How I use astrology to guide me

Hello you

The pull I felt to return to education recently came as no surprise given the transits at play. Had I not understood the personal consequences of Uranus entering my ninth house of Gemini, I might have felt more conflicted than I did in deciding to sign up for A level English Literature at thirty eight.

You see, Uranus represents the unconventional, unexpected and chaotic. The ninth house represents education, foreign lands and spirituality. If you’re reading this as a foreign language, don’t worry - I’m about to divulge. But before I do you should know I’m into this. Very much, and there are many layers I travel through as my practice but I’ll try to simplify as best I can.

Astrology is an integral part of my life and I’ve stopped feeling the need to apologise for that. Rare is the day I wake up and don’t check the planetary positions, like the weather. Weekly forecasts are part of my Sunday routine. It’s been a slow but consistent learning of what lies beneath my Aquarius star sign and I’m yet to stop digging.

Four thousand years of practice, without any empirical evidence brands astrology as ancient mystical wisdom to some and pointless woo woo to others. I feel no need to prove either argument, but personally my astrology practice has brought me a lot of comfort, guidance and understanding which makes it feel worth a share. So whether you’re curious, sceptical or devout I thought it might be valuable to share the particular methods I use and how I feel they help me day to day.

This is the map of the sky at the moment I was born and I turn to it regularly for understanding both myself and my soul’s purpose in this life. You need your time and location of birth for an accurate chart. Each planet has specific qualities and each one is expressed through the sign it was in, and further in the house it’s in. I prefer the whole house system. The big three and best places to begin if you’re new to astrology are your sun, moon and rising sign - as well as the ruler of your rising sign.

The sun represents our essence, the moon our internal emotional world and the ascendant how we appear on first impression as well as the direction we’re travelling in, which is determined by the ruler of that sign. I’m a Libra rising so my ruler is venus. Every sign is ruled by a particular planet. When looking at my birth chart I can see my venus sits in Pisces, where it is exalted meaning the themes of venus in pisces are very important for my life direction. Beauty, art and love in a flowing unconditional style, and in danger of without boundaries unless I’m careful.

If I’m exploring my karmic lessons in this life, my soul’s chosen path, what I need in love, how I love - this is where I go. For my career I go here too. The answers to which career paths suit me best, how my brand should feel and what my core business values are all lie here. My tenth house, the house of career is cancer - the sign of home, care, emotions and protection. It’s sensitive, loving, deeply empathetic and intuitive.

A synastry chart is two people’s birth charts overlaid on top of one another. It shows connections. The relationship between planets and angles in the chart can show the dynamics at play. These can be harmonious and not so harmonious. One person’s sun conjunct the other person’s moon indicates a strong soulmate style bond. One pluto opposite another venus indicates transformative love that will not only turn you inside out but upside down before you rise.

The are lots of possible connections and they can explain a lot. Synastry chart overlays work for friends, siblings, lovers, children, colleagues. Everyone. For lovers in particular I like to look at the composite chart too which shows the nature of the relationship as its own chart by combining two birth charts as opposed to laying them on top of one another. When I see complimentary Venus signs in a synastry chart I know to expect us to speak the same love language. I’ve also learned which planets in which signs I feel most at home with in a partner or friend and it’s not always the ones you’d expect, but when I look at my wider chart or my north node which represents my soul’s path - I can understand why.

These charts represent the flavour of the lunar month and the your personal year between birthdays. The sign the sun or moon are in, the rising sign and any clusters of planets are particularly interesting to indicate energies or events. I use them loosely because I find I reach information overload at this point and I’m cautious of predictive astrology. Sometimes I’ll skip checking the lunar chart all together or just do a quick check at the beginning of the year to see if there are any stand outs. It can also be fun to look back at eventful months and see what was waiting to be uncovered. As a minimum I will expect more activity around the days the moon reaches the exact point where the moon was when I was born.

My solar return chart, I will look at around the time of my birthday and again I’ll look back if I’m hunting for clues that showed past important events - with caution. Mostly I’ll just check the rising right of each chart which determines the themes and energies to expect, then I’ll look for stellium or concentrations of planets in one sign or house as this means the themes here will be louder than usual. For example, the year the sun (my essence) sat in my fourth house of home and roots was the year I moved to Paris. The ascendant of that year was also Libra, the sign of balance, relationships and beauty and my vertex (point of fated encounters) also rested here.