With the Sun in Scorpio, you are a fiery person and you never do things by half measures. Still waters run deep with you and you do not show your emotions to anyone or everyone who comes along. Others may lay blame on you for being enigmatic or hard to comprehend, but it is the very power of your emotions that makes you so watchful. For you can be offended, and, when you are, you do not take it lightly, and you tend to take vengeance. However, you are trustworthy to the end to those who do not let you down, and your persistence and determination mean that you can overcome the greatest setbacks. For Scorpio is the sign of alteration and rejuvenation, and your ability to leave the past behind you and start over is your greatest strength.

Your ruling planet
The ruling planet of your personal chart is the one that rules your Rising Sign. However, if Scorpio is your Sun Sign, its ruler, Pluto, will also play a vital role in your psychology.

Pluto Lord of the Underworld, governs the oblivious mind, as well as hidden riches. Secrets, passionate emotions, soul truths and sudden endings and beginnings are also ruled by mysterious Pluto, the most recently discovered and most distant of the planets. It gives magnetism and an almost X-ray insight into others' motives. Its position at birth shows where change and soul growth can occur.

It is the planet of the masses and stands for renewal, change and transformation. Its house position in your chart and the connections it makes to other planets, show your unconscious motivations and your most concentrated - and hidden - feelings. Secretive Pluto gives depth and passion to any planet that it touches, making it hard to be impartial and disconnected. Because it is the furthest planet from the Sun, Pluto takes so long to travel through one zodiac sign that you share its inspiration by sign with your whole generation, as you do with Uranus and Neptune.

As the Golden Huntsman, Orion, sets in the West each Spring, Scorpio - the scorpion which killed him - rises in the East. Its stars have always been feared by sailors, as its rising promised storms. But for the alchemists, November, Scorpio's season, when the earth decays, was the best time for making gold. The scorpion in the skies was also sacred to the god of war 7000 years ago in the Euphrates valley. Antares, the great red star that marks the heart of Scorpio, is 9000 times brighter than our sun. Scorpio, with its curving tail, lies between Libra and Sagittarius on the zodiac chart.

The flower of Pluto, Scorpio's planet, is the pleasantly perfumed narcissus. But flowers of the mountains and wild places, such as vivid, golden broom and thorny gorse, royal blue mountain gentians, with their martial, spiky leaves, wild pink cyclamen and anemones, or wind flowers, belong to Scorpio, too, as they are ruled by Mars, Scorpio's other ruling planet. Your trees are cypress, hawthorn, or may, ash and frankincense. Your herbs are warm and spicy ginger, pepper, coriander and basil, which are also ruled by energetic, fiery Mars. Basil is particularly considered to be Scorpio's herb.

Your essential oils are basil, coriander, ginger and frankincense, which warm and soothe, balancing your strong, Scorpio emotions and bringing out your natural bravery.

Scorpio, the most magnetic and extreme of all the signs, has the bloodstone as its precious stone. The bloodstone was believed to protect its wearer from ill health and brought both respect and thoughtfulness from others. It also guards against dishonesty, strengthening Scorpio's well- known insight into others and their motives. The deep red garnet reflects the fervent, hidden emotions of Scorpio, putting the wearer in touch with the healing springs of their deep feelings and bringing warmth and trust.