Myth of the Month

The story about Hercules and the Lernian Hydra is only one of many myths that can be connected to the sign of Scorpio. I have chosen this one because I think it shows rather clearly the most important issues that many with the sign of Scorpio meet along their life paths.

There are a couple of different varieties of the story, but this is in short how it goes:

Hercules had been imposed with the task of killing this monster which lived in a cave, had the body of a serpent, could not be killed with any weapon for it was impossible to come near enough to it. It had nine heads and grew a new one for every head that was hewn off. Its breath was pure venom and it had terrorized the vicinity for many years.

Heracles went there in his chariot in company with a young friend Iolaos. When they came near the cave, Heracles shot burning arrows into the cave's mouth until the monster became enraged and came out.

Heracles then started to hew off the heads but soon found that for each head he had severed, two new ones grew out. He was nearly choking from the poisonous vapor that emanated from the monster. He had to call to Iolaos to bring him a flaming torch and to burn each of the wounds as soon as Heracles had cut away the heads. This prevented new ones to grow out. In this way he managed to cut off all the heads except for the last one, which could not be killed with any weapon so instead Heracles buried it under a huge boulder. Lastly he dipped his arrows in the poisonous blood from the monster, which made them deadly.

The connection to Scorpio:

Scorpio is an introverted sign, which wants to go to depths to find reasons and causes. Often people with strong placements in Scorpio don't fear to dive down into the unconscious where they have to face their own psychical fears and monsters. The hydra can be seen as such a monster. It takes quite some courage to even get near enough to face her.

In one sense the hydra is symbolical of the unconscious. It is hiding in the underground and only comes out when least we expect it. There is great difficulty and even danger in finding and approaching it. As soon as we think we have come to grips with one thing (cut off one head) there's a couple of new ones surfacing. It seems endless and we almost choke in our effort. And yet, if the hydra has occupied the ground for us, we cannot do otherwise than try to stand up against it if we want to remain alive.

But we are no heroes with super strength, we are only ordinary humans. The hydra is about those issues that we don't want to know about, that we have not incorporated into our conscious mind. She is all about what is hidden below. We hide those things that scare us, that are overwhelming, that threaten us, that are unacceptable to us for some reason. And we step down to face her only if the situation is acute, if she forces us or threatens us or meets us above ground and invade our mind, then we have to start and cut her heads off, like Heracles. And like him we have to have help, an assistant, a therapist perhaps, that can help us light the torch that burns away the evil. The flame that makes us see the truth of the matter in all its ugliness.