On Friday 23 October 2026, at 06:38 BRT (09:38 UTC), the Sun reaches ecliptic longitude 210° and, in tropical astrology, Scorpio season begins. It runs until 22 November, at 04:23 BRT (07:23 UTC), when the Sun enters Sagittarius. This post explains the ingress, the difference between sign and constellation, the origin of the scorpion figure in the sky, and how a symbolism born in the northern autumn can be read where October is spring.
The overview of the month is in October 2026 Sky.
What a solar season is
Over the year, seen from the Earth, the Sun travels along a line in the sky called the ecliptic. Western astrology divides this line into twelve equal 30° sections, the signs, counted from the March equinox. This system is called the tropical zodiac, because it is tied to the seasons rather than to the stars.
Scorpio is the section from 210° to 240°. I calculated the moment of ingress with the Skyfield library, JPL’s DE421 ephemeris and the ecliptic of date: 23 October 2026, at 06:37:56 BRT (09:37:56 UTC), which rounds to the 06:38 BRT used in the site’s October overview.
Sign and constellation are different things
The sign of Scorpio and the constellation of Scorpius (the form of the name astronomers use) take their name from the same scorpion, but today they occupy different parts of the sky. The difference comes from the precession of the equinoxes, the slow wobble of the Earth’s axis that shifts the starting point of the tropical zodiac against the stars, by about 1° every 72 years.
Using the International Astronomical Union’s official constellation boundaries, I calculated the Sun’s path at this time of year. On 31 October, at 11:40 BRT (14:40 UTC), it leaves Virgo and enters Libra. On 23 November, at 14:27 BRT (17:27 UTC), it reaches the constellation of Scorpius. On 30 November, at 02:40 BRT (05:40 UTC), it passes into Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, and only on 18 December, at 10:06 BRT (13:06 UTC), does it reach Sagittarius.
On the day of the ingress into the sign, the Sun is still among the stars of Virgo, and it spends just over six days in the constellation of Scorpius. For tropical astrology, the sign marks a phase of the solar year, linked to the seasons.
The scorpion that killed Orion
The Greeks told several versions of the myth. In one version attributed to Hesiod and preserved in the Catasterisms attributed to Eratosthenes, the hunter Orion threatens to kill every animal on Earth. Earth sends up an enormous scorpion, which stings and kills him. Zeus, at the request of Artemis and Leto, places Orion among the stars, and the scorpion too.
The Roman Hyginus, in De Astronomia (2.26), repeats the story: Orion boasts before Diana and Latona that he can kill anything the earth produces. Ovid, in the Fasti (5.537–544), changes the hunter’s role. The scorpion sent by Earth attacks Latona, and Orion steps in front of it to defend her. As a reward, Latona places him among the stars.
Aratus, in the Phaenomena (634–646), from the 3rd century BC, tells another version, in which Artemis sends the scorpion because Orion offended her on the island of Chios.
Two constellations that never meet
The myths explain something anyone can see. Scorpius and Orion lie on almost opposite sides of the sky. Aratus wrote that when the Scorpion rises in the east, Orion flees in the far west. Hyginus says the same: when Scorpius rises, Orion sets.
In São Paulo, on the night of 23 October, you can check this for yourself. Antares, the red star at the Scorpion’s heart, sets in the west at 21:20. Rigel, Orion’s foot, rises in the east at 20:55, and Betelgeuse, his shoulder, at 22:03 (Skyfield, BRT). For about 25 minutes both stars sit very low, each on its own horizon; then the scorpion disappears and the hunter climbs. In the small hours that week, Orion also brings up the radiant of the Orionids.
The Babylonian origin
The figure of the scorpion in the sky is far older than the Greeks. In Mesopotamia, the constellation was called MUL.GIR.TAB, “the Scorpion star”, and it appears in the compendium MUL.APIN. Francesca Rochberg, in The Heavenly Writing, shows how these constellations, and the path of the Moon and planets through them, formed the basis of Babylonian celestial omens, later taken up by the Greeks.
In Tablet IX of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in Andrew George’s translation, the hero reaches Mount Mashu, where the Sun rises and sets, and meets a pair of scorpion-people guarding the gate of the Sun’s road. They are so terrible that to look upon them is death.
When Libra was the claws
For a long time the Greeks had no constellation of the Scales. The stars of Libra were the Chēlai, “the Claws” of the Scorpion. Aratus speaks of the Claws, not of a balance, and Hyginus explains that the sign of Scorpio, being so large, was divided in two, and that the Romans called one of the parts Libra.
The Babylonians already called this stretch the Balance, zibānītu in Akkadian, a name that in MUL.APIN corresponds to the claws of the Scorpion rather than to the body of MUL.GIR.TAB. The Greek “Claws” and the Latin “Scales” coexist in ancient texts for centuries.
Spring here, autumn there
Much of Scorpio’s traditional symbolism, linked to death, endings and transformation, was written in the northern hemisphere, where the season falls in autumn. It is also the time of Irish Samhain and, later, of All Souls’ Day in the Christian calendar.
In Brazil, October and November are spring: longer days, more heat, many trees in flower and, across much of the country, the start of the rains.
This association with death and transformation comes from the northern calendar, not from anything observed in the sky. Anyone who wants to keep the theme in the south can ground it in the local spring: matter that decomposes and feeds the soil, and vegetation that grows back. The scorpion, as an animal, remains tied to the ground and to heat. This is offered as interpretation, not as prediction.
Questions answered
Why does the Sun enter Scorpio on 23 October and not on 23 November?
Because the tropical sign is counted from the March equinox. Owing to precession, the constellation of Scorpius only receives the Sun on 23 November 2026, at 14:27 BRT.
Does the Sun pass through Ophiuchus?
Yes, according to the constellation boundaries adopted by the International Astronomical Union and published in 1930 (Eugène Delporte). In 2026 the Sun enters Ophiuchus on 30 November, at 02:40 BRT, and stays there until 18 December. Ophiuchus is a constellation crossed by the ecliptic; it was never one of the twelve signs of the tropical zodiac, which is counted from the March equinox. The gap between signs and constellations grows with precession.
Do Orion and Scorpius never appear in the sky together?
Hardly ever. They lie on opposite sides, and in São Paulo, on the night of 23 October, Antares sets 25 minutes after Rigel rises, both skimming the horizon.
Where does the idea of Scorpio as the sign of death come from?
Largely from the sign’s place in the northern-hemisphere calendar, where the season falls in autumn. Here in the south, it falls in spring.
Mini-glossary
- Ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the sky over the year.
- Tropical zodiac: the division of the ecliptic into twelve 30° signs, counted from the March equinox.
- Precession: the slow movement of the Earth’s axis that shifts the signs relative to the constellations.
- Antares: the brightest red star in the constellation of Scorpius, at the place of the animal’s heart.
- Chēlai: “the Claws”, the Greek name for the stars that later formed the constellation of Libra.
Bibliography
ARATUS. Phaenomena. In: CALLIMACHUS; LYCOPHRON; ARATUS. Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron: Alexandra. Aratus: Phaenomena. Trans. A. W. Mair and G. R. Mair. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921. (Loeb Classical Library, 129).
GEORGE, Andrew (trans.). The Epic of Gilgamesh. London: Penguin, 1999.
HARD, Robin (trans.). Constellation Myths: With Aratus’s Phaenomena. Eratosthenes and Hyginus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. (Oxford World’s Classics).
OVID. Fasti. Translated by James G. Frazer. 2nd ed., revised by G. P. Goold. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. (Loeb Classical Library, 253).
RHODES, Brandon. Skyfield: elegant astronomy for Python. Available at: https://rhodesmill.org/skyfield/. DE421 ephemeris, NASA/JPL.
ROCHBERG, Francesca. The Heavenly Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.