How to get it wrong (to read a chart as a whole)

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First part: Charts have deceiving looks. 

Second part: But the way we look at them is no better

First part: Beware of optical illusions! 

1 If several indicators are very close to one another,  the chart is likely to display the symbols next to each other, and not in front of the little lines that indicate their exact position. You may see them far away from where they really are. 

Also, you may not notice which ones are very close to each other, and which ones are more distant. Orbs matter though.   

So put on your glasses, look at the little lines!

2 On Astrodienst, the default settings are 10 degrees orb for conjunctions, oppositions, trines and squares. You will see the same coloured lines for these aspects, independently of how tight they are. 

For instance, imagine  a Moon - Mars - Saturn T-square, with Saturn at the apex. The Moon is always a big player. 

 Let’s say the Moon - Saturn square is exact, and therefore really strong, but the  Moon-Mars opposition , and the Mars - Saturn square exist with a 9 degrees orb. 

Interpreting the Moon- Mars opposition without describing the Moon Saturn square first would be the equivalent of talking about a piglet in the room, whilst ignoring there is an elephant. Your interpretations won’t impress the querent. The other way round, starting with the elephant will be spot on, and then going as far as pointing out the piglet running between the elephant’s paws will come across as the cherry on top of the cake.  

4 Some aspects may be minor but they do exist! 

In the astrodienst format, minor aspects are represented by dotted lines. Semi squares or sesqui-squares are almost invisible.  However, they may be exact to the degree or almost, and therefore more powerful than a loose major aspect. Again, put your glasses on!

Check the grid under the chart, and be prepared to calculate mentally. If Pluto is at 9 degree Scorpio and Venus at 24 degree Sagittarius, how tight is this semi square? 

5 On astrodienst, if you’re using the default settings, Chiron is shown, but without aspects. I like it this way. It’s better not to have too many lines criss-crossing a chart. Sometimes people show charts with aspects to the angles, to the nodes and to a number of asteroids as well, and the result looks like a nervous breakdown. 

However, Chiron in a strong aspect to a personal planet is a meaningful and powerful indicator. Don’t forget to notice. 

6 Another way to make too much of a big deal of a piglet whilst ignoring the elephant herd is to forget that the most powerful indicators are those that move the quickest. Look at what’s going on around the angles first, then the luminaries, then the personal planets. 

If you get excited about a Jupiter Neptune trine because it is exact, and neither Jupiter or Neptune is conjunct to an angle or a luminary, or ruler of the Ascendant, and there aren’t important placements in Sagittarius or Pisces… then, this aspect may be a big piglet, but it’s not an elephant, not even a small one.  

Maybe you’re reading a chart with piglets only? You better check before elaborating on this Jupiter Neptune trine. 

NB:  Conjunctions are the most powerful connections. After them consider tight aspects, especially the major ones. If you have a stellium, you won’t see colourful lines across the chart, but don’t downplay it. Imagine a huge blue and red spot around it. 

Second part. About wrong and right ways to approach a chart.

Have you already played chess? 

If yes, you have probably lost at least once because you were so excited about your attack that you forgot to pay attention to your opponent’s point of view. You were moving forward like a bulldozer. You couldn’t think of anything else. You had built a fortress to protect your king, but a side door was left open. Before you knew it, you were checkmated. 

To get it wrong with an astrological chart is very similar. Imagine.  You have identified a planet as a main player. So you dig and dig, you focus on what this planet in this sign and in this house may mean, but the deeper you dig the narrower your horizon becomes and you end up unable to get out of the hole you dug for yourself! 

I am not saying not to dig at all. Not digging is the opposite way to get it wrong! Some unstable minds  jump like fleas from one placement to the next. Oh this Venus in Leo! And it’s in the ninth house! But Mars is in Scorpio, that’s tough! In the First House, woah! Moon in Aries that’s impulsive, but opposite Saturn, sometimes it’s not! …So much about the art of getting nowhere. 

So yes, when you spot a dominant energy, dig, but not too much. A chart is made of placements and bridges between them. Bridges are aspects, or rulership relations. 

For instance, if you get so fascinated by this Uranus conjunct the MC in Aries that you immediately set up to re-read the entire book by Liz Greene’s about Uranus, you’ll end up confused. In the book you get a rich tapestry of life. So much width and depth are wonderful, we need culture and intelligence, but hours later you’ll still be wondering: what does this Uranus conjunct MC in Aries mean exactly?... 

There is no exact answer to a precise question about a particular chart in a rich tapestry…  

You need to sum up all you know to “get the vibe” as clearly as possible, and move on. 

With Uranus, there is something different. Thinking outside the box, or behaving like an outsider, an outcast or a rebel. Could be an interest in science, politics, technology or an ideology. A rejection of nature and the body maybe. 

Sometimes, with Uranus you’re just different. You may not even know why and how. You’re a weirdo. There are many kinds of weirdos… 

At some level, there is a normal way, and there is breaking away from it. Difficult to be more precise. 

With Aries, it’s easy to feel that it's likely to be a tad more extreme as it would be anyway, with a leading, pioneering or competitive strike. Both Uranus and Aries want independence and have things going their own way. It feels rather uncompromising, radical. 

Keep the question marks hanging and look around. What else? 

From this Uranus in Aries, you can spot that it is ruled by Mars, in Aries as well, conjunct the Moon, and the Moon happens to be the Ascendant ruler, making it even more important. That’s a huge focus in the tenth house, and in Aries… 

There could be a lot to say about this, but again, don’t keep stuck here.

Look around. Don’t miss that Uranus is also connected with Mercury by a square. Moreover, Mercury is also conjunct with the Ascendant, so this aspect is important like a first class elephant. Even more so if you notice that the Sun is in Gemini. Mercury rules it, is dominant and squares another dominant planet! It’s huge!   

Mercury and Uranus have common grounds: the mind, the nervous system, communications of insights, weird communications… Remember that Aries rules the head. This could be a big brain. This could be a mad one. And Mercury is intense, it’s conjunct Pluto. 

Again, don’t dig a hole so deep that the horizon disappears. Look around!  Yes, Mercury is conjunct Pluto, and Pluto conjunct the Ascendant, itself ruled by the Moon, and squaring it… Great emotional intensity here, connecting the Ascendant (the guy himself) and the tenth house (his social status). With Mum playing a part in the drama, probably. Moon also rules memory and imagination, not just Mum and emotions… 

Feel the vibe, keep the question marks hanging, keep wandering through the chart, follow its roads, cross the bridges, keep moving…  Looking at the whole architecture. Think like a spider, because it’s a web.

There is much more in this example chart of course, but you see the way to proceed. 

My last recommendation is to simply be polite with your subconscious mind and with the astrological angels that only want to help. 

Ask, let the questions hang for a while and trust.  Open a book at a random page, look through the window, forget about it and come back later. 

The chart I used as an example is John Nash’s, genius, mathematician, Nobel Prize. He also struggled with schizophrenia and believed he was communicating with extraterrestrials. 

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, storyteller, writer

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A powerful Mars in Pisces and the 12th.

(Scheduled on Substack)

Beware. Traditional notions need to be handled with care. 

Looking at the chart below a student of astrology could say that Mars, chart ruler, is in Pisces and the 12th house and conclude that this is probably a very spiritual person, someone who has difficulties expressing their Mars, meaning not very assertive, not very powerful, not really aggressive. 

However the chart is Peter the Great’s. He was one of the most powerful men of his time. He changed the course of Russian history and spent many years waging wars.  

Mars in Pisces has a bad reputation, almost as bad as Mars in Cancer. Pisces is usually considered soft, passive, lacking in strength and boundaries.

This may prove true in a number of cases, but well, not always. 

The twelve house is a cadent house, it’s traditionally considered a placement of great inefficiency. Mars in the twelfth may not find its way to expression, unless under the guise of some treacherous enemy hiding in the shadows. 

Peter the Great had all kinds of enemies, some open, some hidden, but he was anything but a weakling. 

So if you want to assess the strength of planets in a chart, look first at the aspects. Peter the Great’s Mars is connected with Pluto by an exact trine. Moreover, Pluto is exactly conjunct an angle of the chart, so it’s from an especially powerful Pluto that energy is flowing to Mars. 

Mars is also in a square aspect with the Moon. A square is an aspect of tension, yes, but this square is first of all a tight contact with a luminary. With the Moon, Mars is in the spotlight. As both Mars and the Moon are emotionally reactive, we may expect a rather impulsive and excitable Mars. 

We can say something similar about the Mars Jupiter opposition. Jupiter amplifies what it touches. A tense aspect between these two planets is likely to manifest as an excess of energy. 

Mars is also conjunct with the North Node. This is similar to a North Node in Aries, Martian power is the way forward. Mars is also the ruler of the Ascendant. With Aries Rising and Mars conjunct the north node, moving powerfully forward is destiny! 

If Mars was in Aries and the First House, but receiving the same power from other placements as it gets in Peter’s chart, it would be even more powerful, I guess. But it really doesn’t need that. 

Same text, French accent, youtube channel

Peter the Great was fascinated by navigation from a young age. He won his first great battle against the Turks thanks to ships. One of his great achievements was to give Russia access to the Baltic sea so that his country could become a great maritime power. What sign could be more fitting than Pisces? 

Also, his drinking style was a stereotypical demonstration of having balls. So much for a Pisces Mars. 

As for the twelfth house… He was swimming in the collective dimension. The life story of Peter the Great is identical to Russia’s history. As powerful as he may have been, he was a product of the institution: he was the Tzar, and he battled to reform the institutions. I am only talking about Mars for now, but you may have noticed his Sun-Uranus exact square. 

If we started to explore this chart with the idea that this Mars in Pisces and in the 12th is not very powerful we would be misguided. I recommend looking at the aspects first, starting with the tightest ones, and especially the conjunctions to angles, luminaries and nodes. 

Jean-Marc PIerson

How to interpret the Moon in a chart

To interpret the Moon in signs, there are various layers. 

First layer: Like the Sun, the Moon is a luminary. If the Moon is in Taurus, Taurus is in the spotlight. So just Taurus. 

Second layer: the light of the Moon is not the same as the Sun’s. It’s an intimate light. 

Moon is mother, family, early environment. It’s the inner you. 

To the Sun you may say “ I’m so proud of you” but to the Moon you rather go like: “baby, you’re my baby”.  

There is more to it. If you look up Moon in the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols there are five or six pages. Fundamentally, the Moon reflects, and is always changing. Interpretations follow.

For now, let’s just stick to mother, family and early environment. 

If you make a new friend, for them your Taurus traits are just you. Let’s say you love nature, it’s a stereotype, it doesn’t have to always be true, but often it is. One day you invite your friend to a family gathering.  A few little chats later, they understand that your love of nature is a trait of family culture. 

Things may be a bit more subtle than in my exemple, but you get the point. Traits associated with the Moon make you belong where you belong. You’ll feel at home when you meet the same. 

Imagine that as a Taurus Moon you fall in love with a Taurus Sun. 

Sun and Moon conjunct in synastry is a match made in heaven on principle. (Unfortunately, the best connections don't cancel other conflicts that may exist between charts). 

Keeping to a standard stereotype for the sake of clarity, the Taurus Sun wants to be a farmer. This will mean more than making a living to them: this will be a question of becoming who they want to be. You’ll be naturally supportive. 

With your Taurus Moon, you’ll just feel at home on the farm. You’ll recharge your batteries joking with the donkeys. You’ll want your children to grow up there. That’s the “normal” life for you, but it’s not enough for you to be you.

Suppose you have a Gemini Sun, let’s take another stereotype, you’ll want to be a writer. This will mean the world to you.

If, by chance, your Taurus Sun partner has the Moon in Gemini, you’ll read them your papers and they’ll appreciate your style. They may love reading and writing, but that’s just like breathing to them, their success at life is not at stake. 

A third level of interpretation is that the Moon rules over Cancer, and through Cancer, over a house, maybe two, and possibly over planets placed in Cancer. Whatever happens with the Moon happens indirectly - but surely - to these houses and planets.  

In my own chart, the Moon rules over my Cancer Ascendant, is in Libra and in the fourth house. It may be more fundamental to the interpretation to consider the houses: ruler of first house in fourth house. I am a rat. I love my basement. 

My Cancer personality style must be combined with Libra. Juggling with key words always helps: Emotional balance is needed. Sensitivity in search of artistic harmony. Social needs. Feeling two sides. I am a good listener, it’s an airy way to care… I am not saying everything, just showing you how to elaborate.  

Beyond key words, feel the world of Cancer, then the world of Libra, and let the vibes interact in your inner space.

Thinking in pictures can be a funny game:  two crabs on a sea-saw, when one is up the other is down, it could be a nursery rhyme and it is a way to invite inspiration. Two crabs on a sea-saw, one wants to eat you, the other is scared by you, which one will you pick up, which one will you throw away?

A fourth level of interpretation, but it could have been the third, is to follow the ruler of the sign in which the Moon is placed. 

If you have the Moon in Sagittarius, you may carry your home like a rucksack on your back, drive a camper van or settle abroad. Wherever you live is a camp base and/or a library. Maybe it’s near a temple, not far from the city hall. It’s rather open, compared to a Cancer cocoon.  It’s the place you shoot arrows of consciousness from. 

With the Moon in Sagittarius, Jupiter says more. Let’s say it’s in Leo. No doubt, it’s a fiery Moon! Expect a combination of adventure and creativity, of exploration and let-me-show-you; her way to nurture is to take by the hand and lead beyond the familiar environment. 

Don’t worry, she says, I’ll take you back home, you’re safe with me. 

I won’t talk about the Moon in the twelve signs, sorry. 

There are enough cookbooks out there. Moon in Aries, Moon in Taurus, Moon in Gemini, Moon in Cancer, it’s nice, it’s good order. It’s boring like Saturn doing admin. My Uranus in the third house doesn't want to live like that.  

If we wanted to be systematic, then we would also need to write about Moon in Aries with Mars in Aries, then Moon in Aries with Mars in Taurus, followed by Moon in Aries with Mars in Gemini… and all the possible combinations.  

And we would have to do the same with the Sun, then going through all the possible combinations with rising signs… 

I am not going to write a crazy cookbook like that. Beyond the most elementary combinations, we’re all alone in the jungle! 

What I wish to convey is a sense of how to juggle. 

Jean-Marc Pierson

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A little chat with the Virgin Maiden

Virgo is a beautiful maiden. In one hand she holds a sheaf of wheat, and a medicinal plant in the other.

She looks like a hippie; she’s wearing a long dress; her undulating hair is moved by the wind as she walks in the tall grasses of a meadow. She is absolutely charming.

However she looks approachable. Set eyes on Venus, you’ll know how it feels to be compared to Mars, if you’re male, or to herself, if you’re female. You need to be very confident to approach Venus. You may get a taste of divine disdain.

Nothing like that will happen with the virgin maiden. It’s easy to say hello and have a little chat.

Why is she holding a single ear of corn? Because there is no need to include the entire harvest in the picture! The ear of corn stands for the fields, the wheat, the oat, and the barley, or whatever grows in the fields, sunflowers, rapeseed, alfalfa, beans, onions and potatoes… Beware, once she trusts you’re interested, she may mention all the cultivated varieties and their uses.

The sheaf of wheat also stands for the windmill and the grinding, the flour, the kneading the dough, the sourdough, the cooking and the oven… the bread in turn stands for all kinds of food, and food, she’s telling you if you’re still listening, is the first medicine. This leads to taking proper care of the body. The list of her knowledge and skills is impressive.

She loves foraging as well. The medicinal plant in her other hand stands for every plant with medicinal properties, how to mix them, how to prepare tisanes, unguents, remedies… She is a hedge witch. 

You may ask her “And by the way, are you single?” She may answer:

-Sure I am! I am a Virgin! But don’t think I’m naive. This just means that I belong to no man. Not yet. I am almost ready. I am honing my skills. Food is medicine. I still have a few things to learn, a few things to do, look at my lists!

- It’s incredible. And you look so relaxed!

- Yes. Relaxation comes with proper organisation. Stress is not a healthy way of living. What’s essential is to take advantage of our natural rhythms. If you think Virgos are stressed by definition, you’re wrong. Virgos are stressed by the wrong rhythms.

- So when will you get married? Are you only thinking of someone?

-Listen, when I start thinking of it, I won’t be Virgo anymore, I’ll be Libra. I am an archetype, a Goddess. The thing with us, immortals, is that we don’t get to the next phase. We are the essence of a particular phase. I am almost ready, have always been, will ever be. I can cook, I can heal, I can help, I know how to make myself useful in all kinds of circumstances, I am the almost perfect wife, it will be “almost” ever after. Do you know how to repair a roof?

There are bees in the hive serving the queen and being queen is serving the hive.

We, souls, are grateful to the first of servants, the body, which we honour and care for with hygiene and medicine.

We are grateful to Virgo!

Jean-Marc Pierson, storyteller, astrologer

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Children in the birth chart

With my Mum!

When we say "children" we automatically think: "The fifth house!" and we look there.

However, the fifth house is not the house of children only, and not only the fifth house means something about children.

I'll start talking about other indicators that have to do with children. 

Jupiter is a traditional significator for children. Jupiter is exalted in the sign of Cancer, sign of fecundity, Jupiter is about expansion and growth. Families, tribes and nations grow by having children - and it is generally considered a blessing. You can see the connections. 

The thing with astrology, and with symbols in general, is that their meanings have no boundaries. You can never say something like: the Moon is your mother; the Moon says everything about your mother and is only about your mother.

Symbols work the other way round. The Moon is mother, a mother by definition has children so the Moon symbolises children and childhood as well. Children are emotional, sensitive and have a lot of needs, the Moon symbolises emotions, sensitivity and needs... Crowds are emotional entities, the Moon symbolises crowds as well and so on...

So, the Moon, between quite a few other things, symbolises children. 

 I knew a woman who had five children - which is quite exceptional nowadays in Western countries. Her Moon was very prominent, conjunct the MC in the sign of Cancer. She also had Venus, ruler of her Ascendant, in Cancer, and a very tight Cancer Moon- Taurus Mars sextile. Taurus is also a fertile sign; the Moon is exalted in Taurus. As a general rule, Water signs and Taurus are the fertile signs.

This woman had also Jupiter in the first house, and conjunct the North Node. So globally we had various placements  emphasised, which all have in common that they may mean children.

When we look at charts, placements say nothing precise, we only get clues. We are like Sherlock Holmes; we look at all these clues and if we are trying to figure out a story in which they all make sense together... 

So, for children, we can get clues from the Fifth house, which includes the sign on the cusp of the house, the placement of the ruler of the house and of course planets in the house, if there are. Along with the Fifth House, Jupiter, the Moon, the sign Cancer, and also the Fourth house, naturally associated with the Moon and meaning private life, home and family.

If someone has a strong focus in this house, home and family is likely to be a strong focus in their life. It's not a hundred percent sure, as all houses have more than one simple meaning, and not all meanings have to manifest.  

But it's very likely. So, unless this Fourth House is very challenged by difficult aspects and placements, a busy fourth house also suggests family life and therefore children. Then, more about them in the fifth.

We can also look at the Sun and the sign Leo. A reason for that is: modern astrology sees various expressions of the same archetypal energies through every planet, the sign they rule and the house naturally associated with it.

So, if the Fifth House has to do with children, Leo and the Sun must have some correlation to children as well. However, Leo is not considered a fertile sign like Cancer or Taurus. It’s the opposite, Leo, along with Virgo and Gemini, are considered sterile by tradition. Leo’s symbolic associations rather take us to showing, and children need to be shown a lot of things. A parent is likely to say often: "Look at me!" "Listen to me!". That's not being egocentric, that's education.

Leo is the sign of mid summer. In temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere, where astrology is from, it's a hot and dry time. You don't sow in Leo, but you reap. Children are fruits aren't they?

Let’s sum up: for questions about children, we look at the Fifth house, and also the Fourth, to Jupiter and the Moon, and the sign of Cancer… 

Then the particular signs, houses, aspects involved can give indications. For instance my father has Jupiter in Gemini and the ninth house. His three children have settled abroad, including me, writing and recording in a foreign language - Gemini - about knowledge and worldviews - Sagittarius.

Let's focus a little bit more on the fifth house now. 

It's the house of children. Children play. The fifth house is the house of fun and entertainment. Not only our children play and have fun in the fifth, but ourselves as well. We have a playful child within!

Children are spontaneously creative. Give them paper and colour pencils, they make drawings, they don't complain about not knowing how to draw. The fifth house is the house of creativity and self-expression.

Self-expression can be artistic, painting, playing music and so on, however, it's not limited to arts. The way we dress up, the way we talk and whatever we do because that's exciting and great fun is self-expression. Even creating a business can be. Then the business owner says "this business is my baby, I made it".

Our children are our creations, to some extent. We made them, and then we have to educate them.

The fifth house is also the house of education. I remember someone who had a stellium in the fifth house and no children. She was a teacher. She spent her days standing in front of an audience of children and showing them. The fifth house is even the house of speculation. I think this shows that speculating is a game, a gamble rather than real work.

And the fifth house is also the house of romance. When we are in love, we are like children, we don't pretend. We show who we are. A wonderful romance is the meeting of two selves free to express who they really are.

So once again, there is more to the fifth house than just children, but children are a central theme in fifth house interpretation.

If someone has children, and wonders about questions about education, no hesitation, there are valuable clues in the fifth house.

Jean-Marc

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Why is there water in Aquarius and Capricorn?

Saturn rules over Capricorn, which is an Earth sign, and over Aquarius, associated with the element Air. However these two signs have Water as part of their symbolism. How come?

The symbol for Capricorn is a Sea-Goat. The front is goat, the back is fishtail. This suggests a transition from fish to goat, from sea to mountain, from Water to Earth. It’s a story of becoming dry.

Everything is relative. The story may not be about becoming absolutely dry, but moving towards the dry end of the wet-dry spectrum.

Psychologically, this dryness is the dryness of the child growing up. In the beginning, in Cancer, the world is all emotional dependency, mother-child bond, the protection of the family. In the womb we were completely immersed in Water. When we were a baby, we were still swimming in very emotional waters… Growing up is somehow drying up! Like the goat we learn to climb our own mountain without being carried by mother and the flow. We learn to be self contained and pursue our own goals, in spite of the contrary moods…

Now, the rulership of Saturn over Aquarius, the Water Bearer, often representing Water pouring down, seems to contradict the idea of Saturn being dry, or drying. Aquarius is an Air sign.

Even without knowing Greek mythology it’s easy to connect the Air of Aquarius with the sky. In the air, the water bearers are the clouds. The ruler of the opposite sign, Leo, is the Sun - which, during daytime, can only be obscured by clouds. Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, happens to be named after the God of the Sky.

Water in Air and pouring down is rain. Here, the action of Saturn is condensation. Saturn always increases density: with this energy, Water comes out of Air and Earth out of Water.

This is not modern physics! This is a language of symbols. Replace Air by “gaseous”, Water by “liquid” and Earth by “solid”, and think of Saturn as cold and pressure.

Rain is cold. Air is considered hot according to the traditional elemental qualities, this shows how relative these notions are: Air is definitely hotter than Water. Air has insulating properties. At the same temperature, we feel Water colder than Air. Air can be felt as cold, especially in Winter when it rains and winds, but by contrast with Earth and Water, Air is hot.

Air is a symbol of mental space. Fleeting thoughts and ideas are weightless and invisible like the wind. With Saturn, our mental life becomes consistent and coherent. Our ideas may become fixed or at least organised into systems - theories, plans or ideologies.

Saturn gives form, Saturn shapes: In Air, it is the wind blowing on the water, making waves, as the glyph of Aquarius represents. Waves are visible manifestations of the invisible wind’s action. Our ideas shape our realities.

The wave is a symbol of individuality. We are waves, and we are the ocean. We are made by the wind, and we are the wind (but we have forgotten).

Now you may wonder. Is Aquarius, the water bearer, a symbol of the clouds, or is it the wind that makes waves? The answer is: both.

Symbols do not obey the “either…or” demands of rational definitions of concepts. Symbols don’t separate, they unite. The wind carries clouds, clouds carry water, the context is the sky, the symbol is the whole picture.

I hope you enjoyed this Watery ballad through the lands of Saturn!

Jean-Marc Pierson

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Moon in Aries

Once I saw a hen charging a dog. It was a young and  playful dog, it was three times as big as the hen. Behind the bird was a string of cute little chicken. Mother-hen doubled up in volume and charged. I was so impressed. The dog ran away.

Since I got this vivid picture as an answer to the question of what a Moon in Aries is like, I can’t see anything else. Yes, Moon is mother, but not only, and even though a mother hen charging like a ram to protect her progeny is a wonderful illustration, there must be more to an Aries Moon than the odd heroic moment…  

I know a woman with an Aries Moon. She  doesn’t look like it though. Her own mother had an Aries Moon among a few other Aries placements. The daughter must have inherited something of her primary role model. 

I don’t know her well enough to see far beyond her Pisces rising, so I am not able to dissect her privacy for the sake of astrological knowledge.  The Moon is on the private side, that’s my point.

If her Sun wasn’t conjunct the Ascendant, her Aries Moon in the first house would be much more apparent. but even an Aries Moon can’t steal the show to a Rising Sun. 

Some people wear their moon on their sleeves, others don’t. 

She told me she was embracing the Aries Mooness through her Pisces veil! f you’re curious, here she is.

Now, let’s leave her alone and let the symbols speak. 

Aries mothers aren’t constantly charging potentially dangerous individuals or animals to protect their little treasures.

There are times when they turn towards them and say things like: 

“Look in my eyes and tell me. What did you just say? I want to hear it again.” 

There is no getting away with it.

“This is not acceptable, do you understand why? Say it!”

Or

“But there is nothing to be ashamed of, child, come here, we need to talk about it!” 

Or

“Do you know how important you are, for me? You are my child. I love you.”

You don’t have to be good at guessing with Aries!

Moon is mother and more. Moon is also family and early environment: she is mother plus father (hopefully), plus siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and even neighbours, if the fences are not too high between the grasses.

There may be many opportunities to literally bang into one another with the Moon in Aries. Expect energy, running, climbing, jumping and crawling. 

Expect Can-you-do-its?  And Bet-you-I-cans! Followed by First Aid kits.

Expect the opposite of avoidance when it comes to conflicts.

The Moon describes our early environment. We are plants with roots in her soil.

Now, we must take the rulers into account to interpret planets. The sign feels the state of its ruler. If Mars is winning, Aries is winning, and the Moon in Aries benefits from a winning environment.

Is Mars, ruler of the Aries Moon, strong and healthy or banging into a wall? Does he have to fight a hard battle to break through a carapace?

We usually imagine Mars with a sword or a spear, but a shield is a weapon as well. Not all people with Aries placements appear fearless.

Is courage the victory over fear? Aries doesn’t mean victory, it means the fight. It’s not won in advance. Courage is fighting the fight, no more no less.

Mars in Aries may be a flamboyant warrior. It may also be a little sprout fighting its way between stones and clumps to appear as a new little plant, so cute, just above ground level. Hop! Grazed by a rabbit. Starting again. Beginnings are tough…

Mars in Aries may be the small boy playing with the big boys. He will look more like a stereotypical Mars in Aries when he is back with the small ones, but he would rather not.

It’s the subjective experience that matters, not what other people think.

Back to the Moon. In the beginning (of the post)  she was mother, then family,  and environment… She also means the child within us. 

There is more than one child in our inner gallery of subpersonalities. The Moon is the inner baby. It’s vulnerable,  emotional and needy. In Aries he may be loud. 

Later baby will be told to grow up. The Moon rules over instincts and emotions, they are strong in Aries. Have you got a heavy Saturnian lid weighing on your impulses? Bang bang bang! There is something powerful inside that wants to exist!

Imagination belongs to the Moon. In Aries, I let you imagine at what speed images may come and go.  

Imagination is doing mentally what children and artists do when they draw. 

With paper and pencils as a metaphor for a Moon thing comes astrological embarrassment: creativity and self expression are of the Sun, on principle.

 Reality is always playing tricks onto our labels and categories, because in reality, all the energies are always collaborating. When children and artists are drawing, the accent is on creativity, therefore the Sun rules.

 But when the process is internal, we call it imagination; the Moon rules, because the focus is now on the quality of the paper and pencils,

The Moon is receptive;  the quality of the paper is a fitting symbol.

A Pisces Moon may have a watercolour paper pad. A Libra Moon, a pastel paper pad. As for Aries… scrap paper!

Something fit to receive first sketches, rough drafts and unprocessed strokes of genius.

Drawing made of three lines, only three, but straight to the point: imagine this as a kind of imagination.

Let there be sparks! 

That’s enough. What’s next? 

Do you want me to read out loud? I’m on YouTube as well.

You can visit the homepage of this website to learn everything about what I offer as an astrologer, my book etc.

Another way to look at houses

Have you ever wondered how come the 12th house, traditionally called the “House of Hidden Things” –or of “Hidden Enemies” is found above the horizon, in broad daylight?

If, in your chart, the Sun is in the First House, which is traditionally called the House of Self and has a lot to do with how we appear… It was still dark when you were born.

As soon as the Sun crosses the Ascendant, there is daylight but we’re back in the House of hidden things. Strange inversion, don’t you think?

If you are using whole house as your preferred system, you still have the house of hidden things in broad daylight, and at least part of your first house under the horizon.

There is another way to look at what’s going on with the houses which makes more sense.

If you have planets in the First House, what matters is that these planets are about to rise. This gives them super power. If the Sun is in your First House, it was still dark when you were born, but just wait a few minutes, two hours maximum. Your life started with a Sunrise.

If you were born just after the Sun rose, you missed the train. You’ll have to wait the whole day and night before the Sun rises for the first time in your life.

I have not found this way of explaining in astrology manuals. However you can see by yourself that astronomically what I am describing is the case, and I am going to demonstrate that this view is entirely consistent with tradition.

As I've read Deborah Houlding I know that the houses were numbered after the watches of the Egyptian astronomers: it is the order in which stars or planets placed in them become visible at the Eastern Horizon.

Planets placed in angular Houses, that is the first, tenth, seventh and fourth, and especially near the angles themselves, Ascendant, Descendant, MC or IC, are especially powerful.

At every angle, something changes. As a general principle, in life, when something changes, something powerful is happening. Remaining the same rarely makes news.

In the diurnal cycle, the most powerful change happens on the Eastern Horizon: that’s where everything and the Sun appear. Light comes from the East and light is power. The Ascendant is the place of greatest power. The Rising Sign has always been given prominence, even over the MC.

There are three kinds of houses.  In many quadrant systems, the Angular houses are placed just before the angles – from the point of view of a clockwise motion. If the houses were considered independently of how what’s in them moves, why would the first house be considered angular and not the twelfth?

The Succedent Houses come after the angular ones. Succedent mean that they follow, like in the word “succession".

 Planets and signs in the Second House for instance, will be second to rise, after whatever is placed in the First House.

  After the Succedent Houses come the Cadent Houses.

Traditional astrology says that planets in these Houses have the weakest impact. They are considered unfavourable.

The word “Cadent” comes from the Latin “Cadere” which means “Falling”. Cadent Houses are falling away from the angles. How things move is what matters.

The twelfth house is falling away from the Ascendant. Or, to be precise, what is contained in the twelfth house, is falling away from the Ascendant.

When you call a team of race horses with little men on their backs a "stable" it is a figure of speech called "metonymy". I can say that houses are moving. They are like stables.

 Cadent houses are houses where we learn according to Arroyo.  In the Ninth House, for instance, we are seeking the Truth, we are trying to see the Big Picture of Life through religious beliefs, knowledge or philosophy…It often starts with travels and explorations. It’s a really interesting house, definitely worth living, but philosophers are rarely kings.

There is more power in the 10th house, from the point of view of down to earth life, where social status is more important than epiphanies. Otherwise, why would this house, traditionally called the House of God, aka the Almighty, not be the most powerful?

We can allow a certain orb. A planet in the ninth house but conjunct the MC still benefits from MC power – I would interpret it as if in the 10th, with a 9th twist.  

 

 The houses are divisions of the day

They are about what manifests at the most immediate and concrete level.

If I ask you: what are you usually doing in the morning? You’re going to talk about your daily routine, getting up, doing some exercises, stretching or meditation, having breakfast, what kind of breakfast, going to work, how far is work… Your answer will be precise and full of details.

But if I ask you: What are you doing in autumn? You will talk about your life in much more general terms. Going for long walks and picking up mushrooms in the forest for instance. You’ll talk about a general atmosphere.

The difference between placements in houses or in signs is similar.

Houses and signs are not equivalent but there are meaningful. correspondences.

I find important to insist: words such as: succedent, cadent, ascendant, rising, descendant, culminating  are words that describe movement, not fixed placement. Moreover, houses are numbered with ordinal numbers (First, Second, Third etc. not One, Two, Three...)

An argument used by traditionalists who wants to deny correspondences between houses and signs is that the houses derive their meaning from the primary motion of the heavenly bodies from East to West, daily and clockwise, when the secondary motion of the planets through the signs goes in opposite direction, from Aries to Pisces, yearly and anticlockwise.

If you understand primary motion as the Sun going through the houses in reverse order, climbing through the twelfth, eleventh and tenth houses in the morning etc. you don't want to superimpose signs and houses, and you exclaim: "Why would the house in the middle of the sky correspond to the tenth sign! This doesn't make sense!"

Now if you understand primary motion as the content of the houses going through the sky in the order of their numeration, you see that what is in the tenth house starts on the summit, will quickly decline all the way down to the bottom of the sky (IC) before eventually rising in tenth position in the order of succession.

Sure, the meaning of the houses is partially derived from the daily motion of the Sun through the sky, especially when we consider the angles, where the Sun rises, culminates and sets.

However, this doesn’t cancel the validity of any other consideration. It can be this, and that. The meaning of the houses is derived from various point of views. In the known history of astrology, the aspects the houses form with the Ascendant also contribute to their meaning, along with the concept of derived houses and the joys of the planets.

There were more than one way to explain meaning, so why not taking into account the meaning of the words used to qualify the houses by tradition? Four houses are cadent, they fall away from the angles. Four succeed to angular houses, they are numbered as first, second, third… Why not accept to see there is a pattern of development from First to Twelfth?

Furthermore, when astrologers consider transits to a natal chart, they can’t ignore that the houses are activated in the order of their numeration.

Once you have two wheels, both made up of twelve sections, both divided into four quadrants by four angles, both expressing a basic cycle of life, the year and the day, both unfolding in the same order, from Aries to Pisces or from first to twelfth, it becomes impossible, unless we are of the mindset of worshiping old scriptures as the ultimate word about everything, not to think of a correspondence.

Isn’t the law of analogy, fundamental to esoteric thinking? Denying it is jumping out of Tradition at high speed!

Analogy is not equivalence. If there has been a confusion which ended up with people believing that the Sun in Gemini or the Sun in the third house meant the same thing, it’s because of this eternal sin against intelligence which consists of taking metaphors literally.

The third house may be an concrete expression of the spirit of Gemini, this concrete expression will have the qualities of the sign and the planets placed in the third house. The ruler of the third house will be the ruler of the sign on the cusp of the house. What’s going on with Gemini and Mercury may co-signify third house stuff in the chart, as a complement of information.

Here is a snapshot - Chris Brennan sharing, from his book about Hellenistic Astrology, in an episode of his podcast about Astrology and Hermeticism, a summary of the meaning of the Houses attributed to Hermes Trismegistus himself mentioned in Thrascillus'tablets.

Look at the 12th house: One of the meanings is "pre-ascension."

What is in the twelfth house seems to mean what it means, not as much for being above the horizon than for having ascended before the ascendant. What else could that mean?

As the saying goes: "It's always darkest before the dawn".

Thank you! 

Jean-Marc

To learn more about me as an astrologer, storyteller, writer and about a possible retreat in Turkey, visit my homepage

The Cross of Matter matters

If you were born in Kiruna, in the north of Sweden, and Cancer or Capricorn were rising, your cross of matter looks like it has been rolled over by a truck. 

As you know, Ascendant, Descendant, MC and IC are the four angles. Together they form the Cross of Matter.

However, in many charts, it doesn’t look like a proper cross, with all the right angles at the right places, unless you were born when 0 degree Aries or Libra were rising.

Let’s call the  Ascendant “East”, the Descendant “West", the MC “South” (in the Northern Hemisphere) and the IC “North”. 

This flattened cross of matter  looks very wrong. East and North, West and South never collide like that! 

The MC is not exactly South actually. The MC is where the Sun peaks in its daily course. It’s in the sky. When you’re looking South, you’re not looking upwards but towards the horizon. 

When the Sun peaks, it shows South anyway,  even in Kiruna. 

If we wanted a chart aligned with the horizon of our daily lives,  we should grab the MC-IC axis and force it,  with energy and determination, to square the Ascendant Descendant axis. (Imagine your chart is a disc made of rubber and the axis are rods of metal) 

If we did that, we would have North, South, East and West properly placed, but the zodiac would have become distorted. Some signs would appear very elongated, and others compressed, poor things.  

That’s a question of perspective. 

Diagrams often represent the plane of the ecliptic horizontal (even though horizontal should be for the horizon) and the earth, turning around the Sun in the ecliptic, tilted on its axis.

Wherever you are, your horizon is tangent to the earth and turning with you as the earth rotates on its axis…  Try to visualise this  if you can, and flatten the picture to get a chart! 

Forgive my geometry in the air. 

All this to say: to deepen our understanding of the angles, we can reflect on the symbolic meanings of the cardinal directions. 

If you were a prince of this world, you would want the front of your palace facing South.

On days of celebrations, you would appear on a balcony, facing the crowd. The Sun would shine on you, enhancing your glory, from behind the crowd. 

If your balcony was facing North, it wouldn’t work that well. The Sun would dazzle the crowd and you would look insignificant. 

The MC is a place of power, of honours and achievements, or simply the place where we are seen by many. If you are the drunk of the village, that’s the role you’re playing, as a member of society. Being drunk is what you’re showing to the crowd, from your own little South facing balcony. 

When you’re facing South, North has your back. You remember your first appearance on this balcony. You felt proud and intimidated. Your father, behind you, laid his hands on your shoulders. Or maybe it was your mother. And maybe you were a princess. Anyway, you didn’t happen out of the blue. You felt you were a product of the land, the heir of a family. 

 If you are the drunk of the village, it may have been a different story indeed, but who knows about that?

Bear with me, I’ll tell you about East and West soon, but I feel like inflicting a bit more air geometry on you first. If you can’t bear it, just skip the next paragraphs! 

The plane of the ecliptic is where the Sun seems to go round, as seen from Earth. The ecliptic is flat like a very thin pancake. 

However, we always talk about the zodiacal belt. Imagine a belt surrounding the pancake. 

Now, imagine standing on earth and extending an arm eastward at Sunrise. You have the power to extend your arm horizontally so far that the tip of your finger reaches the zodiacal belt. 

If you do that on the day of the Equinox at sunrise, the tip of your finger touches the heart of the Sun. It is exactly East.  

But if you extend your magical arm eastward at the summer solstice, the Sun rises further North on the horizon. 

The tip of your finger touches one side of the zodiacal belt. You’ll touch the other side in Capricorn. 

Now imagine that this belt is so wide that it’s actually a cylinder. In the middle of it, the pancake. The zodiac signs are like vertical stripes on the cylinder. 

That’s what happens in far Northern or Southern latitude. The Earth is round, so the closer you get to the poles, the more your horizon makes a wide angle with the ecliptic. 

As the earth is turning, your East pointing finger is going to go through some signs obliquely, almost vertically. It will take a very long time before reaching the next sign. But a bit later, your finger will move more horizontally, and move very quickly from one sign to the next. 

There would be more to visualise, but we have enough to understand why charts like the ones in Kiruna look the way they do:they respect the proportions of the Heavens, but the view of our own horizon gets distorted. 

However, it’s important to keep in mind that we live, day in day out, at the centre of this cross of matter, and that it is, indeed, a proper cross. It’s our orientation. The meaning of the angles is tied to what the four cardinal directions mean. 

East is the most fundamental of the four directions. East shows the difference between being there or not being there at all. 

The Sun appears on the Eastern horizon, and like a new Sun we appear for the first time when we are born, naked.

There is no costume for the ceremony on the South facing balcony yet. The only clothing we’re wearing is this naked body. 

If you were a princess of this world, you would want your bedroom’s window facing East. You would rise from your bed and open the curtains to salute the rising Sun. You would not try to impress the Sun, being just who you are in your pyjamas. Then you would turn to your wardrobe and decide on how you will appear today, to your loved ones and to  whoever else.

East in the chart is you. The rest is interactions. 

West is beautiful. You would want a reception room there, to hold parties starting at the end of some days, or to sit with only one significant other and watch the sunsets, until death do us part. The Western horizon means death as well, not only other people. Opposed to East, it’s where we disappear. And opposed to who we are, it’s where others come into play. Not any others, the room is not big enough for the whole world to come. Those we invite, consciously or not, those who are attracted by our vibe, mirrors, opponents, partners… 

Because it’s annoying to get death inviting itself along with other people in the reception room, we pushed it away, to the eighth house, originally “the beginning of death”. The Sun is in the eighth house in mid afternoon, a time when shadows start becoming  longer. 

There are many house systems but there is only one cross of matter. The four directions are powerful places. Whatever is found near the angles of a chart plays an essential role in our life story. 

Jean-Marc Pierson , storyteller, astrologer.

Would you like me to read your chart? Taking a one to one class? Or Join a small group for a five sessions cycle? Visit my homepage and contact me.

Jupiter in Aries: a leap of faith. Featuring Saturn in Scorpio.

I threw the Astrodice, asking: “What could I write about now?” and I got Jupiter, Aries, and the First House. 

I had been struggling with Saturn in Scorpio and feeling more and more depressed in the process. 

I was thinking of the old Latin phrase:

 “Omnes secant, ultima necat” found on ancient sundials. 

“All take something away from you, the last one kills you.” 

Every single hour does that. 

Saturn is time, and it meant also death or tombstone before Pluto grabbed all the morbidity for himself in the name of modernity. 

I was thinking of skeletons and of the pirate flag, I was thinking of replacing the skull that means “danger of death” by a scorpion on high voltage electrical transformers or bottles of chemicals…

I was thinking of the vanity of the aspiration of writers, artists or other wannabe great men to beat death with a masterpiece (if I am dead at the time of your reading this, thank you) and of the sexual tension that the scorpion’s tail evokes so well, the purpose of which being also to beat death by passing on genes and property, but also to give it, as the ultimate end of every new life. But sometimes, even Saturn finds it difficult to get hard. To have an erection, you need to relax…  

I was thinking of Saturn doing Saturn with extreme intensity, of weasels who would not let go of the throat of a prey, even whilst being bludgeoned to death by a furious farmer…

I was thinking  of someone I know who has been working so hard over the last decade that she built what might well become an empire, starting from scratch.

I was thinking of geisha mastering the art of eliciting fantasies and desire with such an iron grip on themselves, do they ever feel pleasure I wonder?... 

I didn’t find the way to put all these evocations of Saturn in Scorpio into words, even though I just did it, but before I started writing this, I had given up, thrown the astrodice wondering what to write about, and I got Jupiter, Aries, and First House.

Then, I pushed all the contents of my mind out in one go. I was talking about Saturn in Scorpio, but I was doing Jupiter in Aries. Aries is a go go go let’s go energy! 

And now,  I’m done with it! Enough of Saturn in Scorpio, there may be dots left, connect them yourself if you feel like it, or let’s move on before it becomes boring! Let’s talk about Jupiter in Aries, now! 

• Knock knock!

• Who’s there? 

• Jupiter in Aries! Do you believe in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? 

• Oh no! Not you again! 

It takes some courage to take your Bible and your human fear of rejection to people’s homes, and to insist. 

This Jupiter in Aries is not the best it could be though. Yes, it does take action, like a good little soldier, on matters of faith, but is it good faith really? 

• It’s all written in the Book! 

Silly Jupiter, why do you believe in Mercury? 

It is written that  “In the beginning was the Word”, but which word was the Word exactly? Was it the word “Word” which was there in the beginning? 

All these stories are supposed to be inspiring, to make us feel something, to stimulate our intuition, not to be taken literally! 

• But if God is love (and it’s true, because it’s written here) do you think he would abandon us without giving us a user manual?

A user manual? Oh my God, this Jupiter has definitely been hypnotised by Mercury. And then it stumbled into Mars’ energy field, aka Aries, and couldn’t help moving forward fanatically.

Ian Mc Gilchrist, neuropsychiatrist and philosopher, makes the point that our Western culture suffers from a predominance of a left brain approach to perceive the world, to the expense of the essential, holistic, metaphorical, intuitive way of the right brain. His work is huge. As it happens, the key words and themes associated with the left brain are those astrologers assign to Mercury, and those associated with the right brain are typical of Jupiter. In his book “The Master and his Emissary” Ian Mac Gilchrist borrows the metaphorical story Niestzsche used of a master who his betrayed by his emissary. The master has no choice but trust him; the emissary takes the power but hasn’t wisdom and understanding. This book is about 500 pages and this was just a short paragraph. It is behind my saying that Jupiter has been hypnotised by Mercury in the mind of people who believe in religious texts literally, a tendency which is actually present in our whole culture. We believe in science, logic and reason beyond reason. Jupiter has become hypnotised by Mercury.

A healthy Jupiter takes a leap of faith, from common sense and reason to intuition of a higher order. In the sacred Books, Jupiter reads between the lines. It understands how words betray and reveal at the same time. Jupiter is understanding. There is an ineffable reality...

In matters of faith, someone with Jupiter in Aries will be quicker than anyone to to get it, and then is likely to act on it passionately! 

Now, everyone has Jupiter in their chart, but not everyone leaps from ordinary to mystical experience, whether at the speed of Aries or not. 

However, we all make similar leaps at all times. The left brain may have imposed its values as predominant, we can’t do without the right brain altogether. We can’t have a mental life without both Mercury and Jupiter.

As an example, let’s read a comic book. I’m French, to me the summit of the art is the adventures of Asterix and Obelix. 

Before I make the point, a quick digression: in these books we see the roman legions expanding what would later become the roman empire through military conquest. Mars in Aries is a single warrior, Jupiter in Aries brings cohorts of them. They march on in good order, under the command of their officers. 

Organisation belongs to Jupiter (and enforcement to Saturn). The Eagle, symbol of the king of the gods and of Rome stretches its wings over the Roman legions.

Jupiter in Aries could be a high ranking officer (or mean that you come across as someone who could be one, if you have it in your First House). This placement is likely to be an enthusiastic community organiser, not to say bossy.

In the comics, Asterix and Obelix win against the Romans every time they meet them, thanks to the magic potion prepared by Panoramix the Druid, but that’s not historical truth… 

Back to my point. How do Mercury and Jupiter work together when we read a comic book?

Mercury sees what is in the book, literally, that is a succession of fixed panels separated by white space. Speech balloons are hanging above the characters.

But our experience and our pleasure, as readers, is nothing like a succession of fixed panels separated by white spaces.. With Jupiter, we link them mentally. We create a mental world in which they are alive, walking, fighting, laughing. They move, they make noise. We rejoice. There is more in our mind than on the paper.

There has been a leap from the communicated material to the experience of a world. We trust we get what the authors suggest. We do that even more when we read novels. Mercury is only half of the mind. Jupiter puts everything together, and we understand what’s going on.

In everyday life, we are constantly turning the data we get from the world through our senses into our lived experience of reality.

In lectures about perception I attended at university, I learned that people born blind who have eye surgery and see for the first time don’t see a stable world with objects and people easy to identify. In the beginning, they experience something like visual chaos. The brain, or the mind, has to process all the visual input before they can see a stable world.

Our perceptions are built.

This fact is also demonstrated by asking to subjects to wear glasses that makes them see the world upside down. After some time of dizziness, they end up seeing the world right - and then, they see it upside down when they take the glasses off!

The world we see is higher knowledge to the extent that there is more to it than what our eyes meet.

The mystery of what happens when our consciousness translates nerve impulses in the brain into, for instance, the sight of vivid colours is a spiritual experience. There are no colours in our grey matter. They belong to what astrologers associate with Jupiter. It’s higher knowledge.

In practice, when we interpret Jupiter, we can say it’s our mind. It’s how we know and understand. How we integrate the world brings about how we integrate ourselves to the world. Our understanding becomes our attitudes. Liz Greene says that Jupiter can act as a surrogate Sun. In Aries, Jupiter is likely to be quick to understand, quick to embark on new explorations, assertive in matters of opinions, ideas or beliefs…

Jupiter is a civilising energy.

The story of humanity could be summarised as a series of attempts to escape the state of nature to get a better life. We take a leap of faith from nature to culture, so to speak. We seek knowledge and wisdom to temperate wild instincts. We establish the rule of law. A rock star may sing they were born to be wild, if they were wild there would be no motorcycle, no rock’n’roll and no song. 

Jupiter in Aries is likely to promote values like action, courage, daring, individualism, heroism… 

(If you’re used to thinking of values as being ruled by Venus, you’re not wrong, but Venusian values are personal, and Jupiter’s cultural)

 With Jupiter we create laws to organise society. Unlike natural or spiritual laws, we are actively creating these ones, this suits Aries well. Legislators initiate bills. If someone in your household suggests making rules about who takes the bins out on what days, check their Jupiter-Mars connections. 

Growth and faith as expressions of the same principle.

A question that has been tickling me for some time is how can I understand Jupiter as meaning growth and faith as expressions of the same principle.

The idea came to me that a clairvoyant would see the energy field of a growing leaf as the template the leaf is about to grow into.

What if our consciousness was like a young leaf, and the destiny life invites us to grow into was like the invisible energy field of the next steps we may take? 

With some free will thrown into the equation, we may accept the invitation now (or maybe later) but whatever is calling us is nothing we could have rationally and logically thought of. 

And maybe there is more than one possible path, and maybe our own will has contributed to the creation of the energy field…

 One way or another, the time always comes when the next step is a leap. 

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, storyteller.

You are on my website, the homepage is here.

Blog posts written over the years have become a book: Magical Doors.

Let me read you the introduction on youtube. Next video I’ll dress up.

Would you join me for an astrology retreat in Turkey in autumn?

How to read a chart. Where is the Earth? Why is it the Moon?

recycled

The Moon is mother, says the astrologer. 

The Earth is our mother. Traditional cultures with roots have been saying it since ancient times. In Greece she was called Gaia.

Where is the Earth in the chart? The usual answer is that it’s at the centre, half way between Ascendant and Descendant, where the horizon crosses the meridian.

 The Earth is where we are looking at the Heavens from, we can’t see it over our heads moving from sign to sign! 

Some chart types, for instance on Astrodienst, include a small circle at the centre. That’s where we are.

Here is another answer: Where is the Earth? It’s the Moon! 

This is not to be taken literally. I’m not that confused. 

Let me explain:

Traditional cultures with roots have been saying, since ancient times, that we are children of Heaven and Earth. 

There is a fundamental duality in us. We are spirit and matter, we are body and soul, we are from above and we belong below. The planets must express this fundamental duality if they are talking about us. But, of course,  the Earth is nowhere to be seen up there! 

But look. The Sun is a Sky wanderer. The Moon is close to the Earth. The Sun is Father, the Moon is Mother. They are the Yin and the Yang, they tell us about the fundamental duality. 

So, is it Sun and Moon, or Heaven and Earth? 

Such a question could be asked by someone with an overactive left-brain, and a sleepy right-brain, the one that understands metaphors. It’s both! It depends on the mood of the storyteller.

The Moon changes, she waxes and wanes, she dies and is reborn. Her phases reflect the phases of mortal life. She is our mirror. Nature, tides and plants do what she does.  She means home, influence of the environment, emotions and instincts, generation. Along with the first house, she means something about our body. Yes, she means Earth. 

The Sun looks immortal by comparison. Always round, always radiating light and warmth, it’s the most potent source of life and energy we know, and if it’s a source, it’s like God. It’s  Spirit bursting out in Heaven.

Now, when we are reading a chart, it doesn’t help to think that the Sun is a symbol of the Ultimate Source… unless we connect it with the idea that there is a divine spark within us, a creative spark that is busy creating ourselves from within. For more about the Sun, read The Sun is the Heart of the Chart.

All the efforts and aspirations to become who we want to be, our dreams and ideals, our callings belong to the Sun. This immortal part is not vulnerable. Only its creation is, that lives in the flesh, in the Moon’s realm.    

In another post, “Self or Ego, what is the Ascendant?", I used the metaphor of a submarine -a metaphor for the Ascendant - driven by a pilot - The Sun - used to explore the depth of an ocean - a metaphor for life on earth. 

Seen from the lightness and freedom of the spirit world, incarnating on Earth can be compared to getting down to the bottom of an ocean; the soul in the body can feel imprisoned, like in a submarine. 

How we appear on earth, with a body and a temperament, is shown by the Ascendant and the First House. Our goals and intentions, our life purpose and the heroic journey of becoming who we want to be is shown by the Sun.

Thus, the fundamental duality can be symbolised by the Sun versus the Ascendant, or by the Sun versus the Moon. Symbols are flexible. What if we consider the three of them together? Ascendant, Sun and Moon are the “Big three”, the most fundamental indicators in a birth chart.  

As part of a Sun-Moon-Ascendant Trio, the Moon is the soul, or psyche.

The psyche is an intermediary. She has a foot in the eternal world of Spirit, and a foot in the changing and mortal world of Nature. She is a medium. She rules over dreams, not the solar dreams of who we want to be, but the watery dreams, the messages. The Moon rejoices in the Third House. In our sleep, in our daydreams, in the flow of our thoughts and feelings, sometimes in a blurred way, sometimes clearly, we are connected with the great sea, whilst living in this body. 

Jung would talk about the function of intermediary of the Anima or Animus between the conscious ego and the collective unconscious. 

Again, the left-brains may be irritated, and ask: “So, the messenger, is it the Moon, or is it Mercury?”

They can work together! The Moon provides a flow of emotionally charged pictures, and Mercury articulates words to describe them. Thot, the Egyptian God of learning and writing, to which Hermes became assimilated in Hellenistic times, was God of the Moon. 

In this body, energies flow, or get blocked at times, causing diseases. If the Sixth House is more powerful than the First and the Moon, we may need some healing. Check also the Sun for the heart, upper spine and vitality. 

The Moon is Mother. Mothers are women, and women are witches, aren't they? They gather in a clearing in the middle of the woods to dance bare feet under the Moon when she’s full. They know the plants and they know how to bind, because they care for tribes and families.

They belong to the Earth and they extend invisible roots into the psychic dimension, where the light of the Moon reflects that of the Sun. 

Applying this to the metaphor of the submarine, the Sun is the driver, it is us, with individuality,  intention and purpose. It is the Heart. 

 The Ascendant is the submarine, with an emphasis on its outermost layer. The Ascendant says something about how we appear, with our body and face, behaviours and temperament, and how we interact with the surrounding world.  

The Moon is the flesh of the submarine and its Mama. (You know how submarines reproduce). The submarine’s Mama is outside and inside. Outside, it’s another submarine, which belongs to a whole family of submarines sharing characteristics, and it’s the environment where sustenance is found. Inside, it’s all the maintenance, health and safety systems, including the desire to have babies. 

The Moon is the psychic world that mediates the Sun-Ascendant connection. She is Earth and more…

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, Storyteller, etc.

To know more about me, about astrology readings, classes, active listening, visit my homepage

I would love to read for you!

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Modern Astrology and Fate

What are we thinking, nowadays, about fate?

I have often heard people say that “everything happens for a reason.

Sometimes people wonder whether a relationship is “meant to happen” or what they are “meant to become”.

What does “meant to happen” mean?

Was it written, from all eternity, in the book of fate? Was it the inescapable consequence of our actions, good or bad, tracing back to past lives?

Do we “always have a choice”? Do we believe that “The best way to predict the future is to create it?”

The way we practise astrology is inseparable from the answers we give to these questions.


In Hellenistic times, the philosophy of the Stoics was very influential. The Stoics had a deterministic view of life. For them, we are like a dog tied to a cart. The cart will go where it must. The dog can kick and scream, or walk along with acceptance.

If your philosophy is stoicism, you ask an astrologer what is going to happen because it will help you accept what you can’t change.

A traditional tale about fate, from Persia, tells the story of a man who persuaded King Solomon to teach him how to understand the language of the animals.

It was a bad idea. The man heard his rooster say that his donkey would soon die. The man quickly sold the donkey, who actually died a few days later in the home of his new owner. Good money saved!

The man then heard the rooster say that his slave was about to die. He quickly sold it and the slave died in his new home. Then the man heard the rooster say that he himself would soon die. He couldn’t sell himself!

In a panic, he ran and asked King Solomon what could be done about it. King Solomon told him that the loss of his donkey and his slave was the price to pay to preserve his own life, but as he didn’t paid it, there was nothing that could be done…

So what is fate, with the worldview that is implied in this ancient story?

This more complex view can be connected with the etymology of the word “redeemer” which means “to buy back” and with the Christian belief that Jesus paid the price for our sins.

Why would the son of God, assimilated to God himself by Christians, have to pay a price to wipe the slate clean? This implies a law...

The notion of karma also comes with the idea of a state of equilibrium which needs to be restored by necessity.

This worldview is symbolised by the scales and the sign Libra.

With the philosophical questions in mind, my point is: a psychological approach is relevant.

I do believe that a state of equilibrium has to be restored, or maintained, however, I am convinced that this can be done as an inner process.

What happens within has an impact on what happens without, and vice versa.

As a Westerner living today, I don’t sacrifice bulls, sheep or goats to the gods to avoid bad fortune.

I would rather watch my inner self-talk and make a sacrifice conscious attention to my painful emotions.

Astrology is an efficient way to direct our attention to what's important.

The way is within.

Jean-Marc
I read charts, teach astrology, and I write.
Now, it’s time to check the homepage!

Or maybe to learn about an astrology retreat in Turkey in October 2024…

The Sun is the Heart of the Chart

Some people don’t relate to their Sun sign. It’s annoying! The Sun is the most important and the most influential of all the indicators. 

Astrology is a language of metaphors. For instance, the Moon has been a symbol for women since prehistoric times. One obvious connection is that both Moon and women go through monthly cycles. So women are like the Moon or vice versa.

So let’s look at the sky. What is the most important thing up there? 

The Sun is the most powerful, the most visible, the most influential of all the indicators in the birth chart. It is the most essential of all the heavenly bodies, for us.

So how come some people don’t relate to their Sun sign? 

A way to answer this question is to look for dominant energies. The Sun may be the king but sometimes kings have powerful ministers. 

 A planet conjunct to an angle of the chart, or very emphasized by aspects from the Sun, Moon and personal planets can become so dominant that its influence eclipses that of the Sun sign, and also of the Moon sign and Ascendant.  

Another way to become dominant for a planet is to rule over many other planets or points like the Ascendant or the Moon nodes. If there are, for instance, three planets in Virgo and the Ascendant and the South Node are in Gemini, Mercury becomes very important, even if the Sun is not in one of these two signs. 

So what happens then?

If, let’s say, Venus is dominant, even if the person is neither Taurus nor Libra, they will display Venusian traits, which will make them rather Taurus like, or Libra like - or a bit of both. Let's say Venusian. 

If Mars, Jupiter or Saturn are dominant, I think it's very important to remember that these three planets traditionally rule two signs each. 

If Mars is dominant in a chart we can expect Aries like traits, and Scorpio traits as well. When Mars is taking action boldly and energetically, Mars expresses its Aries side. But when Mars is waiting in ambush, resisting in the face of adversity or thinking of a strategy it's more like Scorpio. The sign in which Mars is placed and the overall balance of elements should give clues as to how this Mars is more likely to express. 

In all cases Mars dominant in the chart of someone with a soft sign like Cancer or Libra will give the person traits which are not part of the stereotypical description. 

Now stereotypes are just stereotypes. What is essential is deeper.

There is another and complementary way to explain why some people don't relate to their Sun sign: it is to say that they haven't understood what their sign is about. 

When you read standard descriptions of Sun signs, they describe how people born with this Sun sign are. Virgos are supposed to be fussy, picky, neat and organised. A good deal of them are, but there are also messy Virgos. So let's drop this idea of Sun signs as immutable characters, all cast in the same mould, as fixed in their ways as Greek marbles. 

If we come across a messy Virgo, a shy Leo, a silent Gemini, a sleeping Sagittarius… Instead of thinking that they are not how they should be, let's ask:

"What is the Sign about?" 

The messy Virgo may be intellectually very sharp. Their mind may be the most organised mind you'll ever come across. If you could visit their mental world... you would realise the description of the textbooks applies, but in their head, not in their house. 

It's possible that in the chart, the Sun or Mercury are afflicted by challenging oppositions or squares from other planets, and this generates disturbances. So to deal with the threat of chaos, Virgo separates their own universe into two distinct boxes. In one box, chaos wins. Investing energy in this box is of no use, let's be pragmatic and practical. In the other box, order is firmly established and maintained. That is the best possible use of the energy.

Take some distance and you'll see that this Virgo is really a Virgo even if the living room is an abomination.

With Virgo there is a strong urge to discriminate, analyse and organise. But it won’t be expressed exactly in the same way for every single Virgo. 

My father is a shy Leo. I've seen him many times being the silent one in family gatherings. He is nothing like the boisterous and egocentric stereotype of Leo. He is a Libra Rising - so Venus becomes his chart ruler and Venus is conjunct Pluto and conjunct the MC. This brings a very strong Plutonian influence. Other placements in his chart are not supportive of Leo energy - rather the opposite. Sun conjunct Neptune, Mars in the 12th house for instance.

So rather than asking "What is a Leo like?" Let's ask "What is Leo about?". In short, Leo is about self expression, it is about showing, sharing the light. Being at the centre and radiating energy. 

In my father's case, this was a challenge for him. He had to try hard to be at least a little bit like a Leo. Still he was a Leo. With another Sun sign, he could have been shy, and it would not have been such a challenge for him. He would have accepted it more easily. One day he showed me some self help books in the style of the fifties. “How to overcome shyness” - “Handbook for emotional people”. The Leo urge in him made him try, and I’m sure he tried hard. He fought like a lion. 

 If life is a school, my father had enrolled in the Leo school - but he was still far from the PhD. In all schools there are beginners, intermediates and more advanced students. 

Now, my father was not a complete beginner at the Leo school. He managed to spend his entire professional life on a stage. He was a maths teacher. He was sharing his light. He was making demonstrations on the blackboard. When a maths teacher demonstrates that something is true, he is right, and if you have something else to say on the topic, you are wrong. Students had better shut up and listen. 

My father had a trumpet. He didn't play very often but he had one. He didn’t look like a stereotypical Leo but if you look more closely you find the Leo energy at the heart of the mix. 

To understand what the signs are about, we can remember the stereotypes, but we also need to remember to be a little more subtle about them. The key question is: what is this energy about? 

Let me give you another example: Libra. The stereotype is that this sign suits women better than men, because Libra is all about relationships. In life, romantic partnerships, marriage or long term relationships are certainly a huge topic, but is Libra about that and only that? 

Libra is a cardinal sign. We have a contradiction, because we read in textbooks that cardinal signs are focused on initiating, starting, taking action.... And Libra has a reputation of struggling with decision making. Libra hesitates, that’s the stereotype! It’s the opposite of Aries, Cardinal and Fire, the typical action guy. 

But let’s remember that Libra is Air. Thinking is part of Libra’s field of expertise. As a Cardinal sign, Libra initiates a thinking process. The symbol of Libra, the scales, is an instrument of measurement. You weigh the pros and the cons. You compare. You oppose. You notice how things or people contrast. You perceive nuances. You compare contrasts with other contrasts...  You do that in your mind, then you may join a debate society. You may aspire to sit in parliament and initiate bills, or plead as a barrister. Or maybe you're taking delight in solving equations. In an equation, there are two terms and a relation between these two terms.  

Libra is actually as dynamic and energetic, in the Air, as Aries is in the heat of the Fire. 

So it is possible to be born a Libra Sun and to seek balance between opposites in other areas than romantic relationships. 

That’s all for today. Trying to understand what every sign is about in the great fabric of life is philosophy. It’s deep meditation, it’s contemplation. It’s a lifestyle at the end of the cosmic day. 

Jean-Marc Pierson 

Astrologer, storyteller, philosopher with a homepage.
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The houses are moving!

First thing, you exist.

That’s strong, that’s powerful, that’s Angular, that’s First House.

Succedent Houses are Houses that come next.

Planets located in the second house are following those that are located in the first, in primary motion, that is clockwise.

These planets will rise next.

The Second house is a Succedent one.

You exist, and now you are hungry

You want food, you want money

Cadent Houses are Houses that fall over.

(form latin cadere, to fall)

Angles are peaks. After any summit comes decline.

After angular you fall into cadent.

That’s clockwise logic, aka Primary Motion. It’s worth repeating.

The IC is an anti peak, a reversed MC so to speak

The cadent house that falls after this anti peak actually starts climbing.

It’s the third house, aka House of the Goddess. The Moon is happy there.

She is a mirror as you know.

Of course Houses don’t move. At least not literally.

Houses are like stables.

A stable, is it a building, or a team of race horses? Or a team of race cars?

Angular, Succedent and Cadent Houses, understood as teams of planets and signs, race clockwise, in daily motion. It’s more like a procession than a race actually.

Planets placed before the Sun in this procession are called Oriental. (This is notion that emphasises once more the importance of how things move)

In this procession, the First house comes first, the Second succeeds, the Third comes next but the Third is also preceding the Fourth team, falling away from the angle that the Fourth is reaching.

However, in a natal chart, all motions are stopped in their tracks.

A chart is a snapshot, a frozen moment. In a chart, the Houses, like the signs and planets are fixed. Houses get activated anticlockwise by transits or progressions. Thus, again, the First comes first, followed by the Succedent second, the Third precedes the Fourth and the Fifth succeeds to it etc.

Now, this doesn’t deny the symbolic value of planets moving in primary motion, ascending through 12th, 11th and 10th houses, then declining and setting at the 7th place and so on.

We can perfectly look at things from various points of view.

To sum it up: the names of the Houses (Angular, Succedent, Cadent) describe the movement of the planets (and signs) contained within them in primary motion, clockwise.

The meaning of the houses is in great part derived from the highlights of this movement: planets (and signs) rise, culminate and set, they ascend and descend, day after day.

However, this clockwise movement is crossed in the opposite direction by the movement of the same planets moving in secondary motion, anticlockwise through the signs of the zodiac.

It’s worth meditating, because cosmic movements and life on earth reflect each other…

Jean-Marc Pierson

I am an astrologer. Yes I do read charts, and I teach. Here is the homepage.

Mars in Cancer

A warrior with a sword, holding a baby with his other arm, engaged in a fight. That could be Mars in Cancer. 

He has promised a dying friend to protect this baby and here he is, fighting bad guys who would prefer this little one dead. A question of inheritance or succession, poor baby. 

Mars is in fall in Cancer. Planets in detriment face a special challenge: the conditions are not favourable to the full expression of their energy. It’s certainly more difficult to fight holding a baby. Mars in Cancer has a particularly vulnerable side but it may win anyway. 

Symbolic language is the opposite of literal. The baby may be an inner child, with dreams, imagination and old traumas. 

Soldiers fighting to defend their countries have also a metaphorical baby on their arms. 

As for the Mafia, aggression and family are central values. I remember Al Capone had Mars in Cancer. At the time of writing, I googled “famous Mafia bosses”. I picked up two, randomly, Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano, then searched for astro data. Both had Mars in Cancer. I tried another one, Toni Giancana. Mars in Libra… but a Cancer Sun, and Pluto in Cancer trine Moon. Frank Costello. Mars in Aries, but… Cancer Moon in the 12th, Cancer Rising.  This is not a valid statistical study, but a strong first impression: these five mafia bosses all had whether Mars in Cancer, or Cancer higher than Mars in the chart hierarchy. I wonder how much Cancer we would find in the chart of the Godfather. 

As an idealist, I hope that one day, people will know how to live without violence. Will Mars disappear from the sky? Probably not. There must be peaceful ways for Mars. The energy of the warrior in Cancer can also be the energy of providers, (hunters), nest builders, sport teachers for children, cub scout leaders… (Akela!)

Here is another series of pictures for Mars is Cancer: A baby playing with razor blades. Is it going to self harm or will it rather experiment with a little brother? It doesn’t know it’s playing a dangerous game… yet. 

A variation on this theme: a child with a loaded gun. Or a knife. Or his bare fist, I love dramatic pictures for entertainment and clarity, but it may be just a child fighting. 

Check the third house for clues about peers and neighbourhood. 

Now, a domestic abuser is nothing but a child in an adult body. Children need to test boundaries. Adult abusers are responsible for the actions of their inner disturbed child indeed. They should test boundaries in psychotherapy. 

There is no precise grammar with symbols. Mars in Cancer may take active care of the baby, or be the baby, baby. 

In other words, the same energy - and therefore the same symbol - can mean the abuser, the abused, or the protector. We can also be our own protector indeed, both fierce and vulnerable. 

In Cancer, energies can be maternal or parental, responsible, nurturing, providing materially and emotionally, or childlike, sensitive and imaginative, or even  childish, dependent, passive aggressive, manipulative and full of needs. 

They can also be tribal. Family or nation, with their codes and values may dictate how Mars should act. Individualism is in exile in Cancer. Mars is found there wearing a scarf, the colours of his team. Mars in Cancer has a family name and he is following a flag… 

The antidote to negative expressions of an energy is cultivating the positive side. Not cultivating the positive side is the equivalent of offending a god, the negative side will be the curse. 

There is a giving and a receiving end. Cancer is not traditionally considered a dual sign, but the glyph: ♋︎ shows a double design. We are used to thinking of it as representing a woman’s breast, or the eyes of a crab. We shouldn’t let the interpretations we already know get in the way. Symbols are magical doors. It’s possible to find out more. The doubled design looks like a 6 or a 9, could that be the beginning of a spiral? We can draw it turning from inside out or from outside in. One provides, one takes in. 

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The more challenged a Mars in Cancer is, the more likely it is to manifest as immature, driven by its own needs. If you’re reading the chart of an older person, don’t tell them they are still immature, how could you know? They may have  learned their lessons. 

Mars in Cancer may act with sensitivity, or be motivated by emotions, dreams, imagination or memories, it will know how to appeal to emotions when leading the team, it may manifest as a paternalistic leader or a strong minded woman, maybe a midwife… 

Now, if Mars is in Cancer, its ruler is the Moon. A planet in a sign loves and depends on its ruler. 

Signs are mindsets, houses are more concrete. If the Moon is in the fourth house, it will take the power of Mars in Cancer at home, if it’s in the fifth, it will appear as the rule of a game, in the context of creative endeavours, love life, or be expressed by a child. 

For now, let’s just imagine Mars in Cancer being ruled by a Virgo Moon. There is no precise grammar with symbols. The Moon rules, beyond that, let’s just let images mix. 

The warrior with a baby on his arm is fighting the energies of chaos. Hostile germs are waiting in ambush. The immune system is powerful. Well supported by Mars, good exercise and herbs, antibodies and life energy will shake off the disease! 

Or maybe it was an accident? Reeducation is a fight. 

This interpretation would be particularly relevant if Mars or the Moon, is in the sixth house, or rules it, or makes a strong aspect to a planet placed in the sixth house, or to the ruler of the sixth, or indirectly, if the sixth house is emphasised in the chart, I just don’t want to repeat this all the time!

A child with a loaded gun with the Moon in Virgo could be very skilled at hitting the center of the target - It’s a question of precision after all.  It may be a young chemist who knows what powders to mix and in what proportions to prepare his own explosives. Exciting! With a bit more maturity, he could be serving his country in the army as an explosive expert. 

Not everyone with Mars in Cancer and the Moon in Virgo will handle explosives in the army, even with 10th house (career) or 11th house (groups) emphasis of course. The Moon rules emotions, and if she rules Mars in a chart, there should be some metaphorical fireworks in the interpretation, unless Saturn blocks or dampens it all. 

I hope you enjoyed these pictures conjured up by Mars in Cancer and what comes up with a Virgo Moon. These are only illustrations. What I wish to convey is a sense of how to juggle with pictures to explore in search of relevant interpretations.

Jean-Marc 

To know more about my book, astrology readings and teachings, visit my homepage. Don’t hesitate to use the contact form.

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My teaching style is flexible. I love answering questions, because the best time to explain something is when the question comes up in the student’s mind…

Astrology and the Greek Sphinx

Let me tell you a story that you already know: Oedipus meeting the Sphinx. This will lead us to astrological principles, you’ll see.  

The sphinx had the body of a lioness, a human face and wings. Her job as a monster was to ask a riddle to passers by, which they couldn’t answer and as a result they were killed. 

The riddle was:  “What has four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?” 

Imagine the random passerby cornered by the sphinx; he is in a state of panic, he is thinking of all the animals he knows, tries to remember the weird ones, like the frogs who start their life as tadpoles, but with frogs the legs count doesn’t match, it must be an insect,what insects do I know? Spiders, flies, caterpillars…  

Time’s up! What’s your answer? Huh… A butterfly? Wrong! 

And the sphinx jumps at the poor guy’s throat… 

Like all previous victims of the sphinx, this one used his mind as if he knew only the Mercury side of it. He had been to school, he had a functioning third house, he could count and classify according to rational criteria, but with this kind of mind, he couldn’t save his life. 

Then comes Oedipus. He is in a modified state of consciousness. How come? He had recently heard, from an oracle, that he would kill his father and marry his mother. 

This prediction is uttered twice in Oedipus’ story: the first time, his real parents, the King and Queen of Thebes heard it. They abandoned baby Oedipus to a certain death. However, he was saved by a shepherd and eventually adopted by the sovereigns of Corinth. 

Oedipus believed that the King and the Queen of Corinths were his real parents. He loved them. In that mythical time, oracles were taken very seriously. How shocked he must have been when he heard about killing one and marrying the other!

He had decided not to return to Corinth ever. He would never see his parents again. He heard about the sphinx; he decided to try to solve the enigma, thinking that if he died, it would be just as well. 

He was not in an ordinary state of consciousness that’s for sure. When you really despair, when you believe there is nothing you can do,  you become calm, and as it happens, stillness of mind is a key. 

Not only Mercury rules the mind, but also Jupiter.

Jupiter rules the opposite signs to the Mercury ruled ones. A key word for the Ninth house is “Higher Knowledge”. This may mean more than going to university as opposed to primary school. It means thinking the other way round so to speak. 

(For those who don’t like associating Jupiter and the Ninth House because it’s too modern for their taste, just consider that knowledge is a common theme to Jupiter and to the Ninth House in traditional astrology. However I could have made my point opposing Mercury and the Sun, which has its joy in the Ninth House, and also means consciousness or intelligence, “the instrument of perception of the soul” according to Valens).

In front of the sphinx, Oedipus doesn’t search his mind. He remains still. He is not afraid of dying. He holds the question in abeyance… 

A picture comes up. 

At the centre of the picture… It's him! Of course, we always look away from ourselves, but the essential answers point towards our own chest! 

Four legs in the morning, two at noon, three in the evening… it’s not the rational mind that was needed, but the one that knows poetry. The morning is not a literal morning, it’s the dawn of life; the legs are not literal legs either. 

In another version of the myths, morning, noon and evening are not mentioned. The question of the sphinx is just: “What walks on four legs, then on two, and then on three?” 

Those who are stuck with literal thinking are like dead, like killed by the sphinx. Those who can see are alive. The sphinx could tell us: Look at me: I have the body of a lion, wings, and a human head. If I am not a metaphor, what can I be? Some signs of the zodiac, in particular the goat with a fishtail or the centaur that shoots an arrow say it as well: Don’t take anything too literally or you’re dead to the Mystery. 

We need this analogical way to look at life to solve riddles, and in our particular case, to read astrological symbols and charts. This involves being able to still the mind. It’s a spiritual quest, in the sense that we need to understand the spirit, rather than the letter. 

In spirit, poetry is a valid way to describe reality. Poetry is made of analogies. Life is like a day. Our own personal morning is characterised by the sign which was rising when we were born.  That’s how we appear, which does not mean “how we look” only, but how we transition from not being there to become present. Pick-a-boo, here we are. 

We may be souls, but on earth, we appear thanks to our body.  The First House rules the body. It’s not logical, it’s analogical. We are like the Sun, our life is like a day, the Ascendant describes how we rise from absence to presence... The Descendant shows how we disappear. The MC how we culminate, when we reach maturity and the IC is a hidden place where beginnings and endings are one and the same.

Astrology is a language of symbols. Symbols are the language of the Great Mystery. When the sphinx asks: “What has four legs, then two legs, then three legs?”, it also shows (rather than says) that nothing is permanent. Forms are transitory. Can we silence the ordinary mind, look with the eyes of the soul and remember that which has no form within ourselves? When we  do, we are closer to the stars, and more apt to interpret their language. 

As William Lilly put it: “...for the more holy thou art, and more near to God, the purer judgement thou shalt give.”

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, Storyteller, Writer etc

  Homepage (To know more about Magical Doors and what I offer as an astrologer)

Primary and Secondary Progressions

 Nowadays when we talk about "progressions" we are actually talking about "secondary progressions" because there is a more ancient technique called "primary directions". 

The fundamental idea behind this technique is the same as that of secondary progressions: there is a correspondence between the day and the year. 

The day and the year are two fundamental cycles, defined by two fundamental motions: the primary motion is the daily rotation of the earth around its axis: the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars seem to be moving around us, they rise, culminate and set, day after day. 

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The secondary motion is the movement of the Sun and all the  planets through the zodiac. For the Sun, it takes one year. Of course, as we know, the Earth revolves around the Sun. Seen from Earth, the Sun goes through the zodiac. 

Notice that there are 365 days in the year, and 360 degrees in the zodiac. So the Sun moves at the pace of almost exactly one degree per day. If we were children we could draw a big yellow Sun with legs walking around the zodiac; each step would measure a degree. The approximation is good enough to work as a symbol.

Now imagine the first day of the life of a baby. Let's say, me, as an example. I was born when Cancer was rising, more precisely the degree 22 of Cancer. Some people would say that's a killer degree but you can see I'm still  alive. The Sun was in Scorpio, degree number 12. 

During the first hours of my life, after Cancer, Leo came to rise, then Virgo, Libra, Scorpio... There was a moment when the 12th degree of Scorpio, the degree of my Sun sign, was rising. Changing my time of birth on astrodienst I could easily calculate that it would actually take 12 hours before the exact degree of my Sun came rising. 

You may find it surprising: 12 hours to get from 22 degree Cancer to 12 degree Scorpio? If the movement of the signs rising on the horizon was regular, in 12 hours, we would have seen half of the zodiac rising on the horizon! We should see Capricorn 12 hours after Cancer! 

But no, the geometry is a bit more complex, the axis of the earth is tilted, the earth doesn't revolve in perfect alignment with the zodiac; as a result there are signs that rise quicker, they are called signs of Short Ascension, it take them less than two hours to rise;  these signs are Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus and Gemini in the Northern Hemisphere.

Pisces and Aries are the quickest. If you are Pisces or Aries Ascendant, bravo! You slipped through the narrow window!  

The signs said of Long Ascension are the other half of the zodiac, from Cancer to Sagittarius. These signs take more than two hours to rise.

So from 22 degree Cancer Rising to 12 degree Scorpio it took 12 hours. 

So in my case, the primary direction of my Ascendant to my Sun is useless, because in this system, one hour becomes 15 years. 

(Twenty four hours would become 360 years so you can guess that the base of this system is to make one degree correspond to one year, because the Sun moves of one degree per day through the zodiac, but three hundred and sixty degrees per day in primary motion. Primary motion is the course of the planets through the sky from Est to West during the day)

My directed Ascendant would only conjunct my natal Sun when I would be 180 year old!  - This would certainly be a time of major achievement and brilliance if I lived that long. If my Sun was in the first house, I would have had a better chance of living a major moment indicated by this technique. Same with the MC and a Sun in the 10th house. 

It's also possible to progress planets with these methods, with some added complications that I'm not going to explain here. 

 Just remember that this ancient technique was used in Hellenistic and Mediaeval Times, and, what’s most important, the idea is that what happens at the beginning of life, not only the fixed birth chart, but how the movement carries on during our first hours means something that can be translated into years of later life. 

 Secondary progressions, or simply progressions, which are much more in use nowadays, are based on this same symbolic equivalence: one day becomes one year. 

I suggest you make a little pause, flush your mind of whatever confusion may be lingering, and be merry: from now, it's going to become much easier, and also more useful. 

With secondary progressions, the positions of the planets on your, let's say, 20th day of life are the progressed positions of the planets for your 20th year. 

It is the same thinking: the small cycles - the days at the beginning of life - are a kind of miniature representation of the big cycles - the years to come. 

By the way let me point out that seeing  correspondences between the houses and the signs is completely consistent with this most ancient way of thinking. . The small cycle is a miniature representation of the big cycle. The year is in the day. In the year there are 12 signs, in the day there are 12 houses. So it makes complete sense to consider them as analogically related. 

Back to progressions. 

With secondary progressions, one day stands for one year. 

In fifteen days, the Sun will have run through almost exactly fifteen degrees. It's easy to calculate! 

Thus, it takes fifteen years for the progressed Sun to move half a sign forward. Thirty years per sign. As you can see, that's really slow. 

In fifteen days, the Moon will have moved through half of the zodiac and a little bit more. A Moon cycle, from New Moon to New Moon, is twenty nine days and a half. A progressed Moon cycle is twenty nine years and a half - which is roughly the same speed as Saturn's. 

The progressed New Moon - when the progressed Moon conjuncts the progressed Sun - is a very meaningful time, marking a new beginning. If you're using Astrodienst, in chart type, choose "natal and progressed Moon". You'll see where it happened in terms of sign and house, but what I find the most revealing are the dates. For me, for instance, my last progressed New Moon was towards the end of 1994 and that's at that time that I found out that I could be a good storyteller and writer, which is something that would become very important in my life. 

New starts are not always obvious, they are little seeds, but with hindsight it's possible to understand what started growing then.

The progressed phases of the Moon are in my view the most worthy thing to know about progressions. 

The progressed Moon, like Saturn, takes about two years and a half to travel through each sign, and on average the same time through houses. Our current mindset is more specifically focused on the themes associated with this sign and house, and possible aspects to other planets, when there are. 

In general, when checking progressed planets, the important moments are when something changes. The moments of change are when something happens.. 

That's when we notice, when we have to adapt and adjust to new conditions. Things can happen within our own psyche, usually progressions are said to be about the development of our own energies and transits are more like external conditions, but I don't agree with this view, because what's going on within ourselves and what comes from outside is so interrelated that we can't make such a clear distinction. 

In the progressed world, changes happen when the progressed planet ingresses into a new sign or house, when a progressed planet goes retrograde, or becomes direct if it was retrograde, or when it forms aspects to natal and progressed placements. 

Check if any planet changed direction during the first months of your life, if yes, at what age this moment corresponds in terms of progression. 

For aspects, take tight orbs, otherwise the timing will span over years! 

Looking at the birth chart, it's possible to guess which major aspects are likely to be formed in the months to come. 

No need to stress out and try to know everything in one go. No need to spend hours writing down all the aspects between all the planets that happened over these two or three first months of life. No need to turn our studies into a nightmare. There is too much anyway. We can just check major conjunctions that will be formed by the Sun and the Moon to get a first feel without panicking. . 

For instance, my natal Sun is on the degree 12 of Scorpio, my natal Mars on the degree 23 of Scorpio. Moving at the pace of one degree per year, my progressed Sun did conjunct my natal Mars when I was 11. Around the same time I had a transit of Pluto on my natal Moon, so we could have looked only at transits and guess times were difficult.

When we see more than one indication that something is going on, we can think that the hammer is hitting the nail insistently. There were nasty little bullies in my life at that time. 

The progressed Moon progresses at the average speed of one degree per month. Again the degree is a really meaningful unit, a month is a unit of time that comes from the length of the Moon cycles.  

So if we were children, like I said with the Sun, we could draw a Moon with legs, and she would progress at the pace of one degree per step.

Looking at our natal Moon we can guess at what time the progressed Moon will conjunct certain planets. My own progressed Moon came in conjunction with my natal Saturn when I was nine year old. I went to another school and there was a very stern teacher. 

Stephen Arroyo says that ninety per cent of what's going on in a person's life can be seen through transits.

So it's good to know about progressions, and especially about the progressed Moon and its phases, but it's all rather time consuming so we better prioritise and focus on the big, the obvious and the essential.

Good day or Good night! 

Jean-Marc Pierson

Margory Orr, a seasoned astrologer and author, has written a wonderful review of my book: Magical Doors.

You can read it here: https://star4cast.com/astrology-a-gateway-into-a-magical-universe/

You can also go back to my homepage (yes, you are on my website here!) and contact me for a reading, a class or an astro story.

Saturn in Pisces

Saturn sets up boundaries.

In Pisces… Could there be boundaries made of water?

I see a castle of old, with a princess locked up in the highest tower, walls, and a moat around them.  A prince is fishing whilst his faithful horse is taking swimming lessons. 

I see an ocean, and people in love, or believing they are, living on two separate continents. They are having a virtual relationship on the internet but they are just dreamers. 

I imagine a mysterious place, the Island of Avalon. It’s magically protected. If you’re not invited, you simply won’t find the way.  Lost in the mist you’ll end up back to square one, in Glastonbury. 

If Avalon serves as a metaphor for the sacred place of vulnerability within,  Saturn in Pisces protects it with smokescreens, illusions, camouflage. If you’re a wallflower, you know how to make yourself invisible.

If you’re wandering in the wilderness, hungry and trying to catch  fish in a river (how often did you experience this?) you know how slippery fish are. You also know that water deflects light. The fish is not where it seems to be. The Piscean theme of escapism suits Saturn, concerned with protection. 

Interpreting astrological symbols is exciting and confusing. I’ve started following the thread: Saturn is boundaries, could there be boundaries made of water? However there is no precise grammar with symbols. I could have wondered: What happens when boundaries are confronted with water? 

Here comes the idea of a porous membrane. There is a boundary, which plays its role whilst remaining open to exchanges with the environment. Fluids pass through. This can be a very healthy expression, if the environment itself is healthy.

Another image is a crumbling wall. There was a boundary, but when the weather is wet and mutable, forms dissolve. Saturn in Pisces may mean weak boundaries.

This leads us back to the strategy of using water as a boundary, to compensate for the lack of firm structure. Escape rather than fight, or even better, don’t be there at all! Castaneda once asked Don Juan if his magic could protect him against a man waiting for him with a gun. “If a man was waiting for me with a gun” answered the sorcerer “I wouldn’t go”. 

As I said, there is no grammar with symbols. Saturn in Water can be incredibly strong like a crab’s hard shell, or an oyster’s; it can be a dam, the banks of a river or a canal; it can be waterproof. 

We can’t avoid speaking of a spectrum. With a crumbling wall, Water wins, Saturn disintegrates. With a porous membrane there is a balance. With a waterproof material, Saturn wins and contains. 

Saturn in Pisces can be a bottle, a jar, a barrel, and when this translates into psychic stuff, we talk about containing our emotions, or of  bottled-up feelings (Stuck energies that need healing to be able to flow again) 

How can we know what interpretations will be relevant to a particular chart? The more we follow the threads the more Saturn in Pisces may mean one thing and its exact opposite, or a middle term, or even something else! 

The negative interpretations, like weak boundaries when we would need strong ones, are more likely when the placement is afflicting/afflicted. 

Some interpretations will also make more sense than others in the context of the houses involved, of the planets connected with it through aspects and so on. 

If we are reading a chart to understand a person, we have to accept that we won’t get anything more precise than what human beings can be. We are complex. The same individual can manifest various and contradictory expressions of the same placement, according to time and circumstances. 

I started this post associating Saturn with boundaries, which is a relevant interpretation, but not the only one. 

In the world of Pisces sensitivity, Saturn can be spiritual discipline: yoga, meditation, prayer…  or the psychological healing work, possibly involving seeking professional help or even becoming a professional helper, or the hard work of the artist. 

Saturn wants “things” to become structured and concrete, in the Air and on Earth.  

In the Air, Saturn is a great intellectual planet, it is in domicile in Aquarius. 

If you approach astrology with a strong Saturn for instance, you won’t be put off by words like: celestial sphere, prime vertical, meridian, ecliptic  and so on. You’ll be able to hold clear mental structures in your mind. 

As with boundaries, mental structures in Piscean waters may manifest on a spectrum, from their complete dissolution ( - Shall I cut the pizza into four or eight parts? - Four, I am not too hungry) to relevant expressions to the context of mutable waters. 

Mathematics, for instance, when not a confusing labyrinth apparently designed to make students feel stupid, can be a springboard to glimpses into infinity. 

Only trying to imagine a line that is so thin that it has no thickness at all, but extends towards infinity in both directions can be a mystical experience. 

It confronts us with the limitation of our mind, and presents us with the challenge of an intuitive, transcendental jump. 

This is my idea of sacred geometry. 

Saturn in Pisces then may mean the mind, standing on scaffoldings of its own making, contemplating the paradoxes on the edge of reality. 

As ruler of Capricorn, let’s come back down to earth, Saturn wants “things” to be, not only intellectually coherent and logical, but also downright concrete. Saturn is in Pisces, asking: What makes it difficult to make your dreams come true? 

An answer is contained in the question. Dreams are dreams. They can be the obstacle. Do you want to fly like a bird? You may find happiness hang-gliding. Do you want to fly without using a man made device, with your own wings? Astral journeying may satisfy you, but is it within your reach? 

You would like to have many friends and live together on a farm,  be a solitary hermit living in the mountains, whilst being the next Steve Job? Good luck! Have you made your bed?  

On the other hand of the spectrum (yes I like bad puns), a friend with Saturn in Pisces on the MC told me she wants to climb the mountain of her dreams; knowing her, I have no doubt that she will do what it takes to make some of them come true, as she has  already done. 

Saturn in Pisces can provide inspiration and perspiration. 

On this watery note, the topic is infinite but today, my words end here. Thank you for your attention. 

Jean-Marc

I am an astrologer, a storyteller, a writer, and the homepage is here

Jupiter will blow your mind!

In Magical Doors, I introduced Jupiter as the “Miracle Grow” energy, the astrological fertiliser. Whatever it touches becomes bigger. 

Other essential keywords for Jupiter are “knowledge” and “understanding”.  Looking at the bigger picture, our mind expands. The biggest picture may well be what we call “worldview”. 

Today, I’ll add another key word: “Assimilation”. Following this thread, we’re going to understand Jupiter better, and in particular why it makes sense for Jupiter to rule Pisces. Jupiter is more similar to Neptune than we think. 

What is knowledge? If you’re asking what’s the capital city of Lithuania, I know the answer: It’s Vilnius. But to really know Vilnius, I would have to go and live there. I would know the sound of its streets, what they like to eat, how they treat one another and many other things. 

I would get more than lovely memories: we assimilate our experiences. They nourish us. They make us grow. What we live becomes us. 

This is also true about culture. Our inner life is enriched by the books we read, the music we listen to etc. Cultivating our inner fields, we grow. We understand better. We know more. We become wiser. Our worldview becomes more colourful, our philosophy more refined, our beliefs more inspired.  

Assimilation is also a word we use about the process of learning. Students do more than memorising information. They understand how things come together. They can explain.

One becomes a mathematician, another a carpenter, a flautist or simply themselves with “that kind of personality”. 

What we assimilate shapes us. 

Someone said: “Culture is what is left when everything else is forgotten”. 

I would say: 

We stand under what we understand. 

Let’s keep digging!  

A healthy baby assimilates nutrients from its food. The food becomes its own flesh and blood.

An empire expands by invading neighbouring countries and assimilating them into itself. From the point of view of the Empire, the process is straightforward enough.   

How about the point of view of the neighbouring countries? 

Their boundaries have been rendered ineffective. 

The identity of colonised people is at risk of getting dissolved as the bigger thing takes over. 

These themes are typical of Pisces: issues with boundaries, dissolution…  In an Empire, or a union like the United States or the European Union, or the United Kingdom, the many become One. (They may or may not like it) 

Being absorbed is a kind of expansion. A whole new world is there, for the better or the worse. 

In some cases, the culture of the conquered strongly influences that of the conquerors. Our astrology, for example, has Hellenistic roots and planets wearing Roman names. 

Assimilation is a two way process. 

 Jupiter is the traditional ruler of both Sagittarius and Pisces. There are two sides to assimilation: one is actively pursuing and assimilating, the other is surrendering and being assimilated. Yang and Yin business. 

Conquered people have to surrender. Jupiter is usually considered benefic, but it’s really a question of point of view! 

Surrendering is an ambiguous concept. For warriors it means defeat. However, for mystics and lovers, it is a valued attitude. It means letting the Great Spirit, or Love, take over. 

We are like countries, and we are like lovers. Sometimes surrendering is defeat, and sometimes it’s virtue.  

It’s not always clear when it’s one and when it’s the other. There are two fish. They swim in opposite directions, and they are always together… 

Jupiter, the planet of growth, is called a social planet by astrologers, and rules the process of socialisation. 

As they grow up and assimilate life lessons children learn to become autonomous, acquire critical thinking, self determination and all that individualising jazz . At the same time, parents and teachers don’t wish for them to rebel against the social order. 

Social integration involves some amount of surrendering. There are laws and customs.  (“Laws” is another central key word for Jupiter.)

Society is neither the kingdom of Heaven to whose rule it would be good to surrender wholeheartedly, nor an enslaving hell to which individuals should resist at all cost… But it’s a little bit of both! 

This double bind is reflected in the interpretations of Jupiter we find in astrological literature: people stamped with Jupiter’s seal are said to love freedom and independence. 

They may be explorers, adventurers, truth seekers. The Sagittarian type has the reputation of being ignorant of social graces, at times so blunt you wish them back to the savanna. The Piscean type may identify as an outcast, as “not made for this world”... and escape obligations and duties. 

At the same time, we learn that Jupiterians may be Very Important Persons playing a role in society, doctors, lawyers, teachers, preachers, lecturers, priests…  They may assimilate and represent a social or cosmic order and its laws. They believe in civilisation, promote culture and moral principles. 

The same individual versus society dilemma characterises Uranus, in a more radical version. Jupiter rules over mutable signs, it has more flexibility. Mutable signs bring change. Jupiter talks about the process of assimilation - integration. Uranus shakes the fixed state of affairs when it looks outdated. 

Conclusion

We may have a sense of identity, personally or collectively, but in reality, with Jupiter minds and cultures can get mixed. Melange is everywhere. Nothing is permanent. 

If the cosmic energies were playdoughs of various colours, and we let Jupiter lead the game (by switching off Saturn) we would see all the colours and forms blend. We would end up with a round brown ball representing nothing, as I did when I was in nursery school.

Conversely, if we switched off Jupiter and gave full powers to Saturn, we would stare stupidly at our sticks of playdoughs. We would demonstrate absolute respect to their initial forms and colours. Nothing new would appear and life wouldn’t happen.

Identities are illusions, by this I mean they are not absolute, but for life purposes, Saturn needs to  balance Jupiter and preserve forms and identities for some time. 

When we meet Jupiter in a chart, we get clues about what we want to assimilate, how we try to understand the laws of life and society (worldview, philosophy, beliefs), and also what style of higher order we feel called to surrender to. 

I hope I’ve been able to bring some elements to understand Jupiter. There is always a lot to chew with this one. Assimilate well! 

Jean-Marc

On this blog there is a homepage,. I am an astrologer. How about taking a class?

Homepage is here

A post on this blog that students of astrology may find particularly useful is “How to read a chart as a whole”

It’s here

May all the beings be happy!

How to read charts. Sentences with keywords. Leo Venus square Taurus Mars.

Yes it’s me, 20 years ago. I know astrology better now.

If astrology was yoga, I could say: Reading about postures is not the same as practising them! 

Astrology is mental gymnastics. We don’t need more and more information. We need to stretch our muscles. 

When you start learning, you read about placements… and you get confused. 

• Some authors give you various possible interpretations for a single placement. They use the conditional: “People with this placement may…..” We are drowning in uncertainty!  

• Various authors don’t tell you exactly the same things about the same placements. Sometimes they even contradict one another. 

• Try to Google “How will a Venus conjunct Sun in Leo squared by Mars in Taurus be expressed if the Ascendant is Scorpio and the Moon in Aries?” and you’ll realise that you’re all alone with the task of putting all the pieces together.

I propose two methods. One is powerful, easy, efficient but not as subtle as Pisces Mercuries could wish.

The other is subtle, results can’t be granted but it opens the door to intuition and can be, at times, downright magical. In this post, I’ll introduce the first method, based on keywords. 

Keywords are simplifications. Symbols are pictures for a reason. Now keywords are powerful. Just don’t turn them into dogmas.  

You pick keywords associated with the various symbols and you make sentences that make sense.  It’s a good game. It can be played with other students and you don’t even realise you're doing homework. Introverts can play on their own. 

For instance: 

Venus in Leo square Mars in Taurus. 

This person loves (Venus) being seen (Leo) but (square) acts (Mars) like a bull in a China shop (Taurus). 

Bull in the China shop is not a standard keyword for Taurus, but in this context, it wants to be there! Mars is in exile in Taurus, add a square to the exile, especially from Venus, and the outcome is likely to be somewhat awkward. 

This person loves  (Venus)  being seen (Leo) but acts (Mars) with conspicuous (Leo) greed (Taurus when squared)

Notice that the key words may slide along the aspect lines. 

This person values (Venus) art, fun, and glory (Leo) but (square) goes for (Mars) material security (Taurus) 

Or 

This person loves (Venus) art and creativity (Leo) and can’t (square to Mars) get security (Taurus) 

Or

This man desires (Mars-Venus) a high maintenance (Leo) woman (Venus) and can’t get no (square) satisfaction (Taurus) 

I wanted to say YES (Venus) but (square)  I said NO (Mars) 

(Sometimes, forgetting about the signs helps)

Singing (Taurus) is an energetic (Mars)  performing (Leo) art (Venus) - Don’t be too loud though (square) 

Desires (Mars-Venus) conflict (square). 

Sometimes, people in our life become actors of energies in our own chart. Sometimes we swap roles according to circumstances… 

To assert (Mars) good taste, hard work and common sense (Taurus) doesn’t work (square) when you bond with (Venus) a bling bling party animal (squared Leo) 

Go get (Mars)  the goods (Taurus) for Venus (she rules Taurus) but (square) luxury (Leo) items (Taurus) cost too much (square) money (Taurus)

We could go on and on… but if we play this game with friends, we better limit the time. 

Nothing will prevent the players from sharing the fantastic lines that may come up after the time is up during the next meal. (Imagine an astrology  retreat, a swimming pool, palm trees and good laughs…)

Next level: add the houses. We could have started with the planets in houses and added the signs next. Changing the order can help bring up new ideas. 

Venus conjunct Sun in Leo and the tenth house square Mars in Taurus and the seventh house. The Ascendant is Scorpio. 

This person is a socialite. 

Socialite: definition: a person who is well known (10th house, Leo) in fashionable (Venus, Leo) society (Venus, 10th house)  and is fond of (Venus) social activities (Venus) and entertainment (Leo).

But (square) 

This person is a drama queen! (Venus afflicted in Leo) 

She always argues (square, Mars) with her partner (seventh House) who has a reputation (10th house is connected with Mars through the square) of being violent (Mars afflicted), possessive (Taurus) and wasteful (Mars afflicted in Taurus) 

However, nobody knows what’s really going on behind closed doors (Scorpio Ascendant). They must get on very well in bed (Mars, ruler of the Scorpio Ascendant, in Taurus and the seventh house) to be obsessively (Scorpio) addicted to each other (Scorpio, seventh house). Drag me to hell! 

It’s better to play with imaginary charts for a start: not being anxious about being right or wrong, we can relax and be creative.

In spite of the various possible interpretations, the underlying archetypal pattern remains the same. Playing will develop our intuition of the archetypal realm. 

In a future post, I’ll talk about the other method I suggest, which consists of combining pictures instead of keywords. 

Have fun! 

Jean-Marc Pierson

If you feel like learning with me, I offer one to one or very small group online classes. You may have guessed that there are plans (eleventh house) of organizing retreats. Watch this space!

In the meantime, you’ll find plenty of keywords and key ideas in Magical Doors.