Scorpio

Wisdom Teachings
The Signs of the Zodiac

The zodiac represents the journey of the soul in a symbolic way. The entrance of the sun into the sign of Scorpio marks the point in life where man stands at a turning-point and resolves upon a reorientation, to return from objectivity to subjectivity. It is like saying: „I will rise and go back to my Father.” When we head for home, we get confronted with all that which we have built up on our onward journey with indifference, negligence, recklessness, hatred, jealousy, and with so many other things. We have to face it and adjust it. Therefore the path of Scorpio is one of test, of trial - and of ultimate triumph, because the will gets strengthened more and more.

We are souls and hence we naturally carry Light, Love and Wisdom, there is no need for us to acquire them. But over the soul layers of impurities are accumulated, which impede its functioning and make the light dim. When matter prevails, the light of the soul fades and there is a gradual fall into matter-state, like a narrowing spiral.

We are souls, not the body. We are given three bodies, one is the mental body, the second the emotional or astral body, and the third the physical body. In that triple body, the soul with its Love, Light and Wisdom gets incorporated, and we live in it like in a house. If we have the grip over the bodies, we are the Masters. When we do not know how to live in the house, the bodies have the grip over the soul and we become prisoners. Through pleasure-seeking comfort and wrong use of money and sexuality the physical body locks one door. With ambition, hatred and fear the emotional body bolts another gate. Prejudice, cruelty and pride finally cage the soul into the mental body. Like dark shades these qualities settle on our inner and make us forget our origin. The personality grows strong, but the inner consciousness dies.

It is said that Scorpio causes the death of consciousness. The sun bird with wings became a creeping serpent which dug itself deeper and deeper into matter. Through the fall described in all great world scriptures man loses the spirit-consciousness and gets buried in matter. „When it touches the ground, it is as dark as night” it says in the language of H. P. Blavatsky. Black is the colour of Scorpio, lead its metal. Drugs and poisons causing loss of consciousness are ruled by this sign, but also chasms and holes as well as darkness loving plants, animals and people.

In the darkness of the most dense matter we certainly forget our existence - like in deep sleep -, but we do not cease to exist. And just like every state of Light is a prophecy of darkness, every state of darkness is also a promise of Light. That’s why Scorpio symbolises not only the suspension of awareness, but also the disappearance of the lower consciousness in the higher man: When man becomes aware of his Self as pure existence and no longer identifies with his body, his emotions or his thoughts, this will liberate him from the imprisonment of matter. The awareness of THAT which I in the innermost AM, lifts the spirit up from the dense material world. Thus the story of Scorpio is the story of the disappearance of man and the appearance of the Initiate. The Initiate realises his identity with his origin: The serpent creeping on the ground rises and becomes again the winged serpent, the eagle. The Rod of Hermes - the symbol of the doctors -, the Feathered Serpent of the Mexican Mayas, the head decoration of the Egyptian Hierophants, as well as the Indian and Chinese Serpents or Dragons of Wisdom point to this secret.

The path to Light is a difficult, razor-sharp way of spiritual discipline, on which the personality dies, the soul is born and finally the spirit is revealed. The progress in the Scorpio-state is in silence and secrecy. Everything is conducted inside and worked out for the benefit of others. But while man withdraws into his own being for inner transformation, he doesn’t neglect his domestic and social duties. Nothing of his inner work is seen on the surface, even his neighbour doesn’t know about it. Here many fail on the way, they become impractical and airy-fairy. Thus they lose their foothold in objective life, but also gain nothing in subjectivity.

Scorpio is the sign of rituals. A ritual is the higher order imitated in the material plane. Genuine rituals relate to the death of personality and the birth of consciousness. A rhythmic life is a pre-requisite of a ritualist. Rhythm leads to ritual and ritual leads to the hidden secrets, which reveal the Light of Truth.

Rhythm is different from routine. Routine is a mechanical movement; rhythm carries the life of freshness in approach. Conducting prayer and meditation as a routine is different from conducting meditation as a ritual. If the morning and evening meditations are being conducted as a ritual, we embark upon a spiralic path upwards. If we do it as a routine, it means that we mark time. For those who are dead with routine, every morning is the same; they are dead in spirit. But there are people who can enjoy every dawn, and they can see the beauty of the dawn on a daily basis for decades.

The scope of Scorpio is to internalise to realise the Will of God. When this is done, the incubation of the disappearance terminates. Then man goes again into the world and works with society. For his work he often meets with lack of understanding and criticism, and many wait for finding faults with him. He however laughs at them and continues his work - for those who try to find the entrance of the Temple.

If a house is built with stones and mortar, the space seems to be divided into an inside and outside and split up into many spaces. The one infinite space seems to disappear. Space embodies spirit. We can understand matter as a break in space, a relative absence of spirit-consciousness. Scorpio represents this absence, where spirit-consciousness seems to evanesce. Whenever there are loopholes in awareness, it is death. When a hole is dug into our consciousness, we spiritually die, while we live materially. As long as humanity tends to be materialistic, a loophole in awareness is common to it. We are considered to be living deaths, as long as we forget our existence and do not realise our original state. Eastern wisdom teaches that the formation of the worlds happens as if an etcher digs holes into space and thus causes gaps or loopholes in consciousness. “Fohat - the power of active manifestation - digs holes in space.”

There is no state in which there is only matter and no spirit and vice versa. One disappears into the other, but there is no such thing as total absence of anyone of the two. Many think that the subtle matter, when it gets condensed, becomes the gross matter. The other understanding is, the subtle matter becomes gross due to a gradual withdrawal of the spirit. The relative disappearance of the spirit causes heaviness to the material.

The watery sign of Scorpio is the eighth sign of the zodiac; it is in the eighth house that the descent of spirit into matter happens through a converging spiral, until consciousness is imprisoned like in a black hole. Black is the colour of the sign, lead its metal. Scorpio governs all poisonous matters, everything paralysing consciousness: Alcohol, tobacco and drugs, but also the sex act as an indulgence. Here Mars is the Lord of the sign, with animal magnetism we use our skills to attract the other sex through looks and gestures. In the body Scorpio rules over the sex organs and over disturbances of excretory organs and glands, of the colon and haemorrhoids. Its seat is mainly the spleen-centre ruling the watery processes in the body. However it is also closely related to the base centre, in which are concealed the lowest and the highest functions, keeping us in matter, but also helping us on the path of ascent.

The symbol of the sign (♏) represents the “m” of matter and the sting of the scorpion, who secretly creeps up to bite. Scorpio doesn't like anyone knowing about him, he has an instinctive fear of being known by others. If he follows his lower nature, he might grow selfish, heartless cruel, and instinctively cunning, but at the same time give the impression to the outside of being kind, innocent and harmless. In the end he will be a failure in life due to his own undoing. The desire to hide one's own thinking and the inclination to suspect the thinking of others are the cause of all sins and sufferings of mankind. Thus man digs himself more and more into matter and consciousness gets killed: The serpent power of kundalini moves down the tree of life and then creeps on the belly.

When we set out on our return journey and try to liberate our soul from the imprisonment of matter, we come face to face with ourselves and our own karma. It is easy to handle others and their problems, but very difficult to face ourselves. Now Saturn guides the work with Scorpio. He helps us to round up our edges and offers us many events which we dislike: Expectations get disappointed, and we have to learn to wait. When we accept our limitations and try to work with them, the matter yields the conditioning: The soul breathes the air of liberation for the first time, slowly the serpent creeping on the ground lifts up and rises as a winged serpent.

On the way back to the soul we undergo a process of inner alchemy. The ancient alchemists like Paracelsus called this the purging through fire, where all that is not essence is burned and the impure metal is transformed into gold. During the transformation whatever we have woven around us is put to sacrifice: our personality, our emotional behaviour, our intellect, our own ideas and our personal logic which makes us assess our rights. We do no more ask for recognition and give up name and fame. While sacrifice and relinquishment are demonstrated in daily life, there is no feeling related to such acts, for it has become natural to be so, although the onlooker might think that he is sacrificing. Determined he walks his way, the way of the Fixed Cross. For him Scorpio becomes the sign of discipleship and brings him into contact with the energies of Uranus: Difficulties about family members or about his vocation, about health or about his name put him to revolution and convulsion continuously. In inner crises his staying power is tested. Through the Uranus energies the scorpionic power of his personality will is thus transformed and adjusted to the spiritual will, so that man gets prepared for the Aquarian energies of the New Age. The prototype of the alchemical transformation is the phoenix: When the mystic bird is burned in the fire of the burning ground, he rises out of the ashes to new life. This is also depicted as the eagle vanquishing the lower serpent.

The inner work happens in secrecy and silence, in holiness and simplicity. It is a pupation stage, like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, a secret building of the inner temple. In the cycle of life it corresponds to the time from the age of 49 to 56, from 7 times 7 to 8 times 7 years. Showing the inner work to the outside should be avoided, without giving prominence to keep it a secret. He who has not yet realised the Soul tends to speak about himself and to promote the growth of personality, even if it is done under the cloak of spirituality and esotericism. Here however there is no growth into objectivity, but the question is to withdraw oneself into the cave of one's heart - without giving up one's outer duties. For treading the path within it is important to have attained a good rhythm in outer life. Otherwise we are busy with thoughts of day-to-day life, of conflicts and anger, even if we close our eyes for meditation; the mind runs out and we run behind. Thoughts and deeds of good will and working with spiritual knowledge help to purify the consciousness and prepare the way.

When the tests of Scorpio are worked out, the inner transformations finally lead us to triumph. The light in the heart centre is lit and then shines also in the head. We begin to think in the heart and to develop loving understanding. Thus we grow more and more into synthesis.

Time changes its qualities all the time and in a very lively manner. We however have developed our own schedule, which doesn’t correspond to the time plan of nature. The days and months don’t change on account of the arrangements we lay down, but according to their own rhythmic cycles. A right understanding and study of spiritual astrology helps us to better understand the energies at work and to bring ourselves in line with them. For this it is recommended to observe every day where the planets are and which chemistry a day has: The chemistry of the full moon differs from that of the new moon, the chemistry of Scorpio differs from that of Sagittarius. When the sun, the moon or a planet changes the sign, also the forces in nature and in ourselves change. Let us pay attention to these changes, so that we can experience the qualities of time more clearly and adjust ourselves to them.

With Scorpio the sun enters into the most secret and darkest sign of the zodiac. Scorpio represents the dwindling of the light of the soul through a fall into the densest state of matter. Attracted by the outer word we increasingly lose the awareness of our existence, although we continue to exist. We develop our own logic, which we think to be common sense. We collect things around us and pursue after money, possessions and comfort, which bind us more and more. The act of taking possession is related to the sense of touch, which is governed by Mars, the ruler of Scorpio. Desire, hatred, jealousy and a competitive mentality, miserliness, anger and violence entangle us in delusions. Through tobacco and alcohol, drugs and poison the consciousness withdraws still further, and from a spiritual point of view man dies. Initiates say: “There are many who are the living dead.” This means that people aren’t aware of their self, but are “mobile graveyards”. In the scriptures this state is also called a bottomless pit or a snake pit: Just like the snakes crawl on the belly, man lives in the horizontal for the belly. The poison of his tongue is more dangerous than that of the snakes: How much can be destroyed by a critical or an offensive remark! Words can even bring death. The symbol of Scorpio (♏) alludes to the poisonous sting of the lower personality nature: “Cooperation is the crown of individuality, but the scourge of egoism is like the sting of a scorpion. Can one rely upon egoism? No more than upon a viper!” (Hierarchy, § 342)

Another symbolism of the sign is the serpent and the eagle fighting with each other. The higher nature wrestles with the lower one, the serpent nature of the personality is vanquished by the sharpness of the discrimination of the soul, the tip of the eagle’s beak. When we have subdued the serpent, we soar on the wings of the eagle to the spirit.

The spleen centre is mainly the seat of Scorpio, whose etheric activity is connected with the sex organs and the magnetism of sexual attraction. In many sexual relations the consciousness of the persons gets suspended and they are caught by the forces of the lower pole. Mars gives strong impulses and colours the emotions, the personality strongly reacts to this. But Mars also gives the power to master one’s own vitality and to vanquish the animal nature of sexuality. The purified power of Mars works out the ascent, if we don’t use any longer our will for attaining our personal objectives, but for the service to our fellow human beings. Thus it constructs a bridge over the pit of desire and leads us directly to Sagittarius: Here the desire transforms into fiery aspiration towards noble goals. The serpent of consciousness thus becomes the winged serpent, which now stands upright on its tip of the tail. The vital force of the kundalini-serpent, which for eons had been coiled around the stalk of the lotus at the basis of the spine now rises through the spine. At the focal point of the ajna centre it spreads its wings to both sides and merges with the crown centre over the head. It is recommended to light a lamp at the twilight hours of every evening at the door-front and worship the serpent-power of kundalini that encircles around the stem of the base centre.

On the descending path of involution our consciousness condensed more and more, and an ever-narrowing spiral incarcerated the soul into the darkness of matter. On the ascending path of return the windings of the spiral become bigger and bigger and the soul is liberated from the fetters of matter. This way is white and radiant.

On the planet there have always been people which aren’t condensed and whose consciousness has remained free, so that it encompasses all seven planes of existence. These are the Masters of Wisdom, who aren’t influenced by the events, but on the contrary influence them. They live as shining examples that show people the way. If we link up with them, they help us to liberate ourselves from the crystallizations of our concepts of life. With their help we can elevate ourselves from the lower to the higher pole and rise from Scorpio, the South Pole, to the North Pole of Taurus. While Scorpio represents the darkness of matter, Taurus represents the light of spirit, with man it is localised in the front or the ajna centre. According to our understanding light is the opposite of darkness, and we think that the regions of darkness and of light are two extremes. But just as behind a lamp it is dark, the light beyond the light is at the same time absolute darkness: The original light shines forth out of the indefinable One. Thus there isn’t only the dark Scorpio of passion, but also the one of the darkness of highest spiritual experience. So Scorpio is the darkest, but also the holiest month, according to the alignment of the soul. It offers a direct way to the experience of the ultimate.

While at Taurus full moon we worship the cosmic second ray of Love-Wisdom, at Scorpio full moon we think of the cosmic first ray of Divine Will. In the East it is called Lord Shiva, the lord of destruction. Death and birth are only projections on His background, the Divine Will being the basis of both. Shiva is depicted as dancing on the waves of the ocean of space. His eternal dance creates the rhythmic movements in the waters of space, which give rise to the universes, the solar systems and the planets. In the East He is worshipped especially in the watery sign of Scorpio by people conducting water rituals and singing the five-syllable mantram OM NAMA SIVAYA. Particularly the Mondays in Scorpio are used for contemplation on Shiva, the cosmic first Logos.

Lord Shiva is described as bearing a serpent as a jewel around his neck. This means that the power of the raised kundalini is expressed via the throat centre for the sake of the welfare of creation. The will of Scorpio is very strong; it has a profound power to manifest things down to the physical. Thus the time of Scorpio is very good for acts of good will – in all silence, without speaking about it. We also should not speak about our inner work in the outer. It is enough that we do it.

Our personalities consist of an accumulation of personal thoughts, emotions and desires. In the course of life we acquire likes and dislikes, views, opinions, troubles and worries. We develop our own logic, which we think it is sound common sense and which solidifies into the intellect. We distinguish between “mine” and “yours”, we judge, criticise and feel that we have a right to certain things. We collect things and would like to have more possessions, more money and more power. In this way, over time, we build up a strong personality.

When we want so many things, and are so dependent on the personality, we are unable to simply sleep in the cemetery when we drop our bodies. Certainly the body will disintegrate into earth, but we will emerge and take other bodies in order to satisfy unfulfilled desires and emotions. We call this reincarnation. Those who are limited by the personality have no other choice but to return again and again to experience cycles of births and deaths in order to settle things. For as long as we do not realize the soul, we are stuck in the personality and in problems. When the soul suggests a beneficial activity, the personality immediately criticizes and complains, overpowering us with ease and making our decisions for us. The personality obstructs the light of the soul, and its radiance and magnetism are lost: Our lives become monotonous, grey and depressive. Even though we might technically still be alive, we die when we are separated from the soul’s energy, becoming the living dead.

The sign of Scorpio stands for the state where we forget our divine existence. While it’s true that we haven’t ceased to exist, we are enmeshed in matter and soul consciousness disappears. The lower centres keep us imprisoned and we cannot rise to the higher ones. Serpents slithering in the dirt belong to Scorpio. When we live only in the horizontal, material orientation, we take on these slithering qualities. S Serpents and scorpions harbour deadly poisons, biting in secret and bringing a loss of consciousness. Secrecy and concealment are Scorpio tendencies of the personality, as opposed to the openness and transparency of the soul. In the Eastern tradition, Scorpio is symbolized by the struggle between the serpent and the eagle: The serpentine nature of personality hides in the caves of its low opinions and suspicions; the eagle-nature of the soul, with its sharpness of discrimination, liberates man from his involvements in matter to the freedom and expanse of the spirit.

Black, which represents darkness, is the colour of Scorpio. For the average man, it means death and the temporary suspension of consciousness. For the higher man it symbolises the disappearance of the lower consciousness, and the birth of the higher Light. The path of Scorpio is a path of trials leading through the depths, where we learn to face ourselves and to resolve the manipulative tendency of the personality.

We should review at the end of the day when we retire to sleep. We should recollect that we are the soul and then examine the personality: “How has my personality behaved this day? How have I thought, spoken, and acted? How have I used my time? Should I change anything?” By continuously remembering the soul, our personalities slowly get rearranged. Through sleep, we prepare for the yogic state of existence. We shouldn’t let ourselves simply slip into unconsciousness, but beforehand, with a thought like, “Master, please receive us and include us in your work”, centre ourselves in the brow centre and align ourselves with the soul, our Master.

Symbolically, the inner work is being done during the night. Others don’t have to know what the consciousness builds inside. It is said that a mason builds the temple in the darkness of the midnight hour, in complete silence and secrecy, without even letting his neighbour know. Only when the Temple of the Soul has been built, is it revealed and dedicated in service to the public. Thus, we should learn to do our spiritual exercises in silence and secrecy. For this, Nature gives us the example of the caterpillar, which can only transform itself into a butterfly via cocooning.

In the course of the day Scorpio stands for the time between two and four o’clock in the morning, when it is very difficult to stay awake. It is the time of the greatest darkness, which at the same time carries the promise of the new dawn. The great master Sri Aurobindo describes this in his epos “Savitri”, which is a Secret Doctrine of the 20th century. He provided this deep Vedic concept in the English language for the benefit of humanity. Savitri is the light spreading out after sunset, “the Mother who shows the Light in the darkness”. She promises us: “Don’t worry that you are going through the darkness. In a few hours I will bring back the one who has gone down deep.”

In the parable of Savitri, a man weds a lady named Savitri. The man is called Satyavan, the Truth Bearer, about whom it had been prophesied that he would die within a year, which came to be true. This means that when we lose the Truth, we are dead. Satyavan was buried in matter, and Yama / Pluto, the Lord of Death, took him away from his body into the darkness of the netherworld. But his spouse Savitri followed him. She stands for the consciousness in us, the light of the Soul called Savitur, which we invoke every morning through the Gayatri mantra. Savitri succeeds in outwitting Yama and bringing her beloved husband back to life. Since his consciousness was with him continuously, Satyavan finds the Truth, and his life, again.

The sun is also referred to as Truth Bearer, because it bears within itself that which is beyond it. During the dawn hours the Truth Bearer rises and emerges from matter as the Saviour. The drama of Savitri occurs daily as well as yearly. In the darkness of Scorpio, we can prepare ourselves so that a new dawn can begin in Capricorn. There is a little ritual one can perform each evening during the twilight hours of the month of Scorpio, which consists of lighting a light at the entrance to one’s home, and worshiping the serpent-power of kundalini, which encircles the stem of the base centre. Thus Scorpio leads us on the vertical path upwards, from darkness to Light.

Sources used: K. P. Kumar: Hercules: The Man and the Symbol / The Aquarian Cross / seminar notes / E. Krishnamacharya: Spiritual Astrology. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India. - A. A. Bailey: Esoteric Astrology, Lucis-Trust, London. ( www.netnews.org / www.lucistrust.org ).