excerpt from the poetic protocol for scorpio season: the lunar eclipse November 19 @3:57AM EST is on the Fixed Star Algol, located within the head of Medusa. there are different versions of the story, but where I want to bring your attention to right now is the part where wounding makes monsters of us, where wounding makes us make monsters of each other. what I want to bring your attention to is that Medusa is a reimagined, compartmentalized goddess stolen from the fertile imaginations of earth based cosmologies, righteously enraged at the misappropriation of her power to destroy and create—the power of life.
what I want to bring your attention to is how understandable our grief and rage is at being unable to control the stories told about us. I want to bring your attention to how painful it is to feel that even your own pain is outside of your control. I want to bring your attention to is how violation begets violence where there was originally desire for the creation of connection. as Mariame Kaba says (or perhaps quoted), “no one experiences violence for the first time by committing it.”
I recommend creating rage rituals if that comes up for you, and using this moment to transmute rather than initiate.
everything will be changing, meeting the resistance of places that are stuck or need to move more slowly. patiently redirecting the urgency into grounding and the fear into action are the power moves. I live natally with the astrology everyone is experiencing in November. an interesting experience of my natal Mars-Saturn square (the same one that’s occurring right now) is I’ve learned to be extremely cautious with my own Mars (rage, desire) because of experiencing the Mars of others acutely.
during this Mars return, I’m really feeling how a huge part of this Saturn return is finally integrating the boundaries and principles that protect me from the misdirected rage & irresponsible behavior of others. it took a Saturn cycle and a shit ton of rewiring, but I finally understand on a cellular (not just intelectual) level that just because someone is traumatized or going through it does not mean I have to make space for mistreatment. my boundaries are about protecting me, not judging them.
I have feared making people feel judged/alone/bad with my boundaries. I have taken responsibility for what is outside of my control and it has cost me acutely and ongoingly in chronic pain, mental health, and time living my life. or I have neglected how even when I have said NO or held myself, it’s often been completely disregarded. I don’t give myself credit for that, for how I try everything before doing the hard boundary and for how responsible I am for myself.
I can never get the time I used to protect others from the natural consequences of their own actions towards me back. I grieve this for myself, and for them.
having to set a hard emergency boundary (mars-saturn!) isn’t the teachable moment we think it is lol. I will share that I told someone to ✨go fuck themselves✨ for the first time in my life this year, so I’m making progress…
because my radical compassion needs to include me, too.
this tuesday I am virtually gathering with members to do some eclipse after-care & offer the poetic protocol for sagittarius season. come join us.