PBP: A is for Astrology

Pagan Blog Project 2013

"...but, you know how Libra men are."

"He's a Cancer, right? Ah, yeah. The whole... scuttle scuttle. Pinchy, pinchy! Thing."

These are actual words that have come out of my mouth during conversation. Worse, these sorts of comments are not at all uncommon for me. For the most part, I do not make mention of magic at all if I'm not in the company of other practitioners, but when it comes to astrology? Oh, yeah. I say a lot of hippy-dippy sounding bullshit.

I am not an astrologer, let's get that right out on front street. I have heard the arguments that horoscopes are nothing more than reading a list of shit and picking out the comments you agree with. I couldn't begin to explain to you why a bunch of stars and planets affect human personality. But what I see, personally, is that they sure seem to do so.

Because I do not have in-depth knowledge of the subject, I can only look at it this way: people are like wine. (Of course I have a booze metaphor.) The time and place of your birth affect the way you turn out. You have a vintage, if you will - that's your zodiac sign.

art by Lisa Weber

Most people know their sun sign. I'm a Libra, myself. But astrology is a bit more complex than that - there are ascending signs and moon signs and different planets... To find all that shit out, you need a natal chart. You can get one done for free at sites like Astrolabe, although some of the componets still seem sort of esoteric at first glance. (Nodes? WTF?)

So, me, I'm a Libra with Gemini ascending, a Leo moon, and Venus in Scorpio. That makes me an indecisive, fair-minded loudmouth who primps in every reflective surface and is obsessive in love and crazy about sex.

I assure you that is all lies and slander, of course.

One of the best books I've found for getting a grasp on things like rising signs is, weirdly enough, Darkside Zodiac. I got my copy in the bargain bin at Chapters years ago, and it remains the best book to have on a coffee table at a party. Aside from being sarcastic and nasty, the book explains very concisely what rising signs and moons et all are, and how they affect your sun sign. (That's not why it's great for parties, though... it's great because people get drunk, look themselves up, and get offended.)

My other go-to books for astrology are Linda Goodman's Sun Signs - a classic, really -  and Sexual Astrology. ...which is also a good coffee table book. You can have Capricorns go, "I do NOT fuck armpits!" if you're lucky.

This Christmas, I bought my mother a predictive chart for the year from Deacon Millet. It's huge. I mean, monstrous. I of course don't know what it all says, but from what my mother's said it seems pretty spot-on so far. An astrological reading is something I've never had anyone do, but the concept is certainly intruding and I can see the merits in having one done every year as a sort of road map for the year.

In terms of horoscopes in newspapers... I treat them all like junk, honestly. Except Straight Stars - that column I read every week and pay attention to.

So. Astrology! Like wine!