Whoa! Look at this Pluto on the IC!

This Pluto on the IC! 

As usual when reading a chart, I look first at the angles. They are the most powerful places.  I trust the time of birth is exact and I say Whoa! This Pluto on the IC! Three degrees orb is tight. That’s a big Pluto. 

Reading charts seems like a very complex business, but the job can be enormously simplified thanks to prioritisation. We could almost read this chart by reading only one thing: Pluto on the IC. 

It feels like an abyss opening under a cradle, like the embrace of a crocodile’s jaw, a fascinating black hole. 

Confronted with this power, consciousness can’t bear it. Half of it passes out, the other half splits and turns away, focuses on the light and quickly forgets! Forget what? Who knows what it was, once it has sunk into unconsciousness… There is a shadow, somewhere, that’s all. 

This Pluto doesn’t seem to challenge the personal planets with hard squares or opposition, but Pluto is Pluto and the IC is emotional foundations. 

Black Moon Lilith in Scorpio makes Pluto more intense. 

Black Moon Lilith in the 4th house adds emphasis to the difficult energies associated with home and emotional foundations.

Pluto conjunct with the IC counts as a BIG Pluto in the 4th house, even from the 3rd house side. 

We may also notice that Black Moon Lilith opposes Chiron, the wounded healer energy. 

The interaction of these two rather painful ones won’t make things better. No need to split hairs.

Pluto being super important, and Mercury very emphasised in the chart of a Gemini, the tight Pluto-Mercury trine can be understood as an essential pillar in the architecture of this chart. 

A trine is an easy flowing aspect, it won’t make Pluto easy but Mercury is likely to be somewhat nuclearly powered. What is the word for the extreme opposite of naive? If this person was a dog, they would sniff passengers boarding planes for  the drug squad and detect the smallest amounts the trafficking guys would be hiding even under layers of fat within their own bellies. 

On the other hand, trusting is not Pluto’s natural attitude. Have a little chat with this Mercury-Pluto combination and the outcome may be that they will quickly know more or less everything about you, but you won’t have a clue about them, and you may not even know that you don’t have a clue. 

Trust issues. 

• Is it difficult to trust? It’s ok if you’re not willing to talk about it…

So with Pluto and Lilith there is something like an abyss where there should be emotional foundations, but maybe there is also a miraculous suspension bridge hanging over the void thanks to Pluto’s regenerative power,  and let’s look somewhere else now. 

The Sun, Venus and Mercury are in Gemini. What a contrast! Here comes the dancing trickster, the social butterfly, in the 11th house, a happy house resonating with the voices of friends, camarades, mates, companions, fellows, peers, we’re all in it together, all in it together, all in it together, sing with me! 

Who is in charge of the mailing list, who shall print the agenda for the next meeting, who will take notes and write reports, who will keep things clear, clean and well organised thanks to the professional attitude of a Capricorn Moon in the 6th house seeking for security and contentment in the contemplation of a well done job in a well ordered world? 

Interestingly, Saturn, ruler of this 6th house of work and daily routines takes us to the 3rd house of learning, communication and connecting with the close environment, as if being a Super Gemini wasn’t enough! And there is a trine being the Sun and Saturn. This Gemini may be more poised and grounded than average. But how do you get grounded with a black hole where there should be foundations? I bet you hold on to what you can, so far we have work and friends or community. 

What happens when blending Capricorn and Gemini? The quick and the slow, are they antithetical or can they find a way to function together? The multitasking and the long-term goal energies, can they co-exist? The curious and the serious? The quick and the serious? The ever changing and the focused? The communicator and the professional? The one with little wings at the ankles and one who is working to pay the bills ? 

I am starting to suspect that maybe this is the chart of a carrier pigeon. 

Thinking of Gemini and Capricorn, one thing that comes to my mind is “disconnection”. Gemini is famous for its tendency to be like two or many people living in the same body. One of them could be a Capricorn! 

In the Zodiac, Gemini and Capricorn are ‘inconjunct’, and in this chart, Venus in Gemini and the Moon in Capricorn are connected by an inconjunct aspect, which is a bit of an oxymoron, because inconjunct etymologically means unconnected. In ancient astrology, they considered only major aspects. The word “aspect” etymologically means looking, like in “spectacle”. Planets in inconjunct signs were understood as placed in each other blind spots. 

I am a modern astrologer, I do consider so called minor aspects like the quintile or the semi-sextile (technically the two are ‘inconjunct' in the traditional sense of the word). 

I don’t think there is a total disconnection, because, to borrow a principle of neuroscience, ‘what fires together links together’. Planets are activated by transits. When a planet passes through Aries, Libra, Virgo or Pisces, it simultaneously sends a harmonious major aspect and a tense one, one to Gemini and the other to Capricorn. 

If we consider only major aspects, each sign is connected with eight signs of the zodiac. So half of the activations of inconjunct planets happen simultaneously. 

For instance, when a planet transits over 12-13 degrees Aries, it squares the natal Moon in Capricorn and sextiles the natal Venus in Gemini. 

The result is a simultaneous activation in a bitter-sweet fashion. 

Venus and the Moon are the feminine planets, they want bonds. Sometimes they bond in their own way in their own time, but at times they realise they can’t be happy together. 

Venus in Gemini in the 11th house is likely to love having loads of friends, and possibly flirt in a light hearted way, and the Moon in Capricorn in the sixth would rather have a daily timetable with only one stable and reliable one. Try to compromise when you’re living in the same body and get regularly activated at the same time!  

Talking about disconnection, in this chart, among the five personal planets, aspects are very rare. There is only one major aspect: a wide trine between the Moon and Mars (it doesn’t appear on the chart above because of the settings). Other than that, there is the quintile between Venus and the Moon, and that’s all! 

The Moon herself is not very connected with the whole. Other than the inconjunct aspect with Venus, a trine with Chiron and a semi-square with Uranus the disruptor, all of it problematic, nothing. 

The Moon shares with the 4th house the meaning of emotional foundations and origins, and we’ve already talked about Pluto, the disintegrator. Of course, Pluto is also the energy of regeneration, of rebirth after initiatic death, let’s not forget the silver lining. 

All this makes me think of an old tale: Donkey Skin. After the death of her mother, a princess had to flee her house because her father, the King, wanted to marry her. To survive she found a job as a servant, she  worked hard like a Cap Moon in the 6th… There will be a happy end indeed, but in the meantime, we can imagine a happy-go-lucky-anyway girl, smiling to everyone, talking with the birds, Disney like (even if the original tale is from the Grim Brothers), sharing with her many friends her hopes and wishes. 

Friends, hopes and wishes are traditional interpretations of the 11th house. It’s also a house where we find help, protection and support. And it’s the house of groups and communities. Are friends and communities suitable alternatives to the 4th house?  

Note for astrology students:

I don’t know if my interpretations are correct, but for now I better not care. I could wonder anxiously: my interpretations are consistent with the chart, but is it exactly that? Maybe I’m forgetting other possible interpretations, maybe I haven’t taken important things into account….? 

Such thoughts are just paralysing. We won’t get far walking on eggshells. Better weaving some interpretation and keeping the question marks hanging. 

How do you think Sherlock Holmes was thinking, when confronted with difficult cases with only a few clues that didn’t seem to make sense? I bet he was telling many possible stories to himself, discarding only what he was sure was wrong and keeping the rest like drafts on his mental desk… 

In other words, better brainstorm than brain freeze! 

Understanding a chart is not all deduction and logic. It’s rather induction, intuition and poetry. We can’t get rid of the irrational, but we can ask the irrational for help. We can ask guidance to our subconscious mind, or to God, or to our spirit guides. We can throw our question in the air and trust we’ll be able to hear the answers. It’s divination. 

Now, we could wonder. 

What is this Mars conjunct Chiron doing in the 10th house? It would not be a good idea to wonder that. Reading a chart is prioritising, and there are much more important indicators to look at before this Mars. 

Look around! 

The evolutionary path, as shown by the nodes, is always so telling, and here, the South Node is in Aquarius, ruled by Uranus in modern astrology, and the North Node is in Leo, ruled by the Sun. What’s striking in this context is the Sun-Uranus opposition which amplifies the opposition of the nodes. Moreover, Uranus is conjunct the cusp of the 5th house, naturally associated with Leo in modern astro, and the Sun is in the 11th house naturally associated with Aquarius. 

Aquarius and Uranus represent here the energy that is familiar, innate, the default settings of the personality. Leo and the Sun represent what the person aspires to. It’s a story of a new dawn, of a new sun who dares to say something like: 

“Hey, I am who I am, I am me, enjoy my light and my warmth, or get on with it! I don’t want to be like you think I should be anymore! I want to be like life makes me!” 

Of course it’s difficult, when the habit is to behave like Uranus/Aquarius, according to ideas, in the head, relying on the social group to exist as a member. 

It must help to have Leo Rising on this path though. People with this Ascendant are often noticed. They stick out from the crowd. With an Aquarius South Node, it may be uncomfortable. 

“Hey, why are they all looking at me? I would prefer to be invisible but I can’t hide!  Well, better get used to it and hold the light now it’s on me.”

This is still happening in the 11th house, Uranus is playing rebel-weirdo in the 5th of self-expression, the Sun wants to play authentic self among others in the 11th. 

Now, it’s time to notice that Uranus also rules over the 7th house of the other, and Leo over the 1st house of Self. The nodes are also suggesting an evolution from being in a relationship to being oneself. 

“Hey partner, I can see you! I was like you in my previous life, and even when I was so young that I didn’t know better! But now, I am like the Sun, we can be together but I won’t compromise about who I am to keep the peace!” 

All this was more important than looking at Mars, and now we can think that Mars is the Sun’s ally, his job is to fight to assert what the Sun wants to express… and it’s near Chiron, wounded, having to heal. 

Mars and Chiron are in Taurus. Pluto is in Libra. They are both playing in Venus’ garden. Taurus is the sign of the flesh, bulls are rarely ethereals.  Earth is the element of the body. Other than Mars and Chiron, in the Earth element there is the Moon, tucked in the 6th, one of the difficult houses, with this semi-square with Uranus, a very mental energy that doesn’t like the reality of the flesh too much…

We may wonder…  It may be easy to be loved and surrounded by many friends, but how is it to be oneself and engage in more intimate interactions? But of course, we won’t expect an answer if we’re asking the question. Privacy is privacy.  

With a dominant Pluto, there is room for a host of anxieties, and Gemini may prefer to surf the waves than dive into the sea. 

Connection, disconnection, reconnection…  It could also evoke the story of Isis and Osiris, the latter being cut into many pieces and reassembled by the former. Collecting scattered bits and pieces… was Isis a Gemini?

The Saturn Sun trine must be of great help. Saturn brings endurance and determination in the long run. A Capricorn Moon is a determined one, and I guess its concern for down to earth reality, getting up in the morning, going to work to pay the rent like the princess who became a servant of the tale, helps keeping oneself in one piece. 

Donkey Skin will let her skills speak for herself… Of course she will get noticed. 

Another very important aspect in this chart is the Mercury-Neptune opposition. 

In this chart, Mercury is the final dispositor of everything. It’s quite remarkable, we can start from any placement, for instance Uranus in Scorpio is ruled by Pluto and Mars, both are ruled by Venus and Venus is ruled by Mercury. The Ascendant is Leo, ruled by the Sun, ruled by Mercury. 

Mercury has an essential role and that’s how we can only notice the tight Mercury-Neptune opposition. There may be fog. There may be a huge Pisces like sensitivity contrasting with the sharpness of the Gemini mind. There may be dreams and movies, imagination…  

There are two kinds of every sign. There are Gemini that are more intellectual, and Gemini more emotional. Both types are curious, quick to change, moving at high speed, and this second type may also be moved at high speed, whilst still quick to change, multi dreaming between two phases of multitasking, laughing, crying, melting and wondering who on earth they might be, but that’s precisely what they are supposed to create. 

And now, it’s time for me to be humble. Have I been a good diviner, with the help of the Great Spirit and the support of the chart? I don’t know. It’s never granted. But that’s not what matters most. What matters is that these symbols have often proved to be the best catalysts for having real conversations about what’s essential, if only with oneself, and sometimes with others. 

A Gemini is likely to agree, when we can speak about it, we can live with it. 

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, Writer, Storyteller

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How to interpret the Moon in a chart

To interpret the Moon in signs, there are various layers. 

First layer: Like the Sun, the Moon is a luminary. If the Moon is in Taurus, Taurus is in the spotlight. So just Taurus. 

Second layer: the light of the Moon is not the same as the Sun’s. It’s an intimate light. 

Moon is mother, family, early environment. It’s the inner you. 

To the Sun you may say “ I’m so proud of you” but to the Moon you rather go like: “baby, you’re my baby”.  

There is more to it. If you look up Moon in the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols there are five or six pages. Fundamentally, the Moon reflects, and is always changing. Interpretations follow.

For now, let’s just stick to mother, family and early environment. 

If you make a new friend, for them your Taurus traits are just you. Let’s say you love nature, it’s a stereotype, it doesn’t have to always be true, but often it is. One day you invite your friend to a family gathering.  A few little chats later, they understand that your love of nature is a trait of family culture. 

Things may be a bit more subtle than in my exemple, but you get the point. Traits associated with the Moon make you belong where you belong. You’ll feel at home when you meet the same. 

Imagine that as a Taurus Moon you fall in love with a Taurus Sun. 

Sun and Moon conjunct in synastry is a match made in heaven on principle. (Unfortunately, the best connections don't cancel other conflicts that may exist between charts). 

Keeping to a standard stereotype for the sake of clarity, the Taurus Sun wants to be a farmer. This will mean more than making a living to them: this will be a question of becoming who they want to be. You’ll be naturally supportive. 

With your Taurus Moon, you’ll just feel at home on the farm. You’ll recharge your batteries joking with the donkeys. You’ll want your children to grow up there. That’s the “normal” life for you, but it’s not enough for you to be you.

Suppose you have a Gemini Sun, let’s take another stereotype, you’ll want to be a writer. This will mean the world to you.

If, by chance, your Taurus Sun partner has the Moon in Gemini, you’ll read them your papers and they’ll appreciate your style. They may love reading and writing, but that’s just like breathing to them, their success at life is not at stake. 

A third level of interpretation is that the Moon rules over Cancer, and through Cancer, over a house, maybe two, and possibly over planets placed in Cancer. Whatever happens with the Moon happens indirectly - but surely - to these houses and planets.  

In my own chart, the Moon rules over my Cancer Ascendant, is in Libra and in the fourth house. It may be more fundamental to the interpretation to consider the houses: ruler of first house in fourth house. I am a rat. I love my basement. 

My Cancer personality style must be combined with Libra. Juggling with key words always helps: Emotional balance is needed. Sensitivity in search of artistic harmony. Social needs. Feeling two sides. I am a good listener, it’s an airy way to care… I am not saying everything, just showing you how to elaborate.  

Beyond key words, feel the world of Cancer, then the world of Libra, and let the vibes interact in your inner space.

Thinking in pictures can be a funny game:  two crabs on a sea-saw, when one is up the other is down, it could be a nursery rhyme and it is a way to invite inspiration. Two crabs on a sea-saw, one wants to eat you, the other is scared by you, which one will you pick up, which one will you throw away?

A fourth level of interpretation, but it could have been the third, is to follow the ruler of the sign in which the Moon is placed. 

If you have the Moon in Sagittarius, you may carry your home like a rucksack on your back, drive a camper van or settle abroad. Wherever you live is a camp base and/or a library. Maybe it’s near a temple, not far from the city hall. It’s rather open, compared to a Cancer cocoon.  It’s the place you shoot arrows of consciousness from. 

With the Moon in Sagittarius, Jupiter says more. Let’s say it’s in Leo. No doubt, it’s a fiery Moon! Expect a combination of adventure and creativity, of exploration and let-me-show-you; her way to nurture is to take by the hand and lead beyond the familiar environment. 

Don’t worry, she says, I’ll take you back home, you’re safe with me. 

I won’t talk about the Moon in the twelve signs, sorry. 

There are enough cookbooks out there. Moon in Aries, Moon in Taurus, Moon in Gemini, Moon in Cancer, it’s nice, it’s good order. It’s boring like Saturn doing admin. My Uranus in the third house doesn't want to live like that.  

If we wanted to be systematic, then we would also need to write about Moon in Aries with Mars in Aries, then Moon in Aries with Mars in Taurus, followed by Moon in Aries with Mars in Gemini… and all the possible combinations.  

And we would have to do the same with the Sun, then going through all the possible combinations with rising signs… 

I am not going to write a crazy cookbook like that. Beyond the most elementary combinations, we’re all alone in the jungle! 

What I wish to convey is a sense of how to juggle. 

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, Storyteller and Philosopher a bit. Why don’t you have a look at my homepage?

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Should we forget Mercury? Mercury in Pisces

Just another magical door…

We often mention the big three as the main indicators: the Sun, the Moon and the Ascendant, with its ruler, aka “Chart Ruler”. 

The Sun and the Moon are the King and the Queen, the Chart Ruler is their Prime Minister.

I have never heard anyone make a big fuss of Mercury, unless Mercury happens to hold a special position as Chart Ruler for instance, or as a dominant planet. 

It’s absolutely normal actually. Mercury is a servant. When you go to the restaurant, the waiter is supposed to be there when you need them and to disappear into the background when you don’t. At home, as long as everything is working, you don’t think of the electrician or the plumber; your life doesn’t revolve around the cables and the pipes. 

Same with Mercury in the chart. Its best role is to remain invisible. 

(Please keep in mind that what I am describing in terms of outer life is also a metaphorical description of how the energies combine within ourselves. As within so without and vice versa.) 

The Gemini side of Mercury’s role is to connect, interpret, translate, pass messages etc. It’s a plumber or an electrician “in the air” so to speak. Words are pipes in which meaning flows. 

If you read Dostoevsky you know the author: it’s Dostoevsky. The ideal translator gives you Dostoevsky in your own language. He himself is transparent. You can forget you don’t understand Russian. 

The author himself disappears behind the world he describes. You don’t read Dostoevsky to learn about his health, but to be told a good story about life and people. 

Mercury wants to be invisible. But this of course is an ideal. A translation may be better than another. Various translations may have various qualities: one may stick closely to the original, but the style suffers. Another one is really delightful to read - but at times betrays the intention of the author. One may evoke the feelings of the characters wonderfully, and be rather approximative when it comes to facts… You see where I am coming. 

In the chart, the co-authors are the Sun, the Moon and the other planets. Mercury gives them a voice. Its Virgo side gives them hands.  

You’re going to tell me: “Wait! Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are Gemini! They are not of the discreet kind, if you ask me!” 

We should never confuse energies and people. 

Nobody, not even Boris Johnson, is a pure Gemini. Gemini is an energy that facilitates. If you mix ninety nine per cent of Gemini powder and one percent of sand, this one per cent is going to benefit from such a power of communication that it will make you believe that this grain of sand is a Great Oasis in the middle of the Sahara, with caravans of camels coming and going, and storytellers to entertain one thousand and one nights. You will be talked into the Oriental Magic. When it works well, you don’t see that it’s mostly Gemini powder.

Ideally, Mercury should be odourless and colourless. In reality, intermediaries and servants twist the messages and carry out orders in their own style. If you know how to speak to the receptionist, you increase your chances to meet the boss. 

The Ascendant is also an intermediary: it is the interface between the inner and outer worlds. In traditional astrology, the First House is where Mercury rejoices.  

To explore Mercury’s role further, an example is the clearest way to go. I’m thinking of someone who has Gemini Rising and Mercury in Pisces. 

As Ascendant ruler, Mercury becomes a Very Important Planet. The translator or the interpreter are supposed to be as invisible as possible… except when the time comes that we need them! 

Gemini Risings play a role of connector and facilitator in their environment, and within their own mind. You may go to them for information and news. If you’re not too quick, they will come to you. 

So here is Mercury coming forward and greeting you in Pisces style. She says Hello and you feel an atmosphere. With some people, you need to break the ice. With Mercury in Pisces, the ice melts effortlessly. You get a feeling similar to a cat rubbing its head on your leg. It’s sweet. You try to grab the animal and it escapes. But then it comes back. The boundaries are not too clear, and may change from a moment to the next. You need to feel to know what’s going on. It’s mutable energy all the way down.

André Barbault says there are two types of Gemini, one moving around with his thinking, the other with his sensitivity. Mercury in Pisces will incline the Gemini Rising to express as the latter type. It has what it takes to flirt around if in the mood.  

A Gemini Rising with a solid Mercury in Capricorn would be much more formal, in whatever codes apply. You would be clearly shown how things work.  

Mercury in Pisces feels you. You may not know you’ve been communicating your own psychic atmosphere. The cat may sit on your lap, stay in the room or disappear. It looks like the guardian of an Egyptian temple. You’ve got a message from the Gods. Don’t be stupid, understand without being told.

Mercury in Pisces can talk though. It may love to picture what it’s telling you with sensitivity. It may sing songs and write poetry. Mercury is said to be in exile in Pisces. Poetry is the art of using words to evoke what can’t be said with words, which is precisely the world of Pisces. A planet in exile is confronted with a challenge to its own nature. But it’s not doomed. It might succeed!

I know a Gemini Mercury who spent most of her professional life translating scientific texts. It’s not an easy job, but it’s much more like home for Mercury. 

Mercury’s analytical tendencies are challenged in a fluid world. It’s easy to know the difference between a blue pill and a red pill, but what if you get an infinite variety of shades of violet and so many pills scattered on the floor? 

Listen to the intonations of a voice, observe the non verbal cues when someone is speaking… What do they convey exactly? Mercury in Pisces knows, and it may be able to interpret your dreams. At least they may understand them.

Exploring the beautiful potential of a placement shouldn’t make us forget that if the placement suffers from difficult squares or oppositions, is ruled by a planet who is itself challenged, rules over planets with issues… we may get the flaws instead of the qualities, until the lessons are learned. Instead of poetry we may get nonsense, sentimentality, suggestibility, confusion. The double nature of Gemini combined with the double nature of Pisces may become somehow incoherent. Feelings may pretend to be logic, and two plus two may be five after all. 

But no worries, lessons are there to be learned. 

If we were reading a whole chart, the next question would be: what is this Pisces Mercury, in charge of interpreting?

The urge to take action and get things moving forward of an Aries Sun in the tenth house? Such a Sun is likely to give orders, how will a Pisces Mercury tell you that you’ve got to do as you are told? And what if it’s an Aquarius Sun, with great ideas to share with you in the seventh house, how will Mercury in Pisces interpret them? What is there is a Libra Moon in the mix, with a diplomatic but non negotiable need for fairness? 

But these are other stories…  

Jean-Marc 

On this blog, you can find a special post: How to read a chart as a whole.

I crammed twenty pages with essential principles and illustrations to explain as clearly as possible, and hopefully be entertaining. 

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