The image
Early morning, boots, guns broken over the arm, a dog running ahead, a boat pulled down to the reeds: the hunters are on their way. The picture is of setting out rather than arriving, the moment of shared anticipation before the day's work begins. There is comradeship in it as well as intent. The line leaves the birds themselves out of sight.
The 1925 card's wording for this degree was close to the line our table carried until 2026-10-10; the line here is our own, written after the picture Elsie Wheeler described to Marc Edmund Jones.
Meaning
Read as a symbol, the hunting party is pursuit undertaken together. A goal gives the morning its shape, and companionship gives it its pleasure. Our keyword is "Pursuit", and our keynote says purpose and companionship combine in the hunt. A placement here can be read as a liking for shared ventures, for setting out with others toward something definite, and for the skills of tracking and patience that any pursuit needs. The image also suggests that the going out is part of the reward; the day in the open matters as much as what is brought home.
Opposite this degree is Taurus 22, a white dove flying above stormy water, our "Peace above turmoil". As a reading aid, the two pictures show birds in two lights: one hunted from the marsh by people with a purpose, one flying calmly above the waves, untouched by what goes on below.
For Lynda Hill, the degree before Scorpio 22 is its Karmic Condition and the one after it is its Quest Degree. Scorpio 21, the soldier who has left his post, comes before; Scorpio 23, a small rabbit turning into a fairy, comes after. Read in order, duty abandoned gives way to a pursuit freely chosen, and that pursuit to a timid creature transformed into something light and free.
In a chart
A planet or point anywhere from Scorpio 21°00′ up to, but not including, Scorpio 22°00′ takes this degree. The rule is to count the degree a position is in from one, so a Moon at Scorpio 21°15′ reads Scorpio 22, and so does one at Scorpio 21°58′. Close to either edge, a small change in the birth time or the ephemeris moves a placement into the next image: into Scorpio 23 after Scorpio 21°59′, or back into Scorpio 21 before Scorpio 21°00′. That is why the chart shows the minute beside the degree. In EsoTerrier's Sabian chart the Sun, the Moon and the Ascendant are read first, then the Midheaven and the planets; each placement in Scorpio 22 carries the image, keyword and keynote above, with Scorpio 21, Scorpio 23 and Taurus 22 beside it.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Where the image comes from
- Recorded by Marc Edmund Jones in Balboa Park, San Diego, in 1925, as the clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler described the picture she saw for an unseen card; one of 360 done in a single day; published by Jones in 1953 sourced
- Degree before and after
- Scorpio 21 and Scorpio 23, read beside this degree after Lynda Hill, who calls them its Karmic Condition and its Quest Degree sourced
- Degree opposite
- Taurus 22, 180° away, offered as a reading aid; it is arithmetic, not a rule of Jones's our construction
- A position at Scorpio 21°00′00″
- Our engine, Hill's rule and every calculator we checked read it as Scorpio 22; the Sabian Assembly's sunrise page reads it as Scorpio 21. A computed chart practically never lands on it disputed
How the schools read it
- Marc Edmund Jones (1953)
- Gives the degree a symbol line, a commentary, a one-word keyword and a positive and a negative reading. We quote none of it.
- Dane Rudhyar (1973)
- Rewords the image and adds a keynote and a commentary of his own, numbering the degrees as Jones did. In copyright to 2068; not used, and the place he gives the degree in his own structure is not shown.
- Lynda Hill (1995, 2004)
- Uses the symbols as an oracle, with her own commentary, and reads each degree beside the one before and the one after. Her rule and her two names are cited here; her text is not used.
- The Sabian Assembly
- Jones's own study group serves the 1953 image and keyword of a degree in its oracle, without commentary, on purpose.
- EsoTerrier
- Our keynote: Purpose and companionship combine in the hunt.
Claims about it
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The image line on this page, or on any site, is Elsie Wheeler's own wording.
falseWhat the record shows: Her words survive only as Jones's pencilled notes of 1925. Jones reworded them in 1931 and 1953, Rudhyar in 1936 and 1973, and Hill in her books.
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Reading the degree before and the degree after is part of how the zodiac is built, or of Jones's method.
falseWhat the record shows: It is Lynda Hill's practice, and the two names are hers. We show the two degrees with her name.
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Dane Rudhyar's 1973 lines are the Sabian symbols and free to print.
falseWhat the record shows: They are his rewording, with his own keynotes and commentary, renewed in 2002 and in US copyright to the end of 2068. None of them is used here.
Elsewhere on EsoTerrier
- Scorpio 21: Duty neglected the degree before, which Lynda Hill reads as its background
- Scorpio 23: Transformation upward the degree after, which Hill reads as where it is heading
- Taurus 22: Peace above turmoil the degree opposite, read beside it as a reading aid
- Scorpio in the natal chart the sign these thirty degrees belong to
