Aries: independence + integration

We begin the zodiacal cycle with the Sun transiting across the constellation of Aries. This marks the zodiacal new year, the beginning of Spring in the northern hemisphere, and the Spring equinox. It is a time of renewal, of life returning to a sleeping environment.

The words of Aries are “I AM.” This archetype speaks to individuality while encapsulating the oneness of the collective. At first glance Aries may appear selfish or self-interested but in it’s most empowered expression, the individuality is wholly integrated into the collective One. The baby of the zodiac is much like human baby who may present like a tiny tyrant but who have not yet developed a distinction between themselves and others. Their demands are not tyrannical, but an assertion of willful desire for collective needs to be met. Like the Warrior who may be seen as bold, brash, and ego driven, empowered Aries offers these qualities to the collective with the wisdom and purpose of selfless devotion to the common good.

The lessons of Aries are of independence and integration, assertion of will, ambition, leadership, and pioneering or initiating action. Aries is called to go first, to bleed first for the cause, to start sh*t. Without a leader, or at least someone willing to go first, we are stagnant and stuck in chaos without a beginning or an end. The bravery, independence, and audacity of this archetype teaches us the value of the individual in service to the collective.

While independence is one side of the spectrum navigated by the archetype of Aries, the other is integration. As shown in the etymology of the word, integration embodies oneness, wholeness, completeness. Empowered independence is not about isolation or detachment from the collective, it is the embodiment of leadership that is conscious of and devoted to the community it leads. Integration is not the loss of individuality to the group, but the awareness of unity and wholeness in the self.

Selfishness is the art of Aries. To articulate need and desire, is what this archetype teaches us. While we cannot guarantee receipt of our needs and desires, we are nearly promised never to receive them without asking. We may risk disappointment or the vulnerability of exposing our will, but this act of vulnerability is the price we pay for a chance to have our needs and desires met.

In American culture, independence is a highly glorified quality. From a therapeutic perspective however, this privileging of independence can present some concerning issues. While it is often Libra, the opposite sign from Aries, that is associated with codependency, the other side of the codependent coin is hyper-independence. This is the deluded belief that an individual can ‘do it all alone.’ The behavior that insists on never sharing it’s needs for fear of exposing the need to receive support or worse, asking and being rejected. Not only does absolutely nothing occur in a vacuum on our planet, but humans are a pack animal, communally oriented and requiring of family, a village, to achieve anything.

While leadership is an honorable quality, it is nothing without a community to lead. The same is true for the archetype of Aries; independence is noble but without a sense of integration, connection to the collective, it is isolated and adrift without purpose.

Scorpio: surrender + control

The archetype of Scorpio exists on a spectrum of surrender and control. By surrendering to what cannot be controlled, by choosing power over force, by demonstrating the ability to control only the self, Scorpio can access an empowered expression of self-actualization. When we refuse to engage in a power struggle that was never ours to control in the first place, we liberate ourselves, achieving freedom from the trap of control issues that leave us disempowered and exhausted.

Scorpio manages the realms of secrets, power, trauma, sexuality, and the hidden depths. One of the most powerful commitments any of us can make is one of trust in the self and the divine, ultimately one in same.

When we swallow poison, the harm caused by another, it becomes an opportunity to heal, to tend to our wound, and process the vulnerability, the pain, the betrayal. When we offer ourselves the grace, the antidote to our wound, we make space for the healing cycle to begin. If instead, we hold on to the trauma, turning it over and over, clutching it close as a key part of our identity, we are promised greater suffering. Scorpio is a mark of the healer and in our astrological charts, it speaks to where we must heal old ancestral wounds and unearth secrets of trauma and betrayal.

Scorpio is a water sign in the fixed mode. This means that while it has all the emotional, intuitive, and liquid qualities of water, the fixed mode gives it the solid, contained, and rigid textures of the fixed mode. This can make the Scorpio uniquely capable of holding emotional truth and operating with intuitive discernment. By the same token, if we consider what it means for water to be contained and rigid, we could describe it as a block of ice or a well.

To explore the well metaphor, what happens when poison lands in a well?

The entire well is poisoned. The walls hold the water, now tainted by pain and wounding and the only solution is to find an antidote to the poison.

By holding onto the pain, the trauma of betrayal, and treachery, we keep the poisoned water of the well inside. But when we finally offer ourselves forgiveness, we become the antidote to our own suffering. Often times when we experience a brutal loss or trauma, it is not an apology or amends from the offending party that is the solution to our pain, but the forgiveness and grace we offer ourselves for not being able to protect ourselves, for not maintaining control when we so wish we could have, that will heal our wound. If we can return to ourselves, commit to trusting ourselves to craft the antidote that we need, we can transform our reality and heal.

As a master of transformation and transmutation, the Scorpio archetype is not only embodied and depicted by the form of the Scorpion but by two other incarnations.

The Scorpion

The scorpion is reactive, aggressive, sharp, and biting. It can express possessiveness, it keeps secrets, and refuses to admit emotional vulnerability. The scorpion is prone to jealousy and holds grudges, never letting go of the past, choosing instead to hold resentment and anger. In this way the scorpion can poison itself by refusing to heal from wounds it alone must tend to.

The Eagle

The eagle has achieved more liberty and perspective, no longer crawling on the earth or drinking its own poison. The eagle takes an elevated approach though still deeply judgemental and razor-sharp in its approach. The awareness and presence of the eagle is powerful and even lethal but it is still deeply self-protective and unwilling to find grace in vulnerability.

The Phoenix

Finally, the phoenix embodies the transformation of compassion for the self and the healing balm it can create. By accessing the antidote to the poison from traumas beyond its control, the phoenix can find alchemical solutions to powerlessness by asserting the power that resides within. Surrendering to what cannot be controlled and choosing to control the only entity within our control, ourselves, offers the phoenix a chance to rise from the ashes, stronger than ever before. All this can be achieved by trusting the self and relinquishing the urge to control what is beyond our power.

The magick of Scorpio is to transcend and transform through the discipline of trust. When we trust ourselves to be present and mindful through the process of healing, when we forgive ourselves for being wounded and vulnerable, we access the blessing of transformational liberation.

Scorpio speaks from desire.

As shown in the etymology of the word desire, there is something greater than wanting in the expression of desire. It is not just lust or covetousness, it is an inspiration of longing from beyond, from a heavenly body, one that is set upon a soul with celestial significance. It is a sacred wanting, the expression of desire and it can lead us to purpose.

To express desire is to be vulnerable in longing. It acknowledges a force external to our own power, one that moves us to action and inspires feeling. For Scorpio to truly embody its power, it must acknowledge its vulnerability and learn to trust in what it can control and honor what it must surrender to. Empowerment is not the absence of vulnerability but the awareness of desire, the willingness to be inspired, and the compassion to offer healing and forgiveness.

Astrology without Causation

Coincidence and coincide…

go ahead and say each one *out loud*

When we say coincidence, it sounds like it’s something that happened by accident. But when we say things coincide the magick of the synchronicity seems more obvious, even undeniable.

Then when we look at the etymology, we can see that the word was born of an expression of agreement. The root of coincidence speaks to multiple entities occupying the same space and affirming aligned messaging. Coincidence is feeling less and less like a fluke and more and more like a significant agreement between distinct entities.

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I feel a little embarrassed when people say that a particular planet is on their side, or that they are receiving something special from a certain celestial body. What does resonate for me, however, is the thought of praying to a particular deity. As someone with Sagittarius rising, I am ruled by Jupiter, and I offer my life and devotions to Zeus. I believe that I receive support through his magick, not because he is my ruler but because I offer my awareness and intention to him and his archetypal presence. Of course, I offer my attention to Jupiter/Zeus because he is my ruler but as someone who lives with high hopes and low expectations, I intentionally reject the practice of centering myself and humans in the cosmic web.

…but that’s a whole other can of worms…

Though I am discomforted by, even afraid of determinism, astrology demands we consider and contend with the possibility that all things are predetermined. I resist this; my bias urges me to seek more evidence so that we might yet have access to free will.

The option I prefer to explore suggests that all things happen within the parameters of the context, meaning the space-time must be correct for a particular thing to occur.

Psychological and behavioral observations and studies suggest that the context of our behavior is more predictive of outcomes than who we identify as. While I believe most of us would like to think we act as we do because of who we are, our behavior is far more likely to be defined by what is within our contextual capacity. We cannot fly a plane to Lagos if we do not have a plane, do not know how to fly one, and don’t know the coordinates to Lagos.

Simply put, we do what we do based on where and when we are more than who we are.

Another example, in a train station, we are able to board a train and travel, it is the setting, the space, the context, that predicts and defines our behavior. Without the train station and train, there is no access to travel, the behaviors we enact in a train station are specific to that space, that environment. We are not simply traveling because we identify as travelers but because we are in the space that permits and determines our capacity to travel.

Just as the space is more predictive of behavior than the person enacting the behavior, it seems that the position of the stars, the celestial bodies, and the ecliptic are determined by space. The planets also must contend with the parameters of space. They then, in turn, provide data points that speak to the context of human existence and experience. This brings us to the archetypal signification of the planets and how that information can be used to contextualize ourselves within our own cultural mythologies.

Let’s use a real astrological example:

It feels far less likely that Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius is causing a shift in the collective relationship to technology but instead that it is a symbol of the inevitable shift that occurs on a technological level when the collective has reached this particular context/space-time.

The technologies available at the particular era of the Pluto ingress into Aquarius are more data points that contextualize our behavior. The environment of the current era permits women to behave in ways they were not permitted to when Pluto was in Leo in the 1940s and 50s. Pluto, with its almost 250-year cycle, represents ancestral lineages and power, because those archetypal values take significant time to manifest this is the appropriate planet to symbolize heritage, power, and spiritual influence. Astrologers use Pluto to mark generations because it takes between 12 and 24 years for the planet to move through each sign. The last time Pluto made this ingress into Aquarius was April of 1777…chew on that for a moment… the context of Pluto speaks to the historical duration of empires.

It feels to me that the spinning and expanding of the galaxies, of the universe, was always going to end up with Pluto ingressing into Aquarius during 1532, 1777, and 2023 (just to name the 3 most recent times). This is promised and this is where things get particularly deterministic.

Let’s use another real astrological example:

The conjunction of Pluto on my partner’s 0° Aquarius sun was always going to happen, from the moment he was born, even before that I suppose. This transit is not a coincidence, it was always going to coincide with the end of his Saturn return, with his 30th year, with all the elements that exist at this moment in the space-time that is his context. The shape of the space-time that he acts within. Fortunately, he was not born when Pluto was in Leo, he has not been bound by the context of the late 1930s to late 1950s, forced to contend with the context of that era as a Black man. The context of the current space-time has completely different implications and determinations of what behaviors and technologies he now has access to.

To think that Pluto is offering him something special feels dangerously close to the spiritual bypassing of #luckygirl and individualistic manifestation. I have little patience for it. However, I do believe that my husband’s experience through this transit will be well described by the same vocabulary that is inspired by a Pluto conjunction with a natal Sun. It is likely to be transformative, powerful, intense, and may have much to do with his identity and ego.

I do not make predictions because I reject any opportunity to interrupt another person's self-actualization and self-determination.

The transits are always going to keep transiting and we now live in a context with the benefit of generations of archetypal language to describe feelings and experiences that coincide with these transits. To say that we are being hurt by a planet or healed seems indulgent and self-centered in a way I cannot abide. What I am curious about is how context impacts each of us collectively and as individuals. Our experience is coinciding with the planet's position and vice versa but this does not mean it must be a causal relationship. What does appear to be a causal relationship is the space-time and available behaviors. I cannot write these ideas on my computer except in this space-time where a personal computer exists, when I have the resources to access my computer, when I have the available time to ponder these ideas…

At birth, we are all initiated into our unique yet collectively felt contexts. Our contexts are predictive of our behaviors, more so than our sense of self despite our deepest desires to access free will.

The fact of the matter is, we cannot board a train when there is no station, nor train to board. We must live in a time of trains, enter the station with enough time to board the train and have the capacity to do so. Natal charts are a way to describe and explore the unique contexts that we act within. That our lives demonstrate archetypally synchronized patterns with the celestial bodies has more to do with the contextualization of our space-time than the causation.