Scorpio Season 2020 — Season of Witches
On October 22 the Sun moves into Scorpio, the most notorious and powerful sign of the Zodiac. Scorpio is the fixed water sign on the feminine polarity. Fixed signs embody the essence of each of the four seasons. Scorpio season is the heart of Fall, the climax in the drama of the year, the season of death and new life. Scorpio, sign of magic and transformation, rules karma, the shadow, secrets. It is our deepest creative urge. It rips the leaves from the trees, the skin from the bones, and the bars from the cages.
This season marks the moment of reckoning in a year of reckoning. It is not surprising that the astrology gives us an eerily poignant forecast to look forward to.
The longer night skies bring us the completion of the three major astrological patterns of 2020:
Squares to Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. These transits have spoken to the overhaul of the structures and systems of power on a collective level, the conflicts that arise when we come up against them. Mercury, currently in Scorpio, regresses back into Libra to square these three, then brings their messages back to Scorpio at the end of its retrograde cycle.
The Jupiter and Pluto conjunction on November 12 marks the third and final time these two come together (the first was on April 4, when the world realized lockdown wasn’t ending anytime soon and the second was on June 30). This setup is the brightest flashlight into the deist dark. All real magic has a dark side, and sometimes we must descend into the depths to get to the new seeds of light. Skeletons are the foundation of our system, but left to fester in the closet are not benign. Scorpio sees under the skin and between the leaves, past the gaslighting, and character dramas and into the real story they hide behind. Ponder this within yourself and any systems of power you ascribe to. What do you reject, ignore, or hide from? What do you deny (DENIAL = Don’t Even Know I Am Lying)
Retrogrades have dominated our skies since March of this year. Mars and Mercury, both retrograde at the start of this season, go direct by the end of it. The sense of stalling that retrogrades imbue is frustrating for our overdriven society, but the magic of creative evolution resides in the pause. Things are going to move forward, though not in any direction we can yet predict. Take stock of what you’ve learned in the slow-downs of the year.
For life’s entire history up until now, Fight or flight was the healthiest immune response. It literally kept us alive by fighting, fleeing, or freezing in response to danger. But things are different now, and we have become our own biggest threat. To survive as humans in this new world, we will need to develop the opportunity to rest, recover, and relate to others in more evolved ways. Immunity is a collective effort — covid has taught us a lot about what is and isn’t working in the humanity herd’s immune system. In our culture, Scorpio has been our traditional cold/flu season for as long as we can remember. Now, knowing what we know, we have the opportunity to approach immunity differently. Venus in Virgo, sign of issues pertaining to work and health, trines the planets in Capricorn this month, which affirms the best way to deal with the challenges of the world is a solid self-care system. You can’t bring down the patriarchy if your own bowel movements are out of control.
Just to spice it up some more, we also begin with an opposition to Uranus. a theme we will continue to revisit throughout the season. Uranus, with its mysterious atmosphere, wonky orbit and polar axis, is the planet of upheaval, change and all things unpredictable. The only thing we know for sure about this season is that it’ll be full of surprises.
WORKING WITH IT
Busy-ness is always tempting when energies are heightened, but there’s a reason that scorpio season is synonymous with cold/flu season in our culture. Right now our energy is best spent only to what is most important and protected with strong boundaries. Watch yourself for symptoms of burnout. Meditate and do whatever gets you centered so that the mysterious forces of the world can bring you the messages you most need. Consult your tarot decks or angel cards. Watch for signs from your ancestors and animal spirit guide. Remember that, as Glennon Doyle says, We Can Do Hard Things. We are ready for this. We have all the power we need to integrate the lessons and find a new way forward.
DATES TO WATCH
10/25 Sun conjunct Mercury. This is a day when the sun, earth and mercury come into alignment and Mercury is as close to us as it ever gets. This brings opens us up to the most important messages that are out there in the Universe. Listen. It may be a day that something important gets revealed.
10/31 Full Moon It doesn’t get more magical than this. The full moon rises on Samhain, Halloween, the day where the walls between the worlds are thinnest they’ll be all year. It is also a blue moon. The Hunter’s moon. It occurs in Taurus, the sign of its exultation, and is electrified by the Uranus opposition. Watch your step, plug in your nightlights and keep all three eyes open.
11/9 Venus oppose Mars, Sun trine Neptune. This is a day that shines light on the deeper relationship dynamics we are playing out in our lives, and gives us a chance to heal them. If we are willing to own our shit, acknowledge our blind spots, and take action steps toward our healing, then we are sure to reach levels of connection that nourish our deepest souls.
11/12, 11/13, 11/14 On the heels of the final Jupiter-Pluto conjunction, Mars stations direct just before the new moon in Scorpio. This transit is a power portal. Show up for your personal revolution — use this as an opportunity to re-set what you put your energy toward. Remember, you are infinitely powerful, but it is only the level to which you BELIEVE IN YOURSELF that you are able to wield your power.
Planets
Once you have a sense of the zodiac backdrop, the movement of the planets is the key to the language of astrology. Planets represent the various Archetypal energies that we live out in our human experience — our primary drives. Like the moon, all the planets have a gravitational relationship with earth and can be seen with the naked eye in the night sky (except Uranus, Neptune and Pluto). In a chart, their placements and relationships hold the keys to a personality. In transit, they stir us up in different ways. We all have all the planets represented in our chart, and the transits of the planets through the sky affect us in different ways. Each planet has a different characteristic, and over the next few months we’ll go over them in more detail in turn.
In brief:
Mercury = communication, thought, and our day-to-day lives
Venus = love, beauty and pleasure.
Jupiter = expansion, abundance, spirituality
Neptune = dreams, illusions, creativity
Uranus = breakthrough, upheaval, the unexpected
In more detail:
MARS
This has been a big year for Mars astrology and The Red Planet, our nearest neighbor on the far side of the sun, takes 687 days to circle the earth. Right now Mars is as close as it gets to us — it is super bright in the eastern sky just after sunset, or in the west just before dawn. Mars is the power planet — it has to do with the energies of conflict, drive, and power. Its energy is what forces the issue to a head, what cuts and breaks things, and what combusts. It is our sense of agency in the world. How we harness our Mars energy colors the flavors of our relationships. It determines our ability to follow our passions and achieve our goals. It is the ruler of Aries and the traditional ruler of Scorpio. Go look at Mars in the sky and spend some time reflecting on how you use your power, how you give it away, and how you might use it to fuel your wildest dreams. Be careful what you wish for — you’ll get it.
PLUTO
Pluto is the modern ruler of Scorpio and the furthest planet away in the sun in the solar system. It takes 248 years to complete an orbit. It is named for Hades, god of the Underworld, and it governs long, deep, subterranean transformations. Pluto spends about 21 years in each sign, and will be in Capricorn until 2024. Pluto energy transcends our mortal life experience and often goes unnoticed in our personal lives — but not to Scorpio. Pluto wisdom shows us how we are but one small part of much bigger dramas playing out on the grand scale. It shows us what is dying and composting beneath the surface to nourish the seeds of future inspiration. Its conjunctions to Jupiter this month illuminate how these subtle but massively powerful forces are working in our lives. Death is part of life, it is the door to renewal. Let the old leaves fall away to nourish the roots of future.
