As the angle of the sun grows lower in the sky and the daylight hours wane, the sun moves into the sign of Scorpio. Welcome to Scorpio season, which runs from October 23 to November 21. Just as light and weather patterns shift in autumn, causing people to spend more time indoors, energy also changes during Scorpio season, inviting you to go within and spend more time exploring your own shadows. While this may feel intense and even scary at times, it is a meaningful and necessary period. Scorpio season lays the foundation for metamorphosis and personal growth.
What to Expect During Scorpio Season
Scorpio is one of the most intense signs of the zodiac. Ruled by the element of water, Scorpio is passionate, mysterious, secretive, and emotional. As you might imagine, when the sun rolls into Scorpio once a year, you can expect a period of emotional intensity where the stars and planets demand you dig deep inside your own shadows.
You Might Feel Extremely Emotional
If you have a Scorpio in your life, then you're already aware of the moody, broody aspects of this sign. So, when the sun is in Scorpio, you're likely to experience some deep emotion, regardless of your sun, moon, rising sign, or any other aspect of your chart. This is the churn of feelings you've buried deep in your shadows, and now is the time to get in touch with your emotional nature. It's safe to assume that at some point during Scorpio season, you're going to feel something deep.
It's the perfect time to get comfortable with those feelings. Sure, deep emotion can feel overwhelming and sometimes downright frightening, but the feelings can't hurt you unless you let them. And you can't make an end run around emotions forever...the only way past them is through them. When passionate or deep emotion arises, and it will, don't run from it or avoid it. Instead, go somewhere safe and sit with it. Greet it with a sense of curiosity. Notice how you feel and gently question why you feel that way. Then, allow the emotions - whatever they are - to ebb and flow, noticing the temporary nature of each as it moves through you. If you find your emotions are truly overwhelming and unmanageable, it's okay to reach out to somebody and seek help, whether it's a trusted friend, a family member, or a mental health professional. Once you've dealt with whatever the emotions are and released them, you'll discover you feel lighter, happier, and renewed.
Your Relationships May Grow More Passionate
One of the most talked about traits of Scorpio sun signs is their powerfully passionate nature, especially in relationships. Scorpios are deeply sensual, and when they fall, they fall hard. But romance isn't the only thing Scorpios are passionate about. They can fall just as hard for a cause, a hobby, or an idea as they can for another person. So, any time the sun enters Scorpio, it's natural for everyone's passions to kick up a notch. The passion can be sexual, but it can also take other forms, such as passion for your life's purpose or mission, enthusiasm for a favorite activity, or the love of learning something new.
In relationships, Scorpio season is a great time to explore new ways of being more intimate with a partner by sharing meaningful conversation, bring a little sizzle to your love life by trying something new and enticing, or take a deep dive with friends and family by engaging in new activities. Shared positive experience is a powerful way to deepen connection with friends, family, and partners.
You'll Have the Opportunity to Explore Your Shadows
Shadow work. Sounds scary, doesn't it? It can be, but the ultimate goal is to surface the parts of yourself you've disowned or suppressed so you can integrate the aspects of you that dwell in the shadows with the rest of you that basks in the light.
While Scorpios are notorious for their shadows, they aren't the only ones who have them. Everyone has parts of themselves they've disowned or repressed. Your shadows are the aspects of yourself you know are there, but that you never, ever mention when somebody says, "Tell me a little bit about yourself." When met with that question, you might list your education, job, accomplishments, interests, and information about your family, but it's unlikely you share things like, "I'm extremely avoidant," or "I can be petulant at times."
We choose not to share these things with others because we want everyone (including ourselves) to like and approve of us. And because we want to see ourselves as good people, we often suppress the things we dislike about ourselves, hoping they'll never again see the light of day. When we do this, they become part of our shadows.
But when the sun hits Scorpio, look out. There's a good chance your shadows are going to try to emerge into the light in a big way. While that may seem...unpleasant...it's also an opportunity for growth and ultimately finding some inner peace. When you stuff something in your shadows, it's always there waiting to bubble to the surface. There's always the lingering fear you will be "discovered." However, once you explore and deal with those shadows, you aren't waiting for the other shoe to drop any more, so you'll feel freer, happier, and more peaceful.
Shadow work is uncomfortable, but it's some of the most meaningful work you can do for personal growth. When your shadows bubble up to the surface, explore them in a journal, talk them out with a trusted confidant, or, if they're really deep, consider talking to a professional. The sooner you are able to acknowledge and make peace with your shadows, the sooner you'll be free of them.
Tips to Thrive During Scorpio Season
While you may inch into Scorpio season like a caterpillar, you can emerge as a butterfly - free, unfettered, and more powerfully confident than you were just one short month ago. You can use the opportunities Scorpio season presents as the impetus for your own personal metamorphosis.
Become Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
Shadow work is an uncomfortable but necessary part of being a happy and functional human. It's going to require you to step outside of your comfort zone for short periods. But the more you embrace discomfort, the more comfortable you get with being a little out of sorts. Being willing to embrace discomfort will provide perspective as you realize that even the most uncomfortable situations are temporary and that you have the fortitude to move through them. It's empowering when you finally understand this.
Engage Your Emotions With Creativity
Pursuing creative activities is a powerful and effective way to explore emotions and inner turmoil safely. It takes you out of your thinking mind and brings you into the present moment where it's safe to feel what you feel, and you can express those emotions through the creative process. Creativity takes many forms. Turn on music and dance. Bang on a drum. Sing at the top of your lungs. Journal. Paint. String beads. Do something that quiets your mind and helps you focus on the present moment. As feelings arise, notice them without judgment, and then channel them into whatever it is you're doing.
Find Peace in a Practice
A practice is something you engage in regularly as a ritual of sorts. Practices can be anything that brings you peace, whether it's taking a regular walks, meditating, doing yoga, praying, chanting mantras, or something else altogether. Grounding yourself in a practice gives you a center you can return to during times of intensity. Find something that speaks to you and try to engage in your practice most days of the week for at least 10 minutes (longer is more effective if you have the time).
Find Something New to Be Passionate About
Since you're already feeling passionate this month, why not find a new passion? Do something you've always wanted to do but never tried before. Take a class. Cook a new dish. Start a hobby. Go wine tasting. Get experimental in the bedroom. Explore some place you've never been. Learn more about somebody you love. Join a book club. You just may gain a new way to ignite and channel all those passions and emotions you're discovering this month.
Embrace Alone Time
Before a caterpillar can become a butterfly, it has to spend some alone time in its cocoon. Scorpio season offers you the same opportunity. Fortunately, unlike the caterpillar, you don't have to physically turn into goo to transform. Spending some of your time alone (although not all of it) will allow you a safe, distraction-free space to learn more about yourself, process emotion, and help you find more tools that work for you. Try to take an hour or two of "me time" each day where you can "do you" without having to worry about the needs of others.
Communicate With Those You Love
While you're uncovering shadows, emotions, and passions during Scorpio season, so is everyone else. Communication is extremely important during this period, not only so you can avoid misunderstandings and squabbles, but also so you can share what you're experiencing and understand what your loved ones are discovering about themselves. Now is not the time for an airing of the grievances (save that for Festivus), but rather for positive and productive communication to help you reach new levels of empathy and understanding.
Scorpio Season by Sign
Nobody will have the exact same experience when the sun is in Scorpio each year. How you experience it is up to you, but looking at how your sun sign is likely to react during this season may provide some insight.
Water Signs - Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio
Water signs tend to be highly emotional, so when the sun enters Scorpio, it is - to a certain extent - more of the same, only more intense. Scorpio season brings out the shadowy aspects of these emotions and can even unearth deeply buried feelings you weren't aware you had. So if you feel even more intensely emotional than usual this month, try journaling or another creative pursuit as you process your feelings. Take comfort in the fact that you're well versed in the language of emotions.
Earth Signs - Virgo, Taurus and Capricorn
If you're a grounded earth sign, you may feel like you're in over your head this month. Controlled by reason and unaccustomed to taking a deep dive into the emotional realm, earth signs have significant potential for personal growth and change during Scorpio season. Your natural propensity when faced with uncomfortable emotions may be to turn to less-than-healthy coping mechanism like suppression or avoidance. Instead of doing that, try to embrace the opportunity for change by exploring unfamiliar feelings in a way that feels safe, such as talking them out with a trusted loved one or sitting quietly with your feelings and noticing where you experience the emotions in your body. Doing this will help you to ground your emotions in something familiar and concrete so they feel more manageable.
Air Signs - Gemini, Aquarius and Libra
Air signs prefer to feel light in spirit, so the depth of feeling this month might seem cumbersome. Deep emotions are just so heavy for air signs. Fortunately, if you're an air sign, you're also adaptable, so you can retain your lightness of spirit while still exploring your emotion in ways that feel safe to you. It's likely you use social interaction to distract you from heavy feelings, so alone time may be especially important for you this month. Movement practices are also helpful. Try some yoga, dance, or even a daily nature walk to allow yourself to process your experiences in a meaningful way.
Fire Signs - Aries, Sagittarius and Leo
As a fire sign, passion is your playground, but the heavier emotions this month may feel like they're dampening your flame. Shadow work might seem like a burden, and you have a propensity to attempt to barrel through it instead of slowing down and allowing yourself to truly understand it. Try engaging in shadow work in a playful way. Have an imaginary Q&A session with your emotions, write a short story making your emotions your main characters, draw a caricature of your shadows, or work things out on the basketball court. By engaging in play as you face your shadows, you'll be able to maintain your fiery flame while still working towards personal transformation.
Transform Your Shadows
Imagine you're in a dark, creepy basement with no visible light. As your eyes adjust to the dark, you notice a spooky shadow moving in the corner. Your adrenaline kicks in as your mind races with all sorts of terrifying possibilities for what exactly is lurking in that deep, dark corner. Is it a ghost? A huge rodent? A burglar? Visualize reaching behind you and flipping a light switch. In the bright beam of light that dispels the dark, you see your cat calmly giving itself a bath. The light has transformed the shadow from something potentially terrifying to something familiar and loved - all with the flick of a switch.
Everyone has shadows that lurk within, and we're all afraid to examine them in case it's something we can't handle. Everyone also has the power to flip a switch and turn on the light. When we do, the reality of what's there is almost always far less frightening than our imaginations make it out to be when it lurks in the dark. Scorpio season provides the opportunity to flip that switch so you can illuminate your own shadowy emotions and find a way to release them into the light.
