Tag: pisces

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The Sun in Sidereal Astrology

This is a post about the Sun in sidereal astrology. It originally appeared as a thread of tweets on Twitter.

The Sun as a golden fiery ball of gas

There are 3 primary ways to understand the function of a planet in a natal (birth) chart. And I believe they go in this order:

  1. As representative of people in your life;
  2. As experiences or events at particular times;
  3. As aspects of your becoming, rooted in 1# & #2.

Free Will & Astrology Aren’t Good Friends

Modern astrology often avoids, derides, or out right denounces predictive astrology. But that’s because modern astrology doesn’t possess the tools to be adept at predictive astrology. Plus, it’s predicated on free will which is NOT the philosophical roots of astrology at all. If you’ve followed me for awhile you’ll know that I believe we have very limited freedom of will. And I believe that free will is a tool of oppression. But that’s another conversation for another time.

The focus on individual will as opposed to a more collectivist worldview has framed the sign of the Sun in a natal chart as the most important and central part of a person’s astrological make up. This is unfortunate.

Which You is the Real You

Anyone born within the same season (30 +/- day period) as you has their natal Sun in the same sign as you. Let’s borrow from Chinese astrology to understand what a season is and how it relates to the natal Sun’s sign.

In Chinese astrology, the season of birth which is the month of birth, is important. However, that season serves as a context for the day of birth. This is like the relationship between the Sun and the moon. The Moon being the day, the Sun being the month. The season/month of birth generally defines the level of support the day master/day element has. Specifically it represents the parents, family, home and upbringing.

Now, if we translate this back to western astrology, we’ll see that the Moon is the identifying factor in a natal chart as it takes 2 days to transit a sign (as opposed to 30 days for the Sun). A person born in the same season as you (30 day period of the same Sun sign) has to be born within the same 2 day period as you in order to have the same Sun and Moon sign. Conceptually this helps us to understand that the Sun in the natal chart is not a unique identifying factor for an individual. I know this goes contrary to everything you’ve learned, but you must unlearn it.

I’m going to offer some philosophical concepts to help you better understand the Sun in astrology. Then I’ll offer some basic significations. The latter will be a result of the former.

Have You  Ever Seen the Sun?

Look at the picture of the Sun that I used to begin this blog post. Have you ever turned your head towards the sky and observed the Sun appearing this way? How does the Sun appear to your eye? Have you ever seen it as it is? A simpler question: What does the Sun look like?

All that we see with our eyes is because of the light of the Sun. Objects absorb & reflect certain wavelengths of light providing the appearance of colors. Yet we can’t perceive this light as it is. Google quantum physics & explanations of light and matter, have your mind blown.

The primary way that we perceive the light of the Sun is via the Moon. The Moon reflects different amounts of the Sun’s light at cyclical intervals based on the spacial relationship between the Moon, Earth, and Sun.

In astrology the Sun is the mind, sight, and perception. You cannot see the mind. You cannot see sight. And you cannot perceive perception. Much like you cannot take your eyes out of your head and look at them. The very nature of the mind and perception is that you cannot turn it back on itself to see it. Just like you cannot see the Sun as it truly is, you cannot see the mind.

The Sun is the light that illuminates allowing perception. It’s consciousness, and the lens through which you see yourself—not your physical body, but the concept of yourself held in your mind. The Sun is the concept of your self, the idea of who you are that you project into the world, and that you seek to see reflected back to you.

There is no you without your body. When there is no body, there is only the idea of you which is different in everyone’s mind. What is the body in astrology? It’s the Moon. And we know that the Moon is about family, mother, your home, your tribe. It’s the social and physical means by which you come into being.

Identity is a funny thing. Social science and philosophy ask and attempt to answer questions about how identity is formed. We know that identity is formed in society/social setting.

You and the concept/idea of who you are (SUN) comes into being via your body, your mother, your tribe, your family, society (MOON). There is no you without things.

Going back to my comparison to Chinese astrology, it’s clear that in a hierarchy of planets and points that most uniquely identify you and your life, it is the Moon and it’s relationship to the Sun that gives a complete and unique picture. This is why I see astrology as a social science and a tool of divination. It very clearly articulates the nature of human life, the self, and how it comes into being.

But, if you believe that who you are is something that exists in this rigid form, separate from your relationships, family, and society, rather than emerging from those things, then of course you think that the Sun is the most important planet in the natal chart.

The Sun as a Gear of Time

The Sun is the father, significant men, and authority figures. It is your mind, the concept of how you perceive your self, the lens through which your mind perceives the world around you. The Sun is how you think of yourself, yet it says nothing of who you are and what you do out in the world.

The Sun says nothing of how others see you. No one can see your mind, and you can’t see theirs either. It says nothing of how you function and the roles you play in life. Implied here is that your self concept/idea of yourself is formed and reinforced by your body, your family and upbringing, your tribe, and the society in which you come up.

The very 1st time the Sun returns to the position where it was when you were born, there have been 13 Moons/lunations. That’s 13 cycles of New & Full Moons, 365+/- circadian cycles of sleeping and waking. If the Moon is the body, this is 13 cycles of nourishing and nurturing that body.

At that time you answer to your name, and you have come to understand whether or not needs you have and express will be fulfilled. Will someone answer when you cry? Do you experience familiar smells and sights? Is your world one of plenty or lack? Are you touched and played with?

All of these things have to do with the body. And the orientation of your body to the world around you and the people in it are what forms the first ideas of who you are. This is the relationship between the Moon and the Sun in your natal chart: how is the idea/concept of yourself formed?

You have no identity when you are born. You have no idea or concept of a self or who you are. It is something that develops over time. And every time the Sun comes back to the sign and degree where it is in your natal chart, you enter a new season of becoming aware of this self. That time is around your birthday each year and we call the chart cast for that moment your solar return.

The season of your birth, the Sun sign in your natal chart, is indicative of the outer world circumstances in which you were born. It is a transiting moment of time for your mother as well. And what is the mother, the Moon in your natal chart.

Wrap your mind around that!

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Mutable Madness! March & April 2018

Mutable Signs, it’s your turn to get that work!

Back in August 2017, in the midst of a deluge of transits in fixed signs, I was looking ahead to now, Spring 2018. It was clear to me then that while Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius where getting that work , the mutable signs would get their chance in due time.

What is mutable, anyway?

Mutable signs are also called bicorporeal—Gemini as the twins, Sagittarius half man and half centaur, and Pisces as two fish. Virgo is the only sign where the constellation for which it was named does not meet this qualification. Still, bicorporeal means taking two forms or having two bodies. Conceptually, this correlates to the theme of the mutable signs. Mutable signs are able to change form and adapt to new information. When your Sun is in a mutable sign your self concept changes based on information encounter and experiences you have.

Mercury and Jupiter as commanding authorities of the Mutable signs tells us much about what these signs mean. Essentially, Mercury is language, symbols, tools, and brotherhood; and Jupiter is meaning, myth, purpose, and friendship. Gemini and Virgo are under Mercury’s command, and Sagittarius and Pisces are under Jupiter.

Of the mutable signs we come to understand:

  • How one knows what they know;
  • What tools are used to complete tasks; and
  • How to interpret what is articulated via language and other symbols.

This is the realm of Mercury and Jupiter. Mercury as Gemini is information. Mercury as Virgo is provable facts. Jupiter as Sagittarius is kinesthetic experience. Jupiter as Pisces intuitive experience.

Do you have mutable signs prominent in your sidereal birth chart? Use this guide to cast your sidereal birth chart to find out.

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Mercury Rx in Pisces 2018: Anchored at Sea

All transits calculated using the sidereal zodiac. Use this guide to cast your sidereal birth chart and see if any planets have changed sign. And if you’re ready to learn how to understand the changes, check out an Introduction to Sidereal Astrology.

Yes, you read that correctly. We’ve reached our 2nd of 4 Mercury retrogrades this year. Mercury takes a trip in reverse 3 or 4 times each year. This year we get 4 for our pleasure.

Mercury will travel from 10°-22° Pisces between March 8 and May 3. Mercury normally spends 3-4 weeks in each sign, but it will spend about 8 weeks in Pisces due to this retrograde.

Important dates to note for Mercury Retrograde during March and April 2018

PISCES

When planets are in Pisces they are under the command of Jupiter, they must undertake their tasks and execute their agendas with reverence to:

  • Escaping the confines of identity;
  • Transcending the awareness that defines the way one experiences and sees the world;
  • Shedding the uniquely identifying aspects of the persona
  • Disregarding the biases of perception in order to merge with something bigger and greater;
  • Surrendering one’s individual will to the Divine Will.

With Pisces somewhere in all of our charts, we each have an urge to give ourselves over to an experience that overrides our own will and desires. We want our feelings to have purpose greater than self gratification and emotional satisfaction. We want our actions to further a cause larger than what can be encompassed within our own lives and lifespan. And so, we craft narratives that contextualize our feelings and give them the power to devour our self serving predilections. We make our feelings holy, our desires sacred.

MERCURY IN PISCES

In Pisces, Mercury is a land bound creature anchored at sea. It prefers the evidential and predictable paths of Virgo, or the height and breadth of airy Gemini’s way. Instead, words swim like jellyfish shifting in and out of schools when they’d rather come together like a gaggle of geese and take flight.

Language is a tool meant to confer meaning. Words are ideas, symbols in place of the object or person to which it’s meant to refer. And symbols are tangible in the sense that we can grasp onto them (their function and meaning) in predictable ways. Yet, in Pisces these symbols can be a confining prison to the meaning one intends to convey in their use. They can also be an exercise in improvisation and possibility as we fashion a variety of ways to use them.

Those are excellent concepts to consider during this retrograde—improvisation and possibility. How shall you re-fashion the tools you possess in order to work with the medium at hand? You must improvise and explore the possibilities.

Of course, with everything in life, nothing is simple or straightforward. So, it is here where we meet the complexity of this Mercury retrograde.

PISCES SQUARE SAGITTARIUS

The most recent Mercury retrograde was also in a Jupiter commanded sign, but it was fiery rather than wet. During that retrograde, Mercury in Sagittarius made 3 separate conjunctions with Saturn in Sagittarius.

Now, Mercury in Pisces will make 3 separate squares with Saturn in Sagittarius.

  1. 13° Pisces/Sagittarius – March 11
  2. 15° Pisces/Sagittarius – April 4
  3. 15° Pisces/Sagittarius – April 25

How do water and fire coexist without destroying each other? Fire is kept in check by water, and water is warmed, inspired, by the heat of fire. Action is checked by consequences, and feelings are aroused by passion.

Still, this is a square. And squares bring conflict. Pisces insists that knowledge needs no evidence and wisdom needs no experience. But Sagittarius thrives on action. Knowledge comes by doing, and wisdom is a process of distillation. Mercury in Pisces via its multiple squares to Saturn in Sagittarius magnifies this conflict.

How shall we articulate the embodied, intuitive knowings of Mercury in Pisces when Saturn in Sagittarius demands we make our lives a living testimony of what we say we believe? It’s not enough to feel it, we must do it. And if you say it, does that mean it’s true? Compassion will help manage the compulsion to do. Sometimes, you’ve got to let that compulsion pass.

But yes, improvise with the possibilities. The convictions we swear to demand our time, energy, money, and other resources. Of all the possibilities and forms circumstances can take, which ones allow us to make our lives a living testimony of what we believe?

Both Mercury and Saturn will be under the command of Jupiter in Libra. And so their agendas are secondary to that which Jupiter in Libra says they must undertake.

UNDER THE COMMAND OF JUPITER IN LIBRA

Jupiter in Libra has been crystal clear about its focus. Libra’s rationality, nuance, and objectivity can find the common ground between even the most disparate people and things. It enforces reconciliation. And so equality, fairness, and justice are shining emblems of Jupiter’s transit through the sign. Additionally, Jupiter being in a Venus commanded sign means that this trend is under the command of women, as Venus is a general significator for women.

It seems that despite Mercury and Saturn’s differences they both are working for the equality, justice, and fairness that Jupiter has commanded since September 11, 2017. Mercury articulates knowings that need no evidence to be true for the sake of justice, fairness, and equality. And Saturn works within the confines of social, political, and moral convictions for that same cause. It’s time to get righteous!

Schedule a tarot or astrology reading.

 

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The People’s Weekly Forecast – October 2, 2017

This week’s main events are Venus and Mars in Leo, and the Full Moon in Pisces. They both perfect midday Thursday October 5, but will be building all week. Configurations (aspects) between planets are most effectual when they are applying, before the become exact. That applies to New and Full Moons as well as this week’s Venus-Mars conjunction.

As the Venus-Mars aspect is applying, the Moon will play facilitator, translating the light of one planet to the other. Let’s break this week down day by day.

The People's Weekly Forecast by Dayna Lynn Nuckolls, October 5, 2017-October 8, 2017

Continue reading “The People’s Weekly Forecast – October 2, 2017”

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Venus Retrograde 2017

Venus retrograde occurs in the same sign every 8 years. Venus retrograde in sidereal Pisces occurred in 2009, 2001, 1993, 1985, 1977, etc. The last time Venus was retrograde was in Cancer in 2015.

All of the signs and placements of transits in this post are calculated using the sidereal zodiac, lahiri ayanamsa. Please use this guide to create your sidereal chart so that you can follow along.

Venus Rx in Sidereal Pisces - @PeoplesOracle

On Venus

Venus is the magnet that draws that which is separate together. It’s our drive to unify with another and others. Venus is how we come to consensus. Its sign placement tells the story of what attracts us to another and what attracts others to us. Venus is love, pleasure, sex, creativity, relationships, us/we, social status, aesthetics, art, music.

Looking to the ruler of the sign where Venus is retrograde can fill in the color where black and white explanations fall short. In Pisces she is exalted, ruled by Jupiter.

In a Jupiter ruled sign, Venus answers to our sense of generosity, integrity, and abundance of heart. Venus in Pisces doesn’t seek pleasure for the sake of satisfaction. It seeks an emotional consensus for the sake of the unity of people, things, and ideas. Sometimes that does have a sacrificial air to it, but Jupiter’s sign placement gives context.

Dates

The wisdom available via astrology is about the cycles they illuminate for us. As planets pass over certain points in the zodiac at their appointed times, they carve a story of significance in our lives.

As I shared in the weekly astrology post Mars has been leading the charge ahead being the first planet to move through each sign this year.

  • January 20, 2017 – Mars entered Pisces, the day of the US Presidential inauguration
  • January 23, 2017 – Mars reached the degree of where Venus will station direct, 2 Pisces
  • February 15, 2017 – Mars reached the degree where Venus will station retrograde, 19 Pisces

These dates bookend the preface to your Venus Rx story. You can think of the things that happened then as a preface. The changes and events of that time period set you up for the next 6 weeks of the Venus retrograde.

These are the dates for Venus’ retrograde cycle for 2017:

  • January 29, 2017, 2 Pisces – Venus enter its retrograde shadow
  • March 7, 2017, 19 Pisces – Venus is stationary retrograde
  • April 15, 2017, 2 Pisces – Venus is stationary direct
  • May 19, 2017, 19 Pisces – Venus leaves its retrograde shadow

Venus Retrograde 2009

March 8, 2009 Venus stationed retrograde at 21 Pisces. Venus stationed direct at 5 Pisces on April 18, 2009. That year was the last time we had the opportunity to get intimate with Venus as she carved a narrative and illuminated lessons in the Pisces area of our charts.

In 2009, Jupiter was in Capricorn where it is in the sign of its fall. Jupiter is exalted in the sign opposite Capricorn, Cancer.

The purpose finding, meaning seeking, and generosity of Jupiter is well manifested in Cancer. One’s inner compass and primal connection to their emotional experience guides them towards integrity and abundance of heart. In Cancer Jupiter’s vision of life and meaning is palpable in the body. It honors the legacy of kindred ties without sacrificing personal experience.

But when Jupiter is in Capricorn our need for synthesization of our personal experience is subject to hierarchies of power. We tussle with existing structures, traditions, and authority as we find our way to the truth about the world that resonates deepest with what we’ve experienced. It becomes easy to sacrifice our own eyes and perceptions for what has already been established as truth.

When Jupiter was in Capricorn in 2009, Venus in Pisces was subject to our need to negotiate the power dynamics that informed our core values and beliefs. So, as you craft the narrative of your 2017 Venus Rx story think back to 2009 and the ways you struggled and negotiated with authority and power structures in your relationships and involvement in community.

Venus Retrograde 2017

This year Venus in Pisces is governed by Jupiter in Virgo, another sign of Jupiter’s debility. I’ve written about Jupiter’s transit through Virgo on Twitter and on this blog.

Virgo is the calculator, scribe, and translator. Jupiter’s truth seeking is subject to the facts and figures that are countable and accountable when in Virgo. Because Virgo is the sign opposite Pisces, this creates a special tension within this retrograde phase of Venus.

Here are some keywords for this opposition:

  • Venus in Pisces – Jupiter in Virgo
  • Big picture love – Detailed values
  • Consuming relationships – Distinct perspectives
  • Romantic love – Statistic backed beliefs

The challenge with the opposition is getting caught up with one side over the other. Are we sacrificing love and opportunities for intimacy by being too focused on the details of how our relationships reflect what we want? Or do we avoid thinking about, communicating, and defining our core values because we fear the implications it would have on our ability to find love and connect with others?

Then (2009) and Now (2017)

If we take on the task of connecting the dots between what we learned then and what we can learn now, we have the opportunity to be proactive rather than reactive to the lessons of this current retrograde.

Venus retrograde of 2009 challenged the integrity of our authority over ourselves as it concerns our relationships, creativity, and expression/seeking of pleasure. Now we are tasked with highlighting the integrity of our core values and our ability to define them and communicate them.

During 2009’s retrograde, we were pulled down and grounded by external expectations and prescribed ways of contextualizing our relationships. 2017’s retrograde directs our focus towards the details of our core values and how they inform our relationships, choice of partners, artistic expression, and pleasure seeking.

  • What are your core values?
  • Can you communicate them clearly?
  • Have you written them down?
  • How do your current and past relationships measure up against your core values as you identify them now?

I keep seeing the image of an accountant doing a line by line assessment of who we say we are and what we believe, and how that lines up with our choice of partners. I’m seeing each of our hearts pulled between the drive to connect and the need to measure our love and evaluate its effectiveness in being a proxy for what we believe.

I hope that you are able to take the questions here and reflect on them as we venture through this retrograde period. These are perfect prompts for those of you who journal. And I’d love to hear your feedback and where you stand on these issues on Twitter. This is a conversation I’m looking forward to having with you.

@PeoplesOracle on Twitter