Full Moon in Scorpio: Revisiting Death

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

 - Kahlil Gibran

A note to readers:
This is a reprint piece from 3 years ago, written from Berlin when I had just discovered my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In recent days, I've come to know of many significant deaths in my community - a few relatively unknown, yet no less meaningful, individuals have left the planet to return to stardust. These include animal friends as well. And some important figures, like the great coyote trickster visionary, Larry Harvey, whose founding of the Burning Man project was one of the great wonders of my world.

For the past two years, I have worked as a grief and bereavement counselor for a hospice organization. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to assist these individuals in Facing Death. In honoring the Great Transformation, I offer a deep bow to my late father, Uwe Wolf Reese (1934-2016). And a eternal thanks to all my teachers, my elders, and to the visionaries who have left this physical plane yet continue to guide, support, inspire each of us. Aho Mitakuye Oyasin.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life.

A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

 - Mark Twain

This week and beyond, we are under the impact of the recent Full Moon in Scorpio, fixed water sign of transformation and rebirth. Scorpio is always intense; this sign implores us to go deeper, and then plunge even further, down to the bone. The springtime Sun is happily chirping and singing in the opposite sign of Taurus. And we are confronted with the paradox of living life to its fullest while experiencing a part of ourselves that is passing away.

It is appropriate that I write this from Berlin, a Scorpio metropolis with its city charter signed on October 28, 1237. Anyone with a smidgen of history under their belt knows that Berlin has faced its share of darker days over the years, especially during the 20th century.

But it hasn’t always been horrific Walls, Reichstags and Kristallnachts. Seductive Berlin is comfortable in its own skin, embraces counter-culture, art, sex, grit, and brings us closer to the marrow of existence. That’s its appeal. Like Scorpio, the city transforms herself over the centuries. The Wall went up, the Wall came down, and Berlin keeps on turning poison into nectar by facing the shadow head-on.

Psyche, Berlin Alte Nationalgallerie

This is the tone of the Full Moon in Scorpio, when Luna pushes our experience to the quick. We can’t ignore our most intense emotions – they’re rising like flood waters. We feel the pain, and investigate. Find out what is underneath. Eventually, it will give way, and therein lies pure energy – light and dark and truth and awe and agape.  Ashes to ashes, we see the life that shines through in death. Only by staring death in the face, and not turning away, can we truly live. We are transformed through Scorpio, a phoenix emerging from the ruins. It is thorough. There are no half measures here. Scorpio redoes the whole kit and caboodle.

Death – the point of no return – is what truly plunges us into the Now. We undertake an entire renovation project of our house, from the ground up. A friend commits suicide and we are shocked into the Present. Extreme moments of life occur side by side. A relative has a beautiful new baby boy at the same time you discover another family member has cancer. At that moment, these people become more real to you – hyper-real. Your lover is moving abroad – they have a job they can’t pass up. Until then, you must have more physical contact, more sex, more touch. Every moment spent together becomes critical. Life and death.

If we want to be fully free, truly alive, we face the fact that it won’t last. Nothing does. We have only the Now to love, to laugh, to dance, to cry. To hold our beloved’s face in our hands, gazing at them, really seeing them. How long has it been since you’ve looked – really looked – into each other’s eyes? Are you seeing a projection of who you want them to be? If you see them for who they are, as they are, you’re bound to fall in love with them even more.

In order to truly live, we must know Death. Scorpio teaches through the realization of impermanence and the profundity of irreversible transformation. We exist in the space between. In this breath, we are here. In this moment, we are alive.

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.

Full Moon in Scorpio: Facing Death

The fear of death follows from the fear of life.

A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

 - Mark Twain

This week and beyond, we are under the impact of the recent Full Moon in Scorpio, fixed water sign of transformation and rebirth. Scorpio is always intense; this sign implores us to go deeper, and then plunge even further, down to the bone. The springtime Sun is happily chirping and singing in the opposite sign of Taurus. And we are confronted with the paradox of living life to its fullest while experiencing a part of ourselves that is passing away.

It is appropriate that I write this from Berlin, a Scorpio metropolis with its city charter signed on October 28, 1237. Anyone with a smidgen of history under their belt knows that Berlin has faced its share of darker days over the years, especially during the 20th century.

But it hasn’t always been horrific Walls, Reichstags and Kristallnachts. Seductive Berlin is comfortable in its own skin, embraces counter-culture, art, sex, grit, and brings us closer to the marrow of existence. That’s its appeal. Like Scorpio, the city transforms herself over the centuries. The Wall went up, the Wall came down, and Berlin keeps on turning poison into nectar by facing the shadow head-on.

Psyche, Berlin Alte Nationalgallerie

This is the tone of the Full Moon in Scorpio, when Luna pushes our experience to the quick. We can’t ignore our most intense emotions – they’re rising like flood waters. We feel the pain, and investigate. Find out what is underneath. Eventually, it will give way, and therein lies pure energy – light and dark and truth and awe and agape.  Ashes to ashes, we see the life that shines through in death. Only by staring death in the face, and not turning away, can we truly live. We are transformed through Scorpio, a phoenix emerging from the ruins. It is thorough. There are no half measures here. Scorpio redoes the whole kit and caboodle.

Death – the point of no return – is what truly plunges us into the Now. We undertake an entire renovation project of our house, from the ground up. A friend commits suicide and we are shocked into the Present. Extreme moments of life occur side by side. A relative has a beautiful new baby boy at the same time you discover another family member has cancer. At that moment, these people become more real to you – hyper-real. Your lover is moving abroad – they have a job they can’t pass up. Until then, you must have more physical contact, more sex, more touch. Every moment spent together becomes critical. Life and death.

If we want to be fully free, truly alive, we face the fact that it won’t last. Nothing does. We have only the Now to love, to laugh, to dance, to cry. To hold our beloved’s face in our hands, gazing at them, really seeing them. How long has it been since you’ve looked – really looked – into each other’s eyes? Are you seeing a projection of who you want them to be? If you see them for who they are, as they are, you’re bound to fall in love with them even more.

In order to truly live, we must know Death. Scorpio teaches through the realization of impermanence and the profundity of irreversible transformation. We exist in the space between. In this breath, we are here. In this moment, we are alive.

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.

Travel Magic

Did you know that Mercury, mischievous messenger of the gods, is the god of travel? He is also the god of synchronicity, just like his Greek counterpart, Hermes. As most consummate travelers will agree, the more you move, the more 'coincidences' occur.

One of my favorite aspects of travel is getting in tune with a much higher degree of synchronicity. Frankly, it’s fun! Little miracles pop up here, there, and everywhere while on the road.

In actuality, life is a bundle of synchronicities. Everything is happening perfectly, even when it appears to be out of sync. It is the duration of an event in time and space that gives it perspective. Most of the time, we can only perceive a tiny snippet of a ‘happening,’ and from that viewpoint, we judge it as good or bad.

If we were able to have a bird’s eye of the entire arc of a happening, from a universal view, we would see all of the ins and outs that make an event. An event, just like a thing or a person, is not static. It is constantly changing and is an appearance like a wave that arises and passes away. If we go deeper into it, in a micro view, or we back out to the ultimate macro, we see all the various facets affecting the appearance, and we see there is no good or bad. Judgment as bad or good is fallacious in the absolute sense because it never has the entire picture, the entire duration in time and space.

Life itself is magic. We do not realize the absolute precision of elements fitting together, so we forget that everything is synchronous. When we travel, and Hermes is having his field day, the synchronicities line up again and again – so we notice. We are also outside of our usual rhythm and routine. Since the backdrop is different, the way everything fits together so miraculously comes to our attention.

The trick is to remember that “travel magic” is available to us all the time, whether we’re on the road or not. All we have to do is take note. Hermes leaves us clues at every turn. Noticing the small synchronicities in life trains us to trust the grand play of life events. We learn that some things take a little longer to play out – even if it's seemingly bad or painful today, it may simply be taking longer to come to completion. As one saying goes: “It all works out in the end. If it hasn’t yet worked out, it’s not the end.”

I’m currently traveling through Germany as a companion to an elderly family friend, a lovely 85-year old artist-photographer revisiting her homeland. In the dining car on the train from Frankfurt to Berlin, we were discussing what makes an artist’s mind different than a non-artist’s mind.

“In my experience, one main difference between a non-artist’s mind and an artist’s mind,” I said to my friend over the sound of the train's clackety-clack with its lovely hum, “is that the artist notices the possibility in every moment. It is living in magical realism.There are no ordinary moments. Life is magic.”

At that moment, the waiter appeared at our table to take our order for post-lunch coffee. My friend ordered herself an espresso, and I ordered a cappuccino. After the waiter disappeared, I thought to myself, Oh, I wish I hadn’t ordered a cappuccino. I actually just want a normal coffee. Oh well, too late. I’m happy with what Life brings. And I went back to watching the green German countryside roll by outside the train windows.

Seconds later, the waiter reappeared at our table. “Wir haben leider keine Milch mehr, also koennen wir keinen Capuccino machen. Darf ich Ihnen etwas anderes bringen?” (I’m sorry, we are out of milk, and I cannot offer a cappuccino. Can I offer you something else?

“Oh, fine!” I replied. “I’ll have a coffee instead.

Everyday magic.

Try it for a while – notice how Life brings you everything that you need and you can’t really make a mistake. Now, perhaps that’s all perspective, too, but isn’t it a nicer way of viewing the world, given the choice? Sure makes for happier travels.

Erin Reese is a writer, astrologer, and intuitive consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her via email.

Erin Reese’s Top Ten Berlin

Bold Berlin, cultural and political center of Germany, is my Euro-home and base for the “Dreiecke” (triangle) of nations in which I find myself moving about on the planet.

As my heart desires and the weather requires, I bop back and forth between Europe, India, and the U.S. After having spent the better part of four years in subtropical climes, I have thin skin and have developed sheer Angst toward cold. I run from plummeting temperatures. Frankly, I flee. When the thermometer wavers around 15 degrees C, it’s “Get me back to India, I decree!”

But in the warmer summer months, now in Olde Europa, I can break out the short skirts and t-shirts. When the sun’s out, I smile, hop on the bike, and explore and enjoy Germany’s cosmopolitan capital. Eine Amerikanerin in Berlin.

For visitors to Germany who are keen on moving beyond the beer garden, polka und kitsch Romantic Road route, consider the following “Top Ten Berlin” highlights von your Travel and Soul Writer – mein Liebsten discoveries of die deutsche Haupstadt.

I’m quite certain you won’t find half of these in any guidebook.

1. The smell of the subway (U-Bahn)

Yes, smell. Though I am usually found above-ground, riding the bike around, there is a completely unique odor to the Berlin U-Bahn (Underground subway) system. The scent stirs up tremendous associations through the emotional memory of the olfactory, this unique mix of grime, grease, sweat, steel, and pulsing humanity. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The scent waves waft up through the street grates – odiferous gusts of Monroe dress-blowing wind.

Immediately upon receiving an inadvertent blast up the nose, I am plunged back into the first years after the Berlin Wall fell, in the early 1990’s. Freshly-reunited Berlin had an aura of Mad Max Meets Past – the real Wild East. The smell of the U-Bahn conjures up the open frontier of the newly-accessible former Communist East beyond the Wall, with twisted tango nights under the moonlight, illegal squats, and bizarre prostitutes. The U-Bahn was a cultural necessity, a part of ‘getting there.’

Loud beats and house music, Love Parade, a new bar in a former fruit and vegetable stand. All-night parties, discos opening at 6 a.m. to clubbers. Funky gallery openings and entire buildings turned inside out into art installations. All of these were accessed via a night ride on the U-Bahn.

2. Fernsehturm – Television Tower

This spacy, shiny, towering disco ball is a perfect geographical reference point in the city. When you spot the silvery, ominous orb, Berlin’s tallest structure and the fourth highest in Europe, you always know in which direction and how far you are from Alexanderplatz.

When I took German in school studied a bit of deutsche Kultur, my teacher referred to the Fernsehturm as “The Pope’s Revenge.” Why would it have such a funny name?

First, you must understand that the Communists prided the Fernsehturm and promoted its presence to East Berlin residents as a sort of highlight of modernity – as long as the imprisoned citizens had their eye on the glamorous TV Tower – sexy, shining, gleaming and symbolic of ‘the future’ – well, then, they wouldn’t feel like rebelling or wall-jumping, would they? They had TV and they had a symbol of the future – all they needed.

As you know, the Communists destroyed many aspects of church and spirituality, labeling religion as “weak.” The Fernsehturm became “The Pope’s Revenge,” because when the sun shines on the big disco ball at just the right angle, it creates a perfect illuminated cross. East Berliners, deprived of freedom and soul, could look up on sunny days and be reminded, deep in their hearts, that religion and Christ (for those who still believed) were still very much alive despite Communism’s attempt to bury them.

3. Tiergarten

The “Golden Gate Park” or “Central Park” of Berlin, the Tiergarten is a huge expanse of nature in the middle of the city (630 invaluable green acres) with running, walking, and biking trails, lakes and trees galore. Breathe deep – ah – and inhale via the lungs of the city center at this former game reserve.

4. Falafel

Found at any most any streetcorner in the small cafés known as “Döner Kebab.” Berlin is the largest Turkish city outside of Turkey. And the Turks know falafel, schwarma, and all that’s fit to stuff inside a pita. Cheap and best.

5. Strolling Down Huge Broad Boulevards and Vast Skies with Big Puffy White Clouds

Verboten (forbidden), I walk like an Indian milking cow directly in the streets of Berlin. Strolling down the middle of the grand boulevards is such a delight.

See, coming from India – we simply don’t understand sidewalks. There is so much more space in the middle of the street – why not walk there? The cars can easily swerve around to miss us. We get a much better view of the sky, the horizon. And, in the middle of the big road, there’s no one to compete with for room, right?

I also have to remind myself to stay stopped at the red light. Just today, in fact, a scowling Frau yelled at me, “Rot!!” when I scooted past the crossing when the light had just turned red, to which I replied, “Es ist keine Katastrophe.”

Ach, the rule-bearing nation. Everything functions perfectly. Which is nice. Except when when you’re waiting for the light to change with no car for kilometers in sight and it’s perfectly safe to take my life into my own hands and cross the damned street. Like an Indian. (Traffic light? What’s that?)

6. German Brot (Bread)

Fantastisch for the palate, Scheisse for my waistline. What to do? Enjoy. We don’t get bakers’ delights like this in India by any stretch of the imagination. When you’re completely burnt on chapatti and naan, it’s hard to resist. Kartoffelbrot, Sonnenblumenbrot, Bauerbrot. German bread is the best. Load it with Tomaten, Senf (mustard) and a chunk of Käse (cheese) and you’ve got a cheap eat picnic to drool for.

7. Birkenstocks

Oh… my… God… I have never known tootsies to be so happy. My first pair of Birkenstocks after all these years walking, walking, walking. It’s as if my feet have discovered arches for the first time. I’ve never felt so held in a pair of shoes. Not only that, but Birks are cheaper here in Germany where they are manufactured - almost half the U.S. price.

I highly recommend every man, woman, and child to try a pair. I know now why they are considered “hippie shoes.” Clearly, it is because there would absolutely be World Peace if every one wore them. We’d all be so comfortable, we’d never fight.

The first few weeks of my Birk-ownership, I actually couldn’t wait to go on a walk for any reason, just to feel the mini-orgasmic squeals of delight my feet would emit at every step. Who cares if you’re lookin’ Crunchy Granola Feet on the street when you're so darn happy?

8. Bicycle Bonanza

Berlin is all about the bike – when it’s not raining or snowing. Totally flat, with a bike-friendly awareness of car drivers – there’s no better way to get around the city, to a park, to a lake, to work. You can lug the bike on the subway or the S-bahn, no problem. Stay fit, save money, be happy.

Most every day I cycle symbolically back and forth between my central Mitte neighborhood located in the former East to the former West, crossing over the River Spree and over the rubble of the ruined Wall, and back again.

Berlin has been a terrific transition from the wild east of India, to the modern west. It’s a perfect, slow, symbolic reintegration, and a necessary one at that. I’ve found over the years that the ‘in your face’ and fast pace of Americana is a rough reentry. Berlin is a great buffer, and getting around on the bike is the way to love it.

9. Free Art!

Every Thursday night, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., Berlin’s best museums are FREE. This is a huge savings as the entry fee is usually about $15-20.00. I’ve soaked in the sights of western masters – quality art-food for my eyes, eyes that have only feasted on temples, gods and goddesses of Hinduism over the past years in India.

My favorite Berlin museum is the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) of modern paintings and sculpture, with works from approximately 1900-1945. Breathtaking. I turned the corner to come upon the wood carving of Max Ernst’s sculpture, “Capricorn” (see image) and literally let out a loud, spontaneous guffaw of awe.

I love masterful modern art!

10. The Reichstag (Bundestag) and Cupola Dome – German Federal Parliament & National Capitol Building

Chock full of world-changing moments, this mammoth structure is more than the national capitol. It is an historic landmark.

On Tuesdays at 12 noon, there is a free English lecture and Q&A session in the actual chambers of Parliament – super! And, as a reward for attending poly-sci class and observing Ms. Merkel’s stomping grounds, you get to bypass standing in the usual 2-hr Schlange ("snake" - that’s German for ‘queue’) to visit the modern, transparent Cupola dome at the top of the Bundestag.

The controversial Cupola was designed by renowned British architect, Lord Norman Foster and was completed in 1999. Many felt the modern glass dome detracted from the historical tone of the Reichstag building; however, in the end, it was decided that Germany needed a new image for its main government building – that of embracing the future, seeing clearly, and – perhaps most importantly – a symbol of transparency, so that the public would always have access to the proceedings of decision-makers inside parliament.

No secrets – that is the intended message.

The Roof Terrace of the Reichstag boasts panoramic views of all of Berlin. Take a spin around and see all the monuments, landmarks and highlights of Germany’s capital. There’s even a free audio-guide tour for every visitor in every language. The ecological consciousness with which Lord Foster designed the cupola is touching.

My favorite aspect of the Bundestag cupola is the totally open dome – welcoming the rain, snow, fresh air, starlight and white puffy clouds. One feels they could fly to heaven out the top of the national dome – open, light and liberated. Perhaps that is how politics could be.

Chapeaux! to Lord Foster.

BONUS: Take a Little Trip with Me...

Now, turn up your sound, sit back, relax, and take a virtual trip via my mini-film, "Wanderlust am Bundestag,” and enjoy the Reichstag terrace, cupola, and Foster's architecture right here.

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