Though I have had the Pleaides’ number for months, it was a conversation last week that led to a current deepening.
Last Friday, I was treated to a practice run of my friend Hawk’s Astromagia talk on developing deity relationships. Something they emphasized in their talk was that Gods are so big that we can’t witness them in their true, whole form. It’s like a two-dimensional being trying to perceive the third dimension. They will show up, however, in the bits and pieces of life we are already locked into perceiving.
What I’m trying to say: deciding you want to engage more deeply with a deity or spirit already moves you towards its sphere. The mere intention to be a student or lover or friend to a planet or god is enough to bring them closer.
How do we know they are coming closer? We pay attention to our lives.
My past week has been proof of that.
I have been interested in the Pleiades since finding its brightest star, Alcyone, is in paran with my Mercury years ago. They are a cluster of seven stars, one mostly invisible, and are the most-mythologized constellation in human history. And throughout time and space, most cultures consistently view them as a cluster of seven sisters, maidens and/or nymphs. I turn to my own writing on the stars of Mysticism to explain the power of these beauties:
Agrippa tells us to make a talisman made under the auspices of these stars “to increase the light of the eyes, to assemble spirits, to raise winds, to reveal secret and hidden things”. You can take the “increasing the light of the eyes” comment literally or spiritually. What was recently covered in shadow is revealed under the light of the Pleiades…As one bringing lightness to the dark, there’s a starkness and dryness to one’s insight which contrasts with the more flowing style of stars like Fomalhaut or Alkes.
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In general, I see Alcyone and the Pleaides as stars of mysticism, like a ship making its solo path through choppy waters of the soul. As someone who makes my living as a diviner, developing a relationship to these stars seemed like a significant step in my journey.
You make a fixed star talisman when the Moon conjoins its ecliptic degree. The Pleiades currently sit at 0º Gemini. Back in August, I managed to make a Pleiades tincture the last time the moon conjoined this degree without the copresence of Mars, which will remain in Gemini until January.
This week, I finally decocted it. What spurred me to give it a taste was this wonderful article by Briar, shown to me by another star worshipper and astrologer Sasha Ravitch. The article is primarily about Aldebaran, heart of the bull, but the Pleiades exist within this constellation. Briar quotes author Morgan Daimler who sees the Pleiades as 7 Fairy Queens: “When the star-fire that is the Pleiades returns to the night sky, the Queens have returned to their celestial Courts, figuratively speaking”. As someone who has been interested in the fae since my youth, this was a clue.
I decided to take some time out of my work day to greet the stars. I put some of my Pleaides-fennel tincture (the herb Agrippa associated with this cluster) into some water, lit some frankincense and recited one of Daimler’s Pleaides prayers.
Both instances where the words explicitly invited the Pleiades to appear, the wind in my back yard picked up. Never mind the fact that the Pleiades are supposed to raise wind!
And for you skeptics: that very night, I watched Mystic Pizza for the first time. In the midst of wooing her married boss, Kat uses a telescope to point out what other constellation but the Pleiades:
Hello again, sweeties :)
I repeated my ritual/greetings with them on Wednesday and didn’t think anything of it. Then, that night, I had the first compulsion of the week to stargaze. I said hi to Mirach, star on Andromeda, who I’ve been spending more time with. I saw the great bird triangle made of Altair, the eagle star, Deneb Adige, the swan’s tail, and Vega, the vulture star. But then, to the East, I saw the waning moon. I was using my constellation app to help identify the clusters when I saw the word Pleiades appear, though I couldn’t see them.
Soon I realized why: the Moon was RIGHT on top of them! Sure enough, the moon had just entered Gemini. This also told me the Moon was, sidereally, in the Third Lunar station, whose indicator stars are the Pleaides. Without even trying, I realized I had stumbled upon Moon’s union with the Pleiades.
Readers, I teared up. I felt so much love and awe for these stars and their continual presence, so long as I was paying attention to my life.
This is the sort of experience I want to give my clients; a deeper, more soulful engagement with your life. This can take the form of interdimensional relationship building, but it can also just look like knowing the Moon is in Taurus today and noticing all the ways your lived experience may affirm that piece of poetry. I can’t tell you how, exactly, these activities will transmute your life; the juice comes in looking for yourself.
Book a reading with me now to dive into the richness of your life:
Fun is Enough
I’ve been thinking about something I said aloud to someone for the first time last week. Though there as a myriad of reasons that I practice astrology, the main one that keeps me coming back is that it’s fun. It makes my life more enjoyable. For a while, I felt this reason to be frivolous. There are people dying, Chloe. And all of the tragedies and injustices go on regardless of my stargazing.
But what keeps us alive and engaged like pleasure? What leads to babies, art, love, community, healing, etc but enjoyment of ourselves and all else within this world?
Of course we can’t be happy or have fun all the time; but that joy negate our pain?
I also think we lose a lot when we only deem activities important that are productive or provide linear benefits, whereas reaching out to the Pleiades was mysterious, its fruits unknown until they arrived. But we miss out on innovation and surprise when we don’t let fun seep into our work. Corita Kent, in her manual on creativity has this to say:
Go to a movie, take a walk, read a book for fun. Sometimes these experiences will spark an idea or memory or thought so that the fun times prove to be marvelous resources-research. Was that free time or was it simply the early part of some work?
Perhaps you know that the moon will be void for the day and thus starting a new project could be difficult. You can then spend that day “wasting time” doing something fun and perhaps find a new thread or spark of inspiration you weren’t expecting. It is these moments of kismet that make my life worth living; that I am not alone; that the universe is wise and mysterious and watching; that my will can join the divine and make my life and the world better.
Astrology allows us to see the warp and weft of this existence. What joy to join its flow.
If you want help figuring out your own rhythm, creative practice, relationship to the stars, or your current period of time, then my books for October are open.
To end, I share with you this essay by my colleague Rowan about Celestial Harmony and the Four Elements, basically part music theory, part astrology. So cool.
Read it here.
What signs and symbols have been catching your eye this past week? Share in the comments below 🔮
Also, if you appreciate my writings, please spread the word! Word of mouth means so much to me.
Until next Week,
Chloe