Entering the Dark Half...

Spoooooooky photos: Willow

Well, spooky spooks and witchy witches, the dark half is upon us in the northern hemisphere.

We have much to celebrate this All Hallow's Eve, as beastly Saturn in deep, dark Scorpio has now officially moved into new territory in the zodiac, relieving us of many constricting and oppressive layers of psychic and emotional sludge. We've fought our way through clinging cobwebs of fear and depression. We've confronted many of our deepest fears and worst nightmares on both personal and collective levels. And now, at All Hallow's Eve, we're making some serious progress as we move out of reach of some old emotional, psychological, and psychic yuck.

We are currently coming out of a Via Combusta Scorpio New Moon eclipse at zero degrees (conjunct Venus), which occurred October 23, and the themes of the burning path are with us for the following 28-day lunar cycle. The Via Combusta Scorpio New Moon eclipse busted things loose, giving us the velocity and power of a shooting star as we burn through old, unsatisfying scenarios, subjects, and relationships that have been taking us under. 

Things have lightened as we head to the dark half of the year in the northern hemisphere - perhaps almost imperceptibly in some cases - but they have lightened, indeed.

The planet of challenges, limitations, depression, and maturation, Saturn, now moves in one pass through 23 to 27 degrees Scorpio, putting another big chunk of the transit under our belts by December 8. Saturn will enter its next retrograde shadow (the degrees to which it will return during the next retrograde period) on December 8 before surfacing in lighter territory in Sagittarius on December 24. There's a light at the end of this tunnel, and we catch a glimpse of it as Saturn moves through tail-end Scorpio toward more buoyant Sagittarius by the end of the year.

We have the possibility of making big strides between now and the first part of December - but only if we accept our emotional, psychological, and energetic constraints and move through them one step at a time.

With Saturn moving in one pass through a meaty section of often-uncomfortable Scorpio, there is a tendency to want to push, to rush through into lighter and happier centaur territory in Sagittarius.

But the only way to truly lasting progress now is to accept the emotional and psychological weight of the times without shrugging off our responsibilities.

We are aware. We see. We feel. We sense. We understand.

And we know, in no uncertain terms, that things are not right on this planet. Things are not right here at all.

As Saturn relieves us of some of the old weight, we move into the later stages of Scorpio and a more mature outlook on the tough aspects of life on Planet Earth at this time.

We have been emotionally and psychologically challenged - intensely - during Saturn's transit of Scorpio by the bottom-line realities on this planet. We have been challenged by some of the darkest and most repugnant realities possible related to corrupt, violent, and vicious power structures on this planet and the miseries they create.

(If the New Agers want to talk about "creating reality," why don't we start with the miserable realities being created for billions of people by the violent power-holders and social engineers?)

There has been a lot of talk about depression since Saturn entered Scorpio in October 2012. This is a topic that has been worked up to the surface in media and social media, particularly after some high-profile celebrity suicides.

There has also been a lot of talk about how to alleviate or cure depression.

But here's where it gets a bit more tricky, complicated, Scorpionic.

We can't sever ourselves or our emotional realities from the reality of the whole. We can't sever our personal psyches from the collective situation on Planet Earth. We can't sever ourselves from the misery intentionally being brought down on people as the powers-that-be steamroll their way to continued "success."

There is no pill or drug or psychiatrist that can make all that go away.

 

Do we really think the millions of Iraqui and Afghani war orphans that have been created by the vicious Global Government and their NATO forces are not feeling depressed right about now?

Do we think the mothers giving birth to babies deformed from depleted uranium exposure, again brought to them by NATO forces, are not feeling some depression?

Do we believe the 43 million Americans on food stamps, some unable to put food on their tables with even two or three jobs, are not feeling a bit down at the moment?

Or the millions who remain unemployed? The millions who are homeless? The millions who are working for a wage that cannot sustain the very basics of life?

Do we think the sea life being irradiated, sickened, and killed in the Pacific Ocean is not feeling a bit wonky at this point? That we have no energetic connection to these creatures?

Do we believe that we can escape the intentional irradiation and toxification of our own bodies and minds by pretending it isn't happening, that it isn't so bad?

Do we believe that the current state of perpetual war will not affect our emotional or psychological states as long as we don't have to see it right in front of us?

Saturn is making us sit under it all so that we can't escape the action items on our plates.

There's a reason it was called The Great Depression. And there are reasons that people are struggling with depression now as we are being ushered into a new and orchestrated Great Depression, along with another World War. 

This All Hallow's Eve, the Sun, Venus, and female warrior asteroid Pallas Athene are all closely conjunct in Scorpio. The Moon moves into Pisces November 1 (10:37 a.m. CST), drawing the collective themes more strongly into play. We cannot sever our own emotional and psychological realities from the collective pain and disturbance on the planet. We cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering being experienced by others, expecting to remain emotionally free and clear ourselves.

The Moon forms a conjunction to wounded healer Chiron in Pisces on November 2, reminding us that we're joined in the pain and in the love, but ultimately, the love is stronger. 

We can't change the situation for ourselves personally unless we are also working to change it for the collective. It will just cycle around and grab us again unless we are working with the real sociological roots.

People will often avoid root realities because to admit them would threaten their own positions within the structures as they exist. Admitting that the power hierarchies are rotten and illegitimate threatens their ability to continue living and working within those rotten power hierarchies. It threatens the pensions. It threatens the Five Year Plans. It threatens the brainwashed societal versions of success and prestige. It threatens the buffering comforts that expendable income brings. These are prevalent themes with Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn in mutual reception, and they become concentrated as Saturn moves through the last degrees of Scorpio.

There are real ghouls, real soul-devoid individuals, in positions of power on this planet, intentionally bringing down pain, misery, death, and destruction on the living things here. (And most of those real ghouls wear suits and ties.) This web of corrupt power stretches around the globe, unimaginably complex and intricately connected. And this web must be outed - systematically, relentlessly, repeatedly, until every tendril, every connection is exposed.

Until people are willing to work with the true root realities, until they are ready to strike at the heart of the beast, they will be paralyzed under the layers, the symptoms, the intentionally-created bad feelings.

The goals with Saturn moving through a big, new chunk of Scorpio are to understand the true sources of our depression and to understand that we cannot alleviate the weight of this depression by leaving those sources hidden, festering, unaddressed.

We must look right into the heart of the matter, right into the eyes of the beast, and fight back with our ever-increasing awareness. 

We cannot continue with "the way things are," reinforcing murderous control structures in our day-to-day lives, and expect to be emotionally or psychologically unscathed. We can't live on the blithely ignorant surface of things, the way the path has been laid out for us, and maintain emotional health.

We have to fight, fight, fight with ever-increasing awareness to get to the true sources of our malaise. We must get to the roots of the power structures, moving out of reach of their manipulation of us, of our minds, of our psyches, of our lives. We have to carve our way out of it, carve a new path.

There are hideous realities chipping away at our states of well-being, and it's only when we get to Ground Zero Reality that we can start to restore that sense of well-being. Until then, it's artificial. It's saccharine. It's a Band-Aid.

Scorpio is a sign that lives to taste authenticity, honesty, reality. The down and dirty. The real blood and guts of the matter. This is the process. Getting to the heart and core. Making our moves and our decisions from that heart and core.

We are living within structures and power dynamics that are artificial, manipulated, illegitimate, and corrupt.

Deep down, most people know this.

But most also choose to turn a blind eye, continuing the day-to-day slog without applying the courage or the increased awareness fought so long and hard for in Scorpio.

On this All Hallow's Eve, if you haven't already, go through the Via Combusta doorway. Accept that the shit sandwiches we've been given by the greedy, shortsighted, and violent power holders on this planet are real. Accept that these shit sandwiches are going to affect you, them, us. Join with all others sitting quietly under the weight of this reality on Planet Earth, waiting for active opportunities to change things. Work for change on the minute, micro level. It's right in front of you. Go to deeper and more mature places in your own psyche and emotional repertoire. Accept the difficulty of the position. Don't look away.

Saturn in Scorpio will reward disciplined efforts to increase both awareness and the necessary resilience to that awareness.

Understand that with Pallas Athene conjunct the Sun and Venus in Scorpio, it takes a willingness to act and a willingness to fight from this place of increased awareness. 

Don't forget what you've been through as Saturn moves on in Scorpio. Don't forget what you've seen, felt, sensed.

Things are lightening up as we move to the end of the year, but it's the weight we've shouldered thus far that provides the strength, endurance, and truth we need to move forward.