Warning: New Moon in Scorpio, Mercury Goes Direct

"To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time. The compulsion to live almost exclusively thru memory and anticipation creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be. The compulsion arises because the past give you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation. Both are illusions...Time isn't precious at all because it is an illusion. The one point that is out of time, the Now, that is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time - past and future, the more you miss the Now, the all-that-is. The eternal present is the space where your whole life unfolds...There was never a time that was not Now nor will there ever be..." - Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Attachment, obsession, compulsion, tethers to the ghosts of the past and ravenous hunger for the apparitions of the future. Cancer, Scorpio - in shadow form, both trapped in the past. Mercury and Mars, the planets of speed and will, when unconsciously expressed, move at lightning speed without forethought and care.

Mercury has finally gone direct, but did we learn its retrograde lessons? Did we slow down and integrate the teachings of the last few months? My own expression of Mercury Retrograde was a fairly obvious one as I worked on the California coast, where I could get no phone service whatsoever. Also, opportunities to access email were sparse and brief when they did occur. During this three week period, I heard about 5-6 car accidents which occurred just in this area alone as well as a 100 car pileup in the SF Bay Area. We must let these retrograde cycles surface into our collective consciousness to prevent these kinds of unnecessary incidents.

Just when we thought we were out of all this reversal, then the planet of action and initiation, Mars, decides to take a few steps back. Mars only retrogrades for a few months every 26 months, so these cycles can be very important teachers. As with Mercury retrograde, we are asked to turn within, to slow down, to reflect, and integrate, something that can be challenging to the aggressive desire - body of Mars in any sign, but especially in the emotionally turbulent waters of Cancer. Until Mars goes direct the last week of January, we should watch for open hostilies and overly reactive attacks and defensive gesturing. We also may feel ourselves stuck in a kind of bardo in terms of feeling at home. Since Cancer is Mama bird, ruling the nest and family, we may be moving around a lot trying to get comfortable, a Cancerian word, in our relationships and in our environments. Be extra patient, nurturing, and appreciative for the sustenance and support around you as winter begins to sneak in. Curl up with compassion and truly giving thanks for family and friends at the end of this month.

From November 9th-11th the window into the Scorpio New Moon opens. The mysteries of 11:11, 11/11 are just the occult nourishment fueling Scorpio's volcanic... I remember being a little kid, and when 11/11 would come around once a year, I knew i had two opportunities, in the morning and evening, to align all the 1's on my digital watch. Only in the last few years, have I learned of the esoteric significance surrounding 11/11 as an activation portal of awareness, associated with the Brotherhood of Light. I will be celebrating this event at another portal for interdimensional communiction, Mt. Shasta. I see 11/11 as another opportunity to use time to step out of time, into "the eternal presence of Now," the unified moment, as Eckhart Tolle expresses, to connect many of us across the earth and the galactic consciousness grid and awaken our unity.

When we think of Scorpio, we often think intensity. Maybe you've noticed your friends with Scorpio sun or rising signs. They have those eyez which pierce the depths of your soul. Scorpio will stop at nothing to uncover the truth. I am reminded of one of my favorite films, Altered States, which appropriately aired this month. This is a tale of a psychiatrist obsessed with his research into consciousness through the use of psychedelics and sensory deprivation tanks, based on the life of psychonautical explorer and dolphin researcher John Lilly. Watching this film again triggered similar archetypal expressions I'd discovered in Darren Aronosky's genius, The Fountain, which arrived in
mass consciousness last year right as the sun was exiting the same sign of Scorpio. Both The Fountain and Altered States, visual and psychological masterpieces, eloquently express the Scorpionic passion, lust for the extreme, and quest for immortality thru the lens of the obsessed Aquarian mad scientist protagonist.

If the Libra balance and egalitarian service has not been mastered, then Scorpio shall sting with its games of manipulation, control, insecurity, and power struggle. Instead we can choose to initiate our inner alchemist and transmute our base selves, the egos attached to past and future, into beings of golden presence. As master teacher Eckhart Tolle writes, "The ego always seeks for something to attach to in order to uphold and strengthen its illusory sense of self." Shedding this ego through experiences of the cathartic, catalytic, shamanic - the alchemical conuinctio, or conjunction between spirit and flesh - this is the true Tantric possibility offered thru the archetype of Scorpio.

With the heavy emotions of watery Scorpio and that Mars retrograde in Cancer, it's important to remember to lighten up. Humor helps us appreciate the present moment and relieve the heaviness the mind creates thru its entanglement with the postures of past and future. So, as we've just mentioned Tantra, I have to comment on a funny experience the other evening. First, I will preface it by saying that you're about to enter the warped humor-body of an astrologer. So... When one is out of contact with media or the outside world for some time, it tends to intensify the brief encounters one does have, as well as the archetypal filters of all sensory information. So I'm having an incredibly rare moment of watching television the other evening. And sure enough I flip to this "Home Shopping Network"-looking station. Just as I'm about to change channels though, I am stunned into paralysis. The object for sale, with its $129.95 price tag marked with a red slash and reduced to $99.95 is a Jack Rabbit dildo. Picture tiny pink, rubbery Jack Rabbit ears on the front, a rotating head, a multidirectional rotating shaft, and ridges and bumps along the side to increase sensation. And it's all outfitted with a rechargeable battery pack! So here are these two women - attractive, approachable ,intelligent-types nonchalantly, and with an almost disturbing sophistication and wit - promoting the most advanced sexual apparatus these eyez have ever gazed upon. Everything imaginable offered, including the Enchanted Arouser, a strappable, electronic hummingbird. Just let your mind wander. There seemed to be endless models for various pocketbooks and diverse tastes. There was even the Vibropod - an i-pod with an attachable vibrator which syncs to your music! Will we now be at the bus stop or in the grocery store wondering if so-and-so is literally getting their groove on beneath those white headphones.

Now as an astrologer, I immediately wanted to know the moon's position in the sky as I beheld the magnificence of this programming. Yes, of course, the Moon was just about to sneak, into Libra, but first would conjoin Venus - the planet of nurturing meeting the sweet goddess of sensuality in the last degrees of Virgo. Talk about an expression of efficient craftsmanship with Virgo - this is sexual efficiency like I've never imagined for the purpose of the next sign, Libra - highly aesthetic implements with which to serve your partner. I also observed an expressive resonance with Neptune's current 14-year jaunt in Aquarius, since Neptune rules fashion, trends, and the glamorous aspect projected outwardly of our collective consciousness. And Aquarius loves evolving its sexual play through techno-gadgetry and the power of TV/Web marketing. If you're curious, check out http://www.shoperotic.com where you can download clips of the TV show and purchase these truly wired and wild sex toyz.

In closing, with the New Moon in Scorpio occurring in my sixth house of work and discipline, I am intending to expand my astrological research this winter. The Scorpio archetype loves to play the psychological, occult detective. So I am inviting folks to contact me if interested in sharing recent Mercury Retrograde stories as well as paranormal/shamanic/near-death//UFO experiences. Hopefully, when the moon is full in Scorpio six months from now, I can begin sharing some of my findings profiling these occurrences astrologically to help us navigate the edges of our shifting reality paradigms. As always, confidentiality will be kept.

Image of Mars by Mary Harrsch, used courtesy of a Creative Commons licence.