Eris in the 6th solar house. Spiral Door aspect, Quaoar and Ixion in the 2nd solar house. Pluto working toward the 3rd solar house. Saturn in the 10th solar house, about to enter the 11th. Chiron-Nessus conjunct in the 4th solar house. Mars retrograde in the 9th solar house. Venus retrograde in the 10th and 11th solar houses.   Scorpio is the relationship house for Taurus; the career house for Aquarius; and the house of home and security for Leo. This interpretation works for Scorpio rising as well.

VESTA, the eternal fire, is in your birth sign as the year begins. The fourth and brightest asteroid, discovered in 1807, she is perhaps the most difficult for astrology to grasp. Delineations of Vesta vary widely, including over-dedication to work, involvement with projects rather than people, the use of space, all matters relating to the home, sublimation of sexual energy into other things, the shame of sexual abuse, sexual chastity, and a few others. To some real extent, they are all applicable -- but not one at the expense of another. Vesta, much more than the other asteroids, presents us with the goddess of a thousand faces, though this may relate to cultural taboos about what we can and cannot speak of openly, more than to any other factor.
 
Her themes, as far as I understand them, are strikingly similar to those of Scorpio. Though Vesta is only a brief visitor to Scorpio, her presence in your birth sign is likely to be arriving with experiences that will set the tone for these seasons, and which you would do well to remember.
 
Let's focus on the image: a flame. The symbol is a chevron with the fire depicted. The Vestal Virgins, servants of the goddess Vesta who were legendary for their unfailing chastity, had the role of tending this fire night and day, never allowing it to go out. Their role was to place service to the greater good above their own personal desire and needs. From this, we can see where some of the ideas above originate. What we cannot forget is that the symbol is very simply one of a flame that must be tended constantly, and as a direct extension, the "selfless" dedication necessary to do that.
 
Granted, I have never read anything resembling this in any explanation of Scorpio, quite to the contrary: but astrology is about experience and not just about what you read. It also depends on what you read, and what you do with it. Let's look at the mythology for a moment. Vesta, the goddess, is a personification of fire, one of the primal forces of the cosmos and the very thing central to human survival. On the short list of things that human beings do that no other species does is make and tend fire. "[Vesta] continued to the end, as she had from the beginning, [representing] the household altar, the sanctuary of peace and equity, and the source of all happiness and wealth." The aspects of life that she oversaw were not just the hearths of households and cities. Rather, it was supposed in ancient times "that in the center of the Earth there was a hearth which answered to the hearth placed in the center of the universe."*
 
When we bring the Vestal Virgins into the picture, we have the image of humanity working together to tend this fire: fire that is at once interior to a human being; that burns in their home; that burns in the central altar of a city; which burns in a hearth at the center of the Earth; and which is one with the fire at the center of the Universe. Perhaps this means the Galactic Core, perhaps some other presumed center of consciousness, such as Shamballa. The relationship between the humans and the fire implies devotion, attention, and direct participation in the life of God. In other words, the divine fire burns to the extent that we tend to it.
 
I had my first direct experience of Vesta one year when I moved into a house that only had wood heating one cold, damp autumn. The place came with a woodpile, but all the wood was wet. As it grew colder, the fire became a necessity, particularly at night. I had never experienced living with wood heat before, and the wet woodpile presented a special challenge.
 
I had to develop a routine to get the stove going, then systematically bring in wood and dry it out a little next to the hot stove. Burning wet wood is not efficient, and the fire required tending at least every two or three hours around the clock. Because of how difficult it was to get started again with wet logs, I had an incentive to keep it going.
 
This went on for some weeks, at least. Tending the fire became an overriding priority during that time; it was a ritual that transcended all the other activities of my life, and kept me bound to my home except for short trips out. In a sense, I was married to this fire, and had to take care of it night and day.
 
This experience gave me my first real clue as to what Vesta was about -- the feeling, not just the idea. It was not so much tending the physical flame, though the metaphor was difficult to miss; it was, rather, the sense of total dedication that came with the activity, including maintaining continuity of that fire, from night to day, from one day to the next. In truth it was about developing a conscious relationship to the fire -- and the stove, the wood and the space in which I was living.
 
Few of us tend a fireplace or actual sacred hearth these days, and astrology is for the most part an interior study of our psychological and energetic properties. As a symbol of the psyche, the flame is usually considered an archetype of the core fire, which is creative and sexual -- they are the same thing. It could be interpreted as faith or devotion, love or awareness; they are all properties of the same thing. This is the heat that keeps us warm from within, and in the human realm with its many distractions and its many competing gods, it needs to be tended constantly. Sadly, as humans press forward into the activity of life, their core creative/sexual nature is one of the first things we tend to ignore.
 
Now, Scorpio is the sign that tends to bear the burden of sexuality in the Western world. Scorpios are presumed to be sexual, and all astrological definitions of your sign say so. I'm sure you're familiar with these ideas, nearly all of which miss the point. The problem with sexuality in the West and in many other cultures is that it's considered inherently inappropriate, an aspect of human nature that (despite being what creates us) we need to ignore, bypass, deny, discard, eliminate or find a substitute for. The notion "sin" implies sex, sin implies hell, and so on and on till you get there. But take my word for it: this is not coming from Goddess -- or Earth-based religion. Only death-cults or purity cults could come up with this kind of reasoning.
 
More to the point, as a Scorpio it's obvious to you what a crock of bullshit this is, because the moment you feel your existence for about 20 seconds, the truth of your core sexuality becomes obvious. While you are basically barred by your inherent nature from going on a denial trip (unless you are genuinely willing to flirt with evil, or are in some extreme form of conflict), how you actually use your sexual energy is very much a question, and one that needs to be addressed. So, too, is how you deal with a world (including the influences of your parents, your partners and your friends) that are not necessarily as aware as you are. Indeed, you must contend with a world that is constantly projecting its shadow onto your soul.
 
Finally, there is the issue of how to handle your own shadow material -- and I suggest that the thing to do is tend your fire around the clock. If need be, marshal all the force of your will and claim back enough of your life that you have an inner altar and sufficient time and space to take care of it in a tangible, real, actual way. I am not talking about an idea here. I am not presenting a theory or a concept. I am suggesting that the actions you take be actual, real and tangible. This may, in the most immediate sense, involve making friends with your sexuality in a new way. You must not take for granted that the blanket of ignorance that is smothering humanity, and the raging creative fire that is engulfing humanity in warfare and driving us on a path of global self-destruction, has somehow avoided you. Perhaps it may have; please don't assume.
 
Please assess your life honestly, including what you do with your time, your strength and your authority. Seek the assistance you need; put the support in place that you need; take responsibility for your own journey on this planet, and surround yourself with people for whom this is a conscious process -- and note, they may be difficult to find; and that is very likely to be part of your vestal journey this year.
 
Let's consider the story of Pluto, which is your ruling planet and which has been one of the dominant energies in the world story the past decade. Pluto has been in Sagittarius, your 2nd solar house. The 2nd house denotes the value system of an individual. It describes a person every bit as much as their primary sign, but is often experienced as being more internally oriented, perhaps something felt and lived for but not spoken. Sagittarius is the cosmic fire. Indeed, the two central points of the cosmos of which astronomy is now aware -- the Galactic Core and the Great Attractor -- are located in your 2nd solar house. Here is where we get a positively enormous clue as to what is going on at the center of your reality; what you actually feel and experience as driving your motives, and the concept is pure Vesta in nature: that at the center of an individual is a sense of one's origins and the desire to live for your origins.
 
The exterior may be passion, drive, eroticism and the need to shape your own life; the exterior is the cosmic fire. Whatever you do, you can do in the expression of the cosmic fire. Which brings us to the unspoken theme of Vesta -- that being what is called sacred prostitution. This is actually a simple concept, though known to few, and rather few prostitutes: whatever we do, we do in service of creation. This is the metaphor of tending the fire; this is the metaphor of shaping one's life around what must be done, in accord with your values. Pluto burning through this house for more than a decade has compelled you to do some important, difficult things, indeed, many of which have been incomprehensible to the people around you and which have seemingly been damaging to you. But you have, by your faith and your awareness, prevailed over the stuck values of the world that would have had you serve many other masters, none of them true. I trust that at long last you are discovering that if you can trust nobody else's agenda, you can trust your own.
 
This trust has come at a cost, which you have paid. The debt is settled. It is time to move on.
 
If there is a crisis associated with your astrology in these years, it's something that (once again) is decidedly left out of the official Scorpio guidebook, which is the extent to which your foundations stand on the bedrock of community. This is a logical extension of the idea that you are inherently part of the cosmos. It is an extension of the idea that you know you must, in this lifetime, be a leader, if only a leader in conscience and consciousness. Your devotion to community (in whatever form that takes) is a direct outgrowth of the fact that you intuitively understand that society is a family, and that you are not only part of that family, but one who has been bestowed the responsibility of tending for and caring for that family.
 
In the typically coarse or cynical terms of the human race, this is often viewed as a joke, or a ridiculously idealistic sentiment. That does not deter you, indeed, it must not. What has begun to occur in these years of your history is precisely that you have begun to take yourself seriously on this subject. You have entered a space of willingness to embrace the crisis of brotherhood that humanity is suffering from today. You have, I trust, made friends with the fact that there is no security in the religion of individuality. Rather, individualism is worth something only to the extent that it allows us to relate to others consciously, to serve others, and to participate in our collective experience of life.
 
By the way, what I'm talking about here is the fact that Aquarius (the sign of groups and communities) is situated in your 4th solar house (the house of home and security). A simplistic reading of this would say you might prefer to live in a group situation of some kind, but this may be something of a silent dream that is kept at bay by the practical reality that groups tend not to work so well. On a deeper level, the house you live in is bigger than the four walls you inhabit, and Aquarius is the sign of the future. It is reasonable to live today nurturing something that may, possibly, be true in the future -- but with Chiron and Nessus now focusing your energy on this house, there is something imminent, urgent and meaningful now on which you are being focused.
 
Saturn is the traditional ruler of this sign, and Saturn is working its way across your 10th solar house, Leo. This is a phase of your life where you are answering your calling to leadership, which also includes leadership of your own life. That, by extension, means your community, company and any professional activities with which you may be engaged. Just keep the perspective that while you and the world may consider these things "professional" two other things are true. First and foremost, the theme is community, which reaches as far and wide as you like, or as close to home as you like. The only thing you really need to remember about Saturn is, well, two things. One is noblesse oblige. The second is that all roles are transient; so it would serve you well to express your authority with the utmost respect for others, respect which begins with self-respect.
 
Next, consider this. The second ruler of Aquarius, Uranus (the modern ruler), is making an impressive transit through your 5th solar house, fellow water sign Pisces. I have not said enough about this transit in this series, perhaps because it's difficult to understand, and also because Pisces often seems to fade into the background. Let's go from the general to the specific. Pisces, even more than Sagittarius, is the sign of the Cosmic All. Sagg can at least express itself in some human terms; Pisces can conceive of a picture so all-embracing that even humanity is a small part of it. Pisces is Alpha and Omega: the undefined cosmic waters from which all life emerges; and the end of the story, the destination of all things, and the end phase of history and individual history where all colors bleed into one. Simply, Pisces is the sign of unlimited potential (not always so easy for those with strong placements in this sign, because rarely does reality live up to that potential).
 
Uranus is the energy of invention, revolution and awareness. It is like lightning striking that cosmic ocean again and again until it glows, emanating an entirely new light. If there was ever a placement suggesting that something new is about to happen, it is Uranus in Pisces. Notably, this is not always a good thing; new does not automatically imply beneficial, though when we take responsibility for our creative power, when we tend the flame, when we focus our energy on what must be, well, that's a different story. And honestly, no matter what way society is going, you remain the one who tends the flame, who ensures continuity, who makes peace with the process of change and holds true to the core energy of the human experience.
 
We find this placement occurring in your 5th solar house -- the house of risks, creativity, the inner child, for you, the cosmic child.
 
Now, this makes an interesting contrast to Saturn in Leo (the fifth sign, a cousin of the 5th house), and it suggests more than anything a balancing of your psyche: being aware of the profound inner child that is pushing into your awareness and the desire to take any risk that you need to take in order to live your truth; as contrasted with Saturn in your 10th solar house suggesting that you must make responsible and honest choices on the way there.
 
Yes, it's a tense setup; a blatant contradiction; a cosmic paradox. Yes, there is no easy answer, and from a variety of perspectives, it seems absolutely impossible to resolve. And it's from these spring-loaded setups that the big advances come, both for individuals and for all of us. You can be grateful that you have the creativity, the passion and the intelligence to make it through each day in this tragic moment of history, yet one which will ultimately unleash the potential of humanity.
 
Pluto, your modern ruling planet, is crossing the Galactic Core this year, and if you want an image for all that wood stove, Vesta, sacred flame imagery, there is one. When in doubt, tune into the largest scale you can. When in doubt, feel the whole strange turmoil boiling inside yourself. Trust that making space for yourself to love safely, to create shamelessly and to live like your life matters will heal the universe, not symbolically, but in the actual truth. Trust your judgment. Trust your leadership, even if you do so on the basis that you keep finding people who don't have any clue at all -- and you, at least, have half of one -- probably a good bit more.
 
One thing you know is that you're alive. You actually know this; check it out. By some odd coincidence you are alive right now, and that, lucky for you, is the only time that matters because it's the only time there is.


SCORPIO
For more information about your relationships, please see Taurus. This will give you an idea what is happening for those closest to you, and how they may experience you. For more information about your career, please see Leo. You can consider this an alternative take on your professional life, as it's an assessment of your 10th house. For more information about the home and security angle of your chart, please see Aquarius. This will give you greater detail on themes just covered in this horoscope that relate to home and security. For an explanation of the houses, please see this article.