In the coming solar month, Mars in Gemini moves retrograde, pointing to a need to be circumspect before acting and communicating. Mars retrograde can manifest as defensiveness and combativeness. In Gemini, it can be caught in the moment, restless and impatient, reactive instead of proactive. As we encounter emotionally charged material in the depths of our psyche during this solar month of Scorpio, we may find ourselves spinning stories about difficult or challenging experiences in which we felt powerless, or attempted to exert control over the situation. Mars in Gemini can provoke the ego-mind to try to explain away our experience in superficial or counterproductive ways, distracting us from going deeper, gaining more profound insight, and affecting real change.
We can come to an understanding of emotionally charged experiences on deeper levels, gaining more personal meaning and spiritual insight from them. Pluto and its sign of Scorpio guide us to turn inwards, and venture into our innermost darkness, to discover the root of our discomfort, face personal issues needing resolution, and connect with our true essence and power. Here is a step-by-step method for handling emotionally difficult experiences more skillfully by investigating on deeper levels that lead to spiritual understanding and growth.
- In our day-to-day life we may have a specific experience while interacting in the world. This is the level of physicality, of fact. An event occurred; something transpired.
- Ask yourself, What happened? What was the experience? Describe it objectively.
- We may have an emotional response to what occurred. This is the level of feeling. One or more emotions may arise in our body, such as anger, sadness, happiness, fear, shame, or some variation of these.
- Ask yourself, How did I feel? What emotions arose naturally and spontaneously? Name the emotions you felt.
- Often we have experienced these emotions before. A similar emotional charge from the past may arise and add to the present emotional response, intensifying its energy.
- Ask yourself, When have I felt like this before? Allow any memories to arise. Make a note of them. Is this experience part of a pattern that repeats in your life?
- On the third level we can reflect on the spiritual significance of our experience: the message, lesson or learning we can gain from it. Often an unaddressed issue or theme surfaces when ‘triggered’ in life and we have an emotional response. This allows us to gain insight into unhealed parts of ourselves, or parts of ourself that need to be nurtured or strengthened. When we take ownership of our responses and reactions to events and circumstances, we can affect change, rather than spinning into stories about them. We can take back our power rather than blaming others for our feelings.
- Ask yourself, What in me is attracting or creating this experience, so that I may become aware of it? What judgments did I make about it, about others, or about myself that interfere with understanding the message, lesson, or learning about the issue?
- Finally we can consider what needs to change, be healed, resurrected, transformed, or transmuted in us. How might we grow as a person and appreciate the spiritual significance of our difficult experience and the opportunity for growth it provides?
- Ask yourself, What in me needs healing? What in me needs to be eliminated, shed, or released? What do I need to do to connect with my inner source of strength, power, love and creativity?
Pluto, god of the underworld in Roman mythology, guides us to explore the deeper levels of innermost self, hidden from the light of our conscious awareness. Once we summon our courage and descend into our subconscious to uncover its hidden mysteries and secrets, we can face them, transform them and reclaim our power.
“We all need to look into the dark side of our nature – that’s where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we’re busy denying.”
– La Gitana Eva