Scorpio Dark Side: Legend or Myth?

Scorpios revel in their reputation as dark artists, as it casts a foreboding glamour upon them. Although Scorpios treasure their privacy, the sign's notoriety gives them a kind of magical prestige.   

Scorpio, 8th House, and Pluto (Scorpio's ruler) are associated with the great, and sometimes life-threatening, risk of giving over to soul changes. That's why Scorpio's totem is the Phoenix, the bird mythical bird that is an emblem of the Sun and rises from the ashes.   

Scorpio is represented by the pitch black of night—the dark night of the soul that you're not sure will ever end. It rules those wounds that we suspect we'll never recover from before we are resurrected.

The Scorpio glyph comes from an Egyptian hieroglyph for the snake, who sheds its skin, bringing the new layers to the surface. The mystery of Scorpio has to do with these kinds of extreme transitions, like the portal of life and death itself. 

In this shadowy terrain, there are lost souls, broken souls, abuse, despair and unfathomable ordeals of trauma. Scorpio's instincts naturally lead them to this dark psychic landscape, where they play a starring role. 

Some become great healers, willing and able to bear witness to incredibly malevolent and destructive forces, and help in the recovery process. Dark side Scorpios, however, could be victimizers, who use their innate gifts for their own ends.

The Occultocracy

To stay sane in our modern world, it is helpful to be aware of the occult, and have some symbol literacy.  Scorpio relates to the dark arts and cultural sorcery for social programming.

Scorpio rules secret societies like the Masons, conspiracies, deception, corruption, trauma, psychological warfare, tyranny, and surveillance. 

Dion Fortune was an occultist and author of the book Psychic Self-Defense, in which she writes: "So much occult knowledge is abroad in the world, so much of the kinds of things described in these pages is going on unknown and unsuspected in our midst, that is every desire that men of goodwill should investigate the forces which men of evil have perverted to their ends.  These things are the pathologies of the mystic life, and if they were better understood, many tragedies would be diverted."

A dark side Scorpio has a romance with the dark, and knowingly or unknowingly uses it against others.  The manipulation can get into hypnotic control, sigils (symbols as spells), staged hoaxes, mind control in popular culture, or simply the everyday act of messing with someone's mind.

The Dark Angel

Scorpio deals with the underworld and is associated with the alchemy of base materials.  You can see a parallel in base behavior when Scorpio devolves into degeneracy and gives in to lower impulses. 

Again from Dion Fortune:  "We all know that, when caught off our guard, there comes a dark temptation from the depths of our lower selves, something atavistic stirs, and we think thoughts, or even do deeds, of which we would never have believed ourselves capable. We have heard the voice of the Dark Angel speaking." 

A dark side Scorpio lures others into a lair of addiction, sexual obsession, and dark deeds, where their victim starts to feel not quite like his or herself. 

Vampirism

Vampires in myth and literature are archetypes of dark side Scorpio.  The seductive charm of the Vampire puts the victim into a kind of trance, not expecting the bite that comes later.

A shadow Scorpio (Sun) or someone with strong Pluto or Scorpio elements who doesn't have their own way of refilling the psychic well can become a serial psychic vampire.  The evil genius Scorpio knows you better than you know yourself, especially if you're not yet very self-aware.  

And as Dion Fortune wrote, again in Psychic Self-Defense, just as fictional vampires like Dracula create other vampires, that's how it is with psychic vampirism. 

Fortune writes, “Now vampirism is contagious; the person who is vampirized, being depleted of vitality, is a psychic vacuum, himself absorbing from anyone he comes across in order to refill his depleted resources of vitality.”

Psychic Boundaries

Scorpio has to do with the shared energy field, especially between two intimate friends or lovers.  One subtle phenomenon is the taking on of another person's psychic detritus. 

This Scorpio experience associated with subtle energies is difficult to detail and prove. It requires the strengthening of energetic boundaries, as well as detoxing the dark energies dumped into your field. 

In this way, a dark side Scorpio can serve as a teacher, forcing us to exert will and save ourselves from attack. This means going to the root of the soul's ability to know sovereignty, tracking what hooks us back to their source. 

Once you've recovered from this kind of psychic attack or bondage, you have Scorpiocity of the best kind. It's the knowing that you cannot be hooked or controlled by those that would seek your weak spot in the psyche or soul.