Last week I taught a class at the Ruby SF about romantic relationships. Everyone wrote a list of relationship myths that we had picked up along the way. And we shared that list out loud, which was so powerful - just to name so many of the things we are taught about how relationships should go or be or not be, etc. Then I shared some of of what astrology can illuminate in this realm. And someone asked what the relationship is between these myths and people’s birth charts. This is so much of what astrology describes, actually. The presence of certain elements in your chart, especially in the Moon, Venus and Mars placements, has so much to do with the kinds of myths you are prone to believing. But of course it’s not all myths! These placements also indicates what you value, the kinds of relationships you want to have, the ways you want to connect, the ways you want to be appreciated, the ways you demonstrate love to someone else and much more. The purpose of astrology in this realm, as I see it, is to become more accepting of ourselves and others - to recognize that our differences are real, and not as personal as they often seem. Some people don’t want to be monogamous, and it’s not because they have some problems to be worked out. And some people really feel monogamous, and it’s not because they have some problems to be worked out. This is an example of a difference that can be so confusing without a framework like astrology, because it’s easy to imagine that someone is making something up or acting maliciously if they’re acting so different from how we would act. Astrology asks us to imagine what it might be like to have a completely different world view, and developing this imagination muscle is more important than ever, at the moment.
During the class someone also said that they understand that so many of these relationship ideas are myths on an intellectual level, but that they still struggle with bringing that understanding into their lives and bodies in a complete way. This is a beautiful question that requires a lot of living with it, I think. What does it look like to identify a myth in your life that is causing you suffering, and then act according to your best version of the truth right now? To act in a way that doesn’t perpetuate that myth, but instead is in accordance with what you know to be true? Spend time with this question yourself during this Full Moon in Aquarius this week, as we enter Leo season.
ARIES | March 21-April 19
Question - When do you let things not be okay?
Meditation - you don’t have to hold it.
Assignment - So much of the time you feel this pressure to project that you are okay, or confident, or things are going well - and that’s exhausting! You can just drop it, internally. (Maybe even externally too, but start internally). Projecting these things when you don’t actually feel them just disconnects you from people. As a more outward-facing sign, work toward balance by experimenting with not having to hold it yourself, not having to say you’re doing well if you’re not. You can be multiple things at once - you can be confident and insecure, you can be joyful and feel like shit. And the more real you are about this, at least with yourself, the more connected you will be able to feel with others.
TAURUS | April 20-May 20
Question - What influences are helping you right now?
Meditation - beneficial influence.
Assignment - What media are you consuming? What books, what news, what social media, what conversations? Let the light of this full moon week illuminate what needs to go, even for a short time. What subtler, quieter influences can you reconnect to right now, that might be nourishing and not get enough stage in your life? Remember that you can experiment for short periods of time, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Let the full moon itself influence you, with enough space around you to actually feel that influence. Your job is to guard your sphere so that the influences you want can enter.
GEMINI | May 21-June 20
Question - How do your joints feel right now? How aware of them are you?
Meditation - attending to your joints.
Assignment - Reconnecting to your joints, remembering that they exist. That they are what ground you, they move your body, they connect the various parts of your body - connection points. How much attention do you give them? What does it feel like to notice them? Which ones feel good and which ones hurt? Give them some attention as you use them this week - especially right now the joints you are using to operate the screen you are look at while you read this. Be tender with them, thank them, for existing and making so much of your life possible.
CANCER | June 21-July 22
Question - How much are you listening to your very quiet inner voice?
Meditation - stillness.
Assignment - There are so many layers of listening, and Cancer really understands this - so tuned into historical listening, familial listening, personal feelings listening. There are more subtle, quieter inner voices, the ones that usually don’t get much stage because they are so quiet, and all of our other input is so loud. Find some time to listen to this quietest of voices this week. Even a few minutes a day, or a few hours one day - devote a portion of your life to hearing this voice at all, asking what it wants. If you can’t attend to it right now, it’s okay, but don’t ignore it - talk to it - tell it that you will get to it when you can!
LEO | July 23-August 22
Question - What was happening on the day of your birth?
Meditation - interconnectivity of birth.
Assignment - Every human was born! We have this in common. Take time this week to connect with your actual birth, asking anyone who was around when it happened to tell you about it. Researching what was happening on this day, the day of your birth, when it happened, whenever it was. How does that connect with the themes of your life? How can your individual experience be contextualized by your birth? This Full Moon in Aquarius opposite your Leo Sun is an opportunity to bring into balance the personal and impersonal ways of orienting to life - so how can a broader view and context will likely help you feel better, vaster.
VIRGO | August 23-September 22
Question - What can you learn from your neighbor Leo?
Meditation - permission to be big.
Assignment - As we enter Leo season this week, look for Leo energy around you, and ask yourself what might be beneficial to try on, or cultivate, with this energy. Each sign in the zodiac is, in a way, a reaction to the one that comes before it. So Virgo is a reaction to Leo, it tends to be organized and detailed and humble to balance Leo’s drama, big view, and confidence. The good thing is that all of the skills and abilities you have as a Virgo will not go away, as you invite in some warmth of fire this week. Practice cultivating permission to be big, to take up space, to think well of yourself. Imagine! How would a lion’s roar feel in your throat?
LIBRA | September 23-October 23
Question - What if conflict actually connected you to others?
Meditation - reframing conflict.
Assignment - What if you never had to avoid conflict again? What if you could embrace it as a part of nature, like clouds, or rocks, or trees, or the human digestion system? What if it was necessary to relation, to life itself, and therefore you could even be grateful for it at times? Try this on! See what happens! Let yourself take a new approach to it, and just see what happens. Bring as much levity as possible to your life this week. Collect and connect to influences that help you do this.
SCORPIO | October 23-November 21
Question - What is your business, and what is someone else’s?
Meditation - staying in your own business.
Assignment - Give yourself permission to reconnect with your own business this week. Just because you might perceive what is good for someone else or how to help, doesn’t mean you always should! Sometimes conservation of energy is needed. And! We can’t grow for others - each person has to learn their own lessons - this is a law of this planet. The more we live in harmony with this law, the better our relations go, the more connected and helpful we are able to be. Pull back your energy from other people this week and remember what is yours to manage.
SAGITTARIUS | November 22-December 21
Question - When is your breath labored, when is it easy?
Meditation - breathing easy.
Assignment - Take note of your breath in a daily, and hourly practice this week. So not just a meditation practice, although that is great (!) but just pay attention to it without trying to change it. Take note of the conditions of your life and situation when it feels challenging to breathe, and take note of when and why it might be easy. And then, of course, because we can’t observe something without affecting it, take note of what noticing it does to it. Give yourself a lot of kindness as you go through this noticing process.
CAPRICORN | December 22-January 19
Question - When do you say exactly what you want to say?
Meditation - Permission to speak.
Assignment - Give yourself permission to notice what is energizing, and what isn’t. Foods, places, people, media, etc. What drains you? Don’t internalize your own tiredness so much - let yourself draw these connections between what is tiring, your sense of obligation, and people and places in your life. Make a list if you need to. Then see what can be done to alter them. Is there any way you can express what is draining you so that it can be less draining? Is there any way you can do that thing or see that person less? When you give yourself breaks from the things that are draining you, then you really start to learn if it’s actually external or internal. Notice when and where your energy goes and give yourself lots of permission to say the most obvious thing!
AQUARIUS | January 20 to February 18
Question - When do you feel full?
Meditation - Letting yourself be full.
Assignment - Full Moon in Aquarius this week - in your ongoing relationship with Leo as your opposite - and this week that relationship gets magnified again through this Full Moon opposite the Sun as it moves into Leo. Aquarius can be almost emptied out at times, so full of the impersonal, the group. So what does it look like and feel like to be full? To let yourself be full? Like this moon - an offering by nature to encourage you to integrate, to reconcile, these opposites of Aquarius and Leo. Aquarius tends to be the least personal and Leo tends to be the most personal - where is the balance point for you?
PISCES | February 19 to March 20
Question - Who and what do you collaborate with?
Meditation - collaboration.
Assignment - Just wanting you to remember your capacity to collaborate, that you inherently understand how to share life, existence, being, emotion. How your fluidity and sensitivity thrives when you are collaborating, but you have to remember this truth to be able to practice it. Don’t isolate when you get overwhelmed this week, instead make a conscious effort to reach out. In a direct way. Connection is waiting for you, through collaboration with all species, all the time, but you have to reach out, and ask.