When planets traverse the sign of Scorpio, the archetypes of death and power seem to sneak up on us as if we never contemplated them before. They are there all the time yet we ignore them until some crisis appears. The aspects this week activate these themes, perhaps making it vitally necessary to pay attention to the depths of who we are and how we relate to other on the most intimate of levels. In its truest sense, intimacy can be equated with authenticity, yet being real with someone with all our faults exposed can be intimidating. “Scorpio pushes hard to focus, probe, penetrate, explore and expose the essence or truth of whatever it is engaged in,” says Jim Sher. “It can be fanatical in that everything else becomes unimportant. It seeks to uncover all that might be hidden and to process it until its secrets are revealed. This is what Scorpio does when it is operating at its best. But, if it is afraid and digs in to block any change, the tone of one’s experience can become very difficult. When Scorpio hides, it turns dark and even nasty. It holds on desperately to the past and will defy anyone who tries to break through the fixity of its ego and fear.”
On November 7, Venus joins the Sun and Jupiter in Scorpio, further intensifying the need to go deep to discover our authenticity. Venus in Scorpio asks us to let go of our ego’s notion of what a relationship is in order for that very relationship to empower us. Leaving behind the lovely, balanced nature of its home sign of Libra, Venus in Scorpio exposes the ugliness of the superficial ego in order to see the beauty of the soul underneath. Once in Scorpio, Venus moves into a conjunction with Jupiter, exact on November 13, that correlates to an expansion of issues related to relationships, as well as money, or more specifically joint finances, which Scorpio rules. This could be experienced as a need to be truthful (Jupiter) in order to address any imbalance in a relationship (Venus). Representing a fusion of their needs into a unified voice, the Venus/Jupiter conjunction often expresses as optimism and generosity in relationships as well as gratitude for their benefits. Therefore, we may be willing to be fearlessly authentic in order to restore balance.
As the waxing Venus/Jupiter alignment builds in strength, an empowering sextile between the Sun in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn, exact on November 9, provides constructive support for us to reach those areas of our psyche we are afraid to acknowledge. The natural ruler of Scorpio, Pluto brings its intense force to the necessary job of doing the deep inner work. As we do this it is important, according to Sher, to stay focused on the real purpose, which is to learn to release, to probe our psyche and then let all of it go. We can be the Phoenix rising from the ashes, he says, “by going deeply into the past with its traumas and pain and to then release them, to die to the past in such a way as to no longer feel any pull from it. This can go so deep that one no longer feels it happened to them personally. Its death is now seen as a birth into freedom and a knowing that anything is possible again. Total renewal is all that exists.”
Additional aspects this week lend encouragement to move towards a true expression of who we are. The third and final trine between Saturn in Sagittarius and Uranus in Aries, which occurs on November 11, marks the culmination of cycle that has probably helped to keep life relatively steady in the face of so much chaos and uncertainty in the world. Saturn asks us to look at life realistically and to work within the particular rule set of whatever we are involved in, such as showing up for work at a scheduled time. This is what it means to take responsibility – to demonstrate the ability to respond to a given situation with total integrity. Uranus moves us away from “common consensus,” says Sher. “While this movement has a separating quality in some respects, it actually moves us towards increasing openness and the need to seek the truth in whatever area of life one is exploring. It is that very openness that can lead to tremendous innovation and living life to the fullest potential of our uniqueness.” Looking back since last December, we may see how we have been able to harmoniously integrate these seemingly incongruent forces and express our uniqueness (Uranus) in a responsible way (Saturn).
A Mercury/Neptune square, exact on November 13, may urge us to express as an individual in a different way. Does having the freedom to think and speak our truth (Mercury in Sagittarius) mean we must remain separate from others whose truth may be very different from our own? Neptune in its home sign of Pisces magnifies the ability to experience the cosmic truth of unconditional love, which can only be experienced once the ego is seen as a mental structure rather than who we really are. Resolving the tension of the Mercury/Neptune square relationship requires us to relax and understand that there is no need to struggle to be free because we already are. If we can do that, we may begin to perceive the world (Mercury) through compassionate eyes and recognize the love connections in all existence (Neptune).
Here’s the data (Pacific Time and rounded to the nearest whole degree unless otherwise noted):
November 7 – Venus at 0° Scorpio at 3:39 a.m.
November 9 – Sun sextile Pluto at 17°Scorpio/Capricorn at 4:08 a.m.
November 11 – Saturn trine Uranus at 26° Sagittarius/Aries at 1:41 a.m.
November 13 – Venus conjunct Jupiter at 7° Scorpio at 12:15 a.m.
November 13 – Mercury square Neptune 11° Sagittarius/Pisces at 2:49 p.m.
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