Tag: aspect

aspects

How do you pronounce quincunx?

Lisa

Quincunx is such a funny word to me. In Astrology, it’s an aspect formed when pieces are at a 150 degree angle with one another. I use an orb of 3 degrees, so that’s an angle of 147-153 degrees. Inconjunct is also used for this and means the same thing. I consistently use quincunx though, partly because it just sounds odd and also because (for me) the unusualness of the word conveys some of the unusualness of the aspect itself. 

In karmic astrology, a quincunx is referred to as the karmic neutralizer. Experiences in other life times have caused the person to learn to shut down parts of themselves. The pieces tend to neutralize each other, so that when one of them is receiving focus, the other tends to shut down. 

Let’s look at moon quincunx mars. The moon is emotions, nurturance, food, family and mars is physicality, sexuality, ambitions, drive. People with this aspect are likely to struggle with balancing getting emotional needs met and pursuing ambitions. It can be hard to develop a sexual relationship that is nurturing and emotionally rewarding. They often eat in ways that are not healthy for their bodies. When one of these energies is getting their attention, the other energy is shut down and it’s hard to integrate the two. 

All is not lost with a quincunx. When one shows up in a natal chart, think of it as a flashing red light. There are many life lessons connected to it, and understanding it will lead to huge growth. It’s almost like a call for help, trying to grab your attention. The signs and houses can be very insightful in helping you to understand both your karmic history getting you to this point (signs) and the current life focus (houses) that needs your attention. 

I don’t believe your natal chart determines the life you will live. It’s a painting of your karmic past and reveals the bags you packed when you came into this life. Those bags contain experiences and beliefs that show up as talents, challenges and lessons. If you have a quincunx, get honest with yourself about it and face what it’s telling you. Even if you do see that you are shutting down, denying or compartmentalizing parts of your life you can grow and change. 

However you have come to view your life, you can learn to see it differently. 

Copyright © 2017, Lisa Wagner

planets

Moon & Venus in Aspect

Lisa

Let’s talk about the moon and venus in aspect.

The moon represents our emotional energy. It’s our temperament. It’s how we relate to our environment, how we process feelings, what feels like home, what nurtures us and how we nurture others.  It shows us our beliefs about women coming into this life and gives us insight into our view of not only our own mothers, but also what mothers and mothering is all about.  The moon is our base of feminine energy, and also rules our memories and  how we attach feelings to anything.

Venus is how we give and receive love.  It’s what we value and how we relate to what we value. It’s our self-esteem, it’s what we feel we have to offer the world.  It’s our appreciation of art and our ability to see something as beautiful.

We all have both of these energies and we all have ways in which they relate.  What aspects show us is how these energies are particularly impacted by each other.  Think of dominos.  If the dominos are far enough apart, touching one does nothing to the other. However, if they are close enough together, then touching one can make it fall, and knock over the other.  Aspects show how energies interact with each other within us and give us insight into how we relate to and process these energies.

For people that do not have moon and Venus in an aspect to each other, there really isn’t any specific interaction or confusion regarding them.  These folks will still have their strengths and struggles etc., and much can be learned by their placement in the chart.  It just means that these folks process these two energies without each other. So using the short descriptions above, it means that can distinguish more clearly between how they feel about something and how they value it, between their emotions and self-esteem, between what feeds them emotionally and what they choose to be paid to do etc. versus someone with them in aspect to one another.

People that have these two energies forming a major aspect have strong interaction between the energies.  This interaction is influenced by the sign, degree, house placement and rest of the chart, but part of learning astrology is about understanding individual pieces, so lets take a closer look at each major moon/venus aspect.

If they are conjunct, they see them as the same.  They don’t distinguish between the two.  They need their environment to look pleasing to feel at home, they need emotional fulfillment via work they are paid to do, they assign value to feelings.  This means they can elevate them as well as sometimes judging them harshly and devaluing them.  They value nurturing and take care of those they love.  The energies work in a unified way.

If they are square, they see them in competition.  They can struggle with believing they can get their emotional needs met by someone they love.  They may have a hard time living with someone they love.  They may struggle to process their feelings or believe that people won’t love them if they know who what their moods are really like.  The energies force awareness of how the person has developed a karmic history that includes lives wherein their emotional needs conflicted with their values or the cultural values.

If they are trine, they experience a flow between them.  Emotions easily bring an awareness of what matters to them.  Getting their priorities straight, helps them to see how they feel about something.  They are emotionally available to people they love. The two energies naturally support each other.  There can be a tendency to slide too easily into taking care of people, so they need to remember to take care of themselves too.

If they are quincunx, the two form a neutralizing aspect to one another.  This means that  the person has a hard time accessing both at the same time. One tends to shut down when the other is very activated.  This means people with this aspect can have a hard time knowing how they feel about people or situations that matter a great deal to them.  They may have a tendency to be in relationships with people where they don’t feel safe to express their feelings. They may struggle to feel good about where they live.  It can be difficult to believe their feelings are valued or that anything they do is worth being paid to do.  They may have felt that their mother did not love them.  It’s difficult to fully access and express their moon and Venus at the same time. One energy tends to shut down the other.

If they are in opposition, it’s hard to know how to get from one to the other.  It’s like when you are driving down the road and you can see where you need to go, but you can’t figure out what exit to take to get over there.  There is an awareness of both energies, they are both active, but it’s hard to know how to make them work together.  This can tend to feel very frustrating, as if so much in life just never works out or fits together.  It can be a struggle to know how to nurture what matters and manifest it so that it is a part of life.  It’s as if the person feels they often come up short of getting what they want.

So if you have one of these aspects, does that mean you are doomed?  Not at all. It just means you have some challenges. It means you need to get honest with yourself about the stories you tell yourself. Get honest about what you really believe and be willing to admit when perhaps your beliefs are worth reconsidering. It means you need to face your fears and start to walk through them.  Everyone is lovable. Everyone has feelings. Everyone has value.  Everyone can find a place where they can feel at home, people that can nurture them, environments where they can thrive.  These comments are not meant to justify love lost or an unsatisfying life.  They are a wake-up that you have some work to do to honor both of these energies and integrate them together in your life.  It’s one of your reasons for being here and doing so will be well worth it.

Note:  In a conjunction, the two objects are within 7 degrees of each other. Square is 90 degrees +/- 7 degrees.  Trine is 120 degrees, +/- 7, quincunx is 150 degrees +/- 3 and opposition is 180 degrees +/- 7 degrees.

© 2016 Lisa Wagner. All Rights Reserved.

aspects

Moon Opposite Venus

Lisa

I recently wrote some comments on a message board to someone trying to figure out the significance of Moon opposite Venus in her natal chart. Here are essentially the comments I shared.

When two pieces oppose each other in your chart, then you struggle with how to experience both energies at the same time. It’s like when you are driving down the highway and you can see the place you need to go, but you can’t figure out how to get off the highway and get over there to it. When you are focused on one energy, it’s hard to know how to get to the other one.

The Moon represents our emotional energy and Venus is our value system and ability to give an receive love. With the Moon and Venus in opposition in your natal chart, you come into this life with some karmic history of not understanding how to experience both nurturing and love at the same time. You can struggle with knowing how to be connected to family and honor your own values, how to value yourself versus deriving your value from your role within a family or your environment, having to abandon what matters to you in order to care for someone else. This aspect can also show past lives of both abandoning those you love and being abandoned by those you love. Being disowned by family because of someone you loved, as well as being the one that did the disowning.

The Moon opposite Venus can bring difficult lessons like learning to nurture others while honoring what is important to you, loving people that do not nurture and support you, struggling with what commitment really means and experiencing the line between healthy commitment and unhealthy attempts to control, feeling that your environment is at odds with what matters most to you.

It’s likely that you have some core beliefs about love and nurturing that oppose each other and create limitations that impact your ability to create a life where these two are not at odds. Any work you can do to understand these core beliefs can be a big step in letting them go and building new beliefs.

astrology basics

Astrology Terminology 101

Lisa

Lets go over some basic Astrology terminology. Most of you probably already know that there are twelve signs, and you can review my previous entry to see how they are derived. In Karmic Astrology, the signs are styles of expression and provide insight into your karmic history.

The houses are areas of life experience and show focus for this lifetime. Karmic Astrology uses an equal house system, so once you know the ascendant, you can easily define the houses – each of them have exactly 30 degrees. If you were born with 20 degrees and 12 minutes of Pisces rising, then your first house begins there and each subsequent house is another 30 degrees. The second house would begin at 20 degrees and 12 minutes of Aries, the third at 20 degrees and 12 minutes of Taurus, etc.

The planets are energies and the aspects between them in a chart show show how they relate and integrate. An orb is how much that angle can vary and still be considered a viable aspect. Two pieces are conjunct if they are within 7 degrees of each other. They form a square when they are at a 90 degree angle, plus or minus 7 degrees. They form a trine when they are at a 120 degree angle, plus or minus 7 degrees, and they are in opposition when they are 180 degrees apart, plus or minus 7 degrees. The sextile and quincunx are 60 degree and 150 degree angles respectively, plus or minus 3 degrees. These two aspects have a tighter orb.

The midheaven is the soul energy and is the immutable core that is YOU lifetime after lifetime. It is the point that is directly overhead at your birth, and is the cusp of the tenth house in a placidus chart. In an equal house chart it is noted as a point in the chart and is usually in the ninth or tenth house, though it can fall outside of that for people born at extreme latitudes.

The lunar nodes are points where the moon crosses the ecliptic. The south node is a summation of all of your past lives and shows karmic patterns that particularly matter with respect to this life, and your north node shows the goal of this life. It is exactly opposite the south node, because new growth can only come from doing something completely different than what you have been doing over and over again.

The degrees and minutes more fully define everything. Sometimes people talk about being born “on the cusp.” All this means is that they were born on a day when the sun changed signs. It doesn’t mean that they are a hybrid of the two signs. Each piece in the chart is in one sign or another. Not only are the signs distinct and different, but having the sun at 0 degrees of one sign is very different than 29 degrees of the preceding sign. The numbers have meanings in and of themselves, and they help to paint a complete picture of the chart.

Do you have an Astrology topic of interest? You can write to me at Lisa@karmicastrology.com and let me know what topics you’d like to see covered in this blog.

Copyright © 2009, Lisa Wagner