An astrological meditation for Deep Soulful Sweats 10th anniversary

24 June 2023, 8pm, Chunky Move

Deep Soulful Sweats began on a watery evening, with multiple planets in Cancer, the Sun, Mercury & Venus in Cancer, Saturn in early Scorpio. Jupiter in the final degree of Gemini, about the enter the sign of his exaltation. A watery chart. The Moon in Capricorn, just past fullness, a tough place for a gentle planet, emerging from a brief entanglement with shady Pluto.  An icy cold evening, where it's clear that the only warmth to be found is in the warmth we share with each other.  Ten years later, the fire still burns. 

What does it mean to be 10 years older? 

In a 10-year astrological cycle, Jupiter changes signs 10 times (moving one roughly one sign a year, with a few months retrograde mid-year). Jupiter in late Gemini then, Jupiter in early Taurus now. Jupiter is about largeness, abundance, expansiveness, boundlessness, testing the limits of the possible. What does it mean to get what you want out of life? How do you know you don't have it already? Where have your appetites taken you these past 10 years? 

Saturn changed signs four times, from fixed water Scorpio 10 years ago, to today, in mutable water Pisces, calling a generation of millennials into higher wisdom, authority, power and responsibility. Just before Christmas 2017, Saturn entered Capricorn, its home sign, where it's strongest, immediately conjoining the Sun. Saturn has been in signs it rules - cardinal earth Capricorn and fixed air Aquarius - from 2017 to March this year, when it left its zodiac comfort zones  for the mutable water sign Pisces. Saturn asks us: What does it mean to step into your power? What is your relationship with authority like - your own, and others'? If you have power, how do you use it? Who do you serve with the resources you have? 

Uranus changed signs twice, moving on from cardinal fire  Aries to fixed earth Taurus in 2018, where it's currently at. How has your idea of shock and awe changed these past 10 years? Is it true that nothing impresses you anymore? In fixed earth Taurus, Uranus shifts our ideas around stability, security and tangibility. The things you thought you had in your hand might have other names, that change everything about what they are. Perhaps, it is our here and now that is the true Upside-down, not the fantasies and sci-fi we find in Stranger Things or Black Mirror. 

Neptune would be a planet of interest to us all here. Neptune is about liminality, ephemerality, hauntology and illusion ~ and also, consequently, dance, film, music and photography. Neptune was, and still is in, Pisces, sending spine-tingling dreams and unmissable but indecipherable bat signals up and down our unconscious. The things you're hoping to forget keep returning, sometimes distorted. The 'truth' might not have a single shape, but you'll need a story you can live with. How do you stay grounded while remaining receptive to the unruly immensity of ungovernable time? 

On March 24 this year, Pluto gave us a teaser of its time in Aquarius before recently retrograding into Capricorn. It returns to Aquarius and settles there in February 2024, where it will remain for the next 20 years. Pluto is about deeply hidden wealth that can enable your greatest dreams or your greatest nightmares. Like money, any kind of wealth can corrupt. In a world of small devices, and big data, AI and infinite reproducibility, what does ownership mean to you? What do - and can - you own? Mistakes, responsibilities, possibilities, intellectual property? 

Now, a few notes about the immediate future:

Venus goes retrograde roughly  every 18 months, and will be retrograde in Leo from July to September. The last time Venus was retrograde in Leo was 2015, and before that 2007. Themes from this time eight and 16 years ago might wander back into your mind. Retrograde planets move more slowly, and move multiple times over a single part of your chart, bringing an intensely Venusian vibe to the area of 12 - 28 degrees of Leo. Venus is about connection, closeness, balance, fairness, standards, justice, design, the senses. Some astrologers call Venus retrogrades the "ex booty call transit," as retrogrades can be about revisiting the past, including closed doors. In Leo, Venus retrograde can raise questions about visibility. What is your relationship to your audience? Where have you feel most seen these past eight years? Are you visible in the ways you'd like to be? 

Now a brief message for all the signs.

Water Signs

CANCER - First of all, happy birthday! What does it mean to be a bearer of a light that's not your own? Because this is what the moon does: receives, reflects, reimagines. Your opaque surface gives others something to vibe with, and they'll never know what's going in the tender underbelly of the moonlit crab. You're the one who sings kiss the girl, even if you might be the one who'll miss the girl. Let your longing be your light this time. It's ok to want.

SCORPIO - Being a master of suspicion won't save you, but you can take your capacity for penetration (and by this I mean penetrative thoughts not oh I see what I did there) into something a little more tangible, a little less liminal. How deeply can you dive into a novel? An exhibition proposal? A muscle that needs tending? What can you build from the ground up? 

PISCES - A Pisces once told me that the thing Pisces loves the most is a red flag. I don't know if that's true, but Saturn is hanging out with your Sun for the next couple of years, calling you to reconsider your comfort zone. Saturn is about the reality principle. How you discern between a genuine desire for growth and a red flag passing itself off as a tempting fantasy to stay stuck? 

Fire Signs 

ARIES - What's a thing you've started that you've still got going? Whatever it is, congratulate yourself. You've overcome the urge to move on a little too quickly. Your initiative, courage, ambition and free spirit will always keep things fresh. Staying doesn't mean stuck. An Aries satisfied is probably unrealistic. You will always be the harbringer of excitement and initiating energy into a relationship. Don't stop.

LEO - Here's an opportunity to do a fair bit of contact improvisation with Venus. The last time Venus was retrograde alongside your sun was 2015. Look back at your 2015 calendar and social media posts. What was your aesthetic then? Who were you close to at the time? If they're still in your life, reflect on how you've grown together. If not, how do you resist the risk of backsliding into patterns that no longer serve you? Reflect on the way you do love. You're great at grand gestures, but know that some people are not ready to be loved out loud.

SAGITTARIUS - Human above the waist, beast below the belt. You are Jupiter's extroverted expression. The heartbreaker. The sage. The sexy teacher. Don't stop - but do sometimes slow down to check if the rider is still with you. Not everyone can keep up, and taking a break every now and then will fuel even bigger adventures soon enough.

Earth Signs  

TAURUS - Uranus has been with your sun for a while, and you've been living with a level of instability that fixed earth doesn't always find fun. The cracks on the ground aren't always fault lines. Tune in to the call of the subterranean every once in a while. Don't be afraid of your interpretive prowess. Yes you have permission to read between the lines. Your gut instinct comes from the wisdom of enduring, committing, being all in. Allow yourself the flexibility to consider alternatives to whatever feels unshakable.

VIRGO - There are some messes you can never clean up, because you were never meant to. Imagine the person you can be when you're not the one who tries to make things better. Purity of purpose is your greatest power. The broken pieces are their own art form. Your capacity to unclench is stronger than you think.

CAPRICORN - Your non-judgment of your ambition is an unshakable asset. You can outwork, outdream, outlast, and outplay the competition. You have what it takes to stay the course and win the race. In your vision of the world where you've won - and you will win the world - ask yourself: who are you there with? In between the races you run, where do you lay your head? Nurture that space.

Air Signs 

GEMINI - It can be tempting to believe the memes. I think people are just afraid of what they can't contain. What's more uncontainable than mutable air? You've had eight months of Mars on your sun, amping up the heat and mischief. What can you say better with a whisper than a song? What happens when you try sincerity every now and then?

LIBRA - The sign of poet Ocean Vuong - and philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. Diplomacy, and coming out on top of any argument, are two sides of the same coin - or scale. Perfectly balanced as all things should be, said a Marvel supervillain once. When you make peace with the dark inside you, you can co-exist more confidently with the dark in others.

AQUARIUS - Saturn's second domicile, and Karl Marx's Rising Sign. Aquarians are basically the rebellious face of Capricorn. You centre community in everything you do. As a revolutionary, your eyes are on the prize. You hate the game but you've learned that the way to disrupt it is to master the rules. Don't forget, however, the words of Aquarius Sun Audre Lorde: "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." You don't need to play like them to outplay them. Your existence is your defiance.

In closing, I'll leave you with lines by the late, great Sophie Xeon, a Virgo, who also liked to look at the sky. "I hope you don't take this the wrong way / but your inside is your best side." The stars are on your side - even if sometimes it's to kick your butt & spur you into action. You, too, can choose to be on your own side. Happy 10th anniversary, Deep Soulful Sweats! Cheers to the next 10 years!