When the Moon moves into Scorpio, we can say that it's "spicy season." We feel a lot — a significant, deep mood settles in, and as we move through our days this month, things can feel more profound, like even the ordinary moments can hold more than they usually do. We might even find ourselves wondering, huh, what's really going on here? And that's what Scorpio wants — to get to what's under the surface.
This is how we learn about our natal promise: by noticing what happens when the Moon visits a sign for all of us across the planet at the same time, and asking ourselves how we're receiving it, how we're opening to the energy, and how it will ultimately express through us.
Scorpio is such a deep sign that it has three layers of expression — the scorpion, the eagle, and the phoenix.
Maybe this is news to you, but Scorpio is associated with three creatures — the scorpion, the eagle, and the phoenix — and each one is about the level of consciousness we're operating from.
You'll feel this most strongly if you have a Scorpio Moon or a lot of planets in Scorpio, or if Pluto is talking to your Moon by conjunction, square, or opposition. It can also show up if your Sun is talking to Pluto by opposition or square, or if you have a lot of 8th house planets, because all of these carry that same flavor even when we're not technically talking about the sign of Scorpio.
Layer #1: The scorpion: instinct and survival
The first level is the scorpion, and this is very instinctual. At this level, Scorpio energy is very narrow and focused on protection and survival. This is where the scorpion stings, simply because it can.
How this could show up for us is defensiveness, jealousy, hiding things, power struggles, manipulation, and emotional intensity in general, and because it's instinctual, it all runs below our conscious awareness. The scorpion knows how vulnerable we are down here on the earth, and it's guarding that vulnerability, and it will do anything to guard it.
In IFS (Internal Family Systems), we'd say that at this level the protection is about those children in the basement — the inner children you locked away when you were really little. There could be a lot of pain and deep emotion down there. That's exactly what drives the scorpion expression from somewhere we can't quite see.
Layer #2: The eagle: rising above the instinct
The next level is the eagle, where we have more awareness because we're rising above the instinct. Imagine an eagle flying high above everything, able to see the bigger picture rather than just reacting from emotional wounds.
At this level, Scorpio can develop perspective and discernment because it can see the bigger picture. It's also about understanding its emotions and what's underneath them. This is someone who has really worked with their emotions to be in connection with them, maybe through therapy or their own self-awareness work, and so they're more able to transform (such a Scorpionic word) the pain into insight, and to use Scorpio's depth for healing and truth-seeking. It might say, okay, this is really what's going on underneath.
It's that psychological understanding of why we do what we do. I know my emotions better, I know where they come from, and I may not always be able to control my instincts, but there's an awareness now that I didn't have before.
Layer #3: The phoenix: complete death and rebirth
And then the highest level is the phoenix, and many of us already know the phoenix is associated with Scorpio, but this is the archetype's highest expression — complete death and rebirth.
Scorpio is like, yeah, that's what we do down here on Earth, especially if you have a lot of Scorpio curriculum in your natal chart, and the important part is that we willingly let go of our own free will. Sometimes the transformation is forced upon us — a death, an illness, a divorce, an ending of some sort — and we have no choice but to be reborn. Scorpio actually loves it when you choose with your own free will — let go of the old, the attachments, the fears, and you burn it to the ground, and from those ashes a new self emerges with so much resilience and wisdom that you're like, yeah, I know my power.
I always say motherhood is a beautiful example of complete transformation, because you can never go back to the person you were before kids. I remember my second birth, which was natural and really intense. It was with my daughter, who has an intense chart with Pluto talking to her Sun and Moon, and those were the transits happening while I was giving birth — and gosh, did I feel that, because that birth changed me big time. You can read about it here.
I tapped into something then that I've never been able to tap into again: a power that came from something beyond me, and I've wanted to find it again, but I haven't had that intensity of an experience since.
The power we come to know in this phoenix expression fuels us, and it doesn't just heal us — we can go on to be a model for others. Evolutionary astrology says that if you want to talk about the soul in your natal chart, look to Pluto, and so the phoenix is really where the soul wants to go in this lifetime, and yes, we have free will in how we get there.
Where most of us hang out
It makes sense that many of us hang out at that eagle level, where we can see the big picture and be strategic. The eagle can still kill, like an eagle circling its prey and waiting for the right moment to strike — but there's still a higher awareness at work. And especially for those of us with a lot of this curriculum in our charts, we can always drop back to the scorpion in a split second. But if we’re not resourced or our nervous system is dysregulated, then the scorpion can easily show up.
What this means for your Pluto transits
We've all been through Pluto transits, even if you don't know when, depending on your knowledge of transits, and here's what I want you to know — we have a choice in how we move through them, and we can move through all of these levels, but ultimately, depending on the Pluto transit you're having, the soul is holding out for the never-going-back, the complete transformation. Last Spring, I was on the other side of a Pluto-Moon transit myself, about five or six years ago, so I say this from experience.
Moving through the Scorpio Moon days
When the transiting Moon is in Scorpio, we can feel a lot. Let's just say you have a natal Scorpio Moon and a Pisces Sun, you just feel things with your whole body — and on these days everybody can be a little clairsentient.
So think about the layers, because we can all be a little reactive or pushy or intense when the Moon is here, and we can notice other people showing up that way too. There's lots of sensitivity, so give yourself space, and remind yourself to step outside if you need to, because this isn't a super social energy — it's not that you can't be social, but our default is the Moon, so when it’s in Scorpio, it can feel like: I just need my own space for a moment, or longer.
Astrology in micro doses
I believe the best way to learn astrology is by incorporating it in little micro doses throughout your daily life — noticing where the Moon is, feeling how it moves through you and the people around you, and slowly coming to know your own chart from the inside — and that's exactly what we do together in the Luminary Community. I think working with the moon daily is a simple prescription for feeling “all is well” as you move through your day. We’re always being held by our dear Mother Moon.
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