Some astrologers traditionally understand the two signs of Scorpio and Sagittarius as distinct and separate, and this makes sense if you consider that there are two different constellations in the night-sky after which they are named. However, in between Scorpio and Sagittarius lies the mysterious constellation of Ophiuchus, considered by alternative astrological thinkers to be the secret 13th zodiac sign. In this article, I’d like to propose that rather than seeing Scorpio and Sagittarius energy as bridged by a mysterious 13th sign, I would consider them to be the same energetic imprints of a similar energy; or to put it differently, I see Scorpio and Sagittarius as light/dark progressions of each other. From my experience, they are mirrors or complementary forms of energy, which is outwardly expressed in unique and original ways. This is why some Scorpios behave like bold fire signs, have hot tempers in spite of being water signs, and like to thrive on risk and chance, while some Sagittarians have a dark, Machiavellian way of relating to others, or can sometimes go to fanatic extremes in their love life, work projects or political and religious beliefs. These two distinct signs are potentially two sides of the same mythological beast. In this piece I’ll analyze how Sagittarius energy and Scorpio energies are intertwined and reflect on the the light and dark aspects of the human Ego and the astrological archetypes which govern them.

Sagittarius energy is wild and unencumbered. It is meant to roam freely and not suffer from any limitations. It is almost as if the light of the soul needs to expand and grow after it emerges from the darkness and the depths of Scorpio season, a time during which human energy is trapped underground and often repressed, as we transition from Autumn to Winter. For Sagittarius, or the astrological Centaur, being in state of emotional chaos, sometimes awakens the stability within. The constant need to move and to discover fuels a creative fire that maintains sexual energy, a thirst for adventure and a feeling of being alive and constantly growing. Sagittarians are also highly competitive. For them, winning is the act of managing to overcome whatever challenges appear on their journey of discovering the meaning of life,. Sagittarian energy is not about living without challenges and limitations but it is about keeping the inner fire of the soul intact, undiminished, flickering towards the heaven as each obstacle is surmounted with intelligence, humor and honesty. Losing for them, is spiritually crushing because it waters down their spiritual fire (and to a large extent their belief that they are somewhat invincible, as they feel protected by God). Although, it can helpfully ground the ashes reducing their energy back to the deep waters of Scorpio, much air is needed to start a watered down Sagittarius back up again. In a metaphorical nutshell, Sagittarius energy is elemental 🙂 as it works to connect all of the 4 elements: fire, earth, air and water. But the transition from Scorpio season to Sagittarius season is alchemical, since water and fire magic when brought together are considered to create pure, spiritual gold.

The opposite sign to Sagittarius is Gemini, their Shadow aspect, representing the cool air of intellect. Geminis are ‘mutable storms’ of ideas, that often makes natives born under Mercurian energy, literally sparkle. Gemini is the opposite of Sagittarius, the open-minded yet fickle thinker, a jack-of-all-trades that shifts in the same day from consenting opinion, to dissent, to a range of arguments that they invalidate by dinner time, then awake the next day and perform this role again, for each person that they meet in completely new and refreshing ways. In terms of knowledge production and acquisition, which both astrological sings are naturally talented at, Gemini moves whereas Sagittarius conserves. Sagittarius searches for ‘the Truth’, while Gemini is aware that there are many truths, according to mood and circumstances, or what you might have eaten last night. But there is also a deeply spiritual level, where Gemini is equated with the Lovers and Divine Union, while Sagittarius represents the Holy Warrior, the image of the announcing angel of Temperance or of Archangel Michael who commands the heavenly fleet of angels that sent Lucifer crashing down to Hell.

I digress. Let’s come back to the dual flame idea I am trying to flesh out in this article. Sagittarius comes after Scorpio, at the end of November, and marks the purification of intensity. As they go about experiencing life, Scorpios can produce a lot of energetic ‘filth’ (through revenge, cruelty, and an eye-for-an-eye mindset). However, when the energy shifts and the Sagittarian constellation is illuminated by the Sun, there is an upsurge of light that cleanses the energetic debris acquired in the previous season, and this transitional purification serve to distil or preserve only the best of Scorpionic experiences – true intimacy, depth of intuition, a keen researching spirit, and stealth determination. Symbolically, the secrets that caused pain during Scorpio season appear to the surface in Sagittarius season, are cleansed, illuminated and transformed into wisdom. A judging process takes place (this is why Sagittarians rule morality and acquire many spiritual positions of authority in society). This processual parsing of what is true from what is delusion (and Scorpios just as much as Pisces, suffer often from delusions, since they are highly emotional signs), is necessary in the turning of the zodiac’s astrological wheel, as it brings us from the dark depths of unconscious behaviours (Pluto’s domain, the natural ruler of Scorpio) into the clear light of reason and common-sense (Jupiter’s domain, the natural ruler of Sagittarius).

After this assessment is complete, levity kicks in: and humour can be used in Sagittarius season to learn from a past, painful situation which happened in Scorpio season. Thereby a brighter perspective on life appears, upon which new spiritual foundations can be built, of the kind which proclaim that “I have been through a dark night of the soul and lived to tell the tale, that might heal and inspire others”; it is for this reason that Sagittarius-influenced people make such good teachers. And if you think about the next level, this astrological progression makes sense since after Sagittarius comes the Master Builder, Capricorn, who requires strong foundations to raise its proverbial ‘fortress’ of material achievements.

Nature’s cycle of death-rebirth governs the months of November and December. During this period the earthly ego (obsession, sex and the body) and cosmological transcendence (research, spiritual knowledge, overcoming) are important themes which are activated in our collective unconscious. If you live in the Northern hemisphere, this is when the darkness is at its most heaviest on Earth, as the planet completes its movement of revolution around the Sun; on top of this, December also brings with it the Winter Solstice, a powerful energetic portal. Before there were technological and scientifically developments, this season usually inspired artists and craftsmen to intense representations of the battle between light and dark, and the creation of archdemons and archangels. For example, in the traditional Ryder-Waite tarot deck, the Death card which represents Scorpio energy and the Temperance card which represents Sagittarius energy are excellent depictions of these light and dark themes.

But instead of thinking of these two energies as opposites, I want to challenge this perception and argue that they are merely continuations of each other. Energetic forces of equal intensity, exemplifying the journey and exploration that each of us has to undergo in their lifetimes versus the stillness and concentration required of impending life changes (getting pregnant, giving birth, marrying, divorcing, getting a job, training for a career, moving places, dying and witnessing death, making love, losing love etc.). All these actions transform us, we usually are never the same version of ourselves we used to be before such a significant life-event, if not all of them. These moments include our deepest sense of Self and our Egos coming in contact with higher forces which remain mysterious to the human mind (for example, we still don’t know what exactly happens to the human soul after the body dies, we’ve also yet to precisely uncover where we exactly come from and towards what are we collectively heading)

The Transformed & Spiritual Self

Now, the German spiritual teacher Eckhardt Tolle believes that it’s always wonderful when things go wrong throughout the day. This is because when challenges arise, the triggers push us back into presence, so from our Ego we are sent to experience the presence of our soulfulness, through the things which make us feel uncomfortable. To my mind this is the perfect description of what the Saturn in Capricorn sextile Jupiter in Scorpio transit has been about in this last year (2017). These two energies do not offer obvious, flashy and directly positive gifts, but ones that require effort (the effort of being present) and patient to access your innermost self (Scorpio), to unlock the seat of all power and creativity (where we reach ourselves as parts of the divine) so that you may transform the ego’s manifestation from karma (or past life debt) into dharma (or present gifts), or little morsels of enlightenment. In this process we discover our Sagittarius meaning: that maybe life is being just for the sake of being.

People who thought Jupiter’s transit through Scorpio in 2017 did not deliver anything good (and I include myself among the plaintiffs) where operating from the Ego at the level of form. However, at the level of spirit, tiny wonders were happening: a paradigm shifting emotional release, reassessing our relationship with anger, activating the divine masculine, and divine feminine energy, noticing karma and how we produce it and how it works through us in other people’s lives, as well as integrating the lessons from 2011 until now (as the moment when we collectively started to transform due to the intense planetary activity, supercharged eclipses and multiple retrogrades in an almost-decade long period of Saturnian and Plutonian influences).

Below, is a piece I wrote when Jupiter (the protective energy of the Divine) was in the sign of the heart and inner strength (Leo) and it was transiting my 10th house (the area of the public). It was a transit that inspired me to write content on this website and I am sharing below an excerpt from my personal archive because I think it illustrates well what I mean by the Scorpio-Sagittarius dual flame, and how what deeply connects these two astrological signs to such an extent that they seem twins, is their capacity to passionately feel their existence and to raise to the level of a work of art, thereby inspiring us to do the same. Re-reading my initial post some 3 years later, I noticed while under the mentoring influence of Tolle that the first words I used to begin it are ‘We suffer’. I was at the time deeply immersed in a karmic relationship with a rich and arrogant man. After the relationship dissolved (in a typical Plutonic fashion, completely out of the blue and painfully), that life-event made me realize that inner growth is needed, and I was pushed into a solitary path of precious self-development path. For years now, I’ve been honing my spiritual awakening into something I can manage, and I try to find ways to share with others the insights I am currently gaining an almost High-Priestess-like periods of private seclusion. I too have a strong Scorpio in my 1st house and a Sagittarian stellium in my 2nd house and feel ‘pushed’ daily into an alchemical process of having to understand and work with my passionate inner nature:

• Within the sheltering warmth of everyday spiritual acts, your ego is flexible and malleable and this is how you learn that there is pleasure in feelings which are different than happiness (if, as me, you are exhausted by ‘happiness speeches’ & toxic positivity): the wistfulness of melancholia, the passion of longing, the energy of anger, the frenetic burst of joy, are all experiences meant to be felt and lived out. These feelings are all within you, given as a gift. Accepting them fuels you to create. And creating, whether it is a project, a child, an event, a cake, an object, a relationship, a dream, or a character, is the meaning we seek to commit to in this life. If praying is seen as a dialogue between something powerful and someone powerless who needs help, rather than an antiquated religious custom which loses meaning in the era of information, then it can be regained for our benefit. Even more outrageously, I’m proposing that God or what I prefer to call the ‘cosmo-spiritual connection’ we share with the Universe, might not be sought outside of us, but within – something Rainer Maria Rilke was keenly aware of when he wrote: “Take your practiced powers and stretch them out until they span the chasm between two contradictions…For the god wants to know himself in you.”[1] If courage has been seen to prevail at times even in face of consistent adversity and trust is the building block of many of our relationships, institutions and businesses (albeit not in all, in its purest form), ultimately the final characteristic which we can actively cultivate, because of its preciousness and apparent scarcity at the time in this world, is kindness. Happiness and success are praiseworthy goals but to my mind the most important value in life is kindness. Nothing reaches the soul like kindness. The gentle rule of oxytocin over adrenalin shots, dopamine kicks and serotonin fireworks to the system[4]; the thing that truly makes us smile in the face of adversity and guides our daily acts towards caring. The silent peace-maker in a troubled world. As David W. Orr aptly explains: “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”[5] What I would add here is that we shouldn’t want to put too much thought into our displays of kindness for fear of falling back into an over-thinking cycle. Ideally kindness should be an impulse, and as long as we can offer it spontaneously, it is a gift (both for ourselves and for our recipients). However, engaging with this impulse proves trickier in practice then it is in thought, but it is worth practicing. If only to aim for a kind of spiritual nourishment detached from dogma, that keeps on giving and rarely disappoints. So lean towards kindness whenever you can and remember to start by being kind to yourself before others (just like operating an Oxygen mask in the event of an emergency plan landing). The dual energy of Scorpio (healing) and Sagittarius (belief), remind us of this precious gift.

With universal love,

Lexi ❤

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[1] From “Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke”, translated by Stephen Mitchell, 1995, Modern Library.

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReRcHdeUG9Y.

[5] From “Earth in Mind: on Education, Environment and The Human Prospect”, 2004, Island Press.

The New Moon is the best time of the month for new beginnings. Each month we are given a fresh spiritual reset, an opportunity to set new goals and to see them grow. A new moon usually takes places in the same sign as the solar sign of that month: so let’s say we are in April and we know that April is traditionally the month ruled by the Aries’ solar energy (as many Aries are born under this sign, in the last week of March and first three weeks of April). This means that the new moon we would normally experience in April is a New Moon in Aries. The process is then a creatively potent one, as the month’s Solar energy merges with the growing energy of the Moon and becomes a cosmic dance of fertility. From this lunar & solar monthly ‘coupling’, fresh energy pours into the collective and blesses our personal lives. This cosmic fertilization process ends up influencing our moods, emotions, ideas and creations in our world, here on Earth, because believe it or not we are influenced by what happens in the cosmos, and you can clearly see this with the changing weather we would normally experience here on Earth, around each monthly lunation or during eclipse season: things can go haywire, weather-wise around a Full Moon!

Full Moons work inversely, since they take place when the Sun and the Moon are in opposite signs of the zodiac. So if we have a New Moon in Aries conjunct the Sun in Aries, we would also have a Full Moon in Libra (the opposite zodiac sign on the astrological wheel from Aries) in the same month. For example, we have an upcoming New Moon in Pisces at 15’46” degrees on the 6th of March 2019. This New Moon will conjunct the Sun – the period from the end of February until the middle of March is known as Pisces season because the Sun travels through the constellation of the Fish. Whatever we seed now, whatever intentions we put into place now – either with our mental scoresheet or a practical ‘to do list’ – we can then expect some material manifestations on the 14th of September 2019 when there is the Full Moon in Pisces at 21’04” degrees taking place during the season of Virgo, so the opposite sign to Pisces on the astrological wheel. This means that even if we have a Full Moon in Virgo in the same month as a New Moon in Pisces, the growth of your intentions/spells/desires takes about 6 months’ time as the New Moon in Pisces undergoes a number of lunar cycles until it ripens into the Full Moon in Pisces, in the season of Virgo in September. This is how astrological signs are paired as ‘opposites’ on the zodiac wheel and also according to lunar cycles.

Please don’t worry if you miss the new moon or full moon energy in a given month, since each month we have fresh new-moon and a full-moon points. Nature and the cosmos are giving us plenty of fresh starts and times to reap our rewards. Other times, we also experience eclipses, which are super-charged Full and New Moon points that invite fated events to take place and Divine intervention to work its magic, as our human willpower is momentarily subdued. If you have trouble knowing what to manifest during a given moon cycle or if you struggle with decision-making, then simply allow eclipse season to make the necessary life-changes for you (but mentally prepare for the chaos or ensuing drama as well 🙂

Right before a new moon, a dark moon phase occurs, also known as the ‘balsamic’ moon. This is because the moon seems to disappear completely from the sky, robbing us of its energetic imprint (those moonbeams can be ‘nightly gold’ for our energetic bodies, charging us here on Earth like tiny batteries, much like the Sun does each day). Around a balsamic moon, we usually tend to feel very sleepy (especially if you are an empath, introvert or light-worker) and we can experience a decrease in energy and vitality. This is normal and should be respected as part of the cycle of energy, since it is generally harder to be active during a low-energy period. But we need the rest and you should plan ahead and figure out that it will take longer to get out of bed the two days when the light of the Moon replenishes itself. Following this phase, we fully enter the New Moon energy. So new moons are moments when we might feel like a great brown bear waking up from its winter slumber: groggy, moody and in need of copious amounts of caffeine (I know I do at least), especially with the new moons which occur during the Winter months. This is why you shouldn’t’ schedule strenuous activities around such a time but plan to indulge in them as the Moon is Waxing or close to Full (of course, if your life permits the luxury of planning).

This week’s New Moon is extra special since we have the planet of unpredictability, Uranus changing signs from Aries (rules by Ares/Mars, the God of War) to Taurus (the celestial bull, symbol of abundance and fertility and ruled by beautiful Venus/Aphrodite). Not only that, but we have Mercury beginning its first retrograde motion of this year (i.e. Mercury retrogrades happen three times per year). This aspect is making all our logical, verbal and written communication go a bit hay-wire & loopy, as it conjuncts the planet Neptune (the planet of confusion, escapism and creativity). However, if you lean into your intuition and just go with the flow during this period, the time is magical for manifesting big dreams! At the moment at which I am writing this, it is Spring and therefore what we spiritually ‘plant’ now (to be read as what we ‘aim for’ and ‘set out’ to achieve) we can reap as rewards during the harvest months, or in the Autumn-Winter period.

New Moons are good times for cleansing and cleaning, for sorting out the old from the new, so this would be an ideal time for cleaning out your wardrobe, sorting out your closet or kitchen cupboards, washing your crystals and reorganizing your tarot and oracle decks, throwing old things away or donating what can be reused, and mopping the floors of your house with essential oils. If you read tarot, this is an ideal time for sage-ing your body and house, and for salting the frames of your doors and windows for renewed protection. You could also get some Reiki sessions to rebalance your energetic body. It’s also an excellent period for sleeping and resting more to recharge, and for tacking long hot baths with crystals and other pampering beautiful things.

Full Moons are times of taking stock, or celebrating an achievement or seeing things for what they really are. They are times of great clarity and vision and they are also good for chord-cutting rituals, for removing old energy and what no longer serves you. Each New Moon your prepare to build and to take in and each Full Moon your prepare to close up and release. New Moons begin things while Full Moons bring relationships and situations to a firm conclusion.

So for a New Moon ritual prepare yourself to receive the new, to bring in fresh new things into your life that support your changing desires. I find New Moons have more significance than Full ones, although the latter are revered because when you practice spells under the power of the full lunar energy, these work much quicker. So people who enjoy love spells, money spells or banishing rituals also adore Full Moons, while others who thrive on intentions and manifestation, like myself, tend to enjoy the New Moon energy more.

One practical thing you can do to align yourself with lunar energy and bring some candle magic into your life, is to understand the color-code of each candle and its specific, protective deity. If a New or a Full Moon fall on a Monday, light a silver candle to invoke the power of the Moon. If they fall on a Tuesday, light a red or orange candle to invoke the power of Mars, if Wednesday then light a green candle to invoke the fresh energy of Mercury; if it’s Thursday then light a yellow candle for Jupiter; on Friday, light a pink or white candle for Venus; on Saturday, light a black or grey candle for Saturn; finally on Sunday, light a golden candle for the Sun.

As co-creators, we can merge our human minds with the intentions of the Divine, so new Moons are perfect for this dual communication between our daily reality and the unseen world of Spirit. The best way to receive inspiration is to write a list of intentions (sentences that help you figure out what you would like to materialize). Keep in mind that intentions should be written in the present tense, as if they already happened, and you could add the powerful word ‘now’ to finish the sentence, in order for them to ‘work’ and to activate them by anchoring them in the present. For example: I receive my heart’s desire now / I attract wealth now / I am in love with life now, etc.

Below is a list of other things that New and Full Moons are good for:

• Letting go of an addiction. You can do as little as saying ‘I’ll start doing this thing less from today’ and then see how the energy builds up gradually to support you. But you have to keep this goal in mind, and not to deceive yourself in the process. This intention will create circumstances that will hinder you from falling back on that addiction, so be mindful of what you wish for and commit to it to see results. You might encounter external obstacles when you are tempted to revert to your old bad habits, and remember that challenges can actually be blessings in disguise for your manifestation. For example, I promised myself to cut out processed foods and when I went to get a doughnut at Krispy Kreme in a moment of weakness, my card wasn’t working and the server was really rude for no reason; after my momentary anger subsided I realized that it was a challenge to stick to my intention and what I consciously committed to a couple of days before). In this way you are manifesting your heart’s desire, within the limitations of the material world.

• Getting on with projects you’ve been putting off. For example, I’m struggling with writing my second book, so I’m now rearranging my notes, re-reading my old draft and setting the intention to commit more fully to writing a little bit each day. Find out what you prefer, as forcing yourself to do what other people do, will only backfire. I usually, write in the evenings when I feel inspired and there is more quiet and still energy around me and I can hear myself think. This goes against a lot of the popular advice on writing routines which urge you to rise early in the morning & engage in writing sprees, but I adapt the activity to suit my own personality and not the other way around.

• Align your chakras and do chakra meditations to raise your spiritual and bodily vibrations. For this step, there are loads of videos on YouTube that are helpful. As some suggestions for beginners, I like Meditative Mind , Calm Whale & Taos Wind Spirit Music on YouTube. The best part, is that you can listen to these clips while you do other things; I like to do transcriptions while I’m realigning my chakras, as listening to something calms the impatience I feel when I must work on a repetitive and dull task.

• Starting up a long-term endeavor such as a new job, saving up for a large purchase, beginning new contractual agreements etc. It’s best to launch things when the sliver of the moon appears on the sky (so usually one day after the New Moon, when you can actually see the Moon reappearing on the sky). Be careful thought because from my experience the energy can also work viceversa. For example, I started a relationship on a New Moon without consciously realizing that I was working with this energy and now I find it hard to let go of that person even if I am logically aware that we are not good for each other & are better off living our lives apart 🙂

• Write down intentions. For example, you want to have more money in your life, so you can write ‘I have all the money I need and can purchase everything I want’. It’s always good to think relationally when you make wishes – for example ‘I have all the money I need to buy a house so I can start my family’ or ‘I have money to pay rent so that I can rest and relax and work better for others’. The intent has to be positive, it has to come from your heart, from a place of love and peace. The same for if you want to attract love, I advise you begin with self-love affirmations first and then include your ideal partner – ‘I have so much love in my heart for myself and for others around me, and I am attracting the love of my life’ or something similar. It should always begin from you and your heart chakra/energy center and then spill out beautifully into the world, for others. Remember, we are all connected, whether we like it or not. Make sure to write the sentence down at least 10 times on a white sheet of paper, and as you do focus on already imagining how your life will look like if your wish is granted. In this way you are giving your subconscious specific tasks to work on while you sleep and you’ll notice your behaviour will slowly change in your daily activities, to help you attract what you have intended.

Because the new moon this month is conjunct the planet of unpredictability (Uranus), factor in some surprises. You could write down as well an anti-routine (which means something you are not so comfortable with) or something new and off-the-beaten track that you’d like to add to your life. For example, I’d like to open myself up for more fun and adventures – I’m usually quite careful, I love solitude and am fairly common-sensical, but I want to do more spontaneous things together with other people this Spring. So that could be one thing. Another would be to read things you wouldn’t usually read, try out new foods, go and try new sports or new beauty rituals, change your perfume or clothing style, plan to redecorate a corner of your house that needs more love and attention, or even plan to carry your passport with you at all times for a spontaneous get-away. Add some ‘electricity’ to your life, and open up to the unexpected of your own volition. It’s better if the choice is yours, rather then allowing the universe to completely take over, as it might re-arrange some aspect of your life you aren’t prepared for.

New Moons are also great for creating a mood-board (whether online or with papier mache). Mood-boards are usually collages made out of random and colourful pictures depicting how you would like your future to be, and what you would like to change in your life. Or if you don’t have time for that, simply place a picture of your desire somewhere where you can see it daily. If you want a new car, print a picture of your desired car and place it on your table so that everyday when you have breakfast or when you sip your coffee you can see it and remind your subconscious mind that this is what you are working towards. However, don’t expect things to appear over-night, the cycle begins with each new moon and completes in 6 months’ time with the corresponding full moon, so breathe in and maintain patience (its slowly coming for you, in beautifully unseen and surreptitious ways).

** Happy Moon-manifesting **

With universal love,

Lexi ❤

As a Piscean teenager, I spent most of my free time listening to music, imagining associations between the lyrics of each song and the daily events of my life.

Music is still the language that reaches my heart first, like nothing else (perhaps, second to this is my fixation with images and the strong visual pleasure I derive from them). Back in high-school, my young existence turned a tad more magical because I was able to carry music around with me on my CD player (yep, early Millenial). Music reminded me of random intimate moments, people I connected with and travelling adventures.

It just recently struck me to experiment a bit with my alternative collection of songs, and test how this would fit with the ethos of each zodiac sign.

• Have you ever wondered what kind of tunes describe your zodiac sign?
• Which songs might capture the essence of a zodiac sign’s characteristics? Or what music vibrates with your astral energy?

Of course there are many songs in the world to choose from, but below is a an imaginative list comprising those that to my mind fit the most with each sign’s energy, whether in their rhythm or in their lyrics.

* If you click on the song’s name you’ll be sent directly to the song on YouTube, enjoy! I don’t create Spotify playlists for political reasons *

Aquarius: ‘Hunger of the Pine‘ – Alt J / ‘Intergalactic‘ – Beastie Boys

Aries: ‘Now is the only time I know‘ – Fever Ray / ‘Reptilia‘ – The Strokes

Cancer: ‘Crying‘ – Austra / ‘Promise‘ – Ben Howard

Capricorn: ‘Take me to church‘ – Gotye / ‘Eulogy‘ – Patrick Wolf

Gemini: ‘Coffee and Tv‘ – Blur / ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues‘ – Bob Dylan

Leo: ‘Don’t delete the kisses‘ – Wolf Alice / ‘You always you‘ – Patrice

Libra: ‘Lover’s Day‘ – Tv on the Radio / ‘Ageless Beauty‘ – Stars

Pisces: ‘Crazy for you’ – Slowdive / ‘I love you‘ – Woodkid

Scorpio: ‘Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wreck‘ – Blood Brothers / ‘The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret‘ – Queens of the Stone Age

Sagittarius: ‘Sacrilege‘- Yeah Yeah Yeahs / ‘Pure Morning‘ – Placebo

Taurus: ‘More‘ – Nils Frahm / ‘When the body speaks‘ – Depeche Mode

Virgo: ‘Rusty Nails‘ – Moderat / ‘My funny Valentine‘ – Chet Baker

With universal love,

Lexi ❤

 

Sometimes in the process of becoming ourselves we attract all sorts of people, but the relationships that tend to define us are the ones in which our partner’s planets are opposing our own. In these situations the partnership becomes a mirroring game, whereby you begin to understand the good things and the unpleasant things you bring into the relationship by projecting these onto your partner (because without the partner’s opposing solar energy, these aspects of our Shadow selves remain mostly dormant and unconscious).

For example, let’s say you are a Sagittarius Sun that finds it uncomfortable to find the right words and to speak quickly and cleverly when the situation requires it what you mean. However, you deeply desire you could change that about yourself. One day, at a public event, your romantic partner is confronted with the same situation: being given a slot to make a statement in front of a group of people but somehow failing at it, leaving behind a trail of incoherent half-formed ramblings. You then becoming angry on him/her/them by not doing precisely what you find so difficult in doing yourself; this ‘something’ frustrates you, and in ‘mirroring’ you, your partner shows you exactly the unconscious aspect of yourself that you desire to change; by acting in this acting in this way, he/she/them provokes your inner doubt to rise to the surface, and challenges you to make peace with your shadow in one way or another. In addition, you could also unconsciously pull or magnetize towards you some clever and quick-witted Gemini Suns, and you could crush heavily on them because they are the embodiment of the things you wish you had in your own personality arsenal. From their own perspective, other Gemini Suns are drawn to your Sagittarius Sun capacity to deeply understand the truth and to take action inspired by it rather than to sit all day and talk about you desires.

This is just one example of many: as a Cancer, maybe you hate spend-thrifty people (like Capricorns) but you catch yourself holding on to your money more than you’d like; or as a Libra, maybe you cannot stand selfish go-getters (like Aries) but find that in work situations perhaps you sometimes behave in this same manner. You can either deny this is happening to you and ignore it, or accept that you are doing such things too and integrate them into your personality which helps you in the long-run to release nervous tension and unconscious energy and become more fluid in expressing your wants and needs in reality, thereby creating a flow or energy for yourself. Suddenly, you might also find that by accepting some part of your Shadow Self (the place in our psyche where we unconsciously hide our flaws because we are ashamed of them), you can now also appreciate the astrological signs you would usually be irritated by.

There can be so much wisdom gained from these relational epiphanies, since nothing prompts us into them quicker than meeting our astrological opposite. When couples with these oppositions have an inborn willingness to learn and truly love each other and see beyond ‘the blame & shame game’, they benefit immensely from mirroring each others spiritual growth and tickling their Shadow aspects out from hiding into the broad light of conscious behavior. In a different scenario, if the relationship lesson is not integrated, the consciousness does not gain from the unconscious insight and bitterness and resentment are built in time between the partners, which will unfortunately lead to the imminent dissolution of the relationship or a life-long feeling of being trapped in an intimate situation with someone who ‘just doesn’t get you’.

As oppposites attract they generate a lot of energy when coming together. Used well-enough this mutual energy can push two people to grow beyond their dreams, but when used badly, it can lead them to self-destruction.

Here are blow-by-blow short descriptions of the 6 pairs of astrological opposites

I. Leo and Aquarius/Fire and Air: Individual will-power and Group-think

Relationship Analogy: the king and his courtiers, the entertainer and his public, the leader and his team.

II. Virgo and Pisces/Earth and Water: Social Service and Spiritual Creation

Relationship Analogy: the nurse and the patient, the editor and the writer, the lady and the chambermaid.

III. Taurus and Scorpio/Earth and Water: Material Resources and Emotional Transformation

Relationship Analogy: the farmer and forces of nature, the banker and the hijacker, the rockstar and the muse.

IV. Aries and Libra/Fire and Air: Solo Action and Relational Balance

Relationship Analogy: the photographer and the model, the poet and the body-builder, the activist and the politician.

V. Saggitarius and Gemini/Fire and Air Energy: Expansive Wisdom and Mental Fun

Relationship Analogy: the teacher and the pupil, the director and the actress, the explorer and the homebody.

VI. Capricorn and Cancer/Earth and Water Energy: Material Legacy and Homely Nurturing

Relationship Analogy: the breadwinner and the primary caregiver/the father and the mother, the manager and the secretary, the painter and the museum curator.

As a final word, I do apologize for the heteronormative view this post is taking. I’m speaking and representing mostly couples which speak to my own heterosexual perspective but the astrological placements work in similar ways in same-sex or non-binary couples. I’d be happy to read in the comments below your suggestions for broader gender identifications based on these 6 astrological, Sun-based pairings.

With universal love,

Lexi ❤

What do Britney Spears, Greta Garbo and Sharon Stone have in common aside from being world famous celebrities?

They all have Pluto in the first house! That harbinger of love-hate reactions from people, the ultimate “be genuine or perish” drill-sergeant. Pluto can be infuriatingly ‘take it or leave it’: one moment the person might be the most vulnerable person, someone who is wearing their heart on their sleeves and cries at the most sensitive moments in life and the next moment they will walk over you like a bull-dozer at the slightest hint of disapproval, especially if you are under suspicion of betraying them. To a Plutonic, everything is judged in the light of their emotional temperature.

When Pluto is on the Ascendant or in the first house, this manifests in the way the person perceives their immediate environment and their relationships. Even if your Sun is for example in sociable Libra, stable Taurus or even proud Leo, when Pluto sits on the most visible part of your chart, you will borrow traits from Scorpio’s energy, for better or worse. It will be worthwhile studying the sign of Scorpio and observing other Scorpios around you because you tend to come across as the same energy that they project. Pluto is all about magnetic sex-appeal, intimidating stealth strength, relentless self-analysis and boundless sensitivity, all aspects which will be cleverly masked under a controlled, poker-faced exterior. Having Pluto in the first house either nataly (for life) or by transit (for a determined period of time, usually a decade or two) is all about becoming more aware of who you are by undergoing deep, consecutive and highly emotional transformations.

When things stagnate in personal relationships, there is usually the creation of a personal conflict which challenges the Ego to engage in a deep change. Some drama will be experienced and this can happen consciously or unconsciously, depending of how aware you are of your Plutonic power. The Ego of the Plutonic is then tested through the personal conflict it has created, in order to become ‘destroyed’ by the outcome of the conflict, which usually involves a sacrifice, a painful letting go or the discovery of some hurtful lie or ongoing betrayal. In this process, new facets of your personal power and charisma will be brought up to conscious light, from the darkness of your unconscious.

Say for example, that you are successfully married and the other half of a sexy, power couple and you worked hard on building trust and maintaining the commitment to your lover, and on crafting an intimidatingly envious romantic, public image. But lately….things started to feel off. You feel bored, you no longer have passionate sex with your partner, you care more about the shoes your partner is wearing than about their conversations and even your food starts to taste weirdly. Being at home doesn’t feel good or intimate anymore and you wonder, if it ever did? So you are pulled in the direction of searching through your partner’s phone history or re-arranging their clothes one afternoon or following them to work one day, only to discover that they have been having a passionate affair with one of your co-workers/best friends this entire time! In this case, your intuition guided you towards the investigation of the problem and then towards the creation of a conflict, which happens when you confront your lover with the truth. ‘How could you do this to me!’ happens because a part of you became too stuck in its Ego identification and needed a dramatic and swift change to remember its authentic Self (in this case, your petrified emotional world and lackluster sexual desire). Following the confrontation, you get a divorce and it’s messy and you suffer through the loss of your love, and through the pain of seeing everyone around you gossip about how your power-couple-foundation crumbled due to an affair. But you also understand that such things only served to gratify your Ego and in the process you kind of stopped living and  feeling.

Well, Pluto cannot have a life without feeling. So you relocate, you retreat from your toxic social circle, you go through a glow up by taking control and disciplining your mind, body and soul, and you start living more modestly. Now you understand that the real value and meaning in life is not being part of sexy and powerful couple that looks good on paper but feels devoid of life at home, but that real comfort and love can be found in the arms of a person you can talk to and be vulnerable around, someone who might come from a more modest background but is empathetic and soulful. Somebody you can have a real connection with, and love and empathize with. Emotional pain has the usually blessing benefit that it helps us become more attuned to the pain of those around us. So Pluto offers you painful and intense emotional moments to soften your heart and get you to notice how linked you are to others, even if you believe you are intimidatingly strong. The Divine humbles you and breaks you heart in order to fulfill you and give you the passionate life-meaning and deep, romantic intimacy you always craved to have. And in this way you suddenly meet a person who is giving you the kind of love that feels overwhelmingly empowering.

The motto of a Plutonic might be “I feel therefore I am…and If I can’t feel, I will transform”.

Plutonics are first feelers, and then thinkers.  

Because the intensity of their emotions is deeply connected to their identity – and they are clever enough to know that – they believe that if they allow others to see their emotional vulnerabilities, this will surely backfire and they might suffer from the things they fear the most: humiliation and lack of respect, usually through abuse. The irony of the situation is that the more they project this tough look and guard their feelings from others by repressing this energy, the more likely they are to be drawn into these kinds of scenarios of abuse and retaliation. It might not be through their own fault that they fall in such situations, it’s almost as if they have a knack for being in places at the wrong time as they are confronted with extreme situations which test their own power. This usually happens when they allow the unconscious to govern over them as they give in to their lower desires.

The key out of this dynamic, is a slow and constant release of their emotional energy: through work and communication, or even better through service for others (different from a Virgo’s detail-oriented service, Plutonians offer their own brand of strong and resilient support), through counseling and healing practices, through engaging in research and deep investigation of something they are passionate about, by falling in love and seeing a relationship through to its commitment, or by handling people and situations that nobody else would handle.

Pluto in the first house people are good at being clinical psychologists or psychiatrists, surgeons, fire-fighters, ambulance drivers, morticians, prison guards and chemists, basically any situation which involves high doses of psychological stamina and self-control, which might make others (for example highly Venusian types) simply faint.

Whether they enjoy it or not, with Pluto in their first house (by birth-chart or by transit), people will face dramatic and intense situations in their lives. In a sense they need such episodes to help release this pent-up emotional energy. It’s not a coincidence that the Phoenix is the symbol of the highest manifestation of Pluto types, because such individuals symbolically need to burn with the intensity of their emotions to literally be brought back to life again, and have their lust for life re-awakened.

If you happen to live next to such a person and they start to become unlike you know them: sleepy, subdued and evasive, then watch them closely because these all the symptoms of a 1st house Pluto person in mid-transformation. A considerable amount of time needs to pass in their lives until they wake up one day and decide to change everything…and because Plutonian energy is not gentle but extreme, they will change everything in their lives which is no longer authentically supporting them in the blink of an eye. In this process, the highly intuitive Pluto person reaches a heightened level of awareness, after breaking down the emotional wall created between them and the people in their lives: they either burn their social bridges and rebuild them from the ashes of their destruction, or they run away and go incommunicado for months, years maybe to become someone new, someone better. There are no in-betweens with this extreme sign.

In the best case, by pressing ‘a reinvention button’ and deciding to become somebody else, they might work towards being somebody even better than they were before, and their transformation benefits all those around them. In the worst case, a Pluto type that does not decide to change and sees no way of empowering themselves enough to overcome a difficult situation, will slowly self-destruct and drag everybody else around them down a spiral of addiction and self-inflicted pain.

On a superficial level, 1st house Pluto natives are highly magnetic, they exude an intensity which makes people clear the space around them, or literally experience almost physical reactions when near them. As a Yin-based energy they attract all types of people to them.

Especially in women, this energy gives an incredibly alluring, sexy demeanor; this is the type of woman which everyone is seduced by, whether she puts effort into her looks and grooming or not. Bellow are some examples of attractive 1st house Pluto celebrities:

Britney Spears is a Solar Sagittarian and her Pluto is in the beauty-loving, peace-making Libra.

  

And so is Laetitia Casta’s Pluto complementing her Taurean Sun.

Aishwarya Rai’s Pluto, is in close vicinity to her Scorpio Sun below the ascendant, so she is double-Plutonic.

And Charlize Theron’s Pluto too, forming a sextile (or beneficial aspect) to her Leo Sun.

Greta Garbo’s Pluto by contrast (and by generation) was in Gemini, and even more amazing she had Jupiter conjunct her Ascendant (all signs of widespread and enduring fame & great wealth).

While growing up, the natives might have felt overwhelmed by the strong reactions from all those surrounding them; they might have felt powerless in defending themselves, or just simply wished they could be left alone to do some serious thinking and brooding (their minds tend to have this propensity especially, if the Moon or Mercury is aspected by Pluto as well). However in time, they collect these freely-given reactions and responses to their way of being and are able to draw great power from their life experiences, regardless of whether these external social reactions were loving or hateful.

Even more so, by internalizing a lot of negativity, Plutonian people are amongst the very few natives who can transform this energy, cleanse it and bring a different understanding to it – they are natural survivors and their biggest gift is the capacity to transform their life and begin anew several times, throughout their life. And in this way, through their personal example they end up inspiring & healing us all.

With universal love,

Lexi ❤

 

Let’s talk about Saturn and how it organizes karmic debt in someone’s natal chart. I’m not using the word “organize” by chance here, since Saturn is the soul’s bureaucrat, symbolically governing over our limits, boundaries, karmic tests and time. When in conjunction (which is another way of saying it sits closely side by side with another planet) with the native’s Moon in the birth-chart, it has a freezing effect over the person’s emotional life and brings about major fears on the path of their emotional expressiveness.

The Moon represents the native’s emotional life, sense of belonging and relationship with the mother. It is the moon which takes in the early conditioning a child receives from his/her/their social environment and determines: how the child will emotionally respond in relation to other people and what experiences will instinctively speak to the forming adult’s mind. The Moon also governs over how we perceive our diet and nourishment and shows how the child’s personal likes and dislikes are formed.

When Saturn encircles the Moon, issues of integrating the anima (mother/female figure) and the animus (father/male figure) are forefront in a person’s life. Perhaps the father was weak, absent or neglectful. Perhaps he died prematurely or suffered from illness, which determined the child (whether boy, girl or non-binary) to take on some characteristics of the father figure. In addition, the mother might have been living under a lot of stress and pressure (also in connection with something related to the father’s problems) and might have been emotionally unavailable, which left the native constantly yearning for the mother’s affection, because it might have felt like her love was never enough. Episodice loving will have the effect of strengthening the child, which learns quickly that if it wants safety it must create it for itself. In addition, the mother might have been critical of the child’s emotional displays and set harsh punishments or simply did not have the time to comfort the baby. The native then grows up starved for affection, looking for ways to self-provide the nurturing that lacked in his/her/their childhood. The tough life-time lesson then becomes: learning how to mother your Self back to full emotional health, without destroying and self-sabotaging your chances of growth.

Once the native survives adolescence, in which he/she/they will be emotionally tested, the gift acquired is emotional resilience. This resilience will help the person solve karmic bonds and pay back their ‘karmic debt’ (acquired for not learning empathy in a previous life-time) in every relationship that the native will form. Relating to others and accepting their feelings will be a painful and difficult process but the more the native works at creating stability in their personal connections and doing the emotion work required to maintain intimate bonds, the more their relationships will flourish. Feeling their way through life will get better in time, and time is a key word here, with Saturn limiting their emotionality in the first part of their life.

By meeting people and bonding with them, the native will risk themselves emotionally over and over again, which goes against the overly-protective and deeply sensitive nature that they have. But precisely by overcoming their sensitivity and emotional shyness, and refusing to let others pressure them, they become a rock, a stable foundation to lean on, and an inspiration for other people’s lives. The motto “Feel the fear and do it anyway” must have been created for them (or by them). An experienced Moon conjunct Saturn individual is an emotionally mature and spiritually resilient force to reckon with!

Such people will express their love in practical ways, offering you a blanket when you are cold, a shoulder to cry on, and will always make sure there are food provisions at hand; also, they will defend the ones they love to the point of acting cruel to the ones that cause them harm. When the conjunction is expressed well, the natives will understand that having suffered emotionally themselves, they will find it hard to see suffering in other people and will go to great lengths to help soothe the emotional pain of others – ironically, they end up becoming the nurturing mother they never felt they had, while growing up. And even more ironically through this nurturing process, they begin to understand the hardships of their own mother’s life and begin to have a much better relationship with her as they get older. 

When the conjunction is expressed poorly and the karmic debt is ignored instead of being worked with, then the natives can become cruel, cold and emotionally detached to the point of losing their souls and what fires them up in life. They would find it hard to feel and will push everyone that wants to love them away from them, ending up in miserable life situations where the trauma is re-lived rather than made conscious and healed.

In its essence, Moon conjunct Saturn is about the process of learning to love unconditionally, and express this love to all mankind, when perhaps there wasn’t enough of it to go around in the first place, as the native was growing up. The childhood of a Moon conjunct Saturn person is steeped in limits and conditions, and the love they were able to access came with certain conditions (‘I’ll only love you if you are obedient’ etc.) Therefore one learns to suppress their emotions because other material issues were more pressing such as needing to prove they are good and worthy of love, prioritizing food or money over play and emotional connection, or constantly hustling to keep safe. Usually for a McS (abbreviated) person, the emotional life of the native was kept in a disciplined check and there wasn’t any room for overt spontaneous displays of affection since the circumstances were perceived as difficult or filled with hardship. Obviously, for a child who has emotional vulnerability, this is a tough lesson to learn and the consequences of this process is that it can inhibit feeling joy for a long time in their life. And even when their outer life circumstances have improved – and most of them they tend to acquire more wealth, friends and love, gradually in time – there will still be the looming fear of being vulnerable or ‘not good enough’.

A McS person builds up a toughness that is concealed by an endearing smile, that smile that acknowledges that I’ve been through a lot, I’m still here and I can love like no one else can. But this involves showing vulnerability and such an individual has suffered in the past from wearing their heart of their sleeves. Therefore this loving and pure side of them doesn’t appear too often, or they might put you through the ringer in order to finally access it 🙂 At a mere hint of rejection or threat from other people, the same smile can veer into a sarcastic defense. This is meant to hide the native’s inborn seriousness loudly declaring “don’t mess with me!”.

However, as the native matures, Saturn lessens the tight grip over the native’s emotional world, and there are less tests to overcome, and there begins an outpouring of astounding emotional versatility and thirst for life which enlivens people around them who are shocked to find that the stern and emotionally undemonstrative child turned into an ‘entertainer’ or ‘the life of the party’ or a ‘healing presence’. For Moon conjunct Saturn natives, growing up and growing older is truly worth it, because the more time passes the more Saturn writes off the debt they carried from previous lives and unshackles them emotionally. Paradoxically, the older they become they then start behaving like the children they weren’t allowed to be (for good and for worse, in some cases).

Therefore, there comes a point in the native’s life when they must start expressing their feelings instead of guarding them because in this way they will begin to attract people to them. Overly protecting themselves against emotional pain and the threat of loneliness, will only make them feel more lonely. Younger people will especially be drawn to them as they appear wise and considerate of the feelings of others, much like a teacher or spiritual guide, and this is the gift that Saturn gives: although seemingly tough, a McS person will make an incredibly devoted parent, sensitively in tune to their children’s needs, and become responsible to a fault. By raising their own children, they heal the inner child that they once were, these children who did not receive as much affection as needed to feel safe and full of confidence but rather got harsh lessons in stoicism, will bloom into the safe parents they always wish they had.

The natives with this combination look wise beyond their years and are very calm in the face of a crisis. And this explanation applies as well to those that have Moon square Saturn and Moon opposite Saturn in their birth-charts, although to a less intense degree than with the conjunction. These natives make use of their sensitive capacity and observe patiently before reacting, in order to chose the appropriate emotional resource. Perhaps this is why there are so many alluring actresses amongst them, because not reacting emotionally in a spontaneous way, offers you the necessary time to think through which emotion you can display at any given moment. With this comes a great capacity to take on roles, to put on masks, to hide what you truly feel or release your emotions only when it is safe enough to let them ‘loose’. Emotional control then becomes the secret super-power of the disciplined McS individual.

To help illustrate this point, here are some celebrities who have this placement in their natal charts.

Sophia Loren had her Moon conjunct Saturn in Aquarius (just like Joan Crawford) and in the second house in astrology which governs over money, material safety and the body. Sofia’s life reflects this energy so well as she had the prototypical example of a ‘rags to riches’ life-story: born in poverty, in Naples with an absent father that barely gave her his name, grew up sick and hungry during the war years, became a model after cease-fire, then had her big break when Carlo Ponti noticed her in a restaurant and through a lifetime of filming movie after movie and making high-profile friendships, she became an international star. In spite of the fact that she did not see herself as beautiful, she had the most attractive face & body in Italy in the 1950s! I highly recommend her beautiful autobiography “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” for a case study of how Moon-Saturn manifests itself in the 2nd house of a native & also because it’s an inspiring and beautiful book). This quote aptly describes how one lives with a Moon-Saturn conjunction:

“The differentness of my family – my absent father, my mother who was more beautiful than other mothers – had made me suffer tremendously. It had filled me with shame, and at the same time it was my fortune. It was the strength that forced me to work, to show others who I was, to choose a path for myself when I was still very young. In other words, “success is a surrogate for unattainable normality”

Notice that the word she chooses to describe her suffering is “differentness” and notice as well, that her conjunction is in the sign of Aquarius – the sign of the eccentric, the odd-one-out, the unique and the different. Truly beautiful.

Patricia Clarkson has the ultimate Moon conjunct Saturn in its rulership in Capricorn, but also conjunct her Sun! This means that growing up her emotions and her identity were limited and blocked and they had to be slowly released, with time. She is known for having achieved success in later on in her life (Saturn releases rewards in time, and through perseverance). The first time I saw her acting, I thought she looked incredible and she made me reconsider how I saw older women. I suddenly started to look forward to growing older and looking as refined & soulful as she does. In her own words:

But no, had I been successful in my 20s I would have been just fine, but it is nice to define the odds.

The great soprano, Maria Callas had an McS in Libra, although considerably apart which slightly lessens Saturn’s turgid effect. Her Saturn is also strongly energized by a perfect conjunction to Mars as well; it’s also a placement of Saturn in its exaltation, which helps provide healthier structures to a person’s life. An exaltation is when a planet is in a sign that enhances its qualities and it appears as a very good fit; it is considered by astrologers that Saturn’s disciplining influence, if applied in combination with Libran qualities of logic, balance and beauty, will greatly benefit the native and we see what a great cultural legacy Maria has left behind.

Olga Kurylenko has her McS in Virgo, which is also a better placement since there is a stabilizing bond between the Earthy Mercury-led sign of the Virgin and the Saturnian need for limits and discipline. This conjunction feels less unpredictable and more stable as Saturn’s structuring energy helps sustain a Virgo Moon’s needs to touch, see, hold and work upon their material reality. The downside is that a far too greater attention to detail can create a lot of emotional worrying in Olga’s life, which can be experienced through uncomfortable physical symptoms, headaches and allergies. Olga also has her Jupiter loosely conjunct her McS, and this aspect is deeply paradoxical: her greatest emotional blessings in life will come with the toughest tests, but also her karmic lessons will be quickly dispelled by the lucky energy of Jupiter.

Angelica Huston also has her Moon conjunct Saturn in Virgo albeit further apart by degrees than Olga:

Scarlett Johansson has her McS in Scorpio (like Katy Perry and Mila Kunis). This one brings a deep emotional nature but also the impulse to conceal it underneath an “I’m really ok” exterior. The natives are incredibly perceptive, sensitive and may have suffered emotionally quite a lot growing up, mostly in relationship with how they took in their mother figure, who might have been perceived as over-bearing, and far too intimate with them, almost to the point of crossing healthy sexual boundaries. Sexual abuse is a big karmic issue with McS individuals, especially when Pluto in also involved in the mix. This energy mix is also frequently present in the natal charts of powerful occult practitioners.

Cindy Crawford has her McS in Pisces and on her Midheaven (her public image & professional legacy), and both are amped up by a powerful opposition to a Pluto-Uranus conjunction in Virgo. No wonder she became a world-wide known model with an enduring perfect-like image! 

Drew Barrymore has her McS in Cancer (a difficult placement since all the nurturing qualities of Cancer are drained by the somber perspective on life which Saturn gives). This one hurts and it hurts deeply since Cancer is the sign of safety, protection, sensitivity and mothering. She is known for having had a rough upbringing and having fought addictions, and yet Drew continues to share her beautiful inner soul with so many people through her work.

Recently transitioned Elliot (Ellen) Page in particular is a brilliant example (and is dear to me since I admire him for his acting and his courage to speak about his sexuality, but also because we are born days apart which makes our charts highly similar, even if our Ascendants are different).

And so is Sharon Stone’s chart albeit with more breathing space between her Sagittarius Moon and Sagittarius Saturn.

Notice that 4 of these celebrities have their Sun in Pisces (Ellen, Cindy, Drew and Sharon). I’m particularly aware of this since I’m also a Pisces Sun; I think that being a Pisces for so long I can say that Moon conjunct Saturn hurts like nothing else but it also gives a kick in the butt to apply yourself to any task at hand, and rewards the native with a great work ethic. This is beneficial to Pisceans who sometimes struggle to put into tangible results what they concoct with the gift of their limitless imagination.

It takes effort and perseverance to grow into a Moon-Saturn conjunction but once you’ve progressed through the forming years, learned all the lessons and integrated the emotional hardships, there is much light and joy to be experienced as one grows in wisdom and a gains a genuine understanding of the value of vulnerability in bringing people together.

The downside can be that, because of experiencing recurring obstacles and emotionally scarring situations, the person might become embittered, judgmental and withdrawn from social life, and this is the negative manifestation of a poorly understood and integrated Moon-Saturn conjunction. But by not letting depression eat the core of your confidence and by overcoming tough situations in relationships with your close ones, the native reaches a sense of empowerment. Adopting this attitude dissolves the metaphorical ‘ice rings’ of Saturn around the native’s heart one step at a time, and the person becomes free in time, to live an unrestrained emotional life. They can finally love and be loved, give and receive without so many delayed and frustrating emotional blocks to their hearts.

Fighting against restriction and suppression begins with a moment of awareness of just how difficult everything feels, and deciding to change it for the better, to lift those sleeves up and do the hard work. As we’ve seen in the examples above, what beauty and prolific work this toughness creates! Once the native with the Moon conjunct Saturn decide to share their sensitive feelings rather than be afraid of them, to express themselves and create enduring emotional bonds, they can inspire great feelings in the minds and hearts of others as well.

The Moon conjunct Saturn by Signs

In Aries – a fear of being creative, of initiating, of being oneself. You will be tested through many conflicts, by being placed in situations of having to start things, to take initiative, to be a morally sound leader. With this placement it’s advised to develop a healthy work-out routine, to practice a team sport and take care of your body since anger issues are proeminent, and especially anger which is directed at established authority, at traditional institutions. Boundaries are usually created through deep spiritual work (religious beliefs, prayers, yoga, kundalini exercises etc.)

In Taurus – a fear of bodily dissolution, of being penniless, of dying of hunger; will have to prove their worth in relationships with others, to learn to love themselves, to gather and protect their possessions, to create a stable reality and have a steady income. Their best assets are their capacity to create long-term relationships which will also help them financially in the long run, and their beauty (both inner and outer) and figuring out ways in which this beauty can help them establish a prosperous reality.

In Gemini – fear of being misunderstood, of not being allowed to learn or to speak up, of being perceived as different and punished for this; you could also be religiously persecuted. Life will put you into situations where you’ll have to resolve conflicts through conversations, or where you’ll be engaged in many debates, to craft to perfection your speech patterns in all aspects of communication whether in writing, speaking but also non-verbal communication. You might also be given a lot of work in terms of editing books, marking essays, or publishing poems. You might struggle to understand how technology works and to create a social media presence, but once you do it will become your meaningful work.

In Cancer – fear of being abandoned, of losing your home, of not having parents who are present and offering you safety, of not knowing how to create comfort in your environment. You will be tested in your parenting capacities, in your ability to create safety, to save money and buy a home, to be nurturing and get in touch with your emotions in a positive, creative and life-affirming way. You learn the toughest lessons through your children, but they also end up being your safe haven in this world. This is the placement that has to somehow consider the people at work their family as well, and learns in time how to properly soothe and nurture others, rather than give in to dramatic emotional whims that burn their social bridges.

In Leo – fear of being over-looked, ignored, of not making a contribution in the world, of not being loved. You will be tested by situations of having to assume leadership responsibilities, of creating a long-lasting legacy, of being judged according to high beauty standards and the capacity to inspire and teach others. For this, you’ll need to have a balanced sense of self-esteem in the world. This is also the aspect of being bullied by a group and learning to rise above this, to lead people from the heart rather than diminish your light to please others so you can have any kind of ‘public’. Think quality not quantity with this placement, think sex with a committed partner who grows with you and gives you deep spiritual and sexual pleasure, rather than random hook-ups that deplete your energy and create harmful gossip discrediting your reputation.

In Virgo – a fear of being untidy, of being considered lazy, of not being valued for your work, of being sick, and of being ignored in spite of all of your efforts to contribute to society and make it somehow better. You will be tested in terms of your health habits, daily routines, your work and how you think about reality – you’ll have to be especially careful about what you put into your body, how much you work (you have to schedule in some time for relaxation and fun), and how you handle your nervous energy (take naps and meditate).

In Libra – a fear of being ugly, of not being loved, of hurting your body and face, of not being taken care of materially, of being considered stupid and isolated from society, of not being helped and of remaining completely alone. Life will grant you opportunities to show up and look good, to be disciplined in mind and body, to distribute ideas and link people to each other (in time you grow into the ideal matchmaker and party host), to constantly work at how you look and how you treat others, to be fair and equitable and to be loyal and honest (if you have romantic affairs, Saturn will ‘smack’ you karmically more than other people, so be careful because adultery will cost you). This is where Saturn is exalted so it is auspicious in attracting dignified relationships to you, but beware of power plays!

In Scorpio – a fear of sex, of trusting and loving somebody with all the depth of their souls, a fear of betrayal and disloyalty, a fear of their own power and of their capacity to influence people to give them the resource they need. You will be tested in personal and professional relationships, in your commitments, through your sexuality and in how you can heal and spiritualize the material circumstances around you and imbue them with meaning. You will also have to overcome any sexual wounding or hang-ups you might have in order to create long-term relationships with people. Sex, money (as in worth & value) and trust will  be major issues in their lives.

In Sagittarius – a fear of having no freedom, of being trapped by circumstances beyond their control, of being considered superficial, stupid, and disloyal, of stagnating in one place, of not being able to grow. Your capacity to speak the truth will come under fire many times and you will be tested by being placed in situations of sharing knowledge, of disseminating information, of living a happy, constantly widening life, of having to travel for long periods of time to foreign territories to overcome some inherent prejudices and feelings of self-righteousness. Most tests will appear regarding the native’s capacity to be optimistic, to have fun and to actually enjoy life, rather than fearing it. A somber attitude and giving in to their prejudices will bring them more tests.

In Capricorn – a generalized fear of life and of being themselves expressed through the fear of being poor, of being a nobody, of not having a social standing, of starving, and being discarded from society (ex. an addict). This is however, one of the best positions of Saturn (it’s the sign of its home), so if you put in the work, show up daily and pass patiently through all the spiritual tests in your relationships, at work, at home, abroad and within yourself, then Saturn purifies and refines you. You’ll become a master of emotional discipline, you’ll have a high social standing and people will seek your wise counsel. Life becomes more enjoyable and fun after the age of 35 year, but manage your emotions and fight through any occurring bouts of depression beforehand through lots of rest and learning. Work on your physical health as well to cope with low moods and the heavy energy that Saturn places upon your shoulders.

In Aquarius – a fear of blending into the background, of being mentally trapped and manipulated, of being forgotten, of not being allowed to be yourself, and of being oppressed by society for expressing your authenticity (it could be religious persecution, or having to live up to heteronormativity etc.), of living in an ugly and harsh environment where you don’t have access to resources to change it, of not being allowed to think for yourself. Life will grant you access to what you love and allow you to be yourself, but it will be a struggle to prove that who you are in all your quickness matters to society at large. As much as possible try to overcome this fear by communicating, by putting your ideas into deeply compassionate conversations. Great innovators are born with this combination, people who routinely blow our minds, so don’t sell yourself short – your voice matters!

In Pisces – a fear of being neglected, abused, considered selfish, not listened to, walked all over, punished, secluded and not allowed to be creative or to believe in something. A fear of dissolving, not feeling a spiritual connection to a Higher force, of finding no meaning in life. You are such a tender soul, but life wants to test you so you can bring out that kindness, that letting go, and that wise Piscean wisdom. You might have to give more than you receive, to be successful in emotional rather than material terms, to fight your fear of water bodies and to have to maintain secrets in spite of all odds. One of your parents will need your care and nurture even if they might be the ones that harm you the most, and you might need to travel to great distances and be removed from your place of birth for long periods of time. The best way to soothe this energy is to create things that make you happy, partner up with someone you trust, rest often and have healthy self-care rituals in place, and always follow your intuition and not your logical mind when making decisions. You are here to grow through the pain and keep your heart open.

With universal love,

Lexi ❤