Growing Green with the Zodiac: Toward an Ecological Astrology

Scorpio Season: October 22-November 21

Growing Green with Scorpio is the third in a series of 12 almanac posts seeking to integrate traditional astrological principles with ecological awareness and environmental responsibility. It views Earth not only as the home base from which we observe the cosmos but also as an active component of a dynamic zodiac. This approach is a contemporary reframing of the long-held view that plants, people, and the planets are all part of one coherent whole: as above, so below.

For supporting subscribers, there’s also a bonus workbook, featuring tarot, journaling, project suggestions, and (of course!) a trip to the kitchen. I hope these posts encourage all of us to pay more thoughtful attention to the green world. Our lives depend on it.

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SCORPIO: October 22-November 21

• Guardian planets: Mars (traditional) and Pluto (contemporary)

• Element: Water. Modality: Fixed

• Scorpio’s home in the Zodiac’s annual cycle: the 8th House, the domain of transformation, death and rebirth, sexuality, deep and intense emotional bonds. It deals with matters related to generational succession, inheritance (what we are given, what we pass on), shared resources, and the mysteries of life and death.

• Scorpio’s astrological association with death can be traced to the myth of Orion, a hunter who boasted of an ability to kill every animal on earth. To put a stop to his heedless arrogance, the Earth goddess Gia sent a giant scorpion to kill him. He died but was brought back to life by the healing god, Asclepius and given a cosmic resurrection in the constellation Orion. Hence Scorpio’s theme of death, regeneration, and renewal.

• Scorpio folk (those who have Sun, Moon, Rising Sign, or a cluster of planets in Scorpio or who have a strong Mars or Pluto or 8th House) are known for their intensity, passion, determination, and strong sense of privacy, often guarded by a hard exterior. Those who are drawn to the green world may pour their passion into their plant projects, directing their focused resourcefulness to probe mysteries and solve problems. Excellent researchers and intensely protective of anything they care about, Scorpios who love nature can sense the needs of the garden and in a larger and deeper sense, of the green world beyond. They may be attracted to plants with rich, intense colors, especially those with medicinal properties, reflecting their interest in healing. Scorpios are likely to have a deep interest in sustainable practices, such as composting and rainwater harvesting, and renewable energy sources, such as bioenergy.

• Scorpio’s shadow. Pluto governs what is buried in the subconscious, including repressed emotions, past trauma, and unresolved psychological issues. These "toxins" slowly accumulate over time, manifesting as emotional imbalances, destructive behaviors, or physical illnesses. Pluto is associated with power, and its shadow side often brings up issues related to manipulation, dominance, and control.

Scorpio Season in the Green World

Scorpio’s shortening days mean less sunlight for photosynthesis, so plants have found ways to cope. Annuals complete their life cycle and die, leaving their seeds behind—that Scorpio inheritance thing. Perennials and deciduous trees shed leaves and shift resources from leaves to roots to conserve energy. Other trees finish producing their fruit and nuts, passing their genes on to the next generation. We’re done with one cycle, but Scorpio is all about renewal.

An embryonic oak in Scorpio Season. Photo by Katie Azi

For humans and other animals, Scorpio’s shorter daylight hours impact the body’s circadian rhythm. Less exposure to sunlight can lower serotonin and melatonin levels, especially felt by those who experience Seasonal Pattern Depression. Others may find renewed introspective and creative energies during this darkening time.

For all of us, gardens, parks, and woods can take on a darker, mystical quality in Scorpio season, and frost sparkling on foliage and morning mists draped through the trees hint at changes ahead. This season can encourage a deeper connection to the cycles of nature, inviting us to look inward and reflect on the natural cycle of death, decay, and transformation.

Scorpio celebrations. Many cultures have traditionally celebrated the dead during Scorpio: Halloween and All Hallows Eve on October 31, All Saints’ Day (November 1), All Souls Day (November 2) and el Día de Muertos (the Day of the Dead) on November 1-2. Wiccans celebrate Samhain, one of the eight quarter and cross-quarter points of the Wheel of the Year. Traditionally, this is when the veil between this life and the afterlife is at its thinnest, making it easier to communicate with those who have departed. [Supporting subscribers, look for more on this in the Scorpio Workbook.]

Photo by Michael Hamments on Unsplash

Scorpio’s Shadow

On an ecological level, Pluto’s shadow symbolizes the darker, hidden forces at work within our environment and our human contributions to and our compulsive denial of ecological degradation and (especially) climate change. Here are just two examples of the many I’m sure you can think of.

Pollution and Toxic Waste. Just as Pluto’s shadow accumulates psychological toxins, its ecological shadow is reflected in the gradual buildup of pollutants—plastic waste, industrial chemicals, and other toxins—within Earth’s ecosystems. These contaminants are often invisible or unnoticed until they cause severe damage, mirroring Pluto’s tendency to bring long-buried issues to the surface. Over time, this accumulation leads to catastrophic consequences, such as polluted soils and rivers, dead zones in oceans, and the collapse of ecosystems.

Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash

Soil Contamination and Depletion. The degradation of soil through plowing of virgin prairie, overuse of pesticides, monoculture farming, strip mining, and deforestation reflects Pluto’s shadow as an underlying force that eats away at the foundation of life itself, only to emerge in visible crises like desertification and loss of biodiversity.

Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

Gardening by the Sun in Scorpio Season

Gardeners (by definition) are in the business of defeating Scorpio’s shadow. And while the growing season may be winding down, that only means a shift of focus. Here’s a handy checklist for your northern-hemisphere garden.

• Finish harvesting those late veggies and root crops before the first hard freeze. Gather flowers but leave seed heads to sustain winter birds.

• Divide perennials and plant spring-flowering bulbs (tulips, daffodils, crocuses) and garlic—a Scorpio regenerative project. Protect tender plants or move them indoors for the winter.

• Add mulch to conceal and protect vulnerable roots from the cold—very much a Scorpio project.

• Leave the leaves! Scorpio is about regeneration and renewal, so where you can, leave the fallen leaves to return their nutrients to the ground. For a few suggestions for managing that lovely litter, here’s Sally Morgan’s Substack from The Climate Change Garden. (For some helpful not-so-fast advice, here’s a Substacker’s cautionary tale, Leave the Leaves? Not Always!)

• So instead of raking, compost. And compost is Scorpio’s middle name—well, it would be, if Scorpio had a middle name. And yes, you can compost in a Northern Hemisphere winter. You can even start a compost bin in the winter. The University of New Hampshire will show you how. Compost increases soil organic matter and stores carbon.

• And here’s another very-Scorpio idea: making and using biochar a (organic material burned in a low-oxygen environment) in your garden. This HGTV post, “What the Heck is Biochar?” will take you through the basics, including how to build your own biochar cooker. Ecologically regenerative practices that restore soil health and sequester carbon, and support biodiversity, represent Pluto’s transformative potential for renewal.

• Indoor gardeners, consider adding aloe vera to your collection. Strongly aligned with Scorpio both symbolically and energetically, aloe vera is valued for its ability to soothe burns, heal wounds, and restore and regenerate damaged tissue. Scorpio-like, it can survive our neglect. (I speak from experience with this forgiving plant.)

  

  My 40-year-old aloe vera, in a terracotta frog. Young frog tadpoles are known for their Scorpio-like ability to regrow a lost limb.

• On a rainy, chilly weekend, curl up with a Scorpio-themed book about the world we live in. Three suggestions:

  • Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake.

    • Plants get all the attention, but Merlin Sheldrake wants us to know that the green world depends for its very life on the underworld fungi that support it. If you think about fungi at all, you might imagine a mushroom on your salad plate. But mushrooms are just the tiny flowering tip of the vast mycelial networks—what some mycologists call “wood wide webs”—that work their transforming magic in the darkness of Scorpio’s underground world. Like Scorpio’s fungi, Sheldrake’s book is transformative. You may find yourself looking at that mushroom with new and very different eyes.

  • Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, by Suzanne Simard.

    • Forester and ecologist Suzanne Simard reveals the hidden truth that a tree is not just a tree but a member of a complicated, interdependent circle of life. Forests, she says, are cooperative societies living communal lives connected through underground networks with each other and a Mother Tree. For more about Simard’s Scorpio work in the forest underworld, read Substacker Susan Tweit’s Science Spotlight.

  • Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane.

    • Beware: this is not a book for the claustrophobic. In vivid, evocative prose, Underland explores the hidden world beneath our feet—caves, tunnels, burrows, and other subterranean environments—digging up the deep connections between what lives above and what lies below. Macfarlane, an intrepid explorer of dark places, aims a new light on the geological and ecological transformations that occur over time and space, reflecting Scorpio’s fascination with the unseen processes of transformation. His deep exploration of dark and mysterious hidden environments aligns with Scorpio’s love of the mysteries that lie beneath the surface.

Gardening by the Moon in Scorpio

The increasing light of a waxing moon is said to encourage leaf growth and its increasing gravitational strength to raise soil moisture and boost plant sap production. The decreasing light and strength of a waning moon is believed to encourage root growth. Each of the Moon’s phases (waxing, waning periods) last about a week.

Gardening by the Moon’s phases. Here are the phases and traditional practices for this Scorpio Season:

• Waning Gibbous (Oct 22) to Last Quarter (Oct 24): Plant cool-season root crops, also perennials, biennials, and bulbs.

• Waning Crescent (Oct 25) to New Moon in Scorpio (Nov 1): Avoid planting. Harvest and store crops, fertilize, weed, mow lawns. On the New Moon, put work aside, reflect on your plans for the coming cycle, especially those that have to do with secrets, hidden places, underlying truth.

• Waxing Crescent (Nov 2) to First Quarter (Nov 9): Plant above ground annuals (especially leaf plants), grains, herbs. To increase growth, mow grass, graft and prune.

• Waxing Crescent (Nov 10) to Full Moon (Nov 15): Plant above ground annuals (especially fruit plants), grains, flowers. To increase growth, mow grass, graft and prune.

• Full Moon in Taurus (Nov 15): Celebrate, gather medicinal herbs and plants, reflect on the grace of being grounded, supported, and in touch with the earth.

• Waning Gibbous (Nov 16 to Last Quarter (Nov 23) : Plant below ground/root plants, perennials, trees, shrubs. Harvest crops, fertilize, transplant

Gardening by the Moon’s signs. As the Moon changes phases, it also moves from one zodiac sign to another. Traditionally, each sign is suited to a different set of tasks, suggested by the planet that rules the sign. If you’d like to learn about gardening by the Moon’s signs, you’ll find an extremely helpful calendar and chart here. Before you tackle the calendar, scroll down to the chart, where you’ll see the phases displayed in the wide center column and the signs on the left. I’ve set the Astro-seek link for the beginning of Scorpio in October; you can reset it (at the top of the page) for the calendar month of November.

The Lunar Learning Library at Gardening by the Moon is also an interesting and helpful resource, with excellent hands-on how-to reporting from gardeners who practice lunar gardening.

Scorpio’s Medicinal Herbs

In the ancients’ view of a unified cosmos, each planet was believed to be associated with particular plants, which in turn were understood to affect certain parts of the human body. Here is a representation of these relationships, as everyone generally understood them by the end of the English Renaissance.

From Christian Astrology (1647) by William Lilly.

Until the mid-20th century, Scorpio was ruled solely by Mars. When Pluto was discovered in 1930, astrologers (prompted by transpersonal astrologer Dane Rudhyar) assigned it as the co-ruler of Scorpio. Physiologically, this Pluto/Mars composite is said to govern the process of death and regeneration of body cells, particularly involving cleansing and the elimination of toxins. Pluto’s regenerative impetus reveals itself in the sexual act while Mars empowers sexual desire. Diseases of Scorpio were involved with the accumulation of toxic substances in the body (carcinogens, for example) or in the mind (anger, jealousy, fear). Diseases and ailments of the urogenital system and the colon also belong to Scorpio.

Many Scorpio botanicals are cleansing and revitalizing while others are involved with the sex organs, reflective of transformative Pluto. Abortifacients are related to both Pluto and Mars.

Plantain (Plantago ovata) is an interesting Mars-in-Scorpio herb that you may know (and use) as psyllium, which helps to regulate bowel activity as well as helping to lower cholesterol. Each plant can produce up to 15,000 tiny, gel-coated seeds, from which psyllium husk is produced. Most of the commercially-available psyllium comes from India.

Panax ginseng

Ginseng (Panax ginseng). The Chinese value ginseng above all other botanical remedies, using it as a general tonic, restorative, and aphrodisiac. It has been reported to enhance the process of sperm production, likely due to its effects on testosterone levels and improved circulation to the reproductive organs. Current research indicates that ginseng may also improve erectile function. The American native, Panax quinquefolium, is chemically similar.

Queen Anne’s Lace. The Herbal Academy

Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota, aka wild carrot) traveled to America from Europe and quickly hopscotched across the continent. Is it possible that its use as a morning-after contraceptive made the plant so valuable that pioneer women took the seeds with them wherever they went? The lacy appearance of the blossom connects the plant to Mercury, while its historical use in fertility management links it with Plutonic themes of transformation, regeneration, and control over life processes. [Note to reader of my Pecan Springs series: this is the signature herb of Book 26, Queen Anne’s Lace.]

Southernwood in my garden

All of the artemisias have an abortifacient effect. Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) contains compounds such as thujone and cineole, which irritate the smooth muscle of the uterus, prompting contractions that can stimulate menstrual flow. In old herbals, this is described as “bringing down the menses.” Southernwood, (Artemisia abrotanum) bears the suggestive folk name, “Lad’s Love.” Although the phrase is said to refer to the herb’s use as a love charm, it’s also possible that “lad’s love” refers to its use as an abortifacient.

The herbs rue (Ruta graveolens) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris)—both ruled by Mars—also function as abortifacients. Rue’s active compounds include rutin and arborine; thyme’s includes thymol and carvacrol. An old Scottish proverb alludes to their use: “Rue in thyme is a maiden’s posy.” That is, a tea made of rue and thyme, administered in a timely way, has the potential of restoring a young woman to her maidenly status. Or, as a cautionary: the maiden (and presumably the lad) might rue the act in time to avoid it.

I am not advocating the use of abortifacients, simply reporting the history of the human use of these plants. For medical information, here is a trustworthy source.

That’s it for Scorpio. Thanks for reading, everyone! You’ll hear from me again on Monday, November 4, with the November edition of All About Thyme.

Supporting subscribers, you’ll shortly receive the Growing Green Workbook, your invitation to explore more of the magic, myth, and mystery of this Scorpio season. Thank you for your generous support!