Music To My Ears

Many of you may not know this but way back when (circa 2008), before I became an astrologer, I was a part of the indie art scene here in NYC for a few years. I wrote poetry, I dabbled in filmmaking, I performed onstage and at open mics, I went to all the underground art shows and indie concerts. And then somewhere along the line, I kind of fell out of love with the scene and gave that part of myself up as I moved on to pursuing a new direction in my life and career.

Then, about two months ago, I received an email from a very talented musician and composer, Marquis Hill. Marquis had the idea to do an astrology themed album and invited me to collaborate with him on it. I jumped at the opportunity. Not only did I love Marquis’ work and thought it would be cool to be a part of this project, but I knew that doing this would help me tap back into a part of myself that I’d been disconnected from for a very long time. Turns out my intuition was right.

Download Soul Sign by Marquis Hill.

Trumpeter, Composer and Producer, Marquis Hill releases a 12 track cosmic musical journey through the zodiacs in the form of a spoken word infused beat tape.

“ A yearning to learn more about the Zodiac - types and celestial influence for The Good - I’ve been inspired toward a fresh project. In its place, this extended spiritual knowledge of self is crucial in our lifetime. Collaborating with astrologers Mecca Woods and Boro the Lucky Libra - both hailing from the Bronx - we developed tracks that musically impressionize each Zodiac sign.

Here, jazz, spoken word and hip hop orbits and dances together. Each track is quite different, consistent with the often vast differences among the Zodiac signs and their types. Recorded during quarantine life, in Boston, NYC, and Chicago, this project underscores resilient elementals, energies in terms of fire, water, air, and earth”

Cocoa Butter and Capricorn Season

Full Moon In Capricorn: Finding A New Method To The Madness

Artwork: Esao Andrews, House of Mystery Vol 8.

When I was in my teens, my mother had this affirmation taped to the wall in our bathroom. It read: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” I’m not sure who it was that first coined this phrase, but it was a quote that had been popular among those in the Narcotics Anonymous fellowship, to which my mother belonged. I used to read these words to myself day after day, wondering if insanity was indeed like the hamster wheel this statement, up on our wall, had made it out to be. Having watched my mom hit the tortuous loop between addiction and wanting freedom from that addiction, I figured that in many ways this was true. While I’ve since grown up to understand addiction as extending beyond the narrow and ableist connotations of the term insanity, I do think there is something to be said about wanting change yet engaging compulsive or habitual behavior that changes…nothing.

Enter the Full Moon in Capricorn (July 19).

By nature, Capricorn loves habit. In habit, there is logic and there is order, there is security and the familiar, there is a sense of practice that makes perfect, there is structure and there is method. Through Capricorn, we learn how persistence, planning, and application creates the kind of foundation that empires and legacies are built on. Wherever Capricorn shows up in our lives, we are called to follow the due process that brings achievement and success. But what happens when we’ve outgrown the process? What happens when we’ve hit the point of no one size fits all portion of the program and we realize that we can’t get to where we want by following in the footsteps of someone else? Or better still, what happens when we have the kind of goals and ambitions to change our lives as we know them but continue on with the beliefs and habits that keep things the same? We have to be willing to try something new.

This Moon in Capricorn is being opposed by the Sun in Cancer (which makes it a Full Moon) and both will sit in a harsh angle to Uranus in Aries. Uranus, being the planet of breakthrough, instability, and radical change (transiting a headstrong and impulsive sign like Aries), means that there’s going to be an unsettling kind of energy that’s coming in with this moon. While Cancer is Capricorn’s astrological opposite, the two of these signs still share a need for security and stability. For Capricorn it’s material stability, for Cancer it’s emotional security. Though, like Capricorn, Cancer can instinctively fall back on habit and comfort when its security is threatened as a means to keep things as they are—stable. And this is where the real work comes in, kiddos. How are we supposed to remain stable when the world around us is crumbling to bits? The answer is that in some ways we must crumble along with it. We must be willing to release the dead, decayed, and outworn structures in our lives so that we can build new ones that can better support the “I” and the “We” that we are becoming. As astrologer Howard Sasportas writes in his book The Twelve Houses:

“The desire to become something greater than we are must be accompanied by the capacity to envision new and different possibilities. More than any other species, the large human brain and evolved cerebral cortex endows human beings to imagine a wide range of alternatives, choices, and outcomes…In this context, it is helpful to remember that the more clearly we can imagine a possibility, the closer we bring it to actualization. Encouraging positive visions of the future aids the process of moving in a more positive direction.”

In other words, we can’t continue to do the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

Luckily, that’s where Mars in Scorpio comes in, offering a bit of a release valve or a way out of the madness we may find ourselves in. Through the fearlessness, dedication, and laser focus of Mars in Scorpio, we are encouraged to strike out on a new path towards what we want. Are you ready? Life is changing as we know it. We must be able to change with it.

Pluto in Capricorn; Jupiter in Virgo: Food and Abundance

photo: Olenka Kotyk; Unsplash

A while back on Twitter, I tweeted about how important it is not to skip meals and how missing meals is actually a form of blocking abundance. As someone born with Venus (love, pleasure, money) in the Fourth House (family, nurturing, food, home) of my birth chart (a personal blueprint or cosmic map), food is a source of wealth to me. Keep in mind that I fully understand that for those who can't afford to eat regularly or suffer from an eating disorder, eating on a healthy and consistent basis is of course out of their control and requires help. However, for those of us who are able to keep up with our meals, we shouldn't take for granted that creating space to eat (as well as the food itself) is a form of physical capital.

As Pluto, the planet associated with power and deep transformation, continues to move through stable and business-oriented Capricorn (which incidentally is also moving through my zone of income and possessions), we are encouraged to review and redefine our wealth. While food and nourishment may seem to fall in Cancer's wheelhouse (Cancer is the sign in charge of the astrological Fourth House), Capricorn has some authority in this realm too as Capricorn shares Cancer's need for security. The only difference being that Cancer, a water sign, craves emotional security while Capricorn seeks it in the material world. And if we can consider land and crops as physical resources (both provide a source of sustenance and security), then our bodies have to be included too. After all, we can't do much if we don't have our health.

Food as wealth (and health) is also symbolized by another planetary transit—Jupiter in Virgo. Jupiter, the planet that represents abundance and good fortune, is currently moving through the sign of Virgo, where it will stay until September 9th. Virgo, an earth sign, is concerned with physical well-being, efficiency, healthy routines, and duty.  In Greek myth, from where astrological symbolism is derived, Virgo is connected to the Virgin archetype. The Virgin represents feminine and fertile energy symbolized by earth, tilling the land, growing crops that feed and sustain, and harvesting the bounty of those crops when the work is done. This is also why in medical astrology Virgo is in charge of the digestive system, because here is where the body gets what it needs in order to function and thrive. Through Jupiter in Virgo, we’re learning the importance being more disciplined with our bodies and resources. In this case; how we eat, what we eat, and when we eat it makes all the world of difference as to whether we’re feeling like we’re thriving or not.

It’s this relationship between discipline and eating, or rather work and eating (after all we need to work in order to eat) that got me to thinking about how little we create space to eat (because of work), and how that contributes to lack and depletion. As the landscape of the American workforce continues to shift (thank you, Pluto), bringing with this shift a rise in freelancing, telecommuting, and entrepreneurship; the normal 9-5 job schedule that we’ve become accustomed to is on a steady decline.1 However, with the shadow side of Pluto being connected to the misuse of power—specifically by those already in power, in this case Capricorn seems to also represent big business and its penchant for creating an office culture that leaves employees little work-life balance. How does this tie into food? I asked my followers on Twitter how many of them made a habit of skipping or working through their lunch break because of work. Unsurprisingly, I received a huge response from people, mostly women, who I did this. As a result, they also told me how poorly it affected them (i.e. moodiness, headache, fatigue, etc.) And here’s why I explained to my Twitter followers that eating and eating well is important; if we want to magnetize abundance, we have to be in a place where we already feel abundant, both emotionally and physically, in order to attract more of it to us. Otherwise, we'll find ourselves operating from a place of desperation and lack. And as anyone can tell you, desperation is not sexy.

1.       Pudwell, Sam. “The rise of telecommuting: 45 percent of US employees work from home.”BetaNews. September 11, 2015. Accessed March 29, 2016. http://betanews.com/2015/09/11/the-rise-of-telecommuting-45-percent-of-us-employees-work-from-home/