Welcome to my new Substack! I’m glad to be here. I can honestly say that the layout is so much more user-friendly and the tools so much more extensive than my previous platform. I already feel more excited about writing this newsletter and am alight with all the possibilities this it holds.
I have already shared a lot about the intention behind this newsletter, but I wanted to highlight the description I provided for my new “About” page:
This newsletter was named after an Atlas Sound song I liked in the spring of 2015 that bled into a hot summer on my friend’s couches. So much of my college years was unpacking and repacking the same suitcases as I moved around dorms, apartments, co-ops, a monastery, and the occasional month or so sleeping in the room in my friend’s house that was vacant for the summer.
All of that shuffling and rearranging taught me that “bedroom” is a state of mind. It can be accessed on the couch in my best friend’s living room and on the bus at 6am; by the ocean and in the pages of a good book. I felt it well before that summer and continue to feel it as I come up on three years in the same house (mostly). You access bedroom every time you share a look that no one else saw, or when you listen to your new favorite song or find a violet you pressed in a book long ago.
Part of the reason I practice astrology is because it gives a language to these inner experiences and connects them to the rest of the world, humming to the same pulse. I will use it as a framing device and jumping-off point to reframe and understand my inner experience so that, hopefully, my words will resonate with you as well.
I want to pay homage to the richness of the inner life, something I think is inherently intuitive, compassionate, creative. It encompasses our private thoughts, readings, art-making, prayers, rituals, journaling, romances, crying spells, and all we do to remember the part of us will never be touched by all that tries to take us.
As of this week, I have not yet added a paid subscription option, but keep your eyes peeled. I’m scheming and working on all forms of bonus content for those who want to learn more from me. Have a special topic or interest you’d really like to see me dive into? There’s still time to fill out my newsletter survey :) Click here to partake (and receive your introductory Fixed Stars Natal Report).
If that all sounds good to you, let’s dive in.
Cleaning my Room
It’s Venus in Pisces season now and anyone with a night chart is well fed.
I finally cleaned all the detritus from my desk, shelves, dresser. I swept all the dust out from under bed and took my empty wine bottles to the recycling (they’re for Venus and Bacchus I swear).
I also, for the first time since high school, rearranged my room. Oh that simple joy! The mundane realization that a small change can shift a ton for you. My bed is closer to the window and cozier in the corner. I have more floor space to jump and lounge around. Now, after weeks of being unable to work in my room, I never want to leave.
Remember that Pisces is the only mutable sign where Venus has dignity (save for in Virgo, but fall mostly overrides the triplicity, decanic and bound rulership1). In the fluid, all-encompassing waters of Pisces, the Lesser Benefic can, and does, find the beauty in everything. In the messy room. In the in-between room. In what it has since become.
Sasha Ravitch pointed out that although Venus’s move into Pisces this week brings relief and joy to the planet that was formerly beseiged by Mars and Saturn, it also makes room for all the messiness we had to hold together before. Let yourself get lost in whatever cleansing waves arise this week, for there is still so much splendor to come.
Venus in the Garden
William Carlos Williams tells us “no ideas but in things” so I go to my garden whenever I want to say hi to a certain planet. For Venus in Pisces, I’m getting to know violets, one of Venus’s plants. In a way, we’ve been friends a long time. As the New Jersey State flower, they grew like weeds all over my front lawn and I was excited to see their tiny faces each spring growing up. I never really picked them, though, in part because they’re so small and easy to lose. Their diminutive size, however, reveals them as a different facet of Venus than, say, rose or yarrow. One of my favorite facts about violets is that they have two sets of leaves: chasmogamous and cleistogamous. While the chasmogamous flowers are visible and come in various colors, the cleistogamous ones live underground, are always white, and never open. These inner flowers self-pollinate and spread the plant out by releasing seeds into the earth.
The Greek Myth of the violet is also about secrets; the plant was originally a nymph who was turned into the flower by Artemis so the former could avoid the advances of Apollo.2 Similarly, Clarice Lispector had this to say about violets:
“The violet is introverted and its introspection is profound. They say it hides away out of modesty. Not true. It hides away in order to capture its own secret. Its almost-not-perfume is a smothered glory but demands that people seek it. It never shouts its perfume. Violet says frivolous things that cannot be said.”
(Agua Viva)
I love that line: “It hides away to capture its own secret”. It relates a lot to my relationship with Venus: a sharing of secret treasures and the joy of digging inward, even if no one else around me could understand what I saw. It makes me think about the idea that we can only appreciate other people for the traits we already possess; we need to make sure our perceptions are not clouded before we expect the outside world to grant us pleasure or richness. I use violet to remember that not every beautiful thing shouts its presence, that perhaps anything can be beautiful with the right inner seeing.
So this Pisces Season I ask you: how can you ability to experience pleasure expand past specific conditions?
Or, as David Wojnarowicz reminds us, “Smell the flowers while you can.”
Fixed Star Connection
I want to highlight the stars Venus is going to conjoin in the next few days because they’re extra juicy. Though I generally use parans when looking at fixed stars, conjunctions along the ecliptic are also potent and do something. What’s the difference? I don’t know yet. But I am here to learn, always :)
Currently, Venus is at 3º33’ Pisces, mere minutes away from Sadalmelek (3º46’) and Fomalhaut (3º53). Sadalmelek translates as “The Luck of the King,” and is in the Aquarius constellation, so is resonant with water-bearing symbolism. It shows the ability to find opportunity where there was thought to be none and to make one’s own luck. Fomalhaut, one of the Royal Stars of Persia, represents the importance of vision and ideals in the path to imminence. One must not be solely tied to reality but go off into other worlds where the laws of humanity have no sway. This star wants you to go off into the land of the fae so you don’t forget about magic.
Both show an alternate path through looking and dreaming.
Later in the weekend Venus will conjoin Deneb Adige (5º’20), tail of the Swan. Like a swan, this star is both mystical and aggressive, but more in the sense of putting oneself directly on the spiritual path. Bernadette Brady sees Deneb Adige “the shaman’s star” for its ability to see different realms within this one or call forth the sacred from the everyday.
So use this weekend as a portal. See which springs arise and notice the signs.
House Keeping
Thank you to everyone who responded to my newsletter survey! Your comments were so sweet and helpful, I can’t tell you how I appreciate your feedback and all of your readership. Sometimes it can feel like I’m shouting to the void so getting to hear your thoughts my writing. If you haven’t filled out this short survey yet, I would still love to hear your feedback. Plus, you get a lil’ fixed star report in exchange for your thoughts :)
Reminder: My prices are going up! Next week I will increasing the cost of ALL of my reading options (natal, transit, relationship and fixed stars), so this is the week to book with the lowest prices!
For a bit about my reading style, this tweet (and the rest in the thread) really sum it up. Peruse them to see if my style of rigorous woo is right for you:
And so this is where I leave you. As a parting gift, I leave with this Lauryn Hill freestyle that warms my spirit each time I watch it. Please enjoy and may you, too, have the power to rouse the crowd at the Apollo with just your words.
All my love,
Chloe
P.S. You can now comment on my newsletter! and everyone can see it! So feel free to leave a comment or ask a question: I plan to be very active in the comments.
Here’s a little prompt: How has Venus in Pisces shown up in your life this week?
I love the Calvin & Hobbes reference 😉 and the violets info was very interesting, who knew? Violets are a wine aroma found in certain red wines such as Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir and Cabernet Franc, so the fragrance is well documented in the wine world 🍷