Awakenings Astrology for Heart and Soul
5th October 2012 GMT: Mercury and Saturn enter Scorpio
by Sarah Varcas
As Mercury and Saturn enter Scorpio together we are given a potent symbol for what is to come: Mercury, the planet of communication, combined with Saturn, the planet of restriction, maturation and wisdom in the sign of the Scorpion, which brings us the deepest and the highest states we can experience in the human realm. Here we see the birth of a new phase in our evolution, one that demands we open ourselves up to each other and communicate honestly about our experience of life, in order for wisdom to arise and be shared among us. There can be so much denial in our lives. So much that we don’t admit to, that we choose not to focus upon, that we criticise in others whilst it festers away hidden in ourselves! Everyone does it to some extent or other, and now the heavens are putting their foot down and making it very clear: No more denial, no more projection. Own who you are. Be who you are. Accept the karmic consequences of who you are and then we can all start a fresh from here on in.
Put like that it almost sounds simple, and yet we all know how difficult it can be to look at the aspects of ourselves which we find so hard to accept: the things that cause us shame, the mistakes we’ve made, the lies we’ve told, the petty acts of revenge that can pepper a life even without us being aware of what’s really motivating us. There can be a powerful movement in many spiritual systems of thought and practice to slip into even greater denial of these parts of ourselves. Teachings that everything is sweetness and light and quick fixes can change a life are rife, and whilst there can be much merit in these for some people, they can also contribute to a denial of the ‘darker’ aspects of human nature that take a lot of weeding out and processing. As Saturn and Mercury move into Scorpio now they exhort us to dig deep, own up and embrace all that we are, no holds barred. In doing so, they assure us, energy will be released for creative progress in our lives, which has previously be spent only on keeping down the shadows and maintaining our publicly acceptable face!
Mercury will be through Scorpio and out the other side in a matter of weeks, entering Sagittarius at the end of this month, but Saturn will remain there for almost three years. During this time it will be in a particularly helpful alliance with Pluto, known as ‘Mutual Reception’, meaning that they are occupying each others’ signs. So whilst the process ahead of us may be a long and challenging one at times, one that’s designed by the universe to leave no stone unturned and no act of denial intact, we are assured that the more we can bring into the light for recognition and acceptance, the more deeply our lives will be transformed by the energy available to us as a result. It is, indeed, in the darker and more hidden aspects of ourselves and our lives that most of our energy is spent, keeping the lid on thoughts and feelings, desires, deceptions, aspects of our character that we would rather weren’t there. The more we can begin to own these, accept their presence, recognise that human nature is such that we all have these darker places which we collude with each other to avoid, the more able we will be to heal the wounds they cause, and which caused them in the first place.
‘Quick fixes’ may become far less effective in the coming years as we grapple with the undertow in our lives that pulls us down again and again. With Saturn in Scorpio we need to become good swimmers, adept deep sea divers, in order to navigate our inner worlds with our eyes and hearts wide open. Because, ultimately it doesn’t matter what we find down there. What matters is what we do with it now, in this moment, and then the next and the next. As Oscar Wilde rightly observed: ‘The only difference between a saint and a sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future’. We are all both, and whichever role we may identify the most with, the opposite is always there to be revealed when the time is ripe for such revelation. It is in fully accepting these opposites that we can finally begin to discover the wholeness which, together, they bring. Life is as it is. We are as we are. No denial changes that fact, nor does it change the past, but acceptance of it can most certainly change our future.
