Saturn and Inner Wisdom

Ok, so this writing just happened to me.

I was listening to music and having a cry when these words just started coming to me, so here they are.

But before that, just an astrological note. I see my Saturn in Scorpio being reflected in the text below, and when I recently found out (or maybe realised) that this planet sits exactly in the midpoint between my natal Venus square Neptune, I am convinced of its importance. Getting to know this Saturn and daring to integrate it a bit further seems to hold an important key for me and the potential success of my relationships. I think that the text below encapsulate a bit of it, a bit of my Saturn in Scorpio in the 12th at best.

Feeling things intensely isn’t the issue, the real issue is how we manage and work with the powerful energy that gets released/triggered with powerful emotions. Having someone that supports this process is of utter importance to me, for my growth and self-understanding. It is also paramount to not project and blame another for those feelings, either when they’re pleasant or unpleasant. Either way, we need taking a position of ownership rather than victimhood and to not act out onto another. 

The respect has to be mutual. 

It is clear to me that I cannot be with someone that cuts off emotions, or that find it all a bit too much. People that shy away from tears as if they’ve seen the antichrist disturbs me. Emotions are just that, something in motion, changeable. It is just a powerfully healing and transformative force. And I do not take the power of emotions for granted. This is why it is necessary to be like some sort of samurai, some kind of martial art master – to be brave enough to master your emotions. To ride them and see where the destination is, at least in that moment, for it changes from moment to moment. 

Bravery to be an observer of the change.

I see emotions like a powerful chariot, like the one in the Tarot, with a white and black horse pulling it around. Happy or sad, emotions drag us around, it pushes us to do things, to take chances, to cry in the bathroom when no one is looking. One thing is for sure, emotion is what heals, inflames, possess us at all times, so getting to know them, making them your acquaintance is, in my view, a positive way of relating with it. It is a powerfully transformative way of relating with your deepest and authentic self, of getting to know you…    

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..

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?!        😀

 

 

Astrological Debates and the coming Full Moon

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.

Productive quarantine and Pluto retrograde

I think that I am finally managing to create a productive routine during the lockdown. I guess moving countries again was also inevitably disruptive on my daily practices, etc.

That Mars/Uranus in Sagittarius in my chart reflecting the part of me that keeps travelling and moving around no matter what…

Anyway, Im enjoying the time and space to focus on the things that truly matter to me, in this case, my astrology work. I’ve been working on talks that I will be giving this June, and also taking the opportunity to watch free online courses as well. It really is mind blowing the quantity of online webinars and lectures available even for free at the moment.

That really made me think about the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction in Aquarius that will be taking place in December 21 this year. It seems like we are heading towards the direction of a massive boom of online education, where information is made accessible to a larger number of people.

These days I watched an interesting webinar on how to create online courses and it was quite insightful. Im glad I did it. Now Im being flooded with ideas for creating a short course on astrology myself. I love teaching and public speaking, especially about a subject that Im so passionate about like astrology, so I see potential for developing something really nice.

I even had someone getting in touch with me for a short astrological session in order to learn a bit, rather than just receive the interpretations. That is a sign, isn’t?!

As I work on my talks and think about these ideas of mine, I have to witness a very strong fear of coming out, perhaps a fear of failure, Im not entirely sure. But I do remember astrologer Frank Clifford talking about the journey of Virgo being connected with developing self-confidence because they never believe they know enough or that they are good enough.

That resonates with me so much!

My first big talk for the Astrological Association is happening in June 28 or 27 and Im dreading that moment and, at the same time, really looking forward to it because I will have to break an old pattern of fear, otherwise I won’t be able to do it.

I feel that I was born to be a communicator (amongst other things of course), but it does not come very easily in terms of taking action and being confidently encouraged. But once Im on stage it is almost like something else takes me over and it is really joyful, I feel incredibly high during and afterwards as well.

Anyway, Pluto is going retrograde today until around October the fifth, and this is a great time for revisiting our shadow work. Looking into those paralysing fears that are limiting our capacity to live our lives to the fullest, preventing us from being what we are meant to be.  That’s what Im going to do as I prepare myself for the series of talks that I will be giving in the near future…

Wish me luck!

And if you have been following me and my work for a while and feel that you could be interested in knowing more about the teaching side of it, get in touch. I would love to hear from you.

A note on Mercury

These days I watched the MISPA event celebrating the 10 years that the astrology school has been open and they had many astrology talks with great astrologers on. But the main one that I wanted to talk about here is the one that Darby Costello did on Mercury and Hermes.

I absolutely loved how she talked about this archetype and I feel that we (at least myself) tend to take for granted planets like Mercury, only paying attention to it when is retrograde and saying that it relates to your intellect, full stop. There are many dimensions to each archetypal pattern represented by the symbols in astrology.

And Mercury isn’t an exception!

Darby said that Mercury relates to travelling and movement, as is already largely spoken in the astrological community, but she connected that with the idea of information as well. Thats why Mercury in the Jupiter ruled signs are in fall or detriment, because Jupiter relates to belief and truth. And when we are communicating something that we believe is the truth we automatically shut down the process of exchanging information, which is the function of Mercury.

She also said that Mercury is about the collection and exchange of information that can be useful to people, that is the relationship to Gemini and Virgo, the two signs ruled by Mercury.

It was so insightful to me as I have such a powerful mercurial nature, with Sun, Mercury, Venus, Chiron and the North node all ruled by Mercury in my chart.

Darby also talked about Mercury being a guide, for Hermes is the one that can take people into the underworld, and in order for us to tap into that guidance we have to keep in motion. When you are stagnated Mercury does not help you, but once you go on a journey, it is there to help or trick you.

Astrology is such a magical subject with many facets for us to realise and empower ourselves with!!

Astrology as an imaginative practice

As I listen to a birds song’s playlist I ponder about the importance that imagination plays in interpreting astrological symbols.

The more I explore and think about the subject of astrology the clearer it becomes to me that imagination is a fundamental faculty that needs to be used in order to get insights. And because imagination can hardly be quantified and tested in a scientific way it creates confusion amongst us astrologers and people interested in astrology in general.

We are coming from a world view that overemphasises science and rationality as the only true way to access valid information, and as we are conditioned by this mindset in a very fundamental level, it becomes very challenging to let go and recognise that imagination is an important and necessary function, as much as rationality is.

Everything has its place!

I saw a post the other day on social media with someone saying that after this quarantine we will finally understand and value artists, because if it wasn’t for music, films, etc, we would not be able to get through this tough time. I agree on that one.

And this brings me back to the idea of imagination being a fundamental part of ourselves and a valid way of engaging with reality.

Once I started thinking about the role of imagination in the interpretation of astrological charts I began to relax with the horoscope image for longer before making any judgement.

I feel that perhaps a successful astrological interpretation has a strong connection to the capacity that the astrologer has to stand uncertainty and let go of rationality a little bit, for a little while anyway.

I see the astrological chart as a painting, something to be felt as well as interpreted. So next time when you look at a horoscope, what if you didn’t rush into making assumptions and searched for reasoning? What if you also used this moment to get in touch with and to train your imagination?

Unless you’re a writer or something like that, in our educational system we are generally encouraged to dismiss imagination, and I feel that astrology can be such a powerful tool to befriend our imagination again, and perhaps, a tool to help us being aware and staying with the mystery that being alive entitles without rushing into explaining everything.

Astrology can help us engaging differently with the world so maybe there is no need to try and fit into a cookie cutter rational mode to be justified or respected as a subject.

Stellium in the 3rd

Interesting to think about the amount of spare time that we all suddenly have at our disposal, and the job that we are all probably having to redesign our routines at the same time.

Everything seems to be a little disorientating at the moment.

The multiple conjunction between Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn seems to be reflecting very well our current situation. The polemics created by some of our leaders trying to prioritise the economy over ‘a small number of deaths’, the collective response to the situation, if any. The general panic shopping around the world, and someone observed, I think maybe Lynn Bell, the interesting connection between the conjunction of Pluto with the planets mentioned and people stockpiling toilet roll…

Pluto is connected with purging and detoxing, release, defecation… Richard Swatton used to call Pluto the ‘cosmic toilet’.  There you go. Astrology in manifestation once more.

All of these big transits happening in the 3rd house of my horoscope and the MA Im currently doing seems to be connected because it sure is bringing me a lot of food for thought.

These days I’ve been, for the first time in a long time (maybe ever to be honest), questioning my desire to continue defining my career path as an astrologer. Quite shocking at first, as I always had that certainty. But to be honest, my certainty remains in the fact that astrology is my passion. What I am not so sure anymore is perhaps astrology as a profession.

Im working on an essay about the decline of astrology in the seventeenth century and it is bringing me a lot of questions regarding my profession.

According to Patrick Curry there are 3 types of astrology, high astrology, middling astrology and low astrology. Sounds quite simplistic putting in this way, but I feel that this being my blog, differently from my essays, I don’t necessarily need to go much deeper into it.

High astrology is the astrology of the scholars and theologians, the big philosophical questions about the universe and how the planets affect terrestrial affairs; the middling astrology is judicial astrology, reading charts to clients for example. The last one, low astrology, is connected with the popular horoscopes written in the newspapers, etc.

According to Curry what happened in the seventeenth century was a decline of both the high and middling, and the rise of its popular version, low astrology, which was highly criticised by some astrologers, scientists and the church as well.

With that in mind, we start to have an idea about the complexity of astrology’s history and process of development.

In addition to this picture, we also have a myriad of techniques, and types of astrology practiced around the world. Perhaps even because of that astrology has failed in producing a professional organ with cohesion, at least in the seventeenth century.

During this quarantine I’ve been questioning myself and my choices regarding profession. At least I’ve been realising the frustration in having to decide on so many intricacies within my profession because I need to explain to people what is that I do.

And what is that I really do?!

(Do I believe in fate? Do I believe the stars are causing something or are reflecting something? Can I foretell the future? Is there any positivity in telling someone about the future? Do I psychologise astrology too much so it fits within the capitalist/secular paradigm? …)

 

Saturnian Quarantine, times of change!

I’ve been back in the UK for the past 5 days and things here (regarding the corona virus) are more heated than it was in Brazil when I left (apparently the panic is beginning to catch up there too).

My friend has left to Brazil and I’ve decided to live in Brighton, a small town on the beach 50 minutes by train from London. Im currently staying at his bedroom until the girls in the bedroom next door (which is meant to be mine) are able to travel (they were planning to go to USA and Spain, both have their boarders shut at the moment).

In moments like this I think of what Liz Greene said about the outer planets talking about collective movements of change related to survival and how much we individuals have little to say regarding that. Some things are beyond our control and we would do good in keeping our peace and mental health in any way that works for us. Meditation, prayer, drawing, painting, dancing, jogging… you name it. Whatever works!

This is actually what I wanted to write about in here. We are in a situation where a quarantine is somehow ‘forced’ upon us, take that as an opportunity to go back to yourself. To reflect upon your life, your choices, your values and who you are in the most authentic way. Who are you? What do you truly need? How can you best contribute with the transformation that we (collectively) and the world seems to be going through?

Jupiter and Mars joining in the conjunction of Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn seems to be reflecting this ’emergency crisis’ in the forefront and I feel this to be symbolising what has been going on in the last few years, a big political and economic crisis. It seems like we are hitting a point where we cannot ignore what is going on anymore. The structures that organize our society are purging and in need for massive transformation.

How can we contribute in this process?

This is one of the questions that we could ask ourselves during the quarantine. What would we like to see more in the world? It’s another one.

By the end of the year Saturn and Jupiter will conjoin in Aquarius marking the beginning of a long cycle in the air element (it will be a change from earth to air) and a 20 year cycle focusing in the aquarian archetype.

Aquarius at best connects with humanitarianism, how individuals can best contribute with the group, progress in a digital sense and acceleration of time (more?). As Jessica Murray said, we will be moving from materialism to idealism.

How is the best way that we, as individuals, can take responsibility in this process?

I think that the answers to some of these big questions could come up as we take advantage of this quarantine to do some soul searching rather than wallow in fear and panic.

What kind of society would you like to see manifesting, starting from your neighbourhood?!