One Planet To Rule Them All: How To Find + Tribute the Planetary Ruler of Your Stars
How to find and make a big deal about your chart ruler, a.k.a. the planet ruling your entire birth chart… plus 5 ways to experiment with astrological magic! ✨
In this post, I’m going to share a few breezy ways to combine astrology & ritual, starting with the very entry point of the natal chart: your chart ruler! 🤩
Your chart’s ruler gives you the snap-crackle-pop of clarity about your original self; the vibe you naturally thrum at. This info can reveal who we really are, in this present cycle, & who we want to become, if we’re able to keep up our energy & focus. Meditating on the mythos of our natal chart can also help us better read the symbolism & relationships in our lives.
And by making yourself more conscious of it you’ll build quiet confidence about who you are & how you vibe. 👍🏻
If you’re witch-curious, or just yearning to get hands-on with astrology, tributing (or “paying charity to”) the planetary ruler of your stars is the perfect baby step into astrological magic: a spirit craft that pays careful attention to planetary transits, while honoring your unique potential! 💫
All of this is based on a little of what Rachel Capurso (Aeolian Heart Astrology) taught during the last round of course about natal astrology, DISCOVERY! (Read more about DISCOVERY here, which re-opens for enrollment very soon!)
Obviously, you have to dig up some scratch on what that ruler is, so you can feel out where & how that ruling planet’s energy manifests in your life, so that’s where we’ll start. ✨
Discover Your Chart Ruler: How to Find the Planetary Ruler of Your Birth Chart
The ruler of your whole natal chart is the ruling planet of your Rising Sign, which is the sign of the first angle of the natal chart (in most house systems): the Ascendent. ✨
Why would the Ascendent determine your chart ruler, & not, like, the planetary ruler of your Sun, or Moon, or even your North Node…? 🤔
Because all other planetary energies in your chart enter through your Rising Sign. The Ascendent is the doorway of your consciousness. It’s the most sublime energy in your life, the germ and foundation of your primordial psyche.
Basically, the Ascendent is the starting line for your life journey, & your Rising Sign sums up the mood & tone!
Whatever planets are transiting you & whatever else is going on in your natal chart, it all smacks of that one planet ruling your Rising Sign. One Planet to Rule Them All. 💫 (I’m funny.)
To get started, we have to dig in & find out everything we can about the ruler of your Rising Sign. You might want to grab a diary or designate a new notebook, just so you have a place to record your initial discovery.
Later, you’ll need space (analog and digital) to collect quotes, images, & your own impressions.
Remember: what you collect will inform your tribute!
🌟 first, score a copy of your natal chart …
…go here to find out where + how to get one. ✨✨✨
For the chart to produce an accurate Rising Sign, you’ll need the exact time, location, & date of your birth.
why do you need the exact time…?
Rising Signs change every two hours, so the precise time is key, & can be found on your birth certificate. If you don’t have one, get in touch with the county or province where you were born & ask for a copy to be mailed to you, which is totally doable, for a fee.
When you get your chart, look to angle on the left-hand side of the inner circle, OR for the letters ASC, which stand for Ascendent.
Remember, your Rising Sign is one of the same as the sign of your Ascendent, which is the first angle. ☝🏻
Okay, once located, answer this question: What is your Rising Sign?
Now, answer this question: Which planet(s) rule(s) that Sign? (If you don’t know off the top of your head, Google is here to help. ☮️)
Now, this question: Where on your chart is that planet hanging out? Which Sign, which House? (This is special to you.)
When you locate your chart ruler, note the SIGN and HOUSE it’s hanging out in, which might be totally different from the First House and Sign you started off with, and get ready to run recon on what it means having this planet in this space.
Special notes…
It’s worth noting any planets lounging close by your Ascendent (within 5 degrees of the Ascendent in either the First or Twelfth Houses), because they’re definitely throwing their energy into the mix. You may even realize that you closely identify with that planet more than the ruler of your Rising Sign!
You might have two potential rulers (or more if there are any conjunct planets), especially if your Rising Sign is Scorpio ♏️, Aquarius ♒️, or Pisces ♓️. These signs have co-rulers: one Personal Planet (Mercury, Venus, or Mars, but also Jupiter or Saturn) & one Outer Planet (Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto).
Outer Planets are higher octaves of the Personal Planets… & they’re wild cards. I have a special caution on tributing Outer Planets, which you’ll find at the end of the post. ☢️
For now, just note any & all potential rulers, so you can start keying up your intuition for the research phase.
🌟 next, run recon on your ruler(s).
At this point, to complement your notebook, you might want to create a fresh .doc for collecting quotes, as well as dedicate a new Pinterest board for storing images.
Do a general Google search for myths & deities attributed to your ruling planet. What themes, experiences, & archetypes were related to your ruler? In what era? For which culture(s)?
What are the most popular myths? How many different versions of that myth exist?
Next, look into icons. What imagery of the planet & associated deities are available? How was your ruler envisaged? In what kind of medium were they represented: sculpture, painted on pottery or canvas?
What superpowers or capabilities were attributed to your ruler? (By this point, you might be investigating specific deities.) Could your ruler shape shift into an animal or be found in a specific kind of scenery?
You’ll probably find several different attributions. Write down the ones that immediately appeal, or that you’re curious to learn more about.
Look into specific rituals & worship practices. What kind of ceremonies were practiced? How were they accomplished, with what materials, at what times of year?
Are there any cultures still practicing these ceremonies? Can you find any modern derivatives?
For what purposes was your deity invoked: marriage rites, funeral rites, consecration? For bountiful harvests, for prophetic dreams, for successful battle?
What kind of influence did this deity confer onto worshippers?
Go wider than just the mainstream Greco-Roman myths. Defer to your actual ancestry, if colonization hasn’t obliterated the information. What stories & deities did your people attribute to this planet? How does the themes & symbolism differ?
Most critically: do you vibe with that? Any prickling of recognition?
REMEMBER, this is extracurricular. You don’t lose points for going down any rabbit holes, or for vibing with the most dubious, hokey information out there. Follow your curiosity & make your own inferences!
🌟 finally, plan your tribute. 🎉
A tribute can be a full-tilt, one-and-done ritual you plan months in advance, or a daily habit you pick up. You can build a space (literally) in your home for monthly tributes, or coordinate an annual group event according to your ruler’s celestial schedule.
The basic outcome: creating time & space for a little custom-fit sacred simmering with the divine. ✨
But before you can really plan your tribute, you have to personalize your ruler.
By which I mean: giving your chart ruler a “personality” you can imagine interacting with.
Start with all your favorites from the research. What was your favorite deity? Favorite story? Favorite image?
Why? Draw, write, or even talk out loud into your Voice Memo app: why does this deity resonate with you? What attributed power or quality do you feel naturally blessed with? Can you relate with a story or adventure regarding the deity?
Btw, not that you’re asking my permission, but it’s totally fine changing the gender of your planetary ruler.
For example, if Mercury rules your chart, but you’re not really vibing with Hermes or Thoth, look into Seshat, Goddess of Libraries. Still hella Mercurial, but a different kind of operator.
If deifying a planet feels like a huge stretch (but you’re obviously still curious enough to try making the leap), I outline tons of activities you can do to personalize & vivify archetypes in my post about Patron Goddesses. (Just FYI: I used Life Path Numerology in that one, not astrology.)
Here are the kinds of logistical Q’s you also want to ask yourself…
What kind of materials do you want to work with in your tribute? Flowers, herbs, stones? The Tarot? Pen & paper? Colored light?
What kind of activities do you want to do? Instead of buying a bunch of clutter, would you rather plan a dance, recitation, or song?
What kind of setting do you want to tribute in? Indoors or outdoors? Big enough to fit a group, or small & private enough to fit just you, naked & alone?
When you start getting excited & ready to start walking it out, I have 5 ways to help you tribute your ruler, to be redressed however you desire!
5 SIMPLE WAYS TO TRIBUTE YOUR CHART RULER 💫
These 5 tips are super basic, but will help you find ways for personalizing astrology & experimenting with magic ritual, without totally upending your life.
Before I close out this post, I have a special disclaimer for working with the so-called “malefics,” Mars & Saturn, & the Outer Planets, which you might have encountered if your Rising Sign is Scorpio, Aquarius, or Pisces.
Also, during your research phase, you may have found that you vibe best not with the ruling planet of your Rising Sign, but with a planet conjunct your Ascendent.
If that’s true, follow your weird heart, & design a tribute to the conjunctive planet instead!
tribute #1:
leave offerings on an altar.
For a lot of people, altars serve as workstations or like islands of sanity. Once a day or once a week they spiff up their altar digs, change out the display with the changing seasons, or keep it tidy until the new / full moon when they need a space to leave tokens to the god/dess their praising.
🌟 This post has my best tips for building a Goddess altar, which talks about arranging your altar with “official” correspondences, though it’s cool to just decorate your altar with super cute rigamarole you just want to see all the time.
(HINT: Visit my ALTAR-A-GO-GO board for more inspo for doing up your altar!)
Depending on what you want to tribute, & how often, you might not want to build an indoor altar at home, but instead find an outdoor space to tribute your ruler.
If you’re in love with the lush meadow depicted in The Empress card of the Tarot (ruled by Venus), go to one. Plan a day trip. Bring your kids along for an outdoor picnic, or go alone. Bring an instrument or a bluetooth speaker to play a song as tribute, or meditate while wearing a flower crown & clutching a hunk of rose quartz in each hand.
OR if tributing Seshat, a femme counterpart to Thoth, you might leave an offering at the library: a love letter tucked into your favorite YA novel, or a post-it with an encouraging message in the Quiet Study pavilion.
Outdoor altar spaces are also perfect for reenactment ceremonies: performing a myth as though it were a play. Just find a story or legend attributed to your ruler (or a deity attributed to your ruler), then plan an outfit, select a location, & go be weird. Invite your friends & make it a party!
If you do decide to tribute your ruler at an outdoor area, scout the location ahead of time (if possible), to feel it out. Do you feel connected, grounded, & centered in that place? Does its vibe befit the vibe you’re trying to channel into your life?
tribute #2:
plan a ritual for the new & full moon in your rising sign
Moon magic is the perfect baby step into ritualism. The Moon rules our unconscious mind & shadow self. Tributing your chart ruler in a moon ritual feels like anointing a new bond, or a coming out party.
What’s the difference between a new & full moon ritual? Basically, the difference between sharing a first kiss & a simultaneous orgasm. But with a deification of your stars.
A new moon ritual represents a turning point. The ritual helps you bury an intention into your subconscious, so you start acting towards it, more easily sidestepping the conscious mind.
With your Rising Sign, you know this intention would have to do with appearances & self-perception, so a new moon ritual in your Rising Sign is a good occasion for committing to a brand new outlook, or practicing new behaviors that feel more aligned with who you really are / are destined to be.
A full moon ritual is way more cathartic. A full moon ritual in your Rising Sign purges old hang-ups about your identity & what you think it means. This is a perfect occasion for invoking a deity who empowers you to feel more comfortable in your skin.
The new moon in your Rising Sign happens only once a year (usually when the Sun is in that same sign), but the full moon in your Rising Sign could maybe happen twice. (Usually when the Sun is in the opposite sign on the zodiac wheel.)
In either case, you can perform a new / full moon ritual around the actual day the moon was in your Rising Sign, & still hit the mark. 👌🏻
To find out the NEW moon in your Rising Sign: Google “new moon in [your Rising Sign] + “the year”, or look up when the Sun moves into that Sign.
To find out the FULL moon in your Rising Sign: Google for the exact date: “full moon in [your Rising Sign]” + “the year.”
So, what do you do for a new &/or full moon ritual? I have a post on creating a new moon ritual (with optional step-by-step instructions), as well as guidelines for creating a full moon ceremony.
Don’t forget, paying tribute doesn’t have to mean performing purely symbolic activities. If plotting moon ceremonies sound like a racket, use the moon’s stationing in your Rising Sign to jumpstart the future or begin dissolving the past!
Let a new moon ritual instigate a phase in your life where you take inspired action, like volunteering on behalf of a underprivileged group you identify with or signing up for a certification class that will bring you into closer alignment with what you dream about doing.
For a full moon ritual, host a big party. Let your ruling planet’s correspondences inspire the theme & decor. Be as light- or heavy-handed with the astrological aspect as you wanna be.
Use the meaning you’ve conferred onto your ruler to guide your activities.Follow your own weird heart, that’s the point!
tribute #3:
plan a resurrection day retreat.
Your Resurrection Day happens one day a year, like a birthday, when the Sun enters your Rising Sign at the exact degree of your Ascendent.
I first heard about Resurrection Days on the SoulShine Astrology podcast, based on Robert Cole’s The Book of Houses.
“Resurrection Day is like your birthday. It’s the moment when the seedling bursts out of the warm, dark soil into the light of the sun. Quite literally, it is your re-birth day. This is the moment each year when we feel ourselves brought back to life.”
I actually bought the book on Amazon, but Natalie tells you how to find out your Resurrection Day in that podcast episode, so check it out!
Here’s an example: my Ascendent is at 6 degrees Scorpio, so if I’m planning a Resurrection Day retreat for 2019, I’d start monitoring my TimePassages app in the last days the Sun is in Virgo. ♍️ (Towards the end of September, early October.)
When the Sun is finally at 6 degrees Scorpio ♏️, it’s my Resurrection Day. ✨
Robert Cole advises spending your Resurrection Day in solace, reconnecting with your inner self & deepest dreams. You could combine a moon magical-type of ritual with a hardcore goal-setting session, or build a seasonally-focused altar space that visually speaks to your ruler / most soulful self, like I talk about below!
Remember, paying tribute doesn’t need a ton of brouhaha or expert execution. It’s not what you’re doing or leaving behind, but the meaning you’ve attached to it.
The research you did was supposed to help you understand (& really think about) the hidden symbolism in your chart, & your tribute is born from the details you found to be really meaningful all on their own.
TIPS FOR IF YOUR CHART RULER IS A MALEFIC OR OUTER PLANET 👹
One of the mesmerizing things about natal astrology is realizing when true-life events actually coincide with the little glyphs in your chart. The broader your study of the chart, the more humbled you feel about the crises & blessings you’ve experienced.
In might even convince you there’s something metaphysical afoot. ✨
but what if your chart is ruled by some iffy planetary ju-ju…?
My Rising Sign is Scorpio ♏️: co-ruled by Mars, a malefic, & Pluto, an Outer Planet.
My natal Pluto also lurks in my First House, within 3 degrees of my Ascendent. 😳
that makes me Plutonian… 💀
…someone with heavy Pluto-play in their birth chart, celestially fated to be a strange, dark person with a mega-transformer affect on situations and relationships. (Super. ✨)
Natal astrology has def helped me reframe the true-life events that coincide with the glyphs in my chart, but even so, I don’t necessarily want to toast the Gods of War or Death. 💀🧃
if you’re in a similar sitch, and feeling iffy about what’s turned out to be your planetary ruler, you have 3 options…
Tribute your Rising Sign’s co-ruler instead. In my case, Mars, which is not a sketchy Outer Planet, but is considered a “malefic,” as in, a harbinger of challenges & drama. Malefics aren’t bad, just associated with the types of events we don’t welcome with open arms. (Saturn is the other malefic.)
Tribute a more desirable planet hanging out in your First House or conjunct your Ascendent. This might be very cool, especially if you’ve got a “benefic” close by, such as Jupiter or Venus. Benefics are associated with good tidings & easy luck. Google the conjunct planet + the Sign of your First House, and decide if that’s more favorable!
OR, if you’re similar to me, where the ruler of your Rising Sign and any conjunct planets are both iffy, you can pay tribute to the general spirit of your ruler, without naming any names or glorifying any of the particulars. 💫
If you choose the third option, begin with inspiration: what do you appreciate about your life, so far, that fits your ruler’s theme?
Then, ask yourself: what can I do to sweeten that vibe?
suggestions… ☝🏻
⭐️ If Saturn rules your Rising Sign (♑️), consider building an altar to commemorate the lessons learned during your Saturn Return! You don’t have to dedicate living space to Saturn, but you could devote a brand-new planner with a section for tracking bills & other important adult paperwork. (I talk about building a planner-grimoire in this post to help you get started!)
Or, if you’re fine with Mars as a ruler, plan ahead for an epic goal-setting session for the Aries new moon ♈️, which happens in the spring. Magically set an intention for something (like securing a promotion or buying a 3-month pass to the hot yoga-pilates studio that just opened up), then pound out a complete action-plan while in your new moon ritual space!
Because you have time to plan, show up to the sacred space ready to jam. Consider it an interview session with your Highest Self (or deepest self), who will totally endow you with the mojo to see your intention through, so long as you come prepared and focused.
⭐️ For an Aries full moon (when the Sun is in Libra ♎️), revel in the spoils of a recent conquest by booking a girls’ weekend getaway, or by signing up for an online workshop that will help you get assertive about your sex life. Full moons are about purges and Dionysian de-stressing, so your activity should feel like a guilty pleasure, but also prompt you to come away from it feeling renewed and empowered, vibing with Mars. 🔥✅
⭐️ If Scorpio is your Rising Sign ♏️, build an ancestor altar in the fall to commemorate all who have come before. (I have a post on that coming soon, stay tuned.✨) Or wait until the moon is full or waning in Scorpio ♏️ (get the Deluxe Moon app to start tracking), then perform a private ceremony for purging all the dead things in your life, then following up activity to purify the mental, emotional, even physical space left behind. You don’t have to address any particular deity or image in order to pay tribute: the activity itself aligns with what your chart is all about.
Ya so, you don’t have to invent or track down any crazy preamble for connecting with your chart ruler!
Tributes are really about affirming your personal evolution and weird vibe. Your natal chart, after all, is a horoscope: you’re on a spiraling, energetic path, with every planet—from your First House to the Twelfth—shading your life experience in a different way.
That’s what’s up. ✨
btw—have you ever paid tribute to your ruler…?
…what feels like it works, what turned out to be nonsense, and what do you think’s important for noobs to know about astrological magic?
Tell me in an email!
Thankee. 💖
All images via Pinterest. Help me credit the creators here.
What to Do While Venus Transits Pisces: A Venus Magic Primer for Beautiful Dreamers 🌸♓️✨
A planetary-zodiac magical guide to exploring the symbolic significance of Venus's annual transit through Pisces, as well as using astrological Venus in your birth chart to inspire your goddess altar and magic rituals. 🌸♓️✨
Welcome to your Venus in Pisces transit… also known as, the season of the Mystic Swoon!
Every year, roughly starting around when the Sun enters Pisces (February 19th), Venus—the planetary agent of attraction ‘n aesthetic—will also enter and transit Pisces, the Sign of imagination & misty dreamscapes. ☁️✨
While Venus is cruising Pisces, the world tends to take on a dew-glimmery-dream gloss….
…and I thought this would be an excellent excuse for flexing our astrological magic, a.k.a. planetary-zodiac-based personal rituals. 🌙🔮✨
OR BASICALLY, Venus in Pisces is the perfect time of year for waking up your senses & beautifying your inner universe!
In fact, that’s what Venus Magic is all about ~ working with desire & the sublime to make beautiful things happen; for healing emotional wounds holding you back from loving yourself; for melting into someone else's gaze; for spiritual rapture through the senses.
For YEARS, Venus in Pisces transits have been my favorite time of year for meditative afternoon walks for & middle-of-the-night bubble-bath prayer sessions… for casually assembling the ingredients, circumstances, and people who are able to help me reach out and touch surfaces of reality that ordinarily only twinkle or glimmer on the periphery of my waking life.
So, that’s what this post is going to help you do: show you how to discover your astrological Venus, and use the details as inspo for your astrologically-magical rituals du jour! 🤩
This is going to be useful not just for weird occult reasons, but also because analyzing your Venus can help you explore your personal taste, flirt style, pleasures—all the Venusian delights that are particular to us, but possibly out of sync with what the rest of the world delights in (says Venus in Aquarius over here, holla ✨).
…so, if you also struggle to feel good generally, let me tell you how your Venus Sign (found on your birth chart ✨) can point you towards the aesthetics that are actually medicine for your soul!
OKAY, BUT BEFORE WE GET INTO IT… let’s set the mood. 🎧
VENUS MAGIC: WHAT’S IT GOOD FOR?
Venus Magic helps us manifest our Ideals about Love, Beauty, & Desire. Ideals, like dreams, are ethereal. We have a sense about them, but putting them into words never captures the whole picture. This ethereal realm corresponds with the Outer Planets, like Neptune, which overlords Pisces.
And Pisces exalts Venus! Each Sign showcases Venus in a special way (some ways debilitating her natural powers), & Venus will transit them all in about 225 days, but Pisces is her favorite part of the voyage, where she can surrender to soul-gasmic splendor.
In Pisces, Venus energy has a quality of being both super blown out, like light rays dissolving in a watery atmosphere. Memory overlaps imagination, & you can’t tell whether you’re on the inside or the outside of experience.
For a gal coming into this with a huge mind-body disconnect, imagistic, interdimensional Pisces was the perfect entry-point to working magically with the Morningstar Goddess, & bridging the gap between what I think should be happening compared to what is happening.
So, obviously, Venus transiting Pisces is the perfect occasion for using the Imaginal Realm to create space, relationships, & perceptions for satisfying your heart’s desires. Venus Magic for Pisces season is all about stirring up the very waters of imagination, where you put together your intentions, emphasizing playtime, whimsy, & gaining new perspective, more than trying to make an intention work.
Before I link to you references for building a Venus ritual (which you don’t even need--you can freeplay any ritual, but having certain materials helps me trust the process more), let me describe the principles (my principles) that I’ve picked up along the way!
In Venus Magic, feeling good is your modus operandi. The “work” is about subtracting the noise throwing static on good vibes, which are natural & easy come, easy go. To start, you have to start with taking responsibility for your experience, which means getting out of your head--abandoning your shoulds.
This should feel like this… It ought to go like this…
Fuck that noise.
💠 first principle of venus magic: pleasure is power.
In Venus Magic, your sweet spot is your power position. That state where you feel most at ease, in your element, in your domain. Venus Magic helps you charm yourself into feeling good; for fully engaging with your senses, thoughts, & feelings.
But you have to know what feels good, for you, mind, body, & soul.
Do you know what feels good to you?
While Venus transits Pisces, we have the opportunity for getting to the hot, glow-y core of our pleasure power. And once you know that power, you are responsible for it. You can’t unknow what makes you feel good, dreamy, & cool.
💠 second principle of venus magic (these are make believe, btw): sensation is the root of spiritual rapture.
Totally not the prevailing dogma, right?
Oh, but girls, we already knew this. The dogma is in your mind, which keeps your mind from fully collaborating, reaching into, & fully connecting with your body.
Your pleasure-power is knitted to your immediate environment, which is what your 5 senses are accessing right this moment. Sense awareness is an aspect of human intelligence, devalued because awareness doesn’t produce. Awareness is the access point to higher dimensions.
What are you sensing?
The neighbor’s kids giggling; flowers sweating their fragrance through the open window; candle wax pooling on your altar. Maybe it’s the cathedral-like silence of the library’s quiet-study area. Maybe it’s overhearing your adored roommate gabbing on the phone, the glitter in her voice as she talks about her favorite class, or it’s the memory of your sunrise run on the beach, the creamsicle colors of the sky & the zen-like emptiness of breaking through exhaustion.
All of this, this delicious sensory samsara, is the stuff of spiritual ecstasy. Imagine if you were dying, slowly, in this moment. (You are. Actually.) These sense details… they envelope you. Without a raging river of thoughts keeping all that data at bay, those smells, sounds, visuals, etc., would eventually melt all the way through your skin, each & every one of your cells sipping at the world’s sensational noise.
What knocks us off the route: should, could, would. Any & every urgent abstract thought.
Venus will transit Pisces from February 10th to March 6th, & the first quarter or full moon are perfect occasions for a little Venusian magic-making! If you're totally new to magic, read this post first, which describes the tools I use, why I use them, & when they come into play.
Remember, it's actually all play. You don't need to follow any procedure to a T--not unless you need to feel technically on-point before you start improvising.
Also, here’s a complete list of Venus correspondences, with more info about the Venus archetype. You’ll find everything you need to craft a ritual that rings true for the Goddess Venus.
And if you need a ritual outline, check out my post about creating new moon rituals, which includes a printable roadmap. Use it as a template!
But if you want a star-studded intuitive quest into the poet’s heart of Venus in Pisces, let me tell you about using your Venus sign for decoding the keys to pleasure-power, so you create a truly glimmering world of Beauty & Truth for yourself to live it.
YOUR VENUS SIGN: THE PLEASURE, DESIRE, & STYLE AESTHETIC MARKER OF YOUR BIRTH CHART
Your Venus sign is the short code to your tastes, pleasures, & flirt style. Your Venus sign can help you alight on the feelings & sensations that can transport you to your sweet spot in a snap. You can use this info to prime yourself for any situation, not just a ritual: job interviews, first dates, rainy Sunday afternoons.
Last year, I wrote a post about discovering my Venus sign, which I used to help create the most sublime Aquarian full moon ritual. I used the info to trick out my ritual surroundings, which seeped into how I deck my space, spend my time, & respond to basic urges for food, water, & comfort.
According to the Astro Twins, with a Venus in Aquarius, I am sapiosexual: turned on by beautiful minds.
TRUTH. Hellaaa truth. Elon Musk is my celebrity crush. I fantasize about our pillow talk: that I would inspire him to reinvest into the Earth, instead of colonizing dead planets.
Also, I take great pleasure in speculation: I love people-watching. I love guessing at people’s thoughts & feelings in the fleeting moments I catch them.
Overall, my Venus sign gave me insight for up-leveling my life’s pleasure quotient, which has become core to what I’m doing with Venus Magic. If you want to deliberately practice shifting your mood into “sudden bliss” a.k.a. your sweet spot, your Venus sign is the keyhole you should be peeking through!
HOW TO FIND ‘N INTERPRET YOUR VENUS
JUST FYI, BEAUTIFUL DREAMER…. 💕✨
I actually have a whole tutorial on full-tilt finding ‘n interpreting your astrological Venus, go here to read it (as well to up-level your astrology skillz). ✨
Also, if you’re kind of new to transit astrology—the kind of astrology where we track the current planets’ movements in relation to our birth charts—check out this tutorial, ‘n be on your way to becoming your own master personal astrologer (you’re welcome). ✨
Get a copy of your natal chart in front of you. You can get one for free at astro.com or by signing up for the Astro Twins’ newsletter. You could also check where your birth date falls on this chart over at Star Sign Astrology.
When you have your chart, look for this symbol: ♀
Now look to the outer rim of the wheel. What’s Sign does your natal Venus fall in?
When you know, Google “Venus + [its Sign]” to open up a treasure trove of info-tainment!
To jumpstart: read more about the Astro Twins’ Venus sign summaries, which are pithy, but speak volumes.
Of course, you would get a much more cohesive, spooky-specific Venus sign interpretation from an astrologer. Here are my favorites, but just to summarize: Bess Matassa of The Star Parlor (formerly Mojave Rising) specializes in sense-specific natal chart readings (✨), while Kimberly at Star Sign Style focuses on natal chart-inspired style & beauty advice (✨✨).
You could spend all 3 weeks of Venus’ transit through Pisces just learning about your natal Venus, which might awaken you to so much more about your connection to the world (& it’s delights!).
But there’s plenty of general pleasures to drip into your life—as well as other magically-astrological micro-rituals / mini-ecstasies to deepen, widen your sense-awareness, so that maybe you can edge on rapture!
SWOONY THINGS TO DO WHILE VENUS TRANSITS PISCES
In her virtual workshop on Venus’s annual transit through Pisces, SUBLIME, Rachel explains how we can use ritual to align with this ethereal time of the year, for inspiration, healing, & (of course) decoding what makes us feel good. I planned a whole ritual & plugged reminders into my schedule during the workshop, so when it ended, I felt like I’d just worked out a problem I hadn’t even realized I was stuck on!
Btw, I fully endorse enrolling in workshops while you’re still saving up for a personal astrology consult. In a workshop, you’re basically given an actionable horoscope, which might not decode everything that’s going on with you personally, but still gives you enough material to figure stuff out on your own. Workshops are spaces to test your intention-setting & self-awareness.
All of which brings my inner mystic minx to an edge. I mean, why not while away an afternoon wondering deeply about making my life feel better?
So, here are a few activities to help you get swept up in what Venus → Pisces is all about!
💠 beautify your mind
“[Waits] told me, ‘I realized that, as a songwriter, the only thing I really do is make jewelry for the inside of other people’s minds.’ Music is nothing more than decoration for the imagination. That’s all it is. That realization, Waits said, seemed to open things up for him. Songwriting became less painful after that.”
-- Liz Gilbert, Big Magic (based on a past interview)
Decorate your imagination. Re-read your favorite stories & poems. Create playlists of all the music that transports you to other places. Visit art museums, set up your kid’s mini-planetarium in the living room, & pretty much cram your imagination with sparkling, glowy artifacts.
This is also a great time to binge on astrology, the Tarot, & other symbolic languages… your dreamer-subsconscious loves symbolism & reading up on it can also help you decode & create with your dreams!
If you’re already pretty aware of what’s in your chart & also pretty adept at the Tarot, consider enrolling in a class to uplevel your symbolic language I can’t fudging wait for DISCOVERY to open up--the astrology course offered by Rachel @ Aeolian Heart (can you tell I’ve got star fever…? 🥵🌟).
You could also consider Venus in Pisces the perfect occasion for a “thought-form makeover.” Do you have any habitual thoughts that make you feel shitty? How about any thoughts promoting beautiful words & actions…?
If you want to replace a few shitty thoughtforms, I love these Venus teachings I found on Universe of Symbolism:
“Young girls, you are magic, born to experience something magical. Love every moment of being a girl. You make the stars laugh.
Young women, you are Divine, born to manifest the Divine Feminine on earth. You are the magic of procreation. You make the stars shine.
Grown women, be beautiful, gentle, wise, elegant, & supportive. Remind every woman who she is with your smile & loving presence. You excite the stars & make them dance.”
💠 detox your senses
Venus in Pisces is the season for poets & mystics--aesthetes, in general. According to Evelyn Underhill in Practical Mysticism: A Little Book For Normal People, aesthetes are practical mystics. We are designed to live in a state of peak sense-awareness.
Living as a true aesthete prioritizes self-purification. Regularly & vigorously cleansing the faculties of perception--the very fabric of our perception itself!
The core of practical mysticism, according to Miss Evelyn: being immaculate in body & mind, so that the Truth may clearly impress itself upon your soul.
Well, why not. I don’t agree with Miss Evelyn on all points, but I totally believe she was a swoon-y mystic. And she’s not wrong about our senses needing regular flushing to keep us sensitive to the exquisiteness of direct experience.
Sensitivity & awareness are part-in-parcel to having penetrative, mystical insight into reality. Sense sensitivity is an ability; it means you naturally tune into the connective tissues beneath superficial reality, stuff most people block out.
I know that if I want to get to level of practical mysticism, I’ve gotta clean up my act. I’ve got to get intentionally sensitive & learn how to protect that sensitivity. Quite frankly, my senses are pretty blunt.
Be an aesthete. Merge with the moment. Dissolve into the world around you.
Do it. Do it do it do it.
💠 start dream journaling
A dream journal gives an eagle-eye view on an epic conversation you pick back up with the World Soul every night while you sleep. Dreams are a resource, a treasure trove, an elevated perspective on the content of your psyche. In a dream, new sensations storm your nervous system, remixing the levels, reshaping the topography of your soul, subliminally seeping into your waking mind.
If you can manage 3 keywords every day about your dreams for 2 weeks, your dreams will start noticeably amping up. If you focus on keywords (instead of trying to write out the whole dream as you remember it), you’ll be able to track the sun & moon easily.
For dream-journaling experts: document the positions of the sun & moon, which I track with the Deluxe Moon & Time Passages apps.
What if you have trouble remembering your dreams? Start treating sleep like it’s basic hygiene. In fact, create a brand new, therapeutic bedtime routine. Go ahead, upgrade your bedsheets. Institute the bedroom as a no-phone zone. Drink a mugful of mugwort tea a couple hours before bed. (I’ve tried & liked this brand.)
💠 go to desire rehab
Venus Magic concentrates on manifesting essential power. This is power you don’t create, but create with. It’s power accessed when you’re plugged into your heart’s desire. When desire is thrown in, your instincts dial way up. You’ll be able to sniff out the right people, experiences, & products to make the journey truly your own.
But there’s a ton of social programming to break through before you can make the journey your’s.
If that’s the case for you: it’s time for desire rehab. Recommended reading: Danielle LaPorte’s The Desire Map. Last year, I wrote about my Desire Map experience, & I still go by the core desires unearthed in that process.
Because of how grand a role desire plays in magic, you can’t afford to ignore it.
💠 find communion
“Start seeing everything as God,
But keep it a secret.”
— HAFIZ
Go to a natural spot, like the mountains or the coast. Wear feathers in your hair & meditate on a giant rock. Carry your kicks in a bag & kiss the ground with your feet. Say a prayer & leave a feather with a piece of rose quartz somewhere in the wild. Even if nothing particularly thrilling happens while you’re in the great outdoors, keep the excursion secret. Don’t breathe a word about it.
If the idea of going out into nature makes you want to barf, steal away for a day in the city. Go window shopping & cafe crawling, take selfies & buy postcards. Find ways to document the city’s splendors: a camera phone, a journal, your Voice Memo app. Bring homemade jewelry or goody-bags to pass out to strangers.
Whether out in nature or in the city, find or invent an entry-point to merge with what’s happening around you.
💠 explore the occult side of self-care
Venus in Pisces is the perfect occasion for booking an appointment with a masseuse or holistic esthetician; for splurging on a spa pedicure; for learning to meditate in the bathtub. It’s also a good time for experimenting with some whimsical magical effort, like drinking water infused with gemstones or carving glyphs onto your make-up brushes.
Every mystic minx should have her own self-love ritual bath recipe--an elixir of fresh herbs, fruit juices, cream, & oils--with a tailored procedural to boot. I show you how to invent your own self-love bath ritual here!
💠 beautify your life
We talked about beautifying your inner life, but what about the outside?
This is the most obvious way to apply your Venus sign. But there’s still so much inspiration to take from other sublime-y places. I love everything Bess Matassa writes about star-inspired home design over at Apartment Therapy.
And here are the Astro Twins’ home decor horoscopes as well, which points you towards star-satisfying design trends vibing with your own taste!
In general, without knowing a thing about astrology, you could channel Venus into your home by filling it with squeezable textures, fragrant soy candles, fresh cut pink or peach roses, seashells, jade, quartz, & copper. And getting into the habit of playing ocean sounds on Spotify. Or buying a tiny plug-in water fountain. All of this stuff corresponds with Venus. Hella Venusian vibes.
Also consider upgrading your wardrobe or getting a makeover. I’m forever indebted to Kimberly @ Star Sign Style for introducing me to the Aquarian Venus power of turquoise.
Visit this page to find Venus sign-inspired style & beauty advice!
💠 build a venus altar
Place it in the eastern quadrant of your house (or wherever you want), on a vanity table (or whatever you want), then shower it with symbols, minerals, herbs, metals, & colors corresponding with Venus (or however you want to do it up).
On Friday (Venus Day 🌸), leave a mug of deluxe hot cocoa as an offering. Set an intention while lighting a candle on your altar & journal about it. Write down the sun, moon, & date. Over time, you’ll gather enough data to help you set smarter intentions for bigger results. You’ll build rapport with Venus.
Every morning, tidy your altar up & light incense. Meditate, draw Tarot cards, sing hymnals, or finger yourself. Whatever you do at your altar should be self-satisfying. Make your altar feed your particular need for Beauty, Love, & Desire.
Whenever you notice your altar, you should wonder, What have I done today to make myself feel beautiful? What can I still do?
If the amount of stuff you could put on your altar is overwhelming, start with what you have & looks / feels good to you. Again, let your Venus sign guide you!
However, regardless of your Venus sign’s bearing, your Venus altar definitely needs these LDR prayer candles. ✨
To learn more about building a Goddess altar, visit this post. ✨
And to you in this season--I wish you plenty of sparkle & vertigo!
May you swoon your longings away & may your dreams froth over into your waking life!
And may you find all the aesthetic-specific intel to help you finally become the flirt ‘n style supernova you’ve always known you were…
…and waiting for the right time to debut!!
Images via Pinterest. Help me credit the creators here.
