🌹🎶 Stinging Truths

A lunar ramble on the glowing mysteries of Scorpions

“Watching the moon
at dawn,
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely,
no part left out.”

― Izumi Shikibu - The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, translated by Jane Hirschfield

Tonight’s micromoon hangs at its furthest from Earth, her distance allowing us to perceive the stars more sharply. Cloaked in darkness, she rises in the S-shaped Scorpius constellation, whose glowing heart, Antares, is a great red star rivalling Mars. In Greek Legend, the Scorpion was sent by Earth Goddess Gaia to assassinate Orion after his arrogant claim to kill all creatures. After the great Hunter was hunted by his stinging opponent, both were flung into opposite ends of the sky.

Photo by Kelsey Dody on Unsplash

Scorpions, with their plated body armour and notorious stings, scuttled onto Earth 300 million years ago. Originally sea creatures, they have retained their ability to breathe underwater. Hidden from light and predators by day, scorpions literally light up by night - their exoskeletons absorb UV light and re-emit it at different wavelengths, producing a green glow known as biofluorescence. Whether this internal light detection system acts as a ‘come hither’ or ‘stay away’ signal to potential mates or foes remains unknown. Their nightly transformations, stinging tails and armoured ability to survive tough terrains earned scorpions associations with power and protection, death and determination, metamorphosis and mystery.

srqt-Htyt 𓋴𓂋𓏘𓏏𓎛𓏏𓇋𓏭𓄈
“She Who Lets Throats Breathe” or “She Who Stiffens (paralyses) The Throat

For Ancient Egyptians, the Scorpion adorned the head of the Goddess Selqet/ Selket. Protector of Sun God Ra on his nightly voyage through the underworld and of mother and child, Isis and Horus, she could protect the breath of the living from venomous stings and return the breath of the dead in the afterlife. One of the four goddesses presiding over the Canopic Jars, she guarded the intestines of the dead, her protective arms reaching around the foot of tombs. Both healer and guardian of scorpions, she embraced both the stinger and the stung, just as today we use scorpion venom to detect and treat cancers.

Statue of Selqet in the tomb of Tutankhamun, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c. 1334–1325 B.C. Source: Wikimedia

Our voices are multi-faceted instruments, with the power to express, defend and protect our truth. Will we allow life’s stings to silence us or catalyse venom into victory? Will we breathe life into our songs and stories, even when they become buried under life’s distractions and disappointments? Will we administer, when necessary, our stinging truths to defend that which we hold dear? Can we face the stings of others with courage, conviction and compassion? Can we honour that sometimes we will intentionally and unintentionally sting each other, yet still love each other through times of conflict, misunderstanding and disharmony? Can we navigate through the dark spaces of our humanity, illuminated by the magic glow of our vocal creativity?

In times of great uncertainty, when there are more questions than answers, we can breathe into the mysteries, allowing ourselves and others space to transform and to be all that we are - including our stings - under the light of the moon.