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friend: Gotta love those retrogrades, yes?
me: I love them like I love the end of a terrifying roller coaster ride. “OK, YES, let me off this machine…”

This analogy only works to an extent. Even though the series of retrogrades and difficult eclipses we’ve experienced all summer had the feel of a super fast relentless assault, it’s also true that it involved lots of feelings of stuck-ness, stalling, slowness, and drain. Hats off to those of you that started new jobs, started relationships, and successfully bought new phones. It sure wasn’t me. I hit every branch on the way down the drama tree as I fell.

Now, as if on cue, I’m filled with hope, curiosity, and energy (and I finally got my new phone…). I confronted lies I was telling myself and others, analyzed boundaries I’d set (and failed to set); I was humbled this summer. I am better for it. Hopefully, with whatever happened in the last few weeks, you are too.

Demeter: GreekMythology.com

The Virgo symbol has been one of the most difficult to internalize. Perhaps because it involves a person. I’m not usually a fan of people symbology. This is why you won’t see me using decks that feature people exclusively. And unlike my patron water-bearer of Aquarius, the person in the Virgo symbol isn’t doing something easy to recognize. Or maybe it’s the connection between  Virgo and wheat. The person is usually in a field or holding a wheat stalk. That sounds friendly enough. The Empress is often depicted with wheat symbols.

Maybe I just have hangups about agriculture. After all, it was the advent of agriculture that encouraged the hierarchical structures in society which in turn led to the subjugation of those that could work the land. Once there was farmland there were raids, paying to protect crops, and forcing people to work the land for you. I’m not talking slavery here, go back further, think pre-feudal. Agriculture is where we get our ancestral urge to hoard necessities. This societal shift from nomadic life to agriculture changed relationships, religions, and eventually the face of the planet through industrialization.

And what do these things have to do with service? Diligence? Analysis? The things associated with the sign of Virgo?

Not much, but this is where my thoughts go for the sign symbolized by agricultural deities such as Demeter. Better the wheat sign than the sign of the virgin, the other name for Virgo, with its themes of purity and, by proxy, ownership and patriarchy and other such yuck.

If we look to the people, the actual Virgos, we find the sign most concerned with the pursuit of perfection. We see people with ultimate skills of discernment and dissemination. Virgos herald societal progress, using their intellect to advance everything and everyone in their world. And I guess, for better or for worse, agriculture did this too.

Virgo is ruled by Mercury, but I’ve read of a connection between this sign and Chiron as well. And through these planets, we see Virgo’s themes of intelligence and sacrifice for the greater good. Virgo is the natural sign of the sixth house, the house of routine practical survival.

Conversely, the sign opposite Virgo is Pisces…

Pisces’s traditional ruler is Jupiter, it’s modern ruler is Neptune, and it is the natural sign of the twelfth house. On the 13th of September, we get a glimpse of each of these energies when Mercury is opposite Neptune. Mercury usually wants the details and will navigate social spaces expertly to get them. Neptune wants to Go Beyond. Beyond societies, bodies, boundaries. This planet doesn’t care about details or clarity and will leave you in emotional muck.

Such are the temperaments of practical Virgo, and intergalactic Pisces and such are the themes of the past full moon in Pisces and upcoming new moon in Virgo. Both of these signs are mutable, mutable earth and water respectively, so we can expect more activity with other mutable signs, Sagittarius and Gemini, this season.

In the next few weeks we see several planets joining Mars going direct (woohoo!) as well as a sweet series of practical earth trines that I’m sure nobody’s going to complain about.

Lots of the action this month happens in the sign of Capricorn. It’s a good time to take a look at which house aligns with this sign in your birth chart. If you don’t know, but you wanna know,  enter your birth data here and look for a green symbol like the one below:

In this picture, you can see two other symbols close to this green one. That’s because I have two planets in Capricorn in my birth chart. On the top left of this picture, you also see the numbers five and six. This shows you that in my chart, the sign of Capricorn is split between the fifth and sixth houses. This season I might see some activity when it comes to creative expression and routine. (I feel like I’m always saying this about my chart somehow…)

This chart tells me that even though Virgo season corresponds to my second house, where I have no planets, and where the sun is currently transiting (passing through), I may have a lot of activity in my fifth and sixth houses in Capricorn where three planets will be direct when September is said and done. If I really want to know how likely I am to be affected by the planet’s upcoming motion, I can compare the degrees where they station direct with the degrees touched by planets in Capricorn in my birth chart.

On August 27th Mars went direct at 28 degrees Capricorn; on September 6th Saturn goes direct at 6 degrees in Capricorn and on the 30th, Pluto goes direct at 18 degrees. I only have planets at 24 and 16 degrees. My moon is only 2 degrees away from where Pluto stations direct. I might feel this station or aspects involving Pluto more strongly. My Mercury is a full 4 degrees away from where Mars went direct. This is too far away to feel without a full moon or eclipse to boost the signal. But I can say that I did experience the tension that one might expect with Mars making contact with conversational Mercury and that tension happened days before Mars went direct. Probably closer to when it hit 24 degrees. No surprise there.

The more you look at your chart the more you notice patterns throughout the year. For example, if I had no planets in the sign of Capricorn, but instead I had planets in the sign opposite Capricorn, Cancer, and especially at or within 2 degrees of the locations where Mars, Saturn, or Pluto go direct, I might expect activity in my eleventh and twelfth houses instead. Because this sign is directly across, we know to expect transits between the planets in these two signs. We even know what kind of transit, oppositions, since Cancer is on the “opposite” side of the chart from Capricorn. Don’t worry if this makes no sense. One day it will. Well, I mean, if astrology is your thing and this part interests you. *grins

Or even if it isn’t your thing. You can use this knowledge with your tarot readings, ones that you do for self and ones that are done for you. Just knowing what planets are where in your chart as well as the upcoming aspects will highlight certain areas of your life. We can see, as an example, in the chart above that when Pluto, which I like to call the “Tower” or power and punishment planet, goes direct in the same location as my natal moon; I may experience a surprising shift in my life or power struggle (Pluto). And in response, I may get emotional or receive divine inspiration from my intuition, both of which are associated with the moon.

Here’s another example of what this looks like:

A few years ago I wrote about the Devil Card in late August. In fact, I mention that I constantly pull the Devil card. If you search the Bubble archive, you’ll find multiple posts where I write about it. If you search the regular blog archive, you’ll find yet another post in August about the Devil card. Eventually, I realized that I pull that card consistently at the same time of year. Before I studied my chart closely, I was just mysteriously haunted by the card for no reason. But after I studied astrology and got to know my chart, I realized that this is the Tarot’s way of telling me to look at what’s happening in the sign of Capricorn, since Capricorn is the sign that’s associated with the Devil card.

Tarot cards can identify planets, signs, houses, or transits of importance.

To recognize these astrological messages you’ll need to know the astrological associations for at least some of the cards. And it wouldn’t hurt to know where the houses fall on your chart. Remember the chart of houses from the last post in this series? The houses show you the topics that will be involved in your life at any given time. The signs show you the attitudes which you feel most comfortable approaching those topics. The planets and their transits reveal what kinds of events you might expect concerning those topics and whether you’ll feel equipped to handle those events or not.

The same way you can look at your chart and discern themes and lessons according to what’s there, you can do a spread to reveal the same. There are are other ways that you can incorporate astrology in your tarot and I’ll say more about that in this quick video. For those who don’t yet know the astrological associations, let me know if you’re interested in charts either here or in the video and I’ll post a link to some in the comments.

Why it’s time to get moving – Saturn trine Uranus

We’ve already talked about three planets going direct this month, Mars, planet of energy and get ‘er done, Saturn, the mentor that makes sure you earn your keep, and Pluto the planet with a powerful surprise for you. With these three going direct in Capricorn we can expect changes of energy, effort, and regeneration. In addition to that, the planets send helpful notes to each other via beneficial trines. Probably the most interesting among those this month is Saturn trine Uranus.

This trine is a collaboration between diligent, practical, and patient Saturn and innovative, futuristic Uranus. It’s like an established fortune 500 company connecting with the most daring start-up ever to make something amazing. Their results would be far-reaching, life-changing, and would show you the depths of your leadership, dedication, and problem-solving ability.

The last time Saturn trined Uranus was November of 2017.

What were you up to? I was launching the second round of the Ultimate Scopes. One of the most ambitious and complicated readings I’ve ever embarked on. It had a lot of moving parts, and I had to systematize all of them to make the offer work, payments, intake forms, astrological exploration. I didn’t really know what I was getting into until I got into it. I think the reason it worked despite my ignorance was I worked my butt off to revamp the first version of this reading from the year before.

I’d seen pre-made horoscope tarot readings, the kind you’d write for an entire sign once and then sell over and over. And I’d seen big, custom readings; you know the ones where they are for one person, but you get 12 cards interpreted all at once. But I decided to create something that I’d not seen before, a reading that stretched throughout the year and included extensive personalized astrological data. I haven’t even seen astrologers offer anything like this yet, let alone tarot readers.

Lord knows what I was thinking, this reading was worlds beyond anything I regularly did and increased in scope every year.  But it went OK, well better than OK. Actually, folks loved it. I think it did well because I was aligned with the Saturn trine Uranus transit. The offer took Effort and Innovation. (Saturn and Uranus.)

This transit lasts all month.

Ok, Siobhan, but what does that mean?

This trine is an excellent time to notice a new ability to take on something that previously felt like too much. Whatever that crazy new thing is that you weren’t sure you had the spoons for… this trines says, maybe you might have some extra spoons. Remember while this helpful collaboration is going on in the background that there are at least six other trines happening throughout the month. Also, this trine is apart of the grand earth trine we discussed last time.

As the sun enters the earth sign of Virgo, it is trine Uranus in the earth sign of Taurus and in turn trines a whole slew of planets that happen to be in Capricorn. All the earth is blessed. Earth elements/signs are about that bill you need to pay, the food you eat, your body, where you live, that promotion, the routine. The adulting stuff. Hard for some of us, home to the rest. Look to these three signs in your chart, Virgo, Taurus, Capricorn. Which houses are there? What parts of your life will be blessed? What can you do to fully receive these earth blessings?

Sun in Virgo
What are your rituals? How do you take care of self and others?

Uranus in Taurus
How do you celebrate your life in this body? In what new ways might you delight your senses?

Mercury in Virgo (trine EVERYTHING in Capricorn)
How can you use your mouth and mind to move mountains?

These questions consider the signs where the action is but not the houses, Pull up your chart and review the questions from last time to tailor your thinking to your personal circumstances. Or let me do it…

One by one Y’all have been coming to me with astrological questions and interest.

It’s kicked off a Beta run of Ultimate Scopes, that same reading I’ve been swearing for weeks I will launch publicly. I’ve decided not to launch it publicly for 2019 after all. At least as of this moment. That said, this area is still small enough that I can offer it here and do some testing.

If you are interested in a Mini Ultimate Scope, a tarot reading with astrological data tailored to your birth information, and you are willing to give me feedback after the reading to help me make it better, send me your details. I’ve also put that link up on the Bubble Readings page. If it ever says it’s not accepting answers, it means that I ran out of time or spaces for that month. The reading can be time-consuming, so I won’t be able to offer an unlimited number at all times. It depends how many members there are and what else is going on. Check back in a month or contact me to find out when or if it’s coming back.

And now for a “Virgo” theme song.