What Is A Horoscope?

by Jenny Yates

I would never suggest living your life completely by the stars.  But when fishing people
get ready to go out in their boats, they look at the clouds, taste the wind, check the color
of the dawn.  Astrology can be like that:  a little extra information that helps you to be safe,
open and effective.

Do you need to study for years, memorize arcane lore, master calculus?  Not at all.  The
main thing you need is a strong curiosity about the people around you, and a desire to
understand them on a deeper level.

What can astrology give you?  It can contribute to ongoing self-awareness.  It can be a
route to accepting and appreciating yourself and others.  It can help you figure out what’s
going on in your relationships.  It can tell you the duration of a particular life-lesson, or a
funky mood.

The most commonly asked question in workshops is:  “What is a horoscope, anyway?  
What do they mean when they say houses, aspects, rising sign, and all the rest?”

In a nutshell, your horoscope is a picture of the sky at the moment of your birth.  The
upper half of the wheel shows the dome of the sky, from eastern to western horizon.  The
bottom half shows what you’d see looking through the earth, if you happened to be born
with x-ray vision.  You can look quickly at any birthchart and see whether the person was
born at day or night, and whether the moon and planets had risen or set, just by knowing
their symbols.

The zodiac is a round ruler divided into 12 even sections - the 12 signs.  This goes
around everything else - the earth, moon, sun and planets.  When you say, “Her moon is
in Leo,” you’re saying that she could’ve looked up at the moment of birth, seen the moon,
and behind it would have been that section of the starry sky that we call “Leo”.

Your rising sign is that bit of the sky that was visible at the eastern horizon when you
were born.  If you were born at sunrise, your sun-sign and rising sign will be the same.  If
you were born at moonrise, your moon-sign and rising sign will be the same.

Your rising sign marks the beginning of the 1st house, and the houses chop up the
space around the earth into 12 sections.  When you say, “Her moon is in the 10th
house,” you’re saying that the moon was directly above at the time of birth.  If the sun was
in the 10th house, it was around noon.  

The houses refer to the directions:  east, west, above and below.  They appear to be fixed
reference points, as long as you stay in one spot on the earth.  Meanwhile, if you look at
the eastern horizon, the stars wheel by, presenting you with a new rising sign every two
hours.  Of course, it’s really the earth that’s moving and not the stars.  

The main players in a horoscope are the sun, moon and planets.  You look at their
signs, their house positions, and their aspects.  The aspects are the relationships
between the planets.  If you looked up, would you see a pair of planets nestled snugly
together?  Or are they on opposite sides of the sky?  Or somewhere in between? Certain
angles between the planets have a lot of power.

These are the bare bones of horoscope interpretation: the relationship between earth,
sky and planets (including the sun and moon in the latter category for convenience).  On
these bones, there are layers and layers of meaning.  Each planet has its own flavor.  
The houses have their own significance, and so a planet shows a different face when it’s
setting and when it’s rising.  Each zodiacal sign has its own style, and many women
have figured them out just by checking out their friends’ signs.  And the aspects are
different:  a 90-degreee angle between two planets is not like an 120-degree angle.  

So you have a language of symbols, an alphabet.  Putting them together, you find the
messages.  When you say, “My 10th house moon in Cancer opposes my 4th house
Venus in Capricorn,” you’re dealing with seven different symbolic references.  Yet if all
you know is that your moon is in Cancer, you still know a lot.  You can take off from there
and explore your relationship to mother, home and food.  And the more of the language
you can read, the deeper you can inquire.

I think astrology is a useful, accessible tool for everyone, and I dedicate myself to this
premise in workshops and writing.  I’d like to see every woman with a copy of her own
birthchart.  So that when a woman asks your sign, you don’t just say, “I’m a Taurus,” but
perhaps, “I have a Taurus sun and a Scorpio moon, and my Aries Venus is rising in the
1st house.”  

And the other woman can look into your eyes, and see the romance of your fiery Venus,
the power of your Scorpio moon, and the stability of your Taurus sun.  And she’ll know
how much there is to explore, how much to celebrate, whenever two women come
together - whether for a lifetime, an hour, or an instant.  


(This essay was first printed in Womyn’s Words in July 1998.)

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Moon Signs & Lunar Transits

by Jenny Yates

The moon circles the earth quickly, passing through all the signs of the zodiac in 28
days. She is generous with her changes, offering a new zodiacal perspective every 2½  
days.

When the moon reaches the sign that the sun is in, she becomes invisible, her light
vanishing into the sun's brilliance. This is the dark moon, the new moon, a time to seed
new beginnings. After this phase, she grows steadily night by night.

When she reaches her fullest form, she is in the opposite sign from the sun. This is a
time to express yourself fully, to integrate both the outwardly active sun sign and the
inwardly reflective moon sign. The moon urges you to express your inner nature by
bringing all truths up to the light. The pressure can be intense leading to bouts of lunacy,
but the joy of seeing yourself whole is also intense.

The moon is symbolically connected with emotions, water, and the mother. Her changes
are reflected deep within us in the ways we nurture ourselves and others. Some signs
are more fertile than others, better for planting, creating, and conceiving. However, each
sign has its gifts for your soul as well as for your garden.

Moon in Aries:
As the moon moves into Aries, she raises some basic identity questions. You stand
stripped bare of formalities knowing yourself as you truly are. Many new beginnings are
hatched now, but the energy is too fiery for safe planting.

Moon in Taurus:
In Taurus, the moon brings calm and stability. The buzz subsides and you notice the
things that endure: the feel of wood and rock, the smell of your lover's skin, the cycles of
the soil. This fertile sign encourages strong, slow growth.

Moon in Gemini:
The Gemini moon stimulates your curiosity. Interesting ideas appear constantly, like
doors opening up to reveal other doors. Now is the time to make connections, perhaps
via e-mail or telephone. Explore your garden, learn from it, but don't plant.

Moon in Cancer:
As she moves into Cancer, the moon brings up memories and all the emotions that
accompany them. This is a fertile time as tears fall more readily nourishing your roots. All
arts are encouraged, especially the alchemy of cooking.

Moon in Leo:
When the moon enters Leo, your inner child wants attention, as do your inner clown and
your inner prima donna. Turn all the commotion into art and then celebrate your creative
power. In the garden, cultivate and admire, but don't plant

Moon in Virgo:
In Virgo, the moon moves towards a simple, useful life. If anything needs mending in
body or soul, now is the time to focus your healing powers. In the garden or at home, you
can arrange, shape, and tend.

Moon in Libra:
With the moon in Libra, you need more beauty in your life. Plant flowers, fill your house
with them, or give them to someone you love. You are more tender and romantic,
conscious of the subtle dances of human connection.

Moon in Scorpio:
When the moon passes through Scorpio, feelings are intense and desires powerful. You
delve into your deepest self with its shadows and dragons, and you recognize the
untapped power there. Anything planted now grows deep and strong.

Moon in Sagittarius:
With moon in Sagittarius, feelings range wide as you amble down the road, watch the
stars, or read old philosophy books. The search is more important than the finding. Take
a break from your garden as your energy is restless now.

Moon in Capricorn:
As the moon moves into Capricorn, your inner Wise Woman is very strong. She can
show you how to take old fears and sorrows and turn them into resolve, ambition and
discipline. Anything you plant now will have strong roots.

Moon in Aquarius:
As she moves through Aquarius, the moon brings the liberation of understanding. You
can detach yourself from old emotional patterns and see your mother, lover, and friends
as individuals. Talk to your green friends now, but don't plant new ones.

Moon in Pisces:
When the moon is in Pisces, distinctions blur and barriers dissolve. Your rational mind
may go hide under a rock while your intuitive mind moves joyfully and unerringly in the
cosmic dance. This is a fertile time. Everything yields.

(This was first printed in WeMoon 1999.)


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Can You Tell a Lesbian By Her Horoscope?

by Jenny Yates

This is a controversial topic among gay astrologers, and most of us say no.  You can’t
tell gender, or race, or country of origin from a birthchart, so why should you be able to tell
something as intrinsic as sexual orientation?  

However, I’ve looked at hundreds of lesbian charts through the years, and there are
certain things that have grabbed my attention.   More often than not, Mars or the moon is
close to an angle.  

What are the angles?  They are the power points of a birthchart, the cusps (or
beginnings) of the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses.  These are charged points because
they correspond to the cardinal directions, and any planets found close to these points
will be central to a woman’s horoscope.  The French astrologer Gauquelin, who
originally set out to debunk astrology, did a lot of research on the connection between
these positions and career success.  

The moon symbolizes women, so it makes sense that a powerful moon will point us in
the direction of a lesbian.  The moon is about emotion, nurturing, comfort, instinct, and
everything that’s round and warm and sweet.  It’s about cooking, food, and the belly.  

Of course, in an individual chart, the moon is colored by the sign she’s in.  Somebody
with a fiery moon is going to have different emotional patterns from someone with an
earthy moon.  But in any sign, the moon feels like women, and if she’s close to an angle,
there’s going to be an emphasis on doing things with women.  With the moon here, you’
re attracted to womyn’s spaces, as well as women’s traditional activities.  

However, there are straight women with the moon next to an angle.  They can be found in
all-woman professions, for example.  They spend their days around other women,
talking and gossiping and offering practical advice and emotional support.  Nurturing is
second nature to them.  But they happen to be straight.  And so you can’t tell for sure that
a woman is a lesbian because she has the moon near in an angle.  You can say that
she spends a lot of time with women, but she can’t say that she curls up in bed with one
at night.  

Then we come to Mars, the planet of desire, activity, will and impulse.  Mars is
traditionally the “boy” planet, since it’s about those traits that are culturally identified with
boyishness.  It’s about being very physically active, going after what you want, fighting
back when people push you around.  

When Mars is close to an angle in a woman’s horoscope, you find the butchier kind of
woman.  She goes after what she wants, fights for her rights, and lives in the physical
world.  Of course, someone with an airy Mars is going to be more cerebral and less
physical than someone with an earthy Mars.  But whenever Mars is found close to the
angle of a woman’s chart, she’s a little tougher, more spontaneous, and more willing to
act on her sexual desires.

Most of the women I know with Mars angular are dykes.  But there are some straight
women here, too, even though they are the kind that have a lot of Dyke Potential. Still, they’
re definitely straight.  They sometimes have husbands, even though they tend to be in
charge in their households.  They have jobs that involve power tools or highly competitive
environments.  They don’t get perturbed when people call them dykes, because they
recognize that’s another way of saying “powerful woman”.  

So how do you know?  You never know for sure.  These are just hints.  There are also a
few aspects that show up more often in dyke charts than in straight charts.  One is the
sun/Mars sextile, which shows a connection between the sun (identity) and Mars (action
and desire). This is the aspect that gives the best reflexes.  So maybe, as lesbians, we
have a reflexive desire to love women.

The old books used to say that hard aspects involving Uranus and Neptune made for  -
as they used to put it - “sexual perversion”.   Uranus is the planet that makes eccentrics,
inventors and geniuses, and generally if Uranus is strong in your chart, you don’t mind
being different from everybody else.  But some straight women live very radical and outré
lives.  If a straight women goes out and sleeps with any guy who looks good to her,
without getting hitched first, she can be considered on the kinky side by mainstream
society.  

So a strong Uranus will only tell us whether you can handle being different, not which
direction you’re going to take it in.  But if you can’t handle being a little outside the
mainstream, it’s not easy to be a dyke in this day and age.  

Then there’s Neptune, the planet of fascination and addiction and illusion and
imagination, which also has a reputation for disgraceful sexual acts, particularly in the
old astrology books.  When somebody is so enthralled that they don’t care if society
throws them in jail for their desires, then Neptune may be in the picture.  But being a
dyke is rarely that much of a fatal fascination any more.  And in fact, a strong Neptune is
more likely to point to someone who isn’t sure what she is, or who hates labels because
we’re all cosmically connected anyway.  

Jupiter, the planet of community, also has a role to play here. Your Jupiter tells you how
you deal with your social role. But because there is a thriving lesbian community, you can
be a lesbian and still have a harmonious and strong Jupiter.  At one time, hard Jupiter
aspects would have pointed to an outcast, or someone who just didn’t feel comfortable
with social expectations, and that could have been because of a difference in sexual
orientation.  But there are more choices now, in terms of where to belong and how to
succeed in society.

As there are more and more of us, we show more and more diversity.  There are
lesbians who aren’t influenced much by Uranus, and who live very traditional lives.  
There are lesbians who aren’t influenced much by Neptune, and who aren’t all that
besotted with their lovers (although they may like them a lot).  There are lesbians with
strong Jupiters who are pillars of their communities.  

But we all definitely have something going on with the moon and with Mars.  If it’s not just
about liking women, but actually sleeping with them, then Mars gets into the act.  And if
women touch us where we live, then the moon gets involved.


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Essays