capricorn risings have scorpio 11th houses (if you use whole sign houses, and i do). their aspirations are scorpio-shaped: intense, committed, private, protected. capricorn risings have high expectations for the quality of what they make: saturn steers the ship and venus guides the creative process (taurus 5th house).

Alphecca is as quiet as sleep and as loud as the carnival she brings with her. She reaches for you like ivy. Spindle-spinner, grape-treader, trance-inducer, maenad-stirrer, The Mistress of the Labyrinth requires her share of honey. She is rose-colored glasses you have no reason to take off. She is a dance floor, a parade, a hall of mirrors, a misty garden, a hedge maze. In her world, I am seduced, I am giddy and in love, I am mesmerized and nothing is quite as it seems, and I never want to leave.

what is the thing you feel when something becomes everything? you see it everywhere. you see it in everything. it's venus. it doesn't have to be human-to-human. i will get into a space-rabbit hole, researching plants and planets and stars and whoever i am researching, they expand and expand as if they are the world.

Imposter syndrome is a solar experience: both the specific way it shows up for you and the way through it. This is partly because while the Sun seems to be about the individual (just like how imposter syndrome is usually discussed), it's just as much about the group. I talk about imposter syndrome (or imposter phenomenon as it was originally coined) A LOT in my readings with clients because my two most popular readings are about 1) creativity and the barriers to it and 2) the Sun and its themes of visibility, recognition, and purpose.

Inside "what is my purpose?" is so often a question about belonging. A lot of people come to astrologers to ask about their purpose. I *could* say don't worry about it. I could say that the idea of "purpose" or you having a "use" is ableist and extractive (and it can be). But I don't think that's what people mean when they ask most of the time.

Mars is a pain. A thread. Mars inflicts pain and is the pain. Mars is the knife and the wound. Mars is the *whole* scene of pain, including painful repair and protection that has teeth.

This is the last day of my 12th house year. Prompted by a video @jomakerofways made on the other app about the importance of 12th house rulers when delineating a profection year, here's a rare, personal look at my experience of my 12th/Leo/Sun in Taurus year 🧵 When I'm in a 12H year, I'm in a Leo year. My 12th is empty but that doesn't mean it's not important. Empty or stacked, we're always getting a *lot* of information from the planet responsible for the sign. In this case, it's the Sun.

a mars plant is not synonymous with "a plant that's good for mars people." mars people may gravitate to their fellow martial kin but they are probably *alike* and so if you're looking for balance, you want something else. mars is responsible for plants like cayenne, garlic, onion, and stinging nettle. these plants are all drying and energetically hot, especially the first three. people with major mars signatures may already struggle with heat and dryness.

across the end of pisces and start of aries live the projected degrees of the constellation pegasus, the daring winged steed and darling of the muses. he is a flash, a flight. pegasus is exhilarating. battle-ready muscle. poet-maker. mountain-breaker. spring of blood, of water. because venus and mercury never get very far from the sun, it's pretty common for people to have planets in two neighboring signs in their chart. i like to spend time thinking about how side-by-side signs are of a story, like pisces and aries, despite being in aversion.

The 5th House is about joy but that doesn't always mean exuberance. It can mean relief. How can the planet who rules your 5th House offer relief to the planet who rules your 1st House? My 1st House ruler is Mercury in Gemini. This may seem ridiculous, but I just recently had my mind blown by someone who noticed I seemed mentally fatigued. I realized I don't ever check-in with myself on mental fatigue, only physical fatigue.

It's very cool and world-bending that astrology can predict what is not yet here. But for me, that wonder has evened out with how cool and world-bending it is that astrology is as much about memory as it is about the future. In fact, they work together. Most astrologers I chat with know this. We are often saying "this thing is coming" and in the same moment say "which last happened in [a time in the past] but what is different this time is [other factors]." We are always looking backward too.

I'm bored of the narrative that says something's wrong with you if you like the beginning more than the middle or the end, especially when it comes to knowledge or creative pursuits. As if it is a character defect. "Something's wrong with me. I start things but I don't finish them." Okay, but linearity is not the only way time moves.

i love that both burdock and agrimony, plants of jupiter, create little attachment pods (burs) that cling to passersby and hitch a ride to disperse their seeds 🥺 clearly these are not the only plants that do this but i like to think of all of us walking about our lives and jupiter attaching itself to our edges, a little joy-hop, and then making more of jupiterness through companionship.

this mars day i'm thinking about someone i worked with who wanted to build a relationship with mars, who was in gemini when they were born. i was so moved by the changes they experienced when they invited mars into their lives in structured ways 🧵 we worked together in my plant & planet devotion offering, which is two sessions long so we have more time to go deep. i've only had *two* people chose mars in plant & planet devotion. so this really stood out.

i was talking to a dear friend about covid recovery and she asked a question i totally take for granted: where do you get herbs? besides growing them yourself or removing them from another environment (which would take at least another thread), here are some ideas.

i am embarrassed that i did not include resources. my number one resource is coursework at the commonwealth center for holistic herbalism. their materia medica course is wonderful, and it is where a lot of this info comes from. more below. commonwealthherbs.com

https://twitter.com/maegkeane/status/1404976993121280012

i also *love* sajah popham materia medica monthly. his monographs are so extensive. evolutionaryherbalism.com/mmm-free-issue/

real quick thing about st. john's wort. i want to break down why this herb is called a "depression herb" and i wish we wouldn't do that. it's helpful to see what st. john's wort *does* in the body so you can see if it is right for you. first of all, it's just folly to call any herb "a depression herb" because depression is a ginormous category that shows up differently in different people. this oversimplifies plants and it oversimplifies people. let's not.

thinking about habits lately. i don't have answers, just questions. the capacity (energy, time, motivation, resources + more) to build habits is a crucial part of herbalism. anytime i talk to someone, they're walking away with new habits to create. often alone. this is a problem. yes, i am there for support. we check in. and we talk a lot about baby steps, what's truly doable, how to link the new habit with a current one, and so on. but me over email + zoom is not the same as changing habits with other people in your life.

for me, sometimes intuition is loud enough to cut through my mental state. but most of the time it is subtle. learning your own subtle signals takes a little jupiterian faith. falling back into the waters of pisces or stoking the glimmering flame of sagittarius, and believing. i've been thinking about @feralvenefica's recent blog post (heartwarriorpath.com/making-contact…) and her point about expecting constant peak spiritual experiences from the non-human. i feel something similar about our "intuition" (which honestly, i don't think really comes from us either).

it's really easy on social media (and life) to idealize people or think they are perfect reflections of what they say. i do it. for me, it's a form of control. if an ideal exists, i can become it by mirroring & consuming. it's a shitty way to treat ourselves + other ppl. it's also really easy on social media (and life) to project yourself as an ideal. this is a curation project. a lot of what i say here should be followed by "i hope" or preceded with "i try and often fail to" the thing i say.

herbalism can look like listening to a tree. listen by drawing it, thru quiet, by watching the light change over it. listen w your back against its trunk (if it's okay w that). just as astrology is not only software and books but being with the stars, be with what/who you love. you might say, okay, that sounds like a good idea but it's not herbalism. herbalism is about health.

i think we need to imagine health more broadly.