A Time To Battle Darkness and Bring On The Light.
Yoga Connections
It’s Scorpio Season! In the West, that is. Many celebrate Halloween this time of year —a holiday evolved from a Celtic harvest festival called Samhain that ushers in the darkness of winter. In the East, Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs celebrate the victory of light over darkness during this season. Rama-Chandra, an incarnation of Vishnu, battled the demons, and his success is celebrated with a festival known as Diwali or 'row of lights.'
All those born under this sign of Scorpio or at a time when the constellation appeared to be rising in the eastern horizon have had to come face-to-face with the shadowside of human nature. It is what the fixed water sign of Scorpio brings to our awareness from October 23 to November 22.
The sign of Scorpio is ruled by both Mars and Pluto. Since astronomers didn't discover its co-ruler, Pluto, until the 1930s, Mars took the role as Scorpio's first ruler. Once Pluto came into view, it received all of the dark, passionate, transformational aspects of Scorpio. With its dual rulership of Mars (God of fire and war) and Pluto (God of death and the underworld), Scorpio season is not one that goes by unnoticed.
Of course, you might ask what do constellations and planets in the sky have to do with us? Well, Astrology came about like everything else does, as a belief, shaped by perceived evidence, and evolved by a story. When ancient stargazers looked into the sky, the Milky Way became the unfertilized whelm of souls. "As above, so below," is a common maxim from The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. According to author, Dennis W. Hauck the original text is more like "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.”
Hermes credits the Zoroastrians and the Astrology of the World for initiating the cosmology around the ever-growing body of astrological narratives. The constellations, their ruling planets, and the aspects they make to each other are said to create energetic tendencies, opportunities, and challenges. The ancients found the set of stars they attributed to a Scorpion with its stinger raised and appearing to emerge from a crack in the sky. The story that evolved associating this crack in the darkest part of the sky with the underworld - where we battle death and are reborn.
When Scorpio is on the horizon, the constellation Orion, the hunter, is in the underworld and visa-versa. Artemis, goddess of the moon (and found in the constellation of Cancer), plays the intermediary and diplomat keeping balance in nature, assuring animals are not killed for sport but only food. The constellation of Scorpio is said to have been placed in the sky as a reward for slaying Orion before it killed the bull (Taurus constellation). The epic plays out endlessly above us.
The Sun entered the sign of Scorpio on October 23. Before that Venus, the planet of love, value systems, and all things feminine went into Scorpio on October 8 and a New Moon (intense new beginnings) in Scorpio happened on October 27 (interestingly, the same time as Diwali). The month of October ends with Mercury appearing to go backward or retrograde in the sign of Scorpio. Mercury, the planet of communications, short distant travel, siblings, and neighbors - when retrograde causes a little havoc in those areas. At the same time, it brings things from the past back for us to review to help us refine our direction.
November brings us ever closer to a January 12, 2020, Pluto/Saturn conjunction, hard work (Saturn & the earth sign of Capricorn ), leading to major transformation (Pluto). This conjunction hasn’t happened in almost 38 years. All of the Scorpionic activity gives us the opportunity to put an end to the darkness in our lives and allow a cosmic planting of new light seeds into our unconscious that promise to illuminate the world by spring.
A consistent yoga practice with the practice of Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra 1.36, Visoka va jyotismati (Vee-SHO-kah-VA Joe-TISH-ma-TEA) can help. Mr. Iyengar translates this sutra as one of the ways Patañjali offers to manage our thoughts, “Or, inner stability is gained by contemplating a luminous sorrowless, effulgent light.” It’s nice to know, that no matter how dark things may appear, if we focus on the flame of a candle or hold a luminous light in our mind’s eye, we can bring forth the light of our soul.
Namaste.
By Rhonda Geraci