Aries: independence + integration

We begin the zodiacal cycle with the Sun transiting across the constellation of Aries. This marks the zodiacal new year, the beginning of Spring in the northern hemisphere, and the Spring equinox. It is a time of renewal, of life returning to a sleeping environment.

The words of Aries are “I AM.” This archetype speaks to individuality while encapsulating the oneness of the collective. At first glance Aries may appear selfish or self-interested but in it’s most empowered expression, the individuality is wholly integrated into the collective One. The baby of the zodiac is much like human baby who may present like a tiny tyrant but who have not yet developed a distinction between themselves and others. Their demands are not tyrannical, but an assertion of willful desire for collective needs to be met. Like the Warrior who may be seen as bold, brash, and ego driven, empowered Aries offers these qualities to the collective with the wisdom and purpose of selfless devotion to the common good.

The lessons of Aries are of independence and integration, assertion of will, ambition, leadership, and pioneering or initiating action. Aries is called to go first, to bleed first for the cause, to start sh*t. Without a leader, or at least someone willing to go first, we are stagnant and stuck in chaos without a beginning or an end. The bravery, independence, and audacity of this archetype teaches us the value of the individual in service to the collective.

While independence is one side of the spectrum navigated by the archetype of Aries, the other is integration. As shown in the etymology of the word, integration embodies oneness, wholeness, completeness. Empowered independence is not about isolation or detachment from the collective, it is the embodiment of leadership that is conscious of and devoted to the community it leads. Integration is not the loss of individuality to the group, but the awareness of unity and wholeness in the self.

Selfishness is the art of Aries. To articulate need and desire, is what this archetype teaches us. While we cannot guarantee receipt of our needs and desires, we are nearly promised never to receive them without asking. We may risk disappointment or the vulnerability of exposing our will, but this act of vulnerability is the price we pay for a chance to have our needs and desires met.

In American culture, independence is a highly glorified quality. From a therapeutic perspective however, this privileging of independence can present some concerning issues. While it is often Libra, the opposite sign from Aries, that is associated with codependency, the other side of the codependent coin is hyper-independence. This is the deluded belief that an individual can ‘do it all alone.’ The behavior that insists on never sharing it’s needs for fear of exposing the need to receive support or worse, asking and being rejected. Not only does absolutely nothing occur in a vacuum on our planet, but humans are a pack animal, communally oriented and requiring of family, a village, to achieve anything.

While leadership is an honorable quality, it is nothing without a community to lead. The same is true for the archetype of Aries; independence is noble but without a sense of integration, connection to the collective, it is isolated and adrift without purpose.

Capricorn: Use and Conservation

The archetype of Capricorn exists on a spectrum of use and conservation. It speaks to the governance of resource and intentional management of time, space, and goods. The archetypal opposites that depict the spectrum of Capricorn, the modern capitalist banker, willing to cultivate capital wealth based on a precarious and unsustainable value system at the expense of the environment and future generations on the one hand; and the purposeful indigenous ancestors who planted seeds generations ago, knowing they were creating sustainable wealth for the future based on time tested wisdom that honors the sacred land on the other. The legacy is what matters to ambitious Capricorn, and the lessons of this cool, boundaried, and powerful archetype are focused on whether it’s all worth in the end.

When there’s nothing left but your name, what will it mean?

Capricorn is the archetypal embodiment of economics. The root of the word economy leads us to the original meaning that signifies management of the home or clan. This is where the practical nature of Capricorn shines bright; a great deal of responsibility and pragmatism must go into maintaining the stability of the home, its structure and resources, over time. This means a strong understanding of what is valuable, what is “worth it” must be cultivated to make sustainable choices. It means understanding the needs of the collective and maintaining enough distance to make hard choices that are required of a leader. It means holding space for all of the emotional complexities of the home and supporting healthy boundaries that are the foundation of healthy relationships.

Capricorn is a cardinal sign that is oriented toward initiation of action and the competitive desire to achieve. It is also an Earth sign, making it materially and tangibly inspired and motivated. The Earth, moved by the cardinal modality initiates purpose and meaningful action toward efforts that will last. Capricorn creates structural integrity out of generational wisdom and ancestral tradition to forge a purposeful foundation stable enough to hold the future.

The constellation of the Sea Goat has a number of origins including the goat nymph that raised Zeus in hiding to protect him from his father. Amalthea, the goat nymph was rewarded for her service to Zeus’ Mother, Rhea by being put into the sky for eternity. Another Greek myth tells the story of Pan, Amalthea’s brother, half man and half goat who was turned into a fish so he might survive the waters and escape the rage of Typhon. Some myths go farther back to Babylonian times when the God Ea climbed out of the rivers he ruled in a cape of fish skin. No matter the story, there is a strong connection to Saturnalian as the ancient holiday of debauchery, gluttony, and sexual abandon fell during Capricorn season and celebrates the same God (Saturn) that rules the sign of the Sea Goat.

The ruling planet of Capricorn is Saturn which is the embodiment of time, structure, discipline, authority, boundaries, and maturity. Saturn reinforces the systematic techniques of the intentional steps used to create a lasting of Capricorn. The Saturn cycle marks our path to maturity and responsibility, taking a full 29 years to complete. Saturn is the slowest moving planet of all that can be seen by the naked eye and is also therefore the last planet that can be seen without technological support.

In our body, Capricorn rules the shins and all bones, our joints, skeletal system, and our teeth. The hardest parts of us that provide structure and perhaps remind us of the passage of time the with particular persistence.

Capricorn speaks from purpose.

The etymology of purpose describes the tension between action and intention that Capricorn must learn to articulate and embody. The urge to take action and the need to understand who, what, where, when, why, what for of it all, are at odds. As pro/por indicate the forward action of cardinality, the pauein/pausis/pausa/pausare/poser indicate the need to hold back, take pause, to place before losing track of the goal or target.

Knowing when to end calculations and take action is a lesson of Capricorn. Understanding which actions are worth taking and which costs cannot be avoided is a lesson of Capricorn. Coming to terms with ends justifying the means is a lesson of Capricorn. Balancing the urge to move into the future and hold on to valuable traditions of the past is a lesson of Capricorn.

Boundaries

The archetype of Capricorn teaches through boundaries. It can be challenging to calculate our boundaries and be discerning when it comes to how and when we spend our resources. Often we are taught lessons of boundaries by failing to hold them or by setting such impossible boundaries we must choose not to enforce them. We may learn what too much looks like by missing the indication we have gone too far by hitting our limit and facing harsh consequences. We may learn what not enough looks like my allowing ourselves to be overworked and exploited only to hit a wall of burnout too taxing to ignore. Whatever the context, we learn lessons of boundaries and limitations through the sign of Capricorn and its Ruler Saturn.

The planet Saturn is the symbol of boundaries and demonstrates as much through the structure of the planet with its rings of spinning rocks hurtling through space in an exceptionally organized format. As individuals we must learn to hold onto our own structure to protect us from being forced to conform to a shape that is inauthentic to our systems and values. Boundaries are the structure that support engagement; they are the foundation of any healthy relationship as they allow relating while upholding enough structure that all parties are able to maintain their own authenticity. By developing healthy boundaries, we conserve our own and other’s values and resources and we maintain sovereignty.

Remember:

Boundaries are the distance I can love you and me simultaneously.

We need not treat our boundaries like a series of brick walls that surround us to keep everything out. Instead, we can treat them more like a lovely home with fine doors and windows with secure latches, that is designed to invite folks in when the time and resources allow and keep out whatever or whomever depletes our resources.

Capricorn Keywords

Empowered: ambitious, paternal, pragmatic, developmental, structural, lessons of sustainability and legacy

Disempowered: elitist, high and mighty, unfeeling, singleminded, power-hungry, dissociated

Scorpio: surrender + control

The archetype of Scorpio exists on a spectrum of surrender and control. By surrendering to what cannot be controlled, by choosing power over force, by demonstrating the ability to control only the self, Scorpio can access an empowered expression of self-actualization. When we refuse to engage in a power struggle that was never ours to control in the first place, we liberate ourselves, achieving freedom from the trap of control issues that leave us disempowered and exhausted.

Scorpio manages the realms of secrets, power, trauma, sexuality, and the hidden depths. One of the most powerful commitments any of us can make is one of trust in the self and the divine, ultimately one in same.

When we swallow poison, the harm caused by another, it becomes an opportunity to heal, to tend to our wound, and process the vulnerability, the pain, the betrayal. When we offer ourselves the grace, the antidote to our wound, we make space for the healing cycle to begin. If instead, we hold on to the trauma, turning it over and over, clutching it close as a key part of our identity, we are promised greater suffering. Scorpio is a mark of the healer and in our astrological charts, it speaks to where we must heal old ancestral wounds and unearth secrets of trauma and betrayal.

Scorpio is a water sign in the fixed mode. This means that while it has all the emotional, intuitive, and liquid qualities of water, the fixed mode gives it the solid, contained, and rigid textures of the fixed mode. This can make the Scorpio uniquely capable of holding emotional truth and operating with intuitive discernment. By the same token, if we consider what it means for water to be contained and rigid, we could describe it as a block of ice or a well.

To explore the well metaphor, what happens when poison lands in a well?

The entire well is poisoned. The walls hold the water, now tainted by pain and wounding and the only solution is to find an antidote to the poison.

By holding onto the pain, the trauma of betrayal, and treachery, we keep the poisoned water of the well inside. But when we finally offer ourselves forgiveness, we become the antidote to our own suffering. Often times when we experience a brutal loss or trauma, it is not an apology or amends from the offending party that is the solution to our pain, but the forgiveness and grace we offer ourselves for not being able to protect ourselves, for not maintaining control when we so wish we could have, that will heal our wound. If we can return to ourselves, commit to trusting ourselves to craft the antidote that we need, we can transform our reality and heal.

As a master of transformation and transmutation, the Scorpio archetype is not only embodied and depicted by the form of the Scorpion but by two other incarnations.

The Scorpion

The scorpion is reactive, aggressive, sharp, and biting. It can express possessiveness, it keeps secrets, and refuses to admit emotional vulnerability. The scorpion is prone to jealousy and holds grudges, never letting go of the past, choosing instead to hold resentment and anger. In this way the scorpion can poison itself by refusing to heal from wounds it alone must tend to.

The Eagle

The eagle has achieved more liberty and perspective, no longer crawling on the earth or drinking its own poison. The eagle takes an elevated approach though still deeply judgemental and razor-sharp in its approach. The awareness and presence of the eagle is powerful and even lethal but it is still deeply self-protective and unwilling to find grace in vulnerability.

The Phoenix

Finally, the phoenix embodies the transformation of compassion for the self and the healing balm it can create. By accessing the antidote to the poison from traumas beyond its control, the phoenix can find alchemical solutions to powerlessness by asserting the power that resides within. Surrendering to what cannot be controlled and choosing to control the only entity within our control, ourselves, offers the phoenix a chance to rise from the ashes, stronger than ever before. All this can be achieved by trusting the self and relinquishing the urge to control what is beyond our power.

The magick of Scorpio is to transcend and transform through the discipline of trust. When we trust ourselves to be present and mindful through the process of healing, when we forgive ourselves for being wounded and vulnerable, we access the blessing of transformational liberation.

Scorpio speaks from desire.

As shown in the etymology of the word desire, there is something greater than wanting in the expression of desire. It is not just lust or covetousness, it is an inspiration of longing from beyond, from a heavenly body, one that is set upon a soul with celestial significance. It is a sacred wanting, the expression of desire and it can lead us to purpose.

To express desire is to be vulnerable in longing. It acknowledges a force external to our own power, one that moves us to action and inspires feeling. For Scorpio to truly embody its power, it must acknowledge its vulnerability and learn to trust in what it can control and honor what it must surrender to. Empowerment is not the absence of vulnerability but the awareness of desire, the willingness to be inspired, and the compassion to offer healing and forgiveness.

Libra: The Divine Lessons of balance

How do we describe Libra?

The divine lessons of Libra invite us to collaborate and cooperate. The trick is to avoid conjoining, losing the tension that creates the limitations required for creative success. In any good collaboration, there is true divinity in asserting individuality as much as making room for commonality. Harmony is not made beautiful simply by similarity, but through the divine tension between alignment and variance. The best collaborations allow both voices to be heard, both messages to be sent and received, both creators to be challenged, inspired, and admired in connection to a whole that is greater than the sum of either of its parts.

Libra is a love scholar that teaches us through the spectrum of individuation and cooperation. She is the most magickal when she can embody mutuality and independence in one breath.

Libra teaches us lessons of balance.

Very often we learn through the inverse; we may be taught to be gentle through experiences with roughness, we may be taught generosity through selfishness, and we may learn to value connection through lessons of isolation. Libra lessons often come from moving too far in one direction only to have the pendulum return so quickly it’s momentum carries it again, too far in the other direction.

I often witness and experience the lessons of codependency and interdependence in this same swing of the pendulum or struggle to balance scales, to add a new metaphor. For those who were challenged with parentification, who became care takers far too young, the urge to take care is now likely just as strong and the urge to reject care for ourselves. Then, as awareness and healing repair the wound, both the urgency around caring for other and the readiness to be cared for become easier, more available, and less likely to generate activation and reactivity. As things become even more balanced in the healing process, the willingness to allow others to suffer the consequences of their actions begins to expand, and new cycles in the spiral that is healing and balancing are discovered.

What does Libra look like?

She is a gallery, refined, thoughtful, full of tasteful art and reflections of aesthetic symmetry and creativity of the highest value. She is the mark of civilization, of things made legible, clarified, defined and named beautiful for their purity.

What does Libra feel like?

She is most empowered with clear and healthy boundaries. She is most exalted with structure, discipline, limitations, and a clear ethical code. She is dignified in devotion to diplomacy, cooperation, and collaboration. She if soft to the touch but cool and balanced by her careful restraint. Libra feels like the satisfaction of justice.

What does Libra taste like?

She is mild, likeable, even, and appealing. She is a well-balanced wine, refined with time. She is a perfectly ripe fruit at the balance of the equinox.

What does Libra smell like?

If Libra were a perfume she would be gentle, soothing but heady. She would be a scent that is hard to forget but never challenging. She would be clean, pure, and decisively ripe without ever becoming overpowering or unfairly assertive.

The Mythology Connected to the Libra Constellation

The constellation of Libra is considered to be the Titan Goddess Themis who was sister to Nemesis and second wife to Zeus. She is the goddess of justice, legislation, divine law, and harmony with nature. She carries a sword to cut the truth from the lies, and her scales are the symbol of the justice she upholds. Themis is the Goddess of peacemaking, balance, seeing other’s point of view, along with divine awareness, and social graces. If disregarded, it is her sister, Nemesis, who punishes. Nemesis is the consequence of failure to regard Themis and her Libra qualities.

This narrative again conjures the awareness of collaboration and balance. The Libra Titan herself does not operate alone, but she is still quite individual. She is interdependent, offering her magick in divine cooperation with her sister.

The same could be said of her relationship to Zeus. Through this collaboration she birthed the three Horai and the three Morai. While the Horai governed the measure of time, the orderliness of divine law, the Morai determined the path of fate, the purpose and the process of divine law. Even her offspring cooperate to create a sense of order, of fairness, and of divine balance.

Astrology without Causation

Coincidence and coincide…

go ahead and say each one *out loud*

When we say coincidence, it sounds like it’s something that happened by accident. But when we say things coincide the magick of the synchronicity seems more obvious, even undeniable.

Then when we look at the etymology, we can see that the word was born of an expression of agreement. The root of coincidence speaks to multiple entities occupying the same space and affirming aligned messaging. Coincidence is feeling less and less like a fluke and more and more like a significant agreement between distinct entities.

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I feel a little embarrassed when people say that a particular planet is on their side, or that they are receiving something special from a certain celestial body. What does resonate for me, however, is the thought of praying to a particular deity. As someone with Sagittarius rising, I am ruled by Jupiter, and I offer my life and devotions to Zeus. I believe that I receive support through his magick, not because he is my ruler but because I offer my awareness and intention to him and his archetypal presence. Of course, I offer my attention to Jupiter/Zeus because he is my ruler but as someone who lives with high hopes and low expectations, I intentionally reject the practice of centering myself and humans in the cosmic web.

…but that’s a whole other can of worms…

Though I am discomforted by, even afraid of determinism, astrology demands we consider and contend with the possibility that all things are predetermined. I resist this; my bias urges me to seek more evidence so that we might yet have access to free will.

The option I prefer to explore suggests that all things happen within the parameters of the context, meaning the space-time must be correct for a particular thing to occur.

Psychological and behavioral observations and studies suggest that the context of our behavior is more predictive of outcomes than who we identify as. While I believe most of us would like to think we act as we do because of who we are, our behavior is far more likely to be defined by what is within our contextual capacity. We cannot fly a plane to Lagos if we do not have a plane, do not know how to fly one, and don’t know the coordinates to Lagos.

Simply put, we do what we do based on where and when we are more than who we are.

Another example, in a train station, we are able to board a train and travel, it is the setting, the space, the context, that predicts and defines our behavior. Without the train station and train, there is no access to travel, the behaviors we enact in a train station are specific to that space, that environment. We are not simply traveling because we identify as travelers but because we are in the space that permits and determines our capacity to travel.

Just as the space is more predictive of behavior than the person enacting the behavior, it seems that the position of the stars, the celestial bodies, and the ecliptic are determined by space. The planets also must contend with the parameters of space. They then, in turn, provide data points that speak to the context of human existence and experience. This brings us to the archetypal signification of the planets and how that information can be used to contextualize ourselves within our own cultural mythologies.

Let’s use a real astrological example:

It feels far less likely that Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius is causing a shift in the collective relationship to technology but instead that it is a symbol of the inevitable shift that occurs on a technological level when the collective has reached this particular context/space-time.

The technologies available at the particular era of the Pluto ingress into Aquarius are more data points that contextualize our behavior. The environment of the current era permits women to behave in ways they were not permitted to when Pluto was in Leo in the 1940s and 50s. Pluto, with its almost 250-year cycle, represents ancestral lineages and power, because those archetypal values take significant time to manifest this is the appropriate planet to symbolize heritage, power, and spiritual influence. Astrologers use Pluto to mark generations because it takes between 12 and 24 years for the planet to move through each sign. The last time Pluto made this ingress into Aquarius was April of 1777…chew on that for a moment… the context of Pluto speaks to the historical duration of empires.

It feels to me that the spinning and expanding of the galaxies, of the universe, was always going to end up with Pluto ingressing into Aquarius during 1532, 1777, and 2023 (just to name the 3 most recent times). This is promised and this is where things get particularly deterministic.

Let’s use another real astrological example:

The conjunction of Pluto on my partner’s 0° Aquarius sun was always going to happen, from the moment he was born, even before that I suppose. This transit is not a coincidence, it was always going to coincide with the end of his Saturn return, with his 30th year, with all the elements that exist at this moment in the space-time that is his context. The shape of the space-time that he acts within. Fortunately, he was not born when Pluto was in Leo, he has not been bound by the context of the late 1930s to late 1950s, forced to contend with the context of that era as a Black man. The context of the current space-time has completely different implications and determinations of what behaviors and technologies he now has access to.

To think that Pluto is offering him something special feels dangerously close to the spiritual bypassing of #luckygirl and individualistic manifestation. I have little patience for it. However, I do believe that my husband’s experience through this transit will be well described by the same vocabulary that is inspired by a Pluto conjunction with a natal Sun. It is likely to be transformative, powerful, intense, and may have much to do with his identity and ego.

I do not make predictions because I reject any opportunity to interrupt another person's self-actualization and self-determination.

The transits are always going to keep transiting and we now live in a context with the benefit of generations of archetypal language to describe feelings and experiences that coincide with these transits. To say that we are being hurt by a planet or healed seems indulgent and self-centered in a way I cannot abide. What I am curious about is how context impacts each of us collectively and as individuals. Our experience is coinciding with the planet's position and vice versa but this does not mean it must be a causal relationship. What does appear to be a causal relationship is the space-time and available behaviors. I cannot write these ideas on my computer except in this space-time where a personal computer exists, when I have the resources to access my computer, when I have the available time to ponder these ideas…

At birth, we are all initiated into our unique yet collectively felt contexts. Our contexts are predictive of our behaviors, more so than our sense of self despite our deepest desires to access free will.

The fact of the matter is, we cannot board a train when there is no station, nor train to board. We must live in a time of trains, enter the station with enough time to board the train and have the capacity to do so. Natal charts are a way to describe and explore the unique contexts that we act within. That our lives demonstrate archetypally synchronized patterns with the celestial bodies has more to do with the contextualization of our space-time than the causation.

The Aquarius Archetype: Understanding The Water Bearer

Why is Aquarius the water bearer but an air sign?

Does understanding this peculiarity illuminate how we understand the Aquarian archetype? Let’s find out.

I was pondering this matter in preparation for Aquarius season and in honor of my husband who is born right at the very beginning of Aquarius season. Suddenly something clicked when I considered Mark Solms’ latest discoveries in neuropsychology. I highly recommend watching the linked video but the abridged version is, neuroscience has long considered the cerebral cortex to be the seat of our consciousness, however, new evidence suggests it is the brain stem, the emotional and primal locus in our brain, that is the seat of our consciousness.

It is not, as Descartes would have us believe “I think therefore I am.” But instead, it is I feel therefore I am.

Consciousness and what it is, where it is, and how we define it, is a great debate, one that has been discussed since the forums of ancient times.

Since modern science has long considered consciousness to reside in the cerebral cortex, the distinctly human part of the brain, it could be argued that this line of thinking has contributed to the human propensity for exceptionalism and even elitism. This line of thinking has been used to perpetuate eugenics and other racist theories along with distancing human beings from the rest of the animal species that occupy our Earthly habitats. In my undergraduate thesis, I posit that it is in part this exceptionalism and the language that has developed around this construct that has cost especially white folks, particularly those in America, their sustainable relationship with the environment. In an effort to distinguish white folks and whiteness from the Other and from animals, religious and political voices promoted exceptionalism and distinction from the Earth and the natural world. Today it has proven to be a convoluted challenge for white folks and many Americans to take responsibility for their impact on the environment and practices of sustainability.

In this vain, I often ask, how conscientious is the animal that destroys its own habitat?

So what if we consider Solms’ findings? What if we assume his discovery of consciousness as residing in the brain stem is correct? First, we must recognize that many many other species share this part of the brain, and next, we must consider the nature of the impulses that emanate from our brain stem. It is an emotional, instinctive core, and dare I say, an intuitive center. Suddenly it is not our intellectualism that proves our consciousness but our emotionality, our intuitive nature that confirms our consciousness. “Raw feelings are the fundamental form of consciousness,” says Solms, later explaining that this is a survival tactic. The ability to feel allows us to react appropriately to danger. If we were unable to feel suffocation, we would fail to at least attempt to remove ourselves from a burning building, for example. We do not intentionally process the notion that we are gasping for air, we feel the urgency and need to escape danger and return to the kind of breathing that requires none of our attention.

Consciousness is often associated with presence and awareness. With this and Solms’ findings in mind, I agree that feelings and our emotional experiences are our most conscious states.

It is a presence described by our responsiveness to the current moment.

Now let’s consider the elements of water and air along with their archetypes. Water represents an emotional, intuitive, and feeling archetype. Air is a cognitive, intellectual, and communicative archetype. Aquarius is an air sign, and the zodiac that is archetypally associated with systems of ideas, higher consciousness, and collective communications. For Aquarius to be a water bearer but an air sign, is, as we have established, somewhat curious if not mystifying.

So what if we consider Aquarius the water bearer, the archetype of intellectual innovation, systemic psychology, and collective understanding, the structure by which consciousness, Solms’ emotionally defined consciousness, can be contained? Without a vessel, consciousness is another ingredient in the primordial soup. But with the vessel of the Aquarian, the emotional consciousness can be carried, contained, and sustained. It is not at all that the Aquarian is an emotional archetype but instead that it is the one that offers a container for emotionality, thus giving space and form to our collective consciousness.

As a symbol of consciousness, of communal understanding, and mass communication, Aquarius forms the vessel, to bear the water of emotions, of consciousness.

Higher Power + Natal Charts

A professor of genetics once taught me that evolution does not behave linearly.

That is to say, while there is something to the concept of survival of the fittest, genetic mutations or the causes and effects within a sequence of genes are not exclusively ruled by this concept of survival of the fittest. Instead, there is a fifty percent chance that the fittest or ‘more favorable’ genetic outcome occurs and a fifty percent chance the outcome is random, something totally unexpected or even expected and feared. So it’s just as likely all goes according to a positivist evolutionary trajectory and as it is something beyond our understanding occurs, something seemingly random. This served to completely challenge my understanding of the matrix and all her processes. While I had once felt a type of certainty that there was a direction to it all, “an arc to the moral universe [... one that] bends toward justice” as Mart Luther King Jr. said, I was now forced to move my conceptualization of the Universe into a new dimension. I would later find it was not just a new dimension but more dimensions, that must be contended with in order to gain a satisfactory perspective on whatever the Universe is and what we’re all doing here. 

I don’t claim to have all the answers by any means. However, I have a take that allows me a sense of peace I have never accessed before.

In a small college dorm room, several hours into a psychedelic trip and sprawling on any surface that could support our languid and extraterrestrial bodies, I once asked a friend what his definition of God was. He answered more succinctly than I could have ever anticipated.

“God is omnipotent and omniscient.”

…I’ve been chewing on this premium definition ever since. 

If God is omnipotent and omniscient which I feel is the most all-encompassing definition of God and therefore the most appealing and accessible definition of god I have ever found… then God cannot be an entity but instead a process. The only way, at least according to my lil human mind, God could know everything and be everything is for God to be happening over time. Of course, time is one of those mystifying constructs that proves increasingly difficult to understand; linear or otherwise, from our human perspective, time certainly appears to be a process, to have a trajectory, to have some version of a direction even if that is in a multidimensional weblike context. God cannot be omnipotent and omniscient in a static or singular way, it must span time as well, stretching across all dimensions.

The God of the Hebrew Bible (the oldest definition of God I have a relationship with) is in everything, is of everything, and created all. This God is the creator of everything at the same time it is everything. We (Jews) owe our gratitude, awe, and respect to everything, from the smallest stone to the greatest mountain range, from the most brilliant invention to the most humble craft, because it is all God. These two definitions fit quite nicely together, in order for this God to be both omnipotent and omniscient, we must all be God, everything must be God. In fact, in order for God to know everything and be everything, we all must live out our experiences, embody our realities, and be ourselves. All entities from events to animal bodies, constructs to political movements, geological periods to ideas and equations, are God.

It was through this line of thinking that I came to consider natal charts as the most divine filing system, keeping track of every iteration of God. Everything, from a question to an entity, to an event, can have an astrological chart cast for it. Every entity, animal, mineral, and temporal, has a chart that marks its identity as well as trajectory. It’s like a map to that iteration of God; it is the responsibility of that entity to embody those lessons, that vantage point, those coordinates, characteristics, and context. Each natal chart is a depiction of a particular time and space in the galaxy that is interpreted through the multicultural archetypes that have developed over millennia.  A natal chart might just be our contract with the Universe to embody our context in order to participate in the multi-dimensional project that is God. Each of us and everything in between has a chart that acts as a key or blueprint to our nature, our highest self, and the lessons we must learn in our specific timescape.

As we embrace our most connected and aware selves, we contribute to the omniscience and omnipotence that is God.

Finally, to bring this concept into the realm of wellness and mental health. For me, this conceptualization of the Universe and God has allowed the kind of acceptance and humor I have often sought in my most embittered and disillusioned states. If we conceive of ourselves as a version of God, tasked with the lessons we must learn and opportunities that we must take in order for God to know what that reality is like, we may find some grace on our path. Not only are we divine in our own right, but we are living with the purpose of a sacred mission, as part of a numinous collective, not simply aware of a higher power but living as our most empowered and highest self.  

From my perspective, I am but a product of my context. I exist only as an expression of the heritage of causes and effects that have created this particular timespace. My joy, my trauma, my power, are all contained within the context that I occupy, and that context is perfectly articulated by my natal chart. I then have the opportunity to play with this context, test its bounds and challenge its assumptions, all in an effort to engage in the games of the Universe, in the omnipotence and omniscience of God.

Venus Cycles And Star Points

Listening to Arielle Guttman on The Astrology Podcast inspired me to think deeper and investigate my own thoughts about Venus and what can be learned from her geometrically stunning orbital cycles. Like everything else that I have love for, I have critiques of the conversation but in an effort to embrace the Venusian virtue of harmony, I’ll save those for another day. (I think my Venus star point in Capricorn well describes this critical tendency toward what I love and value. It’s a constant, ‘yes and how can we improve this.) At the same time I offer these thoughts , I recognize I am a young and relatively new astrologer with all the gratitude and respect for Guttman and her work with Venus Star Points and its synodic cycle. 

I was taught that Venus speaks to what we value which is inherently connected to how we define our resources.

I love this signification because it makes room for the shifting of values that is practically guaranteed over time, but it also makes room for the sociopolitical and economic delineations of Venus. All while it still engages the most traditional significations of Venus as love, creativity, pleasure, and connection, all nearly universal cultural values. Though standards of beauty, love, and pleasure change based on time and place, they are perpetually valued by seemingly everybody.

So what of the economic significance of Venus? First, let’s myth-bust what economics really is. While it may seem like a hard science of money math, it’s much more aptly described as social science of values, production or creation, and exchange.

The term "economics" comes from the Greek words οἶκος [oikos], meaning "family, household, estate," and νόμος [nomos], or "custom, law," and hence literally means "household management" or "management of the state.

Economics is concerned with what and how qualities, goods, and services are valued and therefore their potential for exchange and cultural importance. Value is not simply based on use value or intrinsic value; the cultural values of that particular time and space are significant. Just think of how highly a Gucci belt is valued, how it costs so much more than the same materials fashioned into a belt of a different design. The value is in the status of the symbol on the buckle, in the signal to the community that this person is and values all the qualities that are culturally connected to that particular brand and item. If economics is exchange based on values as I believe it to be, it is best represented by both Mercury and Venus.

…Back to the podcast. Guttman, a scholar of Venus and her cycles, points to the economic significations of Venus though not in that terminology. In fact, I don’t think she ever used “value” as the signification of Venus on this specific podcast episode. She speaks of the Venus synodic cycle, a miraculously, faith-inducing orbital pattern, and delineates the sociocultural shifts mirrored in this cycle. Guttman explains that prior to the use of fossil fuels, the Venus cycle made its first star point, its cazimi (conjunction with the Sun) in the sign of Sagittarius. This coincides with a time when the economic systems of the world relied upon (valued) horses and humans working together as the means of production (creativity) that generates wealth (resources we value). That is to say, horse and human (can you see the Centaur of Sagittarius?!) were hugely valuable resources and the primary driver of economic development during this phase of the Venus synodic cycle. As this star point feature shifted into the sign of Scorpio, a sign of the underworld, of plumbing the depths, of digging up what is buried, of secrets, inheritance, other people’s money, of taxes; the global economies began to place value on fossil fuels, power drawn from the depths of the earth, an inheritance from the dinosaurs. Horses were no longer the valued resources as markets shifted to the dark power of oil and globally, economic structures completely reorganized around this substance drawn from the underworld. Guttman spells out how the Venus star points are now shifting into Libra, the sign of balance, of pairing and partnership, the cardinal air sign that is associated with justice and quality design. While Guttman related this to clean air, I thought of batteries, of the power generated by a current that is balancing positive and negative charges. We have already begun to see the shift toward batteries, even rechargeable batteries. Though not without their toxic heavy metals, these batteries do have the potential to drastically change our output of air pollution. 

Venus begins to make her star point journey in Libra on October 22nd. She will make one last cazimi (conjunction with the Sun) in Scorpio four years later, before continuing her star point journey through Libra for over two hundred and forty years. This coincides beautifully with the lengthy orbit of Pluto, returning now for the United States Sibley Chart, as well as a number of other cycles that are coming to a close as the American Empire faces its cosmic reckoning. As Venus makes this star point journey through Libra, where she is home and comfortable, we can engage this opportunity to negotiate our values around matters of reproductive sovereignty, economic and environmental justice, and identity politics.

As creativity faces devasting blows in our education system and feminine magic continues to provoke suspicion, we can look to the mythology and orbital patterns of Venus to inspire us as we embody liberatory values.

Another critical point in the conversation between Arielle Guttman and Chris Brennan was the parallel of these Venus star points with sociopolitical change and historical events. The terms civil rights and human rights kept coming up and are often associated with the warrior side of the goddess Venus. Again I turned to the concept of values. What are rights if not a direct expression of values, of who and what is considered worthy? Certainly, in countries that value women’s right to reproductive sovereignty, this cultural value is reflected in their legislation. Certainly, in nations that value increased financial revenue above all else, this value is demonstrated in the workplace. Certainly, in states where guns are more valued than lives, this value is exhibited in access to weapons over access to healthcare. What we value is demonstrated by what we protect, what we provide access to, and what we invest in.

A Devotional Love: Virgo

Virgo is often associated with a virgin, but that word means something very different now than when ancients named the constellations.

The muses of this constellation were the women that tended the sacred fire of Rome, using their flexible and intuitive magic to keep the fire burning as long as the Roman Empire held power (for better or worse). These women were considered to ‘belong to themselves,’ they were not owned or partnered and held sovereign dignity over their own abilities and bodies. They were called the Vestal Virgins and it is this archetype of earthly mutability that describes Virgo. 

Mutable signs adapt and use flexibility to respond to the world and life. They are called to lessons of transmitting and transmuting, of alchemical transformation. The Vestal Virgins of Rome were called to adapt and accommodate every gust of wind, every storm, every fuel shortage, and every elemental reality on Earth as they fulfilled their sacred duty. They act in service to a greater cause, they perform their devotion consistently and with close attention to the soil, to reality, to the Earth. This is the magic of Virgo, to act in service with intention and devotion to the community. 

It takes a discerning eye, a conscious mind, and a tasteful palette to embody the Virgo magic; and while these qualities can make for remarkable designers, care practitioners, and chefs, the very same discernment can make for a master of criticism, perfectionism, and even narrow-mindedness. A great deal of care must be taken, a balance of awe and open-heartedness is needed with this shrewdness. As the archetype of service, the magic lays in the dignity and honor of the devotion of care, and the downfall appears in the form of enslavement and victimhood. We all know what happens when we act in service, expecting gratitude and recognition only to receive nothing in response. Resentment forms a callous over the generosity of devotion and a bitter taste comes to the mouth. After days, maybe weeks of bending over backward to accommodate someone's needs, without the selflessness of caregiving we are sure to feel burnt out and taken advantage of, even victimized. If instead, we consider that our rituals of care are as much for us as they are for the other, a serenely spiritual quality comes over the mess of changing a diaper, or cooking and cleaning. It is also kind to remind ourselves that if we offer ourselves those same acts of care, we may find more ease in offering them to others.

Virgo teaches us there is magic to the sharing of care, there is a special alchemy that comes from giving to the self as much as the other, and there is a spell cast by the call to flexibility in our everyday lives. 

Virgo Archetypal characters:

Chef

Gardener

Any Care Practitioner (Therapist, Nurse, etc.)

Data Analyst

Scientific Researcher

Alchemist

Hair Stylist

Designer

A Case For Astrology As A Therapeutic Tool

The broadest and perhaps the most useful definition of trauma that I have ever come across is any challenge for which we are not prepared. 

In the mental health world, being well-resourced is considered a crucial factor when assessing trauma and what we refer to as “protective factors.” Someone with many protective factors at their disposal is considered well-resourced, making them less vulnerable to being unprepared for challenges and therefore less likely to experience trauma. That is not to say they will not experience events that many would consider traumatic, it is instead to clarify that with the right resources comes preparedness. Challenging events may remain challenging rather than morph into traumatic events when someone has the resources, the capacity, to approach the event as a challenge rather than something for which they are not prepared. 

So what do resources look like and how can we protect ourselves against trauma?

Resources are an equally broad term as the above, trauma. Resources are most commonly thought of as the tangible, material goods that sustain us; money, food, clothing, housing, fuel etc. Beyond those basic resources lie even more socially complicated access to services, proximity to privilege, and abstract resources like educational/academic access, the skills to calm a reactive nervous system, ecological privilege, physiological and mental health, and the all-important supportive and caring community. I cannot stress enough, the value and importance of a supportive community. When all resources are accessible and sound, someone impacted by a recognizably traumatic event, a devastating hurricane, for example, will be less likely to internalize the experience as traumatic. They are, strangely enough, prepared for this event in that they have a toolbox that is stocked with resources for their protection. They have access to housing or financial resources to keep a roof over their head, they have access to health and healthy coping mechanisms, and they have a caring community to process the tragedy with, all which serve as protective factors that prevent a challenge from becoming trauma. 

Here’s where astrology comes in. 

If protective factors and preparedness are the difference between a challenge and trauma, using the wisdom of the cycles of life and the orbit of the planets as another tool to help prepare us for unforeseen challenges has the potential to protect us against trauma. When using astrology to understand potential or current challenges we can gain an archetypal understanding of what is to come and what we are facing now. With the extremely macro perspective of the planets, asteroids, and their respective orbits, we can implement a protective factor that operates on several levels at once. For one, the orbit of planets offers the promise that as the Persian adage goes,

“this too shall pass.”

Through the naturally orbital quality of life on Earth, we can have faith in the fact that nothing is static, everything will change, and there is something much much greater than us that is operating in the same cyclical format that we experience in our everyday lives. As Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk writes in The Body Keeps Score,

“Awareness that all experience is transitory changes your perspective on yourself.”

While the cosmos promises change, it also can be something we have faith in, we can put our trust in it to just keep spinning, to move in a predictable way as demonstrated in an ephemeris, a record of 9,000 years of planetary positions. As I’ve written about before, faith or trust is a crucial pillar of our mental well-being. To be able to trust despite the seeming chaos of our realities helps to calm the reactivity of such an unpredictable experience. Astrological awareness also serves to highlight the connectedness and archetypal patterns of the cosmos. For me, this offers confidence and trust in a system that is so vast it is beyond my complete understanding; only available to my mind where the universe allows me insight.

 It feels important to note that, as Richard Tarnas says, astrology is archetypally predictive. While some astrologers may be able to give exact predictions that come true in distinctly accurate ways, I find astrology most useful in its ability to make archetypal predictions that speak to the qualities and archetypes of the relevant celestial bodies and how they may offer important life lessons to the individual and the collective. To clarify, I believe some astrologers are deeply intuitive, myself included (hello! grand trine and six planets in water), and are therefore able to offer a look at the future that astrology doesn’t necessarily predict. With clients, and in my own life, I do not make predictions. For one, I am prone to paranoia, and telling myself something bad will happen at the transit of certain planets does nothing but challenge my sense of well-being. For another, the self-fulfilling nature of a predictive dynamic impedes self-determination and one’s sense of empowerment which could not be less aligned with my intentions as a practitioner.

Living an intentional life, with awareness of the gravitational pull of the planets and how certain archetypes may appear in our life is one more tool that we can use as a protective factor. Though we may not be able to see the future outside of its archetypal qualities, that knowledge alone may offer a great deal of support and validation. For example, nearly everyone who makes it to age 44 will experience an archetypally similar urge to liberate, to upset the norms in their life, to try something they have never tried before, perhaps buy a flashy car or end an important relationship; this urge coincides with what astrologers call the Uranus opposition. This astrological signature, defined by the planet Uranus, that is associated with upsetting the status quo, (violent and nonviolent) revolutions, and technological advancement, is called a Uranus opposition. It occurs approximately at age 44 and marks the period when the planet Uranus is positioned opposite the natal placement of Uranus. In American culture, this period is often referred to as a mid-life crisis. With this knowledge, someone around the age of their Uranus opposition has the awareness to respond to the upset of this dynamic with intention and preparedness. The readiness is possible for other transits including a Saturn return; not only is it validating and affirming to know you are in an age marked by challenging lessons but one can even prepare for the archetypal character of these challenges by locating the position of Saturn and drawing on the wisdom of generations of ancestral observers. 

There are many generations of communities that have built on the wisdom of astrology. These communities have spent thousands of years creating a kind of observational and archetypal database of the correlation between human life and the position of the planets. By drawing on this wisdom, we can gain a sense of our place and purpose in the cosmos, cultivate a sort of trust in the cycles of life, bask in the poetry of the universe, and increase our awareness and preparedness for what life has to offer on individual and collective levels. Again, drawing on the wisdom shared in The Body Keeps Score,

“Seeing novel connections is the cardinal feature of creativity; [...] it’s also essential to healing.”

Astrology is nothing if not the perfect opportunity to see new connections, create a new and viable narrative, and thus offer healing through the creative integration of the self, using archetypes that have been maintained through millennia. Though we may not be able to predict the future, it seems we may not even want to, for fear of giving up any semblance of agency and free will. Instead, we can gain an archetypal understanding of the challenges and ease the universe has to offer and approach them with a preparedness that can protect us and offer us greater opportunities for an intentional and present life.