Scorpio – October 23 – November 21

Autumn advances – a time of impending hibernation. But even as the land is chilled, the seeds within it promise eventual reawakening. This is the season of Scorpio, of of the most complex of all zodiacal signs. Life, death and resurrection are in extricably linked in Scorpio. Powerful, instinctual Scorpios sting and destroy, but as their natures evolve, they also rebuild and create. It is significant that this sign has not only one symbol, but three, – the Scorpio, the Eagle and the Phoenix.

Profound perceptions and violent urges characterize Scorpios. They are often impelled by overwhelming unconscious forces that can find no coherent outlet. When this happens, they may become bitter and depressed. Scorpio’s essence is illuminated by contrast with Taurus, the opposite sign on the zodiac’s wheel.

Taurus represents life at its simplest and earthiest and symbolizes sensuality serving the cause of procreation. In complicated multifaceted Scorpio, sexuality is expressed as eroticism, even aggression-a union of love and death or life and death. This is formidable and sometimes perverse sexuality is a potential pitfall for Scorpios. Giving it free reign, they risk wreaking havoc with themselves and others. On the other hand, repressing it can engender terrible anxiety and feelings of guilt.

Scorpios both male and female are deeply seductive individuals, driven by their erotic needs. They tend toward fiery, ephemeral passions and are prone to fierce jealousy and possessiveness. They are not well suited to marriage, which over time, they find tiresome. In friendship, as in romance, Scorpios, sometimes do not know their own power. They may sting others without meaning to, then turn their venom on themselves in remorse.

They may incite more fear than affection, and they tend to have few intense relationships rather than a large circle of casual friends. Unlike calm, methodical Taureans, aggressive Scorpios court danger and revel in risk. They have great courage and strength of will, but also a taste for conflict and need to dominate. Whereas Taureans are tied to tradition, Scorpios are un orthodox, non conforming, even revolutionary. They joyfully trample tradition and desecrate convention on their way to constructing something new and altogether different.

Scorpio-Eagle-Phoenix

Scorpio’s fierceness, their passion, and even their dark and mordant wit find sublime expression in many fine writers and thinkers. These include Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Albert Camus, Dylan Thomas, Evelyn Waugh, and Kurt Vonnegut. Passion, perception, and revolutionary creativity shine in the art of Scorpio, Pablo Picasso, and insight and unorthodoxy combine in the science of Scorpios Marie Curie and Jonas Salk.

Each of Scorpio’s three different emblems contributes distinctive qualities to the sign’s nature. Agression and instinct dominate the Scorpion guise: The deadly arachnid is destructive, viciously competitive, violent, and cruel. The essences of the Eagle, on the other hand, is the shrewd insight most Scorpios possess. With their Eagle’s eyes, Scorpios see what others miss. They discern hidden motives, they ferret out secret flaws and vulnerabilities. And they are not above exploiting others’ weaknesses to their own advantage in their thirst for power and mastery.

Among Scorpios most important tasks, astrologers say, are ridding themselves of the tendency to be judgmental and tempering their insight with compassion. Those who manage this difficult assignment manifest the virtues of the Phoenix, the redemptive third aspect of the sign.