Scorpius Constellation

Scorpius is the Scorpion, with the red supergiant Antares at its heart and a curved, J-shaped tail ending near Shaula and Lesath. Its outline is especially conspicuous from southern latitudes. Rich Milky Way star fields lie behind the figure and make the region rewarding to explore.

Ptolemy assigns Mars with some Saturn to the forehead stars, and Mars with some Jupiter to the central body, including Antares. The tail joints resemble Saturn with some Venus; the sting receives Mercury and Mars. Robson reproduces these part-specific judgments.

In the myth, the Scorpion kills Orion after the Hunter boasts of his power over earthly creatures. A small animal becomes the limit of a much larger figure's confidence. The Scorpion's image brings vulnerability into contact with the capacity to defend or strike.

In a reading, this can suggest force held in reserve and a strong response when a boundary is crossed. Loyalty may coexist with the wish to retaliate after an injury. The curved tail makes the consequences of a defensive act part of the figure's meaning, while Antares gives its center a vivid martial emphasis.

Deborah Houlding's account of the zodiac sign Scorpio connects the scorpion with death and regeneration through the symbolism of creatures that live beneath the earth. Her reading describes the removal of what has served its purpose and the renewal that can follow. Houlding describes emotional force as capable of both destruction and creation, depending on how it is directed.

In this account of Scorpio, the scorpion represents defensive instinct, while the eagle retains the predator's patience and gains a wider view through flight. The phoenix gives the cycle of death and renewal another form: its self-immolation precedes new life emerging from the remains of the old bird.

Houlding also connects Scorpio with emotional privacy and sexual attraction; relationships become a setting in which emotional change is explored.

In Greek mythology, the Scorpion was sent by Gaia (or by Artemis, in some tellings) to slay Orion after the great hunter boasted that he could kill every animal on Earth. The Scorpion succeeded, and both were placed on opposite sides of the sky so they could never face each other again: as Scorpius rises in the east, Orion sets in the west.

In Babylonian astronomy, Scorpius was associated with the goddess Ishhara and the concept of darkness and the underworld. The Egyptians connected this sky region with Serket, the scorpion goddess who protected the dead.

In Polynesian traditions, the fishhook of Maui (the demigod who fished up islands from the sea floor) is seen in the curving tail of Scorpius. The Javanese people of Indonesia saw the scorpion's body as a sugarcane harvesting tool, while Aboriginal Australian traditions associate the curving tail with various totemic animals.

Scorpius has been recognized as a scorpion in Western and Near Eastern tradition for at least 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest and most consistently identified constellations. It appears on Babylonian boundary stones dating to the 12th century BCE and in Egyptian astronomical ceilings.

Antares, whose name means 'rival of Mars' (anti Ares), has been a navigational and calendrical star across cultures; its reddish color, similar to Mars, caused ancient observers to treat conjunctions of Mars and Antares with particular seriousness. The Polynesian fishhook of Maui represents one of the most creative reinterpretations of the constellation's shape, connecting it to the demigod who fished up entire islands from the ocean floor.

In Chinese astronomy, Antares (known as the Heart, Xin) was one of the 28 lunar mansions and central to determining the seasons; its culmination at dusk in spring signaled the time for fire prevention rituals.

In the Golden Dawn's Tarot correspondences, the zodiac sign Scorpio is associated with Death (Trump XIII), whose meanings include transformation and renewal.

The zodiac sign Scorpio occupies 210 to 240 degrees of the tropical ecliptic (roughly October 23 to November 21), but the Sun spends only about seven days in the actual constellation Scorpius due to its relatively narrow ecliptic passage. This makes Scorpius the shortest solar transit of any zodiacal constellation.

Much of the sign Scorpio's ecliptic territory is actually occupied by the constellation Libra. The constellation itself extends far south of the ecliptic, with the magnificent tail curving deep into the Milky Way.

Scorpius is unmistakable when visible, its J shaped pattern of bright stars dominating the southern summer sky. Antares (magnitude 1.1, distinctly red orange) is immediately recognizable, and the long curving tail ending in the bright pair Shaula and Lesath is one of the most beautiful star chains in the sky.

The constellation lies in an extraordinarily rich region of the Milky Way, and sweeping through it with binoculars reveals countless star clusters, nebulae, and dark rifts. Notable objects include the open clusters M6 (the Butterfly Cluster) and M7 (Ptolemy's Cluster) near the tail, and the globular cluster M4 near Antares.

Best seen from May through August, Scorpius is best observed from southern latitudes where it rides high; from far northern locations, the tail may not fully clear the horizon.