by Demelza Hillier
Earlier this year, I stepped into the unknown and had my first ever Astrology reading – which revealed incredible, seductive, mermaidenly information for Scorpios everywhere.
See, I am mermaid all over. I am a mermaid priestess and I run mermaid vibes pretty much all the time as an intense, passionate lil’ ball of hyperactive energy who wants to change the world and buy umpteen velvet sofas and scented candles.
So, before I went into my reading (with the fabulous Aeolian Heart, highly recommended), I knew my astrology basics: I knew that I was a fiery Aries Sun Sign (so that’s the high-energy leader type) with watery Scorpio Moon Sign (a deeply intense, tricksy charismatic placement that runs on passion and transformation through darkness) and Scorpio Ascendant Sign (a sprinkling of amplified Scorpio).
My astrologer revealed to me that my Scorpio Moon and Ascendant hung out in the First House with Pluto (he’s the planet that rules Scorpio and is all death-and-power-ragggh) which means that all my personal stuff, all my emotions and thoughts and opinions and passions are like RIGHT on the forefront of everything I do, amplified to buggery.
Whereas most peeps get to keep their emotional Moon Sign to themselves as their own little personal secret, I’m like OH HEY LOOK HERE IS ALL OF ME literally all the time.
Perhaps that’s why I have the world’s most obvious face and am the world’s worst liar.
Anyway, my Scorpio nature well established, like all good conversations we started talking about mermaids. We realised that my take on mermaids, how they are all power and shadow strength and taboo-busting, is a very Scorpio vision of an age-old subject.
See, Scorpio is the sign of Alchemy, of taking something dark, distrustful and shitty and turning it into something fabulous.
Just like how mermaids are about reclaiming the darkness and the taboos about femininity to be whole badasses.
Scorpio is the sign of emotional intensity, of ferocious presence, of the thin line between good and evil, destruction and rebirth – just like mermaids, with their penchant for drowning hotties and inspiring works of breathless art.
Scorpio is the sign of the darkness being as viable an option as the light, and being kind of OK with that. (Let’s be real, Voldemort was TOTES a Scorpio.)
Scorpio is a shapeshifter, and like Scorpio, if us mermaid-inspired folks really want to embrace our inner mermaids, we have to completely embrace the idea of paradox.
Embodying a mermaid, YET being fully human.
Being totally way out there in the mermaid hippy space, AND being grounded enough to confront and tame the human world around us.
Motherly nurturance and abundance AND a tendency for drowning continents.
It’s about getting comfy in the paradox, and not letting it bother you.
Not seeing the world as either/or, but yes/and.
It’s a weird place to be: kind of uncomfortable at times.
For me, Scorpio is a great moon for mermaids (and I’m not just saying that because of my totally biased Scorpio-ness) because Scorpio takes the crap and alchemises it into something better.
Though the animal of Scorpio is the Scorpion, the higher octave of Scorpio is the Phoenix – the creature that rises from the ashes, embodying Scorpio’s burn-it-all-down-and-start-again tendencies.
Scorpio is unafraid to look at the forbidden secrets, the taboo desires, the awkward feelings.
Scorpio illuminates the most intense, deep feelings.
When the moon is in Scorpio, it is known as being in it’s fall: the moon feels really uncomfortable in Scorpio, because it’s just a bit too intense – too much feeling, too much passion, too much sex, too much death.
It’s a bit like an overdose on feels. Like when your sexy bits are too sensitive to be touched, and even gentle strokes send you wriggling away in escape down the bedsheets.
Anyway, back to Mermaids.
Just like awkward discomfort of the Moon in Scorpio, the patriarchy has felt very uncomfortable with Mermaids, wanting to either sanitise them and tame their raw female tide of passion and feeling, or demonise them into subhuman devils.
Our mermaid work is about embracing those Scorpio depths and reclaiming and transmuting the power and knowledge and truth found within – it’s definitely uncomfortable, often messy, and totally not what our culture at large encourages us to do.
Through our wild Scorpio divings, through looking in the mirror and really seeing what lies within us – wether it’s something lovely like a desire to open a sanctuary for orphaned puppies, or something dark like giving yourself a stage name and claiming supremacy over the whole of wizards kind a la Voldemort – immersing in it and alchemising it into our own personal power.
So we can be mermaid badasses.
So we can set the world on fire… or drown it with a tidal wave of compassion.
For wild, free mermaids, Scorpio is our inspiration, our practice of alchemy in our deep inner trenches, where unseen monsters and fantastic wonders dwell.
IN CONCLUSION
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