Scorpio Season: October 23 – November 21
With the downturn of the season toward colder, darker months, the Sun enters Scorpio, the sign of the scorpion. Just as we’re dipping into themes of death and rebirth with holidays like Samhain and All Saints' Day, Scorpio is unafraid to plunge into the depths of the psyche, the subconscious, and darker realms of life.
In everyday life, this tenacity might look like deep introspection or a desire to understand what makes others tick. Scorpio is intuitive and creative, receptive and patient, but also passionate and fiercely protective of what it values. The mysteries of life fuel its curiosity, drawing it toward the hidden motivations, desires, and fears that influence our behavior. Because it embraces the strange and marginal, Scorpio tends to challenge conventional spiritual and social ideas, questioning what lies beneath the surface.
As we continue exploring the Wheel of Fortune, Scorpio reminds us that not every turn brings us somewhere comfortable or familiar. The downward movement of the Wheel can bring uncertainty, loss, and changes we aren't prepared for. These experiences can reveal just how tightly we hold on to certain expectations, relationships, or ideas about ourselves. While we can't always control what happens around us, Scorpio encourages us to examine our responses with curiosity and honesty.
Scorpio and The Tarot
Each zodiac sign is associated with a collection of tarot cards. For Scorpio, these are Death and the Five, Six, and Seven of Cups. These cards bring some of the more difficult areas of life to the surface. They explore how profound transformation and loss can give way to new growth and opportunities, and how we navigate unexpected challenges in our relationships and emotional lives.
Through the cards, Scorpio shows us the importance of feelings that are typically dismissed as ‘bad’ or negative. Instead of treating them as something to overcome, Scorpio asks us to recognize their place within the natural cycles of life, embracing lighter moments as well as the dark.
Death
Rarely is Death about an actual, physical death. Instead, it speaks to releasing what no longer serves us, returning it to the ground, and allowing it to nourish something new. We see it in the wild: plants and animals live their lives, and after death their bodies decompose, releasing nutrients into the soil and providing the foundation for new life. This is a natural process that Scorpio understands and yearns to explore. While these moments can feel scary and sometimes painful, they are natural parts of our lives, often marking periods of transformation and change.
Scorpio’s curiosity (and morbid sense of humor) can help us face the sting of the Death card with an open mind and heart. The more clearly we can face this process, the less fearful we may become of change and the uncertainty that accompanies it. Scorpio asks us to trust what we cannot yet see.
This is where Death and the Wheel of Fortune share an important lesson. The Wheel reminds us that change is inevitable, while Death asks us to consider what those changes require us to release. We can't always choose when something ends, and we may not immediately understand what will take its place. Just as the fallen leaves of autumn become part of the soil that nourishes spring's growth, an ending can become the foundation for something we haven't yet imagined.
The Decans of Scorpio
The decans of a sign can be viewed as subsets of its larger themes. We can think of them as acts in a play or a sequence in a story, each illustrating how that sign’s qualities appear in our lived experience.
While Death reflects the major periods of transformation in our lives, the decans explore the natural highs and lows of our relationships and emotional attachments. Through the Five, Six, and Seven of Cups, we encounter disappointment, restoration, and the challenge of deciding where to invest our emotional energy. These cards ask us:
How do we work through periods of loss and sadness?
How can we reconnect with what brings us comfort, support, and belonging?
How do we make meaningful decisions without losing sight of what truly matters?
The Five of Cups is a card of disappointment and regret. It takes place after a tumultuous event, leaving broken and hurt feelings in its wake. The scene is one of contemplation, grief, and isolation. The Five of Cups reminds us that these feelings are a natural reaction to loss and need to be fully felt and given space rather than pushed aside.
However, it also warns against sinking so deeply into despair that we lose sight of what remains and still needs our attention. Like the turning of the Wheel, our emotional lives experience highs and lows, and acknowledging the difficult moments is just as necessary as celebrating the joyful ones.
The Five of Cups shows us the importance of making room for grief while recognizing that our losses don’t have to define everything that comes afterward. When we’re ready, we can begin to pick up the pieces and consider what comes next.
The Six of Cups tells us that sometimes, to heal, we need to reconnect with simpler moments. This card depicts a much more peaceful scene, with a strong sense of nostalgia and reminiscence for a time filled with promise, ease, and happiness.
Following the disappointment of the Five, the Six reminds us that comfort, joy, and connection are still available to us, even if they take different forms than they once did. It may be through the support of friends, family, and community that the sharpness of grief and sadness begins to soften.
There’s also something valuable in looking back. The Wheel of Fortune reminds us that life is constantly changing, but that doesn't mean we must leave everything from the past behind. We can revisit familiar places, relationships, and practices, carrying forward what continues to nourish us.
The Six of Cups offers a sense of stability and encouragement, reminding us that restoration doesn't always require starting over. Sometimes it begins by reconnecting with what has supported us all along.
The Seven of Cups moves away from the stability of the previous card and into a landscape of uncertainty and possibility. What once brought comfort and pleasure may now give way to longing for something more, whether through imagination, ambition, indulgence, or fantasy.
This card illustrates how easily our desires can become tangled with our fears and expectations. Sometimes, when we've experienced disappointment or loss, we become preoccupied with finding something that promises to fill the space left behind. Other times, we're simply overwhelmed by the possibilities before us, unsure which direction to take.
The Seven of Cups asks us to examine these desires with emotional clarity. Which possibilities are meaningful and realistically achievable? Which are distractions, or attempts to avoid something we'd rather not face?
As the Wheel continues to turn, new opportunities will inevitably appear. But having choices doesn't mean we need to pursue every one of them. The Seven of Cups encourages us to practice discernment, recognizing the difference between what captures our imagination and what genuinely deserves our time and energy.
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Scorpio and its tarot cards invite us to explore the darker, deeper aspects of life and our emotions. But they also teach us that these experiences have an important role in developing a greater understanding of ourselves, our relationships, and what we value.
The Wheel of Fortune reminds us that no circumstance remains unchanged forever. Scorpio takes that lesson a step further, asking us to consider how we're changed by the experiences we move through. What do we learn from disappointment? What do we choose to carry forward? And how might our understanding of ourselves evolve as familiar circumstances fall away?
We don't have to welcome every difficult experience or search for a positive lesson in every loss. Sometimes it's enough to acknowledge what we're feeling, tend to what remains, and allow ourselves the time and space to discover what comes next.
