13.11.23: New Moon in Scorpio
“In myths the hero is the one who conquers the dragon, not the one who is devoured by it. And yet both have to deal with the same dragon. Also, he is no hero who never met the dragon, or who, if once he saw it, declared afterwards that he saw nothing. Equally, only one who has risked the fight with the dragon and is not overcome by it wins the hoard, the "treasure hard to attain". He alone has a genuine claim to self-confidence, for he has faced the dark ground of his self and thereby has gained himself. This experience gives some faith and trust, the pistis in the ability of the self to sustain him, for everything that menaced him from inside he has made his own. He has acquired the right to believe that he will be able to overcome all future threats by the same means. He has arrived at an inner certainty which makes him capable of self-reliance.”
- Carl Gustav Jung
Finally, we've made our way through the last eclipses plus closed a whole eclipse set on the axis of Taurus and Scorpio from 2021 until 2023. So this New Moon in Scorpio might feel for many of us rather like a new beginning of depth and a reset on many levels.
Yet, as you know, every new beginning needs something else to die, Scorpio knows. So we're invited to peel the onion yet a layer deeper and once more to dive into the shadow of our unconscious.
The Moon is New in Scorpio on November 13, 2023, at 4:27 AM EST. It occurs at 20 degrees and 44 minutes of Scorpio. It's conjunct Mars and opposite Uranus.
If you have planets between 15 and 25 degrees in the fixed signs such as Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, or Aquarius, you'll feel it more significantly.
SCORPIO REMINDS US OF THE CONCEPT OF THE SHADOW
When we look at the zodiac as a process and evolution of human consciousness, then Scorpio is probably the point of maximal depth.
Coming from Libra (and therefore the opening of the social arena in the zodiac), Scorpio wants to deepen our understanding our ourselves – and of our shadow (the part of our psyche that we're not aware of). Let me put this in more elegant words.
C. G. Jung, psychoanalyst, and student of Sigmund Freud, describes the shadow as “the unconscious part of our personality that does not align with the ideal version of what we think we are” – Jung calls this the “ego ideal”.
Meaning, that somewhere deep in our unconscious there are parts of us that we don't know of, deny, or suppress. That's very much human and inevitable. No one will be spared.
Each human on this planet Earth has shadows and if you encounter anyone who says otherwise, my recommendation is to run fast.
Anyhow, working around the shadow means that we shed the light of consciousness onto those shadow aspects of our psyche so that they don't run the show.
According to Jung, very often, if we stay unconscious of the shadow, we project it onto other people in our lives.
For example, we take something super personal that someone said because we see our mother or father in it (in this moment we project our parent onto that person). That's our psyche trying to bring the shadow into the light of consciousness and signpost us to areas that we need to recognize.
THE DESCENT INTO THE DARKNESS
Scorpio reminds us that for new things to be born, others need to die. It's the process of dying, of rotting – such as compost – for new soil to arrive.
Scorpio knows that he needs to confront his darkest and deepest desires, fears, and thoughts for them to be transformed. There is no way we can avoid the darkness of our subconscious to bathe in the light of our consciousness. It goes hand in hand.
In New Age Spirituality the shadow very often is denied, I'm sure you heard people saying “Just stay positive”, “Don't think that, it's a low vibration” or “That's a bad emotion, try to focus on something nice.”
What is probably said with good intentions, is very often harmful because it makes us push parts of our psyche away.
I'm sure we all know that the more we want emotions to push away, the bigger they grow until they manifest in situations, other people, or our own body and we can't look away anymore.
That is exactly the Scorpio wisdom. It's the deepest point in the zodiac and Scorpio knows that we have to descend to grow some fruits.
I recently read “Descent to the Goddess" written by Sylvia Brinton Perera. It's a Jungian interpretation of the ancient Sumerian Inanna Myth where the Sumerian Goddess of Heaven and Earth, journeys into the underworld to Ereshkigal, her dark "sister", and returns.
Although I'm not sure if I would recommend reading the book, there were a few passages that struck me and I had to think about in good old Scorpio fashion:
“The major goddess of this myth is Ereshkigal, queen of the Netherworld and the dead. Her name means ”Lady of the Great Place Below", but before being regelated to the kur, the alien place outside patriarchal consciousness, she was a grain goddess and lived above. Thus she symbolizes the Great Round of nature, grain above and growing, and seed below and dying to sprout again. To matriarchal consciousness, she represents the continuum in which different states are simply experienced as transformations of one energy. To the patriarchy, death becomes a rape of life, a violence to be feared and controlled as much as possible with distance and moral order."
SCORPIO IS ONE OF THE SCAPEGOATS OF THE ZODIAC
One of the most commonly asked questions I get from people with lots of Scorpio energy in consultations is that they feel they have a really bad reputation amongst the other archetypes in the zodiac. And I agree, whenever we encounter people with Scorpio charge, there's a certain seriousness in the room.
If you just think of the quote I copied from Perera's book, it's clear: In a patriarchal society, there's not much space for depth, death, and dwelling in the darkness.
Everything that does not fit into the perfect polished world will be locked away: disability, the old and weak, menstruation (as a representation of the death and rebirth cycle), and much more.
Scorpio brings that back: It wants us to connect with the dark spots of our psyche so that we can become more intimate with ourselves and therefore life itself.
Because you all know: Only the darkness we can accept in ourselves, we can tolerate in others.
THE EXPLOSIVE CONSTELLATION IN THE HEAVENS
With Mars in Scorpio in conjunction with the Moon and Sun today (and Mercury in Scorpio as well) up there, we can expect an intense charge to stir up ourselves and our relationships. Well – or the world. We just need to look around.
Remember, Mars is the cosmic warrior. In Scorpio, he has some intense energy that he can use to get his will fulfilled – walking over dead bodies if he likes to. In the shadow, we can see this unfolding with ugly power games, manipulation, and pure destruction.
As I earlier said, I truly believe that the path to more peace begins in every one of us – in our hearts.
If we manage to shed the light of consciousness onto our dark parts and embrace the unembraceable, I think we're one step further to a vision of humanity that at least me – and probably you, the ones who read this love letter – might strive for.
Uranus in Taurus is opposing the Moon, the Sun, and Mercury in Scorpio with this New Moon.
By now you probably know that Uranus is the disruptor, whenever Uranus is in the mix, things get unpredictable, intense, and weird. So in case, you're losing your shit these days – don't you worry, you might not be alone with it.
Uranus medicine is interesting: It often takes away and breaks stuff so that new things can emerge – pure alchemy as always. So if some intense feelings break through, search for what's beyond them and what wants to make its way into your conscious presence.
SPEAK THE UNSPEAKABLE AND THINK THE UNTHINKABLE
If we really want to change the world, we need to undertake an inventory of our blind spots because in the end it's them who take over, get aggressive, and destroy in a very painful manner.
Dr. Hawkins laid out a theory of the spectrum of consciousness, from the lower levels of Shame, Guilt, Apathy, Fear, Anger, and Pride; to Courage, Acceptance, and Reason; up to the more expanded levels of Love, Ecstasy, Peace, and Enlightenment.
In his work, he showed that emotions have measurable energy and can either foster or negate actual cell life. Out of all the emotions, shame has the lowest vibration in the emotional spectrum.
Shame is a very present emotion that has accompanied me until today on my path to self-acceptance. It's that feeling of being wrong in this world, of being utterly bad and – maybe – even dangerous.
Even if some traditions, religions or concepts want to make you feel otherwise, I can assure you that we all have thoughts that we feel ashamed of from time to time.
The bad news really isn't that. The bad news is that we keep those thoughts to ourselves – in the end, that's the nature of shame that makes us close, isolate, and shut down.
Someone therapeutically experienced and wise once said to me: “Shame only lives in darkness. As soon as we put the light of consciousness onto it (share our thoughts and speak about them in a safe space), it starts to dissolve."
Furthermore, that woman said to me: “Karina, you have to choose the pain, otherwise the pain will choose you.” Meaning: If we try to avoid pain in our lives, it will find us for sure in other ways.
NEW MOON IN SCORPIO: TIME TO UN-SHAME OURSELVES
I live in Tulum which can be an interesting place. I meet very few people here I can have open conversations about fear, shame, guilt, and disgust without them wanting it to fix, making it go away or just leading the conversation to something “positive”.
Some people believe that saying certain things will attract those things and that if we only stay positive-minded, nothing will happen to us.
To me, very often, that's what's called “Toxic Positivity”. Because those parts in us, don't dissolve if we just deny or ignore them, they actually grow until they burst out into unhealthy aggression, painful destruction, or even internal (or external) war.
So today, I want to encourage you to think the unthinkable, to speak the unspeakable, and – if possible and accessible to you – to let some of your shame bathe in the light of your own or another person's love. To know that you may have those thoughts, but you're NOT these thoughts.
It was when I allowed myself to be compassionately witnessed in my most "shameful" thoughts and still be seen with eyes of love, that lots of painful symptoms started to dissolve and I started to integrate those parts of myself that felt disgraceful (don't let yourself be fooled, I am still on my path here – even if I may sound wise sometimes).
If you do that with someone you trust, make sure that you set the expectations clear and ask them to hold space for you and listen compassionately without attempts to fix you, to give you unasked advice, or to judge you. Because otherwise, this can also loop into even more shame. So be conscious about the person you're asking to do this sacred service for you.
You can also write all the heavy thoughts into a letter and burn it later or just speak them out in a space you feel safe in.
WHAT THIS NEW MOON IN SCORPIO ASKS OF US
I'm sure that you do remember that a New Moons are phases of planting seeds, and making new intentions and invitations for our lives.
The New Moon in Scorpio would ask you today:
What shame are you hiding away that is weighing you down?
How would you like to invite the energy of death (metaphorically) into your next 2 weeks?
What would you like to destroy and how can you give healthy space to it?
Where are you (consciously and unconsciously) manipulating for your benefit?
How can you give conscious space to your impulses, especially the ones you feel shameful about?
What feelings do you avoid because they hurt or you feel ashamed about them?
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT: A PATH OF WHOLENESS
Have you realized that whenever it's New Moon the nights become pretty dark because we don't see much of the Moon's light?
To me, that's even more present on this Scorpio New Moon that wants us to step a little step or even a few ones (up to you!) towards our darkness.
Only then, to discover that the cellar we've been fearing to open and kept securely locked for a long time, contained our own little faces saying: "Thank god, you've finally found me."
Or, to say it with Carl Jung's words: “We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.”
So, there's just one question left from my side: What hidden part of yourself will you meet today?
With love,
—Karina
*Header taken from GIPHY.com
