Ultimate, NOT best, but because it is the fourth and final element in the creative ‘wave’ of expression of Life. It is the element of connection, where Air is that which passes between, water permeates, dissolves and merges what is with what is not. Commonly associated with emotion, it is ephemeral and changing while its currents can guide the ship. Our emotions in-form us, sometimes subtly as intuition and sometimes… more akin to a tsunami. The key here, is IN-form, water is the major constituent of our bodies, our intuition (inner teaching) comes from the connection through the water element.
In its the capacity to nurture life, dissolve mountains, and connect people, water is unbounded and can flow around or dissolve obstacles. Water is also arguably, the most sensitive element of the zodiac, feeling the slightest of changes and registering them in the emotional scape.
Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces – Connectedness, Feeling and Dissolving
CANCER – Relation
Cancer, with the symbol of the crab is a creature that lives on the margins, between earth and water. Defined by its shell, boundaried and given shape, the soft tissue within is forever defined by its relation to the other, its shell. In this case, with the Moon as its ruler, Cancer is in constant orbit around the M-other. Subject to the tides and the swells, Cancer is eternally in motion filling and emptying. Pinchers for defense offer protection but also allude to the tenacious ‘holding’ quality of Cancer, holding on to emotions, moods or relationships. In contrast to the flighty energy of Gemini, a seismic shift happens as Cancer pulls us down and into the experience of emotional foundations. These connections are made intuitively not intellectually. Family, belonging, nurture, care, s-mothering, this is the ‘child’ of the zodiac, vulnerable, demanding, playful, charming – and a veritable genius of invention with an eye to the wonder of novelty.
The glyph for Cancer is made of two curving lines, leaning into one another, cradling and contained in a circle of enclosure and intimacy. Cancer is often concerned with security, in a different way than Taurus, where the concern is material security, but more in an emotional sense. There can be a slamming of doors if the family or inner circle is threatened in any way… in a darker sense, clannishness or Mafia comes to mind. Caution is a by-word for the Crab and they can slip into hypersensitivity and moodiness if they aren’t able to find time to recharge their emotional batteries with solitude and dreaming.
Cancer is a deeply caring character, first and foremost.
SCORPIO– Feeling
Arguably the most feared or ‘slated’ sign of the Zodiac, Scorpio is definitely the deepest . It finds its placement following Libra and the airy Scales of Justice, if Libra is the impartial judge, Scorpio metes out the punishment. There are three elements to the symbolism of Scorpio.
Fundamentally a feminine archetype, it contains the Scorpion with its capacity to sting and kill, the Snake that is associated with death, sexuality and transformation and ultimately, in its most exalted expression, the Eagle, flying above the fray, poised and able to hunt with surgical precision. Whatever the circumstances, Scorpio has links to the deepest well of experience and intuition and is exquisitely tuned to the slightest sense of threat. Not known for a forgiving nature, “once bitten… you’re dead”, Scorpio can appear calm and impassive (even cold or calcutlawhile experiencing a maelstrom of intensity beneath the surface. This is the sign of sex, death and plumbing the depths. The extraordinary tuning to the emotional currents enable them to make calculated decisions that seem uncannily accurate. Sex and death are doorways to another world/consciousness and Scorpio is able to navigate the darker sides of human nature without flinching. The up-side of Scorpio is their capacity to ‘hold’ these intense aspects of human nature and are thus make EXCELLENT guides as psychotherapists. This gift is not coming from a place of study and intellect but rather a deeply felt sense of their own pain and vulnerability, they KNOW the terrain.
Loyal, driven and possessive, Scorpio enjoys the dual rulership of Mars and Pluto. Magnetic, passionate sometimes vengeful and suspicious. Scorpio marks the turning point in the zodiac, it is the descent into the Underworld, the annihilation of Ego.
PISCES – Undoing
The expression ‘slippery fish’ was invented for Pisces. The symbol of two fishes, swimming in opposite directions – one toward matter and the other toward Spirit – tied together and thus in endless circling motion. Cancer provided the boundary with land/earth as the boundary for its emotional content, Scorpio is the deepest well, penetrating to the underworld and mystery, Pisces the last of the water signs and the last of the entire cycle of signs is WITHOUT bounds. It marks the dissolution of all that went before it and in so doing, contains ALL possibilities. Fishes are not aware of the water, it is their all, their medium. If we substitute water for emotions, then we begin to understand the conundrum of reality being the swell and the current of emotions where we cannot discern where we begin and the emotions end.
Some suggest that Pisces is not a water sign at all, but it is representative of The Fifth element – Ether – utterly other, utterly animating and invisible/insensible.
We assign Jupiter and Neptune joint rulers of this elusive sign. Jupiter traditionally as the archetype that links us to Spirituality and the world beyond expanding endlessly. Neptune brings in another quality, Lord of the Seas, it makes the link between the realm of Spirit and the connection with creativity, illusion, fantasy and dream. Pisces is an otherworldly sign indeed, often struggling with what it is to be in a human form, the sense of dislocation often leading to a keen sense of suffering and disorientation.
Suffering and victimhood, fantasist, addict, poet, visionary, dreamer, these are all aspects of Pisces, torn between the exquisite suffering felt and witnessed and the desire to escape and be relieved of the ongoing experience. The paths of compassion and forgiveness are ways of channeling the relentless buffeting of the world and art… poetry, music, colour and sound are means by which expression of the ineffable is made possible.
As there is no separation, no boundary with Pisces, they are often the conduits through which Spirit communicates… sometimes it’s genuine and sometimes it’s not. The fishes will often find themselves swimming with the current, moving in and out of illusion and revelation in equal measure.
The Piscean dissolution – undoing is the necessary precursor to Aries, Cardinal Fire.. initial spark and emergent identity.
Fire is the spark, the first differentiation, Earth is the formation of that spark, Air the idea that animates and communicates, Water… the infusion of soul through emotion. There is a development through each of the elemental expressions which demonstrates the extraordinary variety and nuance of Spiritual expression.
The circle is complete and unending.
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