Squares and oppositions aren’t pure evil.
I can’t believe I have to say this because I thought ya’ll have learnt the characteristics of every aspect but here we are. Nothing in astrology is black and white. And I saw some ridiculous statements (not necessary here on tumblr) that said things like “if your Venus squares someone’s ascendant then you don’t find that person attractive AT ALL”. Or “Mars square Mercury people can’t speak politely and have an annoying voice”. Like????? First of all, that’s ridiculous. Second of all, square in not “everything bad” just like trine is not “everything amazing”. Squares bring tension, which leads to motivation, they’re stimulating; sometimes excitement or charisma; sometimes they can make you overdo things. I’m not saying they’re oh-so-marvelous because the challenges are still there, but they’re not as bad as people paint them to be. Squares happen between two signs that are in the same modality so they have a bunch of things in common. Besides, some of them (Sagi-Pisces and Gemini-Virgo) are ruled by the same planet so there’s a special type of chemistry between those (especially when applied to synastry). Oppositions work in two ways, planets either meet in the middle – opposite signs usually complete each other and fuel each other up. And worse case scenario? Natally this means being pulled in two different directions; synastry-wise, you can completely miss each other like two passing cars – so there may be some misunderstandings but I don’t think that’s the end of the world… And, as per usual, may be mitigated by other positive aspects.
This is me debunking other people’s attempts at debunking Sun sign compatibility.
Sun IS very important but when people ask about compatibility and go with Suns… and then someone tries to be a smartass and debunk the “compatible-incompatible” and does the same thing without even realizing it. Like, “oh I actually see a lot of Aries and Pisces having amazing relationships because *insert someting that is a total stretch and refers to their Sun sign traits*”… But you seem to forget that they’re neighbouring signs… which means they probably have personal planets in those neighbouring signs… which means they’re compatible not because of some made-up stuff that you’re trying to come up with but because their other planets are compatible with each other. But you’re still feeding into the Sun sign compatibility talk. (So like, what I’m trying to also say, yes, the entire synastry chart comes into play; Also, side note, everyone can get along on some level if they’re mature enough).
Planet in a sign is NOT the same as planet in the house.
There may be some overlaps in some of the sign-houses associations (like in the overall energy; like for example, it sort of makes sense that 3rd, 7th and 11th are referred to as “air houses” because they’re the most social) but in NO WAY there are similarities between planet house position and the “ruling” sign. That association started a few decades ago and some would say that NOT linking houses with signs is a purely traditional approach. But there’s plenty of professional modern astrologers with 20/30/40-year experience who still differentiate between sign/house position… because they know (and have learnt along the way) that there’s a huge difference.
I’ll give you 3 quick examples: Gemini planets and 3rd house planets both may put emphasis on communication, mental stimulation and gathering data. But Geminis are often scattered in their approach, they may be easily distracted, may be indecisive, may be jack of all trades and talkative jokesters. They actually hate routines and dullness. “Spice it up” is probably a Gemini’s philosophy. Now 3rd house planets may indicate you actually LIKE doing things on the regular – like running errands every other day in the mornings or going to that one specific coffee shop to pick up a snack. You may actually work in logistics or as a postman (especially if your chart ruler or MC ruler is in the 3rd). Planets in the 3rd talk about your siblings, neighbours or school experiences – like having Venus in the 3rd may point to positive experiences within those areas – something Gemini Venus has nothing in common.
Venus in the 9th can study at an art/beauty or fashion school (or even teach there if the MC is involved); can be very attached to spiritual and religious matters; can also find love in a foreign land. But imagine it being in Taurus – rather shy, needing those stable values to feel secure, being an exceptionally great student at that art school thanks to its domicile. Venus in Sagittarius on the other hand, likes adventure, things being shaken up from time to time, lightheartedness and exploration. But what if we flip the scenario and that Sag Venus is in the 2nd house. This can denote earing money through travelling and looking for ways to expand but in a financial matters.
Continuing with the Venus examples, having Venus in Aries is completely different than Venus in the 1st. What do people usually say about Venus in the 1st? That it makes the native charming, lovely, well-put together, with great manners, maybe beautiful, graceful, maybe a bit shallow. When in Aries? None of these characteristics fit, on top of that, it’s in its detriment. Our poor gal Venus is uncomfortable and confused in Aries. She’s like, “conquer? Swords? Selfishness? Obnoxiousness? Sparring? You’re telling me to fight people? What am I doing here???”
And I’ll leave you here with that cause those examples weren’t that quick lol and in fact, I could give you a 100 of those. Besides, this actually inspired a 3-page rant that I’ve already posted not so long ago that you can read HERE.
There’s no such thing as “more accurate” astrology.
Both western and vedic are valid. Both can show you the same things. JUST KEEP THEM SEPARATE AND DON’T MIX THEM WITH EACH OTHER. And don’t say things like “sidereal shows your soul” – omg I saw this statement soooo many times, who the hell even came up with this?! Actually, if anything, it’s the modern western approach that “psychologized” (yea I just made up a word, you mad?) astrology while Jyotish still sticks to the very real “here and now”, sometimes fatalistic predictions of how exactly your life is going to roll out… But hey, reach for hellenistic methods and they can tell you the same things, just with different tools. So no, they do not show different things, it’s just their language is different.
If you say you don’t identify with your chart then you’re just reading it wrong.
This partially connects to the last one in some ways… Switching to a different astrology or different charts is not a solution. Learn how to read your natal. If you say it doesn’t describe you, I can guarantee you that you haven’t studied it properly. (Now this hasn’t turned into a rant yet but I may actually do a whole-ass post on this because if I start elaborating on it now I’ll end up with another 3-page essay).
Learn how and when to generalize. Also learn how to take generalizations.
I understand that you have to pick up on every single thing separately in order to put everything together. It’s like learning a new language: first you need to learn individual words and then you need to know the proper grammar to create a full sentence. This is 100% understandable and necessary, but it’s important to take the entire thing into consideration. And this goes for all branches of astrology, but I guess it’s especially annoying with synastry. This, again, comes down to the very black and white approach. You know, like when you see those long paragraphs where people elaborate on all the intricacies of Venus-Pluto aspects or whatever as if that one thing was determining the entire relationship between two people. (Side note, no shade but some of ya’ll should start writing fiction or poetry cause the amount of fluffy speech and waffle that I see floating around here on tumblr is insane sometimes). Why are you wording everything as a make it or break it type of situation? And on the receiving end – learn how to take *properly phrased* generalizations constructively. Example: it IS a rule that Aries is a competitive one, maybe you’re not one of them (for many reasons) but don’t make a fuss about someone saying this. It IS a basic rule that energies of the same sign in two people are going to get along (well that depends on the planets involved but I digress), if that, for some other reasons, doesn’t apply to you, don’t go yelling that it’s bullcrap because you hate people of the same sign. You know? Like, learn the difference.
DON’T SCARE PEOPLE WITH ASTROLOGY.
I had a mini-rant on this one a while ago, but I think this deserves a constant reminder (and refers to the last point), I don’t want to see any more posts that would say things like “xxx house placements will bring you suffering” or “stay away from people with planets in your xxx house” or, even worse, making a (completely untrue btw) prediction based on one single thing like “someone with so-and-so aspect is going to harm you”. And you’re so casual about it??? You know there are sensitive people in the world. Learn some ethics. Learn some counseling skills. Don’t be ignorant. Don’t throw these random stuff at people just like that. And learn some actual astrology cause most of these aren’t even closely describing that particual aspect. LIKE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
Ok now I’m pissed again.
Studying astrology and believing in free will doesn’t go well together.
It’s not just psychological and spiritual. It’s useful to know that western astrology made it like that because there were still people threatening astrologers for using it as a divination tool. So they moved away from the predictive/deterministic aspect of it. Now, I’m not here to change anyone’s beliefs cause that’s a very personal thing that everyone should develop on their own. But once you start diving deeper into astrology you’d notice that there’s a heavy emphasis on fatedness and things being predetermined. That includes both the good and the bad stuff and you should learn to accept that. And with the bad things specifically, let’s not excuse it with some “oh that was an opportunity for growth”. Like yea, maybe, occasionally??? But just acknowledge that sometimes things happen not because there was a deeper meaning in them… but because you have a Pluto-Mars conjunction in the 6th that makes an applying square to your chart ruler and you were going through a profection year where Mars was your time lord and it transited that chart ruler while making a conjunction with Neptune so you were attacked by a baby crocodile while swimming and it bit off your toe and you got a nasty infection and that’s it (I just made that up btw, I don’t actually know anyone who was attacted by a crocodile). So like, sometimes shit just happens and there’s nothing psychological about it. Also, I bet your free will didn’t want to be attacked by that croc.