Welcome to my Astro Advice Column! If you subscribe to my Astro-Kats or Star Kids Club groups you are able to ask me questions about astrology for this advice column.


I’m thinking a lot about power these days (actually, when am I not thinking about power?) This is coming from a natal placement I’ve been looking into, a mutual reception of my 12th House Jupiter in Scorpio and my 1st house Mars in Sagittarius. I’m thinking about how the 12th house is, as Roman conceptions of astrology based on conquest would have it, the worst/ weakest house in a chart, while the first house is one of the most powerful. Since I have a day chart, Jupiter is the greater benefic in my chart and Mars is the greater malefic. I know mutual reception is often about blending, but these two placements feel so at odds with each other sometimes I just feel like they only produce stuckness, like two energies digging their heels in a muddy tug of war. Maybe like a psychic tug of war since these planets can’t even see each other. I guess I selfishly want your specific reading of these placements and their relationship, but also was wondering about your thoughts on mutual reception with two conflicting energies? How to reconcile these and find some type of power, tho one based in healing and connection rather than conquest and extraction?

Thank you for your work, your piping hot takes and your spiritual insight. You are incredible.

In care!

—stuck in the muck


Hello stuck in the muck! You’re asking a really great technical question here that I think often gets glossed over with mutual reception.

First, your question is—how does the nature of the planets involved in a reception inform the nature of the reception? As far as planets go, Jupiter and Mars are pretty different. Jupiter likes to grow and explore and Mars likes to cut. Isn’t a relationship between two very different planets kind of uneven? What if they each learn things from the other when they are involved? What if Jupiter, the grower, grows through cutting and Mars, the cutter, cuts by wandering?

What if mutual receptions aren’t always beneficial per se but more complicated than that? What if planets aren’t only affirmed when exchanging with other planets but become more complex through their relationships?

What if Jupiter is wild when in Scorpio and Mars wild when in Sagittarius? Your reception in your chart is of a very different nature than a reception between Venus in Pisces and Jupiter in Taurus would be.

Jupiter in Scorpio and Mars in Sagittarius are actually both quite strange placements. Both of them are wild when in these signs because they do not experience much dignity in them. On top of that, Jupiter in Scorpio and Mars in Sagittarius are both twelve places from a sign where they do receive dignity. This tends to make planets even stranger. Since one of these planets is your chart ruler and the other is in your first house, I’d expect you value your strangeness and to be on the side of eccentrics, one the side of wandering fighters and skeptical philosophers. This information is probably neither negative nor alarming since you’ve had a whole lifetime to understand and love your weirdness. “Weak” placements aren’t bad placements. They’re just adverse to conformity. While a rebellious streak can create difficulties, it doesn’t have to. You challenge power. You even challenge your own power. Self contestation can halt us in our tracks but it can also take us places.

The other technical aspect of your question is—what if two planets are in a mutual reception by sign but not in aspect to one another?

Different astrologers have different interpretations of this. I want to start with that and then go into my own understanding of mutual receptions without aspect. Some astrologers will discard all mutual receptions that have no aspect because planets need an angle to exchange from. Some astrologers still count the reception but layer it with the understanding that the reception isn’t as strong.

For me, I think that the reception is still in effect but not all the time. Why? Because Scorpio and Sagittarius are only adverse to one another directly. Luckily for us, Scorpio and Sagittarius are not the only two signs in the zodiac wheel. We have ten other signs. Scorpio is able to see Sagittarius through any placement in four of them—Leo, Virgo, Aquarius, and Pisces. Planets in these four signs will be able to see both Scorpio and Sagittarius. Right now at the time of my writing, Saturn is transiting Pisces. At the very least even if there are no slower moving planets transiting any of the four signs that can see both Scorpio and Sagittarius, Saturn is able to translate the reception.

But there are also times when there are no planets in Leo, Virgo, Aquarius, or Pisces. That is also important in what you are experiencing with the sometimes foiled reception.

I hear you about the sometimes stuckness. The possibility of connection between the two planets makes me think that they are not always digging their heels in. If there is conflict between them, that means that they are dialoguing with each other. Internal conflict is a good thing because internet conflict brings our awareness to very specific points. The Jupiter part of your personality, that yearning for freedom, and the Mars part of your personality, that willingness to fight, has something to do with one another.

Sometimes, parts of our personality will be in conflict. This is true for most people. We want the conflict to be productive and somewhat meaningful to us.

The third technical part of your question is—what time is this question being asked? You are asking this question while Saturn, the translator of the reception, transits your fourth house. If you were sitting in front of me, I would be asking about how the stuckness has been changing since Saturn entered Pisces in spring of 2023 and about fourth house topics such as father, home, and ancestry. You mention that you’ve been thinking about power. What about power and home? Power and father? Power and ancestry?

Actually, Mars and Jupiter have the tendency towards spurring one another on when they are in relationship. Usually this spurring on of one another happens suddenly. If the reception feels stuck right now, then there might be a good reason. Stuckness is a slow down. Maybe there is something that you are slowing down to see? Or maybe the stuckness is trying to create some frustration that gives you a spurt later on?

But if I were you with this reception wondering about it now at the time of your question, I would look at Saturn in the fourth house. I would try to see if I can talk to both Jupiter and Mars in a way that engages both planets through Saturn. I would try to see if Saturn’s transit has any significance for how I’m thinking about power. I hope this article helps somewhat and that I didn’t add a whole other thing into the question for you. Saturn can be a bit of a mystery on its own.