An Aristocratic Family Tree is the Sabian Symbol at 14° Virgo, which, in my estimation (validated time and again) is ruled by the sign of Scorpio in a twelve-fold sequence (of my own imposition). The thrust of this oracle is “the reliance upon the ancestral roots of individual character”. If you’ve checked out Stella Starsky’s American Baroness website then you will know that Nobility is a theme in our household. Never mind the fact that a recent genealogical test has linked Stella to Marie Antoinette, which, really, isn’t suprising anybody. And just today, on our drive into Boston, I said to Stella: “You know what would be fun, that used to be really tacky in the ’80s—to buy a title.” As it is, with Stella being a Baroness and all, that does make me a Baron. Now, a Scorpio-ruled Virgo oracle feels powerful, in so far as power, control and riches go together. Pluto, the god of the Underworld, planetary ruler and archetype of Scorpio, raped Kore, the maiden earth goddess, the virgin of the sign of Virgo, dragging her down into the depths (of what one can onlyimagine), whereupon she became Persephone whose Roman name is Proserpina from whence the word prosperity derives. That was a long sentence.

The word “roots” is also a Scorpion one, that life-bearing tangle reaching down into the earth. As a metaphor for ones subconscious, we know that’s where psychological phenomenon takes root. Trauma, for instance, impacts this part of ourselves. So that there is literal ancestry, our genealogical heritage, and there is the lineage of our experience, both of which have roots in the past and reside unseen (Pluto wore a cloak of invisibility which a friend of ours cleverly borrowed in the writing of her books) inside of us. This is always the Scorpion-ruled part of any experience, and of ourselves, which is why Scorpio governs the very chemistry of things, the table of elements, akin to minerals, which are also found deep in the earth, to it’s very core, a word that derives from dear Kore herself.

The power of which this oracle speaks is available to us, in times of crisis or decision, especially, has its roots in our past, whether it be our actual ancestry or in our experience which has developed our character, crystalized it. Like minerals—think of the literal Pluto, god not only of death but of riches—plutocracy means rule by the rich—whose riches are the gems—emeralds, diamonds, rubies, et al—which are literal crystalizations, created by pressurized elements, carbon to be exact, the basic element of all our particular planetary life forms; Scorpio is the fixed-water sign—and what is fixed water if not ice?—itself a crystalization. So you see, the roots of our experience, just as our inherited DNA, provides the building blocks of our personal power. Our purpose may be crystalized by breeding, like a dog is bred for the purpose of retrieving or rooting, like a terrier; or our purpose may be crystalized by the psychological experiences we’ve encountered along the way in life. Our resolve, fixed-water symbolizing a concentration of emotion, or our obsessions and compulsions, are all formed by our past experience, whether we sought it out or it happened to us, as in the case of trauma. Obsession. Compulsion, Power. Control. These are all Scorpio words. Our genes, our chemistry, these are all ruled by the sign, elements locked, frozen, into us like a scarab forever paralyzed in amber.

I have a Scorpio friend called Amber and I have not, until this very moment, realized how apt that is. The Scorpio female draws on that archetype of Persopehone who was Kore, the female archetype of Virgo. If you know your astrological symbology, then you know the sigils for Virgo and Scorpio are exact, an scripted M (for Mother Earth), the Virgo M curling back upon itself, creating a cross, a hymen if you will; whilst the Scorpio M scoops out at the end, with a sharp arrow, a stinger or tail, as that of a true scorpion or dragon. Persephone, like that scarab (a beetle is the closing thing we have to a scorpoion) is paralyzed, entranced when in the realm of the underworld—she is the maker you meet, the destroyer, the Kali. On the shadow side, Scorpio women bear that out. Anna Wintour? Hello. Dragon Lady. How she must hate that assignation, and how proud she must be of having earned it. Her experience has honed her—she is the most powerful personage in the world of fashion. So woop, woop (I guess).

I love what Dane Rudhyar has to say: “true spontaneity and creativity are alwasy bassed on a structured sequence of antecedents if they are at all geninely spiritual, i.e. if they are able to meet a collective need. Never thought of Anna Wintour as fulfilling a collective need but that is exactly what she does. Cue: Meryl Streep’s monologue on the color cerulean in The Devil Wears Prada. Scorpio people, living archetypes of the energy of that sign, most vividly portray that energy. And as Virgo is the sign of service, we see yet another connection between that sign and Scorpio in that Scorpio embodies the power of being in service. Marie Antoinette, also a Scorpio, may or may not have abused hers, but that is neither here nor there. Her power was inherited, as was Anna’s—one must come from a long line of experience at the very least in order to have earned ones sting. The actions required for meeting such a collective need might thus be considered “spiritual.”

“One returns to the roots in order to produce the flowering of personality, if this flower is to bring forth a living seed. ROOT POWER is essential to seed-achievement.”—Rudhyar

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