Scorpio

Persons born from October 24 to November 23, or those who have the sign Scorpio rising at birth (which can be ascertained only through a knowledge of the hour of birth), will come under the dominion of the watery, fixed, self-interested sign Scorpio, symbolized by the Scorpion and the Eagle.

Scorpio is a comparatively simple sign with which to deal, because there is no conflict in its planetary attraction. It contains no exaltation, and its ruler, Mars, “the god of War” is not inharmonious with the nature of the sign itself. Though Scorpio is a watery sign, it is water at its greatest strength. The incompressibility of water, its unconquerable determination to find its own level, are qualities that express Mars at his strongest. He is no longer the fiery, dashing young soldier we found in Aries. He is the seasoned veteran, with a tremendous sense of the realities of war and the power to endure every kind of hardship. He has lost the illusion that war is a matter of uniform, flags, decorations, processions and bands, varied by occasional spectacular charges of cavalry. This attitude is seen clearly in the physical appearance of the native.

The skull is generally of the broad type, though sometimes it may run very much in the other direction, on account {108} of the impinging Sagittarius influence. Scorpio, physically speaking, rather delights in extremes. The hair is usually dark, very strong and plentiful, sometimes wiry, sometimes crisp and curling. The face is square and may be mistaken for Leo, but for its high cheekbones and greater severity. The eyes are deep-set, with a fixed look of tremendous thought and power. One instinctively thinks of James Thomson's description of Bradlaugh: “Two steadfast and intolerable eyes.” To weaker types, there is often something exceedingly sinister in the gaze of natives of this sign. The nose is sometimes short and broad, sometimes straight, sometimes even aquiline, but whatever its shape, it always gives the impression of aggressive energy and powerful will. The mouth is somewhat large and the lips tend rather to thinness; at all times they remain firmly compressed. The chin is square and strong. There is occasionally some tendency to heaviness of jowl.

The passive modification of this type may be called feminine. Here the head is usually long and the face a very perfect oval, with an expression of voluptuousness. The lips are rather full and sometimes loose, but the characteristic heaviness of the lower jaw is nearly as conspicuous as in the more masculine type. These people are usually small in stature and slim in figure, but they are slow and at times clumsy in their movements. There is a superficial resemblance to Libra, but experience will soon show that while the fascination of Libra is, in a sense, well meaning, that of Scorpio is selfish and even malign.

The masculine type of Scorpio tends to be squat and thickset, often to a quite exaggerated degree. One imagines the Herculean dwarfs of romance to have been of this {109} type. So strong is the influence of the sign that it takes a very powerful planetary interference to modify it to any extent; the primitive characteristics remain recognizable in all disguises, however protean. The complexion, as a rule, is swarthy, and in men the beard is often exceptionally strong and thick. It is not infrequent for natives of this sign to have birthmarks such as moles. Where the planets are harmoniously balanced, the body becomes immensely strong, gifted with great endurance. It hardly ever happens that the Scorpio native is lithe and active. He spreads his energy over a long period. Quick action is not customary for him, though sometimes he has a capacity for exceedingly sudden and unexpected action. He can never run like a hare, but he can strike like a snake. His strength is never lumbering, as so often is the case with Taurus. It is exceedingly elastic; the nerves and the muscles are of tempered steel. In some respects, the native can stand a greater strain than any other type. One has only to quote the names of Sir Richard Burton, Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, Thomas Edison, Victor Hugo, Paul Kruger, and Benjamin Disraeli, who had Scorpio rising, to make it clear how intensely powerful is the resistance of this sign to physical and mental strain. The capacity for work appears quite unbounded.

The native of Scorpio generally enjoys a very robust type of health. Older Astrologers have insisted especially upon the attribution of this sign to the reproductive system, but this is a partial and limited view. Chemistry is preeminently the business of Scorpio. The chemical process of digestion (the transformation of the food into blood) comes under the influence of Scorpio, while the function of Leo only begins after the blood has been {110} manufactured; Virgo and Libra rule over the actual structure of their organs. The diseases peculiar to Scorpio, therefore, are not only those of the organs of reproduction. Many disturbances of the digestive system are to be traced to trouble in this sign. All toxic effects may be expected from him. All the internal secretions of the body – bile, gastric juice, semen, and so on – are under Scorpio. In the self-destroying qualities of this sign, we find also an indication that we should look for the cause of those malignant diseases in which every element of the body, even those whose function is normally protected, seem to turn against it. Finally, all forms of putrefaction and corruption, from ulcers to gangrene, are usually to be found with afflictions of this sign. The native's immense vitality assures him an exceedingly long life, unless he be overcome by one of the typical diseases referred to above. There is peculiar danger from some of the toxic complaints of infancy, but perhaps the most frequent cause of premature death is when the constitution is wrecked in adolescence or early manhood by the contraction of venereal disease. Then the native is sick from any cause, his sense of reality leads him to take immediate practical measures, and his characteristic energy urges him to employ drastic remedies. Scorpio fighting against sickness is just as efficient as in his other combats. He does not neglect his condition. He goes straight to bed when another man would keep on working, and seeks to drive out the disease by using the most powerful remedies that he happens to know of. There are no half measures with this type of man. The recuperative power is immensely strong, except in those diseases where the body turns traitor to itself. {111} The native always chooses surgical treatment where that is possible. Its radical nature appeals strongly to him.

The general physical characteristics of Scorpio are very well paralleled by the moral character. The will power of the native is so strong that at first sight it seems to put to shame people born under other signs, but this excessive strength easily degenerates into obstinacy. It lacks altogether the flexibility and tact of Libra. The native of Scorpio always goes directly to the point. He never compromises; he never beats about the bush; and he never gives in. In this sign, there is nothing of the judicial temperament which gives tolerance to Libra. The sign is tremendously selfish, far more so than even Capricornus. The undeveloped Scorpio native is the slave of his own will. He is absolutely bigoted and persists in his purpose even when he sees that to do so will lead assuredly to his own destruction. A scorpion ringed about with fire is said to drive its sting into its own body, and whether or not this is a fact of natural history, it is at least a very good description of the character of the native of this sign.

In judging the horoscope of anyone born under this sign, immense importance attaches to the uplifting aid of beneficial planetary aspects or positions, since there is no sign in all the zodiac capable of a wider difference between its higher and lower developments. If the expansive and altruistic nature of the Scorpio native be well fortified, we may find all this will power turned to noble ends. If, on the other hand, we find the constricted, selfish influences {112} predominant, we shall probably discover a most thorough scoundrel, capable of any kind of meanness, who will brook no opposition in the furtherance of his selfish purposes.

As an example of the higher development, we may consider the horoscope of Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace. Here Mars, the ruling planet, is in the humanitarian and altruistic sign Aquarius, and even though Mars is square to Saturn, that powerful planet is in trine to a conjunction of Neptune and Uranus, and the will of the native is thus turned to the pursuit of science and the occult. Jupiter is trine to a conjunction of the Sun, Mercury and Venus, which expands, strengthens and makes gracious the religious qualities. Here, then, we find the intense will power of Scorpio, dignified in every way by the excellence of the moral nature.

In the horoscope of Disraeli, Jupiter is rising in conjunction with Venus and Neptune, a combination which expands the influence of Jupiter without directing his energies to any great height of philanthropy, while Saturn is culminating, squared by Mercury, and this gives an intense sense of reality with some lack of scruple. On the whole, Saturn is decidedly stronger than Jupiter and we may acquiesce in the verdict of posterity that Lord Beconsfield's favorite number was Number One. On the other hand, in the horoscope of Vaillant, the anarchist, Mars in the Ascendant is sextile to Saturn, which is rising above Jupiter, both planets being corrupted by a square of Mercury and an opposition of Neptune. The altruistic side of the character may therefore be described as weak, visionary and irrational, while the strength of Mars and the bad aspects of Saturn drive that part of the character {113} which expresses hatred to the extreme of violent action.

Contrast with this the admirable figure of Sir Humphry Davy, where Jupiter is in exact conjunction with Neptune in the tenth house, Venus being trine, while Saturn, in Scorpio, usually a sinister figure in this sign, by a sextile both with the noble conjunction in the tenth and the gracious planet in the second, loses all of his bad qualities and greatly strengthens the character. It is easy to divine, from this, a well-balanced soul influenced without any internal struggle towards the ideas of altruism yet without any foolish neglect of his own interests. The mind of Scorpio is intensely critical and skeptical. It seeks truth with fearless and dauntless energy, once its powers are awakened, but undeveloped types of Scorpio never reach the point where such considerations apply. One of the symbols of this sign is stagnant and corrupted water, and by this the adepts of old wished to imply poisonous water. All watery signs are connected in a certain way with the past; though they might be divided by calling Cancer the past, Scorpio the present, and Pisces the future, yet the present of Scorpio remains unattached to the past unless aroused.

The skeptical attitude seems to be awakened more by personal dissatisfaction than by anything else. A child with Scorpio rising is not likely to question his religious or social surroundings as long as he gets on comfortably in them, but if his parents insist on forcing him to accept and conform with ideas that are repugnant to him, he will turn around like a trodden snake and strike. He is not going to waste any time pushing things out of the way, like Taurus, or devising plans to evade them, like Libra. Nothing will content him but the destruction of whatever {114} has annoyed him. Merely to destroy a church would be a trifle under such circumstances; the child will simply attack religion, root and branch. From being an indifferent, perhaps even an enthusiastic member of the community, he will become a furious skeptic. Moreover, he is revengeful. An incident of this kind will make him register a resolution of perpetual hatred. He will not be merely indifferent or contemptuous, he will become a militant atheist.

Similar troubles with regard to some sex restriction may turn him into a lifelong libertine. He will wantonly destroy his own health in order to gratify his sense of hatred for the attempted control; further, he will make this one of the dominating motives of his life. Not content with ruining himself, he will leave no stone unturned to ruin others, and he will often do all this with the most absolute sincerity and even with a conviction of the noblest and most self-sacrificing altruism. A certain existing principle has hurt him, and that principle must be wiped out of existence. He considers himself as an avenging angel and he has no sense whatever of balance – “other considerations never restrain him.”

In vain do you appeal to his better judgment. In all probability he sees your argument perfectly well, but no sooner does the time come for action than everything is swept away by his original impulse. Scorpio is a traitor often enough but he is never a turncoat. It is very rarely that he makes any radical change in his opinions during his whole life. When he appears to do so, it is evidence that they were never really his opinions at all, in any deep sense, but that the selfishness of the man, seeing personal advantage in going back on what he has always maintained, {115} has determined him to go over to the enemy. In the legend of Judas, who represents Scorpio among the twelve apostles, we see this quality of mind. The interest of Judas was in the contents of the bag; he was a thief and stole that which was put therein. It was when he made up his mind that the chief priests and Pharisees were determined to get rid of Jesus that he foresaw that there would be no more money in that bag, so he naturally took his chance of getting thirty pieces of silver and being on the right side of the fence. If he was actually born under Scorpio his subsequent suicide should not be attributed to remorse. We may fairly assume that in some way or other he was cornered and saw no way out but death.

The rigidity of the mind and its incapacity to weigh one thing with another produces a curious result. The mind is, as it were, a series of water-tight compartments. The Scorpio native is capable of holding two opinions which, to a Libra man for example, would appear directly to conflict with each other, and he will hold each with equal tenacity and bigotry. Suppose, for example, that he is devoted to the idea of freedom of speech. There is nothing in him that will prevent him also taking the view that socialists must be suppressed. His state of mind will appear either comic or damnable to almost any other sign, but it will be impossible to argue with him. Any argument brought forward will be taken up by him as evidently part of one or other of his contradictory views, and even when cornered by an expert logician, the result will be not to bring him to a perception of the incompatibility of his ideas, and to a resolution to reconcile their antinomy, but merely to make him angry. Taking a very {116} mild case, we find Dr. Wallace spending his whole life defending a scientific thesis, the logical tendency of which is manifestly materialistic, and at the same time firmly believing in spiritism in its crudest form. Kruger again, an intensely sincere Christian, saw no difficulty in acting contrary to every principle of the doctrine, as it would be interpreted by the average mind. His enemies called him a hypocrite, which was not at all true.

Scorpio has an almost superhuman capacity for facing facts. The native of this sign never recoils from the investigation of the subject because it is unpleasant. On the contrary, his tendency is to think that the best way of dealing with such a subject is always to probe it to its depth. Frequently, physicians are said to be under the influence of this sign, but it is far more applicable to the surgeon. Most great investigators have some strong Scorpio influence in the horoscope. Either that sign is rising or one of the mental planets, Saturn, Uranus or Mercury, occupies it or aspects its ruler.

In his investigations, the Scorpio native exercises unlimited patience and expends unwearied energy in overcoming obstacles. His efforts suffer considerably from the destructive tendencies of his method. He is not content with removing obstacles from his path, as Taurus does, or avoiding them and even absorbing them in the way that we associate with Libra; he seeks to demolish them. For instance, a man of science engaged in classifying butterflies, who finds himself confronted by an opposing theory, is not content to try to find the Golden Mean, nor will he be satisfied with proving the other man wrong. He will make the whole thing a personal matter. He will attack the other man, not only in the matter of butterflies, but {117} in his domestic life and his personal appearance. H. G. Wells has an excellent story called “Genus de Nova” which may be read as a most profound psychological study of the Scorpio man in controversy. A professor named Hawley disagrees with another called Pawkins about some minor scientific matter, and devotes his whole life to the crushing of Pawkins. In the process, he revolutionizes several sciences and makes for himself a European reputation; but the author makes it clear that the real driving force is hatred of Pawkins, an innocent old chap whom he has hardly ever seen and not at all the type of man to excite bitterness in an ordinary mortal. Hawley pursues him relentlessly, makes attack after attack, cruel and personal, upon the poor man, until he dies, his life probably shortened by the virulence of his antagonist. The latter, feeling that his occupation is gone, finds that he wants a rest. The emptiness created by the death of his enemy is so great that his mind, deprived of its natural sustenance of hate, begins to eat itself up, with the result that he has an hallucination – an imaginary moth of an entirely new species which after a few days begins to look to him like Pawkins. In the end, he goes mad.

One of the principal dangers of this temperament is its profound concentration upon its objects, its inability to rest. It is fortunate that this carries with it a tremendous capacity for work. The labors of such men as Burton, Wallace, Goethe and Edison would have crushed ninety-nine men in a hundred. Burton, although constantly engaged in the most terrible hardships of exploration, found time to translate or write over one hundred books, every one of them a masterpiece of observation and of scholarship {118} – “The Arabian Nights” alone fills sixteen very large volumes – and it is well known what an enormous amount of time Edison habitually devotes to the science of his work. Yet all these men have lived to a considerable age.

Burton, although he had exposed himself to every kind of fever and tropical disease in general, lived to be sixty-nine years old.

This temperament is, as a rule, singularly contemptuous of emotionalism in any form. The Scorpio native does not spare pains with himself, and as a rule he cares nothing for the sensitiveness of others. He expects everyone to be as strong as he is himself. He is, in fact, a somewhat dangerous associate, for his magnetism is so great that those who are working with him are insensibly drawn to emulate his vigorous energy, and they are extremely likely to overstrain themselves and collapse.

Scorpio, within his own limitations, is a great master of organization. He is intensely thorough in his preparation and his foresight is marvelous. In fact, it is one of the drawbacks to the immediate success of the very best types of this sign that they possess an idea so big that it is generally impossible of realization within the compass of a lifetime. We find them building for posterity, and perhaps suffering intensely in consequence of their absolute refusal to swerve from their appointed path in order to deal with temporary exigencies.

In money matters the native of Scorpio is so concentrated upon his own purposes that he will turn everything to his own account. It will, therefore, be only in the developed types that strict honesty in financial dealings may be expected, and even among these there is apt to be an exaggerated self-confidence in their own opinion of what {119} is fair play when the rights of others are involved. It is, therefore, a good sign for the acquisition of fortune; when well dignified, this fortune may be turned to noble uses, but always along lines that satisfy the individual ideas of its possessor.

The love of power is exceedingly well marked in this type. There is an immense personal magnetism in even the most unfortunate and wretched specimen, and in one way or another, the Scorpio native finds himself able to take the lead in his own circle. Here again the faculty of self-destruction comes into play. The native possesses no tact. He will say what he thinks, even though he is sincerely anxious to propitiate the man to whom he is talking and knows that he will offend him. He will go for an interview with a carefully considered scheme of dissimulation and, before he has been talking five minutes, he will blurt out the truth. The result is that this native ends by offending everybody. He is admired and he is feared. It may be that he is most intensely loved, but hardly anybody likes him. In the building up of a career, therefore, he is rarely fortunate. People are attracted violently and then as violently repelled. The attainment of a position in this world depends very greatly upon the good will of the people with whom one is associated, and Scorpio nearly always fails to take advantage of his opportunities in this direction. He gets on well enough when he is independent of others, but he does not understand either “pull” or “push.” Burton said of himself that he had every talent except that of knowing how to make use of the others. The best chance for the Scorpio native is to obtain the favor of some one powerful person and concentrate his mind on keeping it. {120} Scorpio has a courage corresponding to his energy, but this quality frequently degenerates into foolhardiness or cruelty. It may be regarded merely as the armor of the will, and it is evident that when the king does not sit down and take counsel as to whether with ten thousand he can meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand, he is likely to learn a severe lesson. Scorpio will not allow any consideration whatever to interfere with his determination. The Scorpio native is rather secretive when not in action, and his sudden revolts may surprise his circle as much as antagonize it in the moment of awakening.

Ibsen drew a perfect picture of a Scorpio woman in “Hedda Gabler.” The suddenness, violence, and exaggeration of her frenzies are totally incomprehensible, not only to her easy-going husband but to the clever man of the world who thinks that he has outgeneraled and mastered her; when, true to the Scorpio type, she kills herself, all the poor man can say is that people don't do that sort of thing. Such is, in fact, a very fair statement of the criticism which Scorpio almost invariably meets. Every typical act of the native is felt as an outrage, and in point of fact, every such act, though perhaps in itself easy enough to excuse, appears an outrage, because it is done in an outrageous way. Men or women with Scorpio rising will tear everything down to carry their point; wife, husband, children, home, family, friends – nothing counts against their definite purpose. If a woman with this sign rising falls in love, her family, her position, her career, all count for nothing. She does not hesitate for a moment; she shows openly her hatred and scorn for the world. {121}

In speech, Scorpio becomes fluent only when excited and is then frank, direct and vehement. He is not, by any means a good conversationalist, for he insists upon being the center of the gathering at which he happens to be. In writing, the style is rarely good from the academic standpoint. It is likely to be rugged and abrupt, intensely serious, possibly exalted in expression, and certainly profound. The native is likely to be a master of every detail of his subject, but the style is more impressive than pleasing. We have, fortunately three extremely fine examples of natives of this sign who attained eminence in literature. In each of these, strong planetary aspects gave an excellence in style which supplied exactly what Scorpio lacked, but in all of them the matter was far more important than the manner.

Sir Richard Burton's “Kasidah” is a compendium of all philosophy, but it is written without those pleasing harmonies that have endeared the inferior philosophy of Omar Khayyam to the average intelligence. Burton's Venus is afflicted by the conjunction of Mars, but even apart from this we should expect more force in the presentation than persuasiveness. Goethe achieved great success even in the art of pleasing – Venus sextile to Neptune giving him a singular power of dealing with the fantastic – but the chief wonder of this great poet is in the encyclopedic extent of his knowledge. It is sometimes forgotten that he spent ten years working at the theory of light. The point is that, fine as his work was, the value of the ideas contained is even more important. If we look at the horoscope of Victor Hugo we find similar qualities. We find the same power to assimilate facts and to investigate their nature. We also note that, {133} like the two other writers, matter counts for more than manner. Further, every one of these three men of letters spent a very large amount of energy in polemics. The hatred of Hugo was directed chiefly against the third Napoleon, that of Goethe and Burton more against ideas and systems; but the method in all three is the same – there is to be no compromise and no quarter; the evil thing is to be destroyed in such a way that it can never rise again; no consideration is allowed to any arguments which show that the evil has its good side; the thing is bad and it must go, and there is an end of the matter.

It will be fairly evident from the foregoing remarks how the native of Scorpio will behave in his home. As long as everything goes his way, all right; oppose him, and God help everybody.

There is no indication that the native is likely to leave home early in life. He has no natural inclination to test the unknown. As long as he sees advantage in remaining anywhere, there he stays. Vulgar types of Scorpio are often very domesticated in a fashion. Their vision happens not to extend beyond that very small circle, and all they can do is to make themselves the engines that keep everything going. Where this native lacks imagination, as is often the case, we get a type of housewife who rules the household with an iron rod and keeps everybody on the jump. She always manages to be in the right and is very much aggrieved when a quite mild husband openly rebels or, more often, leaves her.

In love, Scorpio produces the most intensely passionate people of any sign in the zodiac, but this passion is almost invariably selfish. When undeveloped, it is likely to be coarse, gross and bestial, associated with other kinds {123} of self-indulgence, such as overeating, and overdrinking. Incidental to his passion for work, if the Scorpio native should find his powers momentarily failing, he is apt to resort to stimulants. The native is generally consumed by a single and altogether devouring passion which takes no heed of any obstacles. He is excessively jealous and tyrannical, easy to offend, and revengeful when offended. If he forgives, it is not likely to be real forgiveness; it is rather that his passion is so strong that he cannot get along without its chosen object.

To Scorpio, also, must be attributed much of the madness of the “crime passional” and the abuses of the “unwritten law.” It would hardly be too much to say that in every case of crime which shows intensity of passion, mad jealousy, and total lack of balance, Scorpio will be found prominent in the horoscope of one of the parties concerned. It is, by the way, a great trick of the Scorpio type to satisfy its selfishness and accomplish its ends by setting people at loggerheads. Even the concentrated passion of Scorpio gives little real comfort in love. When the storm has blown itself out, there is nothing left but wreckage. Sexual excesses of various gross kinds frequently occur among people born with this sign rising, but the spirit is entirely different from that which characterizes the native of Libra in similar conditions. In Scorpio, the idea is not to refuse itself any possible intensification of pleasure.

In the matter of children, people with Scorpio rising are rather prolific in begetting children or bearing them, as the case may be, but Scorpio makes a poor parent. It is practically impossible for him to see the child's point of view or to make allowances for his natural character. {124} He is difficult enough in his dealings with people who are big enough to oppose him; to a defenseless child, he may become a veritable ogre. He may very often profess a passionate devotion and this devotion may even be genuine, but everything has to be done exactly as he wants it. There is no latitude, no elasticity; the home is run on the lines of a prison. In marriage, the native is usually tyrannical and overbearing. He should not marry if any active or antagonistic planets occupy the seventh house or aspect its ruler. His only chance of finding the condition tolerable is to meet a partner who is pliable, docile and patient.

What has been said with regard to the general relations of the Scorpio native with other people applies also to friendships. The chief difference is that one is not bound to a friend so rigidly as to a family or a lover. One can maintain friendship with a native of Scorpio by keeping him at a distance. Once intimacy is established, the danger of a break is imminent.

In business partnership, very much the same thing applies. There can be no harmonious cooperation with men of the Scorpio type. What they say goes. Natives of those signs which naturally look up to a strong personality, which love to rely on others, which enjoy being “bossed” because it relieves them of some dreaded responsibility, will prove the best partners for such people. In such cases, things may go very well. Scorpio likes to have somebody to whom the routine can be delegated without his interference. In business affairs, the Scorpio native is unscrupulous and grasping. He possesses foresight, but only along the lines peculiar to his temperament. He has little power of adaptation to new conditions. {125} Such people often run their businesses into the ground through the lack of the power to bend. They are not blind to what is happening, but they prefer to carry on and die in the last ditch.

In the conduct of public affairs, this sign is most unsatisfactory. It is not at all probable that the Scorpio native will meet anyone whose only idea will be to knuckle under. Dealings with equals invariably require tact and courtesy, and the general spirit must be that of compromise.

Scorpio has no idea at all of any of these things. He cannot see the other's point of view. The subconscious mind of Scorpio has a very wide range. The soul of the Scorpio native, so to speak, may be intensely noble or intolerably base, but in either case it is very rare to find any conflict between it and the conscious mind. In science and philosophy, the Scorpio native is liable to the same wide range; sometimes we find him intensely bigoted and narrow; in fact, this may be called the usual tendency, but against this must be set the fact that the knowledge is so encyclopedic that bigotry is rarely based on ignorance in such cases. It springs more commonly from a perverse determination to use all facts, however recalcitrant, to buttress the idiosyncratic will toward some main idea. In religion, we find this native intensely narrow and at the same time skeptical. The combination is often exceedingly unpleasant, but there is a general power of correlating the religious instinct with the sex nature or with the subconscious will in some manner, probably unconscious. A very common type is the passionate Protestant who has no real comprehension of what more humane and developed persons consider the nobler attributes of God as described in the Hebrew {126} Scriptures. Their God is the jealous God, who visits the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto even the third and fourth generation, and in accordance with the general practice of that type of God, they are without mercy and without scruple. They act with lust, brutality and ferocity, and can always find a passage from Scripture to justify themselves. Chesterton, in his story of the broken sword, gives an excellent description of this type of man. It is possible that the characteristic self-righteousness of the sign is due to the complete absence of conflict between the outer and the inner will.

It has already been explained how fiercely Scorpio resents any form of constraint, but this native can be ridden much more easily than he himself supposes, provided that an exceedingly light hand be kept upon the rein. So long as he does not suspect the control, so long as he imagines that he is himself directing matters, he can be led by the nose. His own selfishness and vanity may be used by a clever hand to make him do what one wants.

The Scorpio children should be given ample opportunity to work off their surplus nervous energy; otherwise it will tend to make them impatient, contrary and difficult to manage. It would be well to reason with them and to treat them as equals or companions, rather than to give them the idea that they must or must not do a thing simply because they are told. These children have tremendous will power and are very shrewd and penetrating. It will be almost impossible to deceive them, and so it would be wise to be very straightforward and frank in your relations with them. They will have a natural understanding of mechanics and should be given plenty of mechanical toys over which to puzzle. {127}

This sign gives its children a robust constitution and great recuperative power. Because of their inordinate amount of physical energy, they must be given ample opportunity to work it off in a normal, happy way; if suppressed, it is likely to react on their health. As selfishness, self-preservation and insincerity are so strongly marked in their make-up, they must be taught to share their toys and their pleasures with their playmates, and avoid having ulterior motives. Undeveloped types frequently make bullies and want to fight every child in the neighborhood. These children must realize that “the pen is mightier than the sword” and all types should make use of their clever mentality. It is very necessary that they should be given a broad education, in order that all the force which they possess may be wisely directed. Unless they desire to go through college, however, it would be much wiser to give them a manual, military or naval training, or a business course.

People born from the 20th of February to the 22nd of March, when the Sun is in the watery, unselfish sign Pisces, and from the 22nd of June to the 24th of July, when the Sun is in the watery and maternal sign Cancer, are naturally sympathetic and helpful to those born under Scorpio. Because their characteristics are complementary, they are very good partners for the Scorpio-born, matrimonially or otherwise. If too intimately associated with those born from the 21st of January to the 20th of February (Aquarius), 21st of April to 22nd of May (Taurus), the 24th of July to 24th of August (Leo), Scorpio natives will need to submerge their strong personality and determined will, in order not to be unduly antagonized or irritated. Such an intimacy might result in the native {128} of Scorpio bringing to the fore the least desirable traits of this very positive sign. For this reason, people born under Aquarius, Taurus and Leo would not make the most sympathetic or helpful partners, either matrimonially or in a business way. A period of about seven days – November 21 to November 28 – when the vibrations of Scorpio are merging into those of Sagittarius, and Sagittarius still retaining some of Scorpio, is known as the cusp. People born between these dates will partake of the shrewdness and energy of Scorpio and the magnanimity and generosity of Sagittarius, or a combination of the two. As Mercury, ruling the mentality, and Venus, the love nature, are so close to the Sun, they, too, may partake of some of the qualities of the adjoining signs of Scorpio. This will account for some of the complex personalities so difficult of comprehension.

With this sign also, the deductions have been drawn from the position of the Sun or Ascendant; therefore it is probable that some friends or uncongenial associates will be found under other signs than those mentioned. In such cases, the individual horoscopes must be consulted to ascertain how the stars combine with those of the Scorpio-born, and to determine the effect of the combination of influences upon both persons.

These indications can be general only, and will not cover all the characteristics of an individual as he knows himself, since the influence of the planets modifies the signs. A detailed statement of the horoscope must be made to discover the whole truth. {129}

Previous | Index | Next