9 December 2023
This post is a copy of the free fortnightly newsletter. If you’d like to receive this straight to inbox you can subscribe here – and new subscribers to the free newsletter also automatically receive a copy of the weekly blog free of charge, as your introductory offer, which is mailed out every Monday. All blog details and PayPal links on the home page of this website.
You can now follow me on Instagram for regular astrology posts and more –
https://www.instagram.com/joannawattersastrology/
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
For readers who are not already subscribers to the weekly blog, but would like to be, why not add this to your Christmas wish list? Or if you want to buy a monthly or annual subscription to the blog as a Christmas present for someone else then do get in touch. I can add names and email addresses myself at this end without having to go through the sign up boxes on my website, so it’s easy to arrange your gift, as a surprise if preferred!
You can do either an annual subscription or any number of months of your choice – eg a gift of 3 months, 6 months etc subscription, whatever you like.
UK bank details on request or you can find the PayPal links on the home page of this website – https://joannawatters.com/
The subscription fees are designed to be affordable for everyone –
- Monthly subscription of £5.95 – or £1.37 a week
- Annual subscription £57.00 – or £1.09 a week
NEXT WEEK’S BLOG FREE
Everyone is entitled to one free copy of the weekly blog so that you can check it out for yourself before deciding on subscription. It’s 3 – 3.5k words depending on how much astrology is going on, and how carried away I get lol.
My weekly blog started life over 15 years ago as a teaching blog and it’s still written with learning in mind, as a resource of helpful info and techniques of craft that you can take away with you and apply to your own or other horoscopes. Even though I include higher level material every week I also try to write in such a way that even total beginners can understand the basics and take away an understanding of the messages for the week.
I also include specific horoscopes each week, usually someone in the news, or someone who embodies the current Sun sign characteristics, as shown through their personality and life events.
And if you’re a serious student of astrology then it’s a good idea to receive the blog because this is where I explain all of the current astrology on a day by day basis, so that we can watch the astrology unfolding in our own lives and in the lives of those closest to us. I share my own stories, at least the printable ones! This is how we learn, and never stop learning. Astrology is a gift that carries on giving.
RETROGRADE MERCURY
Yep, here we go again ….. so this is a perfect time to take up this offer as next week’s blog will include the lowdown and need to know info re Mercury turning retrograde on Wednesday, just a matter of hours after the Sagittarius New Moon, and how the repeating aspects to four other planets map out a timeline that runs into mid January.
READINGS
You can also buy readings as a Christmas gift or book in your own. I’ve been snowed under with all kinds of things this year so I haven’t been allocating particular weeks for readings as I usually do, but with the new book now nearly finished that’s at least one major time bandit out of the way.
My rates have hardly changed since pre pandemic so they will be going up in the New Year. But all bookings taken by 31 December will be at the current rates, see the personal readings section at the end of this newsletter. I can book in two or three consultations during December, the rest will be from mid January onwards, first come first served
ASTROLOGERS CALENDAR 2024 by JILL SHEARER
Another lovely Christmas idea is Jill Shearer’s beautifully crafted astrologers’ calendar that she produces every year, a bargain for £18.00, you can order from her Etsy shop with a delivery time of about 3 days, here’s the link –
JAMIE FOXX – SOLAR RETURN
Our birthday is our Solar Return – many happy returns of the day, that’s where the saying comes from – the day when the Sun returns to where it was at the time we were born. Next week’s blog will also include the horoscope for Sagittarian Jamie Foxx who turns 56 this week, on 13 December – which is in fact the day that Mercury turns retrograde.
Is that important? Yes, because when you look at the horoscope for your Solar Return that is the chart for your year ahead. It’s not a substitute for the natal chart but it’s the flavour of the year that’s coming. It adds another layer of understanding.
The same applies to the Lunar Return, the chart for the time when the Moon returns each month to her exact position as seen in the natal horoscope – 13 times a year. These are really interesting and in some ways easier, if you don’t like it at least it’s only for four weeks!
To have a SR – Stationary Retrograde – planet in any chart is an indication of a significant turning point. This is relevant for Jamie Foxx as Mercury is going to turn retrograde on his birthday AND will turn direct at 22.14 Sagittarius, almost exactly conjunct his natal Sun at 21.15 Sagittarius. So Mercury is being doubly highlighted, an example of a “theme”, the importance of which I’ve been talking about in recent blogs as a technique of interpretation, at either a natal or predictive level.
Jamie Foxx has been out of the picture since last spring as he was struck down with an emergency condition that led to a long rehab. This correlates with a Uranus transit almost to the day – extraordinary how the erratic whacky Uranus with an 84 year cycle can so often work out to such exactitude in timings in the natal chart. So I’ll be talking about that transit too.
URANUS HALF RETURN
Each planet travels through the 12 signs of the zodiac at a different speed. The “personal” planets, Sun through to Saturn, range from between a year to nearly 30 years to make a full lap of the zodiac (Aries to Pisces) whereas the cycles of the outer or “generational” planets are significantly slower. That’s why their transits (when they reach the same position as your natal planets or Angles) are so much more important:
| Sun | 1 year |
| Moon | 28 days |
| Mercury | 1 year |
| Venus | 1 year |
| Mars | 2 years |
| Jupiter | 12 years |
| Saturn | 29 and a half years |
| Uranus | 84 years |
| Neptune | 176 years |
| Pluto | 248 years |
| Chiron | 51 years |
In your own horoscope a good way to get a handle on Uranus symbolism is to look at what happened on the half return. As noted, Uranus has a cycle of 84 years, so we get a Solar Return once a year but our Uranus Return happens only if we live to be 84!
To find the half return – the halfway point when Uranus arrives exactly opposite his natal position – it isn’t unfortunately simply a case of dividing that by two. We don’t all have the half return at age 42, you have to look it up. Here’s how I describe this event in my book Essential Astrology –
URANUS TRANSITS SIGNAL – drama, sudden change, disruption, impulsivity, the unexpected, rebellion, shocks or surprises, events that come like a bolt from the blue, the arrival of those who knock us off balance, who challenge our views, sweep us off our feet or turn our world upside down.
As he makes his 84 year lap Uranus will eventually cross over all the other planets and Angles, but it is his halfway point that is especially important. For example, if natal Uranus is at 4 degrees of Libra then Uranus will have reached his halfway point when he arrives at 4 degrees of Aries.
Note that Uranus is erratic in nature and also has an erratic orbit so this midpoint of his journey falls anywhere between the ages of 38 and 42. This is called the Uranus Half Return, commonly referred to as the astrological midlife crisis. Some area of life is restructured, sometimes dramatically, and often this manifests as a claiming of something unlived up until this point, a sense of “if I don’t do it now I never will”. Divorces, marriages and “last chance” babies are incredibly common at this time.
Since writing this book I’ve come across examples of the Uranus Half Return happening at the age of 43 so that tells us just how erratic the Uranus orbit really is. If you don’t have your Uranus half return dates and don’t know how to look these up then I can do that for you – but it won’t be an interpretation, it will be the three dates – Uranus arriving opposite natal position for the first time, turning retrograde and coming back for the second time, turning direct and coming back for the third and final time.
The example I use in the book is Ellen DeGeneres –
We all experience Uranus’ shockwaves in one guise or another but his transits and the Half Return are often especially significant for Aquarians or if Uranus is prominently placed in the horoscope.
Ellen DeGeneres is a powerful Aquarian in both these respects. She has a triple conjunction in this sign of the Sun, Venus and Chiron, all opposing Uranus in Leo. Note that this puts the Sun and Uranus in “mutual reception”, that is, the relationship between the two planets is strengthened by the fact that they occupy each other’s signs. They are able to “swap over”, lifting each other out of detriment and into dignity.
Note also that her natal Venus – Uranus opposition has an orb of only 8 minutes of arc, making this the tightest aspect in her chart. In psychological terms Uranus rules dissociation, the “split” in all of us, the part of our psyche that disowns or denies all that is uncomfortable or undesirable. This is reflected in mythology as Uranus was castrated by his son Chronos (Saturn) and his severed genitals were cast into the sea. Venus (feminine identity and sexuality) opposite Uranus is clearly the symbolic “signature” in Ellen’s chart for being gay. As the aspect is almost partile (exact to the minute) whatever planet transits her Venus will automatically pick up the Uranus too, and vice versa. The astrological stage was set for a momentous Uranus Half Return.
Uranus entered Aquarius in January 1996 and transited:
- Conjunct her Sun from February to December 1997
- Conjunct her Venus (love, women, sex) and opposite to his own natal placing – the Half Return – from February to December 1998.
The increasing urge to go public about her sexual orientation is astrologically crystal clear. Uranus starting his transit over her Sun (identity) lit a fuse that was inextinguishable and Ellen “came out” in February 1997 on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In April her own character in Ellen, her sitcom with ABC Television, followed suit:
- 7 April 1997 New Moon at 17.40 Aries, almost exactly conjunct Ellen’s own natal Moon of 17.10 Aries (sign of self). On 14 April she appeared on the front cover of Time magazine under the banner, “Yep, I’m Gay.”
- Her relationship with Anne Heche started hot on the heels of this publicity. Anne’s Descendant is 19 Aries with Venus at 21 Aries, both conjunct Ellen’s Moon, and her natal Uranus of 29 Virgo conjunct Ellen’s Part of Fortune at 27 Virgo.
The news was far more explosive than she could have known. Being the source of media frenzy is apt Uranus symbolism and the ensuing controversy led to ABC’s eventual axing of her show in May 1998 and her career temporarily nosedived. As a true Uranian, however, she bounced back and The Ellen DeGeneres Show was launched 8 September 2003, under the propitious auspices of a Jupiter transit. It was the beginning of a stupendous comeback.
Anne Heche of course tragically died in a car accident last summer and I covered her horoscope in the blog at the time –
Before the weekly blog changed to subscription it was posted on the website, this fortnightly newsletter continues to go up on the website, and you’ll find all archives on this link –
https://joannawatters.com/astrology-updates/
MOON IN CANCER
Taken from my book Essential Astrology I’m serializing the Moon signs, continuing today with Cancer.
Essential Astrology (previous titled Be Your Own Astrologer) has been relaunched under the new title by Cico Books –
https://tinyurl.com/yvcz7f5v –
The Moon is at home in Cancer, sign of family, parenting and homemaking. Cancer’s concerns of procreation and protection dovetail with the lunar qualities of nurturing, caring and containing. However, this does not mean that all Cancer Moon people automatically have an easy or secure start in life. Early home life can either be an emotional idyll or there is some story of an overly sheltered upbringing, or a wounding relationship with one or both of the parents. One of my clients comes from a large family of six children, with a caring but reserved father, and a mother who seemed incapable of attending to anyone’s needs other than her own. All of the children learned from an early age to look after each other and none of them developed an adult relationship with their mother that went beyond pure duty.
However, whether life started with neglect or with strong family roots and support, these Moon people tend to place enormous value on their own home and have a nurturing streak which will express itself in some obvious way. Either they prove to be natural family makers or they channel their care into fostering, nursing, animals or a charity. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross is a “double” Cancer, the Sun and Moon both in this sign, and is famous for revolutionizing the way that the medical profession treated the terminally ill. Her dream of building a hospice for infants and children with HIV was sadly thwarted by the ignorance of local residents.
Other celebs with Moon in Cancer –
- William Prince of Wales
- Catherine Princess of Wales
- Queen Camilla
- Princess Margaret
- Drew Barrymore
- Keanu Reeves
- Keith Urban
- Mariah Carey
- Shakira
- Taylor Swift
- Tom Cruise
