And all of a sudden… it’s Autumn! or well, almost… It’s definitely Virgo season though and there is generally a feeling of rolling up the sleeves! It’s time for a change of pace, something new… people, ideas, skills?
You are SO MUCH MORE than your Sun Sign!
I am looking forward to starting afresh with a new class and sharing my passion for astrology with We are Stardust. In the six week series, we explore a bit of the background of the ancient art and then really look ‘under the hood’ to get to grips with the mechanics of the zodiac.
The aim is for you to be able to look at an astrology chart and learn to interpret its unique story. We ALL have a story to tell, one that has a clear beginning and an unfolding narrative that lasts a lifetime.
Over successive weeks we will explore the various elements of the chart, the planets, signs, houses and aspects (each with a story of their own) and thus build a complete picture of your chart when you will begin analysing or ‘reading’ it.
Come and see for yourself!
Commencing September 23
Book before September 15 and receive a FREE 20 min. taster reading of your chart.
Ultimate, NOT best, but because it is the fourth and final element in the creative ‘wave’ of expression of Life. It is the element of connection, where Air is that which passes between, water permeates, dissolves and merges what is with what is not. Commonly associated with emotion, it is ephemeral and changing while its currents can guide the ship. Our emotions in-form us, sometimes subtly as intuition and sometimes… more akin to a tsunami. The key here, is IN-form, water is the major constituent of our bodies, our intuition (inner teaching) comes from the connection through the water element.
In its the capacity to nurture life, dissolve mountains, and connect people, water is unbounded and can flow around or dissolve obstacles. Water is also arguably, the most sensitive element of the zodiac, feeling the slightest of changes and registering them in the emotional scape.
Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces – Connectedness, Feeling and Dissolving
CANCER – Relation
Cancer, with the symbol of the crab is a creature that lives on the margins, between earth and water. Defined by its shell, boundaried and given shape, the soft tissue within is forever defined by its relation to the other, its shell. In this case, with the Moon as its ruler, Cancer is in constant orbit around the M-other. Subject to the tides and the swells, Cancer is eternally in motion filling and emptying. Pinchers for defense offer protection but also allude to the tenacious ‘holding’ quality of Cancer, holding on to emotions, moods or relationships. In contrast to the flighty energy of Gemini, a seismic shift happens as Cancer pulls us down and into the experience of emotional foundations. These connections are made intuitively not intellectually. Family, belonging, nurture, care, s-mothering, this is the ‘child’ of the zodiac, vulnerable, demanding, playful, charming – and a veritable genius of invention with an eye to the wonder of novelty.
The glyph for Cancer is made of two curving lines, leaning into one another, cradling and contained in a circle of enclosure and intimacy. Cancer is often concerned with security, in a different way than Taurus, where the concern is material security, but more in an emotional sense. There can be a slamming of doors if the family or inner circle is threatened in any way… in a darker sense, clannishness or Mafia comes to mind. Caution is a by-word for the Crab and they can slip into hypersensitivity and moodiness if they aren’t able to find time to recharge their emotional batteries with solitude and dreaming.
Cancer is a deeply caring character, first and foremost.
SCORPIO– Feeling
Arguably the most feared or ‘slated’ sign of the Zodiac, Scorpio is definitely the deepest . It finds its placement following Libra and the airy Scales of Justice, if Libra is the impartial judge, Scorpio metes out the punishment. There are three elements to the symbolism of Scorpio.
Fundamentally a feminine archetype, it contains the Scorpion with its capacity to sting and kill, the Snake that is associated with death, sexuality and transformation and ultimately, in its most exalted expression, the Eagle, flying above the fray, poised and able to hunt with surgical precision. Whatever the circumstances, Scorpio has links to the deepest well of experience and intuition and is exquisitely tuned to the slightest sense of threat. Not known for a forgiving nature, “once bitten… you’re dead”, Scorpio can appear calm and impassive (even cold or calcutlawhile experiencing a maelstrom of intensity beneath the surface. This is the sign of sex, death and plumbing the depths. The extraordinary tuning to the emotional currents enable them to make calculated decisions that seem uncannily accurate. Sex and death are doorways to another world/consciousness and Scorpio is able to navigate the darker sides of human nature without flinching. The up-side of Scorpio is their capacity to ‘hold’ these intense aspects of human nature and are thus make EXCELLENT guides as psychotherapists. This gift is not coming from a place of study and intellect but rather a deeply felt sense of their own pain and vulnerability, they KNOW the terrain.
Loyal, driven and possessive, Scorpio enjoys the dual rulership of Mars and Pluto. Magnetic, passionate sometimes vengeful and suspicious. Scorpio marks the turning point in the zodiac, it is the descent into the Underworld, the annihilation of Ego.
PISCES – Undoing
The expression ‘slippery fish’ was invented for Pisces. The symbol of two fishes, swimming in opposite directions – one toward matter and the other toward Spirit – tied together and thus in endless circling motion. Cancer provided the boundary with land/earth as the boundary for its emotional content, Scorpio is the deepest well, penetrating to the underworld and mystery, Pisces the last of the water signs and the last of the entire cycle of signs is WITHOUT bounds. It marks the dissolution of all that went before it and in so doing, contains ALL possibilities. Fishes are not aware of the water, it is their all, their medium. If we substitute water for emotions, then we begin to understand the conundrum of reality being the swell and the current of emotions where we cannot discern where we begin and the emotions end.
Some suggest that Pisces is not a water sign at all, but it is representative of The Fifth element – Ether – utterly other, utterly animating and invisible/insensible.
We assign Jupiter and Neptune joint rulers of this elusive sign. Jupiter traditionally as the archetype that links us to Spirituality and the world beyond expanding endlessly. Neptune brings in another quality, Lord of the Seas, it makes the link between the realm of Spirit and the connection with creativity, illusion, fantasy and dream. Pisces is an otherworldly sign indeed, often struggling with what it is to be in a human form, the sense of dislocation often leading to a keen sense of suffering and disorientation.
Suffering and victimhood, fantasist, addict, poet, visionary, dreamer, these are all aspects of Pisces, torn between the exquisite suffering felt and witnessed and the desire to escape and be relieved of the ongoing experience. The paths of compassion and forgiveness are ways of channeling the relentless buffeting of the world and art… poetry, music, colour and sound are means by which expression of the ineffable is made possible.
As there is no separation, no boundary with Pisces, they are often the conduits through which Spirit communicates… sometimes it’s genuine and sometimes it’s not. The fishes will often find themselves swimming with the current, moving in and out of illusion and revelation in equal measure.
The Piscean dissolution – undoing is the necessary precursor to Aries, Cardinal Fire.. initial spark and emergent identity.
Fire is the spark, the first differentiation, Earth is the formation of that spark, Air the idea that animates and communicates, Water… the infusion of soul through emotion. There is a development through each of the elemental expressions which demonstrates the extraordinary variety and nuance of Spiritual expression.
Those of us who were born ‘on the cusp’, in astrological jargon, were born on or about the 20/21/22 of the calendar month. Most tabloid astrologers will suggest particular dates as the definition of an astrological sign, and this can be confusing as they are not fixed.
These dates mark a transition from one sign to another. I’m one of those kids… and for the first 16 years of my life I ‘identified’ as a Gemini. I recognized my nature as being perennially curious, changeable, alternately sociable and reclusive, nothing seemed more compelling than the promise of good conversation or a new idea.
At 16, I met an astrologer who offered to ‘read my chart’…ushering in a whole new perspective.
As it transpired, after using my precise time of birth, it was determined that I was, NOT, in fact, a Gemini but a Taurus on the cusp… A verrrrry end of, squeaking-over-the-edge but irrefutably, Taurus. After I broke the news to my mother, who had always assured me that I was *such a Gemini*, I began to ‘try on’ my new persona, to test the waters.
So I found myself stepping into a whole different territory, exploring what it might mean if I am a Taurus after all. Fast forward thirty-some years and my fascination with astrology only grows and invites me to look twice.
I now can recognise and revel in my slowness, my love of all things green and earthy, my practical, sensuous self.
So… how DO you know whether you are one sign or the next? The zodiac is not precisely synchronised with our Gregorian calendar. Once every four years (Leap year) we have inserted an extra day in order to rectify the measure of the earth’s journey around the sun. The Equinoxes, days of equal daylight and night, mark the beginning of Spring and of Autumn (and occur at 0 degrees Aries and 0 degrees Libra)and the Solstices, (days of longest or least light, 0 degrees Cancer and 0 degrees Capricorn) occur at the 20/21/22nd of the month. This has a subtle but distinct knock-on effect for each of the zodiacal signs. The zodiac is a two dimensional representation of the planets movements around the sun, from our perspective on earth.
Each of the signs is allocated 30 degrees, 1/12 of the 360 degree circle. So, when we are determining the cusps or beginnng and ends of signs, we are superimposing a hypothetical (30degree) model on a movable (time) feast!
Now, what does it mean to be born at the very end of one sign or the very beginning of another? From an astrological perspective, these are sometimes referred to as the critical degrees of a sign. Critical in that they hold a certain weight or gravitas. Those of us born with the Sun in the final degree of a sign are said to be at a point of fullness, ripeness and potential mastery of that particular sign’s expression.
In my mind’s eye, I imagine the sun as a traveller and as it makes it’s way through the constellation of a certain sign, it gathers up the experience, both shadow and light of that particular sign’s ‘style’ of expression. The Sun, represents the quality of integration and when it’s placed in a certain sign, it becomes the lens through which the Spirit is expressed.
As the movement of the planets is inexorable, it makes sense that the ‘steps’ it takes as it moves from the 29th degree of one sign to the first degree of the next is a bit like stepping across a threshold. This threshold between signs marks the boundary between very different energies, inviting us into a totally different room.
At the very end of a sign, we have said that there is a certain sense of mastery of the quality and the element of the sign. At the beginning of the next sign, there is a sense of innocence and naivete – a freshness to the new territory. Awkwardness and a sense of the un-skilled infuses this placement, this is balanced with enthusiasm and willingness to engage with the new elemental energies.
A common experience for those born on the cusp of a sign is a bit like having a foot in each world. The terminal degrees lend themselves to a sense of closing down or perhaps a hankering for something unknown, utterly different. For those at the beginning of the sign, a bit of discomfort, sense of not knowing or understanding how the ‘system’ works from this new vantage point.
Astrology is a complex art and as such never really relies on only one key element to tell the whole story. As with all life, we are multi-coloured and multi-faceted with shadings to temper the absolutes of symbolic systems.
One of the most marked tempering elements of the chart is represented by the Ascendent or Rising Sign. If, for example, the Rising sign of a person who was born on the cusp of Taurus/Gemini is Taurus, they would be far more likely to strongly identify with their recognizably Taurean, earthy characteristics. If the Rising sign falls in Gemini, the individual may identify, on first glance with more of the changeablity of the airy Twins…
The time we are born is one of the important details that an astrologer will ask you. It is with this information combined with the place and date of your birth that the correct calculation will reveal the Ascendent or Rising sign.
For those of us who are born on the ‘cusp’ of a sign this is a critical factor in understanding the nature of your astrological profile.
Curious? Get in touch for a reading and expand your understanding and maybe change your mind!
Stardust_artwork_Jul_2018The new season is upon us, and I will be offering We Are Stardust: An Introduction to Astrology series again. The last cycles of classes have yielded a growing interest in how to apply and further our understanding of astrology and to this end, there is a second series brewing that will take us beyond the basics. Come and explore the outer reaches of the solar system and see how it speaks to the inner reaches of your psyche and experience!
The classes are interactive and you are invited to share your experience and reflections.
marlowpurves.net 