Scorpio II: The Queen of Soul

 Aretha Franklin © Joe Sohm | Dreamstime.com

Hi, this is Cathy Gnatek. Today, I continue my series on the 36 decans of the zodiac with Scorpio II, the second decan of Scorpio. In this video, we’ll explore the deeply emotional and spiritually charged energy of this part of the zodiac—where desire, intimacy, and faith intertwine. People with points or placements here often experience the intensity of merging deeply with another person while also learning to balance passion with awareness. This decan, ruled by Jupiter and the Sun, brings warmth, generosity, and optimism to Scorpio’s fixed water—yet it can also reveal the shadow side of attachment, when emotional depth turns into clinging or nostalgia.

At its best, Scorpio II is about healing through intimacy—it invites courage, emotional honesty, and the desire to connect soul-to-soul. There’s a strong alchemical quality here: the blending of passion and trust, vulnerability and empowerment. The lessons of this decan ask us to remain conscious and centered within connection—to recognize that pleasure and harmony are cyclical, and that real beauty comes from presence rather than grasping. We’ll see how this energy expresses itself through the symbolism of the Six of Cups, a card that captures the sweetness and complexity of heartfelt connection.

In the video below, l discuss the Six of Cups in both the Rider–Waite and Thoth tarot decks and explore ancient descriptions from Ibn Ezra, Picatrix, and Agrippa that illuminate both the light and shadow of this decan. I also look at Aretha Franklin’s chart—her rising degree falls in this part of Scorpio—and consider how her music expresses the spiritual, sensual depth of this energy. If you enjoy the video, please like and subscribe—it helps others discover my content, and I truly appreciate your support.

Okay, so let's bring up the whiteboard that talks about this energy. I always start by describing the sign itself so that we're grounded in the energy before we move into the 10 degrees of the sign that represent the decan.

Scorpio is a water sign. All water signs have to do with our emotions and intuition. They have a sensitive quality, an ability to feel into the energy around them. They can also relate to imagination, and Scorpio itself has to do with depth.

If you think about the three water signs: Cancer, the first of the water signs, is more personal. It's about me and my emotions. It has to do with the water on the shore, where the crab is. Then we go to Scorpio—it’s the deep water of the ocean floor that can sometimes be a little dark and mysterious. And then, of course, Pisces, the last of the water signs, is more about the ocean itself.

I want to go back for a second to talk about Scorpio, because if Cancer is about personal water energy, Scorpio is about the water energy between two people. We're going to really see that relationships are part of the energy and vibe of Scorpio, and that desire to get deeply connected to another person—and how that can play out in your life as you try to know another person in this deep way.

Lastly, Scorpio is very psychological because of that depth. It has an uncanny ability to read other people and their emotions. Sometimes that can move over into a little bit of paranoia or suspicion, because Scorpio folks—since they can read people clearly—sometimes imagine others can read into their minds as well. That can lead to a little suspicion at times.

And then of course, Scorpio is ruled by Mars, the god of war. Mars adds a penetrative quality. Mars is this yang, masculine energy that wants to dig in. So, there we see that part of the psychological quality of Scorpio can be wanting to penetrate another person through understanding. Mars, of course, also relates to courage, drive, and aggression.

Really important—Scorpio is a fixed water sign, so it can get a little stuck. All the fixed signs want to commit and stay with something. They have stability, persistence, loyalty, and determination, and they can get stubborn at times.

If you think about the idea of fixed water, it’s about wanting to stay. Scorpios can be very emotionally loyal to the person they’re with, but if they feel betrayed, they can also cut people off. That’s the Mars energy. I say all this very lovingly because, of course, I’m a Scorpio rising.

Okay, so then let's move on to talk about this part of Scorpio. In addition to Mars ruling the whole sign, we can look at the decan and see what its rulers are under the Chaldean order and the triplicity system. This adds a layer of understanding of what these 10 degrees of the zodiac—from 10 to 20 degrees of Scorpio—is all about.

Here we have Jupiter, who was Zeus in the Greek pantheon, an abundant, mystic, expansive energy. Sometimes that can also lead to hubris, which is a kind of overshooting—being almost overconfident. That’s the shadow side of Jupiter. It can also be about faith and confidence, as I said already.

Then we have the Sun, which is the light that lights our way during the day. It’s our conscious awareness of what’s happening in the world. It can also represent father and authority. It can be about where we shine in the world—it’s that centering force. If you think about the Sun, all the other planets revolve around it, so it has that quality of centering and consistency. It rises in the morning, and it sets at night. It rises in the morning, and it sets at night. So, there’s a consistency around that energy.

When we take Jupiter and the Sun and combine them with this emotional, Mars-like fixed energy, in a best-case scenario, we get generosity, warmth, joyful sharing, and pleasure. We’re going to see this with the Six of Cups in the Rider–Waite deck as well as in the Thoth deck that are associated with these 10 degrees of the zodiac. But in a fixed water sign ruled by Mars, light and growth are happening within a closed, intimate container. That’s part of the energy. This is like an alchemical vessel, where you and I are connected in a deep way—sort of taking our clothes off and connecting and exposing ourselves.

This can lead to deep intimacy, but also, in the shadow—especially with Mars—there can sometimes be this enmeshment. If you think about when two people get close, at some point they can turn on each other a little bit. And we’re going to see some of that energy expressed in the descriptions from ancient texts. This is complex. All decans have their most positive expression and then the potential for the shadow side of that expression.

Moving on to look at the tarot cards associated with this decan—
as I mentioned, the Six of Cups is the card associated. We could just look at this card, and we see a little girl and perhaps an older brother, or maybe even her first crush. He’s offering her flowers. There’s something very beautiful about this card, and at the same time, you can see that it carries a certain amount of nostalgia.

6 of Cups, Rider-Waite Tarot

The Moon, which can relate to emotions, can also be about our body, and our body stores memories and history. So, there’s something about this card that carries some of that nostalgic energy. The question is—what do you do when you get deeply, closely connected to someone, and it feels so good in your heart to be connected? Do you allow that energy to open your heart? We’re going to see that the six in the Kabbalah has to do with this heart energy. Does it open your heart and allow you to expand and integrate the learning about what it means to be deeply connected with someone? Or, again, the shadow side potentially is that you can get stuck in the past or in a state of longing. That’s the risk of enmeshment and retreat into the past.

Let’s move on then to look at the Thoth card, because I think this is a great card to show that alchemical idea of the exchange of energy between and among two people. Here we see six lotus flowers, and they’re overflowing with water. This leads to streams that all interconnect, symbolizing a balanced and contained—because we’re in a fixed sign—emotional exchange.

The card is called “Pleasure,” and there’s certainly a pleasure that can come from sex—literal sex—or the deeper idea of sex, which has to do with the spirituality of connecting with another person in this deep way, where you almost feel a connection with the divine. That can come with the energy of this decan.

6 of Cups “Pleasure”, Thoth Deck

This card marks a restored harmony after the turbulence of the Five of Cups. If you go back and look at my video about Scorpio I and look at the Five of Cups card in tarot, you see that it’s a card that has to do with loss and letting go.

And that’s what the Five of Cups has to do with. So, the Six of Cups is sensual, yet it’s spiritual. It’s a moment when desire and love can be consciously enjoyed. But as Crowley, who is the author of the book connected to the Thoth deck and who participated in its creation, notes, this harmony can be temporary—the harmony that comes with the Six of Cups. Pleasure is cyclical, like the tides, and it cannot be clung to without stagnation. That can be part of the energy of Scorpio, because it has that fixed quality. There can be a clinging or wanting to hold on to emotional connection, so it’s important to keep the waters moving.

Now I’m going to look at the ancient texts, which are interesting. They express both the positive side and the shadow side of this energy.

First, we have Ibn Ezra. He describes this decan as “a woman who has left her house. She is naked and has nothing on, and she is entering the sea.” This is where we see the vulnerability that comes literally with sex. You take your clothes off with another person; you’re very exposed in the sexual act. You can also think about that as the exposing that happens when we open our heart—that sixth sephira of the Tree of Life in Kabbalah that I’m going to be talking about. When we open ourselves to another, there’s a certain vulnerability, but also a lovely warmth that can come with that deep connection.

Then we look at the next two. Picatrix is interesting—it has a bit of a combination of some of that solar energy around consciousness that can come when we really see another person in an intimate way. The image is “a man riding upon a camel holding a scorpion in his hand.” That represents Scorpio—the scorpion itself. “This is a face of knowledge, modesty, disposition of one who speaks evilly one to another.”

And then we have Agrippa: “A man naked and a woman naked, and a man sitting on the earth, and before him two dogs biting one another; and their operation is for impudence, deceit, and false dealing, and for to send mischief and strife amongst men.”

Again, we get that idea of nakedness—getting naked before another person as part of this decan’s symbolism—but then we also see the shadow side, with the two dogs biting one another. When we get close, what happens with that?

Let’s move on, because I think this explanation from the Tree of Life helps integrate this energy. We can always connect each decan with a sephira on the Tree of Life because they’re associated with the numerology of the card. So, with the Six of Cups, we look at the number six.

There’s this lightning flash, which you can think of as consciousness coming to know itself—a repeated pattern of human existence. We constantly come to know and explore ourselves, and that expands our sense of self. This is the manifestation of this energy.

Hermetic Kabbalah, Tree of Life

When we look at Tifereth, that number six, we can see that this is a moment of restoration, and harmony is the energy of the Six. You have the movement from Geburah, which means severity, number five, to Tifereth, beauty. It’s this evolution from disciplined loss—the Five of Cups card, where you see a figure with three cups fallen before them and two still standing. The first decan of Scorpio is associated with that Five of Cups and has to do with confronting loss in one-on-one relationships.

So, we move from that Five of Cups to the Six of Cups, from a sense of loss into a sense of restoration that follows the clarification that came from Geburah. Geburah has this way of stripping away illusion. And again, if you go back and look at my last video, you’ll see how that’s associated with the first 10 degrees of Scorpio.

Tifereth, excuse me, receives that purified essence, and it unites courage and compassion and balance. We saw that Six of Cups in the Thoth deck showing the balanced nature of the energy flowing between two people, with true equilibrium. But we can rest in sentimentality or nostalgia—think back to that Six of Cups in the Rider–Waite deck—instead of genuine integration.

So, this is a moment where we have the potential to see someone and connect with them deeply. But where do we take that energy? Do we take it toward a moment of our own self-knowledge, or do we try to cling to the relationship or cling to the past as a way of avoiding the further integration of what we’re intended to learn? With the Tree of Life, we want to move from the Six to the Seven, where there’s always a movement of this lightning flash that leads toward further integration. That’s a little more esoteric, but it’s a piece I’m quite interested in.

So again, this idea that the waters that can heal with the second decan of Scorpio can also stagnate if one clings to what was rather than allowing new energy to flow. Tifereth teaches us that real harmony requires conscious presence. Beauty is not a retreat into innocence but a wholeness that embraces both loss and love. Being present with a partner in a deep way exposes us, and when we maintain our conscious presence in that energy, it can be a little scary, but we can learn something new. There’s also the potential in a deep connection with another to merge with them in a way where we lose ourselves and lose our consciousness, and that’s the shadow side.

Okay, so then let’s look at our example, which I thought was beautiful. Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, has Scorpio II as her rising degree. She was born in Memphis and raised in Detroit. She began singing in her father’s church before she became one of the most powerful voices in popular music, with hits like “Respect” and “Natural Woman.” She blended gospel, soul, and pop into songs that celebrated strength, faith, and emotional truth. That’s just a little bio to honor her. She was an amazing singer.

At this point, I just want to point out that the best way to get the vibe of this Scorpio II energy is to take a minute and listen to some of her songs. The depth, emotional resonance, and psychological awareness that she brings to the tone of voice when she expresses the language in a song really embody the energy of this sign. In particular, “Dr. Feel Good,” “Love Is a Serious Business,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” bring forward the resonance around the spiritual and sexual connection, and the deep sort of longing that can come with this decan of the zodiac.

She also has songs about the idea of balance and connection because when we’re really present to another person and maintain our consciousness of who we are—but out of that connect with another person—there’s a respect that comes and must be demanded. If we’re in this deep connection with another person in a closed container—because again, this is a fixed sign—we don’t want to fall back into enmeshment. Instead, we want to maintain ourselves and demand respect for our own existence at the same time as we’re deeply connected to another. We can see that in songs like “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,” and of course, “Respect,” which is one of the most powerful songs ever created.

So yeah, I really encourage you all to drop links to a couple of these songs so that you can listen to them easily if you’d like. I hope you enjoyed the video. I really love making these and teaching, and it deepens my understanding of astrology. That’s one of the things I love most about astrology—there is no end to learning. I hope you all have a great day, and we’ll see you for Scorpio III soon.