planets

Venus

Lisa

Venus is a powerful undercurrent to everything you are in this life and everything you do.

Venus is love. Human love. It’s how you express what matters to you while human. Loving is a core purpose we all have here.

Venus is what you value, what matters to you, how you set priorities, how you express love and feel love.

Venus is money, because money is one of the ways we assign value. Venus is key to understanding your relationship with money, how you get it, save it, spend it.

Look at Venus when you look at everything in your chart, even if there is no aspect, because Venus is integral to knowing what’s important to you and that impacts everything.

The more you understand what and how you love, the clearer you get on your priorities, the more effectively you focus your energy on living a rewarding life.

You can get caught up in doing things for many reasons that have nothing to do with what matters most to you. Habit, fear, obligation are a few.

Just as you periodically need to purge through your stuff, it’s helpful to take inventory of your life.

How do you spend your time and energy? Who do you spend it with? How do you get money? What do you do with it?

One way to deepen your understanding of astrology is to try to see in your chart what you know about yourself. Instead of looking at your chart and trying to figure it out, let’s do the opposite.

Take a minute and describe your values, how you love, what makes you feel loved, your relationship with money, and then look at Venus in your chart and see if you can make a connection to what you came up with and your Venus placement.

If you feel confused about how to start, try this. Look at the sign your Venus is in and describe the sign in whatever way you can then see if you can match any of that with what you came up with about how you love.

If you’re still confused, that’s okay. Astrology is a language and everyone reading this post has a different fluency level. You’ll get there.

@karmicastrology on Instagram

Venus 💖✨

Venus is love in human form. It’s who, what and how you love. It’s how you prioritize and assign value. Understanding Venus in your natal chart helps you to prioritize what matters to you.

What does your Venus tell you?

houses

Where’s your earth

Lisa

Understanding the elements: fire, earth, air, water is foundational to understanding the zodiac signs. This is the third in a series of posts that looks at the relationship between elements and houses in your chart.

The earth signs are Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. Let’s take a quick look at what set of houses they rule in your chart.

With an equal house chart, each house cusp is ruled by a sign at the same degrees and minutes as the ascendant. Each house and sign are fully represented.

If you have an air rising sign (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) then your earth (2, 6, 10) houses are ruled by water.

Look at your chart to see the set of houses the earth signs rule, then read on for yours.

Fire houses (1st, 5th, 9th)

You came in wanting to bring more practicality and earthly realism to how you see yourself, express yourself, and pursue your place in the world. Your time and energy are precious to you and you want to spend them wisely.

Earth houses (2nd, 6th, 10th)

You’re needing to more fully own your humanity in a way that propels you to take purposeful action. You can get stuck on over preparing or resisting what you know you need to do. You’re learning that embracing human limits and boundaries supports your actions.

Air houses (3rd, 7th, 11th)

You’re embracing the tangible value of verbal communication. No matter how effective you are at using your intuition to read the room or understand someone, you’re learning to embrace the value of speaking up and having things defined in writing, in having defined agreements and goals with individuals and groups.

Water houses (4th, 8th, 12th)⁣

You’re learning to feel safe & powerful through vulnerability. You selectively share parts of yourself. Now you’re learning to be more open about your needs, more intimate in relationships and to practice self-care. Vulnerability teaches you how strong you are and guides you to the connections that best support you.

Earth signs ♉️♍️♑️

I made similar posts on the Fire and Water signs last week. Today we are looking at Earth.

Everything meaningful in your chart is reflected in multiple ways. Even taking a quick peek at where an element shows up in your chart can shine a light on lessons and themes for this life.

Look for the earth in your chart. Do you relate to what I’ve shared above?

houses

Where’s your water?

Lisa

Understanding the elements: fire, earth, air, water is foundational to understanding the zodiac signs. This is the second in a series of posts that looks at the relationship between elements and houses in your chart.

The water signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. Let’s take a quick look at what set of houses they rule in your chart.

Pro tip: use equal house

Do you have them ruling the fire houses (1st, 5th, 9th) in your chart? If so, you tend to need to feel in control of how people perceive you, need emotional security to get creative and came in wanting to see the truth despite how you feel.

What about earth houses (2nd, 6th, 10th)? You may tend to be emotional about your stuff, have control issues with your daily routine and empathy can be a strong factor in how you show up in the world.

Air houses (3rd, 7th, 11th) includes learning more about your impact on others and their impact on you through how you speak up for yourself, how you invest yourself in relationships and your openness to showing up fully because that matters to you versus what you’ll get in return.

Water houses (4th, 8th, 12th) you are refining your skills with creating family, intimacy and facing fears. This includes seeing how your need for control supports or interferes with your deeply personal connections and how you may allow your emotions to feed your fears.

The clearer you are about owning your feelings and expressing them with kindness and compassion, the less responsible you’ll feel for the emotional reactions of others.

Water signs ♋️♏️♓️

I made a similar post on the fire signs a few days ago and I felt something click for many of you, so I’m doing another element.

Everything meaningful in in your chart is reflected in multiple ways. Even taking a quick peek at where an element shows up in your chart can shine a light on lessons and themes for this life.

Look for the water in your chart. Do you relate to what I’ve shared above?

houses

Where’s your fire?

Lisa

Understanding the elements: fire, earth, air, water is foundational to understanding the zodiac signs. If the elements are new to you, review my previous posts (see highlight reels) or google them. It’s worth it.

The fire signs are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. Let’s take a quick look at what set of houses they rule in your chart.

See my pinned posts for why I use equal house, what it is and how to get yours online for free.

From Instagram

Do you have them ruling the fire houses (1st, 5th, 9th) in your chart? If so, you are committed to putting what you know into action. Lessons include facing when you aren’t living with integrity and walking your talk.

What about earth houses (2nd, 6th, 10th)? You’re learning to take action to create the life you want. When you find yourself sliding into your need for control of your environment, situation, other people, you are reminded that your path includes focusing on what you need to do versus what everyone else should do.

Air houses (3rd, 7th, 11th) includes taking to heart that saying “actions speak louder than words.” Be willing to act on what you believe and pay attention to what people do. People show you who they are by how they show up in your life. They may not always say the right thing, but is that more important than being there for you?

Water houses (4th, 8th, 12th) your actions are teaching you how you feel about home, family, intimacy, vulnerability, fears and dreams. Pay attention to what you do and own your actions. You may see yourself one way but your actions reveal a deeper truth. Whether that truth is something you want to support or change, it starts with acknowledging it.

Fire signs ♈️♌️♐️

Everything meaningful in in your chart is reflected in multiple ways. Even taking a quick peek at where an element shows up in your chart can shine a light on lessons and themes for this life.

Look for the fire in your chart. How do you relate to what I’ve shared above?

transits

Pluto in Aquarius

Lisa

As we approach Pluto’s entrance into Aquarius it’s a great time to remember that sharing knowledge is powerful.

Aquarius is compassionate connection, it takes a village, we’re all in this together.

Pluto entering Aquarius brings increased opportunities to become more powerful and transformative when we all contribute and learn from each other.

Together we create the opportunity for alchemy.

Pluto will soon enter Aquarius increasing the opportunities to build more powerful connections and to transform our lives and the world we co-create.

✨ Embrace spiritual networking ✨

I love when other astrologers are able to learn something from me and incorporate it into their readings.

Even if your clients find their way to my page, that doesn’t take away from you and what you can do for them. Just the opposite. It could draw them even more to you if they value who you.

I want to help each of you learn astrology, whether it’s just for your use or to help you with your professional metaphysical practice.

Believe in yourself, experience the value of your intuition, and embrace your personal power of choice. 💫🤎

signs

Pisces moon and sun

Lisa

Learning the difference between the sun and moon in a sign is an important step in your journey with astrology. I’m going to point out a few differences with sun and moon in Pisces.

The sun is intentional and aspirational. It’s how you see yourself and it’s the basis for your identity in this life.

The moon is your wiring, your essential nature. It’s the temperament you developed over many lives so it is steeped in karmic history. You’re often not even aware that you are expressing your moon because there is no thought involved. It’s reactions.

A Pisces sun has chosen to become a more compassionate and intuitive person in this life and may even imagine that they are. They want to see themselves this way.

They often want to make a difference and be a hero, they want to rescue people and can even be drawn to first responder jobs so they literally are saving people.

Pisces suns have a need to believe that they are saving you and can get frustrated if you don’t take their great advice. There’s always an ego identification with the sun. They want to be the reason your life just got better. Some tend towards a messiah complex, martyrdom and can be prone to self pity. Saving the world is hard stuff.

There are various reasons why someone would choose a Pisces sun. For example, a Pisces sun with an Aries moon is someone who’s history is deeply steeped in their own experience and in this life they are learning that they can become something beyond their own experience. They can become whatever they imagine themselves to be.

A Pisces moon tends to be naturally compassionate and empathic. The moon is auto pilot, what we do without thinking, Pisces moons soak up how others feel and often act onwhat they are picking up and not even realize they are doing so.

A Pisces moon has a chameleon quality and may seem fake or disingenuous when they are really just being what is needed in the moment.

They are naturally imaginative and can also imagine that people feel differently than they do or are different than how they really are. There’s a balance to navigate between being imaginative in a healthy way or sliding into deluding themselves.

When looking at the sun in your chart, remember that it is about this life, this incarnation. It’s your ego, identity, who you believe you are, who you intend to be.

The moon is about how deep karmic history. You’ve developed these automatic ways of reacting that are ingrained in you.

If your sun and moon are the same sign then you didn’t come in desiring to change how you see yourself. It’s more that you’re trying to be a better version of yourself.

If your sun and moon are different, consider why you may want to use the history of your moon to become your sun.

☀️🌙

So what’s the difference between having the sun in a sign and the moon in a sign?

💫 The sun and moon are distinctly different energies and they express themselves differently in the sign they are in.

🌟 Does this post help you see the difference? Can you see how your sun sign would be expressed differently as a moon sign and visa versa?

🙈 If your sun and moon signs are the same, you may be confused by this post 😂 that’s normal. Mine are in the same sign and in my early days of learning astrology I was unsure what was because of my moon and what was an expression of my sun. It took a while for me to get it.

🤔 If yours are in different signs, see if you can come up with at least one reason why you’d choose your sun sign given the history of your moon sign.

Fill in the blanks:

I am trying to learn to be (sun) in this life and my history is (moon).

See also my post on sun / moon combos.

What are your sun and moon signs?

transits

Transits: keys to working with them

Lisa

These are the most important things I want you to get about transits.

1️⃣ The effect of transits is largely based on your choices. You need to opt in. They are invitations, opportunities. There’s a flight going from New York to London today, but you need to decide to buy a ticket and get on the plane to make use of it.

Have you noticed that I use words like invitation and opportunity when I post about transits? This is why. The planets are not puppeteers controlling your life. Two people can encounter identical circumstances and have two radically different experiences.

2️⃣ Transits offer the most to you when they connect to pieces in your chart and to understand them you need to understand your natal chart.

If you want to better understand the opportunity of a transit, dig into what it is touching in your own chart. They show what outside energy is most available to you. They show momentum.

I see people focus so much attention on the transiting planet, but the answer to their questions about how does this impact me is in the natal chart.

Transits by themselves don’t mean much to you personally. Focus on understanding your natal chart and if you’re curious about a transit that is touching something in your chart, dig deeper into that part of your chart.

3️⃣ Develop and trust your intuition. You don’t need transits to live well. Your soul is nudging you 24/7 and is communicating the most precise guidance you could hope for.

Astrology is a fantastic tool for self-discovery and spiritual growth. It has helped me beyond the words I know to explain how to you and it’s enabled me to help thousands of people.

Remember though, it is a tool and doesn’t replace your direct communication with your soul.

Your life is an experience you are creating as a part of this ever changing universe and not an object life is happening to.

Wondering what is a transit?

Your natal chart shows the placement of the pieces at the time, date and location of your birth. Transits are where the planets are now.

About the “where they are now” part …

The tropical zodiac resets each year with the vernal equinox. So the transits show where the planets are currently using that sky map.

Transits using the sidereal zodiac are used if you are using sidereal for your natal chart. The sidereal zodiac is determined by the current orientation of the earth’s axis. So it shifts over time due to the gravitational forces between the sun and moon. This orientation change makes a complete cycle through the zodiac every 26,000 years. This shift is the difference between tropical and sidereal and gives us ages in astrology.

✨ Natal chart uses birth day and time

✨ Transits uses current day and time

midheaven

Midheaven: Your Soul

Lisa

Your midheaven is the point directly overhead at the time of your birth.

I use equal house (not the same as whole sign) so the midheaven is placed in the chart as a point.

Your ascendant is the point directly east when you were born and shows your entry into this life. The midheaven is the point directly overhead and it shows your soul.

Your midheaven drives you more than you may be aware of, impacting you more than you may considered.

It’s as if your midheaven seeps through into your consciousness and you think of it as inspiration, but it’s you. It’s not a source outside of you. It is your soul in communion with you.

Any aspects to your midheaven show you specific patterns (ease, lessons, challenges) communicating with it. As with everything else in your chart, aspects reveal repeated past life patterns.

Others that have your same degree on the midheaven are part of your spiritual family (regardless of sign).

There are various indicators of spiritual and karmic connections in a chart. This is just one of them. Besides, all of our souls come from the sane source and are connected whether you consciously feel it or not. Uranus teaches us this and your Uranus can help you feel it. Always.

progressions

Your external new year

Lisa

While your natal ascendant is significant throughout your life, it does progress one degree per year. This progression shows how your view of life and way of relating to the world continues to evolve.

This change over to the next degree happens at the same time every year. This is your external new year and it shows when you start a new focus for how you look at life. To find out when it happens you need to do a little bit of math. It’s easy though.

If this feels stressful to you, skip it. There’s so much to learn about astrology and as you’re learning, take in what feeds your curiosity and lights you up.

For the daring, let’s continue.

One degree = 60 minutes

One year = 12 months

One degree per year = 60 minutes per year.

That’s the same as 5 minutes per month. So your ascendant progresses 5 minutes per month.

Look at the minutes of your ascendant, see how many minutes to get to the next degree and divide by 5. That gives you the number of months. Add that to your birth month and you have your external new year.

Let’s ballpark some examples:

Example 1: Say you were born in January and you have 14 degrees and 28 minutes on the ascendant (doesn’t matter the rising sign)

With 28 minutes on the ascendant that means it takes 32 minutes to get to the next degree. Divide that by 5 and you get about 6 months. Add 6 months to January and you get June. Your external new year is early summer.

Example 2: Say you were born in November and you have 10 degrees and 15 minutes on the ascendant. It takes 45 minutes to get to the next degree (60-15=45). Since 45 divided by 5 is 9 we add 9 months to November and get August for your external new year.

Example 3: Say you were born in July with 18 degrees and 44 minutes on your ascendant. You’ve got 16 minutes to the next degree. That’s about 3 months. Your external new year is October.

karmicastrology on Instagram

💫 In this post we are looking at your external new year based on the ascendant. It is one of three annual cycles that show in your progressed natal cart. The other two are based on your sun and midheaven.

💫 We’ll get into how the others are calculated and what each progressed degree means another time. For now, looking at when your ascendant makes this annual shift can help you to see why starting new projects seems to be easier certain times of the year and harder at other times.

💫 About a month or so leading up to the shift is a great time to come to closure on projects versus starting new ones. It doesn’t mean you can’t start something new near the end of a cycle, it means that you have more momentum towards closure than new starts.

It’s a great time to finish things up, make decisions on stuff you’ve been mulling over, clear the air with people, clear out clutter, purge, and gear up for a new year.

💫 Try not to get hung up on a specific date. You are looking for a time period of when you shift to the next cycle. Notice we are looking at a month for your new year, not a day. This is about looking at an energetic shift that happens over a period of time.

Let me know if you calculate yours and if you notice anything about this time of year for you 💖✨

planets

Moon synastry and other fun facts

Lisa

Moon contacts in synastry is one way of seeing karmic connections between people.

Moon

These connections can show shared experiences in other lives between the two people or they can show karmic issues with mom that are being stimulated by the relationship.

Either way, moon contacts in synastry show that your relationship with that person reaches into your karmic past.

I use the same orbs for synastry as I do natal aspects: 7 degrees for conjunction, square, trine opposition and 3 degrees for sextile and quincunx. Looser aspects are read a little differently than tighter ones.

I often get questions about why I use the orbs I do. Bottom line is that in my 40+ year experience reading thousands of charts, wider orbs do not convey the specific aspect meaning.

Remember, everything in your chart is connected even if isn’t aspected. This is why the deep and specific meaning of any placement comes from the context of the whole chart.

Every placement is a part of the whole that is you. It may be easier to see how pieces that share house or sign placements have a connection, just know that your life is the connection between in your chart.

For example, your north node may not aspect anything, but there is a thread of connection to it throughout your chart because it’s where you are heading in this life and everything in your chart has a play in that.

So much to explore about the moon in your chart. Swipe above for some comments on synastry and aspects.

🌙 The moon is historical, irrational, and part of your essential nature. If you have any Cancer placements in your chart, you may tend to hang on to issues and beliefs associated with that part of yourself. This also goes for whichever house Cancer rules in your chart.

🌙 As you’ve been learning astrology, what has your moon revealed to you? How had it helped you to understand others?

Where’s your moon? 🤎✨