An Astrological Introduction
A (not super) brief overview of my Astrological practice and general vibes
I suppose that if I am to have folks interested in astrology seriously consider me a resource or a peer, I should begin some actual writings from my perspective.
To begin, I am an autodidact, just with most subjects I’ve studied. I blame that on watching the Harvard bar scene Good Will Hunting too many times as a child.
I’ve hesitated on making any formal writings on the subject of Astrology thusfar for fear that it would be taken as some sort of infallible gospel (as does most writing online without a 5 mile long preamble like this one). I am a human, and I have been seriously independently studying this subject since 2016. I haven’t studied under any specific school or had individual mentorship from an astrologer. That’s not for lack of trying, but it seems to be my lot in life to build my own path up until now. My intense antiauthoritarian streak is partially to blame, but I’ve got enough in common with Astrologers I respect to realize I’m onto something regardless.
If you’re someone who knows me from pre 2020, it’s likely I lied about the depth of my interest because it was embarrassing at the time. Either that or I was a little drunk at a bar and wanted you to stop talking to me. Also, it’s easier to pretend to be stupid for the comfort of others. Yes, this was pre Saturn return. I’m done with all that now.
Most of my career has been in the arts, focused on either photography or film. The majority of my social sphere during that time consisted of women pretending to be less feminine for misogynistic men. Proving my competency on the job was difficult enough without bringing in an interest of the most obvious ‘pseudoscience’ into the mix. It would destroy any street cred I’d assumed to have accumulated at that point. I kept my astro ramblings to twitter post snippets, mostly as notes to self for future reference. However, over the years I have found that many mundane predictions I’ve made have been correct and themes/methods/frameworks I’ve come to on my own have been echoed in texts I’ve stumbled upon that were published before I was born. This is the type of synchronicity that I enjoy as confirmation I’m doing something right.
It’s important to me to tell you this small amount of backstory for two reasons. First, to assure anyone reading that I am aware that limits to my knowledge exist, and I strive to not speak past them. Second, to give the landscape to which my sphere of reference exists.
In another post, “How to Choose A Reader” I mention how important it is that readers are upfront about their backgrounds. In my opinion, someone who is solely Divining for others their entire career with little to no other job or life experience is severely lacking. Life experience, among many other things, develops the language and stylistic choices of a Diviner.
One lecture series I composed in 2022 was attempting a new way to visualize planetary aspects to beginners. I used light and photography terms and charts to showcase their effects, and if you’re interested or know anything about lighting and photography- this type of description might make things ‘click’ much more than the general astrological terminology. Recently I started learning to knit, so there’s probably going to be fiber arts references I weave (lol) into my musings in the near future. Most often, I see astrological charts ‘light up’ during certain trainsits. The natal aspects are vibrational strings that play resonant or dissonant sounds in their wake. This is particularly interesting to me as I’m in process of relearning to play piano.
It’s important to keep these things in mind especially when we talk about things like Pop Culture and politics. Unfortunately they are becoming more of a circle within the Venn diagram each election year. That means even more content for people to step out of their lane for social media clout! Hooray!
Any political notes I may have are framed around the presentation and overall public theater of politics, not the geopolitical moves or military tactics themselves. Why? Because I am much more well versed in how to construct a visual narrative to an audience than I know of international policy. There are astrologers who have actual career backgrounds in politics; those are who I look to regarding those topics, even if I disagree about the pop culture aspects of their work at times.
Additionally, a lot of my references are based around art, philosophy, psychology and child welfare. Those are topics I’ve studied well into adulthood, and are fields in which I varying degrees of experience. So as a millennial, you’ll find 00’s style references of film and music alongside more modern ones. It’s always a mixture of silly/slapdash tone that coats a deeply emotionally earnest message. That’s millennial cringe for you. I love it. The tone of this particular post is probably a little more formal that I usually write. I attribute that to a natal Libra mercury and watching both seasons of Interview With The Vampire on a loop for the past few weeks. Yet, we must endure.
Eventually I do plan on having separate posts that go more into detail about specific parts of Astrological concepts and my viewpoints on them.
However, some broad strokes items of note before we begin chatting astro:
Astrology is not a “pseudoscience” but is rather a complex attempt at statistical and data analysis
Scientific tests can’t be done- we can’t control planetary motion and cannot account for any control variables at scale
We cannot reproduce circumstances to view any effects effectively as one needs to in a scientific study
There are transits occurring right now that have never been lived through with our current consciousness of those planetary bodies
This is exciting! It’s also unknown territory
New discoveries in these areas mean sometimes predictions are incorrect
This is a BIG topic, spanning all of history and human knowledge; No single astrologer can predict everything or has all the answers
There are a LOT of reasons why you might not “feel like your sun sign” and none of them have to do with cusps
I am a Modern Astrologer typically using Placidus house system
Understanding planets and their material composition from an astronomy POV is a key foundation of my work
My specialty focus is Chironic transits and natal placements, including the US’ natal Chiron return
Other styles or systems are not wrong, and there is no weird beef between people who actually study Astrology using different system
Many other forms of Astrology are based on deep cultural views and practices
My culture for better or worse, is ‘Murica
My focus includes Modern concepts, including technology and social evolution around it
This includes environmental concerns, specifically water and food security
My main mundane focus centers Western culture, however I try to be as inclusive as possible
I try to stay away from gendered terms an themes when describing astrological concepts, however sometimes the shorthand is just more succinct
I do prefer to use acoustic/vibrational terms, which allows more room and freedom to expand concepts
My general perspective is antiracist, anticapitalist, pro children’s rights, and lgbt+ friendly
This should (hopefully) be self evident in my writing, so I don’t plan on harping on those in preamble for every post
I believe it’s important to acknowledge the circumstances we live in as they are today, and be mindful that while I may not agree with the morality or validity of those circumstances, they are ineffable at the moment and must be accounted for if predictions are to be made with any accuracy
We live in very intense times, so there will be bummer info coming often
Not everything is a huge bummer, but mine isn’t a ‘good vibes only’ POV
Most people who only predict positive things are trying to scam you
FancyMonsterVision, my micro business of esoteric herbalism, is based on the social trends I foresee from an astrological point of view
The products I create are there to support anyone, magical or otherwise, to deal with modernity in all its weirdness
Hopefully this will give you a good basic foundational understanding of me and what I do regarding this subject.
I think that’s about it! Trying to keep this a little more brief than usual, and as usual I have failed. Oh well! I’ll probably end up adding more over time, because I can’t leave well enough alone.
Thank you for reading!
W/ 💜,
Echo