With Mercury stationing retrograde in the sign of Scorpio (on my Moon, no less!), Scorpionic throughts are coming through thick and heavy for me. With Mars also RX at this time, this is a powerful retrograde that takes us deep into the belly of the War God. Here we are being called to think about our personal power and our collective power, and what it means to hold these two in tandem in our being. How do we keep the raging beast in check? How much is too much, how much is too little? When is it appropriate to spill blood? What is right? What is wrong?
A dear friend sent me an article today about a statue of Medusa that is to be placed across the road from the courthouse in which Harvey Weinstein and other accused rapists are to be tried.
In the Metamorphoses by Ovid, Medusa was a beautiful maiden who was raped in the temple of Athena by Poseidon. Athena, in a rage at what was considered an act of desecration, endowed Medusa with her headful of snakes which turned all men to stone who had the temerity to look at her. In short, this led to her hiding out on an island turning unwary passers-by to stone, where the hero Perseus tracked her down and cut her head off. It thereafter formed the centrepiece of Athena’s shield, when he offered it to the goddess in gratitude.
This myth angers many women, and for good reason. Medusa did not ask for what happened to her. She did not ask for the curse that stuck to her after it happened. She took herself off to a lonely place, like many people that are traumatised- and still she was pursued by a man! And then he ends by cutting her head off, and giving it to the one who cursed her in the first place.
The statue that is placed outside the courtyard represents a reversal of the myth. It portrays Medusa holding the head of Perseus, thus giving the power back to the woman. It illustrates a clear point to the men at trial, that the woman is here now to cut off HIS head now, not the other way around.
Now you may ask, how does this all apply to Scorpio, and Pluto in Scorpio?
Scorpio rules the eighth house. The eighth house is the sign of death, secrets, and shared finances- shared karma. The number 8 is a symbol of perfect balance, and of a binding. It perfectly illustrates the hermetic law that can be simplified as “what goes around, comes around”.
Pluto is of course in its domicile in Scorpio. This is the seat of hell, the inversion of our world- topsy turvy. If Pluto in Scorpio sees something on the surface, it wants to pull it into the underworld and turn it all around, to bring it to the full reversal of its cycle. This is no ordinary rebellion, this is dragging our current world into the crisis polarity- to pick it apart at the bones, so that it may be refreshed and born anew.
Anyone who has ever experienced a stressful Pluto transit or Pluto relationship knows what I mean when I talk about the unbearable pressure that forces change. This is the generation that has the ability to experience a cultural narrative with such intensity that it can’t and won’t accept things the way that they are. Their parents the Boomers (Pluto in Leo) had their rebirth in the highly individualistic counterculture they were driven to create. This generation will have their rebirth hopefully not in nuclear armageddon, but in deep collective spiritual crises where the old world gets dragged down, chewed up, spat out again in ways that hurt enough to change us.
I see the story of Medusa as the story of human trauma. It was unjust what happened to her. It is unjust what happens to us all, in many junctures of our lives. We all have that innocent being within us that has been violated and cursed by the effects of that violation. For some of us it is bigger… for some of us, it is smaller. She hides herself away. Then another part of our being (the hero) comes and cuts the head off our trauma, and Wisdom (Athena) bears it on the shield we carry. Our hurts become our defence, they become what immobilise our enemies.
But carrying this “Me Too” thing to its conclusion and rebirth as illustrated by the statue outside the trial, the myth is regenerated. We are no longer called to face every situation with the disembodied head of our trauma stuck there to scare off enemies. Pluto in Scorpio has inverted the story and proudly wears the identity of the one who has been hurt on the outside. It is the ego that is held bleeding in the hands- that has been killed off, and it is the maiden that has been hurt that stands strong in the role of Wisdom. Her secret has come bursting out, but it empowers her now- and now she states boldly “me too”.
Green Lady Astrology 