November: Scorpio
Original Scorpio watercolor by Read Gallo.
The 11th issue of Dharma Direction is all about Scorpio, The Scorpion. Represented by one of the most fearsome little predatory arachnids on earth, we aim to reassure you that humans born under this sun sign are far more redeeming than their Zodiac myth.
Are you ready to Go With The Flow?
Scorpio: The Scorpion
October 23 - November 22
Light within.
In choosing this month’s Poet-Tree piece for Dharma Direction, a poem called “Motivation” that I wrote in 2019 (shortly before attending a Writer’s Digest virtual-reality conference) stood out as very relevant right now. Turbulent energy stirs nearly every nation dwelling on our dear Mother Earth’s surface and I’ve often wondered about the motivation that pushes human beings in one direction versus another.
Where one person sees good, another sees evil. One person thinks they’re helping, but another sees it as hurting.
Diversity guarantees we will never see eye to eye.
This is a fact that far too many people cannot wrap their egotistical minds around. As if wearing blinders, angry souls take our differences to violent extremes, like raiding the U.S. Capitol after our last presidential election. Whereas gentle souls choose powerful words to send the world evidence of their hope, and more importantly… their love. Like poet laureate Amanda Gorman at the 2020 presidential inauguration, where letting love become our legacy is clearly at the heart of her motivation.
In honor of Native American Heritage Month and my own Wintu tribal roots … Dignity: of Earth & Sky / travelsouthdakota.com
Barbiel, Angel of Blessings
Throughout life, fear has been my dominate force of motivation. Oh sure, there’ve been times when I was pushed by creativity, love, or joy, but way too often I’d make one kind of decision because I was avoiding the consequences of another. Rather than following my heart and allowing love to lead the way, I made choices that kept me from hurting anyone else regardless of how much it hurt me.
The martyr inside my soul felt a responsibility that dampened my spirit and twisted my path.
Funny thing about going “off trail” while you’re skipping down your life path— nothing happens for no reason. The angels will guide you right into darkness in order to help you appreciate the light. And that is exactly what Barbiel, the Angel of Blessings did when he led a Scorpio into my life.
My second husband (I’m married to number three now, and he’s been informed that he’s the winner!) had lots of potential that never came to fruition because he over-used one of his dark Scorpio traits: The Rules Don’t Apply to Me.
Hindsight illuminates my mistake in thinking that I, as a life-time subscriber to The Golden Rule, could ever be consciously OK with abiding by his self-centered philosophy that was never utilized for the benefit of anyone but himself. I know there are good Scorpios out there but this man was no good for me.
I felt sick to my stomach every time he would park our car in a space designated for disabled drivers. Or steal the porcelain ketchup ramekins at a Five-Star restaurant. It didn’t matter where our paid concert seats were, he would laughingly disregard my social anxiety and drag me with him over folding chairs and in between the crush of a mosh pit to get to the front of a stage. An inconsideration that he almost got tossed out of the stadium for as I sat on the concrete floor, crying while security guards made sure he wasn’t physically accosting me.
Wherever we went, whatever we were doing, the “rules” were something my Scorpio partner paid no attention to.
The Right to Remain True to Self
These infractions, for me, were the equivalent of the distant buzz you hear before a swarm of bees attacks you. In our case, that swarm materialized one night (when I was home alone with my 13-year-old daughter) in the form of an A.T.F. raid of our house. Yes, that’s right— approximately six black SUVs from the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms bureau pulled up in front of my house like they were starring in an episode of Cops. “Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”
That’s when I knew that walking away from the scorpion’s repeated sting was the only way I was going to survive. Taurus Bull that I am— my heart, soul, and spirit were no match for this single-minded Scorpio.
Despite all of the angst that went along with loving someone I was attracted to but knew I didn’t really like…
I am grateful to the angel Barbiel for showing me what I didn’t know I didn’t want.
I thought my Scorpio’s Elvis persona and thriving family business would make up for the wayward needle of his moral compass. I thought wrong.
Ruled by Barbiel, however, that Scorpion man went on to adopt his brother-in-law’s two children after the kids’ parents disappeared from their lives. Someone lacking goodness in their heart would never make such a sacrifice as this Scorpio did and I know the angels will continue to guide him on what is surely his mission— his reason for being here.
Make no mistake, I thank my lucky stars that my time with the scorpion is over. But I also understand that walking beside his Shadow energy was a necessary detour that my own guardian angel needed me to take. Because, as I mentioned earlier, I tend to put my needs below those of everyone else.
I still struggle with trying to understand my motivation for such co-dependent behavior.
What was my motivation for marrying someone I knew I wasn’t compatible with? The “lifetime” type of compatible. The scorpion and I were great friends because we both loved music and I thought that one common thread could support a marriage. Turns out, marriage is heavy, and it needs lots of common threads to weave anything of substance and perseverance.
Finding the motivation to uproot my life and admit that I’d failed at marriage— again— filled me with sleepless nights, but oddly, no regret for the obviously poor choice I’d made.
Don’t Look Back
Since then I have never, not even once, thought: I would’ve been better off if I’d never met that scorpion! On the contrary, I know the lessons filling the pages of that part of my life’s diary were vitally important.
To wish or dream about going back and making a different choice feels like an act of arrogance.
Who am I to think I know better than the Divine forces that are using every trick in the book of life lessons to help me achieve my Dharma… my purpose?
I can’t help feeling that this is where the slope gets slippery. People of different persuasions have, and always will, balk at the obstacles to maintaining the status quo. Integrating new ideas feels wrong to them. These people want a do-over, a mulligan. To go back and try again.
As the angels have shown me, that way of living is a complete slap in their ethereal faces.
Earth does not move in retrograde, there are no do-overs this time around. Maybe we get to come back to Mother Earth through reincarnation and try our hand once again at life’s carnival game where the outcome is actually rigged in our favor, if we’ll only keep faith and move forward.
And if… we can see past our diversity to the common threads woven by Divine forces that are desperately revealing that fear is the moth in our spiritual trousseau, eating away at the fibers of our very souls.
Fear is our greatest enemy.
Not our neighbors who don’t vote the same way we do. Not the police, the teachers, or the public servants. The angels are begging us to please stop persecuting entire bushels of people because of the endless variety of unavoidable stinky, rotting bad apples that are using every sociological difference they can find to justify throwing out an entire barrel of good apples.
Every soul on earth was incarnated from love and light… not hate and fight.
As the angels have shown and informed me, the real enemy to the fate of humanity is misplaced fear. It’s taken several different therapists and many years of exploring the vast expanse of my soul to reach a place where fear energy is finally being transmuted, like water to steam, into productive, positive energy with a focus on uniting humankind.
So, if I believe that everything happens for a reason then I can take the darkness of the past, present, or future and, like a piece of burnt toast, scrape away the blackness. The pain, guilt, anger, disappointment, and embarrassment that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. And then slather the rest of the bread with goodness… I love real butter and apricot jam. In life, faith is my butter and the blessing I receive for keeping it is my jam.
Debbie Abbott is a former managing editor for an upscale food and lifestyle print magazine from Scottsdale, Arizona. She now spends as much time as possible working on her debut novel and sharing accounts of her life through her website and as publisher and editor of Dharma Direction.
Connect with Debbie on Facebook, through Debbie's Twitter page or visit Debbie on Instagram.
Audio Visual Art: Angel Barbiel
Digital artist Peter Mohrbacher treats viewers this month to the ethereal sounds of musical artist Xan Griffin (featuring Romy Wave). Find Peter’s work at Angelarium.net. Find more of Romy’s music on her YouTube Channel. Watch time: 4+ minutes
Looking up.
Humor: “Parenting Scorpions”
~ No Stinging Desired ~
Personal Essay by Colleen Markley
Read time: 8 minutes
Ancient cultures from nearly every continent believed that souls chose their parents. Before birth, each soul determined which parents would offer the life lessons needed for their path to enlightenment. I love this concept because it helps me search for meaning in my life. I mean…
If my soul said I needed these childhood experiences, who am I to disagree?
I’m assuming my astral self has more knowledge than my human self, but I do have a few questions for my spirit once we return to the Source— or whatever grand thing comes next after this chaotic life that I’ve tried so very hard to make calm and cool and collected. And yes, I’ve been working a lot of that out in therapy and rage and reiki sessions.
If there were ever an award for two souls who chose their mom most perfectly, it must be awarded to my adorable nieces who chose my sister.
Karen (obviously named before memes) is the most amazing mom I know, and she is often my muse. Or writing material, depending on how goofy we are being with each other and how many different life forces are coming at us at the same time.
Growing up in our family, my sister and brother and I all leaned heavy on humor as a coping mechanism. My siblings and I learned a long time ago that the best way to disarm someone who is unhappy with you is to make them laugh. Karen uses that element in parenting her two scheming and strategically impressive Scorpios. Every day.
Scorpio sisters, these girls love supporting their Aunt Colleen!
Breaking News
Iris and Rosie (whose names I have changed in case they don’t want their internet debut to be when their crazy Aunt Colleen wrote about them in a humor column) were born two years apart, almost to the minute. They missed that feat by just five hours.
If Rosie’s doctor hadn’t wanted to go home early, he might not have broken Karen’s water, which launched Rosie into the world at 11 pm, narrowly missing a shared birthday with Iris. I’m sure Rosie’s soul knew this and approved of the doctor’s impatience; she would hate sharing a birthday with her older sister.
In fact, Rosie loves that even though she is two years younger, her birthday comes a day before Iris’s. Younger siblings love being first whenever possible. But for Rosie especially, this “ha ha I’m first” attitude is as much a part of her as the color of her eyes. Rosie holds true to much of the expected Scorpio traits— strong and independent and not caring about the detritus left in her wake.
But she also draws from the other planetary alignments in her chart… in both her rising and moon signs. When I finally figured that out, I called Karen to break the news.
“Rosie is cosmically designed to give you a hard time every day of your earth-bound lives,” I explained to her. And then I laughed my ass off for a good five minutes.
Colleen and her unflappable sister Karen … rocking life.
Karen thanked me for my helpful support. Not really. I think first she cursed me out. But like any good older sister (and a Scorpio Moon myself, which is why I feel cosmically connected to her two Scorpio girls), I wasn’t really listening to her having an opinion on my discovery.
She might have parented her children for the last 10 years with grace and patience and more unconditional love than anyone could imagine, but I had run their star charts— so I was going to be the expert. And maybe a little obnoxious. And since she loves me, Karen would tolerate me for at least five more minutes.
It’s All Good
I explained the good news first. Her first-born, Iris, has an ascending sign in Libra, the heart of balance.
This exudes the motto “I perfect.”
Libra rising loves working on making everything grand for themselves and everyone around them.
Balanced. Free from chaos at all times.
With her moon sign in Leo, Iris has an added desire to make things right, but might be overly sensitive when things don’t go her way (and she’s not the center of attention). Lunar Leos can make a big fuss when they are hurt (especially their pride) and can often do a bit of sulking and attention-seeking before they’re over it. But never in public. Only at home. They don’t want to be embarrassed any further than they’ve already experienced.
Iris is a kid who might be a bit stubborn, but she also has a strong work ethic and desire to establish calm and order. Rosie, however, has no such inclination.
Rosie’s rising sign is Leo. Her moon sign is Taurus. Combined with her sun sign of Scorpio, she is ordained by the stars to be…
Willful
Independent
Bossy
Dramatic
Stubborn
And demanding of attention.
She will also persevere to reach her goals and be driven by her idealism, which will keep her from doing anything too rash.
All that said, at heart, Rosie is a loving human, full of spirit and fun.
Rosie is a wise soul to have chosen Karen to be her mom. I’ve written about this before— my sister is unflappably calm. She’s also incredibly creative. There’s an art to parenting that I believe is underrated. I used to wish I’d been supplied with a handbook when my kids were born: “Here’s what you need to know.”
The reality is that our kids are writing their own stories and manuals as they grow and develop. Parenting is like a constant game of theater improv with actors you think you know but don’t entirely trust, because you never know what’s coming next. Or how they’ll need you to perform for them and their one-human show of childhood neediness.
The Waiting Line
One of the most interesting ways Karen’s kids differ is the way they like to be comforted— a key element to figure out as a parent.
Every child will have moments of meltdown.
Figuring out what works best for them and how to meet their needs is the kind of parenting I always aspired to, and wasn’t ever sure if I figured it out perfectly. Maybe my striving for parenting perfection is a flaw. Maybe it means I had a line of souls wanting to be my kids, a whole waitlist in fact. I try to tell my kids this but they mostly just eye roll.
My sister is a rock star. A very tired, underappreciated, often invisible rock star. She, too, has the “I want to do this right” gene for parenting. I know the waitlist for souls selecting her as a parent is miles longer than mine because she is so much more fun.
I will meet emotional needs with intensity and a sit-down talk with philosophical commentary on our ethical obligations as humans.
Karen approaches her day like a cruise director, creating experiences and memories flawlessly with educational life lessons. She discovered how to console and comfort her kids with much trial and error, and keeps learning with grace.
When Rosie is in the midst of a total meltdown, she doesn’t actually want to be left alone— she could rail for hours by herself without blowing off all her steam.
What she’s actually asking for is fierce love and connection.
My sister knows this, so she’ll wrap Rosie up in a blanket, as tightly as possible— calling it a “mood cocoon”— and tell her that when she’s done with her metamorphosis, she’ll roll out a happy butterfly.
The metamorphosis is then performed: an elaborate game of Karen rolling Rosie around on the floor and pretending to bump into things. When Rosie starts giggling, Karen will unwrap her and set her free to fly away. This has a 100% success rate for Rosie.
Her lunar Taurus influences means she is earthy and grounded, and particularly interested in all five senses of experience. The tactile comfort and reliable promise from her mom works for her. But just because it works for Rosie doesn’t mean that’s universal.
Comfort Is as Comfort Does
Iris let Karen try the mood cocoon on her once, and promptly told her: “That was the absolute worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
Iris is a Leo in her moon sign, so she likes to feel more in control and organized about her emotions. Quiet reading and playing where she designs the rules or elaborate Lego cities… that’s Iris’s comfort.
Rosie is silly. Iris is serious. Karen needs to be both, on demand, and ready to pivot.
Without puking from the motion sickness.
My sister is amazing for so many reasons besides her iron stomach— she’s also deceptively strong. Karen might be tiny but she is my first choice human whenever I want to move furniture, even though she’s got terrible spatial reasoning and once got a chair stuck in my doorway where we left it for two days until my hubby finally came home from his business trip in India.
Despite her spatial inattentiveness, one of Karen’s greatest gifts is how easily she can see the needs of others, and respond with kindness. In the height of the pandemic lockdown, when Rosie was losing her mind and crying she wanted to “go somewhere, anywhere,” Karen gave Rosie a great gift. She let her be in charge. A five-year-old crying Scorpio got to tell her trusted adult what to do.
Rules Are Made to be Bent
Karen took Rosie for a Sunday drive around town. She let Rosie call out directions from her car seat in the back, demanding to go left. Right. Straight. Right again. And Karen drove around town just driving the way Rosie asked her. No destination. No plans. Just letting Rosie create chaos and feeling in control.
Within minutes Rosie was laughing and joyful like she’d just gone on a roller coaster.
Rosie creates chaos and feels relieved. Iris creates order and is comforted by the lack of chaos. Karen provides them both with exactly what their souls desire.
“You make me sound like a much better mom than I feel most days,” my sister tells me. “Remember when I once hid from them because they were driving me crazy?”
I laugh, remembering how she called me from behind a locked door where she was trying to get ten minutes of peace.
Rosie and Iris were trying to pick the lock with a hair brush and a Barbie necklace.
That was a moment where they wanted her, but they didn’t actually need her. In that minute, Karen was trying to fill back up so she could give again.
“You need FUN,” I’d told Karen on the phone that day. “I think surprise might work. What if you crawled out the window and came back around to see what they’d do? Maybe they’ll be too surprised to remember how irritating they are trying to be?”
Thankfully she lives in a ranch-style home, and this was not a dangerous idea. Karen crawled out the window and took a breath of fresh air before she sneaked in the back door to surprise her children, who were still trying to pick the lock, and were so confused how she turned up behind them. They thought she was funny and full of wonder and magic.
I haven't heard my sister laugh so hard in a long time, and it made me so grateful that she and I can echo this reminder to each other.
This life is a lot, and that's ok. Let's laugh through as much as we can and see how that goes. Like Erma Bombeck once said, “If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it.”
Finding the light and humor in the dark is a gift of love.
Colleen and Karen: “Bonded by Love and Laughter”
Sometimes that looks like watching a kid build a Lego city with multiple stores and homes and schools and a little bit of bragging about how awesome she is. Sometimes that looks like an invented amusement park ride in a minivan where someone who can’t drive or find much agency in life is allowed to take control to make the chaos she craves.
Sometimes life is serious. Sometimes silly. Sometimes we just need humor to find the love.
Meeting the needs of the souls who love you— and who you love back with all your soul— isn’t easy. But it’s worth the effort. And I see the effort my sister makes to love her girls and meet their needs. And I love her for it.
But I also love laughing at her.
Which is why I offered her no advice for how to get back into her bedroom, since the door was still locked with her on the opposite side. At least she didn’t have a chair crammed in the doorway.
Things are always looking up when you know how to laugh.
Colleen Markley is a novelist and freelance writer living in New Jersey. Her award-winning essay “Unflappably Calm, Occasionally Furious, Ready and Willing to Hide the Bodies” was recently published in Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter. Colleen’s essays and humor have appeared in multiple anthologies in print and various magazines online. Named the June 2021 winner of the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop Humor Writer of the Month, Colleen attempts to be funny every month as a regular contributor riffing on the zodiac for Dharma Direction. Her novel-in-progress, Lilith Land, is a story about the end of the world where only the women survive. (It’s a novel, not an action plan).
Find her at www.ColleenMarkley.com or sign up here for her newsletter and updates.
Visit Colleen on Instagram, see what’s up on her Facebook, or shout-out to Colleen on Twitter.
Rice, rice baby.
Culinary Craft: “The Deliciously Dark Side of Rice”
Article and Recipe by Chef and Wellness Coach, Candy Lesher
Read time: 3 minutes + Recipe
Oh, how I love writing for the Dharma Ezine, as it allows me the opportunity to shift up my culinary focus. And in this season, so much comes together— not only the promise of the holidays and family gatherings, but the opportunity to share one of my favorite base ingredients: black rice.
Scorpio is, after all, marked by dark rich colors (black, deep shades of blue, and purple). The rich, ebony aspect of this exotic looking grain is equally matched by its incredible depth of flavor, in addition to an impressive nutritional profile.
Black rice is higher in…
* protein, an important building-block of bones, cartilage, muscles, skin, hair, and nails
* vitamin E, helping with our vision, brain, reproductive system, skin, and blood health in addition to boosting the immune system’s ability to fight off bacteria and viruses
* iron, a type of protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to every part of the body, helping to fight fatigue
* flavonoids, boasting beneficial anti-inflammatory effects, protecting cells from oxidative damage that can lead to disease
* lutein to protect eye tissue from sunlight damage
* zeaxanthin, to reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and cataracts
* antioxidants/anthocyanins (think: the benefits of deep-hued blueberries), which possess anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, and antimicrobial effects along with cardiovascular disease prevention
On the flip side, this grain’s strain is also lower on the glycemic index than other forms of rice meaning it won’t spike your blood-sugar levels.
Not scientifically ranked, but definitely significant, is black rice's chewy, satisfying texture and nutty flavor profile. Which begs the question…
Why am I still using classic white rice?
For centuries, black rice was eaten only by Chinese royalty; hence its name Forbidden Rice. Any unauthorized individual who ate those royal grains, faced certain death. Thankfully, the secret is out and today we in the West enjoy it without fear of repercussion.
That said, I have indeed started substituting black rice in multiple kitchen scenarios, from not-so-classic fried rice to using it in my albondigas (the meatballs that form the backbone of Mexican meatball soup). One of my favorites though is the warm, classic main (or hearty side) of black rice studded with roasted veggies and bits of spicy meat like chorizo or smoky sausage; this is also a great way to utilize leftovers. (Turkey anyone?)
This inky-toned rice is downright addictive and a delight to serve guests… who won’t want to put down their fork.
Insider’s Tip
With the holidays just around the corner, you'll find this to be a versatile dish, whether served as a comforting family casserole, or dressed up as a holiday side dish with a handful of chopped apricots, cranberries, and a sprinkling of toasted seeds or nuts (pistachios are especially delicious here).
Aligning with Scorpio, black rice will tap into the passionate side of your cravings. Once you've tried it, nothing else will satisfy!
Recipe: Savory Black Rice, Roasted Veggies & Sausage Bake
Serves 6-8
Ingredients: Rice
1 cup black rice
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cups water or low-sodium broth
1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt
Ingredients: Veggies
1 medium butternut squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
1 large red onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1.5 cups red bell pepper– cut in 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons herb/spice blend of choice (see NOTE at end of recipe)
2/3 pound sausage, cooked and crumbled (Chorizo, Andouille, etc.)
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
Optional Ingredients:
Sunflower or pumpkin seeds, toasted
Nuts of choice: Pecans, pistachios, walnuts or slivered almonds, toasted
Cheese of choice: Cotija, Romano, Gruyere
Nutritional yeast
Method:
DO NOT wash the rice. Heat the oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add rice and sauté until fragrant and a few of the rice kernels start to crack open. Remove from heat.
Heat water or broth in a 2-quart saucepan. Add salt and sautéed rice. Cover and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Cook for 40 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes before fluffing with a fork.
While rice is cooking, toss the butternut squash with 1 tablespoon of the oil and a light sprinkle of salt. Place on a large foil-lined roasting pan and roast at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, toss the onion, zucchini, bell pepper, and tomatoes with the remaining oil, a light sprinkle of salt, and pinch of pepper, plus the herbs of your choice. Add mixture to the roasting pan with the butternut squash, stirring gently to incorporate. Continue roasting until all vegetables are golden and tender, about 25 minutes.
Gently toss roasted vegetables with fluffed rice in a large bowl. Place in a casserole dish and, if using immediately, drizzle sparingly with additional olive oil (if desired) and top with chopped toasted seeds (sunflower or pumpkin) or nuts (toasted pecans, pistachios, walnuts or slivered almonds) or a complimenting cheese (Cotija for chorizo, Romano for Italian, Gruyere for Andouille, etc.). For vegan, stir in a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.
Bake at 350 degrees for an additional 15 minutes before serving. If you’re not baking right away, cover the casserole dish and refrigerate until ready for the final baking. This dish can be made up to a day ahead.
NOTE: If incorporating a meat, you'll want to partner your herb/spice blend for the roasted vegetables with whatever type of sausage you're using. For example: Southwest herbs blend with chorizo, French or Cajun blends with Andouille sausage, Italian or Greek blends with Italian sausage. If keeping it vegetarian or vegan— spice it up any way you like and enjoy!
As a Culinary Wellness Coach, Candy Lesher doesn't simply sit on the sidelines and coach, she's right in the game with her clients. As a chef she openly admits weight is an occupational health hazard, so she engages in that daily battle also. As a Stage III cancer survivor, she knows the importance of feeding your body the nutrients it needs to fight off illness—and function at its very best.
Connect with Candy on LinkedIn or visit her website at YourKitchenRX.com
Sand and Sea.
Original Scorpio watercolor by Read Gallo.
The Desert Queen, who was part scorpion and part marketing executive, believed in essentialism. Not just in the extreme minimalism of sparsely decorated high-rent condos and luxury hotels but in the behavioral theory. People were what they were. They did not change. They acted according to their natures.
A fish swims. A bird flies. A scorpion stings.
It goes without saying she was a dry wit, an excellent speaker, and had many friends and colleagues. Her colleagues mostly envied her ability to turn dry sand into an oasis, and her friends mostly noticed that she was single and somewhat lonely.
The Desert Queen lived alone by choice. She knew her essential nature was to hurt those closest to her. She was the type to sneer at crying babies in restaurants, to nudge sleeping dogs, to scream at people until she got her way, and to scowl and snap at her girlfriends. She did not want to invite a beautiful woman into her heart and watch that heart poison her.
So, the Desert Queen dazzled at business talks and dinner parties, sat lonely in her luxury, drank dry martinis, and did not dance.
Until one day, at a conference, something accidentally opened the window to the empty room of the scorpion’s heart. Literally, the housekeeping staff opened the curtain to the hotel’s courtyard. And figuratively, because swimming in the courtyard, glistening and lovely in the heated swimming pool, was the mermaid.
What If?
The mermaid was not beautiful. Not just beautiful. Many women were younger, thinner, and had better breasts and equally green hair and still failed to capture the scorpion in this way. So, it wasn’t beauty.
The mermaid was not free. Not just free. If she’d been cavorting in the ocean with a dolphin on one hand and a yacht on the other, that might have been freedom.
The mermaid was simply there. Floating in the water, like a sunken sunbather. Arms open, tail shimmering, hair unbound, and unworried in a kelpy cloud.
The Desert Queen stared with one hand at the curtain, failing to find the strength to darken her room again. Was she in love? Or was she jealous of the woman swimming so peacefully below?
She summoned the desert creatures to advise her. They clattered in their dry, dusty voices. What if she laughs at you? What if she’s married? What if you ruin her? What if she ruins you? What if she takes all your money, and joy, and the dog. You don’t even have a dog, but what if she makes you get a dog, and you learn to love it, and then she takes it in the inevitable divorce? What if you drown?
The Desert Queen listened to all these doubts and nodded in silence. Then asked herself, what if it’s worth it?
Heat and Freedom
The mermaid was delighted and surprised to meet a scorpion, delighted and surprised to drink with her after her swim, delighted and surprised to dance all the way into her bed.
She continued to be delighted and surprised throughout the courtship, utterly carried away by the Desert Queen’s ambition, mystery, and force of personality.
Her friends warned her this love was a landslide.
They said she’d be buried in hot dry sand, but the mermaid did not believe in essentialism. She thought her scorpion liked to swim. She thought the compromise was equal when the scorpion bought a house in Arizona with a swimming pool, and she packed all her life and went to the desert.
Then in the second year of their marriage, the mermaid was not delighted to find herself swimming alone.
Despite her promises, the scorpion had changed nothing essential about her life. She continued to travel here and there across the desert from conference to business meeting, to work retreat. The swimming pool began to feel very small, very chlorinated, and the ocean very far away.
The Desert Queen was disappointed when she saw her lover hollowing out and drying in the sun. She couldn’t understand what had gone wrong, which meant she didn’t understand who to blame or how to fix it. She knew it was not her fault since she’d been very upfront with the mermaid from that first dance that, as the Desert Queen, she needed heat and freedom and was always poised for the kill. She assumed the mermaid was magical enough to not only live but to thrive in the largest swimming pool in the neighborhood.
Either way, the scorpion was not surprised or delighted when the mermaid said there must be change. And because the Desert Queen was in love, stubborn, and knew how to take solutions from her team members, they sold the house, packed their dog, and moved to Maine.
The scorpion was determined to make it work.
Oasis to Ocean
It did not work. It was wet and cold, and the Desert Queen found herself drowning in her own resentment. When she summoned the desert creatures for advice, they moped, shivered, and yawned. Why do you have to take out the trash when she made you live in Maine? Why is it your responsibility to make dinner for the dog when you were only joking and never really wanted it? Why do you have to give up your motorcycle when you’ve already given up the desert?
But the Desert Queen was not going to die quietly. She accepted her defeat at the hands of love and prepared to make her escape, cleanly she hoped, without too much financial mess… soon. When she was ready.
Maybe when the dog died.
Though very content with a dolphin in one hand and a yacht in the other, the mermaid noticed her lover was stinging her more frequently than before. If she had been less magical, say a frog or a duck, she would have died, and they would have both drowned. But the mermaid, who was not an essentialist, believed in miracles and adapting. So when the Desert Queen’s work took her on longer, and longer trips out West, and the scorpion hinted that separation might lead to happiness, the mermaid decided to act.
She packed up the dog and followed the Desert Queen. She rented a room in the same hotel and spent her time at the pool until the Desert Queen happened to catch sight of her from her hotel suite. When the scorpion came down, surprised and delighted, the mermaid flirted as if they were strangers and invited her to drink and dance.
Afterward, they discussed their dilemma— with the dog stretched out between them. Wet versus dry. Cold versus heat.
Crowds versus the empty sky.
They decided on a large, tiny house that would roam from oasis to ocean, to lake, to chlorinated hotel pool. When the mermaid longed for the cold foam and kinship of the fish, they would head to the coast. When the scorpion needed the endless dust and stones to dry her spite, they would head to the desert.
And, of course, the dog was happy to go with his humans everywhere.
L.J. Longo is an award-winning Romance author, a queer geek and feminist writing a medley of dark romance (which can be found through Evernight Publishing), magical realism, weird sci-fi/fantasy, and very implausible creative non-fiction. She recently received Third Place recognition for her submission to the Writer’s Digest Annual Short Story Fiction Contest with her entry titled, "To Harvest Lavender." Coming Soon: LJs queer fiction, “The Stranded Sky Castle” will be featured in the Alpha Male anthologies from Evernight Publishing.
Connect to L.J. on Facebook, L.J.'s Twitter page, or L.J. on Instagram.
Poet-Tree
Light the way.
Where does ambition dwell? Desire swells from the heart and soul, but the impulse to propel it into something meaningful often rises from unexpected places.
Original poem by Debbie Abbott, written November 2019
Debbie Abbott is a former managing editor for an upscale food and lifestyle print magazine from Scottsdale, Arizona. She now spends as much time as possible working on her debut novel and sharing accounts of her life through her website and as publisher and editor of Dharma Direction.
Connect with Debbie on Facebook, through Debbie's Twitter page or visit Debbie on Instagram.
Music
“You’d better slow down / And use the right pronoun / Show the world you’re no clown / Everybody wise up!”
“Word Crimes” by Weird Al Yankovic
Singer/Songwriter and king of the parody, Alfred Matthew Yankovic Scorpio birthday: October 23, 1959
Playlist: Scorpio
This month’s playlist takes lots of cues from our content, sending out the soothing vibes of our Zodiac theme through unforgettable messages that revolve around Scorpio and some of the artists born under this sign.
Please enjoy Dharma Direction’s playlist for November. Keep in mind that the playlist on YouTube changes each month to focus on the current Zodiac. This month’s songs are listed below ~
“Word Crimes” - Weird Al Yankovic
“Tweedle Dum” - Romy Wave
“West Coast” - One Republic
“Firework” - Katy Perry
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” - Keith Urban
“Bad Moon Rising” - Creedance Clearwater Revival
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” - Gordon Lightfoot
“Please Forgive Me” - Bryan Adams
“Family” - TobyMac
“Black Water” - The Doobie Brothers
“Street Mermaid” - John Craigie
“My Way” - Frank Sinatra
“Don’t Look Back” - Boston
“Wind of Change” - Scorpions ft. Berliner Philharmoniker
“Queen of the Desert” - Grizfolk
“In the Waiting Line” - Zero 7 ft. Sophie Barker
The Reading Dingy
Save my place.
Book benches in Bulgaria entice everyone to enjoy a good book.
See what our contributors are reading now, what they recommend, or what’s on their “must read” list. Our picks may be new releases, forever favorites, hidden gems, or classics we can’t wait to read again. If we love it, we’ll let you know here!
Want to know more about the books we’re suggesting? COMING SOON: Dharma Direction will open the doors to our very own Goodreads shelf where you’ll be able to find out more about “The Reading Dingy” authors, and read our comments and/or reviews about the books on our shelves.
Color Therapy: Scorpio
FREE Downloadable/Printable — just get your crayons, pencils, pastels, or paints and right-click the image below.
Scorpio People
