Tenacity, endurance, sensuality, obsession, resentment, obstinacy, ego-inflation. Click here for your personal reading

October 24 - November 22

Basic Personality

The classic Scorpio personality appears to have all the restless energy of a building thunderstorm, but can sometimes lack the lightning rod to safely 'earth' the power produced. Nevertheless, Scorpios have a remarkable power to step over, as it were, the damage done by a 'lightning strike', rise from the ashes like the phoenix of ancient mythology, and make good elsewhere. In other words, Scorpios can feel driven by the churning of their own inner dynamism, and act as though they are at its mercy, impulsively expending energy, emotional and physical, in ways that prove negative at best and disastrous at worst. Unresolved, seething emotions, especially jealousy and resentment, partly account for the misappropriation of energy that results in their disasters. Such disasters do not hinder them applying all their seemingly undiminished energies to the next thing that interests them, and if obstacles arise before they have obtained their goals, at best these will act as a stimulus, making the goal more desirable, or they will be seen as merely part of the task.

Scorpios are capable of quite remarkable achievements when they make a conscious decision to stay in touch with the progress of their emotions so that these help rather than hinder the productive flow of their energies in the achievement of positive and worthwhile goals. Admiral Lord Nelson, a classic Scorpio personality, was a commander-in-chief in the British navy. He used many unorthodox tactics in naval battles, sometimes with disastrous results, but more often with brilliant and unexpected results. He overcame great personal odds (sometimes of his own making) to maintain the 'on again, off again' progress of his naval career. He was elevated to the peerage and his career culminated in the famous Battle of Trafalgar where his brilliant tactics overcame the best efforts of Napoleon Bonaparte, and saved his country.

The personal, and particularly the intimate relationships of Scorpios are usually the source of much positive and negative emotion. Mars rules Scorpio, who shows the two main qualities of Mars' influence - aggression and eroticism. (Some modern astrologers would have us believe that Pluto rules Scorpio - see Why Pluto is on the Outer for more details.) Danger is often associated with the Scorpio personality and Mata Hari, the famous Dutch spy and archetypal 'femme fatale', personifies the eroticism of the classic Scorpio, especially the female, as well as the possibility of excitement in the form of a delicious kind of danger for potential lovers. Such danger may prove to be the scorpion-like 'sting' of jealousy, which may be a particular problem for Scorpios, or resentment if the partner is undemonstrative or cold towards them. Like the scorpion, Scorpios are capable of injecting the sting of jealousy into themselves, poisoning their relationships. At other times, their achievements can lead to an over-estimation of themselves, or there may be a prideful ego-inflaction associated with resentment if they are thwarted, especially in love.

Scorpios are sometimes unaware of the extent of their need for emotional and financial security. This may be observed, for example, when they apply their dynamic energies to winning over the right partner, often when others would have given up, and in working exceptionally hard, sometimes to extremes, to establish and advance their careers. Their need for financial security may lead others to see them as 'money hungry', but their main underlying motivation is most often that of securing the future, or what they perceive as a struggle for survival. The greatest challenge for the Scorpio individual is that of maintaining an awareness of their own emotional lives (rather than the emotive brooding that encourages a build-up of 'storm energy'), and directing their energies creatively rather than allowing them to happen randomly. Remember the 'storm energy' has the potential to wreak havock or to bring refreshment.