Scorpio season comes at exactly the right time of year for its symbolism. Halloween opens the cupboards and lets everything respectable society normally keeps tucked away come wandering through the streets: witches, ghosts, skeletons, webs, spiders, graveyards, monsters, masks, darkness, death. Even fear is decorative for a few nights. We hang skulls from the front door and place plastic corpses in the garden, which is a wonderfully human way of saying – if death insists on existing, we may as well give it lighting. This sign belongs symbolically to the part of life dealing with what is hidden, feared, taboo, intimate, psychologically charged, or irreversible. Death, sexuality, grief, jealousy, obsession, betrayal, power, trauma, inheritance, secrecy, emotional merging, and regeneration. And yet Scorpio season isn’t visually bleak. In the Northern Hemisphere, nature is withdrawing, decaying, and preparing for winter, but it does so in stunning color. Leaves turn copper, crimson, amber, rust, wine, gold. The landscape is dying beautifully.
Scorpio symbolism holds a lot of emotional richness. Endings are never empty. Things are concentrated at the point of loss. We notice the beauty of something once we know it will no longer remain. Autumn color moves us partly as it is temporary. If the trees stayed permanently orange and gold, we would just take it as normal. Impermanence intensifies perception.
This sign is threatening to people who prefer experience to be simpler. But the Scorpion has an instinct for the second layer. The penetrating quality of the sign can seem suspicious, intense, secretive, or intimidating, but much of the power comes from stillness rather than aggression. Scorpio is a fixed water sign, and fixed water is an interesting image. Water is usually imagined as movement, but this water is held deep. A lake at night. A well. Underground water. Something motionless with enormous depth beneath it. Stillness makes people uneasy. We often rely on visible reactions to understand where they stand. We want the response. When someone just watches, listens, and reveals very little, projection rushes in to fill the silence.
The person who is still while everyone else is reactive often appears extremely powerful as they aren’t giving away their center. Of course, this composure has a shadow. Stillness can be withholding. The Scorpionic instinct may say nothing. Observe. Remember. Survive it privately. There is pride in being the person nobody sees bleed. But pride is expensive. Because what cannot be expressed outwardly often turns inward. When vulnerability is too dangerous to expose, the sting is self-directed. We would rather hurt ourselves than admit someone else has hurt us. We would let a resentment take over rather than confess how much we cared.
Scorpio season suits the time of year when the visible world begins stripping itself down. Leaves fall. Branches appear. What was concealed by summer abundance is now exposed. Some things have completed their cycle. The world in autumn looks as if it is dying, yet beneath the surface enormous preparation is taking place. Roots remain alive. Seeds wait. Nothing looks optimistic from above ground. Nature has never been especially concerned with appearances. The Scorpion would approve. And here is a misunderstanding about this sign: all this depth just makes it permanently grim. But people who spend enough time around difficult realities often develop a wicked sense of humor. Scorpionic humor is dark, irreverent, sarcastic, sometimes completely inappropriate, and often extremely perceptive. It comes from knowing – life contains death, sex, jealousy, heartbreak, humiliation, and even curse words.
In celebration of the Halloween season, I’ve made a series of witchy comic strips steeped in dark humor and a slight sense of wrongness. Some of them have an odd, dead-eyed look, and now and then a limb hasn’t come out quite properly, or a character seems to have collected more fingers than nature ever intended. But honestly, it is more appropriate. Halloween is the one time of year when things are allowed to look a little haunted, a little crooked, a little bit off. What might seem like a mistake at any other time can pass here as part of the charm. The comics themselves have been touched by something mischievous and otherworldly.
Here are some fun, dark, and witty comic strips featuring witches. Expect sarcastic spells, chaotic curses, dark jokes, and the occasional swear word!
Because who says witches have to be nice? 🖤🧹
⚠️ WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE ⚠️
Some of my comic strips contain swearing, rude language, and occasional offensive jokes. These comics may not be suitable for younger readers or people who are easily offended.
Reader discretion is advised.
