Shadow Dancing During Scorpio Season
Late this past Tuesday, October 22, we collectively entered Scorpio season, which admittedly is one of my favorite times of the year. When the Sun shines its light on things, it gives them life and it brings things to light. When it is journeying through Scorpio, it is shining its light on the things we normally don’t see: the magical, mysterious nature of both ourselves and others.
It’s interesting Scorpio season takes place during a time of the year when the shadows are long, the veil between the worlds is considered to be thin, and the dead are honored.
The modern ruler of Scorpio is Pluto, God of the shadowy underworld, transformation in the guise of death and rebirth, and wealth, particularly in the form of precious gems and minerals that lie under the surface of the earth, essentially being unseen.
Scorpio prefers the shadows; it is magnetically drawn to the mystery of what lies under the surface, it knows there’s more to it than what meets the eye. Scorpio is the sign of magic and occult after all - a word whose Latin root means to conceal or hide. During Scorpio season we should ask ourselves what hides behind the veil of our subconscious mind and look to how we can connect more deeply with others. What do we yearn for that part of us has been shamed around such that we have buried it deeply below the surface?
Scorpio is the sign most connected with sex, but what it is really yearning for is intimacy. And yes, often through physically merging with others. Who doesn’t love great sex? Yet, true intimacy, whether with friends, a lover, or ourselves, takes us to the depths and brings forth a vulnerability that can feel profoundly threatening. This most often is when the Scorpio energy that stings itself with its own venom comes rushing forth from the depths of our subconscious mind, and we find ourselves behaving in ways we truly thought we had moved past years ago. The funny thing is, it is; it is a threat to our defenses, the ones that no longer serve our evolution and only create stagnation within our lives.
The only way to true intimacy is to tear down our ego-created walls and give ourselves over to it completely. As Carl Jung said, “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” Our relationships, beginning with the one that we have with ourselves, are meant to transform us. To burn away the dross so that we can find the gold. What do we yearn for that part of us has been shamed around such that we have buried it deeply below the surface?
Poet and teacher David Whyte, a Scorpio himself, takes on shame in his newest writings. He beautifully illustrates: “Shame outlines exactly the ways we feel inadequate and unequal to life and exactly the nature and place of our hiding. Shame provides us, generously and on a daily basis, with the invitation to understand all the ways we do not wish or do not deserve to be seen, to be touched or to be invited to join the extraordinary dance of the world: shame tells us instantly all the ways we desire to meet but dare not meet, all the ways we are desperate to play but do not play; all the ways we desire to sing but do not sing.”
I love Scorpio season, it beckons us to look below the surface, to dive with shameless abandon towards a greater intimacy with ourselves and others. To risk and test ourselves by going beyond the boundaries we either put in place ourselves or have been told tales of by those who were afraid to go beyond themselves. Scorpio season asks us to sing.
Each day this month, I am going to be posting a journaling prompt on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mindymendelsohn/)to help you clear out the cobwebs in your life. Here is today’s journaling prompt for Scorpio season:
Contemplate an area of your life where you are experiencing a sense of stagnation and ask yourself, Why am I hanging on when I know I would be better off letting go?
