on astrological maximalism
a plaidoyer for openness
In between eclipses, the Sun enters the slippery fish, in the bounds of the Queen, Venus exalted in her throne, running tightly with that hungry hungry north node of the Moon…
Adorn yourself in all the tech, the glittery scales refracting eras and eons of humans looking up to look within, to look ahead, to make sense of the past for the management of the future, stoic poise in the face of it all…
You’ll notice Saturn’s bound of Aquarius omitted here. I got eclipsed. Human life, real physical reality, stole me away from screens, pixels, and town-crying your bounds. It’s important for all of us to take breaks, and to honor when we need to focus on the here and now, and not get lost in these ethers where we connect in theory.
I’m getting excited about the upcoming conferences where I can commune with my astro buds in person, see the backs of everyone’s heads, and check out the fits. When I catch a moment to myself, I am lost in my thrifting apps, dreaming of who i’ll be wearing at NORWAC in May and UAC this fall. McQueen is always a fave, but I’m dreaming of more…
Venus in Pisces in her own bounds is hardcore sequin technology. Thrillions of facets, reflecting the surfaces, glinting in all directions, an ultimate place for the connection maven to show you parts of your Self amongst the glitz of the whole, unified, and don’t even get me started on her venereal ‘glerpes’… Glitter demands all the attention, and once it gloms on, it’s difficult to glom off… so glam UP. Beam.
Pisces, the antiscal sign to Libra has a seriously important homonym commonality:
SCALES.
The techno-machine of Libra mirrors (antiscia) the armor of the fish, the hiding-in-plain-sightness of Pisces, the way Libra will cuttlefish itself for social harmony (when it’s not seeking to annoy you to restore a higher order of balance, but we’re not marsing today).
Scales.
Balance vs protection; blending opposites, or blending in.
Weighing (feather of Ma’at) or (‘hiding-from-)prey’-ing…
Trust me, you won’t unsee this.
Scales. Scales.
So when the Sun enters the watery realms of Pisces and spends an eternity of 12 zodiacal degrees in Venus’s boudoir, while she’s in there next to her hungry ghost Luna’s North Node, we are putting it all on.
These days, when people ask me what kind of astrologer I am, I do not answer with an era or a tradition, or a lineage, I say, I’m an astrological maximalist.
Pallas Augustine quoted my Open House System in their IC Book, and I felt honored by that reference, and permanently seen in my desire to use all the tools, as and when they are necessary, and simultaneously respect when we come up with new tools as we experiment. Not every tool is made for every project, and some will only ever belong to their creators, but sometimes, people innovate in ways that transcend their personal use and enter the canon. We can enter the canon if we keep our minds and hearts open and truly explore together.
Resisting the capitalist demand that we innovate for market share, we can innovate to see what works now, what do we see now, from here, where can we be the living future ancestors to people alive hundreds of years from now who will look back on our current state of the field as another Hellenic melting pot of global astrologies?
It’s not about trademarking our Astro*Carto*Graphy®, as Jim Lewis did, which I’ll talk about at the end of the month at CAELi’s location lab… That sort of territoriality is not what I mean. And thankfully that ® expired so we can all use the label without fears of legal persecution.
What I mean is, when you read what astrologers have actually written, esp. the researching astros of the 20th C as their ways of measuring got ever more precise, it makes you think differently, your brain starts to devour methodologies and dream up new insights, and you find yourself exploring, with a sense of play and connection, to see where your vantage point might contribute.
Reading Kepler in English translation? He’s hilarious. Have you done it, yet? Why not? What other astrologers are in your tsundoku pile? Let me put another 60 on your list because there are so many unread, unnamed people who shared brilliant insights with the world, in print, and we’ve forgotten them because we don’t have ready access to the sources… until now.
I recently woke up to a series of texts from one of CAELi’s power users. After months of immersion in the holdings, they fashioned a credible proposal for ways to approach an astrology of geological time.
GEOLOGICAL TIME Y’ALL.
Not deep space astrology, not galactic anything, but deep, extended multi-million year timelines. I rushed to calculate when the Reformation happened in my condensed timeline.
This is the sort of thing that happens around here. When we suspend disbelief, and honor traditions while also remembering that we are alive now, with eyes and brains now, who can play with all of them, and see what comes out. Not to blend and smash them into The One True Astrology that Works Best (what does best mean anyway?), but to carefully wear each of them as sequins, glinting, which, as a whole, make up phenomenally attractive attire. Each in their own place. Like… the very stars in our constellations.
It’s why i am making this library.
I want all astrologers to be able to immerse themselves in the plethora of astrologies and walk out of here looking fine as hell, with receipts. it’s the core behind the “arts” in the library’s official name; it’s why astrology doesn’t factor into the official name, too. it’s not about the astrology only, it’s about the feelings we get when we engage with these ways of perceiving the world AND the histories, stories, and artworks (visual, sonic, or otherwise) that become possible when we gather together and create along these lines…
Beading the bounds, ZR scarves… songs of star phase signficance….
If any of this is moving your heartstrings, and you are ready to give your astrology a hardcore maximalist glow up, please join me. I’m on a mission to gather 555 members to create lasting support for the library so we can have this amazing sequin-filled sandbox to innovate in. You with me?
See you soon, but not that soon bc the Sun takes forever to languish through the early degrees of Venus’s bound of Pisces.
Yrs,
-j