All About Scorpio
Scorpio is a water sign and much like its fellow water signs (Cancer and Pisces), it operates with a great deal of intuition, sensing the signals and undercurrents of life. But rather than bury itself inside its cocoon, Scorpio desires to dig down to the bottom of life's mysteries and bring the truth to the surface. Scorpio especially prefers the big mysteries: life, death, and the meaning of everything in between. Some signs, such as Pisces, Aquarius, and Sagittarius, seek meaning by opening themselves up to it, questing and traveling for it, but Scorpio does it by excavating it, finding what is hidden, what is perhaps too scary and dark to see and admit for the average person.
Scorpio can be ruthless in its search for truth and has a sometimes obsessive need to know what lies beneath. Know thyself. Scorpio is intense in its search through its own unconscious desires. Scorpio must burn away all pretense, all the comforting stories we humans tell ourselves and the lies we tell others, in order to see its own psychology. Scorpio is naturally attuned to seeing the 'darker' side of life, because it deals with the part of human nature that we try to keep hidden from ourselves and others: our own darkness, our own fears and our own capacity for cruelty. We all have parts of us that we don't want others to see, that we are ashamed of and scared of, parts of us that we know are not much evolved past our own animal instincts; this is the part Scorpio seeks to penetrate, because this is the place in us where we are raw and real. This kind of rawness and truth is comforting to Scorpio; suppression is anathema.
Scorpio is represented by the Scorpion, perhaps because it does have a sting. In its zeal to penetrate the facade, Scorpio can sometimes be so blunt with others that they wound to the core, going deep inside someone else's fears and blowing them apart faster than the person can handle. Scorpio has a natural talent for seeing what others are trying to hide and is usually not afraid to point it out, usually with no punches pulled because it is not about the 'safety' of life, but about it's truth. Scorpio is fierce and unflinching. Yet, with all its directness, Scorpio is often a private sign and doesn't show itself as readily as it tries to see others. Scorpio does not encourage pretense; it wants to be honest, but it is not open for the world to see. Scorpio prefers to be the silent observer, and yes, it can be a little sneaky.
One of Scorpio's lessons is learning to use power wisely. Scorpio has a tremendous power because it knows human nature and the dark side of life so well. Scorpio must learn how to use power not by manipulating others and controlling situations, but by gaining power over their own actions and motivations. True power is control of self, but sometimes Scorpio will use its power of perception to wound others and prove its own strength.
One of Scorpio's shadows is hidden in its strength. If it is not careful, Scorpio can become so focused on the dark side of life that it cannot see anything else. In its quest to strip away pretense, it can also strip away true joy and light. If this happens, Scorpio may be overwhelmed by fear, moodiness, extreme pessimism and/or morbidity. Scorpio can also become paranoid, always convinced that there is more to the story, never satisfied with a simple answer. Scorpio can tell itself that it is just being realistic and honest about life, but the trick may be that it is out of balance. Scorpio needs to balance all it's heaviness with a sense of humor, with joy, even if it's joy that comes out of the knowledge that any moment could be your last (and no sign knows that better than Scorpio).
Even though Scorpio has to be careful with getting too focused on the dark, it does need to face these deeper truths. If Scorpio tries to suppress these truths, an emotional explosion eventually rips that charade away. Much like the Tower card in the tarot, a flawed structure cannot stand and must be destroyed before it can be rebuilt. For that reason, Scorpio is also known as the Phoenix, for it is the sign most known for dramatic transformation. The truths it uncovers in itself, change it irrevocably, always leading it toward deeper knowledge of itself and the (under)world.