Vrishchika

Vrishchika, the scorpion, is the eighth sign and takes the form of a scorpion in the notes to the Brihat Jataka. In the book's list of limbs for the Kalapurusha, a figure with one sign for each part of the body, this sign takes the genital organ. It holds the last quarter of Vishakha, all of Anuradha and all of Jyeshtha.

Mars is its lord, so Mars rules both the first and the eighth sign. The Moon is in its fall here at the third degree. Varahamihira counts it among the day signs, which rise head first, and Iyer's notes call it female, fixed and northern, with a gold color. It is the only sign the book classes as many-footed, and the book says that quality gives it strength when it falls on the seventh house.

The final navamsa of Vrishchika, one of the nine parts of 3 degrees 20 minutes, is one of three that the Brihat Jataka calls a Riksha sandhi, a junction between signs. Its first navamsa belongs to Cancer, and the Greek-derived name offered for the sign is Kourpi. In the 1905 translation of the Moon-in-signs chapter, Scorpio is paired with broad eyes, a broad chest, round thighs and knees, a brown complexion, and favor in a ruler's family. The calculator reads Vrishchika as sidereal longitude 210 to 240 degrees.