The Scorpio(8th House)/Taurus(2nd House) axis has been a point of generational woundedness and healing in my family--and so I’m always interested in gaining a deeper understanding of how each sign/house operates.  I want to better understand how they function both distinct of each other as well as how they integrate their opposing energies (just as all oppositions challenge us to find a point of convergence). The film The Invention of Lying provides an excellent Piscean lense through which to view and understand these opposing energies.

                 The Invention of Lying is a film written, directed and acted by Ricky Gervais, who notably has Venus on the Taurus end of this axis with the Moon and Neptune on the Scorpio end, and so it makes sense that the dichotomy of these two signs would be showing up in an artistic creation of his.  (View RICKY GERVAIS’s Natal Chart.)  The film is about a world in which there is no lying, wherein people go about speaking the complete truth about everything (even their psychological, normally hidden Scorpionic truths).  There is no concept here of dishonesty or even speculation.  Something is either known (a truth) or it is unknown and thus unconsidered.  For this reason there is no religion in Gervais’ alternate reality either.

                The characters seem to be acting primarily in a Taurean way, and even though they definitely recognize their darker Scorpionic urges, these urges aren’t questioned.  The characters are comfortable with the truth.  Nothing is hidden up in the 8th House.  When our main character Mark (Gervais) visits his blind-date Anna for the first time (played by Jennifer Garner), she tells him that she has just masturbated upstairs and that she will likely not date him again because of his looks.  In a Taurean way, she is completely comfortable with her base urges (her sexual drive and superficiality).  There is no reason to worry about these things the way that a Scorpio would, but that doesn’t mean the Scorpionic psyche isn’t present. 

                The turning point here (please watch the trailer above) is when Mark learns how to lie.  When he loses his job, he also loses his Taurean sense of safety and security.  His resources (in the form of his paycheck) have been cut off.  So he learns how to do something that nobody in his world has done before—he lies.  He also steals (Scorpio=”other people’s money”) by telling a bank teller he has $800 in his account (enough to pay his rent) when really he has only $300.  He experiences a Scorpionic transformation, and as he does so, he further bridges the gap between Scorpio and Taurus.  He manipulated a situation to his own ends,  recognized the power in doing so (Scorpio knows its own power and how to wield it), and also recognized that this power would allow him to continue having his physical material comforts met (very important to Taurus) in that he would not lose his apartment.

                The consequence is that now he must choose how to use this new-found Scorpionic power.  As shown in the trailer above, his first choice of how to do so is to tell a woman that the world will end if they don’t have sex.  Not understanding that such a thing as dishonesty exists, she agrees!  Ultimately he decides *not* to take advantage of the situation (or the woman), thereby choosing not to abuse his power.  This is a choice that all Scorpionic people will face throughout their lives.  They know they can control.  They know they can manipulate and influence other people.  They know they have immense power at their disposal.  So the question is, how will they use it?

                Mark ultimately learns how to use this power in a healing way.  He is able to persuade a neighbor not to commit suicide, then lies and tells the neighbor he would like to hang out with him sometime even though (gasp) it’s NOT the truth! Hanging out with this neighbor also violates his Taurean need for security, but he's willing to embrace Scorpionic discomfort in the interest of healing.  In another show of this altruistic use of his power, Mark creates an afterlife for his dying mother to believe in so that she can die peacefully, with a Taurean acceptance that is afforded to her by Scorpionic myth-making. 

                If you’re at all interested in the dynamic between these two signs, I recommend watching The Invention of Lying.  As I’ve said in my first entry in the Planetary Poetry series, art allows us a Neptunian way of connecting to archetypal knowledge.  When we better understand these archetypes at the ephemeral, inexplicable Neptunian level we are also better able to articulate them and grasp them in our minds in a Mercurial way. 

Gratitude Prayer to Taurus:

                Thank you Taurus for teaching us how to ground ourselves and to find comfort and happiness in everyday living.  Thank you for allowing us to detach from psychological/emotional exploration and to trust that even our basest urges are simply instincts meant to help us create a pleasing, comfortable world, and that it’s okay to want to live in such a world.

Gratitude Prayer to Scorpio:

                Thank you Scorpio for teaching us to examine our motives and for pushing us out of our comfort zones to do so.  Thank you for asking us to transform ourselves even when doing so is difficult and emotionally draining.  Thank you for allowing us to rise from the ashes like the phoenix when we dare to put ourselves through the flame of transformation.

[Please click on the title of this entry above to gain access to comments/commenting.  I would love to hear about your experience/understanding of the Taurus(2nd House)/Scorpio(8th House) axis!   How do these energies present themselves in your chart?  What do they mean for you?]