First of all, I want to start this article by saying that astrologers use the word remediation to mean a lot of different things.

Sometimes, remediation is a call for behavioral change. Other times, remediation is a more specific cultural practice or custom. We tend to associate remediation with wearing a certain color or mineral but remediations can also be beautiful invitations towards moving in certain ways. For example, remediating your emotional capacity can involve learning how to care for a wide variety of animals.

I’m going to share my personal thoughts about remediation in this article. These are thoughts that may change. My thoughts aren’t always right but they come from somewhere. I’m going to be talking less about how we remediate, which I feel is a cultural choice, and more about why.

Remediation is a call for some kind of adjustment. In astrology, different technical schools have different value systems embedded in how we practice. Traditional astrologers might see debilitations as weak while contemporary interpreters of traditional astrology view debilitations as unconventional. An astrologer might give a client advice on how to remediate either weak placements by doing rituals, changing their style, changing their mindset, or changing their habits. Really, astrologers aren’t doing this to call their clients weak by any means. Remediation is really just about taking direction in shaping your own life.

Remediation is a very important part of astrology. How you practice it is important. What kinds of changes are impactful? Why someone practices remediation is also important.

Again, every school of astrology has its own value system. There is no standard of remediation. One thing that authentically helps one person may feel overly tedious or fake to someone else.

When we assume that certain behaviors or rituals will always help a planet or set of planets, we run the risk of assuming that everyone in the world should live the same kind of lifestyle. Much of standard advice in astrology leans towards moderation. For example, a lot of advice around Mars has to do with tempering its heat and lowering its volatility. But let me ask you this—is everyone in the world supposed to strive towards moderation in temperament? What if the person achieves their best work because they have been bestowed with the gift of clear anger? What if we have things we are rightfully angry about?

Much of the advice around Venus tends towards the opposite. Venusians are told that they are too gentle or nice, that they want to make everyone happy. But what if Venusians are interested in relationships because they understand our interdependence? Isn’t it totally rational to want other people to be happy?

The reason why astrology is exciting is because there’s a mythic quality to how it discusses the world as ourselves. If we are fire, then why temper our own flame? Would we try to lessen the brightness of the Sun? No, we wouldn’t because the Sun may be the hottest thing in the world and not very moderate at all but it plays its role in our universe because of those qualities and not despite.

This is what I think—not everyone needs moderation. Few of us do. If we have a chart that promises moderation, then that may be what suits us. But few of us have such a chart.

Our charts give us information about who we are uniquely and our interpretation of that information gives us stories about who we are and who we can be. I have a friend who has every single one of their planets in Sagittarius. Is that person supposed to remediate their chart towards moderation and try to be more like Saturn? No. That person is here to be Jupiter, to love freedom with their whole big heart. This friend of mine is literally always on the move, traveling long distance on their motorcycle trying to realize big dreams. They are Jupiter. They are supposed to be doing things like this.

The best type of remediation, in my view, or maybe even the only kind is to be yourself. You have to be more of yourself, more authentically yourself, and more intimate with yourself to remediate your chart. Not everyone is the same. The goal of astrology is not to make everyone the same.

I think that a lot of us think that we have more control over our lives and persons than we actually do. It’s really hard to change your own personality even if you change your entire set of behaviors. Sometimes, we are a certain way because of things that we can’t control. One of the things that none of us can control is our age.

Let’s say that we are eighteen years old and we have a big ego. Would it be helpful for an astrologer to come in and tell us what behaviors to change so that we become as mature as a fifty year old? No! We are eighteen years old in this scenario. We should act eighteen. We should be acting foolishly sometimes and be thinking that we can change the whole world very fast at other times. An eighteen year old should have the maturity of an eighteen year old and not of a fifty year old.

We are the person we are. We become the people we want to be by embracing who we already are. This is how growth happens—through self acceptance.

I have found that every astrologer has different assumptions about how to live a good life when it comes to remediation. Some astrologers assume that everyone wants to get married and will help remediate towards that goal. Well, not everyone wants to get married. Some astrologers will remediate on friendship, on growing a big circle of friends. Well, not everyone wants a lot of friends. Some people prefer a hermit’s life. Some astrologers will help remediate existing friendships so that friends are more generous towards you. Well, not everyone wants generous friends. Some people want to be the giver in their community and there’s actually nothing wrong with that unless something is.

Now, I take a lot of issues with how our cultural imaginations of different planets as archetypes shape our perceptions of self. This article isn’t about how certain people must be destined for certain things. I don’t subscribe to fatalism. I think that people can always change our culture and should strive to do so. I do take issue with how some advice within astrology, particularly when it comes to remediation, seems to be about how to deal with qualities of personality that don’t fit into the status quo. Astrology has been surging in popularity among young queers and young women. These are the people who are often told to change themselves to better fit into the world.

Astrology’s goal isn’t to help make you less “difficult” or easier to deal with. Astrology ‘s role isn’t to tell you what is wrong with yourself.

Difficulties arise when we force ourselves to do things that we aren’t suited for. If you don’t want to get married, then don’t get married. If you don’t want a lot of friends, then don’t socialize a lot. If you love to give, then give. You can do great things as yourself when you allow yourself to be yourself.

Astrology is not about psychological remediation. It’s not about delivering a standard lifestyle that ensures a smooth life. Astrology is about the truth of your destiny. You only know what you are destined for when you let yourself be who you are. What is remediation in astrology? Remediation isn’t about doing things that feel fake to you just to help ease your life. Remediation is just all of those things that make you feel so surely that you are who you are.