The Season of The Scorpion 2023
The fixed water sign of Scorpio is the zodiac archetype of Halloween. Still waters run deep, truly, but this is water as steam, like the steaming geysers of Iceland, bursting out from sources deep down in the heart of the hot rock.
The zodiac sun sign Scorpio, named after the constellation of Scorpius, is known to us in archetypal human terms as The Sorceror, The Detective, The Hypnotist, and The Alchemist. And the Necromancer. But what’s the ancient story behind the sign, and what does it look like in 2023?
Traditional Associations
Zodiac symbol
Dates: October 23 –November 22
Ruling planets: Ruled by Mars. After Pluto’s discovery in 1930, considered by many modern astrologers to be co-ruled by Pluto. NB Mars is in Scorpio at the time of writing.
Symbols: Scorpion, Serpent, Eagle/Phoenix (nearby constellation, Aquila, the Eagle) Death and the phoenix of Resurrection.
Zodiac element: Water (But this water STEAMS. And sometimes it is poisonous.)
Zodiac quality: Fixed
Keywords: I desire. I transform
Colour: Dark red
Birthstone: Yellow Topaz, Opal, Aquamarine, Tourmaline.
Tree: Walnut. Hawthorn. Blackthorn
Tarot Card: Death and the 5,6 and 7 of Cups.
Note the Biblical ‘pale horse’ of Death and the white rose. The rose signifies beauty and immortality.
All that has ever once been, is recorded somewhere, somehow, forever.
Mythology and History
Nature, science, religion, astronomy and astrology were intertwined in the ancient world. The ancient world of course, did not know all that we now know. But still, they understood this interconnection better than we do.
The earthly scorpion has been here hundreds of millions of years, more than 450 million, compared with our human six million years or so.
Photo by Sharath G. on Pexels.com
Sometime around four thousand years ago the Babylonians looked up, discerned the huge and brightly leaning “J”- shape in the summer stars and called this constellation MUL.GIR.TAB – the ‘Scorpion’, literally read as ‘the (creature with) a burning sting’.
The movements and relative positions of Scorpius were mapped by Babylonian magicians and astrologers, who left written records of the omens they observed.
“When a halo surrounds the Moon and Scorpio stands in it, it will cause men to marry princesses, (or) lions will die, and the traffic of the land will be hindered.”
A comet appearing in Scorpius was read as a dire warning of a coming plague, but when the Sun rose in Scorpius, alchemists saw their one chance for the transmutation of lead into gold.
But the Scorpio Death card is the annual collective zodiacal reminder that, just as the daylight is dying, just as the sap drops in the trees and suddenly go stark and bare, so Death comes for us all, and this foreknowledge is the burden we carry as the price of our unique sense of self and our personal space in the world. Or we could have been immortal, living in the first seas as single celled clones.
Old age is not our natural birthright. In the natural world, few animals live into old age. Life is for living now, says Scorpio, and it is this awareness that gives Scorpio its drive, intensity, its passion, and its preoccupation with the dark side of life, with the occult and the mysterious.
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com
Full Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse 28 October 2023
October’s Full Moon (this one known as the Blood Moon) will also be a lunar eclipse in Taurus.
What do we mean by a Blood Moon?
“The Moon does not have any light of its own—it shines because its surface reflects sunlight. During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon and cuts off the Moon's light supply. When this happens, the surface of the Moon takes on a reddish glow instead of going completely dark.
The red color of a totally eclipsed Moon has prompted many people in recent years to refer to total lunar eclipses as Blood Moons.”
The reason why the Moon takes on a reddish color during totality is a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. It is the same mechanism responsible for causing colorful sunrises and sunsets, and for the sky to look blue.”
(Source: HERE)
In astrological terms, this signifies an intense period of culminations and resolutions. Matters come to a head., Ties will be broken. Cords cut. Time runs out on the old and familiar. But the Phoenix that also belongs to Scorpio, like the Eagle, says there is still time to start something new. And this is a fated time to do so. Hatching a new phoenix egg somewhere in our lives.
We are witnessing a new cycle of upheavals and challenges in the geopolitical landscape, with escalating violence and tragedy. The current tragic emergency in the Middle East does not seem likely to calm down in the short term, or at least before January 2024.
On a personal level, this Scorpio month could be either a creatively productive time or a very bumpy ride. Likely it is both. Fasten your seat-belt, and unless it is necessary and unavoidable, avoid making potentially life changing decisions, and especially avoid confrontation where practicable, and unless it is absolutely necessary, until the timing is more favourable.
The Scorpio-Taurus axis covers the biggies: death, sex (regeneration) and money. Scorpio relates in particular to money that comes from long term investments or legacies or inheritance. Wills and bequests.
Full Moons signify culminations: maturity of money prospects, legalities or plans.
The current transit of Mars in Scorpio is here until 24 November and Mars in Scorpio is passionate, proud, brave, strong and energetic. A lot of stuff can get sorted out, but it is wiser to do it with restraint and tact, or else watch out for the karmic comeback, and that Scorpio sting in the tail. Mars in Scorpio when it is ill-disposed can be quarrelsome, arrogant, power hungry or downright cruel.
Sweet moderation. But Life and Death are not moderate. It takes a massive surge of power to get born. It takes a massive release of power to release our hold on life and get ourselves dead, returning to the source or the dreamland from which we have come. Such is the power of Scorpio. For moderation, we need the Temperance card of Sagittarius or the hopeful Star of Aquarius.
Famous Scorpio natives
Hillary Clinton, politician, 26 Oct 1947
Dylan Thomas, poet, 27 Oct 1914
Billy Graham, evangelist, 7 Nov 1918,
Carl Sagan, astronomer, 9 Nov 1934
Robert Kennedy, 20 Nov 1925
King Charles 111, 14 Nov 1948
Thank you for reading.