Spring Equinox & Re-Calibrating

Happy Spring Equinox!

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Let’s face it, we’re still fighting the corona virus.  It’s not spring-as-usual.  It’s easy to escape into thoughts of Easter eggs, bunnies and chickadees.  All these things are nice and help us to feel good, but right now, I feel the world is called to restore balance.

So many us are chronically over-stressed, busy in lieu of being present, and not balancing rest, repose and activity.  Our environment is over-burdened by the pollution caused by our commutes.  Our psyches are now overburdened by fear, anxiety and panic.  We need to embrace this pause, this balance point, offered by the vernal equinox.

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Looking ahead, this spring equinox we have a void-of-course moon on March 20th for most of the day, if you are in the US.  Check your local times.  Void-of-course moons are ideal times for reflection, study and meditation.  Take this opportunity to re-calibrate your body, mind and spirit.

I did a tarot and Lenormand pull by sign pairs, regarding what needs to be brought back into harmony and balance.  Every Aries has a deep part of them that’s Libran, acknowledged or not, and vice-versa, as so with all the sign pairs.  When restoring balance, it’s helpful to think of the signs as a story with a theme that’s playing out between the “opposing” or complementary energies. Look at your sun, moon and ascendant to see what areas to re-balance.

ARIES/LIBRA

The Sun, reversed

The Queen of Wands, reversed

The Key

It’s time to stop and smell the flowers for Aries and Libras.  Too much doing is scattering your energy and robbing you of joy.  Don’t keep knocking on metaphorical doors, looking for approval from everyone.  You have the keys.  Use them.  Your mission is to set yourself free of the approval trap this equinox.

Saturn moves out of Capricorn around the equinox.  It’s now time to put the old criticisms of a boss or your own father to bed.  This is especially true for Libra and Aries women.  You don’t have to earn daddy’s love now or ever.  Build a new life around an empowering POV, instead of answering for “mistakes” you made deep in the past.

TAURUS/SCORPIO

The Chariot, Reversed

The Anchor

Taurus and Scorpio, how you feel about a matter is not moving you forward.  Now is not the time to choose freeze or hide.  How can you move forward valiantly and purposefully?  Old, unprocessed emotions are keeping you stuck.  Get grounded to get in a safer emotional space.

Both Scorpio and Taurus need to keep expecting the unexpected, with Uranus in Taurus.  Some surprises are good, some not what we’d hope for, but from now til the next equinox, you are asked to make the best of everything.  You’re being a called to alchemize the inconvenient and adopt the attitude that all things are ultimately moving in your favor.  What’s needed most is a deep surrender.  Pull the anchor up and trust the tides.

GEMINI/SAGITTARIUS

The Ace of Swords

The Mask

The truth sets Gemini and Sagittarius free for the next six months.  Commit to the truth, speak it, write it, teach it and preach it.  You’re keenly aware of other’s masks, pretensions and follies.  People who put on a nice persona around you may be eager to take from you.  Be careful of flattery and ask yourself what’s truly behind it.  Your gut will know what’s a sincere compliment versus one that’s intended to get something out of you.  The strength of your will and character are being tested.  Choose integrity over shortcuts.

Venus enters Gemini in early April.  Venus, being the lover, the coquette and seductress of the zodiac, brings pleasant distractions to you this spring.  That in mind, keep it real in dating and romance.  Opt for deeper conversations and don’t just hear what you want to hear in the game of love.  Deep listening in matters of the heart is called for.  Does the beautiful lover you desire have beautiful thoughts?  A beautiful spirit?  Look at the whole package.

CANCER/CAPRICORN

The Four of Pentacles, Reversed

The Nine of Wands, Reversed

The Key

The Man

Capricorns and Cancers, are your defense mechanisms working?  Your strong self-protective streak may be backfiring.  Your equinox goal is to dismantle the deep tiredness and apathy you’ve been feeling.  Give a little, especially to yourself.  It’s safe to splurge on something that will revivify you at this time.  Likewise, look at what you tend to hoard–things, bad memories, resentments.  It’s time to purge all the past junk that’s not serving you.  Stop chasing.  The truth that you seek is seeking you too.  It’s time for stillness.  I am talking to you, Capricorn and Cancer men, especially.  Sit down, chill, meditate.  You have a deep, unacknowledged need for space.  Give it to yourself.

Saturn moves out of Capricorn at the equinox, so the long-held burdens weighing down the Capricorns and Cancerians are lifting.  Pluto, Mars and Jupiter are all in Capricorn at this time.  This is a powerful, transformative, activating energy at work.  It’s time to drop the past and build the future.  Don’t build your new future with stones of anger, resentment and regret.

LEO/AQUARIUS

Strength

The Mice

For Leo and Aquarius, it’s time to identify the small things that are taking up too much time and energy.  It’s time to gently and deeply investigate your work processes, habits and impulse buys.  You are called to make the best use of your resources and rid yourself of the tiny thieves of your life.  What’s robbing you of joy, calm and peace of mind especially?  Leo will be deeply in their element with this inquiry, as the Strength card resonates with their sign.  Aquarius, keep this purging gentle, like you would a fast or detox.

Saturn enters Aquarius near the equinox and for Aquarius, it’s time to take stock.  Ask yourself, “am I making the best use of my time?”  For Leo, Saturn in Aquarius rewards them for being and staying on mission and purpose, using their natural leadership skills to lead others towards a better life.  Both signs need to examine how they want to grow as leaders and what they want their legacy to be.

VIRGO/PISCES

The Magician, Reversed

The 8 of Wands

The Coffin

Pisces and Virgo need to be more intentional with their actions at this time.  Both signs are in the trap of feeling like they have to work themselves to death to accomplish something, anything.  They may also be trying to prop up a situation that’s far outlived its usefulness to them.  It’s time to say “enough” and acknowledge there’s no more you can or should do.  Meditate on right effort, right mindedness and right actions.  There’s no magic words you’ll be able to conjure to bring something back to life.  Let it be.

Mercury is in Pisces til about mid April with Neptune in Pisces.  Both Virgo and Pisces need to trust their intuition, but not indulge in too many fantasies, what-ifs and such.  The situation or burden they are facing will undo or unravel itself.  Let it settle.  No more effort is needed.

Wishing you a beautiful, restorative spring journey, full of health, wealth and love.

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March 19, 2020March 18, 2020 by thekristinwest Categories: StarsTags: Aquarius, aries, astrology, balance, cancer, Capricorn, corona, corona virus, Gemini, horoscope, Lenormand deck, leo, libra, moon, ostara, Pisces, sagittarius, scorpio, spring, spring equinox, Taurus, vernal equinox, virgo, void of course moon, zodiac Leave a comment

Why “Stupid” Rhymes with “Cupid”

There’s a reason “Cupid” rhymes with “stupid”.

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Love and lust are in the air.  Has Cupid made you stupid?  Naturally as Valentine’s Day creeps up on us on the heels of dreamy Pisces, our thoughts naturally turn to love.  What is love?  Why are we so perplexed by it?

So often, I get asked “I am a ________, so would a Taurus be good for me?”  And the answer is “I don’t know.” We’re so accustomed to just looking at sun signs in pop astrology.  A chart is complex.  It has angles and conflicts–and that’s just one person’s chart.  When you look at two people’s charts, it gets vastly more complicated–the same way people themselves are complicated.  The relationship becomes an entity in and of itself.

There’s a lot of great astrology experts out there who really nail it with synastry in detail-the pesky angles and such.  Volumes have been written on this. Two of the best books out there about the down and dirty of love and sex are Sextrology and Cosmic Coupling, both by Starsky & Cox.  If you’re really wanting to know about that special Taurus and their kinks (or lack thereof), those are the tomes for you.   My discussion here is based on heterosexual relationships, but Starksky & Cox really illuminate LGBTQ astrology couplings in awesome ways and I recommend their books whatever your sexual preference is.

Here are some of my observations about synastry.

Venus–Yes, Venus is the planet of love.  You’ll want to really pay attention to Venusian aspects in the charts, but Venus is also a planet of glamour.  People often forget that glamour has it’s origins in magick, particularly deceit.  Venus had her “bag of tricks” and Venus can deceive you to get what she wants and make you enjoy it.  Venus is often how a woman deceives and/or how man is vulnerable to romantic deception in a heterosexual relationship.  Venus is not faithful.  She does not inspire or look for fealty.  Venus is not a wifely archetype.  True love may not be signaled by Venus aspects alone.

Mars–Mars is passion.  What would you fight for and what would you die for?  Mars also makes war and if you’re not sure someone is “The One”, this is the place to gauge what they’ll be like in a break-up or a divorce.  Mars is how we fight and what we weaponize.  The tension between Mars and Venus is often what most of our love and lust games are, the push/pull of attraction.

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If you really want to see Mars in action at the most basic, primal level, watch the NatGeo channel and watch two stags gore each other during mating season competing for a mate.  That’s Mars.  Crimes of passion come from Mars while Venus looks on reveling in what her glamour has caused.

The Moon and Saturn also lights the way here.  Of course, the moon is important in synastry.  The moon is our deep yin, our emotional well that waxes and wanes.  The moon is also attractive, like Venus, but it’s rhythmic, like the tides.  The moon in a chart is also talking about our mothers.  Who are we because of how we were mothered?

Saturn is an outer planet and mostly we talk about Saturn and career, obstacles, time and the infamous Saturn return.  Saturn also rules our fathers and fatherhood.  Any tensions or dissonance between parenting styles, any commitment baggage you have  because of your parents’ relationship will reveal itself when the Moon and Saturn have tense aspects.  So many people get hitched right around the first Saturn return near age 27 or divorced that Saturn needs to be paid attention to in synastry.  Saturn is also the lord of karma and so many relationships are veritable Russian nesting dolls of karmic baggage.  Both the moon and Saturn are keepers of time and when a relationship “clicks” or you feel in “the same place” it very well may be that moons and Saturns are manifesting positive aspects.

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To that end, if you’re meditating every damn day, cleansing those chakras regularly and still unlucky in love, it might be time to take a nice honest look at your lunar nodes.  This is not a medical procedure!  The North Node of the moon or the dragon’s head, is your true North–the direction you are supposed to go, what you need to learn.  The South Node, the dragon’s tail, is the skills and coping mechanisms from prior lives that you need to rely less on.  Some relationships are deeply karmic–for better or worse.  You’re either on the path together or pulling each other off the path.  Sometimes you’re exchanging gifts and teaching each other, in healthy enough relationships where the nodes are in opposition between the lovers.  Feel like you’re chasing your tail with bae?  The answer might be here in the Dragon’s tail.

If you thought that was heavy, let’s talk about Lilith.  Hellenic Zeus (Jupiter in the chart) and Judaic Adam have something in common–a wife they got in a power struggle with before they “settled” with their principal wives, Hera and Eve, respectively.  For Zeus, this starter wife was Metis, mother of Athena and for Adam, this was Lilith.  Metis was the mother of the son who was prophecied to overthrow Zeus.  Metis helped Zeus overthrow Cronus (Saturn) with her potion-making skills and then Zeus swallowed her whole.  Before Eve, there’s a tale that Adam’s first wife, Lilith, was also formed from clay.  She refused to have sex in missionary position and submit to him and she rebelled and fornicated with demons.  Fun! There’s a lot of back and forth about Lilith–whether to use the asteroid or do what’s called a Black Moon Lilith calculation.  I look at both.

For a man, Lilith is a threat to his autonomy and his status.  She is the one who got away most likely because he pushed her away.  She is the one he wasn’t quite mature enough to handle.  She’s also the type of woman he’d have an affair with but not commit to.  She’s powerful.  She’s forbidden and she’s totally necessary to his story, even if she’s not what he “settles” for.

In a woman’s chart, Lilith impels a woman to buck male authority when it doesn’t suit her.  Lilith starts her demon fornication binge when she feels used, treated like dirt, subjugated instead of cherished, when she feels like a stepping stone and when she’s hemmed in to the detriment of her own freedom and personal development.    For this reason, I’d argue that Jupiter and Lilith need to be looked at together too.  If a man’s Jupiter makes a tense aspect to a woman’s Lilith, it will probably start hot and end up heartbreaking.  Lilith is a woman’s capacity for vengeance when provoked.

The planets dance in and out of “houses”.  House placements are determined by your rising sign, the time of your birth, and the rising sign for me is the first impression or mask that you wear for the world. The first place most astrologers look for marriage compatibility at is the 7th house, the house of Marriage and Partnership. If you have many planets in a particular house, that house will probably need a lot of attention.  I have five planets in my natal 7th and it gets COMPLICATED.

For me, all houses may have info I need.The natal 4th house, how we make a home together is important.  I would also suggest a nice, long look in the natal 12th house, which elucidates illusions, fantasies, delusions and captivity.  Too often, we project our fantasies and fears on our partners.

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My last pro-tip is this:  How much of your natal sun and/or natal moon is reflected in your partner’s chart?  How much light are your bringing to their life and they to yours?  The sun lights and powers everything and the moon illuminates us through the darkest of times.  Conjunctions to the natal sun and moon bode well in synastry.  Look for the light.

I am usually very cocksure about my astrological opinions.  However, in the game or dance or drama of love, astrology is NOT destiny.  A perfect chart, with beautiful trines and conjunctions, does not guarantee an epic love story.  So often, we look for the good in a chart and a person and just ignore what doesn’t suit us or make excuses for it.  That’s when we have the heavy-hitting outer planets, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto and Uranus–limits, illusions, transformation and disruption, respectively, to shake our relationships up during their planetary transits.  The chart itself doesn’t speak to the spiritual or emotional maturity of the people either.  All the beautiful conjunctions and trines in the chart won’t make you a mature, self-aware, self-actualizing adult.  That’s on you.

My wish for you this Valentine’s Day is that you find the sync in synastry. If you want me to pull your chart, contact me here.

 

February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 by thekristinwest Categories: StarsTags: astrology, glamor, Greek mythology, illusion, Jupiter, karma, Lilith, love, Mars, moon, Neptune, passion, romance, sex, synastry, valentine's day, Venus Leave a comment

2019: The Year of the Martians

I’m not talking about little green men or Marvin the Martian.  I’m talking about the character of 2019.  The New Year came in on a Tuesday–day of Mars–and Mars is the driver’s seat this year, in Aries.

Find your Natal Mars sign here.

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Mars rules Aries (as well as Scorpio) and is exalted in Capricorn.  You may be feeling “on fire”–are you passionate or getting burned?  Mars is about drive, confrontation, taking action and making war.  Aries energy confronts challenges, individuates and shows strength.

“Mars in Aries”–the fight for you, the fight for your individuality, your authenticity, the fight for your passion, the drive to do it your own way.  (Cue Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way”).

The New Year had Mars in Aries at nearly 0 degrees–so this a very much like lighting a match.  The fire you may be feeling is fresh, new.  There’s a quality of newness.  It’s the fire of fire–acting for the sake of acting.  It’s a year to make your will known and heard–and act on your will.

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The year did start with a waning moon and waning moon years are about deep emotional let-go-s.  (Cue Frozen).  You’re not letting go with resignation though. It’s not giving up.  That Tuesday, Martian, solar start says you’re letting go to get in alignment with your true will.  There’s just stuff you don’t want to carry around anymore so you can move faster and stronger towards what you truly want.  You want to travel lighter.

If you have natal Mars in Capricorn, Aries, Scorpio, Sagittarius or Leo, you’re on fire right now and feeling this Mars energy.  Remember this feeling as Mars transits through other signs this year and you may be feeling down or deterred.  Hold on to this passion that you’ve started something new with this year.

If you have natal Mars in Libra or Taurus, it’s okay if you’re not feeling the passion right now.  Honor any burnout you may feel.  Honor that little voice that says “be careful”.   Things may be moving too fast and too recklessly for you.  Bide your time.  Take the long view.  You’re being choosy about whom and what to fight for and that’s okay.

If you have your natal Mars in Cancer, Mars influences you less than other planets.  Be careful of passive aggressive tendencies, though.  Don’t rain on someone else’s parade.  You may not see what the fuss is about.  When water confronts fire you get steam or hot water.  You can heal or hurt.  You get to choose.

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If you have natal Mars in Aquarius or Gemini, don’t get swept up in someone’s passion project to the point you neglect yourself.  Have a plan and work the plan, but don’t get relegated to being the sidekick.  Likewise, where there’s smoke there’s fire.  Your “early warning” radar is on high alert.  Trust your hunches.  Fire energy needs air to fuel it and smoke is the product of fire.  You’ll be very in tune to the rhythms of this year.

If you have natal Mars in Virgo, you also have to guard against getting swept up in someone else’s passion project to the detriment of yourself.  The energy here is like lava–hot, but when it cools, creates new ground and new stones with which to build.  Managing your temper, especially if you’re in a habit of biting your tongue to keep the peace, could get challenging in a Mars years.

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If you have natal Mars in Pisces, you may feel left out or out of sync.  The pace at which things are transpiring may irk you.  When you’re feeling pushed or not in the driver’s seat, imagine a peaceful waterfall, the water surrendering to gravity, with a bright rainbow dancing against the cascades of water.  You are that rainbow–a sliver of beautiful light in constant movement.

 

Other insights:

Mars itself, the actual planet, becomes a big topic.

People are not afraid to fight in a Mars-driven year. Unfortunately, this means more potential for conflicts, especially in countries that are ruled by Aries, like England.  The Brexit debacle is exacerbated by this Mars energy.  We are also attracted to politicians with military experience, especially combat experience.

Athleticism and athletes draw more attention this year, especially in individual sports, like tennis, boxing and golf.  Expect a big headline or two, especially in boxing, since the tendency of Mars is to want to draw blood.  Lots of luck for fire sign boxers this year, especially when the matches are happening during Aries, Leo or Sagittarius season.  Even the Rams might get some extra astrological love this year, since Aries is the ram.

Mars rules any kind of weaponry, from guns to pepper spray.  The gun control debate will be in full swing, especially pertaining to the “individual’s” (Aries) right to bear arms (Mars)”.

The pertinent tarot cards are The Emperor (Aries) and The Tower (Mars).  Emperors by their nature are autocrats and rule by force.  The Tower indicates an act of God, or a sudden insight or revelation, shaking people from their lofty and exalted positions and the tower is on fire.

In this year, if someone seems entrenched or immovable or has consolidated their power to the point they’re too comfortable, it’s likely a sudden shock or unanticipated event will throw them.  Expect the unexpected, especially when it seems like someone may be invulnerable. In the traditional image, it’s two people who fall off the tower, so it’s likely the Emperor and an enabler fall off.  If you look at the original Rider-Waite image, in defiance of gravity, one of the persons falling off the tower still wears a crown–like an emperor.

Likewise, there’s a lot of ego energy to go around this year and a sudden insight or misfortune may knock the ego and force us to grow spiritually in ways we don’t think we need to.  The more positive side of this is that we may get the flash of insight we’ve needed for years if we’re spiritually ready for it.  Instead of being punished in the tower, we may get the lightning bolt of insight (Mars) to rule (Aries) over ourselves with confidence, compassion and dignity.

Happy New Year!  The red planet is red hot this year.  Use this energy to your advantage!

 

 

 

January 7, 2019January 7, 2019 by thekristinwest Categories: StarsTags: 2019, aries, astrology, boxing, Brexit, cancer, Capricorn, ego, fire, Gemini, golf, gun control, Happy New Year!, insight, leo, libra, Mars, moon, New Year, Pisces, politics, Rams, sagittarius, scorpio, spirituality, sports, Taurus, tennis, The Emperor, The Tower, virgo, zodiac Leave a comment