Journey of the Zodiac

I feel very grateful to have been part of this project. We began brainstorming the idea a for long time and planned to work together in Athens for ten days to make it happen. It was fun, inspiring and very fulfilling to create these images and texts. 

The prints from Journey of the Zodiac are a collaboration between artist Eloise Fornieles, curator Alix Janta-Polczynski and myself combining text and imagery to tell the narrative of the Zodiac in an artistic and innovative way.

I wrote the text next to each image which narrates the story of each sign but mainly the reason why one sign follows another. The story of the Zodiac is for me immensely inspiring as it expresses our history as humans. Knowing why Taurus comes after Aries and then transforms into Gemini is key to understanding the essential quality of a sign. Otherwise we can stay in stereotypes and end up limiting or pinning down each sign rather than allowing freedom to the energetic quality to exist in infinite ways. This is why in every image we made reference to the preceding sign and the following one as well as the element, ruling planet, the part of the body, mythology, colour, any instrument or concept and evolutionary process. 

Scorpio 

Keyword: I DESIRE

Symbol: The Scorpion

Ruler: Mars and Pluto

Element: Water 

Modality: Fixed

Polarity: Yin energy

Body: The Reproductive and Excretory organs

Colour: Black and Deep Red

After the union of the opposites in Libra, comes the death of the individual in Scorpio. When two fuse into one. 

This water sign has learned about romantic love through Libra, but its own feelings are less elegant and flattering – this sign is intensely interested in the deeper levels of relationship. Scorpio is associated with powerful emotions which are often hidden beneath a calm and seemingly detached exterior.

In nature the Scorpion is thought to have been the first arthropod to leave the ocean and adapt to land. It can withstand weeks of freezing temperatures and some species can also survive being buried for months. These facts tell us about the depths and psychological strength of this sign. 

Their passions range from love, money and politics through to sport, sex and comedy. They are resourceful, intuitive, determined, powerful, jealous, secretive and private. They have an enormous willpower and self control. They are suspicious and desire the truth. 

Integrating their opposite, Taurus, allows them to connect with the beauty of simple things and to enjoy and find pleasure rather than intensity and conflict. Taurus teaches Scorpio to build - how to use their energy in a constructive rather than destructive way. 

Scorpio’s journey embodies a quality of death and rebirth. It takes them from the conflict of the snake, to the transformation of the scorpion, to finally become the transparency of the Phoenix who dies in a show of flames and combustion, defeating darkness and flying to find Sagittarius. 

Scorpio is from the 23rd of October till the 23rd of November.