Scorpio

Meaning

Scorpio is the eighth sign of the zodiac, from 210° to 240°, the heart of northern autumn. It is water in its fixed form, ruled by Mars in traditional astrology and by Pluto in modern astrology, and astrologers read it as the sign of depth: feeling held rather than spilled, loyalty, intimacy, and the power to let something end so that something else can begin.

A planet in Scorpio tends to commit completely or not at all, to look beneath the surface and to keep its own counsel. Fixed water is a deep, still pool rather than a stream: it keeps what it is given, feelings and secrets included. Its gifts are perception, resilience, courage in a crisis and the capacity to face what others would rather not see.

Its difficulties are the same intensity turned in on itself: suspicion, a wish to control, jealousy, a grudge kept long after the hurt. The opposite sign, Taurus, wants calm and simple pleasures, and the pair is read as the axis of what is one’s own and what is shared, of holding on and letting go.

In the traditional scheme no planet is exalted in Scorpio. The Moon is in its fall here, feelings running deep rather than easy, and Venus is in its detriment, love asked to pass through intensity and trust.

In practice

• The Sun in Scorpio, from around 23 October to around 22 November (the day shifts from year to year): a sense of self forged through depth, commitment and change.
• The Moon in Scorpio, in fall: strong, private feelings, slow to trust and slow to let go; comfort comes from closeness that has been tested.
• Scorpio rising, on the Ascendant: a reserved, intense first impression. Traditional astrologers take Mars as the chart ruler, modern ones Pluto, and many read both.
• Mars in Scorpio is in its domicile: endurance, strategy and nerve. Venus in Scorpio, in detriment, loves wholly and needs that love to be safe.
• Scorpio on a house cusp: that area of life is approached with intensity and caution, with a wish to understand what lies beneath it.

Across traditions

• Jyotish calls the sign Vrishchika, gives it to Mars rather than to Pluto, and also places the Moon’s fall there; measured from the stars, it begins about 24° further on, and the Sun enters it around 16 November.
• Human Design places gates 28, 44, 1 and 43 wholly in Scorpio, with the end of gate 50 and nearly all of gate 14.
• The Chinese calendar opens Scorpio with Shuāngjiàng, “frost’s descent”, and sets Lìdōng, “start of winter”, at 15° Scorpio, where the month of the Pig (hài) begins: the Chinese winter starts in the middle of this sign.

Origin and history

The scorpion is one of the oldest figures in the sky: Babylonian astronomers already drew one here. The Greeks, who called it Skorpios, told of the scorpion sent against the hunter Orion; set on opposite sides of the sky, the two never shine together, for Orion sets as the Scorpion rises. Its red heart, Antares, is one of the six fixed stars in Ulune’s table, and precession has carried it to about 10° of the sign Sagittarius.

By the boundaries astronomers published in 1930, the Sun spends only about a week in front of Scorpius, from around 23 to 30 November, before crossing Ophiuchus. For most of history Mars alone ruled Scorpio, as its night house, Aries being its day house; after Pluto was found in 1930, most modern astrologers gave it the sign, and traditional astrologers keep Mars.

How Ulune calculates it

A body is in Scorpio from 210° to 240° of tropical longitude, measured from the March equinox point. Ulune names both rulers. The sign’s reading and the house readings give Pluto, and the house table adds Mars as traditional ruler; for Scorpio rising, the chart ruler is Mars, with Pluto shown beside it in the table and on the wheel. The dignity table counts Mars’s domicile here; no planet is exalted, the Moon is in fall and Venus in detriment. The triplicity rulers are Venus by day, Mars by night and the Moon participating, after Dorotheus; the terms run Mars to 7°, Venus to 11°, Mercury to 19°, Jupiter to 24° and Saturn to 30°, and the faces are Mars, the Sun and Venus. The readings’ decans are those of Scorpio, Pisces and Cancer, ruled by Pluto, Neptune and the Moon.

Correspondences