#planetary dignities

[stellifystari]

(💼)- PLANETARY . DIGNITIES

⍟ Planetary/luminary dignities are the idea that certain planets flourish more in specific signs and certain planets have a more challenging time in others. These are the 4 types of dignities…

Domicile (ruler): When a planet is in its rulership. When a planet is in this dignity it indicates energy being in the height of its wellbeing. For example, jupiter in domicile (sagittarius or pisces) can indicate someone having a lot of luck in life when they need it most since jupiter is the planet of luck.

Exalt: When a planet is exalted it indicates strength in the area of life involved. The function of a planet will be elevated when in its exalted sign.

Detriment: When a planet is in detriment it indicates that it will operate with the least strength and need the most work or that the planet will find unconventional ways to express itself in your life.

Fall: When a planet is in fall it indicates more struggle in the area of life involved, but can help someone gain a lot of wisdom through tough experiences. Even though it’s challenging though, it doesn’t mean it’s negative as challenges can be worked through bringing a more positive energy to the planet. It will just be harder.

ⓘ Stellify Stari Astrology

[phoebosacerales]

cool, do you have any book recommendation or any posts/website for learning more about the meaning of the terms?? I'd like to get more into it and start understanding how to interpret what it means to have the planets on x's planet's terms

If I'm not mistaken, the terms/bounds are so ancient that the reasoning for them is a little mysterious, maybe they were assigned some deeper cosmological meaning, but we can't know. They're just used as a type of essential dignity, but it's a minor dignity. For example, Saturn has even more dignity in Aquarius, i.e. more management over its own topics, when it's in the last 5 degrees of that sign in a day chart, because that's when Saturn is also in its own triplicity and terms/bounds, and there's almost no other planet's interests involved. If any other planet or point in the chart is in a Saturn dignity, that means Saturn has influence over how that planet or point behaves, but the influence is even stronger if Saturn itself is in its own dignity, because then Saturn won't have its own behavior modulated by other influences. In a practical way it mostly means there's less interference and you don't have to think harder on symbolic combinations. If Saturn is at 10° Scorpio, for example, to nail down the interpretation of the topics ruled by Saturn you have to think about how Saturn behaves in a Mars environment that has just a little bit of a venusian flair. But then, if Mars is in Capricorn they can exchange and have what we call a reception (in this case mutual), giving Saturn a little bit of dignity, being not as subjugated to its host's interests.

Basically it's another type of dignity you can use to make the interpretation more meaningful.

Like all dignities, the terms are used in calculations to determine things like the Almuten, Lord of the Nativity etc. And then also in a predictive technique we call Primary Direction with Distribution of the bounds. Firmicus Maternus also has a whole chapter dedicated to the bounds of the ascendant degree in the Liber Quintus of his Mathesis, saying that they're important to interpret a fate and character. But be careful about how you read Firmicus, his work is not to be read like an astrology app's report, it's a didactic book on astrological interpretation. He says shit like "if the ascendant is in the terms of Saturn the native is a mean person who will kill their siblings", which is a great symbol, a great analogy, but it's not supposed to be taken literally. If you're going to read Firmicus like it's a report think of what he says as a symbol, an image, like a tarot card maybe, Idk.

Now here are three more references on the terms:

Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century Alexandria): Tetrabiblos, book 1, chapter 23. The disposition of the terms. He's a little arrogant trying to put fault in the egyptians without knowing why they distributed the bounds the way they did, so I don't like it, but do read it, it's important.

Vettius Valens (2nd century): Anthologies, chapter 3. Valens gives interpretations for each of the 50 bounds around the zodiac, which I assume is to be read of the ascendant's terms. I'm not sure which divisions he's using, if it's egyptian or ptolmaic, so it's better to check that. It's a little bit silly in my opinion, especially when he gets specific, but interesting.

Guido Bonatti (13th century Italy): Liber Astronomiae Part II (Zoller's translation). He gives a method for interpreting dignities in length from chapter XI through XIX. I should also note that Chapter XIX "Concerning the fortitudes of any planets in each of his dignities" is an interesting one, because he explains an analogy for the dignities that gets used a lot by traditional astrologers today. I find that analogy less helpful and appealing now, but you could be interested in knowing it:

[beyonsatan]

Here are some REAL astrological tips that I'm not just pulling out my ass and actually learned from reading

1. Aquarius is not ruled by uranus, aquarius is ruled by saturn. When astrologers discovered uranus they borrowed some of the traits of saturn and applied them to uranus because they didnt know what to do with this planet. Having strong uranus influence won't make you feel like an outsider but having a strong saturn influence will. Uranus does not rule "outcasts" or "obstruction" it rules sudden changes which we only associate with aquarius because of their eccentricity and the modern rulership of this sign, aquarius isn't as open to "change" as we would like to think they are, they're a saturn(restrictions) ruled fixed sign, they're more open minded and progressive than capricorn but they're more traditional and less accepting than we think pisces to be.

2. NO planet is unwelcome in the 5th and 11th house. Any personal planets in these houses including mars and saturn, especially the chart ruler is a sign of good fortune, wealth, successful investments and just an easy life in general because these houses are the joy of Venus and Jupiter, harmful planets here become neutralized and instead work to our benefit even with difficult aspects. Ex: Someone with a 5th house saturn might work high paying government jobs or become some kind of authority(saturn) figure sometime within their life.

3. What you've been taught about the north and south node is wrong. The north node is not "underdeveloped traits" The north node represents "increase" while the south node represents decrease, not your comfort zone and this is according to hellenistic and ancient astrology. The north node represents the dragon head while the south node represents its tail. Wherever your north node(the head) is, is where there's an infatuation and/or otherwise increase of energy and experiences, the south node (the tail) is something you abandoned (and shouldnt have) so you could focus on your north node, it's not necessarily something you need to let go of because that's like saying the dragon cut his tail off so he could keep his head lol, the dragon doesn't need to cut his tail at all, his tail is what's helping send him into the right direction because how do you expect him to move without his tail? In this case the south node is something you can rely on to assist you when handling the topics of your north node, that's the whole point. If south node was something that we needed to dismiss or free ourselves from it, there wouldn't be a south node, the south node and north node exist with each other, they HAVE to co-exist

4. I don't really debate about which house system to use when reading your own chart or others but when reading transits, synastry and composite charts, I strongly recommend using WS to make things alot less confusing.

5. The moon is a significator of money in alot of the same ways venus and jupiter are that's why the moon gets exalted in taurus. Moon in Taurus, Pisces, Sagittarius or Libra in the 3rd (house joy), 5th or 11th house is an indicator of wealth.

6. When outer planets transit your cadent houses please don't have a breakdown, planets in cadent houses have the weakest influence within a person's chart.

7. The houses responsible for fame are realistically the 5th, 7th house, 10th and 11th house and everything starts with the 5th house. Explanation: 5th house is the talent you have, the 11th house is your audience, you bring the talents you build upon in the 5th house for the world to see over into the 11th house, the 7th house is your relationship to law and the public, partnerships etc, if you wanna get contracts like a partnership with the NBA or picked to star in a movie, all of this would take place in the 7th house, the 10th house is the brand and image you cultivate after your name gets around from the 7th house, this house talks about your peak, how well did you do? Did you make it big? Planets here, where it's ruler is/and aspects will color all of this. Honorable mention is the 1st house cause the 1st house like the 10th house is angular and says alot about whether eyes are on you, do you get attention, are you an extrovert, are you confident or is building up those kind of things difficult for you, all of this gets answered in the 1st house.

8. Do not let any amateur astrologers gaslight you into thinking that having 8th or 12th house placements make you spiritual, spirituality gets its meaning from the 9th house and the 11th house where jupiter finds joy, planets in the 8th and 12th house is NOT for the weak and I don't mean to sound arrogant, I have 12th house placements and I'm aware that the 12th house doesn't get its meaning from pisces or jupiter, sprutuality is meant to be a good thing, planets in these houses is not a good thing so it is not wise to draw proximity there

9. Both Venus/ Jupiter and it's aspects is an indicator of marriage, the sign they're in, house placement and aspects will tell you more about your spouse (venus if you're attracted to women and jupiter if you're attracted to men)

10. Debilitated or fallen planets are liberated or in accidental dignity when in the angular houses or the 5th and 11th. Yes this counts for retrograde planets as well even tho i don't count retrogrades as a debilitaty. Think of them as having "redemption arcs" like negan from the walking dead, started out evil or In bad condition but it got better real fast or the challenges with that placement are easy to overcome. Ex: aquarius sun in the 1st house, aquarius is obviously debilitated under the sun because the sun and saturn are enemies and aquarius gets overwhelmed by the attention and self expression that comes with the sun but with the sun in the 1st house that luminary becomes apart of you, it's literally influencing your physical body and how you behave, with the sun here you have no trouble expressing yourself and actually like attention, so it's like having a leo rising but alot more intense

[optimalmastery]

Learn to Decode Natal Charts: Maps for Navigating Transits

A natal chart is more than a static symbol of who someone is—it’s a living, breathing blueprint of a personal myth in motion. While it begins with a moment in time, its wisdom unfolds across a lifetime, offering insight not just into who they are, but into how they grow, evolve, and respond to the shifting rhythms of the cosmos. Many stop at the surface—sun sign, rising sign, a few personality…

[jedi-starbird]

A happier galaxy where the disaster lineage is somewhat less on fire constantly and senior padawan Obi-wan has developed a fixation on Mandalorians:

Sometimes Feemor regretted just how much he had given away when he had spent 5 expensive months bribing a traumatised Obi-wan to call him brother when he was 14. His dignity, for one, his access codes and shadow cloaking techniques, another. So he had a very dignified reaction when he was awoken to the shine of his younger brother's eyes in the dark at the foot of his bed. "I wou-stop screaming it's just me-I would like a Mandalorian. How do I procure one?"

"How the fuck should I know?"

Obi-wan scowled as if Feemor was being difficult, he wasn't, he wasn't quite awake enough for that yet. "You're a shadow, you're supposed to know things."

Ah, if being a shadow granted you the secrets of the universe instead of just a great many planetary governments, Feemor wouldn't spend so much time wondering what dark rituals Dooku had committed to result in Qui-gon Jinn. (He already knew what regular rituals Qui-gon had committed to result in Obi-wan)

"I know that I'm about to punt you out of my room right now."

"...My birthday is coming up, I believe I deserve compensation for all the traumas."

Obi-wan's eyes were very big now. Feemor sighed. He flopped back down into bed. He resisted the urge to pull his blankets back up and roll over. 'Oh sure when it's time to see mind healers everything's fine but now-'

"Shouldn't you be asking Master then?"

"Master would not approve of how I plan to use the Mandalorian."

He squinted at Obi-wan for a long moment. Obi-wan stared back. He did some quick mental maths and tried not to feel old. Eh. Fine. Feemor swung his legs out of bed. "You had me at 'Master wouldn't approve'."

"Do you think I could get one by walking into little Keldabe and asking very nicely?"

As it turns out, yes he could. A few too many in fact, apparently Jedi, their ancestral enemy, in the Mando district attracted attention, who knew? Feemor knew, Feemor would have known if only he had been properly awake when this semblence of a plan was proposed. He stalked through the cantina towards Obi-wan who was leaning slightly forwards against a pillar, ah...speaking, to a Mandalorian with painted orange armour while surrounded by a larger crowd of Mandos. At least they seem mostly amused. He ignored the youngers squawk as he yanked the back of his robes so that he moved away from the Mandalorian and spun him around.

"You cannot solve centuries of animosity by batting your eyelashes."

"I'm not batting my eyelashes " Obi-wan sniffed," I'm shaking my ass, there's decidedly more effort involved."

"I miss when I was an only child." Feemor sighed deeply. He used the force to scruff the neck of Obi-wan's robes and dangle him slightly in the air. He ignored the shouting from beside him and bowed politely to the staring Mandos. "My apologies for the disturbance, this will not happ-" He considered his brother who was now yelling out his personal comm code with a wink. " Please excuse us, this very probably will happen again, we shall workshop it. May the force be with you all."

I don't have a fully planned AU but it is Codywan!!! cause I love those bitches but have some more dialogue I came up with for this AU. I'm imagining them both as like 20-23, Obi's close to knighthood. He's still a padawan for this because I think him causing Qui-gon headaches is funny. Feemor fully thinks this complicated courtship dance Obi's created is funny, he likes studying his little brother like a bug, he just wasn't prepared for him to just waltz into little kelbade and start hitting on people, though he really should have been.

Hand wavy timeline with Jaster alive but the clones are still clones, Jango was kidnapped and held in stasis or something, Jaster claimed them as Mandos. This is really just about Obi's first and biggest diplomatic achivement being friendly Jedi-Mando relations purely cause he was in his thot era. This also somehow saves the galaxy from the sith.

I like to imagine that Cody's brothers recorded that little exchange between Fee and Obi on their helmets and uploaded it online where it went viral on MandoNet before going viral galaxywide because wait holy shit is that a Jedi saying that????. Qui-gon gets called in for a very weird meeting where the council's like ok so the entire holonet has seen your padawan being horny on main but also this is like the biggest jump in our diplomatic relationship with the Mandos in centuries so like can we keep this up somehow? This results in Obi-wan being holonet famous, first through vode recordings but then he starts a space tumblr and twitter account and he's famous now. Then his friends and other jedi start accounts because wait we're allowed to do that? and those become big as well and this is literally the best PR the jedi have had in hundreds of years. the holonet loves them. the sith are fuming.

Obi-wan, scoffing: What were they gonna do? Shoot me? Feemor: Yes. Obi-wan: I don't believe in blasters. Bly: ...like as a concept...? Obi-wan: No, spiritually.

Obi-wan: I'm sure there's a nice Mandalorian we can find for you Feemor: I'm not sure those 2 words belong together Obi-wan: No of course not, we can't find a nice one, then they'd be all alone, we need to find an absolute bastard of one so that you two match :)

Obi-wan: Oh so Master gets to take in pathetic life forms but I don't? This one's already domesticated! Wolffe: Debatable. Feemor: Cody's a person! Not a stray tooka! Obi-wan: Master takes in stray people all the time! That's how he got me!

Qui-gon: How do you explain this behaviour Padawan ? Obi-wan: The force pushed me towards the Mandalorians Master, it was quite insistent on me developing better relations with them given our difficult history. Feemor: Fascinating, please do elaborate, I'd love to hear the theological implications of a force-assigned kink.

[astroeleanor]

𐙚⋆🫶🏻°｡🎀 Your 7H Ruler = How You Will Meet Your Husband/Wife 💓°｡💌⋆♡𐙚

The placement of your 7th house ruler in your birth chart tells you the place and even the circumstance where you’ll meet your future spouse. The 7th House is the house that symbolizes binding ties: marriage, contracts, any “you‑and‑me” arrangements.

On the other hand, the house where your 7H ruler sits in the birth chart, shows where the partnership will start. The sign colors how the encounter unfolds (direct if fire, measured if earth, etc.), while the ruler’s dignity and aspects reveal quality: easy flow if it’s well placed, tougher lessons if it’s 'stressed.' In short, track the 7th house ruling planet: its house = meeting ground, its condition = tone of the origin story.

HOW TO FIND THE 7H RULER: If you don’t know how to find your 7th house ruler, pull up your birth chart, look for your 7th house and check which sign is on the cusp. The planet that rules that sign is your 7th house ruler.

For example, if your 7th house is in Aries, your 7th house ruler is Mars. Then find where that planet is in your chart, that’s the house that shows how you’ll meet your person. For example: 7H Ruler in the 8H, you’ll meet your partner in a private or quiet space.

Here's a quick cheat sheet to help you figure out planetary rulers:

7H RULER IN THE 1H: You meet them when you start living in alignment with who you are, not the persona you think you need to be. They show up when you’ve stopped compromising. Think: post-breakup glow-up, new job, new body, new era, total identity shift.

7H RULER IN THE 2H: You meet them in a space tied to money, value, stability, finances, investing, self-worth. This could literally be at a job, or a place where you're buying/building something of value. It’s also possible you meet while you're learning how to own your worth.

7H RULER IN THE 3H: They show up close to home, through your daily routines, neighborhood, siblings, or even social media. This house rules synchronicity through proximity. Your meeting will look like a coincidence, but it isn’t. A forgettable day turns into a turning point.

7H RULER IN THE 4H: They show up when you’re rooted, moving, or going through something emotional. You’re either caring for someone, being cared for, or deciding that the cycle stops with you. They show up in the middle of that. The setting may be private, or domestic.

7H RULER IN THE 5H: You meet through joy, creativity, play. Think dating apps, parties, hobbies, concerts, a vacation, or places where you go to have fun. This person enters your life when you're reconnecting with your creativity & your ability to have fun without expectation.

7H RULER IN THE 6H: You meet them in the middle of doing something mundane. They fall for the version of you who’s busy building something, taking care of your body, your mind, your future. You could meet through work, volunteering, through a co-worker, a mutual habit/routine.

7H RULER IN THE 7H: You meet them when you’re clear that you want a relationship, and open to letting it in. You might meet them through something that’s already relationship-focused (a wedding, dating app, blind dates), or someone close to you will introduce you to them.

7H RULER IN THE 8H: You meet them during a moment where your life cracks open, or during a transition period (moving, breakup, loss, therapy). It might even start in secret, something taboo, or off-limits. You meet them when you’re changing, and they’re part of the reason why.

7H RULER IN THE 9H: You’re out in the world, traveling, studying, soul-searching, expanding your mind in some way. And suddenly, there they are. Your connection may even start as long-distance, or they could come from a different cultural background.

7H RULER IN THE 10H: You meet them through work, status, ambition, or visibility. There might be a professional tone at first (boss, mentor, collaborator, someone from your network). It starts with mutual respect before anything romantic starts.

7H RULER IN THE 11H: This placement brings love through community, shared spaces & causes, and shared visions. Think friend groups, digital spaces, activist circles, creative collabs, Discord servers, co-working collectives (anywhere people gather to build something together.)

7H RULER IN THE 12H: This is the most karmic placement out of all 12 houses. The connection might not be public at first, or even visible to anyone but you. You meet them when you’re between versions of yourself, becoming someone new & they’re already waiting in that timeline.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post!Your curiosity & engagement mean the world to me. I hope you not only found it enjoyable but also enriching for your astrological knowledge.Your support & interest inspire me to continue sharing insights & information with you. I appreciate you immensely.

• 🕸️ JOIN MY PATREON for exquisite & in-depth astrology content. You'll also receive a free mini reading upon joining. :)

• 🗡️ BOOK A READING with me to navigate your life with more clarity & awareness.

[marsprincess889]

Some planetary conjunctions and how they might manifest

Let me know what you think

...

1. ♀️☌♃

Venus conjunct Jupiter_ abundant Venus and liquidated Jupiter.

Venus is a fierce, reductive force, but one that is ultimately geared towards pleasure. Jupiter is a growing, amplifying, adundant force that must ultimately be reduced and crystalized. Venus exalts in the Jupiterian Pisces in Revati_ the last nakshatra, connecting the two. It's the goal of the two benefics that symbolizes the completion of the journey. Jupiter must give to Venus, who in turn will use that abundance for beauty, order, harmony and pleasure. Venus is also associated with death, so these two joining is really the way of the end, in the most perfect sense (ideally).

Venus-Jupiter conjunction means that a native cannot separate beauty and love from morals and spirituality. Some interesting ways that this might manifest in the mundane:

A native is pure hearted and generous, valuing loyalty, politeness and all things traditionally "good" (Jupiterian) in a Venusian way, meaning that they consider their mundane/tribal laws and values the same as their moral/spiritual alignment. If they feel betrayed, they won't hesitate to stand their ground and defend their stance, often fiercely and without much fuss.

Native seeks to find friends in people who align with their deep-seated values, who understand them on a spiritual level and fit into the material manifestation of their ideal reality.

They understand that not every ideal can be materialized, but they try their hardest to live their preferred utopia.

They are extremely defensive of their own personal philosophy and understanding of the world.

Their spirituality might be deeply connected to love, attachments, romance and sex. They might idolize those things and worship the idea of them, or they might worship their lover.

They might be attracted to Jupierian figures, people who are nourishing and have a tendency to guide them.

Despite what many would think, because of how they appear, these people are not unfamiliar with the occult. They might understand or practice it unknowingly and naturally.

They have a need to ground their ideals in the physical reality somehow.

This one is random: they might like sweet and sour food (food that is both sweet and sour). (I have this, I do...)

Some interesting biological coorelations: Venus is sour and Jupiter is sweet. In the same way that sour taste biologically has a reductive or "pacifying" effect on a cellular level (corrections are welcome I'm not a biology major😶), and sweet taste has an activating effect, Venus reduces and "refreshes" while Jupiter is like the "Yes man" of the planets, encouraging everything and anything. There is obvious danger associated with overconsumption of sweet food.

It's why this conjunction is considered so auspicious. Jupiter is already giving to Venus and Venus is nourished through Jupiter's abundance and spirituality.

Also interesting is the fact that both are abundant and considered benefics. They're the only two planets that are traditionally always benefic. Venus-death association is also because of how the ultimate pleasure can lead to death, because there is nothing else to achieve, Venus is the goal (Also interesting to connect this to Bharani nakshatra_ the beginning and the end, like Revati(also the beginning and the end)_ the exaltation of Venus, both elephant yonis). Sweet and sour food, despite being percieved as opposites, both have a negative effect on teeth (teeth are Saturn_ natural malefic). While being considred auspicious, they need to be under moderation, and can only be indulged in when the structure(teeth_ Saturn) is perfected.

These people might come across as "too nice", "too sweet" or "too good" to some people, they might be viewed as innocent or seen in an idealized light.

A lot depends on the sign, house and the nakshatra placement, as well as on potential aspects to other planets or the dignity of both. This placement does not mean that life is all sunshine and rainbows, but it does mean that one area of a person's life is lucky. The degree of that luck varies based on factors I just listed above.

2. ♄☌☊

Saturn conjunct Rahu_ destiny blockage/ denial of destiny

Saturn and Rahu are both cold planets that induce anxiety. Saturn deals with restrictions, blockages, challenges, limits and time. Rahu is the destiny of a person, the desire born out of Ketu, that which you never had but crave and feel like you must have.

Both relate to the material. Saturn brings about the material results from its controls and limitations, Rahu is the Maya itself, the percieved reality. Saturn restricts and denies, while Rahu makes you shake from the sheer craving of it.

This conjunction might feel like a cruel joke of fate. What a person desires most is denied from them. It's like, life pushes you towards it (Rahu) but then denies is harshly (Saturn). Despite the Saturnian limits, this placement won't leave you alone, because Rahu never does.

Imagine that you want something, maybe unwillingly, that circumstances and people around you always seem to push you towards it, but you also feel judged for wanting it/to do it, and that you also feel judged for not doing it.

In this aspect, the circusmtances can be interpreted from the nakshatra placement of Saturn and Rahu (and Ketu, because they're always connected), what you want can be seen in the house placement as well the nakshatra and the sign.

(This coming example is not from my chart) For example, if that the conjunction occurs in the sign of Gemini, the nakshatra of Ardra in the 5th house, and let's say Ketu is in Mula in the 11th, the person is pushed towards creativity and self-expression that includes a lot of other people(Ardra). They might want to mingle at large parties and express themselves creatively with others in an analytic and cerebral way, they might want to be respected for their logical mind and for suitable education. They might want their creative works to have collective value, and to have opinions that spark discussion, but they might never have felt worthy of it, they might thunk that they're stupid or that everyone will judge them if they dare to express themselves, because they might have experiencied that before in their life.

This is a constant tug-of-war between caution and leaping. If another planet aspects this point(esp conjunction), it becomes of immensely major importance, also given that Ketu is on the other side. A lot of what the native experiences with this feels out of their control.

I imagine there comes a time (or many) when this proccess leads to a crirical point of release, when the native has to make a decision. How gradual or immediate it is depends on everything else connected to it (sign, nakshatra, house).

Saturn is going to reward you eventually if you do everything right, and Rahu is going to calm down once you accept it and pay little attention to it (balance it with your Ketu).

3. 🌙☌♂️

Mars conjunct Moon_ sensitivity and reactivity

Both Mars and Moon represent both. Moon is sensitive and its reactions arise from the influence of others. Mars tries to defend itself because of their sensitivity and reacts out of that necessity, against whatever most others have decided.

For example, a moon dominated person's first instinct might be to try to find comfort in the surroundings when they feel sensitive, to mesh with and adjust to others. A person more dominated by Mars is most likely going to do something different and draw a clear line to set themselves apart.

When those two planets are together, a person might struggle between those two. They might react impulsively and emotionally when they feel threatened, they might angry-cry. Not necessarily a victim mentality placement but when reactions and actions are tied to the emotional and mental subcouncious of a person, they're bound to have some dramatic reactions sometimes. They also impulsively decide things on their own and might blame circumstances later if they do not work out.

Their mother might be/have been a domineering or bossy person, rarely considerimg the feelings of the native while making decisions.

These people feel fragile naturally, but they're very much capable of defending themselves. The thing is that that takes a lot of their energy that could be saved or spent doing something else.

They might also feel passionate about certain things/causes in a "more than average" intense way. They tire themselves out.

Moon is milky, cold and placid. Mars is pungent, heated, spicy. If Moon is dairy, Mars is chilli or garlic. So, there is a certain balance within this individual, but it's always at the risk of overacting or overinvesting, especially if one or both planets are not placed favorably.

Even then, this placement has a risk of unnecessary aggression (or aggression presented as care), especially when it's placed in a tense/triggering nakshatra like Dhanishta (even though Mars is exalted) or in an intense sign like Scorpio, despite the fact that Mars does well in both of those places on its own.

4. ☀️☌♄

Sun conjunct Saturn _ humble soul, integrated ego

So this one is interesting and kind of classic, because Sun and Saturn together is quite a pair.

Traditionally, they're considered enemies, but in the case of people ruled by their nakshatras, theose people work extremely well together.

Natives who carry this conjunction are used to feeling small and inferior since they could remember.

Sun is the soul, Saturn is the limitation. Soul is limitless on its own and immortal in its essence, and despite the fact that Saturnian material boundaries do not kill it, they still give it a really hard time.

Saturn is basically the "maker" of the in-carnation (coming into the body) in a sense that it rules time, finite-ness and all things tangible. In a way, Sun is more solid and crystalized, but it also cannot shine to the full extent that it wants to.

This placement gets easier and easier with time and it's not the worst affliction that a person can have. It's still stable (unless there's also Mars, Moon or Rahu involved) and constructive on some level.

It still does mean that Sun is afflicted by anxiety and nervousness though.

These natives need to develop an immunity to being intimidated and ridiculed. They have to learn to let the unnecesary doubt go.

They might feel like they can never get away with anything. It's like, one way or another, they can never avoid punishment, even if others somehow can and even if it seems unfair.

There is an air of seriousness with them when it comes to their personal lives and individuality. They might not like overly jovial people and are hesitant to trust them. Depending on the sign, house and nakshatra placements, this is going to expand to the areas that they represent.

If, for example, this point is in Gemini, in Punarvasu, in the 4th house, this is going to affect the way they communicate and connect to family members and people close to them, also their subconcious and sense of safety. If it's in Scorpio, in Jyeshta, in the 7th house, it's going to affect their partner(s) and enemies, their competitive side, how they present themselves to everyone who isn't them, who they consider to be "the other". If it's in Aries, in Krittika, in 9th house, it's going to affect their sense of self in the grand scheme of things, their beliefs and philosophy, what they consider to be morally good and correct or not, how they define themselves within the world as they see it.

[specialagentartemis]

I’ve increasingly seen the take that Gurathin, being the only one of the PresAux group originally from the CR, understands SecUnits better than the others and understands corporate greed and underhandedness and violence better than his idealist space socialist leftist colleagues… which always rings odd to me, because it’s well established that Mensah and Pin-Lee understand what they’re dealing with as intelligent, savvy professionals!

Mensah is the Planetary Administrator of Preservation; she is very nearly the President of the Whole Planet. It’s hard to believe she could get there and be regarded as a good leader of a small planet with neither military nor economic power in the galaxy and remain unaware of how the Corporation Rim works and how to deal with them to keep her polity safe. The company executives presented Murderbot to Mensah directly in their pitch for why the team needed to take a SecUnit; her multiple objections to this indicate that she does, in fact, know how unethical (and likely dangerous) SecUnits are.

Pin-Lee, meanwhile, is a corporate lawyer; she’s described as CombatUnit-like, and based on the fact that she went not only with this scientific survey but also with Mensah at the end of Network Effect on this short-notice and desperate chase across the galaxy, seems to be the go-to person to deal with off-world legal issues. Murderbot notes early on that being under the Company’s surveillance seemed to affect her more than the others. It’s pretty reasonable to assume that’s because she knows what shit companies put in their contracts, and what they do.

They aren’t naïve leftists who don’t understand how the Real World works, they are well-too-aware of the abuses and surveillance and callousness of companies!

(Ratthi watches Sanctuary Moon, evidently a CR production—Preservation aren’t isolationists. The whole Preservation backstory is of a community’s escape from callous, profit-driven corporate abandonment of their grandparents’ generation to die. I would think Preservation people would be, as a society, aware and very wary of CR corporations.)

Their trust they place in Murderbot in All System Red is very likely influenced by Preservation’s cultural values of dignity, support, freedom, responsibility to each other, bot citizenship, all that good stuff—but it’s certainly not blindly, naïvely unaware of alternative possible perspectives. And that’s why it’s powerful: they’re making a conscious choice, measuring its actions and its rights as a person against the propaganda and fear, that Murderbot deserves that respect and dignity and freedom and trust as a person and not just as an arm of untrustworthy corporations.

(And like. Also the fact that “Gurathin is from the CR” is not explicitly canon, either. We don’t know where he’s from originally; the CR is a reasonable interpretation, certainly, it fits the facts, but it’s still an interpretation that fans have to make rather than actually being text. And I think in these discussions that ought to be remembered too. )

[thecoiledserpent]

BASICS OF ASTROLOGY + FINDING THE DOMINANT PLANET

(APPLICABLE TO VEDIC CHARTS ONLY / APPLY AT WESTERN CHART AT YOUR OWN ACCORD, I DO NOT GUARANTEE ACCURATE RESUTLS)

in vedic astrology, we consider the traditional planets—sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter and saturn along with the nodes—north and south node to be the significant placements of a chart. we do not consider the outer planets, i.e. neptune, uranus and pluto as significant placements in a person's chart. this is because these are generational planets that remain in the same position for almost a human's entire life and do not influence a person's personality in any major way because generations of people are going to have the same particular placement.

following are a few important points about the planets you will need to properly analyze your vedic chart:

THE SUN / SURYA is your driving force, your life, your soul. it represents your ego. just as no life can exist on earth without the sun, no human can survive without an ego. even saints are driven towards moksha, or liberation. with a weak sun, a person will struggle with having a proper identity and will be unable to distinguish reality from illusions.

the sun is a 'sattvic'/ pure planet. in elements, it is fire. in gods, he is ravi / surya / the sun god & agni / the god of fire. in the zodiac, it is leo. in society, it is the king / ruler / president. in colors, it is red. in gems, it is ruby. in metals, it is copper. in the days, it is sunday / 'ravivaar'. in the body, it is bones ( particularly the spine ), the heart, stomach and the right eye. in items, it is saffron. in chants, it is HREEM.

your father represents your sun. bad relationship with father = bad sun, and vice versa.

the sun is sensitive to malefic planets, although it is generally susceptible to energies, as well.

the presence of rahu / ketu will irrevocably damage the sun. it forms an eclipse, leaving negative impact on the natives life and personality.

the house which your sun rules will be a house with a strong impact on your life purpose, regardless of other factors.

strong sun in good dignity = good eyesight, pleasant demeanour, good confidence, attractive aura, authoritative qualities, able to take a stand, comfortable in solitude.

strong sun in bad dignity = overconfidence, stubbornness, disregard towards other people, dictator like behavior, weak heart.

weak sun = weak eyes / higher susceptibility to eye problems, low confidence, lack of strong opinions, damaged relationship with father, lack of groundedness in reality.

THE MOON / SOMA / CHANDRA is your mind. quite literally. our brain is protected by cerebrospinal fluids and all fluids are under the domain of the moon, hence directly affecting your brain. the moon is the most important planet in the vedic chart. this is because so long as we are human, we are driven by our mind. although the soul (the sun) is the ultimate truth, as flesh and blood we cannot connect with our soul. our mind is what drives us in the mortal realm; the soul takes the backseat. the moon sign / nakshatra depending upon context, just as the sun in tropical astrology, is going to be what we're referring to when mentioning 'rashi' / sign.

the moon is a 'sattvic'/ pure planet and sits in the company of the sun, mars and jupiter. in elements, it is water. in gods, he is soma / chandra / the moon god. in the zodiac, it is cancer. in society, it is the queen / healer ( not alleopathic medical practicers or surgeons. only ayurveda practicers / psychiatrists / therapists). in colors, it is white and pale blue. in gems, it is pearl. in metals, it is silver. in the days, it is monday / 'somvaar'. in the body, it is the brain, fluid matter, and the womb. in items, it is food / nourishment. in chants, it is SHREEM.

your mother represents your sun. bad relationship with mother = bad moon, and vice versa.

it is noteworthy to mention that the correlation here is the strongest of all other planetary associations. if you hurt your mother, neglect her, disrespect her or abandon her, no matter however might her behavior towards you be, your moon will be completely destroyed. even if you have a bad relationship with father you can still fix your sun, but there's no way you can fix your moon if you have a bad relationship with your mother.

the moon is sensitive to malefic planets, although it is generally susceptible to energies, as well.

the presence of rahu / ketu will irrevocably damage the moon. it forms an eclipse, leaving negative impact on the natives life and personality.

aspects to / from / with the moon are case specific and i will not generalize anything. although, in general -

weak moon = mood swings, emotional turbulence, mental problems, weak aura, lack of appeal.

strong moon = good focus, strongly opinionated, has mother's support, will have more traits from their mother's ancestral house.

MERCURY / BUDDHA is your intelligence, your speech, your mental capacity. note that where the moon rules over mental stability and the physical brain tself, mercury rules purely over your intelligence, the abstract part of the brain. mercury represents how well you can think, your grasping power. mercury also affects your beauty & fashion style, although in a more indirect way unlike like moon which is quite literally your beauty or venus which represents the external manifestation of one's inner self. in mythology, buddha is the son of chandra & tara (jupiter's wife)

mercury is a 'rajasic'/ royal planet and sits in the company of venus and saturn. in elements, it is air. in gods, he is buddha / lord ganesha. in the zodiac, it is gemini & virgo. in nakshatras, it rules ashlesha, jyeshtha and revati. in society, it is the advisor / minister / doctor ( not surgeons ) / young girls. in colors, it is green. in gems, it is emerald. in metals, it is bronze. in the days, it is wednesday / 'budhvaar'. in the body, it is the nervous system, skin, face, and thyroid. in items, it is the pen.

your sister & maternal uncle represent your mercury. bad relationship with sister & uncle = bad mercury and vice versa.

the house which your mercury sits in will dictate the way your mind thinks.

mercury is friends with venus, saturn, sun and rahu. it is neutral towards ketu, mars and jupiter. it is enemies with the moon.

weak mercury = bad body coordination, may have problems walking in a straight line or just bad hand eye coordination. speech problems, may be too hasty, too slow or stutter. unattractive physique if supported by a weak moon and venus. inability to make use of even the most precious things even when the native owns them, a weak mercury is a weak mind.

strong mercury = wide forehead (usually), fond of laughter, may like sweet meats, good at thinking and have a good approach towards analyzing situations.

VENUS / SHUKRA is your beauty, your desires, your external appearance, what pleases you and for a man, what kind of woman best brings you peace and success. in mythology, shukra is the guru / teacher of the demons and hence, a weak venus is a weak moral compass. for men, a weak venus if supported by the appropriate aspects from planets, may make you infertile.

venus is a 'राजस्व' / royal planet and sits in the company of the mercury and saturn. in elements, it is water. in gods, he is shukra / goddess laxmi. in the zodiac, it is taurus & pisces. in society, it is women / younger animals. in colors, it is white and pale pink. in gems, it is diamond. in metals, it is platinum. in the days, it is friday / 'shukravaar'. in the body, it is the reproductive system, lumbar region, veins, parathyroids, throat, kidneys, face, and cheeks. in items, it is money.

your wife / girlfriend / lover / significant women other than the mother represents your venus. bad relationship / mistreatment of wife / women = bad venus, and vice versa.

venus, just like mercury, is best at mixing energies with another planet. very rarely will it give negative results, even when sitting with rahu or ketu.

it is very important for men to respect the women in their life because women represent venus, and for men, venus not only controls your success and fame, but also your ability to reproduce. shukra controls the 'शुक्राणु' / the sperm. expanding on this topic i would also like to mention that people who masturbate a lot weaken their venus because orgasming is a form of releasing sacred pent up energy. this is why people who masturbate a lot have sunken eyes and are physically weaker.

additionally, i would like to mention that in vedic culture, it is advised not to sleep the first time with anyone randomly. the first person who makes you orgasm should be the wedded husband / wife. otherwise, the first orgasm is considered 'wasted'. ( don't come after my ass, do whatever you want i'm just giving information)

for women, it is highly advised to wear floral perfumes and engage in self care to strengthen your venus. venus also represents the bedroom, that's why it is considered a sacred place which should be accessible only to the husband and wife. the wife is the caretaker of this domain, and at the very least should engage in habits that keep the bedroom neat and clean. ( i do not mean to say that the wife should cook and clean or imposing any sexist roles on anyone. regardless, some things are a responsibility and should be done by a specific person. very crude indeed, but i would like to give an example- you won't have servants bathe you just because you're an independent woman, will you? it's like that. i'm not putting anyone at gunpoint here, you're your own master; nor am i supporting sexist gender roles. )

for unmarried women too, it is recommended to spray the bedroom with floral scents and wear white clothes and / or floral designs in clothes, jewelry or flowers themselves in their hair. although the last part isn't very practical. unmarried women should avoid criticizing other women or speaking ill of other's appearance. ( do avoid wearing scents at night though, it attracts negative spirits)

among all planets, venus is the most strongly affected by our day to day actions.

strong venus = good regulation of sexual energy, curvaceous bountiful body for women, healthy reproductive system in men, good hygiene, soft and polite speech, abundance of opportunities.

weak venus = harsh speech, lack of hygiene, disgraceful behavior, weak immune system.

MARS / MANGAL / KUJA is your courage, your energy, your drive, determination, passion and hope. when a human being is born, first the brain starts working, and then the intelligence develops. it is when we become fully conscious of ourselves and our surroundings that we develop a sense of passion and drive, all while the soul keeps watching the 'show' from behind the 'curtain'. mars is what gives life meaning. mars has direct correlation with the moon, because even violence stems from deep emotional turbulence. i have noticed that people with a strong moon but weak mars express even positive emotions very strongly. a weak mars will hinder how you interact with the world. where sun is the will, mars shows the way. sun gives rise to your purpose, and mars gives rise to desire. those two may or may not be the same, but without passion, life has no meaning whatsoever.

mars is a 'सात्त्विक' / pure planet and sits in the company of the sun, moon and jupiter. in elements, it is fire. in gods, he is mangal / lord hanuman. in the zodiac, it is aries and scorpio. in society, it is the soldier / surgeon. in colors, it is red. in gems, it is red coral. in metals, it is bronze. in the days, it is tuesday / 'मंगलवार'. in the body, it is the blood, muscles, bile, hands, genitals, rectum, adrenal, hemoglobin, prostrate gland and adrenaline. in items, it is the knife.

your brother & other prominent men in your life represent your mars. bad relationship with brother or these men = bad mars, and vice versa.

mars can be best managed by doing physical activities. dancing, sports, going for a walk are all activities that will recharge your mars.

weak mars = anger issues, violent behaviour / inclination towards violence or fear of fights / violence. bad expression of self. isses standing up for oneself, body will find it difficult to store and retain energy.

strong mars = bold, fiery and passionate. stubbornness and able to take a stand. will avoid figts until absolutely demanded. courageous but retains their wisdom even in anger. good regulation of excess energy or good at storing energy.

JUPITER / GURU is your knowledge, your moral compass, your 'luck' and your teacher. in terms of luck, jupiter is the planet to go to. thing is that although jupiter itself will not particularly affect the smaller niches of your personality like the sun, moon or asc will, but it will guide you throughout your life. in vedic mythology, jupiter is lord vishnu 'अनंत', 'सत्यानंद' , 'सत्यनारायण'. he is the supreme divine, the origin of life and the preserver of all that exists. he is endless, the only truth, and the guide of all. hence why in the vedic chart, a weak jupiter is considered extremely unfavourable regardless of other factors.

jupiter is a 'सात्त्विक' / pure planet and sits in the company of the sun, moon and mars. in elements, it is air. in gods, he is guru / lord vishnu. in the zodiac, it is sagittarius and pisces. in society, it is the teacher. in colors, it is yellow. in gems, it is yellow sapphire. in metals, it is gold. in the days, it is thursday / 'गुरुवार' . in the body, it is the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. in items, it is the book.

your teacher represents your jupiter. bad relationship with / disrespecting / troubling / viewing the teacher inappropriately = bad jupiter, and vice versa.

for women, jupiter represents the husband. although jupiter should hold more value to women just as a good venus does for men, i recommend strengthening your jupiter for both men and women. a bad jupiter will literally hinder all your success.

jupiter is a heavy planet and damages the house it is sitting in.

jupiter observes, and moulds the path forward based on what you do in the present. jupiter and saturn are the two planets that will never let your past deeds go in vain / be forgotten. the native will get what is due, in accordance with the houses or signs these planets are ruled by.

SATURN / SHANI is your struggles, the punishments you receive for bad karma, your hard work and your restrictions. most people relate saturn with past life karma, and that is only partially true. swyurn is the punishment you're receiving for your past life karma, but if you want to delve into your past .ife itself, then we majorly speak of rahu and ketu, in association with saturn and the ascendant.

maids, sweepers, poor people, disabled people represent your saturn. bad relationship / disrespecting them = bad saturn, and vice versa.

saturn will delay but never deny; it only gives you what you want when you come to terms with why you want it or why the universe should give it to you.

in vedic astrology, we associate to planets with bestowing riches; satrn and rahu. the thing with saturn is that it demands you to become someone who is worthy of receiving what you desire, and that is often a slow process so people dislike this planet. but without your saturn, you will never be able to achieve heights of character and nobility.

capricorn and aquarius are ruled by saturn.

i won't comment on how wek and strong saturn manifests since it's a bit tricky. but if you're certain you're facing problems due to saturn, then you may do the following remedies-

donate alms to beggars, offer food to dogs, respect and care for maids and sweepers, never criticize the difficulties of life. if you're a hindu, praying to lord shiva or lrd narasimha is greatly recommended. during the sadesati period, make it a point to chant the narasimha kavacham / hanuman chalisa for your physical safety.

you can learn about sadesati here.

RAHU is your greed, unjustified curiousity and the things you never managed to know or experience in your past life. although it is fairly antagonised, it is as much representative of your soul as your ketu. as they say, light does not exist without the dark. regardless, rahu is your greed and understanding it is key to understanding your shadow side. what your rahu desires is what you intrinsically are motivated by, whether or not you realise it. it is body less, and craves endlessly. a common remedy to reduce negative affects of rahu is to wear a silver chain around the neck; because rahu is without body and is kept at bay by silver.

rahu represents your paternal ancestors. disrespecting them weakens the rahu.

rahu represents the things you are irresistibly drawn to or have an almost insatiable affinity towards. these are things you didn't focus on in your previous lives, and so to balance the scales, you must now delve into those aspects of life, as well.

what is noteworthy about this though, is to remember than too much of everything is bad. delving too much into the themes of rahu is actually destructive, and this is the part of rahu that most people highlight. it's simply that balance is necessary, and without exploring what your soul desires, you won't be able to sit in peace.

the most important thing here is discipline, though. at the end of the day rahu is a shadow planet that feeds off your satvik gunas (positive qualities).

like i mentioned in saturn; rahu is also one of those planets that bestow massive wealth. businessmen / women often do rituals / remedies to reap the benefits of rahu.

KETU is your past life's karma (mine seems pretty bad since i have written this thing five times now and coincidentally it never displays😶) and your ancestry. it is the things you inherited from your ancestors and also who you were in your past life. ketu is the pathway to understanding one's spiritual nature. ketu is a headless planet. in it's mahadasha or antardasha, natives may find themselves doing things or making decisions they normally wouldn't because they are disillusioned by falsities.

ketu represents our maternal ancestors. speaking ill of them ruins our ketu.

ketu is the body of the demon svarbhanu, (you may read about the mythology behind rahu & ketu in vedic culture here; amazing article btw) and wields a sword in his hands; this sword is symbolic of ketu's importance in our lives. he is the force that cuts out attachments and punishes us for our bad deeds in our previous lives. this is why the punishments bestowed by ketu are difficult to understand.

truth be told, it is best to lower our heads and accept his punishments. this is one of the planet's on whom no remedy works. he aspires not only for you to rise from the mud, but also aims at helping you bloom into a lotus. he will break you, but just as a forest blooms after a fire, we too, must burn ourselves in the trials of life to become our best selves.

ketu also create illusions and causes dissatisfaction wherever it sits. this is unlike the nature of rahu which desires more of wherever it is sitting; ketu causes you to completely turn away from said thing. ketu is the outcast. it's energy is like a snake's; dangerous, but attractive nonetheless.

ketu dominant people, or people having ketu conjunct sun or moon within 10° are highly magnetic. they tend to devour other's energy. of course, it can manifest positively as well; but majorly these people create a lot of polarity wherever they go, attracting people to themselves with ease.

this also means that they are prone to the black eye. ketu dominant people try to be rational, but it's easy for them to get carried away. they should keep at least one well-wisher around themselves whom they can trust with their body and soul.

in your ketu md, or ad, make sure not to gamble with money, resources or people too much. this will be a time of less, regardless of how good ketu might be in your chart. and if it's weak, then it will cause intense emotional turmoil, depression, and in worst cases, even drive someone to insanity or suicide (debilitated moon with strong mars in low dignity supported with a weak sun)

no remedy exists for ketu. you can only pray to your god to protect your physical health and your soul and give you the strength to overcome difficulties. remember that ketu aims not to break you, but to teach you, and if you resist too much, then it will break you.

helpful resources (verified) you need not overwhelm yourself with information, it's just for help and you end up learning it along the way; no need to try to memorise it.

understanding mahadasha and antardasha.

reading the south indian, and north indian vedic chart, respectively. below it, basic info about the planets. note that, ketu is represented by the colour brown and rahu by deep blue as opposed to 'colourless'.

the significance of the houses, and their respective planets.

break down of the four main motivations of human life as depicted in vedic chart.

the aspects of the planets in vedic astrology. note that all planets have a default aspect of conjunction, which maximum works till 15°. also known as the 'drishti' / sight of planets.

the planets and the houses wherein they are strong / weak.

the various charts studied id vedic astrology. we majorly discuss D1 and D9 charts.

importance of the houses in D9 chart.

the 12 zodiac signs.

the 27 nakshatras (lunar mansions).

FINDING THE DOMINANT PLANET

DISCLAIMER : THE METHOD I HAVE USED BELOW IS SIMPLY BASED OFF GENERAL TRENDS AND IS NOT ANY CONVENTIONAL METHOD. I ALLOW ITS USE ON GROUNDS THAT INACCURACIES ARE NOT TO BE HELD AGAINST ME.

use the following trick for finding your dominant planet; the planet with the highest score is your dominant planet.

moon nakshatra lord [ +15 ]

moon sign lord [ +8 ]

asc nakshatra lord [ +10 ]

asc sign lord [ +10 ]

sun nakshatra lord [ +3 ]

sun sign lord [ +3 ]

planets in first house closely conjunct asc ( 10 degree max. ) [ +8 ]

planets in first house loosely conjunct asc ( any degree further than 10) [ +4 ]

planets in stellium conjunct moon [ +5 ]

planets in stellium conjunct sun [ +2 ]

in case it so happens that two planets are having the same score-

recheck your calculations

choose the planet of your moon sign lord / nakshatra lord out of the two

if none of these tips help and you're certainly not an idiot then you're welcome to send me your chart to help you determine your dominant planet. only send your vedic chart + nakshatras. i will not analyse anything else in the chart, though.

JAIMINI ASTROLOGY

i am not learnt in jaimini astrology and only understand understand the few basics which i might mention from time to time, so you may refer to this website to understand what atmakaraka and amatyakaraka are

CLOSING WORD : consider this to be the guidebook of all vedic astrology content that ill post on my blog. if there is any doubt, then please first refer to this post for information, and if you still don't find an answer to your question, then you're welcome to send it to me via ask. do remember that i will exercise freedom in which asks i shall answer and which ones i won't based on how precise the question you're asking is since i don't do personal readings.

[a-d-nox]

what's a venus return?

did you know that you can check more than just your sun's return? any time a planet transits and becomes exactly conjunct your planet (it is in the exact sign and degree it was when you were born), you undergo a planetary return. venus returns happen roughly every 2 years at a maximum (unless there is a retrograde then it could be about 11 months that you undergo the return). my venus return happened this past weekend so here we are continuing my previous series.

but what can a venus return chart show you?

your romantic life. who you can attract / are likely to fall in love with. how your beauty evolves. sympathy you need. pleasures you have. the art/creative work you can make. your ability to provide self-love / how you can best practice it. harmony you will find. compromises you need to make. how your aesthetic can shift. entertainment you seek. what you will value. luxury items you splurge on. where your laziness originates. how you can be more sensual.

paid reading options: astrology menu & cartomancy menu

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sun

assumption that others crush on you, aesthetic others identify with you, youthfulness, attractiveness, attention from potential suitors, entertainment you seek and/or provide others, what you feel you deserve from others / the universe, what makes you different from others romantically / aesthetically, development of beauty, dignity regarding your appearance, awareness of your looks, objects that bring you joy / pleasure, validation you receive, and/or how express your self in terms of fashion / beauty

moon

emotional responses to romantic situations, loving/jealous instincts, how you show you care, romantic comfort zone, feminine aesthetic - masculine/male gaze, how your childhood effects the romantic partners you seek, fertility, how your beauty/aesthetic adapts to trends, how you breasts change/develop, romantic life habits/trends, and/or comfortability in your space

mercury

romantic communication, love language, physical touch, words of affirmation, talking phases, the creative mind, perception of beauty, creative writing, social media aesthetic/entertainment, flirty mannerisms/gestures, love defying reason, romantic change, forgetfulness that leads to laziness, romantic gossip, romance/smutty reads, self-care routine, and/or youthfulness

venus

romantic experiences, attraction, beauty, pleasures, artistic ability/projects, self-love, divine femininity, sharing romantic feelings/gestures, your aesthetic, entertainment you seek, romantic values, receiving gifts, luxury items you desire, and/or romantic sensuality

mars

romantic passion, desires, romantic confidence, creative ambition, romantic preferences, sex, jealousy, romantic competitiveness, impulsive romantic behavior, sensuality, self-assurance in your beauty, divine masculinity, masculine aesthetic - feminine/female gaze, assertiveness in a romantic connection, dominance, romantic/creative activities, sensual energy, sexuality, romantic combativeness, and/or romantic/creative motivation

jupiter

romantic luck/abundance, wealth of suitors, wealth of luxury / things that are pleasurable, romantic/creative success, romantic opportunities, topical popularity, expansion of wardrobe, entertainment knowledge, honesty in romantic relationships, romantic wisdom, ease in romance, romantic blessings, romantic optimism, justice regarding previous relationships, self exploration, artistic vision, romantic/self devotion, study of aestheticism, self-growth, and/or romantic fulfillment

saturn

romantic/creative achievement and mastery, romantic challenges/struggles, quality time, karmic romances, romantic life lessons, how your paternal figure affects you self-esteem / romantic relationships, fears regarding love, insecurities, romantic guilt, romantic delays, romantic limitations, how past romantic relationships effect new ones, self-love deficiencies, romantic practicality, romantic solitude, romantic maturity, romantic detachment, consistency you show others, grudges against competition / past lovers, and/or your relationship history

uranus

friends to lovers, dating apps, movies as a form of entertainment, sudden romantic relationship, what makes you unique in comparison to others in the dating/artistic scene, how you don't follow the beauty trends, romantic independence/freedom, open relationships, unexpected dates or contact from a suitor, shocking declarations, and/or social media fans/followers

neptune

kindness you show others, artistic creativity, glamorous appearance, sensitivity to others feelings, selflessness in a romantic relationship, escapism via love, intuitive design, use of imagination, makeup / what is presented to society, romantic mysteries, romantic confusion, evasion of commitment, self-love mantras, transcending the norms of aestheticism, fascination with appearance/design, and/or thoughts on your ideal appearance

pluto

glow-up for the self / closet, romantic power, sex, destruction of the old self, rebirth of beauty (hence "the birth of venus"), romantic intensity, magnetism experienced in the romantic realm, romantic infatuation/obsession, seductive performances, romantic manipulation, and/or closet purge

1h

aesthetic you identify with, outward/physical appearance, romantic outlook/approach, beauty, confidence, creative/romantic beginnings, initiating relationships, flirty mannerisms, presence, individuality, and/or how passionate you appear

2h

money you spend on looks, how much effort you put into your appearance, possessions you adore, self-worth/self-love, romantic values, emotional security/insecurity, romantic stability, gift giving/receiving, and/or romantic resources

3h

romantic communication, attractiveness of your speaking voice, what people enjoy about your voice, the creative mind, romantic thoughts, creative perception, opinions on fashion/beauty/love, romantic interests, romantic gossip, romance/smutty literature, appearances on social media, phone calls with romantic interests, visits with romantic suitors, and/or dates

4h

aesthetic of your home, how your family effects your relationships (particularly maternal figure), harmony your inner child seeks in connections, romantic emotions, self-care/self-love, and/or how where you live effects your relationships/appearance

5h

thoughts on children, childishness in romance relationships, pettiness, creative talent, romantic drama, romantic risk-taking, how you react to attention from others, short-term romantic relationships, creative hobbies, romantic pleasures, what suitors bring you, romantic get aways, and/or romantic joy

6h

romantic/creative routine, acts of services, physical effort made to make your body appear as it does, your romantic duties, self-improvement, romantic/creative consistency, hygiene habits, beauty routine, romantic innocence, and/or how your diet effects your appearance

7h

long-term romantic relationships, marriage/partnership, attraction to others, attractiveness to others, ability to charm others, romantic conflicts, marital/nda/pre-nuptial contracts, romantic affairs, those who openly show they are jealous of you, and/or romantic equality

8h

physical transformation, aesthetic/wardrobe transformation, how close you get to others, romantic changes, shared finances between spouses, foreplay/seduction, intimacy you have with another person, secret relationships, romantic mysteries, and/or romantic trauma

9h

romantic wisdom, romantic beliefs/philosophy, perspective in romances / creative works, love languages, how your in-laws see you, romantic ethics, entertainment media/television/interviews, and/or education involving love/creation/aesthetics/appearance/fashion

10h

how the public sees you, relationship status, romantic reputation, creative fame, appearance goals, romantic/creative mission, romantic expertise, and/or romantic/creative achievements

11h

friends to lovers, romantic desires, uniqueness of internal beauty, social awareness in terms of collective beauty, influence you have over fashion and beauty, romantic/creative manifestations, wishes for romance, romantic ideals, debutants, romantic companions, artistic clubs/organizations, and/or costume parties

12h

healing from past romantic connections, hidden desires, romantic karma, beauty sleep, how your appearance/romances effect mental health, solitude/isolation from others, people who are secretly jealous of you, illusions of joy/pleasure, romantic fears, romantic endings, escapism via romance or art, romantic/creative self-sabotage, how past romances effect present/future ones, romantic delays, and/or romantic restrictions

have ideas for new content? please use my “suggest a post topic” button! 

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© a-d-nox 2024 all rights reserved

[ckret2]

Chapter 31 of human Bill grudgingly enduring being the Pines' prisoner because the Henchmaniacs won't take his call: Summerween night! Everyone gets ridiculous costumes!

The Summerween Trickster's buddies are attempting to resurrect him. Robbie's making a music video. Bill's attempting to woo Ford back into friendship, to terrify Dipper with cursed knowledge, and to recover his dignity from THE most gentle chastising imaginable, and he only succeeds in 1 out of 3 of these endeavors:

It's not this one. He's just gotta process these emotions while wearing that stupid wig.

####

Soos was putting the final touches on his cosplay (the suave and mysterious Masked Guy In A Suit, love interest of the heroine from the classic anime Teenage Planetary Soldier Girls) when he heard the phone ring in the office. "Hold on, I'll get it!" He hurried downstairs, ducked under a construction paper chain Mabel had strung over the door, picked up the phone, and said, "Hello?"

A mysterious voice droned, "The sun sets a deep blood red."

"Oh, no thanks, we don't want any." Soos hung up, sighed happily, and said, "Ah, Summerween. Always brings out the weirdos."

"Hey Soos!" Mabel ducked into the doorway. "Where's the candy bowl?"

"Oh, hey Hambone. It's in my bedroom." He put on a stage whisper. "I put it in there so Bill couldn't steal it."

"Thanks Soos!" She ran upstairs.

Dipper and Bill waited downstairs, the tension thick between them (on Dipper's side, anyway; Bill—watching a black-and-white horror movie, sipping at a can of cider, and brooding over going to voicemail—didn't notice). Dipper was waiting by the door in a folding chair; but he kept glancing toward Bill in the living room. When the silence got too much to bear, he asked, "Okay, what are you dressed as?"

Bill was wearing a brown bedsheet toga (the most historically-accurate part of his costume); a cheap wig of a teased mullet that had ended up mostly red with yellow streaks, forming a plume of hair right over his head and then a long straight tail he'd draped over his shoulder; and a bunch of paper faux-Greek homes taped all around the hem of his toga, forming a ring around his calves.

"And are those my sandals?" Dipper asked.

"Take it up with Mabel, she loaned them on your behalf," Bill said. "I'm not telling my costume. You have to guess it."

"Seriously?" Dipper sighed. It had to be a god, gods towered over their mortals' temples. What god would wear brown? "I don't know—Demeter?"

"What? No. Do I seem like the Demeter type? Pathetic." Bill waved off his guess. As Mabel ran downstairs, Bill said, "Hey, Shooting Star, you haven't made your official guess yet."

Without hesitation, Mabel said, "A time-traveling hair metal singer touring the Roman Empire and trying to find a way home before his hair dye runs out."

"Wrong, but I would love to live in the world you've dreamed up." He meandered into the entryway to join Mabel as she plopped down in the second chair by the door.

Dipper screwed up his face. "Are you helping us answer the door?"

"No, you're helping me answer the door. I'm cursed, remember?" Bill leaned over Mabel's shoulder, dug into the candy bowl, and popped a lollipop in his mouth. "But you're not getting rid of me, if that's what you're asking."

Soos headed to the door, cape billowing dramatically behind him. "Hey dudes. Hey Bill." He paused in the door, studying Bill. "Hey! Is that a Bobo the Uncouth Berserker cosplay?"

Bill blinked. "Who?"

"Bobo the Uncouth Berserker! You've gotta read Bobo. He's this primitive hero descended from lost Lemuria who goes on daring adventures through the lush impenetrable jungles of Central Europe. He's got this comic that was so popular it spawned an anime, which got an American movie adaptation, which formed the basis of a second comic continuity that isn't as critically acclaimed as the original but has drawn in a lot of new fans... and..." Soos petered out. "You're not Bobo, are you."

Bill shook his head. "Thanks for playing."

"Aw." Soos's shoulders slumped. "Anyway—me and Melody are gonna be at the cosplay contest at the theater. I'll keep my phone on in case of monsters."

"We'll be fine!" Mabel said. "Go have fun!"

"You too!" With a dramatic flourish of his cape, Soos disappeared into the night.

Bill watched Soos go enviously. He could have been given a human body that looked that good in a suit and top hat, but was he? No. It wasn't fair. And Soos didn't even wear the right hat size.

Dipper glanced sideways at Bill. "Hey. Is... Lemuria real?"

"Not anymore." Bill perked up as Stan passed by, dressed like Frankenstein's monster. "Hey, Stanley! You haven't guessed yet. What am I?"

Stan surveyed him. "White columned buildings, Statue of Liberty dress, and a red clown wig. I dunno, the American government?"

Bill squawked in laughter. "That's my favorite wrong answer so far. I like you, Stanley." He fished a chocolate bar out of the bowl and held it out.

Stan grunted in disapproval, but accepted the candy. "If any of you need me, I'm gonna be up on the roof, terrifying kids." He held up a boombox and a cassette that said "Spooky Sound Effects of Halloween". "If you hear screaming children, don't worry: that means I'm winning."

"Where's your brother?" Bill asked.

"Avoiding you." Stan passed through the living room and left.

Bill's shoulders slumped; but he just dug into the candy bowl for more chocolate. Then the first trick-or-treater knocked on the door, and Dipper jumped up in relief to answer it.

The shack didn't attract quite as many trick-or-treaters as the houses closer to the center of town, but they got a steady stream of children, and more than they'd gotten the year before. Between visitors, Bill dug into their candy stock, gleefully ignoring Dipper's complaints. After the fourth or fifth visitor, Dipper and Mabel realized that Bill was covering up the amount of candy he'd pilfered by meticulously re-folding the empty wrappers and putting them back in the bowl.

"It's fair play," Bill said. He untwisted one end of a Twisty Roll tube, squeezed out the candy, blew into the wrapper to re-inflate it, and twisted the end shut again. "The kids are trick-or-treating, right? Sometimes they get treats and sometimes they get tricks."

"Come on, seriously?" Dipper said. "Even for you this is low. You're literally taking candy from babies."

"The babies are trying to take candy from us. I have no sympathy." With the precision of an origami master, Bill refolded a paper fruit chew wrapper into a box and dropped it back into the bowl.

"They're supposed to take candy from us, that's how the holiday works." Dipper looked at Mabel for support.

But she was holding up an empty 3 Fencers wrapper and squeezing it lightly between her fingers. "Wow. How did you make the wrapper puffy again? It's so convincing."

Bill shot Dipper a nasty smile, then turned to Mabel and said magnanimously, "I'll teach you everything I know." He twirled a glue stick between his fingers.

Another trick-or-treater knocked, and Dipper answered.

"Trick or treat! Please give us the worst candy you have."

Mabel blinked, leaning around Dipper to see who was outside. "Wait, what?"

Outside stood a purple-furred monster with a dozen limbs from a dozen different creatures. He gasped in surprise. "Ohhh, twin costumes! That's so cute! What are you two, haunted dolls?"

Dipper took a surprised step back. "Limby Jimmy?"

The monster was silent a moment, taken aback. He took off a bear mask he'd made out of a paper plate. "Is it that obvious?"

Mabel asked, "Have we...?"

Dipper said, "Oh! Sorry—Mabel, this is Limby Jimmy, I ran into him last year in the Crawlspace under town when I was trying to get your face back—"

Helpfully, Bill threw in, "He's Gravity Falls' most accomplished arms dealer. And legs dealer, and tails dealer, and ears dealer..."

"Limby, this is my sister Mabel. Actually, I don't know if I ever introduced myself—"

Limby Jimmy cut in, "Ohhh, yeah, I remember you! You're Troll Boy, right?"

Dipper winced. "It's—it's Dipper, actually." He paused. "Wow. We meet a lot of weird people."

"Nice to meet you, Jimmy!" Mabel held out a hand. After a moment of thought, Jimmy elected to shake it with a tentacle and a dog's paw.

"What are you doing up here?" Dipper asked. "Is Summerween the one night of the year that Gravity Falls' monsters can walk among humans without fear?"

"Oh no, I'm terrified. I wouldn't be out here if I wasn't collecting donations," Jimmy said.

"Donations?"

Jimmy hesitated, then lowered his voice. "You've been in the Crawlspace, so, you and your sister are cool, but is the lady...?" He wiggled a hoof toward Bill.

Coolly, Bill said, "I'm actually an ancient interdimensional energy being cursed to wear a human form."

Dipper and Mabel flinched in alarm and rounded on Bill, hissing, "Bill!" "Shhh!"

Ignoring them, Bill said, "So, continue."

"Oh," Jimmy said brightly. "That's all right then, yuk yuk." He wiggled his multitude of right arms. "I don't know if you humans have heard yet, but the Summerween Trickster got eaten to death last summer! It's really sad!"

Dipper and Mabel, who had watched as he was eaten to death, stayed quiet.

"But probably happy for him?" Jimmy mused. "Since I think that's what he wanted? But it's sad for the rest of his poker group, we all miss him! So I'm out here with Doug—"

"Who?" Dipper asked, looking around the porch for a second monster.

"Oh, he's back there." Jimmy pointed toward a tree at the edge of the clearing around the Mystery Shack. The tree chittered unnervingly. "We're going around collecting donations to resurrect the Trickster! Or... re-summon him? Or however this works. We never really asked him how he came to exist, it seemed rude."

"Naturally," Bill said. "You can't just ask a freak what made him so freaky. It's a sensitive topic."

"Right! You understand," Jimmy said. "Anyway, we need a lot of crappy candy!" He looked at their bowl. "Which pieces have the kids been ignoring this year?"

Mabel had started bouncing on the balls of her dusty Victorian ghost shoes; and the moment she had a turn to speak, she squealed in excitement. "You're the Summerween Trickster's friend! That's perfect! Stay here, I'll be right back!" She shoved the candy bowl into Bill's arms and zoomed up the stairs. "I've got some stuff for him!"

Bill looked at the bowl, looked at the stairs, shoved the candy in Dipper's arms, and followed Mabel. "Hey, Shooting Star? What are you doing?"

Her voice drifted down the stairs: "Getting a donation! I'll be just a minute!"

"Hold on, you're actually helping that guy?" Bill laughed. "Why?" He climbed high enough to poke his head above the attic floor  and lowered his voice so Jimmy couldn't hear. "I wasn't paying that much attention last Summerween, but I got the impression from your little costume store brawl that the Trickster was trying to kill you kids. Am I missing something?"

"I mean, yeah, he was—but he was in a really bad place back then, that doesn't mean he deserves to be dead for it. And now he knows someone out there wants to eat him, so maybe he'll be less insecure and evil." Mabel laughed, "Anyway, the Trickster isn't that bad! He didn't try to kill me half as hard as you did!"

Bill froze a couple of steps from the top of the stairs. He didn't move for a few seconds; and then wordlessly, he slunk back downstairs.

Dipper watched as Bill, face beet red, trudged into the living room. "Hey. What's Mabel...?"

"How should I know." Bill curled up on the couch, picked up the can of cider he'd been drinking earlier, shotgunned it, and glowered at the horror movie on TV.

Dipper considered Bill—all alone in the living room and not doing anything important—and considered Mabel, upstairs; and said, "Hey, Jimmy. Do you mind waiting out here until Mabel gets back."

"Sure! I don't have any plans." Jimmy rocked back on his many heels.

"Cool. Thanks." Dipper shut the door.

He sidled oh so very casually into the living room and leaned against the TV. "Guess it's just the two of us right now."

Bill's gaze didn't waver from the TV. "Terrific counting skills, Troll Boy." He popped open another cider can.

Dipper grit his teeth. Let it go. "Sooo! You're from the second dimension, huh? What's that like?" (His voice cracked embarrassingly on "that.") "Just—just curious. Making friendly conversation. Caaasual conversation." He flashed a pair of finger guns at Bill, to underscore just how casual he was. "Yyyep." Witness the junior paranormal investigator in action.

Bill turned the cold, empty eyes of a killer on Dipper. He took a long, slow sip from his cider. And he asked himself: what can I say that will make this stupid boy regret ever daring to speak to me?

Bill smiled. "Yeah. Sure. Okay," he said. "You wanna know what it's like? Have you ever read the Allegory of the Cave?"

Dipper hesitated. "By... Plato?"

"That one. You know—ignorance is like being a prisoner chained in a cave, watching shadow puppets being cast on a wall, and thinking they're reality; and having knowledge is like being outside the cave in the sunlight, seeing the real shapes that are casting the shadows—"

"I have read it, actually," Dipper said, a tad defensively. "It was for extra credit in—"

"English class, I know."

Dipper frowned; but he soldiered on. "So... living in the second dimension is like being chained in a cave, staring at the shadows on the wall, and thinking that's reality? Bleak."

Bill laughed so loudly that Dipper started. "Wow, you're so dumb! Use your brain, kid: it's the second dimension. You're not the prisoner: you're the shadow on the wall." Bill's lip curled in a sneer, "An illusion in somebody else's allegory. And the only one who can see the cave's exit... is you. That's what the second dimension is like!" He laughed again. It sounded forced.

"Oh," Dipper mumbled. He tried to wrap his head around the idea of being a living metaphor for ignorance. "Sounds... pretty bad?"

"Awful," Bill agreed. "Doesn't hold a candle to what your dimension has going on, though."

"Wh... why, what's going on in the third dimension?"

Bill gave him a malicious smile, and Dipper had the sinking feeling he'd just walked into an obvious trap. "You idiot, you still think you're in the third dimension? Really?"

Was that a trick question? What answer was Bill looking for? What could this be if not the third dimension? "Nnooo?"

"Wow. I can really see why you're a straight-A's honors student," Bill said. "You're so good at figuring out what answer the test wants and regurgitating it—even if you don't actually understand it at all." He heaved himself back to his feet; and Dipper was sure there was something threatening in the movement—something that reminded Dipper that he was talking to a dangerously unstable extinction level event precariously packed into an unsteady human body. "Although copying the year of the Louisiana Purchase off of Brandon's test in fifth grade  probably didn't hurt, did it."

Dipper's stomach dropped. The secret shame buried beneath the foundation of his honors roll-worthy record. Pull that out and his entire academic career came toppling down. He'd get kicked out of the honors classes. He'd go to jail. Was cheating against the law? "H... how did��?"

"What year was the Louisiana Purchase?"

Dipper's brain immediately went blank. He was silent, trapped in the paralyzing intensity of Bill's gaze. After several terrifying seconds, he croaked, "1803?" and hoped he was right.

"Attaboy. Too bad you couldn't have learned that a little sooner, isn't it?" As he spoke, Bill had closed in on Dipper until he'd backed him into the corner behind the TV set, filling Dipper's exit route with one hand on the TV and the other on the wall. "But we were talking about dimensions, weren't we! Whaddaya like to read, kid," Bill asked too casually, "do you like cosmic horror? Do you know what real 'cosmic horror' is?"

Dipper regretted this conversation completely.

"It's having an eyeball on the inside of your body, and seeing another dimension through it. And ohoho, I think you'd be amazed at the things I can see from here—"

Dipper got the distinct impression that if he didn't get out of this conversation, he would only hear things he'd be telling his therapist about for months. "Cool! Good talk, man. Hey Mabel?" (That was an absolutely humiliating voice crack.) "How's it going?"

A pause. "I think I need help!"

"Coming!" Dipper ran behind the TV to escape Bill and gratefully bolted upstairs.

The kid had caved so fast. And Bill had only just been getting started. He smirked, sat, and turned back to the movie.

A moment later, Mabel and Dipper came back downstairs, carrying four bulging plastic grocery bags. Mabel set one by her feet, opened the door, and shoved the first bag into Jimmy's arms. "Here! You can give these to the Trickster!" She shoved over the second bag.

Jimmy stumbled back under the weight. "Whoa there! What is this?"

"Candy chalk-hearts! I completely bought out the leftovers after Valentine's Day," Mabel said. "I wanted to make sure that if we met the Trickster again, I could let him know he's loved and appreciated as the terrifying avatar of spooky holiday spirit that he is! And that I also respect that he's made out of gross candy nobody likes to eat." She picked up a chalk-heart box and waved it in Jimmy's face. "So here's a gross candy that expresses love! See, the little hearts say things like 'You smell nice' and 'I heart ur face,' but they taste like if dehydration was a flavor."

Dipper handed his bags to Jimmy. "Wait—Mabel, that's why you got all these? You've been planning to help the Trickster since February? I thought you were gonna build a chalk-heart house or something."

"Oooh, that's such a good idea. I should do that next year!" To Jimmy, she said, "I was gonna give these to him personally, but if he's still dead, I guess you can add it to his candy sacrifice pile or whatever? And make sure he gets this!" She handed Jimmy a store bought Shimmery Twinkleheart Valentine's card. It read, "I BELIEVE in our friendship! Happy Valentine's Day!" Mabel had scratched out "Valentine's" and written "Summerween".

Choked up, Jimmy said, "Oh—wow. That's the nicest thing anyone's done for us all night. I'm sure the Trickster will really appreciate it when he's not dead anymore."

Dipper was a little more vengeful. Dipper didn't want to do anything for one of the many guys that had tried to kill them last year. But, on the other hand, Mabel had just gone all in on this, and Jimmy seemed nice enough, so... Dipper sighed. Whatever, it was Summerween and this was a trick-or-treater. "Hey," he picked up the candy bowl. "There's really only one bag of good candy in here. The bottom of the bowl is filled with after-dinner mints our great uncle's been stealing from restaurants for the last six months. The Trickster would probably love that, right?"

"Aww—thanks so much, you guys! We'll have the poker group back together in no time!" Jimmy dug past the good candy and started scooping mints into his bag. "Oh—since I'm here, can I ask about our other poker buddy? Do either of you know Mr. What's-His-Face? He disappeared around the time you were visiting the Crawlspace, maybe one of you saw something? Any information would be helpful." Jimmy looked at them with weird, plus-shaped, but very hopeful eyes. "Between the Trickster's death and Whatsis disappearing, the local paranormal community's been hit hard. Especially us guys in their friend group. I'm—I'm not gonna lie," Jimmy heaved a sigh, "It's been a really hard year."

Dipper and Mabel, who were directly and personally at fault for Mr. What's-His-Face's disappearance and knew he was frozen in stasis in Ford's bunker at that very moment, exchanged a look and came to a silent agreement.

"Nope, don't know anything," Mabel said.

"Sorry, buddy," Dipper said.

Like the Summerween Trickster, Mr. What's-His-Face was a weird faceless shapeshifty monster that had tried to kill them. But they felt like that was where the similarities ended.

By the time of the Trickster's death, Mabel and Dipper had realized that his deepest inner longing was to be called good enough to eat. Mr. What's-His-Face's deepest inner longing was to steal innocent people's faces. If Mabel and Dipper helped resurrect the Trickster, he'd probably go back to ensuring everyone displayed sufficient holiday spirit, while hopefully mellowing out about eating people now that he'd been consumed once. On the other hand, if Mabel and Dipper helped free Mr. What's-His-Face, he'd probably just keep stealing faces.

And on top of all that, they could help resurrect the Trickster without admitting they knew the guy who ate him. They couldn't really lead Jimmy to Mr. What's-His-Face without admitting their great uncle was keeping him captive. And that would be a problem for the whole family.

"Oh," Jimmy said. "Okay, that's fine. Thanks for all your help. You know where to reach us if you hear anything."

Mabel shook her head. Dipper nodded. "Yeah, we'll let you know."

Jimmy hopped off the porch, shouted, "Hey Doug, can you help me carry these?" and chucked a couple of bags of chalk-hearts toward the tree line. Dipper and Mabel stared. Nothing emerged to pick the bags up.

They shut the door.

"Man," Dipper said. "We kinda devastated the paranormal poker group last summer, didn't we?"

"Yeah." Mabel sucked in a breath between her teeth. "Wow. Feels... kinda bad."

Dipper offered her the candy bowl. "Drown our feelings in chocolate?"

"Please."

They grabbed a piece of candy each, tore open the wrappers—and frowned. Mabel stomped a foot. "Dang it—Bill!"

"Hm?"

"How many of these wrappers are empty?!"

Bill poked his head out of the living room and said, smugly, "Like candy from a baby!"

####

A knock, and Dipper opened the door. "Wendy! Hey! Good timing—"

"Hey." Wendy lowered her voice. "Quick question—this is super important—is Goldie here?"

"Uh—yeah, why—?"

"Yello?" Bill carefully wove his way out of the living room, already less steady on his feet than when he'd sat down. "I heard my name, who's summoning me?"

Wendy pointed over the twins at Bill and turned to shout into the dark, "Ladies and gentlemen! I present to you! Live and in person... Toga Lady!"

A half dozen teenagers immediately went bananas. Hooting and hollering and cheering and whistling: "To-ga! To-ga! To-ga!"

Bill's entire face lit up. Without missing a beat, he pushed past the baffled twins out onto the porch and spread his arms wide, basking in the cheering. "That's right, keep it coming! Worship me! I'm the greatest!"

"Yes!" Robbie pumped a fist in the air. "The legends were true!" Nate immediately added, "The prophecy! The prophecy!" Tambry snapped photos of Toga Lady's fresh look as fast as her phone could save them, muttering, "Everyone's gonna flip when they find out you're still in town."

Wendy waited, grinning, until her friends' faux hysterics had died down. "Okay—okay, after getting you hyped up, I should probably say that Toga Lady is actually Toga Guy." She glanced questioningly at Bill. "I think?"

"Eh, I'm not picky."

"Anyway this is Goldie, he was stuck in another dimension for thirty years, it's crazy, and now he's like my illegal backup cashier. He actually... doesn't usually wear togas?"

Bill laughed. "If you can't wear a bedsheet on Summerween, when can you?"

Lee said, "Thompson wore a bedsheet to homecoming."

"Hey."

Bill pointed at Thompson. "A man of impeccable fashion! I like it!" Thompson gave him a look of eternal gratitude.

"And Goldie, this is the gang! That's Thompson, he's the guy with the van; Robbie and Tambry, they're like, gender-swapped versions of each other, they even share their hair dye..."

As Wendy did introductions, Mabel whispered to Dipper, "Did you know she was gonna introduce Goldie to everyone?"

"No! This is bad, I told her not to trust him..."

Bill was responding to a question, "No, no, you've gotta guess, I'm making everyone guess!"

The teens considered the question. Robbie offered first, "Punk caveman?"

"Nope!"

Hesitantly, Thompson tried, "Nero fiddling over the burning of Rome?" He winced when Lee laughed.

"I like where your head's at, but no! I can't fiddle."

"The gremlin king from Huge Maze?" Tambry said.

Mabel piped up, "No, but the wig came from a gremlin king costume and I appreciate you for recognizing that!" Tambry nodded in cool approval.

Bill dispensed of Lee, Nate, and Wendy's guesses—Greek Christmas tree, that one guy who keeps painting burning banks, and hair metal Hades—before Robbie loudly cleared his throat to cut in. "Anyway, would love to stay and chat, but we've gotta move if we wanna be in position before sunset. Dipper, Mabel, you ready?"

"Ready to ghost it up!" Mabel said, squeezing around Bill with Dipper onto the porch.

Robbie surveyed their makeup—deathly white skin, ashen grey lips, and dark circles around their eye sockets. "Yeah, that's pretty good. Could use a little color, maybe. Like bloody tears?" He turned toward Tambry.

She said, "I think I've got some red eyeliner."

"'In position'?" Bill asked, giving Dipper and Mabel a questioning look.

Wendy said, "We're helping Robbie film this music video tonight."

"We're the creepy ghost twins!" Mabel announced proudly. "We get to sing the chorus."

Robbie said, "Yeah, the song's about childhood and growing up, but like, with ghosts? Because once you've grown up, your childhood is all dead? It's metal, but introspective. I'm calling the genre 'intrometal.'" He flipped his bangs dramatically. "It's a super deep song. Metaphorical layers."

"Oh yeah?" Bill stared Robbie down. "Sing some of it."

Robbie blinked. "Oh. Yeah, okay uh, I haven't warmed up my voice but, the hook is like—" He pantomimed playing a guitar and whisper-screamed, "'BABY DOLLS! BASKET BALLS! BASKET CASE! HUMAN RACE!' Like that."

Bill nodded slowly, face expressionless. "Ah, yeah, I see. Really deep stuff. Makes you think."

"Thanks." Robbie looked at Dipper and Mabel. "Anyway, if we're gonna get any footage in the graveyard before the jack-o'-melons start burning out, we've gotta move. Let's go, Creepy Ghost Twins."

"Wait, you're going out?" Bill asked Mabel. "Like out-out? Leaving me here? By myself? On Summerween?"

"Wh—yeah, we're only handing out candy for half the night," Mabel said. "I told you that."

"No you didn't!"

"Yes I did!"

"When?"

Mabel thought. "No I didn't," she admitted. "Sorry!"

Wendy punched Bill's arm. "Sorry to steal them. We'll be back in a couple of hours," she said. "Or you could come help—?"

"No!" Dipper and Mabel both shoved Bill back into the house before he could accept. Dipper said, "You've gotta—guard the house." Mabel added, "And hand out candy!"

"Right," Bill said flatly. "Yes. That. Ha."

"See you later!" Mabel said, and then shut the door in his face.

The last thing he heard was Wendy explaining to her friends, "He's on house arrest for, like, academic plagiarism and war crimes or something..." and then they were gone.

Bill's shoulders slumped. Well, now what? He couldn't celebrate a holiday by himself. What was the point of wearing a costume if no one sees you in it. He picked up a piece of candy, discovered it was one of his decoys, and picked up another. 

Someone knocked on the door.

"Yeah, yeah," Bill sighed. He picked up the candy bowl, turned toward the door, and paused. Ah. Right. What was he supposed to do with this impenetrable portal-blocking slab of wood.

Who was left in the house? Stan on the roof, Ford in the basement, Abuelita probably already in bed... were any of them worth harassing to help him answer the door? Maybe Stan, he'd gotten all dressed up, he liked the holiday even if he didn't like Bill—

The trick-or-treater knocked more insistently.

Or. Or.

He could pick up the bowl, peer out the small window in the door, and make direct eye contact with the children outside while he ate candy.

As a piece of mid-tier chocolate melted on his tongue, he saw three trick-or-treaters' faces fall as their faith in a kind, caring universe died. He grinned at them and ate another chocolate.

Oh yeah. He grabbed the rest of his cider from the living room and set up post next to the door. This would keep him entertained the rest of the night.

####

He made seven small children cry.

####

Stan watched from his post on the roof as yet another sobbing kid ran away from the shack. "HA! Gottem! Sucker!" He affectionately patted his boombox. "Creepy ghoulish laughter, you never disappoint! Terrifying moochers since 1989!" He paused the cassette and rewound it a few seconds to replay the best part.

He heard a scraping sound above him, and looked up just in time to see Ford sliding down the roof to join him. "Oh, hey! I didn't think we'd see you again tonight."

"Mabel made me promise to celebrate Summerween a little."

"Good for her!"

Stan had already claimed the sun lounger, so Ford brushed some dust and leaves off the roof's cooler and sat. "So, what are we doing? Scaring trick-or-treaters?"

"Yep. This year I'm taking a more atmospheric approach." He gestured at his boombox, which by now was playing haunting organ music. "Nothing like screaming zombies and rattling chains from nowhere to freak out the kids."

Ford nodded. "Psychological torment. I approve."

"Not quite as good as getting to see the terror in their eyes, but." Stan shrugged. "Bill was hanging out with the kids. I didn't want to put up with him."

"Mm. There's a reason I was spending the holiday in the basement."

"Heh. Well, there's always Halloween."

They were silent for a moment, listening as the cassette moved on from organ music to werewolf howls. Stan asked, "Think we'll be rid of him by then? I know we were hoping to be done with him before the Fourth of July—but since I haven't heard anything lately, I figure you hit a roadblock."

Ford winced. "Guilty as charged." He was still relearning how to keep other people in the loop. Even Stan. "You're right. I have a weapon that can destroy him, but I can't find a fuel source without restarting the portal. I'm hoping Fiddleford will come up with a solution I haven't."

Stan nodded. Ford had told him he was getting Fiddleford involved; even as reluctant as Ford was to admit how little progress he'd made, he wasn't going to tell someone outside the family about Bill without letting Stan know. "Any breakthroughs on his end?"

####

During the credits between episodes of the retired samurai period drama (most recently, the samurai had been asked to use his sword to help cut flowers for a bouquet), Fiddleford leaned over and whispered to Ford, "So I've been a-lookin' at those blueprints you left me."

"And...?"

"And I've constructicated a power adaptor. Just jimmy out the fuel tank, swap it for the adaptor's cord, and you can power that weapon by pluggin' it into the wall! It'll just drain all the power from the town for a few seconds, that's all."

"Fiddleford, that's amazing—"

"Now, hold on. There's bad news," Fiddleford said. "Try as I might, I can't quite get it to draw enough power to activate those energy-destroying features what you'd need to disintegrate Bill. It'll work like a powerful laser, but nothin' else."

Ford sighed. "It's a starting point, I suppose."

"I'll send you home with the adaptor anyway. Never know when you'll need a big laser."

"Very true. Do you have any promising leads on other alternative fuels?"

Fiddleford shook his head. "It's the NowUSeeitNowUDontium or nothing. But I've got a hunch we could synthesize it under lab conditions. I'll letcha know in a few days."

And then the next episode started, and they dropped the conversation.

####

Ford let out a heavy sigh. "He's only had a partial success so far. But I'm hopeful he's on the right track."

"So, if he's working on this weapon, what are you doing?"

"Waiting, mostly. I don't know what else I can do."

Stan frowned. "What—that's it? You've been downstairs all day every day—if you're not figuring out how to destroy him, what are you doing?"

"Passing time somewhere I can be on call if he gets up to something—but I don't have to look at him," Ford said wryly. "And—as long as I'm waiting to hear back from Fiddleford, I've been... picking apart that list of spells Bill gave me. To see if any of them are tricks or traps."

Stan couldn't say he was surprised. That was his workaholic brother. A pamphlet of demon magic was like catnip to him. If anything, Stan was almost glad Ford had that letter to distract him. Over the past year...

Well, Ford was fine on land—when he temporarily had a mystery to solve, an adventure to pursue, an anomaly to study, a distraction to fill his time—but at sea, when his mind was unoccupied, he was listless. He had books he didn't read, field notes he didn't enter into his journal, games he didn't play. He fed himself and exercised and did chores around the ship like a robot programmed to take care of itself, and he stared out at the sea.

Last summer, Ford hadn't seemed happy but he'd seemed alive. Tired and angry, but alive. But after Weirdmageddon, a light in his eyes went out. Stan didn't know if it was the end of summer, or guilt over the memory gun, or the gap between finishing a thirty-year-long quest and discovering the next one. All Stan knew was the light hadn't come back on until the moment Bill Cipher, clad in a new body and a purple cartoon bedsheet, tried to cave Ford's skull in.

Ever since they were children, Ford had had a tendency to develop obsessions. It was somehow simultaneously both what made him most interesting and what made him boring. Depended on the obsession. But these all-consuming interests had always tended to last a few months, at most a year; and he'd never seemed to be without one, much less for nine months. Stan had no idea what carrying a single obsession for three decades might have done to Ford's mind.

Stan was glad something had woken Ford back up, and he worried that losing that focal point again might leave Ford permanently adrift. But another part of him worried that, this time, Ford wouldn't let the object of his obsession go. He tended to collect things related to his obsessions.

But then, he usually tended to like his obsessions. He hadn't seemed bothered to burn the contents of his creepy Bill shrine last summer. Ford wouldn't do anything stupid, Stan told himself. Ford hated Bill. "So? Were any of the spells traps?"

"Not... so far, no." Ford sounded irritated by this.

Stan shrugged. "Makes sense. He's trying to butter us up. If that idiot thinks being nice to us for a week or two is gonna make up for the years of grief he's given us—"

A loud rattle-clattering below made them both start. Stan sat bolt upright. "What the—?"

Ford inched to the edge of the dormer roof, knelt down, and leaned over the edge just far enough to see the window.

Bill's face was pressed to the glass, eye rolled up toward the roofline. He grinned in surprised delight and shouted through the glass, "HEY, STANFORD! What are you doing up here?! I thought you were downstairs!"

"Ugh." Ford turned to grimace at Stan. "Speak of the devil."

Bill pounded on the glass again. "Hey, Sixer! SIXER! Open the window!"

"Why?"

"I wanna talk!"

"No."

"Come ooon, the kids ditched me and I'm bored! There's no one in the house to talk to! The old lady's asleep and Stanley's on the roof, so—" He abruptly fell silent, squinting with deep suspicion at Ford-who-should-be-in-the-basement kneeling on the-roof-where-Stan-should-be, and said, "Wait. Are you Stanley right now? Show me your hand."

Ford did not. "Go away, Bill." He left the edge of the roof for his cooler seat.

"Get back here!" The pounding redoubled. "I don't care which Stan you are! If you don't wanna talk, I can always go wake up Dolores!"

Ford looked at Stan. "Mrs. Ramirez's name is Dolores?" He had gotten used to everyone calling her Abuelita.

Stan stomped on the roof, "Shaddup!"

Bill did not shaddup. "Come ooon!"

Stan sighed in defeat and heaved himself to his feet. "If he keeps that racket up he's gonna break that window, never mind that hex you put on him." When they'd taken out the original Bill-shaped window, Stan had replaced it with the cheapest window he could find. He didn't think it was very durable. "How much trouble can he get in with one open window twenty feet above the ground and both of us watching him?"

Ford Frowned.

"Don't gimme that look. Do you want to pay for a broken window?" Stan flipped through his keys for his key-shaped emergency lock pick, leaned over the edge of the roof, and wedged the pick into the window frame. The latch popped open. Lucky this window was so cheap, that wouldn't have worked on one with deluxe features like "airtight weatherstripping" or "a properly-fitting frame." Stan swung open the window. "Okay, you have our attention. Now what's the fastest way we can get rid of you?"

Bill clumsily climbed out to sit on the windowsill with his legs in the shack, and leaned back so he could see up onto the roof. "Hiya Fo—" He lost his balance, flailed, and yelped as he toppled backwards.

Stan and Ford lunged forward to seize an arm each. Stan snapped, "What are you doing, you maniac?!"

Bill stared up at them both in wide-eyed amazement. "You do like me."

Stan made a noise of disgust, let go, and wiped his hands on his pants like Bill had cooties.

Ford said, "We like you trapped in that body and not free to cause the apocalypse."

"I heard 'we like you'!"

"Shut up." Ford managed to haul Bill back upright. (Touching Bill felt wrong—all soft flesh and skin and the suggestion of bones underneath. Even when looking right at Bill's human body, Ford still expected him to feel like heavy shadows and heatless flames.) From this close, Bill reeked of cider. "Just how much have you had to drink?"

"Not so much I won't remember whatever you say in the morning, so be nice to me!" Bill laughed. He leaned back, this time hanging by one hand off the window frame to precariously maintain his balance, and grinned up at Ford. "So! The least fun person in the house has finally emerged from his lair? And you didn't even come into the house to join in the Summerween festivities! 'All work and no play'..."

Ford had to crouch at the edge of the roof, hovering nearby in case Bill lost his balance again. "I wanted to participate in Summerween, actually. It just so happens that the last person I'd ever spend a holiday with is in the house."

"Listen, Stanford. I know you're holing up in your study for days on end just to hurt me. But let's be honest, you're hurting yourself more! When's the last time you saw the sunlight! Look at how pale you're getting, you look like a vampire."

Stiffly, Ford said, "It's costume makeup. That's my vampire costume." Stan laughed.

"It what." Bill flipped up his eyepatch and squinted blearily at Ford's face.

Wordlessly, Ford bared his teeth to show off his plastic vampire teeth.

"Oh." Somewhat deflated, Bill said, "Nice work, it's convincing."

"Thanks," Ford said grudgingly. Giving in to his curiosity, he gestured toward Bill's (somewhat disheveled) reddish-yellow wig. "What are you."

"Oh!" Bill perked back up. "You've got to see the whole thing. Hold on—" He turned around in the window, ignoring how Ford half reached for him in case he needed steadying, until he got his legs outside to dangle on the roof. "What do you think!"

Ford looked over the brown toga flared out like a cone, the eruption of red hair, the small paper city below, and said, "Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii? Very clever."

Bill's face lit up. "Finally! You're the first person all day to get it!" He smoothed out the skirt proudly, his jerky gestures just a bit more exaggerated than usual. "Do you know how long I've wanted to go to a costume party as Vesuvius? But nobody off Earth would get it! And now that I'm finally here, I can't go to parties and I'm shaped more like a mandrake than a volcano." He flung up his hands, wobbled, and caught himself before Ford had to intervene. "But at least you got it. I knew I could count on you, IQ."

He sounded so sincerely grateful. Ford regretted calling the costume clever. It was, but Bill didn't need the ego boost.

"Oh! By the by—I didn't think you'd emerge before the day was over, so I saved this." Bill fished around in his toga until he retrieved a mini pack of jelly beans. "Here!"

Ford eyed the pack. "Why is it open?"

"Because you only like the weird-shaped jelly beans, so I ate all the normal beans and saved the weird ones in one bag."

"I don't want this. You touched every one of the beans, that would be disgusting even if they weren't coming from you," Ford said. "Anyway, this is a patently transparent attempt to buy your way into my good favor—"

"It sure is, Ford, and if you don't accept it I'll get to be annoying about your ingratitude for weeks! Is that what you want? You know I'll do it. Everyone will be on my side—"

Ford sighed, but snatched the bag from Bill's hand. "Fine. Now drop it."

"That's more like it!" Bill favored Ford with an approving smile. "Anyway, it's just about the only candy left in the house, I ate everything else—hey, have you ever been cross faded on cider and a sugar rush?"

Ford was still trying to decide whether he wanted to engage in this one-sided conversation enough to ask Bill what "cross faded" meant when Bill moved on without him: "It's—not that interesting, actually. 6 out of 10. Anyway, all that's left in the bowl is mints and wrappers. And Mabel even managed to give most of the mints away—hey, she's so nice, did you know she's helping to resurrect the Summerween Trickster?"

She was doing what? "No. Why?"

"She's so nice."

"You just said that."

"What is she so nice for. What's she getting out of it," Bill asked, more to the universe at large than to Ford. "If more humans were half as nice to freaks as she is, your rotten planet wouldn't need people like you and me to save it."

Ford didn't even know where to begin with that. He looked to Stan for help.

Stan was sitting straddling his lounger, elbow on one knee and chin in his hand, watching this exchange like he was watching a weird bug on the wall try to navigate around a picture frame. At Ford's glance, he rolled his eyes and pantomimed sipping from a drink.

He could say that again. Ford cleared his throat. "Bill, maybe you should..."

"Hey," Bill said. "Great talk, we really should catch up more sometime. And pull your weight next time, I always have to do all the talking. But right now, I'm..." He gestured vaguely off to the side. "I'm gonna lie down and try not to throw up. Ciao!" He swayed as he tried to get back in the window, tumbled backward into the shack, and thudded heavily on the floor. "Ow."

Ford gingerly shut the window.

Stan turned up the boombox. "Chatty drunk, isn't he."

"He's chatty sober, too." But in front of the kids? Neither of them saw Bill as a role model, but they still didn't need to be exposed to that kind of behavior. Especially when the responsible adults were outside or asleep... "Did we really leave Bill alone in the house with the kids?"

"W—I—" Stan shrugged defensively. "They were all right! They can take him! They're doing karate or whatever! You didn't see how Mabel flipped him at the mall! It was like David wrestling Goliath."

"David and Goliath didn't wrestle."

"You know what I mean."

Ford supposed he didn't think Bill was any threat to the children. At least, not right now, and not physically. He felt like he'd know if Bill was about to try anything.

He looked at his open bag of gross felt-up jelly beans. Speaking of trying to butter them up... Ford wound up and chucked the bag as hard as he could.

He stared into the dark after it.

A small part of him was beginning to wonder whether this wasn't all just an attempt to get Ford's guard down. The gifts, sure, that was as clear-cut a case of bribery as you could get. Nothing ambiguous there.

But the endless chatter... Back when Ford had called Bill his Muse, this was exactly how he'd wanted Bill to talk to him. Not in the flighty half-distracted way of a friendly businessman catching up on a work project's progress before hurrying on to the next meeting; but just talking for talking's sake, talking for the company.

Getting what he once had longed for made his skin crawl. And he couldn't even tell if Bill was acting.

The boombox let out a ghastly banshee shriek. Ford and Stan both jumped, then laughed awkwardly.

Ford sat on the cooler again. "Is it just me, or... did Bill completely ignore you as soon as he realized I was up here."

"Well. I wasn't gonna mention it. I didn't wanna sound jealous of the attention. But yeah—he's been doing that since he got here. If you're in the room, he tunes everyone else out."

"I thought it was in my head." And he hadn't wanted to sound like he wanted to imagine Bill was favoring him.

"And you do the same thing around him," Stan said, and laughed at Ford's flinch of alarm. "It's—it's fine, I get it. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? You've got some kind of superhero-supervillain nemesis thing."

Ford got the distinct impression that Stan was offering him a convenient excuse for the tunnel vision. He took it. "I suppose that's true." The way his jaw clenched and his shoulders tensed around Bill certainly felt like a "nemesis" reaction.

But if Stan thought Ford was a bit too preoccupied by Bill... well, maybe he was right. Once Ford had gotten over his initial wave of fear, of despair, of outrage at the injustice, at finding Bill was still alive—there was a part of him that was almost relieved. A part of him that had been on guard against nothing for the past year, twisting around looking for an absent threat. Now that it knew where the threat was, that part of him could finally settle down and watch Bill with steady, certain eyes. Having nothing to worry about made him more anxious than having one thing to always worry about.

(Maybe Shermie's kid had been on to something when he suggested Ford might benefit from therapy.)

Knowing Bill was back didn't put the old starlight and awe back in that hole Bill had left in Ford's chest. But dread could fill a hole all the same.

Ford tried to push Bill out of his mind and the conversation. "You think I'm like a superhero?"

"You run around fighting monsters with a space laser. What else would you be?"

"Huh." Well. That made his night.

"Just as long as you don't pull that 'hero spares the villain to show how good he is' shtick."

"Never." Ford laughed ruefully. "I think I left 'good' behind a few felonies back." He'd probably left "good" behind the night he accepted the portal blueprints.

"Couple stragglers," Stan said, nodding out into the dark. It took Ford a moment to spot the costumed kids and remember it was Summerween. "I recognize those costumes, I scared them off an hour ago. What are they doing back?"

Ford squinted at them. "Are those toilet paper rolls?"

"Wh—Hey! What are you little runts— Hey!" Stan leaped to his feet, shaking his fist at the kids below. "Get away from my car! Stop that! I'll have you know that's a classic— No, not the eggs!"

Ford slid out his freeze ray, turned down the power, and offered it to Stan. "Here. At this power and distance, it'll feel like getting pelted with invisible snowballs."

Stan snatched up the weapon. "Eat this, twerps!"

The Summerween night air was filled with the screams of terrified children and the evil laughter of an old man.

####

Wow. It sure sounded like everybody was having fun. Outside. Without him.

Bill was nauseous.

He stared at the spinning ceiling, flat on his back, one leg on a cushion and the rest of him on the floor. 

Bill was nauseous and alone. The loneliness tore at his throat. Even Mabel had ditched him. Of course she did—he'd tried to kill her. He'd barely even remembered he'd tried to kill her until she brought it up. Had he tried to kill her? No, surely not—he liked the kid, he'd always liked her—he'd been faking to force Ford's hand, he never would have gone through with it. He would've teleported her into another room and pretended he'd disintegrated her. She didn't know he hadn't meant it. She was just mad he'd scared her. She couldn't take a joke.

But, Ford talked to him. Ford even liked his costume. It wasn't much, but it would get Bill through the night.

When he saw Kryptos again—when, not if—he was slicing him into a jigsaw puzzle for not taking Bill's call. The nerve of that guy, hanging up on a human without even waiting a few words to see if they had anything interesting to say. 

(What if it hadn't been an accident, he wondered? What if Kryptos had realized it was Bill and still hung up?)

(No. Of course it was an accident.)

He shut his eyes. He was probably too drunk to dream tonight. Well, he could try again tomorrow. His little lucid dreaming guide was currently teaching him to influence the next night's dream by focusing on a topic before sleep. Maybe tomorrow he could dream about the Nightmare Realm.

He missed home.

####

(Congratulations to the approximately 50% of respondents who correctly figured out Bill's costume when I posted the art on Halloween, you're officially smarter than everybody in Gravity Falls except Ford. This is one of those chapters with a whole lot going on so if you enjoyed, I'd love to hear your comments!!)

[elminx]

Energy Update: May 2025

May is a "5" Universal Month [5 (May) + 9 (2025) = 14 = 1+4=5] in a "9" Universal Year. 5 is a conflict number, a turning point away from the comfort and security afforded by the number 4. This doesn't have to be a bad thing; it is merely a sign that the times are changing, which is also evident from the ongoing and intense transits we have been experiencing. We cannot live in the world as we did before the start of 2025; some things have fundamentally changed. We learn, and we adapt.

The Set Up

We begin May with the Sun and Uranus in Taurus, Mercury Venus and Neptune in Aries, Mars in Leo, Jupiter in Gemini, Saturn in Pisces, and Pluto in Aquarius. As of the beginning of the month, all planets are in prograde motion. The big news of the month is that slow-moving Saturn moves into Aries, but the Sun also enters Gemini, and Mercury enters Taurus and then Gemini later in the month. Additionally, Pluto will retrograde.

The Details

All eyes are on Saturn this month, which will be the final planet of the year to enter 00° Aries on 5/22. This is pretty big news bears, as Saturn hasn't been in Aries since 1998, twenty-seven years ago. Otherwise, the planets are functioning as normal for our mid-spring season.

Saturn

Saturn takes top billing this month as it enters Aries, the sign of its fall, for the first time in twenty-seven long years. Happy Saturn Return to all of you babies born between 4/6/96 and 6/8/98! (also 3/3/67-4/29/69)

I know the planetary dignities can be pretty confusing at first, but we say that a planet is in its fall when it is in the opposing sign to its exaltation, in this case, Libra. This implies that the natural energy of the planet (Saturn is slow and constrictive) is out of sync with the energy of the sign (Aries is fast and impulsive). Saturn is not at its best in Aries because it prefers a methodical approach, whereas Aries has zero chill. This impedes Saturn's normal processes; to properly harness Saturnian energy, a workaround must be found.

To understand this energy, we must consider that the nature of Aries and Saturn are nearly irrevocably at odds with one another.

Except for a brief sojourn back into Pisces from 8/31 to 2/13 of next year, Saturn will be in Aries until 4/12/28, so we will all need to adapt to this energy in some way. Aries wants to go and never stop; Saturn wants to restrict and refine, which can be (and generally is) an excruciatingly slow process.

In the best-case scenario, this means moving slowly and methodically, putting one foot in front of the other, and always moving towards a well-defined and thought-through goal.

For those who can't slow down and be accountable for their next steps, this likely means being thwarted at every turn.

Saturn rewards those who are accountable for their own lives, a quality that is often out of alignment with our current fast-paced, short-form culture. Saturn demands that what is worth doing is worth doing right.

There is no fuck around with Saturn; it is all finding out.

As I mentioned above, those born in the late 90s are about to undergo their first Saturn return, and those born in the late 60s are about to undergo their second. This is beyond the scope of this report, but if you'd like me to write more about the Saturn return, I can. What I will say is that it is wise to look at Saturn not just by sign (here Aries) but also by the house it resides in your chart and any aspects that it makes to your other planets. If you work planetary magic, remediation is recommended during this time.

This mantra is for you, Saturn return babies, but it also applies somewhat to all of us who have to live through the next three years of Saturn in Aries (especially anyone with a luminary or personal planet in Aries - look for the dates when Saturn will conjunct your planet NOW ahead of time): I do the work to further my own life.

Really, "I do the work to (insert what you need to here)."

Also, because Saturn is an impossibly hard taskmaster, it's okay not to do the work EVERY DAY. You need sweet, soft times, too. If you weren't at your best today, tomorrow is a brand-new day.

For those of us with a strong Aries presence in our charts, this transit may kick your ass at times. Remember, Saturn has a depressive effect on everything it touches.

Sometimes the work is finding the light in the darkness.

Our Luminaries: The Sun and the Moon

As the Sun moves through Taurus, it sextiles the North Node on 5/14 and conjuncts Uranus on 5/17. It sextiles Saturn on 5/20 and then Neptune on 5/22 after it has entered Gemini. We can view all of this as cleaning house; with no personal planet aspects in sight, this isn't personal. We've been in a period of intense change since early 2020, and, as expected, we are now experiencing the consequences of the last five years.

I would remind those reading this that it isn't personal, so please try not to take it personally. However, I also understand that when you are truly in it, you may not always have a choice in what you take personally.

However, I want to reiterate that what is happening astrologically this month is, overall, not a personal matter. Society is at a tipping point, but we don't yet know how all of this will spin out. We can ruminate over it, and we can catastrophize all we want, but until some of this clears up, there aren't any real actions to be taken or decisions to be made.

It's a challenging situation to be in.

Especially for people who crave action, the doers among us.

It's just where we are. Things are too new. There is a lot of intentional obfuscation and misinformation being circulated, and even those among us who have some insight may notice that things are somewhat obscured at the moment. (I'm looking at Neptune in Aries)

There isn't a lot going on, and things may remain unclear until 5/30 when the Sun conjuncts Mercury in prograde motion at 09° Gemini.

It is what it is. The space soup is murky, but we all still need to live in it.

Our 22° Scorpio Full Moon on 5/12 is a 1/6 Full Moon.

8 (Scorpio moon) + 2 (Taurus Sun) = 10 = 1+0 = 1. 1 (Scorpio full moon) + 5 (May 2025) = 6.

The Sun will be conjunct to Uranus during this lunar event, so expect some shake-ups and possibly some big reveals. It's not a particularly tight conjunction, so I wouldn't say that it's indicative of disasters, particularly. Instead, the Sun will be closely sextile to the North Node, and the Moon to the South, creating an energy akin to that of an eclipse, albeit outside of eclipse season. This heightens magical opportunities of all kinds, but with a hint of wild card energy that many will not enjoy.

Our 06° Gemini New Moon on 5/26 is a 6/2 new moon.

3 (Gemini moon) + 3 (Gemini Sun) = 6. 6 (Gemini new moon) + 5 (May 2025) = 11 = 1+1 = 2.

Note the double "6" energy of our full moon and our new moon. Six energy naturally follows five and tends to bring a sense of balance after the conflict. These lunations may serve as a reprieve within the conflict of our "5" month energy, offering a bit of relief.

The new moon will be loosely conjunct to Mercury in a sextile to Saturn and Neptune in Aries. It's not an excellent day for magic for these reasons. Geminis' carefree energy does not fare much better under Saturn's control than Aries's does.

Altogether, this month looks like a bit of a breather, but still like we may struggle to catch our breath, especially around 5/24-5/25 when Saturn enters Aries and Mercury enters Gemini. If you're looking to do magic this month, I would consider a supportive variety. While we sit in the time in between, we need nourishment and something to calm our nerves more than we need to rush ahead into the unresolved and the unknown.

Mercury

Now that Mercury has exited its post-retrograde shadow, they are moving fast to catch up with the Sun (which they will do on 5/30). In this way, we may all feel like we are playing a game of catch-up this month. And it's not just Mercury, either. Mars was retrograde from December to February, and Venus retrograded through March and April. This is the first month we've had all three personal planets in prograde motion all year long.

Things have been halted for so long that it may take a moment to regain our momentum.

On 5/5, Mercury in Aries sextiles Jupiter in Gemini, which is an opportunity. I'm not sure it's an opportunity I would take, but in all fairness, I am not the gambling type. These are our two planets of luck, but Jupiter is ill-placed in Gemini.

A pattern is starting to form here, one I will discuss over the next couple of months: we are witnessing a buildup of outer planets in the early degrees of the signs. Already, we see Neptune sitting at the beginning of Aries and Uranus at the beginning of Aquarius (roughly sextile to one another). As the moving planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars) change signs, they will begin to interact with this pileup of outerplanetary energy.

When Mercury enters Taurus on 5/10, they form a square to Pluto in Aquarius (and also a wide square to Mars in Leo, technically creating a wide fixed T-square). The Sun does this when it enters Gemini on 5/20, and Mercury will repeat this when it also enters Gemini on 5/25. This is a repeated connection point between the personal and the transpersonal. When repeated elements appear in our skies, we should all start paying attention. I will discuss this further as the year progresses.

Mercury in Taurus squares Mars in Leo on 5/18, which is probably the rough point, from a relational perspective, of the month. NBD most likely, but it smells of mild domestic troubles. Misunderstandings and miscommunications galore lead to fights. Being the person big enough to back down and bend rather than break is always the big flex when there's a fixed square in the skies.

Mercury conjuncts Uranus at 27° Taurus on Saturday, 5/24. Those of you who work with Mercury or have either planet prominently featured in your birth chart may wish to pay attention during this time. If Mercury is the thinking mind, we can see Uranus as the higher octave of Mercury; this is the genius mind—the mind of pure inspiration, the mind of connection to the beyond. I believe that Mercury is the only way that Uranus can be known to us mortals who walk this Earth. It is only through Mercury that Uranus can be understood, and then, only barely.

This is a powerful day to channel, to dream, to connect, and to divine - whatever that means to you.

Venus

Venus will be in Aries all month, sitting by herself in the sign of her exile. This isn't going to make life easier, but it is business as usual as Venus makes her way through every sign every year. Venus rules over Libra, the sign of relationships, and she is petulant and domineering in Libra's Sun Sign Opposite, Aries.

I'd tell you to try to be kind, but I don't think Venus in Aries has any kind left in her.

Again, this isn't particularly personal, even though she is a personal planet. We are all, collectively, out of spoons. Some people are reacting to this by engaging in alarming behavior, and the media is showcasing it on full display.

It is disheartening.

Disheartening might be Venus in Aries' middle name.

One of the deep mysteries of astrology is the cycle. And the expected result. Everything needs its time, and everything comes back around again. The horsocope holds within it all of the good and bad about humanity because it was created by us, for us.

Venus used to be a battle planet, and Aries is a battle sign. Pick your battles wisely, but remember to fight for what you believe in.

Mars

Mars, now in Leo, is way off ahead of the crowd and unaspected for the entire month other than its one square to Mercury in Taurus, which passes quickly. We need to be cautious about being overly egotistical and thinking that our story is more important than others', but otherwise, we don't need to worry about this planet this month.

Pluto

Pluto retrogrades this month, but, as our outermost dwarf planet, it is so far beyond the scope of humanity that this won't be much of a deal for most people. Those with personal planets or luminaries in the first degrees of Aquarius may notice some intensity as this transit happens, but it will pass quickly.

Looking Ahead

June appears to be a bit more intense, astrologically. We've got some significant planetary movement as all of our personal planets change signs: Mercury into Cancer, Venus into Taurus, and Mars into Virgo. Additionally, Jupiter finally moves into Cancer, significantly lightening the load. But, in doing so, it meets up in a cardinal square with Saturn in Aries, yet another hit on this ongoing story in early Aries. Stay tuned!

The details

5/2 - Venus conjunct Neptune 01° Aries, Mars exits its post-retrograde shadow 06° Aries 5/4 - Pluto retrogrades 03° Aquarius 5/5 - Mercury in Aries sextile Jupiter in Gemini 5/6 - Venus in Aries sextile retrograde Pluto in Aquarius 5/10 - Mercury enters Taurus 5/12 - Full Moon 22° Scorpio, Mercury in Taurus square Pluto in Aquarius 5/14 - Sun in Taurus sextile North Node 5/15 - Jupiter in Gemini square the lunar nodes in Pisces/Virgo (mutable t-square) 5/16 - Venus exits her post-retrograde shadow 10° Aries 5/17 - Sun conjunct Uranus 27° Taurus 5/18 - Mercury in Taurus square Mars in Leo 5/20 - Sun enters Gemini, Sun in Taurus sextile Saturn in Pisces 5/22 - Sun in Gemini sextile Neptune in Aries, Venus in Aries trine Mars in Leo 5/23 - Mercury in Taurus sextile North Node in Pisces 5/24 - Sun in Gemini trine retrograde Pluto in Aquarius, Mercury conjunct Uranus 27° Taurus, Saturn enters Aries 5/25 - Mercury enters Gemini, Mercury in Gemini sextile Saturn in Aries 5/26 - New moon 06° Gemini, Mercury in Gemini sextile Neptune in Aries 5/27 - Mercury in Gemini trine retrograde Pluto in Aquarius 5/30 - Sun conjunct Mercury 09° Gemini

Do you like my work? Ko-Fi.

[pubbamoon]

Misconceptions about Astrology

Hello! It's been a while since I posted the last observation here and I kinda miss that time. Since I'm turning more to traditional tropical astrology than before and learning about this topic, I've found out some misconceptions about tropical astrology, specifically made by modern tropical astrologers. Even I used to interpret some astrology placements and now I find some of these interpretations objectively wrong. Which are these misconceptions I'm talking about, you're gonna see in this post. I hope you're gonna learn something new today.

Myth: Houses are connected to the zodiac signs. For example, having planets in the 2nd house is exactly the same as having planets in Taurus.

Fact: Sadly, houses are not connected to any zodiac signs. No, Aries does not rule the 1st house. No, the 6th house is not related to the Virgo sign. No, Aquarius is not connected to the 11th house etc. That is false. Back in June, in one of my first observations, I used to think this way, that houses are somehow related to zodiac signs, but I found out this was the wrong interpretation of placements and I deeply apologize for that. In Hellenistic (traditional tropical) astrology, there's a thing called planetary joys, meaning that every planet has the most joy in a certain house. For example, the Sun has its joy in the 9th house, the Moon has its joy in the 3rd house, Mercury has its joy in the 1st house, Venus has its joy in the 5th house, Mars has its joy in the 6th house, Jupiter has its joy in the 11th house, while Saturn has its joy in the 12th house. All of these planets function very well in these mentioned houses.

Myth: Our natal chart represents our personality, who we are, our purpose, what our soul wants and what we are supposed to do.

Fact: Our natal chart actually represents our whole life and what is possibly going to happen in our life. It's not only about our personality and who we are. There's a common belief that our natal chart is about our own individual path we're meant to take, making us feel more individualistic, special and powerful, which I find very empowering and I appreciate if some people want to take control of their own life and to know more about themself. However, our natal chart also tells us about our father, mother, siblings, cousins, partners, boss, professors, working class, children etc. It is also about both of our fortunate and unfortunate events in our life we cannot fully control. So, if you're struggling to find your suitable partner or to make some money and you think you're the problem here because you're not manifesting enough or something else, maybe it's not that you're the only problem, maybe you're in an environment that is not serving you to get succeed in relationship or in finances. Or something unexpected might happen in your life which may delay your success. Trust me, your life will be much easier when you stop thinking that your natal chart tells you and what you're supposed to do.

Myth: The degrees are also related to zodiac signs. For example, The 10th degree (10°) and 22nd degree (22°) are Capricorn's degrees. 5°, 17° and 29° are Leo's degrees etc.

Fact: That is completely false. Degrees do not work like that in tropical astrology at all. In Hellenistic astrology, we use the terms, mostly the Egyptian terms, to interpret the dignity and condition of planets through the degrees. Let me give you an example! So, If you might have the Sun at 22° of Gemini in your natal chart, that doesn't mean you have the Capricorn's degree or that your natal Sun in Gemini is influenced by Capricorn or Saturn at any point. Actually, your natal Sun at 22° of Gemini is placed in Mars' term (Mars' term in Gemini sign goes from 17°00' of Gemini until 23°59' of Gemini). So, your natal Sun in Gemini is not only influenced by Mercury, your natal Sun in Gemini is also influenced by the planet Mars. I'm gonna post a picture of the Egyptian terms table, so you can see how degrees actually work in tropical astrology.

Myth: Venus in man's chart represents his partner, while Mars in woman's chart represents her partner.

Fact: Venus in both man's and woman's chart represents their partner and which kind of people they might be attracted to. Venus also represents sex, not Mars. The planet Mars represents war, violence, destruction, impulsiveness, which danger shows in our life, taking forced actions we don't want to do etc. Love is supposed to be balanced, harmonized and peaceful, definitely not violent, destructive and dangerous. But that may hit different if you have Mars in the 7th house, or even Mars aspecting Venus (conjunction, opposition or square). Sex is also supposed to be balanced and harmonized. Two people sleep together because they both chose that freely, not because someone forced another partner to have sex. So, Mars cannot represent sex and your partner if you're a female, I'm sorry.

Anyways, I think I said everything I wanted to say about this topis. I hope you enjoyed it and found this observation useful. I only want to help you to interpret astrology placements with accuracy. I wish you all the successful week ahead!

Best regards,

Paky McGee

[magic-astro-fae]

Astrological Vocabulary

Natal Placements - The placement of the sky at the time/ place of birth, where the planets/ signs lie on your birthday

Luminaries - The Sun and Moon are considered luminaries, as they illuminate the sky as well as wherever they lie in the chart

Benefic Planets - Venus and Jupiter are traditionally benefic planets, they bring benefit wherever they are found in the chart

Malefic Planets - Saturn and Mars are traditionally malefic planets, they bring malice wherever they are found in the chart

Angles - The Ascendant, Immum Coeli, Midheaven, Descendant. Determined by where the equator and Prime Meridian is placed at the time of birth. Birth time is needed to determine natal angles

Angular Houses - The houses where the ASC/IC/MC/DSC are found. Typically the 1H/4H/7H/10H but the MC/IC axis may be found in different houses

Personal Planets - Inner planets, Sun/ Moon/ Mercury/ Mars/ Venus/ Saturn/ Jupiter

Generational Placements - Slow moving outer planets, Uranus/ Neptune/ Pluto

Transits - Where the signs and planets are found in the current day/ time in comparison to the natal chart

Progressions - Each planet moves a certain amount of degrees every year, these represent how we grow and change through our lifetime. Typically compared to the natal chart and transits

Composite Chart - The chart of two people representing how their relationship is perceived as a whole, calculated by midpoints

Midpoints - The middle point of two separate placements

(Ex: If ones Sun is found in Leo and another's Sun is found in Aquarius, the midpoint will make for either a Scorpio or Taurus Sun)

Synastry Chart - The comparison of how two chart's placements interact w each other

Masculine Placements - Outward energies, Fire and Air signs

Feminine Placements - Inward energies, Water and Earth signs

Cardinal - Beginnings of the season; Aries (start of spring) Libra (start of fall) Cancer (start of summer) Capricorn (start of winter)

Fixed - Mid season; Taurus (mid spring) Leo (mid Summer) Scorpio (mid fall) Aquarius (mid winter)

Mutable - End of season; Gemini (end of spring) Virgo (end of Summer) Sagittarius (end of fall) Pisces (end of winter)

Planetary Dignities - How 'comfortable' a planet is in a sign, influences how the planet expresses itself in a specific sign

Planetary Rulership - Which planet rules over which sign;

Sun: Leo Moon: Cancer Mercury: Gemini/ Virgo Venus: Taurus/ Libra Mars: Aries/ Scorpio Saturn: Capricorn/ Aquarius Jupiter: Sagittarius/ Pisces

Solar Return Chart - When the Sun returns to the place where it was at birth. The chart casted on the day of your birthday can indicate themes that will be shown for that year

[blessed1neha]

What is Badhaka planet in Vedic astrology? What is its significance?

In Vedic astrology, the term Badhaka (literally meaning "obstacle" or "hindrance") refers to a specific planet that acts as a potential troublemaker or obstructive force in a person's life, depending on the ascendant (Lagna). The concept of the Badhaka planet is primarily related to the principles of Jaimini astrology, and it holds significance for understanding challenges or delays in achieving specific goals.

How Is the Badhaka Planet Determined?

The Badhaka planet is identified based on the ascendant (Lagna) and the classification of houses in a chart:

For Movable Signs (Chara Rashis): Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn

The 11th house lord is the Badhaka planet.

Example: For Aries Lagna, Aquarius is the 11th house, so Saturn becomes the Badhaka planet.

For Fixed Signs (Sthira Rashis): Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius

The 9th house lord is the Badhaka planet.

Example: For Taurus Lagna, Capricorn is the 9th house, so Saturn becomes the Badhaka planet.

For Dual Signs (Dwiswabhava Rashis): Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces

The 7th house lord is the Badhaka planet.

Example: For Gemini Lagna, Sagittarius is the 7th house, so Jupiter becomes the Badhaka planet.

What Does the Badhaka Planet Represent?

The Badhaka planet is considered a source of obstacles, delays, or hindrances in life. Its placement and influence in the natal chart can create challenges in the areas of life it governs. However, it doesn’t always act negatively; under certain conditions, it can lead to growth through challenges or be neutralized by benefic influences.

Obstructions and Delays:

The Badhaka planet might cause delays in achieving success, fulfilling desires, or attaining goals.

Health Issues:

If the Badhaka planet is associated with the 6th, 8th, or 12th houses, it may bring health problems or accidents.

Relationship Challenges:

When linked to the 7th house, the Badhaka planet can cause relationship struggles, misunderstandings, or delayed marriages.

Spiritual Growth:

Obstacles caused by the Badhaka planet often lead to introspection and spiritual development.

Karmic Lessons:

It is often seen as a trigger for karmic lessons that one must face and overcome.

Factors That Modify Its Influence

Benefic Influence:

If the Badhaka planet is aspected by or in conjunction with benefic planets like Jupiter or Venus, its negative effects may reduce significantly.

House Placement:

The Badhaka planet’s influence depends on which house it occupies:

In the 1st, 4th, 7th, or 10th houses, it might create visible struggles.

In the 6th, 8th, or 12th houses, hidden challenges or health issues might arise.

Dasha Periods:

The effects of the Badhaka planet are particularly noticeable during its dasha (planetary period) or antardasha (sub-period).

Strength and Dignity:

If the Badhaka planet is exalted or in its own sign, its negative effects may reduce, and it can act as a source of constructive challenges.

Remedies for Badhaka Planet

Mantras:

Chant mantras associated with the Badhaka planet or its ruling deity.

Example: For Saturn as the Badhaka planet, chant the Shani mantra or the Hanuman Chalisa.

Charity and Donations:

Donate items related to the Badhaka planet on its specific day.

Example: Donate black sesame seeds, iron, or black cloth for Saturn.

Strengthening Lagna Lord:

Strengthening the ascendant lord can reduce the negative impact of the Badhaka planet.

Worship:

Offer prayers to deities associated with the planet. For example:

Worship Lord Shiva for Saturn.

Worship Lord Vishnu for Jupiter.

Gemstones:

Wear gemstones only after consulting a qualified astrologer, as strengthening a Badhaka planet may not always be advisable.

Key Points to Remember

The Badhaka planet does not always bring negative results. Its influence can lead to growth and transformation if handled correctly.

Its effects depend on the overall chart, including aspects, conjunctions, and yogas involving the Badhaka planet.

Challenges caused by the Badhaka planet are meant to teach lessons and lead to spiritual evolution.

By understanding and addressing the Badhaka planet’s influence in the horoscope, one can navigate its challenges effectively and transform obstacles into opportunities for growth.

[panic-point-blank]

🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know

📝Abū Maʿshar al-Balkhī-known in Latin as Albumasar

Born in Balkh (modern Afghanistan) in 787, a former hadith scholar who turned to the stars in midlife.

His Kitāb al-Madkhal al-Kabīr (The Great Introduction) became the bedrock of European astrology when translated into Latin.

He systematized planetary natures, zodiac signs, houses, aspects, and the elements.

His “conjunction theory” argued that history moves in great cycles, marked by rare celestial alignments—especially Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions, which he claimed heralded the rise of prophets and empires.

"All change under heaven is written first in the sky."

📜 Al-Kindi – The Philosopher of the Arabs

A polymath in the Abbasid court, blending Greek philosophy with Islamic theology and celestial theory.

In De Radiis Stellarum (On the Stellar Rays), he proposed a theory of stellar influence—not superstition, but a natural force, like light or magnetism.

He laid early groundwork for what would become natural philosophy (proto-science), suggesting stars transmit influence through rays affecting Earthly matter and human temperament.

🌍 Al-Biruni – The Observer from Khwarezm

Though more astronomer than astrologer, he cataloged astrology in full without ever endorsing its claims outright.

His Kitāb al-Tafhīm contains precise definitions of astrological terms, planetary motions, and how horoscopes are calculated.

A master of cultural synthesis: he compared Greek, Indian, and Persian systems, noting their commonalities and contradictions.

🕊 Abū al-Rayḥān al-Sijzī & Al-Zarqālī – Instruments of the Sky

Developed the astrolabe, armillary spheres, and zij tables—astronomical charts used by astrologers to pinpoint planetary positions with astonishing accuracy.

🪐 PART II: What the Arabs Contributed to Astrology

🧠 1. A Philosophical Foundation

Arabs didn’t just practice astrology—they thought about it. They debated whether the stars compel or merely incline.

Al-Farabi and later Avicenna argued the stars could only affect the body, not the soul—a blend of Neoplatonism and Islamic ethics.

The stars whisper, they do not command.

📊 2. Horoscopic Techniques Refined

Arabs inherited and enhanced horoscopic astrology from the Greeks:

Twelve Houses (Bayūt): Places in the chart signifying career, love, health, death.

Lots (Arabic Parts): Points calculated from planetary positions, like the Lot of Fortune and Lot of Spirit, used to fine-tune predictions.

Triplicities and Dignities: Systems to assess planetary strength.

Interrogations (Horary Astrology): Divining answers to specific questions, such as “Will I marry?” or “Will the king win this war?”

⚔️ 3. Political and Historical Astrology

Astrologers like Abū Maʿshar claimed that world events—plagues, conquests, religious shifts—were written in planetary cycles.

Used to time coronations, launch battles, found cities.

Caliphs would sometimes delay decisions until the astrologers said the heavens were "favorable."

🏥 4. Medical Astrology

Used zodiac signs to diagnose and treat illness—Aries rules the head, Pisces the feet, and so on.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) himself, though skeptical of predictive astrology, used astrological charts for medical diagnoses, especially in fevers and crisis periods.

🌠 PART III: Astrology in Islamic Society

🌗 Religious Debate

The Qur’an warns against claims to know the unseen:

"Say: None in the heavens or on the earth knows the unseen except Allah." (Qur’an 27:65)

So Islamic scholars:

Allowed astronomy (for timekeeping, Qibla direction).

Permitted astrology only if used to understand natural rhythms—not fate.

Condemned fortune-telling or attributing independent power to stars.

Yet astrology persisted—not as dogma, but as courtly art, folk belief, and scientific curiosity.

🕯 PART IV: The Transmission to Europe

Translations of Arabic astrological texts into Latin via Toledo and Sicily reawakened Europe’s interest in the stars.

Terms like zenith, nadir, azimuth, almanac, and even algorithm come from Arabic.

Albumasar, Albohali, Messahala—all Arabic astrologers Latinized into the canon of European learning.

The Renaissance astrologers (like Ficino and Agrippa) drank deeply from Arab wells.

🌌 In Closing: A Legacy Like the Night Sky

The Arabs did not merely gaze at the stars—they listened to them, charted them, debated them, and passed on their wisdom in tomes that still echo today. Astrology, as they practiced it, was never just fortune-telling—it was philosophy, poetry, medicine, and mathematics entwined in a cosmic dance.