Scorpio is the loner, the stranger, they keep to themselves except in love relationships, which is what they are about- soulmate connections. Other than that, they are antisocial.
Scorpio follows Libra, that latter of which is the sign of man-made law, and in relation to this law-abiding sign, is often obsessed with committing an act of transgression. Scorpio is compelled to explore sin and then through the guilt incurred feels a need to repent. The sign has a conduit to the primal id impulses. Scorpio explores sin, transgression of law, and the concept of evil – what is bad morally? What is permissible?
The Scorpio personality has the maximum awareness of sin, being opposite Taurus, the sign representing humankind before the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Scorpio feels the farthest away from God. In matters of Will, Like Milton’s famous line from Paradise Lost, Scorpio would rather “Reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”
The Scorpio native is a natural born psychologist.
The Scorpio personality knows all the tricks of disguising one’s motives. On the surface they project a poker face but deep inside they are taking in all the facets of their surroundings, and are feeling all sorts of things about them that no one has any idea of. Scorpios are human lie detectors, while they themselves can fool others with disguising their true intent and motivations. Skills a poker player would need.
The Scorpio personality might be considered paranoid. Things that another person might think irrelevant; body language, tone of voice, level of eye contact, blinking, sweating, and nervous tics, they notice, which gives a clue to their second most likely billing as THE DETECTIVE. If they enter a house they notice how the furniture is arranged, what books are on display, the pictures on the wall, if the house smells like smoke or if there are flowery scents. (This DETECTIVE side of Scorpio is more likely if they are extraverted, particularly extraverted sensing preference) They look for what’s amiss. Scorpio is attuned to the dark side of human nature, so they expect people to do bad things.
Scorpio is a sign of power. Information is power. It wants the leverage to use all this information to its advantage – to gain power, money and control, that mafia sort of shit. If Libra is the sign of the by-the-book law (the cop, the lawyer) Scorpio is the sign of underground law. Jungle law.
The Scorpio personality detects hierarchies of power right away, immediately distinguishing who the real ruler is, even if that person is not officially recognized as the one in charge. Scorpio works toward discovering prime causes, not interested in secondary effects. Scorpio knows more is going on than meets the eye.
As law enforcers, they are prone to harm the letter of the law to protect the spirit of the law. Not democratic or politically correct in the protection of others rights. Scorpio law is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, to be administered directly by those who were harmed, not some abstract and removed intermediary (Libra again).
Scorpio is a fervent believer in their faith to the point where if any one questions the tenets of their chosen religion they will viciously attack. On the other hand, they can be fervent non-believers too. Nihilism. Existentialism. All that shit. However, if the object of their true belief betrays them, they will swing to the other extreme and attack that religion/belief at its very root and precepts, becoming a vehement ANTI of that religion. Scorpio is the opposite of the middling Libra, possessing strong affinities and antipathies. It seems that defining Scorpio as the antithesis of Libra works pretty well in understanding both signs. I think Scorpio can often be defined in what they are against. They are the natural anti-hero.
Scorpio is pretty much the way introverted intuition is described, x-raying your soul and all that shit.
Sex and Death?
Scorpio is considered the sign of sex but I think that is a bit of a misunderstanding about the sign. It is more the sign of the soulmate relationship, which is not about sex in its more carnivorous manifestations. Think Leo or Taurus for sportsfucking, or just the physical side of sex. Actually just think Taurus really.
The level at which a sign is expressed is determined by the Myers-Briggs type such that when people wonder why they don’t match the typical traits of their sign, it is because of their type. A whole science could be created about observing how different types express the same sun sign. The sun sign is the most to do with a type, but you have to blend it with the Myers-Briggs type, and let the MB type have most of the weight. Most INFJs behave as if they were Scorpios without that being their sun sign and without it being emphasized in their birth charts.
And since INFJ is really the sign of Scorpio, it may become clear that Scorpio isn’t primarily a sign of sex, but of existentialism, being burdened with the primal id impulses, living in the subconscious, noticing what isn’t there, or what isn’t normally there. The search for the soulmate is a big theme for INFJ.
The Freudian conception of sex is that it represents the life impulse, or maybe as Nietzsche would put it, the will-to-life. And so everything is really sexual, but not in the way that most popular conceptions of sex are portrayed, but as a deep drive of human existence towards life. Scorpio is most aware of this sex-life-death drive of humanity, they are most tuned into these subconscious drives of the psyche (the collective unconscious). What they do with them is dependent on their level of orientation to the sign via Myers-Briggs type, and other factors such as life experiences, upbringing, family of origin, and so on.
It is probably more accurate to say that Scorpio is preoccupied with death rather than sex. That we are mortal and alone, we are born alone and we will die alone, and so they want to find that special person to keep them company on this journey through life. I would say that is the purest expression and motive of Scorpio – the search for the soulmate.
Scorpio uses sex to create a deep emotional bond with another person. Sex is sacred to Scorpio, therefore it is not generally sexual in the sense of being hypergamous or into the strictly physical side of sex. The erotic might be the best way to put it. The erotic is the emotional-spiritual side of sex. With Scorpio, everything has a deeper meaning, thus the strictly carnal side of sex is likely to do nothing for them.
Money
Scorpio invests deeply in whatever they do, like family legacies, but not just money, another keyword of the sign. It’s more how the mafia keeps everything in the family. And it’s bonded in blood. Otherwise, it tends to be a sign of loss in the material sense. But it can be the sign of big money, big business, but it is more because there is emotion behind it. Desire. But what we desire can be something that we can never have to the degree that we desire it. Lacan. Desire begets desire. Such that we don’t really want to attain what we think we want.
Similar to how I have described introverted intuition, Scorpio can indicate poverty on the material plane, or it can be a huge success, but not much in between. It probably depends what Scorpio is investing in, because whatever it invests in, it goes all the way. Not being a sign of objectivity it can be blinded by its single-minded desire. A scorpion will sting itself to death before it lets itself be killed by someone else, which is not exactly the right analogy, but Scorpio can destroy itself and others because it is driven by irrational drives. Actually the section of Notes from the Underground about the crystal palace and society being perfectly ordered, but that the underground man wants to commit an act that transgresses all that perfection, simply to prove that he is a free man with a free will. That pretty much sums up Scorpio and INFJ in a few pages (It starts around Ch. VII of the PDF I linked to, but I would suggest reading from the beginning for proper context).
Anti-aquarian. Anti-utopia. This Scorpio drive is the thing that puzzles positivists. Why wouldn’t people act in their best interests? We could have a rational self-interested society where everyone is happy. But Scorpio is the drive that prevents this. Maybe when positivists start understanding that there are drives in people that don’t want to live like a cog in a perfectly ordered machine, then we might actually have a utopia. Humans don’t necessarily act in their so-called best interests, and as the underground man says in Notes from the Underground, it may be the greatest of all advantages not to act towards one’s own advantage. The author of this book, Fyodor Dostoevsky, was considered by Nietzsche to be the only psychologist from which he had anything to learn, and coming from Nietzsche this is no small praise. Dostoevsky was a Scorpio and an INFJ, for what it’s worth.
Dominance
This is psychological, not material. “I own your soul. I rule your soul”. Scorpio is always most truly interpreted on the level of the psychological plane. It can be contrasted with Taurus in this way, the opposite sign to Scorpio of material possession. A loss on the material plane is natural to Scorpio because of the law of desire and Lacan (Lacan was a Freudian-inspired psychotherapist who basically said that desire desires to stay in a state of desire, thus we never really wish to attain what we think we desire).
“To rule in Hell rather than serve in Heaven” is a great way to understand the psychological motivation of Scorpio. It would rather have power in Hell, than be subservient in Heaven. Again, positivists miss this drive.
Now we are talking about Lucifer himself. Christian morality.
In an INFJ this Scorpio drive is a dominant function, but what this ironically mostly means is that this drive is mostly confined to the INFJ themselves – it has no ascendancy on the outer plane.
Rather it is in the ENTJ and ENFJ, the two Myers-Briggs personality types that have auxiliary introverted intuition, where that drive to dominate on the outer plane reaches its full zenith.
What drive dominates the rest of the psyche? This is a Scorpio/Ni type of question. What drive rules all the others? And by virtue of this, gives a clear demarcation and direction to the personality? Or anything: an organization, a family, a group, factors in a situation, an investment portfolio. This is the 80/20 principle I alluded to. You could look at a birth chart and see all the different factors in it. Which one dominates? This is the Scorpio bottomline: Which drive dominates all the rest? Who won the war for dominance?
Back in Libra everything is equal, but in reality, they aren’t. Libra is an attempt to equalize these innate natural differences between things – to make things fair.
But they aren’t because Nature is not fair. One thing survives out of 10 things. This is chthonic law.
The sign of Libra represents man’s attempt to harmonize, equalize, make things fair for the most amount of people as possible. It’s a fine drive in and of itself. Any drive is really.
That’s actually the age we’ve been living in since around the Millennium. In 2005 the planetoid Eris was discovered. This discovery coincided with the destruction of the hierarchical media power structure and heralded the age of social media, where everyone could interact, create, and communicate equally. Pluto, the ruler of Scorpio, got demoted from a planet to a planetoid, which symbolized a denial of the Pluto/Scorpio energy as we entered what I call The Erisian Age.
Everything was whitewashed. History was erased. And the Millennial generation came into its ascendancy.
Fascinating article. Reading this I quickly became enamoured with the description of Scorpio, and noted the similarities with INFJ, which you referred to.
Not long ago I was talking to a Scorpio girl who I typed as ISFJ, and she managed to keep me engaged for longer than I thought she could, which perplexed me.
I think INFP would rival INFJs in the soulmate search? But we may differ, because I do think that INFPs can fall on the 4w5 enneagram, so that may be the divergence in opinion. At any rate, I guess its part of the 4w5s drive.
Second time writing this comment because your site saw me as some kind of viral threat I think, so I apologise if the quality of this post is not that great.
I don’t subscribe to modern rulerships (you know that already), but I know that it’s a matter of taste. I prefer the neat logic of traditional rulerships according to the Thema Mundi and segregating inner planets, ruling the subjective human experience, from outer planets, which are that – outer to the more immediate experiences of the Self. I say this as a prelude to my own input on the sign of Scorpio which is influenced by the traditional rulership of Mars.
Mars rules two signs in traditional astrology – Aries and Scorpio. It’s the daytime ruler of Aries and nighttime ruler of Scorpio. What does that mean for Scorpio? Mars is the planet of aggression and the action taken to gratify needs/desires. In Aries, Mars takes action in broad daylight, outfront for all to see. Aries is the warrior, brash and impulsive. In contrast, when Mars takes action in nighttime, it does so in a covert manner, in stealth. That is Scorpio, a ninja or a double agent/spy. Another way to rationalise these two different modes of action of Mars is drawing up a chart starting with Aries in the 1st house and counting one’s way up to Scorpio in the 8th house. This means that Scorpio would be lying in aversion to Aries, meaning not able to be seen from the eyes of Aries, thus again highlighting the covert nature of Martian action in the sign of Scorpio.
Aries, being a cardinal sign also means taking initiative, but also without much thinking. Get an idea, got angry, just do. Scorpio, being a fixed sign, is more slow and plodding. It may not act as fast or as much as Aries, but it will plod and strategise with cunning, and once Scorpio do decide to start, it will remain dedicated to its motive. And again this goes back to the divide between impulsive and aggressive warrior vs. the elegant and cunning ninja.
Another way to see the divide between Aries and Scorpio is perhaps is the action-hero fighting for its country vs. the mercenary or the hit-man. Scorpio is ultimately loyal to itself, if Scorpio is doing anything for anyone, it all goes back to its own personal reason and affinities. That’s why betrayal is no problem for a Scorpio. It’s all personal and none of your business.
Looking at Scorpio from the Martian angle, then one can say that Scorpio is indeed motivated by desire (which revolves around acknowledgement of a lack), but a non-demented Scorpio will do what it takes to fulfil those desires with a certain ruthlessness and cunning. It seeks completion. When Scorpio bubbles with jealousy, how does Scorpio take action? Look to the condition, sign/house position, and planetary aspect of Mars. If Mars is demented, expect action to take place in weird ways – e.g. passive aggressiveness, ill-timed or too hasty, etc.
Next, talking about desire. It may be down to my interpretation, but I got a sense that the Lacanian desire you mentioned actually falls under the pigeonhole of Neptunian desire, this tragic longing for an unobtainable dream. It is inherently masochistic and does not actually wish for control to fulfil this impossible longing. And yet the impossibility of that longing is precisely the genius that leads to great movements and artwork – it is acceptance of the unattainability of what is too ideal and too eternal and yet, still, heroically striving for it through the Saturnian action of using that impossible dream as inspiration to give it some kind of concrete, imperfect form. In contrast, I think Scorpionic desire is actually more down-to-earth, versus the more transpersonal nature of Neptunian desire. And Scorpio likes to be in control, or it may ask someone else to be in control for the realisation of desires, if we think in the perspective of Mars, a planet of action, ruling the sign of Scorpio. I just say this because when I think of Lacan, I ascribe a vagueness, a certain impenetrability in his insights – it feels Neptunian. And after all, he said one person’s words might actually mean something else than what another has in mind, and so continuous conversation is important to clarify what it is one actually means. And here I think Scorpio, being the sign of Desire, does not quite mean the “never realisable, forever longing” kind of Desire.
But yeah – chthonic impulses, sex? Lust for power or wealth? Yeah. That feels Scorpio to me. And here it feels important to highlight that the challenge of Scorpio is to plunge into the chthonic depths and to *come back out* with newfound wisdom to gift to humanity. Scorpio is unafraid to see what is dark and to acknowledge it exists, but it has choices to commit acts of evil or not to.
Letter of the law vs. the Spirit of the Law – to me, I would slot this as Gemini vs. Sagittarius, a la Jan Spiller. I can kind of see where you are coming from, but I think Scorpio is one of the signs least fit to truly act out the Spirit of the Law, which requires open-mindedness. Scorpio acts. according to its own personal code, which is the true Law for Scorpio, and it will defy whatever man-made laws are out there according to whether it fits with the Scorpio’s personal code or not. This may incidentally overlap with the Spirit of the law vs. the letter of the law, or very much not so. The narrow-mindedness of Scorpio can in fact make it prone to pettiness. In contrast, Sagittarius, which is the sign right after Scorpio in the zodiac, has risen out of the plunging depths, integrated pain and loss and has put it into the tapestry of the World, the Human experience (as something lying outside the Self). Seeing that one is just part of a grand Universe, Sagittarius has the open heart and the open mind to truly act out the Spirit of the Law, outside of one’s own personal desires, hurts, and prejudices.
Finally, and I will shut up after this, Lacanian desire as Neptunian desire – when one says perhaps what one desires isn’t what one may actually want to attain, that to me points to possession of the symbolical. I’ve seen this theme crop up several times in the Maze, so it’s worth a discussion.
I think there is something to be gained by making a distinction between Scorpio vs. Neptune when we talk about this phenomenon, because Neptune involves illusions which = the symbolical, a kind of figurative language representing one’s Unconscious. (And I tend to segregate zodiacal signs and inner planets – conscious elements – from the Unconscious). The great mistake is to take what is symbolical literally, which leads to disappointment, for one is pursuing *something* but has misattributed it to a person or a thing that one does not actually consciously wish for. Either one must seek to delve into the Unconscious and gain insight into what is unresolved or what it is one truly wishes for and THEN take action, or to translate these illusory desires into one’s own symbolical language through a creative means. I think this is where the whole advice for INFJs to not latch onto soulmate relationships (which is supposedly futile because no one can be that “muse’) and to channel oneself into art comes from – finding ways to deal with Neptune. I think, though, that anyone can find their soulmate, but it is just trickier when one is prone to possession by Neptune, aka, the symbolical, and cannot segregate the symbolical from what’s real. But this possession is a kind of genius that needs to be utilised.
In contrast, I don’t think Scorpionic desire revolves around symbolical, it’s more linked to what’s Conscious. Scorpio wants depth, emotional intensity, and is highly motivated by negativity (“I lack this, and the anger/hunger I feel about it will make me get it”) – and by all means, I think people who are wired like this and are Scorpionic should just not be afraid to pursue their soulmate or whatever it is they want with as much intensity as they want. You go girl, or boy. But the Neptunians, when tragically desiring that Ideal – I would advise to think carefully before giving into the siren song and dashing on rocks. That’s not what they really want. They need to either gain insight or if they struggle with this, channel the siren song into something else. There is indeed a difference between these two desires I think, and I hope I have highlighted why knowing this distinction is practically useful.
So interesting. I have Scorpio as my moon and rising signs, so sometimes I joke that I’m a “Scorpio in Virgo’s clothing.” I know you already wrote about Scorpio moon some time ago; I’ve gotta re-read that. I do relate to a lot of what you’ve written here, probably due to having a lot of Scorpio in my chart to begin with (if I recall correctly).
The funny thing is that my life right now is characterized by what you describe as “the search for the soulmate,” but my chart, tarot readings, and oracle card readings all scream at me to spend my time throwing myself into art instead. Which as I remember is what you advise Scorpio moons and/or INFJ women anyway.
The other thing I want to mention is about the dominance part. I’m trying to understand what exactly is it that you mean behind those words and also the slight nuances in how you’ve phrased it, and I get Taurean vibes. And I mean especially with regards to referencing the 80/20 principle. Richard Koch wrote a book on that and he had a Sun in Taurus.
In a way, going by logic, I would explain the opposite sign to highlight what a sign is and isn’t and then the preceding and forthcoming sign as context, placing the considered sign as part of a sequence in the grand story of Human Life. Anyway, the thing I’m trying to highlight here is how opposing signs are different but can also appear similar to each other. Two sides of the same coin. I don’t have a lot of time to continue on why I think some of what you said is actually Taurus and what distinguishes Taurus from Scorpio in this context at the moment but hopefully I can expand on this later.
I also think Ni as Scorpio is a bit overstretched because Fi is clearly a large defining element of Scorpio as well. Alongside some Se as the food for the Ni/Fi process (I’m playing by your MB books here btw). Going by your books, if we consider these 3 functions together for the sign, we can then say INFJ may be represented by Scorpio but still I find this lacking. After all, the auxiliary is important. INFJ’s Fe doesn’t quite fit in with Scorpio.
Wait nvm, he’s a Leo. I remembered incorrectly. Never mind! I still think some of that is Taurean though or maybe fire sign related. It’s not like I can say 80/20 is anti-Scorpio, it’s more like I’m not sure if it *is* Scorpio, like I would include it in the definition of Scorpio.
OK to put it plainly with regards to the 80/20 part as well as the questions about what drivers dominate the chart above all else, it seems like it comes more from a need for simplicity, but the intelligent kind.
I can see how it links to Scorpio from how I see this sign: a need to get into the *heart* of things, to boil matters down to the core, and to eliminate dross.
But with regards to the 80/20 part and choosing which points matter more than others (for example), I also see an element of “seeing the big picture” and being “smartly lazy”… in which case, I can see how other signs can easily relate, such as Leo (big picture-focused). High functioning Taurus is also smartly lazy. But if we are searching for “what’s the real driver” by penetrating deeply behind layers (which can, but not always, bring about … PAIN), then sure, it’s Scorpio.
And more on Taurus vs. Scorpio and 80/20: Scorpio eliminates what is wasteful or unnecessary, but Scorpio also has a burning desire to destroy and to operate in an extreme fashion – which can be ironically… wasteful and unnecessary if unchecked. Taurus operates in an opposing fashion in which Taurus seeks to conserve, not destroy: in its lower manifestation, Taurus seeks to “preserve” no matter whether something isn’t working or not. But in its higher manifestation, Taurus seeks to “accumulate,” even to great heights. But you can’t build stuff if your plan isn’t effective – and plans shouldn’t be static, because the real world certainly isn’t, so plans absolutely require reassessments, adaptations, and reinventions. With Scorpio/Taurus working together, one can maintain the principle of “conservation” (conserving yourself) by putting a limit on the Scorpio’s need to burn with passion – yes, burn for the few things that matter (80/20 in a broader sense), but also keep it in check by applying 80/20 in practical matters to conserve energy. In that way, if you start from Scorpio, you build things (Taurus) without killing yourself (Scorpio). Or if you start from Taurus, you can avoid stasis and thus continue to maintain growth by regularly assessing one’s strategy and release (Scorpio) what no longer works or is inefficient.
And as an aside, depending on the context of its application, I see 80/20 as somewhat Te. There is some element of need for insight and predictive capabilities, but 80/20 can often be used in a much more down-to-earth fashion, using concrete data to make pragmatic decisions for what a business chooses to prioritise. And in fact, many people who are relatively successful loosely applies 80/20 without even knowing of it, because successful people know what to prioritise. Some of that relates to perception, but some of that also relates to the ability to respect time, efficiency, and a good ability/understanding of how to complete tasks/projects. And personally, I see 80/20 as something not to take too literally – it’s a broad principle to use loosely. BIG SUCCESS often does require a ton of pain (Scorpio) and searching and stretching beyond what one would predict is worthy or likely to work in the end. If applied in a broader sense, 80/20 can work big time if one chooses ONE or a few passion(s) to invest an extreme amount of energy in (Scorpio). But 80/20 in a “smaller sense” by saving oneself from pain, and not caring to stretch or to focus on details (more Taurean – AKA more of a need for conservation, to avoid pain, and to maintain simplicity), will probably bring results with efficiency but not BIG results. Actually, 80/20 in a “smaller sense” works if one is willing to do the work to constantly toggle between “Ni” and “Se,” this means, yes, stretching to gain experience, reflect, and adapt quickly and iteratively. This might require swiftly killing (Scorpio) one has even put a lot of investment in if it really can’t give you returns, and even doing this regularly. That’s really hard to do if one cares about comfort at all, which is sometimes what I feel 80/20 can deceptively sell. But Scorpio with 80/20 doesn’t care about that all – put all of yourself with passion in what you think matters, but if it doesn’t, then kill it. And Scorpio can just do this again and again – that’s COURAGE (Mars).
I’m sorry if this is what you have already meant or tried to convey, but anyways, I hope I have contributed at least something new someone can gain or think about.
Well, that explains alot, rather puts things into perspective that I (of course i was) already aware of. I am grateful someone put so much thought & effort into explaining this topic.
Scorpio Sun Infj woman here my ASC?
0 deg Gemini. My soul mate? Didn’t make it around this time, cause I am my own soul mate. Took many years to accept this liberating fact. I do wish to have someone around that thinks I’m funny tho.
I’m reading Crime and Punishment, and I’m dumbfounded how Dostoevsky, a proposed INFJ and Scorpio, weaves in so many colourful characters into the protagonists world. This seems to be at odds with the “loner” personality that I’m assuming he was in real life. Is this an MBTI or astrology thing? (The ability to take a very narrow and macabre core theme and “extrovert” it).