Moving Backward to Move Forward this Scorpio Season

Art Direction and Photograph by: Catie Menke. Model: Tishana Richards.

Copy by: Alison Brownell
Model: Tishana Richards
Creative Direction by: Catie Menke

Welcome to Scorpio season! The sun moves into the shadowy sign of the stinger on October 22, drawing us all under his spell. It’s easy to become obsessed with all that lies below the surface during this time, as Scorpio naturally invites us to go deeper. And with two personal planets retrograde during this time, it’s the perfect opportunity to dig into our own psyches and motivations.

Scorpio rules the beliefs that were given to us by others. That’s your mom, your dad, your teachers, bosses, grandparents, friends. Allllllll that subconscious programming that dictates how you move through the world lives in this sign, which explains why Mars is a co-ruler of Scorpio. Your actions (Mars) are a direct reflection of your conscious and subconscious beliefs.

But this year, Scorpio doesn’t just have us dipping a toe into our psychology for the month. Oh no no no, friends. In true 2020 fashion, we are diving right into the deep end of the swamp. Mars is currently retrograde in Aries, still fighting with his Capricorn homies Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto and Pallas Athena. And Mercury turns retrograde in Scorpio about a week before the sun gets there, playing tug of war with Uranus three times throughout the course of this cycle.

In non-astro-speak, that means we aren’t moving forward from our beliefs, but backward.

Retrograde cycles give us the opportunity to take a second look at the things in our lives that are being represented by the energy of the planet in that motion. Mars in Aries has us reconsidering how we want to show up for ourselves, and how that can be in conflict with the way the world wants us to show up, or the version of success that we’ve been told we should achieve. Mercury in Scorpio has us reevaluating where we got those beliefs that fuel our actions. Does it ACTUALLY matter what Karen in the fourth grade said about your bangs? Do you REALLY need to hold on to that ex-boyfriend’s idea that you need to be “less-than” him in a relationship so he can feel more powerful at your expense? Do you TRULY believe what your mom told you when she said you weren’t as smart or as pretty as your sister?

Take some time this month and examine what people have told you about yourself, or even the messages that they sent you through the things they said about themselves (and yes, sometimes they will be the same). How helpful are they? How have they dictated how you’ve shaped your own life? Do you actually believe what you’re demonstrating through your actions? If you were to discard those outside beliefs and listen to yourself, how would you do things differently? What would it look like to move through the world unencumbered by someone else’s crap?

Some of the things that come up for you now may actually startle you, whether these realizations come from you or via someone else’s practical observations. The cool thing about retrogrades is that we have three chances to work things out during these cycles, so know that you will start to mentally work out what needs to change towards the middle of November, but changes won’t actually start to manifest until Sagittarius season. As a result, don’t put pressure on yourself to change things now. Sit with what comes up. Meditate on it. Journal. Talk to a friend or your therapist. Do whatever works best for you when you need to process information.

Something important to keep in mind as you decide how you’d like to move forward is that you want to be creating something that makes you feel free, that feels nurturing, sacred, and purposeful. That is going to look different for everyone, but pay attention to anything that gives off that vibe during the third and fourth weeks of October, as we have a Mystic Rectangle sending out a divine message from the universe. It might not ping up from Gmail on your phone, but you’ll get hints. You could get words, phrases that repeat, or see things in your day to day life that cue up those feelings for you. You may want to keep a note on your phone of random musings from this time, or take photos if you get visuals, with the intent to revisit later this year when you’re ready to take action.

And finally, we end Scorpio season with yet another Lilith opposition, this time from Venus. This opposition asks us to stay true to our values. One of my favorite books is “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand, and the main character, Roark, refuses to become entrapped by anyone else’s ideals by consistently holding true to what he believes is right for him (I just saved you hundreds of pages of reading, but really, you should read it if you haven’t). This opposition asks us to do the same thing in our own lives, to take the messages we’ve uncovered about ourselves and put them to good use, aligning ourselves with who it is we want to be, not who we’ve been told we should be. Scorpio energy is not for the faint of heart. You might not like what you find when you embark on this journey of self-inquiry. But you cannot unsee what you find. Allow yourself both the vision and the opportunity to change.