The Zodiac Club #10: Scorpio I
As we enter the first stage of Scorpio, we stop to think of the things we're ready to let go.
Hauntology Now! is the Substack of interdisciplinary artist, designer, musician, academic writer, and cultural critic J. Simpson, where he writes about all things hauntological, atemporal, philosophical, as well as sharing thoughts, reflections, and musings on music, movies, books, and life.
Novia muerte, Chalma, México/Graciela Iturbide1990. Google Arts & Culture
At 6:14 PM EST, the sun passed from Libra, the sign of Balance and Relationships ruled by Venus, to Scorpio, the sign of Death and Resurrection ruled by either Mars or Pluto depending on who you ask. It’s a potent time - as full of renewal and new beginnings as death and endings - that’s also one of the most misunderstood in all of astrology.
It’s fairly understandable. After all, Scorpio’s symbolized by at least four different animals - the scorpion, serpent, eagle, and phoenix - as well as two different planets, including Pluto, perhaps the most inscrutable and unknowable of them all. Scorpio feels more like an alchemical process, the process of putrefaction and cleansing, dissolving and crystallization. To write about Scorpio with even a hope of comprehensiveness would require a treatise outside of the scope of the single issue of a newsletter (more on this in the future?)
In the meanwhile, i mainly wanted to leave you with one quick thought, to capture this ephemeral solar energy. What are you ready to let go of? What will be purified in Scorpio’s holy bonfire? While in some respects, Western culture has overly-sentimentalized Death, annexing it into the realm of Toxic Positivity along with everything else, in other regards the topic of Death is simply avoided altogether. When you simply refuse to acknowledge the topic in any regard, you run the risk of forgetting that Death is as much about new beginnings as endings.
Think about a rose bush. In the autumn and winter, you trim the dead buds. This way, in the springtime the bush doesn’t waste energy on dead blooms. Instead, it’s able to focus on growing new petals, new thorns, new stems.
I’ll leave you with that closing thought. Think of today’s transit as a larger version of the New Moon energy, going inward and planting new seeds to come to later fruition. In the meanwhile, think about what’s holding you back? What limiting beliefs do you have? What negative self talk have you internalized? Who would you like to become?
May the purifying fires of Scorpio bring you clarity and peace. May you burn bright.
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“While in some respects, Western culture has overly-sentimentalized Death, annexing it into the realm of Toxic Positivity along with everything else, in other regards the topic of Death is simply avoided altogether. When you simply refuse to acknowledge the topic in any regard, you run the risk of forgetting that Death is as much about new beginnings as endings.” Hence the Death tarot card which corresponds with Scorpio. Great piece!