Walking Meditation
Today I went for a walk before journaling.
It was slightly brisk and somewhat uncomfortable because the roads aren’t really made for walking, they are made for driving. I positioned myself in the opposite direction of car traffic and began a podcast featuring Iain McGilchrist. The Sun had not yet risen. I tucked my sweater sleeves into my fists and moved through the stiffness of my muscles. By walking, I’m hoping to open up new pathways in my brain.
We have reached the final countdown to the Scorpio New Moon. New moons are always a time for planting seeds, setting intentions, and new beginnings. Its interesting to shed with the New Moon, which has me reflecting on what that means in a monthly cycle. Mainly, the pain is over. I know what it felt like, I know it was excruciating and exhausting, but now I have a good three weeks of forgetting, until I am once again reminded of the pain.
This Scorpio New Moon is bringing up new ways to build routines in my life. Scorpio is the sign of my Sixth House. The Sixth House is associated with our day to day activities, routines, and our body. Hence, the walk I went on. I encountered more than just anxiety about how weird it felt, there were animals. I live in a relatively rural area, or at least what has traditionally been a rural area until Navy Federal Headquarters moved in. (As an aside, I find this especially hilarious because my grandpa continuously watches an old western called “Tales of the Wells Fargo” and I have an account at both of these banks, sadly and ironically).
Scorpio is very much to do with resources, and also money. It has to do with corruption at the depths of money as it relates to power. As you may know, Scorpio is intense.
“Rather than deny the physical universe in order to transcend it, Scorpio will immerse itself in physicality and even drown in it in order to go beyond it.”
-Robert Hand, Horoscope Symbols
Scorpio asserts there is no difference between good and evil, insofar as their ability to be separate from one another. The real question is what holds power or what holds value? When it comes to money, our mere belief that it holds value is what makes it valuable. When it comes to food, our relative level of hunger is going to determine whether the food is truly valued. We can slap an absurd price on a steak because the cow was massaged every day until it died, but that price tag is meaningless to someone willing to pay extra for this kind of add on. Rich people spending large sums of money on things does not make them valuable. Those people that needlessly spend in such a way do not value their money. The value is gone. They value how others perceive them and because of that, they’ve actually given away their to other people.
Scorpio understands the power of secrets, the power of mystery. Traditionally, this sign was ruled by the planet Mars. I always like to think of Scorpio as the strategic war general, working out plans behind the scenes. This is why Scorpio is intense. A lot is happening, but it isn’t happening out in the open. When I’ve looked out to the sky the past couple of weeks, I see Mars reflecting back to me a red hue. Similar to a dog I passed on my walk today, it appears devious. Hunched low and motionless, piercing me with a penetrating glare. I continue on my path, knowing if I don’t fuck with him or make eye contact, he will think I didn’t even see him. He will not feel threatened to protect his home. I imagine this is me sensing into Mars stationing to go retrograde in my First House.
This imagery is a bit unnerving. Because this walk introduced so many new images, there is a lot for both hemispheres of my brain to connect over. I suspect there is more to this line of thought, but I will have to wait for the unraveling. The tight skin will be shed and fresh new scales will glisten in the Sun.
Originally written in Collective Journaling at The Stoa
Introduction to the Songs of Innocence
Piping down the valleys wild
Piping songs of pleasant glee
On a cloud I saw a child.
And he laughing said to me.
Pipe a song about a Lamb;
So I piped with merry chear,
Piper pipe that song again —
So I piped, he wept to hear.
Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe
Sing thy songs of happy chear,
So I sung the same again
While he wept with joy to hear
Piper sit thee down and write
In a book that all may read —
So he vanish’d from my sight.
And I pluck’d a hollow reed.
And I made a rural pen,
And I stain’d the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear
