Closure and Openings
By
Sarah Varcas
Mercury enters Scorpio at 11:10 pm on 8th November GMT. It was last at this spot on 10th October before it regressed back into Libra during its retrograde cycle, so we may encounter echoes of then. If so, we’d best recall the message of the recent Full Moon which exhorted us to resist old habits in favour of fresh and productive responses. We’d be wise to ensure we don’t allow those echoes to lull us back to sleep but instead spur us in new directions. And Mercury in Scorpio can be of great use in this process, for it delves beneath the surface to uncover hidden motivation, feelings left to fester in the dark and sentiments we’ve failed to acknowledge let alone express to others. All of these can contribute to the victory of old habits over new ones and past troubles over future victories, but with Mercury on our side and the power of the Full Moon still coursing through our veins, we can now paint an entirely new picture on the canvas of our lives.
Shortly after re-entering Scorpio, Mercury crosses the degree of the Solar Eclipse of 23rd/24th October. Cue more echoes as we explore our inner terrain to pinpoint why we react to life the way we do, bringing our motivations out of darkness and into the light of consciousness. If we did our bit in October we will have had plenty of practice at this by now, so it may come easier to us, this self-enquiry business. Somehow it feels a bit less raw, less challenging. The potential for liberation at its heart seems all the more real now. It is just such subtle shifts of feeling and perception which form the very heart of this process through which we can birth a new world, both personally and collectively. But they can be so subtle we may miss them until we look back and realise just how far we have come, baby step by baby step.
Come 10th/11th November Mercury crosses the degree in which it stationed retrograde on 4th October, completing its trip down memory lane and signalling the start of a fresh cycle. Simultaneous with the Mars/Pluto conjunction we may miss the fresh air of this moment if we allow stresses to distract us. But distracted or not, we are in a new space now and one which can be relatively clear of the dust and cobwebs of the past if we’ve done our ‘spring-cleaning’ as thoroughly as the heavens have encouraged in recent weeks. If we haven’t, it’s not too late to catch up if we’re bloody minded enough to get stuck in and accept neither excuses nor justifications for anything other than change. If, however, past habits and ways still hold ‘juice’ for us, that’s okay. There’s no point shutting down a process when it’s not yet completed and sometimes we have to do the past some more before we have gathered its wisdom and riches to take forward with us into the new. We each of us know where we are in our own journey if we listen in carefully and take note of what we hear. The key at this time is to know the difference between legitimate time spent with the past to cleanse, explore and heal, and the common habit of simply living the past here in the present like an automaton devoid of personal responsibility or ownership. It’s all about the level of awareness we bring to how we live day to day, and what we do with the revelations that conscious awareness delivers to our door when we partner with it on a daily basis.
As Mercury continues its journey through Scorpio there will be further revelations, from ourselves and other people. Scorpio communication is meaningful and weighty. It doesn’t waste time on niceties but instead gets straight to the point and returns to it repeatedly if necessary. So it’s time to embrace tough truths, liberating realisations and no nonsense exchanges, both with our higher self and with those around us. It may not feel very polite but polite isn’t always real and real is sometimes harsher than we would care to admit! Mercury in Scorpio can bring discomfort to some, but it offers honesty to all if we care to accept the invitation. If we’d rather not, no worries! It’ll be gone from here in a few weeks time and we can put all that ‘unpleasantness’ back down to everyone else and their ‘issues’! Mercury will be in Sagittarius by then and it won’t be bothered to set us straight, but it will know that if we haven’t dealt with the dynamics of its Scorpio journey we’ll have trouble reaping the harvest in its Sagittarian one….
Sarah Varcas
