The world of Scorpio is where we'll encounter power struggles, intense emotions and cathartic transformation, but we'll also find deep acceptance of ourselves and the door to unconditional love. In Libra, we're challenged to acquire the fundamental skills of relating to others on a one to one basis. We learn how to interact, how to compromise and how to balance who we are with what we perceive in the other person. While Libra focuses on the surface topography of relationships, ensuring that we dance together in symmetry and grace. Scorpio, on the other hand, delves into the deeper, messier issues that inevitably arise. In Scorpio, we deal with power struggles, deep psychological dynamics, control urges, and the aspects of ourselves and others we'd rather not know about. Scorpio navigates the undercurrents, the hidden and unspoken.
The water sign of Scorpio is fixed and by modern Astrology, ruled by Pluto. Pluto, the moving emissary of Scorpio energy, is associated with power issues, elimination, death, rebirth and deep transformation. It transforms by forcing us to peer far below the surface, with eyes open, to behold what lurks there. But this can be difficult for the average person. Most people don't exercise their Pluto energy on a fully conscious level and some avoid it at all costs. It is not a journey for the weak, although it can ultimately strengthen those who undertake it. Transformation, the utmost Plutonian agenda, is essentially the process of evolutionary change based on new information and experiences. Repeated, continual change and adaptation gradually produces a fundamental shift in who we are because the process forces us to frame ourselves and the world differently. This can be an upsetting, frightening or painful experience, since it tends to shine light into dark corners that have remained happily hidden for some time. It can force us to acknowledge and deal with aspects of ourselves, others and life that we'd rather not know about. Pluto demands that we learn to look upon these secret parts of ourselves without flinching, but also with compassion and understanding. One is never the same after taking the pilgrimage. One emerges scathed but renewed, with a fresh picture of the complexity and the simplicity, the fragility and the resiliency of the human soul. We often have a new appreciation of ourselves as neither flawless nor defective, but as simply human. It is this deceptively simple realization that opens the door to a more compassionate realism and unconditional acceptance of oneself and others. This does not mean we must condone malicious or maladjusted behavior; rather, we have a more grounded awareness that we all do the worst things for the most poignant of reasons. Scorpio and Pluto challenge us to bring light to the depths of who we are, so that we can know our true inner reality, the truth of what forms the bedrock of our human experience.