Scorpio - the courage to let go of the past to be in the present

Zodiac signs tend to have within them both ends of a particular issue. Scorpio is a fixed sign and tends to hold on to memories of old events together with the reactions engendered by them. Often that reaction is hurt covered over by anger, which turns into a smouldering resentment. The event and its resentful colouring hang together at the bottom of the mental lake, ready to resurrect when a likely trigger appears.

And yet, it is the courage of Scorpio in us that will not turn away from a path that is right for us, however painful it may be. When the time is right, we attract the resurrecting circumstances - the emotional trigger is pulled! Then we have another chance to see those things about ourselves that we may have been denying, or tried to change, or wished could be different. Nothing changes until it is acknowledged, and accepted as true in the present. Scorpio’s courage to accept the truth is spiritually supported.

Constructive use of the mind-emotion-body link

This is a very good time for adjusting the way we use the power of our minds in the emotional field (Mercury through Scorpio 2 to 22 November). When we hold intense mental focus to imagine a physical situation, we are deliberately creating an experience within the emotional field, that convinces the body we are having the experience now. Sports people use this power to improve their golf swing, or football tackling skills. It is this process that has us buying what we have seen advertised, often when we wouldn’t have thought of wanting it before. We can affect our unconscious reactions through re-imagining situations that used to be frightening, sometimes referred to as ‘changing your past’. And we can use this time to build in those positive habits that bathe us in happiness rather than anxiety.

AND, as with all attempts to act in the psychic world, we are likely to find the opposite tendencies arising even as we begin. These are the habits that we have identified as who we are; they are the old principles we learned to obey as children; they are attitudes of righteousness, of insufficiency, of competition.

So the early part of this process tends to need us to focus on whatever is the lowest level of any area needing work - deep change (transformation) cannot be achieved without letting go of everything, and then waiting while the space revealed fills with only what really belongs to us, what is true now.

Energy we give to memory is not available to the present

Part of the work this month is to realise that you are haunted by your past deeds only when you relive them in your mind (Sun/Moon with Mercury in Scorpio). They don’t come at you of their own volition; you have to recreate them every time. All the time that we hold these old events in mind, our energy is being drained by re-living those old reactions - it’s only by emoting about the past that we give it life.

We are continually wasting the energy we need for living, by holding on to emotions about what is past! Persistent lack of energy in the present could be the result of trauma, where the unconscious takes the energy for the emotions that are still being triggered all the time. This could also be true of fearing the future; thoughts, worries, anxieties draining the life energy that we could be feeling and using now. When you are ‘present’ in your life, anticipatory fear falls away, and old deeds and events cease to exist: you remember them, but that’s all - they have no power. You can be completely free of them, and of any blame or pain you may feel because of them.

When we leave our bodies at the end of this life, it seems we undergo a life review. When trawling through your memories, those events that are attached to your mind through your emotions about them, or your state of mind at that time, will bring back the emotions exactly as you felt them then. Make peace now with what ‘haunts’ you, and the review will be that much less painful. After all, no one else can remember your memories; other people only remember their own. We are ourselves the only judges we have to face.

This month, the key phrase in that process is ‘make peace’ (Venus on North Node in Libra). We need to be at peace with the past (Venus sextile Saturn), recognising that whatever happened, happened then. What followed, is just what followed! In truth, there is no fault or blame; their appearance stems from judgements made with the limited understanding we had then. It’s our judgements of our past that haunt us.

Re-working the foundations of the present

Judgements have no reality except in the mind. They depend on our priorities and morals and agendas, all of which are mental structures; they define our attitudes, and how we identify ourselves, but they do need updating as we go along. So be in the present, trawl through your old desires, and any decisions you made long ago, and check how you would like to be now. Updating the deep foundations of our present behaviour is blessed with healing this month (Mercury in Scorpio sextiles Jupiter and trines Chiron).

Doing this work from a detached perspective will work best. Do the best you can, refraining from criticising yourself or others (Mars in Virgo sextiles Saturn), and be sure to resist being influenced by other people’s opinions (Uranus in Aries quincunxes Mercury and Jupiter).

Re-balancing for love

The clearing that has been going on for the last month or so carries on in a practical way through this coming month but, from 11/12 November, there is a shift in focus that includes our relationships as well (North Node goes back into Virgo, as Mars moves forward into Libra). This could show up as revealing how our relationships are affected by, and affect, the organisation of our time: the balance between work and social life; between pleasure and obligations; between family and friends; between those we feel depend on us and those who we rely on to brighten our lives (Venus through Libra until 5 December).

‘Be willing to look at another person’s behaviour toward you as a reflection of the state of their relationship with themselves, rather than a statement about your value as a person . . .’ Yogi Bhajan. Without our knee-jerk reactions, we are free to respond appropriately.

Working in the present appropriately

By the Full Moon on 25 November, we may already have committed to a new way of being with others, and we must remember to consider that they will have been going through the same kind of clearing process as ourselves. So others may not respond as they have done before (Sun/Saturn/Mercury and Moon, all squaring Neptune), and our new way may well need re-working as we go along (Mars in harmony with Sun and Moon, and quincunx Neptune). You may have misunderstood someone, so be prepared to adjust without rancour.

This whole month, and the next, there is an atmosphere of encouragement for all our efforts to ‘get it right’ now (Jupiter approaching North Node in Virgo) - together with a compassion for past pains, which informs our service (Jupiter opposite Chiron in Pisces). We have such a need to be kind to ourselves when memories involve our minds: find a phrase or two to run like a mantra while old stuff is going through, like ‘that was then, or ‘let it go to the Light’. We can ask for help: ‘please take care of anything left over’, or ‘please help me release what is no longer mine’. If you find something that you always meant to balance up, then do that very soon so it can fall away from you. Just do your best with it all at this time; the pressure will be at its maximum during the first half of November, and will be to easing by 22 November (Mercury out of Scorpio into Sagittarius).

Being present . . .

One way to be in the present is to consider the space around you, and to be inside the body you have created, as it is now: now, there is only what is now. The space around us is the container of all things including our bodies. And the silence is that which contains all the sounds we hear. The space is silent and still, and there we find the presence of consciousness. That space is so vibrant and alive, open and new. There is a brightness in this moment. Each breath in is totally inwards and lung-filling, and the breath out is totally outwards and relaxing; each breath is the only breath, because the last breath doesn’t exist anymore . . .