Uranus and Rahu in Taurus: How the arts have shifted in the midst of inflation and a recession

I’ll keep this one short. It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post and I’m rusty. But the tl;dr of it is Rahu and Uranus in Taurus are tearing down everything foundational. Some examples of this happening are the rising price of essentials and increasing debt and raising interest rates. As more people struggle to make ends meet, artists face a particular struggle, how do we afford our craft?

Many of us are lucky enough to get regular sales and be able to restock inventory quickly and efficiently from home. But there’s no denying that as budgets tighten, commissions dry up, and materials nearly double in price, many of us have taken a hard hit. So the question is, how has the art world changed during these uncertain times?

Some examples of shifts I’ve seen in my circles that fit the theme of this transit are art institutions being questioned for unethical practices and exploiting artists who’ve turned to them for their assistance, artists experimenting with new and/or different mediums that may or may not have to do with needing to shift their budget, and more people leaning away from their day jobs or shifting their day-to-day routines to make room to build their creative reputations. All of these can lead to positive change as artistic communities begin to diversify and artists gain more power and agency, however, the flip side of this has been apparent as well. 

Uranus is an outer planet that affects general populations more than individuals, but it’s influence can create changes in our personal lives. Uranus rules disruptive innovation that can reap benefits for some but be cataclysmic for others. In Taurus, it’s also affected by Neptune in Pisces by sign-based sextile and Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius by sign-based square. The emergence of AI art and the ethics behind NFTs are just two examples of how this long-term transit has caused controversy within the arts. We’re looking at the potential for the art world to change in a way where art is depersonalized, generated by algorithms, and controlled by individuals who don’t care about human creativity, skill, or process and are only in it to get paid. And that’s not even mentioning the threat of deep fakes and how easy it is to use them to spread misinformation, and corporations/industries entertaining the thought of cutting out entire departments in favor of AI. Now, Rahu, the area in the sky that points to one half of the moon’s ecliptic point, is also in Taurus and, among many things, is known for consuming and insatiability in its pursuit of moving forward. With Rahu co-present until mid-July 2023, we’ve seen that there are some people who have this power fantasy of using AI tech to “redefine art” (meaning, taking it away from artists who’ve spent years perfecting their skill) and they’re not relenting on their intent to insist that this is the new wave. 

As an artist myself, Uranus and Rahu in Taurus have done some great and not-so-great things in my personal life. On the more pessimistic side, I’ve noticed commissions and sales slowing down due to communal budget restraints. As someone who relies on sales to continue my passion for wire wrapping, this has posed a pretty big challenge for what I can create and how frequently I can refresh my materials. On the flip side, it’s encouraged me to start using my crystals and wires to create smaller and more affordable pieces, which in turn has made the prices of each piece more financially accessible to my audience. I’ve also been more motivated to paint more and experiment with different mediums. It’s given me more freedom to create art that’s more meaningful to me and leans into my interest in theurgy (this is a 9th house transit for me so this checks).

For artists who aren’t familiar with astrology but still want to see how Uranus and Rahu in Taurus have affected them, I suggest you cast a birth chart for yourself and then see what house Taurus occupies. Then google the theme of that house. Afterward, reflect on ways this disruptive energy has manifested in your artistic pursuits. I guarantee you’ll notice a mix of complicated challenges and opportunities for positive change in that area. 

Addressing the Rowe v. Wade News

This will be one of the few blog posts I’ll publish on this site that is not about astrology or spiritualism. I need to speak frankly with you, because we’re in very dangerous times right now. 

We’ve all heard the news about the leak that outlines the SCOTUS’s anticipated decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. I won’t waste your time explaining what this will do to people who’re able to give birth, but understand that this decision will have more political implications that go beyond restricting access to safe abortions. This Twitter thread does a great job outlining what this decision will set the precedent for. But to summarize, their justification for this is that the right to privacy isn’t explicitly outlined in the constitution and that was the precedent that allowed Rowe v. Wade ruling to stand for so long. The problem with that is that there are quite a few landmark cases that were allowed to stand because of this precedent, including Obergfell v. Hodges, Griswold v. Connecticut, and Loving v. Virginia. If the SCOTUS is allowed to overturn Rowe based on the ruling outlined in the leaked draft, then that sets the precedent for these cases to be subject to be reviewed and overturned later. And I need you to understand this reader, right wing extremists will not stop at restricting the right to access safe abortions if they get what they want. In order to effectively fight against this blatant stripping of our human rights, bodily autonomy, right to privacy, and right to choose, you have to have a clear understanding of the current political climate. 

As it stands, we currently have a political system that’s so rigged against our favor that they’ve figured out that they don’t have to make decisions based on what the majority of its citizens want in order to stay in power. Our districts are heavily gerrymandered, bills that are meant to restrict voting rights have been passed in a significant number of states, and it’s clear that right-wing politicians have no interest in upholding democracy if it means they can’t hold to their power with an iron grasp. Christian fundamentalists and far-right groups have been preparing and organizing for decades for this moment and have since secured enough political influence to enact their theocratic rule onto non-consenting citizens. 

If your plan for countering this is to just “vote blue!” then I have some bad news about the current state of the Democratic party. The establishment Democrats of today are nearly indistinguishable from the Republicans of the 80s in terms of policy and their willingness to pass laws that will benefit society as a whole. They won’t hold Republicans accountable, and it’s easy to understand why once you look beyond the political theater they put on for us peasants. I was always told that in order to understand why certain laws get passed and others shelved, you have to “follow the money”. While it’s true that Christian fundamentalist groups donate to right wing politicians almost exclusively, the majority of the Democrats and Republicans sitting in Congress and the Senate are funded by the same billionaire CEOs that have an interest in making sure that they have a large working class population to exploit for their own interests. What this means is that even if individual Democrats want to pass laws to protect our rights, the party as a whole is much more concerned with pleasing their billionaire donors and playing nice with their Conservative peers than they are about improving the conditions of the people who voted for them. Their obsession with “civility”, toeing the line, and compromising their positions in the name of bipartisanship has caused them to move further right in the political spectrum. If you ask any non-American whose seen even a glimpse of our political climate they’ll tell youthat we have no major left wing political party and that Democrats are more aligned with center right politics than they are with anything remotely left wing. Democrats and Republicans aren’t antitheses of one another, they’re complementary to one another and they need to be in order to fulfill their loyalty to the owner class. 

I know this is bleak, reader, but in order to effectively combat this ongoing trend of right wing authoritarianism becoming law, you have to understand that if you’re politically left of center then you don’t have a major party in this country that serves your best interest. You are politically homeless. So what do we do about it?

The answer isn’t to completely abandon electoral politics. Despite what a lot of people online may tell you there is power in voting, but it goes beyond voting for who gets to be president and who gets to be in DC drafting laws. Even the smallest most local elections can make a huge difference if enough people pay attention and show up to vote and primaries matter a shit ton. That being said, voting cannot be the beginning and end of how we utilize our power as citizens to keep these overreaching politicians in check. As I’ve stated before, voting districts have been gerrymandered and restrictive voting laws were made to limit certain people from voting. 

We have to start organizing our own political movements and working with like-minded individuals to set up support networks that will ensure that vulnerable populations have a safety net from a political climate that’s actively hostile towards them. Do some research on what local abortion funds exist in your area and how you can help them. Medical professionals are experts at finding loopholes and underground networks to ensure people get the healthcare they need. Abortion doulas are going to be essential resources during these times and will need support and protection from us as well. Organizing protests may be effective in swaying public opinion, but disrupting the system altogether is what will bring about real political change. Times like these I’m reminded of what happened in Iceland in the 1970s. When politicians threatened to take away access to abortion women organized and refused to show up to work and do any domestic labor in protest, it took less than a week of this for the government to rescind their decision. With the volatile post-lockdown labor force we have now, if we were to do something similar in the U.S. we wouldn’t even need the majority to participate in order for it to cause a disruption in the system and make a huge impact. However, if we were to pull a large-scale national movement like this we would have to set up mutual aid networks to ensure that people who take care of children, take care of their elderly parents, and/or live paycheck to paycheck are supported by the movement. 

If we want to start taking the power away from wealthy religious fundamentalists and greedy self-serving politicians and back into the hands of the people we have to stop throwing marginalized people under the bus for social and political gain and stop viewing one another as having separate problems that do not affect our lives. We need to start building solidarity with everyone that this current system seeks to oppress. This means fighting against anti-trans and anti-queer legislation, actively supporting all BIPOC’s efforts to combat systemic racism, and doing your part to make sure poor and unhoused individuals and families aren’t criminalized for doing what they need to do to survive. This means organizing with sex workers, queer/trans activists, and women of color who’ve all been on the front lines of this fight for bodily autonomy. Keep in mind that those in power know that they can get away with almost anything if we’re divided and distracted, so the moment you begin to sacrifice marginalized groups for your own political gain then your movement is subject to fall apart, or worse, end up working against their own interests and become part of why more rights are stripped from us.

We do not have to be victims of our own politics. We don’t have to sit idly by while wealthy politicians try and gaslight us into thinking that they’re doing all they can for us and that we should be grateful for their negligence and apathy. We have the power and the numbers to effectively combat this. We just need enough people who give a fuck to swallow their pride and start organizing. It’s also a good idea to support those who are already doing the work to ensure that our future isn’t one where we have fewer rights than our parents. Don’t give up, hopelessness is what got us here.

Magic from a Place of Pain; A Pluto Story

Before I begin, I am in no way shape or form anti-hex. I am first and foremost, a gray witch, and natally, I have way too many mutable placements to subscribe to the idea that most things can be defined in absolutes. I understand there is a time and a place for malifica. Even my ancestors have had to turn to using baneful magic of some kind in order to protect their families and themselves from imminent danger, and I’ve had to do some of the same in my past.

That being said, I wanted to be transparent about my experience with practicing magic out of a place of fear and pain. I hope that you, dear reader, can take from my story and know that I see you and I understand you, and I am not judging you. I want you to know I’ve been in that place before and now that I’m out I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to stay in that place in order to feel your power.

To be frank, my childhood fucking sucked. Sure, I had two parents who were able to provide for me and my siblings, but I was introduced to the darkness of humanity from a very young age. I’ve had to navigate my life while walking on eggshells to avoid the rage, strife, ignorance, and fear that lived around me, and I was desperate to create some sort of safety. I became silent, invisible, and undetectable. I played the role of the pretty little well-behaved doll that you could leave for hours and wouldn’t even make a noise let alone cause trouble. I liked to hide in dark crevices so that I could watch everyone’s moves and listen in on what they were saying. It made me feel safe knowing I was at least out of sight from the latest fight, belt whip, and angry outbursts, but it didn’t stop it from finding me from time to time. As a child I took in everyone’s rage, and for a long time didn’t feel empowered enough to turn it against them. I just held on to it in hopes that someday I’ll be big and strong enough to use it to help people like me fight back against the big mean adults that swore they were doing this because they loved us.

Sometime in early adolescence I had to come to terms with my queerness, and a big part of reconciling with that was leaving the Christian faith for good. I couldn’t worship a god or follow a faith that saw me as an abomination when I knew I did nothing wrong. I discovered this interesting religion called Wicca and was compelled to do as much research on it as possible. I knew off the bat the principles didn’t quite align with me, but what I did discover from my research is that there are people who practice magic for real. It wasn’t like the mystical ways that Hollywood tends to portray it as, but it was real nonetheless, and it didn’t take a lot of materials in order to wield. When I did my first spell, a candle spell to banish a really toxic boyfriend I had at the time, something clicked in my brain when I finished. “This is it, this is how I’ll help people like me.” and an even darker thought creeped up almost immediately after, “Now it’s my turn”.

Even before I understood what it meant to work with the planets, the very first two celestial bodies I connected with were Luna and Pluto. Luna gave me comfort and helped me discover the power of divination (fun fact, it was when I learned about moon signs that I began my deep dive into astrology!). Luna was always forgiving and shone light on me when I needed to feel a gentle touch. What I love about her the most is that like me, she lives in darkness and made it her home. And every now and again she embodies darkness, even if only for once a month. When I got to know Pluto, he was pure darkness. He was the fear that lived in the psyche, the power that corrupts the egotistical, the raw and throbbing sensation that felt like standing naked in the flames without having them scorch you. He was the kind of pain I was all too familiar with because it was everyday life for me living with my family before I invited him in. Between the two of them I was able to access warm and comforting darkness and looming all-consuming darkness and needed to keep those two energies in check if they were to be a part of me. The problem with that was I discovered this power when I was 14.

I went into high school no longer fearing bullies and the wrath of my family, because I had the tools I needed to have them leave me the fuck alone. Hell, even when I didn’t actively do any magic, people who intentionally did things to harm me were quickly dealt with. I gained the reputation of being a bit of a wicked witch, but the outcasts I befriended saw me as a source of safety and joyful chaos.

For a while I thought there was nothing wrong with what I was doing. After all, I was only hurting bullies. The power I wielded made me feel vindicated, like I was finally righting the wrongs in this world. You know, the same line of thinking a Light Yagami type of person would have. The lies I told myself were somewhere along the lines of “This is right, because my motives are selfless.” and “I’m not egotistical because what I’m doing goes beyond me.” and my favorite “I don’t believe in the Rule of Three/Karma/fateful consequences, so there’s no way what I’m doing will ever harm me.” Besides, I was doing healing work with Luna, and using her energy to be a safe space for my friends and for the random wounded queer folks I’d find in my path. All was in balance, or at least that’s what I told myself.

Pluto is a relatively new planet in terms of discovery, and I’m not sure how many traditional astrologers have worked with him. But take it from someone who has had many first-hand experiences with this planet, there’s no way to work with Pluto lightly. In general, modern planets are going to be very difficult to nearly impossible to hone because their function is to influence a large collective of people and initiate global events. However, say you have an outer planet that forms an aspect with your chart ruler, sect light, or ascendant by exact degree or maybe one or two degrees off. It makes it much easier to make a personal connection with said planet. But, to put it bluntly, the more you lean into them the more likely they are to fuck you up. Uranus becomes uncontrollable disruption and discord, Neptune brings an inability to live in a sober mundane reality, and Pluto consumes and becomes obsessive.

Many years passed and my sense of right and wrong gradually became warped. I was obsessed with being the one to healing the young queers I “adopted” and hurting the people who hurt them that it became a self-destructive pattern. I ended up hurting the people I supposedly wanted to protect, and I was actively hurting myself in the process. For so long I didn’t know who I was outside the pain I was holding on to and the need to obsessively mother my friends. And when I looked back I realized that though my magic was very powerful, all of it came from a place of pain. I thought in order to feel my power, I had to keep the pain that fueled me, and I feared that if I let it go that I’d have nothing left to protect me from the harshness of the world.

Reader, let me tell you as someone who’s gone down this road, that it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, when all you know is pain and that’s all you’re prepared to handle then it hinders your ability to let good things happen to you. And it doesn’t leave much room for better habits and patterns to grow within you. Your pain is not your power, they’re hard lessons meant to develop us into people who are able to efficiently survive in this world. You are your power. When you start to understand who you are, what you really want from this life, and what you need from yourself and from the people you keep closest to you then you become a more whole and complete person who is much more unwaved by how this world sees you and wants to define you.

Pluto lives in my 4th house, so of course my introduction to Plutonic energy came from needing to protect myself from the anger and destructive patterns that I endured in my own home growing up. But it was only after my introduction to practicing Isese and incorporating Ifa and ancestor veneration into my daily life that this Plutonic power transformed for the better. Instead of carrying my family’s anger and pain, I’m working with my ancestors to do my part to help break the generational curses that have held us back for so long. Though to this day the insecurity demon that lives in my head sounds a lot like my mother’s voice, it can no longer steer me towards doing baneful magic out of suspicion and spite like before.

In order to get to this place I had to do something that my teenage self would have never even entertained the thought of. I had to forgive, and what I couldn’t forgive, I had to let go. Most importantly, I had to forgive myself, be gentle with myself, and learn to understand what it is that I needed to heal in order to feel secure in who I am. This is easier said than done, and my path is not your path. However, as someone who had to crawl out of their self-made mental prison and discover what it means to be a lighter, more loving, and more free flowing person, this is what I had to do to break free. There is light at the end of the tunnel, reader, and there’s so much more good within yourself and your magic for you to discover once you get there.

Don’t Let Transit Forecasts Break Your Heart; A Jupiter Return Story

I’m going to tell you a story and it will involve personal details about my life. Just know that I bring these up with the purpose of using myself as an example to help me draw my conclusions. I’m going to put a trigger warning here because of brief mentions of self harm and childhood sexual harrassment, but I won’t go into any details.

2020 was the year that everyone born in 96 experienced our second Jupiter return. I remember listening to the Astrology Podcast’s year ahead report and them warning us about Jupiter’s transit through Capricorn as a year where it may be hard for us to have hope and faith during a time of crisis. I also remember that around that time, tons of my fellow 96 peers were tweeting about how excited they were for their Jupiter returns to bring them abundance and good luck in business (in hindsight, the blind optimism was definitely a feature of this transit). Of course I headed the warning of the professionals, but I too fell for the blind optimism. Afterall, having Jupiter in its fall in my 5th house in a daytime chart usually doesn’t steer me wrong. I enjoy that it gives me a natural curiosity and appreciation for the macabre and BDSM, and luck when it comes to monetizing my hobbies.  

January 2020, I moved out to live in a queer household. It was my first time living away from home post undergrad, and even though I didn’t know these roommates all too well it seemed like a good deal at the time. February was when Jupiter returned to the degree it was at when I was born, and to top it all off exalted Venus was hanging right over my sun. I was told that this was going to be a great month for fortune and blessings, I even tried booking a New Orleans trip with my best friend. Unfortunately, as much as other people were telling me this was going to be a good time for me, I was miserable at work and didn’t find much comfort in my living situation, but even still I was hopeful that I could use this energy to create good changes and exciting ventures for the year ahead.  Fast forward to March 2020, the news of COVID started to become more mainstream, but I was still optimistic. I was still able to go out for my birthday and enjoy time with my friends without any issues. I had no idea what was to come just a week after.

Lockdowns began, I was laid off from work, and got cut off from my personal social network. For the first time in my life since I’ve been able to work I wasn’t making my own income, but bills were still due. One of my roomates introduced me to sex work Twitter and I studied how they marketed themselves to get subscribers and engagements on their posts. They made it look so effortless and a lot of the sex workers I followed had my body type, my complexion, and a lot of the time weren’t cis either (even though at the time my egg was still intact). I thought I’d try my luck with doing online sex work. After gathering enough information as to what to do I thought I’d be able to make my income back. Holy shit, was I misled. Not only was I putting in hours and hours of effort to get barely anything but reply guys in return, but I was actually losing income trying to get better at marketing. I had a lot of mixed feelings about being objectified, especially since everyone online saw me as a woman in a woman’s body and that came with it’s own discomforts. But this is also a field where if you market yourself as a whole ass person with real ass problems you’re more likely to lose out on money. 

I eventually had to stop and get a day job instead, and I walked away from that line of work with a whole lot more respect and vocal support for sex workers. They work their asses off and go through so much just to make ends meet and deserve to be compensated for the work they put in. However, I still had the rest of the Jupiter in Capricorn transit to go and let’s just say the entire time I felt like I was isolated in a pressure cooker that could blow at any moment… and it did. I was forced to move out while I was making less than minimum wage.

Some of the biggest take aways I got from that transit is to remember that Jupiter’s optimism isn’t always good, because the hope it brings isn’t always grounded in reality. But also to not put too much faith that forecasts, whether positive or negative, will affect you the same way it affects people who have the same placements as you. People live different lifestyles, have different personalities, need to learn different lessons, and face different challenges. I needed a reality check on the limits and conditions of other people’s generosity, and that’s what I got during my Jupiter return.

I think well informed horoscopes and transit reports can be helpful for those who need guidance on what to prepare for during certain days. However, I think it’s even more important to take into account how these transits have historically affected us in the past and put more weight on that. It wasn’t until I booked my first consultation with Ursula Rising (who you should absolutely check out, 10/10 recommend booking a consultation with her) where I got the real tea; that your first and second Jupiter returns tend to suck ass. After the consultation I looked back at transits that were going on during my first Jupiter return and compared that with old journal entries and facebook posts from when I was 12, and she was absolutely right. When I was 12 I was dealing with all the awkward shit that came with going through puberty, but I was also dealing with how cruel my classmates were being towards me. The girls hated that I, the dark skinned awkward Black girl of the class, grew size DD breasts and well defined hips after spending years prior calling me ugly and hurling anti-black insults. The nerdy boys I used to hang out with were suddenly pushing me away because my physical changes made a lot of them uncofmfortable, and for some of them it made me a target for bullying and sexual harrassment. Teachers were unwilling to step in and when I brought my issues up to my mother, she would always make it about how I should stop caring about being liked and worry about why my grades were slipping instead. I didn’t have any release or anyone to go to for comfort, so I started self-harming.

 *For the sake of not having this be evidence for any future hospitalizations, I no longer self harm and haven’t since I was 17*

In both instances, when I was 12 and 24, I was grappling with body image issues and how I relate to my sexuality while owning a body that’s so exaggeratingly feminine that even wearing tank tops can be seen as pornographic. I was also dealing with having systems, people, and institutions who were supposed to protect me be a complacent part of why I was suffering. Though I love where Jupiter lives in my chart, the times he’s returned were the times where I was forced to face the cruelty and apathy of the people around me. The hope for when I’m 36 is by then I’d be secure in my body to be happily sexual without complications and have a solid social circle I can trust not to let me down when I need them the most.

Bottom line is, transits aren’t going to be universal. Even if it’s an outer planet transit that affects everyone, the specific events and how things fall out are going to be different for everyone. Astrology is all about finding patterns and seeing how planetary movements sync up with the patterns we observe and experience. Which is why, as nice as it is to be reminded of easy and complicated upcoming transits, it’s also important to get to know these planets yourself and observe how they behave in your life. When you understand the patterns in your life and how they play, you can then make changes to create better, more pleasant experiences for yourself instead of hoping a transiting planetary body will do it for you.

The 7th House: The Secret is Boundaries

Astro Twitter and Astro Tok, we need to sit down and have a talk. I know these platforms can be really good legitimate sources of quick information that can be shared easily to the masses and many great and talented astrologers use these platforms for this very reason. But if I have to watch these platforms demonize and sensationalize one more astrological placement/aspect I’m going to have to put all these well meaning astro babies in time out. 

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of hype about the 7th house (7H), but it seems as though a lot of you read about the 7H being associated with open enemies and just ran with that. While I love the enthusiasm, like everything else in the study of astrology there’s so much more nuance that goes into the 7H. So let’s get into it!

The basics of the 7H

The simplest explanation of the 7H is the house of Others. It opposes the 1H of Self, therefore it emphasizes our relationships with people outside ourselves. In modern astrology, there’s an emphasis on this house ruling marriage, partnerships and all one-to-one relationships, and yes this includes known enemies but also includes mentors and individual friends. Just as there are layers to you there are layers to the people you know, and how those layers shape your relationships is shown in this house. If I may take a quote from Dane Rudhayr, “It is at this setting point that the awareness turns to the other; part of which is known (that which is above the horizon) and part of which is unknown (the portion of that sign that is below the horizon). It is of course true that there are things both known and unknown about any partner or adversary.”

In Hellenistic astrology, the 7H is known as the “setting place” and this is because it’s marked by the descendant line. The circular astrological chart represents a map of where the celestial bodies are located relative to our position on Earth. While the planets on and above the ascendant represents planets that are above the horizon, all planets that fall in the 7H are setting and in the process of descending below the horizon. Because 7H planets are descending, this house has also been associated with aging and preparing for death. While this is more prevalent in mundane and horary astrology, 7H transits could mark the end of a journey, a significant ego death, or a need to rest and pass on responsibility to another. 

It’s true that the 7H was traditionally not as lovey and cozy as many growing astrologers were led to believe was always the case when first learning about the functions of the 12 houses. You have to remember that marriage was primarily about the exchange and passing down of property and wealth through producing legitimate heirs and combining families. The whole ordeal had little to do with love, in fact this is a major reason why the 7H also rules legal matters. However, it’s also not all enemies and strife as today’s hot take astrologers may have you believe. In its simplest form, the 7H is commitments, magnetism, and our relationships, and you can be committed to knowing yourself, to your craft, your beliefs, and even loving or hating. 

The 7H as the Shadow Self

I’ve come to learn that the 7H is also where the shadow self lives. Anything that exists in the 7H is the farthest they could ever be from the light of the 1H, where we proudly wear our identities. As the 7H is naturally about other people, its contrast with the 1H can suggest what we assume of others based on our preconceived notions. Most of us have heard those age old sayings about how those who’re quick to point fingers are sometimes guilty of what they’re making accusations of, and how most people’s criticisms and assumptions of you are reflections of how they feel about themselves. This is exactly how the 7H can function and why we tend to attract people and circumstances that are related to the sign, planets, and planetary ruler of that house, for better or for worse. When we’re aware of what our shadow needs and wants, we can attract aspects of the 7H that can help us grow and thrive and make long term commitments that are good for us. We could learn to be appreciative of quality time spent with ourselves and understand what we need in order for our deep friendships and serious commitments to stay healthy.

When we’re going through it and processing trauma, the 7H can be a place where we try to find comfort and safety outside of ourselves. Unfortunately, when we make decisions based on survival, said choices only make sense when we’re in survival mode. Those same choices completely fall apart once we’re ready to regain our sense of safety and autonomy. Our shadow isn’t something that we should fear, though depending on where you are in your healing journey doing shadow work on your own can be very triggering. But if we spend too much of our lives unaware of why we feel the way we feel and why certain things trigger certain responses within us, then the 7H becomes the house of conflict and confrontation with others. 

What’s love got to do with it?

So how did the 7H get so wrapped up in the astrology of love and romance? A few paragraphs before I stated that the 7H has more to do with marriage than actual romance, especially back when the ancients were studying the stars. But we’re no longer in ancient times, and these days marriage is almost always synonymous with love and companionship.

Let’s take a look at the derivative astrology of the 7H from the perspective of the 5H of passion, pleasure, and romance. The 7H is third from the 5H. The 3H in a chart rules over communication, common knowledge, trades, close proximity, and day-to-day travel. From a derivative point of view, once you establish a deep level of affection and attraction for one another and have put the work in to establish mutual care and trust, the next step is usually to integrate your person into your daily life and activities. Those little pleasurable moments (5H) and day to day planning, commutes, and how you communicate with one another (3H) often lead the way for long-term partnerships (7H). I know I just threw a ton of astrological jargon at you so let me try to explain it in a different way.

The general themes of the houses can and do change as times goes on, because societies shift and change with each passing age and generation. While the 7H was considered somewhat non-romantic in most ancient practices of astrology, our attitudes towards marriage and life partnerships have changed since those texts were written. These days (assuming you’re alloromantic) we seek out romantic companionship with the hopes that it could turn into a fulfilling and stable committed relationship. In fact, when most astrologers look at the synastry charts of long-term romantic partners or when clients come to them with questions regarding their relationships, one of the key elements they look for is the condition of the 7H and its ruler.

However, it’s also important to remember that a good 7H synastry partnership can also function without the existence of romance. To this day, people still marry for resources and as a social arrangement. Celebrities marry one another as publicity stunts to sell a story for their audience and it works every single time. The wealthy still host debutante socials so that they can meet singles within their social ranks to combine assets and wealth through marriage and secure heirs to pass their fortune on to. I personally know people who’ve married their best friends for insurance and joint tax breaks. And even now as adoption and marriage is still inaccessible to most LGBTQ+ people around the world who don’t have the disposable income to overcome the barriers, queer people on opposite sides of the spectrum will sometimes marry each other so they can raise a family and coparent while getting their romantic needs elsewhere. These are all legitimate arrangements that can live in the 7H!

All’s Fair…

The 7H is first and foremost an angular house, meaning its energetic influence is very prevalent and apparent in the chart. It takes a very active role in how we shape our lives and make our most crucial decisions. Ask yourself, why do you crave or fear commitment? Is it the possibility of being known? Is it the hope that that person, that promise, or that goal you’ve been passionately working towards for years will make you feel more complete once you’ve secured them? And what happens when you don’t get what you want, or worse, you watch as someone else enjoys what you can’t have?

Now what if we’re so out of alignment with who we are that we end up attracting the version of our 7H that isn’t for us. I’m not talking about those who are currently processing trauma and going through hard times, but I am talking about people who go through the motions of what other people expect them to do instead of setting boundaries and making decisions for their own benefit. When we constantly choose to deny ourselves peace by prioritizing the will of others, we end up attracting what THEY want. You get to that goal weight, but you’re still uncomfortable in your body, or you get the Hallmark love story marriage but you’re so deep in the closet that compulsory heterosexuality completly took the wheel and you realized far too late. There’s so many more examples but I think you get the picture.

We invalidate our own thoughts and emotions because we’re taught that this thing that everyone around us is celebrating and is so obsessed over should make us happy too. So then we settle, and we compromise, and we bend ourselves out of shape to fit this image that was never ours in the first place. If this goes too far, then we end up so committed to the lie that even though there seems to never be enough compromise to satisfy everyone, we can’t seem to stop. We become hollow and enmeshed because we lost sight of who we are. And when we see others embody exactly what we were taught not to be and watch them be happy and comfortable with who they are, that triggers a specific kind of envy that can have us project ourselves onto others and set off a toxic, self destructive spiral. 

Overall

Humans are creatures of attachment. We’re attached to who we believe we are and how we identify ourselves, and we’re attached to the people around us who give us a sense of familiarity, more so if you have strong feelings towards them. The 7H is where those feelings of loyalty, dependency, want, and contempt live, and as I’ve mentioned previously those emotions can be felt at the same time and towards the same people. There can be a strong 7H presence that exists in the synastry and composite charts of two people who depend on each other for survival but can’t stand one another and take almost every opportunity to hurt each other. There are people who have an afflicted 7H ruler or malefics in the 7H who’ve historically attracted bad company and partners/close friends who were cold and/or bullies because they’ve accepted this treatment as their norm and don’t know how to break the pattern. There are those with benefits influencing their 7H who are exceptionally good at networking, reading the room and getting people to do what they want. A 7H synastry could manifest as best friends who compete with one another, a rival you respect, a marriage that’s gone stale, a teammate you work immaculately well with, a significant mentor, union of individuals who initially didn’t like each other, and of course a loving significant other. The 7H is so wonderfully complex because it exists as who we are when something stands in the way of what we want and who we are when the people in our circle are able to help us get what we need. 

As a person with a very loaded 7H stellium, I’ve struggled to find my identity in the past because I believed what other people wanted and how they saw me was who I was. Not to get all Neon Genesis Evangelion on you, but I later realized that the version of me that exists in other people’s heads is real to them, but it doesn’t define who I am. It takes a long time and a lot of development to truly understand who you are and why you want what you want. But if you want to attract the best that life can offer, then the challenge is knowing what you need, want, and don’t want from others and for yourself. And the secret is boundaries.

Mars, Venus, and Pluto: The Collective vs. the Oppressive Powers that Be

I wasn’t going to waste your time talking about the upcoming Mars/Venus/Pluto conjunction coming up since many great astrologers have been writing extensively on this transit for the last six months or so.  But what’s driven me to write about this is the recent Texas bill that aims to prosecute parents of trans children and remove the children from their homes. This bill, followed by Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, is a clear demonstration of the far-right’s race towards emplimenting fascist policies in order to exploit and punish the most vulnerable. 

While this kind of legislation is ethically appalling and threatens the lives and safety of queer youth, I have reason to believe this is a part of a greater trend going on in the United States. You see, the U.S. isn’t a stranger to stripping the rights of their citizens and threatening the livelihoods of marginalized populations. In fact the practice is about as old as America’s genocidal founding. This is a country that is built on the backs of enslaved Africans and to this day relies on slavery and exploited labor via wage theft, low wages, and underregulated and outsourced labor. This is a country that uses fear and bigotry in order for the ruling class to maintain control and keep the working class divided and unable to rise up against them. This is a country that has admitted to needing to keep people poor, struggling, and strapped to their jobs so that the ruling class has a steady flow of exploitable labor. The fact of the matter is that the U.S. having always been plagued with weaponized bigotry, violence, and poor social safety nets for almost everyone is not a mistake nor is it the direct result of a moral descent of those who hold public office. This is what this country has always been to those who are non-White, gender-nonconforming, not a man, disabled, neurodivergent, and have had to live on poverty. The self-destructive features that astrologers often associate with the Pluto return of the United States is just day to day reality to those who’ve been paying attention. All that Pluto has done is reveal the farce of the American Dream to those who it would have traditionally benefited if it weren’t for them having been forced to experience the consequences of late stage capitalism.

The Pluto/Saturn conjunction that brought along a global pandemic that we’re still grappling with has also awakened the collective consciousness of the average American citizen. As the world stopped for most of us, we had time to think long and hard about the way we’ve been living our lives. We got to see how other countries were handling public health and safety mandates and compare it to the care we were getting at home. We watched as people from countries we thought were better than get monthly stimulus checks, and were able to get the healthcare they needed despite their hospitals being overcrowded. Meanwhile here we were being told that $2,000 should have lasted us 6 months and to take our lazy asses back to work. To take a job that will never pay us enough to live off of or get shit on for not taking their scraps. One of the most notable changes that I don’t see a lot of astrologers touch on is how many average Americans have been radicalized after seeing how electoral politics has not improved our livelihoods. How changing the color and letter of the guy in office was never going to save us because he’s funded by the same corporations who need to keep their pockets lined with low wage labor. Not to mention the tragic police lynchings that inspired the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement (honestly, never in my life would I have thought I’d live to see a large amount of White people march for Black lives, let alone put themselves in between Black protestors and cops). We’re still dealing with the ripple effects of that transit, but there’s no denying that this notable shift in conscious. I believe the Pluto return of the United States and the events leading up to it has a lot to do with the death of the belief in American exceptionalism in the minds of the majority of the country and the resulting polarization between those who believe in extreme authoritarianism to control the populace and those who want to create a better, more equitable society for all. 

Now let’s talk about Venus and Mars’ dance towards Pluto. We’ve seen an uptick in efforts to collaborate against common causes since the 2010 Saturn-Uranus opposition popularized digital social justice, and even more so during the 2014 Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto T-square that helped shape the popularization of online counter-cultures surrounding social justice. However what I’m noticing now is more and more people are organizing mutual aid networks, fighting to form unions, willfully refusing to work for abusive employers offering low pay, and the rise of the anti-work movement. In short, the people are pissed and they’re organizing. After learning, witnessing, and experiencing just how unjust our society is and how unwilling our politicians are to change or challenge anything that goes against the wishes of their plutocrats, the people are waking up to the fact that change will only come with collective effort. The backhanded effects of this transit can be seen with the increased aggression towards women and the LGBTQ+ community. When Venus in Capricorn made its first contact with Pluto, Texas introduced its 6 week abortion ban, leading the way for a number of conservative states to follow suit. While many of these bills got overturned, Texas’ bill still stands today. Now with exalted Mars so tightly conjoined with Venus and both returning to Pluto’s grasps, Texas and Florida now threatens to out and remove queer and trans children away from their homes and families. The far-right’s excuse is the same as it always is, “to protect the children”. 

Each and every day we’re seeing more blatant examples of governments making decisions that are unpopular and unwanted by more than half of their populace. Oftentimes these decisions are enforced under the guise of protecting children or protecting life, but those who have been paying attention and do not buy into right wing narratives know that these are all control tactics to force the people into keeping a steady flow of wage workers through forced birth and force us all under the rule of Christian authoritarianism. As Venus and Mars inch closer to the heart of Pluto, it’s imperative that we make organized efforts into protecting our rights and the lives of the marginalized. It’s not a coincidence that they’ve decided to go after queer and trans kids since enough Americans still believe that there’s an LGBTQ+ agenda to harm children and many supposed allies backpetal when it comes to including trans people into their activism. The cycle for genocidal policies always follows a pattern, first they create a narrative about an underprotected already negatively perceived group. Then they create campaigns and movements that rally behind the idea that they’ll be able to effectively “deal” with the problem. Then their leaders get into positions of power and make moves to oppress and dehumanize the “problem” group. The other side cries about how inhumane and evil these leaders are while doing damn near nothing to challenge them in ways that could stop them. Then things escalate to a point where these authoritarian policies begin to reap negative effects and the people in power then have to create a new narrative about another underprotected group. This cycle can only end when the people organize in significant numbers to pool their resources together and fight to protect the very people who are being attacked by the law. States like Texas and Florida have had plenty of practice dehumanizing and harming the lives of undocumented immigrants, Black people, and Indiginous societies, hell most U.S. states have a history of doing the same. Mars and Venus is our wake-up call to ban together and fight for the lives of our fellow working class and our underprivileged neighbors and friends, and the closer they get to Pluto, the more apparent this urgency becomes. So I want you, reader, to ask yourself this, how many more lives have to be sacrificed in order for the people to rally together and take a meaningful and impactful stand against the plutocrats and against the rise of fascism as a whole?