But Wait, There's More (About Scorpio)

10.26.06


(1) In the midst of my single-minded focus on five planets in Scorpio—and with such a disproportion weighing us toward one sign, how could astrologers not get 'single-minded'?—I may have neglected to mention one important detail.

One of these planets, Mercury, is turning retrograde on us. It happens on Saturday (Oct 28)… though, really, we're already wrapped up into its shadow of communicative confusion. Mercury stays retrograde through Nov 17.

To review: When Mercury's moving retrograde, our communications and transmissions get a little screwy. Computers act haywire. Important papers go lost. Transportation runs slow or strange. Etcetera, etcetera.

As I've said repeatedly, so many of our Merc-retro problems are self-created… by our refusal to adapt to the 'alternate' direction things are moving. Rather than sit in the traffic, we look for ways around it—only to find ourselves wasting an extra hour on confusing side streets, looking for the cut-through. Instead of allowing our email to be temporarily delayed, we start messing with the software… and end up causing a much-more-major outage that requires a frustrating call to the helpline.

Therefore, when things start acting weird, please take a pause. Walk away. Give it a few minutes or an hour to work itself out. Chances are, it was never 'broken' to begin with. And while you're waiting, let your mind wander. Think about other things. Take a few deep breaths.

(2) This Mercury retrograde is inextricably caught up with its conjunction to Jupiter, an aspect which is all about going over the top with how we speak, think and travel. The first peak was last Sunday (Oct 22), and the next is on Monday (Oct 30). That means Mercury's station (at 25 Scorpio) is within a degree's range of the conjunction.

The worst of the Merc-retro problems, thus, are likely to arise from rushing through things… jumping too quickly ahead to the 'difficult' part of the interaction, rather than taking due time to butter each other up… shifting lanes too quickly or turning too soon… opening too many computer applications at once, causing a crash… or just generally overreacting.

It's wonderful, of course, for cutting through the small talk and getting to the meat of the matter. But remember: Since Mercury is retrograde—and one more peak of Mercury-Jupiter is left to occur on Dec 10, after both bodies have moved in Sagittarius—don't expect the meaty matter to reach a tidy, easily encapsulated resolution quite yet.

(3) A few readers have emailed in with concern about the Scorpio super-stellium, with words like 'foreboding' or 'edgy'… betraying bites of fear in between their lines. There's nothing to be scared of in this, people. Scorpio stuff is a natural part of our lives. It's that very touchy resistance to dealing with the full, warts-and-all reality of our psyches which makes the worst of it pop out.

(I, for one, have thus far experienced this Scorpio business on a largely internal level, lining myself up even further with what my intuition's telling me—though, the truth is, my ego would probably prefer not to know what I 'know', since it might force me to give up something I wanted. I wanted it for all the shallow reasons, though. On the deep deep soul level, however, I'm hearing a resounding, 'No, no, you know this isn't right. You're not going to ignore me, are you?')

Under this Scorpio sway, we may find ourselves (or others) dwelling on unresolved drama, especially in relationships… dredging up residual bits of fury, passion and shame that we thought had already been put to bed. But it's coming up for a reason, right? Don't try to prettify the old crap away, by making the other person (or yourself) feel bad for still holding in. Perhaps Jupiter's influence will help push you to say what you didn't during the last processing session.

And despite the problems with clarity or control, there's a certain poetic beauty with the added Merc-retro in Scorpio—an excuse to make less rational sense, in exchange for spontaneous emotional honesty. Meanwhile, if somebody tries to backpedal on what was said, rest assured: They just accidentally showed you their hand… and lost face in the process.

(4) One last bit, to help make sense of this current moment: This week, we're at the third of three peaks with a Jupiter-Saturn square, which first entered our zone at the end of '05. It might be useful to reread what I wrote about it back then, as this is an important marker-point in the larger Jupiter-Saturn cycle.

Jupiter and Saturn last conjoined in 2000, and now are at the final moment of their 'First Quarter' square. This is an apt time to review the history of the past 5-6 years, both on a macro/social level and in our personal lives. We're receiving a progress report on how the ideals we put into practical action back then are working… and not working. Usually, it's a mixed bag (unless we're totally perfect or an absolute nightmare of a mess).

And how interesting that, in the US, we're a mere couple weeks away from an election that'll make a clear statement on where the people stand, particularly in relation to the bill-of-goods sold us by the '00 shift in power. Very Jupiter-Saturn square, to be sure.