Tag: signs

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?

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?

astrology basics, signs

Aries (spring) is coming!!

Lisa

Spring is on the way! This year the vernal equinox happens on 20 March 2022 at 11:33am ET and with it the tropical zodiac resets to zero degrees Aries.

I LOVE Aries energy 💜♈️

Yes, I love all the zodiac signs 🙄 each is special and amazing. Spoiler alert: you have all of them in your chart. 🤔😍🥰

I also have Venus in Aries 🙈☺️ so that makes Aries my go to style for love. ❤️🔥

The signs show our karmic history. The sign of Venus in your chart gives insight into your past life experiences around love, values, and worth. 💗

Aries is the most spontaneous sign in the zodiac and it’s about new beginnings. It’s the moment fire ignites. Aries in your chart shows your innocence, passion for what’s new, willingness to start fresh, when and what you tend to learn experientially.

Aries is ruled by Mars ♂️so Aries is fueled by action. Wherever Mars is in your chart is an area that energizes you and where Aries is in your chart shows you where you can thrive using a style of inspired action.

While there may be 🙏 an end to changing our clocks, I always remember the spring forward of skipping ahead as such an Aries moment. 😂

Try something new next week. Give someone a chance, regardless of what you heard about them. Make a snap decision. Jump in your car and drive somewhere. Be humble and learn as if you are a novice. Freshen up something in your life.

Enjoy! ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️

Still on a break from readings and regular posting … popping in so WP doesn’t completely forget I exist 😂🙄

planets

Planets in Signs versus Houses

Lisa

I just replied to someone in a discussion group. The question was how to use the interpretations for planets when they are written in the format of Saturn in Sagittarius and the 9th house, Saturn in Aquarius and the 11th house, etc. After I posted I thought, blog post! So here it is …

When you are first learning astrology, it can be frustrating when everything seems so generalized. That’s because you are learning so many basics. It’s like learning a lot of vocabulary when you are studying a foreign language. You need to learn the vocabulary, but the individual words aren’t as meaningful as the phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc.

Each house has a natural ruler. Starting with Aries on the first and going around the 12 houses with the 12 signs. Houses are areas of life experiences, and the natural ruler is sort of the most natural style for that house.

I’m not a huge fan of descriptions that are written as having a plant in Sag or in the 9th house and discussing them as if they are the same. They aren’t, though there are some basic similarities. Let’s look at your example of Saturn in Sagittarius and in the 11th house.

As background, I do karmic astrology, so the natal chart is seen as a painting of your past life beliefs and experiences.

Saturn is time and space. It’s how we define ourselves as human. It’s our energy that deals with limits, rules, structure, and our humanity. The sign of Saturn shows you how you come into this life expressing this energy. It reflects your old history. The house of Saturn shows your current life focus. It shows the area of life that you are specifically intending to develop this energy.

Saturn in Sagittarius is going to be someone that really wants to explore their limitations and in fact blow them up a bit. These are folks that need structure that can accommodate their need for change and action. They feel a kind of security in exploration. There’s also a bit of righteousness when it comes to rules and usually Saturn in Sag wants some kind of organized religion or religious community.

That kind of energy in the 11th house is going to be someone that is going to do what I just described in group, communities, causes, politics, social structures, friendships, co-operatives etc. I would guess that in your life you will be drawn to both the safety of a group, as well as a desire to explore the limits of groups. You can get energized working for causes and would be good at grass roots organizing.

Contrast this with someone that has Saturn in Sag but in the 4th house. This person feels safe at home. Their need to test their limits is more involved with family and how their home life fits with the entirety of their life.

Sign – style of expression.
House – area of life experience.

When you read the sign description, think style, how you express the energy. When you read the house description, think about the area of life this speaks to most.

Does that help?

signs

Elements + Qualities = Signs

Lisa

The signs are styles of expression. Everyone has all 12 signs in their chart, because your natal chart has 12 houses and each of the signs rules one of the houses in your chart.

The 12 zodiac signs are derived from the elements and qualities in Astrology. The four elements are fire, earth, air and water. All the signs of an element have some core energy in common:

Fire – action, energy, vitality
Earth – resources, sensuality, reliability
Air – ideas, communication, people oriented
Water – emotion, intuition, passion

There are three qualities in Astrology and all signs of the same quality also have some energy in common:

Cardinal – initiating, drive, ambition
Fixed – focused, tenacious, definite
Mutable – versatile, restless, seeks change

When you combine these two you get twelve combinations:

Screen Shot 2018-06-18 at 8.30.44 AM

Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius are all fire signs. They all have that fire energy in common. They differ though, because they each have a different quality. Aries is the most assertive of the three fire signs and has a sense of urgency and immediacy to it. Leo is more ambitions and driven. Sagittarius is the gypsy, seeking experiences.

Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo are the earth signs. Capricorn energy seeks accomplishment. Taurus desires comfort and doesn’t like waste. Virgo seeks to make things real and tangible.

Libra, Aquarius and Gemini are air. Libra energy leads people with ideas. Aquarius energy dives deeply into ideas to discover new ones. Gemini energy seeks to know something about everything.

Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces are water. Cancer energy controls through nurturing. Scorpio energy is consuming passion. Pisces energy blends with everything to create empathy.

People often have one element and quality that dominate their chart. So even if you have the Sun in Aries, if you have a lot of earth and mutable energy in your chart, your chart would have a Virgo feel to it, since Virgo is earth and mutable.

Even without seeing your chart, try to guess what element and quality you relate most to and then look at the sign that makes and see if you can feel that energy in you. It may not be your sun sign.

Now take a look at your chart and note how many pieces are in each element and quality. The sign that you come up with is called your signature and it is yet another layer to consider when you look at your chart.

signs

The Twelve Signs

Lisa

In previous blogs I have discussed the four elements and three qualities. I explained that each of the cardinal signs seek to assert themselves. In some way they are all driven and ambitious. The fixed signs are all focused and tenacious and have a definitive quality about them. The mutable signs are versatile, restless and seek change. Let’s take a look at the moon in the elements and see how these elements combine with the three qualities to give us the twelve signs.

 

Fire Moons

Fire is active and initiating energy. It seeks to create experience and take action. All of the fire moons feel nurtured through experience and action. Aries (Fire & Cardinal) seeks to experience life first hand and learn by doing. Aries energy needs to feel directly involved with the experience. Leo (Fire & Fixed) is more focused and wants the experience to have meaning. These moons need to be feel valued and feel admired and to serve the greater good. Sagittarius (Fire & Mutable) is restless and desires change. These moons feel nurtured through change that leads to growth and expansion. Sagittarian moons are progressive and seek spiritual fulfillment.

 

Earth Moons

Earth is stabilizing concrete energy, and naturally tends to create form and solidify human experience. Taurus (Earth & Fixed) is focused and tenacious so these moons need physical pleasure and do best when they are comfortable. Virgo (Earth & Mutable) combines the versatility of the mutable signs with the earth element, resulting in a moon that needs to feel a sense of service. There’s a need to keep changing the physical, so just when everything is settled, these moons want to move again and disrupt the order in life somehow. Capricorn (Earth & Cardinal) really needs structure and flourishes when their home base is solid. They are driven to create something that has lasting value.

 

Air Moons

Air is changeable kinetic energy, and expands to create discovery and innovation. Gemini (Air & Mutable) moons need variety and so they are in perpetual motion. They are emotional chameleons seeking changing circumstances. Libra (Air & Cardinal) combines the intellectual quality of air and the assertiveness of cardinal to create a thoughtful desire for life to be fair. Libra seeks balance. Aquarius (Air & Fixed) is intensified innovative energy resulting in a need for the unexpected, and an ability to relate to those in all walks of life.

 

Water Moons

Water is steadily flowing energy that moves to shape and deepen any experience. Cancer (Water & Cardinal) is strong, assertive emotion. Cancer needs emotional security and likes to be in control. Scorpio (Water & Fixed) is intense emotion and almost thrives on crisis. Scorpio moons have much to learn and teach regarding choice. Pisces (Water & Mutable) is fluid emotion. They are are gentle dreamers with great capacity for empathy and compassion. They tend to blur the lines between illusion and reality and kind find themselves often in the role of rescuer or feeling that they are in need of rescue.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of how the elements and qualities create the twelve astrological signs.

Copyright © 2009, Lisa Wagner

signs

The Qualities

Lisa

In the last blog entry I began an exploration of how Astrology derives the twelve Astrological signs by looking at the four elements, fire, earth, air and water. In this post, we will take a look at the three qualities (also referred to as modalities) and learn how these elements and qualities combine to define the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

The nature of the element drives the kind of energy that is most naturally expressed by the sign, and the quality describes how that energy is most likely to operate. The three qualities are cardinal, fixed, mutable. The cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn each seek to assert themselves. In some way they are all driven and ambitious. The fixed signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, are all focused and tenacious and have a definitive quality about them. The mutable signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces, are versatile, restless and seek change.

Let’s look at Mercury in the elements, and notice how the quality of a sign differentiates it from the others in the same element.

The Fire signs, Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are all somewhat action-oriented. The Aries Mercury (fire & cardinal) seeks to initiate the conversation and to speak impulsively. The Leo Mercury (fire & fixed) seeks to continue the conversation by concentrating on a specific aspect, and speaks persuasively. The Sagittarius Mercury (fire & mutable) seeks to go from conversation to conversation and will speak with great versatility.

The Earth signs, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn all seek to connect thought with form. The Taurus Mercury (Earth & fixed) tends to do so deliberately and indicates a very practical mind. The Virgo Mercury (Earth & Mutable) systematically examines everything, and indicates a more analytical mind. The Capricorn Mercury (Earth & Cardinal) tends to be more pragmatic, and indicates a methodical mind that focuses on what is useful.

The Air signs, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius all seek to develop and exchange ideas. The Gemini Mercury (Air & Mutable) is quick and enjoys exchanging information with others on a variety of subjects. The Libra Mercury (Air & Cardinal) is more mentally organized and seeks to compare thoughts with others. The Aquarius Mercury (Air & Fixed) delves deeply in to thoughts and ideas and then shares what is learned.

The Water signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces all need to feel emotionally connected to what they think and have very intuitive minds. The Cancer Mercury (Water & Cardinal) easily expresses and engenders sympathy. The Scorpio Mercury (Water & Fixed) is capable of intense concentration and penetrates beneath the surface of an idea. The Pisces Mercury (Water & Mutable) intuitively soaks up information and relies on instinct over reason.

To really understand Mercury in a chart, the full depth of its sign is considered, as well as its house placement, degree and aspects. Though it is difficult to separate any one piece out of the wholeness of the chart, much less define it in a sentence or two, hopefully this brief look at Mercury has provided you with some insight in to the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

Copyright © 2009, Lisa Wagner