer documents how we nurture the masculine in ourselves, in our culture (Mars went retrograde on America’s Sun), and in our men. Mars wants us to review what our expectations are about how the masculine and men nurture life.
When a planet goes RETROGRADE, it just means that a planet appears to go backwards, the planet’s energy turns within and we get the opportunity to re-do, re-play, re-think, re-plan, review, revisit, re-configure, re-conform, realign, reconnect and all the RE's you can think of.
With Mars going retrograde in Cancer, the sign of mother, family, roots, emotional security, and the past - the past might need to be revisited to regain some information you’ve forgotten and need to bring back into your life. Mars starts its retrograde in Cancer, a watery, feeling sign, so at first we need to listen to and validate our feelings. On December 24th, Mars retrograde is opposite the Sun, energizing the rebirth of the Solstice Sun. Then on New Year’s Eve, Mars goes back into Gemini (opposing Jupiter, Pluto and the Galactic Center - questioning the nature of our desires and their purpose in our lives), where it energizes us to think in new ways directly related to our feelings and higher vision. By the time Mars turns direct on January 30th, Mars will have developed a new way of THINKING AND DOING, and when it goes back into Cancer on March 5th, it will begin energizing the feminine energy of Cancer, and will be concerned with a nurturing vision and nurturing a vision.
Other cosmic happenings:
December 4th – Jupiter conjuncts the Galactic Center.
December 11th – Jupiter-Pluto conjunction at 28 Sagittarius. This energy will be building from now until the 11th. This conjunction supports concentrations of energy, wealth, or power and can bring opportunities to let go of and transform something in the area of life symbolized by the house where 28 Sagittarius is in your birth chart. Some themes will be: Transformation through expansion; the judicious use of power; change for the better.
Have faith that the way is opening, both collectively and personally, for fruitful change. With Jupiter in its own sign, joined with Pluto’s deep truthfulness, great things are in store for us.
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