The Solar Eclipse on November 3, 2013 in Scorpio occurs right at the midpoint of Saturn’s Journey through Scorpio which began on October 5, 2012 and will complete on December 24, 2014. The North Node of Fate entered the eighth sign on August 2012, and together the Lord of Time and Karma and the Node of Fate have been excavating Pluto’s underworld kingdom for over a year. On September 25, 2013, the conjunction between them brought a karmic turning point which re-set your inner compass for at least 14 years wherever early degrees of Scorpio fall in your chart. All of which marked the start of your training as a spiritual warrior.
To understand the effects of the approaching eclipse both personally and globally and the theme of Saturn’s continuing journey through Scorpio until December 24, 2014, it’s important to know the esoteric meaning and symbolism of Scorpio.
The Three Symbols of Scorpio
Scorpio is a multidimensional sign, with both a personal inner planet ruler, Mars, and a transpersonal planet, Pluto.
Scorpio has not just one but three symbols: the Scorpion, the Eagle and the Phoenix. These represent the levels of evolution of the incarnating soul. The Scorpion personality prefers to crawl low to the ground, hiding in dark corners, prepared to sting and destroy if threatened in any way. This is the Mars factor of the earth-bound nature of Scorpio; the aggressive intensity of rage and self-protection. The Eagle personality can be a kind-hearted outlaw type but also ready to strike at a moment’s notice on behalf of others. The Eagle has a probing eye that sees what others miss and like the Mars warrior, is very aware of the subtle dynamics of power.
The Phoenix personality is the transformational symbol of Scorpio. In mythology, at the end of its life the Phoenix built a funeral pyre and burned in the flames, only to regenerate from those very flames to fulfill the goal of this sign: to find emotional balance. The Scorpio nature cannot run from the destruction of the fire of its emotional intensity, but within that fire is the secret of immortality and resurrection. Scorpio is a water sign but Mars bestows the essence of fire as well and with it the courage to enter the fire and become transformed.
The Seven Rays
Seven great energies or streams of force refract the light of Spirit. The Wisdom Teachings speak of them as the Seven Rays—dominant conditioning and qualifying factors in our lives. They are cosmic elements, reaching us from the unknown spheres of other systems and no part of the life of our planet is unaffected by them.
In the same way as the seven colours are parts of the spectrum and the seven notes are tones of the octave, so these Rays are differentiations or qualities of the one Soul. In some of the Eastern teachings they are called the seven breaths giving life to all forms, and they have been referred to in various ways in different philosophies. It is these great Energies that St John called symbolically “the Seven Spirits before the throne of God”.
The Seven Rays, each carrying particular qualities and tendencies, are responsible for the different psychological types. Several Rays will influence you, but one usually predominates and gives the main colouring to your character. The 12 astrological signs carry these streams of energy and your alignment with a particular Sun Sign or Ascendant puts you more directly in touch with these qualities. (To find out about your own sign soul ray see “Soul Centred Astrology” by Alan Oken.)
Scorpio on the Fourth Ray
The sign of Scorpio, along with Taurus and Sagittarius, works on the Fouth Ray as an agent of balance. The Fourth Ray leads to the discrimination required for the life of the Soul and the way of service. It is the ray of trial and error, so that you may move from the unreal to the real. The Fourth Ray is the energy behind divine discontent. As the Ray of beauty and art, the Fourth Ray is also essentially the refiner, the urge for an ever-more-perfect representation of the Soul in the many forms of its expression. The Fourth is the ray of struggle, and those people who are especially connected to it will constantly find duality and upheaval emerging in their lives.
As the ray of the artist, the Fourth is especially connected to color. Those of you who are closely associated with this Ray may develop tremendous creative gifts. Working at the personality level, this is the ray of the mediator, interpreter, artist and those healers whose treatments involve the harmonising and balancing of the body’s energies and polarities—acupuncture, Reiki, Chi Kung, massage, colour therapy. Working at the soul level is the divine artist, always seeking to raise humanity’s consciousness through the realisation of the beauty and harmony existing in nature and in the world of forms; the mediator between heaven and earth. Think of the Hierophant card in Tarot.
The Nine Tests
Through planets and points in Scorpio, whether by sign, transit or progression, you enter deep, mysterious waters, experiencing the Nine Tests of Mars, the co-ruler of Scorpio. Your personality (physical body, emotions, concrete mind) are each tested three times for strength and adaptability. Can it withstand the light of the soul? In Scorpio, three lights within each of us meet Spirit—the light of the personality, the light of the soul and the light of life itself. They meet, blend, fuse and rise up. This is the reorientation towards the soul and the Cross of Matter.
We begin to aspire to a life less oriented to the gratification of the physical body—the desires for sex, food, passion, and money—and more oriented to something yet unknown. Often this step feels confusing because life as it has been lived no longer holds any attraction and yet there is no clear path for the future. These are the first urgings of the Soul and the first step on the Path of Discipleship. This is not about religion but about service, taking the vow of the Bodhisattva.
From this point on, it is up to each of us. There is an ancient saying: “Seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be given, knock and the door shall be opened.” Scorpio is the sign of discipleship. It is in Scorpio that you are asked to make a decision about your life. Will you stay within the confines of personality gratification or do you have the courage and willingness to be of greater service and withstand the tests for qualification? Eventually, we all make the choice.
The Solar Eclipse of November 3, 2013
The Kozminsky karmic symbol for the eclipse degree is: “A revolving star throwing off many colors and shades of colors.” This could not be more synchronistic with the concept of the Seven Rays. This eclipse will show us Ray Four in action in our own and others’ lives. The New Moon is conjunct Fixed Star Acrux, bringing wider interest in metaphysics, astrology and spirituality. It directly connects back to the April 25 eclipse at 5 degrees Scorpio, so look back to see what was started then.
Remember, eclipses are wild cards, bringing change seemingly out of the blue. A Solar eclipse—a New Moon on steroids—is akin to a psychic re-boot. It wipes off old limiting situations and beliefs and frees up the energy to make a fresh start.
The theme of this eclipse in fixed water is how habitual emotions and limiting beliefs can create veritable neural motorways in our psyches, limiting what we perceive as our options. It is the ideal time to work with a psychotherapist, Reiki master or mindfulness practitioner to dissolve old, negative thought patterns.
Saturn is again tightly conjunct the eclipse point, moving direct. This is all about being the adult rather than the child, taking responsibility for our own life. Remember Saturn’s conjunction with the North Node on September 25? That was a karmic turning point which re-set our compass for the next 14 years. We’ve stepped onto the path, so we need to edge-walk by staying focused. The Scorpio stellium trines Pluto exactly square Uranus. Under such aspects, co-operation can temper and focus the urge for change at any cost.
Look to see where 9-15 degrees Scorpio sit in your birth chart. This is the area of your life under excavation and re-development, showing where and how you can become a spiritual warrior and a visionary activist, working with the four meta keys of:
Awareness
The first and most vital tool of the spiritual warrior is awareness. Awareness is essential because it is the state of consciousness that allows us to discriminate between the facts and the truth, between the stories that keep us stuck and the freshness of reality in the Now. While the mind can be very clever making up hypnotic stories, it is the consciousness of awareness that is the discerning intelligence. Self-awareness is the clarity to know who and what we are and to avoid becoming caught up in self-important images of our “small self.”
Courage
The spiritual warrior has the courage to question challenge beliefs. To challenge our own beliefs requires courage because it means the end of our illusion of safety. As a warrior we learn not to defend what we believe. In this way we sift out the truth from illusions.
Discipline
As a warrior we exercise our own skilful will from our values and our heart. This often means evading the super ego that keeps us small with illusions of judgments, punishment and rewards. We have the discipline to follow our own heart despite collective norms.
Love
As a visionary activist we make the commitment to love ourselves, then extend that love to humanity. On our journey we will stumble and fall many times. It is a strong commitment that gets us back up again. This is a commitment to love beyond our own self-serving interests.
“Whatever you are physically…male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy—all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.”
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel
Lorna Bevan is a former Consultant Astrologer for The Sunday Times Magazine and other publications. She works with clients across the world, combining Visionary Astrology with Master NLP Coaching. Her passion is giving her clients the tools to live their best life.
Lorna is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Analytical Astrology.
She’s also a Jungian Psychotherapist and Master Coach qualified in NLP and Psychosynthesis.
She writes for the Cosmic Intelligence Agency as Agent 98 and for Daykeeper Journal and Infinity Magazine.
She is a Member of the Association of Professional International Astrologers, The Astrological Association UK, MBACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy ).
Lorna works to the BACP and APAI code and all sessions are completely confidential. Book a 2017 Reading with Lorna
Ok this is very helpful. But with the artistic paragraph i have a question on it, yeah i am an artist but also what if a person has realized nature to the point of reading the minds of other people sensing their emotions to a high T even when they are miles away and don’t see them or hear them. and realizing by seeing the things others don’t. If you could please send me an email.
Thank you, Lorna and Susan. I enjoy the depth of the this article, which happened to bring light to the process unchained by the eclipse for me, and ground me in the midst of an apparent drama that is actually a warrior’s test. Another symbol related to Scorpio is the snake. Due to its continual shedding and regrowth of skin, its a symbol of transformation in many ancestral cultures.