Zodiac Masterclass Series – The Scorpio Guide to Accentuating the Positive

Scorpio New Moon Mandala painted by Sarah Berry
Line Mandala from Mandala Colouring Book by Barry Stevens
available at http://www.mandalas.freeserve.co.uk/colouringinbook.html

This is the second of an occasional series written about the expertise of each Sun Sign. I am still looking for the Libran who can write a guide to Relationships. The articles will be found under the category “Zodiac Masterclass” so that eventually there will be 12 such articles, e.g. “The Sagittarian Guide to Trusting the Universe”, “The Cancerian Guide to Parenting”, the Taurean Guide to the Inner Artist” etc. Each article will be written by someone who has the Sun Sign in question.

Here guest blogger Jeanne Essex writes about accentuating the positive, which I think is a rebranding of Scorpio, my favourite Sun sign by the way. A word about the mandala: Sarah painted it on the last Scorpio New Moon, and it seems quite gentle and soothing in waves of green. Maybe it’s an antidote to lull those who find Scorpio energy difficult.

I have known Jeanne since University days, when she was reading English at Nottingham University, and she is an experienced writer. Her Scorpio credentials take in a square from Pluto to her Sun in her natal chart. In my life, I have always learned from Jeanne, who has taken life’s rites of passage before me and dealt with them so well.

The Scorpio Guide to: Accentuating the Positive

by Jeanne Essex

You want me to talk about being a Scorpio?

Hang on. Let me just put down my riding crop, come up from the dungeon and slip out of this black leather corset and these high-heeled thigh boots.

Relax, everybody! Just teasing. I simply cannot cope with the high heels any more at my time of life and with my arthritis. In addition that plus-size corset absolutely kills me nowadays.

Seriously though, it often seems to Scorpios that astrology unfairly concentrates on our dark side. How we envy those lucky Librans, of whom the worst that is ever said is that they tend to sit on the fence about issues. I mean would you rather be thought of as merely wishy-washy and indecisive or a potential sadistic serial killer, likely to have a torture chamber in the cellar?

We poor Scorpios often feel misunderstood and that does bring out our undeniable dark side, because, it is true that we can be jealous, obsessive, suspicious and resentful, but we are like that because we feel so passionately and deeply about everything. We just don’t do ‘casual’ in relationships or life in general. We are really, really deep. Okay?

The intensity of our feelings may frighten people of a nervous disposition; hell, it even scares us at times. However, because of this intensity, we are extremely loyal friends and lovers, but never, ever betray our trust, because we will never forgive or forget. Once lost, our trust is impossible to regain and we have such long memories that elephants come to us to check on what they were doing twenty years ago. This is the way that disputes tend to go in our house:

Me : “You said, in the summer of 1973 – it was a Sunday afternoon and raining at the time, I had on that pale blue dress and we were having strawberries and cream for tea – ….”.

My poor, bemused husband: “Er…Well if you say so.”

After over 40 years of this stuff, he can only ever concede the point, because he can’t even remember what I said half an hour ago. Hah! (Did I mention that another of our faults is that we need to win?)

In addition to a prodigious memory and the inability to forget a slight or betrayal, we are armed with the ability to flay with the tongue and wound with cutting sarcasm. This form of attacking defence is known in our family as ‘Scorping’ somebody and I plead guilty to having used it in the past and would like several hundred cases to be taken into consideration, although I try hard to curb it nowadays.

Some of us bear grudges to the extent that we will go so far as to try actively to get revenge, which is a very scary prospect for anybody in the path of an avenging Scorpio. This is an aspect of the Scorpio in which I have never allowed myself to indulge, but I shamefully admit to the love of a bit of poetic justice and schadenfreude about my enemies’ mishaps, when they occur in the rough and tumble of life.

Evolving

I firmly believe that the key to being an ‘evolved’ Scorpio is working hard to control the negative aspects of our character. (Ah, control! That’s another trait dear to the Scorpio heart.) For every negative there is a related positive, which Scorpios need to develop. When channelled, that famous passion can be a formidable force for good. We can get involved in causes and contribute to making real changes in society. There is never an issue that we don’t care about and we can love very deeply and faithfully.

Those negative qualities of never forgetting a supposed betrayal also have a positive side, because we also never forget a little act of kindness or thoughtful gesture and we will continue to repay for ever. Once you have our love, trust and respect, we will never let you down.

We are said to be manipulative and to set about seducing people, but those talents can be utilized positively in aid of good causes and are handy in recruiting helpers and fund raising. Because we like to win and secretly fear failure, we tend to set realistic and achievable goals and we are very flexible in our approach and willing to change direction, to adapt and overcome. Add to these qualities our resourcefulness and dynamism and we are very useful people to have on your team.

That secrecy we are famous for means that you can also trust us with your own secrets and you can tell us pretty much anything, secure in the knowledge that you cannot shock us. One good thing about being aware of one’s dark side is that a Scorpio can accept the less palatable side of human behaviour in others. Nobody knows as well as a Scorpio that given the right circumstances we are all capable of anything.

We have an ability to face up to the hard things in life and because we are in tune with the cycles of birth and death, those transitional times hold little fear for us. These qualities can be helpful in supporting other people, through bereavement counselling, for example.

To sum up, I have come to learn that I cannot stop myself from feeling twinges of jealously and suspicion, of resentment and bitterness, but I can own them and refuse to let them dominate my life or affect my behaviour. I have spent my adult life learning to let go of things, ‘accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative’, as the song goes.

In my own case, it is probable that all that intense Scorpio energy is tempered by my fluffy Cancer ascendant, but having the Cancer influence sure as hell doesn’t curb any of the emotionalism and reinforces the ability to care deeply and love unconditionally.

It does mean that after a tough session in the dungeon you are likely to get a nice cup of tea and a cuddle, though.

Sadly, Jeanne passed away on 6th November 2013