As stated in a previous post: decades ago I’d written most of a book on something I termed the Void, the ways we malfunction when we deny, distort, or otherwise misinterpret our Lunar needs (those signified by our natal Moon placement). I talked about the Gap, the space between our genuine needs and our misunderstanding of those needs, and our inadequate attempts to bridge the two, with a goal of offering ways to recognize and remedy these imbalances. The book didn’t go anywhere (it was never completed), but it seems like now might be a good time to pick the bones for any tasty bits they may contain, and if I find enough worth passing on to you, dear Reader, I’ll probably also include it in the Moon book (as the fundamental need is based on Luna), with the new book to be finished (I’ve been working on it every day!) sometime before I expire. I hope. Here on the blog I’ll be posting, in no particular order, some of my thoughts on sign needs and dysfunction, for your edification, discussion, and rebuttal, as inspired by that old manuscript. Today, Scorpio.

What does the Scorpion need, with her sting and her exoskeleton and her deeply perceptive nature? She needs to feel powerful, of course. We can see that the defensiveness of the stinger is a response to the emotional sensitivity of Water, and the exoskeleton a response to the Fixed nature of the sign, as the hardness, the unchangeability, gives the sense of protection, surety, security–but what of the ability of Scorpio to peer straight into the depths of the darkness, unflinchingly? Wouldn’t that prompt fear? Yes, and Scorpio’s need, then, is to feel as if she can handle what she sees–and she sees a sense of power as the answer to her needs: power over the emotions and the emotional nature, enough power to feel safe, and enough power not to be threatened by change or the Truth, no matter what meaning that Truth holds.

We all need to feel we can have an impact on our environment; that’s not unique to Scorpio. Without this belief, we succumb to depression and hopelessness, or we try to prove we do have power via ruthless manipulation of people, things, or circumstances. So, this is a normal need, common to everyone, but Scorpio takes it one step further: Scorpio needs to see their impact through real change, transformation of what surrounds them, or through the wielding of Truth, sometimes like a shield, and sometimes like a bludgeon. They’re not just happy knowing that they have freedom of a kind, or that they have chosen or acted; they must change the landscape in deep and permanent ways for their need to be met, and that means they’re compelled to go beyond what the rest of us do. Scorpionic power brings irretrievable shifts and transformations, like casting a spell from which one can’t escape, or drinking poison that has no antidote, and it’s the no-turning-back quality of it that elevates this sign’s urge from a need to A Need–in fact, the principle one for the sign.

A Scorpio who hasn’t yet accepted that power expression as a legitimate need may project that intensity onto others, believing they make her ‘walk on eggshells’ or that they have hidden agendas or prejudices she can’t pinpoint but believes they’re intent on injecting into events, and so results. Scorpio may disown her own power, casting herself as at the mercy of others or circumstances; a listless Scorpio is a Scorpio who is abdicating not just her power but her responsibility, as well. The Will may become incredibly strong in a Scorpio in denial, casting herself as opponent to, well, everything, but she needs to realize that nothing will change (paradox alert!) until she accepts that change is what she exists to make.

Ways to successfully connect to and satisfy our Scorpio energy (for even if we don’t have a placement there, we all have it in our charts, so that at the very least, matters of the House where Scorpio falls will require dealing with this energy) include allowing the experience of unpleasant emotions (we must learn that we can safely look into the abyss, see what we see, and return from it, enlightened in some way. Scorpio teaches us that an encounter with the darkness doesn’t end in oblivion). We must also proactively learn to negotiate; the Scorpionic energy sees these kind of interactions as a contest, a ‘Sting ’til You Win’ scenario. What’s really needed is to understand that successful negotiation requires both parties get something out of the deal–if they don’t, it reveals itself to be a war, with one party collecting the spoils, the other angry and in ruins.

Scorpio energy needs to practice taking steps that make a discernible difference in the life. Start small, until you’re comfortable with the energy, by using Taurean pursuits, such as cooking, artisanal creation, or measures taken to insure comfort, to bring about changes that impact the senses. That will help ground the Fixed Water, with its natural tendency to need but resist flow; in drawing in other elements, and manipulating materials, we give that Scorpio urge something to grab on to, resonating with the Fixed energy, and we offer something tangible that prompts an emotional response, satisfying the Water factor.

When it comes to relationships, it’s pretty obvious Scorpio is more Self-protective than most. What looks like them being mysterious is really them lurking inside their own feelings, unwilling to show those feelings even to themselves. Dark and brooding may seem attractive, but more often than not it’s a symptom, one where unacknowledged and even unrecognized emotion is bubbling to the surface, making disorienting and unsteady feeling in a Scorpio who just wants to nail that feeling down and control it–and if you think of Scorpio disowning the feeling nature, that’s really the picture you get, someone desperately trying to nail water in place! They’ll have to connect that it’s okay to feel a feeling, that just having an emotion doesn’t unleash world-crushing destruction, to the fact that they’ll experience feelings and that those feelings will naturally change and change again, fluctuating as they flow in relationships, and that they’ll be able to handle it. Nothing scares a Scorpio like chaos (though the ones who love it are convinced they’ll get power out of it, making them black hat Scorpions), which is why it’s so ironic that Scorpios who don’t accept their need for power create such chaos around themselves. The other Scorpio fear is too much routine, promising no change at all, that can strike them like a waking nightmare. So go figure. Carpe diem, my Scorpio friends–you can handle it.