Tag: horoscope

Daily Horoscopes – 21 July 2018

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My friend Jo Gleason put out a challenge on twitter for astrologers to write a daily horoscope column for 30 days, so I took her up on it—and I actually decided to start it a day before Leo season starts! I’m pumped to share these with you, and I hope that, whether they’re accurate or not, they prove to be useful food for your journey.

NB: Remember to read from your rising sign.

ARIES

The ever-present demands of your roots stymie a duty to put forth some new work into the world with a peculiar demand on your energy that you hadn’t quite anticipated. Allow yourself the grace to orient your outflow of energy in such a way that it contributes to going deeper with your existing creative commitments rather than insisting on always leading the charge. Such obstacles can’t be avoided, but they might prove to be the richest grist for the mill should you choose to embrace them.

TAURUS

Synergistic work with a treasured Other becomes the ground for mundane tensions as creative ecstasy dissipates into the very un-sexy questions about “well, who’s going to pay for it?” Indeed, you’re asked: who is the executive producer behind the Great Work you’ve set out to manifest today? And who’s writing the checks? As expansive and beautiful as your idea may be, the challenge arises from the fact that, at the end of the day, you have to eat.

GEMINI

For as much as you desire to enervate social circuitry with your effervescent presence, today demands that you attend to the amount you have to give. Your own ability to spark connection flags as your emotional—or financial—powers get caught up in the deep demands and deathly drudgery of the situations and structures you create for yourself, including the social ones. The challenge is not to be boxed in by the limitations of your own intentions but rather to leverage what already exists to strengthen existing connections to others and to yourself.

CANCER

Maintaining your shell becomes the point where the gears grind as a desire to dive deeper into your experience of joy brings you face-to-face with the awkward agreements that you’ve gotten yourself into through words spoken hastily. You’ve made a big promise, but have you written a check that you can’t cash? Lest you be exposed, consider carefully what it is that you have the ability to follow through on; that said, your heart was in the right place.

LEO

A friend has their eye on you and are your biggest asset, despite your insistence to the contrary. Meanwhile, your desire to set your own course may well hamstring you from accepting the gift they have to offer. Not every friend is a gift-bearing Greek, and you are asked today to consider deeply just how much those in orbit around you have contributed to the outrageous life you’ve lived so far, for your legacy is just as much their doing as it is your own.

VIRGO

The faithful ally is the one who sees you heading towards a cliff and grabs you by the scruff of your neck to stop you from plummeting into the abyss of your own making. Count yourself lucky when words come your way that might make you bristle: they are for your own good. You’ll let the voice of reason get a word in edgewise as you consider escape routes from situations that have been long in your own making, for it’s never been like you to charge headlong into unknown territory without all the facts. Do this and shine.

LIBRA

How do people see you? Whatever the answer, that answer is the handiest tool on your belt today as the question of public perception and where you’re headed in this one wild life pings off of your sometimes too-idealistic desire to see a world restored to beauty. It is, after all, your reputation that precedes you, and today is the day to whet the blade of peace for the great work that lies ahead, even when that great work becomes the source of your greatest disappointment. Peace is ever a process.

SCORPIO

There is always something to be learned in the vicissitudes that jolt us out of the deep-soul diving that has become as comfortable to you as an old recliner, and today that lesson might just be that you can’t do this alone. Pay attention to the way that your own desire to expand your heart by plunging your own depths butts up against the scintillating challenges posed by the people orbiting you and their various needs, for in meeting others in the space of tension you may find yourself with newfound cause to molt and grow.

SAGITTARIUS

Grief is the price we pay for love, and the invoice comes in today in deep and subtle ways as you realize how the demands of the people who count on you have shaped your behaviors and choices in ways not always authentic to who you are. Yet there is a deep joy in the griefs that love demands from us, and paying those debts can only make your heart grow larger, like the nights that now grow imperceptibly longer, opening the frontier for your dreams to carry you into new ways of loving.

CAPRICORN

For some holy and maddening reason, duty is your ideal, and today your very treasured Other might very well come up against the responsibilities you have to them. This tension might prove electric if you allow it to become the ground for duty to link arms with ideal once again in supporting your treasured Other in getting to wherever it is they dream of going but do be cautious of how much of their dream is yours to manage (lest you appropriate that dream for yourself at the expense of your own).

AQUARIUS

Do you allow your treasured Other to be part of raising whatever holy mischief you have generated for yourself, whether kids or otherwise? Your sense of diligence and obligation comes to bear in your career as the task in front of you requires a deep dive, leaving you unable to attend to other responsibilities, which can feel quite deathly to you. You’ve let nothing slide; duty has called you in a different direction. That being the case, help your Other help you; they’ve been wanting an opportunity to shine, so let them!

PISCES

A nascent dream to escape into some kind of creative fugue state will never come to be so long as you have your duty to home and to your extant partnerships pinning you down, and neither will an impulse to cross into parts unknown and adopt internationally—whether habits, customs, languages, or children—make you more comfortable with where you are. What resplendent grace does the gritty sacrament of the present moment have to offer you?

Interested in a personalized consultation for your unique astrological situation? Get in touch today!

Featured image by Jessica Ruscello.

The Sun-Saturn Opposition of 2018

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Once every year, the Sun opposes Saturn. This is, perhaps, one of the most intense possible aspects that we experience during the year’s cycle, simply because it is a conflict between giants. So, I want to suss out the story a bit; I’ve also written brief scopes for each of the rising signs too, as part of a warm-up to writing a daily column every day during Leo season later this year!

Oppositions are, as a rule, destructive; without any kind of intervention, they are always a deadlock, a stalemate, a blowout. Feelings get hurt and assumptions get shattered. Such is the nature of the aspect. Let’s look at the chart for the opposition that’s occupying all of our minds. It perfects (in Lexington) on Wednesday morning at 9:21am, which is about when I’ll be walking into work.

Screenshot 2018-06-25 15.24.27

I actually have a somewhat pressing conversation that I need to have with someone in a sixth house position about a fifth house matter and honestly I may need to wait for this aspect to start separating before I talk to them. Why? The Sun is transiting the back end of my fifth house and is coming up on my sixth cusp. I am in a sixth house year. The conversation I need to have is going to be somewhat touchy, and I really don’t want the energy of that opposition spoiling it. If there were any aspects from benefics touching either planet, I could be a little less tense about it, but there aren’t any aspects from the benefics (Jupiter or Venus) that are intervening to ameliorate the situation. We would see that if Venus were translating light from one planet to the other, or if Jupiter was collecting light from a Rx Saturn and the Sun.

Now, the Sun is applying to Saturn and Saturn to the Sun, since Saturn is Rx here. So both parties are moving toward each other to the point of engagement, yet the Sun is not on his own turf while Saturn is. The Sun is also representing the agenda of the Moon here, which is antithetical to Saturn’s purposes. This is because the Sun is placed in Cancer at the moment of the opposition. Saturn sees this touchy-feely Sun coming at him and shuts off completely.

He owes the Sun *nothing*. He will not hear what the Sun has to say. Whatever interests are represented by the Sun—since Leo is rising in this chart, it would be the interests of the individual approaching a situation—will be flat denied. Saturn has everything he needs where he is, being in Capricorn, though he is moving backwards and so there is a sense to which he is meeting the Sun for the express purpose of being able to say “no” to the Sun’s interests and intents.

But there’s a part two to this story that needs to be brought into consideration: the *very* next thing that happens is the conjunction of the Moon with Saturn, later in the day (11:33pm in Lexington).

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This is an interesting turn of events, because the Moon is approaching Saturn from Saturn’s home turf of Capricorn, that is, the Moon is representing Saturn’s interests as she seeks counsel from him, and Saturn has an obligation to be irenic toward her. This is a change of the story if we’re focusing not on what the Sun was trying to accomplish, but rather what the Moon was trying to accomplish all along. The Sun was representing her interests and doing kind of a bad job at it, so she has to go into “enemy territory” and take care of business herself. Here’s the chart for the Moon-Saturn conjunction (which will be great to watch in real time if the weather cooperates!)

I’m not going to go into too much detail here, but as a rule, whatever conflict emerges at the time of the opposition will see some kind of resolution as the Moon brings her counsel to Saturn in his own turf. It’s not going to be all sunshine and rainbows (we’re still talking Saturn here), but when there is this kind of reception, we see things go quite a bit more smoothly. Imagine if this were the chart of a relationship question: we would be able to give quite a positive report in this instance.

All that said, here are the horoscopes for this opposition for each of the rising signs! I had a blast writing these. You can read for your sun sign, but it’s always best to read for your ascendant (also known as your rising sign).

* * *

Aries: Things go off the rails when you fail to see eye to eye with an otherwise reliable creative collaborator; they’re completely under the thumb of their responsibilities and aren’t in a position to take on any new endeavors, regardless of how exciting or close to your soul they seem to you. Brace for impact.

Taurus: Emotions run high as a visit with family erupts into an all-out brawl when your folks can’t quite understand how your horizons have expanded as you’ve come into your own. The cosmos is screaming at you for you to learn how to set some boundaries and, perhaps, to set some boundaries with family. Stay the course, steady Taurus: this isn’t the first fight you’ve had with them and it won’t be the last.

Gemini: Today’s not the day to be doing any negotiating with credit card companies, bill collectors, or the tax man. Any attempt to communicate, negotiate, or asking for an extension on a late bill will meet swift and terrible denial, and your emotional appeals will fall on stopped ears. How’d you get yourself in this situation in the first place? Present the facts and make a plan if you want any shot of being heard.

Cancer: Tempers might flare today as your earnest appeal to a trusted partner for assistance, financial or otherwise, meets with flat rejection. It’s not that they can’t help, it’s that… they don’t want to help. They see your emotional appeal coming a mile away and would much rather deal with the facts of the situation and pay only the dues that they owe, no more and no less. They’re not going to do your emotional labor for you. The story will change once you’re able to see things from their perspective later today.

Leo: Today is a day to take a nap and retreat, dear Leo. As much as you want to shine brightly, you’ll find yourself tempted to put far too much of yourself out there in order to attract people to your radiant causes—which cause is you!—yet you’ll just end up hamstringing yourself, inviting nothing but torpor and headache at the end of the day. Save your strength; it’ll serve you better soon.

Virgo: Friends come calling to take you away for a time of rest, rejuvenation, and retreat, but as desperately as you dream of a time to focus on yourself, your responsibilities will hear nothing of it and continue to call you back to work—doubly so if you have children or if you work with them. Game the system by learning to find respite and retreat along the way—perhaps a story hour might be the best thing for you.

Libra: Your hopes for a promising transition in your career come tumbling down to earth when the tension between your inner vision and your outer realities erupts to the surface. “The way it’s always been” draws a hard line around “the way things could be,” and you’re faced with the need to rebound and regroup after catching your breath from an unexpected impact. For femme folk especially, the glass ceiling seems to be bulletproof today.

Scorpio: A brilliant, expansive vision of your life’s work “as it should be” has been echoing in your heart, yet as you begin to share that vision with others, you’ll quickly find that the folks you are sharing this vision with are quite content for everything to stay the same, thank-you-very-much—especially if those folks happen to be blood relatives. “Beware of casting your pearls before swine,” even though the swine in question have all your best interests in mind—but it’s their version of your best interest all the same.

Sagittarius: A distant association comes calling today with a poorly veiled attempt to take advantage of your natural generosity by getting something out of you, financial or otherwise. They have no intention for an equitable exchange, and they’ve gotten used to your willingness to help out—but, for once, the word “no” might well escape your lips for the first time in too long! Be gentle as you send them on their way; you’ll find your boundaries around your resources unusually easy to maintain today.

Capricorn: Don’t be surprised if a precipitous conflict erupts in a close partnership or covenanted collaboration today about your level of investment in the relationship. It’s been brewing for some time, but you’ll find that you’re fully in control of your reaction to what’s emerging the dynamic tension between you two (they, much less so). You’ll be speaking in facts and figures; they’ll be speaking in feelings and gestures. Let it lie; no agreement will be reached today. Hope is not lost; a third party steps in to intervene later on to translate your partner’s needs for you.

Aquarius: As much as you’d desperately like to attend to the ever-growing pileup of responsibilities that your dutiful soul has seemed to accumulate for yourself, nothing will get done today because your very body seems to be screaming for respite. There is a deep magic in not trying so hard, because to do so will only turn up the volume of whatever “I’m worthless” tape is in your internal tape deck today. Retreat and rest demands to win today, and it must, dear Aquarius. The gentle attentiveness you will need to do your part in healing yourself and healing the world will arrive soon enough.

Pisces: Allow yourself to be surprised by an ability to say “no” to the demands of pleasure that you’ve gotten yourself tangled up with. Securing your inner world through self-medication only goes so far; today, your duty is to name what it is you really want and to let that hope be your guiding star, as opposed to falling asleep—once again—to the harsh light of reality.

Featured image courtesy of NASA/JPLS/Space Science Institute, reproduced here as fair use.

On Uranus in Taurus

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A lot of folks seem to be worrying the Uranus Taurus ingress to death. With these outer planet transits and ingresses, we expect big things to occur on the world stage. Uranus’ trips through Taurus have a way of coinciding with major shake-ups to the foundations of society; his last transit of Taurus lined up with that weird and worrisome period between the Great Depression and the outbreak of World War II. But bear in mind that Uranus in Taurus was not the only thing happening at that time.

What I want to make clear here is that Uranus’ property is not to create geopolitical crises. His property is to disrupt such that it forces adaptation. Uranus qua Uranus is the crisis waiting to happen, the precipitating factor, the change agent.

There’s a reason that a number of astrologers are starting to refer to this planet as Prometheus. In his myth, Prometheus steals fire from the gods as a boon for humanity, but then humanity still has to adjust to the new reality that having access to fire engenders for everyone. All Prometheus did was say, “here you go, now deal with it.”

Uranus queers–that is, Uranus makes things weird. Honestly, I need more astrologers to be talking about Uranus power to queer. Whichever house cusp Taurus lies on in your chart will be queered with this ingress.

Consider what it is that the Fab Five do on any episode of Queer Eye: they come in unexpectedly, rumble around a man’s entire wardrobe, living space, grooming, pantry, and confidence, leaving no matter untouched. And the men whose lives they impact, though they are completely unsettled and jostled around by this process, come out on the other side for the better.

Uranus will draw the elements and qualities of all that which is on the outside, the margins, the unexpected—”All things counter, original, spare, strange; / Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) / With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;” to quote Hopkins—right to the center, where it will demand adaptation. The power of the Fab Five is not that they come in and teach a man how to wear pants that fit; they teach a man how to make manifest his divine dignity by uprooting his comfort, his ugly-ass dad sneakers, and addressing the emotional baggage that caused that man to become stuck and fixed in the first place. In other words, Uranus will be the sand in the particular oyster that Taurus represents in your chart, as he always is and always does. She ain’t give a damn, hennie.

That’s the gift of queerness. We exist on the margins and when we draw the margins to the center through our presence, we create an adaptive crisis for the status quo. For me, Uranus was transiting my third whole sign house (second Placidus) and so much of the last seven years was about queering my relationship with traditional religion, which is now my day job—as well as learning how to talk about my own queerness and communicate it. There were any number of crisis points on the way that played into the whole theme (which I won’t list here), but looking back, I have a clear view of what it was that Uranus was doing in my life over the last seven years.

This goes to show that even though the precipitating crises Uranus instigates might be tied to specific events, those are amplified points of the overall theme of the transit. Is Uranus hitting favorable aspects to planets in your chart? Be ready for boons you aren’t expecting that still require you to adjust. Squares or oppositions? The same, but those will be tougher.

Regardless of the quality of the transits themselves, whether we experience them as positive of negative, we still have to be flexible, and each of the specific contacts between Uranus and other planets play into the overall story of this transit.

And we can sit around and speculate, but all the while, Uranus transits are by their very nature unpredictable. We can refine the possible manifestations of a Uranus transit by looking at our charts, but ultimately, the odds are that we won’t be able to nail down exactly what it’ll be until after the fact.

Worrying possible transits to death will make you rigid, and rigid can’t deal with Uranus. Better to bend than to break. So, friends, meet Uranus’ transits to your Taurus-placed house with Taurus’ cool head and patience. Think more Ferdinand under his cork tree, less rage-blinded animal charging at a toreador.

So I ask: what are the things that hold you to the ground? What is it that gives you a sense of stability and fixity? What are the material things with which you surround yourself in order to feel a sense of pleasure and peace? Uranus’ transit through Taurus is going to ask you to reevaluate anything that you would root yourself in, and that question is not going to come in the form of a gentle “have you considered this,” but rather, “oh by the way, your house is on fire and your investments are all over the place and your paycheck is screaming and your food is killing you and eat a vegetable and prom’s tomorrow!!”

So, as always, be prepared.

If you’re ready for a given area to be jostled in your life, if you can roll with the punches, if you can abide—and participate in—Uranus messing with all of your stuff, you’ll come out on the other side a reformed person. For our society, so rooted as it is in our relationship with money, this might necessarily mean some unprecedented shifts. And for each of us on our own, Uranus will come wheeling into whichever house Taurus is on and—as Prometheus did in the myths of ages past—hand us something fiery like “universal healthcare” or “cryptocurrency” or “food justice” and say, “well, here you go. Let’s zhuzh it a little.”

On Taurus

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The Sun is now well into Taurus! So put on your sweatpants, grab a pint and a pizza, and settle in as we explore the meaning behind one of everyone’s favorite signs.

The three keys to understanding any sign are its element, its modality, and the planets that have dignity or debility there. Taurus is an earth sign, a fixed sign, and is the domicile of Venus, the exalted seat of the Moon, and the detriment of Mars. The fertile environment of Taurus is made so by its fixity and earthiness, as well as by the planets that have the most dignity here: Venus and the Moon. Venus rules Taurus; it is her nocturnal house, where she retires to re-energize for her work.

Comfort, luxury, pleasure, indulgence are the name of the game for planets expressing their energies through Taurus; their agenda is set by Venus and all of her natural rulerships. If a planet is able to go along with LUSH writ large, they do better here.

People born with their Sun in Taurus are people who understand their purpose in life to be associated with Venus’ pursuits: peace, beauty, luxury, harmony, enjoyment, and pleasure. The same is true of people with their Sun in Libra; however, since Taurus is an earth sign and a fixed sign, the Solar purpose expressed through Taurus can be described as maintaining the status quo in terms of relating to the material world. Because of that, and due to Venus’ rulership, who naturally rules material wealth, Taurus has close associations with finance and the material “stuff” of our life, to include commodities.

NB: Don’t confuse Taurus and the second house (which also deals with resources, money, and material things)! They are similar, but not ultimately related.

The stereotype of people with Taurus suns as “lazy” is somewhat rooted in reality, given Taurus’ affinity for relaxation and enjoyment, as well as its fixity and stubbornness. Yet Taurus suns can be incredibly hard workers—fixity and stubbornness, after all. But Taurus’ ability to work hard is best applied to Venerian and Lunar endeavors. The cultivation of peace, beauty, and emotional intimacy is something that Taurus suns find as part of their understanding of their purpose in the world.

That “peace” is not the same kind of empathic peace that Libra strives for (Venus’ diurnal sign); peace in Libra is about unity of minds, a morally and ethically just peace (Saturn’s exaltation). The peace for which Venus strives in Taurus is, instead, the idea of “shalom,” the idea of material wholeness: “Everyone under their own olive tree.” No one lacks for anything material. (Remember this when Uranus enters Taurus this year.) Likewise, the Moon is exalted in Taurus and so the peace for which well-adjusted Taurus suns strive finds its strength in emotional intimacy and connection. The Moon here leans on Venus’ power to unite.

Remember too that lunar placements indicate the direction we go when we encounter stress, as well as the way forward in responding to stress in a healthy way. Taurus Moons will attempt to numb themselves with too much pleasure when they are stressed; that is, the Moon will take too much out of Venus’ refrigerator when she encounters stress in Taurus and drink herself into a luxurious, lazy stupor instead of doing the hard Mars work of confronting stress.

Meanwhile, Taurus’ lushness demands fixity and stability because Mars is in detriment here. It demands slowness, and if a planet cannot relate with slowness or with luxury, it will not do as well here (cf. Mars).

Fleet-footed Mercury is peregrine for the second half of the sign; he has a little bit of dignity by either term or face for the first half of the sign, but Taurus’ fixity is not something that comports with Mercury’s shifting nature.

So what about a Mars in Taurus placement? Mars in Taurus is an anger that falls asleep to itself, that does not find expression until something triggers it and it explodes in bullish force, leveling everything in its path and shocking everyone who witnesses it. “How could someone so easygoing have such a bad temper out of nowhere?” Taurus Mars stuns everyone when he awakes; he must have an outlet. Taurus’ physicality gives a ready way forward—anything that routes energy and emotion through the body in a controlled and appropriate expression is a great way for Taurus Mars individuals to work off their anger.

Interestingly, Jupiter has dignity only by term for a small portion of Taurus and otherwise has no dignity throughout the sign, despite Jupiter’s friendliness toward Venus. While Jupiter enjoys pleasure and luxury too, Jupiter’s restless search for truth and expansion of its boundaries does not necessarily comport with Taurus’ comfort with the status quo. Folks with Jupiter in Taurus placements likely have a propensity to overindulge in Taurean pursuits and often attach spiritual or philosophical principles to material possessions. “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” Defining one’s spiritual worth based on their material possessions is a risk for any Jupiter in an earth sign placement, Taurus included. “One cannot serve both God and Mammon.”

Of the earth signs, however, Taurus is the best place for Jupiter to be, as he is in his detriment in Virgo and his fall in Capricorn. This is because Jupiter, at the very least, can connect with Venus’ idea of “shalom” and turn that into an ethical principle for living. Interestingly too, Saturn has a similar “cordial acquaintance” with Taurus as well, being peregrine for two thirds of the sign. The collection of people born with Taurus in Saturn will find themselves encountering limits and obstacles as they relate with the matters that Venus rules from here: money, economic power, resources, commodities. Saturn always demands rightness of relationship and that we carry only that which is ours to carry—finance inclusive.

Cover photo by Nicolai Durbaum

Horary Adventures: Can He Grow?

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A client wrote to me earlier this month with the following query regarding her partner of several months. As they were approaching the first Sun square of their nascent relationship, naturally conflicts and questions about quality and trajectory had begun to arise.

The client noted that, while the Quesited, who is on the tail end of a somewhat recent divorce, was quite capable of being a boyfriend, she is more in need of a partner in the deepest sense of that word, and suspected that he has the capacity to become one but the level of work that he will need to do in order to become so is manifold. The client likewise explained that she and her partner had an open relationship, but there was some tacit disagreement between them as to where the line between consensual openness and infidelity lay. The Quesited was giving her radio silence at the time of the question.

Her question, which I have truncated for brevity’s sake, is thus:

Is he able to heal fast enough (so I don’t get burned out trying to fix my triggers all on my own) and level up to the communication/level of presence I need, or do I need to rule him out as serious partner material for a while until he’s recovered himself post-divorce?

The chart is drawn for 8:29PM on January 7th, 2018, in Lexington, Kentucky.

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My response was thus:

“I’m glad I don’t have to write another “dump his ass” judgment, and, I’m really glad this particular chart is extremely easy to read. The symbolism is all clear.”

The Querent is represented by the Sun, at 17 degrees Capricorn in the 5th house. The Quesited is represented by Saturn, at 2 degrees Capricorn, also in the 5th house. The Sun presages a mature woman with light hair, full of body, robust, and of ruddy complexion, confident, humane, and deliberate at risk of haughtiness or being overbearing or demanding. Likewise Saturn: the Quesited is older than the Querent, with long and dark hair, pale, with a broad and high forehead, someone of patience and responsibility but with a share of discontent or emotional repression.

Now, there is no aspect joining these two planets at the moment, but they are in the same sign, and as a matter of fact the Sun is in the sign of Saturn so Saturn is setting his agenda for him while he is there. As this is not a “will we get together” question I am less concerned about finding a contact point.

I identified that the Querent felt, for better or for worse, at the mercy of the Quesited’s emotive state in the midst of this question. However, the Sun is peregrine where he is in Capricorn, meaning that he doesn’t have the ability to shine as brightly or act as clearly as he would normally. Likewise, the Querent doesn’t quite know what to do right now and feels like she’s floundering. A peregrine Sun is not a good place to be making final decisions from.

Saturn (the Quesited) on the other hand, is in his element in Capricorn; he is in a sign of structure and discipline and slow growth through boundary setting and rigor, which are all things that Saturn presages. However, Saturn has only just come home to Capricorn over the last couple of weeks, and we see in the chart that he is still freshly there.

Saturn has everything he could possibly need right now, but it’s as though he’s just walked in the door from a hellacious trip and is still standing in the foyer taking his boots off and getting his coat hung up and his shit put together so that he can be home and enjoy it. I reminded my client: you know what Saturn is bad at sometimes? Communicating. But you know what Saturn is really good at, when he has space and time to do so in his own sign of Capricorn? Embodying maturity.

Venus is applying by conjunction to the Sun. She is a planet of healing and peacemaking, but I notice that she also is coming between the Sun and Saturn. Saturn sees this and thinks, “hmm, well, the Sun’s not as accessible because Venus is in the way.” The Querent had mentioned an issue surrounding the openness in their relationship having happened on the 28th of December and the superior Venus/Sun conjunction speaks to this.

The Querent did not consider her actions to be unfaithful within the boundaries they had set for openness in their relationship; in fact, Venus in this position is extremely weak as she is fully consumed in the Sun, so the Querent has more of a solid handle on the situation, but from Saturn’s perspective, all he can see is the Sun consuming Venus in fire and wondering if the Querent do that to him too.

It’s as though Saturn has walked into his own house to see this whole situation unfolding and he’s wondering what the hell is going on. Pluto is right there, too, and, while we don’t read a lot into Pluto in traditional horary, his presence is worth noting—he is the bringer of deep and irreversible change. Let the reader beware.

Another prominent thing I see when I look at this chart is the newly-separating conjunction of Mars and Jupiter being directly on the cusp of the fourth house in Scorpio, which is very much a sort of deep “real talk” energy, the kind that brings epiphanies and healing — although not necessarily easy epiphanies and healing. This energy is coloring the entire chart because of the strong position of these two powerhouses.

The Sun is applying by sextile to both of those planets at the moment of the chart, and Mars is more like to receive him than Jupiter — there’s a sense to which the Querent’s approach to this question is much more conflicted than necessarily needs to be, and Mars is receiving the Sun’s energy and running with it, sowing conflict at home. Jupiter’s beneficence can’t shine as brightly in Scorpio so the penetrating conversations which the Querent’s thoughts and actions are leading into with the Quesited are going to have a more Martial feel—conflictual, even if they are not actually conflict.

Now, let’s look at the Moon: she is in Libra, the sign of Saturn’s exaltation, and has recently pinged him with a tense square aspect. This is another testimony to the Querent’s recent interactions with the Quesited having been cause for concern; she feels so strongly about him and he is ready to have her, but he hasn’t been as able to give her what she needs because he has been in a place of debility, as I mentioned.

The next thing the Moon will do, before she leaves Libra, is to hit Venus and the Sun with a square aspect as well, meaning there will probably be a couple more pings of conflict over the next couple of days (even if they are just internalized conflicts). After that, she will cross over into Scorpio, passing the newly separated Jupiter and Mars in a few days. At that point she’ll be tying the energies of Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and the Sun all together, making for a powerful time to have a conversation that, I think, will ultimately be about healing.

The other thing to mention about this chart is that the whole pileup of Sun, Venus, and Saturn, while they are in the Querent’s fifth house, are placed in the Quesited’s turned 11th house, which is associated with hopes, dreams, restoration, healing, and growth.

Here’s the skinny: in my estimation, the Quesited is 5000% percent able to mature to the level the Querent needs him to be, but he will likely not be able to mature on her timeframe because he is represented by Saturn, who is the slowest of visible planets and who does not do anything unless it’s worth taking a long time to do. 

I advised the Querent, if she valued his partnership, to utilize the energy of the next couple of days not to set ultimatums with him but instead to have some heart-to-heart conversations about the things she needs in a true partnership with him. It’s as though the Cosmos is asking her to step up to an elevated level of commitment with him, and saying “I’ll walk with you through the next few steps,” while it’s not marriage, might be the level of commitment that would help him grow in such a way as to enable both of them to be the best versions of themselves in partnership.

The Querent contacted me several hours after I sent her the judgment (at about 11:39PM local time) to inform me that she had just had a lengthy conversation with the Quesited that ameliorated many of the issues that had been raised, if not totally resolving them, and she mentioned that the Quesited had done a lot of emotional work during his period of radio silence and thanked her for provoking him into doing the work and asking for what she needed. I’m excited to follow up with her and see how this is continuing to unfold!

This judgment was shared with the permission of the Querent.