The universe is your projection, and one of the finest ways to illustrate that is through astrology and the natal chart—the science and artistry of the cosmos as it pertains to yourself.
The Story
Astrology tells your story, and relative to your birth charts, you can see yourself reflected.
- You are the “who.”
- The planet is the “what.”
- The sign is the “how.”
- The house is the “where.”
- The transit is the “when.”
- The aspects answer “why.”
So on your stage of life, the planet is the actor. The sign is the role and script. The house is the set and scene. A sign indicates personal style, but the planets set the agenda—so having a Sun in Libra is radically different from Saturn in Libra.
The Language
The planets are the nouns, the signs are the adjectives, the houses are the adverbs, the aspects are the lines of dialogue.
Our natal charts give us knowledge of HOW we uniquely express our thoughts, our anger, our love, responsibility, good fortune, spirituality, and transformation—or in other words, our Mercury, our Mars, our Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, respectively.
Just as we are meant to experience the full spectrum of emotions, we have a representation of each of the above archetypes/planets in our chart, and they will all express uniquely, based on our natal chart makeup.
Once you know how to associate each planet with its keywords, you can understand that “Saturn square Neptune” means that “your restriction feels at odds with your freedom.” Knowing that, you can then look in your birth chart to see in what houses this is occurring, and apply this dialogue to specific areas of your real world life.
The Transits
When Mercury is retrograde, it will affect us all uniquely depending on how our natal charts are set up. Same goes for the Saturn return, or any other planetary event.
For instance, those born during a Mercury retrograde period may feel more clear-headed when transit Mercury is retrograde. And people with daytime charts (with the sun above the horizon) will experience Saturn more constructively than those with nighttime charts.
So when astrologers say, “be aware of Mercury retrograde,” it’s not that it’s gonna be a sweeping wave of default torment for all of us. It is a time when Mercury appears to operate differently, relative to us on the planet, and so the time calls for us to be hyper-aware of all things relating to Mercury’s keywords.
As another example, if it is your Saturn return (the time from ages 28-31 when transit Saturn returns to the sign it was in at your birth), it is prime time to embrace Saturn keywords: being mindful of your time, accountable with your word, and responsible in your dealings.
You can choose not to do such things, but will only be roughly escorted into doing them anyway or learning the hard way—the Saturn return transition is the real initiation into adulthood. It’s like being reborn.
Astrology and the YOUniverse
Astrology gives all of us an opportunity to be aware of HOW certain energy is going to manifest within and project from ourselves. Proximity and alignment of planets, gravitational pull, cosmic orbits- these are all connected in the physical realm and surely have an impact energetically.
It’s just like knowing that high tide is coming and not to camp out too close to the water; or being aware that the full moon may result in more intense emotions from yourself and others.
Astrology is not a religion, and no one’s “giving up their power to” or “worshipping” the planets. It’s not that we have to be “stronger” than the planets and transits—it just helps us to be aware of how our own universal energy is swirling within us.
The planets don’t govern us like gods—they are archetypal energies which are present within us all. Therefore, it behooves us to embody the energies of a planet; to take an active role in embracing the characteristics of each planet and striving to use them constructively.
As above, so below. As within, so without.
Either way, it’s all ONE.
