In 2008, Pluto entered Capricorn, starting a long slog through the reworking of our society's systems. This transit has brought rise to such events as the exposure of long standing abuses of power, earthquakes and tidal waves bringing disaster to buildings and bridges (Pluto rules nuclear power), and the rising popularity of zombies and vampires. Now we welcome Saturn in Scorpio, which will intensify these processes while also giving us a wonderful opportunity to plant and carefully nurture seeds of renewal for our future.

I'm reminded of the character Sebastian Shaw from the film X-Men: First Class, who can take any energy, such as a speeding bullet, an exploding grenade, even a nuclear reactor, compress it into his body and redirect it at his will. He may be a villain, but he demonstrates precisely the strategy for working with Saturn in Scorpio. It boils down to the question: Will we be crushed by forces of power we cannot control or can we harness those forces as strength for our life purposes? No matter what Saturn in Scorpio brings to us, the choice in how we experience it is our own.

Saturn will begin its 2.5 year transit of the sign of Scorpio on October 6th, 2012. It will enter Sagittarius at the very end of 2014, dip back into Scorpio in mid-June 2015 and leave it again in mid-September, not returning for another 25 years.

On a global scale Saturn is tracking our design, construction and use of societal infrastructures, and in Scorpio it is putting limits on the power that can be received or given by these structures. These can be physical infrastructures like highways and the Internet as well as non-physical systems like laws and language structures. When in Scorpio, Saturn requires these systems to be cleared of any stale cruft and any part of the system that is out of integrity will need to be reworked.

For more on Saturn, please see my previous article on Saturn's influence in the sign of Aquarius.

Resistance to power we cannot control and how it might irrevocably change us is the root of our fear, yet Scorpio is trying to help us realize that we need not fear anything at all — for to die is to be reborn, to suffer loss is to gain new life.

Scorpio teaches us that in order to attain lasting power we must dive inwards, reaching into the depths of our own soul to find the solutions to everything we desire. We must heal our deepest emotional wounds by walking through them, reliving them experientially as a means to clearing blockages to our power. On the way we learn that power and desire are very closely linked. To varying degrees we encounter desires we can control and desires that control us. This of course includes sexual desire. More than a need to procreate, sexual desire represents a creative force that, like Scorpio's ruling planet Pluto, will relentlessly pursue its needs no matter how we try to tame it with "civilized" behavior. The same can be said of any strong power/desire dynamic. Scorpio then teaches us when to submit to power that we cannot escape, when to utilize our own power in service to truth, and when to simply walk away from power that is beyond our capacity to handle.

But sometimes we have literally no choice in the matter. Death is going to claim every one of us, sexual desire will drive us with or without our consent, our emotional wounds will dog us until we clear them. Outside of ourselves we can encounter forms of power greater than us that we cannot escape, such as government, economic forces and natural disasters. Resistance to power we cannot control and how it might irrevocably change us is the root of our fear, yet Scorpio is trying to help us realize that we need not fear anything at all — for to die is to be reborn, to suffer loss is to gain new life. If we can stand with our fear, hold our ground within storms of change and even death, then nothing can actually touch us, and we thus gain purity of awareness with the understanding that how we experience every moment is always a choice we make. This is also how we incorporate Scorpio's opposite, Taurus. By remaining aware of ourselves within whirlwinds of change we gain ultimate stability, and the survival of our consciousness is never in question.

During the Saturn in Scorpio transit we will be blocked from grabbing any power we haven't earned and we will be required to steady ourselves in the face of limitations on fulfilling desires. Conversely, it will also be a time when power we have been diligently working towards will begin to take shape, and it's a great opportunity to start or deepen ongoing work.

Some strategies for cooperating with this energy: Pay those taxes or parking tickets you're behind on, speak clearly without hiding your agenda, repair or throw away anything that isn't fulfilling its intended function. This is a great time to take a serious look at the areas of your life that need healing and dive into working on them. Most importantly, don't begrudge anyone who attempts to exact a toll of some kind from you, whether emotional or material. Instead see the event as an opportunity to resolve a bit of karma, to put to rest outstanding issues that, once dealt with, will never need to haunt you again.

This ought to be an interesting time for folks born with Pluto in Scorpio, anyone born between December 1983 and August 1995. Particularly so for people born between 1983 and 1985, as they will be experiencing a Pluto/Saturn conjunction just before their Saturn Return (a completed cycle of life initiation). It's time for this generation to begin to take their places in seats of power around the world and to rise up to the work they're here to take on. Many of the Pluto in Scorpio generation have a deep sense that they are here to fulfill a special destiny and the next few years will see them beginning the work to get there.

One final note: The United States national election occurs during this transit. I'll leave any election speculation for another article, suffice it to say that there is a clear contest for power going on, and who attains it will have much to do with how well each candidate is balancing the work they're doing within the system with how far they are striking out with fresh ideas. The system may not yet yield to a candidate that is in total integrity, but a risk in integrity will be required for the victor, as will a large degree of emotional discipline. It would not be surprising to see public figures publicly losing it during this transit.

As Charles Xavier might agree, we must evolve with discipline if we are going to weather the coming changes. Saturn in Scorpio is our opportunity to get our deep training in building, containing and utilizing power. While you might at times find yourself limited, remember that outer limitations provide the structure for you to go more deeply inward, where the true source of your power lies.

Continue reading Part 2

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