New Moon and Venusian things

by with 4 Comments Astrology and meInner lifeSearch for home

Happy New Moon everyone!

This one is quite a powerful one personally as it activates my natal Venus (which happens to be in the midpoint of my Sun-Moon, and also square to Neptune-Jupiter).

I actually have been overly aware of everything Venusian, together with my already mentioned eagerness to have a home. In fact, they’re both connected as my natal Moon is ruled by Venus.

Dreaming about having a beautiful home (that’s a good phrase for the Venus-Neptune-Moon combo…) and I guess that it won’t be much longer until I move into my new flat. I am so excited about that, I could scream!

Perhaps this is the beginning of my midlife crisis, me wanting to settle down a bit more and being tired of travelling much. Or maybe that’s my progressed/solar arc ascendant moving to Capricorn. All I wanna do is to have my beautiful base and to work and study. At least for now, that’s how I feel.

Regarding the New Moon Venus stuff, with also lots of trines from the Capricorn transiting planets as well as progressed Venus conjoined my natal Saturn, I feel more pragmatic and rational when it comes to love. At least so it seems.

It’s like I have taken down my rose tinted glasses for a bit and it feels good. My new mantra is: from now on, they will have to EARN (I can hear Saturn here!) my respect, time and attention. No more freebies! No more projecting my worth; validation needs to come from within.

I guess that I will always be a Venus Square Neptune person, but throughout life I believe that we can fine tune our natal aspects into a more refined way of expression. I enjoy the potential for compassion, forgiveness and unconditional love that the Venus-Neptune combo can reflect; and I also love art and beauty.

I am planning to learn how to play the guitar when Neptune opposes my natal Venus in a couple of years; maybe that’s a good way of negotiating with the universe in order not to fall into a massive delusion again and again and again… ? Have you ever ‘negotiated’ challenging transits to difficult points in your natal chart before? How did that go?

Grand Cardinal Cross

by with No Comment Astrological InsightsSearch for home

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!

Venus-Neptune rant

by with 6 Comments Astrology and meInner life

After much tension for the last couple of weeks here I am to write another blog post. This one I think is more of a need for self expression than anything else.

I feel confused and not sure about how to proceed, where should I be or how should I deal with my situation now. My natal Venus Square Neptune has been transited by Pluto and Saturn for some time, with my progressed Venus just about to conjoin natal Saturn, and I do feel this is potentially a big time of learning. Learning about boundaries and self worth, learning about my self-delusion tendencies in love, etc. Learning to get hold of my longings and to not project into a potential partner.

But these days I met an ex lover and all of that knowing and self awareness sort of went down the drain. I’ve always made a point in meeting past lovers after sometime just to complete the process of getting over someone. Just to see how much that person does not have a hold on me anymore. Banishing someone I like from my life forever, has never been my way of dealing with a broken heart.

But what do we do when even after not seeing someone for 5 years you realise that you still have strong feelings for that person? How can that even be possible? I feel like I’ve had so many lives for the past five years, so much travelling, moving cities, jobs, doing a masters, different relationships, etc. So much has happened, so much growth. How is it possible to still have strong feelings for someone that I thought I left behind long ago?

He is one of the only people I’ve met that I felt completely comfortable sleeping beside me, I didn’t feel restless and could manage to go into deep sleep quite easily. Many of his personal planets fall into my 12th house and I have the feeling that that reflects an access that he has to my unconscious, which is quite nice for sleeping. I don’t know. It actually feels like he has free access to my soul, and that’s the trouble. How can you let go of a connection of this kind?

Although a lot of good things are happening in my life at the moment, I feel sad. I wonder what is the point of having such a strong and deep link with someone if you’re not able to pursue and explore it further. Grow together. Why? What is the point in learning about letting go of someone you like so much, knowing that they feel similarly towards you?

Not meant to be? What does that even mean? …

Full Moon in Aquarius and Authenticity

by with No Comment Astrology and meSearch for home

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

by with 4 Comments Astrological InsightsAstrology and meInner life

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!

by with 4 Comments Astrology and meInner lifeSearch for home

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?!

A note on progressions

by with 7 Comments Astrology and meInner lifeSearch for home

Have you experimented with secondary progressions much?

I have been observing it for a few years now, a few times that my progressed moon has shifted signs for example, and watched how that manifested in my life. But it was only today, whilst preparing one of my webinars on prognostication, that it actually clearly dawned on me how much progressions relates to internal transitions and our inner reality.

Currently my progressed Moon is just about to conjoin my natal IC, which in a few months will then be transited by Jupiter and Saturn; followed by Pluto a few years down the line. Whatever is brewing within myself regarding belonging, home, family, and a reconnection with my roots will have a long lasting effect, it seems.

For the last 12 years I have been living in the UK and travelling around, I have been living a very nomad life style, always on the go without allowing any roots to become too strong and prevent me from experiencing what it seemed like ‘freedom’. My relocated chart in England has Sagittarius rising, with my Mars-Uranus quite close to it, and exactly conjoined my South Node in Sag. I feel free around here…

But it turns out that I am not sure this is what I want anymore, and when I check my progressed chart I see my p. ASC just about to move from Sagittarius to Capricorn, there is a huge shift happening within myself. It is really baffling to be able to see them so clearly reflected on my progressed chart!

Since my Moon progressed to Aquarius I have been thinking about home a lot, about Brazil, about my cultural heritage. I’ve been missing to speak my language and the small silent understanding that talking with someone from where you come from brings you.

I never thought this would happen! But as my progressed Moon moves closer and closer to my natal IC, these issues are becoming greater and greater. And I wonder what is the point on keeping the so called ‘freedom’ in detriment to human connection? As humans, do we all need to have and develop a sense of belonging and being accepted?

I also think about the easiness, the recognition, the familiarity which is calling me louder and louder from within. This is the progressed chart manifesting in a very obvious way in my life…

Celebrating some achievements

by with No Comment Astrology and meProfessional Astrologer

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?!        😀

 

 

Brief catch up

by with 2 Comments Astrology and meInner life

I have been feeling a bit nostalgic and melancholic lately. The current global crisis, even with its promises of a positive much needed change, it’s taking its toll on me, most probably on all of us.

Social distancing is proving to be more challenging than I thought it would be. I miss the people I love, I miss hugs and physical contact, I miss the quiet presence of someone else in the room.

When we isolate I believe that we meet whatever is placed in our natal 12th house, and here I am, having my daily meetings with Saturn and Pluto in Scorpio lately.

Don’t get me wrong though, I appreciate the power that both, specially Saturn, seems to have in my chart and in my psyche, and I see it playing out in every deadline that I manage to meet for my masters for example. But there is also something heavy here, something deeply heavy and serious and melancholic.

I feel the deepest feelings when Im on my own and people bring lightness into my life. Somehow that’s how it works and the configuration of Pluto-Saturn in the twelfth versus Moon-Venus in the eleventh is a reflection of what it seems to be my experience.

I can sense that we are onto something big right now, perhaps something to do with the potential for positive realisations which will then enable us to actualise it once we are free to move and get together again. I don’t know.

All I know is that I feel for everyone out there in isolation as well and how this might be challenging your mental, physical and spiritual health, not to mention the ones that are, and have always been, suffering from the many unfairnesses of a system in decadence. I feel for you, for us all.

And I hope that during this most extraordinary time of disruption and change we can all make the most of it and come out empowered, so we can co-create a better reality for us all, including for the animals and nature in general.

 

Astrological Debates and the coming Full Moon

by with 2 Comments Astrological InsightsAstrology and meProfessional Astrologer

Catching a bit of a ride with the current energies building up to the full moon happening this coming Friday. It will be forming a t square between the Moon in Sagittarius, the Sun in Gemini and Mars in Pisces (close to Neptune), all at 15 degrees (so watch out all of you with personal planets in the mid degrees of the mutable signs).

As the lunar nodes have also shifted recently to the Gemini-Sagittarius axis, I expect a lot of intense discussions to be taking place, and considering the apex of a t square as a potential clue to a way out from the dichotomy symbolised by the opposition (between the Sun and Moon in this case), I feel that there is something of the energy of Pisces and Neptune that can help us get out of the impasse. Perhaps transcending truths that are plainly egocentric and not really constructive for others as well as ourselves is one way of interpreting this.

Both Pisces and Neptune at best talks about compassion and the capacity for dissolving boundaries which are necessary for us to understand that ultimately we are all connected. So perhaps something connected with that could help us resolve some of the difficult debates that we are bound to be witnessing, as well as taking part in, this week.

Another thing that comes to mind is any form of artwork could also be of great help now to contain the splits of opinion within and without!  Paint, drawing, dancing, writing…

This whole thing reminds me of a small discussion I got myself involved in these days, and made me think as well (again) about the spread of misinformation that we currently can have access to using social media. Freedom of expression can be great and very empowering, but at the same time, there seems to be a lot of people claiming to hold the truth about something which isn’t quite correct.

To be precise, there was an individual claiming to be a professional astrologer who said that: ‘If you have Saturn in a hard aspect in your chart it can and it will definitely make you poor’. I mean, what the fuck? After this post there were lots of comments from scared people, trying to find out if they had that or not in their natal charts.

I usually don’t get myself involved in these online debates, but I couldn’t help and just searched for examples of people with hard aspects from Saturn who happened to be quite rich actually, to respond to that person.

Anyway, my message here is to say that astrology can be a wonderful tool for empowerment and insight but it has to be used wisely. And, at the same time, I strongly feel that it cannot be used divorced from serious commitment to personal work and growth. It’s just too easy to project our life’s traumas and shortcomings into an astrological aspect, star sign or whatever, and then spread misinformation to people around us perpetrating fear and disempowerment.

So remember, if it sounds like fear mongering and simply negative, go and try to find another source or another astrologer to have a consultation from. I am pro different views and techniques and approaches to astrology, but definitely not supportive of astrology done badly and without personal responsibility.