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Water · Fixed

Scorpio

The Scorpion, the 8th sign of the zodiac year, usually printed as 23 October – 21 November.

A hand-coloured star card of Scorpio: a grey-green scorpion with raised claws and a long segmented tail curling to the left, the red star Antares marked at its heart.
Scorpio · Sidney Hall · Urania's Mirror; or, A View of the Heavens, London, 1825
Element
Wateremotion, intuition and attachment, in the tradition
Modality
Fixedthe signs that hold the middle of a season, traditionally read as sustainers
Traditional ruler
MarsAssigned before the outer planets were found
Modern ruler
PlutoAssigned after this planet's telescopic discovery, centuries after the traditional scheme was fixed.

When the sun actually crosses

The moment the sun enters Scorpio and the moment it leaves for Sagittarius, each year from 2015 to 2026, in UTC to the minute.

22 Oct 00:0022 Oct 06:0022 Oct 12:0022 Oct 18:0023 Oct 00:0023 Oct 06:0023 Oct 12:0023 Oct 18:0024 Oct 00:0020122016202020242010202622 Oct 00:0022 Oct 06:0022 Oct 12:0022 Oct 18:0023 Oct 00:0023 Oct 06:0023 Oct 12:0023 Oct 18:0024 Oct 00:00201220162020202420102026
Where the sun crossed into Scorpio, 2010–2026, in UTC. The marked years are the ones where a 29 February has fallen in between and pulled it back by most of a day.
YearSun enters ScorpioSun leaves for Sagittarius
201523 October, 17:47 UTC22 November, 15:26 UTC
201622 October, 23:45 UTC21 November, 21:22 UTC
201723 October, 05:27 UTC22 November, 03:05 UTC
201823 October, 11:22 UTC22 November, 09:01 UTC
201923 October, 17:20 UTC22 November, 14:59 UTC
202022 October, 23:00 UTC21 November, 20:40 UTC
202123 October, 04:51 UTC22 November, 02:34 UTC
202223 October, 10:36 UTC22 November, 08:21 UTC
202323 October, 16:21 UTC22 November, 14:03 UTC
202422 October, 22:15 UTC21 November, 19:56 UTC
202523 October, 03:51 UTC22 November, 01:36 UTC
202623 October, 09:38 UTC22 November, 07:24 UTC

VSOP87, checked against published equinox and solstice times.

Which dates can be Scorpio

Since 1920 the sun has entered Scorpio on 22 October, 23 October or 24 October, and left it for Sagittarius on 21 November, 22 November or 23 November (UTC). On those dates the sign depends on the year, and in a crossing year on the hour; each date's page gives every year.

In the tradition

In Western astrological tradition, Scorpio is classed as a fixed water sign. Fixed signs are the signs that hold the middle of a season, traditionally read as sustainers, and water signs are traditionally associated with emotion, intuition and attachment. Its ruling planet in that tradition is Mars; present-day astrology assigns Pluto instead.

These are associations reported from tradition, not claims about anyone born under the sign.

The scorpion that killed Orion

Orion, a hunter sure that he was the most skilled of all, said to Diana and Latona that he could kill anything the earth produced. Earth, angered, sent the scorpion that killed him. Jove admired the courage of both and put the scorpion among the stars, Hyginus says, "as a lesson to men not to be too self-confident," and at Diana's request gave Orion the same honour.

The two were placed so "that when Scorpion rises, Orion sets." In the handbook the Scorpion is larger than the sign of that name: its claws spread so wide that Roman writers made one part of them a sign of its own, the Balance, now Libra.

Hyginus, Astronomica, book 2, in Mary Grant's translation (1960), chapter 2.26, checked .

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