While thinking of how to
approach writing about the Solar Eclipse in Scorpio on Sunday, November 3rd.
It got me thinking to the start of this eclipse series, 19 years ago.
It takes 19 years for an
eclipse series to be completed. It makes sense for it all to come up again.
It got me thinking about what
my life was like, and what was happening for me then.
What was your life like 19
years ago?
The other night a movie I
had loved from my childhood came on, “Eddie and the Cruisers”. The movie is
about the investigation of the break up a band, and the disappearance of the
lead singer, Eddie. The parallel between Eddie’s last (and missing) album
“Season in Hell” and his artistic angst and disappearance was drawn with Arthur
Rimbaud.
Sigh. Arthur Rimbaud.
19 years ago I had been up
late watching Eddie and the Cruisers and it brought to my attention the story
of Arthur Rimbaud.
In the 1870’s, Arthur Rimbaud
had been part of the decadent movement, and was the Infant Terrible of French
lit world, a wild child who wrote incendiary poetry and lived a wild life. From
the age of 16 to 19, he ruled supreme, until he was shot and wounded during a
spat with his married lover, fellow poet Paul Verlaine. While healing from his heartbreak
and his injury, he wrote “A Season in Hell”, a literary work that is considered
his finest. Once he healed, he spent some time trying to live a steady life
free of recklessness and drama. When that didn’t work he disappeared and was
not seen by those from his past until his deathbed 17 years later in a hospital
in Marseilles. Arthur Rimbaud had spent those years traveling the world, an
adventurer on another continents. Arthur Rimbaud had completely recreated his
whole life.
As a dreamy 14 year old, I
fell in love with the myth of Arthur Rimbaud and his writings. As a Scorpio
Moon, I love a meaty romantic scandal. However, I also fell in love with the
sheer magic of the words he wrote. I fell in love with the idea that a person
could disappear, and come back as another version of themself. No one can ever
call a Mulligan with his or her life, but it is possible to transform absolutely.
At that point, 19 years ago,
it was the genesis of the eclipse series that is happening now between
Scorpio/Taurus. 19 years ago, Saturn was in Pisces, Jupiter, Venus, the North
Node and Pluto were all in Scorpio; that is a pretty similar, watery astrological
set up as now (Jupiter in Cancer, Neptune/Chiron in Pisces, Saturn/Mercury/North
Node in Scorpio)
The upside of Scorpio is
rarely discussed. We hear about the passion, pain and intensity of a Scorpio
and a Scorpio transit. However, we often do not hear about the pay off. Scorpio
is ruled by impetuous Mars and power savvy Pluto. Yes, Scorpio transits teach
us about true hunger and the deep dark that we can’t hide from. However, the
Pluto part of Scorpio gives us the ultimate gift of a new start after we deal
with a Scorpio transit. Revive, Resuscitate and Rebirth. These are the things
we get, the assurance that the worst things can be reborn into something
beautiful, and that no matter how hard we try, nothing ever stays the same.
Arthur Rimbaud at the age of
19 understood that his life as he knew it was over. He didn’t battle, he
adapted. Perhaps his second act was magnificent; we’ll never know. The point of
it that he had a second act. No matter what this Eclipse brings, it’s important
to remember that what ever happens, there is always another way, another act, another
reality waiting for us at the other end, if only we are brave enough to get
through the dark and the pain. Perhaps it is difficult to see that now, but the
perspective of a fresh start being available is liberating. It’s the gift of
persevering through a season in hell.
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