Scorpio, The Scorpion
October 23rd - November 22nd
Mode: Fixed ~ Element: Water ~ Ruler: Pluto Mythic Archetypes: Mars (Ares) ~ Inanna (Sumerian) ~ Nergal (Babylonian) ~ The Cretan Snake Goddess ~ Shakti (Hindu) ~ Persephone

During the month of Scorpio the leaves fall from the trees and the earth begins to "shut down" to prepare for the long sleep of winter. To the ancients, this was the season the goddess or god actually journeyed into the underworld. All life would be empty and cold until the Winter Solstice marked the beginning of the process of return, leading finally to resurrection in the Spring. Thus, Scorpio is associated with the descent into the underworld, which symbolically signifies a journey into the depths of the subconscious, forcing us to confront our inner demons and psychological complexes after which, something of the ego dies to give birth to something new. Through the death and rebirth of consciousness, we are transformed.

Scorpio is seen as a fourfold process: from the angry scorpion to the introspective lizard (the underworld sojourn) to the soaring eagle (rebirth) to the white winged dove (the Holy Spirit). Some astrologers compare Scorpio to the phoenix, a mythical Egyptian bird which immolates itself on a self-made funeral pyre only to rise reborn from its own ashes!

Because of the terrifying image of the scorpion, Scorpio people have acquired a negative image in traditional astrology. It is true that some natives of the sign possess a temperament that other people have reason to fear. Scorpios may forgive - but they never forget! Scorpio is co-ruled by Mars and Pluto. Ego energies are represented by Mars, while Pluto deals with the dark recesses of the psyche . The Greeks understood the vast, dark, unexplored and unexplained realm of the unconscious and believed that the netherworld's balance of male and female energies (unconscious) was restored when Hades abducted Persephone. There is also an intimate connection with the mysterious life-force called kundalini (the Serpent Power) in Sanskrit. Kundalini is the vital, animating energy force within; essentially sexual.