Angels and Monsters
Virgo Season, Angelica essence, plus a new offering
Today I am happy to announce the forthcoming release of The Monstrous Feminine Guidebook, made in collaboration with fellow astrologer Heloïse. This collection of writing looks to return the witches, sirens, wild women and marvelous beasts to the astrological pantheon to help everyone access all aspects of their femininity. Through exploring the monstrous side of Saturn, Venus, the Moon and fixed stars Algol and Alphard, we contend with how patriarchy punishes power in women and how to access this wealth of cosmic energy with its dark, ancient roots.
I have long been drawn to feminine archetypes roiling with power, controversy, iconoclasm: Poets like Anne Sexton and musicians like Courtney Love and Fiona Apple or mythical figures like Medusa and Hecate. I have long felt my relationship to my femininity— my receptivity, my depth of feeling, my primordial creativity— to be potent and vital. But growing up in this world, I was told again and again that I was too sensitive, too intense, too much. My voice was either ignored or vilified. It confused me because the porosity, the emotional ferocity, I possessed seemed deeply linked with my power.
But there’s an inherent danger to the status quo of a woman or femme or gender-nonconforming individual who knows themselves and speaks their mind. In her essay on Ancient Greek Gender Relations, “The Gender of Sound,” Anne Carson proposes a theory why sovereign women post a threat: “Woman is that creature who puts the inside on the outside. By projections and leakages of all kinds— somatic, vocal, emotional sexual— females expose or expend what should be kept in”. We do not keep ourselves contained but speak truths in a manner that disrupts the flow of power or creates newer, deeper, streams.
Instead of try to understand the unique Other, our interiors have been obscured, our lives outside of men erased. “Men say that there are two unrepresentable things: death and the feminine sex,” feminist theorist Helene Cixious tells us. “That's because they need femininity to be associated with death”. There is some truth to this connection, but the transformative power of the feminine means, like how dead plant material becomes soil for new beings to flower within, death just yields more life. A different life, perhaps, than one presented by the patriarchy.
One way the feminine is obscured is by reducing the two primary feminine planets— The Moon and Venus— to the mother and the maiden, anodyne stereotypes when not in conversation with archetypes beyond obedience and procreation. Though many are drawn to celestial bodies like the Black Moon Lilith to locate the chaotic feminine, I believe it our duty to open up the range of our classic planetary pantheon. Venus is as much the siren seeking justice as she is the attractive ingenue. The Moon is a fierce huntress, acting for the people, as much as she is a vessel for life. We also include Saturn because there is a distinctly feminine bent to the planet that is worth exploring in depth. Finally, we include two snake stars— Algol, the head of Medusa, and Alphard, the heart of the Hydra— that are loud in powerful feminine nativities.
We are so excited to share this volume with you so stay tuned for more details and fun activities to help you get in touch with your own inner monstress.
Honoring Transitions
Welcome to Virgo Season, babes. As the last zodiacal season of the summer, it tends to give us our final swan song to the time of elongated Sun. This year it has certainly felt that way. As an autumn enjoyer, I have been appreciating the return of clouds and cooling temperatures. Not that I want to scare the warmth away! It’s just nice when my desires align with my present moment. A little gift.
In my mind, I always see Virgo as a field of wheat or corn in late summer. It’s still day but the light is waning. A woman in white picks through the harvested grain and sorts the wheat from the chaff. There is a stillness to the air but concentrated activity shows a movement beneath the taut calm.
Virgo is the sensation of all the little details of the world being attended to, keeping the world spinning on its axis. It is associated with the intestines and digestions, so eating in alignment with what makes your body feels good is a useful Virgo Season practice. It is associated with hand craft, so devoting yourself to practicing some skill involving time, muscle memory, and/or repetition can be useful right now.
To honor Virgo Season, please enjoy this playlist I made for the season:
I celebrated the end of Leo Season on Wednesday by making a flower essence. As I’ve mentioned before I am trying to make an essence for each of the 36 decans, meaning yesterday was my last day to capture Leo III (20º-30º). Since visiting the ocean in June for my rose ritual, I have been dreaming of angelica.
I first encountered the plant in real life at the Oregon coast years ago and have been enchanted by their white flowery puffs and pod-like stems ever since first spotting them in the dunes and sandy cliffs near the shore. They were a medicinal plant I had read about well before encountering her in the wild, so the meeting years ago felt kismet.
Angelica is such an interesting plant to me because despite is heavenly name and appearance, she’s really quite fiery. Despite preferring cold, damp environments, she’s a warming herb that helps improve circulation and stimulate digestion. Magically, angelica is known as a protector against poisons and witchcraft, useful for a decan that is about a sovereign defending their throne. It has also, interestingly, been called the plant of the Holy Ghost, speaking to its numinous quality.
Normally syncretized with the Sun, Nicholas Culpepper recommends harvesting angelica when the Sun is in Leo. Luckily, I got in just under the wire. I had been dreaming of making an essence with her all Leo Season but it didn’t seem practical to drive an hour and a half each way just to make a flower essence!
But I don’t want my life to be defined by what is practical. What about what is most beautiful. Most poetic. So, I drove back to the beach where I first encountered her Wednesday afternoon and there she was.
Being able to catch her final blooms of the season, to preserve them for later for both myself and others, is a good reason to be alive. To smell her warm, peppery as I harvest some of her blooms. To witness her largess and thick, green stalks, all while the ocean crashed on the sand nearby. I am so excited to see what she yields. What I can offer her in return.
Venus in Virgo Retrospective
We now enter the final week of Venus in Virgo, Venus in her fall. Her placement here is like asking a beauty queen to send emails or to turn your beauty into a labor aiming for perfection.
Venus is here to enjoy her body; to feel good; to find the unadorned beauty in all things. In the words of my wise friend Eli, goddess is a position not a job title!
In Virgo, we are asked to work for and finely tune our glamours. We are asked to think deeply about our pleasure and where we may need improvements in our relationships. Venus in Virgo shows us the labor involved in love. Not a comfy place to be. But one that we experience every year.
A planet in fall has to master its key lessons from the ground up; in this case, we must learn when our detail orientation and effort makes us miss the forest for the trees. Beauty is mysterious, flowing: by focusing too much on imperfections or what went wrong we can lose sight of it.
I wanted to honor her final week here by providing a retrospective of Venus in Virgo through the decans, style-wise.
Venus in Virgo I (0º-10º): The Demure Maiden
Ibn Ezra ascribes to this decan the image of “[a] maiden wrapped in a cloak, and wearing worn out clothes” while the Picatrix describes “a beautiful girl covered over with a woolen sheet”. As opposed to accentuating the native’s natural assets or helping them stand out, this decan seems to cover over the native’s unadorned glamour or at least moderate it.
For many with this Venus placement, getting dressed each day can be a source of stress, viewed as another item on the to-do list. Being a Mercury-ruled sign, concerns of efficiency and productivity trump those of beauty or adornment
Those with Venus in Virgo I are here to witness and attend to the lushness of the world around them and their clothes work best for them when they don’t get in the way of that attentiveness.
A good example of a more formal Virgo I Venus native is model Bella Hadid. Her street style leans towards preppy Y2K styles, like plaid mini skirts, monochrome knits, blazers and lots of neutrals. Even when she dresses up for work, she is meant to show off the clothing, not herself.
If you have your Venus in Virgo I:
streamline your wardrobe and rely on tried-and-true outfit formulas
don’t be afraid to lean into modesty, but trust when revealing your skin is natural, aligning
befriend your local tailor and focus on quality fabrics
go for the collegiate, office siren look
don’t overthink your outfits! let them be simple
Venus in Virgo II (10º-20º): The Shifting Designer
Many prioritize comfort and practicality in their wardrobe because they have things to do, projects to complete. But being put-together is still a top priority within feeling easeful in what they wear. We see this demure self-expression with Venus in Virgo II style icon Sophia Loren, who, even when attracting with her beauty, stuck with simple shift dresses that, while accentuating her curves, also kept her largely covered up.
Small details matter to all Virgo placements so with your Venus here, make sure your outfits fit your specifications. The masters of performing effortlessness, their final looks may seem simple but know that there is unseen labor and tweaking done behind the scenes to ensure the final look fits their standards. See Kim Kardashian, who has her Venus here, literally owning a shapewear company !
Overall, Venus in Virgo II natives do best when they’re wardrobe is shifting and accommodates their wide range of activities and needs. Each day, they make and remake themselves with their clothes, hiding unseen effort within the folds of their considered, intentional garments.
If you have Venus in Virgo II:
wear what makes you feel protected and conceals what you don’t want to reveal
prioritize comfort and practicality
play with colors found in nature or else highly artificial metallics and brights
pay attention to the details and tweak your look accordingly
go for versatile day-to-night garments
Venus in Virgo III (20º-30º): The Eternal Refiner
In the final decan of Virgo, we see an emerging concern for what lasts. Called “the sarcophagus” by Austin Coppock, this decan is about legacy and paying attention to what we leave behind in a very long-term sense. Venus here is unconcerned with passing trends or whims. Instead she goes towards her definition of classic, which may shift or be different from the norm.
Many may struggle with the need to wear something new everyday and prefer to stick with staple jewelry or a uniform of sorts to really distill what is important to them without needing to pay attention to more fleeting fashions and moods.
in typical Mercury fashion Venus in Virgo III natives may define their style as much by what they don’t like or value as what they do. They may get to their preferred wardrobe by taking away all the styles and garments and fabrics that aren’t on them until a defined aesthetic emerges from what remains.
Because of their particulars, keeping things as simple and consistent as possible seems to suit them best. Sometimes, being too adorned gets in the way of their Mercurial desire for speed and movement. As such, neutral prints and solids that you can mix and match with ease may work
If you have Venus in Virgo III:
cull your wardrobe regularly
buy multiples of your favorite garment
discover your core style tenets and stick with them
wear simple, uncluttered silhouettes
bring allure to the details best for your wardrobe and desire for durable, uncomplicated styles
You can learn more about the Venus through the decans by checking out Styling with the Stars Volume III, which pulled from actual style surveys to create a theory of style for each of the 36 faces.
All of my astro-style guidebooks can be found on my website for all the divine, iconic babes.
For now, I leave you with the full text of the Anne Carson essay I referenced above. I first read it in college but found it quite useful in my research for the Monstrous Feminine Guidebook:
You can read the full thing here.
Until next time,
Love,
Chloe
I’m so excited for the zine. Will that be up for sale on your website?