What I Learned from the Stars 🌌
Jupiter conjoined Neptune this week and I am drawing a blank. Out of nowhere, Portland received inches of snow on Monday after barely a dusting all winter. The precipitation continued through the rest of the week, taking the form of heavy rain and hail interspersed with bits of sunshine. Judging by the forecast, this unpredictable weather pattern will be the norm for a few weeks.
If you have no idea what is going on, you’re not alone.
Modern astrology had me believing Neptune was all dreams, visions and self-transcendence and I am here to lodge a complaint; I feel this planet through the confusion it throws in front of me (into me), the uncertainty as to whether this thought is true or an illusion. Jupiter in Pisces has long been known for bringing rain but it’s the Neptune piece that exchanges predictable misting for snow in April and erratic spurts of frozen rain.
I take solace, as is becoming more common, in the breath. In my hands. In the sensations of body in the present moment. Neptune may have me all turned around in some aspects, but the present moment is always there, waiting to be entered. Though our mind will try to convince us otherwise, we can enter each moment fresh and open, despite the worries and thoughts clouding our awareness not one moment before.
It’s not everything. It’s not nothing.
💫Fixed Stars Readings Reopening💫
After over a dozen “beta” readings, I have reopened my fixed star paran consultations for all.1 It costs more than it did before because I’ve learned so much from the lovely people I’ve met, from my deeper study of the stars, as well as the essays about the stars I’m slowly churning out.
I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned about the fixed stars in the past month. May these things show you the potential of this side of astrology.
1) Personal Gnosis > Cookbook
As I’ve probably mentioned before, there are really only a few books on the fixed stars that I can actually recommend. While these resources are invaluable for those starting to understand the stars, solely relying on the few stock phrases included in these books is not enough to capture the lived experience of humans.
What has been very helpful is looking up other meanings, names, and myths surrounding the stars. These stories aren’t too difficult to find; nearly every Greek constellation has an origin story, not to mention the star stories of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Chinese, etc. But even these have their limits; hearing about the personal experiences of my clients with their stars has helped my personalize their mythic significance and begin to understand how the sacred and mundane interact.
In the words of James Audubon, “If the bird and the book disagree, always believe the bird”. A client’s experience will always matter more in a reading than what a book says.
2) The Poetic is Powerful
When I say poetic, I mean imagistic, symbolic, non-linear. More often than, not, I could successfully connect my clients’ experience to a piece of art or a particularly rich passage from Manilius. Whenever I talked about the fixed star Alphard, for example, heart of the serpent, I talked about in tandem with the work of N.K. Jemisin, who has this star as her heliacal rising. Her book, “The Broken Earth Trilogy,” speaks clearly to the central struggle of this star: anger and passion as old as the Earth, but whose origins must emerge from the unconscious for its power to be released. This trilogy deals directly with a human exploitation of the earth and the destructive fallout that such hubris created (including the very real ire of a broken earth).
Or, when I began to mention the fixed star Murzims with a client, which is a star in the Canis Major constellation, their sister's dog, who was previously roaming around the room, stopped and kneeled at the foot of my client.
Stars are less concerned with “practical” life and the physical circumstances than about the life of the soul, which often comes through in hints and intuitions. I always makes space for this slanted kind of meaning-making in my sessions because they’re so potent.
3) A Star does not Exist in a Vacuum
Even among the four Royal Stars of Persia, Regulus stands out as the kingliest. As the heart of the Lion, it represents a classic sort of sovereignty, one based on heart-centered power and the potential for great imminence. It heralds military victory, so long as its primary nemesis, revenge, is not indulged.
But Regulus is not alone in the Lion constellation. Two other stars— Zosma and Denebola— are also used in paran analysis, though with very different meanings. Zosma is a star in the lion’ backs, the part of the Nemean lion that Hercules broke when completing his Twelve Labors. Thusly, it represents victimization, or those who the established order have forgotten. Denebola, which is found in the Lion’s tail, is a star of non-conformity, or finding success in alternative, counter-cultural contexts.
Thus we see why revenge is such an issue for Regulus natives: they must stay connected to those without power, as well as those who don’t buy into conventional power structures, to keep their kingly powers balanced. We can also see an awareness of victims and iconoclasts as being an important step in not falling victim to their nemesis. There are many other stars that share a constellation with others. We can learn so much when we put them in their larger context.
4) Everyone “knows” their stars (whether they realize is or not)
Over and over, I found that my readings did not drop some bomb or expose some facet of a person that they didn’t already know. Like other branches of astrology, I found that people already felt the urges and desires of the stars working through them, even if they couldn’t name it before. If anything, the stars allow us to create a framework to order and understand these myriad energies.
But, truly, the learning always went both ways. Through the generous sharing of my clients, I was continually awed by the wisdom they already possessed.
All the studying in the world means nothing if you don’t test that knowledge with reality. By hearing what interpretations resonated and which didn’t, I not only got to know the stars better but improved my consultation ability.
I’m so excited to continue offering this consult to others as a way to facilitate intimacy both with oneself and with the night sky.
**If you’re still unsure what fixed stars are all about, or why you should add this study to your astrological toolkit, stay tuned. I have something coming out soon that will answer many of these questions.**
🌸Paid Subscriptions are now Open🌸
After a lot of brainstorming, discernment and reading all of your lovely survey responses (thanks again for all of your feedback!), I have begun to work on all sorts of bonus content I want to include.
As I’ve stated before, this Friday newsletter will always be free.
But starting next Tuesday, a subscription gets you regular bonus content, all having to do with astrology, creativity, and Spirit. I hesitate being too narrow in my description because I want the content to match what gets me most excited and is what y’all are interested in, too. But whereas I see the Friday newsletter as more loose and topical, the Tuesday bonuses will feature more formal astrology essays, guides for developing your creative and divinatory practices, community threads, explorations of the muses, etc.
Here is my current schedule for content:
Essay on the fixed star Rigel
How to use the Third House to Build a Daily Practice
Essay on the fixed stars Castor and Pollux
A Guide to discovering your ideal daily practice
I’m also brewing ideas about community threads, q+a’s with artists/astrologers that I admire and other bonus content.
All of this can be yours for $5 a month.
Ultimately, it’s up to you whether you desire/can afford to financially support this newsletter. But I will always be beyond grateful to have you and guarantee I will put out work that I find valuable, high-quality and fun as hell.
So, as we part, I leave you with this Weird Al video that has been giving me life and this screen shot from “A Black Lady Sketch Show” (which returned this week!).
Sending love and all,
Chloe