Health, the Zodiac Signs & Scorpio

While I don't fully disagree that the way the planets were configured at the time of a person's birth can have a bearing on the general health of that person, I'm wary of placing too much reliance on that traditional theory. There are so many other life factors to take into consideration: heredity, environment, family circumstance and ethnicity for starters. Still, if astrology provides even a single strand of input, it's worth bearing in mind.

Last week, in a junk shop, I picked up the only astrology book I found on our Texas trip. It's a 1961 paperback by Janet Harris: Astrology for Everyday Living. Fairly run-of-the-mill stuff, I'd say - written by Sun sign with chapters on various life topics: personality, health, partner, children, career, home, leisure.....you know the drill! One chapter title irked me a bit, but the book was written in 1961: How to help your husband succeed. Just another of little wifey's duties? Sadly, and predictably even for a non-astrologer, there was no matching chapter on "how to help your wife to succeed".

Getting back to the health issue then, and, as the Sun is still in Scorpio, let's see what Ms Harris had to say about health issues for Sun Scorpio people - also applicable to other "Scorpio-types" I guess. Perhaps I'll fish out more in this vein for other signs as they come around.

In regard to your health, as well as to every other aspect of your life, you believe that you are "master of my fate". (Note from your blogger: that sounds oddly put, to me. Editor asleep on the job? - I doubt any reader ever believed they were master of Ms Harris's fate, it'd be made clearer by omitting the quote marks and making it "your" fate.) Anyway..... Your long suit is willpower. You feel that you can control the state of your health, simply by willing it. You have no patience with any sort of ailment or infirmity. Like Theodore Roosevelt, a Scorpion, who turned the delicate health of his youth into a vigorous maturity, you believe in all forms of strenuous exercise. You have great powers of endurance, and can triumph over a physical condition that would lay low anyone else.

If you are typical of your sign, you are thick-set, strongly knit, and sturdy. The sign indicates large bones, a powerful jaw, and a determined mouth. The eyes tend to be piercing and cold, the eyebrows bushy. The women of this sign have a voluptuous beauty, and the men are very masculine in appearance.

It is fortunate that nature has endowed Scorpio natives with strong bodies, for these people frequently indulge in excesses that would ruin a less sturdy constitution. They tend toward overeating and drinking. Sex is ruled by Scorpio, and in this area, too, moderation and discretion must be used.

If you are a typical eighth-sign native, you tend to disregard the first warnings of illness. You do not trust doctors, and you detest bed-rest. It is a real effort for you to take any sort of curative measures, and as for periodic check-ups - the idea rarely occurs to you! If you are really sick, though, you are a good patient, for you have outstanding courage. When it comes to pain, you simply "grin and bear it".

By and large, you are strong enough to resist many of the ailments that plague your weaker brothers and sisters. If you are careful about watching for danger signals and obeying sensible rules of hygiene, you are among the longest-lived people in the Zodiac.

Hmmmm. Strange she didn't mention that in traditional astrology Scorpio rules the sex organs, though she did mention sex, in passing, and there's a veiled comment about being careful about hygiene. The author was probably wary of being overly explicit and continuing the thought that Scorpio-types can be extra likely to suffer from problems connected with the genitals - STD's and suchlike.

I'm not sure how much we can rely on those ancient zodiac sign/body part lists.



(Right: The signs of the Zodiac and the parts of the body they govern, from: Gregor Reisch. Margarita philosophica. Freiburg: Johann. Schott, 1503. Below, a 20th century version.)

I have Sun in Aquarius, ankles are supposed to be a weak spot for Aquarius people - and oddly enough I do have a problem there. It arises from an inherited tendency to poor circulation in lower legs. I happily avoided the varicose veins which seriously plagued my mother and her father, but have inherited a dicky valve in the left ankle. It was the indirect cause of a 2-year long ulcer on top of my left foot some 15 years ago. The original minor injury, a burn from a metal decoration on my sandals heated by the sun, wouldn't heal. The wound gradually enlarged and deepened into a nasty painful ulcer, which took 2 years and a lot of effort to heal. My father had Sun in Aquarius too, and he had varicose eczema on his lower legs for most of his life. So I will not rule out the possibility of zodiac sign/body part correlation. How or why this could possibly be so, even in SOME cases - I have no idea!