The Fixed Stars

Shaula

Lambda Scorpii

The raised sting, from the Arabic ash-shaulah. It stands at about 25° Sagittarius (tropical).

The lifted sting, bright and exact, the point the whole figure was drawn to warn of.

Shaula is the brilliant tip of the Scorpion's raised tail and gives its name outright to the mansion Al Shaulah. Robson assigns it the nature of Mercury and Mars, quickness sharpened to a point, and the old books read danger and desperation in it. Tempered, it is precision under pressure, the surgeon's edge rather than the assassin's, and in the Vedic sky it belongs to Mula, the root, where cutting down to the truth is the whole work.