In this post, I go over the anatomy of a sidereal birth chart in the Divination For Liberation framework. You can use this guide to cast your sidereal birth chart.
PLANETS
MOON • SUN • MERCURY • VENUS MARS • JUPITER • SATURN are the planets used in Divination For Liberation Sidereal Astrology. Planets are people first.
Subsequently, they are essential aspects of the self that are formed and developed inside relationships.
SIDEREAL ZODIAC SIGNS
There are 12 signs in Divination For Liberation Sidereal Astrology: CANCER • LEO • VIRGO • LIBRA • SCORPIO • SAGITTARIUS • CAPRICORN • AQUARIUS • PISCES • ARIES • TAURUS • GEMINI
Each sign is under the authority of a planet. Sidereal zodiac signs establish a hierarchy of relationship & survival priorities based on a scheme of planetary authority.
HOUSES
There are 12 houses in a sidereal birth chart; there is one sign in each house. Houses are where the planets are situated. Houses represent specific people and relationships, topics as areas of one’s life, and body parts. Houses are also a time keeping tool that tells us the when of the who, what, and how that is signified by the planets and signs.
TOOLS & TASKS
Each of the 12 sidereal zodiac signs falls into one TOOL category: WATER • FIRE • EARTH • AIR; and one TASK category: CARDINAL • FIXED • MUTABLE
The distribution of TOOLS in your sidereal birth chart tells you what you have needed to survive your life experiences (relationships) and get your needs met from birth til death (inside relationships) in the form of behaviors, beliefs, skills, talents, traits, and habits.
The distribution of TASKS tells you what kinds of experiences that have given you the tools you’ve used to survive.
For more on how to interpret your sidereal birth chart:
One thing the God of the Bible was gonna do was change somebody’s name. Story after story is about the new identity that emerges from leaving behind one’s former self for a new self, one’s old name for a new name.
The God of the old testament gave new names to those God called to lead their people towards liberation, and to those given mantles to change the trajectory of their family lineage. Abram became Abraham while Sarai became Sarah. Jacob was called Israel.
This practice of changing names has been important for people, past and present, both as political statements of self-determination and as a reorganization of one’s sense of self. The latter is political, too.
Just as Jesus of Nazareth changed his disciple Simon’s name to Cephas (as a prophecy for how Cephas would soon carry forth Jesus’s work and legacy), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s father changed both of their names from Michael to Martin Luther. He did this in honor of the legacy of Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation. Malcolm Little was called Malcom X and then el-hajj Malik el-Shabazz in the tradition of the Nation of Islam, relinquishing the surname of their ancestors’ enslavers. He was renamed as an acknowledgment of a new identity from a new lineage, no longer seeing and knowing himself as the offspring of chattel.
There are also instances in the Old Testament of the Bible where colonizers changed the names of those they colonized. Pharaoh changed the name of Joseph, son of Israel (Jacob), to Zaphenath-Paneah. Daniel became Belteshazzar under the reign of imperialist ruler Nebuchadnezzar. Both Joseph and Daniel were given names as a way for their colonizers to appropriate and claim ownership of their gifts.
Though this particular kind of name change is not unique to the Bible, it illustrates the legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Empire makes objects of its subjects by supplanting the subjective gaze for that of empire. The colonized must see and know themselves as empire sees and knows them in order to survive empire. They must answer to the name that empire calls them.
What does it do to one’s identity, one’s sense of self, what one even defines as oneself, when one’s name is changed? Name changes are not in any way superficial or aesthetic. They form the shape and content of identity. They are symbols that allow us to conceptualize (see in our imaginations, our minds) ourselves. We come to know and see ourselves by the words and names we are called, for good or ill.
Whose Vision Determines What You See?
A question I pose often is, “whose vision determines what you see?” We assume that we see ourselves, each other, and this world through our own vision. If we are not seeing through our own eyes, whose eyes are we seeing through?
What we call the ‘self’ is an aggregate of internalized gazes. By gaze, I mean who and what other people perceive and/or demand us to be, and how they treat us and judge us. An internalized gaze, then, is the way we consciously and unconsciously see ourselves, each other, and the world through the judgements and perceptions of others. This often happens to the exclusion of our own gaze, until the time comes to see ourselves anew. That time is now.
The gazes of those who have, and have had, the power of life and death over us comprise the most of this self that we identify with and project outward. That which makes up the self that you identify with and as “me” comes from other people in direct proportion to the amount of power they have over you.
Enslavers’ power of life and death over the African’s they kidnapped and tortured.
Parents’ and other adults’ power of life and death over children who have no power of their own.
Whiteness’s power of life and death over all who must survive its obsession with dominance over all.
Capitalism’s power of life and death over all who must be fed and housed under its perpetual theft and hoarding.
Patriarchy’s power of life and death over all who must survive its entitlement to authority, assumed and enforced with violence.
One’s parents and caregivers, government and all proxies for the state, the dominating culture and their cultural norms⎻these all have the power of life and death over us in varying degrees at different points in our lives. Whatever self one might identify with as “I” is most certainly the self that has managed to survive these forces of life and death.
Are All People Persons?
Who lives without fear of physical violence from their caregivers? Who is conditioned to expect violence as a consequence for existing?
Who is granted the dignity of safe housing and food security? Who suffers from chronic housing insecurity and hunger?
Who can move freely without fear of imprisonment or an untimely death? Who constantly faces the threat of imprisonment and death?
Who is granted the freedom to embody and express their feelings as their evolving authentic self? Whose is stripped of bodily autonomy, the right to feel and to control what they do with and what happens to their body?
The one who conforms, without error, to the gaze of the forces of life and death is granted the rights and privileges of personhood. They are granted freedom from a life without fear of violence, houselessness, food insecurity, or an untimely death. And when they err, they are punished and expected to repent and atone.
Under these definitions, who is seen as a person and at what cost? Are all humans granted personhood? Are all who are granted personhood humans?
Who has assumed the power to determine what a person is? This answer is simple. Those who harness and then weaponize the power of life and death over others determine what a person is. The definition of personhood precludes the self-determination of individuals and once sovereign peoples. The right is violently stolen.
Reclamation As Revolt
Name changes are a political act of self-determination. They expose and reject internalized gazes. They reclaim the power and the right to see oneself through one’s own eyes.
Name changes get to the root of imperialism and colonialism. The root is when and where the three-headed beast of patriarchy, capitalism, and whiteness claimed dominion over you by stripping you of your right to decide what name you will answer to.
Self-determination, as the gift of sidereal Aquarius, is the process of, right to, and survival based need to:
Recognize and name the gazes you have internalized;
Realize that those gazes are not your authentic self;
Reclaim the right to see yourself through your own eyes and imagination;
Reimagine, redefine, and rename oneself.
Self-determination is the difference between identifying with who and what has power over us, and identifying with a real imagined self that exists independent of who and what has power over us.
So, whose vision determines what you see?
Saturn Return in Sidereal Aquarius
Birthdates for those having their Saturn Return in sidereal Aquarius
You are having your first Saturn return if you were born:
March 2, 1993 – June 2, 1995
August 9, 1995 – February 16, 1996
You were born after a decades long fight against apartheid in South Africa “ended” with the election of Nelson Mandela. During the 1980s crack cocaine ravaged Black communities in the United States. It culminated in the 1994 Crime Bill which has irreversibly harmed generations of Black people. That same year HIV/AIDS became the number one cause of death for Americans aged 25-44. Also in 1994 was the Rwandan Genocide and the start of the First Chechen War.
Underlying all of these events is the same thing: the colonial exploits of whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism and the movements of self-determination that rose up in reaction.
Your Saturn return begins the very first time Saturn enters sidereal Aquarius which is April 28, 2022. Your Saturn return does not end until the very last time that Saturn leaves sidereal Aquarius which is March 29, 2025.
You are having your second Saturn return if you were born:
January 27, 1964 – December 19, 1966
You were born at the height of the 1960s Civil Rights struggle in America which culminated in a polarized combination of wins and losses: the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the assassination of Malcolm X, the formation of the Black Panther Party, The Vietnam War and the anti-war movement, The Cold War, desegregation.
Underlying all of these events is the same thing: the colonial exploits of whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism and the movements of self-determination that rose up in reaction.
Your Saturn return begins the very first time Saturn enters sidereal Aquarius which is April 28, 2022. Your Saturn return does not end until the very last time that Saturn leaves sidereal Aquarius which is March 29, 2025.
Preparing For Your Saturn Return
Download and work through the content of my 2 workshop Saturn Return in Sidereal Aquarius – 2022-25. This download includes 2-hours of audio, 13 slides, and 6 worksheets. I cover the following topics:
What is Saturn?
What is the Saturn Return?
What does Saturn in sidereal Aquarius mean in my birth chart?
This thread brought to you by Mars in Cancer still building an opposition to Saturn in Capricorn (sidereal) until July 1, 2021.
Conflict is a form intimacy.
It says, "we have gotten so close that I can no longer tell where you (and your feelings) end and me (and my feelings) begin. I need to remember where the boundaries of my self are."
— The People's Oracle (@PeoplesOracle) June 24, 2021
Mars in Cancer (sidereal) reflects a time when we set aside all other ambitions to focus on the most essential and necessary: our bodies. Not only food and shelter, but belonging, safety, and connection, too. These are worthy ambitions undermined and undervalued in capitalism.
Mars in Cancer (sidereal) marches towards an opposition with Saturn in Capricorn. That opposition perfects July 1, 2021.
Mars: Abilities, also Seperation
Saturn: Reality, also Covid-19
Mars in Cancer opposed Saturn in Capricorn through July 2021 asks:
📌How does our collective confrontation with the reality of Covid-19 change what drives us?
📌How are your goals changing as you learn to cope with the permanent shifts the pandemic has brought to your life?
Planets will be occupying Cancer (sidereal) until August 16, 2021. Mars and Venus are there now. Eventually the Sun and Mercury will travel through Cancer as well. This is setting off the story of your natal Moon.
Sidereal Moon Sign Meanings
What does your natal Moon sign (sidereal) have to say about your relationship to mothering, home, family, and your body?
First cast your sidereal birth chart using the instructions here:
Growing up you had access to mothering in a way that has taught you to hear your body loud and clear. 📌What is to be done when what you need is unavailable? 📌Must you consume it because you have it? 📌How much is enough for you?
Sidereal Libra Moon:
What your body looks like can only hide what you really need for so long. Besides, our needs are not up for litigation. 📌Who are you trying to convince that you don’t need what you need? 📌How does it feel to be exposed and vulnerable?
Sidereal Capricorn Moon:
Time to face the fact that your suffering is chronic and not acute. 📌How has the emotional neglect of your childhood carried over into neglecting your body in adulthood? 📌What does it look like to give up suffering as a way you deny your needs?
Sidereal Aries Moon:
Leaving is a good way to avoid the discomfort of needing what is unavailable. It’s saved your life in the past. 📌What will happen if you stay? 📌How are you learning resourcefulness at present? 📌Who will win the race to abandon you first? Is it you?
Sidereal Leo Moon:
Daddy issues = deferring to dad/authority and abandoning your own perceptions. 📌Who perceptions/authority do you trust to tell you what your needs are? 📌How are you extending grace to your mother for the way she had to defer to dad?
Sidereal Scorpio Moon:
Being the one to tell the truth about the harm you experienced has alienated you. 📌How does the present bring up old wounds of having to abandon your mother/family to save your own life? 📌How long can you hold out in isolation? How?
Sidereal Aquarius Moon:
If you had identified with your body/family as a child, you’d likely not be here now. You/elders saved your life! 📌How is your body is forcing you to recall what happened to you? 📌How can you honor your body without centering what happened to you?
Sidereal Taurus Moon:
You played the role in your family that made sure they liked you enough to meet your needs. 📌Do you like you enough to honor what your needs really are? 📌Just because it feels good doesn’t mean you need it. Can you tell the difference between the two?
Sidereal Gemini Moon:
Seeking more info to affirm what you know you need can undermine your trust in yourself and your body. 📌How are you growing to trust your body and your ability to feel it? 📌Who do you trust to affirm your body? Who are you learning you can’t trust?
Sidereal Virgo Moon:
Being mothered on a schedule rather than when your body says you need it is a form of neglect. 📌What metrics aid you in identifying + meeting your needs? 📌How are you overcoming confusion that arises when your body tells you it needs something different?
Sidereal Sagittarius Moon:
What you believe your body is saying and what it’s actually saying may be up for debate. 📌How do your political/religious/spiritual convictions support or undermine your ability discern your needs? 📌Does that body have a truth? How can you know?
Sidereal Pisces Moon:
Feeling other’s feelings got your needs met growing up. How much longer will you allow their trauma to be an excuse for the pain they cause you? 📌How are you prioritizing your needs in relationships? 📌What does emotional safety look + feel like for you?
What I’m about to share here is actually something I’ve been thinking about for the past several months. It has to do with how each planet (save the Sun and Moon which are lights) rule two signs each.
In the past I have understood this as representing the binary of masculinity and femininity. But what I understand now is that the previously understood division of each planet into two natures described as masculine and feminine is actually a poor attempt at articulating that each planet contains a circular, rather than polar (read: binary) embodiment of a principle.
For example, Mars can be understood through the expressions of Aries and Scorpio. At first glance this appears to be articulating a binary, where Aries is masculine and Scorpio is feminine.
Here are two visuals which might help you understand what I am articulating.
This also relates to the concept of an objective form or social construct where a pattern of form is observed and from that observed pattern is created a construct. The construct is now separate from the form from which it was inspired by. And now the forms which inspired the construct are forced to conform to (read: change their form and take the shape of) that construct.
You can understand this as relating to any noun used to describe or define a human. Every single one is a construct. From boy, girl, woman, man, family, teacher, preacher, doctor, teenager, woman, adult, elder, etc. Each began as an observation of form from which a construct was created.
So I think the issue here with the terms masculine and feminine, and how they are often used as euphemisms for gender has to do with the fact that it is difficult for us to think outside of binaries. Forms (which is what zodiac signs are) appear to “naturally” manifest as these binaries when in fact they only wear the clothes of the binaries.
Astrology can be helpful when we understand each planet in the ways that I’ve described before. In the case of mars, there isn’t a binary of masculine vs feminine correlating to Aries vs Scorpio. There is a circular spectrum with much overlap, Which brings me to my last point.
The binaries of gender and our obsession with classifying things in those terms has concealed some deep wisdom that astrology offers us. This is why I prefer to use the terms diurnal or yang for “masculine” and nocturnal or yin for “feminine.”
The wisdom that astrology has to offer us says that no planet, no sign, no house, and no aspect can ever be understood in isolation. All you will ever get from observing a single planet etc. is a glimpse of what it actually speaks to.
Elsewhere I have said that sidereal astrology is the study of relationships. There is no separate topic called ‘relationship astrology’. When we are examining the birth chart we are examining relationships between planets. And planets are people first, and zodiac signs point us to planets.
For example, this means that when you examine Mars in your birth chart, even if you have no Aries placements or Scorpio placements, Mars contains the forms of expression we understand as Aries or Scorpio. What does this really mean? Each expression of a planet that we observe in the forms of the zodiac signs are wholly contained in each planet.
Mars in a birth chart always contains both (Aries) personal boundaries + physical capacity for movement + the enforcing of the personal will AND (Scorpio) drive for biological self preservation as observed via the nervous system and its relationship with the rest of the body + other people’s bodies.
However, the form of how, in this example, Mars is expressed is where the social construct comes in. So in some ways the zodiac signs are the social construct, they are the form the planets take on via how they are socialized in relationships and community.
I want to add that the problem has never been with the social construct. Constructs are how we organize society. The problem is with how the constructs are used to create hierarchies of power. And how power redefines constructs as a means to its own self preservation.
For example, ‘mother’ is a social construct. I have no problem with ‘mother’. It is an accurate descriptor of the role I play in certain contexts. I have a problem with how identifying with and taking on this role situates me in terms of who and what I have access to in society.
