Let Your Soul Determine the Pace & Inhabiting the Murky Place: A Reflection on the New Moon in Scorpio
This is a week of shifts. On Tuesday, the North Node moves from Leo to Cancer and Uranus moves from Taurus back into Aries for just one final review before spending 7 years straight in Taurus. On Wednesday, the Moon is new in Scorpio. On Thursday, Jupiter will leave Scorpio and move into Sagittarius, his home — where he returns every 12 years.
As both the North Node and Jupiter shift signs and energies this week, they form a trine (a positive relationship) to one another during the New Moon. This brings strength to the power of fire and water amidst so much power and energy in Scorpio — a water sign that also holds a lot of fire.
How do you maintain both your fire and your water without allowing the fire to be extinguished or the water to dry up? Fire is passion, inspiration, creativity. Fire MOVES you! Water is emotion, adaptability. It SOOTHES you! How can you move while remaining compassionate? How can you listen to others without being stalled? How can you release the emotions that need to be released? Allow the fire to destroy them and then allow the water to carry away the ashes.
Scorpio goes inside. Every human needs the time and space to go inward — some of us more than others. As the light decreases here in the Northern Hemisphere, we move further into darkness, into our deepest and most private spaces. What are the practices that you are willing to commit to — especially as the days get shorter, darker and colder — that will allow you to maintain your inner fire so that you can keep doing your work? The work that you do on the outside might make you appear different, but it’s the work on the inside that causes you to actually be different. The inner work you do is what allows you to be a light for the world, because inner work is really about peeling away all of the things that keep your light from shining.
Everything will be flowing during this new moon — feelings, tears, love. The New Moon in Scorpio is trine Neptune in Pisces — more water, some beauty, some love, some dissolving of that which no longer serves us. Pluto — Scorpio’s ruler — is also in a beneficial relationship with both the moon and Neptune. When Neptune and Pluto come together in a positive relationship, the potential for deep healing is almost endless. Pluto opens up, dredges up, and Neptune applies his mystical magical balm to smooth things over. This is powerful medicine — especially as Venus continues her retrograde for a couple more weeks.
If, like me, you are a person whose natural constitution is heavy on Earth and Air, this transit could be a bit destabilizing. However, if, like me, you are a person meant to manifest fire and water in this life, this week could bring you exactly what you need — a little uncomfortable, but it could also feel really amazing at the same time — as fire and water can. One thing is for sure — this is not a week to move too quickly. You don’t need to spend all day every day in silent meditation. But I would recommend spending at least a little time each day tuning into you. Meditate, journal, color, take a walk, see where you are. See how you are. Celebrate your reality. Both fire and water are from the heart. Trust where your heart takes you.
Jupiter in Sagittarius represents expansion. Once you’ve learned something, you can’t unlearn it. Once you’ve been somewhere new, you can’t return to the person you were before you had that experience. You can try … but personal research demonstrates that it doesn’t go very well. When you have new experiences and learn new things, you are changed. Your shape shifts. Your reality is altered — forever. Jupiter in Sagittarius shows us how much we’ve grown and changed as a result of the choices we’ve made in our lives to explore and expand — physically, spiritually and intellectually. It also encourages us to begin a new cycle of growth and expansion. How that expansion shows up for you, most likely, will depend on where Sagittarius lives in your chart. This area of your chart and your life will receive some luck and expansion over the next year. When you set intentions for the new moon, you are also setting intentions for this new transit.
Scorpio is the sign of transformation, death, rebirth, psychic activity and healing, merging with another (physically, financially and spiritually), the worth you gain by merging with another and what it’s worth surrendering in order to do so. Over the past year, Jupiter has transited through this sign asking us what it’s worth to surrender with and for another and what it’s not worth. Whether we choose to surrender or not, we are transformed. In Sagittarius, we move out into the world. We leave our families and friends. We leave what we know and what we believe to be true. We leave the local community that brings us comfort. We leave our beliefs and all that have formed them. And we dare to trek into new territory — physically, spiritually and/or intellectually. Sagittarius is a sign that seeks the Truth (with a capital T) — it’s a sign that believes there IS only one Truth (with a capital T). But the best way to channel this energy is to use it to find what is true for you NOW …
The past couple of years have brought immense change. They’ve brought immense work and deep healing — personal, collective and ancestral. Space has been created, even as we’ve been made exhausted by the last remnants of an unconscious and uncompassionate world that can exist no longer. We grasp. And then we surrender. We grasp. And then we surrender. But after the final surrender, we are ready to move outward. Chances are good that we will see devotion to spiritual practices expand over the next year. Chances are good that you will explore something new — perhaps something you never even considered before. What’s inspiring you right now? WHO is inspiring you right now? This is a travel-heavy transit. But these are not tourists. These are people with a deep desire to discover what is true. Perhaps you will explore a new field of study or simply deepen one. This is an exploratory year. It’s a gap year. You get one. And then, next year, Jupiter will move into Capricorn, and you will be forced to turn your practice into a discipline. Discipline is the outcome of devotion. Practice with devotion and discipline is easy.
Sagittarius is a fire sign and this new moon in Scorpio is fiery water — find something that excites and ignites you! You have every sign within you. You have every energy within you. Allow yourself to be penetrated deeply by your own passion. Allow your own desire to explore to be that which transforms you. It’s not about the destination or how you change what’s around you on the outside. It is about whether and how you allow the journey and the outside world to transform you. Like Che Guevarra said, you can’t change the world unless you allow the world to change you. And you can’t change unless you go out into it and experience it fully.
Sagittarius might seek the Truth, but Scorpio — perhaps more than any other sign — really and truly knows … the truth … whether you like it or not! But during this moon, Scorpio’s truth takes on a slightly different sensibility than usual. During this moon, Scorpio is urging you to allow yourself to sit with the truth that you’re not perfect. And you don’t have to be. Everyone makes poor choices. Everyone gets confused. Everyone takes a wrong turn into the ocean. Everyone fucks up. The North Node in Cancer is expansive enough to hold whatever stupid shit you did. The North Node represents energetic destiny — the energy that a person or collective must manifest in order to achieve it’s destiny in the world. Cancerian energy is maternal — it loves you no matter what you’ve done. When the North Node moves into Cancer, the South Node moves into Capricorn. The South Node represents the energy you need to move away from. Capricorn energy is very rule-based, retributive, outcome-oriented and certain. Capricorn requires certainty in the outside world. Healthy Cancerian energy is certain of her own internal landscape. She knows that she can’t control the world around her or even what arises within her. But she has the capacity to hold so much and is very in touch with her emotions and her own emotional needs. Capricorn represents external security, structural security. Cancer represents inner security, emotional security, feeling safe to be who you are.
Venus is still in retrograde for the first part of this cycle. She was in Scorpio during the new moon in Libra. She’s in Libra during the new moon in Scorpio — these themes of Scorpio and Libra remain potent during this time. What is the relationship between your identity and your worth? What is your identity worth? What is remaining in relationship worth? Is what you’re receiving worth what you’re giving in all of your relationships? Libra is a sign of balance, reciprocity. Scorpio is a sign of truth. As this Venus Retrograde is coming to an end, it’s time to consider doing some cot benefit analyses. Don’t be tit for tat. Don’t be transactional — transactional connections have no space for love or grace, which is the point of being in relationship, after all. Personal. Growth. Are you becoming a better version of yourself? Do you feel comfortable being yourself? Do you feel safe? Most importantly — who is the person you want to be? Would the person you imagine yourself being make the decisions you’re making now? Or would that person make different decisions?
Above all, give the person you’ve been some grace — for all of the wonderful and all of the problematic decisions that you’ve made. Offer yourself compassion for your judgments. Offer yourself some compassion. Allow yourself to sit still in the dark murky places of your soul … that’s always where the real healing is. Allow this moon to penetrate the core of your soul and radiate moonbeams from your hair. Find gratitude for every lesson you’ve learned, for everything that you’ve facilitated — whether you know it or not. How many people have changed your life and have absolutely no idea? Isn’t it very possible, then, that just as many people could have been changed by you without you having any idea? Let this moon come into you. And then let yourself be changed.
New Moon Blessings ❤
Hilary
** If you want to know more about this new moon and the lunar cycle it’s initiating, consider registering for my online workshop, “Commune with the Moon” — which includes an in-depth reflection, meditation, reflection questions and ritual. When you register, you will receive a recording of the class by email to watch at your convenience and on your time table. To register, go to www.instituteforearthbasedliving.com/workshops.
** If you register for the entire cycle of Commune with the Moon, you’re eligible to receive $50 off a natal chart reading and session.
** If you want to learn about how this cycle falls in your chart and how that corresponds with your life, according to your chart, book an Intuitive Restoration Session. This includes an in-depth report and guidance about how to work with the energies of the lunar cycle to your greatest benefit, given how they show up specifically in your chart. To schedule a session, visit: www.instituteforearthbasedliving.com/intuitiverestoration.
