Solar Eclipse in Scorpio – Return to Innocence

What energetic shifts will this New Moon Eclipse usher in for each of us? Eclipse seasons are the most potent energetic times of the year – they trigger personal turning points and set the tone for the next 5-6 months.

This Solar Eclipse in Scorpio is a complicated one. It brings a powerful activation of the water element and the lunar south node, meaning the next few months are a key time for discovering, befriending and nurturing the most vulnerable parts of ourselves – the inner child, the abandoned child, the innocent child, and the potential to be reborn.

This is a powerful time for reframing your personal relationship with the Scorpio archetype. In your natal chart, this energy describes your capacity for intimacy where you have the ability to discover and (when the situation is right) reveal your deepest thoughts and passions. It’s an area where you yearn to experience life fully; where raw truth is the most inspiring and beautiful thing on earth.

Scorpio feels deeply, loves hard and goes all in. It’s one of the most complicated, and beautiful, signs in the zodiac. As a water sign, it’s extremely intuitive and empathic – it senses the needs and desires of others, and can be a wonderfully generous lover as a result. When open, Scorpio gives with its whole heart.

When it feels scorned, disappointed or betrayed, Scorpio withdraws and closes off to the world. It broods, strategizes on how never to be hurt again, becomes guarded, cynical, and resentful. It seeks control. This is the archetype of your most sophisticated defense mechanisms, some of which you may not even be aware of.

But, when we were young (perhaps younger than we can even remember), our Scorpio side was hopeful, innocent, and open to receive. In its essence, Scorpio longs for true connection – the ‘freedom’ that comes from being really seen, loved and accepted. Scorpio gives us the joy of being able to honor the exquisite unfolding of another being’s soul journey – to truly understand where they have come from, celebrate their personal triumphs, and to have yours lovingly witnessed in return.

This Solar Eclipse New Moon is conjunct Venus and trine to both the ‘Black Moon’ Lilith in Cancer and Selena (the ‘White Moon’) in Pisces, forming a Grand Trine in water. Lilith in Cancer represents a deep, dark, visceral feeling of longing – a void that seemingly cannot be filled. Over the next 5-6 months, it’s important to be mindful of what you have the power to call into your life when you are feeling especially lonely or hopeless about the future.

As this New Moon Eclipse is ruled by Pluto in Capricorn (quincunx to stationing Mars in Gemini). There is an important calling now to be mindful of how you use your personal power. The shadows of this energy amplify feelings of jealousy, possessiveness and the urge to ‘smother’ – notice triggers around scarcity, or a lack of control. When your defenses are triggered, notice how you channel anger or the thoughts that arise when anger becomes rage.

With Mars stationing retrograde (a rare astrological season that peaks in January of 2023) it’s also important to consider the power dynamics in your relationships. Is passive aggressiveness playing a role? Are guilt or shame being used to manipulate a specific outcome? Are you getting hurt because your expectations aren’t being met, and how exactly were those expectations established? There are so many complicated and nuanced ways for these energies to express; Scorpio is incredibly subtle and elusive.

This passage invites us to let go of the patterns that lead us to perpetuate toxic cycles. We may have learned certain behaviors in our earlier relationships, and now come to see how they are actually destructive. At the same time, there’s a profound evolutionary potential to find ways to forgive what’s in the past so that we can alchemize the energy we bring into our present encounters, and reclaim our lost parts. Selena in Pisces, guides us to tap into radical compassion no matter how we feel we may have betrayed ourselves in the past.

Scorpio is the archetype of the phoenix rising up from the ashes, it is the sorceress who has mastered her own inner demon, the wise one born from the fires of transformation. Where do you need to connect with the energy of rebirth? Where do you need to rise up from feelings of helplessness or cynicism? What might ‘wise innocence’ look like for you?