Death in My Closet
Digesting Eclipse Season: Reflections on the Taurus-Scorpio Axis
Eclipse Season, occurring on the Taurus-Scorpio axis from April 24th - May 31st, is wrapping up.
There was a Solar Eclipse (a new moon) at 10 degrees Taurus on April 30th, and a Lunar Eclipse (a full moon) in Scorpio on May 16th.
On May 30th next week, we will have a new moon in Gemini (the regular type) that launches the next lunation cycle - this is one common indicator used to delineate the end of eclipse season. By May 31st, the Sun will be more than 18 degrees away from the lunar nodes; another indicator used to mark the end of eclipse season.
So basically by the end of May we are solidly done with eclipsia until it returns in October/November 2022.
In the immediate future, we are looking at a week dominated by a barrage of constant firecrackers going off as four key planets transit Aries. Both the Moon and Mars entered Aries the evening of May 24th and began charging at Jupiter in this fiery sign (applying until May 29th), while Venus (also in Aries) engages Pluto in Capricorn in a hungry square of fierce desire, which is exact Thursday/Friday (May 26th/27th).
The next 6-ish days are brash, reactive, action-oriented, competitive, spontaneous, passionate, exciting and courageous. The Sun in Gemini harmonizes well with all this fire - by blowing on it and making it blaze. Only Mercury, retrograde in Taurus, keeps a cautious foot on the brake pedal as it engages Saturn in a prolonged square, perhaps creating a few stumbling blocks for this ruckus of forward momentum.
Over all, however, the rest of the week and throughout the weekend, promises to be some sort of dynamic thrill ride. Hopefully the good kind.
Digesting Eclipse Season: Reflections on the Taurus-Scorpio Axis
As with my last post, I want to pull focus to the past and do a retrospective on Eclipse Season. Astrological symbolism is always illuminated more vividly when it is in the rearview mirror and I have some new insights I’d like to share.
All throughout 2022 we get to work on the growth opportunities offered by the lunar nodes, currently transiting the opposing signs of Scorpio and Taurus. The bi-annual eclipse seasons serve to remind us of the work we are doing in these areas of life. Eclipses plant seeds, bring change and culminations, and in general, accelerate the growth process.
For me, the recent eclipse #1 and #2 in Taurus and Scorpio, aligned closely with two different scenarios that were connected to each other through their shared theme of clearing, cleaning, and then upgrading a physical space with a lot of emotional history.
During the Taurus Solar Eclipse (the weekend of April 30th) I was helping my friend freshen-up the house that has been in her family for over 60 years. Her grandparents used to own the home when they were alive - now it is owned by another family member who has turned it into a rental unit for students. Over a decade ago, I used to spend a lot of time there while visiting my friend who lived with her grandparents while we were both at university. Therefore, the house held many memories for me as well as for my friend’s family who were there to assist.
The North Node and Uranus are both transiting Taurus and I could feel the influence of their highspeed, chaotic surges of energy on the eclipse as we worked under a deadline to freshen up the four-floor, nine-bedroom home.
We began working as the old tenants were moving out, and we finished up just before the new tenants moved in.
In the midst of frantic cleaning, patching and painting, a crew of people with connections to real estate arrived to take measurements and photos. I found out they were going to try and sell the house. This would be a significant release of property, energy, and memories - and certainly it was a change of plan, which is to be expected in eclipse season. Initially the plan was to keep the house in the family and perhaps reclaim it for personal use at some point.
Opposing signs in the zodiac wheel are described as two sides of the same coin.
One of the central themes running through the Taurus-Scorpio polarity is that they both pertain to “stuff”; the stuff we own, the stuff we need to survive, the stuff we want in order to satiate our deepest desires.
More specifically, Taurus-Scorpio stories often revolve around money, property and possessions - and the process of demarcating what is mine, what is yours, and what is ours. As fixed signs, ownership issues and the control of (and access to) a desired resource, are often at the crux of a Taurus-Scorpio struggle.
As earth and water signs, this pair symbolically encompasses the many dimensions of money, property and possessions; from the past to the present and the future, from the tangible to the emotional and energetic.
You really cannot access a zodiac sign without encountering its opposite. Particularly during eclipses - which connect polarities by activating both ends of the nodal axis - in Taurus you will find Scorpio and in Scorpio you will find Taurus. The two will also be intimately intertwined in the expression of people you meet who have clusters of placements in one sign or the other.
Taurus and Scorpio may be two sides of the same coin, and yet of course, they also make their unique contributions. As a water sign, Scorpio is more involved in the movement of money, property and possessions, whereas Taurus, as an earth sign, prefers to maintain and steadily build on existing money, property and possessions.
And by movement, I mean that (despite its initial resistance to change as a fixed sign) Scorpio powerfully catalyzes the exchanging, the sharing, the releasing, the investing, the transmuting and the composting of resources.
The scene at my friend’s grandparent’s old place expressed many pieces of this polarity. Amid the intense efforts to improve the appearance of the home (North Node in Taurus), there was a significant amount of Scorpionic movement and releasing of property - tenants moving out, tenants moving in, and the preparation of the house for sale.
In the background to all our productive activity, were the memories and the connections to family now deceased. There was grief quietly present in the house, as we rolled on white paint and scrubbed baseboards.
This too, is Scorpio present in Taurus - representing the unseen yet immensely powerful energetic and emotional dimensions of money, property, and possessions.
Death in My Closet…
When the lunar cycle reached its culminating point with the thorny lunar eclipse in Scorpio on May 16th (square to Saturn and its restructuring inclinations), I was in my own home this time, clearing out my bedroom and gutting my closet.
For privacy reasons, I didn’t include my “before” photo here, but this closet was jam-packed. I gave up organizing it a long time ago and for the past 7 years I have been continuously shoving random shit in there, hoping it didn’t fall.
During my Saturn Return, at the beginning of 2016, I made a significant decision that changed the direction of my anticipated lifepath. This decision carved out the space I needed for a necessary and lengthy falling apart and rebuilding process. However, a lot of this deconstruction/reconstruction process has been internal - my external circumstances would appear largely frozen to anyone casting a cursory glance at my life during an annual “What’s new? What are you to these days?” check-in encounter.
The physical spaces I inhabit in my home similarly have appeared frozen, reflecting the liminal spaces I was navigating in my psyche. My closet especially, became a repository of many past selves that I couldn’t bring myself to purge. It became a junk yard of former identity fragments.
There was death in my closet… this is a Scorpionic realization.
Organizational pros and minimalists argue that if you clean up your physical space and get rid of clutter, this will have a positive ripple effect on your mental and emotional health. You’ll feel lighter, more inspired, and you’ll have greater clarity. In other words, make a shift with your Taurean stuff and you’ll feel the impact in Scorpio’s invisible emotional and energetic realm.
I get this. It makes sense. But for me, I knew I wouldn’t be able to unfreeze my cluttered spaces until I reached a tipping point of movement in my psyche.
It’s been a long time of working underground with my Scorpio IC at the base of my chart, but finally, beginning with the first eclipse on the Taurus-Scorpio axis in November 2021, I was able to start clearing out my boxes of stuff. After stalling for a while again, this recent set of eclipses freed up enough change energy for me to clean out my closet.
Not only am I clearing out the death in my closet, but I’m also going to renovate my bedroom - this includes knocking down parts of my closet wall and reframing it as a more open space.
The room is ugly. It is one of the ugliest rooms in the house and yet, despite a history of elaborately decorating my living spaces, for a long time I didn’t care. I was just “existing” in a space. The idea of claiming the space as mine by decorating it (Taurus) felt jarringly aggressive and threatening to the part of me that wanted to stay unattached to the physical, material realm.
I am even going to redo the hardwood floors. The teenage boy who used to live in the room over 30 years ago, apparently used a sharp object to etch deep jagged scratches all over the floor in a fit of anger (according to his mother who was showing the house). Scorpio would argue those scratches are more than physical; they emit the angry emotional energy that created them. Time for them to go!
Beautifying physical spaces, crafting material things and lovingly caring for the touchable realm (which includes our bodies, animals, plants), is a Taurean act of respect for the world we live in.
Comparatively, it is a Scorpionic act of respect for the world we live in when we honour the emotional and energetic dimensions of our physical resources - and when we accept the moments when pivotal movement in the material realm is necessary for regenerative life (such as releasing, clearing, exchanging, investing, sharing and composting).
A couple more examples:
Taurus is your ex-boyfriend’s cozy blue knit sweater that you love to wear on cold nights; Scorpio is the emotional connection you have to the sweater that represents the relationship that you don’t want to let go of, but you know you need to.
Taurus is the large sum of money you received from your parents for university; Scorpio is their unspoken expectation that you need to choose their preferred career path, as well as the desire to return the investment and free your authentic desires.
I used to think that the money/stuff theme in the Taurus-Scorpio axis was a boring and minor component of this zodiac duo. Now it’s one of the Taurus-Scorpio themes that I’m most fascinated by.
I’m curious if you noticed this theme emerge for you too, during this eclipse season beginning April 24th, with the eclipses on April 30th and May 16th.
The other related piece I want to add here, is that whenever Scorpio (or Pluto) is activated by transit it is very common to discover some yucky issue that was previously hidden in your physical space, or is very hard to see. This could include issues with sewage, drains, mold, decay, and toxins in walls and beneath floors, and issues with rodents and other pests.
I hope you didn’t encounter any of these issues in the past month, but if you did, it resonates with the energy of this eclipse season!
I cannot literally “see” the angry energy of the scratches on my floor, nor the emotions of love and sadness in my friend’s grandparent’s home, and yet I can sense these invisible presences. In the same way, a hidden mold or pest issue in the physical wall is hard to “see” without further investigation, even if the symptoms are noticeable.
These types of issues are often nudges from Scorpio to go within. There may be an emotional situation that needs to be brought to the light, which is being mirrored by the corresponding physical situation that needs cleaning.
There’s plenty of other fascinating Taurus-Scorpio themes. Below I share a few more expressions of this polarity that I noticed during this eclipse season…
The UFO Public Hearing on May 17th, 2022
I would typically consider Aquarius to be the zodiac sign that resonates most with the theme of UFOs, but when the U.S. Congress held its first open public hearing on this topic since 1970 on May 17th, the day right after the Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio… well, I’m compelled to assign this event to Scorpio’s domain.
The public hearing can be watched on youtube, here.
There’s been rumbles in the UFO-related world at high-up levels in recent years and this makes sense with Saturn (and previously Jupiter) in Aquarius with Pluto on the brink of entering the same sign in 2023. With Neptune in its last chapter of transiting Pisces, further exploration of the mysteries of deep space also makes sense.
Prior to this public hearing, it was discovered that the U.S. Government has been secretly studying UFO phenomenon under their Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program from 2007-2012, then again under their Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, and currently via their Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group.
Fancy titles.
The underlying rationale for the formation of these research programs is to investigate national security threats to the U.S. from UFOs (or UAPs as they are now being officially referred to). Scorpio, as a Mars-ruled sign, is prominent in efforts to identify threats and secure national security. It’s also hanging around whenever the theme of top-secret, mysterious info is being worked with, or made public.
Representative Adam Schiff is quoted as saying:
“The purpose of this hearing is to give the public an opportunity to hear directly from subject matter experts and leaders in the Intelligence Community on one of the greatest mysteries of our time, and to break the cycle of excessive secrecy and speculation with truth and transparency.”
Breaking a cycle of excessive secrecy with truth, is right up Scorpio’s dark alley.
Body Modification via Knives & Needles
In the few hours leading up to the exact moment of the Lunar Eclipse, after clicking through some links that came up in an Instagram story, I found myself deeply absorbed in the recent New York Times’ health issue, all about body modification.
I read three fascinating articles. One on the growing popularity of Brazilian butt lifts, another on a trans man’s journey to obtain a working penis, and the last, an autobiographical account of a feminist working through her internal struggle with body modification, and then finally choosing breast reduction surgery.
These articles got me thinking about how body modification, especially that which involves the knife or the needle, belongs on the Scorpio-Taurus axis.
In simplified terms, Taurus is the physical body while Scorpio is the dramatic transformations and its ruler, Mars, commands the instruments that cut and penetrate. I find it really interesting that the plastic surgery beauty industry, as we know it today, is widely considered to have been catalyzed and developed by Sir Harold Gilles who reconstructed the faces of soldiers who were violently injured in the World War I.
From Scorpio’s war to Taurus’ beauty via knives and needles, some of Mars’ signature tools.
Body modification is not solely Scorpio and Taurus’ domain, I suppose… Leo and Libra likely are often on scene as signs that appreciate beauty and attractiveness. You’ll find Aquarius and Uranus hanging around cosmetic laser treatment. Meanwhile the Virgo-Pisces axis of chasing-perfection may emerge in the search for physical self-improvement.
However, I would say the Scorpio-Taurus axis archetypally dominates at least 75 percent of the body modification industry via knives and needles (this would include tattoos).
Taurus shows up not just as the body itself, but also in the way Taurus’ themes of ownership are applied in this space - i.e., “This body is mine; to reconstruct, design, decorate, and do with as I wish.”
Taurus is also an artsy creative sign: “The body as a canvas, is my personal art project.”
Look at how vividly both Scorpio and Taurus express themselves in this excerpt from the article, The Feminist Case for Breast Reduction:
“While writing this, I had a conversation with a friend who suffered from dysmorphia as an adolescent and described having a face that drew negative responses from people her whole life. She decided to undergo elective facial reconstruction in her late 30s.
She told me: “I wasn’t concerned with the improvement so much as I was concerned with having a literally violent, cathartic experience where I would go through a tremendous amount of pain and reconfiguration. And by doing that, I would reclaim ownership of my body and of my face from every single opinion about it.”
In her words, I recognized an element of my own experience. My surgery had not only been a medical process but also a spiritual one, and the violence of it had been key to that. When I fasted the morning of the surgery and donned the surgical gown, it felt ceremonial, a rite marking not only a physical change but a metaphysical one.”
…“a literally violent, cathartic experience where I would go through a tremendous amount of pain and reconfiguration”… this sentence could not be more archetypally Scorpio. The pain of transformation belongs to this sign.
And here - “I would reclaim ownership of my body and of my face from every single opinion about it” - she directly uses one of Taurus’ key words: ownership.
When the author calls her surgery a rite marking both a physical change as well as a metaphysical one, she is invoking both the physical element of earthy Taurus, and the unseen emotional and energetic dimensions of Scorpio.
All three of these linked articles were rife with Scorpio-Taurus symbolism.
One of the other areas where I heard Taurus emerge strongly, was in the butt lift piece where the author describes how the popularity of these Brazilian butt lifts (BBL) has created a new industry of recovery homes where women can stay while they heal, after getting the procedure done. The homes have names like “Dream Body Recovery” and “Enchantress”.
“That butt augmentation and liposuction surgery are more accessible and less costly than ever makes recovery homes a thriving cottage industry among these women.” ~ Sandra E. Garcia
Taurus has strong associations to business initiatives and financial opportunities, especially those that involve beauty and body care.
From One Orifice to Another
In medical astrology, all the zodiac signs map onto areas and organs of the body.
During eclipse season I found myself reading a book about how to restore the natural power of the voice (which I’ll speak to at the end of this post), and it got me thinking a lot about the relationship between Taurus and Scorpio in the body.
Taurus and Scorpio are the threshold guardians of the opposing orifices of the torso.
Taurus rules over the throat, neck area, as well as the thyroid gland and our vocalization capacity (via the larynx) which is located in this region.
Scorpio - infamous for its affinity with what is more hidden, taboo, and sometimes stigmatized - rules over the colon, reproductive and excretory organs and openings (i.e. the genitals and anus).
Consequently, this means that eating food and the intake of life-giving nutrients through our mouth, is a Taurean activity. Once the nutrients have been absorbed, it is Scorpio’s job to excrete the left-over substances.
All opposing signs in the zodiac wheel need each other - they complement each other’s function in some essential way that creates a dynamic balance between both sides of the polarity.
In the same way that Taurus and Scorpio oppose each other in the zodiac wheel, they also oppose each other in the body by ruling over opposite ends of the torso. Yet despite this opposition and their unique (complementary) functions, there is an interesting mirroring and connection that occurs between them, which is deeper than it appears at first glance.
As I stated earlier, in Taurus you find Scorpio, and in Scorpio you find Taurus. They are distinct individual signs, and simultaneously they are two sides of the same coin.
For example, in A Handbook of Medical Astrology, Jane Ridder-Patrick writes:
“There are many connections between the throat (Taurus) and the reproductive organs (Scorpio), both in folklore and in medicine.
The tone of the voice alters with the hormonal state of the sex organs. For instance, boys' voices break at puberty, and many women singers refuse to perform during menstruation as the timbre of the voice changes at that time.
Middle European peasant girls used to tie a silk thread round their necks; when it became tight, due to the swelling of the thyroid gland, they knew they were pregnant.”
The similarities in appearance between the throat and larynx region (Taurus), and the uterus, cervix and pelvic floor muscles (Scorpio), are also fascinating:
Earlier I introduced eating as a function of Taurus and excreting waste as Scorpio activity. Eating aligns easily with common Taurean symbolism that relates to abundance, to nourishing and taking care of the body, and to pleasuring the senses through delicious food. The action is one of intaking and receiving.
In contrast, it makes sense that Scorpio would rule over body parts that are involved in releasing and letting go, given its familiar associations with dying, death and decay.
However, it is important to note that of course this polarity doesn’t function in a solely unidirectional way. People can receive sexual pleasure via Scorpio body regions, for example, and create new human life. This resonates with Scorpio’s well-known connection to sexual intimacy beyond the medical astrology field.
In contrast, people can emit meaningful sound by activating the Taurean vocal cords in their throat and propelling words out of their mouth - thereby communicating with others. Thankfully our body also knows how to puke out toxins and excrete waste through the throat and mouth when we are ill.
My point is that, whether in the abstract symbolic realm or in the physical body, there is no strict binary division here in the way that Taurus is often correlated with life, and Scorpio is generally associated with themes of death. Scorpio is not simply a sign of letting go, and Taurus is not simply a sign of gain and intake.
As always, the opposing signs are intricately linked in a cycle and flow that seeks a dynamic balance - especially during eclipse season and nodal transits.
The Supreme Court's Abortion-Rights Leak
During the evening of May 2nd, 2022 (just a couple days after the solar eclipse in Taurus, in-between eclipses) the news outlet Politico published a leaked draft of the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority opinion indicating an intention to overturn the 1973 Roe vs Wade court decision, which protects abortion rights at a federal level. If this happened (which it hasn’t yet) it would put abortion laws in the hands of individual states, many of whom would move quickly to make abortion illegal.
This understandably resulted in a huge outcry across the country - and across news headlines in countries around the world. It was hard to miss this dramatic eclipse season event.
The Taurus-Scorpio themes are strongly present here. Similar to the UFO public hearing, there’s the leak of a secret document which was never intended to be made public (Scorpio). As I discussed in regards to body modification, bodily autonomy (fully owning one’s body) is a potent Taurean theme. The process of aborting a fetus (with its associated symbolism of endings, death and letting go) is definitely a Scorpio experience - and of course, as previously discussed, in medical astrology Scorpio is the threshold guardian of the reproductive organs.
Monkeypox
I’m rather loath to mention monkeypox, but it did emerge smack in the middle of eclipse season (the first UK case was diagnosed on May 7th, I believe), so perhaps it deserves to be referenced since the Taurus-Scorpio themes are prominent.
The initial news coverage reported the virus as being spread via sexual contact, which is not its typical mode of transmission.
Taurus can be found in the animal name of the virus, through the involvement of the body, and in the way that the virus has been seeming spread through fun/ pleasurable events.
Scorpio, of course, appears in the way that the sexual transmission of the virus was so emphasized in news reports, and in the risk of the public stigmatizing gay and bisexual men, among whom the virus is reported to have initially spread. Dr. John Brooks, a CDC official, notes that anyone can contract the virus regardless of sexual orientation and monkeypox is not considered to be a sexually transmitted disease - and yet he recommends an evaluation for anyone with an unusual rash or lesion around their genitals or anus (hiiii Scorpio).
The rash itself, described as pus-filled blisters on the skin, resonates with that wonderful quality Scorpio has in bringing the icky, yucky thing to the surface - in the same way that I mentioned Scorpio activations can align with discovering mold, rodents, or sewage issues hidden behind walls.
It is rather disconcerting that once again - similar to how there was a simulated coronavirus pandemic training exercise that took place on October 18, 2019 at the John Hopkins Center just months before covid-19 was identified - there was a simulated monkeypox pandemic training exercise that took place in March 2021, with the fictional start-date of the first pandemic outbreak timed for May 15th, 2022.
Are powerful people conspiring? Or did they accidently manifest monkeypox through the fictional simulation game by creating an energetic equivalent in the astral realm that was so powerful it acquired enough density and weight that gravity could pull it into the physical realm at just the right time?
Or a total fluke of a coincidence?
Who knows! I sure don’t.
What I do know, as an astrologer, is that monkeypox symbolically resonates with the Taurus-Scorpio axis. Furthermore, the current outbreak occurred between a solar eclipse in Taurus and a lunar eclipse in Scorpio - right in the dragon hole.
So far I’ve read that symptoms are mild, it is not highly transmissible, it can be contained relatively easily (compared to covid), and it is a virus that does not mutate easily.
Here’s hoping monkeypox is a brief expression of the Taurus-Scorpio axis that bubbled up during eclipse season… and that it will fizzle out real fast.
Scorpio interrupting Taurus - Subconscious Stress in the Voice
I didn’t want to close on monkeypox, so now I’m going to zoom back up to the other orifice.
This is the book I mentioned earlier, that I found myself reading during eclipse season: Your Body, Your Voice; the Key to Natural Singing and Speaking, by Theodore Dimon.
The book, which is full of anatomy illustrations, focuses on teaching the reader how to return the voice to its natural, powerful condition by holistically and effectively engaging the many parts of the body that are needed to properly vocalize.
Theodore Dimon has such a profound respect for the human voice. I had a newfound sense of awe for this Taurean human capacity upon finishing the book.
Dimon writes:
“The human voice is so basic to our existence, so ubiquitous and familiar, that except when we sit in a theater and admire the virtuosity of a trained singer or revel in the transcendent emotions expressed in a beautiful aria, we take it mostly for granted. Yet its role in human life is unique and its complexity unparalleled.
Even the human eye, which is so marvelously intricate in its design, is nevertheless an organ of perception and is thus mainly passive in its use. In contrast, the voice is a sound generator and is therefore mechanically productive in a way that cannot be equaled in the human body - an unbelievable miracle of control involving an interplay of nervous and mechanical forces far more elegant and complex than we have yet realized. Because of this, we must come to appreciate and understand the voice as one of the transcendent human functions, and educate our voices - and ourselves - accordingly.” ~Theodore Dimon
Theodore Dimon believes that as children we typically have free, uninhibited access to the full power of our voice potential. However, as we grow older we begin to interfere with this natural capacity in various ways which results in increasing tendencies toward constriction and a strained or collapsed voice (even among trained singers and speakers).
I’m someone who will only lip-sing happy birthday while everyone else around me is belting it out. For years I have firmly maintained: “I cannot sing.” Yet while I don’t want to be a pro-singer, I would love to be able to sing for my own enjoyment.
I tried singing lessons once, but it was a hopeless disaster. My voice instantly constricts when I attempt to sing even on my most relaxed day. During that season of life I was particularly stressed-out and I’m pretty sure the sounds I made during those lessons could only be described as a shrill squeak.
As I reflected on how Taurus rules the throat area and voice while reading this book, I began reflecting on how the underlying emotional and energetic state of a person shows up in their voice. Again, this is Scorpio expressing through Taurus.
I have become incredibly attuned to this phenomenon among humans, especially in the last 4 years or so, largely thanks to a family member whose stress level is clearly expressed in the quality of her voice.
After spending a long period in close proximity, I began to notice how my body would involuntarily tense up in response to subtle changes in her voice. After I became conscious of this, I began listening carefully to what I was hearing… there were the periods of throat clearing, the occasional coughing fits, the tiny quivers, the different varieties of pitch, tone and speed… the spectrum of strained voices (some so severe she couldn’t get sound out)… and then there was the childlike voice with each sentence seemingly ending in a question.
She would frequently deny she was stressed when I asked, and oftentimes she truly did not cognitively register any stress in her body. Being the annoying family member that I am, I would persist: “But your voice just changed. And you just coughed. What is it? What just stressed or upset you?”
Training in Somatic Experiencing and reading on Polyvagal theory provided some contextual knowledge for what I was hearing and how I was responding. Now I’m always noticing the emotional and energetic quality in people’s voices - and how it changes at different times and in different settings. It’s fascinating while also being distracting!
Polyvagal therapist, Deborah Dana, writes:
“Through Polyvagal Theory, we recognize the importance of prosody, the music of the voice. The pitch of your voice effectively conveys your emotional state (Belyk & Brown, 2016). A monotone voice, or a voice that is too shrill or too deep, alerts the nervous system to possible danger, while a voice with appropriate patterns of rhythm and sound invites the listener into safe connection. Prosody communicates what is beneath the words, the intent of the speaker.
Autonomic [nervous system] knowing, hearing cues of danger underneath the words while being told that what you feel is not what is happening, is a common experience for many clients. In fact, humans reliably recognize a broad range of vocally expressed emotions, even when the spoken words are out of sync with the emotion (Belyk & Brown, 2016).
…The autonomic nervous system is wired to hear certain frequencies sending sounds of safety and other frequencies sounding an alarm. Experiences of safety, danger and life threat are powerfully shaped by our autonomic responses to sound.”
~Deborah Dana (excerpt from The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy)
Now I notice the same type of fluctuations in my own voice with much greater precise awareness as well.
I believe the voice’s quality to be such a trustworthy barometer of emotional stress that I’m willing to believe indicators of stress expressed through the subtle changes in my vocalizations even when my brain has not cognitively registered anything upsetting in my life…
E.g., “Okay, I wasn’t previously aware that anything was upsetting me, but what’s up body? What are you reacting to?”
This type of self-reflection is an example of my efforts to integrate the Taurus-Scorpio axis in my life.
While still authentically showing up, I will now sometimes consciously adjust the speed and pitch of my voice to intentionally send safety signals to the nervous systems of those around me. Interestingly I’ve noticed these adjustments to my voice can work in reverse by helping me to internally calm myself and ground. Perhaps this happens due to a feedback loop that occurs as I hear myself speak.
I no longer claim that I cannot sing. Reading Dimon’s inspiring book, along with my visceral awareness of how emotions (and the psychological belief that I can’t sing) affect voice quality, has given me some hope that I can navigate my way to an uninhibited and relaxed singing voice one day.
I was born when the North Node was in Taurus, and the South Node was in Scorpio; therefore I’m experiencing my nodal return transit, which is being activated by this series of eclipses that will finish with the Taurus-Scorpio axis in the spring of 2023.
I love the Taurus-Scorpio axis. It’s fascinating to explore this polarity as I seek to deepen my own process of integration and personal growth. I hope that this collection of examples from the Taurus-Scorpio axis offered something to you as well ♥
Yes, the word "patience" has been very relevant to my process as well. Patience has never been my strong suit, and I feel like it's one of the biggest lessons of this transformation. Patience seems like such a passive action, but it takes a lot of effort. I wish you the same in your process! And I completely agree with you that there is a corresponding energetic weight to items and spaces. Letting go of things brings such a shift in energy. I am at a point now where I would love to throw out everything and only be left with things that are truly meaningful and bring me joy. Selling off a lot of things is a wonderful lesson in patience, since it means things only leave when a new owner presents themselves. And however much I'd like, that process can't be rushed :)
Thank you for sharing that information. I had never heard about the Alexander Technique, but it sounds like something I could greatly benefit from in my current healing journey. I have a lot of psychosomatic issues that I've been working through and this seems like a technique that would be very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing that!
That makes a lot of sense and you've explained it very well! You always have such a great way of explaining things and making it understandable for someone who is not well versed in the subject matter. Especially the part about the automatic response of our body when we make the intention to sing. If you ever plan on sharing how these techniques work for you I'd love to read it. I'm definitely going to check them out myself! Thank you again and have a lovely weekend.
Your post has provided me with so much hindsight perspective into how transits and the current astrological weather have been influencing things that have been going in my life. I always appreciate the time and energy you pour into these and how much information you provide. Like you I have been in a lengthy falling apart and rebuilding process. And I relate to what you're saying about not feeling ready to let go of physical things before a psychological tipping point happened. At the end of last year I started sorting through my things as well and I have been slowly, but surely selling off a lot of things I own. It's been fueled by a strong desire to release all that is no longer mine to hold onto. Both physically and mentally.
The larynx and uterus similarities are so incredibly interesting. I didn't know that. I've always been interested in how people's voices emit emotion and reflect how they are feeling. There is so much information that can be gathered from it. I love to sing, but I've held onto the belief that I cannot sing too. It's something that I love to do in the car or home alone, but as soon as people are near or I consciously make an effort to sign my throat closes up and nothing more than a squeak comes out. So I'll definitely look into that book you mentioned. Would you mind sharing the ways in which you'll be working on your singing voice? I'd love to know.