Solar Zodiac · The Sun's Path
Scorpio
“All or nothing, and it decided which some time ago.”
Polarity: negative · Modality: fixed · Element: water · Ruler: Pluto
Scorpio is fixed water ruled by Pluto, and it is the sign of depth in the literal sense: what is underneath, what is not being said, what people do when they think nobody is reading them. It is intense by default rather than by choice, loyal to very few, and constitutionally incapable of the middle setting on anything that matters. Its constellation carries the sky's most explicit grudge. Orion boasted he could kill every animal on earth, and a scorpion was sent to stop him, and it did. The two were placed at opposite ends of the heavens so they can never appear together: as Scorpius rises in the south, Orion is already setting in the west, still fleeing after several thousand years. The scorpion's heart is Antares, a red supergiant whose name means the rival of Mars, because it burns the same colour as the war planet and refuses to be mistaken for anything lesser. A Scorpio reads people accurately and says almost none of it out loud. They keep confidences absolutely, commit totally when they commit at all, and are excellent in a crisis because intensity is their resting state. The cost is the memory: this sign does not simply recall a betrayal, it files it, and the door that closes afterwards is not the kind that reopens because someone apologised well.
Scorpio Dates
The Sun is in Scorpio from October 23 to November 21.
The boundary moves by a day or so from year to year, because the solar year is not a whole number of days. If you were born within a day of either end, check your birthday against the finder rather than the table.
Scorpio Ancient Zodiacs
Every sign a Scorpio can be, one for each year of the Chinese zodiac.
- Ant: Scorpio Rat, “Small, relentless, and part of something much larger.”
- Rhino: Scorpio Ox, “Two tonnes of certainty, aimed at whatever moved.”
- Wolverine: Scorpio Tiger, “Small enough to ignore, and it takes the kill anyway.”
- Grasshopper: Scorpio Rabbit, “Quiet and green for years, and then something changes.”
- Crocodile: Scorpio Dragon, “Waits without moving, and the wait is the strategy.”
- Basilisk: Scorpio Snake, “Looks straight at you, and something in you gives way.”
- Unicorn: Scorpio Horse, “Untouchable by nearly everyone, and given entirely to one.”
- Llama: Scorpio Goat, “Carries the load, sets the limit, and will not be argued with.”
- Harpy: Scorpio Monkey, “Takes what it came for, out of the sky, without warning.”
- Wasp: Scorpio Rooster, “Precise, unloved, and it can sting as often as it likes.”
- Bee: Scorpio Dog, “Will spend everything it has on the hive, once.”
- Warthog: Scorpio Pig, “Backs into its own doorway, tusks facing out.”