Sign-changes are somewhat dramatic. We tend to feel astrological influences the most in their beginning stages. A "new" energy enters our field of awareness. It's as if an unseen visitor has entered the room. Perhaps someone we recognize, but we haven't seen them in a while, and we've both changed.
Such is the transition from Libra into Scorpio.
Every sign in the Western Zodiac is radically different from the last. Aries, Impulsive Fire becomes Taurus, Slow, Methodical Earth. Taurus becomes Gemini, Swirling Air. Gemini becomes Cancer, Reflecting Water.
The archetypes build on one another with maturation and greater complexity. A sign is absorbed and transmuted into the next.
Of all the sign-changes, the transition from Libra into Scorpio always feels the most pronounced to me. This is the change of Fall into Winter. The Celtic New Year. The time when the veil between worlds is the thinnest, also known as Samhain. The time when souls who have made their transition from life enter in masses to their next destination. A time of Great Transference.
Libra is a Cardinal Air sign of relating. Marriage, law, justice, harmony, beauty, peace, art, aesthetics, culture, taste, and balance fall under the jurisdiction of Libra. A flighty sign of vacillation and weighing, making small talk and dancing around and around at society's ball. We pick apples, go for drives, look at leaves with friends and lovers. Her winds swirl and blow just enough to begin gently knocking the leaves off trees as they change from green to a breathtaking expression of pleasing aesthetic beauty. Oh, and the aroma! The delicate scent between harvest and demolition hangs in a tantalizing balance of sweetness and soil. Between Life and Death.
In sweeps Scorpio in all rawness and realness: Fixed Water sign of Death, Penetration, Transformation. Colorful leaves swiftly fall to decompose against the Earth. We all bare our branches and trees, naked and shivering against impending cold, wondering aloud what kind of winter it will be. And whom will survive.
Scorpio is the sign of survival. There is a deep primal quality to Scorpio and its ruler, Pluto. Whereas Libra enjoys surface imagery and prefers to keep things light, Scorpio sees far too deep to be satisfied with superficial amusements. Scorpio demands we cut the crap and acquaint ourselves with the underbelly of existence. Sure, the leaves were pretty for a minute, but what lies Beneath? What is the value of Death and Regeneration? What is the enduring quality deep within that sustains all existence? What is the most essential? Here is our time for Elimination.
Scorpio is known as the sign of Intensity, Trauma, and Crisis. This year just past a New Moon Eclipse in Scorpio flanked by Mercury and Venus, I dislocated my finger. Another friend traumatically injured her hand. An acquaintance lost a relative. Siblings are scattering their parents ashes. A woman discovered she is battling cancer.
Digging deeper, Scorpio is simply the sign that gets us most in touch with the recesses of our Beings. Nothing like death, sex, intensity, trauma, crisis, disease, injury, mystery, and intensely focused investigation can take us so directly to the doorway of our true selves. The mystery leads us to mastery. Total elimination of excess leads to discovery of essence.
Scorpio is also the sign of inheritance, merged resources, and taxes. I'd go even further and say "taxation" in general. Often we won't go to the harrowing depths Scorpio requires without an impetus like crisis, illness, or other taxing experiences. Scorpio and Pluto can also provoke intense tunnel-vision-like obsession or compulsion that drives us to pursue or experience something relentlessly until we merge with its essential nature and it is then time to un-bond. It takes serious guts (and genitals - ruled by Scorpio) to face the ghosts Scorpio unearths. Bringing your own muck to the surface for inspection and transformation is often no easy task. Ghosts cannot hide where truth abides: shedding light and having the courage to remain frank in your honesty is key to transmuting the denser aspects of your nature. Here is the chance to merge with the raw power of Life and Death. A Portal.
A word on inheritance. Scorpio does rule physical/monetary inheritance from deceased family members. It also rules deeply ingrained and buried patterns passed to you from your ancestors. I always notice a striking relationship with grandparents in particular.
Since the Sun entered Scorpio, I've become strangely interested in learning more about my Grandfather. I recall doing genealogical research and compiling a family tree during a previous Scorpio season. My Grandmother recently had surgery on her hand for skin cancer. I asked her how it had been doing and she recommended I try using my non-dominant hand for things in life, because she found it really difficult. Less than a week later I dislocated a finger on the same hand - the finger identical to the one she had surgery just below. Scorpio bringing hidden family patterns to the surface? Scorpio also rules surgery. I've been hiding in my room recuperating and reading esoteric literature.
I'll be surviving this winter, no matter how cold. Are you ready to let the scales fall from your eyes?