Horoscope Principles for the week of January 12, 2026

This moment is about the chaos and collapse of institutions and how it meets up with the power of community safety, loyalty to those we love, and invitation to return to true security and safety. This time asks us to question our ideals and whether they are reliant on institutions that oppress us.

In some ways this is a collapse of the veneer of peace at the expense of exploited people. In other ways this is a time that is devastatingly filled with violence and loss. The more love we have and the more connected we are to our communities, the more we feel this loss.

If you feel impervious to the violence in the world right now, or protected from it, that experience of disconnect is its own loss. Connection with boundaries brings true safety.

This week is triggering, no matter where you land on these issues.

(Photo by me in the Palm Springs leg of my Inanna Underworld journey.)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events (this is a busy week and I’m not giving exact times on some of these because the energy is larger and will likely be present for longer periods):

• Last week, on Saturday, January 11, 2026, at 8:13am Pacific, Venus squared Chiron. The Sun squares Chiron on Monday, January 12, 2026 at 12:31pm Pacific, followed by Mars on Tuesday at 2:33pm, Mercury at 10:20pm on Thursday, and as if that weren’t enough the Moon squares Chiron on Sunday the 18th at 12:16am. Sooooooooooo . . . if your ego or your inner child feel overwhelmed and triggered by the collapse of institutions around you and the chaos in the world right now, you are not alone. This week brings hit after hit to our places of wounding and invites us to use those places of wounding to help others, even though we are not fully healed. Don’t wait to be present with those around you until you are perfect. Community requires presence not perfection.

• Jupiter continues in Cancer, and the Sun, Venus, and Mars in Capricorn opposed Jupiter last week on Friday and Saturday. Mercury opposes Jupiter on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, at 12:17am Pacific. This contributes to an overall vibe of boasting and exaggerating the truth this week.

• Saturn and Neptune are still dancing around each other in Pisces, getting ready for their big conjunction in February in Aries. This week Venus, Mercury, and the Sun in Capricorn make sextiles with Saturn and start making sextiles with Neptune on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. This brings supportive energy from the lessons we’ve learned around boundaries and the structures we can rely on when all else fails. In the context of the broader international climate, though, this could be supportive Piscean idealism or propaganda for the fascist institution. Check the information you’re getting with your own experience.

• Venus, the Sun, and Mercury in Capricorn also trine Uranus in Taurus this week on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. This brings supportive energy from innovation to the larger institutions, and again this makes me cautious about AI-based propaganda and the sense of unreliability in the messaging we get. However, I am hopeful that it means that the protests (Uranus influences technology and also liberation and innovation) we have been seeing make significant impact and changes to the institutions causing so much harm internationally. Check in with your body this week and trust what is in front of you.

• The New Moon is happening on Sunday, January 18, 2026, at 11:51am Pacific at the very last degrees of Capricorn. The New Moon is a great time to set intentions, and this could be a good opportunity to set intentions for 2026. However, this week could teach us a lot about how our bodies and our inner wounding handle triggers from the outer world, so I encourage you to set intentions that are nurturing and safe.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of January 12, 2026:

Aries Rising: Be yourself. If the institutions you’re involved in, especially at work or in your public life, or even the government institutions around you, are bringing up childhood wounds, pay attention to that. Who you are, your integrity, and your courage matter, and even if you may feel pushed to exaggerate your ambitions or accomplishments this week, it is more important to make sure your integrity is aligned with what you say and do. If you can’t be yourself in the structures of your public life, adjust those structures to you and help other people do the same. Being authentic and having integrity is more important than ambition. Suffering for the sake of blind ambition is not brave. Being yourself is brave.

Taurus Rising: You know you’ve made inner shifts when your external reality changes, not when you feel good all the time. Your belief systems have undergone a major revamp lately, including periods where you’ve felt major breakthroughs and major low points. Your social groups have also likely changed dramatically over the past 2+ years and you’ve learned a lot about connection and boundaries. All of these are part of what makes your personal religion. If you were the deity of your belief system, and your congregation was your local coven, what would your central thesis be? What would your 10 commandments be? The triggers you experience this week may give you some insight into your personal scripture.

Gemini Rising: It is uncomfortable to compromise what you want because of other people’s values, and it is also uncomfortable to go after what you want and risk disapproval. The question is whether you want to honor yourself and what you want or comply. This week triggers may come up in how other people express their values in your social circles, and this invites you to be more committed to going after what you want, not more compliant (your choice, but that’s my take). Your discomfort and social wounding may be painful to you, but it helps you have compassion for others and connect to others. You know what you want, that is not the question, but especially as the confusion and boundary violations in your work life wrap up over then next month, you are invited to honor what you want over compliance to the institutions around you or even the way your ambition may seek approval from others.

Cancer Rising: Partnership is meant to support us, both publicly and privately, not to weaponize our vulnerabilities. The wounding you’ve experienced in your career or public life is getting triggered by your partnerships and accomplices this week. This may not be their fault and it may just be because of the chaos in their lives right now. Regardless of their intent, it is okay for you to take breaks, focus on your experience, and receive these triggers as information about the growth that you’re experiencing. Enforcing your boundaries (especially your internal boundaries around that voice that says you should be everything to everyone) is key. While this ultimately contributes to the expansion of who you are as a person, right now it doesn’t feel like that, and it is okay to survive without putting a positive or nurturing spin on it for other people.

Leo Rising: Your ideals need to serve your physical and mental health or else they are out of alignment. Your body has gone through a lot not just in this past month, but this month may have brought up the way your relationship to your body has transformed since 2009. This week, the messages your physical health and daily routine have been giving you trigger some wounding that you have around your ideals. This wounding to ideals or beliefs could have come from early experiences in high-control religion, but really so many groups we belong to or follow can weaponize group think into unrealistic ideals. For example, athletics often teaches one version of ideal health. Academics teaches one version of ideal intellect. TV teaches one version of the ideal female body. The triggers you experience this week may ultimately give you insight into the ideals that align with who you truly are. But this week it may just feel disappointing. Enforce boundaries around other people’s judgments, and if you are sick, rest.

Virgo Rising: Approve of yourself and your projects, even when you run into haters. You may feel triggered this week related to other people’s values and their judgments of your creative projects or children. Confusion and misunderstandings you’ve been experiencing over the past 2+ years with your closest partners might contribute to this. Ultimately, your projects and what you create are valuable, even if other people don’t understand. But, this week, enforcing boundaries even with the people closest to you may give you some peace to focus on wrapping up loose ends related to what you’ve been working on for the past month.

Libra Rising: If you are not yourself in partnership, then your partners are together with a scarecrow version of you, not with you. You know this, and this week the wounding you have around being authentically yourself in partnership is on blast, especially from your home and most intimate spaces. If it feels like this threatens the expansion you’ve had in career, just know that even if the wounds don’t heal fully, this time of being triggered will pass. The boundaries you’ve been learning around your daily routine and health are supportive of your home life and intimate experience, as are the innovations and shakeups you’ve experienced related to other people’s money and sex. Let these supportive energies get you through the triggers around partnership, and know that your expansion related to career and public life isn’t done.

Scorpio Rising:

If you feel overly idealistic about what you can accomplish or how you can show up for other people, your body may suffer. Ultimately, your body, your mind, and your spirit need to be in alignment for you to be your most effective. If you feel pulled in different directions by what you expect of yourself and chaos in your community, take a pause. Release expectations. Make sure your ideals serve you. The New Moon this week gives you the opportunity to renew and revisit your local community and coven obligations so that they work for everyone.

Sagittarius Rising: Do a money ritual. You might feel like your creative projects are at odds with your finances and while you watch other people’s money grow, your wounding around your creative endeavors is triggered. You can substitute anything you value for “money” in that sentence. You may value stability, predictability, and hiking, and so you can sub those in where I said “money.” Even if this week brings up some compare and despair tension and triggers your wounding about what your creative projects or children, this week’s New Moon is a good time to do a reset related to what you value and what abundance means to you. Look up a money ritual, and even if it feels silly, try it out! If you have a tried-and-true money ritual, this New Moon is a great time for it.

Capricorn Rising: Ask for what you need. You may feel like the past 2+ years has been fraught with communication breakdowns. If you have done your homework from the universe, hopefully you have probably gotten a lot better about communicating your literal boundaries and needs, rather than passively hoping people intuit them. This week, what you have learned related to communication should support you in communicating who you are and what you need, especially related to your partners or closest accomplices, and especially as it relates to your home life. Your partners’ expansion and the chaos and activity you’ve experienced this holiday season triggers wounding around what you want for your home and most intimate spaces this week. That may be combined with the fact that institutions and reliability are important to you and we are facing national and international breakdown of those, which can feel very triggering for our safety at home. Pausing and communicating your needs very literally may offer some healing in this tough time.

Aquarius Rising: Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. Your physical and mental health provide clues about the transformation that will serve you over the next 20 years. Right now your mental and physical health are triggering wounding you’ve experienced in your early childhood education or related to communication. If you find it hard to explain especially any mental health struggles you are having, which could be related to depression, one strategy is to start at the most simple level with emojis. Do you feel 😀, 😔, 😡, 😱? This may feel too simplistic for you, but at its most basic level, communication starts with ourselves. The more authentically you can communicate with yourself about your mental health, the more you will be able to communicate with others. Asking for help is scary and brave.

Pisces Rising: Check in with your bank account (metaphorically and literally) before going out to party or buying new paint brushes. If your social groups are very active right now, check in with what you truly value before committing. The tension between the inspiration you’re experiencing in your creative life and your social groups is triggering your wounding related to your values and money this week. While this might feel confusing at first, remember it is okay to enforce your boundaries and choose what you love over the obligations you feel. Really. It’s okay! It’s even good! That may feel hard and triggering right now, but this will pass. Make sure your bank account, and your reservoir of abundance, is still there to serve you as you renew your relationship to your social groups at the end of the week. Your values are for you, as is your money. Your supportive friend groups will get that, and if they don’t, choose yourself first.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Spell Casting as Protest

Protesting for Introverts (and Extroverts)

A spell is essentially an intention spoken out loud. Spells are most effective when they are linked to our bodies and our unconscious belief systems because these are spells we intentionally and unintentionally take action to pull into reality. This is why healing our unconscious programming is important for intentional spell casting. And also, you can’t wait until you’re totally healed to cast spells because you’re already doing it.

Right now, most places in the world, there is some sort of interaction between fascist violence and community care and safety. This is true from Congo to Palestine to Venezuela to Ukraine to Tibet to the government takeover of US cities and kidnappings and murder of citizens. Many of us have seen this interaction in our personal lives as well, realizing that we may have idealized relationships that were not actually safe. In each of these spaces we see oppressive and homogenizing forces encountering community values of safety, care, and inclusion.

Protest energy is essentially spell energy, and whether you protest from home or on the streets, establishing spaces of safety and care is an act that matters.

This is one image that to me captures the power of individual intent in protest:

(Polka Dotted Dress lady in New York flipping off ICE tanks. If you know who I should be crediting here for the photo and the protest spell, let me know, but it was not immediately obvious to me in my search, so my apologies if it’s you.)

“Fuck ICE” or “abolish ICE” are examples of protest spells often cast in group protests in the US right now.

Some do it cute:

(Photo I took at a 2025 protest.)

For more introverted protesters, one way to put this spell into being is to draw into your mind’s eye the thing or person you want banished from your space and then imagine drawing a white X over that image and casting it out of your mind. This acts as a protest banishment.

This is how one local store captured that protest spell as a visual:

(Shout out to Noisette Pastry Kitchen, which, as Jack Kerouac would say offers baked goods that are “delicious and, of course, nutritious.”)

Each of these examples show how we can use our individual correspondences and what resonates with us personally to draw out a protest spell. Some of us may protest in groups, on streets, at home, or in cookies. All of this matters.

For the most effective protest-spell casting, we can craft intentional spells, and I’ll go into examples of that below.

Superstition Versus Intention

One of the most important steps in making our protest intentional is to understand the difference between superstition and intention.

Superstition is essentially fear about technicalities. This can keep us stuck and self-scrutinizing. When we are vigilant that we might do something wrong, we are not taking action and this means that we are not protesting or creating the lives we want. This is the most basic way we let oppression win.

We can honor the power of the spell casting that we are already doing, understand that the spells we cast have impact, and also release superstitious fear.

Intention is a unification of your mind, body, and spirit toward a purpose. This means that your conscious self sets a direction for all of your parts to follow. If your body or spirit is not aligned with this direction, you will experience dissonance, and this gives you the opportunity to do personal alignment work, which is honestly both liberating and devastating to the institutions that keep us oppressed.

Banishing and Welcoming

Whether you are protest spell casting for yourself, another person, or for your local community, the most effective protest spells include what you are welcoming, even if you are primarily casting a protection spell.

So, for example, “fuck ICE” is essentially a version of a banishment spell. It is not the most clear language because we use the word “fuck” to mean so many things in English, and so “abolish ICE” is clearer banishment language, but I don’t think Spirit is confused by what we mean when we say “fuck ICE.” Getting too caught up in particulars like that can be an example of superstition fear taking over.

In witchcraft we typically say, “I cast this circle to protect us from all positive and negative energies and forces that may come to do us harm.” That is too long for a protest sign, maybe, but the sentiment is similar to banishment. Essentially, “should you bring harm to this space, that harm will be visited on you instead” or “this space is sacred and surrounded by safety” or “I’m rubber and you’re glue.”

Most protest focuses on banishment AND the most effective protests also remember to include what we want to see in place of the oppression we are banishing. For example, most protests remind us of neighborhood solidarity, music, dance, art, safety and support, diversity, belonging.

So, when you are creating your protest signs or casting your spells at home, what do you want to bring in? That is just as important, if not more important, as what you want to banish and protect against.

Protest-Spell Crafting

These are the steps I recommend for crafting a protest spell. You can talk these through with a friend, write them in a journal, or think them through in voice memos to yourself (whatever works for you):

1. What do you want to banish from your life or environment? What are you protesting? (e.g. “I want to banish violence” or “I want to banish government intrusion on my community.”)

2. What are ways that you might benefit from status quo? (e.g. I don’t like change, I want people to follow the rules as I see them, I don’t like seeing people upset, I don’t want to disappoint people, etc.). The more honest you are about this one, the more effective your spell will be.

3. If you imagine the banishment completely successful, and in its place, you find the ideal outcome for you, what would that be? (e.g. safety for everyone in my community, thriving business, supportive friendships, equitable and supportive leadership, etc.)

4. Be honest with yourself about whether you are willing to release the ways you benefit from status quo in order to welcome the ideal outcome for you. This is uncomfortable, but ultimately so is status quo. Be brave!

Now, write your spell. “No” is a powerful spell if it is paired with what you do want. So if your spell is a protest sign, it may look like “No violence” or “violence” on one side and then, “Safety for All” on the other side. If you’re good at creating fun slogans, you can get creative with this, but clarity is important.

If your spell is for you at home, I suggest writing it like this (just as an example you can adjust to your answers above), “I, [name], release violence from my life. I release attachment to status quo and resistance to change. I welcome safety for all in my community.” Then, light a candle to honor your intention or integrate this into your other altar practices. I like to burn spells like this (safely) because fire witchcraft is important to my practice.

Because the human brain does not hear the negative, and positive statements are more effective, it also works, especially for protest signs, to only include the statement of the ideal result you want. For example, it is more effective to tell someone “Please walk” than to say “Don’t run” because the human brain just hears “run.” Take this into consideration in your spells, but in my experience clear banishment in the form of a simple “no” can be helpful and effective.

Sabotage Spells

A sabotage spell happens when we speak into being the future we do not want to see. For example, many people say, “Voting doesn’t matter” or “It’s all fucked anyway” or “Things will never change.” Because the people who say these things usually want the opposite of what they’re speaking into being, these are sabotage spells.

Sabotage spells are something we all do, so there’s no need to fall into superstitious fear if this happens to you, feel bad if you catch yourself doing this, or suffer from the self-righteous expectation that you may be immune from this. If you accidentally speak into being a sabotage spell , all you need to do is bring that vision of the future or statement to your mind and then imagine a putting a white X over it. This neutralizes it so that you can move toward being more intentional with the spells you cast.

As Within So Without

One of the Hermetic principles that we follow in witchcraft and astrology is “as above, so below” and “as within, so without.” Spells are meant to transform us, align us, and magnetize what we do want to bring into being.

While spells have power in our outer environment that power primarily comes from the transformative power they have inside of us.

So, for example, a spell to try to control someone else’s karma or fate will bounce back to you in an unpleasant way that draws your attention to the issues you have around control. (For example, I did an ill-advised spell to try to welcome into being the Harris presidency and spent six months with rashes on my arms, which taught me a lot about control, ideals, and my relationship with my body.) Learn from me and don’t fuck with other people’s fate or karma.

Another example of this is that in an earlier post, I offered a hex on white supremacy. I highly recommend this to anyone, and also the spell is primarily meant to cleanse us of the infection of white supremacy within, so that we also heal our external environments. For me, my experience of this spell was like an exorcism of perfectionism from my body. Intense and incredibly liberating. And (did I say this already?) intense.

I say this because as you think about what you want to bring into being, consider your internal world and your body. As you cast a protest spell, you will receive the conditions to create that result within yourself, and sometimes that is hard.

Get support! Access therapy, coaching, yoga, basketball, or whatever modality supports you. Reach out if the modality for you is astrology!

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of January 5, 2026

This week, we continue to be in the dark of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and we are entering a new year that has a number of astrological challenges. I say that not to be bleak but because the winter is a time of rest and renewal. It is a time to let your frozen ground lie dormant under leaves the trees released.

If you plan for challenges ahead, my hope is that you take more seriously the chances you have to rest now (assuming they present, and holding the awareness that for some people rest is a privilege). Now is the opportunity to release anything that drains your energy but does not replenish it.

(Photo by me in the Palm Springs leg of my Inanna Underworld journey.)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• Jupiter continues in Cancer, and the Sun, Venus, and Mars all join each other this week in Capricorn, as they approach opposition to Jupiter. (Mercury is also in Capricorn and quickly approaching the same conjunctions/opposition.) The conjunctions start on Tuesday, January 6, 2026, and continue through the week. The first opposition becomes exact on Friday, January 9, 2026. This emphasizes the Cancer/Capricorn polarity in the sky. Both Cancer and Capricorn are feminine or yin signs, and both are cardinal signs. Cancer is a water sign and Capricorn is an earth sign. They have similar emphasis on safety and stability, and yet they are opposites in many ways. Cancer represents the hearth an home, or the nest. Capricorn represents the outer institutions. This polarity asks how our loyalties are in tension with our ambition. They ask how our local community is in tension with broader institutions.

• On Saturday, January 11, 2026, at 8:13am, Venus squares Chiron, and then the other planets in Capricorn approach that square as well, as we go into the next week. This puts the spaces where we are wounded on blast, though at this point Venus and Jupiter both square Chiron and offer some healing, despite the spotlight on pain.

• Uranus continues in Taurus, and Pluto continues in Aquarius, as long-term themes.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of January 5, 2026:

Aries Rising: When your roots are solid, the branches of the tree of your life can grow more expansively. This week, you continue to experience expansion in your home and inner world, while you have activity and focus on your public life or career. You may feel busy with ups and downs in your public life, but grounding into the nest of your home will stabilize the rest. If you have felt wounding around your identity and what it means to be you, these will experience some opportunity for healing, even if healing is painful.

Taurus Rising: Your inner child is the root of the tree of your ideals and higher beliefs. The more you expand your inner child’s presence and allow them to occupy space, the more the shifts you’re experiencing in your ideals will have room to become something tangible. You may be more comfortable with ideals that seem structured and logical, or ideals that support you in getting the results you want, but this week asks you to make room for the expansion of childlike ideals. What are your ideals around play? What are your ideals around imagination? What are your inner child’s dreams and visions of possibility? Sometimes the most practical ideals are the most innocent.

Gemini Rising: Other people’s projections about your version of abundance is just information for you to consider as you expand how you think of an abundant life. What you value and your version of abundance is expanding, and other people might have thoughts about that. If they approve, you might be inclined to be drawn toward their version of abundance. If they disapprove, you might want to rebel against them or shame yourself. What you see as abundance does not need to be the same as other people’s, and being different and uniquely you does not have to threaten your ambition. You have a structured understanding of what other people value (cookies=good, punches in the face=bad), but abundance is not that literal. Look inward to what you value and use other people’s projections about you as information, not as a rule you need to follow.

Cancer Rising: What feeds you feeds your partnerships as well. Because of activity happening with your closest accomplices, you may feel a push-pull between what you need in order to expand into who you are becoming and how you show up as a partner. Filling your cup allows your energy to overflow to your partnerships rather than getting into a tug of war. Relationships are not pie, and so expanding you expands others as well. If you feel wounded around your experience in your public or career life, taking time to deeply know yourself and who you are becoming, while you pay attention to the partners who support you will offer some healing. It doesn’t change the past, but it can help you grow into a new version of you.

Leo Rising: Healing your mind heals your body. This week is a good time to look at your daily routines and how they support your mental and physical health. You may have a history of setting rigid or ambitious schedules for yourself and trying to live up to idealized standards of mental or physical health. This type of ambitious schedule can be supportive or it can be punishing and destructive. The key is paying attention to the results you see. For example, Western culture (and many Eastern cultures for that matter) puts a lot of emphasis on skinniness as a symbol of health. But, the correlation between skinniness and health is tenuous. If you achieve skinniness, but develop a heart condition from the stress of your strategies, your routines do not serve you. As you expand your thinking around woundings you’ve experienced related to your ideals, you may receive important insights as to how to structure your routines in a supportive way.

Virgo Rising: Draw inspiration from your friend groups and social circles in order to focus on the creative projects you care about. The spotlight is on your babies right now, whether they are material, human, or otherwise. You may have somewhat rigid structures and set ambitions for how what you create looks to the world, and this week you may want to consider the more tender and loyal way you handle your friend groups. If you treat what you create with the kindness you would use toward a friend, you may experience the ups and downs of creation with more ease. Any wounding you’ve experienced related to other people’s judgments and values about your creativity may receive some healing towards the end of the week.

Libra Rising: Let your career nurture your home life and internal world. You have some ambition or maybe even external pressure to make your home and most personal spaces appear a certain way, and you may see your career spaces as places where you create nests and comfort. This week, the two are connected, and the expansion you’re having around your career may be able to offer some comfort to the chaos at home. The wounding you’ve experienced in partnerships should receive some healing, or at least some activation that invites a positive transformation, as you expand in your public life and manage the activity at home.

Scorpio Rising: Allowing your ideals to expand supports your local community. It is hard to let go of old ideals or belief systems, but allowing them to grow into something new does not necessarily mean rejecting the old. A lot of activity is happening in your local community, with your siblings, or related to your early childhood beliefs, and this activity is supported by the expansion you’re experiencing related to your ideals. In other words, it’s a good week to get out and protest. If you’re worried about your health related to protests, mask up. Reach out to organizers to ask about health-related accommodations. Stay safe, but now is a great time to support positive changes in your local community.

Sagittarius Rising: It is just as important to learn to receive as it is to give. Your finances, values, and concepts of abundance are experiencing major activity right now, both positive and negative. But, the abundance of people around you is undergoing major luck. If your partner got a big holiday bonus, let them support you in your abundance too. It is not either/or and abundance is not a competition. If you have been rigid or approval-seeking in how you see money or abundance, now is a time to question that. You don’t have to be the best to receive, you just have to be open to connection and support. If you have some wounding around children or creative projects, letting yourself receive may send some healing to that.

Capricorn Rising: Celebrate your partners and accomplices in their successes. It may seem like your ups and downs are creating chaos in your life, while things are smooth sailing for your closest partners, but what benefits one person benefits all. If you get into either/or thinking this week, you are the one who will lose. If you can celebrate your partners’ wins, their expansion will overflow to you. If you harbor wounds related to your home life, celebrating your partners and releasing some of the rigid ambition you hold for yourself could help ease some of this, even if it doesn’t erase the past.

Aquarius Rising: Healing the body heals the soul. We are spiritual beings in physical bodies, yes, but that does not diminish the impact our physical health and daily routines have on our mental health. If you are experiencing ups and downs, and even chaos, in your mental and internal life, take a walk, get outside. Do something that makes your body feel good. If that means eating ice cream, that’s okay, but consider expanding your daily routines and physical health practices to incorporate what makes you feel good long term, mentally and physically.

Pisces Rising: What you create is a gift to the people in your life. You are having a lot of activity in your friend and social groups this week, and if there’s a chance to show and tell your creative projects, take it. This is something that benefits you and your friends. It’s not selfish to offer other people what you’ve created or show off the baby pictures of your kids. People may love it one day or hate it the next, but that’s just the weather. The expansion you’re having around what you’ve created is the magic. If you have wounding around other people’s projections about your creations, remember that you’re allowed to listen to the support and throw out the rest.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Inanna Shadow Ritual

A journaling ritual exercise

Inanna is the ancient Mesopotamian name for the Goddess of Heaven and Earth, and her story focuses on the journey to the Underworld. Inanna was drawn to the Underworld, ruled by her sister, Ereshkigal, because she heard whispers that in visiting the Underworld, she would learn and grow. Ereshkigal’s husband, whom Ereshkigal loved dearly, had also died, and although none who enter the Underworld live, Inanna wanted to witness his funeral rites.

As Inanna prepared to descend, she armored up, gathering her lapis lazuli armor and jewelry around her, and told her faithful servant that if she did not return in three days, to petition the gods to save her from the Underworld.

(An ancient Babylonian carving of the Goddess Ishtar, a later version of Inanna, showing her ready for battle with her lion and eight pointed star symbol.

In order to enter the Underworld, Ereshkigal required Inanna to abandon her armor and jewelry at the gate, stripping Inanna of power. When Inanna arrived, powerless and naked, into the throne room of the Underworld, the judges of the underworld surrounded her and condemned her. Ereshkigal turned the eye of death upon Inanna and Inanna died. They hung her corpse on a hook on the wall.

Three days passed, and Inanna’s faithful servant petitioned the gods to save her from the Underworld. Only the God of Wisdom, Enki, would intervene. He fashioned two nonbinary beings to go to the Underworld to save Inanna. When they arrived, they found Ereshkigal still mourning her husband, wailing at the pain of her loss. The beings sat with her and mourned with her. When she wailed that her heart was broken, they wailed with her that their hearts were broken too.

Because of their empathy, Ereshkigal allowed them to revive Inanna and take her from the underworld. But, as they were leaving demons attached to Inanna and told her they would need someone to replace her. The Underworld would not allow anyone to leave without a replacement. The demons returned to Inanna’s palace with her, and they came upon her faithful servant. The demons told Inanna she could be released and they would take the servant in her place. But, Inanna saw the servant despondent at Inanna’s loss, in dirty mourning garments, and awaiting Inanna’s return after having petitioned the gods to intervene. Inanna refused to let them take her faithful servant in her place.

The group approached loyal friends and servants throughout the palace, but Inanna would not let them take those who had been loyal to her and mourned her absence. Finally, they came upon Inanna’s husband, who was lounging in fine clothes and indulging in a buffet while she suffered in the Underworld. Inanna allowed the demons to take him in her place because of his lack of empathy.

This is one of the translated original versions of the story.

Inanna and Shadow. The story of Inanna tells the allegory of a descent into shadow or into the exile parts of human experience or human psyche. We use the term “shadow” to refer to parts of ourselves, of our psyche, that we are not willing to accept or that we think are wrong or bad. In Internal Family Systems Therapy, these parts are also called “exiles.” So, for example, if you were too loud or opinionated or emotional as a child, you may have been told you should be smaller. The loud, opinionated, or emotional part of you would be shut down and put into “shadow” or exiled.

While the hero’s journey told from a male perspective often focuses on a triumph of the will and embracing inner power over an external foe, Inanna’s story is one of delving into the depths of experience in order to grow. It is a story of the importance of empathy.

(Photo of the Cancer full moon January 2, 2026)

Pema Chodron tells a story, and I believe it is in the lecture Awakening Compassion about a man being bullied in a bar. In the story, he has a new leather jacket he is proud of, and a group of bullies take it from him. The man feels shame, and then as he is feeling shame, he realizes that there are millions of other people in the world also feeling shame. Although shame appears as a disconnection from the people around him, as badness, or otherness, actually it connects him to all of humanity.

Nobody escapes human existence without feeling shame, terror, loss, loneliness, and other painful emotions. Nobody escapes the underworld of human experience. In fact, Inanna, the Goddess of Heaven and Earth, knows she will grow from this, and she does. She learns what it means to be powerless and bereft, relying on those who are loyal to her. And she learns what it means to be supported.

She also learns the value of empathy.

Inanna and Empathy. It is through our own experiences of painful emotion that we learn to understand, on some level, the experience of those around us. Inanna approaches her mourning sister, saying that she wants to observe the funeral rites of Ereshkigal’s beloved husband. She wants to watch the show.

Anyone who has experienced grief will understand Ereshkigal’s reaction to this voyeuristic attitude. One time, I was in the hospital, waiting for my father to get out of a very serious emergency surgery, and people my family knew from church came to the hospital. I guess they thought they would keep us company? They started chatting with each other, talking about what they were going to have for dinner, and I could not wrap my brain around the fact that they had invaded our sacred family space to talk about their own personal interests. They wanted to watch. If I had the eye of death, I would have turned it on them. And I have seen those experiences over and over.

It is empathy that teaches us how to sit at a funeral and mourn with the mourners, like the nonbinary saviors do in Inanna’s story.

When Inanna returns from the Underworld, she learns who supported her and who feasted during her suffering. This is another empathy lesson.

Inanna and the Present. Many of us have been on an underworld journey or journeys, perhaps throughout the past year and perhaps over the past decade or longer. As I am writing this, it is early in January of 2026, and we are in the wintertime, the time of Inanna in the Underworld. In the Spring, she returns to earth as the sun returns. There is seasonal and personal correspondence with the story as I am writing it.

I am returning right now from a literal journey to help a family member who is in mourning and was going through a surgery. I spent the past months in Texas, which for me is an Underworld, contrary to my natural inclinations and affinities.

(Photo of Monument Valley I took on my journey into the Underworld.)

But, in many ways this has been a year of waking up to the ways that the world around us is harsh and unforgiving, especially to people with exploited identities. What do we do with the understanding that some people will never support us? How do we return to life after our journey into nakedness, powerlessness, and depths of isolation?

The story of Inanna is redemptive because through her journey, not only do we learn empathy and that there is value in sitting with pain, but also we return with freedom to leave behind unsupportive and exploitative relationships. While there is pain and grief in this, there is also freedom and renewed connection with our closest accomplices.

Inanna Journaling Ritual. Get out a piece of paper, blank document, or journal. If you prefer voice notes, open a voice recording.

If you have it, pull out some Lapis Lazuli, and put it near you or hold it in your hands.

Journal about the following:

1. What possessions do you have that make you feel powerful? This could be clothing, jewelry, property, household items, or anything else that reminds you of your power. How do you feel when you are around these items? Why? What resonates with you about them?

2. When did you recently hear of someone else mourning a loss? How did you interact with that situation? What judgments do you have about how you handled this or how the other person handled this? What “shoulds” come up for you about how either of you should have handled this?

3. Have you ever mourned a loss? This could be a death or even a disappointment. How did you feel? What judgments did you have, or do you have now, about how you should feel?

4. Imagine your guides, angels, and ancestors surrounding you (these are only comforting beings who have your best interests at heart like the nonbinary saviors in Inanna’s story). They offer you only compassion and empathy and they feel the pain of your loss with you. What messages do they have to offer you?

5. For each judgment you listed, write them down on a piece of paper, but before each sentence, write “I am human, and humans sometimes [judgment]. I love myself when I [judgment].” So, for example, if Inanna were a human, she might write, “I am human, and humans are sometimes voyeuristic instead of empathetic. I love myself when I am voyeuristic.”

6. Light a candle in honor of the return of Inanna to the heavens, and (only if you can do it in a fire safe way!!!) say each statement out loud as you burn them. If it is not safe for you to burn them, you can still read them out loud and tear them up or put them in water. So, take each statement, offer yourself love around the judgments in order to integrate the shadow or exile, and release each one. These are spaces where we offer ourselves kindness and empathy, not spaces where we punish ourselves.

This can be an intense process, and I recommend processing shadow or exile parts work with a therapist. The National Suicide Hotline is also available at 988, and I absolutely encourage you to access that resource if your thinking has turned against you.

Ultimately, Inanna had to release her ego, symbolized by her jewelry and armor, in order to go through the death and rebirth process of the Underworld. Ego releasing is very challenging and can be painful, but once we release the judgments we have, we are freed from the prison ego creates. While healthy ego is wonderful and defines who we are and what corresponds to us, when our ego exiles parts of us in order to maintain control, it becomes a cage. Integrating shadow an exile releases us from this cage, like Inanna’s return to her palace, with new strength and understanding.

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of December 29, 2025

This week is the new year in the Gregorian calendar. Happy newness as we transition toward lighter and brighter days (literally if not politically).

This week the tension between institutions and the ways we nurture our communities is highlighted.

How do you show patriotism? Patriotism has never meant blindly following corrupt leadership, but it also does not necessarily mean throwing ourselves or those we love into harms’ way with the hope others care.

This week consider that it may be a deception to completely embrace the nobility of suffering or completely condemn the baseness of comfort. Sometimes, fear is a signal that we’ve been conditioned to limit ourselves, and other times fear is a signal that we’re in danger. Life is a spectrum, and the polarities of either/or are only two points within or around that spectrum.

Consider whether your body is having a different reaction to your circumstances than your mind is and which one (body or mind) is typically more reliable in your experience.

(Photo by Mike Lewinski on Unsplash)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• Mercury in Sagittarius is the star of the show this week, squaring Saturn in Pisces on December 29, 2025, at 11:15pm Pacific, and then squaring Neptune in Pisces on January 1, 2026, at 5:33 am Pacific. Mercury square Saturn leads to interpreting communications more harshly than they are intended and could also bring doom-thinking. Mercury square Neptune, on the other hand, leads to people interpreting communications as they wished they were, not as they actually are. If you have important communications this week, write them down and be as literal as possible in order to avoid overly negative or overly positive interpretation.

• The full moon in Cancer happens on January 3, 2026, at 2:02am Pacific. This means the Sun will be in Capricorn and the Moon will be in opposite it in Cancer. Capricorn is the energy of institutions and systems, and Cancer is the energy of community and nesting. This full moon invites us to feel into places where we have sacrificed our community’s safety for the sake of institutions.

• Jupiter continues in Cancer, Uranus continues in Taurus, and Pluto continues in Aquarius, as long-term themes.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of December 29, 2025:

Aries Rising: Remember the work women contribute in your home life that allows you to have center stage in your public life. This week you are inclined to interpret what other people say as completely terrible or completely wonderful. The reality is somewhere outside of those polar opposites. Sometimes people are just saying words. Don’t let your wounded ego give you an excuse to diminish the support other people give you, especially the women around you.

Taurus Rising: Write down what you heard other people say before you get too certain about their intentions. You have been going through a process over the month of December of establishing new boundaries around how other people’s values impact the friends and groups you join. Your certainty over your own beliefs might feel rock solid right now, and still, there’s room to honor your childhood lessons. If the expectations, lessons, and values other people have imposed on you, now and as a child, feel wrong, choose compassion for yourself rather than self-righteousness against others. Focusing on them misses your relationship with yourself.

Gemini Rising: Take a pause before you hit reply. This week, you go back and forth between believing the worst about communications from your closest accomplices and partners and overly idealizing what they’re saying. Reality lives in a different apartment building, which, admittedly might be more boring than the extremes filtering your perceptions this week. You are focused on other people’s values and priorities this week, but the full moon is there to remind you at the end of the week that your values are what bring you the best outcome. Consider whether other people’s values support and compliment yours, be realistic about this, and gravitate toward people whose values do.

Cancer Rising: The most flexible structures are the most earthquake proof and therefore the strongest. Your attempts in your daily life to find the “right” belief system, philosophical solution, or path to spiritual enlightenment, may wobble between existential crisis and eureka this week, but the middle path is the one to trust. Similarly, if your focus is too much on your accomplices and partners, you may become too self-sacrificing—preventing people from partnering with you at all. Daily reality anchors us in our search for enlightenment like our partnerships with ourselves anchor us in our partnerships with others.

Leo Rising: What we create externally is only an outward expression of our inner life if we are authentically ourselves. If we are worried about conforming to other people’s expectations, rather than enforcing our boundaries around outside judgment, our creativity can stifle. Your relationship with your outer expression of your inner vision is going through a transition. The structures you follow in your routines are meant to support you, but if they stifle you, you may go into depression or self-doubt. Sometimes, you can’t please other people or prove to them that you’re good enough and care for yourself at the same time. Live up to your own standards, not the extremes other people project onto you.

Virgo Rising: Partnership is one experience of life, and it does not ruin our lives or solve our problems. You may be experiencing extreme thinking about your home and partnerships this week, and reality is more boring than doom or stardust. If you are suffering from extreme thinking, check in with your social groups for a reset. Now is a great time to focus on fun projects and the social groups you do them with, and both will likely help you step out of extreme thinking.

Libra Rising: Set and enforce your boundaries about how and where you spend your time every day based on your adult self’s care for your child self, not your inner child’s fears. The boundaries you practice now, even while they are confusing, will have long term impacts on how you handle your partnerships ongoing. Great boundaries are flexible and create safe partnerships; they are not prison walls that hold you in or vacuums that suck you dry. If it feels like home life and work life are in tension, release judgment and strictness, and allow your home structure to shine light on the brilliance of how you show up in your public life and career. That light from your home to your career is meant to be a spotlight you can shine in, not an interrogation lamp.

Scorpio Rising: Your personal value is not determined by what you create in the world. What we create is a reflection of what we value, but it is often a dim reflection. Your creations are not terrible or perfect, they simply are. Your judgments about them may be extreme this week, but this will pass, and in passing it may give you insights into what you truly value. Your local community and childhood conditioning are spotlighting. your larger belief systems this week, and this new moon gives you the opportunity to sit with your ideals and how they inform your values. Ideals live in the ether, and values live on earth. Together, they can help us understand how to align and be more effective in what we create in the world.

Sagittarius Rising: Who cares what other people think of you? Well, maybe you care is the answer, and that’s okay. This week you may be getting extreme messages at home or from your parents that swing between disappointment and praise. This is only information. Other people’s values may be different than yours, and you can take what is helpful and leave the rest. Don’t use this as an excuse to judge or condemn the values of the people around you, though. If you are able to use your clarity around what you value to support them, the returns to you will be impressive.

Capricorn Rising: Behind every successful person is a lot of emotional and physical labor of women. Honor that labor this week (including if it was yours!). If you’ve been learning about your boundaries related to siblings or local community recently, now is a great time to look at any unconscious extremes you fall back on. Do you over give or use rigid boundaries and rules to protect yourself from over giving? Look at your childhood conditioning around what it means to be independent or dependent. This week allows some tenderness related to partnerships and some opportunity to spotlight and support your partner or women around you. This might give you some clues around what it means to be truly yourself, and a supportive member of community, without falling back on rigidity or over giving.

Aquarius Rising: It is one thing to know change is good or “rejection is protection,” but it is a completely different thing to manage change and loss in a human body. Your mental and physical health are on spotlight this week, and if you have any unconscious self-doubt or self-abusive thinking, take that seriously and get support. Listen to doctors about your body and mental-health professionals about your brain. Your personal values and your identity are under major reconstruction right now, and there is no time like the present to get support. If you have personal judgments about what it means to engage in mental health support, that kind of rigidity will not serve you going forward. Bend and allow change because it is happening even if it breaks you.

Pisces Rising: What is cringe one day is trending the next. Don’t look to what people say about you to understand how you want to manage your personal boundaries and your expectations of yourself. Sometimes, it’s worth following through with a commitment, even if nobody knows about it. Other times, it’s worth disappointing people, even if it creates loss. Look to social groups that support and spotlight what you are creating to help you understand how you want to handle your personal boundaries and expectations. Your creative projects are getting a boost right now, so if you experience some haters, you can take their feedback as support for your next project or leave it if it’s not helpful. Focus on the people who spotlight you no matter what. They are the ones who will help you tune into who you want to become.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Hex White Supremacy

A ritual of protection from the harms of unfair favoritism for whiteness

This is a hex for white supremacy that I wrote, which you can use to begin the process or continue the process of releasing yourself from the harms of white supremacy. This is not intended to be associated with any particular witchcraft tradition, but is based on my experience of working with clients and myself on the essentials of releasing from the oppression of white supremacy and my personal experience of magic and manifestation.

If you are doubtful about your ability to engage with magic or manifestation, you can read the spell and think about how to engage with these concepts safely. Then, start to notice how your actions and inactions impact the world around you. That is enough as a first step.

If you are curious or confident about your magic and manifestation powers, make this right and safe for you and those around you!

This is the handwritten text, and it is typed out below (scroll all the way down) for better accessibility:

This is the text of the hex on white supremacy I wrote, and it is typed below for accessibility

What is a hex? My personal definition of a hex is “A ritual spell of protection from active harm.” This is not necessarily the definition others use, and some use hexes to cause harm, which I believe to be contrary to the essential principles of witchcraft. People can turn anything into a weapon, though.

If you use a different definition of hex, you can keep that, but don’t come at me about my definition.

The primary principle of witchcraft is “an it harm none, do what ye will.” This contains within it personal sovereignty as an essential right and respect of the sovereignty of others as a guide for conduct.

One way to think about respecting the sovereignty of others is that a hex should avoid interfering with the karma of others. This is because any time you put your fingers into another person’s karmic cycle, you get karmic backsplash. The less you agree with someone else’s behavior, the less you should insert yourself into their karma.

What is white supremacy? White supremacy is a system of favoritism for whiteness and qualities associated with whiteness. The concept of biological race was invented in the 15th century by people with lighter skin (“whiteness”) in order to justify theft of goods and services from people with darker skin. Unfair favoritism for whiteness is a source of economic, physical, and emotional dysfunction and suffering.

All of us enforce white supremacy in one way or another in western society, unless we are actively working to unlearn the assumptions and undo our participation in the systems that uphold white supremacy. The harms from white supremacy also impact all of us, even those who appear to benefit from it. Perpetuating unfairness creates more unfairness. Likewise acting with courage creates more courage.

White supremacy and having light skin are very different things. Healthy honoring of white ancestral history does not ask for unfair favoritism and is not violent against other cultural backgrounds. For example, I have Celtic ancestral origins, and the Celts, like other cultures, honored seasons, the earth, and community. We have also perpetrated incredible harms against people different than us. Both can be true. We can be accountable for harms and also honor our abilities to learn and grow.

Timing. You can hex white supremacy anytime, but as I am writing this we are starting the new calendar year and heading toward a Cancer full moon. This feels, to me, like an auspicious time to bring energy of what it truly means to be in community to my spells.

The moon will be in Cancer in the early morning of Saturday, January 3, 2025, and so Friday the 2nd or Saturday the 3rd capture this full moon energy if you want to use it. The full moon means that the Sun will be in Capricorn and the Moon will be in Cancer. Capricorn energy is associated with institutions and systems, and Cancer energy is associated with loyalty to the community. This is a good time to root out places where those manifest in unhealthy ways and commit to healthy expressions of both energies.

Do not place a timing expectation on this spell. This means, you may have to do ongoing work related to releasing white supremacy from your life, and this spell marks a commitment to do that work, not an expectation that it happen with no effort.

Steps. These are the steps to safely conduct this spell. If you follow a witchcraft tradition, use your system for casting your circle as you would with any other spell. This is not meant to replace your tradition.

1. Write out the spell on a clean sheet of paper. Parchment paper (like resume paper) is recommended, and it is recommended to use non-recycled paper so that old writings don’t mingle with your writing.

2. Gather representations of the elements and any protective deities, spirits, and ancestors who help and support you. For example, a candle can represent fire; water in a cup (I recommend a cup with no writing) represents water; music or a feather can represent air; and a crystal, rock, or oil you love can represent earth. Don’t overthink this. The important part is your intention, not the technicalities. If you intend to burn the spell, also gather a cauldron, pot, or other fire-safe container to put the burning spell into.

3. Go to a quiet space where you will not be interrupted. Either cast a circle or imagine yourself inside of a protective energy bubble.

4. Once you have a clear picture in your mind of the protective bubble around you, say out loud or in your head, “I clear this space of all positive and negative energies that may do me harm.” Invite any supportive spirits, guides, or ancestors to be with you.

5. Light your candle if you have one (SAFELY! If you light a candle, make sure you are in a fire-safe space with a fire-safe container).

6. Say the spell out loud, or if it is not safe to do that in your space, read through it and say it in your head. If you wish to burn your spell, do that now. Otherwise, you can set it aside.

7. Put out the candle using your fingers or a candle snuffer. Do not use this candle for another spell, but you can still light it and burn it down, remembering this spell.

8. Say, “This circle is open and remains unbroken. I send it to the cosmos to do my bidding.”

Text of the spell:

I, [name], ask in the name of the Goddess and the God to be granted freedom from the oppression of white supremacy.

I ask that my community and I be protected from all those who would use positive or negative energies of white supremacy to cause harm. I ask that the positive or negative energies of white supremacist harm be returned to those who send them out, for the growth and thriving of all.

I honor the beauty of Blackness.

I ask for the courage to encounter conflict, understanding that fear of conflict protects white supremacy.

I embrace my own flaws and mistakes, banishing perfectionism and defensiveness that would protect white supremacy.

I honor the space my body takes up and the sovereignty of the space others occupy. I release white supremacist favoritism toward smallness.

I embrace the wisdom of subjective experience and reality, releasing the deception of objectivity, falseness of exclusivity, and limitations of either/or thinking.

I ask for ears to hear feedback about where I have hoarded power or resources, and where I have tolerated others hoarding power or resources, that I might be restored to healthy and thriving community.

I release favoritism to whiteness.

I ask that my internal changes be reflected in my external environment.

I ask this be correct and for the good of all, harming none.

In no way will this spell reverse or place upon me any curse.

So mote it be.

UPDATE: I cast this spell on January 2, 2026, in the evening. This was very different than the Patriarchy Hex for me, and the experience was more like an exorcism than a gentle acknowledgment. I was staying in an AirBnB in Palm Springs, and I set off the fire alarm, broke the circle, and later experienced intense shame around my own judgments about what it means to get in trouble. My guess is that this spell will be experienced very differently by white people like me than people of other races, though I cannot be sure until you tell me your experiences.

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of December 22, 2025

This is the week after solstice, and we have started the days of Yule. This means the light is returning and the world is still in slumber.

This is time to check in on our neighbors, on our loved ones, and most importantly on ourselves. Where do you need rest? Where have you kept resources you don’t love that you are ready to release to people, animals, or nature that would love them?

All feelings are valid, but the thoughts that create them are often lies. This week, try out the mantras “All feelings pass if I allow them to be present in my body without resistance” and “Moral judgments create trauma, and I release them; boundaries create protection, and I enforce them.”

Photo by SIMON LEE on Unsplash of a broken statue mended with gold.

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• The Sun ingressed into Capricorn on December 21, 2025, and Venus is ingressing into Capricorn on December 24, 2025. This means that the Sun, Venus, and Mars are joining each other in Capricorn this week. When that happens, Venus and Mars disappear in the physical sky, and the Sun is the star of the show. Capricorn energy is the energy of institutions, ambition, responsibility, seriousness, and pessimism. Capricorn can have dominant culture energy and expectation that things be done as they’ve been done in the past. The symbol of Capricorn is the seagoat, an ephemeral creature with the ambitions of a mountain climber and the changeability of a fish. In Capricorn season, we revisit the traditions we follow, sometimes realizing they are fishy.

• Venus in Sagittarius squares Neptune in Pisces on Tuesday, December 23, 2025, at 9:30pm Pacific. This can be a moment of tension between our ideals about how we want our loved ones to show up for us, or the beauty we want to represent, and the reality of our lived experience or our self-judgment.

• Jupiter in Cancer squares Chiron in Aries on Sunday, December 21, 2025, at 2:07am, and Mercury in Sagittarius trines Chiron in Aries on Saturday, December 27, 2025, at 4:14pm. The square asks us to look at spaces where our growth may have outpaced our actual healing and processing. The trine allows us to give voice to spaces where our wounds are still present and allow us to offer healing for others.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of December 22, 2025:

Aries Rising: You can either win the battles or the war this week, but not both. If you spend your energy trying to prove you’re right to the people around you, your prize will be sitting in a room alone, while they party without you. Diplomacy is not weakness, it is being strategic about a long game. If you turn inward, instead of fighting every outward battle, you’ll be better able to say what you really want to say by the end of the week. Disappointment around what you unconsciously thought the rules of life were could unsettle you or make you self-conscious this week, and those feelings may help you in your mission statement. Spiritual bypass will do you a disservice.

Taurus Rising: Let being you be simple. You are a multi-faceted snowflake, of course, but who you truly are does not need to be complicated or confusing. If other people misunderstand your ideals, that is their confusion, not yours. Create (or revisit) your mission statement for life. Write it in 3-5 sentences, no more. Even if who you are has changed dramatically since 2018/2019, you are still you, and saying who you truly are is becoming simple, even if it’s not easy. If you feel self-consciousness or let down about other people’s values or your idealism of your friend group, those feelings will pass.

Gemini Rising: If your values and the wounds you’ve experienced through social groups are in tension, talk to your most trusted accomplices about it. You don’t have to maintain social groups that are at odds with your values, but you also don’t have to let go of groups when you aren’t ready. You hold your personal values dear and they are intimate to you. There is nothing wrong with that. Also, your trusted partners may have values you can adopt and nurture this week that may speak to unconscious changes you’ve experienced since 2018/2019. At the end of the week, your partners may have supportive words about the wounds you’ve had in your social groups. Wounds don’t have to heal fully in order for you to move forward.

Cancer Rising: Hiding who you are does not heal the wounds you’ve experienced in your career or public facing life, and that’s not really an option right now anyway. Who you are has gotten bigger, and now is not the right time to decide whether that conforms with your ideals or not. Your duties to your partners and accomplices may feel in tension with the personal growth you’ve experienced, but integrating that tension may be part of your ongoing growth. The mundane supports insights into your wounding and your growth. If you are self-conscious or disappointed about your health or daily routine, those feelings will pass.

Leo Rising: There is a saying, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well,” and while that saying normally sounds to me like judgment and pressure, there’s some love and sparkle in that saying for you this week. There’s a spotlight on your daily routine, everyday structures, and mundane support systems right now. If you’re tired, sleep. If you’re sick, eat some soup and give your body what it needs. Play with your pets and attend to your everyday needs. If your ideals have been crushed by (gesturing widely), focus on one thing you can do in your daily life to be healthy. At the end of the week, take some inspiration from children or your inner child about how your ideals might be able to move forward, without hiding the wounds they’ve received. If you feel some self-consciousness about your creative problems or children, those feelings will pass. Hold your creations to a compassionate, not idealistic, standard.

Virgo Rising: In the entrepreneurial world, the phrase “ship it,” has been advice to startups that means, basically “Perfect is the enemy of good.” Sometimes you have to test a product to know if it’s worth investing in before you perfect it. The kids these days say “ship it” to mean they support your romantic relationship. This phrase works for you this week when it comes to your creative projects, but not your romantic relationships. Create what you want to create this week, and see what your friends and social groups think. Wounding around your partners’ or accomplices’ values are on blast, and the end of the week will bring insights into how you can move forward around that, even if you are not fully healed. If this makes you self-conscious about your home life, those feelings will pass.

Libra Rising: Sometimes you just need to go home, lock the door, and sort your spices, color code your clothes, or alphabetize your books and records. If your expansion in your work and public life feel at odds with what you “need” to do at home, it’s okay to push pause and focus on home. Your luck won’t pass you by. The lessons you’ve learned about overextending or over-promising in your daily life might make you self conscious around your siblings or local community, but those are feelings that will pass. Your career expansions are also bringing up your woundings around partnership early in the week. Later in the week, insights from your siblings, local community, or early education will help express that wound so that you can move forward, even if you are not totally healed.

Scorpio Rising: If your babies (creative, human, animal, or otherwise) are not living up to your ideals, and this makes you question your values and investments, feel those feelings, but don’t act out of them. Make sure your values are informing your health, even if your ideals are in tension with your health right now. Values are different than ideals in the same way that having a dollar bill in your hand is different than a speculative investment opportunity. For example, if you have a vision of what your body should be, that might be in tension with chronic health issues or even the reality of aging. But, values such as truth, freedom, and travel can offer support. You are human and have a human body. Your childhood lessons may also be in tension with the ideals you have around your health this week, and sitting with this tension does not need to limit you if you can allow your ideals to serve you instead of you serving them.

Sagittarius Rising: Compare=despair this week. Idealism around keeping up appearances may sneak up on you, and it is not your friend. If you feel self conscious about how you look or the chaos in your house, it is just a feeling. If your partners and accomplices seem luckier than you for no good reason, remember that their luck and expansion contributes to your growth. It does not need to be a power struggle or an either/or. If you have wounding around what you create (material, fur, or human babies), and the tension between creation and money, the next month will help you define what you truly value and how expressing who you truly are can help you move forward in what you create.

Capricorn Rising: Being feminine includes having boundaries. Boundaries can be resilient, flexible, and adapt to your real life, and they can still be feminine. Whatever gender you are, you include femininity because you are human. The feminine principle in astrology refers to receiving, allowing, and generating through welcoming. You may have absorbed narratives, as we all did, as a child or feel judgment through your local community about what it means to be a perfect woman. These feel terrible, but that is just a feeling. You don’t have to prove these wrong in order to notice they exist and release them. Your partners and accomplices may trigger your wounding related to home, but if you do some automatic writing or free writing later in the week, you may notice that you had insights and compassion for that wounding all along. You are the right person to heal you.

Aquarius Rising: Get some rest! You’ve been leading the charge with your friends and social groups, and now it’s time to focus inward. You can’t pour from an empty cup. This year, you entered into a profound portal of transformation, and for the next month, process the lessons you’ve learned about your mental health since 2008. Your values may give you some self-consciousness around your relationships in your friend groups (you may even regret having leant your friends some money), but these are feelings that will pass. If you need a final push to integrate the lessons you’ve been learning around boundaries around what you value and your money, sometimes those lessons are expensive. Sit with those feelings and validate them, without punishing yourself (if possible!). Punishment increases the behavior we don’t want. Compassion allows the behavior to change.

Pisces Rising: If you expect too much from yourself, you will be disappointed not by your actions, but by the idealism you use to oppress yourself. In your work life, you may be quickly able to see the truth and lead the charge, but that doesn’t mean you have to tailor who you are to work expectations (even if they’re fun) or dissolve into what you perceive to be expectations from your public-facing life. Translation: If you’re showing up late, you may need to just take a day off. If you plan to go to the friend party rather than work event, it’s kinder to tell people, rather than expecting yourself to do both. If your money has taken a hit, or you have wounds around taking risks with money, you may get good advice from people at work, and that doesn’t mean you are a disappointment. It’s vulnerable to get advice, and it helps move our creative growth forward.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Hex the Patriarchy

A ritual of protection from the harms of unfair favoritism for maleness

This is a hex for the patriarchy that I wrote, which you can use to begin the process or continue the process of releasing yourself from the harms of the patriarchy. This is not intended to be associated with any particular witchcraft tradition, but is based on my experience of working with hundreds of clients on the essentials of releasing from the oppression of the patriarchy and my personal experience of magic and manifestation.

If you are doubtful about your ability to engage with magic or manifestation, you can read the spell and think about how to engage with these concepts safely. Then, start to notice how your actions and inactions impact the world around you. That is enough as a first step.

If you are curious or confident about your magic and manifestation powers, make this right and safe for you and those around you!

This is the handwritten text, and it is typed out below (scroll all the way down) for better accessibility:

Photo by me of the spell, which is typed below.

What is a hex? My personal definition of a hex is “A ritual spell of protection from active harm.” This is not necessarily the definition others use, and some use hexes to cause harm, which I believe to be contrary to the essential principles of witchcraft. People can turn anything into a weapon, though.

If you use a different definition of hex, you can keep that, but don’t come at me about my definition.

The primary principle of witchcraft is “an it harm none, do what ye will.” This contains within it personal sovereignty as an essential right and respect of the sovereignty of others as a guide for conduct.

One way to think about respecting the sovereignty of others is that a hex should avoid interfering with the karma of others. This is because any time you put your fingers into another person’s karmic cycle, you get karmic backsplash. The less you agree with someone else’s behavior, the less you should insert yourself into their karma.

What is the patriarchy? The patriarchy is a system of favoritism for fathers and first sons. Patriarchy as an economic concept that has fundamental anti-merit flaws and also has been warped into a number of cultural beliefs that unfairly favor men and maleness over other genders, such as rigid gender roles, infantilization of femininity, exceptionalism for upholders of patriarchy, forced birth policies, imposter syndrome, different body standards for men than other genders, stigmatization of emotion, and coercive silencing around abuse.

All of us enforce the patriarchy in one way or another in western society, unless we are actively working to unlearn the assumptions and undo our participation in the systems that uphold patriarchy. The harms from patriarchy also impact all of us, even those who appear to benefit from it. Perpetuating unfairness creates more unfairness. Likewise acting with courage creates more courage.

Patriarchy and masculinity are very different. Healthy masculinity does not ask for unfair favoritism.

Timing. You can hex the patriarchy anytime, but as I am writing this we are approaching the longest night in the northern hemisphere. There is a beautiful new moon in Sagittarius, and this feels, to me, like an auspicious time to bring nurturing, protective, and true energy to my engagement with harmful systems.

Night and the moon tend to be associated with the feminine principle, while day and the sun are associated with the masculine principle. Everyone has a spectrum of gender within them, not limited to masculine and feminine, and so when I say masculine and feminine I am not talking about men versus women.

Do not place a timing expectation on this spell.

Steps. These are the steps to safely conduct this spell. If you follow a witchcraft tradition, use your system for casting your circle as you would with any other spell. This is not meant to replace your tradition.

1. Write out the spell on a clean sheet of paper. Parchment paper (like resume paper) is recommended, and it is recommended to use non-recycled paper so that old writings don’t mingle with your writing.

2. Gather representations of the elements and any protective deities, spirits, and ancestors who help and support you. For example, a candle can represent fire; water in a cup (I recommend a cup with no writing) represents water; music or a feather can represent air; and a crystal, rock, or oil you love can represent earth. Don’t overthink this. The important part is your intention, not the technicalities. If you intend to burn the spell, also gather a cauldron, pot, or other fire-safe container to put the burning spell into.

3. Go to a quiet space where you will not be interrupted. Either cast a circle or imagine yourself inside of a protective energy bubble.

4. Once you have a clear picture in your mind of the protective bubble around you, say out loud or in your head, “I clear this space of all positive and negative energies that may do me harm.” Invite any supportive spirits, guides, or ancestors to be with you.

5. Light your candle if you have one (SAFELY! If you light a candle, make sure you are in a fire-safe space with a fire-safe container).

6. Say the spell out loud, or if it is not safe to do that in your space, read through it and say it in your head. If you wish to burn your spell, do that now. Otherwise, you can set it aside.

7. Put out the candle using your fingers or a candle snuffer. Do not use this candle for another spell, but you can still light it and burn it down, remembering this spell.

8. Say, “This circle is open and remains unbroken. I send it to the cosmos to do my bidding.”

Text of the spell:

I, [name], ask in the name of the Goddess and the God to be granted freedom from the oppression of patriarchy.

I ask that my community and I be protected from all those who would use positive or negative energies of patriarchy to cause harm. I ask that the positive or negative energies of patriarchal harm be returned to those who send them out, for the growth and thriving of all.

I ask for courage that my words and deeds align with fairness and equity for all genders, that I may correct patriarchal oppression when I see it, and that I rise to this challenge.

I ask for my eyes to be opened to any way I uphold the unfair advantages of maleness, so that I may return to balance.

I ask for my ears to be open to those who would reveal my blind spots about ways I uphold unfair advantages of maleness, so that I may return to balance.

I ask that the correction I make internally be reflected in my external environment.

I ask this be for the good of all, harming none.

In no way will this spell reverse or place upon me any curse.

So mote it be.

Thanks for participating! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their astrology and personal magic, sign up for a consultation here.

UPDATE: I cast this spell on December 17, 2025, and this was quite a mellow, affirming experience for me. In the weeks after, I was confronted with the experience of using the male gaze and scrutiny against myself. In all, this has been a supportive experience for me.

Horoscope Principles for the week of December 15, 2025

This week ushers in the winter solstice! Solstice is the time of the longest night of the year, and this year’s solstice happens at 7:03am Pacific on Sunday, December 21, 2025. It is a time of rest, recovery, and security.

In the lead up to this winter solstice, I am thinking a lot about the word “no.” The word “no” carries significant magic. Every time we say “yes,” we are saying “no” to many other things. Solstice asks us to be intentional with saying “yes” to our bodies and their need for rest and recovery. This requires strong and intentional “nos” to things, activities, and people who that not consistent with rest and recovery for our bodies.

For all signs, a magical solstice ritual right now is saying “no” to at least one thing, event, or person offering energy that is inconsistent with your body feel nourished and supported.

(Photo credit Benjamin Voros.)

For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:

• The sun in Sagittarius squares Saturn in Pisces on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at 8:33pm Pacific. This asks you to take accountability for your actions and inactions, regardless of what your intent was. It also asks you to release accountability for other people’s actions. When we take accountability with integrity, we can be realistic about how to change our behavior to build the lives we want.

• The new moon in Sagittarius happens on Friday, December 19, 2025, at 5:43pm Pacific. The moon squares Saturn and Neptune in Pisces on either side of this new moon. New moons are a time when the sun and the moon are in the same space in the sky, representing unified energy of the Sun and Moon. Sun is often associated with the ego, and the Moon with the emotions. New moons are a great time to set intention and start new projects. This new moon is activated by spaces where we may be taking responsibility for other people’s karma or where the systems and boundaries we relied on before seem confusing and no longer reliable.

• The sun in Sagittarius squares Neptune in Pisces on December 20, 2025, at 5:01pm Pacific. This transit asks you to take a nap! Seriously, don’t push through. Fall asleep during meditation. If you remember your dreams, tell them to a trusted friend. If you’re too sleepy to write them down, don’t let your idealism punish your body. Confusion is likely a sign you need to rest.

• Venus in Sagittarius squares Saturn in Pisces on December 20, 2025, at 9:08pm Pacific. Remember that nap you were going to take? Maybe extend it to a self-focus time. Other people are likely to frustrate you right now, and it’s okay to just separate yourself and set aside time to be alone. They’re going to notice your frustration if you don’t take the alone time you need.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of December 15, 2025:

Aries Rising: You are never wrong if, when you hear an idea that is better than yours, you are willing to change your mind and adopt that new idea. Byron Katie says that our beliefs are the thoughts we think all the time. This week, treat each roadblock as though it is an invitation to write a new religion, in which you are sovereign and the beliefs support your highest thriving.

Taurus Rising: If there is still part of you that thinks that when your friends jump off a bridge, you probably should have jumped first, now is the time to neutralize that pattern. When a friend, partner, or family member says something you find offensive, imagine the words in the air and painting a white X over them, neutralizing them. Just because you love someone does not mean you are responsible for their risky decisions or oppressive beliefs about you or anyone else. Try something new, like honoring your own values, and receiving only what is healthy and right for you from other peoples’ values. If this is confusing right now, study the relationship between actions and inactions and their natural consequences. Beliefs and values are the starting point for that.

Gemini Rising: An ally tentatively supports you from the sidelines, but an accomplice drives the getaway car when being who you truly are is at odds with oppressive, dominant culture. What it means to be an accomplice and to have accomplices has changed for you, and now is a good time to honor that change. Write three expectations you have of your accomplices and of yourself as an accomplice. Hold a funeral for the allies who have fallen away from your life and a welcoming ceremony for the new accomplices you are welcoming in. If you feel pressure to state your rules publicly, but confusion about how to do so, that just means that now isn’t the right time to go public. It’s okay to simmer with inner knowing and keep that private. You’ll know when it’s the right time to make an announcement to your TikTok following (hint: it’s when it feels great, not when it feels like an obligation).

Cancer Rising: Back away from the tinsel slowly. That’s right. Easy now. Put down the holiday expectations and burdens. Sit down and drink some cocoa. Watch that cheesy holiday movie. Look in the mirror and tell yourself, “You know what, self? You are right!” about nothing in particular. Don’t let the pressure to be a good parent, friend, sister, or community member become a way to oppress you. Your schedule is yours. Say “no” where you’re most scared to do it as a ritual to honor your sacred incarnation in this body. Things don’t have to become unworkable before you say a ceremonial “no.” Being who you truly are is not an ideal. It is an organic interaction between your spirit and your body.

Leo Rising: Before you judge your creative projects and babies (material, conceptual, fur, human, or otherwise) or defend them against outside criticism, consider what you’re defending them against. Is it possible you’re seeking approval from people who have disappointed you? Right now, other people may be projecting their own self-judgment, nonsense ideals, or rigid compliance with dominant culture onto you. Fighting with them and seeking approval from them are two sides of the same coin. Instead of focusing on them, renew your focus on your expression of creativity. Outside perspective is information about someone else, and only if you trust and admire someone related to the topic is it good information about what you create. Hold a new moon ceremony to honor your generative process.

Virgo Rising: In traditional Celtic handfasting ceremonies, you pledged your commitment to a romantic partner for a year and a day. Then, at the end of the year and a day, you reevaluated the partnership and whether it was healthiest to renew the vow or to make some kind of change. This week, consider making a handfasting vow to yourself. That may sound cheesy, but making a short-term commitment to focusing on your inner world and home life may ease some of the outside judgments and projections you’re feeling from your closest partners and allies. Are they projecting onto you or are your judgments about yourself filtering what they say? In the end it doesn’t matter because if you treat yourself with loyalty, your relationship with yourself can withstand projections even from those closest to you.

Libra Rising: The phrase, “Out of the mouths of babes,” apparently comes from a Biblical principle that basically says that Spirit reveals to children what education cannot teach. While this concept can be perverted to undermine the value of education, there is no denying that sometimes kids are uncanny. This week consider looking back on what you knew intuitively or learned naturally as a child (up to and around the age of 7) that has served you. You may have been facing obstacles, judgment, or confusion in your daily life that makes you question your early lessons and foundational relationships with siblings and local community. But, your inner child is still a little genius. This new moon is a good time to do a ritual honoring your inner child’s wisdom and the healthy lessons you learned in early life. Also, renew your commitment to reparenting your inner child where early lessons failed or caused harm.

Scorpio Rising: Money is energy all around us, and it is rude to reject it. Even if what you value in life is not money, the same principle applies. The obstacles and confusion you’ve experienced around creative projects and babies (material, conceptual, fur, human, or otherwise) may have made you question your values and abundance recently, but now is a great time to do an abundance ceremony. Remember that only capitalism says you have to produce and create to receive abundance. Your ability to receive what you value does not need to be tied to your labor or what you create. This week, write (or rewrite) your top 3-5 values, receive what the universe offers, and honor your natural abundance.

Sagittarius Rising: Be selfish. It’s not selfish to fill your cup or put on your oxygen mask first, but even if it is, be selfish. The demands of your home or most private spaces may feel punishing or confusing right now, but if you meet your own needs and commit to honoring yourself and your incarnation in this human body, you’ll be better able to navigate your home and private spaces. You don’t need to leave town to do this, and meeting your own needs shouldn’t feel exhausting, but if you want to treat yourself to an adventure or a date, now is a great time to do that.

Capricorn Rising: We all have inner critics, and all of our inner critics believe they are protecting us by being assholes. Your inner critic may be very active lately, and it’s likely that this protective part of you is pretty black and white. It may say something like, “There are truths and lies, and you can’t trust a liar.” The holiday season may bring up childhood lessons, challenges, and boundary issues that trigger your inner idealist (and not necessarily in an easy way). If this happens, the answer is not to receive or send out judgment and blame related to your childhood experiences, even if that is justified. The better path is to renew your relationship with reprogramming what you learned about boundaries at a young age so that your boundaries serve you now. If you don’t already have a structure for reprogramming your unconscious thinking, seek one out this week.

Aquarius Rising: Take charge of the holiday celebrations this week. You may naturally be a leader in your social groups, and this week is a great time to renew your license to party. The Beastie Boys would be so proud (single tear)! The only thing is that if you’re funding the party, check your bank balance first. If you’re fudging the numbers on the loans you’re giving to people (or taking from people), you’re going to find out pretty quickly. Just because you’re the party planner, doesn’t mean you get to be passive aggressive about people not paying you back or the work you put in that nobody asked for. Have people pay you upfront. Healthy boundaries around your finances may feel like a party killer, but it’s not. Good boundaries make safe parties, and safe is cool. DARE to say no to confusion around money while you say yes to your crew. I’m sorry this is a 90s after school special, but it’s in the stars.

Pisces Rising: Be the star of your own show. Your ability to take action and shine brightly in your career and public life is charged up right now. This is a good week to set clear intentions about how you want to show up and be seen in your public-facing world. You are ending a period of facing challenges around what it means to be who you are. Where does your flexibility end? How can too much stretching of the infinite capacity of what it means to be you result in carpal tunnel of the soul? The consequences you’ve faced for being overly accommodating may seem like they create challenges for fully showing up in public, but if you learn these lessons, it is possible for them to enhance the renewal of how you show up in pubic life.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart and learn more about their personal contract with the universe, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of December 8, 2025

We’re in the winter season, when the body leans toward hibernation and rest. I’ve been making cozy decorations, drinking a lot of tea, holding astrology consultations, and becoming a second degree Cabot Kent Witch. Yay!

Happy winter!

Photo by me! Image showing pomanders and Lindsey Lohan in Falling for Christmas.

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of December 8, 2025:

Aries Rising: Knowing what you believe is only the first step toward living it. This week, there is a tension between your higher learning and philosophy of life versus your unconscious patterns and ideals. You may want to live up to your ideals, but you have to get your unconscious and your body on board first, and they need more time. Slow down or keep struggling.

Taurus Rising: You don’t have to adopt other people’s values (or convince them to adopt yours) in order to belong. You have momentum around other people’s values right now, and this is in tension with the boundaries you have in your friend and social groups. You don’t have to fight with other people about their values or adopt them in order to be safe in community. But, you do have to test out what boundaries mean to you. If you have stops and starts, that is part of the process.

Gemini Rising: You can’t rush love, especially if you struggle with boundaries around work. This week, there is tension between the forward momentum of your partnerships and the lessons you’ve been learning around boundaries in your career, work, or public-facing life. If boundaries at work feel nebulous, just pause and come back to what you value most. Boundaries don’t have to be extreme, but they do have to be yours.

Cancer Rising: Perfect is the enemy of good. If you feel delays this week in the massive action you’ve been taking in your daily life, they’re not permanent. But, idealizing what is possible about what you do every day (or indulging in moral judgment) can create unnecessary delays. If the difference between your ideals and your actions feels confusing, pause, put your hands in ice, touch grass, remember that ideals should serve you and reality is the relevant experience right now. It’s annoying when reality slows down, but that’s part of being human.

Leo Rising: Haters gonna hate. Recently, you’ve had a lot of activity in your fifth house of creative projects and children, and other people might not get it or they might be too rigid to accept what you’ve created. That is just information, and it does not mean that there’s anything wrong with what you’ve created. The haters are confused, but you can take their feedback and consider whether it improves your projects.

Virgo Rising: Making the changes you want in your own home means having boundaries with those closest to you. This sucks. Your boundaries with your partners might feel nebulous and confusing one day and then very rigid the next. This is teaching you to learn what allows you to be free while still connected. It’s an awkward process, so take it slow, even when you don’t want to slow down. Fighting and struggle takes just as long as waiting for the right time. If honest conversation doesn’t work, regroup and figure out what is essential.

Libra Rising: If you fight the limits of time and space, you lose. You may have been running around, trying to do everything, especially related to schools or siblings/soul-siblings. The confines of time and space that you live in every day may feel nebulous, but if you work on your boundaries ahead of time, they’ll start to feel more clear. Plan to say “no” to everything unless it is a wild and passionate “yes,” and pretty soon you’ll get more clear on how many hours you have during a day.

Scorpio Rising: Scarcity is never generative. If you’ve been feeling urgency around money or resources, it won’t inspire you to be more creative or get your projects done. But, the tension between what you value and what you create is strong this week. If you’ve been feeling low energy or confused around your creative projects, that is coming to a peak this week. Take a break when you get confused and follow the processes and structure you’ve already built.

Sagittarius Rising: You can’t be in two places at once unless you learn astral projection. In that case, go for it. You’ve had energy around expressing yourself and what it means to be you recently, and that may mean you’re agreeing to go to all the holiday parties. If your house gets messy right now, it’s okay to hire a cleaner. Better yet, ask someone else to hire a cleaner for you, and they just might say yes. If expressing yourself and being fully who you are causes fights at home, take a pause, get outside, and regroup. Creating safety for yourself works better than trying to force someone else to comply with what you want.

Capricorn Rising: Put your thoughts on paper, without judging them. If you feel haunted by over-thinking and not sure where to go next, write it down. If you hate writing, record yourself saying your thoughts out loud and listen back. It’s not cringe. Pimple popping takes some puss, even when the pimple is your thinking patterns. You might feel the urge to chat or even cause drama in your friend groups (what? you? never.), but now is a great time to visit with your inner child instead of struggling with where to go and who to see.

Aquarius Rising: You are actually a unique snowflake, and in some ways this is bad news. If everything is flowing with your friend groups, how do you know what you value versus what you idealize? What happens when your friends hate something you value? The answer is having boundaries around what is private to you and what you share with your friends. You’re allowed to go to your D&D group and also win at basketball. What you value does not have to be everyone’s business. If it causes conflict this week, revisit your personal privacy and boundaries.

Pisces Rising: You are a full, complete human, and you deserve personal boundaries, even if work doesn’t like it. You’ve had a lot of action in your career lately, and that may be in conflict what what you need and even your own identity. Boundaries are not all-or-nothing. They are a process of defining who you are, and how you stay safe, even when other people are mad or you are mad at other people. If there is a control dynamic involved, push pause and separate yourself. Come back to the conversation when you can be fully yourself and allow the other person to be fully themself.

Thanks for reading and fulfilling your natal promise! If you or someone you know would like to dive into their natal chart, sign up for a consultation here.

Horoscope Principles for the week of November 17, 2025

Here we are, back again for another round of principles based on your rising sign!

I have been driving across the United States and last week, when I would have normally written this, I was driving through Monument Valley.

Photo by me! Image showing monument valley.

I was struck by how little affinity I felt with the desert landscape in southern Utah and northern Arizona. I am a very Venusian person and have such strong affinity to rainforests. I admire the desert and it is alien to me.

The moon let me take a picture of her at Arches National Park, though, which got me a little excited.

Photo by me! Image of one of the monuments at Arches National Park.

Like we talked about before, The most unique qualities to you specifically, in terms of astrology, are found in your rising sign and aspects. This is why when you read a horoscope, it may be more accurate if you look at your rising sign, rather than your sun sign. Most astrologers tailor horoscopes to the rising, not sun, signs.

So, here I’m going to be upfront that I’m talking about your rising sign, although you may also want to look at your sun and moon. (If you need a copy of your chart, visit astro.com.)

These are the principles to consider for each rising sign in the week of November 17, 2025:

Aries Rising: Values are about what we value, not what we imagine being right or about conforming to dominant culture pressures. You are finalizing and revisiting what abundance and “value” means to you. For the final insights in this transit, look to people who support you and offer you resources. You may also find luck in your nesting and home spaces.

Taurus Rising: Partnership requires mutuality. Who you are with yourself, and who you are with your closest partnerships, has undergone a profound transformation over the past eight years, and that is coming to a close. This week, you’ll have the opportunity to rethink how you partner and the flow between meeting your own needs and those of your partners, under a boost from the universe. Old partnerships might come back into view, and it’s an opportunity to be realistic about whether they are supportive and mutual. You may lean on a boost from siblings, traveling in your local community, or small bits of easy learning.

Gemini Rising: Realizations that fail to metabolize into reality are lost. The hidden things that have come to light over the past eight years are on display this week, as that period of your life comes to a close. This week lets you rethink how you have metabolized those realizations into your daily life, how you handle your physical and mental health, and how you manage your habits. Take a boost from what you care about and what you value in order to put into place habits that honor your realizations.

Cancer Rising: More of you is more of what the world needs. If you’ve been experiencing instability in your communities over the past eight years, that period of time is coming to an end. Right now there is a relationship between being more of yourself and putting out into the world creative projects that the world needs. This could look like supporting your kids, specifically daughters, or even just rethinking and sending out a project. Inject yourself into the process, even if you would normally be hesitant to do that. Now’s the time!

Leo Rising: Home is where the renewal is this week. It’s where you can rethink and even beautify your lair, although I’m sure it’s already beautiful. If your career has gone through significant changes and upheaval over the past eight years, the next few months wrap that up. This week gives you insight into the relationship between your home and public facing life. Spirit and any work you’ve done this year on your unconscious thinking are a source of blessings in this process.

Virgo Rising: Community doesn’t have to be deep and profound to be a support. Sometimes it’s just a little thank-you note or funny meme. Pay attention to those this week. While your higher principles and ideals have been going through a life changing transit over the past eight years, right now is a time to remember the basics. Let your community be expansive and expand your philosophies to accommodate them.

Libra Rising: You’re not sure who you can rely on for support and resources, but you can rely on yourself. The shakeups you’ve experienced related to other people’s money and other people as support over the past eight years is coming to an end, but this week emphasizes the lessons you’ve learned and the return to yourself, what you value, and what abundance means to you. Your career and public life is a space of expansion for you right now.

Scorpio Rising: Look to yourself, your higher principles, and your inner knowing for stability. Your partnerships have been going through a time of change and instability since 2018, and this week emphasizes the final pass of that transit. This week asks you to look look inward for stability and lean on your higher learning and higher knowing for luck and answers. Look into yourself to see the universe.

Sagittarius Rising: You can be optimistic, hopeful, and grateful for the windfall you may have received this year from other people’s resources, and still take care of your mental and physical health. Right now is a time where you could feel psychologically well and healed, and still, keep your therapist. Take care of your body. You don’t have to do the same thing every day in order to maintain healthy habits in the midst of change.

Capricorn Rising: Being a “people person” may or may not be a way others have described you, but this is a good week to explore that concept. What are the groups that you belong in? What are the partnerships that nourish you? Those are the spaces that are experiencing freshness, renewal, and growth for you right now. Even if some parts of your life feel unstable, the depth you feel in those areas are where to focus.

Aquarius Rising: Choosing what feels right and stable to you is not always escapism. Staying at work to finish a project that feels good to you isn’t always overwork. Right now, your habits and daily experiences are a space of luck and your career is going through a renewal and rethinking. The transitions and instability that may have been going through your home life are just finishing up, and your career has the opportunity for a renewal right now.

Pisces Rising: Unlearning feels less secure than sticking to our childhood philosophies. But, if you test it out, you’ll find that the process of unlearning and interrogating your long-held beliefs uncovers what faith means to you. True security of belief exists in being willing to unbelieve. For wisdom in this process, look to children and the principle of beginner mind.

Thanks for reading and being the unique incarnation that you are!

Horoscope Principles for the week of October 27, 2025

This is the first in an experiment in writing weekly principles to consider for each rising sign.

Did you know that in the West, we all someone by their sun sign, but in other forms of astrology, that is not practiced? It is also a relatively new practice in the West. So, you may be considered “an Aries” because your sun is in Aries, but if your moon is in Taurus, in India you would be considered “a Taurus.”

The most unique qualities to you specifically, in terms of astrology, are found in your rising sign and aspects. This is why when you read a horoscope, it may be more accurate if you look at your rising sign, rather than your sun sign. Most astrologers tailor horoscopes to the rising, not sun, signs.

So, here I’m going to be upfront that I’m talking about your rising sign, although you may also want to look at your sun and moon. (If you need a copy of your chart, visit astro.com.)

To honor this week, I searched for images of “brain organizing chaos,” and here’s one I found that I think applies to this week:

Photo by Nathan Cima on Unsplash. Image showing tangled wires and cords.

These are the principles to consider for each sign in the week of October 27, 2025:

Aries Rising: There is room for looking at the forest and examining the trees. When you have major philosophical insights, but you spell words wrong in trying to convey them on social media, it could just be because you’re having fun. That’s allowed. The insights still matter, even if the words come too fast.

Taurus Rising: Resources matter to you, and that’s not shallow or wrong. The systems we work within are ideas, but the impacts they have are practical and real. Your resources may have been feeling more unstable than usual this year, and this week the principle to consider is actually a silly rhyme. When you find yourself in scare-city, move to curio-city instead. Even when it feels serious and dire, if you can add in a little bit of curiosity and gaming, that can create movement, insight, or surprising internal or external resources.

Gemini Rising: No person, experience, group, or belief system is a monolith. While you may have had a major identity shift or two already this year, and questioned who you are on a fundamental level, that adds to your nuanced experience of life. The principle of multiplicity says that no human is one unified being, but instead we are made up of parts. This week think about the difference between being curious about your parts, versus being curious about another person. Sometimes, the people closest to us have the most insightful curiosity that lead to the most impactful growth experiences in our lives.

Cancer Rising: Put your oxygen mask on first, before you try to help the people around you. This is an important safety rule for a reason and this week it is extra activated. The shifts you’ve been making in your unconscious thinking or mental health could either create a crisis or massive growth. How this plays out for you is determined by how much you pay attention to your daily habits and how they nurture you. If you are helping others from an empty cup, you are not actually helping.

Leo Rising: Failure is the path to success. In your areas of social groups and your creative endeavors, you might be experiencing significant changes. This week should bring insights and experiments. Love all of the creations you make and the changes in the social groups you rely on. Even if at first this feels like failure or not what you expected, getting results we didn’t plan for is part of the growth process. Experiment toward what you want. Love and release what you don’t.

Virgo Rising: Perfect is the enemy of good. Done is better than good. You are going through an intense process of change in your work life that started earlier this year, and this can be intensely triggering for someone who wants things done right. This week, you may have a lot of mental activity around what’s going on at home, by contrast, and even tension between the shakeups in career and public life versus how you show up at home. If you find yourself too committed to one answer being the right answer, take a break, move to a new space, and look at things from a different perspective. The short-term answer may not be the same as the long-term answer. The past may not look the same as the future. Both can be valid, even if they are different.

Libra Rising: Write it down. When the insights come this week, put them on paper or in a notes app. Your values, philosophies, rules, and personal policies are undergoing a major shift, which is triggered this week. You may experience insights from a sibling or close friend that change how you see things. This may be quick moving, so develop a practice of writing down the insights as they come so you can integrate them later.

Scorpio Rising: Having more than one answer creates more than one resource. How you rely on other people and how you grieve is changing this year, and this week activates those changes. It may feel like when you have more than one idea about how you provide for yourself or create abundance around you, it triggers instability in the ways other people support you or it even brings up grief about how you have been unsupported. Let the ideas come, and also remember you have plenty of experience dealing with grief and unreliable people. You know you can count on yourself, but that’s only a start.

Sagittarius Rising: Brilliance is a state of being, not doing. If your partnerships have changed this year, it may have impacted how you see yourself and how you rely on other people versus yourself. This week there is an emphasis on knowing yourself, understanding yourself, and reaching into the deep resource of the truths you know. When you share your wisdom with others, it is partly sharing yourself, even if others are not ready to hear it.

Capricorn Rising: Safety first! This applies to both your physical body and your mind. You may be inclined to push yourself and expect more from yourself than you expect from others, but this week asks you to look inward and think before you leap. The unconscious insights you are having now will help you along the way, even if you aren’t aware of them yet, but take it easy on your body. Acknowledge your truths, and also protect your physical incarnation.

Aquarius Rising: Ship it! The projects you’ve been creating—put them in front of human eyes! Even if people hate them, it will help you improve. But, this week you’ll have insight into what people want. This is a great week for you to get insight into how other people are receiving your creations. If you have children, and they make you a drawing, think of the funniest place you could hang it. You might have a tendency to over think how people are receiving what you bring to the world, but manifestation starts with an idea. Even if they seem weird or you’re not sure, test out your projects with groups you trust.

Pisces Rising: Sometimes you can’t think your way out of chaos, but other times you can. This is one of those weeks where the chaos and changes at home or in how you feel about your home may seem at odds with the insights you’re having at work. But, it’s possible that the chaos at home is just the changeup that your insights at work need. How can you look at your career and public life in a new way and release the single-mindedness that sometimes takes over there? How can changes at home facilitate a new public-facing you? If you release control over outcome, you will be better prepared to catch the wisdom when it comes.

Thanks for reading and being the unique incarnation that you are!

The Universe is Generative

The seventh Hermetic principle is the principle of Gender, which I initially sighed at, because of the language introducing the principle in the Kybalion, which focuses on binary gender. But, as you look more into this principle, it clarifies, “The word ‘Gender’ is derived from the Latin root meaning ‘to beget; to procreate; to generate; to create; to produce.’” In this way, it lays the foundation of an interesting discussion of the spectrum of gender and what it means to generate or be creative.

This principle made me think more deeply into the concept of what we call gender and the link between how we culturally talk about gender and how we talk about what is generative or creative about us. When we talk about gender as limited to a binary, we essentially say that the female or male sex assigned at birth determines what it means for that person to be generative or creative and creativity is limited to a person’s ability or interest in participating in conception of a human embryo.

This is clearly an absurd limitation and the creativity of the universe and even of each human goes far beyond this limited binary and limited act. At least there is absurdity in saying that a person who chooses not to participate in the creation of a human embryo has no gender. Those who would advocate a gender binary would not even agree to that concept, although it is the logical conclusion of fixation on pregnancy as meaningful to gender.

In astrology, we talk specifically about gender by dividing signs into “masculine” or “feminine” much like many languages divide words or speaking into masculine and feminine. But, even within astrology, we can see this as a spectrum, and every person, regardless of the sex assigned to them at birth has a range of masculine or feminine signs within their natal chart. You can check them out here:

Image showing the traditional masculine and feminine designations of signs with every other sign being masculine (starting with Aries) and the others being feminine (ending with Pisces).

Each of the planets, not just the moon, is constantly traveling through the zodiac, each with their own influence on each other, us, and our environments, and so much of astrology is the study of the correlation of the ebbs and flows of the astrological cycles to the ebbs and flows on earth.

In law, the ebbs and flows of progress and regress are something that have enormous impact on each of our lives, even if we do not see them right away. Some believe that if you set realistic, but small, expectations for progress, you will get more traction and establish a better foundation for future progress. This was the theory Ruth Bader Ginsberg had when she advocated for gender equality using the disadvantage to men as her focus. Others believe a “blitzkrieg” of extreme action is more effective, believing that the more extreme the action, the less opportunity there is to counteract it. This is the theory behind the implementation of Project 2025.

There is also an increasingly large gap between what the general public in the United States understands to be the state of progress and regress and what legal professionals understand it to be.

For example, when COVID vaccines first came out, I received quite a few calls from conservative people who wanted to avoid getting vaccines where they were mandatory, based on conservative religious views. When I told them about their limited options, they explained to me that they understood their right to work with their medical doctors for healthcare to be absolute. Of course, those rights have been undermined by conservative advocates who are against women receiving reproductive healthcare. But, the conservative people I talked to were very surprised to hear that.

That raises the question as to whether the Principle of Rhythm applies to understanding and ignorance just as it does to other topics. We may have general moments of clarity and inspiration as flow points and moments of misunderstanding and ignorance as ebb points.

The best resources I have found for tracking this and understanding our own ebbs and flows in life is to watch the moons through the astrological chart. In generally tracking the moons for years, I have found that when the moon is in hard aspect to Pluto, and when there is a full moon, I have very low and agitated energy. While this is a work in progress, I have started taking those days off, knowing that they are ebb times. They are better for reflection, emotional processing, and introspection than attempting to create and influence the world.

My theory is that the more we study our own ebbs and flows and allow them to happen, the more effective we can be in influencing the ebbs and flows of our communities and the better we can reduce frustration.

Chance is but a name for Law not recognized

The sixth Hermetic Principle is that of Cause and Effect. The Kybalion, which is the source of the Hermetic Principles says, “Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes Law.”

As a lawyer, astrologer, and systems enthusiast (sometimes aka control enthusiast) this is one of my favorite Hermetic principles. No dis intended at the other principles, though. They’re all lovely.

The Hermetic wisdom behind the principle of cause and effect says that all of our actions and inactions, down to the level of our thoughts, have impacts. This can be overwhelming to think about at first, but is ultimately empowering.

For example, imagine sitting on a couch under a blanket and thinking about someone you love. Your mind fills with thoughts of what you like about them, your body relaxes, and you may even decide to send them a little note. Your little love note makes their day better (or worse depending on their internal state), and then they express how they are feeling to their dog, and so forth.

And, at the same time, while you are sitting on the couch thinking about them, you are not doing 1000 other things. So, the inaction also has impacts. You are not robbing a bank, you are not protesting fascism, you are not learning to speak Japanese.

We understand our thoughts, feelings, and actions most clearly by looking at the external results (otherwise known as consequences or effects) we have. When we can take responsibility for the results we have, we can be most empowered and then look at how to get results that are in better alignment with who we are.

Legal Cause and Effect. This principle is solidly baked into the legal system in the US, and I imagine it is central to most other legal systems, though feel free to tell me if you know of a system that does not center cause and effect. However, the ways we handle this in the legal system is also based on exceptionalism and hierarchy, so we both nominally center cause and effect, and then typically deny the system’s participation in the cause and effect.

In the law, causation is a central component of proving any crime or civil violation, down to the level of thoughts (or, “mens rea” as you may know from Legally Blonde). For example, in proving a violation of law occurred, we have to prove that the harm happened (the effect), and that the violation of law was the cause of that harm. We also have to prove the level of intent the person had. Were they ignoring the rules or were they violating the rules intentionally, knowing what the rules were? That makes a difference in how the law handles a situation.

What the legal system generally does not evaluate is its own cause and effect. So, most people within the legal system are just “doing their job,” which is processing paperwork, talking on the phone, or making and evaluating arguments in court. Most judges have a sentencing docket during their day in which they evaluate recommended criminal punishments. On any given day, a judge and lawyers may send a handful of people to live in a cage for a certain amount of time. But, because the intent of the judge and lawyers is to follow the system, we call that laudable, while we call someone who puts other people in cages outside of the system a criminal and even a human rights violator.

In some ways, we justify effects if they live within a system that we do not justify outside of a system, although we are still a cause or the cause of that effect.

Image showing a cycle of harm in the legal system. One person causes harm, then the system causes harm and the cycle repeats.

In this way respectability culture and hierarchy give us cause and effect blindness. And, at the same time, what do we do with people who are routinely causing harm in order to decrease harm and increase community safety, which most of us want? If we are more honest about cause an effect we can form a better answer to that, and in many areas and systems we already have. For example, based on watching cause and effect we know that access to medical and mental health treatment and housing significantly reduces crime and other harms, while prison often increases risk of harms. So, if we really want to make communities safer, cause and effect honesty is a crucial part of that.

Cause and Effect in Astrology. In astrology, we mostly talk about correlation, rather than causation, but astrology provides a personal framework for talking about cause and effect, versus a the social framework that the legal system provides. So, astrology is the study of the correlation between celestial events and earthly or personal events. There has historically been a debate over whether astrology says the stars “cause” earthly events or whether the stars are a map or reflection of fate, like a mirror that provides impressions of the progression of time, rather than reflecting an exact image of the present. Chris Brennon’s Hellenistic Astrology course goes into this concept in much more detail, so check that out if it is an interesting topic to you.

On a personal level, astrology, and specifically the signs of the zodiac, provide a map of our own inclinations that start a conversation about our personal causes and effects and whether they are in alignment with who we truly are and who we want to be.

As a personal exploration, look at your own astrological natal chart (go to astro.com to get it if you don’t already have it) and find out where the signs are in your chart and how emphasized they are. While you might have heard that you are an “Aries,” meaning your sun is in Aries, a true natal chart reading includes all of the signs with specific placements and emphases regarding them. So, because we all have all of the signs present in our chart, and in that way we are all a unique little universe or mirror of the larger universe, we can look at our own charts to be more intentional about our internal and external causes and effects.

I may go into these in more depth for each sign, but below is a brief overview of each sign in terms of how they participate in cause and effect on a basic level.

When you look at the components that make up who you are, you can better understand yourself as a Cause in life, rather than as simply an Effect of external circumstances or upbringing.

This is a basic overview of the signs as they engage with cause and effect, though this is by no means comprehensive.

Aries. Aries is an active (yang), cardinal, fire sign. This means that if you think about the element of fire, you understand something about Aries. “Cardinal” means the sign is associated with leading.

Taurus. Taurus is a receptive (yin), fixed, earth sign. This means that if you think about the element of earth, you understand something about Taurus. Within earth, Taurus is somewhat like a garden bed ready for planing. A “fixed” sign is, like it sounds, associated with rigidity and not moving.

Gemini. Gemini is an active, mutable, air sign. If you think about the element of air, you understand something about Gemini. “Mutable” means that it changes and shifts flexibly with its surroundings.

Cancer. Cancer is a receptive, cardinal, water sign. If you think about the element of water, you understand something about Cancer.

Leo. Leo is an active, fixed, fire sign.

Virgo. Virgo is a receptive, mutable, earth sign.

Libra. Libra is an active, cardinal, air sign.

Scorpio. Scorpio is a receptive, fixed, water sign.

Sagittarius. Sagittarius is an active, mutable, fire sign.

Capricorn. Capricorn is a receptive, cardinal, earth sign.

Aquarius. Aquarius is an active, fixed, air sign.

Pisces. Pisces is a receptive, mutable, water sign.

If you look at each placement in your chart you can develop an overall impression of whether your chart emphasizes cause and effect in terms of action or receptivity, as well as looking at your flexibility, fixedness, or instigation and your elements.

If your chart primarily emphasizes receptiveness, then how you receive is an area to examine to see if you are in alignment in terms of cause and effect, and likewise if your chart emphasizes action.

There is no one right way to be human or to handle cause and effect, except that the more in alignment we are with our intention and who we truly are, the better our cause and effect will feel to us. Astrology is one system for examining what is in our control and what is outside of our control in that conversation.

Everything Flows; Everything has Tides

The fifth Hermetic principle is the Principle of Rhythm. This principle says that everything in life flows in and out, just as the tides do. Related to history and politics, Hegel described this as a pendulum in which an incident occurs, there is a reaction, then opposite reaction, and ultimately synthesis of those two toward progress and evolution. At the point of synthesis, the flow becomes assumed and no longer reactionary because we have integrated the growth.

In astrology, the most salient space in which this shows up is related to the moon. Because the moon cycles the most quickly of the planets around the zodiac (as it does around the earth) the ebbs and flows on earth created by the moon’s cycles are the most immediately noticeable.

Each of the planets, not just the moon, is constantly traveling through the zodiac, each with their own influence on each other, us, and our environments, and so much of astrology is the study of the correlation of the ebbs and flows of the astrological cycles to the ebbs and flows on earth.

In law, the ebbs and flows of progress and regress are something that have enormous impact on each of our lives, even if we do not see them right away. Some believe that if you set realistic, but small, expectations for progress, you will get more traction and establish a better foundation for future progress. This was the theory Ruth Bader Ginsberg had when she advocated for gender equality using the disadvantage to men as her focus. Others believe a “blitzkrieg” of extreme action is more effective, believing that the more extreme the action, the less opportunity there is to counteract it. This is the theory behind the implementation of Project 2025.

There is also an increasingly large gap between what the general public in the United States understands to be the state of progress and regress and what legal professionals understand it to be.

For example, when COVID vaccines first came out, I received quite a few calls from conservative people who wanted to avoid getting vaccines where they were mandatory, based on conservative religious views. When I told them about their limited options, they explained to me that they understood their right to work with their medical doctors for healthcare to be absolute. Of course, those rights have been undermined by conservative advocates who are against women receiving reproductive healthcare. But, the conservative people I talked to were very surprised to hear that.

That raises the question as to whether the Principle of Rhythm applies to understanding and ignorance just as it does to other topics. We may have general moments of clarity and inspiration as flow points and moments of misunderstanding and ignorance as ebb points.

The best resources I have found for tracking this and understanding our own ebbs and flows in life is to watch the moons through the astrological chart. In generally tracking the moons for years, I have found that when the moon is in hard aspect to Pluto, and when there is a full moon, I have very low and agitated energy. While this is a work in progress, I have started taking those days off, knowing that they are ebb times. They are better for reflection, emotional processing, and introspection than attempting to create and influence the world.

My theory is that the more we study our own ebbs and flows and allow them to happen, the more effective we can be in influencing the ebbs and flows of our communities and the better we can reduce frustration.

Polarity and Spectrum

The fourth Hermetic principle is the Principle of Polarity, “Everything has poles; everything has opposites.” This principle describes that along a binary line, everything happens by degree, which also acknowledges that spectrum exists. When we understand the extremes, we can understand a subject more fully, but ultimately the answer lies in the spectrum.

In astrology, we talk about the axis points of a chart and the angles that represent opposing, but related, natures.

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In law, we talk about the importance of adversarial process and that in order to more accurately decide a case, we need to include opposing viewpoints in the evidence.

Polarity is not good or evil, positive or negative (although positive and negative are examples of a polarity like hot and cold are). Allowing moral judgment to overlay the topic of polarity clouds the topic. This is because moral judgment falls under the principle of correspondence (what is right for you is typically what we call “good” and what is incorrect for you is “bad”). Polarity lives outside of that type of moral judgment, and it is always a risk of clouding any issue (including correspondence) to overlay moral judgment.

Polarity exists on a spectrum, like hot and cold exist on a spectrum of temperature degrees. Not every topic exists on the same spectrum. So, hot and cold exist as the extremes of temperature, but hard and soft exist on a different spectrum.

This is important for understanding conflict and the nature of adversarial advocacy and for understanding an astrological natal chart.

In law and adversarial advocacy, the concept of polarity and spectrum is important because often what we think of as disagreement is actually people talking about two different topics or two different spectrums, not having polarized viewpoints. For the purposes of this discussion, we will call those different topics “platforms.” So, we see this with the topic of abortion, for example. One side constructs the argument around whether we should murder babies or not (one pole being the “pro-murder-babies” pole and the other being the “pro-life” pole). The other side constructs the argument around whether we should offer healthcare to women or not (one pole being the “withhold healthcare from women” pole and the other being “provide healthcare”). Because these arguments are not polarized to each other, but instead a construction about the topic itself, there is no opportunity for middle ground.

When we cannot agree about the topic of a problem, we cannot reach an understanding about what the spectrum of that problem looks like. Instead we talk separately about our own platforms.

Jumping platforms, versus arguing polarities is sometimes very useful. For example, the polarity of narcissism is “I am the best” and “I am the worst.” In order to escape the narcissism spectrum, we can jump platforms to, “I am curious what a person I love is doing.” So, rather than negotiating a self-defeating and self-centered polarity, we can jump outside of that topic to another one—in this case a topic that is not self-centered.

But, if we fail to acknowledge the original platform, sometimes it is not possible to completely make a shift. This is a fatal flaw in a lot of conflict. For example, in the abortion debate, one side stands on the “pro-life” platform, but people rarely argue “anti-life,” and so this is platforming, or marketing, not debating. However, when two people are platforming, a conflict cannot come to creative resolution. One person has to be able to acknowledge the polarity that the other is arguing in order to invite that person to a different polarity or platform.

Within each of us there is a version of this that in Internal Family Systems Therapy, they call our internal parts. While the astrological natal chart may not be a perfect representation of every person’s internal parts, it is a good starting place to talk about our internal polarities and platforms. Below is an example of an astrological wheel called the “Thema Mundi” the mythological natal chart of the birth of the universe.

The astrological wheel is made up of polarities or “axes.” For example, the signs Aries and Libra are opposite each other on the chart (you find them at the top and bottom of this chart). At their most basic, Aries and Libra represent the polarity of independence/dependence, with Aries being most independent, and Libra being most merged with the other. These are an example of the polarities to look at in your own natal chart (this does not represent the meanings of all of the signs, though, and is just an example):

Aries/Libra: self/other (or independence/dependence)

Taurus/Scorpio: bluntness/sharpness (or comfort/depth)

Gemini/Sagittarius: many ideas/singular truth (or chaos/pointedness)

Cancer/Capricorn: home/institution (or connectedness/separation)

Leo/Aquarius: individual/collective (or hero/community)

Virgo/Pisces: material/spiritual (or specific/nonspecific)

In order to better understand an individual person, topic, or debate, it is relevant to ask what spectrum we are discussing. If we believe we are arguing with each other, and we are really platforming, or arguing about different spectrums, we are unlikely to make progress related to that topic, and we usually leave feeling unheard or invalidated.

When people around us are not arguing in good faith, we can determine this by looking at whether they are willing or unwilling to shift from their platform and whether they do so with curiosity or only to win.

The more we understand an entire topic, including the poles of the topic, the better we can understand how to shift people or shift ourselves in the degrees of that topic to live lives that represent more thoroughly who we truly are.

For example, if I want to be more confident, I need to learn what spectrum confidence lives on and be curious about the poles and degrees of that spectrum. In that case, my experience is that the poles of confidence are willingness and unwillingness to be uncomfortable. The more willing we are to experience discomfort, the more confident we are. If we want to increase our confidence, the practical way to do so is to build tolerance for discomfort.

Mastery of ourselves and communities means learning the poles and the spectrum within the poles of the topics that impact us most.

Nothing Rests; Everything Moves; Everything Vibrates

The third Hermetic principle is the principle of Vibration: “Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates. Things in higher vibration or quicker motion are associated with Spirit and heat; things in lower vibration or slower motion are associated with Matter and cold.

In astrology we talk about the movement, or transits, of the planets as the astrological weather. The cosmos is constantly in motion and in cycle, like we on earth are in motion and cycle. Astrology studies the correlation between celestial motion (vibrations associated with Spirit) and earthly motion (vibrations associated with Matter).

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In law, we talk about the system and the movement of dispute through due process. I worked at a courthouse years ago and the presiding judge would always talk about the “hydraulics of the system” and how attorneys needed to respect the hydraulics of the system in their motions to postpone hearings. Legal systems organize the manifestation of vibration as Matter and the social agreements we make to structure Matter.

Astrology deals with the vibration of spirit; law deals primarily with the vibration of matter.

Toxic positivity says that if we achieve and maintain a “high vibration” at all times, we will become enlightened. It encourages people to deny the experience of Matter, deny the cyclical processes of life, and dissociate from our bodies in service of attaining “positivity.” The moral judgment associated with this (Spirit=positive/good and Matter=negative/bad), unfortunately, has the tendency to perpetuate and cover up cycles of violence and harm. If we dissociate in the face of spiritual and material dysfunction, we cannot change it.

We tend to associate density or slowness of the material vibration as unfavorable and the lightness and speed of the spiritual as favorable. This is misplaced, although there is wisdom in understanding our own preferences and the impact we want to make.

Legal process is famously slow. Although TV portrays the legal system as a system of scrappy, clever experts swooping in to save the vulnerable from bad guys, that is basically the opposite of what the legal system is. Legal process is a paperwork process that is intentionally created to slow down disputes.

This is because, as the saying goes, slow is smooth and smooth is fast. When we slow down and are deliberate, we will make better decisions. When we put a group of people (in the situation of law, a jury) with different backgrounds and life experiences in a room, they will be more uncomfortable and act slower, but make better decisions, than a single person who does things quickly and believes they are always right.

Understanding how to balance the spiritual and material experiences of life involves the cycle of vibration like everything else does in these incarnated bodies. In some seasons, quick, spiritual intuition is the appropriate resource. In other seasons obstacles slow us down so that we can test our actions through slow, material processes.

Because we are spiritual beings incarnated in material bodies, we all include both.

Astrologically, our natal charts represent the contracts we made with the universe as to what we will experience and who we will be in this incarnation.

Within astrology, the houses are a good way to look at our natal charts and get insight into our current incarnation. You can get your chart at astro.com (I recommend using whole sign houses for this exercise, but any house system can do this).

If you cut your chart in half along the horizontal (ascendent/descendent) axis (see the image below), the lower part of the chart generally gives you information about your material, personal incarnation, and the upper part of the chart tells you about the “higher” manifestation of that in the external and spiritual reality. This roughly corresponds with information about how you personally engage with the material and spiritual.

More specifically, this is how the houses manifest the vibratory nature of the universe:

The material and ancestral (these houses are associated with the self and early incarnation):

First house represents the self and the physical body and initiates the material incarnation. Here we find indicators of physical health or illness through the lifetime and the mask of material presentation we show to the world.

Second house represents resourcing.

Third house represents siblings and early learning.

Fourth house represents the home and mother.

Fifth house represents physical creation and father.

Sixth house represents daily routine, pets, and physical illness.

The spiritual and higher mind (these houses are associated with our relationship to the external and spiritual):

Seventh house represents partnership.

Eighth house represents other people’s resources and money.

Ninth house represents higher education and publishing.

Tenth house represents career.

Eleventh house represents friends, organizations, and groups of people.

Twelfth house represents spirituality, prisons, and mental illness.

In looking at the houses through a lens of the vibration principle, we can see that the Nadir, or lowest point of the chart, represents our resting point or point of least vibration. This is the space at which we are most material and most incarnated. The midheaven, or highest point of the chart, represents our highest vibration. This is the space where we are most spiritual and active.

Then, separately, the twelfth and sixth houses show us our vulnerabilities physically and mentally and our access points to physical and spiritual wellness.

The astrological natal chart gives us guidance as to how we, as specific humans, relate to the material and spiritual. The astrological natal chart is a spiritual agreement.

Legal structure, likewise, as a social agreement, gives us structure that is useful more broadly within the material concept of slowing down vibration through due process.

Due process is the right to notice and the right to be heard. These concepts are useful in any material interaction. The right to notice means that you have a right to be told about an allegation before you address it. The right to be heard means you have a right to address the allegation. This structure slows down high-vibration or “heated” interactions. It creates a structure for hearing and being heard that, even though not perfect, allows for the exchange of perspective regarding material experiences.

The cycle of birth, life, death, decay, and rebirth is the essence of the material and spiritual cycle of vibration, which systems like astrology and law create valuable meaning to interpret.

All Is Mind, The Universe is Mental

There is a universal, Hermetic principle that says, “All is mind; the universe is mental.” This stands for the principle that consciousness, or awareness of the mind, is an inescapable experience of embodiment.

In astrology, we look to astrological natal charts as the starting point for our contracts with the Universe. We say that our consciousness agreed to experience certain challenges and benefits in this incarnation, and the astrological charts give information about how those mental agreements play out.

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In law, we say that rational judgment, reason, and logic of the mind brings judges and juries to true and correct answers, after they hear evidence. The spoken word of agreement can be binding and the spoken word of witnesses is core to legal process. Spoken word is one manifestation of the mental. Evidence in courts is based in testimony, so the minds of the participants in the legal system translate and convey their mental experience, and then judges and juries receive that information and use their minds to come to, ideally, true and correct conclusions about how the social agreements (the law) applies to facts of a case.

In most TV shows that talk about law, the judges and juries see DNA and real-time video in order to prove cases. TV conveys a mental concept and asks the viewer to make their own mental judgments like a judge or jury would. In real courtrooms, testimony and the mental impressions of witnesses are considered crucial evidence. Even if documents or video exist, they may only be offered through witness testimony. Because TV attempts to short-cut the mental telephone game of the court process, it simplifies what can be a complicated and also rigid experience.

In legal institutions we apply the principle of mentalism through legal reasoning (social agreements) and spoken word.

But, most of us are not taught how to effectively manage our mental experience and mental impressions, and this contributes to unreliability in the legal process. We begin life believing everything we see, but as we get older, we understand more that mental impression does not equal truth. When five people sit in a room, they will walk out with five different experiences.

Most of us are taught that additional learning equals mental management, or that knowledge alone creates an organized mental state, but that is not my experience, or, I believe the experience of most people.

An astrological natal chart is one step toward knowing ourselves and examining our mental experience of life.

Also, though, what I have found, is that in order to be intentional with the principle of mentalism, we need to take six steps (and this is a process I use at least once a day):

1. Neutralize the external. For the sake of the exercise, describe the external environment that is outside of our control in a neutralized way. (e.g. Instead of “I hate my boss,” say “My boss is a human.”)

2. Write down our thinking. When we can understand the difference between our perspective and a neutralized reality, we can start to be intentional. (e.g. Notice that the thought “I hate my boss” has charge and is my mental process, not just an observation.)

3. Test out how our thinking feels in the abdomen and the rest of our bodies. Yes, in order to be effective in intentionally using the principle of mentalism, we have to be aware of our bodies. (e.g. When I choose the thought, “I hate my boss,” I feel hate.)

4. Observe what the feeling motivates us to do or not do. Feelings create actions, and even if we don’t fully act out our feelings, that is still a process we are experiencing. (e.g. When I feel hate, I struggle internally, blame people, complain to my friends, do my work more slowly, criticize myself, and even blame myself.)

5. Be honest about the consequences of our actions. Even if we are interrupting our actions and not fully acting them out, our internal processes and thinking spirals have impact. (e.g. When I take the actions above, my work suffers, and my boss gets away with their actions.)

6. Understand our own themes and patterns. (e.g. When I choose the thought “I hate my boss,” and I act out against myself, I am self-abusing.)

Then, in my own work, I reverse that process and do an intentional model. I don’t ask, “What do I want to think” because the unconscious mind takes over if we do that and attempts to maintain its familiar paths. Instead, I ask, “How do I want to feel?” or “What is the impact I want to have?” and build the process around those questions. In my work, I call that the IMPACT Model.

Our relationship to our contract with the universe and our social contracts is only as good as our ability to manage our thinking and our experience of the mental.

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So mote it be!

As Above, So Below

There is a universal, Hermetic law that says, "As above, so below; as within, so without." In the legal system in the U.S., we say, “nobody is above the law, nobody is below the law.”

The universal law is referred to as “correspondence,” and the legal system principle is referred to as “rule of law.”

I’m going to use these posts for musings on the universal and mundane (or Earthly) principles we live by.

Astrology is the study of the correlation between celestial and terrestrial events, with the premise that there is a relationship between what happens above and what happens below.

Law is the study of human social agreements.

My background:

I have casually studied astrology since the year 2000, and more recently have seriously studied it under Chris Brennan and the Astrology School with a focus on Hellenistic astrology and traditional astrological principles.

I became a lawyer in 2012, and I have been a civil rights lawyer since 2014, mostly helping people transform toxic workplace experiences into safety and support.

I was raised in primarily Abrahamic religious cults, spent time studying Buddhism and Kabbalah, am a Level 3 Reiki healer, and more recently have been learning about witchcraft. I am a first degree Cabot Kent Witch (taking my second degree in December!). I have also studied human design and am a certified Kolbe consultant and life coach. I am less versed in Islam and Hinduism, though I have read the Bhagavad Ghita and been to temple. I love it when the Mormon missionaries come by to convert me and we often have interesting conversations about faith and superstition. I’m a learner!

One of my central practices is a thought management technique I developed called the IMPACT Model, and I might talk about that here as well.

Why Lawstrology?

I have seen how severely the legal system in the U.S. fails people from many angles, and I have also seen how most people have very wrong ideas about what the legal system does.

I strongly believe that in order to heal cultural divides and broken systems, including the legal system in the U.S., we can take wisdom from ancient traditions, while being open to expanding into new concepts for how we think about the structures that facilitate our relationships with each other.

I have found that understanding universal and social principles helps each of us to work toward growth, rather than decay, and I hope that for everyone who reads these posts.

The more we understand the principles around us, the more we can be intentional in how we interact with them.

So mote it be!