A note: I have been on vacation the last week and will be until the 24th. For now, I leave you with a newsletter I’ve been working on and am so excited to share with y’all. Watch out for an end-of-vacation/eclipse retrospective and normal programming will resume soon :)
A few days ago, I had the privilege of suggesting a friend spend time with the Moon. They seem confused at first, which I found interesting— doesn’t everyone know how to spend time with the Moon? But that’s the thing: we have not been taught how spirit, specifically through the lens of astrology, is ever-present in our daily lives. We find our methods, of course, like when we take a nap when we are stressed, or eat hot peppers to increase our courage, but ferally, personally, haphazardly.
Remediation is what I am gesturing at— drawing the influences of the planets down into our earthly experience so we can touch and be influenced by them. It is a cornerstone of my practice. There is barely a day I don’t practice remediation or a client consult where we don’t address it. To understand remediation is to make your life a living relationship with the divine, to see the numinous infused in even the most mundane actions. It is to co-create your fate and work smoothly with the cycles at hand.
I believe everyone who is interested in astrology should know about remediation, or “the use of any method necessary to heal and soothe existing problems, as indicated within the chart,” as Andrea Gehrz describes it.1
Put another way, remediation claims that though our chart may indicate problem areas in our lives, we can go past diagnosis alone and into cure. That there are ways of turning down the hard stuff and inviting in the better stuff. We can converse with fate, maybe even tweak it.
This is not an authoritative text. It is not a history of the discipline of remediation in astrology. This writing will attempt to gather some personal thoughts on how to bring the planets into our life, helping us attune to certain chords in a way that uplifts our joys and alleviates our strengths.
This essay if for anyone of any skill level who wants to interact with astrology in their daily lives, to learn about the planets through their own hearts and bodies.
And if you want more personal help or a keen, loving eye on your chart my books are open for October <3
What is Remediation?
The word remediation comes from the word “remedy,” indicating the cure of an illness. Etymologically, it comes from the Latin “re” meaning “back” or “again,” and mederi, meaning “to heal”.2 So another translation of remediation is the act of healing again, or perhaps returning to a lost wholeness. So much of healing is about fortifying a whole system to work in harmony with all its moving parts. It posits that we started out whole and then we have to go through a process of disharmony to then arrive back at a more conscious, wiser, form of integration.
It reminds me of an adage I would hear frequently at the monastery: we may be whole and complete, lacking nothing, but we still have work to do. There’s also an external component to remediation: you are not causing problems in your life, but your planetary configurations or natal chart is making it difficult! As I will explain, what I love about remediation is that is suggests that by participating in our earthly life more fully, we can have some agency over our divine fates and configurations. As above so below, so why not allow the everyday to inform the heavenly?
Where to Remediate
Though many planets can be ripe for remediation, there are some general rules that I follow that seem to play out often:
Planets in detriment or fall may have trouble fully expressing themselves or behaving smoothly and are thus good candidates. They are as follows (starting with detriment, then fall):
The Moon: Capricorn; Scorpio
The Sun: Aquarius; Libra
Mercury: Sagittarius and Pisces; Pisces (yes Mercury is in detriment and fall in Pisces)
Venus: Aries and Scorpio; Virgo
Mars: Taurus and Libra; Cancer
Jupiter: Gemini and Virgo; Capricorn
Saturn: Leo and Cancer; Aries
Planets in dark houses: Any planet in the 6th, 8th, and 12th is going to be a bit weaker or need some extra help doing its job well.
Planets afflicted by malefics: There is no hard and fast rule but if a planet is conjoined, squared, or opposed by Saturn and/or Mars, they may be hindered or extra difficult to handle without issue. This goes doubly so it a planet is afflicted by its malefic out of sect. If you were born during the Mars may be a little harder to rangle and during the night, Saturn is more difficult.
Pay special attention to planets in or ruling the angles (1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th house): they have a lot of work to do and thus require optimal functioning, even if not otherwise afflicted.
A good example is Olivia Rodrigo’s Chart:
She was born with Mars in Sagittarius, where it is peregrine, or without dignity, in the 12th house, a place of exile, self-undoing, liminality. It is opposed by Saturn almost to the *minute*, her malefic out of sect. It is the exaltation lord of her ascendant and rulers her 4th house, meaning it has a lot to manage without much resourcing.
But I believe that remediation is best paired with knowledge of your current cycles, or pairing your natal placements with which planets are activated right now. If, for example, you are in a Jupiter-ruled profection year, or firdaria sub-period or it’s the ruler of your Solar Return chart, the state of your natal Jupiter is going to matter a lot during that year. Even if your Jupiter is not actively harmed, you would do well to ponder how you can invite or increase its presence in your life.
Beyond that, you can remediate a planet, regardless of its condition (which you may not know very well), if you feel like you need more of it in your life. Here are some general qualities of the planets you can call on if you need them:
The Moon; comfort, protection, inwardness, the magic in the everyday, emotions
The Sun: visibility, divine selfishness, leadership, wisdom, wholeness
Mercury: detail orientation, communication, exchange, business matters, divination
Venus: love, pleasure, ease, creativity, connection
Mars: effort, courage, severing, conflict, going your own way, athleticism
Jupiter: faith, abundance, wisdom, fellowship, education,
Saturn: discipline, patience, longevity, the occult, solitude, toil
On the Malefics
Even when they are ultimately constructive or liberatory, dealing with Mars and Saturn will always be some level of unpleasant. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, just that if approaching one of them directly, approach with caution. It means starting slow and noticing in real time how their presence affects you. If you were born during the day, have some extra caution with Mars and if you were born during the night, Saturn.
If you start engaging with these planets and your life gets harder, take a step back. Spend some time with the Moon or benefics. And stay tuned, I plan to talk more in-depth about different methods of approaching difficult planets in a later article.
Devotion and Ritual
The most common remediation prescription is planetary devotion, or building a relationship with a planet. This usually involves saying some sort of prayer or hymn, like the Orphic hymns, to a planet, lighting a candle and some incense, making an offering. You are often expected to time these to the correct planetary day and/or hour. For reference:
Sunday: Sun Day
Monday: Moon Day
Tuesday: Mars Day
Wednesday: Mercury Day
Thursday: Jupiter Day
Friday: Venus Day
Saturday: Sun Day
If you are trying to remediate Venus, for example, you would do so on Friday, or more specifically, during Venus’s hour on Friday. You can use apps like Time Nomad to keep track of the planetary hours for a certain day. From there, you bring your issues and wishes and hopes to the planet and humbly request their help.
My best piece of advice is to follow your heart: what seems like a good offering to this planet based on your resources and what is around? How do you want to talk and interface with them? It is also recommended, if you can, to begin this when the planet is in good condition so that they are at their strongest and most receptive to your prayers. For example, Mars is currently in Libra, its sign of detriment, and conjoined the South Node, which drains its power. It’s best to wait until it enters Scorpio in a week and a half, where it is at home and strong. From there, check in with them every week, or more or less, depending on your availability. Consistency is better than overcommitting to an intense, hard-to-sustain ritual.
Correspondences
I love planetary ritual. I have been practicing it for years. It has brought me closer to the planets and to my own heart. But I think we’re limited if we only see remediation in specific events or confining the sacred to a certain ritual configuration. People may have their own complicated relationship to religious structures or simply have neither the time nor the experience to choose this route. Remediation shouldn’t feel like something outside of our daily life but be integrated into our working, loving, living, breathing.
The first step is to begin seeing the planets in your daily life. This process starts with correspondences, or the connection of two things due to similarity of nature. These sorts of connections are used all the time in astrology, whether it’s gems, herbs, metals, people, places, etc. Here’s an excerpt from Agrippa’s “Three Books of Occult Philosophy” of “What Things are under the power of Venus”:
Amongst Metals, Silver, and Brass, both yellow, and red; amongst Stones, the Berill, Chrysolite, Emrald, Saphir, green Jasper, Corneola, the stone Aetites, the Lazull stone, Corall, and all of a fair, various, white, and green Colour.
Amongst Plants and Trees, the Vervin, Violet, Maidenhaire, Valerian, which by the Arabian is called Phu; also Thyme, the gum Ladanum, Amber-grise, Musk, Sanders, Coriander, and all sweet perfumes, and delightfull,
And sweet fruits, as sweet Pears, Figs, Pomegranats, which the Poets say was, in Cyprus, first sown by Venus. Also the Rose of Lucifer was dedicated to her, also the Myrtle tree of Hesperus.3
Correspondences posit that you can see the planets in any and all things that woven within your daily life and beyond. By the above list, when you see a fig tree, a violet, wear coral or green, you are saying hi to Venus. If you can begin to see the planets everywhere, then you don’t have to look very far to begin drawing them closer.
A good example: the Moon rules silver, moonstones, pearls and glass. When I need to feel a bit more nurtured and protecting, I wear jewelry made of those materials. I put milky oats and skullcap, lunar herbs, in my water. I wear white and take baths.
And to really compound the effect, I coordinate these actions to planetary days.
Planetary Days
As mentioned above, each day of the week corresponds to a certain visible planet. Though you can further subdivide each day into hours (and use apps to track them), beginning with just planetary days is a great place to start. The idea is that you would spend the day corresponding with the planet you wish to remediate doing things that are sympathetic to that planet.
The idea behind aligning action to days is that Venus is more available to speak back and actually hear your call on her day, doubly so when it’s her hour as well. I’ve heard it likened to ringing their line when they’re actually near the phone from fellow astrologer Zacc Powell. It signals to the planet that you want to work with them and understand them more.
Weaving in Your Daily Life
From there, I suggest finding activities that are both sympathetic to the planet you are remediating and can be easily integrated to how you already spend your time. We all have to eat and put on clothes so knowing the basic tastes and colors of the planets are a good place to start:4
The Moon: silver and white; salty, creamy, comforting
The Sun: gold, yellow, amber; sweet and sour, a bit bitter or sharp
Mercury: mixed colors; a “hodge podge” of flavors
Venus: green, white; moist and sweet, aromatic
Mars: red and saffron; bitter, sharp and that which burns the tongue
Jupiter: royal colors like purple, burgundy, deep blue; fatty and nice-smelling
Saturn: grey, brown, navy; bitter and astringent
But these correspondences go beyond food and colors. If your Mercury needs, help for example, you could schedule your email, writing, or technical work; your errands and short-term travel, for Wednesday. You can wear multi-colored clothing, or opal jewelry. You can add fennel or carrot to your salad or just eat something with a lot of flavors— Mercury loves variety. You can take time to read or research something new or go to a bustling new coffee shop. If you want to further compound the effects, you can acknowledge Mercury and your intention before you do these things but that’s not necessary. Just aligning timing and action can do wonders for drawing a planet down to you.
Rooting to the Chart
Another point to always remember: you are never experiencing a planet only in its essence; it always depends on how it looks in the natal chart. You can then use whichever correspondences enforce your specific natal promise, or you can even begin creating your own based on how you notice a planet shows up for you personally. If Mercury rules your relationships or romantic life, chatting with a cutie or having an intimate conversation with your partner can be great Mercury activities for you. If your Sun, planet of visibility and identity, is in Taurus, sign of lush pleasures and embodiment, then holding a garden party or spending time gathering wisdom from a plant (as the Sun rules prophecy) can be a great way to spend a Sunday. The point is to look for yourself and see what tickles certain parts of you chart.
Going back to Olivia Rodrigo is a great example. As far as I know, she is not engaging in any conventional forms of planetary remediation. But her life is certainly naturally enhancing her debilitated Mars. Despite its struggle, she is known for infusing pop sensibilities with 90’s-inspired grungy rock, a martial genre for sure. She has made a career acknowledging the difficulties that come with being a young girl, even naming her latest album Guts, connoting, a violent spilling of the inside outwardly, a very apt journey for a Mars in the house of the hidden. Take the line from “American Bitch”— “I pay attention to things most people ignore”. She is speaking to her Mars in the shadows here. In the third decan of Sagittarius, we expect to see things of when to give your all to a journey and when to set the burdens down. In her song “bad idea, right?” she walks through the process of knowing she shouldn’t sleep with her ex again but doing it anyway, dramatizing this exact struggle.
Despite the state of her natal Mars, no one would say she is lacking in martial energy because she has integrated it so fully into her work and daily activities.
Resources
It may be difficult to see correspondences in your daily life if you are not yet familiar with the attributes of planets.
A great place to start would be this list of correspondences from a variety of traditional astrology via Christopher Warnock’s site, ranging from animals, professions, colors, landscapes and stones. If you want to spend time with Venus, maybe arrange a hang with your artist’s friends or go to the spa on Friday. For Saturn, visit elders or cemeteries. Whatever is right there in your life can be used for deeper purpose.
And if you want more personal help or a keen, loving eye on your chart my books are open for October <3
Until next time,
Love,
Chloe
many of these are drawn from William Lilly’s list found here