Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Scorpio Considered

 Scorpio by David Palladini
In his book, Astrology published 1964, Louis MacNeice, not an astrologer, but a poet and scholar, gathered together much of interest from a variety of sources, ancient and modern. On zodiac sign Scorpio, through which the Sun now travels, he wrote the paragraphs below, quoting from some professional astrologers. This extract was not copied and pasted from elsewhere, but copy-typed by my own fair fingers; illustrations added by me.

NOTE: Mr MacNeice's seeming separation of male and female Scorpio-types, in the last paragraph, could be seen as unnecessary these days. what applies to the male applies also to the female!





Scorpio the Scorpion

October 24 - November 22.
A fixed, watery sign, ruled by Mars. Traditionally, people were frightened of Scorpio, since it is the eighth of the signs, and was thus often related to the eighth house, the house of death. Varley gives it rather alarming characteristics: "Scorpio has been occasionally found to afford to one class of human form when it is rising, a near approach to serpents, in the expression of the countenance, especially in the eyes and mouth; and when doing or saying cruel and bitter things, they are apt to be assimilated to the nature of snakes, scorpions, etc." This animal symbolism has been made much of by most astrologers, it is surprising to find a scorpion, usually encountered in hot, dry countries, established as a watery sign. (All the same, we are told that some modern Scorpio types excel at skin diving.)
The watery significance of Scorpio has been explained in different ways. Ingrid Lind says it is "the tidal wave of the thundering weight of Niagara." On the other hand Barbault contrasts it with the water of Cancer (the source) and the water of Pisces (the ocean) and makes it essentially stagnant, the kind of water that is found in marshes. This does not seem to fit with the energy and passion attributed to Scorpio characters, but Barbault no doubt is basing this diagnosis on the fact that Scorpio is a FIXED sign; after all, Cancer is cardinal and Pisces is mutable.

Stagnant or tidal, Scorpio is very peculiar. Barbault points out that the scorpion is the only animal that can kill itself (whether deliberately or not) by stinging itself with its tail. And he describes the sign as "the cemetery of the Zodiac." But readers who think themselves Scorpio types need not be alarmed: Scorpio has enormous stamina and can make a comeback like a phoenix. Having Mars as its ruler, it shows two main Martial qualities: aggressiveness and eroticism. Barbault writes that "the most murderous sign is also the most fecund." and to explain the apparent contradictions in Scorpio he once again, as with the preceding sign Virgo, calls in the anal complex. The Scorpio infant gets its first taste of pwer on the pot - and it will never look back.


Some modern astrologers prefer to think that it is the newcomer Pluto, rather than Mars, who is ruler of the sign, Pluto being the lord of the underworld. To look on the bright side of the sign, we are told that though the Scorpio man doesn't set out to please and doesn't like taking advice, he can be very good company just because he enjoys things so much. We are also informed that he often excels as a physician or a practical engineer and that Scorpio women make excellent cooks - and tend to have sexy voices like Edith Piaf. Born with Scorpio rising (which, according to some, endows a man with Spartan qualities) were Nelson, Kemal Ataturk, Goering, Mussolini, Franco, Nietzsche, Goethe, Victor Hugo and Edgar Allan Poe. Goethe's great hero Faust has been taken as a Scorpio type. Dostoevsky, Goebbels and Madame Curie had it as their Sun-sign.

Scorpio, being simultaneously fixed and watery, is like the two preceding signs, Libra and Virgo - complex if not self-contradictory. The next sign, Sagittarius, being mutable and fiery (which seems to make more obvious sense), is comparatively straightforward.


Astrologers mentioned:
André Barbault
John Varley
Ingrid Lind

Several earlier posts relating to Scorpio can be easily accessed via the Label Cloud in the sidebar.

8 comments:

mike said...

I'm a member of the perverse, paranoid, macabre, back-stabbing, fiendish tribe...LOL...Sun, Mercury, and Venus in that sign. Thank gawd for the levity of my Gemini Asc! Venus is in detriment in Scorpio and Uranus is exalted, as partial explanation of the anti-social, weird, and provocateur reputation of my membership.

I've had a good number of Scorpio Sun friends of both genders over the years. As a big generalization, I'd say that the males tend to fare better emotionally, though are usually considered the odd-balls by non-Scorpio Sun signs. The female Scorpion Suns can become entrenched in emotional issues, yet are more likely to be socially accepted, perhaps because they know how to work their sexual magnetism. Over the years, I've heard more complaints about Scorpio men than women.

Scorpio has the reputation for holding their partners in selfish, perverse, and deviant bondage, or having huge sexual appetites. In my personal experience, plus the experiences my Scorpio Sun friends have discussed with me, I'd say that the other Sun signs have the kinky desires...LOL. Sex tends to be more sacred to a Scorpio Sun, in my opinion, as an elevated form of expression.

Scorpio definitely has an attraction to the unmentionable and-or undesirable aspects of life. The stuff that most people keep tucked away in the recesses of their minds becomes fully explored by Scorpio. Scorpio recognizes that where there's light, there's dark. I've always treasured a line from Isabel Hickey that "evil" is live spelled backward and that "devil" is lived spelled backward...that's a Scorpio recognition...the devil of our fears is simply living on the Earth and experiencing the polarity of good vs evil that exists in the human condition.

Twilight said...

mike ~ First, Mr Scorpio, and in case I forget or am off-blog on the actual date: Many Happy Returns! I hope the coming Scorpio year brings calmer and more comfortable waters health-wise. :-)

Thanks for your personal take on the 8th sign.

Scorpio and Aquarius (Sun sign-wise) are not thought of as an automatically friendly pair due to their common "fixed" quality - both stubbornly attached to their own ideas and opinions. One Watery t'other Airy - air and water cause only bubbles! What they do have in common, though, is loyalty - also a side-effect of their "fixedness". :-)

As we've been watching a new short series on Netflix over the past two evenings ("Doctor Foster") I became more and more convinced that the Doctor Foster of this story has Sun and probably several other planets - and rising sign - in Scorpio!
Not sure if you'd like this British show, mike. 5 roughly hour-long episodes, not too far removed from soap opera fodder, though much better acted and with better dialogue. The main character, female doctor with a cheating husband, displays much textbook Scorpio flavour.

Also in Scorpio mood - the new episodes in series you reminded me about the other day: "Black Mirror". The last episode (about the drone bees) of the 3rd series is SCARY!!

mike (again) said...

Thanks for the birthday wishes, Twilight! Yes, another trip around the Sun for me.

Wow, "Black Mirror" season 3 was excellent, I thought. S3E1 ("Nosedive", ratings from 0 to 5!) was probably my least favorite, but only in comparing that episode to the other five. Those drones frightened you, eh?!

I believe there is still one episode that is not on Netflix...it's the Xmas special shown between S2 and S3, called "White Christmas". I need to check Netflix' S2 to see if it has been added-on to the S2's episodes.

"White Christmas" strangely connects several prior episodes:
"There are references to previous Black Mirror episodes in the special. In the beginning of the film, on the screen of Matt's computer where other people in the conference call are shown, one of users has the nickname 'I_AM_WALDO', and another 'Pie Ape'. The Z-Eyes are reminiscent of a similar device in 'The Entire History of You'. Clips of TV shows from 'The Waldo Moment' and 'Fifteen Million Merits' are visible when Joe flicks through the TV channels. The pregnancy test Joe finds was the same one as in 'Be Right Back'. A ticker tape during a news report mentions the prime minister from 'The National Anthem' as well as Victoria Skillane from 'White Bear' and Liam Monroe from 'The Waldo Moment'. Bethany sings 'Anyone Who Knows What Love Is', the same song that Abi sings in 'Fifteen Million Merits'."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_(Black_Mirror)


I'll check-out "Doctor Foster". We are almost into November, so there will soon be new Netflix offerings on their menu.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ Re episode 1 of season 3 Black Mirror - we couldn't even finish it - couldn't bear it any longer after around 20 minutes, so we moved along. Dang - things really could end up like that too! UGH!!

I liked the San Junipero episode, cleverly done - I had ideas about time travel being involved at first. :-)

We didn't watch season 2 - looked as though those eps. are all about Christmas, thought we'd leave it until December, at least.

mike (again) said...

Season 2 isn't Xmas-themed at all, unless Netflix did add "White Christmas" to S2.

Re S3E1...you should watch the last 5 or 10 minutes...Lacie hits rock bottom (rated as a 0 = time for suicide!) and ends-up in jail with more (verbal) freedom than the poor girl had experienced in a very long time...LOL. I suspect many teenagers already live in the social media, 0-to-5-evaluation world.

Yes, "San Junipero", replete with a happy ending, was even a bit unusual for the typical "Black Mirror" genre. Confusing in a pleasant way...I couldn't figure-out the different years and, like you, suspected time travel. I certainly didn't see the ending coming as it unfolded.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ Oh - well, will go back and take another look at Seas.2. There's definitely one Christmas-ish episode, not sure what made me think the whole season was likewise.

Social media has the potential for such development, especially as young people are getting involved and entangled earlier and earlier...like flies in a spider web! Will go back to the end of that ep. to see it.

mike (again) said...

I decided that air and water do co-mingle! Here in S TX we have some of the highest humidity (ugh). A cloud is water floating in air. Fish breathe air from water.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ Hmmm...ooo-kaayyy.... ;-) A tad uncomfortable and/or strained, though perhaps.

Re the fish one: dissolved oxygen moves into the blood and travels to the fish's cells. Air: the invisible gaseous substance surrounding the earth, a mixture mainly of oxygen and nitrogen. So, partially right - in Earthly terms if not astrological ones.