Jupiter in Scorpio is the person who everyone you know has a crush on. I’m not talking about a small crush either. I’m talking about a full blown, spiraling crush. They just have these deep, soulful eyes and this mysterious vibe. No one can figure them out. Everyone wants to figure them out.

I think that Jupiter in Scorpio is one of the weirdest placements. Whenever a planet goes into the twelfth house sign from its home, the planet gets a little weird. In Jupiter’s case, Jupiter is at home in Sagittarius. Jupiter in Scorpio is twelve places from its own home.

Do you know what Jupiter really likes? It likes hot air. It likes to gas people up. Jupiter likes to talk, to praise, and even to preach. Does Scorpio like to talk? No—Scorpio is one of the zodiac’s quietest signs. Scorpio doesn’t like to explain itself. It doesn’t like to tell you what its plans are, what it is thinking, or where it has been. In fact, Scorpio likes to hide almost anything.

So, what happens when the astrological planet responsible for promotion goes into the zodiac’s quietest sign?

We say that Jupiter is the planet that seeks freedom. Scorpio loves self control. We call Jupiter the planet of abundance. Scorpios will sporadically quit addictions or even fast just to prove to themselves that they have control over their desires. We say that Jupiter is the planet of self promotion and power. Scorpio is the sign that is most distrustful of power.

When a Jupiter in Scorpio person is really good at something, they almost never self promote. They don’t like to talk about what they are good at. They believe that the evidence of their talent will speak for them and they’re right a lot of the time. You can’t really look away from a Jupiter in Scorpio. They’re the kind of person people become infatuated with.

Cult leaders with Jupiter in Scorpio do exist—Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Justin Bieber. Julian Assange has Jupiter in Scorpio and he definitely has a certain cult following. Al Capone the infamous mobster had Jupiter in Scorpio. So does Humphery Bogart and Amy Lee. Humphrey Bogart has this secretive charm. Amy Lee, the singer of Evanescence, still has an irresistible cultish charisma.

I saw Justin Bieber once. I was working in a phone store near Madison Ave at the time. We heard the screaming before we saw it. A high pitched tenor erupted across the streets, sending terror to all who heard the cry. My coworkers and I freaked out because we actually thought that there had been a mass shooting. We locked the doors and hid behind the counters. Then, a swarm of teenaged girls appeared right in the middle of Manhattan traffic. A black SUV moved amidst the swarm ever so slowly. Inside that SUV I saw a tiny little head—Justin Bieber with his iconic haircut.

The whole store sighed in relief. No mass shooting was in sight. Just a spontaneous fan event.

That’s the power of Jupiter in Scorpio. Let’s explore its personal philosophy.

I don’t think that Jupiter in Scorpio wants personal power. I think that it’s deeply afraid of personal power. In fact, if you watch Jupiter in Scorpio, you’ll notice that it tends to go very quiet for long stretches of time especially after moments of high visibility. Evanescence had a huge moment and then it was like they stopped promoting. Justin Bieber went quiet after a while almost as though he were overwhelmed by his own cult following. Even though Bieber was very popular, he was actually belittled for his popularity. If you weren’t a Belieber, then you didn’t really get the Justin Bieber craze.

Jupiter in Scorpio likes to cultivate a set of highly selective niche interests. It doesn’t trust the mainstream. Why? Because it likes intimate power—it likes inside jokes and smart relationships and creating a sense of people who are in the know.

To really understand how Jupiter in Scorpio thinks, I think you have to read The Defense by Vladimir Nabakov. Nabakov was born with Jupiter in Scorpio. The Defense was his third novel.

The Defense is about a withdrawn and misunderstood boy who learns how to play chess through a mentor. As the boy improves, he becomes better and better and achieves the status of a grandmaster. However, he becomes completely obsessed with the game, sees life as a series of chess moves, and eventually loses his sanity. While he was motivated by his mentor’s praises as a child, the adult chess player is eventually discarded by that same mentor because he can no longer market him as a child prodigy.

To say that The Defense is a portrayal of the abuse of power is a bit too simplistic. The Defense gets into the chess player’s head. It’s about his own need for familiarity and his need for recklessness. The chess player can’t live without predictable patterns but he also can’t live without inventing new moves. He wants the admiration of his mentor and he wants love from his parents but, even after he marries a loving wife as an adult, nothing can beat the safe but obsessional intimacy of chess. His wife clearly cares for him and tries to replace chess with art and other activities but chess has become more than a game to our chess player. Chess has become an entire set of emotional defense maneuvers.

I think that Joseph Heller’s Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man also gives us some insight into Jupiter in Scorpio. Joseph Heller was a Jupiter in Scorpio person. His last book is a self satire about how his belief in himself as a writer fell apart after Catch-22 became popular.

Jupiter in Scorpio can be suspicious—and perhaps rightfully so. Sometimes, mentors want to use you. Sometimes, lovers don’t really understand you. Sometimes, parents want to exploit you. Sometimes, a big fan following ends up debasing you.

Jupiter in Scorpio is rightfully guarded against being used. It doesn’t want to be used. It knows what it’s like to be used and it refuses to be in that position ever again.

Jupiter is the party animal. It’s the fun uncle who likes to go out and make everyone laugh. Scorpio is the sign where Jupiter goes a bit weird. Scorpio is the fall of the Moon—Scorpios will hide even their own body. When Jupiter goes into Scorpio, it doesn’t always trust the party. It doesn’t trust what everyone else likes. It has strong defenses. If the Jupiter in Scorpio person gets too popular, they can start to psyche themselves out.

This is the contradiction with Jupiter in Scorpio—it hides its own brilliance but also develops it almost obsessively. It allows others to observe their brilliance, never boasting over themselves. By doing that, Jupiter in Scorpio can get themselves in a situation where too many people are trying to speak for them.

Justin Bieber is a Jupiter in Scorpio. His manager has a lot of power over him. Ronald Reagan was a Jupiter in Scorpio. He was an actor playing the role of president. Many people spoke through him. Amy Lee is a Jupiter in Scorpio. People know Evanescence not as her project but Ben Moody’s.

Jupiter in Scorpio is a really fascinating placement. Jupiter is basically the planet of popular appeal. Because people with Jupiter in Scorpio have this mysterious but alluring pull, a lot of people develop intense crushes on them. However, I’ve noticed that many Jupiter in Scorpios are often reluctant to own their own charisma and likeability. They shy away from it. They create elaborate defenses sometimes (not all the time). All of this usually makes them seem even more mysteriously cool from the outside.

What is happening in the interior mind of the brooding and mysterious Jupiter in Scorpio? Maybe a chess game.