The Scarlet Letter
Volume V, Number 2 | December 1998
Column: Jewels From the Naked Brilliance
Disciples of the Scorpion
By Sr. Nephthys


A situation of grave proportions has been developing over the last few years. More and more, the news covers stories of the atrocities committed by children. Eagle SerpentPeople keep asking why this is happening and how they can stop it while the answer is right in front of them: it is given to them each time they hear another tale of violence. While Neptune is usually given the rap for deceit and blindness, this time our friend Poseidon is not to blame. His watery relative, Pluto, as well as his father, Uranus, are responsible for the terrors that grow each day around the world, as well as the cloak of darkness that continually surrounds issues that no one wants to think about: that which is right in front of our face is always the hardest to see. Pluto and Uranus are the planets that Rule and Exalt, respectively, the sign of Scorpio, that of death, change, regeneration, sex, and transformation. The children born between 1974 and 1995 are the purveyors of Scorpio’s message that it’s time to change or the consequences for us all will be quite dire.

Pluto, Uranus, and Scorpio all revolve around issues that involve the primordial soup of both our bodies and souls: what are we doing here? What are we supposed to do while we’re here? What’s going to happen after we’re done here? The very bottom line of situations becomes quite apparent to the people with these planetary placements: they were born with the ultimate bullshit detector. Obviously, a world and society in which lying and deception are the name of the game is unpalatable to these new souls, to say the least. They see through and strip away the lies and layers of disguise placed over most complex issues. These issues are the same ones Scorpio is concerned with: sex, death, drugs, ‘god’, money, and anything else that makes us humans squirm when personal beliefs are challenged. Scorpio is fearless. That’s what makes it so truthful, and so dangerous. Everything that global society has tried to ignore for the last 248 years, the length of Pluto’s year or revolution around the Sun, will no longer be able to hide beneath morals, ethics, law, or propriety. Scorpio wants to know the truth, and so will the people that possess its power.

Ya Alim - by Aisha Qadisha

Pluto is the planet that has been attributed to the Sephirah Kether in modern times; some also attribute Uranus to Daath, or the Abyss. Uranus, and Daath, both say the same thing: change, or teeter on the edge of the Abyss forever, or worse, become trapped within it forever. Pluto and Kether say the same thing: you are the mirror which provides the answers to the questions you ask. Refuse to look at what is in front of you and you will remain where you stand, unmoving, non-evolving. These Scorpionic children are the mirrors into which we are having to look and see reflected all of the prejudicial, restrictive, torturous, and otherwise Will-crushing things that have gone in our world for the last 250 years. Their behaviors are the product of those same events.

Try to envision the life view of a person who was born in or after 1974: what have their examples been of the world around them? 1974, though they would not remember these events, saw the resignation of a United States President, and the beginning of the end of the Vietnam “War”. A few years later, the Iran Hostage Crisis was all the news. After that, AIDS, the Cold War (remember The Day After?), and the Iran Contra Scandal. Besides the splattered headlines, numerous social issues that have resulted in violence are a part of everyday life for children of this generation: homosexuality, abortion, nuclear war, environmentalism, overpopulation, racism, etc. It’s very confusing to go to school, read your history books, and learn about things like the Civil Rights Movement and great leaders like Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and the things that all of those people struggled for, and then take a good, hard look outside at the world and realize that not much has changed. On the surface it appears that way: bold laws stand in the books to protect people’s life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, but it’s so obvious that it doesn’t work like that. “I love my country, but I fear my government” may be the mantra for this 21 year generation of people as they are presented with more and more examples of how justice is not justice, democracy is not democracy, and equality is not equality, not in their world anyway. Now envision the future life view of a child born in the early 1990s: what do you suppose their opinion of their world will be? What should they be told when they ask why they can’t go outside because the UV index is too high, or the ozone levels? What should they be told when they ask why all those people on the other side of the world are fighting? What should they be told when the nice man down the street who never did anything wrong was taken away by the police because of the plants in his garage? What do you suppose they’ll think of the answers?

You’re probably still wondering why it is that some of these kids have chosen to use violence to send a message that they may not even aware of. Scorpio is a water sign, making it very emotional in nature. Scorpio’s inherent sight into what makes the world go round also makes it psychic and empathic: these kids, for the most part, have absorbed so much negative energy since their birth that it’s all they know how to express. They’ve seen and received nothing truly good and nurturing in their lives. Our society demands that both parents work, if there are two parents present. Some programs exist in urban areas to help kids find other things to do after school or in the summertime when they can’t be around their parents, but the Latchkey Generation is largely left on its own. What becomes the usual substitute? You guessed it: The One-Eyed Zombie God: the usual broadcast garbage, video games, etc. Parents wonder why their children are drawn to this stuff: it’s because it’s all they know. If they watch the news, that feeling is compounded because what the anchor tells them is this is the way the world is. Some of our young Scorpions truly believe that the only way to get what they want in the world is through violence, and they cannot be blamed because there have been no other examples for them to go on. Death and violence are all they understand: most of the kids responsible for the school killings begged to be killed themselves once wrestled to the ground. To make their lives even harder, families have been shown to be increasingly dysfunctional these days: incest, physical abuse, alcoholism, the list goes on. Stories of such atrocities are no longer regarded with horror by others: they’ve become so commonplace that the sentiment is more one of ‘join the club.’ This is the other source of negative energy and violence that kids are exposed to.

It’s periods in history and events such as the school massacres that give Scorpio its bad reputation: the bad that precedes the good is often so scarring that the eventual benefit that is reaped cannot be truly utilized for generations. But when Scorpio’s energy is properly channeled and has enough force behind it, nothing can stand in its revolutionary path. The fall of the Iron Curtain is a prime example. These events occurred as Pluto passed through the middle, and most powerful, degrees of Scorpio. Those peoples who had been oppressed for so many decades said, “NO MORE!,” and gradually they regained their freedom. It has been more peaceful in some places than in others, but the Iron Curtain is no more. It is also interesting to note that the Solidarity movement in Poland, generally thought to be the first domino to fall in that particular series of events in Europe, achieved its success as Pluto entered Scorpio in the early 80s. As Pluto left Scorpio in the mid 90s, the primary skirmish still existing rested in the former Yugoslavia: this is the country from whence the individual came that performed the assassination that began World War I, continued with WW II, and the ultimate subsequent raising of the Iron Curtain. Pluto’s pass through Scorpio changed the face of Europe back to a state that, perhaps, will resolve the original conflict and allow that part of the world to evolve the way it’s supposed to. In this way, Pluto is sort of like a time machine: it forces individuals, societies, governments, and every other group of people to face what has happened in the past so that it can be resolved and evolution can continue.

Those born with Uranus in Scorpio are between the ages of 16 and 21 now. This is the generation that is going to rebel against anything they think stifles their individuality. Uranus says, “Thou shalt not tell me what to do.” They are not going to care, for the most part, what society thinks of them or how they lead their lives. Like everything else, this has a positive and a negative side. Positively expressed, this group of people has the power to make some mighty changes in this world of ours, and they’re likely to strip away some long-held beliefs and illusions that will make a lot of folks very uncomfortable and unhappy. Properly encouraged, they’ll be extremely intelligent: this may very well be the generation that breaches the gap between the tangible scientific and the intangible ethereal, for they are concerned with both sides of reality. They have the ability, for whatever reason, be it astrological or parenting, to make themselves just acceptable enough to others to make a life for themselves and survive long enough to implement their own plans: Scorpio does not make a compromise unless it’s got another reason for doing so.

Negatively expressed, these are the kids who have run away from home and now can’t feed themselves because they absolutely refuse to make any sort of compromise, even if it’s for their own good. Society doesn’t like walking down the street and seeing these kids or being bothered for change by them, and thinks, “Clean up. Get a job. Make something of yourself.” It’s that horridly truthful face of Scorpio that generates that reaction in ourselves: we don’t want to look at it because deep down inside we know that they can’t survive in the world that’s been created for them. They see straight through the lies and the bull and find it impossible to tolerate, and their life circumstances to date have left them unequipped emotionally and mentally to think of another way to do things. All their lives they have been completely out of control and now they are controlling it in the only way they know how because they’ve never learned anything else. Uranus also controls trends in society: this group of people bands together and finds comfort in large groups, regardless of their living conditions. It is the companionship, however dysfunctional, more than anything else that keeps them alive.

The Pluto-In-Scorpio generation is between the ages of 2 and 14 now. These kids will not seek solace in groups as the Uranus-in-Scorpio generation does. They will be fiercely individualistic not because they want to be, but because they have to be. Why? Because they won’t be able to tolerate the falseness of most of the people around them. They will likely have some trouble with their parents once the first Jupiter return has passed at the age of 12, a marker of social breaking away from the parents. With these kids, they will be a society of one if they have to. Connections they make with others will likely be sparse, but those that they make will be very deep, and they will forever change the lives of those that they choose to commune with. Since they will spend a great deal of time by themselves largely, and that will usually be their choice, they’ll formulate their opinions of the world by absorbing what’s around them and analyzing them for what they really are without the influence of other’s opinions and demands. If they grow up in a household where people are truthful and try not to let falseness enter their lives, they will likely become revolutionary leaders just like their Uranian group-counterparts. They’ll understand that anger is necessary, but it need not lead to violence for things to change. If they grow up in a household where lies and misdirected anger are the norm, they have the potential to explosively reflect that energy back upon the world, and it will not be pretty. It hasn’t been so far.

This generation of kids is the world’s wake up call. Any amount of death, carnage, and hatred that people today are familiar with will pale in comparison to what can potentially come if we, as a global people, do not open our eyes and see what’s going on, and why! Trans-formation and revolution from the Father and Son pair of Uranus and Pluto are not pleasant: they have a tendency to take away from us what we don’t need whether we want it to go or not. This is different from Saturn, who just gives us a hefty warning: it is possible to ignore the Father of Discipline. It is not possible to ignore his more powerful counterparts. The more we try, the worse the situation becomes. So, we as an entire planet stand at the brink of the Abyss: do we continue battling each other over land, money, and ‘god’ until half of us are gone? Or do we dare jump across, which requires that we all hold hands together, take a deep breath, and know that what’s on the other side really is better?


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