It may well be said that the vindication of Scorpio is one
of the tasks that modern astrology has succeeded in
accomplishing.
  There is a classic story about a man who wrote a
"Vindication of Hercules" which produced the comment, "But
who ever attacked him?"
  This cannot be said of Scorpio, which had an undeniably
bad reputation in the past.
  As we know, the Babylonians were great dualists: gods on
one side, evil spirits and demons on the other.
  Since it has been held for a long time...probably from
those early days...that the negative signs showed the
undesirable aspects of the ruler's nature, that put Scorpio
on the wrong side at the start.  But Mars was also, it
seems, the real malefic of the old Mesopotamian system,
Saturn being regarded as a good planet.  This may have been
founded on weather considerations; in a very hot dry country
Mars would be looked on with distaste.  After an unfortunate
summer (so far as holidaymaking goes) we had a pleasant
beginning to this month, following on Mars opposition
Jupiter.  In this climate, and at the warmest part of the
year, a Mars-Jupiter contact is a pretty reliable indication
of heat and a good aspect to have for one's vacation.  What
values it may have in other countries I do not know, but in
so far as the Middle East goes a prominent Mars was
disliked.
  So the dog was given a bad name, and Scorpio came down to
us as being the negative vehicle of a bad planet.
  Henry Coley, disciple of William Lilly, wrote in his
Clavis (1676) that Scorpio has "strong able corpulent body,
but is of a mean stature, yet big-limbed, strong and active,
willful, malicious, false, deceitful, of a sad brown hair,
crisp or curling, a dark sallow complexion, an hairy body,
short necked, broadfaced, and oftentimes bow legged, quick
in bodily motion and a person of reserved thoughts."
  He adds: "Places: It signifies all muddy moorish grounds
and stinking lakes, ditches, quagmires, gardens, vineyards
and orchards, all sinks in houses, wash-houses, ruinous
houses, near waters, all places where creeping and venomous
creatures frequent, and such places where usually rubbish is
laid."
  This last paragraph will interest those who practice
horary astrology.  I would only comment that it seems
difficult to see why "gardens, vineyards and orchards" are
included with the other uniformly unpleasant things; and one
might conjecture that gardens and orchards would more likely
come under the sway of Venus than Mars.
  However, it is true that fruit was presented as a bait to
Eve by that serpent which was an embodiment of Scorpio; and
also that a "golden apple" (perhaps an orange) was thrown by
Discord on to the table of the Gods and that this eventually
led to the Trojan war.  So perhaps Coley knew what he was
talking about.
  If the significator of a lost article were in Scorpio, I
should, so far as modern houses go, look in the cellar and
the water-closet; and in the garden one might suspect the
rubbish-heap or compost-heap as concealing the object in
question.
  However, to return to the first of Coley's paragraphs, in
which, rather confusedly, he treats of the physical
appearance and the disposition of the sign we are
discussing.
  Physical appearance is a bugbear to us all.
  There is always a recognized type, or perhaps two distinct
types, but so often the native, be his ascendant what it
may, has virtually no resemblance to it at all.  Other
factors enter in, such as the solar or lunar emplacement, a
planet on the M.C., or a planet closely aspecting the rising
degree.  But some astrologers have an uncanny ability to
recognize not only rising signs, but even what are in a
particular sign rises.  This leads one to suspect that the
matter should be studied in terms of 5½ "faces" or some such
subdivision of the signs.
  Young children are often quite unidentifiable so far as
their appearance goes; and even in later years changes come
about and points that escaped notice before come out more
clearly.
  I should say the most constant feature in Scorpio is the
prominent nose, but it is by no means always there.
  The hair is either very dark or red or reddish, the latter
when Mars is in aspect to the ascendant.  As Coley says, it
is often crisp and less profuse in growth than the other
water signs or those of earth.
  Low forehead, prominent eyebrows, a complexion often
reddish but also frequently pale, rarely rosy or fresh.
  The body is often strong and the shoulders broad, but as
Coley says, the stature is seldom impressive.  I agree that
the bow legged are usually Scorpios.
  Just as Capricorn often produces handsome examples despite
the deplorable descriptions of the ancients, so too does
Scorpio.  But its chief asset, I hazard, is its dignity of
bearing, which can be impressive.
  Of course this is most often to be found in the better
educated types, using the word education in a wide sense.
The less desirable examples can be uncouth, rude, even
brutal, with a tendency to brag and bully, and above all, a
characteristic "chip of the shoulder" as modern slang has
it.  The Scorpio who feels ill-treated, unappreciated and
underpaid can harp persistently on his grievances.  This is
the unevolved Scorpio rising.
  As with most, if not all, signs, a better manifestation
usually appears when the Sun is in the sign than when it
rises.
  I would say the virtue of nearly all natives of the sign,
or people with the sign stressed, is their willingness to
work.  There is surely no worker like a Scorpio.  An
example: Thomas A. Edison.  Further, they can be
slave-drivers in their demands on others.
  Hardships and rough conditions attract them rather than
the reverse.  Examples: Sir Ernest Shackleton, Sir Edmund
Hillary.
  By the way, note the name "Ernest"...it denotes, almost
always, a Scorpio element in the map.
  Scorpio is said to have a relation to the letter "B."
Certainly Scorpios can be masters of vituperation and also
hard swearing, and the letter "B" figures largely in words
of abuse and profanity.  Do we not say "swear like a
bargee"?
  But I should have thought "B" would be Taurean and that
the 8th sign would take the 8th and 20th letters..."H" and
"T". "H" is certainly the initial letter of the place of
torment so far as Germanic languages go; and we have Hades
in Greek.  Also, "torquere"= to twist and serpents are, I
suppose, as twistful animals as any.
  Is the scorpion the best symbol of this sign?
  I really don't know much about this animal except that it
is by no means popular where it is a native.

  However, here are some points worth noticing:
  a. They can endure hunger for more than a year without dying, and those that inhabit the deserts can go without water for many months.
  b. "Even the most primitive forms of animal association are not known among scorpions.  All species live strictly individual lives or else fight to the death." (Encycl. Brit.)
  I should say that in a sense our Scorpios do live
individual lives.  The sign, after all, squares that of
friendship.  They always have an inner individual life, I am sure, but that does not make them unfriendly so far as ordinary social life is concerned.
  c. The encyclopedia has much to say of their poisonous properties, which varies of course with the species.  In some cases it is no worse than a wasp bite; in other kinds, death may ensue.
  d. The story that when cornered in a circle of fire the
scorpion commits suicide by stinging itself is unfounded.
  e. Its principal enemies appear to be ants and baboons, both of which might be placed under the 11th sign. Certainly ants appear Aquarian in their organisation.

  One can only say that if the scorpion is a true symbol of
the sign, it is so only as regards the less desirable
qualities.  The scorpion has no friends, but by all accounts
the late Aneurin Bevan, who had the Sun and four planets in
this sign, was in social intercourse and attractive man.
But he has been described as a master of invective, which he
certainly was, and so the Scorpio came out.
  Many have thought the Eagle is a better symbol.
  This commends itself, and the "eagle eye" is not an
uncommon feature of the typical Scorpio.
  But the constellation Aquila is nowhere near the sign of
Scorpio.  Robson tells us that its ecliptical extent is from
12 Capricorn to 15 Aquarius; and the brightest star, Altair,
falls in one-half Aquarius.
  The constellation Scorpio extends from 23 Scorpio to 26 of
Sagittarius, and contains the dying giant Antares.  This is
now in 8 Sagittarius but undoubtedly carries with it a
Martian value.  Sir Winston Churchill has his Sun conjoined
with it, and whatever his rising sign may have been, this
alone would confer strongly Scorpionic qualities upon him.
  About the beginning of the century there was a conjunction
of Jupiter and Uranus on Antares; and this must have
produced some dangerous examples who were approaching middle
age at the time of the Second World War.  Amongst these I
single out for dishonourable mention Heinrich Himmler, whose
ruler Jupiter was.
  Worse still, at the close of the 19th century Neptune and
Pluto were conjoined in opposition to Antares; and here we
have Goering.
  I recommend Antares as a star to watch.  It has only 4½ of
latitude (South) so that it fits into the zodiacal pattern.
  To return, I would say the Serpent is the best symbol of
Scorpio.
  It extends over 62½ of the ecliptic, from 13 Scorpio to 15
Capricorn.
  The myth connects it with Aesculapius, the god of healing.
  It is a symbol of occult power, and this Scorpio certainly
possesses.
  It seems nearer the astral world than any other of the
twelve, but its relation with the supernormal (or should I
say subnormal?) is variable.
  If it has a conscious knowledge of its hidden powers this
may subject it to grave temptations as well as to
aspirations to enlighten and heal mankind.  It was the
choice between Jekyll and Hyde that to a greater or lesser
degree confronts many of us.  Happily many children of
Scorpio have chosen the white path and the aspiring flight
of the eagle rather than the poisonous bite of the scorpion.
  But sensitivity to the astral forces without true
knowledge is dangerous in the highest degree.
  The writer of "Macbeth" has portrayed this for all to see
and understand.  The Scot was a brave warrior, but at the
least touch of the supernatural his nobler powers desert him
and his courage fades out.  It almost seems as if the great
dramatist must have deliberately set out to write the
downfall of a Scorpio.
  Scorpio is a boon to the writers of thrillers; the
detective is Scorpio, and so too are those whose misdeeds he
detects.
  Yet, curiously enough, I find little evidence in actual
cases of the supposed villainy of this sign.
  It is a sign of long ascension in the northern hemisphere
and so, for good or evil, there are many Scorpios about.
And when the birth-hour of a criminal is in question, there
are writers who will at once suggest that "he must have been
a Scorpio." Yet so far as my studies in crime go, they do
not point to Scorpio so much as to a preponderance of the
first two or last two signs.  Such preponderance gives rise
to two types: Aries and Taurus, the violent and brutal
criminal; Aquarius and Pisces to the more subtle.  Perhaps
its iron self-control saves Scorpio from many crimes.
  One can see the difficulties of a sign of fixed-water,
with a ruler like Mars, not to mention an affinity with
Pluto.
  Pluto I do not condemn out of hand on the principle that
it is a case of the dog that has been given a bad name.  If,
that is, we agree that Pluto is a bad name.  And that seems
open to question.  He was often designated by the ancients
as "inexorable" but at the same time myths tell us of times
when he relented.  He may not have been desirous of ruling
the nether world; it came to him, if I remember rightly, by
lot.
  In my view Pluto has an affinity with death only because
this is the end of a chapter.  I have noted that his
directions have sometimes indicated a death in the family,
but not by any means necessarily a premature or painful
disease.  In any case death has its place in the order of
things.  No one wishes to die early or painfully, but on the
other hand, who would wish to be tied to this same body
forever?  Must not the unfolding soul require fresh and
better bodies to match its own growth?
  But as many of you know, I like to think of this planet as
being really Janus, the god of beginnings and
endings...birth as well as death.  So he often indicates by
direction, events and unfoldments that have no very evident
relation to death, such as are frequently pleasant.  For
example, buying a new house or marriage or parenthood.
  In a word, Pluto seems to me less negative than Mars, who
is often the bulldozer that clears the site.  Pluto has a
definitely constructive aspect.
  Perhaps I have gone too far even to say that he has an
"affinity" with Scorpio, leave alone claiming
part-rulership.
  From Mars Scorpio gets its ability to work hard.  Indeed
these natives delight in muscular exercise.  Much more so
than the Sagittarians who are so often credited with being
great athletes and sportsmen, without much apparent
justification.  I question whether modern training with all
its limitations and restrictions appeals to Jupiter.
  The simple qualification "fixed-water" goes far to reveal
the Scorpio nature.
  Cardinal-Water...the flowing tears of Cancer...find free
expression; and sometimes one feels that this sympathetic
sign is not happy unless it has some aspect of the human
tragedy with which to condole.  In fact I have sometimes
felt quite ashamed of myself, when questioned by a
solicitous Cancerian, at having to confess that I have never
had an operation or even been seriously ill!
  Mutable-Water...Pisces...seeks refuge from the roughness
of life either in art or poetry or in retreats.
  But Scorpio is too Martian to retreat.  It has to fight
out its difficulties.  And being fixed, it retains its scars
and does not forget injuries received.  Let us not forget
the other side; it does not forget benefits either and can
repay kindness with lifelong and doglike devotion.  Thorough
is a very Scorpionic adjective; what it does, it does
wholeheartedly and likewise it feels deeply and permanently
for good or evil.
  In my experience it often makes a bad start.  It takes
some years to adjust itself to life.
  This is true physically, for your Scorpio child is
frequently a poorish specimen, pale and thin.  Having Taurus
as its opposite and (when it rises) Gemini on the 8th cusp,
it is liable to suffer from bronchitis and asthma, and
before that disease was largely banished, from diphtheria.
But it grows more robust with the years, and is willing to
train itself to that end, as the young Disraeli, a frail
child, learnt to box when he found himself being bullied.  I
know a Scorpio, who, as a child, willingly took cold baths
all the year round to cure himself of a weak chest, and
though other children thought him a "muff," he learnt
fencing and horse-riding, and when he was doing radio work
in the last war he did his best to get a fighting
appointment.
  This man (he had Mars rising in Scorpio, by the way, but
Sun in Libra) had the failing of bluntness, not to say
rudeness. One can be truthful without being uncouth and
giving offence unnecessarily, and as I have said, Scorpio
can be dignified and self-respecting.
  We will now glance at a few famous Scorpios, using that
term loosely, to include Scorpio rising and those in whose
genitures the sign is otherwise stressed.
  I suppose the most famous of all might be Goethe, who had
Saturn rising in this sign.
  Now I consider Saturn well placed in Scorpio.
  If we take the bodies of our system from the Sun outward
but putting the Moon in the second place, we get an
arrangement that seems to me not without merit.
  It goes:
 

 

Sun	Aries	Asteroids	Virgo
Moon	Taurus	Jupiter	Libra
Mercury	Gemini	Saturn	Scorpio
Venus	Cancer	Uranus	Sagittarius
Mars	Leo	Neptune	Capricorn

  At any rate, Saturn rising brought Goethe fame and fortune
and Sun in Leo indicates his happy disposition.
  In Wemyss' Famous Nativities we find, with Scorpio rising,
William Wordsworth, King Manoel of Portugal (died of a
throat infection) and that heroine of all heroines, Helen
Keller.  Then Paul Verlaine, the poet suffered imprisonment
for trying to shoot an associate and lived in poverty with
only a belated recognition of his genius.
  Sir Thomas Browne tells us himself that he was born under
Scorpius and in the planetary hour of Saturn.  His works
bear the mark of the scorpion very clearly.  The best known
is the Religio Medici, but Urn Burial, a discussion of
burial customs, is even more reminiscent of the 8th sign.
We are really fortunate in having the authentic time of
birth of so interesting a man whom Lowell called "our most
imaginative mind since Shakespeare."
  Note in particular the grand trine...Mars-Jupiter-Uranus
in earth.
  Sun, Mercury and ascendant have a close sextile of
Neptune.  He was knighted by Charles II...observe M.C.
exactly trine Saturn.
  Siderealists note:  If you put Sun-Mercury-ascendant back
into Libra, the symbolism of his writings falls to pieces.
  Browne was a man of great erudition and a gatherer of
strange and arcane information.  This agrees well with
Scorpio, the delver into the mysteries.  It is often learned
but when it is not bookish it is frequently an engineer.
  Henry Ford shows the latter quality.
  Oswald Spengler, author of the Decline of the West, shows
the tendency of the sign to undertake studies of decline and
decay, just as it does when it turns, as it often does, to
surgery and medicine.
  Dr. Philips, the Dutch industrialist and manufacturer of
radio sets, has Moon rising in Scorpio.  Here we have the
practical scientist.
  Running over a few more cases, mostly from the More
Notable Nativities, we find that redoubtable swordsman and
sculptor Benvenuto Cellini.  He had the Sun in Scorpio, and
also Venus conjunction Mars in the same sign, and his amours
were in the best tradition of the mediaeval Scorpio.  It is
worth mentioning that he relates how, as a child, he saw a
salamander in the fire.  His father gave him a whipping to
impress this remarkable sight upon him.  Surely a salamander
is a Mars creature.
  It is rather strange that the head often enters into the
Scorpio life.  Since Aries is on the 6th, one might expect
neuralgias and so forth, and perhaps this is so.  Two
friends who had Mars rising in Scorpio both died of cerebral
tumours.  But Cellini's masterpiece was that of Perseus
holding the severed head of the Gorgon; Sir Thomas Browne's
skull was abducted from his grave and placed in a museum,
and Lenin's brain was sliced into thousands of morsels by
scientists eager to try to find the indication of his
genius.
  Martin Luther was another strong Scorpio...Sun, Venus,
Mars and Saturn.  Whatever his faults, he did not lack
courage.
  Sir William Crookes was a scorpio, and he is known not
only as an orthodox scientist but also as an investigator
into the occult.
  Several despots of these later days have been Scorpio.
Mussolini and probably Stalin...he had all the appearance of
being one.
  Since his death stories have been told of him that recall
the cruelties and orgies of Tiberius, the gloomy recluse of
Capri, who had the Sun in Scorpio.
  Lenin is placed under Scorpio 17.  He was an indefatigable
worker and at least did not make his position an excuse for
a life of self-indulgence.  Indeed he had many of the Mars
virtues.  But one doubts if he was ever really liked by
those who came into close contact with him.  Many Scorpios
seem to have few friends or none at all, because of the
square to Aquarius, no doubt.
  Trotsky had all the appearance of Scorpio rising.  He died
of a smashed skull.
  Lord Nelson is reputed to have been born under Scorpio and
he showed the indomitability of the sign in the face of
natural physical weakness and wounds received in battle.
  Viscount Snowdon, that acidulous little man, was born
under this sign.
  How about astrologers?
  One would expect a long list, but I have not very many.
  There are more who are born under the two flanking signs.
  However, we find Regiomontanus, famous mathematician and
inventor of the well-known system of house division; our own
John Gadbury, a quarrelsome fellow, and in our own time and
under the same degree (the 11th) as Gadbury, L.E. Johndro,
the American, who was by the way an electrician.
  The ancients gave us as common Scorpio vocations butchers
and those who had to do with corpses, human or otherwise,
and killing.  We can add inspectors of nuisances, all who
have to do with sewage disposal and sanitation generally,
chemists, especially the analytical, and surgeons.  But in
recent years it is evident that many Scorpios turn to
science in its latest developments, electronics and
radionics.  We usually call Aquarius the sign of science,
but perhaps the Aquarian is more theoretical in his
interest; Scorpio more practical and always probing and
dissecting and analysing.  Perhaps one might say that
Aquarius seeks the infinitely great and Scorpio the
infinitely small.
  But the outstanding thing about Scorpio seems to me the
wide range that it covers in all respects.  There is no
field in which some son of the Eagle has not excelled; and
this I ascribe in the main to its indomitable will and its
capacity to take pains.  Also, it can be ruthless.  Bertrand
Russell has told how Lenin's chuckle turned his blood cold,
as the dictator recounted how hundreds of thousands of
kulaks had perished in the Revolution.  Does Scorpio have to
face a double temptation...first as to the means of winning
power and next as to making the right use of it when won?
  It is a commonplace nowadays to quote Lord Acton's dictum
that all power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.
  But power in itself is good.  Physical existence itself is
a struggle and one cannot struggle without energy...power.
  The one profession that is unsuitable for Scorpio is
teaching.  For the sign is reserved, not to say secretive.
It imparts reluctantly and prefers to keep itself to itself.
Even its most trivial activities are often veiled in
mystery; at all events, it hates to be questioned as to its
comings and goings.
  Libra likes to instruct and Sagittarius revels in
teaching, not to say sermonizing.  But Scorpio, though it
would organise and maintain discipline, would not teach
readily and easily.
  Freudian analysis is deeply tinged with Scorpio with its
concentration on functions and parts of the body that
normally we neither talk about nor wish to talk about.  But
we have natives of Scorpio who cannot rid their minds of the
macabre and obscene thoughts, or, if they do so, are still
tormented in dreams.
  All such beliefs as those in vampires, werewolves and
ghouls bear the stamp of this sign.
  Then there are the coarse, brutal, bullying Scorpios.
  Next, the mentally developed but morally depraved \, such
as has been depicted in Iago, with the typical sense of
having his services unrecognized..."the sense of injured
merit" that Milton, himself a native of Scorpio, attributes
to Satan, in whom the poet shows Scorpio at its worst and
best.
  "Evil, be thou my good!!" Compare this with the opening
lines of Macbeth:
                 "Fair is foul, and foul is fair."
  At the other end of the scale there are, as we have seen,
geniuses in may fields, heroes of incredible endurance and
courage.
  And between the two extremes, doubtless many worthy and
admirable people.
  Above all, are the true wearers of the Sacred Uraeus, the
Serpent-Kings, the Lords of the Mysteries, those that slay
beneath in order to soar unfettered into the Above, the Race
that never dies.

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© Astrology Quarterly Vol.35/3 1961

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