Eighth: Scorpio

If you haven’t already, I urge you to read the article explaining how the zodiac may be seen as a collection of twelve psychological types and thus gain context.

Scorpio, the eighth phase in the yearly cycle of human experience, has been plagued by erroneous ideas resulting in a slew of negative traits assigned to it. This is because people don’t understand the Night Force at the powerful and creative fifth level. Scorpio arrives when the weather gets colder in the northern hemisphere, when the nights get noticeably longer and the prospect of cold and darkness must have frightened primitive men who lived in close communion with nature. The yellow and red leaves die on the ground before it freezes and perhaps for that reason Scorpio has been linked with death, for few understood the phase to be about regeneration, and even then with many misconceptions.

As Rudhyar writes, autumnal signs are like rungs in a ladder towards the building of a society where the individual is able to achieve much more than he ever could by himself. In Libra, the Night Force impulses the creation of personal relationships, given the still considerable intensity of the Day Force that refers everything back to the individual. Society is but a distant goal that may be eventually achieved, but the first step is to relate to others on societal and perhaps cultural terms. Libra is keen on gaining experience about relatedness and thus spends much energy learning how to best relate.

In Scorpio, the reality that we need to establish solid human relationships is vitalized and made more intense, dramatic and inescapable. Such a need must “be felt very deep in the flesh and glands, in the deepest parts of a human being, in his very soul and in the substance of his personality”, writes Rudhyar. In essence, it must be transformed from a simple need into an impulse to relate. This impulse is sex in its social aspect, the sex that begets a civilization—I’ll get back to that. No doubt the condemnation of Scorpio as an “evil sign” is related to the usual identification of sex with sin in our Christian civilization. This is a complicated subject, so full of “complexes” and prejudices that not even the most lucid analysis will totally dissipate. That said, we can shed light on the topic by understanding the global interplay of the Day and Night forces.

Taurus and Scorpio Sex

Sex has two aspects, one is individual in nature and typically related to procreation (Taurus) while the other is social and not related to reproduction (Scorpio), although may engender social progeny. It is odd that many astrologers assign the totality of sex to Scorpio when that is represented in the axis. Instinctual and reproductive sex in nature happens in springtime, the time of Taurus, the hieroglyphic bull of fertility and symbol of male potency. Scorpio is one of the most advanced signs in the zodiac and not one who operates on instincts; besides, it happens in autumn, when the life force in nature slows down.

If Aries is the individuality of an adolescent, Taurus represents the advanced adolescence, when there is a desire, perhaps social but not necessarily, of self development through fecundation, seeking the maximum emotional expression of his personality. Rudhyar again on Taurus sex: “It is raw desire without any social conscience, a generic force that in its universality lacks meaning by itself. It simply is, just as life is.” I would add that such life viewpoint attests to the simplicity that permeates the Taurus essence.

Being opposite to Taurus, Scorpio has an equivalent blend of a prevalent and increasing spiritual force, but this time is the Night Force impulsing the building of society, instead of the Day Force on its way to integrate a personality. The mating desire in Taurus is replaced by another desire that epitomizes the Scorpio essence: the individual wishes to fuse himself in absolute union with other individuals so as to build together a larger organic whole.

In Libra, the Day Force is anything but weak preventing the individual from losing himself (or herself) in a union and, as an equinoctial sign, it presents a state of precarious equilibrium between the two forces. By Scorpio, the raw power of the Night Force sublimates the desire to be a separate individual to that of being more than oneself and flow with others. This is the burning desire behind a sex that is both social and transcendental, that forgets oneself to instead join through the other with an absolute, even God, as it was understood in oriental religions and occult traditions.

The concept of sex as a threshold with a cosmic consciousness has been known for millennia and rituals have evolved to properly channel that transcendental impulse. Hinduist and Buddhist Tantras and some Yoga schools make special reference to such rituals. Since Christianity, the subject has been wrapped in mystery and confusion but that’s beside the point. As Rudhyar emphasizes, the truth about Scorpio won’t be correctly understood unless one realizes that his sexual power is not for procreation, or a personal release of physical and emotional energy, but for liberation from the limits of being “just” an individual. It is a way to obtain the ecstasy of becoming more than himself.

For a romantic Scorpio, that “more” is uniting with his “twin soul”, both fused in a transcendental union destined since the beginning of time. For the mystic Scorpio this is elevated to be a union with the Beloved, the Universe, or God, a mystical Other where individuality is gone and one reaches the Aeonic consciousness. But there is another “more”, a collective one made of individuals already unified with each other, which may range from a national or regional society to Christianity’s Church, the Buddhist Sangha or the occult White Lodge or Brotherhood.

Libra realizes the existence of such collectivity and wishes to be a part of it. In Scorpio there must be identification. The sex of Scorpio is psychic identification without regard for physical progeny but symbolizing the triumph of the Night Force as it gives birth to the spiritual reality of civilization. The home (Cancer) is the result of the procreative sex of Taurus, but civilization (Capricorn) stems from the social transformation of sex through the mental generalizations and social enthusiasm of Sagittarius.

On Civilization

Rudhyar discusses the difference between culture and civilization, claiming that culture has its origins in the Day Force energies liberated in Taurus whereas civilization relies on the Night Force energies liberated in Scorpio. He points out that a culture is concerned with particulars whereas a civilization is with the universal. A culture is based on traditions, conditioned by the environment and heredity, and transmitted from one generation to the next. Conversely, a civilization results from the creative geniuses and other leaders who have fecundated the minds of countless human beings from their way to see the world.

We have said that a culture can only originate when a society has taken over individual choices, if Capricorn is the sign of civilization, Aquarius is that of cultures, when the Day Force begins to be felt. Civilization is properly developed in Sagittarius, but it has its origins in the Scorpio focus of the Libra ideal. Civilization is The product of the Night Force, one may identify certain individuals with various cultures but not so with a civilization, it is the anonymous product of the Scorpio sex which, while not procreative, creates a social progeny nonetheless: a progeny of spirit or thought. The Night Force intervenes in this type of sexual activity just like in Taurus intervened the Day Force through the fecundating bodies.

The Dark Side

Whereas the Night Force is strong in Scorpio, the Day Force has been decreasing, becoming more subjective, introverted and perhaps resenting its prior influence, a combination that gives rise to the dark side of civilization: individual greed and the intense lust for social power. Such greed appears in the individual who, rather than seeking the fusion with a larger collectivity, directs towards himself all that is produced by communal living, the human exchange of values, and commerce. While the latter is an activity that reaches some permanent status in Libra, it produces great fruits in Scorpio. Wealth, and the power it begets, is generated by the exchange of goods and services, which is the result of interpersonal relationships—Scorpio’s domain.

Rudhyar sternly writes that, when the fruits of commerce are trapped by individual greed, social sins make their appearance. Everyone who uses the social interchange of values for some improper end engages in sins against society. Every grand enterprise based on individual greed, every politician trafficking with his public authority, all the scammers, gangsters and leaders playing with other people’s fears and passions commit the sin of Scorpio.

The same can be said about people only seeking sexual pleasure and self gratification. Such cases only show the negative aspect of Scorpio. The weakening Day Force attracts the awesome power of the Night Force, of relationships, for his personal use. When unable to act, he dreams, creates temptations and increases the desire. With his need for fusion frustrated, he will develop sexual neurosis. Lust often arises from a sense of failure.

Scorpio Types

Rudhyar emphatically writes: Scorpio is not an “evil sign”. Sin and misery only surfaces when the great creative force of any sign is distorted and perverted by fears born from a senseless traditionalism clothed as virtue or out of social conditions mired in chaos and vice. If the Taurus energy is unable to flow, the unrealized individual will be unable to muster the effort needed for a new birth in society, which is ushered by a positive Scorpio. Rather than a union with others in a reborn community, we find frustration and a resentment towards society or perhaps life in general. Such resentment, full of conscious or subconscious violence, is ready to destroy all means by which a new consciousness may enter society or the individual. It is symbolized by the poisonous tail of a scorpion, ready to apply the infamous Scorpio sting which, contrary to popular opinion, is seldom displayed as outward anger but often as cold indifference toward relatedness, an indifference that may fuel vengeance and cruelty.

The scorpion variety of the Scorpio psychological type will see through an individual as if he (or she) were transparent or simply didn’t exist, the poison loaded in his tail anesthetizing the ability to recognize him as a fellow human being. Despite various claims, and as Rudhyar remarks, there isn’t a natural process by which a scorpion Scorpio is “regenerated” to become an eagle Scorpio, for there is nothing “natural” about a scorpion Scorpio; it is not a result of healthy evolution. The eagle Scorpio is able to soar above individual tribulations and see the birth of a new civilization functioning with fewer limitations. Even best, the phoenix Scorpio will experience how such limitations are destroyed by fire, for such fire is the true symbol of the energy that burns inside an individual who has reached the Scorpio phase, a fire that destroys the lesser forms while keeping the important ones to be developed in Sagittarius. This fire is the transcendental and occult aspect of sex, quite different from the instinctual and procreative aspects in Taurus.

Scorpio constantly identifies with society to the point that society’s passions are his passions, as are its ecstasy and glory. The energy of the social process flows through Scorpio individuals with much intensity, a word that often describes how this type feels everything. Should this energy turn destructive, he too will become a destroyer. When humanity learns to function in love and harmony, Scorpio individuals will open their wings and soar as eagles or phoenixes, whichever they are. Scorpio is one of the symbolic thresholds through which Avatars may appear, spokesmen of “God” as the generic Father. Scorpio thus symbolizes God’s Power to civilize a united humanity.

Gift of Non-Identification

In the first part of the book: “An Astrological Triptych”, titled Gifts of the Spirit, Rudhyar presents “antidotes”, so to speak, to the dark sides of each sign, what the sign needs to overcome to actualize its symbol’s potential. The Scorpio chapter makes the case that “every consciousness becomes that with which it has consistently and fervently yearned to become identified”—emphasis mine. There is a saying: “As you think, so you’ll become”, that Rudhyar reformulates—not to simplify it further—as: “As your passion for identification is, so will be the substance of your total being”—emphasis his—because “thinking” is not enough to effect a total transformation of being. Libra is able to think and even act-out comradeship, stepping into the field of visionaries and dreamers. Once we experience the passion for identification and the fire of “union”, our thoughts and our dreams will become us, and we will become them.

Yet, all spiritual living is a paradox. On one side the dreamer needs to identify with his dreams so as to give them life, and on the other he must remain a witness of them, lest he will he will absorbed by the shadow aspects of his ideal. This is why the gift for Scorpio is: Non-Identification. Writes Rudhyar: “Identification can only succeed through the non-identification of the consciousness with the process of identification”. By using the power of non-identification, we can be consumed by the Fire while tending to the flame. At the biological level, this is a rhythmic process by which the fire spreads from the sexual center to every nerve in waves of concentric motion. At the personal level, the process is love where the identification is of psychic and mental nature and by which the self is absorbed into the relationship.

Self: An Eternal Performer

At the level of consciousness, the ego identifies itself with Images. Some of these Images are entities who live in the collective unconscious of nations, religious groups, or humanity as a whole, and their power may easily overwhelm an ego weary of his own individuality. And yet all men, women and child live within a psychological sea full of Images with which they identify. The power of non-identification is the power of containment by the Self, which is difficult to define, for the Self eludes a precise definition since only that with a specific form may be defined. The Self is able to create the form capable of containing the specific kind of power required for the successful identification with some Image. It is action through form (per-form)—any necessary action through any available form.

Identification is a requisite for the availability of usable power. Quoting Rudhyar again: “Man must dare to lose his soul in order to reach the condition in which he can make use of the protean Soul of the Whole. He must dare to drink the glass as well as the water, and to find himself as nothing, before he may hope to gain the ability to utilize everything. This ability is the Self.”—emphasis mine. A Self has not only the power to perform any necessary action through any available form but also the power to restrain from performing any action that is not necessary. Self is spirit in act. He is free from identification because he can use the powers born of identification with any Image required for the performance.

Examples abound. To perform an action as a father, a man is so identified with fatherhood that he appears to his children as the Father. The great lover can incorporate in him the image of woman’s desire. For a living to command the allegiance of a collectivity it must be lived in the name of an Image. However, what triumphs is the Myth, for instance, fatherhood, not the personality living it, despite being invested with its power—such is the secret of non-identification.

As Rudhyar writes, Man is the “moving passion” of the universe. There is nothing so deep that he cannot yearn to experience in full identification. All things are possible through man, invoker of spiritual power.

Always Love. 🌹🙏💖