On April 29th, 2018 the Moon will be Full in Scorpio, shining a bright beam into the murky windows of the unconscious mind. Under a Scorpio Moon, it is primal instinct, not rationale, that will dominate. Expect to become prey to the claws of hunger and the sharpened teeth of desire.
Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
A Full Moon occurs when the waxing Moon finally reaches a perfect opposition with the Sun, creating a dynamic tension between the polarities of solar/lunar; rational/intuitive; masculine/feminine.
This month’s polarity between the Sun in Taurus and the Moon in Scorpio will lead you to harmonize your acute physical senses with the mysterious power of dreams. The Sun’s light in Taurus worships the blossoming fertility of earthly paradise. But the Moon in Scorpio sees the inevitable future, a shadowy vision of paradise lost.
I travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody’s looking for something
In Scorpio, lunar energy becomes sullen and dark moods begin to build like storm clouds on the horizon. The illumined realm of the unconscious will certainly arouse many primordial fears: horrifying visions of disease, drought and famine. Under such an influence, you may more willingly succumb to the pain of discontent and act out of desperation.
It is not contentment, but hunger that inspires forward motion. Consumed by instinct, the snake eats its own tail. The sign of Scorpio embodies the undulation beneath all natural cycles, where hunger precedes satiety and death precedes resurrection.
This Full Moon in Scorpio arrives with a cloud of darkness and discontent. But natural law requires that you submit to the process.
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused
Think of this time as a climactic point of awareness. Whenever your sense of suffering is heightened, you can push past apathy into healing and renewal. You can uncover your instinct for resurrection, that burning desire for transformation.
Everybody’s looking for something
Scorpionic journeys demand your presence through emotionally intense experiences. Neither narcotics nor intellectual rhetoric can save you from the waves of fear, grief and nihilism that will emerge.
To understand the Scorpionic energies at the most primal and emotional level, I recommend listening to the song Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics.
The singer, Annie Lennox, has often referred to the song as a mantra, something intended to be meditated upon instead of instantly grasped. It is true that the lyrics are mysterious, enigmatic aphorisms left wide open for interpretation. But the music feels decidedly sinister, opening up a portal to experience the darkness within.
Annie Lennox has offered some background to describe the creation of the song, which turns out to be very Scorpionic in character. Sweet Dreams was a song born from hunger, from the artists’ personal conditions of debt, vulnerability, and nihilism.
At the beginning of their career, the Eurythmics had a very hard time finding success, even after they had a record deal. After a long and exhausting tour, Annie Lennox describes:
“We were massively in debt, and I’d come across some real monsters in the music business…We’d survived, kinda, but it was tough. I felt like …whatever we were chasing was never going to happen.”
You can see how the dark clouds of discontent had closed in, obscuring all light. But, as the cycle of Scorpio dictates, the darkness was an omen of impending renewal, and of a great resurrection in artistic power.
Lennox goes on to describe the emotions that fueled the lyrics:
“It’s not a happy song. It’s dark. “Sweet dreams are made of this” is basically me saying: “Look at the state of us. How can it get worse?” I was feeling very vulnerable. The song was an expression of how I felt: hopeless and nihilistic.”
Sweet Dreams is a mantra. Thus, its meaning shapeshifts to meet your current level of wisdom. To enhance your personal interpretation of this mantra, it would be fruitful to examine the emotional conditions that inspired the song.
By Lenox’s own account, life’s challenges had led her to become nihilistic, a natural response to suffocating darkness.
Everybody’s looking for something
Like many feelings native to the realm of Scorpio, nihilism can be very dangerous. Think of it as a storm, offering a concentrated force of destruction that is frightening, but also has great ecological purpose.
“Nihilism is no cause but merely the logical result of decadence.”
Nihilism from the Latin word nihil, means ‘that which does not exist’. You will recognize the root word in the verb annihilate, which means to destroy completely.
Any lingering meditation on the experience of nihilism demands a look at the work of the great philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. It is often assumed that Nietzsche was a nihilist, implying that his writings were intended to justify or even promote nihilism.
The truth is that Nietzsche studied and described nihilism because it was a pervasive cultural condition in his time. His writing remains powerful because the cultural turn towards nihilism has persisted, as he correctly predicted it would.
But his interpretation of nihilism is not the same thing as advocating it. What Nietzsche’s philosophy offers is brutal honesty and compelling critique.
In his book Will to Power he says:
“Nihilism is . . . not only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually puts one’s shoulder to the plough; one destroys”
Nietzsche viewed the condition of nihilism as being an necessary response to decadence. Just as ancient alchemists once wrote about the stage of putrefaction, Nietzsche wrote about nihilism as being a necessary transitional phase. Ecologically speaking, nihilism can be likened to a vulture, attracted to a scene by the presence of decay.
“Waste, decay, elimination need not be condemned: they are necessary consequences of life, of the growth of life. The phenomenon of decadence is as necessary as any increase and advance of life: one is in no position to abolish it.”
As a philosopher, he was deeply attuned to the Scorpionic pulse within the dark heart of nature. Thus, he guides his readers to accept the necessity of death and decay. His wisdom suggests an acceptance of the fact that everything in nature, from springtime flowers to human cultures, ends up being sacrificed for the continuation of life.
It is nihilism that picks the bones of the old world clean.
Sweet Dreams are made of this.
To meditate upon nihilism is dangerous because it draws you into the desire to escape, to narcotize, and to become a vessel for destruction. But neither the song Sweet Dreams nor the work of Nietzsche bears the intention to destroy you.
Sweet Dreams includes a refrain that speaks to the human spirit’s capacity to live through and rise above death and decay. The edge of lost dreams and even the end of the world is where new life begins. Thus, the only thing to do is…
Hold your head up, keep your head up- Moving on
-Hold your head up- Moving on
Nietzsche warned against becoming infected by the emptiness of nihilism, because the condition itself has no answers. By nature, nihilism is an intellectual and spiritual wasteland. But it does clear a path for the human will and spirit to revise and revaluate its vision of the world once again. Like the momentary death of the phoenix, it is a call to creativity and rebirth.
Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
So next time you listen to Sweet Dreams, remember that it was born to express the transformative wisdom of Scorpio. This song transformed the Eurythmics’ lackluster and impoverished music career into worldwide success. Just another example of the rebirth and renaissance that follows every period of darkness.
At this Full Moon in Scorpio, you may grieve many things which are being lost, swept away by the tides of time. But the message of Scorpio is to remember that paradise is lost so that it may be reborn.
Much Love,
Aeolian Heart
Images from the silent film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Philosophical thoughts on nihilism are from Nietzsche’s The Will To Power. To receive FREE astrological forecasts every week, SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER!