SCORPIO NEW MOON MEDITATIONS

The Scorpio New Moon dawns just several days before the November 1st Celtic feast of the dead, Samhain, and the pagan cross-quarter day that marks the midpoint between fall and winter. For Christians, it is All Soul's Day; for children, it is Halloween. Like beads, these festivals are strung together by a common thread: the occult mysteries of the astrological sign of Scorpio. While Libra was about interpersonal relationships, Scorpio signifies relationship with the "other side" - the invisible realms hidden from ordinary view. Ruled by Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth, the soul's journey through Scorpio is a journey down into the underworld and up into a new, more evolved way of being - a passage symbolized by the mythical Phoenix. No person, however, is ever asked to undertake this passage alone, but is accompanied by a spirit guide. Because tradition holds that this is the time of year when the veil between this world and the next thins, it is a propitious time to reconnect with one's spirit guide.
 

The Invisibles: Connecting to Your Spirit Guide 

Whether angel, daimon, animal, or saint, it is said that each soul is granted one or more invisible guardians to attend its journey through life on earth. Socrates had his daimon, who whispered wisdom in his ear; the oracle of Delphi gleaned the future from a powerful serpent; Native Americans were guided by animal spirits; and in all traditions angels have hovered nearby humans. Even nature spirits are said to watch over mountains, trees, lakes, and streams.

To connect to your spirit guide, you may want to begin your meditation by drawing a mental circle between yourself and the everyday world around you. Then, seated before your altar, light a candle and incense. In your own words, say a prayer or invocation that gently summons the presence of your spirit guide - even if you have no image of who that might be. For a few minutes, simply sit in the silence; as the quiet deepens, imagine that the veil between this world and the world of the Invisibles has parted. Like a guest arriving, imagine next that an invisible, beneficent presence has entered the room and is lighting up the space around you. Something about this presence touches your heart, communicating with you in a wordless, yet deeply knowing, way. 

After steeping yourself in the aura of this formless presence, begin to imagine that a real being is taking shape before you. Seeing with your inner eye, and feeling with your heart, intuit the specific identity of your guide: he, or she, may be a familiar figure, such as a beloved prophet, wise priestess, powerful shaman, Sufi dervish, or mythic god or goddess. Or, your spirit guide may appear in the guise of a being you have never seen before - resplendent with luminosity, or as an ordinary, humble individual. Watch that your conscious mind doesn't step in to criticize your imaginative faculty: whatever you see, simply allow it to be. 

Once you have a clear image of your spirit guide, imagine next that this being takes your hand in hers (or his) and, smiling deeply into your eyes, imparts to you the knowledge that you will never be abandoned or alone - no matter how difficult the tragedy or hardship you may endure. In addition, your spirit guide imparts wisdom to you that answers your heart's deepest question. After a few minutes in this sweet communion, release your hands from your spirit guide's and, together, bow in farewell. As your spirit guide melts back into the realm of the Invisibles, close your meditation with a prayer of thanks for the loving support given to you by the divine. 

 The Phoenix: Mythic Bird of Soul Transformation 

According to a number of legends, the Phoenix was a mythical bird of brilliant plumage who, when cremated upon a funeral pyre, rose from its ashes into new life. In ancient Egypt it was said to rise at dawn from the Nile like the sun, to be reborn the next day out of the ashes of the night. It was often portrayed as a Morning Star, or at the prow of the boat crossing to the Underworld. During the Middle Ages the phoenix became a symbol of Christ's resurrection and has remained a powerful image of the soul's cycle of death and regeneration. 

To undergo the mythic transformation symbolized in the life-death-regeneration cycle of the Phoenix, reflect upon that area of your life where you sense there is growing pressure to change: perhaps it is in your relationship with a significant other, or maybe your creative projects are demanding that you go deeper. Perhaps you are refusing to leave one stage of life, for the next - whether assuming the responsibilities of an adult, or entering old age. It could be that life is demanding a new quality of you: assertive courage, instead of patient acceptance, or grace instead of boldness.

Now, imagine that, like the Phoenix, you have made a funeral pyre for this portion of your old self. Choosing a symbol that pictues this part of your life, throw it onto the fire - and watch it burn. As the fire flames high, then burns low, turning into ashes, imagine that something beautiful and new is emerging - a rebirthed self, in a wholly different form, purified of the shell that your soul has shed. Watch as this resplendent new being wings its way forward into the future, regenerated and reborn anew.