INTRODUCTORY ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY

INTRODUCTORY ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY

SCORPIO 2008

Labor of Hercules
Slaying the Lernaean Hydra

On knees to lift the evil writhing Hydra into wind and light — the mystical 9th head of power buried under a Rock. Kundalini with Fire of Mind and Spirit conquer the entrenched reptilian instincts to become Asklepios and Healing Shaktipat; Scorpio wrestles again with Antares (cf. Gemini) as Ophiuchus and Hercules; Victory when Hydra seen as unit.

Motto: Warrior am I and from the battle I emerge triumphant.
(Scorpio stages the release of Leo)

Scorpio Stings Itself for Self-Gratification — Payback Time in U.S.
Scorpio in esoteric astrology is ruled by Pluto/Mars, Mars and Mercury on personality, soul, and planetary levels respectively. Scorpio is all about the right use of force and instinct inherited from our animal nature. Instinct is based on fight or flight in a world where reptiles and animals devour one another as predator and prey. Presumably humans are meant to have evolved above or beyond this with our threefold reptilian, mammalian and human brain. However, human addiction to conflict and crisis in order to think has meant that for millennia human lives have been “nasty, brutish and short” as the philosopher Hobbes observed.

Scorpio is all about the mastery of brawn by brains. It has to recognize the difference between force and energy (and eventually among rays), between brute coercion and intelligent persuasion. Scorpio’s path, the path of the spiritual disciple, leads from Mars to Mercury, from Martian war-game planning, bean-counting, water-selling and food fights to Mercury vision and intelligent stewardship of the planet. Humanity is essentially Mercury, divine intermediary between higher and lower kingdoms in nature.

Scorpio represents the battle between self-interested Personality values and universal or selfless Soul values, between the Dweller on the Threshold (of Initiation) and the Angel of the Presence — the two aspects of Humanity, animal and divine.

When the self-interested and ambitious warrior Personality exhausts itself and makes the decisive turn in Libra toward refined Soul values, then the standard backwards progression of the personality through Wheel of the Zodiac turns forward, and Scorpio begins to fight for universal Soul, group and planetary values. (This takes a while — to prove one’s values and principles to oneself.)

The battle of Hercules with the 9-headed Hydra symbolizes this long period of transmuting personality history (karma) and liabilities into soul and group assets. (The Nine Tests in Scorpio — [3 physical] sex, physical comfort, money; [3 emotional] fear, hate, ambition; and [3 mental] pride, separativeness, cruelty.) That is why Scorpio is said to rule the first three “initiations of the threshold” (mastering the threefold personality), while Capricorn begins (at the third initiation) to rule the “solar initiations” of the ancient Egyptian and Masonic rites and the Twelve Labors of the Sun Gods represented by Hercules.

Mars rules drive and the entire range of idealisms (some so gross as to be virtually unrecognizable). Ideas are spiritual impulses taking form. Mercury Ideas become ideals in action and idols (or attitudes) in fossilization. The point is to pursue one’s ideals with Energy and right effort and without the use of unnecessary force. Force shatters and congeals. Force is something to be applied to objects. Force is like a crust or shell of interacting form factors resulting from the impact of Energy. It is Energy that applies to persons and relationships — and all sentient existence is in essential fluid relationship. This is a key to immortality. This poise and discernment in action and ideals (between force and energy) takes a developed mind and broad vision with a fearless courage to be inclusive and open.

Perhaps the major evolutionary change taking place in humanity on the planet today is the shift of emphasis from animal gut-brain fixed attitudes (solar plexus) to the human brain and intelligent communication (head, heart, and throat). All one has to do is examine any major planetary conflict to recognize these two factors at odds with each other — no whining and martyrdom excuses please. Pure intelligent materialism (the definition of Evil, the outworn past) is being replaced by intelligent materialism with Love, Heart, and Wisdom.

Scorpio represents the evolution of instinct (gut-brain attitude) into intellect. When memory, attention-span and the faculty of imagination or visualization (image-in-action) are cultivated along with reflective rationality, then Scorpio supervises the evolution of intellect into pure intuition — the mind as beacon light of the Soul.

Instinct is the opposite of intuition, in the sense that the blind lower chakras of the desperate survivalist animal are the opposite of a fully awakened human mind and creative life, and the ability to see facts and envision solutions — Mars versus Mercury becomes Mars serving Mercury. THINK FAST. Make Haste Calmly.

Inspiration: Alice A. Bailey, Esoteric Astrology, and her 24 books on esoteric philosophy. NY: Lucis Publishing Company – website (http://www.lucistrust.org/en/publications_store).