© Christos Georghiou | Dreamstime.com

On the first episode of Grand Designs Australia the story centred around the reconstruction of a very special house in Gippsland. Reconstruction because the house was completely destroyed in the Black Saturday Bushfires of January 2009- after having been completed for just 6 days. Yep, two years worth of blood, sweat and tears all gone in an inferno. Six days. And afterwards all that was left was a concrete slab, a burned out shell and a shattered spirit.

What was really special about this place and its owner/builder was the fact that rather than bulldozing what was left, he chose to recycle what he could to ensure that all the embodied energy of the house was retained. Panes of glass which amazingly withstood the incredible temperatures, warped steel- anything which could be salvaged was. The result was an amazing transformation of what had previously been ruined. Phoenix from the flames…or in the case from the ashes.

The owner understood that the damage was now part of the story of the house. Sure, changes were made. Fire protection was installed to ensure it could never happen again. The owner learned the lessons that needed to be learned, protected himself for the future, but bravely faced that future. As the ruins of the house were transformed, the owners’ healing process was able to begin.

This concept was one also explored in one of my favourite scenes in the movie Eat Pray Love where Liz was sitting in some ruins of old Rome and realised that no matter how badly things were ruined, new structures were able to be built up around them. Through complete destruction comes transformation. The cycle continues.

This is the key message to Scorpio. Scorpio is death. Scorpio is elimination. Through death comes re-birth. Through elimination comes an opportunity for healing. By making room in your life, you allow something else to rush in. Scorpio is transformation.

Scorpio is the dark side. Her passions are volcanic, beginning deep below the surface. Scorpio seeks the ultimate truth, ultimate power and ultimate passion. Intense doesn’t begin to describe her. Wherever Scorpio falls in your chart is where these tendencies will be displayed. It is where your desires are pursued with absolute unflinching and completely direct focus.

Scorpio is that critical point between life and death where nothing else matters and everything comes down to the rawest and most honest truth- and nothing but the truth. And before I hear you say in your best Jack Nicholson voice “You can’t handle the truth.” Let me tell you, Scorpio can and will.

Think about fear… just for a minute. Go on… what are you really scared of? Is it death, dying, aging, crowds, rejection, heartbreak, feeling too much? Think about that fear, go to the root of it and below into the murky depths of your soul. Now you are seeing and feeling Scorpio. This is the place where our most basic fears and instincts live. This is the deepest and most intensely authentic part of you. But before you run away, this is also the area where you have the most potential to effect transformation.

It is this mix of intensity and transformational potential which makes us turn away from Scorpio, and indeed from the 8^th house. It is this fear and the association with life, death and sex that also gives Scorpio, the most deeply darkly emotional of the water signs, a bad reputation. As with all signs, there is a positive and a shadow side to Scorpio, but often it is only the shadow cliché which we associate with Scorpio and which we hold to be true. This makes sense – Scorpio is so incredibly guarded and private that we may only see beneath the surface when a line is crossed.  Few other signs have the healing or transformational promise of Scorpio. Few other signs attach so completely and intensely.

Scorpio is well known for his penchant for obsession, compulsion and revenge. Scorpio is well known for his magnetism and sexual attraction. Scorpio is well known for his focused intension to a goal. Scorpio is also well known for his tendency to paranoia. This is all part of the defence mechanism.

No one can get to your soul, your heart or your truth as effectively as Scorpio.  Unfortunately, this can also mean that Scorpio has the potential to hurt and damage you should they choose to. Scorpio struggles with the fear that comes with these extremes- the fear of feeling too much, the fear of relinquishing control, and the fear of letting go. Above all these is the fear of letting someone in- to do so gives that person the power to hurt, and few signs hurt as deeply and as completely as Scorpio. Fear is a protection mechanism, fear is a defensive mechanism, and very often fear is a desire that you just don’t know how to handle. For Scorpio, very often a pre-emptive strike represents, in her mind, the best possible defence.

If you have the Sun in Scorpio, you will be motivated to experience intense emotional connections- merging with someone else in a way which transcends the physical. It is this, and the fact that Scorpio rules the sexual organs and the organs of elimination in the body, that also gives rise to the cliché of Scorpio being the most sexual of signs. But sex for Scorpio is about more than physical release and pleasure. It is about la petite mort, the little death- the raw transformative experience that complete physical and emotional merging can bring.

It can, however, also be about the darker motivations of control, obsession and possession- Scorpio does not like to share and can guard that which is “his” with jealous paranoia. Feeling with the intensity of Scorpio is also to expose the soft inner core and to risk betrayal, abandonment and heartbreak. Scorpio is, as a result, slow to trust and will not do so until all data has been gathered, examined and you have proven yourself and given yourself body and soul into his keeping. In return he will give himself- not something to be taken lightly.

In the meantime, it pays to listen carefully to your intuition. If Scorpio is interested in you, she will be subtle. The signals themselves are a test. Opening up is to risk rejection. Instead Scorpio needs you to prove your intentions and reciprocation by risking yourself first.

If you have planets in Scorpio, whatever is represented by those planets will be where this plays out in your life. With plenty of Pisces planets, my intuition is pretty good, but with Mars in Scorpio in the 8^th house natally, my Scorpio hubby and I circled each other for some time before we finally hooked up. I was reading his signals, he was reading mine, we both wanted it, but I was not going to risk rejection or the friendship we had built up by making the 1^st move and nor was he.

We only got together because a mutual friend arranged for us both to go to a movie with her and when she (deliberately) didn’t turn up we found ourselves on neutral ground.   Twenty odd years on, I guess I would have to say the risk was worth it.

And the song for this sign? Phoenix From the Flames by Mr Scorpio Moon- the gorgeously inked Robbie Williams.

Silence shields the pain
So you say nothing
Feel they’ve rigged the game
And you’re done with lovin’
Only you can see the darkness in the northern lights

As always, the usual fine print- all rights to the artist & no copyright infringement intended…

Jessica Rabbit

“I wish I’d never met you more than I could dare to let you go”

This line from Pet Shop Boys’ Jealousy sum up Venus in Scorpio perfectly. Venus in Libra was all about partnership, appearances, beauty and charm. Venus in Scorpio is truth and honesty and loyalty and intense compulsion.

The Venus we saw in Libra was a milk chocolate girl- sweet and pretty with a lovely texture and melt in the mouth soft centre. The Venus we saw in Libra was a little detached, charming and just a tad on the conservative side. She was looking for a partner, her “other half”, the one who would balance out her weaknesses and maximise her strengths. That Venus was a social butterfly, equally at home somewhere fabulous for cappuccino and cakes with her girlfriends as dressed to the nines somewhere else fabulous having cocktails.

This Venus, Venus in Scorpio, is very different. This Venus is a bittersweet dark dark truffle, perhaps with a touch of chilli. This Venus is private, obsessive and dark around the edges. This Venus can be kinky, a dominatrix and all consuming. This Venus does want a partner, she wants a soul-mate- she wants all of you for herself. And she is irresistable. Sound delicious, scary or straight out weird?

Venus is Scorpio doesn’t know how to love just a little. She doesn’t flirt, she doesn’t play games- and she is all the more magnetic for that. She is as she is and when she wants something or someone, she wants all of it with all of her being- and doesn’t care how long it takes. Sort of like when you have a craving for, say, Pinot Gris, but all that is in the fridge is Chardonnay.

If, like me, you have Venus in Aries, you will drink the Chardonnay anyway, even though you know it will give you a headache after 2 glasses and then still crave that Pinot Gris. If you have Venus in Scorpio, you will wait until you can drink the Pinot Gris, and not settle for anything else. Why eat the dairy milk when you can hold out for the 70% cocoa Lindt.

When she does fall in love, it is with every fibre of her being, and she will assume that you will be the same. This can be tricky if you are not a watery type. Scorpio doesn’t like to talk about it- you are supposed to just “know”. It is about feeling your way- words mean nothing.

Where have you been, who were you with? You didn’t call when you said you would…I could not hear or see for jealousy…I never knew, till I met you. (Jealousy, Pet Shop Boys)

When you have been loved by a Scorpio, you will know you have been loved. He will be jealous, she will be possessive and if you cheat on him, he will never forgive you…and she will take her revenge, eventually. But then again, what if he cheats on you? Venus in Scorpio is so contained and so private, you will probably never know- he is a master at compartmentalising- will demand absolute honesty and loyalty from you, but is not above falling for another if he feels that you have become distant or are not as fully into him as you should be.

If he suspects you are not entirely honest, he becomes the most brilliant forensic detective- until he has either proven your guilt, or accepted your innocence. With Scorpio, innocent until proven guilty does not apply.

Having said that, Venus in Scorpio attaches deeply and emotionally, and has difficulty in separating sex from love. Sex for Scorpio is an 8^th house transformative, life changing experience, not 5^th house fun. Don’t mess with Scorpio in love unless you are prepared to pay the price if it all falls apart. But, if you are prepared to take the risk, Scorpio is absolutely unforgettable.

From a fashion viewpoint, Venus in Scorpio favours the darkside. She is the classic femme fatale, Mata Hari or the male equivalent. She is the leather clad, stiletto shod domanitrix, she is the Emo hanging around Flinders St station with piercings and ink. She is all of these and none of them.

Think black, dark purple, blood red, leather, silk and sumptuous gothic underworld glamour. I am in Melbourne at the moment and the interior of one of my favourite places, Spellbox- the Witches House, is Venus in Scorpio personified. With gothic styled book-shelves containing apothecary bottles of all conceivable herbs and powders, scrying bowls, owls, mortar and pestles and twigs of birch as accessories. Drapes of purple and jewelled blue fabrics from the ceiling and turquoise walls, with the only light coming from candelabra and crystal chandeliers, this is Venus in Scorpio interior decorating bliss.

Venus in Scorpio is like the forbidden apple- you know it’s not right, but by god does it feel good!

Check out this version of Jealousy, sung by the man with the best Scorpio Moon in the business- Robbie Williams