Hey, are you also sick of wondering what Jupiter means, asking Mr. Google, and seeing the word “expansive” come up over and over again and wondered what the hell that even means? And what the fuck does structure even mean in the context of Saturn or the idea of drive within Mars? Drive to do what? Death drive or sex drive? And structures? Who is she?
There’s also a couple words that seem to show up only in the world of astrology: task maker, guru, magnetism, and ego to name a few. Then, there are words that are overused for each planet, such as communications for Mercury and aggression for Mars. At some point, it’s like what does communications even mean? Does it refer to any type of speech when you’re just talking to a friend, a specific framework for thinking about any type of action that can communicate, or communications as a technology?
And this isn’t just related to the planets. Have you ever looked up the eighth house, saw “shared resources” come up over and over and wondered what the hell that even is? What the hell are resources anyway? Then there’s the term “others” which shows up in astrology all the time. The term other is a very loaded term. It has a very specific meaning in psychology and postcolonial theory than it does in astrology.
By astro-speech, I’m not talking about the technical terms that astrologers use such as profection, anartic, antiscia, or cazimi. These are terms that are referring to specific techniques and that’s fine. By astro-speech, I’m talking about terms that seem to only show up and show up time and time again within the context of astrological interpretation, not astrological technique. They’re not terms that clarify technique but terms that mystify meaning.
When any kind of language shows up again and again, it’s a type of reproduction. When Judith Butler talks about performance, she describes performance as a reproduction of a sign. Signs can be words but they can also be actions or aesthetics or symbols. When signs are reproduced, it means that there is performance taking place.
Astro-speech happens when astrologers, engaged in interpretation, are more concerned with performing as astrologers than the process of interpretation. It means that, instead of trying to develop their own language or use the language that they already know, that they’re drawing on what they see being performed out there as some kind of astrological language.
Astro-speech means that you’re reproducing ideas that already exist in astrology instead of re-appropriating it to talk about your life. Astro-speech happens when you sell yourself short. It happens when you use astrology as a dead thing to be referred to rather than a living thing that you have a stake in that you must work to grow. When astro-speech happens, you’re actually alienating yourself from your own labor as an astrologer because you’re treating the performance of being an astrologer as separate from your own existence.
Often, astro-speech leads to a lot of confusion and a lot of vagueness or limits in terms where we can push these symbols within astrology. Think about it this way: camouflage used to signify something because it was related to war. Because military wear quickly becomes street wear, camouflage now hold none of its former meaning. When you repeat a sign over and over again, it starts to lose its meaning.
The thing is, astrology is just a language. As a speaker in this language, it’s your job to use it, misuse it, translate it into English or Spanish or Chinese, remix it, stan it, and fuck with it. Your interpretation of the signs in astrology matters more than any overused terminology because your living existence is what will push astrology into the future much more than the terms that we already accept as astrological.
Why are these words so vague anyway?
You have to realize that every single sign in astrology is a product of being remixed over and over again. There is no original astrology and no one true origin.
Take the example of Saturn: yeah, it’s a Roman word and everything but even the Romans didn’t experience Saturn as a singular god representing a single thing. Saturn was a local Roman god that was quickly conflated with the Greek god of agriculture, Kronos. The idea of Saturn was applied to the Saturnalia and represented with the character of a deposed king. Saturn was sometimes associated with high honors since he was a king and sometimes associated with “evil” since he was malefic. The medieval concept of Saturn was overwhelmingly negative not only because the concept of evil began to mean something completely different once the devil was invented but also because agricultural workers lost a lot of social power in the middle ages. Then, the neopagans came along and started associating Saturn with only positive qualities. The sentiment of melancholy was strongly associated with Saturn and this melancholy was also strongly associated with masculine genius. Eventually, Kant and other people like him attached Saturn to the sublime.
See? There’s no such thing as a one true Saturn. Saturn changes based on cultural context all of the time. What Saturn means depends completely on the work of interpreters. This is because astrology, as a magical language, works according to analogy. A medieval melancholic is completely different from a melancholic in the age of enlightenment. Astrologers working with Saturn had to use their own ideas to push astrology further, to really use it to talk about things that mattered to them.
In other words, astrology should not replace idea-making. Astrology is just a language. Would you allow any other language to replace your ingenuity?
What you’ll also notice is that many of the things associated with each planet are actually really problematic. I mean, this is western astrology that we’re talking about here! The sublime is really problematic in terms of gender and in terms of settler-colonialism. It’s basically this idea that masculine genius needs a lot of space (and by a lot, I mean a lot. Enough to take over entire continents.). When we see Saturn as a “task-maker” or “disciplinarian” where does that even come from? Why is our conception of Saturn so fucking corporate? Is that our Saturn or is that the Saturn that astrology fans like Ronald Reagan and JP Morgan preferred? And, if that isn’t your Saturn, then who is your Saturn?
Astrology is build on analogy. Use that. Use these signs to compare things in your life.
How to steal a language
The thing is, astro-speech is a shortcut. It’s a shortcut to learning because it’s easier to learn ready-made vocabulary than it is to make your own. But it’s also a shortcut to authority because it’s easier to borrow the authority of a ready-made language than it is to find the audacity within yourself to create a sense of authority and authorship for yourself, especially when the world was not made for your existence.
This is why colonial subjects who are forced to assimilate and mimic languages that aren’t ours and gendered subjects who are told that our perspective are not based in reality but delusions use ready-made languages. Doing so is not a character judgment. It doesn’t mean that you’re lazy or dumb. It means that you were socialized to discount your own experience and to replace your own genius with an oppressor’s language. It means that, outside of the dominant languages, it’s often hard to find other ways of speaking. We use astro-speech because we don't know what the planets mean outside of astro-speech.
A lot of the time, it takes an immense amount of effort and will and power to take a language and to learn how to speak in it using your own voice. In the moments when you are unable to, in the moments when you can’t help but thinking about Saturn as anything but a corporate figure, it’s important that you don’t punish yourself for simply existing in a world that wasn’t built for your survival.
The best way to steal a language back is to have some fun.
The hardest part about stealing a language is loving yourself enough to do it. And you don't get to loving yourself by beating yourself up about using the wrong language.
The thing is, yeah, because of where we’re at, Saturn does exist as kind of a corporate dick figure. And what do you do with corporate dick figures? You laugh at them. You make fun of them, you sexualize them so that they work for you by calling them daddy, and you find pleasure in them even if you weren’t meant to. You reject the idea that only some body types can be called daddy and you strive to be your work daddy.
Do you think it’s utterly nonsensical when Jupiter is labeled “expansive” because it is associated with higher education when your own experiences with institutions were completely traumatizing? Let’s have a conversation about how the idea that institutions “expand” can only happen in a colonial context. I mean, expand to where? To more land? Then, when you think about Jupiter and breadth of spirit, you can apply it to your own diasporic spirit.
This isn’t really a call to drop astro-speech entirely because, without the reproduced and performative language of what already exists in astrology, there really isn’t anything else. It’s not a call to police your use of language because editing when your write is never a good idea for discovering your own voice. Also, as we said before, repeated signs start to lose their meanings and become ripe for remix when they do. Rather, this is a notice that these signs! are! ready! They’re ready for you to play with them because they’ve been overstretched and over understood and misunderstood. It’s time for you to own these terms that weren’t made for you and to abuse them until they fit your hilarity, your anger, and your pleasure.
