Gambling Astrology: The Unconscious Psychology of Poker

Anyone that plays poker regularly has butted heads with the mystery of its cyclical nature. The rational mind justifies a short term experience as standard deviation from normal expectation, but the spiritual nature of all of us cannot help but feel that there is something deeper at work that laughs in the face of mathematics and logic.

A poker player that plays regularly for profit, especially the professional, seeks to make their game as complete as possible. What is meant by a complete game? First, mastering and balancing a great number of skills. Second, analyzing the information derived from a great number of variables that create the overall poker situation. A small sample of these variables include the cards one holds, position, stack size relativity, opponent profiling, opponents knowledge of you, the profile and position of who has acted in the hand, the act of each subsequent player and how their knowledge of previous players who have acted filter their potential range of holding. The situation in each poker hand is incredibly complex. However, there is a hidden world containing a vast ocean of variables that are rarely, if ever, considered by the player. This world is the unconscious mind. Before breaking open into how the unconscious mind dictates the true poker situation, it is important to give some examples from everyday life. The following are case studies from my own client base:


1) A client broke her arm in an accident involving her bicycle and a car in traffic. This was the second time the client had broken the same arm in the exact same way. Comparing the two times, the cyclical components in nature that triggered her unconscious complex was found, and this was rooted in a date in time when she was 9 years old. She revealed that her parents worked all the time and gave her no attention. She had a great deal of anxiety about feeling loved. On the date I asked her about when she was 9, she was climbing a tree in her yard and feel and broke her arm. Her parents dropped what they were doing and made her a priority....only until she got well.

2) A client fell in love with a woman that had a passion for music, bringing out an untapped talent in him that led to their eventually performing together. The timing of the two meeting was a return of a natural cycle which triggered a previously conditioned emotional need. Because these cycles can be measured mathematically, it is easy for the trained practitioner to chart back to the moment in time of the original conditioning. Upon asking my client about the dates in time I came to, he responded that he was a very young child, and as it turned out had an older sister who played a musical instrument in her school band and was the pride and joy of her parents. Wanting approval himself, he received it the most from his sister, who taught him how to play and expressed the talent she saw in him. The client later met this woman, named Amy, at a time when the unconscious emotional need was seeking the validation given by the sister that was an important part of the development of his self-esteem. He was amazed that this connection was made, and even more so that his sister's name was Amy as well

3) A female client had 3 relationships in a row that began seemingly as true love, and all ended painfully. Ironically all 3 of these men were born between September 3rd and 8th. Mathematically this requires a method of relativity between cycles. Given that the known variable are common birth dates which yield a common position on the cycle of the Year, a principle of cyclical relativity was used to find the timing of the unconscious root. A period of time was derived at in which the client was 10 years and 10 months old. That month, her father walked out on her family. The father's moon position at birth was in the same ecliptical position we find the Sun between September 3rd and 8th.

4) I will give a final example to demonstrate future predictability. A very skeptical client had a childhood history of serious abuse, but none more serious than an occurrence when he was 8 years old. Among the parting advice, I gave him a date that was 9 months in the future that was important for him. On that date, the experience he had when he was 8 would be triggered again by natural cycles, and a great deal of the repression could come flooding into the consciousness. He wrote it off completely, but on that very date police were called to his home as he committed a similar act on his roommate's 8 year old child. He spent time in prison soon after.


For poker players, the difficulty in gaining acceptance of this material is that players do not want to believe that there are periods in which they have little to no control over the outcome. Truthfully, it is the unconscious that gains primary control. From what you learned from the case study examples given, it may be easier to relax the ego and yield to the variables that unconscious psychology will bring to the table. It can be quite frightening to explore the depths of the unconscious, as it can drag you through cycles of experiences with the ego kicking, screaming and looking for escape. Truthfully there is no escape, and the cycles will continue to repeat themselves until the deeper causes are learned and integrated. When my client learned that there was a connection to the men she was drawing and her feelings surrounding her father, she was able to work on forgiveness and to bring healing to her relationships. While your ego may believe that the motivation behind your poker play today is the same as it is everyday, to rip the game apart and win as much money as possible, unconscious memory may be triggered which bring a number of unconscious motivations into play. The following provides some simple examples:

1) Your poker skill set was passed onto you by a father, who wanted the best for you and always saw your ability to be great. However, you have gifts deep inside of you that your mother encouraged that would require temporarily giving poker far less of your time. This battle between the mother and father has been going on inside of you since you were a child. Today, your connection with your mother as well as those other gifts are triggered unconsciously as dictated by inner and outer cycles. You begin a losing streak that makes your father question your ability to carry on his legacy, but this only forces you to build your own

2) Your parents seemed to relate more to the physically dominant traits of your siblings, and your siblings certainly rubbed that in growing up. While they played sports and gained notoriety, you were a compassionate, feeling oriented child. Today you found the game of poker on the cyclical return of a time when your awareness of your siblings emotional state enabled you to gain an upper hand in situations that athletic skills couldn't touch. Your opponents at the table try to bully you. They are your virtual siblings. Your ability to feel a situation and read your opponents puts you on the road to great heights in a sport that favors these traits. Your parents finally get to watch you shine

3) You wake up one morning ready to make the drive to the casinos. For some reason though, you feel completely drained and the idea of doing some home projects sounds more appealing. However, there is money to be made, and you press on. You run as unlucky as you've run in years, and the problem is that you continue to wake up with the same feeling. After experiencing a few consecutive losing days, you are forced to reassess things and take a few days off. You see a commercial for a new casino that for some reason instills some excitement in you. The new environment, colors, layout of the poker room, etc all seem to trigger a strengthening feeling when at the same time the thought of your own favorite card room makes you sick. Playing at the new card room, you are back to your winning ways. In charting back to your root unconscious influence, I discover that under a previous cycle you were with a lover with whom you lost your comfort sexually. You met a new lover that rekindled that spark, and you remembered once again what it was like to be so in tune with another person's body. This experience has its reflection in the balance between the masculine and feminine within, and with your attunement with your own intuitive awareness.


Doyle Brunson was onto something when he mentioned ESP in his book SuperSystem. All of us experience periods of time when we have more of this than at other. Some people of course have greater abilities in this area than others. We all have days where we see the cards we are about to get dealt before they are dealt to us, and we know given the feeling in our body we are about to win a huge pot with them. I am here to tell you that through an analysis of your astrological birth chart and some one on one counseling, I can tell you WHEN you are most likely to be attuned to these frequencies. I can tell you WHY you are moving through a two month losing streak, or why you are tearing up the tournament circuit this year.
Your question as a logical thinker is this: If each session is an independent trial with positive EV given proper game selection and sound decision making, then how do the streaks follow such a cyclical pattern? Can it really be that the assimilation of certain unconscious content really affects luck?

My study is founded on the truth that the system of the human being is interconnected with all of life, nature, as well as with the cosmos. In order to understand our cycles of emotional needs, intuitive perception, ESP, mental focus and concentration, self-worth and conviction of belief structure, we must not only expand our self-awareness, but our very definition of the Self. Let us use for example the client that needed to feel once again the validation given from the sister. This 'unconscious memory' can be seen in the same light as a plant that begins to flower at a detectable day/night differential which equates to an exact time of year. If an elder plant told a first year plant that it would undergo this intense physical change on June 18th, the younger plant may project a psychic awareness onto the elder. When a true astrological counselor gives a client a date in future time when psychological or physiological changes can be expected, s/he is measuring a repetitive cycle that moves within each of us as well as outside of all of us. The late depth psychologist Carl G. Jung coined the term 'Synchronicity' that refers to this acausal connection between psychic and physical phenomenon. All planetary and lunar cycles have a detectable resonance that we are unconsciously attuned to, and these cycles are in 'sync' with inner cycles which trigger unconscious memory, needs, beliefs, and psychic phenomenon. I like to think of all the natural cycles as a part of our greater body. Yes, there is a 'magic' generated by the unconscious needs and reality that you project. In terms of luck, I will add that the unconscious needs will dictate the situations that you are drawn into. For example, if you are wrestling with a belief that people cannot be trusted, you are more likely to be drawn into a relationship with a con artist. If you are wrestling with feelings of unworthiness, you may be drawn to play at a blackjack table with a dealer that on a better day your body would get a feeling that this would not be best for you.

I have spent the last 13 years as a professional poker player and astrological counselor. A combination of astrology and one on one counseling allows me to determine the dynamics that will determine your likely experiences at particular moments in your life. I can bring deeper self awareness to you, and give you greater control over forces that at times have had an adverse effect on your poker game and caused a seemingly magical shift in your luck. I am reaching out to regular poker players through this blog, and I invite you to try out my service free of charge. I would like to offer you a free consultation and complete astrological birthchart complete with several important peak times for unconscious assimilation of personal dynamics for you. In return, you will be providing me with more case study material to revolutionize our understanding of unconscious psychology and the science of luck!

As with any counselor, all consultations are completely confidential. Only with permission from clients do I ever publish any findings such as the examples above, and always in an anonymous manner.

Thank you for visiting my new blog entitled 'The Complete Game'. From here on out, we will be exploring in detail topics that will help you to further understand the connection between unconscious psychology and personal experience. I would like to hear from any and all of you, especially professional poker players who keep journals and have personally wrestled with the cyclical phenomenon I have described. Even if you do not take advantage of my offer, I would love to hear your personal experiences that have been powerful and shaped you as a player and as a person.

The 12th House

The final segment of the cycle represented by the houses begins at the Midheaven, the entrance to the 10th House.  This section of the chart deals with the individuals place within the collective body of humanity.
At the 10th house, it is the position the individual has taken.  This could be a position of power, or a position of service.
At the 11th house, the emphasis is in the energy dynamic between the collective and the individual based on this position.  Collective power is given to the individual based on who he is expected to be, based on 10th house position.  This may or may not be in sync with who the individual truly is; the creative seed within this individual may remain hidden, undeveloped, or it may run renegade and become overly dominating.  This leads us to the 12th and final house.

If the true creative seed that is within an individual is planted within the collective body, then the life can be seen as a success for both the individual and the collective.  For each of us, our goal should be to find the creative essence within us that makes us unique, strengthen it, be it, and serve our relationships, our family, and humanity with this force.

Many of us have lived a number of lives throughout the journey of our soul.  At the end of our last life, how did the sacred relationship between our individual incarnation and the collective we were born into turn out?  Death desolves life into Akasha (a universal etheric field of energy in which is stored all past events, becoming itself the basis of the formation of modern archetypes), to return when it's time comes; and in the interim, Akasha assimilates the experiences of the mortal life dissolved as wisdom.  This means that when we were born into this incarnation, our relationship to the collective, as well as our family and key players in our lives, is a mirror, or crystallization, of the dynamics inherited from our past.
For the 12th house, it would be appropriate to use the ocean in our analogy.  The ocean symbolizes the waters to which we came and to which we return.  However, in the 12th house we are not talking about the realm of angels or of heaven.  We are talking about the ocean of humanity, and our only way to relate to this realm while we are living is through the collective unconscious; the realm of archetypes.  We all share, as humans, a common source and characteristics.  However, each of us as individuals have our own creative seed along with a unique set of circumstances that, if life is lived to the highest degree of success can, much like a rock thrown into a pond, cause a ripple effect that will inspire humanity and transform Akasha itself. Individuals have gone before us with the creative seed in the same arenas as we have, and many of them have failed to make a splash in the collective waters.  Some have even been persecuted for who they were.  In the 12th house, often the individual literally faces the ghosts of the past, and these ghosts can either lend support to the native, or uphold the illusion that the native too is doomed to the same fate or failure.  Seperation is an illusion.  We are one with the collective body of humanity and all that we have ever been.  However, in the individual life, HOW we are separated, and the dynamics we face as a result of this, is our karma.  

One of my favorite movies of all time, “The Green Mile” by Stephen King, contains an excellent analogy for understanding the 12^th house.  In the book, King painted the picture of the death row section of a prison.  He called the corridor between the prison cells that made its way from the entrance to the electric chair the Green Mile because of the color of the floor tiles.  However, there was a deeper connotation in Kings work that paralleled this corridor with the walk of life, from birth to death.  In both the movie and the book, one man was wrongly imprisoned on one side of the corridor.  He was pure spirit, a healer, and in the book a representation of Christ.  On the other side of the corridor, a rapist and murderer laid in wait.  King wrote in the book that the guards were taught to walk the center as much as possible, and never get too close to the cells for danger of being grabbed or harmed by one of the prisoners.

Here we have an example of the average man and how the two primary archetypes are set in relation to himself throughout the average life.  The pure spirit, and dark side of humanity, lie in complete polarity.  These extremes are rarely reached, for most of us never go to war with humanity to such a degree that we become a killer or rapist, and most of us never maintain the pure source of light in human form without ever becoming tainted by the crystallization of being human.  

In the 12th house, an individual faces his relationship to collective humanity as a result of his past.  Allow me to offer a speculative reality, that as our soul incarnates, doing so from the sea of our own past experiences sets us up in the current life with or against archetypal forces that we must work through in order to strengthen our ability to effectively serve collective humanity, and or transform these forces by righting our own past failures, as well as those of the ghosts of ours and our collectives past.  We may not have walked the safe and narrow middle ground.  One individual may embody more so the side of spirit, having the job of healing the self and their collective.  Another individual may have stepped too far away in terms of power dynamics, and must make a serious adjustment or have this adjustment forced upon him by the collective itself.

The 12th house has been called the house of "Self Undoing".  Conventionally this is thought of as relating to death.  However, death is merely a transition point between lives.  Planets or emphasis in the 12th house indicates a responsibility to transfer our inner light, our creative seed into the collective, not only to evolve humanity but also to strengthen ourselves as we reincarnate into a world that WE took part in creating with that seed.  In the 12th house, the native must embrace that much of what he experiences is due to the seeds he planted in the past.  

Both the 12th and 6th houses, each being the final house of the two hemispheres of the birth chart, represent a point of crisis in which the native must make adjustments.  This crisis exists in polarity.  It would be a tragedy for the collective to drown the individual, to where the collective is never able to grant the individual responsibility or power because it was never developed.  Many individuals with loaded 12th houses want to bring about their own self undoing.  Drugs, alcohol, illness… they seek to escape and jump back into the ocean that from the perspective of the individual, can beckon as the archetype of the mother imago, the ANIMA, the womb from which he came.  Obviously this will only lead to reincarnation under similar or perhaps even higher pressure circumstances.  The other side of the crisis polarity would be an individual whose ego has grown cancerous, and has used collective energy and responsibility for personal power rather than to serve and grow in balance.  An example of this would be Adolph Hitler, who had Uranus in the 12th house under hard karmic aspects.  The result of this is always in some way or form, the collective taking its power back to the detriment of the individual.  Hitler is obviously an extreme example.  In most cases, this end of the crisis spectrum can lead to imprisonment or necessary death.  Ultimately through reincarnation, the karma the individual must face is that in order to thrive as a creative individual, one must come to terms with the reality that the collective he is a part of, is a part of him.

I dreamed my teacher came to me and told me that I was needed by the group.  He was with others that had gained a great deal of respect in the spiritual community.  They had a task for me that would prove my value to the group, and that was to jump into the pool and capture the sparrow that moved through the deep water.  I was honored for the initiation.  I jumped into the pool and swam deep into the water, spotting the sparrow between the rocks.  As I moved towards it, it jetted across the pool to another set of rocks.  It was unbelievably fast, but I was in my element as well, and I was fast enough to capture the sparrow and prove my worth.  As I grabbed the sparrow and held it while ascending to the surface, a deep feeling of guilt and sorrow came over me.  I could feel it in every fiber of my being.  My teacher and the others, they were not trying to initiate me into their group by having me prove my worth.  They were using me to capture the sparrow, which they themselves were incapable of… and suddenly I felt unworthy of my own gift, for the reason I was able to catch the sparrow was a trust and vibration between our energies.  And there I was, about to deliver this sliver of living light to a dark group that sought to use this light for its egotistical purpose.  I released the sparrow, who swam away in a pool now heavily proportioned with my tears.

Again, the 12th house can give indication as to how the archetypes have formed in relation to ourselves, giving us an indication as to how well we have planted our inner seed in the past.  With Saturn in my own 12th house, I relate to the feeling of tragedy associated with the individual loss of the creative seed.  This was a powerful dream indicative of my own relationship between individual and collective.  There has been a fear of failure and a fear of repeated patterns that has been my own karma to work through.  Saturn is associated with the father, and I have found my relationship with my father replayed throughout my own life.  In my dream above, my teacher took on a fatherly role.  However, was he representative of the archetype of the Old Fool whose past has led to failures in the marriage of collective and individual?  Or does he represent the Redeemer himself, the Wise Old Man who has learned the way and offers support?  

The truth is, the Redeemer and the Fool are one and the same.  They both exist within us, and we are born in relation to them in the way in which our soul needs in order to give us the greatest chance of success in this life.  Or perhaps it is the collective success, to receive the seed and the light of the individual.  In the 12th house, we come to terms with the fact that the collective is as much a part of us as we are of it.  

In this life, I have had to come to terms with this polarity of archetype through my role as a single father, and I assure you I have found myself playing both the role of the redeemer who protects my child from the Old Fool who will take us off course, as well as that of the Old Fool himself.  I have found myself in both archetypes in the role of both Father and Child to the collective as well.

I recall at about the age of 10, a verbal comeback against my parents where I exclaimed to them "I shall have the last laugh when on Judgement Day, God calls me by name and you by number".  Perhaps in more truthful and modern terms, I can say "on the day of my death, the life that I lived will continue to be significant because of how I lived.  And at the moment of my rebirth, I will intuitively recognize myself in the collective I once lived among, and the collective too will know my name by my vibration that resonates within it"!

The waters of the collective unconscious, the Akashic Record, is collective memory.  With successful integration of our relationship to the collective, we drop our stone into the collective waters… we formulate a new karma.  When it is our time once again, the New Ascendant will perhaps recognize itself within the collective, and instead of the extreme polarity often experienced, the name he gives himself and the name the collective gives him will be one.  At the very least, it should promise a collective filled with the same light that is within the individual, leading to what we all want; greater recognition, trust, responsibility, and joy!  

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The Third House

The Astrological Third House

Looking at the picture, the Third House can be seen as located on the bottom half of the wheel.  The wheel, which represents the earth with YOU at the center, is turning counterclockwise.  The Sun currently filling this position in the photo would be in this position somewhere between 12:30 and 2:30AM, reaching the Ascendant (the far left of the wheel, the midpoint of the 12th and 1st House) at Sunrise.  If you have read my piece on the Ascendant, you may recall the story of the princess' Golden Ball coming back to the surface, representing a physical revelation of Selfhood following a period of subjectivity.

This below the horizon position energizes the experience of COMPARATIVE realities.
This is the final house of the quadrant that starts at the Ascendant, i.e., the realm of Intuitive Awareness. The third house consolidates the 'Who am I' at the First House, and the 'What do I Have' of the Second, and makes comparative observations as to Who and What is effective in the communication and stimulation of the self within a physcial environment.

I was born with the planet Venus in Virgo in the Third House.  Using a form of progression known as the Point of Self, I find my Ascendant (originating point of conscious awakening) nearly exactly on the natal Venus at the time of my brothers birth at the age of 5.  This is particularly interesting given that the Third House is conventionally defined as dealing with Siblings.  Here we deal more with the initial reality of the Other.  The human race is 100% made up with our brothers and sisters of light, but our particular karma in terms of how we are defined versus how our brothers and sisters are defined is worked through in the astrological Third House.

For many, ones self awareness of their personal attributes may lead to pride, or shame, or a number of feelings when communicated to others within the environment.  We are taught in our schools to conform to the mold of what society wants our brothers and sisters to be like.  For some of us, this mold  happens to fit very nicely with the First House conscious I AM, and the attributes of the Second House.  For others, communication may fall on deaf ears, or ears that do not want to hear or assimilate what the native has come to teach or express.  This education begins at home, and when it comes to siblings, it is only natural that natives will be able to recognize and compare what behaviors are encouraged by the parents from those that are discouraged.

My initial relationship with my brother was one of intense feelings of protection.  I did not like my parents as a young child.  I felt an inner light, a connection with something spiritual, that I sought to show him and give to him to help him in dealing with the abusive and disfunctional realities of our early home life.  One of the most memorable and psychologically key experiences of my childhood was the year he was born, a girl in my kindergarden class told me that she was going to sneak into my house and stab my brother to death with a knife.  I stayed awake night after night for what may have been a year after that, making sure that I was there to protect him if she were to come.  Ultimately, my reality was that I was unable to protect him, just as I was unable to protect myself, from the environmental situations which included our place of residence, or neighborhood, or schools, and the poison that my parents fed us physically and psychologically.  If I was able to pass anything to him, it was to help him become aware that the seeds of light within us DID NOT require watering from the parents or the schools.  This light was there from the beginning and grew from within.  This was the only way I knew how to give of this light, although my initial awareness of relationship was the expression of love without the ability to effectively manipulate the environment with it.

It has certainly been my way of being that it takes helping another for me to be stimulated enough to effectively act upon something or to make it happen than it would if it were only myself in need.  My needs never seemed worth a great effort, but the needs of others were motivating.  There are many layers to this.  One can say that perhaps my greatest need was the need to be needed, or the need to be viewed as a source of knowledge and guide within my environment.... one that people looked to when they KNEW that the original source, represented by the parents, the school, the priest, etc, just wasnt working or wasnt right.  Without using this space here to go into intensive detail regarding the psychology of karma of myself, it is true that Venus in the 3rd house indicates my approach to the environment and pool of brothers and sisters.  There is a desire to reach out and share of the self, and at the same time there is great self judgement as to the effectiveness  of my outreach.  Having Venus in Virgo certainly adds to the situation a need to refine the methodology throughout the life in order to effectively express the self.  Adding the natal square of Venus to Saturn in the 12th House, there is a feeling of great unworthiness if I am unable to reach others purely and authentically.  A good example would be writing a poem to a woman that would express my deep love for her.  Upon reciting the poem to her, nerves and insecurities makes me stutter and not communicate the poem the way I envisioned it, essentially turning her off and ruining what the envisioned moment was.  This is an analogy to this part of my consciousness in general.  This very blog that I write, from my perspective, is not for me as much as it is for YOU.  OR that the least, I judge myself in my ability to impart these gems of knowledge to you, and my worthiness for love in return with the effectiveness of this.  Karmically, effective communication is a key word for the 3rd House experience.

In observing the communication of my children, I recall feeling quite angry when my son would communicate to his sister false information.  There was a desire to be respected for knowledge that wasnt yet acquired.  I used this as a time to teach him the truth regarding his claim, but underneath, it doesnt matter what the claim is because right or wrong answers is not the desired result here.  It is a defined name and place within the spectrum of the environment that is worthy of its perception.  In other words, he felt on some level that due to being 5 years his sisters elder, that he was expected to have a greater knowledge base.  (Not coincidently, my children have the precise age difference as me and my brother).  The unconscious desire is to channel the I AM of the First and the resources of the Second to communicate the Authentic Self that needs no other definition.  However, I was able to learn something valuable from this observation, because I realize that it is important to learn the language and the structure and the way of the environment in order to effectively produce any meaning within it.  For myself, it was the worthiness of returned love within it.  I found myself often using denial as punishments to my children (which is what my father did to me), which is a deeper reflection of this complex.  It is telling the children that they need to learn to do things in this way, and once they do they will be worthy of this reward or this harmonious situation, and that I will effect that harmony of their environment by restricting fun activities in order to herd them into correct action.

I have found within myself a system of self reward for when I feel unworthy of reward from my peers or environment.  There is a bingeing level of self destructiveness that comes from this.  There is me protecting myself from being killed by the knife of the mother and the father, but beyond there is a voice inside the head that herds the self into correct action, of focus on learning what I need to learn in order to effectively express what IS THERE and has been within me FROM THE BEGINNING.

We all have a gift, and often what we must do on earth is not so much learn about our inner gift, but learn to create roads and effective means of transporting that gift to the collective.

I recall a client that had Saturn in the 3rd house.  This denotes a special level of karma and the need to truly ground into the foundation of the self as a vehicle for communication.  Stuttering and learning disabilities are more common with Saturn in the 3rd house than any other Saturn placement.  However, during a major transit of this natal Saturn position, my client heard a voice inside him from his spiritual guides, and began channeling information that he would compile into a successful spiritual book.  Blocking collective education his entire life, finally he was able to find the source of information that resonated with his inner self, and effectively communicate who and what he was as one of our brothers.

What we choose to love, and what others choose to love in us, is a big part of the 3rd house reality and especially for myself with Venus in the 3rd house.  Struggle to find love or adequate companionship, someone to hear the voice within you and respond in a way that shows they have been moved, is effectively part of the process of learning how to build those roads and what direction to point them to.  For myself, I often break down and binge on external realities that are not aligned with the direction needed for my self expression, and on one hand being ineffective in this case is punishment for not maintaining discipline (from my karmic perspective), and at the same time an effective means to refine the methodology TO THE VERY EFFECTIVE MEANS of self expression that I seek.

The Second House

My father had an extremely intense stellium of planets (Saturn, Mars and Pluto in Leo) that sat in my natal 2nd house, just opposite my 8th house moon in Aquarius.  My study of astrology helped me to understand the complex within him and how I carried a similar complex of energy.

My father had a great fear of poverty.  He was driven to succeed in what seemed to be a means to an end for the mere acquisition of wealth for himself.  At the age of 12, I recall his going on long business trips for his high executive level 300K a year, all the while leaving my mother with poverty level allowances to support me and my brother.  He saw his family as parasites that put a strain on his  wealth.

Material wealth is only an illusory means through which we can create authentic value.  Without contribution to the people of our lives, material wealth is only a cancer.

On the positive side, my father was insanely jealous of my personal nonconformist will and willingness to embrace my inner value which I always knew had nothing to do with anything that I physically had or inherited.  My early possessions of value, a photographic memory, psychic ability, intuitive knowing, developed subjective perspective and empathic nature, were all acquired over time by efforts throughout many lifetimes.  They were possessions of my soul.

My father wanted to instill in me the value of hard work that must be enacted in order to acquire necessary possessions.  I recall anytime he ever took me out to a store, he would remind me to "Never ask him for anything", and seemed to resent that my mother would ever give me anything that, according to his consciousness set, I didn't earn.

From here I can move into a number of directions regarding depth symbolism here, as the jealousy of a father for the love and respect of a mother is not much different at all from the jealousy of a sibling for the parents, the jealousy of a friend for the attention of a man or woman, or the jealousy of one man over another for his karmic set of circumstances that seem to give him better luck or more love from an unseen source.  This "source" in all of these cases is the Anima and or the Animus.  However, I will do my best to stay focused as much as possible on 2nd house emphasis.

What my father lacks in this case is an awareness of the soul level acquisition, however given the ever present polarity of the 8th house, there is always an awareness that loss may be right around the corner. It is natural for us to hold onto our primary possession....our body; our ego; who we perceive ourselves to be.  There is a part of me that feels deeply that the gifts that I, Bill Walker have, are gifts from the universal source of all that is, and that if I do not use them that it will be especially tragic as I meet my death.  Herein lies the unconscious feeling of guilt unto the feminine, or anima, for not meeting the collective need.  For destroying the trust instilled in each of us by virtue of the fact that we were each born, and each of us born with an energy of which it is our responsibility to give to our collective soul.  As I said earlier, without this contribution, the possessions whether soul or material level, can be much like a cancer.   My fathers attempt at wealth accumulation was an attempt to fight this aspect, the unconscious feminine.  It was unconscious desire to gain the Anima's love and trust through hard work, and to see the result of this devotion earned.  It was unconscious desire to take on the role of the Anima through a lack of trust regarding ones place in the collective body; to self nurture by amassing enough security to assure that hard times could never take too much of a toll.

Bringing the focus back onto myself, I too have faced a similar fear and challenge as my father.  I found myself worrying that my children's lack of focus or mindfulness regarding basic life skills would hurt their ability to draw to themselves the energy they needed to ultimately plant the seeds of the Self within the collective body, i.e., to freely express the authentic self without the restraint that comes with lack of resources or financial struggle.

The "work" that my father and I often projected should be directed to its appropriate place.  Much of this work is intuitive and subjective.  It is submersion into the pool of authentic value, followed by the creative means through which material possessions may be used to express the self, and further, to add value to the collective soul THROUGH the individual.  While at times I would find myself being my father by worrying about my children's ability to meet collective expectations, I had ways of expressing the opposite in order to help my kids embrace their true possessions.  I found myself very emotional regarding my son's attachment to toys as a source of satiation.  I hated it when the grandparents would take them out and get them all the material things that they wanted.  This was the positive side of my father that, although fully unconscious in him, did help me to find my satiation in the inner realm.  I wanted to free my children from the problem I see with so many children and people of all ages these days, and that is that when they have a NEED, that they associate that need with something outside of themselves that can meet that need.  I wanted my children to find the gems of their own inner creative consciousness, and meet their needs for play through that instead of wanting or needing a new toy from Walmart or Target.

When this is all truly examined, it is a silly notion that the accumulation of wealth is relative to one's ability to be who they are.  On one hand, material wealth is meant to be used for the creation and expression of one's authentic spirituality.  However and ironically, it is often through the crisis of material loss that many ever catch a glimpse of who they truly are on this level.  There are both materially rich and poor people who are very centered within their spiritual and authentic value, as well as both rich and poor that are far removed from it.  Determining whether a person is truly centered within their own authentic value in the face of a collective which projects upon them material value, is a  complex issue.  The 2nd house in ones natal chart is where we can find emphasis on a soul's need to embrace Self Worth.  There are many factors that may determine whether an abundance of material wealth may surround one with people that only value them for the surface material and not what is on the inside, or whether a soul will try and try again to climb a corporate ladder or achieve something for someone else's sake, and continue to fail until they fully embrace their own.  Both of these extremes demonstrate a disconnect; somewhat of a loneliness, that manifests itself in the flow of resources from the collective to the individual, or vice versa.  However, if we take the above example of the child's desire for a toy, we see a collective that so desperately wants to be needed by the individual, and at the same time a child that so desperately wants to be needed by the collective.  We do not have a healthy flow in this regard, as we live in a society where people are dependent on a collective at the expense of their own personal wealth, and at the same time a collective that is dependent on people that function at this level to keep it running the way it is.  And why?  Because the few that control the economy today are afraid of losing their own wealth.  Because the many are in need of a massive transformation of their values.  Material wealth does not add to our inner riches, and on the other hand, collective obsession with this is distraction and a symptom of a society detached from its spirit and the wealth of the soul.

A healthy 2nd house starts with the energy within that is a result of the souls cumulative lifetimes of acquisition.  The soul ultimately becomes aware that all embodied experiences are an opportunity for the soul to acquire something of worth, and add his/her own value to it, giving back to the collective body and thereby making the collective body richer because of it.  What is the great worth that lies within you?  The ability to heal others?  The ability to build structures that makes it easier for us to live and grow food?  A special attunement to nature and the ability to teach others how to live more in harmony with it?  A special attunement for art and music, and the ability to keep others in touch with the energies that unite us all?  The 2nd house is a part of the subjective realm of the wheel in which we must be reminded that everything that we need we already have, and through each experience whether rich or poor, we have an opportunity to transform ourselves and others into a healthy body that values first and foremost the spirit within us.

The Ascendant

Joseph Campbell recalled a fairytale in his book 'The Hero with 1000 faces' of a kings youngest daughter, who was considered the most beautiful of them all. Close to the castle of this king was a great dark forest, and in the forest under an old lime tree a spring.  When the day was very hot, the young princess would enter the woods, sit on the edge of the spring, and toss her golden ball into the air and catch it.  This was her favorite pastime.  And so the story goes….

Now it so happened one day that the golden ball of the princess did not fall into the little hand lifted into the air, but passed it, bounced on the ground, and rolled directly into the water.  The princess followed it with her eyes, but the ball disappeared; and the spring was deep, so deep that the bottom could not be seen.  Thereupon she began to cry, unable to find consolation.  And while she was lamenting this way, she heard someone call to her: 'What is the matter, Princess?  You are crying so hard, a stone would be forced to pity you.'  She looked around to see where the voice had come from, and there she beheld a frog, holding its fat, ugly head out of the water.  'Oh, its you, old Water Plopper,' she said.  'I am crying over my golden ball, which has fallen into the spring.'  'Be calm; don't cry,' answered the frog.  'I can surely be of some assistance.  But what will you give me if I fetch your toy for you?'  'Whatever you would like to have, dear frog,' she said; 'my clothes, my pearls and jewels, even the golden crown that I wear.'  The frog replied, 'Your clothes, your pearls and jewels, and your golden crown, I do not want; but if you will care for me and let me be your companion and playmate, let me sit beside you at your little table, eat from your little golden plate, drink from your little cup, sleep in your little bed: if you promise me that, I will go straight down and fetch your golden ball.'  'All right,' she said, 'I promise you anything you want, if you will bring me back the ball.'  But she thought: 'How simple frog chatters!  There he sits in the water with his own kind, and could never be the companion of a human being.'

"As soon as the frog had obtained her promise, he ducked his head and sank, and after a little while came swimming up again; he had the ball in his mouth, and tossed it on the grass.  The princess was elated when she saw her pretty toy.  She picked it up and scampered away.  'Wait, wait,' called the frog, 'take me along; I can't run like you.;  But what good did it do, though he croaked as loudly as possible, she past not the slightest heed.  

The ascendant of the birth chart is well known for representing the eastern horizon at the moment of birth.  It is the ascendant where the Sun first reveals itself at sunrise, and makes its arc through the visible sky.  It is this reason that the degree of the zodiac that is on the horizon at birth is also referred to as ones Rising sign.  

The ascendant is also considered the cusp, or beginning point of the first house.  It is often associated with what Carl Jung termed the "persona", essentially the personality that is brought forward, or is used to represent oneself to the collective.

What the ascendant truly is, is a midpoint of the realm of the objective, or all that is above the horizon, and the subjective, or that which is below the horizon.  In the case of the fairy tale, we find a young girl that experiences a moment in her life where the Sun truly dips below the horizon, into the subjective realm of self.  The golden ball falling into the spring is the Sun dipping below the horizon.  This is a story of a critical moment when a person, in this case the princess, must journey into her self and come face to face with aspects which are unconscious to her.  The frog is the creature that represents these aspects, and she must assimilate this in some degree before the Sun makes its journey back to the rising point, which is symbolized by the frog diving into the spring to bring back the golden ball.

Also important in the tale is that the girl is considered the most beautiful, and has been taught to value the material possessions that she offers the frog, which is an animal that at least represents something NOT beautiful or refined.  The inner world of the princess, in which lies the heart of her soul, that which makes her a unique incarnation on this planet, had not yet been explored by her.  Her values thus far had been projected upon her and passed down to her by her father.

The ascendant is the midpoint of the 1st and 12th houses of the birth chart.  The 12th house is said to represent the reality in which we find ourselves in this lifetime (what is revealed by the "light" of the rising body).  In other words, our karmic circumstances in which the individual may find himself severely restricted in his success of being within the collective, or perhaps finding a great deal of success in wielding the power of ones inner seed into the collective.  The 12th house is often referred to as the house of success or failure, and this is where the definition comes from.

When a planet rises past the ascendant and into the realm of the 12th house, is makes itself known physically.  It confronts the native with a challenge; to yield or succumb, or to assimilate, befriend and join.  Truly, it provides the balance needed, through a collective crisis, that can enable the individual to make the subjective changes necessary in order to transform into a resonance closer to the authentic self.

The 1st house is the realm that represents the most authentic expression of the self, in the sense of being completely unique and separated from all other forms of life.  The ascendant does relate to the very first moment of birth; the very first moment of separation from the mother and the first independent breath of life.  From this moment, the native finds themselves at the midpoint of an intuitive sense of who they are, and the projected definitions of who the parents, the key players, the religion, and the culture tells them that they are.  They find themselves at the midpoint of the programming from outside forces, and the welling of the creative fire seed within.  

The realm of the 1st house can rebel from its above horizon karmic polarity which seeks to project and demand upon the individual often contrary notions of what and who one knows themselves to be on the inside.  However, complete rebellion ultimately moves one farther away from the SELF because the Self is not the ego, but includes the holistic essence that, once a person moves from the universal state to the particular through the act of birth, can only be represented by the OTHER.  These others are mirrors of our unconscious and reveal to us the portions of our being that enable us to transform and become more whole, become more who we are.

On the flip side, it is possible to completely give in to the projections and mundane desires of our collective, and to ultimately find the true essence of the self imprisoned.  It is the collective that truly loses here, because while it makes sense to many to follow the path of the group, we were each born of a collective need.  The collective needs us to provide the necessary resistance and plant the seed of our unique consciousness in order to transform humanity.  

The persona of which the ascendant represents, is colored by this above duality; who we have come to realize that we are both subjectively and objectively.  We are each still learning who we are, and each new experience, represented by this ascendant, is an opportunity to both transform and become transformed by the individuals and collective agencies in which we encounter.

In my own personal experience, it was my 10th birthday exactly when my progressed moon moved onto by Cancer Ascendant in my natal chart.  This can also be understood as simply an important moment in my life in which my experience would bring about a deeper reflection of what my particular ascendant, or rising degree, means.

I had a birthday party where I invited by classmates at school.  I remember being an awkward kid that didn't consider many of them to be true friends, but allowed by mother to throw the party, maybe more so for herself than anyone.  I really felt drawn to bake a cake for my own birthday party that year, and decided I wanted to make a cake of the video game character PAC-MAN.  I first created a circular cake and iced it with yellow frosting.  I then cut what was to be the mouth of the PAC-MAN, and I recall being a little upset that the mouth took up a greater percentage of the circle than the video game character represented.  However, on deeper reflection many years later, I can still see in my minds eye the proportion, and how it was exact in proportion of the journey of my progressed moon from its natal position in my birth chart to my ascendant.  Back to my 10 year birthday celebration, I recall not wanting to eat another piece because I had eaten the large portion that represented the mouth.  And so it was this truly unknown, undifferentiated group of kids that were somewhat chosen for me, that consumed the rest of this cake.  Obviously being a circular yellow cake, this cake could also have looked like the moon, and the cake that was served representing a phase or portion of the moon that was yet unassimilated by me.

Having a Cancer ascendant, which is ruled by the Moon, brings a greater importance to the Moons transit over the ascendant position.  It also means that the intuitive facility is the most vital for myself when it comes to finding my way home.... to my pure, authentic center.  We can run from this center by isolating ourselves within, or we can completely lose ourselves in the collective, but the ascendant always serves as a beginning point where the inner self meets the outer world that serves as its mirror.  On that very day that I turned 10 years old, somehow I intuited and created an experience which served as a somewhat of a ritual, in which I consumed the portion of the Moon of which I had lived, and served to my unknown collective group that which I had yet to experience, but was to be revealed to me over the 17.5 year remainder of the particular cycle

Scorpio/ Taurus polarity

SCORPIO/ TAURUS

We will begin this analysis with the introduction of the concept of Receptivity.   Scorpio and Taurus are both feminine signs, and thus deal with the reality that we are a receptacle to energy, and at the same time seek to creatively transfer this energy into other vessels for the purpose of spreading consciousness.  It is often the case that humans perceive this energy to be their own, or a derivative of their personal mind rather than viewing themselves as a temporary station of energy that is in constant flux.  

The symbol of Taurus looks much like the head of a bull with its horns pointing upward.  Using the image of the bulls head, at the center of the symbol we would find the “Bull’s Eye”, and this is connected with the chakra in the center of the forehead known as the third eye.  We are sensitive and receptive to light, and we begin the discussion of Taurus with the sensitivity to frequencies of light that resonate with who we currently are.  Who are we?  We are both the light and the receptive body.  As one changes vibration or form, the other changes in response to this.  Each of us is a combination of frequencies that dictate emphasis of form, interest, personality, karma, etc.  This is the very premise of astrology from a perspective of energy.  The central energy hub from the human perspective is the ego.  The motion of cosmos mirrors change in life experiences, and the processing of these energies generates change, and ultimately transformation, of both the inner light as well as the form.  Eventually this change reaches a frequency that necessitates a new ego and body entirely.  Physical death is not really death, but merely a part of the cycle of life.  You have lived many lives before this one, and will continue to live many lives moving forward.  This is the vantage point of the Soul, the body that gives life to all of your personal incarnations or ego perspectives.  As you experience and learn from the energy you process, you are continually transformed, and thus are ever receptive to different light frequencies. This ever dynamic process of ‘Becoming’ has been ongoing since the incarnation of our soul.  

At the Aries/ Libra polarity, we learned that the ego warrior is only as powerful as his necessity to the Soul.  We are all necessary for the Soul, otherwise the receptive feminine principle would not have responded to the masculine desire to live out our unique consciousness through the physical body.  While seeking a vessel for the fire within, Aries realized that he/she IS a vessel.  He was chosen by perhaps a higher power to carry out a mission, and that mission is to plant the seed of his light and fire.  At Libra, energy is transferred in relationship, and the status of the hero’s mission is viewed through the lens of his relationships, which is an embodiment of the Soul itself.  As this fire burns throughout collective humanity, the message of who the Aries is becomes loud and clear as consciousness is transformed to reflect this light. 

What is the source of this light to which we are receptive; this energy that animates us with our purpose?  There is a universal, as well as a physical source.  We are the receptacle in the center.  The universal may be perceived to come from “God”, or well up from the unconscious in the form of inspiration or realization.   We are always in a particular energy state, and that state is in relation to the changing energy we receive.  So we perceive this energy in some way, positive or negative, but we are ready for it, as it is the energy that in our process of becoming will help further clarify and define who we are and what we are creating.  The physical source mostly encompasses our relationships.  As we change, we are drawn to relationships that we have chosen as a reflection of our energies.  These relationships serve as a reflection of the relationship between us and our source.  For example, if we are not nurturing the inner creative light that is our mission to carry out in this life, and instead we indulge in past acquisitions out of fear in relationships that do not resonate with us, we are going to find that these relationships do not nurture or serve us in any way and will see them end in disappointment.  This, again, is the symbolism of the Libran scales as emphasis towards the past robs the emphasis on the present.  This intensifies the responsibility to carry our current mission back to the forefront, and requires that we tune in to the energies that are receptive to the energy that is meant for us, the receptacle of spirit.

We find the polarity of Taurus and Scorpio expressed through the mythology of the Egyptian Bull-deity Apis.  The fertile, receptive Bull is filled with the solar fire of “God”, and when the third eye opens to the truth that is accepted as God in current time, this bull could be identified with Apis.  Of course, the Bull is merely a vessel for the light of universal essence that we are referring to as God here.  Once transferred to the realm of the Soul, the light shines throughout the collective humanity that it was meant to serve.  Each of us has a light within us that we are meant to plant within the womb of humanity.  As our body dies, we still flourish because our light lives on within the collective.  In Egyptian mythology, Apis was reunited with Osiris in the underworld.  Osiris, although considered “dead”, ruled over agriculture, as the quality of what is planted into the soil comes back as new life.  Whatever we plant into humanity comes back to us, and when we are channeling our true light through our “Bull’s Eye”, the light we transfer to the Soul never dies, even long after our physical body dies. 

The symbol of Taurus is in reality made up of the circle, representing the circumference of the Soul, with the crescent on top denoting the Soul as a vessel or container for light.  The light is the masculine aspect of the self, in other words it is the LOGOS.  This is the creative idea, plan, Arian mission, or purpose which needs the feminine vessel through which to express and give form to this consciousness. 

When we move from masculine signs to feminine signs, or masculine aspects of consciousness to feminine, it is important to remember that not one exists without the other, and that they are mirrors of each other.  Receptivity here is the basic feminine principle, but it is the masculine principle of Spirit that animates and causes her to change form in response.  Confusion arises when we move back and forth from archetypal imagery to human forms.  Feminine does not refer to women, and masculine to men.  Humans, both men and women, embody both masculine and feminine principles.  When we think of how these modes of consciousness play out in human terms, we must hold that both play out simultaneously.  

When the world seems to yield to the whim of our desire, much like a mother responds to her infant baby, we feel loved.  This love of the mother can be expanded into the archetype known as the ANIMA.  Although the physical mother is the first recipient of this archetype projection, the Anima is the Soul; the higher body that has given birth to each of our many incarnations.  The inner fire in all of us wants to be valued and loved by her.  She is the mother of all of life, and when we find that the world is receptive to our mission as we perceive it in the moment; when we find that the world has a place for us that perhaps was promised by our mother; when our actions produce an abundance of resources, we experience the fulfillment of this promise that was unconsciously given to us by the ANIMA at birth.  By nature of coming into form, the body of the mother archetype responded to the Arian desire to BE.  

This archetype we call ANIMA, or that which ANIMATES or gives birth to life, is the feminine principle.  What she truly represents is the security sought by the ego from the soul.  She has given birth to each of our incarnations, death merely being a threshold between incarnations.  

Let us imagine the image of a Large Moon, and within this moon there are 12 small Suns.  Each of these Sun’s is a seed of creative fire that seeks to be given form so that it can carry out its mission.  The Moon itself is the body, and these Suns are the fire that animates the body.  It is easier to imagine the Sun as the large center of light in our solar system, and the moon the smaller body that revolves around the earth.  In truth however, given that we are dealing with human bodies and minds that process phases of consciousness, it is the Moon that gives birth to the different expressions of the Solar fire during the course of a year.  It is the Sun that must go through the Moon in order to experience life, love, and value.  Each Sun within this great Moon can be made analogous to the birth of an incarnation along the journey of a Soul.  The fire within us is given birth when the energy within us is needed by the body of humanity.  This imagery is a mirror of our receptive nature to the creative solar light that is meant for us, that is the star in which we must align ourselves with in order to carry out our purpose!

This entire image, the feminine Moon with the 12 Suns within her, is the Anima and the Soul.  She loves all of her children equally, however each incarnation in turn has its time to shine, to fill her with light (the symbolism of Full Moon),  to plant its seed, to enact its purpose, and then to die and incarnate into another form.  From a bird’s eye perspective, she has given birth to all of our brothers and sisters, and yet there is war on this planet between these brothers and sisters for her adoration.  Each of us feels entitled to become our potential, and at birth this is a promise the ego unconsciously projects upon the Anima. 

It is the nature of EROS, the feminine, to draw together all life as one.  We are all one integrated life force, and the energy of EROS that binds us all together is what we refer to as Love, which is not always expressed in a way in which the ego will enjoy.  It is the nature of LOGOS, or the masculine principle, to discriminate or to carry out a particular purpose or mission.   It is natural for us to discriminate against some of our brothers and sisters, for these energies resonate with mistakes we made in the past.  Within each of us is ultimately a love that serves the SOUL, and we recognize energies that we have expressed in the past which have harmed the soul, or failed to fulfill the mission of creating harmony and balance with the discriminating solar fire that moves through us.  It is the ego that separates us from everyone else.  It is the Soul that binds all of us.  It is the love between the ego and the Soul that causes the greatest source of war and conflict, and at the same time the highest experiences of love and transformation.

From the masculine perspective, failure to produce the vision of the creative fire breeds guilt in the face of the Soul.  The masculine feels inadequate, and will try to correct these mistakes well into future incarnations, as well as project on brothers and sisters that are making the same mistake.  Those that are the recipients of this projection reflect our SHADOW.  The desire is to maintain the love of the ANIMA, from the masculine perspective.  From the feminine perspective, it is to be worthy of the solar seed that we are all carrying.

The feminine aspect embodies the duality of the nurturing, motherly Goddess, as well as Kali the destroyer.  On one hand, she/we are always giving birth to new energy and new life.  As we take this new light in, the light within us goes to battle with this foreign light that threatens to destroy it.  Much the same way, new incarnated beings must face the established regime.  The passing of the torch of light does not always flow peacefully.  Both the new and old masculine form faces the Goddess, however one faces the motherly aspect and the other faces Kali the destroyer.  The soul at Scorpio is a conditioned one, and she gives birth to the new incarnation of human in response to the Spirit, as she is receptive to the ephemeral nature of his aspect.  The soul is primarily conditioned by the previous masculine seed that came before it, and in response to the ever dynamic motion of spirit, brings about new life to replace the old.  Scorpio faces this duality of the soul; the nurturing loving mother that values the new seed, and at the same time the destroyer that is conditioned by the past.  

What ultimately must be embraced is that our lives are not destroyed due to failure to carry out our mission.  Digging into the depth of the unconscious, we perceive this as an indication that the Anima does not love us anymore.  She wants us to find our way back to center until we find fulfillment.  She births us again so that we may return the wiser; with our mission and purpose more defined.  Our life is truly eternal!  Energy never dies, it only changes form.  Our individual flame does not remain as we have learned it to be, but it is added and transferred to the collective light, to that of the SOUL, and becomes one of our teachers in our future lives.

Joseph Campbell is an author of several books whose subject matter focuses on the collective unconscious archetypes and how we connect with these through our fairytales and mythology.  He retold one specifically in his book ‘The Hero with 1000 faces’ that brings to light the Taurean bull, as well as the crisis of consciousness faced upon the integration of the Scorpio/ Taurus polarity.  This story is again recalled here:

The story is told of the great Minos, king of the island empire of Crete in the period of its commercial supremacy; how he hired the artist-craftsman Daedalus to construct for him a labyrinth, in which to hide something of which the palace was at once ashamed and afraid.  For there was a monster on the premises – which had been born to Pasiphae, the queen.  Minos, the king, had been busy it is said, with important wars to protect the trade routes; and meanwhile Pasiphae had been seduced by a magnificent, snow-white, sea-born bull.  It had been nothing worse, really, than what Minos’ own mother had allowed to happen:  Minos mother had been carried by a bull to Crete.  The bull had been the god Zeus, and the honored son of that union was Minos himself – now everywhere respected and gladly served.  How then could Pasiphae have known that the fruit of her own indiscretion would be a monster: this little son with human body but the head and tail of a bull?

                Society has blamed the queen greatly; but the king was not unconscious of his own share of the guilt.  The bull in question had been sent by the god Poseidon, long ago, when Minos was contending with his brothers for the throne.  Minos had asserted that the throne was his, by divine right, and had prayed the god to send up a bull out of the sea, as a sign; and he had sealed the prayer with a vow to sacrifice the animal immediately, as an offering and symbol of service.  The bull had appeared, and Minos took the throne; but when he beheld the majesty of the beast that had been sent and thought what an advantage it would be to possess such a specimen, he determined to risk a merchant’s subtution – of which he supposed the god would take no great account.  Offering on Poseidon’s altar the finest white bull that he owned, he added the other to his herd.

                The Cretan empire had greatly prospered under the sensible jurisdiction of this celebrated lawgiver and model of public virtue.  Knossos, the capital city, became the luxurious, elegant center of the leading commercial power of the civilized world.  The Cretan fleets went out to every isle and harbor of the Mediterranean; Cretan ware was prized in Babylonia and Egypt.  The bold little ships even broke through the Gates of Hercules to the open ocean, coasting then northward to take the gold of Ireland and the tin of Cornwall as well as southward, around the bulge of Senegal, to remote Yorubaland and the distant marts of ivory, gold and slaves.

                But at home, the queen had been inspired by Poseidon with an ungovernable passion for the bull.  And she had prevailed upon her husband’s artist-craftsman, Daedalus, to frame for her a wooden cow that would deceive the bull – into which she eagerly entered; and the bull was deceived.  She bore her monster, which, in due time, began to become a danger.  And so Daedalus again was summoned, this time by the king, to construct a tremendous labyrinth with blind passages, in which to hide the thing away.  So deceptive was the invention, that Daedalus himself could scarcely find his way back to the entrance.  Therin the Minotaur was settled; and was fed, thereafter, on groups of living youths and maidens, carried as a tribute from the conquered nations within the Cretan domain.

A point was made to examine Minos in the role of the Son, whose mother had been carried by Zeus in the form of a bull.  Here we have a similar case to the Christian concept of the immaculate conception.  The mother, or feminine principle, was receptive to the universal essence, taking the form of a God in mythology and in this case, the God in question is Zeus.  Note that the bull, an archetypal image of the psyche, is projected upon the light of which the feminine is receptive.

Conventional interpretation, as expressed in Campbell’s book, is that the King over associated himself with energy that was never his.  This energy was temporal, passing through the vessel of his soul, his mission to impart this to the collective which is a physical embodiment of the soul itself.  In holding onto this energy as if it was his, he created a “monster”.

Ultimately, the fire within us is a part of the universal essence.  Life can be viewed as a gift, and once again bringing the resolution of the Aries/ Libra polarity into play, our life is ultimately sacrificed to the Soul, which is closer to the archetype of the Self than that of the ego or present incarnation.

What is the monster that is hidden in the story?  To understand the depth of the Scorpio nature, the receptive nature must be looked at from two sides.  

The sign of Scorpio itself looks like the letter M with a tail at the end of one of the 3 “pillars” that make up the letter.  The three pillars are reflective of the triple nature of the sign of Scorpio, as is the sign of Virgo which is also depicted by a similar “M” glyph.  First, let’s example these three pillars from the perspective of the center feminine pillar.  In other words, from this perspective, the central pillar is the Soul.  On one side we have the new life we are receptive to, and on the other we have the old regime with its older, established methodology.  The masculine archetypes of both the Wise Old Man and the Old Fool can be projected onto both sides.  One one hand, the old regime has the wisdom of experience on its side, as well as established material wealth or value that has been earned by its efforts to establish itself as the Fire of the Soul, the Logos.  On the other, the old regime has partially forgotten his spiritual nature, and in his attempt to establish a legacy in which his ego lives forever, has created an imbalance within the Soul that now must be healed and transformed.  The new born life is not really new, and while its having been renewed by the universal essence gives it a spiritual wisdom that is often lost with physical experience, it carries perhaps the foolish naivety that rushes in with his sword and the promise of the love of the Soul with no idea what he is yet to face. 

The Soul is the conditioned feminine nature.  She has been conditioned by the previous incarnations, and we have been born into this Soul, surrounded by the karma of our past.  We carry with us a renewed solar fire, and the mission of the Hero is to recondition the Soul to the new way.  From this perspective, it is a battle against the old ways.  

It is the nature of Taurus to hold on to the ways that produce results in the form of things that we value.  Taurus is associated with great strength, receptivity, fertility, perseverance and loyalty.  Holding on to the values of the old, and being receptive to the energies that increase the strength and foothold that these values have within us is a great part of its nature.  Its ruler, Venus, deals with automation of aspects of self.  For example, planting a seed that not only produces a fruit filled tree, but drops new seeds and continues to plant fruit trees continuously is the creation of a life system that automates the production of nourishment.  The creation for an automated production and nurture of our consciousness or solar seed is not nearly as simple a task.  A good example would be a breastfeeding child.  For the first year or two of life, a child perhaps gets its only nourishment from breastfeeding.  The baby does not have to fight to produce its own food.  It does not have to demonstrate its personal value to be worthy of this food.  The function of eating is automated outside of the self.  However, this exchange eventually comes to an end.  A time comes when the new incarnate learns what value he has inside that is essentially an exchange for the value of being fed.  This mother has a need for him, and as he is left with his own hunger that, while feeling responsible for fulfilling her need, will at some point need to address his own need.  This need is the expression of the unique inner spirit fire that he must first value wholeheartedly before anyone else can consume it effectively.  This perspective is a great example of the duality between the value of the personal fire represented by the needs of the ego, and the value of the Soul here represented by the needs of the mother.

In the story of King Minos, and all of the examples given, hold in mind that all characters in the story as well as all archetypes described are ONE!  When a story is told, it is giving the perspectives from different parts of the psyche.  Keeping this in mind will help you to understand the complex nature of this polarity.

The receptive soul is not fully conscious that the new life will transform her.  Wanting the illusory trappings of the old, she may hide the ways of the new away.  The “monster” here is the unconscious that must be faced that brings about a death of the ego.   King Minos as well does not want to pass the threshold that will take him away from the automated prosperity he has experienced.  What lies in the labyrinth is the unconscious rebirth of the self as well as the soul through the energy exchange with each other.  This energy will recondition her and bring new ways of living to the forefront.  This energy will transfer the solar light from him to her, and at this time he will die but be reborn through her transformation.  The monster as well represents the Kings fear of this transformation that from his perspective brings about the death of his ego as well as the end of her need for his him.  He hides this vulnerability within the labyrinth, aware on some level that although the collective sees him as its valued leader, that it is really the universal essence that moved through him, and that he alone is a fraud; merely a vessel for spirit.  Fearing the inevitable impotence in the face of the collective that loves him, he hides the monster away.  

The Fall of Spirit into Matter brings about duality.  Let us bring into the picture the story of the Garden of Eden.  The garden represents the oneness of all that spirit provides, and the foundation of the story is the lack of need for anything other than this. The serpent in the tree represents motion; the desire to journey outside the threshold of the garden; to experience duality, thus move into the unknown. Serpent energy is the transfer and transformation of energy.  It represents death and rebirth.  Christians may take issue with this story being picked apart as they have been taught to view it from a particular perspective, however the symbol of the serpent and the tree is found numerous times in comparative religious studies as well as in ancient symbolic texts, mythology, human dreams dating back to the beginning of any recordings of such, and is of paramount importance in the study of the unconscious psyche.  Creating on earth from the unseen inspirational fire within, our spirit, that is the very nature of life and its continuum.  However, the story is often told in such a way as to depict the desire to create from one’s own creative center as evil.  The vantage point starts from the love of the feminine, and it is that love which is the true temptation of Adam; to be loved like a God, and within him the power to create life and have domain over his own garden.  However, if not for the serpent, there would be no adventure.  There would only be grazing in the pastures provided by one who would represent both a God and the breast feeding mother.  

The story of Lucifer’s fall, or the story of King Minos divine bull as a gift symbolizing his own reign, is an archetypal story centered on this same theme.  Minos took on the role of THE LIGHT that could fill the entirety of the Soul, and in doing so entered duality and birthed a monster.  This monster is shame.  It is the feeling of inadequacy in comparison to the original light.  Let me note again that this is an important part of life, as the fixed Scorpio power is developed through the awareness and development of self-worth.

Our unique seed of consciousness shines within us within the body of the Soul, represented by collective humanity and the key people in our lives that hold us together; that make us who we are.  This collective body is not fully conscious of the special light the each of us carry that will take part in the transformation of collective methodology.   For this reason, the new incarnate faces the duality of the Soul that lies within him as well as projected and manifested without.  The mother may transform from the nurturing loving mother to the archetype of Kali the terrible mother, for she will not let go of the old regime and give the new life that she brought about the chance to demonstrate his true worth.  She is conditioned by the ANIMUS, the unconscious masculine principle from the feminine perspective.  The animus is the father imago of the soul, and she loves and holds true to her father’s ideals, her body having been transformed in the past in response to his ways of life and methodology.  It is the way of God, the father that rules the garden in which the soul grazes.  This visual is merely archetypal from the ego perspective.  She feels a sense of guilt that she dared break the threshold of his garden, where she once grazed freely upon his pastures without having to face the harshness of self-awareness or self-actualization.  We face this animus, which is the methodology and ways of ourselves in past incarnations, as a rite of passage for the heart of the soul.  It is in this way that we right our previous wrongs, by facing the shadow of consciousness that embodies what we once were. 

Separation and personal creativity is a part of life.  Embrace the fact that there is a seed of God within, and you create from this unique perspective and add to the diversity of life through this.  If not for this, there would be no Animus of the Soul, for there would be only ONE light and ONE body.  The body would never change and the word would never change.  People come together to support one dimension of the Animus, and call this religion.  Many of our world religions only serve to contribute to the creation of the monster within, calling the inner God a sin.  They are no different, having separated themselves, and seeking the faith and intuitive discipline to find their way out of the labyrinth and back to the garden where all needs are perceivably met.

To associate ourselves, ego, with the greatness of God, and through the magnetism of Venusian love, pierce the threshold of the soul and fill it with light is the motion of the serpent.  We can only acknowledge that we live in a state of duality, and much of what we once were is unconscious to us now.  We are separated from the safety of the garden, having left the automated feeding breast of the divine mother, and sought to create our own.  

The end result of this is the contrast between us and our source. (The Bull depicted as a monster).  As we reproduce our inner seed, we are continually reborn into a collective humanity of which our mother, farther, and brothers and sisters are a part.  This collective needs us, yet our brothers and sisters for the most part treat us like strangers.   They do not trust us to carry the solar light, but we do each in fact carry a unique seed of that very light.  We as well do not trust the collective, for once we give of our light, our own energy wanes.  Creative control is transferred, and others are valued for something that we created.  There is fear in the death that comes with this.  However, this is also a projection of the shadow self.  We unconsciously feel that they will be as much of a fraud in carrying out our inner light as we are a fraud for carrying out the seed of universal essence of which we have been entrusted.

I have included a case study of my brother’s chart, and the timing of his experience that was found to be shared by many.  Lying in bed one night, a vision came before him of a great serpent that spoke “You are Not Worthy”

When we realize that this collective is the intense, physical embodiment of our own needs for ourselves, it is frightening, but it is in the darkness of the Scorpio side of consciousness where the strength is garnered to create with this fire without fear that it will be devalued or fear that it will burn out.  The desire to be valued for who we truly are, a carrier of a unique spark of universal essence.  The fall into the labyrinth where value is unseen forces us to strengthen ourselves and find our true inner value.  Our creation of ourselves is a work in progress.  The way for us to find this is a mirror of the way of Taurus.  It is receptivity to the mirrored light.  It is the discernment that is learned at Libra as to what relationships and values to invest our light in.  From all of this comes the statement “Be Ye Wise as Serpents”!

Scorpio is the experience of the unconscious itself.  Scorpio consciousness, when it has reached a more evolved state, recognizes that the relationships surrounding him/her is a reflection of his own inner relationship between the self and the soul.  At the Aries/ Libra polarity, the drive to reproduce led the ego into many relationships that did not provide the proper nourishment or support to carry out the mission.  This is an exhausting process of finding the self through relationships.  At the Scorpio polarity, the soul has been used many times, and has used others to gain a foothold into the light once again.  However, it is in the darkness of these waters that the Scorpio can develop the wisdom of the serpent, and intuit its way out of the labyrinth, and reach the surface stronger than ever before.

The cause of the darkness is the differentiation itself.  This is simply a part of the journey away from the safety of the garden; away from the connection to ALL THAT IS, and the journey beyond the Threshold of the perceived ALL THAT IS, and into the heart of one’s own creation.  Hence, Scorpio is all about facing one’s karma.  The value that you receive is the value that you create.  The way that you nurture and have faith in the inner light of the universal essence is reflected in the way that the collective womb responds to your creativity.  Often we choose to cling to the safe and established values of the animus, or allow ourselves to be conditioned by the conditioned feminine, nurturing us towards the path of least resistance.  However, we know good and well that this is not safe, and in doing this we find ourselves following the father and creating the same mistake with a sword or methodology that never fit us to begin with.   When we find and live according to our true value, the collective body responds by opening its true value to us as well.  

It is the nature of the feminine to draw the Animus, or Father, and the new light, the Son together.  While the feminine loves the energy of the Father, and is conditioned by this expression of the Logos, she also unconsciously leads him to his defeat at the hands of his unconscious shadow, the Son.  In truth, this is not defeat or death.  It is transformation of light and body for the purpose of creating a stronger and more holistic way and body.  However, the father imago fears that love will be stolen from the mother by the son.  The masculine light within seeks to inject this conditioning control into the feminine soul, becoming the father that provides the fodder for grazing; the logos of physical reality.  The father’s desire is to embody the universal essence, but in doing so embodies the bull figure that is unconsciously ashamed for making such an attempt.  The collective humanity that surrounds him is a mirror of himself, in that each seek to find their own way as well and break free from the threshold boundaries that he has created.  After death, he is reborn into this collective as the son of his past, and as the son he had to defeat the selfishness and displaced values of the father, and return him to his own center of values.  In the story of King Minos, the beast is ultimately slain by an outsider whom the king’s daughter had fallen in love with.  In fact, it is she that helps lead him to the beast, unconsciously seeking to free herself of the animus and return to the light of truth.

Early in this chapter, we described Taurus in relation to the original source of the desired body.  We can make the analogy of a planet and the affinity it has to a constellation whose source of light brings out its qualities to the fullest, or again to a child whose mother becomes the source of nurturing and nutrition, and helps raise him into an avatar of the values stemming from the original desire.  The energy of Taurus is the source created from the separation of desire and form.  It is important for Taurus to be raised in such a way as to be appreciative of their personal value; of the gifts that come from the light within.  It is better for them to graze on the seeds of their own fruit rather than merely become a vessel and fodder for others desires.  The battle of this very duality is its polarity at Scorpio.  Through the many experiences of death and regeneration, the battles are primarily between the current state of the self and the many states of this past.  For example, in one life you may have created a new methodology for gardening that produced larger, tastier fruit.  You wanted others to appreciate the beauty of your creation as well, however, others came down on you for the damage that your methodology was doing to the land.  Your unorganic methods of gardening were poisoning the soil.  However, to assimilate this and go back to the drawing board would feel like a defeat to the fragile ego that wants recognition.  The truth is hidden like a beast as the product is sold to the collective in such a way that markets it benefit to the soil.  In the next life, you have a father that is a farmer that uses the product that you invented from the previous life, yet you know intuitively from the illnesses you and your family experience that there is a better way.  You spend your life as an advocate for organic farming, thereby attempting to slay the methodology of your father which was the way of your very past!

It is through this battle that each of the Suns within the Lunar Soul, given the former analogy, gather the inner strength and vision to build better structures of service for humanity.

Mars ruled Scorpio is where the ego ultimately goes to die and be transformed.  There is a war for this ego though.  From the masculine perspective, the Shadow Self is the Old Fool that stole the light and used it for his own good.  The current incarnation, as well as the brothers and sisters cannot plant seeds in the garden that is controlled by the light of this old fool.  What gives this archetype power, which is a polarity to the Wise Old Man, is that the warrior was nurtured by the mother that has been conditioned by the ways of the Fool.  And so in the beginning all the warrior knows is the usage of the sword that was used by the Old Fool, be it the father or the authoritative rule of the collective body.  In the darkness of the unconscious, the warrior learns that the seed within him is the only sword that can cut into the collective and carve his legacy.  He learns to value that which he is. 

The feminine comes back to the warrior possessed by the ANIMUS, which in reality is the Soul conditioned by the SHADOW. At Scorpio, the masculine side of consciousness must cleanse the feminine via the land, the collective, the structures of physical reality, towards a wiser methodology that serves the Soul Group rather than the Ego. 

It is no coincidence that we celebrate Halloween under the Sun sign of Scorpio.  Halloween is a time that we are receptive to not only the incarnations of our past, but also of the people that we encounter in this life that resonate with our past modes of consciousness.  Scorpio can recognize the vibrations of those that he had affinity with in the past.  Scorpio is the Alchemist, whether conscious or unconscious, and he can draw a person in through his “Scorpio magnetism” in an attempt to gain mastery over his unconscious.  The Scorpio may take one of many actions.  He can attempt to regain mastery over the resources that he had acquired in the past by overtaking the resources of the other person.  This can be done with force but more often is done through the creation of a relationship in which the dynamic dictates this in the form of exchange and automation.  For instance, in living a life that attempts to heal the soul through organic gardening and take down the regime that you formerly created that produces the inorganic gardening products, you may find that you are in the minority and unconscious of the collective.  You may find that this fight requires you to walk away from the money that your family has surrounded you with, this money having been automated much like a child breastfeeding.  This is the example of the Scorpio following the path of least resistance, however he cannot escape the fire that burns within.  The war is between the collective holding pattern and that inner light, and ultimately he must make a choice.  The Scorpio, because it understands the emotion behind the value of the previous regime, is best equipped to enter this value and help transform the soul with his inner light.  This transformation of the collective but also the self is the ultimate trial. 

The path of least resistance draws a person towards the automated breast of the mother.  However at the same time the inner child desires to demonstrate to her that the sword of his solar seed is capable on its own, and can come back to provide healing and value to her.  The feminine projects her shadow upon the woman that attempts to make herself attractive or more well prepared to carry the seed of the HERO than herself.  This shadow is in fact Maya, the illusion weaver.  The masculine projects his shadow onto the man that claims to be that Hero, and with his sword discriminates against the self and other brothers and sisters that from this perspective are victims of falling out of grace with the Anima.  Carl Jung used primarily the archetypes of the SHADOW, ANIMA, and ANIMUS specifically as archetypes dealt with within the all-encompassing archetype of the SELF.  He claimed that the Shadow was specifically of the same sex, and his logic is described above.  He described the Anima as the unconscious feminine within an incarnate man, and the Animus as the unconscious masculine within an incarnate woman.  Here we really touch on the difference between the Cancer/ Capricorn polarity and the Taurus/ Scorpio polarity.  Cancer/ Capricorn deals with specific security of the individual.  The projection of the Mother Imago stemming from the need to maintain security in selfhood is the primary motif at Cancer.  At Capricorn the individual secures this into his collective in the form of a service, cementing a commercial legacy in which self-expression can be gestalted.  However, at the Taurus/ Scorpio polarity, the definition of self expands beyond the threshold of the incarnated ego.  Here, the archetypes of Shadow, Anima, and Animus are ultimately assimilated as a part of the self.  They are projected upon all individuals, and the collective at large.  CHANGE is an unconscious process, and this polarity is fixed upon the self as a receptacle of ongoing universal change, continual return to aspects of the self in order to build, destroy, transform, and grow in love.  

The solar seed within is not created in a vacuum.  It requires a collective that mirrors the creative process.  The collective cannot mirror the creative process and be completely dependent on one creator.  While Taurus holds space for divine light, Scorpio takes control of the creative process, and in doing so makes the difficult shift from ego centered consciousness to soul centered consciousness.

Becoming the serpent, and biting the collective or aspects of it, which in a sense is intuitive gardening, can also be viewed as Alchemy.  It entails mixing the energies of the self with facets of the collective in order to build something of greater value.  The result is death of the individual flame.  When the serpent bites it wants to transfer energy, and at the same time there is a desire to maintain the Cancerian security within the controlling dynamic.  To be bitten by the snake can be looked at as an honor.  The serpent comes from light within the collective that intuits you as an appropriate vessel, and this can include one individual seeking relationship based on the intuited dynamic. This serpent also comes from the light within that intuits the people in which we desire to change and transform our soul with.  What starts as a war that is essentially the serpent biting its own tail, in fact is truly love.

The Empathic nature of Scorpio is not so much feeling what another is feeling, it is recognizing a vibration of which the individual is and has always been a part of.  It is relating to another on a basic emotional level that has its roots in the collective psyche.  At Scorpio, we recognize that we are the Anima!  Our creative seed gives life to itself, duality being the derivative of this.  We are nurturers of this light, and we project this onto others as we wish for them to hold space for our light as we do the same for our brothers and sisters.  Herein lies the symbolic nature of money, of value, given the matrix of resources that are merely an illusory substitute for the only resource that truly exists, that of light! 

The darker side of this polarity is afraid to let go of the trappings that come with the formation of the body, a vessel for the particular solar seed or EGO.  A part of us fights the transformation, and seeks to maintain a solid identity even in the acts that normally bring about transformation.  People make love with each other yet block the experience from being one of true mergence.  People hire lawyers to assure that if the alchemy of a business fails, that they will exit the other end with all the materials and trappings they came in with intact, trying to insure that the self can enter transformative experiences with no risk.  This is absolutely impossible. 

The Eagle archetype of Scorpio takes a bird’s eye view, surveying the Soul and recognizing the light of all the brothers and sisters within the collective.  The eagle alchemist recognizes that all the key relationships in the life want to plant their solar seeds of consciousness into him and be valued for their part in the creative oneness, and this is no different than his own desire to do the same.  

At Scorpio, we become the unconscious of each other.  The energy that is exchanged here moves through the inner anima, who loves the individual incarnation of each.  Both parties are drawn to each other in order to heal and return to the light of the Soul.  Let us take for example the woman that spent the summer in France to learn what it was like to be her brother, or the woman whose father left her at the age of 10 and continued to draw relationships in which his energy was projected.  In the latter case, the vibrations were drawn and if allowed, she was able to heal by transforming the perception of the vibration, shifting her personal vibration.   As far as the girl with the brother, she was able to transform her relationship with her brother, as well as her family dynamic, by experiencing what it was like to be her brother.  Both of these case studies are further reviewed in the case study appendix.

Returning to the Taurean principle; when we refer to the collective society as cattle, this is an insult.  Its meaning is that the collective is receptive to the Animus that commands it to graze on the prescribed consciousness.  This reference is to those that are blind to their own inner light; to those that demonstrate the strength of fertility and receptivity, however hoard the inner light that lies like a monster in the inner labyrinth.  

Kathleen Burt points out in her excellent book ‘Archetypes of the Zodiac’, how important it is for Taurus to grow up with a mother that engrains a high degree of self value.  We can see how lack in this area would increase the karma of receptivity to energies that could damage the native emotionally.  We live in a time now where people are beginning to realize that we live in a world where the resources are controlled by a select few.  This is not limited to physical resources, but primarily includes resources of consciousness.  Those that are asleep are of little threat.

Scorpio is pulled into the unconscious, which in the beginning is the realization of the inner light.  This is followed by the war of reconditioning the soul who has been receptive to the light of others that are not fully conscious.  This begins a war for the garden of the soul, at the expense of the light of the brothers and sisters.  There are lifetimes in which Scorpio succeeds in using the receptivity of others to carry his light, attempting to regain control of reality in this way.  Scorpio may attempt to transmit a vibration that will draw a receptive person in.  Once another person finds themselves in the underworld of the unconscious with the Scorpio, the Scorpio aspect may attempt to use the resources of the unconscious one to pull himself up and back into the light of prominence.  The Scorpio, being every bit as receptive, repeats this cycle until he ultimately comes to realize that he cannot fight the unconscious with the sword of the Animus of which he has been conditioned.  It is the Scorpio who learns to value the unique strength of his own inner light, and it is only by that sword that the unconscious monster can be defeated.  This sword is ultimately a seed of light, resonating with the authentic value and love that the soul came to share.  It can only be shared in its depth through love.  This is all a reaction to fear, for on the inside there is a light that cannot continue to live if it is hoarded and by itself.  We see the flipside of the monster, which the Scorpio is now conscious of, yet feeds as he attempts to build his own world and become the God of this.

This only makes the receptive Venusian nature unconscious, and from that point on, relationships are drawn to the self that mirror the dark nature, but also plug away at the center of light, mirroring a vulnerability that gives the Scorpio permission to free the monster.  This is the Eagle that lifts the snake out of the darkness.  

The great serpent has been depicted as light that writhes through cosmos; perpetual motion of life.  Herein we have described it as conscious direction; both a symbol of sexual penetration as well as one of energetic alchemy.  The Tree of Life of the Kabbalah depicts a serpent moving down the tree as it differentiates its energy into ever increasing densities of consciousness.  This is a symbol for creative birth into the material plane, and just as the story of the Garden of Eden, the entrance into the world of duality.  The serpent is depicted as wrapped around the root chakra at the base of the spine three and one half times.  When an individual begins the path of enlightenment, the serpent uncoils, and “swallows” the light of the other chakras which each are receptive to and transmit a range of light within each individual.  

“The Mother of the Gods” Devi-Matri, as it is from her Cosmic Matrix that all the heavenly bodies of our system were born – Sun and Planets.  Thus she is described, allegorically, in his wise: “Eight Sons were born from the body of Aditi; she approached the gods with seven, but case away the eighth, Marttanda, our Sun”

-          Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine

A great omen appeared.  A snake, and his back streaked red with blood, a thing of terror!  Olympian Zeus himself launched him into the clean light of day… He slid from under the alter, glided up the tree and there the brood of a sparrow, helpless young ones, teetered high on the topmost branch-tips, cowering under the leaves there, eight they were all told and the mother made the ninth, she’d borne them all -  chirping to break the heart but the snake gulped them down and the mother cried out for her babies, fluttering over him… he coiled, struck, fanged her wind – a high thin shriek!  But once he’d swallowed down the sparrow with her brood, the son of crooked Cronus who sent the serpent forth turned him into a sign, a monument clear to see – Zeus struck him with a stone!  And we stood by, amazed that such a marvel came to light

-           Homer, The Iliad

Ultimately, the awakened soul moves with fixed deliberation throughout the matrix of his collective soul, reconnecting with his soul family and transforming the previous experiences that caused harm, suffering, and the devaluing of each other.  This is the primary result of Pluto transits, the planet of the Underworld and co-ruler of Scorpio.  When two humans come together energetically, the potential is a transformation in which both individuals “die” as egos, and become something greater than what they once were, building upon the living library of human experience.  The Threshold Guardian is found no longer outside of the self, but has been released and is now part of the inner flame.  The Guardian has been bitten by the inner snake, and swallowed up into the womb of the soul, to be reborn completely transformed.