Scorpio: Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi. Liber Locis Stellarum Fixarum (964 AD).

Presenting Scorpio in a solidly good light is an infamously rare event.  Dane Rudyhar attempted to do the sign justice in his humanistic astrology. He writes in”The Pulse of Life: “The condemnation heaped upon Scorpio, “the accursed Sign,” has paralleled the identification of sex and sin, which has conditioned so much of our Christian Western civilization. The subject, therefore, has become invaded by “complexes” and set attitudes, not easily transformed even by the most acute analysis.”

I find this deeply ingenuous as well as tendentious. The is no doubt a great deal of truth regarding cultural views of sexuality in relation to particularly monotheistic religions. They are in fact mostly negative and undeniable. It is however rather cliche to ‘blame it all on the system.’ There are two glaring problems with Rudyhar’s position, First of all, it tells us virtually nothing about Scorpio itself. The ensuing paragraphs are highly abstract and so laboured that one has to ask if he believes it himself. Secondly, he doesn’t adequately explain why it was known as the accursed sign in the first place and this beyond the realms of Christendom

The majority of classical texts put far more emphasis on planets than signs, However, here is the testimony of Avraham Ibn Ezra on Scorpio who is not Christian, but Jewish:“he is ugly and has no voice nor pleasant speech, and he has many children, He is destructive, treacherous, irascible, liar a gossip, depressed and intelligent, cunning and deceitful.`(Beginning of Wisdom p. 57,)

I want to make it very clear that Ibn Ezra breaks the sign down into several subcategories such as Face and Sect, the worst reports are from a diurnal nativity because the cholera of Mars is magnified during the day and is cooled by night,  Still, there isn’t anything particularly savoury under any conditions. For all intents and purposes, we are confronted with an accursed sign. Notably, there is no specific mention of sex, in spite of the fact that the sign of Scorpio is assigned to the genitals.

Day of the Dead – Mexico

This is actually more useful in medical astrology. We would not say that Taurus is explained by its association with the neck or Capricorn with the knees. The information is relevant and helpful but doesn’t pretend to define the sign as is usually the case with Scorpio.

Seasonally it is getting ever darker and light will not wax again until the Solstice. Festivals such as Samhain, All Soul`s Night. Day of the Dead and many others are celebrated during this time. It is said that the veil between the worlds is at it`s thinnest at Samhain, What emerges is not predominately sex, but death and our ancestral relations.

We live in what must be the greatest death denying culture ever imagined. Many people don`t want to talk even about what might lie in the hereafter.  We could say that death is the substratum of all fears. The irony is that in modern astrology it is sex, not death that defines Scorpio. Traditional astrologers have actually not been much better in `giving the Devil his due.“

The implications for the misunderstanding of Scorpio are deep and widespread. Modern astrology has given the Eighth, not the Fifth House as concerned with sex. Death is mentioned, but the french term *petite mort* for the orgasm is weakly held up as the great connection between sex and death

This is where a revisiting of the works of Traditional Astrologers might be very useful. Scorpio stares down mortality. It beings reverence to our ancestors and allays many of our fears. Some Hispanic cultures, notably Mexican. have made an art out of celebrating the close relationship between life and death. Lanterns and candles are lit to guide the ancestors home. This, it seems to me is at the heart of Scorpio, yet the sign has been maligned for centuries. 

Addenda:

In light of comments made on Facebook and elsewhere, I would like to clarify what I mean by Scorpio. I’m referring to the sign itself and not to Sun sign Scorpios per se. When discussing personal traits, traditional astrology is primarily referring to the Ascendant. It should be needless to say however that the qualities and nature of Scorpio may be applied to any of the planets, luminaries and more, It may seem a fine point, but traditional astrology doesn’t refer to people by sign itself. For example, there is Aries, but we wouldn’t say that person over there is *an Aries* at least nor exclusively Again, this may seem subtle but is a very significant change in meaning that allowed for the blight of newspaper Sun Sign Horoscopes,

“Know that you are another world in miniature and have in you Sol and Luna and even the stars.” – Origen Homiliae in Liviticum 5, 2.

Astrology was born and nurtured within the context of a world view which is either completely forgotten or considered to be only of academic interest in the majority of first world societies. To forget this interconnectedness is to settle for a trivial astrology or none at all.

Many readers will be familiar with the Hermetic dictum, “As Above, So Below” but we can also talk of what is without is within. Every possible element of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual state are under the governance of one or more of the seven sacred planets and luminaries. This includes considerations such as chakras

So the chart isn’t only descriptive, it actually provides keys for those who wish for a deeper understanding, Usually, the initial motive for doing so is some form of suffering. One wants to understand the source and by doing so be confronted with realistic choices. The elements of the chart become as it were animated. In fact, the chart can be the doorway for shamanic experience, but none of this can happen if the client has no interest in learning some basic elements regarding the planets and luminaries, first and foremost. That is to say, they will do well to attempt to connect with these energies

With the exception of horary and to some degree electional charts, questions asked tend to be more complex than most clients would likely realize. To get the full benefit of the treading, the client cannot be entirely passive. Unfortunately, most clients have little or no interest in this. The most disappointing readings are done for those  who say something like “I don’t want to know about the planets, I just want the answer.”

The problem is that understanding how astrological elements play out in the various levels of being is actually a large part of the answer. A refusal to attempt to connect with the sources results, to one degree or another in a fast food version of astrology. This is of course among other things a hopelessly deterministic view of things, but the irony generally extends to include a flat denial of anything pre-ordained. The cosmological nature of astrology demands some degree of acknowledgment if the reading is to be much more than skin deep in its reception.

What the naysayer is actually suggesting is that his or her problems  are not really theirs, that the chart is such an abstraction that it cannot be approached or isn’t worth approaching. That is to say it’s a denial of correspondence, either “As Above, So Below” or that what is *outside* has nothing to do with what is within. The reader of the horoscope is seen as nothing more than a fortune teller.

This is where the shamanic approach can be employed to great advantage. There is a surprising amount of confusion about what shamanism really is. Many people  with whom I’ve spoken, have difficult getting past the cliched trappings of the “Witch Doctor,” a nomenclature employed to denote “Primitive” in a negative, even derogatory sense. I have even been told I have no right to be a shaman because I’m *white,* which among other things shows a very great ignorance of indigenous European people. All Shamans will tell you they facilitate access to the spirit realm.

This is true but we also need to remember that every element of creation has a spirit. which is inexorably connected to what some shamans refer to as Great or Divine Spirit.  The true shaman doesn’t follow man made laws, but follows spiritual ones.  This has sometimes given the impression of the shaman as somehow feral, which is actually fair enough.

It is an inestimable tragedy that humanity has mostly lost any true sense of belonging to the natural or divine order and it will be the death of us.. When we see *nature* as *other* we have already ceased to be conscious of the interconnection, and equality of all beings. A sane person would not consider an owl or a polar bear as expendable,

The shaman can and does facilitate access to the spirit realms, thus facilitating insight and retrieval of spirits. A world that contains an island of plastic the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean and allows natural crops to be replaced by cloned ones is in great need of a radical wake up call. It is of the utmost importance that we remember who we really are. Astrology can be a powerful tool in this regard, both personally and in the larger context of humanity,

When applied through the medium of shamanic astrology, we can access the planetary energies in a personal yet universal way. No two charts are the same, so what we have is something very personal. However, like a mandala inner and outer are represented and laid out in a cosmic map to be discerned by the shaman

There are only seven planets and luminaries and the basic meaning of each one is actually quite easy to grasp. There is of course a vast depth of meaning that only a great deal of study and practise can realize. This blog does contain articles on all planets from a traditional point of view, as well as the nature of the humours and so on for those interested in this. There is also an extensive library of mostly primary source texts for scholars of the Art.

Start with the luminaries and personal planets. The social planets, Jupiter and Saturn will come later. To begin with, think of the differences between the Sun and Moon. We might ask what is solar energy in astrology. The Sun is it’s own light and moves outward. The Moon is reflective of the Sun, with no light of her own, yet she turns the tides, regulates vegetative phenomena and mirrors the menstrual cycle.,

Your natal chart is inseparable from yourself, so the most important thing is to be willing to experience the various energies . In mythologies from all cultures and in all great literature and art we see these archetypal forms in dynamic expression. The reading becomes experiential rather than a transfer of information to a more or less passive recipient. I believe that astrology is yet to realize its golden age