This time is, in essence, an invitation to honor our ancestors, practice uncompromising love for the living and praise the pain we are dealt as evidence of our own fugitive existence.

The negative manifestation of this house can be found in the cutthroat energy of organized crime; operating below the surface, beyond the law and for the express purpose of gaining assets and building power through dubious means. This nefarious but ic energy is epitomized by the late, convicted mafia boss John Gotti and outlaw Billy the Kid, both criminal and criminally stylish Scorpios.

It gets things done and is driven by the pure desire to win, exhibited in the cool, competitive streak that lives within each Scorpio.

In astrology, Scorpio rules the eighth house, synonymous with the transference of energy, sex, literal and metaphorical death, psychic abilities, resurrection, the unseen and other people’s money

At its greatest expression, eighth house energy stands boldly in the face of darkness. An actualized Scorpio, though an empowered eighth house, understands that wholeness is impossible without the acknowledgment and integration of our shadow selves: the parts of us that are wounded, shameful, difficult. Eighth house energy flows when the dark side of all matter and all people is acknowledged, examined and honored for the lessons it has to teach us. The eighth house reveals hidden truths and mines the unconscious and its power can be positively channeled into study and investigation.

While there is indubitably a powerful component of sexuality in Scorpio’s nature, this sign does nothing casually, and sex is rarely pursued for the physical act alone

For Scorpio, there is no allowance made for the middle ground – only a desire to dig for and towards what lies beneath. By default, Scorpios make for excellent investigators, psychologists and forensic accountants.

In terms of the physical body, Scorpio rules the reproductive organs. Scorpio is ultimately seeking profound intimacy, the transformative power of surrender and the dissolution that can occur when two bodies share a heightened energetic exchange. That being said, they’re known to settle for trauma bonding or getting to third base in a graveyard.

As the sign of shadows and extremes, Scorpio at its lowest vibration is prone to obsession, vengeance, envy, and well-practiced tactics of emotional manipulation. Getty Images

In ancient astrology, ed for the god of war, It gets things done and is driven by the pure desire to win, exhibited in the cool, competitive streak that lives within each Scorpio. Pluto became the modern ruler of Scorpio when the planet was discovered in 1930. Named for the god of the underworld, Pluto is the shadowy nether ruler of death and regeneration.

In addition to having two planetary rulers, Scorpio is represented by more than one creature. Besides its arachnidan namesake, Scorpio is associated with the serpent, the eagle and the ash-born glory of the rising phoenix. The serpent and the eagle demonstrate the high and low manifestations of Scorpio energy, which can manifest as either regal or reptilian.

Together, these totems represent the cycle of subconscious discovery, shadow acceptance and the separation of our lesser selves from our potential selves. The journey from scorpion to phoenix reminds us all that we must descend in order to soar.

With that trajectory, it’s unsurprising that many of our greatest and most fearless poets and painters fall under the stars of Scorpio: Pablo Picasso, Robert Mapplethorpe, Georgia O’Keeffe, Ana Mendieta, Maxine Hong Kingston, Dylan Thomas, Margaret Atwood, Frank Ocean and the late great playwright no strings attached site Sam Shepard. Shepard’s approach to life and storytelling has a decidedly Scorpionic spirit, writing in 1997, “The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning.”