(Image: Robert F. Kennedy, source unknown)

Scorpio is the sign of Shaman and the Spy, the Hitman and the Detective, the Investment Banker and the Depth Psychologist, the Covert Op and the Deep Cover Cop. Co-ruled by Mars (the Lord of War) and Pluto (the Lord of the Underworld), Scorpio is the sign least likely to fear death. Astrologer Frances Sakoian warns, “In battle they will give no quarter and expect none. If one takes up cudgels against a Scorpio, he should be well fortified.” (Source) To illustrate: using its release date as its date of birth, the original Terminator film has its Sun, Pluto, Mercury, and Saturn all in Scorpio. (Chart) The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the “T-800” model Terminator — a heavily fortified, totally determined hitman from the future who gives no quarter and whose cybernetic brain possesses no fear of death:

According to astrologer Judy Hall, people with their Sun (conscious identity) in this intensely secretive sign make for great undertakers and insurance agents. (Source) They also do well in any career that requires infiltration, such as working for the internal affairs department of a Fortune 500 corporation. Schwarzenegger’s Scorpionic alter-ego the T-800 is not a literal undertaker or corporate insurance agent but its mission to infiltrate (Scorpio) the past and assassinate (Scorpio) Sarah Connor is designed to insure (Scorpio) that things goes as planned for a massive defense contractor known as the Cyberdyne Corporation. Scorpio, ruled by Pluto, is also considered the sign having dominion over nuclear energy. (Source) Not coincidentally, the T-800 is powered by an internal nuclear reactor that sits in its solar plexus region behind heavy armor. Human Scorpios are powered by similarly powerful, if intensely guarded, sources of energy.

Sitting 60 degrees from Scorpio is Capricorn, the sign of responsibility, realism, and relentless determination. This is the sign of the Prime Minister, the Authority Figure, the Strategist, the Business Man, the General, the CEO, and the Director. Ecologically, Capricorn is the sign of the winter solstice, a time of the year when supplies may be getting short and members of the tribe may be in danger of succumbing to the elements both physical and emotional. In order to make it through the winter, the remaining provisions must be utilized judiciously while movements of survivors must be managed strategically. This is why the Moon (emotional needs) is considered “in detriment” when in Capricorn. Soul-crushing experiences that would break the spirits of other Moon signs are actually emotionally nourishing to the Capricorn Moon. This is the one lunar placement that actually “switches on” during times of austerity. Abraham Lincoln is a high profile but fundamentally representative Capricorn Moon. (Chart) He grew up amid austere circumstances and went on to lead the U.S. through the Civil War, an extraordinarily dark time that required extremely strategic management of both soldiers and civilians. In 2012 Lincoln was portrayed by Daniel Day Lewis in the film bearing his name:

Combine the psychological intensity of a Scorpio Sun with the strategic instincts of a Capricorn Moon and the result is a Sun/Moon pairing that’s self-disciplined, self-controlled, single-minded and serious to the point of being militant. Intense and brooding, highly responsible and naturally adept at “realpolitik”, this is a potentially ruthless Sun/Moon pairing that has “something of the devil” in their soul according to astrologer Jefferson Anderson. (Source) To illustrate: General George Patton is Scorpio Sun, Capricorn Moon. (Chart) Nicknamed “Ol’ Blood and Guts”, Patton was responsible for a number of America’s most important victories over the Nazis during World War II. In true Scorpio/Capricorn fashion it’s been said that Patton “out Blitzkreiged the inventors of the Blitzkreig”. Nazi generals admitted they feared him more than the devil himself. (Source) In 1970 Patton was portrayed to great effect by George C. Scott in the film bearing his name:

For this pairing, power (Scorpio) and respect (Capricorn), cunning (Scorpio) and hard work (Capricorn) are the undisputed currencies of the realm. A few quotes from George Patton summarize the tenacious if somber Scorpio/Capricorn modus operandi quite effectively:

The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his. A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.

Astrologer Stella Hyde says Scorpios make for great secret agents, samurais, interrogators and professional assassins while Capricorn Moons are emotionally nourished by occupations such as horror-story writing, satanism, and grave robbing. (Source) Lieutenant Colonel Robert K. Brown is a Scorpio/Capricorn. (Chart) He’s best known for establishing Soldier of Fortune magazine, an extraordinarily controversial publication that has long catered to professional mercenaries, weapons lovers, and war-fanatics. During the 1980s Brown and people associated with his magazine were involved in training, arming, and raising money for the Contras in Nicaragua and the Mujahideen in Afghanistan — CIA connected groups that did make use of assassinations, interrogations, and other methods more than a bit reminiscent of those employed by satanists, grave-robbers, and characters straight out of Stephen King horror stories. As far as whether Brown has “something of the devil in his soul”, George Orwell once said “by the time he’s 50 years old a man has the face he deserves.”

Anybody to left of G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North is likely to find Mr. Brown an off-putting character, to put it mildly. (This is doubly the case if you’ve done much reading on the geopolitics of Central America and Central Asia during the 1980s.) There is, however, no doubting his resourcefulness or capacity to utilize the protections of the first amendment to their absolute limit — something even those of us more likely to admire Woodward and Bernstein than John Rambo and E. Howard Hunt can (grudgingly) appreciate. For instance, according to a recent article in Newsmax, in 1983 Brown published an interview with a KGB assassin known as “JAWS”, something the U.S. government had warned him against doing in the strongest possible language. When the KGB got wind of the article they recalled their assassin to Moscow and Brown “subsequently received a threatening letter from JAWS stating that he looked forward to a meeting in Central America”. (Source) Many Scorpio/Capricorns will find themselves in similar exchanges with their co-workers. To his credit, Brown spent a good deal of his own money attempting to get to the truth about what happened to American POWs in Vietnam. According to a recent profile of Brown in Maxim magazine:

Over the years, the colonel routinely sank his largesse back into financing whatever mission the magazine had embarked on. He says he personally spent more than $300,000 backing efforts to hunt for POWs he and many of his readers believed had been left behind after the Vietnam War. “And that was 30 years ago,” he notes. (Source)

Brown’s exploits at Soldier of Fortune are supposedly the inspiration for The Expendables, Sylvester Stallone’s violence laden film franchise about a team of mercenaries who appear to straddle the line between professional soldiers and murderous psychopaths — both of which are Scorpio/Capricorn archetypes. (Source) As Stallone’s character explains when deciding whether or not to accept a contract to overthrow a government in the Gulf of Mexico, “if the money’s right we don’t care where the job is”. (Source) That’s a pretty good approximation of the Scorpio/Capricorn approach to life should their unremitting desire for power (Scorpio) and material success (Capricorn) head stomp their sense of humanity into bits and pieces.

Even those Scorpio/Capricorns who dedicate their lives to the causes of peace and justice will do so with as much ferocity, passion, and determination as George Patton invested into fighting wars and Robert Brown has invested into mercenary work. Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), the brother of President John F. Kennedy, is a Scorpio Sun, Capricorn Moon. (Chart) During his time as the U.S. Attorney General, RFK was “known for his advocacy for the African-American Civil Rights Movement and crusade against organized crime”. (Source) In the late 1950s he wrote a book about high level political corruption entitled The Enemy Within, a title that suggests an armada of themes close to the heart of any Scorpio/Capricorn. Indira Ghandi, named “Woman of the Millennium” in a poll organised by the BBC in 1999, is also a Scorpio/Capricorn. (Chart) She was so tough that even Richard Nixon — a man roughly as ruthless as the aforementioned “JAWS” character — admitted he was afraid to go head-to-head with her:

Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, the planet of totality and extremes. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the planet of brass tack reality and long term karma. Sue Tompkins links this combination with the most extreme life circumstances imaginable such as “the full horrors of Auschwitz becoming known”, “Chernobyl blowing up”, “Wall Street crashing” along with “accelerated fears concerns the dangers of nuclear power or the possible threat of nuclear war”. (Source) If, God forbid, somebody ever plants a nuclear device in your town you’ll probably end up calling a Scorpio/Capricorn to come down and defuse it. Why a Scorpio/Capricorn? For two reasons: A) because only a Scorpio/Capricorn has the nerves of steel necessary to remain calm in such a situation and B) because, using its establishment date as its date of birth, the U.S. government’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) is a Scorpio/Capricorn. (Chart) If you haven’t heard of NEST before — and very few people have — it’s a clandestine government agency comprised of approximately 600-800 scientists whose job it is to respond to nuclear threats. Scorpio and Capricorn are both very private signs so it makes sense that outside of Jeffery Richelson’s 2006 book Defusing Armageddon: Inside NEST, America’s Secret Nuclear Bomb Squad, almost nothing has been written about this real life doomsday version of the “Mission Impossible” force.

Linda Goodman links Scorpio to “the process of death itself” and Capricorn to “all matters pertaining to the dead themselves”. Both signs, she says, “have a powerful affinity for deeply felt and long-held secrets”. (Source) NEST, for instance, is prepared to handle both the “process of death” and “matters pertaining to the dead” while the very fact of its existence is a deeply held, long-term secret. NEST agents may not literally have a bit of “Satan in their souls” but if being responsible for defusing nuclear bombs doesn’t count as dancing with the devil I’m not sure what does.

About the Author: Matt Savinar is a California licensed attorney (State Bar #228957), voluntarily inactive as of June 2013. He can be reached for questions, comments, or astrological consults at his contact page.