houses

Full life includes empty houses

Lisa

Houses are areas of life experience. Houses with placements show areas you came in giving specific focus. Your empty houses are important too and part of your life.

With an equal house chart, all areas of life are equally and wholly represented in your chart. You have all of it. You can have an empty first house and still be self aware. You can have an empty second house and still have stuff. You can have an empty seventh house and still partner.

You experience all the houses. The sign you have on the cusp of each house and the planet that rules that house give insight into that area of life even if you don’t have any planets in it. Also, your empty houses often get energized through progressions, transits and interactions with other people.

When an empty house gets activated you may find yourself surprised by new interests or feel like you’re “going through a phase.” With the 4th house you could find yourself particularly interested in cooking, researching your ancestry or changing something about your home.

Empty houses can sometimes show blind spots. For example, the first house is the zone of self. An empty first house often shows someone that doesn’t fully consider the impact on themselves or their life when they agree to something. There can be a delay in seeing it.

If you have an empty first house, it’s helpful to consciously ask yourself about the impact on you and your life when you agree to something. Give it intentional consideration. If this changes what you’re willing to do, own up to it. Looking at your Mars is helpful in understanding why the first house is empty.

If you have an empty 7th house you can still find a life partner. Many people in satisfying long lasting relationships have an empty 7th house. Likewise, people going through painful divorces or breakups often have placements in the 7th house.

When a house is empty, it just means you came in not initially investing in major life lessons in that house. With an empty 7th house, you may have a life partner, but your purpose and karmic contract do not require one.

Many people in satisfying long lasting relationships have an empty 7th house, and people going through painful divorces or breakups often have placements in the 7th house. People with an empty 9th still travel. Everyone has empty houses. Empty houses do not mean an empty life.

Understanding your whole chart, includes your empty houses. One of the beauties of an equal house chart is that all areas are fully represented. Empty houses do not equate to an emptiness in your life. We all have them.

If you are newer to astrology, the big take away from this post is to not worry about them. Having an empty 7th house doesn’t mean you can’t have a partner, an empty 9th doesn’t mean you won’t go to college or travel. Don’t sweat the empties.

As your chart progresses, empty houses get stimulated, so you will have lessons and experiences focused on that house. Where someone’s sun lands in your chart shows the area in your life where they can significantly impact your growth, so that’s another way that houses gets energized for you. Transits also can stimulate an empty house.

If you are farther along with astrology, I’m encouraging you to look at the empty houses as part of the stories in your chart. Looking at why a house is empty gives meaning and nuance to the rest of the chart. It’s too much to dig into a post, but here are a few tips.

Look at the natural sign and ruler of that house in your chart, as well as the planet that rules the sign you do have there for insight.

For example, if you have an empty first house, look at Mars in your chart as well as any Aries placements you might have. Also look at the planet ruling your rising sign, since it is the first house cusp. If you have an empty 11th house, look at Uranus, any Aquarius placements and whatever planet rules the sign on your 11th house for insight into why you left it empty.

You will often have placements in the sign that naturally rules that house, so an empty 1st with Aries placements or an empty 11th with Aquarius placements. The house could be empty, because you felt you were leaning on enough old history coming in that you didn’t need to focus your attention there this time. If you don’t have placements in this case in Aries or Aquarius, then look to the planets.

planets

What did you agree to do?

Lisa

Saturn is our karmic contract. It’s what we agreed to do in exchange for the opportunity to live this life. Saturn is time and space. It is our human experience, how we define ourselves in this time and space. Saturn rules boundaries, limits, structure, and our mastery of our earthly existence. Saturn also shows our father in the birth chart.

Saturn pic from NASA

Your karmic history with Saturn shows how you derive security and stability so that you can build the life you want. Look at Saturn in your chart for insight into where you came in needing to learn about boundaries and what makes you feel safe.

Saturn in the first house often feels they had to grow up fast by being given inappropriate levels of responsibility. They often feel they can only rely on themselves and are invested in having people see them as responsible. They have lessons around setting limits, learning to delegate.

Saturn in the second is often about self-reliance, self-worth, boundaries for self-care. It can be about understanding what is enough, what defines your true needs, experiencing security by having enough, understanding your responsibility about meeting your needs and where your responsibility to the needs of others begins and ends.

Saturn in the third house includes reliable communication, the effects your words have on others, when and how you have a responsibility to communicate, to use your voice responsibly.

Saturn in the fourth often includes learning to create a supportive family or family like support system, healthy limits with family, family commitments, protecting the environment and creating a home that feels safe.

Saturn in the fifth is about creativity, play, children, fun, romance, risks. Saturn here is often about balancing responsibility and healthy limits while giving yourself the security you need to take risks. This includes owning up to responsibility in a way that gives you choice and freedom versus creating obligations you come to resent.

Saturn in the 6th usually includes lessons around how to be of service without feeling subservient i.e., how to come from a place grounded in abundant self care versus guilt or obligation. Service can include both healing and service of others as well as helping others see the need for healthy boundaries.

Saturn shows what you agreed to do in this life. This includes lessons and tasks about bringing order, healthy limits, exploring security, responsibility and timing to the area of life (house) where Saturn is placed in your natal chart.

Saturn in the 7th house includes lessons around boundaries in personal relationships, being connected but not enmeshed, timing, limits, what feels safe, supported versus obligated.

Saturn in the 8th has lessons with learning to be vulnerable, and how to set healthy limits in intimate relationships. Your task may be to help others learn to do this as well, or help others deal with loss or to see how they can shift from feeling like a victim.

Saturn in the 9th is about spiritual growth, travel, higher education, religion, philosophy, and social justice. Saturn here often involves a need to expand your mind and explore the limits of righteousness. At some point you’ll need to ask yourself if you’d rather be right or experience joy, be right or live in peace.

With Saturn in the 10th house you may find yourself seeking a calling, feeling a need to understand your role and your unique contribution to the world. While you do need to demonstrate that you are responsible, you are also learning about the limits of perfectionism.

Saturn in 11th usually has some need to get behind causes and experience connection. They may help bring order to group activity and may tend to spread themselves too thin, and need to learn they limits about how much of themselves they can invest at any given time.

Saturn in the 12th is about the strength of compassion while learning the limitations of rescuing others. Lessons around feeling grounded in this earthly existence and fully embracing it while also being connected to life beyond this one.

signs

Sidereal, Tropical, Age of Aquarius, what does it all mean?

Lisa
Quasar pic from NASA

Sidereal, Tropical, Age of Aquarius, what does it all mean?

Fun fact: An astrological age is 2160 years, the moon’s diameter is 2160 miles and ages result from the wobble created by the gravitational forces between the sun and moon.

The ages mark the difference between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs. We were in the age of Aries thousands of years ago when astrology emerged into our consciousness and use. It was the most recent time the tropical and sidereal were aligned.

Here’s a run down of what tropical, sidereal, and age mean in astrology.

Tropical Zodiac

In the northern hemisphere the spring equinox marks the first day of spring and the sun’s entrance into Aries. Having this equinox define when the sun enters Aries is the basis for the tropical zodiac.

The tropical zodiac is independent of small changes to the orientation of the earth’s axis caused by gravitational forces between the sun and moon, because each year the vernal equinox equates to zero degrees of Aries.

Sidereal Zodiac

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.

Those of us using a tropical zodiac continue to use the sky map that created the foundation of astrology. The vernal equinox was in Aries when astrology emerged and we continue to assign Aries to the vernal equinox each year.

Those using sidereal are using the current orientation of the earth’s axis so the whole zodiac shifts over time. We call this shift the precession of the equinoxes, as the vernal equinox makes it’s way through the zodiac.

It takes 26,000 years for the equinoxes to move through the zodiac. Divide by 12 and you get 2160 years per sign. A sign equals an age. Each age lasts 2160 years.

Every 26,000 years the tropical and sidereal are aligned (they match).

Astrology Age

We were in the age of Aries when astrology emerged, because the vernal equinox was in Aries. The precession of the equinoxes goes in reverse order of the zodiac, so we went from Aries to Pisces. Next is Aquarius.

There is some debate among astrologers regarding the reference points to use to determine our current age. There is consensus though that we are either in the end of the age of Pieces or just entering the age of Aquarius.

The name tropical zodiac comes from Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.

The tilt of the earth’s axis give us two latitudes, a most northern and most southern, where the earth is directly above the equator. They are called Tropic of Cancer (most northern) and Tropic of Capricorn (most southern).

The seasons on Earth change because the planet is tilted on its axis as it travels around the Sun. This means different points on Earth receive more or less sunlight at different times of year. If the Earth were not tilted, the Sun would always appear to be directly above the Equator, so the amount of daylight at any given place on earth would stay the same and we would not have seasons.

Because we have this tilt, we have seasons and they are marked by equinoxes and solstices.

The equinoxes happen in March and September. These are the days when the Sun is exactly above the Equator, so day and night are the same length. With the solstices, the daylight varies, so they give us the longest and shortest days of the year.

Those two solstices happen in June and December. These are the days when the Sun’s path in the sky is the farthest north or south from the Equator. In the Northern Hemisphere the June solstice is the start of summer, because the North Pole is tilted closest to the Sun and the December solstice is the start of winter because the South Pole is the one tilted towards the sun. That’s why winter and summer are reversed between the US and Australia.

houses

Use Equal House

Lisa

I use equal house, not placidus or whole sign. I strongly encourage you to use it too. It is integral to the system of astrology I use, and I believe you’ll find it’s more accurate.

Why I call whole sign whole fuckup …

In the early 1980s some folks decided that whole sign was the original house system and came up with the name. In the 1990s, Robert Hand started writing about it, though he acknowledged that it was originally not a house system per se, rather a layout of the zodiac.

In ancient times, the early astrologers looked at the planets in relationship to the zodiac, and created a map starting with the rising sign. This soon evolved into equal house, where the ascendant’s degrees and minutes set the wheel of the chart.

When the “whole sign” system emerged in the 80s and 90s, it offered a simplified way to cast a chart that addressed issues with the placidus method. Placidus causes houses to be disproportionately sized and some signs get intercepted (swallowed up). Placidus doesn’t work well at extreme latitudes.

Whole Sign eventually became trendy, because it’s easy and gives you houses that are equal and all signs are fully represented. You start with the rising sign at zero degrees and use zero degrees for every house cusp.

The problem – it messes with your placements. If your ascendant is in the first few degrees of your rising sign, it may not change any house placements. For the vast majority though, it changes something, often several things, AND you miss the significance of having a planet placed in a house ruled by another sign.

One of the drivers for me to write my book is to offer you a documented, cohesive astrology system that works. My readings are accurate and compelling because of the system I use. I’m not psychic. Everything I share with clients is in the chart.

With equal house, the ascendant degrees and minutes set the cusp for each house. All signs are fully present, every house is equal.

Also, in the system I use, the timing, geography and details of other lives shown in the chart require equal house.

Moon Phases

Supermoon Eclipse May 2022

Lisa

So excited about a special cool weirdness this year 💫🌕✨

First a few quick facts about the upcoming trifecta on Sunday night, 15 May 2022 (around 11:30pm ET)

  • Full moon
  • Supermoon
  • Lunar eclipse

The upcoming full moon is also a lunar eclipse and will occur close to the moon’s perigee, making it a supermoon.

Perigee is the point when the moon is closest to the earth, so the moon appears about 7% bigger than average.

There are actually TWO total lunar eclipses this year. That’s unusual. The next is in early November with a Scorpio sun and Taurus moon.

The really extra weird fascinating thing is that both eclipses will last 84 minutes. Their total duration differes only by 4 seconds.

This is the most balanced pair of lunar eclipses in 430 years.

signs

Venus rules Taurus and Libra

Lisa

Our current transits today include sun in Taurus and moon in Libra. Feels like a good day to discuss how both are ruled by Venus, the energy of love, beauty and values. Big difference:

Taurus is an earth sign. Libra is an air sign.

Taurus is more about what’s tangible, about endurance, about sensual pleasures.

Libra is more about harmonic connection, aesthetics, relationships with people.

A Libra type artist is more likely to have an idea and then express it artistically. The idea often precedes the picture, song, etc.

A Taurus type artist is more likely to immerse themselves in the media, e.g., pottery clay, paints, etc., and then have the material inspire them to create.

Do you see how the more you understand the planetary rulers and elements, the signs become clearer?

houses

8th house is your kitty belly

Lisa

One of the signs cats trust you is they show you their belly, even more so if they let you touch or rub their belly. This spot is a point of vulnerability for them. Their vital organs are there.

Your 8th house is your kitty belly. It’s your zone of vulnerability, intimacy, victimization, death and transformation. It’s where you keep your secrets, parts of you that you protect.

Where the 2nd house is your resources, and experiencing yourself as a resource, the 8th house is the sharing of resources and the way you give yourself to others.

Planets in any house show where you came in investing your energy, including lessons and experiences you believe will move you forward.

karma

Karma

Lisa

What does karma mean to you? Do you sense karmic patterns playing out in your life? Do you believe you reap what you sow, what goes around comes around?

Here’s what I believe …

When I read karma in a chart, I don’t see punishment, I see recognition. I believe there is a connection between what we believe and what shows up in our lives, because what we believe becomes real and we gravitate towards what we recognize and expect.

It’s not about deserving pain, it’s not about being punished. The universe is based on love and has no investment in hurting you.

I believe it’s about having your beliefs played out only this time you are on the other side. You believed it was okay to lie to people and then find yourself being lied to, you believed it was okay to bully others and then find yourself the one being hurt. You’re seeing reflected back the truth that you believed.

As you heal your pain and deeply understand you do NOT deserve to be hurt, abused, disrespected etc., you heal not only your wounds, you also heal your beliefs. You create a new cycle of cause and effect, where your truth is based on loving action and so that is what you regularly expect and bring into being.

If you’ve been hurt, if you grew up in an abusive home, if you’ve had your heart broken by someone that wronged you …

I believe the value in seeing your part is not based on shaming you for the evil actions in another life or earlier in this one, it’s about seeing your value and expanding your beliefs around self love and how life can be better.

The more you deeply understand your worth, the more you become available only for healthy experiences, and the less pull you feel towards that which does not improve your life or align with your highest good.

metaphysics

Soul Connections

Lisa

If you believe in reincarnation, you’ve likely been curious about karmic connections you’ve felt with others, wondering if you were lovers, friends, enemies, family etc. in other lives.

Did you know that karmic relationships are often not about how and when you knew someone in another life? They can also be about connecting with someone that came in with a lesson like one of yours, so there’s a shared intention between souls to learn or heal together.

I often hear people talk about relationships as if their value depends on having known someone before. What if your soul nudged you to this person not because you already knew them, but because you needed to meet them?

What if this is the first time your souls have met on earth and it is this very life that ignites an eternal connection? What if falling in love now leads to more lives together?

Having a karmic history with someone doesn’t automatically translate into a healthy, loving relationship. Lots of people that have hurt you in this life, hurt you in other lives. Having known someone before isn’t always a fun thing.

Understanding karmic connections can offer insight into a current relationship, but regardless of your history with someone, what matters most is what you do together in this time and space.

Soul connections are not bound by earthly experiences. Cosmic love has no limits and doesn’t depend on shared earthly experience. We all come from the same source. These lives are only a part of our collective journey.

aspects

Moon square Venus

Lisa

In karmic astrology, your natal chart is read as a painting of your past lives. The beliefs, talents, struggles, goals … all that you bring into this life is connected to experiences in other lives.

Squares to the moon in a natal chart are often challenging, because they show past life conflicts with family, feeling cared for and even survival. Squares create a forced awareness and there’s almost a competition between the two energies.

Moon square Venus is an especially challenging aspect to deal with in relationships. Please know that people with this can have loving, lasting relationships. I’ve seen it. Don’t despair if you have this, or any other thing in your chart that someone has told you is bad.

When someone tells you something in your chart is hopeless, they have shown you that their understanding of astrology and experience reading charts is limited.

Why does this Venus/Moon square show up? There’s karmic history where your values and emotional needs were at odds with each other. This could have played out in many ways. For example, marrying for money or someone your family forced on you.

The moon is also food and survival, so your karmic past could include doing things to survive that went against your values. Sometimes people with this aspect think they are horrible people, when they haven’t done anything really terrible in this life.

If you have this, you may struggle with feeling fulfilled in life and even wonder what it feels like to be truly satisfied. The more you can own your values, act with integrity and open yourself up emotionally (even when it’s hard) the more you will become aware of what this aspect is teaching you and learn how the energies can work together.

The square doesn’t doom you, it’s a window into some wounds that need healing so that you can joyfully live your life.