Flowing, torrential, icy or tidal, Water as primeval force par excellence is reflected in the number of flood-based creation myths. In astrology, water signs represent our emotional nature and unconscious – our sensitivity, vulnerability, creativity, empathy and imagination. Whether cardinal, mutable or fixed, water energies procure subtle perception of the complexity of human beings and their motivations, paving the way for deeper intimacy and healing. Astrologer Sheila Farrant speaks to the water element as representing ‘chaos’ within creation mythology. In the grandest sense, the chaos of the generating seas and oceans of this world. Water or the ‘world womb’ being the ‘Mother of mankind’ from which we came and to which we shall eventually return.
Water is the home of the soul, or psyche. Watery types are the emotional initiators and arbiters for the collective. Whether offering their clingy, wet-blanket like support or offloading a violent tsunami of unfathomable emotion, watery people give support and hold together the community though the power of kinship, even when it feels like the depths of human experience are too much to bare. Cancer’s crab, Scorpio’s scorpion and the Piscean fish are not only all very ancient creatures, they are strongly instinctual and discrete. Whether bogged down with overwhelming fears and obsessions or unconditional love and trust – they listen well and are permeable in their empathy, requiring the security of relationship, solitude or spiritual practice to feel okay.
Our bodies are mostly made up of water. Seas and oceans engulf the planet Earth. Sensitivity to the pull of gravitational forces or cosmic tides – is the basic foundation of the three watery archetypes. Sirens, mermaids, nymphs and other magical creatures of folklore teach us about how water is life. The Sirens enchant and threaten death with their beautiful voices all who dial near, recalling the creator/destroyer aspect of water. Water is mysterious, death-dealing and liminal, particularly to those who are afraid to risk feeling.
If you’re reading this, you might be a water sign, or have a love for one. You probably have a spiritual practice, drink filtered water and support clean beauty pioneers. But it’s not just your diet and household toiletries that one must detox. If you’re like me, a water sun and water ascendent, you probably need to work on healthy boundaries. Gut checking your environment, unsubscribing, unfollowing, muting as needed. You’ve learned the hard way that a tender heart can wreak havoc on am impressionable soul. Often, it is our skin, our first barrier, that reveals to us when our boundaries are too permeable. You might be doing your daily crown chakra clearing, but if chlorine and other contaminants in your shower water are stripping your scalp of it’s natural barrier of protection, even meditation won’t be as powerful or as effective as intended. Same goes for the company you keep, the books you read and the media you digest. Despite what our local legislation says, is NYC’s water really all that clean? If you’re doing everything else right and still dealing with itchy scalp, hair loss, brittle hair or breakouts… you may need to look at your water source. You may need to DETOX your crown.
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No matter which way your waters flow, please remember that there is no one product or quick-fix that will detox your crown. Called ‘Sahasrara’ in Sanskrit, our Crown Chakra or Tenth Gate is our highest psychic center and very much like an open gateway to cosmic downloads. Attention, intention and discipline count for a lot. If money is an issue, simply begin by blessing the water you drink and bathe in. Daily attunement to a spiritual practice, adequate rest, healthy, nourishing food and a clean and peaceful environment are all essential to the experience of ongoing wellness. When our crown chakra is balanced and open, we may experience unity consciousness, also called liberation or enlightenment. Associated with the colors violet and white, our crown chakra vibrates the seed syllable of yoga ‘OM’ and can be activated by crystals such as clear quartz, amethyst and selenite. Click below for a simple crown chakra meditation from the Kundalini yoga tradition. Read on for general Astro-insights into the Water signs of Cancer, Scorpio & Pisces.
Find the CROWN CHAKRA MEDITATION HERE
Cardinal Water [Cancer]
*Empathy Reigns Supreme*
As cardinal water, Cancer initiates in the realms of feelings and imagination, areas in which they are acutely sensitive. Cancer’s softness, openness and vulnerability is its greatest weakness and ultimately, strength. Often, with vulnerability comes violation and great pain, what might eventually become a source of deep empathy, power and wisdom. Ruled by the moon, which regulates all the waters of the Earth and those within our body (the human body is 60% water, the Earth is 71% water), Cancer actively demonstrates water’s cyclical creative/destructive power. When volatile, the mighty ocean proves itself to be the greatest force of destruction on Earth! The crab is ‘at home’ here in the sea, the generating oceans of emotions we also associate with the mutable water sign of Pisces. Cancer’s evolutionary drive is emotional-somatic-creative-sexual. The crab or ‘sea-spider’ archetype emphasizes Cancer’s centering impetus. As the lunar calendar came before the solar, so the centering of society around a kin-group/family/house/lineage came before the Western centering of Sun/Self/Ego (and the rise of communal narcissism). Sea-spider Cancer builds a web of relations and holds them together, defending against attack, protecting its own. Cancer knows that if we are not the weaver, we are the fly – highlighting how secure relationships are necessary to survival. Cancer’s role as Matriarch and exaggerated emotionality, although usually described in terms of weakness (hypersensitivity, susceptibility to moods or ‘splurges of self-pity’) is actually its superpower, particularly in a world that has forgotten how to feel.
EMOTION gives Cancer her Cardinal drive and soft will-to-power, evidenced in her ability to build and maintain kin-groups of all kinds. Cancer as eternal mother is demeaned by the adjectives ‘fickle’ and ‘changeable.’ Moon Mother of poetry and song, of mystery and enchantment, Cancers are never detached – clinging to things and people they care for. In fact, Cancerians demand respect from their others, it is their primary ambition within any social context. Seeking security and familiarity in all they do, attachment (whether anxious or secure) makes Cancer leery of change. As a peace-loving soul with a disdain for superficiality, Cancer would rather whip a dead horse than graze on to greener pastures, and often dwells on hurts long after others move on. Extraordinarily funny, their moodiness baffles; while their unique outlook on life is genuine and endearing. When treated with TLC and understanding, Cancerians return the favor with warmth and protection. Give them security, you’ll take the crabbiness out of the Crab! Wonderfully dependable overall, despite their occasional mood swings. Win over a Cancer, and you will be taken care of for life.
Fixed Water [Scorpio]
*Facing Inner Demons*
As fixed water, Scorpio finds change most excruciating, and ‘letting go’ can be a real hassle. ‘Still waters run deep’ speaks to Scorpio’s fixity and all the matter of intense, emotional perceptions which lead to a passionate engagement with life. Fire and ice, Scorpio is the burning aggression and sexual urgency of Mars encased in the frigid and cold, elliptical energy of Pluto. Personification of the Destroyer Goddess (underworld/afterlife/death/regeneration), Scorpio embodies the ‘subterranean’ womb-tomb view of existence, sometimes called Kali, Tara, Black Demeter or Pluto-Persephone. While Cancer is ponds and streams – frozen water, even gasoline, speak to the Scorpionic underworld depths. Power-driven, sex-crazed, warlike, vindictive and cunning say Medieval astrology texts. For the Scorpion, personal emotion is all that matters. Feelings are facts. Deep insight into the paradoxical mysteries of human nature makes it possible for the Scorpion to outsmart – or if necessary, bludgeon – the opposition, long before anyone else senses a confrontation coming. Co-ruled by Lord or regeneration Pluto, like a pressure-cooked diamond in the mines Scorpio embodies gloom as a means of transcendence. Pessimism and nihilism are the default perception. Particularly in love, Scorpio feels first its intolerable suffering. Ruled by the 8th house of indwelling spiritual being, Scorpio craves being alone, but never escapes loneliness. Seldom snared by superficial distractions as are other signs, Scorpio’s only aim is to face the inner demons surrounding one’s desires like a dragon. Only the kundalini serpent, snake, dragon, spider, phoenix and sphinx together express the range of the dark Scorpionic totem. In the sign of Sex and Death, Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox’s SEXTROLOGY sums up the gruesome Scorpion archetype full-force (paraphrased here). Wallowing in the most daunting if not dreadful hidden yearnings allows the Scorpio to attract the reverse, espousing a ‘hell and back’ attitude.
Phoenix of the zodiac, Scorpio’s full moon each year during Taurus season is called the ‘Pink Moon’ or ‘Buddha’s Moon.’ Happening this year on April 23rd, it coincides yearly with Beltane (a licentious pagan fire festival) and Wesak, a centuries-long Buddhist observance celebrating the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha. Scorpio is growing by letting go, something that seldom comes easy. Scorpio may have been a living terror or total social outcast as a youth, inviting seduction before there was emotional readiness. Despite the deep thrill one gets from winding others up, Scorpio’s trauma-bonding ways only makes them grow nicer with age. Sexualized too young, Scorpio emerges an erotically charged force, not shy in the least. While social appearances are nonetheless few, the Scorpion is very present when pinned down. Hailed the Zodiac’s ‘male lesbian’ – when Scorpio does find that ‘one’ they will forever lay at the lover’s feet, and are not above mind control or obsession. The root meaning of Pluto being ‘riches’ – a Scorpion’s cherished victim of love becomes like an embedded gem, cold and isolated in their experience as the chosen one. Playing lead in the theater of psychological sex games, Scorpio exudes erotic charms, as if cheering each attractive pheromone into the ether. In fact, Scorpio’s symbol can be read as an arrow sending out signals of seduction, just as Virgo’s reversed glyph implies protectiveness and purity (sexual energy turned inward). Comfortable using sex appeal to their best advantage, a Scorpio’s partner must be prepared to lose themself – body and soul – in a pact with the She-devil. Anyone Scorpio takes up with is in some way their’s everlasting. Ruthless when necessary, compassionate to a fault, Scorpio’s toxic trait is an intolerance of weakness (assuming everyone else possesses their emotional armor). While famed for blazing Luciferian pride, it often keeps this fixed water sign from recognizing that it’s sometimes necessary, albeit painful, to relinquish control. Hints of fathomless depths, lucky if you can plumb them.
Mutable Water [Pisces]
*Spirituality on Blast*
As mutable water, Pisces rushes readily into the lives of loved ones. Coinciding seasonally with the threshold of change between Winter and Spring, as well as the closing of the astrological year, Pisces energy breaks down and dissolves in a process of karmic clearing. Unpredictable periods calls for adaption, hence the name
‘mutable’ water. Pisces is open to change and responsive. When overdone, mutable energy can get stuck in restlessness and indecision, a sort of anchorlessness.
As the 12th and final sign of the zodiac, Pisces embodies the energy of every sign, not to mention the cosmic soup of the great collective unconscious. Adept at taking on other people’s burdens, rapid ESP often clouds judgment. Taking time to recharge in solitude is key. With maturity, Pisces longs to establish a way to be of service while healing themselves at a deep soul level. Work must be purpose-driven and from the spiritual heart. Seldom motivated by money, if they’re not the starving artist they may find themselves busy filling everyone else’s cup. Sign of the martyr and seeker, they can free others from suffering associated with the myth of separation. One of Pisces’ gifts entails pulling psychic shards from the collective unconscious and ricocheting them out into the world. Pisces succeed when channeling something greater than themselves, one reason they make great artists!
Although they may spend much time feeling lost to big delusions or foggy fantasies (they are the ocean, but also the mist), Pisces ultimately reminds us we are all connected as one. Traditionally exalted in Pisces is Venus, planet of love and relationship. Pisces’ modern ruler Neptune represents the higher octave to Venusian, sensual love. Sensitive, receptive, subtle, psychic, mediumistic, empathetic, with the most acute antennae for picking up impressions – Pisces is adept at soaking up atmospheres, moods and vibes.
In SYMBOLS FOR WOMEN: A Matrilineal Zodiac Sheila Farrant explains how before Pisces’ symbol was the fish, it was a pair of dolphins – one of the most sensitive and intelligent of species. Sacred to Minoan Crete, a sophisticated matrilineal society absorbed by the early Greeks, dolphins were the basis of their ancient creation mythology. The Sea-Goddess was all important and the dolphin her sacred animal. Early Greeks would come to associate the dolphin with good fortune, particularly for women. Our contemporary Sea-God ruler pantheon encompassing Pisces, Neptune, Oceanus (and the older God Poseidon) are but pale imitations of the former Great Goddesses of the Sea. Enter Tiamat, Mesopotamian Goddess of the Oceans and Pisces’ most ancient ruler. In Akkadian myth it is Tiamat who stands righteously at the true beginning of the zodiac, symbolizing oceans of immortality and timeless waters. Egyptian myth calls it ‘the waters of infinity,’ of ‘no-thing.’ Creator of the zodiac and its many stars and planets, it is Tiamat that gives birth to Earth and Sky – assigning constellations, ordering planets and establishing the calendar around the lunar (not solar) cycles. Described as chaos, fertility, power and magic combined, the generating seas of creation, Pisces’ karmic power lies in emotional sensibilities, or shall we say sensitivities. ‘Cannot stand too much reality,’ say the traditional texts. Perhaps the most escapist of signs, Pisces’ subtle intuitions – diffuse and nebulous as they may be – feel affronted by the heaviness of the third dimension. When and if the Piscean makes their escape into the solitude of spiritual solace, their ‘escapism’ is less a defense mechanism or force of procrastination than a deep-seated and sacred criticism of the society at hand.
To learn more about your natal chart & cosmic potentials *written in the stars* book a reading with Midheaven Or Nah HERE. Follow her Astro-oracle on Instagram @midheavenornah
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SYMBOLS FOR WOMEN: A Matrilineal Zodiac Sheila Farrant, London: Unwin Paperbacks (1989)
The Knot of Time: Astrology and the Female Experience Lindsay River and Sally Gillespie, New York: Harper & Row Publishers (1989)
Sextrology: The Astrology of Sex and the Sexes by Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox, Morrow Paperbacks (2004)
“Kundalini Yoga Kriya for Sahasrara, the Crown Chakra” Daniele for YoGamut, online at www.yogamut.com
