Scorpio's alpha star is famous Antares, "the Scorpion's heart".  Just south there are 3 smaller constellations in a diagonal line-up towards the Sagittarius cusp:

Lupus, Norma and Ara. Further south there are Circini, Triangulum Australis and the Chamaeleon.

North of the ecliptic Hercules influences heavily the first half of Scorpio and Ophiuchus the roughly second half of Scorpio, whereas very north, we see the head of Draco.

There are many different stories about the Scorpion in the various myth from around the world. When looking at the themes, it comes down to poisoning that brings transformation through death and rebirth. So, it's very fitting to the deep themes of Scorpio.

Also in ancient times, the sign pictured was longer, including the chelae (claws), which now is Libra. The signs from Virgo to Scorpio were drawn different but their meaning has overcome the changes or maybe also that has adapted to our "modern" times. 

Sometimes "poisons" aren't fatal right away - they can accumulate over time, they can work as slow poison but also as "resilience". 


The first "half" of Scorpio is about freeing the unconscious wisdom within us, to become aware and conscious of the depth within us, the vast "unknown" and the possibilities within that.

This "void" can be "scary" to enter and we need to conquer the fear our "Ego" may experience at it's gate, in order to gain the mastery needed to break through/out of any repetitive loops we may have unconsciously created.

The first step to self mastery is the decision to take responsibility for our own creation of reality through our mindset and emotions - we may go through a rollercoaster of emotions but once we learn to "swim", the waters appear to become calmer. 


South of the ecliptic it's the realm of the Chamaeleon - Nick A. Fiorenza  compared the energy here as like the difference between changing color in opposition to merge as in "shapeshifting".


Al Niyat of Scorpio is linking Antares and the head of Scorpio, marked by Dschuba. Astrologically Al Niyat literally links the heart and the brain. Often we decide to live one or the other, whereas mastery would actually be to live both in harmonic resonance.


Antares of Scorpio:  is associated with Archangel Uriel and was called the Watcher of the West. Antares marks the heart of the Scorpion at around 14°45' sidereal Scorpio and a little south of the ecliptic.

In modern angelology, Uriel is identified variously as a seraph, cherub, regent of the sun, flame of God, angel of the divine presence, presider over Tartarus (hell), archangel of salvation, and, in later scriptures, identified with Phanuel ("face of God"). He is often depicted carrying a book or a papyrus scroll representing wisdom. Uriel is a patron of the arts. (ref. Wikipedia). The term "Watcher of the West" comes from the time when the equinoxes were in the Taurus-Scorpio area which started around 6000 years ago - yet, one can look at this also in a galactic way - Scorpio is west of the galactic center and is connected to it with its sting.

I don't know why, but to me, Antares was always a feminine energy - nurturing or caring, even with all this poison but with depth and with help towards the solution, even so it means, we have to go through the underworld (into the real depth of Self) to find the heart's wisdom within and take it as the light that leads us out of the suffering - let's say, to achieve the "heart - mind coherence".

Antares is also about the Arts, art-sciences and is most intelligent and is told to be able to bring great success in "earthly" means.   


The later parts of Scorpio are mainly influenced by Ophiuchus with his brightest star "Ras Alhague" and in the South the Galaxy-Supercluster called "the great Attractor" which is of big gravitational energy.

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Astrologically in this later degrees, we're asked for further refinement and self-mastery. We have now gained the wisdom needed to do though - we need to rise our undealt emotions and attachments (represented by the tail and sting of the Scorpion) into awareness and consciously "alchemizing" it, giving it the "space" of experience but taking the poison and gravitational pull out, towards the unknown realms of the hidden possibilities awaiting for discovery....