The Mars in Scorpio Playbook

Maturing your drive & desire for empowerment, evolution and erotic potency.

Mars, the red planet of desire, drive and masculine intelligence, has returned to Scorpio for the first time in two years. He stays until November 4th, serving us a potent dose of depth, eros, and transformative courage.

This energy can support you in turning excuses into action by confronting hidden fears, dynamics or desires that may be binding your creative power and vitality.

“The cave you fear to enter, hold’s the treasure you seek”- Joseph Campbell.

Scorpio Mars has a penetrative, magnetic, strategic energy that meets deception with discernment and when healthy, will not tolerate manipulation or misuse of power by either ourselves or others. Mars in Scorpio can ferment, dismantle and devour these shadowy energies, driven by an appetite for truth and erotic relationship to transformation.

There are no shallow waters here.

Scorpio is currently receiving powerful trines from Jupiter in Cancer and the North Node in Pisces which really expands the spiritual growth and soul nourishment available from this transit. Also Black Moon Lilith is exalted in Scorpio now bringing her primal feminine magic to the scene.

I will dive more into key dates and nuances of this transit on my next podcast so stay tuned by subscribing to this Substack below!

As Mars continues dropping lower in the evening sky, visible in the West just after sunset, he moves towards the end of this 26 month cycle with the Sun where he eventually “dies” becoming invisible before rising again in the pre-dawn hours.

For now though, Mars has matured into the Sensei, an elder Warrior, full of wisdom, embodying and sharing his creative vision with the collective, while staying connected to an internal sense of passion, purpose and direction.

This stands in contrast to the more experimental, impatient, self-involved morning-star Mars or the metamorphosis which happens during the retrograde.

Interestingly, Mars began this current cycle from 25 degrees Scorpio back in November of 2023.

So, something that was seeded back then, either a desire or a challenge, is now releasing its nutrients into the wider web of life, through your aligned actions. Monsters have been slain, obstacles overcome, desires unearthed and refined, so ask yourself…

• In which ways has your inner Masculine evolved since Nov 2023? Your ability to choose, initiate and ground into that which you are moving towards? Also how has your relationship with Men/Masculinity evolved?

• How do your desires, instincts and will work together, not only in service to your personal quests, but also as protective and evolutionary gifts to the world?

• When fear meets desire which do you more often follow and why? Unpacking your habitual responses can help you to operate with more agency and deepen you capacity for intimacy with life especially now.

• Is there something or someone you are ready to cut off, expose or claim? You already know what it is, so whats holding you back?

The Scorpio part of your chart holds the key to these questions so look there or…

BOOK A READING

October spaces are now open at current rates, before prices rise in November. Going forwards I will release a handful of slots for the month ahead, and you, my Subs will always have first access.

That makes me sound like your cosmic Dom. I like it, haha.

But for now, let’s dive into with this year’s Mars in Scorpio transit in all its deep, dark, delicious glory.

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Scorpio Essentials

Scorpio is a Fixed, Water sign, ruling the 8th house through the symbol of the Scorpion.

Fixed Signs

Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio & Taurus. These signs maintain and sustain, they are resilient, centred and habitual, but can also stagnate or resist change. Positioned between the equinoxes and solstices, they occupy the middle of the seasons, rather than the peaks or edges, providing endurance and stability.

Water signs

Scorpio, Cancer & Pisces govern our emotional and psychic bodies, moving in tides, pooling in hearts and evolving the world through sensitivity, creativity, nourishment, and renewal. The feels are real!

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The 8th House

As the 8th sign, Scorpio rules the 8th house, covering sex, intimacy, merging, shared resources, including investments, debts, inheritance, and taxes, endings, transformation and rebirth. It governs hidden truths or hidden enemies, shadow material, the occult, taboos, raw power, control, instincts, magnetism, sexual organs, and excretory functions. The number eight is also the infinity symbol, reflecting Scorpio’s regenerative nature.

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The Scorpion Symbol

The Scorpio constellation is linked with death, fertility, and protection across various cultures . In Greek myth, the Scorpion killed Orion, the hunter who arrogantly claimed he could slay all animals. In Babylonian tradition, Scorpio was associated with Ishtar/Inanna, representing both protective wrath and fertility. In Maori lore the red giant Antares located at the heart of the Scorpius constellation is called Rēhua, a chiefly star associated with spiritual authority, healing and renewal. Islamic cosmology connects Antares with Azrael the Angel of Death and according to the incredible Nayetsi from Orphic Astrology - Talismanic Magic calls on Antares for “protection against spiritual attacks, uncrossings, banishments and liberatory justice work”

The scorpion’s shell and poison can both harm or shield, guarding the thresholds between life and death. In the same vein, Serpents are closely associated with Scorpio for their venom, skin shedding renewal and fluid, sensual movement.

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The Nature of Scorpio

When Scorpio waters stagnate, they become swampy often leading to obsession, manipulation or freeze states. There is a deep resistance to changing states usually rooted in fear and un-metabolised trauma.

When consumed by fear, Scorpio can be excessively private, paranoid, controlling, or vengeful. But Scorpio is a natural strategist, understanding the energy and motivation needed to direct change in alignment with both willpower and eros through intensely focused instinct and intention and this like all things can manifest on a spectrum from destructive to exalted.

It can also due to it’s great Martian (and Plutonic) energy simply not know when to quit. This relentless quality of Scorpio brings both endurance and a need to cultivate compassionate boundaries when getting into all or nothing scenarios, as extremes can become addictive. Just because we CAN doesn’t mean we SHOULD.

When we learn to stay present with these deeper waters and metabolise the strong sensations, they become potent alchemical conduits that are intuitive, creative and erotically charged acting as evolutionary catalysts for all they touch

Mature Mars in Scorpio reminds me of those specialist Cave Divers who rescued 9 trapped schoolchildren in Thailand. It was very very sketchy, skilled and required them to drug the children in order to extract them through these dark, flooded underground tunnels.

The exchange of money as ruled by the 8th house is also an extension this Scorpio merging capacity. Borrowing, investing sharing and multiplying funds is a result of this increased power exchange rooted in a Scorpio mix of intimacy AND strategy. Scorpio cash is more about what can be done with money, the power and influence it gives us rather than the physical security oriented motivations, which are more Taurus terrain.

Scorpio and Depth Psychology

Scorpio appears in the emotional and psychic impulses present when we merge, separate, or share power. Its shadow may host repressed fears or desires, binding us to destructive, obsessive or aggressive behaviours.

The Grandfathers of Depth Psychology, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, unsurprisingly, both had strong Scorpio placements. Freud’s Scorpio Moon sensitised him to psycho-emotional dynamics rooted in our erotic and unconscious selves while Jung’s Mars in Scorpio mobilised upon much of that work by moving into explorations of the collective unconscious, archetypes, and mystical experiences.

This is a great example of Scorpios investigative nature and willingness to face trauma, pain or intensity in order to understand and transform it into something more vital.

Dark Eros

Orgasm is called le petit mort in French, meaning, the little death. This further reflects the Scorpio connection between sex and death.

That moment of climax where the ego dissolves, is a psychic edge between life and death after which we may feel, that we have gone “beyond” and returned, metaphorically reborn.

Sex is another process of merging and separation, and eroticism in general is deeply involved with the exchanges of power. Kink or other taboo sexual areas can be highlighted with Scorpio energies especially those that push the boundaries with high sensation play, domination and submission. Many people report cathartic healing from exploring in these realms.

Archetypally, Vampires also endure as symbols of sexual intensity, seduction, and eroticised power. The Femme Fatale, Succubus, Stalker, Tantrika or Forbidden Lover all carry this taboo element of Scorpio’s connections to sex, power, death and added themes of transformation through that.

The real question with all of these areas though, is are we in life draining or life giving states?

Vedic astrology links Scorpio to Kundalini Shakti, which can be awakened during sex and channelled through Tantric methods to purify karma and support awakening. This acknowledges the alchemical process of Scorpio when we move past narrow perspectives of sexuality as purely a physical or psychological act.

In these ways with Scorpio Mars, relating so much to desire, the coming months can support us to explore more deeply our sexual nature for not only pleasure but also evolution, healing and catharsis.

When engaging with others, consider if you are more turned on by leading or following sexually? Do you override emotional depth by chasing physical intensity? And is there a way to be more honest about what you desire or fear erotically and what brave actions could be taken now to invite transformation there?

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Healthy Scorpio & Horoscopes

Healthy Scorpio requires noticing where we have become numb, emotionally or psychically fixed. We must realise the ways we are controlling how we feel through avoidance, repression or addiction to intensity.