#astro thoughts

i am fairly new to vedic astrology and still learning about my nakshakras! i am a purva phalguni sun, purva bhadrapada pisces moon, and punarvasu gemini rising! if you wouldn’t mind, could you give some insights about them? again, love your takes so much🤍🌷

awe thank you for your sweet words !! i'm glad my work as an eccentric astrologer is paying off ❤️ here are some insights i have about each of these nakshatras:

PURVA PHALGUNI

the sun in purva phalguni is a great placement in my opinion if someone is looking for simple, easy success in their career. purva phalguni is symbolized by the hammock and the fruiting fig, so it has a lot to do with enjoying oneself and taking on a "work smarter not harder" approach with life. the truth behind this nakshatra is that, while working hard and putting in the elbow grease is noble, it's not always necessary and it doesn't innately make you a "better person." sometimes, taking the easy way out is the better way out, and you don't need to punish yourself for doing so — i'd argue that purva phalguni understands this better than any other !! though, pushya and revati natives are very similarly minded in this way.

the Devata that rules over this nakshatra is Lord Bhaga, He who is the Patron of good fortune and wealth !! so purva phalguni natives are well-known for their abilities with money; they are very good at handling money, accounting, being in fiscal communication positions, etc. though when it comes to their personal budgeting, they have to avoid overspending on luxuries or excessive comforts (since it is the nature of the very nakshatra to invest a lot in relaxation and pleasure lol). but this is not at all to discourage you from investing in this part of your life, only a suggestion towards balance. for a hammock to remain balanced and suspended, it must be fixed on two opposite ends — gain and loss. expenditure and conservation. coming and going. giving and taking. purva phalguni's ability to calmly navigate life's constant swinging between opposites is what makes them so admirable to me. they make it look so easy to go through changes !!

PURVA BHADRAPADA

another nakshatra where balance is central to its themes, as purva bhadrapada is ruled by Aja Ekapada, the Unborn One who is One-Footed. He is constantly balanced on His one leg, hence why purva bhadrapada is also associated with animals like flamingos, blue herons, and white storks. Ekapada represents the axis mundi (lit. "the pillar of the universe") that connects the earth, the heavens, and the underworld — His form serves as a sacred meeting place between human and divine realms. hence, purva bhadrapada natives are often highly spiritual, psychically perceptive, involved in occult or esoteric matters; are shamans, witches, astrologers, tarot readers, etc.

purva bhadrapadas are also people who start thinking about things like death, God, astral travel, reincarnation, and spirituality from a very young age, and they are quite insightful personalities as a whole. whenever they learn something they want to learn it very deeply. this quality of theirs also tends to make them very successful in teaching or leadership positions (even though they'd tell you they don't wanna manage a group lol). purva bhadrapada natives have a beautiful way of communicating their thoughts with the world that is very poetic, sentimental, and meaningful, even though it is strange and a little bit alien — all of this makes them very compelling to listen to, and it's why we see so many of them take up roles in authorship, the sciences, songwriting, public speaking, and education: J.R.R tolkien, alicia keys, leonardo davinci, margaret atwood, toni morrison, william lilly, and so many more !!

PUNARVASU

punarvasu is actually a nakshatra i think is less covered in the online sphere — ruled by Aditi Devī, the Mother of the Gods, this nakshatra is considered to be especially prosperous for marriage, fertility, and property ownership. though because of their fickle nature, it's said that they need to try a few times and experiment with different fields before they strike gold and find the success that suits them best. this nakshatra is symbolized by a bow and arrows, and just like any skill, archery takes lots of practice before you hit that bullseye !! and thankfully, punarvasu's personality is very compatible with exploration and experimentation, but i've noticed they tend to internalize failure a lot; it is really hard for them to watch something not work out and walk away from it. this nakshatra supports moving between different sources of income, but punarvasu doesn't like to be seen as a person who's "in between jobs" all the time.

punarvasu natives are also highly perceptive people, not just through their sharp senses of sight of hearing, but they have a strong survival instinct and know how to detect danger before anyone else has figured out it's there. they are a cat nakshatra and it is no surprise that they have cat-like reflexes as a result !! though just like mrigashira, their strong physical instincts also give them quite the nervous affect; not because they are constantly anxious or anything like that, but it's more like they can be a bit jittery and vigilant. gemini is a sign that can struggle with this in general because it rules the nervous system, so remember to relax your shoulders and jaw often, and practice nervous release exercises regularly so you're not letting your stress gather !!

book a reading !!

so i have been thinking a lot about mercury and venus lately, and the more i compare their correspondences, the more apparent their similarities become !!

they are not merely two planets that happen to be next to one another. they repeatedly occupy adjacent territory in astrology, theology, the body, material culture, and magic. to me, there's a sense that mercury and venus describe two halves of the same process.

and some of the similarities between them are insanely straightforward. for starters, their glyphs are basically the same !! venus has the familiar circle-and-cross form (♀), while mercury takes that same structure and puts the distinctive “horns” above it (☿).

there are historical debates about the origins and precise interpretation of planetary glyphs, so this isn't to say their modern symbols were necessarily designed as a deliberate pair. but visually, there is an irrefutable truth: mercury looks just like venus with something added to the top !!

and the glyphs are just the first strange resemblance. astronomically, they are the only two inferior planets in our solar system — their orbits are inside earth's orbit, meaning they never stray very far from the sun. therefore they're the two planets whose visibility is most directly bound to the sun's position !! this is called planetary elongation:

mercury can only get about 28° from the sun

venus can only get about 47° from the sun

they are both planets of proximity. they are always close to the sun, always appearing in its vicinity, always entering and leaving visibility around sunrise and sunset.

even their zodiacal order is adjacent !! venus rules taurus and libra, while mercury rules gemini and virgo. taurus comes immediately before gemini and virgo comes immediately before libra; they alternate around each other in the zodiac.

taurus ➝ gemini then virgo ➝ libra venus ➝ mercury then mercury ➝ venus

so venus and mercury are literally always situated by each other, not just in the solar system but in the zodiac too. and we see the same exact thing when we look at the astrology of the body !!

traditional medical astrology gives mercury rulership over areas like the lungs, shoulders, arms, fingers, and nervous system, while venus is associated with the throat, neck, kidneys, and hips. just look at how close they are to each other — the shoulders sit beside the neck, the fingers are protected by the fingernails, the stomach awaits food from the esophagus, the lungs take in air from the nose.

again and again, mercury and venus are neighbors rather than being completely separate. even when looking at planetary hours, the traditional order is arranged by the planet with the longest orbital period to the shortest:

saturn ➝ jupiter ➝ mars ➝ sun ➝ venus ➝ mercury ➝ moon

so whenever you're moving through the planetary hour sequence, mercury always follows venus. because of their orbit, every venus hour leads into a mercury hour.

and since they're the closest two planets to the sun (life), mercury and venus are also the two planets most primarily concerned with the immediate human world — things that are necessary to survive and build society. mercury deals with language, information, commerce, craft, transportation, exchange, and perception. venus deals with beauty, value, pleasure, attraction, art, relationships, and material enjoyment.

symbolically speaking, venus and mercury embody the three pillars of society: economics, culture, and wellbeing.

let's begin with economics. venus is traditionally associated with wealth, luxury, pleasure, possessions, and things that are desirable. but mercury is associated with trade, business, marketing, negotiation, and the circulation of goods. in other words, venus represents what something is worth and mercury tells you why you want it.

venus is the commodity and mercury is the marketplace. venus is the product and mercury is the advertisement convincing you that you need it. venus is desire and mercury figures out how to coax that desire out of thousands of people.

venus is the beautiful, attractive thing, while mercury is the apparatus surrounding it — the hands, intelligence, technique, language, tools, and movement required to make the thing exist.

just look at art and culture. venus is fabrics, couture, clothing, style, adornment, cosmetics. but mercury rules the making of those things !! handicrafts, artisans, sewing, embroidery, dexterity, handiwork, tools, the skilled hands that turn raw material into an object.

venus is the gown and mercury is the person sitting at the sewing machine making it. venus is the embroidery and mercury is the needle moving through the cloth. venus is the finished garment displayed in the window and mercury is the pattern, measurements, thread, scissors, hands, calculations, and technique that made it possible.

this gets even deeper when you look at how mercury and venus both rule over fibers. mercury has strong associations with the intestines and digestion, so it rules over fiber from a nutritional perspective. whereas venus rules over fibers that are used artistically: cotton, linen, silk, wool, ramie.

venus is the fiber you spin, weave, dye, embroider, and turn into something beautiful. but the processing, crafting, sewing, and technical manipulation of those materials, that's all mercury !! it's almost as though mercury handles the construction of venusian things.

you can also see this in how they rule over nourishment and wellbeing. with cooking for example, mercury is all the knowledge and skill necessary to make a wonderful meal. culinary science, ingredients, measurement, categorization, the sensory information from food. but venus is the pleasure in eating, the taste, sweetness, delicacy, abundance, enjoyment, how food unites people at a table.

mercury is about what the food does for our bodies, but venus is about what the food does for our spirit. mercury concerns itself with nutrition as a clinical and scientific issue, while venus experiences nourishment as pleasure.

another huge overlap in their histories is how both planets have extremely strong associations with death, the underworld, and returning from it. mercury is hermes, the messenger who can cross boundaries between worlds and who serves as a psychopomp, carrying souls between life and death.

venus has an even more widespread underworld history.

in babylonian religion, Inanna-Ishtar is identified with the planet venus and famously descends into the underworld, where she dies and later returns to the heavens. then there is Shukra, the Hindu deity corresponding to venus, who possesses the knowledge of resurrecting the dead (mṛtasañjīvanī vidyā). and in maya cosmology, Chak-Ek' as the morning star, is likewise associated with descent into and emergence from the underworld.

so both mercury and venus have this historical quality of crossing in between worlds. mercury travels through realms because he is a messenger; venus crosses them because she disappears and reappears as the morning or evening star, dying and returning in her celestial cycle. mercury carries things between worlds, while venus disappears from one world and comes back into another.

there are also tons of literary examples linking mercury to astrology and venus to witchcraft.

astrology is fundamentally a system of correspondence, mathematical calculation, symbolism, language, classification, timing, pattern-seeking, and interpretation. it is extraordinarily mercurial. witchcraft, however, is much more concerned with the relationship we have to the materials being used — herbs, flowers, oils, perfumes, colors, fabrics, altar ornaments, food, offerings, beauty, the sensual manipulation of the physical world. all of that is much more venusian.

mercury tells us what the patterns are and where the connections lie, while venus wants to unite all of these connected elements.

and this is where herbalism comes into play !! across many different astrological and magical traditions, both mercury and venus have associations with the natural world. mercury rules over herbs, greenery, asexual reproduction; many small mammals, birds, and insects. venus rules over flowers, fruits, sexual reproduction, nature itself, and botany.

fun fact: smelling flowers (♀) can boost cognition and memorization (☿). emerging scientific research shows this effect, including a 2023 study in which rose odor presented during learning, sleep, and retrieval improved vocabulary learning and memory performance !!

even in various color astrology traditions, they both rules different shades of green. in fact, the Phaladeepika explicitly states that both venus and mercury share the color of durva grass, which has a vibrant green color.

and last but not least, jyotish firmly recognizes their compatibility; mercury and venus are natural friends to one another in vedic astrology. this is particularly interesting because planetary friendship in jyotish is not always symmetrical !! a planet can regard another as a friend while that planet regards it as neutral or even inimical. for example, mercury is friendly to the sun while the sun is netural to mercury. but mercury and venus are mutual friends, they genuinely like each other

when you put all of these things together, i don't think their relationship looks accidental at all.

their glyphs resemble one another

mercury and venus are the only two planets inside earth's orbit

they are the only two planets whose visibility is bound to the sun

their signs sit beside one another twice

mercury hours follow venus hours

they are mutual friends in jyotish

their theological counterparts are connected to death, witchcraft, spellwork, and the underworld

their correspondences repeatedly meet in crafts, food, nature, textiles, money, commerce, beauty, information, and the body

they are not opposites just because venus debilitates in virgo (mercury's exaltation) and mercury debilitates in pisces (venus' exaltation). they are collaborators and share a multitude of fascinating, unmistakable similarities

book a reading !!

SWATI AND DHANISHTA SYNASTRY:

some would say that this pairing would be incompatible since swati is a deva (divine) gana nakshatra and dhanishta is a rakshasa (demonic) gana nakshatra. but i actually have a different perspective from this, i think deva gana and rakshasa gana nakshatras can actually have good compatibility, if the two partners are open to having a yin and yang kind of dynamic.

swati is ruled by the God of wind, Lord Vayu, so they tend to have very free-flowing, flitting, and lighthearted personalities. swatis are very gracious people in my experience !! dhanishta however is symbolized by the drum, so they are bold, intense, and percussive. they love to shake things up instead of just going with the flow and conforming with trends. dhanishta is also an extremely ambitious nakshatra, while swati is more easygoing about their professional goals and what they want from their career. sometimes dhanishta's zeal can seem demanding to swati, and swati's nonchalant attitude can seem boring or indolent to dhanishta.

i think in the case of these two nakshatras, it's an example of how "opposites attract" works for some people, and for others it's their worst nightmare lol. i think the saturnian governance over these two nakshatras makes for better compatibility odds though — dhanishta is situated in saturn's signs of capricorn and aquarius, and swati is the exaltation of saturn. this makes for a couple who are both focused towards legacy, perseverance, service to the public, and long-term growth !!

book a reading !!

happy lammas everybody !! today's witches sabbat celebrates the first harvest, and in the northern hemisphere, marks the midway point between the summer solstice and the fall equinox

the word "lammas" actually comes from the old english word hlāfmæsse, which means "loaf-mass." perfectly describing this festival since people would bake loaves of bread from the first grain harvest and bring them to church to be blessed

in the spirit of such a warm, communal, abundant holiday, here are some great herbs you can work with to celebrate:

rice: throw onto your front and back door areas to protect from misfortune and invite wealth

corn: sleep with a sachet of corn silk or dried kernels under your pillow to bring prophetic dreams, luck, or to induce pregnancy

amaranth: cast into a fire for protection from drama or violence

basil: use to anoint a candle and burn it to promote friendship, sociability, cooperation from others, and community

lily: hang to dry over your window or in your living room to keep away unwanted visitors and negative energies

wheat: keep a bundle of wheat near your front door or a few grains in your wallet to attract money and new beginnings

A FEW POINTERS:

involve the fire element in your spellwork by using candles, incense, sunlight, ashes, etc.

perform a ritual with a loved one; today is all about shared magic and how community brings prosperity

lammas is the perfect holiday for kitchen spellwork, so implement your magic into a meal or two

you can also simply leave offerings like bread, corn, and other grains on your altar for your guides

cat owners, be very cautious using lilies in your practice because they are highly toxic to cats !!

book a reading !!

My question is, what insight can be gathered about Moon in the 11th house in Uttara Bhadrapada

thank you for your kindness babe !! here's what i have to say about the moon in both of these particular positions:

MOON IN THE 11H:

whenever there's lunar influence over the 11H (or even jupiter in the 11H), this usually makes the native exhibit a very warm, "mom friend" energy. they will care very deeply about their friends and their friendships will be super central to their lives, their identities, their habits, etc. also a placement that puts a lot of emphasis on chosen family compared to their biological family. not that their immediate family isn't important to them, but the moon in the 11H never forgets the importance of a true friend — family is born from blood, but it can also be born from a bond.

the moon in the 11H is also a very activist-like placement; they prefer to pursue careers that are really one-on-one, personal, community-oriented, and based around civic organization. usually someone who cares more about grassroots work rather than being some huge political or government figure. even though the moon in the 11H is a fabulous placement with a lot of potential for public recognition, in my years, i've noticed these natives don't often seek fame. they are much more comfortable being known by their community instead of being known by the entire world.

MOON IN UTTARA BHADRAPADA:

when you put the moon in any of the snake nakshatras (rohini, mrigashira, ashlesha, u. bhadrapada), this often creates a personality that is more secretive, cautious, deliberate, and very sensitive to their environment. snakes have an exceptional sense of smell that allows them to completely map out their physical surroundings through one single sense. so when you consider the fact that u. bhadarapada is also housed in the sign of pisces, a highly emotionally absorbent sign, these individuals can become very cagey and almost skittish because of how susceptible and perceptive they are of other people's emotions. having the moon in pisces is no easy task; you have your moon, one of the most sensitive places of the chart, in the sign that rules empathy, vulnerability, and compassion. pisces moons always feel so obligated to take care of others and they often forget to prioritize their own needs. and uttara bhadrapada's symbolism only adds to this !! this nakshatra's ruling deity is Ahirbudhnya, otherwise known as Lord Shesha, the King of Serpents. and Lord Shesha holds all the planets in the universe atop His countless snake hoods to keep everything stable. just like uttara bhadrapadas carry everybody else's problems on their shoulders and bring so much stability to those around them. learn to delegate and remember to offload your own issues from time to time.

book a reading !!

Astrology Observation(s) by Cleapallea

Venus with fire sign or degree of 20° loves being a homewrecker or they have hots for "hot dads".

People with Venus in Gemini always fall for their childhood best friends, the first people they shared an untamed behavior, or the first person they meet when they feel lost

If a guy has his Sun, Mercury, Venus, or any other personal planets aspecting your personal planets, he will often find himself crawling back to you. If his Sun is in your Venus sign, he views you as his soulmate. Having multiple romantic placements like this creates a bond that is not for weak couples.

Having Venus in Aries in the 1st house makes you fall faster for someone you just met.

The house location of your Venus explains the timing, how you’ll meet your person, and the reason why you meet. So honestly, the more Venus conjunctions you have, the more your entire life revolves around finding your partner and being with them. So a people with more venusian placements often find themself wrecked or messed.