#signed back in to answer this

[missgryffin]

You do really thoughtful posts and I was hoping to ask if you might expand on this ask, discussing James & Lily's compatibility through a lens of astrology? Particularly more about their chemistry, as you understand it? Full transparency, I've always struggled with James and James & Lily even more so, so finding several really literate and carefully reasoned writers, like you, is a godsend. I can't improve how I write them if I never understand them fully and your ideas help so much.

Thanks so much for this ask and welcome to the Jily side of Tumblr!!

Since you said you’ve struggled with James/Jily, I’m actually going to back up a bit first and start with the text before we get to the astrology stuff, because I think the astrology only buttresses and deepens what’s already there. And this is such a loaded but fun question that I already know this is going to be long, so under the cut we go!

This heritage post sets out all the key quotes about James and Lily from the books. In addition to this, there’s the famous “She hated him!” / “Nah she didn’t.” exchange between Harry and Sirius that is basically the backbone of fandom. And we also know:

they dedicated their lives to the Order after Hogwarts in lieu of working any sort of “traditional” job or even fleeing the country

they defied Voldemort 3 times (per the terms of the prophecy)

per this post by my friend Robyn, I think we can infer they were deeply happy together despite it all

So the text already lays the groundwork of telling us that James and Lily were good-hearted people who exemplified Gryffindor traits, and then the text also gives us enough information to infer that they had been madly in love: 

James already fancied Lily in 5th year, at age 16

Lily dressed him down at age 16 (“She hated him!”), but textual clues from the SWM sequence indicate the attraction was far from unrequited (“Nah she didn’t.”). (This + some author comments from back when effectively give them a light enemies to lovers dynamic, though the absence of any knowledge about 6th year leaves the door wide open for possibilities as to how James matured and they moved closer to getting together.) 

they were Head Boy and Girl at Hogwarts together, meaning they would have had a lot of ~forced proximity~

they started going out in 7th year, at age 17

they got married very soon after school, at age 18

they were actively fighting in a war together (a war that James, as a pureblood, could have sat out while living in wealthy comfort but in which he chose to fight instead)

they got pregnant at 19

they had Harry at 20

they died trying to protect Harry at 21 

The central themes of Harry Potter are love and choice, and these themes are embodied by James and Lily from the very outset. Their death—their love—starts the story. Harry, as the hero, is a character of love, fighting against Voldemort, a character devoid of love and full of darkness. And Harry became a character of love because of his parents: he is a product of their love, and he survived by being protected by their love. (And I know the text puts the emphasis on Lily/“mother’s love” here, but let’s be real, James died for him just as much as Lily did—he died for both of them, rushing Voldemort in a split-second, last-ditch, defenseless effort to buy them time.) 

The fact that Jily came to ultimately fit within a prophecy gives them a fated quality that I think is like catnip for Jily shippers (or at least for me, ha), and it's all the juicier when you consider how they started: James pining helplessly with a mega crush so bad HE was doodling HER initials on his exam paper and being reduced to acting like a total idiot in her presence despite being one of the cleverest students in the school + Lily shouting in public that she'd rather date a Giant Squid than him despite having noticed a telling amount of details about his mannerisms and then being "alight with happiness" on her wedding day to him only ~three years later.

Plus, you take into consideration that they had been dating for roughly a year when they got married, and had been together roughly two years (married ~one) when they got pregnant with Harry… (a conception which would have occurred right around Halloween/Sirius Black's birthday, I might add)... Young readers will be rightfully oblivious to this, but looking at it as an adult, I think it's a fairly obvious implication that they were MAD for each other and had a sexual chemistry that was off the charts. Like probably shagging nonstop since they got together kind of off the charts.

They're a war couple, plain and simple. Their romance is intensified by the circumstances around them, and their romance is also a tragedy, their time cut far too short for a love so powerful that it protected its product from death. But they're also meant to be romanticized. Not because they're perfect (the text shows us how much they weren't) but because they are Harry's beacon. Despite all their flaws and mistakes and imperfections, they ultimately chose love—bringing us full-circle to the central theme of the story.

From this starting point, their astrology makes so much sense. I don't recall if she talked about it, but I think it's pretty obvious JKR used astrology at least on a surface level for her characters. (And this isn't an original idea, there's been lots of articles and chatter about it over the years. Plus I believe she studied classics in her bachelor's degree, so her background with Greek and Roman mythology also explains the heavy amount of those references in the books.) Like just going off basic sun signs, we have Harry and Ginny as Leos, Hermione's a Virgo, Ron's a Pisces, Draco's a Gemini, Sirius is a Scorpio, Voldemort and Snape are Capricorns, etc. Literally all it takes is reading a few one-paragraph summaries of these sun signs and I promise it makes sense 😂

James as an Aries and Lily as an Aquarius fit completely with their known traits and the glimpses of their personalities that we see. According to astrology, Aries are ruled by Mars, making them fiery, passionate, assertive, dominant, impulsive, and impatient. This is James Potter to a T. And Aquarius, the humanitarian of the zodiac, is explained really well by this paragraph from the esteemed publication Allure (😜):

Air energy is all about the mind. Intellectual, curious, and deeply social, the air signs (Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius) are passionate about interpersonal dynamics. As the last air sign in the zodiac, however, Aquarius takes these concepts to a whole other level. Aquarius is represented by the water bearer (hence the "aqua"), the mystical healer who bestows water, or life, upon the land. Represented by the Star card in tarot, Aquarius can be visualized as a larger-than-life, mythical being with one foot firmly planted on the soil (representing a sense of being grounded) and one positioned in the water. Aquarius is holding a vase, which pours new streams of inspiration to cultivate longevity, healing, and hope. Here, it's important to remember that Aquarius is removed from this process—from this vantage, we can see that Aquarius is positioned as an independent entity separate from the life-giving hydration it offers the cracked soil. In this respect, Aquarius exposes its deep connection to community: Rooted in teamwork, collaboration, and the concept of the "greater good," Aquarius is determined to make a powerful difference in the world.

In addition to giving some surface-level insight to Lily's general personality, this aligns with the mythical/savior quality with which Lily's remembered in the text.

Aries and Aquarius are generally considered an astrological pairing that "goes together," meaning they have a high level of compatibility. The traits I shared in the post you referenced are, I think, the cornerstone of this. I won't repeat it all, but I think a huge part of it is their intellectual attraction. They're both wicked smart (we know this from the text), and are at such a high level of intelligence + skill that finding a partner who can match them and stimulate their intellectual curiosity is of utmost importance and really creates the foundation of their relationship.

In this sense, James and Lily are the series' power couple. They are the Han and Leia of Harry Potter. They're drawn together, they have a fated quality, a star-crossed quality, they flirt with banter, and they're both incredibly passionate people, which makes it inevitable, really, that they ultimately become passionate about each other.

[lupiiny]

456

[ganondoodle]

Sorry ab the shitty English translations/localizations, it's bc they think that Americans won't get it otherwise (bc when we act stupid, we act REALLY stupid), our bad 💀

[yuwuta]

I LOVE UR BRAIN SO BAD 😭😭😭 YOU ALWAYS POST THEBBEST HEADCANONS AND THOUGHTS LIKE. WORK HUSBAND GOJO. AND JUST HAVING A WHOLE IMAGINATION OF THE OFFICE W NANAMI AND HIGURUMA AND TOJI I?????? I WANT TO LIVE IN YOUR BRAIN

TEEHEEEE you’re so sweet <33333 the work husband to actual husband to househusband gojo pipeline is so so real to me and the office au that comes with it truly does take up space in my brain, so here’s some more loosely established points 

satoru has been your work husband since you got your first job in undergrad. you two met in your dorms, and became friends, and eventually you thought a job would help with your time management skills, so you got a very low-maintenance position at the front desk of the library. satoru applied right after you and schmoozed the two little old librarians into giving him the same shifts as you. that was probably the first moment satoru knew he was a little bit in love with you—because he had no reason to have a job while in school, but this small change in your schedule made him miss you so much that he was moved to get his very first job, probably ever, just to spend more time with you. 

he wasn’t bad at his library receptionist job, but he technically wasn’t good at it, either. if a student asked him for a laptop charger or to check out a book or something, he could do that, but anything else he’d just smile and say, “oh, you’ve gotta ask the pretty girl right there about that, she knows way more than me,” and bat his eyelashes at you. except, then, when you did need to get up to grab something for someone, satoru would just spring up instead, and tell you he’s got it. it’s like… he was incapable of helping anybody else unless he got to flirt with you, and then help you out to help them out……… strange boy 

anyways, satoru makes it a habit to assist you through your student jobs throughout undergrad, and then follows you to the same law school and repeats the process there. (also not to elle woods-ify him a bit but his father heavily questions him going to law school btw because satoru has never showed any interest in working, let alone following in his footsteps to be a lawyer, and now he’s going to law school? his mom is a bit sharper though, because when satoru tells his parents he’s going to the same law school as you, she just smiles and sips her tea and wonders if her son has already made a trip to their family jeweler). 

the firm is large, but the floor you work on is a pretty close knit group. there’s hiromi’s office at the tail end, which is the largest because he’s managing partner and he practically lives in there. on the other end, both you and nanami have decently sized offices. satoru doesn’t like hiromi at first because he thinks he’s mean. then satoru watches him play a little prank on kento, and suddenly the two of them are best friends. it would be a surprisingly wholesome friendship if their common denominator wasn’t irritating kento, and acting as guard dogs for you. 

kento’s office used to be just the bare necessities—law books, his degree, basic furniture, maybe a fancy paperweight, until satoru got his hands on it and decked it out. which is not something kento asked for, nor he thinks is necessary, but that doesn’t stop satoru from continually adding little trinkets and decorations and art to his office to make it livelier. when kento first meets you, he’s surprised when you tell him satoru gojo is going to be your secretary because kento interned for satoru’s father for two summers during law school, but when kento sees you and satoru together for the first time, it answers all of his questions. satoru couldn’t be more of a lovesick fool if he tried. 

listen the ex-convict to single father to janitor to lawyer toji pipeline is so real to me. while toji is working as a janitor at the firm, satoru slips once and then jokes that toji shines the floors too aggressively on purpose to make him slip, toji tells him to fuck off and he can sue for harassment. they truly don’t like each other at first, but once satoru steals toji’s masterkey to get into your office one night after you’re gone to leave flowers, and handle some paperwork to lighten your load in the morning, toji is sort of impressed. he still almost hits him with a broomstick, but even someone as gruff as him can see that satoru had pure intentions. toji is a lot of things, but he’s not immune to or devoid of love or passion. so, eventually he and satoru develop a weird sort of banter and respect for each other. one day someone actually tries to accuse toji of not putting the wet floor sign down and how it’s gonna be a lawsuit because some lowlife janitor fucked up his $3000 suit. satoru catches the argument as he’s heading upstairs and recognized the schmuck as the stuck up lawyer on the other side of kento’s case. satoru’s ready to jump in, but toji’s displaying an impressive amount of physical restraint and legal knowledge that when the dust is all settled, satoru asks him if he ever considered being a lawyer. toji laughs at it at first, but after a month of serious consideration (and megumi becoming a college freshman), he figures it can’t be all that bad. and turns out, toji’s a half-decent lawyer—once you’ve spent so much of your life skirting (or blatantly breaking) the law, you become pretty good at getting people out or around it, too. and with his life experience, he’s a pretty good judge of character; so when it comes time to lock up the bad ones, toji makes sure they get the maximum sentence.

except he has a bad habit of sending out emails with “URGENT: NEEDS ATTN” in the subject, which prompts you, kento, and hiromi to rush to his office, just to see toji with his feet up on his desk tell you that, “the emergency is i hate the opposing counsel, and now that i work on this side of the law i’d really like to not kill him, so somebody else should take this case.” 

anyways back to work husband secretary satoru. he pulls you out of boring meetings under the guise of an urgency, just for him to admit that the emergency is that he missed you, and you two were gonna be late for your lunch reservation. because he’s actually a licensed attorney, he can actually carry out duties an associate otherwise would, which saves you a lot of time and trouble; and it means that satoru gets to work even more closely with you, which is always an upside for him. sometimes you ask him to hand you documents and instead he just hands you his hand. and then pretends to blush and preen like a schoolgirl which always draws way too much attention to the two of you, but there’s no way to stop him either. he takes your coat off of your shoulders when you arrive in the morning, and helps you put it back on in the evening. when you tell him you’re looking for an apartment closer to the firm, he has eight places lined up for viewing, and one surprise at the end which happens to be the other vacant penthouse suite in his apartment building; which, conveniently, would make you satoru’s neighbor. he claims that it’ll be just like in college, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way when you finally move in and satoru can now loudly and proudly proclaim, “see you at home!” in the halls at work now. 

[pricegouge]

Sometimes all I need is dick. Or Gillian Anderson.

(How’s life going?🫶🏻)

-🦌🍷

or a lobotomy 🙂‍↕️

and life is going like this:

[skyward-floored]

what happened with the gleeock? 👀

- hero-of-the-wolf

Well. I went to go look for the ridiculous-looking golden horse (seriously, what’s wrong with that thing) in the one snowfield place, but you see I was sitting outside and could barely see the screen or really what I was doing so I was walking along minding my own business squinting for the horse when suddenly there’s music? And words? Wait what do those say— gleeok?? Those rotten things from zelda 1??? What the heck—

And then I got killed by laser ice breath

[hawnks]

Logging out for a while, love you miss you <3

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Brain: You do realize there will be like only two people interested in some of the things you wrote for Febuwhump. At least in comparison to some of the other things you wrote.

Me: And?

Brain: That'll be discouraging.

Me: I don't care. I want to write what I want to write. If people like it they like it. If they don't they don't. That's their problem, not mine. I'm writing it because I want to.

[liebelesbe]

my favorite hobby is not answering the phone when my insurance is calling <3

[mayorofcattown]

Yayy my sanrio stuff finally arrived :) I got the natsume charm, the clearfile with everyone, and Many stickers

[hauntingmiser]

Okay I got inspired by @traitorszine and I wanted to make my version of maruki as some kind of a traitor so here you go.

Here is the white plague in his glory

And also by the way the # explains the lore of this goober being evil

They will be mentions of brainwashing and manipulating from the beginning soo yaaaahhh v

[chilling-seavey]

Making me think of all the cute lil gifts twig george would get from fans after news of baby boy drops 🥹

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

Sometimes you'll hear people talk about how God has guided them to wherever they're at through little nudges or providential serendipity or little nudges to do or say this or that

I'm having the opposite experience, wandering into bad career moves, silly errors, inadvertent oversharing, etc., unintentionally self-sabotaging in a futile quest that can lead only to ruin despite my best, even desperate efforts to the contrary

[noahschnappinfs]

you're joining twitter??? girl i'll be praying for you and your mental sanity 😭🙏

i think the universe is trying to protect me because I GOT SUSPENDED FOR NO REASON ALREADY LOL

maybe i’ll try to create another acc later on or appeal because i seriously believe that it’s important to have an update acc for noah on twitter by the time s5 comes out to support noah’s post ST career and i’ve had this plan for a while but the universe is plotting against me.

i just find hilarious that it lasted a single day lol

[demigod-of-the-agni]

Forgive me, forgive me. I ask, I beg, I pray, but it never comes.

You know I find it incredibly bewildering to see just how much kalki reflects myself in him like YEAH Duh of course he does, he’s my little guy it’s like his full time job. But at the same time he is a fully functional facet of my being and he is at the mercy of my whimsies, and whatever he discovers in his arduous journey of self realisation is ultimately a reflection of what I discover in the real world. It’s also incredibly funny because ffxiv lore for dark knights is really baked into the idea of (re)discovering yourself amongst the bloodshed and continuing to live and love and thrive despite the world working against us. who would have thought such a raw message could come from an mmorpg side quest about edgy emo boys of all places

also adamantite armour of fending i would lay down my LIFE for u

variant + phone bg version + ID below the cut

tch as if you guys are actually going to use artwork of my little guy as your phone background. i know. how dumb. let a girl dream. i should make an alternate version but it's of Fray and Myste

[START ID: A picture with a red background focusing on the character's bust that is placed to the left of the image's centre. He is coloured with a dark blue overlay, contrasting with the red background. He has brown skin, long black hair that falls over his shoulders, and is wearing blue and gold armour and earrings. He is looking at the viewer, right eye dark brown and the left an glowing unnatural red, with an expression that looks determined and angry and yet bitter and forlorn. In the foreground and on the right side of the piece, a miniature version of the character stands coloured in a light blue overlay and wearing the same blue and gold armour, looking as if he is glowing. He is facing towards the left of the piece, or perhaps at the character bust, his expression unreadable. Above the miniature character's head is the symbol representing the FFXIV dark knight, coloured in gold. END ID.]

[rongzhi]

Please blorbo post more or is there another place to see the blorbo posting? Love discovering new stuff thanks to you <3

Have I introduced anyone to new stuff really? 😅 But that's sweet! The blorbos I usually post about are just from regular schmegular English shows, hence me posting elsewhere. This is my ~Chinese~ blog.

I have an artblog @wawahouse that I don't really post to much (it's more of an archive) (two weeks into 2025 and I haven't drawn a single thing 😎 (🥲🕶️🤏🏼))

letterboxd, as linked (haven't watched that many movies this year either) (don't really post reviews either, but if you're interested in following more ppl on there, I guess!)

youtube, my flop ass channel I'll probably just be posting lyric videos to once in a blue moon now that I no longer post douyin compilations (copyright strikes, pain in my ass)

Oz (HBO) (and 1 iota of Fringe) sideblog @wawamouse . I am making my sister watch X-files (at least s1) and might post about it there but so far (ep3) the funniest thing she's done is call them Scuggly and Guggler (Scuddly and Mohler, etc) bc she can never remember their names

and I have one other textpost blog for every other fandom lol ... but I won't @ it here bc it's 98% reblogs 2% me whining