Aquarius and the solar principle

It has been an interesting couple of weeks for me. I have some friends visiting and staying with me in the flat, including my brother, so the house is full. From the incredible quiet and self exploring vibes, which was also very melancholic at times, I now barely have time for checking in with myself so I am sort of allowing this time to be some sort of holidays. (haven’t had one of those in ages!)

Being a Virgo myself, it is pretty difficult not to do things that are practical in some way and so I recently delved into some of the Astrological Association’s old recordings of lectures. I found a few of Liz Greene’s talks, which I already bought and heard almost all of them, but there are plenty of historical (like for example a Gauquelin’s lecture on their research) and other important talks available for very affordable prices. (I recommend if you haven’t checked it yet).

One of the lectures I heard was about Apollo’s chariot and the solar principle in response to collective cycles given by Liz Greene, a wonderful (as I would expect) and enlightening lecture that resonates with what we are about to go through with a strong emphasis on Aquarius.

In about a month we will witness a cluster of planets in Aquarius which includes the Sun, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mercury (which will, by the way, be moving retrograde at that time), and Aquarius speaks about the collective well fare. As Greene has pointed out in her lecture, Scorpio is concerned with depth but Aquarius is concerned with breadth (one of the dangers, she claimed, is loosing sight of excellence when there is too much emphasis on this sign as it focus on getting the ‘common denominator’).

According to Liz Greene, ‘where there is aquarian energy, the sun is invoked’ as it is its complement and opposite and I really like this idea. I feel that with such a strong aquarian energy, including the Saturn-Uranus Square that will be happening throughout 2021, we will do well in connecting with our solar energies.

The Sun is what gives us our sense of personal meaning, destiny and purpose. It is the point in the chart where we potentially feel unique and with a special reason to be alive. Liz Greene pointed out how we are under the risk of loosing the will to be ourselves when we identify entirely with a group (which is one of the reasons why the Sun is in detriment in Aquarius), and she also spoke about the dangers that throwing responsibility away from the individual can cause, when the group, ‘the great WE who have rights’, is actually made of individuals.

My conclusion here is that we will do very well in taping into our solar energies as we see the aquarian energy increase, this will be a way of avoiding darker scenarios where individuality is sacrificed completely to the ‘benefit of the group’ (in authoritarian regimes for example). So have a look at your chart, where is the Sun placed, what sign, what house? What can be the unique gifts that you can contribute with?

As Greene claimed, if we are willing ‘to be somebody who has something to contribute with the group then we will see a group that truly transforms the individual’. And let the Aquarian season begin!

A note on astrology and responsibility

How did the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction go for you?

I was checking my social media stuff today and had a thought that seemed to be fiercely expressed by Charles E. Carter when he claimed that it could be ‘criminal to introduce astrology’ to some, as he believed only ‘people with moral courage should study their own maps, and only those endowed with more than average common sense and sense of responsibility should study others’ . Obviously the next question to be asked is who is to decide when someone has enough common sense or moral courage, which is another very pertinent question, especially during the beginning of a collective cycle with such an aquarian overtone like the one we are currently heading towards to.

But I did feel slightly overwhelmed, for the first time, with the thought of how the quick spread of information (and in many cases, misinformation) can affect the practice and role of astrology. I used to feel excited regarding some predictions about astrology’s rise as a subject of knowledge, thinking that my profession would somehow become more respectable socially, but there is a very shadowy potential for astrology becoming popular again and taught by very unexperienced people. There seems to be many charismatic young people out there eager to accumulate a whole legion of followers no matter what kind of information they are helping to spread.

I am not very old myself, but I feel that I have always been aware of the necessary hard work, time and dedication when it comes to learning something as powerful as astrology. How can we make sure, as a community of professionals, that there is some kind of rigorous process when it comes to teaching and practicing astrology? Would the benefits that the digital era has and is bringing to astrology be greater than the potential pitfalls?

Saturn’s shift to Aquarius

In order to celebrate the last few days of Saturn in Capricorn I decided to come here and try to write something.

The first thing that comes to mind is the idea that Saturn represents the principle of giving birth to ourselves. Becoming more solid as an individual requires a close relationship, and an authentic one, with what Saturn represents: (especially) taking responsibility for ourselves. I feel that whilst Saturn was in Capricorn the theme of authorities, including becoming one, was emphasised.

Capricorn talks about ambitions, our ambitions and those of the people in power positions have been under the spotlight. With the lunar nodes being in the axis of Cancer-Capricorn in the last year as well, many questions surrounding self-care, personal and family (inherited) values, career and personal life unbalance were under scrutiny. The pandemic has forced people to stay home, to rethink their work-personal life dynamics, to review values and goals.

With the nodes shifting to the Gemini-Sagittarius axis the theme of information, sharing ideas, reviewing belief systems is becoming more and more important. I feel that Saturn moving on to Aquarius has a resonance with this process.

Aquarius is an air sign, mostly concerned with abstract thinking, humanitarian causes and ideals. Perhaps now with Saturn’s shift to this sign, we are called to be more serious and cautious regarding our ideas and how we express them. It feels like somehow our ambitions and skills will have to be aligned with serving the group rather than having only personal gain as the ultimate goal.

Wherever the conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter at zero degrees Aquarius falls in your chart, reflects the potential area where you can offer something to the human family/community. With Saturn in Aquarius personal responsibility takes another dimension, the dimension of personal contribution to the whole.

We are individual cells of the collective, a change within can have the power of positive impact in a larger scale.

Where is Aquarius in your chart?!

A little on midpoints

Astrology as a subject for research never ceases to amaze me.

I have currently been looking into midpoints a bit more and what a fascinating topic. My Moon in Libra, ultra sensitive towards symmetry and beauty, really seems to love the idea of a midpoint being a place where integration can happen.

For the ones reading this and thinking ‘what the hell are midpoints?’, it is a very simple concept, for instance every single point or planet in the horoscope, in relation to another, will have a half way – if mars in your chart is at 6 degrees Sag and your Venus is 26 Virgo the middle between the two is 1 Scorpio. Does that make sense? It is a simple mathematical calculation really. (there will be a further midpoint and a closer one, the closer is the most commonly used including to cast composite charts – another fascinating use of midpoints!)

In the astro.com website they say: ‘A midpoint marks the focal point at which the energies of two planets meet. If a third planet is conjunct this point it receives these energies and to a certain degree acts as a channel for them.’

Exactly!

It is very interesting, if you have a planet in the midpoint of two planets in an opposition (that would be a T square) or in between two planets forming a square, it could act not only as a ‘channel’ but also it could reflect a possible way out from the dichotomy and towards more inner integration.

I love how we can potentially discover new things as we continue our astrological learning journey, including discovering new placements and things about our own astrology chart that we did not notice before.

I have written about my currently progressed Venus forming a conjunction to natal Saturn and roughly how serious I have been feeling regarding love relationships and personal boundaries – well, as I researched the midpoints in my chart I realised that Saturn sits right in the midpoint of my natal square between Neptune and Venus!

How interesting! To me this placement is somehow quite hopeful. The more I work on my Saturn in order to integrate it further in my psyche, the more I can potentially become more solid and realistic in how I deal with others… I feel that my natal Saturn holds a potential key for practicing boundaries and realism when my Venus-Neptune combo gets too dreamy.

Has any of you found an important planet in between a natal square like this? Do you feel that that planet can help you out with the conundrum?

Grand Cardinal Cross

As I organise myself to send my boxes to Brazil, I think about the current energies and the full moon in Pisces.

At the exact moment of the full moon there was a grand cross in the sky involving Mars in Aries, Saturn/Pluto/Jupiter in Capricorn, Venus in Cancer and Juno in Libra. What do we commit to, how, and the motivation behind it, might be the theme of this intense month. The grand cross is in cardinal signs and I can imagine plenty of energy being available for us to tap into and problem solve.

Cardinality asks for action; so one way of channeling the intensity is exercising a bit more than usual.

Another thing I was thinking about is the challenge regarding compromise; do we know when to compromise and when not? With Mars stationing to move retrograde soon, we better revisit how we assert ourselves and where resentment might still be present, even without our conscious awareness. Buried anger is another one that might come up in the next few months.  How have you been using your libido? How do you get what you want? Do you know what you want or do you get confused in the middle of everybody else’s wishes? These are some of the questions worth asking ourselves now.

Cardinality also speaks of taking initiative, so I can imagine this grand cross reflecting a big amount of energy compelling us to get out of whichever stagnant situation we’ve got ourselves involved in. The important thing to remember though, with Mars just about to go retrograde, is to rethink our strategies rather than just impulsively create more conflict. Rationality goes a long way with so many tense astrological aspects.

Wishing you all a happy full moon!

On the current Mars’ transits

The last few days have been mental and beyond intense. Somehow I got dragged into a drama that does not have much to do with me, apart from being the friend of one of the persons involved. I don’t really want to get into the details of everything as it isn’t worth it, but I was locked out from my house at 10 in the evening and the shock and absurdity of that situation for me was absolutely maddening. It was traumatising, to say the least, and it made me think about all of the people out there suffering in abusive relationships.

My heart is with you and I hope that you can heal and manage to break out from whichever pattern of hurt and suffering you feel you’re stuck in.

Astrologers know and have been talking about the myriad of challenging astrological transits for 2020 for quite sometime already, and we are currently navigating the energies reflected by Mars in Aries in square to Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn.

They manifested in quite a real way in my case, with a touch of physical violence included, but it doesn’t have to be that way. What I think is that whatever intensity and anger that came up to us now is pointing out to the changes that we are contemplating and aware of their need for quite sometime already.

We have to be brave to be the best we can be, to leave behind whatever, or whoever, feels familiar but does not embrace and support this best version of ourselves.

Raise up to the challenge!

Use the current energies to embrace courage (Mars in Aries) and to take constructive action towards a better life. Learn about healthy boundaries, and about not blaming other people for your shortcomings. Take responsibility for your process, and your process only. You can’t take anyone else with you, you can’t change anyone or ‘make’ them behave in one way or another. It’s about you and what you want in your life.

May we all find creative and constructive ways of working with the challenging changes ahead!

Full Moon in Aquarius and Authenticity

Im not sure how I missed out the fact that the coming full moon will be exactly conjoined my natal IC in Aquarius this coming Monday.

I guess that when you start studying astrology you become so keen that you never miss something like that, but once you have been studying it consistently for a few years, you then start to take the fast moving transits a bit for granted. Or maybe you just realise that every month there will be a new moon, and a full moon, etc…

But lunations do trigger long lasting transits, solar arc directions and secondary progressions. They have a way of emotionally intensifying whatever it is that you are going through.

I am working on my last assignment before my masters’ thesis and it happens to be a sky journal, a piece of phenomenological research on my observations of how the weather affects me emotionally. One of the themes that came up from the exercise is the awareness of a strong connection between weather x culture, home and belonging.

Lots of food for thought and it amazes me that for my last essay I am doing such a personal piece of work which enables me to explore an issue that feels so urgent to me right now. What and where is home? All of the internal work that took place during the transit from Pluto to my natal Moon still hasn’t given me the answer. I feel closer to finding it out maybe, but the concept of home still eludes me…

Back to the full moon though.

I have the feeling that this full moon will be triggering and challenging to reveal the amount of authenticity in our lives at the moment. Are we really in the right place? Are we really being ourselves in whatever situation that we are going through?

The full moon will be square to Uranus in Taurus and Venus (ruler of Taurus) might have some clues on how to solve the dilemma represented by this t square. Venus is in Gemini and very close to the North Node, so allowing people the space needed to find out what they need to find out, rationality and open communication afterwards might be what we need. Perhaps there is something that we will need to communicate regarding the process that Venus retrograde was reflecting earlier this year as well. Also these days Venus formed the last of 3 squares to Neptune (which started in May), and some resolutions regarding previous confusion might be a possibility with this full moon as well.

What are your values, what is important to you in order to feel loved? Are you happy with the flow of give and take in your relationships or are you giving more than receiving? And if that’s the case, why? These are some of the questions worth asking ourselves now..

Progressions 3rd round

Here I am preparing a talk I will be giving tomorrow for an astrology group about astrological interpretation and still pretty impressed by the uncanny accuracy of Secondary Progressions.

Today I was taking a closer look to sign ingresses and etc in past progressions and how fascinating that was! When my Sun progressed to Libra I moved countries, and mind you  I have natal Moon in Libra ruling the 9th house of long journeys abroad… and just like this one there were many other examples…

Progressed Moon just about to move into the 3rd house when I applied to my masters…hitchhiking for 3 months when Progressed Moon was in Sag conjoined my natal Mars-Uranus in Sag… wow man… so many other examples.

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to give the attention that I feel Secondary Progression deserves as a technique!

Not to mention the big questions that are naturally brought up by this symbolic and most impressive astrological practice; what is behind everything? How come we live in a compressed format everything that we will live during our lifetime (the so called ‘one day-per year’ of life formula)? Why these patterns seem to repeat themselves in different vibrations and contexts? What about the invisible thread connecting it all? Is there such a thing? …

Astrology and Seasons!

Omnia tempus habent… (All things have their season) – Ecclesiastes 

As I finish preparing my powerpoint presentation for my webinar tonight on secondary progressions here I am again, feeling baffled with the accuracy of astrological symbolism.

All things have their season, and prognostication is about that. It isn’t (not for me anyway) about predicting what the future holds or what is going to happen exactly, it is about realising your inner (and outer) season. Work with nature rather than against it, you wouldn’t try to harvest things during winter, etc.

There is the right time for everything. And astrological symbolism can help you not only to understand that, but also to align yourself with it. What a wonderful tool, albeit often misunderstood, astrology is.

As my progressed Moon makes its way towards my natal IC, boxes, removals, decorating and furniture permeates many of my conversations as well as my mind. I want to create a proper ‘nest’, a strong base where I can get in touch with my creativity (which will probably be happening once my progressed Moon moves into my 5th house I guesss…) and do more of the work that I love doing. Free myself up from some of the mundane preoccupation and fully dedicate myself to my master’s dissertation and my astrology practice.

Live a life that’s more aligned with what I want to do daily, focus my energy. (I guess I can also hear my progressed ascendant moving to Capricorn here!) I really look forward to being able to focus more and travel less (a little less anyway…).

Are you aware of your secondary progressions right now?!

Celebrating some achievements

The last month and a half have been so incredibly busy for me: taking up my two final modules for the masters (that in itself is so much work already!), doing three talks in the month of June, also started teaching astrology webinars and have over 10 students waiting for me to come up with the second series, not to mention the other more humble life tasks which are equally important (even if it doesn’t seem like).

After all, where would I be without my routine? Without my ‘healthy-ish’ meals? Without my long walks after lunch and long baths listening to Billie Holiday? I honestly think that I could only manage the amount of things I had to do because I kept track of my basic routine as well. Without that I wouldn’t have made it!

Interestingly, Uranus is transiting my 6th house, and work is somehow embedded in my daily rituals and routine. There isn’t one without the other.

Two out of the three talks are done already, and I think they went very well. I have a real passion for teaching. This week I will be finally giving my talk at the Astrological Association’s conference on the astrology of the Handmaid’s Tale. Such an interesting novel, with an amazing tv production and not to mention, Margaret Atwood herself, a figure that I deeply admire and researching about her was a real joy.

Atwood’s natal Sun is very close to my ASC, so I guess the commonality speaks for itself. I somehow feel a sense of closeness when I watch her speak and I wish I could meet her in person one day and have a cup of coffee.

How did I manage to get through the most difficult challenges of this month, in special my fear of coming out professionally in the astrological community and my inner critic’s strength and power over me sometimes? I guess that I have used a few different tools in the process, but specially reminding me of the joy I feel when I talk about astrology and when I share ideas in general (which helped me with the masters as well) was a huge part.

Passion and joy seems to be a great guidance force in life… at least sometimes… or maybe most of the time…

What is your passion and what brings joy into your life?!        😀