A Neptunian Full Moon, Dancing to your own Tune & Your Right to be You

I bought some clothes dyes months ago ….. which turned into one of those jobs that has been on the back burner ever since as it’s been such a hot and busy year, but during last week’s manic astrological picture I managed to find a moment to read the instructions and put two pale garments in the sink with a load of salt and a jug of green dye. Being in a Sagittarian hurry as usual I splashed green on the top I was wearing so that went in too! They came out three completely different colours – a bright emerald, a leaf green and a mint green.
When you’re an astrologer and tarot reader you’re a symbolist. You just automatically make parallel interpretations. This made me think about how you can only work with what you’ve got. Linen is linen, polyester is polyester, and they react differently. Our horoscope is our celestial DNA, showing how we came into this world and whatever we started with, we can’t change it. We can only work with it. A dye was cast, and different people will react differently to the same things.
This array of greens also made me think about relationships, of all kinds, how one person can bring out our brightest colours and make us feel vibrant and alive, while another may drain us, making us feel pale or colourless. Who brings out your personality, who squashes it? This is like synastry in astrological work, ie the comparison of two horoscopes to see how they match up, for good or ill. Again, this is something that can’t be changed. If someone has got their Jupiter on your Descendant (relationship angle) then you’re going to experience each other in a Jupiterian way (fun, generous, big thinking, life expanding, educational). If someone has got their Saturn on your Descendant then you’re going to experience them in a Saturnian way (withholding, denying, unavailable, strict or seeing you as their duty) – and so on. If you have any astrological know how it doesn’t take much to put this to the test. And it’s a fascinating area of karmic study too. Who are you close to now who was also in a previous life? Two of next year’s Summer School courses include the subject of karma.
The last time I ran a synastry course I was researching famous couples and remember looking at George and Amal Clooney. Her Mercury is 28 Capricorn, exactly conjunct his Moon also at 28 Capricorn. There wasn’t much else going on, no known birth time for Amal so don’t know the crucial rising sign (which gives the Ascendant/Descendant, angles of the chart that signify self and partner, determined only by the time of birth) but suspect there must be compatibility there too. But that Mercury – Moon contact says it all. Mercury is the mind planet, Moon is the emotional nature and needs. After all the arm candy here was a woman he could talk to, connect with, here is a relationship built on brains. A pretty face soon becomes plain boring when there’s nothing to say.
I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship too, how our different friends fulfill our different needs. We can’t get everything we want from one person and vice versa, a particularly important reminder in partnership too. Apparently if you get 75% of what you want and need from a partner you’ve hit the jackpot! And this week’s quotation is spot on for relationship/friendship criteria. As I mentioned last week “feelings are underrated” (in an interview with Anita Moorjani, author of Dying to be Me) and the simplicity of everything being more meaningful when shared with the right person is a basic truth that often we lose sight of. Friendships and partnerships are supposed to be enjoyable, as is life!
This subject came up last week with my students as I mentioned a favourite feature of mine, the Top 5 Deathbed Wishes written by a hospice nurse, and one of those wishes is about friendship. I promised I would include it again and you can read the full feature at the end of the blog. It’s powerful stuff.
What’s Happening this Week?
Let’s start with a reminder that the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars have all been travelling through Virgo, which in turn means that they’ve all been conjuncting each other and they’ve all been making a series of aspects to four of the larger, slower moving planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto. The greater part of this very busy and intense pattern unfolded throughout last week, the rest of it is happening this week, and the tail end of it the week after (when Mars will finish his sequence of the four aspects to the slower moving planets on Thursday 18th, with the trine to Pluto).
This week the Sun completes the list of aspects, and Mercury and Venus catch up with each other, their last aspect before changing sign and moving on into Libra – the same day of the Full Moon in Pisces. Firstly, here’s the sequence –
Tuesday 10 September
Sun 17 Virgo opposite Neptune 17 Pisces 08.25 BST
Thursday 12 September
Mars 16 Virgo square Jupiter 16 Sagittarius 10.07 BST
Friday 13 September
Mercury conjunct Venus 28 Virgo 16.12 BST
Sun 21 Virgo trine Pluto 21 Capricorn 20.40 BST
Saturday 14 September
Full Moon 21 Pisces 05.34 BST
Mars 17 Virgo opposite Neptune 17 Pisces 06.27 BST
Mercury ingress Libra 08.16 BST
Venus ingress Libra 14.44 BST
So the first aspect of the week is the Sun – Neptune opposition, paving the way to the Full Moon in Pisces. Oppositions are challenging, often bringing scenarios of things at full stretch. The Sun is the life force and when opposing Neptune often brings up issues of energy, tiredness, feeling sapped or sad, anxious, confused or looking at pictures that are distorted or based on imaginings out of control. Neptune is the sea god – think sea mists and fogs – and he also rules escapism and booze! So as the week kicks off take special note of your feelings and try to own them rather than drowning them or sliding away from them.
As we’re in a very demanding cycle at the moment also make a note to be extra allowing. Try not to take another person’s behavior too personally, they may have a lot on their plate and a lot of their mind. Give without strings. Forgiveness and empathy are also in the mix, especially with the looming Full Moon when everything is going to get super touchy. The Pisces Full Moon is always noticeably sensitive but this time it’s hugely amplified by falling conjunct Neptune and square Jupiter, the two planets that rule this sign and who are also creating the main backdrop of this year.
These two giants, because of their meandering retrograde periods, stay in square to each other for a long time. It’s an aspect that is exact three times, and which started at the end of last year –
13 December 2018 – Jupiter 14 Sagittarius/Neptune 14 Pisces
15 June 2019 – Jupiter 19 Sagittarius/Neptune 19 Pisces
21 September 2019 – Jupiter 17 Sagittarius/Neptune 17 Pisces
So we’re heading for the grand finale of that sequence which translates into the last leg of any long running emotional or confusing scenario. Things could easily spiral but this is no bad thing. If we can let things overflow then we can mop them up again and start afresh, we can cut through pretence and look at the truth. There’s also something to be said for recognizing where we’ve been overly emotional, expecting others to understand and then sliding into victim or martyr role when they don’t!
Top themes for all the astrology this week are authenticity and sacrifice. In other words, guard against doing things for the wrong reasons, be honest with yourself and don’t dance to other people’s tunes just because they make you feel guilty when you don’t. There are times for sacrificing our wishes and putting our own life on hold, such as a loved one being ill, but a staggering amount of time we humans are brilliant at pretending things are fine when they’re not, sometimes leading to sacrificing our whole lives and our true selves, as exemplified in the Deathbed Wishes feature below. I recently heard a story about a woman who’s been threatening to leave her alcoholic husband for the last 48 years….
Remember too that any Full Moon is associated with “lunacy”, when everything clambers out of the woodwork and goes a bit nuts. Again, pay attention to what comes to light for you as one of the Full Moon’s roles is to illuminate.
Along the way we have a lovely Mercury – Venus conjunction, coming together at the end of Virgo. This is a textbook aspect for love talk, being in touch with someone important, good news and helpful financial concerns. In this case, as the conjunction falls at the end of a sign, the day before both planets move on into Libra, look out for the resolution of something that has been under discussion for several weeks, or even longer. It’s followed just a few hours later by the Sun – Pluto trine, the Sun’s final aspect before also moving into Libra in a couple of weeks time, so there’s lots of “finale” symbolism going on. All of which is underlined by Saturn being poised to turn direct next week.Finally note that Venus leaving Virgo (her sign of fall) and entering Libra (her sign of dignity) is fabulous for new love and money cycles and I’ll be talking more about this next time,Until next week, stay afloat and keep it real,
With love from Greece
Joanna
5 Top Deathbed Wishes – written by a hospice nurse about her cancer patients …
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence
By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.
I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.
We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.
It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.
This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.
When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.