DAILY 
“You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.” Marianne Williamson
Have you noticed how flexible yet durable you are growing? Have you been aware of the snake skins you are shedding as you coil into yourself and out again? Do you applaud your new-found abilities to surrender to the rip-tide, yet continuously paddle toward the shore? Congratulations, you have integrated ‘navigation 202.’
Much of the symbolism captured in this week’s Scorpio New Moon has been an on-going, sinuously demanding depth charge that not only flowed through 2015, but will carry us, like any rip-tide worth it’s salt, out to sea again in 2016. Think of it as layers in a painting, pentimento, where you focus on one area, then another opens, and suddenly you glimpse the painter’s vision. When you go back to dissect a color you didn’t see before, a different interpretation appears. The planetary firmament is like this; layers and layers of energies merging, affecting, receding, and returning. They push and pull us out into deeper seas of vision, consciousness and life.
Scorpio contains the richest layering of images in the 12 planetary houses. Due to its transformative, snake-nature it includes the caduceus, and rod of Asclepius*, signatures of healing, as well as the ouroboros, a snake eating it’s tail, symbol of eternity. It also contains three levels of ‘animal’ energies. The lowest is the scorpion, revealing instinctive desire, and the wonderful talent we all have of stinging ourselves to death. It then lifts into the eagle, able to rise over personal desire for the greater good. The third incarnation is the phoenix, a mythic bird capable of rising from ashes of ego to transmute, and move through spirit- beyond death. dailybreathjournal.com/Astrology/Fall Quadrant
With the rod of Asclepius connected to both Scorpio and Mercury, it’s interesting that Mercury sits beside this New Moon, insisting that thought and communication need re-vamping and renewal. Mercury is both male and female implying the combination, and ~ or transcendence of duality. With Chiron, the ‘wounded healer’ connected to Mercury, thoughts need to include questions of what heals? What harms? Emphasizing this shift are the Moon’s Nodes moving into new signs. For the upcoming 18 months, the doorways to past and future will be Virgo, the past, and Pisces, the future. These nodes challenge spiritual growth, asking we abandon habits and thinking that keep us fearful, cruel, and careless.
Practice this week: Class Practices will be slow and deep, conscious of their healing capabilities.
We explores through asanas, mudra and pranayama pathways of the physical and emotional that ask and answer:
Where has the rip tide taken me/you? What can I/you jettison to allow a lighter, freer flow? What heals me/you? What moves me/you forward more like an eagle than a scorpion? What are my/your visions for 2016?
Let us spend more time in Salamba Sarvangasa/Shoulder Stand Pose, called ‘the Mother of Asanas’ by Iyengar. dailybreathjournal.com/yoga/poses/inversions.
Focus with the Dhyani Mudra~ a meditative posture. Place hands in your lap, left lying on right, palms up, thumbs touching. Listen to the will of the cosmos~ receive the divine.
For Pranayama ~ try Lion’s Breath, along with Kapalabhati for deep cleansing.
*Origins of rod of Asclepius as healing symbol:
Asclepius was probably a physician -1200 BC. Through myth and time, he came to be worshiped as the Greek god of healing. Medical schools rose up, connected to shrines, called Asclepions. They became places where people felt they could be cured by sleeping in them. They were attended by priest-healers, the Asclepiadae, who spread the healing traditions to Rome up through the 6th century. The Asclepiadae kept snakes in the temples that became a symbol of healing as the ‘rod of Asclepius,’ though many think the original image came from treating the prevalent parasitic worms that lived just under the skin. The physician would slit the skin in front of the worm’s path, and as it crawled out it was carefully wrapped around a stick. Hence-the Asclepian staff. The symbol is also linked to Mercury/Roman, and Hermes/Greek messenger god, who was connected to alchemy. Alchemists were referred to the sons of Hermes, or Hermeticists. Not only a healing symbol but an occult, metaphysical one as well. Caduceus vs Staff of Asclepius – DrBlayney.com
Wonderful as always, Samantha. I love the rip tide image you carried through this; also the caduceus versus Rod of Asclepius explanation – very interesting. I did not know any of that. I so appreciate your inspiration!
The research on caduceus vs rod of Asclepius was interesting to me as well. One of the gifts of writing something you know nothing about. Ha~ in the end, you can become what you seek. Glad you appreciate, my friend!