Scorpio season begins October 23 and will continue until November 21 as the northern hemisphere deepens its descent into earthen slumber. As verdant life begins to wither and autumnal winds sweep through the streets and fields, we inevitably seek refuge in the warmth of our homes–and so too does the spirit retreat inwards for the true warmth of the hearth of the soul. Scorpio season is all about this retreat into the deeper parts of the self.
Of all the dualistic concepts that generate our lives, circumstances, and identities, none is so all-encompassing and powerful as that of the light and shadow. Darkness, which represents not only the unseen or unknown but also the unconscious, the unaware, the bad, the evil, and the frightening, conceptually serves as an indicator towards light, which is perceived as sacred, conscious, enlightened, good, right, and healing.
In many ways, our perception of life itself is suspended within this dichotomy. It is an integral concept in the generation of narratives both historical and imaginative, real and unreal, spiritual and mundane. A major aspect of our ability to understand and navigate our lives lies in the idea that there is a way to turn away from the “light”, which represents what is real what is true, and what is helpful to the largest amount of people. Lucifer falling from grace is an example that has captivated the spiritual imagination for centuries. We generally believe, regardless of religious orientation, that there is a way to remove oneself from illumination, whether that illumination is externally or internally imposed. Some believe that religious affiliation is an example of being illuminated; others believe that it is an indication that one has strayed from their own source of light. No matter what you believe, the dichotomy of light and dark is a potent one, and has given birth to its descendants moral and amoral, good and bad, hero and villain, friend and foe, and countless other manifestations of this core concept.
Just to use the phrase “shadows”, we already imagine a lifetime of associations: the monsters under the bed or in the closet; the surreal and imaginary dangers of the infantile imagination; the way our real lives touch the dangerous corners of unconsciousness. Life on earth can involve many things which are difficult even to contemplate, much less experience, and out of vigilance to avoid truly feeling the pain of our own separation from each other, we remain separated.
Sun in Scorpio
It is human nature to avoid the unconscious; but no sign is less inclined to do so than Scorpio. Standing on the edge of the dying earth, the Sun in Scorpio person was born into a descent and finds less discomfort there. This acclimation is necessary, and as we all learn from each sign as it moves around the zodiac, we can learn many valuable lessons from allowing this internal descent into our own unconscious to happen. Once we untangle the shadows, we find the true source of warmth in our lives: our own selves and the simple, miraculous feat of existing. Scorpio Sun people are very internally guided and place great importance on their ability to not only perceive what others may miss but to use these things as guideposts in their interior journey. In fact, the journey of a Scorpio is inherently internal and requires strong faith—faith that your own intuition will lead you where you need to be going. Scorpio season is the perfect time to examine your own internal associations with this duality. With the Sun in this deep, intuitive sign, your personal chart will be invited to examine your own faith in yourself, so you can explore your own shadows without getting lost.
How To Harness Scorpio Energy Properly
Advice: avoid judging people as much as you can. Judgement is the child of an imbalanced dichotomy. If you find yourself wanting to burn someone with your disappointment or distaste, take a step back and instead ask yourself why your reaction was so intense. Imbalances teach us about ourselves; we see our own imbalance everywhere until we perceive it properly. We often discover through this process that one we judge most harshly is ourselves–and self-judgment imprisons intuition and trust. These obstacles are normally built from the pain carried in formative experiences, whether we ourselves were judged, overlooked, or misunderstood. Scorpios are all about embracing what is normally misunderstood, and often feel comfortable in spaces they know are alternative.
If you struggle with approaching your own pain, whether it is long-lasting or sudden, the result of trauma or depression or a simple chronic confusion about where you fit in in the world, remember that you can orchestrate your own orientation. You have deep creative power, and you can change your own narrative–just remember that the goal is to be authentic. It can be quite difficult to calibrate yourself to reality, especially when you have suffered and struggle to heal and understand why something happened. Scorpio energy must not get off-step in the shadows. If your eyes are closed, everything becomes a tripping hazard.
Shadow work can be very intense, heavy, and many times we can forget that we can play with life. Storytelling and creativity are integral to healing; we change our story about ourselves, we strengthen our sense of self, we take back our power, we retell a story. Transmutating a disempowering narrative is what Pluto (Scorpio’s resident planet) is all about. Once the work is passed, there is lightness that finds you automatically, similar to the peace and softness that comes when when you wake up to realize it has snowed overnight. Even in the long month of deep internal work, it is necessary and healthy to come up for air every once in a while.
Remember, shadows are not only pure darkness. They are also the play of light between the sun and the leaves on the sidewalk. They are the long blue shadows stretching across the yard during golden hour. The Sun literally creates these shadows by playing with the forms of the earth. It is not a hypothetical body, or something existing in the grey area between reality and the spiritual. Don’t forget that these ideas and dualities come from the physical world, and are not ungrounded metaphors.
Halloween itself is full of this variation; just as a walk through a Halloween aisle in a store gives playful, cute, scary, and beautiful options for decorations, so too does Scorpio season offer a myriad of experiences to keep you balanced in the long walk through the shadows. It isn’t ever only one thing, and finding the many, many sensory, emotional, and narrative facets of turning inward is vital to allowing yourself to have an authentic experience. Life is written as you live, not before you live. As tempting as it is to control the experience by telling yourself how it’s going to be, what you’re going to learn, and where you are going, the truth is that the unknown is just that: the unknown. You will learn new things, understanding things in ways you have not thought of, experience what you previously held back. Ironically, when we allow ourselves to go places we truly have not been is when we fully come home to ourselves.
