in the hands of whiteness & colonization, ancient to postmodern astrology have been desecrated by heteronormativity & the gender binary. this is true for houses, planets, signs, etc. but is never more obvious than in the realms of synastry, which is the analysis of the relationship between two charts, between two people. synastry is most often used to asses the “compatibility” of romantic relationships, but is actually a useful tool for relationships of any kind. however, within heteronormative culture the premise of astrological compatibility is often based on how well two individuals within a monogamous relationship are performing their planets through their assigned gender roles or vice versa— performing their gender through their planetary placements.
the overlapping of gender onto the (inadequate) measure of compatibility is a deeply violent practice. not only is it wildly inaccurate & exclusionary of queer folx to assign gender to planets or planets to gender (it can be fun/queer in contexts of agency), it is an extremely limiting lens with which to explore a chart or the relationship between charts which is ultimately the relationship between beings, human or planetary. astrology cannot be (even as it already has been) constrained by constructs.
astrology is a means of cultivating a relationship to self outside of the kyriarchy—the intersecting structures, systems, & machinations of oppression. binaries have no place in a frame of reference so complex, nuanced, & infinitely evolving. therefore, the aggressive relationship of whiteness to astrology is a threat to the ubiquitous nature of the tool & more importantly, a threat to queer folx & unconventional relationships.
within this critique of heteronormativity infiltrating astrology & impacting the accessibility of synastry analysis for queer & non-monagomous folx, is a critique of the measure of compatibility itself (as it is present in traditional astrological texts & new media). aside from being so intertwined with gender constructs, centering static concepts of astrological compatibility leaves little room to actually evaluate the level of self-awareness, willingness to communicate, & areas for growth present in an individual and their relationship to another person. this is tragic because those factors are essential functions to healthy, satisfying, & evolving relationships.
compatibility can be a useful way of understanding the dynamics of two planets or people objectively, but is an insufficient inquiry within the subjectivity of a relationship because of the presence of free-will. two charts can be technically incompatible yet the relationship itself can be thriving. this indicates that it is infinitely more important how individuals choose to engage in relationship, self-awareness, and a praxis of love than whether their Mars is square someone else’s Venus or that their ex was a gemini & it didn’t end well so it must be true that gemini & their Sun sign could never work.
this is not to imply that astrology isn’t limitless or applicable to almost everything, but that its application becomes limited within a static & heteronormative analysis of compatibility. there is so much more that could be said about the conflation of Sun sign compatibility with synastry itself & even the importance of the composite chart (a more complex method of evaluating synastry) but we can have those conversations another time.
in conclusion, planets don’t have genders, heteronormativity is toxic, & astrological compatibility is a framework of understanding that should not be given the power to constrain your relationships or absolve you or anyone else of the response-ability to change, shape, & be true to what you need while learning how to honor the needs of others. because even in genuine dynamics of compatibility or the lack thereof, choice is always present.
you can schedule a synastry reading here. this will give you information about your astrological dynamics within a relationship; it is not a reading of the other person.
full moon in virgo: the in-between
I am angry. about money. how there is so much of it but never enough to go around. I am angry about the ways we are reliant on it & the ways those who don’t know what it is to really not have it say we should be in relationship with it. move away from it. I am angry about how it doesn’t matter if you “do everything right”. if you work those days at that shitty ass job (or two, or three, like me) with no space to breathe. if you get in debt worth years of daily labor to get a degree so you can still hunt for a job, sometimes years after you have the piece of paper. I am angry about the ways we suffer with the lack of it.
I have all these feelings about money & the ways we’re conditioned to accept access to it, the ways we’re allowed to make it. and how little we’re allowed to make. I have all this anger about how I have to fight away the feelings that I did/do something wrong, that I am not working hard enough, that I’m failing
we are not failing. the world is failing us. yes, we are the world but there is something about naming the dynamics of power (white supremacy & capitalism, to name two) that shifts the ways we assume response-ability. and I am not willing to be responsible for trying to survive in structures I did not create & do not willingly participate in. I will be response-able for what I do with whatever extra money I ever make & distributing whatever capital I have access to or ever obtain. because even as we imagine & invest into alternative strategies, we gotta fucking eat. and most of the strategies I’m familiar with that already exist in this US of Amerikkka involve already having access to a large amount of money.
I’m thinking about all of this as the moon waxes into what will be a full moon in virgo (thursday 7:51PM EST) in my second house- finances, resources, security...MONEY. I’m noticing my (virgo-appropriate) frustration with the way everything doesn’t fit neatly into place, the way I don’t trust money, & the ways it’s still tied into my senses of value & responsibility. The details of what each rising/sun sign might expect are in the horoscopes. I wanted to share this moment, right here, right now with you all in hopes that you will allow yourself to be with the anger more & perhaps cultivate more awareness about what we as individuals are response-able for in relation to the collective. here’s something relevant I shared on facebook:
no one is allowed to speak to my relationship to anger without my consent. no one is supposed to, without my permission, tell me when my anger is appropriate, when I should get over it, or when I should laugh the causes of it off. I will not believe I am angry because I am young, I will not believe I am angry because I'm immature, I will not believe I am angry because I want attention. regardless of how many times I am told these things & more.
to attempt to control the anger of others and their expression of it, when it is harming no one, is to violate the necessary building of intimacy & trust processing rage requires. let alone the by-passing (spiritual, racist, or otherwise) it requires to put yourself in a position of assumption that gives you the illusion you can speak to anyone's rage. there is soooo much we can do to shape change— and sometimes it feels there is so little & we need to be with our poverty, with our trauma, with our pain, with our anger. all those things are data we can use to find a more accurate measure for our contributions & capacities
this is relevant to something you may have seen me say already if you follow me on instagram. I answered the question: why pay for horoscopes when there are so many amazing free ones? well the Commune is kinda my on-site version of Patreon- cash poor brown girl gotta eat even as the stars speak. It is important to me to be accessible AF but that is not always something we can embody on an individual level. so the Commune is for those interested in new/full moon astrology & interested in investing into a boricua with an ongoing decolonization, anti-racist, anti-capitalistic, anti-every-ism lens. #fuckthekyriarchy
this is one of the ways of the many I hope to find that I am trying to build alternative income that gets me more life & puts me in a position of being able to give, to support, to redistribute wealth. my intention is not to sell to you but to share my process as a low income boricua. it is a slow, tiny, ever changing, but life-giving way. isn’t that the way of the earth?
Happy full moon,
oxo
saltwater & stars
fuck the kyriarchy
NEW MOON IN CAPRICORN
JANUARY 16 | 9:17 PM EST
26 DEGREES
from my instagram: "there’s a new moon today. new awareness of needs. new layers revealed. new opportunities for recalibration, planting, hoping. capricorn—as structured, streamlined, & serious as it gets. grounded by ambition, attention, & a love for the reliable. resist the temptation to operate under pressure & urgency. instead, lean into micro-strategies & consistency. we love you."
I've been talking a lot about micro-strategies not just because I think that it reduces the pressures of capitalistic/oppressive structures & is a more realistic approach to sustainability as human beings, but because I think it also reduces the possibilities of us getting stuck in our self-righteousness or illusions of our impact. I am seeing more clearly that righteousness acting as structure is a powerful collective tool but not necessarily something that individuals should be required to cultivate, contrary to how we've been conditioned. because righteousness is a combination of beliefs, morality, & ethics that is subjective as much as we want it to be objective. there are areas of black & white but mostly, the grey areas that we are all navigating because context is everything. these are just mermaid musings not certified observations so take it or leave it or add to it in the comments.
I am also feeling into how this applies not only to our movements for justice, but in our relationships to truth that show up as our spiritual & religious practices. I read somewhere from someone who practices brujeria recently that they were intolerant of the "aesthetic" of millennials claiming brujeria & that they only fuck with the real shit. that's valid & it is important to be discerning. but I was struck by a discomfort because my first thought was that these young latinx/girls are making attempts to reclaim & reconnect to something that actually does belong to them. something that has been taken from them to an extent that makes it is often difficult to find a way back in. it's not just an aesthetic, it's a siren. a call, an exploration. and need we really worry 'bout those who ain't really with it?
If we really are in a place that we feel sure of our connection to our spiritual sources, is our most natural, kind next step to ostracize or shame those who do not have guidance? I know relatively little about a lot of things that I care very much about & I cannot help myself but to share what I learn because I was that young girl that stayed away from things I knew were mine but was scared of dishonoring. now that I am deeper into my journey, I am sad that the hierarchal structures have been so thoroughly adapted into our spiritual/religious practices because it keeps people that need it out. it keeps us thirsty & hungry & lost & ashamed.
I am specifically speaking from the context of being with afro puerto rican roots in brujeria/santeria/yoruba. my family was colonized out of our connections to that & finding my way to what always resonated most has been terrifying because we are made to feel that we can't fuck up & forgiveness is scarce (thanks white supremacy!). there is a difference between not knowing what you don't know yet seeking to learn & willfully abusing your ignorance. when it comes to folx finding their way, especially nonwhite/colonized folx, I am urged to be endlessly compassionate & become a resource as I receive from sources.
this correlates to this lusciously grounded & strong new moon in capricorn accompanied by a stellium (group of planets) of capricorn to me because I have seen saturn (ruler of capricorn) energy show up as a temptation to enforce structure by implementing hierarchies. it gives us an easy way to categorize & protect things. I'm reminded of all the laws that act as "fences" to ethics in judaism (which I was raised in). we take this very seriously in many arenas but so often our motivation is actually fear. I think capitalism/oppression is born of saturn.
this is why The Devil card in tarot is often connected to capricorn. because what would happen if everyone had access? what if structure showed up as support rather than obligation? would we really lose power? because isn't that often what we're protecting? so what if power wasn't something that belonged to you (in the context of the collective) but a source that everyone can be guided to tap into? what if our ambitions were driven by trust & openness rather than scarcity? aren't these just other prisons?
so this jumbled ramble is what I'm thinking about as I figure out ways to practically implement my visions, my needs, my desires, my DRIVE into everyday life (micro-strategies). starting small with waking up earlier after good nights sleeps (when possible), eating what my body needs, & keeping my schedule light & full of love-giving things. this is spiritual because what I am making is SPACE for the path to show up, space for spiritual practice, & space to learn & experiment. and this is what I want us to give to each other too, in our movements & our collective pools of wisdom & connection.
I want us to give each other permission to be strategic & start small. and I am beginning to believe that this is the nitty gritty of the process of decolonization/dismantling oppression within ourselves. it starts with being willing to give up what we believe our sources of power or structure are & get that need met on a more micro level so we can be more open on macro levels.
so, happy new moon mermaids & starlings. may your intentions be firm & your structures be clear & your ambitions delicious. commune subscribers, your horoscopes are waiting in your inbox. get in touch with me if they aren't.