Scorpio is known for intensity: deep feelings, fierce loyalty, and unmatched devotion. As the Sun enters this constellation of transformation, this time of the year reliably marks a seasonal transition into a time that invites shedding and letting go. This Scorpio Season is particularly potent because it holds both Venus and Mercury retrograde, inviting us to completely reevaluate our desires and communication around them. The Scorpio Sun also squares Jupiter, Pluto, and Mars, heightening the possibility of power struggles, big feelings, and desires that refuse to stay quietly tucked away. Keep reading for a roadmap to get through it with a little more grace.
Scorpio Season Highlights
Scorpio Season is October 23 through November 20
Key Dates
October 23: 🌀 Venus Cazimi (conjunct the Sun)
cazimi = swallowed by the sun, reseting our magnetism and attraction patterns amidst the Venus retrograde
October 24: ↩️ Mercury Stations Retrograde
Hello communication meltdowns! Hello glitches! Hello true desires accidentally slipping out for better or worse . . . The best we can do is be patient and good humored with ourselves!
October 25: ↩️ Venus Retrograde re-enters Libra
Prompting evaluation of the scales of capacity in our relationships, ideally to rebalance towards more reciprocity
October 25: 🌕 Full Moon in Taurus
illuminating insecurities, highlighting where we need to focus on grounding and resourcing
October 26: 💥 Sun square Pluto
intensifying power struggles and inviting us to confront what lies beneath the surface
October 28: ⛓️💥 Venus opposite Chiron
sparking relational tension while revealing possibilities for healing connection
October 30: 💥 Mercury square Mars
creating friction between what we say and what we do; give yourself grace around this but try your best to walk your talk!
November 4: 🌀 Mercury Cazimi (conjunct the Sun)
cazimi = swallowed by the sun, resetting our communication patterns amidst the Mercury retrograde
November 8: 🌑 New Moon in Scorpio
opening a portal for reflection on power & an opportunity for setting new intentions and goals around transformation, intimacy, and our emotional landscapes
November 13: 🏁 Mercury & Venus BOTH Station Direct
Make! Space! To! Integrate! It’s time to be honest with ourselves about what we learned over the last few weeks no longer works for us . . .
November 15: 🌀 Mars conjunct Jupiter
putting a magnifying glass on our desires (watch out for big bursts of passion, anger, and/or horniness)
November 18: 💥 Sun square Jupiter
creating friction around our sense of purpose and identity, opening possibility for growth by challenging us to re-examine our beliefs
November 19: 💥 Sun square Mars
creating friction around what gives us energy versus what feels draining
November 21: 🌞 Sun Enters Sagittarius
beginning a new zodiac season!
Scorpio Season Breakdown
We’re in the heat of multiple retrogrades amidst some spicy hard aspects, all during a time of the year that is notoriously a reckoning on it’s own. The invitation for this Scorpio Season isn’t to turn every intense feeling into an emergency, but rather, to get curious about what it reveals about our needs, limits, and longings. Give yourself room to pause before reacting! Not everything needs to be resolved immediately, and sometimes the most transformative thing we can do is choose a different response to a familiar pattern.
I use the calculated aspects between planets to inform what I write about here each month, but I also use my life experiences, especially repeating themes and synchronicities that pop up again and again.
A few weeks ago, I was talking to a hottie with a natal Venus Scorpio placement as she was navigating some intense relational ruptures. Amidst a lot of hurt, she was trying to balance showing up for others with compassion without betraying her own needs and boundaries. She said something poetic to me, like: “I want to make grace a renewable resource.” And I thought, “wow, I want to write about that in the horoscopes this month” (lol).
Grace has been a recurring theme throughout this Venus retrograde (whose shadow period began August 31, retrograde motion began October 3, and will station direct on November 13). Venus has been taking each of us on some kind of underworld journey around our modes of relating—through intense vulnerability and alchemy via her time in Scorpio and through justice and balance seeking while in Libra. All of our relationships have been on the table for reevaluation and review. And in that process, it can be really hard to give and receive feedback with grace.
What do I mean by grace? I don’t mean politeness. I do mean tact. I mean a profound amount of willingness without verging into white-knuckling. I mean presence and curiosity rather than force.
Sometimes giving someone grace means forgiveness and moving forward togther. Sometimes giving someone grace looks like accepting that they have shown you exactly who they are and instead of trying to change them or yourself to make things work you walk away. In both instances, there is loving discernment. Grace is not passive. And so sometimes it can feel exhausting to exercise it for ourselves and others.
This Scorpio Season, I wonder what it would be like to experiment with noticing what renews our capacity for grace. When in conflict, what helps you stay grounded in your values? When struggling, what inspires you to seek support? How have you learned to ask for help?
In a world where we are inundated daily with news of new horrors, I want to ask what helps you stay open without becoming frozen with overwhelm, but maybe that’s the wrong question. Sometimes we do freeze, and maybe centering grace means that can be okay.
Maybe grace becomes renewable when we stop asking ourselves to generate it endlessly and perfectly. We certainly can’t always generate it alone. Sometimes we need someone to make us laugh, bring us a meal, or remind us that we can take a break without abandoning what matters. We don’t have to make ourselves endlessly available to prove that we care.
This Scorpio Season, when intensity arises (because inevitably at some point it will), when you find yourself in conflict, or when you just feel exhausted, I hope you remember reading this and get curious about what grace could look like uniquely for you in that moment.
Below are horoscopes for each zodiac sign, written to help you prepare for this potent cosmic weather. Use these as journal prompts or conversation starters. Please read for both your Sun Sign AND your Rising Sign for a more complete picture!
Scorpio Season Horoscopes
♏ SCORPIO
It’s your time of the year, Scorpio! How will you celebrate? Will you honor the truth of what your body is telling you about your desire? This Venus retrograde in and out of your sign has been moving material in and out of your consciousness awareness and deeper, primal places of knowing. Maybe it’s showing up in your dreams. With Mercury also retrograde, maybe it’s showing up in intense feelings you can’t quite put words to yet. It’s a will-we/won’t-we situation, with yourself. It’s a hot and cold. It’s a bit of who am I and what am I doing? Birthdays can be fun and celebratory, but they can also be existential! I imagine this year you will need space for both. Embrace “it’s my party I can cry if I want to” energy. You don’t have to figure out who you’re becoming entirely in private before letting your life change around you. Try letting someone close to you know that you want something different. Try admitting a budding ambition. This season is ripe for changing a familiar dynamic. Your gift for devotion can help you follow through, but watch for the urge to make every adjustment into a new permanent commitment! Give yourself grace to experiment without knowing what will stick. You can be sincere about what you want today and still learn something tomorrow that changes your mind.
♐ SAGITTARIUS
Are you having to face hopes and dreams you were pretending you didn’t have? This Venus retrograde has been revealing a lot of your unconscious material, Sag. This might be around community—the kind of people you surround yourself with and the quality of connection possible there. Even as Venus and Mercury station direct, Scorpio season invites you to evaluate when, how, and with whom you’ve been too flexible. Before the Sun enters your sign later in November, you would benefit from metabolizing the lessons of this season toward some new structure! This could be relational boundaries. This could be a new bedtime, budget, or other routine. Whatever it is, the point is to center yourself with some limits. This is not for the sake of discipline itself but in service to making more space for fun, play, pleasure, and connection that aligns with your well-being and values. That requires discernment. Discernment is a muscle that must be nourished, rested, and practiced.
♑ CAPRICORN
I saw a meme the other day of a jester with the caption: “being mature has nothing to do with being serious.” And I thought of you, Capricorn. Being Saturn-ruled makes you gravitate toward taking responsibility. You can carry a lot on your shoulders. This is a virtue and a gift to the world, but it becomes harmful to yourself and others when the weight of your commitments begins to erode your capacity for humor, curiosity, and grace. These Venus and Mercury retrogrades have been asking you to evaluate your responsibilities, and more broadly the roles you assume. This is all encompassing: at home, at work, in your friend group. Where have you become the default person in charge, and do you actually want to keep that job? Maybe you’re organizing everyone because you care about being together. Maybe you’re also afraid that if you don’t make it happen, nobody will. That’s a tender thing to admit, Capricorn, and doing more won’t necessarily make it hurt less. Scorpio season invites you to get honest about what you want from the people you show up for—not just what you’re willing to give them. Can you tell a friend you miss being invited? Let someone else plan something, even if they do it differently than you would? You might have to tolerate a little awkwardness while you practice being together in a new way. Leave room for that, and for the possibility that someone could surprise you, make you laugh, or offer something you didn’t know you needed.
♒ AQUARIUS
Aquarius, what happens when being honest about what you’re learning complicates what you’re known for? These Venus and Mercury retrogrades have been asking you to revisit your ambitions and the beliefs that make them feel worth pursuing. Maybe a role you worked hard to earn no longer gives you much room to grow. Maybe a teacher, institution, or political framework you trusted has disappointed you. Maybe you’re excited about a new direction but embarrassed to want something your former self would have judged. You are allowed to take that desire seriously without immediately turning it into a new life philosophy! Scorpio season’s hard aspects could make these questions feel especially personal, as your public commitments rub up against your private needs and other people’s expectations collide with your own urge to change. Watch for the temptation to become so certain of your position that nobody can reach you inside it. Scorpio season wants you to be more vulnerable than that. Grace might look like admitting, “I still care about this, but I don’t know if I can keep doing it this way.” Can you let a trusted person hear an unfinished thought? Seek out people who make it possible to reconsider, not just people who agree with you. You don’t have to replace every lost certainty immediately. Give yourself time to find out what you believe through what you practice. Learn through action.
♓ PISCES
Pisces, have you ever noticed that sometimes you feel most at peace when the people around you are being extra messy, chaotic, or just really going through it? This isn’t pure sadism. It’s your highly sensitive system feeling relief that those around you are pretending and pride that your super-honed empathy might be able to be of service! Scorpio season holds cosmic weather that’s intense for all of us, including you, but you might feel a little levity and ease within that, because of that. I know it’s contradictory, but basically you are equipped to show up pretty well for yourself and others right now! The quest becomes who are you showing up for, how are you showing up, and how is your care being received? These Venus and Mercury retrogrades have been trying to help you figure out what you put faith in and what the returns are in that investment. Is there a situationship you want to clarify your role in? Have you started stepping outside the lines of your job description at work in a way that necessitates a reevaluation of compensation? A big part of your magic is boundlessness, but a little more structure this season could create just enough of a container for you to expand more fully and flow within!
♈ ARIES
Aries, you and Scorpio share a certain affinity for intensity. You are willing to take risks, fight for what you care about, and push edges for a rush or thrill. Scorpio is similar, but this tends to manifest more around emotional intensity, deepening intimacy. This Venus retrograde has been showing you your edges around how you share yourself with others. You can be the life of the party, but it can be harder sometimes to sit in hard feelings with another person without exploding. Where and with who have you been biting your tongue and/or lashing out? What is this showing you about unresolved conflict you’ve swallowed or pretended is okay but needs more breathing room? Scorpio season and the slowness Mercury retrograde invites is the perfect time to take those breaths. If you notice internal resistance that sounds like, “I would never” or “I don’t know how to” or “I shouldn’t have to be the one to” or something like that, pause. Of all the signs you have a pretty strong and solid sense of self, but Scorpio asks us to perpetually transform. Can you soften your grip on who you think you are just enough to let something go that allows you to keep becoming?
♉ TAURUS
As the Sun moves through Scorpio, your opposite sign, you might become especially aware of the habits that hold your relationships together versus the ones that keep you stuck. While your ruling planet Venus has been moving retrograde, you’re being to notice how your agreements actually feel to live inside. Who adjusts their schedule? Who remembers what needs doing? Can you ask for a different kind of support without feeling like you’re threatening the whole arrangement? You are gifted at making things work, Taurus, but sometimes you get so good at accommodating a difficulty that nobody realizes how much effort it costs you. This month’s hard aspects could make it more challenging to keep that effort invisible, especially as needs at home, demands at work, and desires within your relationships compete for your energy. Watch for the urge to dig in and prove you can handle it all, or to insist that someone else change before you can do anything differently. Grace might look like admitting you’ve reached a limit before resentment makes the announcement for you. It might mean revisiting an agreement you genuinely wanted when you made it to realize something has changed along the way. You don’t have to dismiss what you’ve built together to acknowledge that it needs tending differently now. What would help you feel supported enough to soften, rather than just secure enough to keep enduring?
♊ GEMINI
How are you feeling about the balance of work and play in your life right now, Gemini? Are you having a lot of fun but feeling ungrounded? Or are you working really hard and struggling to keep up socially? Have you mastered a sweet spot between the two? These Venus and Mercury retrogrades have been showing you your edges, revealing something about your needed ratio of routine and spontaneity. Even as they station direct, this theme remains relevant! Before the Sun enters your opposite sign, Sagittarius, later in November, take what Scorpio season shows you about structure and fluidity and give those lessons a place in your everyday life. Can you adjust your schedule? Put something on the calendar that counters the dominant theme of the week? What small things can you change to reorient your energy? You are naturally adaptable and flexible, but if you keep saying yes to everything thrown your way, you’re going to feel scattered and existential. Get clear on what you don’t have space for and be discerning about how you spend your time!
♋ CANCER
As a water sign, the intensity of Scorpio might feel kind of cathartic for you Cancer. You’ve been holding so much together the last few months, trying so hard not to completely break down and spill over. Maybe you have become a total mess. Scorpio season welcomes it. Scorpio praises your moods, your highs and your lows. And these Venus and Mercury retrogrades have been taking on a rollercoaster ride, Cancer! The goal has been to reveal more clearly what your requirements are—for safety, and for fun. What do you need to feel secure enough to let loose? What helps you unmask? Where do you feel at home? Whenever you feel the urge in the coming weeks to pretend you’re fine when you’re not, get curious about what you’re afraid would happen if you told the truth. Not everyone has earned access to your tenderest feelings, but who has shown you they can meet you there with grace? Give them a chance to show up for you. You deserve spaces where you don’t have to be the one holding everything together, where someone else can handle dinner or make the plans while you figure out what you’re feeling. And you don’t have to wait until you’re completely falling apart to ask for that!
♌ LEO
Welcome to the descent into Scorpio Season, Leo. What does your voice sound like when you’re not trying to get a particular response? These Venus and Mercury retrogrades have been asking you to notice which familiar stories you’ve outgrown. Maybe you hear a parent’s disapproval coming out of your own mouth. Maybe a conversation with a sibling or housemate leaves you feeling twelve years old again. Before deciding what that means about who you are, can you get curious about what you learned you had to do to be heard? Be entertaining? Be impressive? Get louder? Pretend you didn’t care? This season’s hard aspects could bring friction between who you’re becoming, what a partner expects, what your home life requires, and what you’re trying to accomplish out in the world. It might feel like changing anything means disappointing someone. You don’t have to make everyone understand before you rearrange your priorities, but try not to turn every misunderstanding into proof that nobody gets you. Grace could look like giving a conversation a second attempt without rehearsing a whole courtroom argument first. “That came out harsher (or softer!) than I meant. Can I try again?” is a powerful beginning. So is asking someone what they meant before responding to what you feared you heard. You can take responsibility for your words without accepting someone else’s version of your entire character. Let repair be specific, Leo. You’re changing a way of relating, not auditioning to be a person who never gets it wrong.
♍ VIRGO
Virgo, your archetype isn’t known for being particularly emotional. As a mercurial Earth sign, you are praised for being analytical, practical, witty, and a whole list of other “grounded” virtues. They are all true! But they are not the whole picture of you. You are an emotional being, just like the rest of us, and Scorpio season wants you too embrace that more fully. Your relationships (of all kinds: romantic, familial, platonic, etc.) tend to provoke the most feeling for you. On your own, you can go about your tasks and to-do lists, but with someone else around to poke at your plan, deeper material gets provoked. These Venus and Mercury retrogrades have been showing you something about how much energy you spend being useful and easy to be around, especially when that means talking yourself out of what you actually feel. What if you didn’t have to turn every feeling into a solution or justify every need before asking for a different workload, a deeper conversation, or a little space?
♎ LIBRA
Your archetype is known for “keeping the peace” which often looks like hearing out everyone, understanding “all sides” of a conflict, and finding compromise from there. There is a certain flexibility of perspective required to do this, which is an incredible skill of yours. The shadow side of your sign, though, is people-pleasing or avoiding conflict through perpetual indecisiveness and “needing more information.” Watch out for this during Scorpio season. Venus and Mercury retrograde have been revealing where and how you overextend yourself. Notice when you are investigating something past a point of usefulness as a way to avoid feelings your feelings or taking an actual stance. You don’t have to stop caring about someone else’s perspective to take your own seriously. Sometimes grace looks like letting someone be disappointed without rushing to fix it. Can you trust that a little relational discomfort doesn’t automatically mean you’ve done something wrong?
