By Montine Rummel, Guest Author
I am loving the cultural renaissance astrology seems to be having these last few years. Discussions of planetary positions has moved from being observations my friends in the occult world make to fine tune their craft, to seemingly everyone on social media having a hot take about the aspect du jour.
Sadly, it doesn’t come without some pitfalls, like capitalism exploiting this popularity and slapping zodiac signs on anything to cash in, and the increase of wrong and misleading things being shared. Despite this, I’m loving the access people have to these ancient observations to help them make meaning in their lives,and I’m doing so while drinking from my Scorpio coffee mug. Editor’s Note/Shameless Plug: Check out these fun zodiac-themed mugs!
Paying attention to astrology gives us a feeling of control, the feeling of receiving “insider information,” and different perspectives from which we can see people and events around us, to start. But what I see a lot of is people reacting to astrology instead of finding ways to work with its influence proactively.
This is more than looking at important dates in the future and seeing what the planetary influences will be or backing up your phone and laptop before a Mercury retrograde. Because we are all different people with different perspectives experiencing the world in different ways, we can’t always expect to know exactly how a solar eclipse in Scorpio will affect us, for example.
Last year, when I was writing Book of My Shadows for 2022, I remember looking at August and saying, “oof.” The planetary placements for the month made me feel heavy just looking at them. And because I couldn’t help myself, I tried to predict what might happen just for fun. I texted my friend and said that I thought we might go into another lockdown or something similar with all the restrictive energy that it looked like the month was going to have. Looking back at the month now that it’s September, I see that that prediction was wrong in terms of the events that happened (or didn’t happen), but I was right about the energy. I noticed for myself that I was feeling very restricted at work and in my personal life, which was causing my batteries to drain, and my charger seemed to be broken.
Because I was aware of the energy that was in store for August, it made it easier for me find what my challenges were. I took the time I needed on the Virgo new moon to clear out the major blockers that I was seeing and now I feel like I have a clear path forward and I’d love to share my process in case it can help you as well!
I don’t think I would have known what to do if I didn’t know myself well enough to make all these connections. When I first started seeing a therapist years ago, she had me start using a mood tracking app to help me notice what I was feeling when I was feeling, and then putting together the patterns to learn about my triggers. I’m a person who loves introspection anyway, so it was easy for me to approach the tracking with curiosity and without judgement. Over time, I became more aware of my moods and triggers in the physical world.
After I had a year’s worth of data, I was able to see different cycles, mostly mundane, but when compared to astrology charts of the year, some metaphysical patterns emerged as well! I noticed that the full moon’s intensity doesn’t typically affect me, but wow do I always seem to fall in sync with finishing up something before a new moon and starting something new! So, while many people make full moon rituals one of the most important of their month, I focus on new moons where my energy seems more in sync.
How To Make Astrology More Personal
Step One for figuring out how to do this for yourself is to find a way to track your moods that you are excited to form a habit around. This can be bullet journaling or finding a mood-tracking app. I like going the app route because the set-up work is already done, and it can help me pull insights together easier than pen and paper. There are apps that ask you how you feel for the whole day, some will ask you multiple times a day. Some will allow you to add notes or tags so you can record things like your current health, location, and anything else that’s going on around you. What’s important is that you find something you will continue to use.
After you have at least a few months of data, Step Two is to compare those months to what was going on astrologically. The easiest way to do that might be seeing where the new and full moons fell alongside your moods and other things you tracked. Notice any patterns. (Editor’s Note: A good free app to try is My Moon Phase)
Pick the astrological influence you feel might be the strongest for you. I picked moon phases, but you could look at retrogrades, aspects, planets as they move through signs, anything really. I would look at one astrological event at a time until you get a feel for how it affects you otherwise it might feel too overwhelming to separate feelings during a full moon versus a retrograde, versus a conjunction, etc.
Step Three will be looking for these patterns as the next astrological event comes about. There might be some confirmation bias as humans tend to find whatever they are looking for, just try to remain as objective as possible and don’t make judgements. Treat your observations like an ethnographer and remember that this data is information, not fact!
This is quite a bit of work, and it does take time. It’s also more of a tool to help you understand than it will be to predict. I hope this method inspires you to learn more about yourself and how astrology affects you and that it helps you in some way, because it really has helped me!
Read More from Montine: Retrograde Retrospective
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All opinions expressed in this article are the sole perception/experience of the writer, and may not necessarily be shared by Michelle Lewis – The Blessings Butterfly. All Rights Reserved.
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