Astrology
Stones
By
Tabitha Chamberlain
If you want to blame someone for all of the astrology crammed into this month’s Tarot Reflections, feel free to blame me. As it was my idea, mostly it started with the book Tarot and Astrology. The question for me than became how can we turn astrology into a craft project?
What I came up with is astrology stones. There is two ways to do this: zodiac or planets. To decide what is the best one to do; spend time planning on how it’s going to work for you. How are you going to cast them, how will you be reading them, and how will they make sense to you?
Materials:
Stones*- go rock hunting to find your own or buy them out of a floral department.
Paint Pen, paint, or nail polish
Sealer or clear paint
List of Planets and Zodiac glyph
Blank horoscope chart-either printed or hand drawn
Reference to planet, zodiac, and houses-this will help you read a cast
I’m going to give you belief lists of each Houses, Planets, and Zodiac, by no means does this touch on the full meanings of astrology. It should act as reference material use your own knowledge and instinct to help with readings.
Lists:
House Zodiac-Planet-House Meaning:
1 Aries-Mars-Physical appearance, first impressions
2 Taurus-Venus-Money, possessions, values
3 Gemini-Mercury-Communication, siblings, neighborhoods
4 Cancer-Moon-Motherhood, home, family
5 Leo-Sun-Creation, procreation, recreation
6 Virgo-Mercury-Work, duty, responsibility, service to others
7 Libra-Venus-Marriage, partnerships, intimate relationships
8 Scorpio-Pluto-Sex, death, other people’s money
9 Sagittarius-Jupiter-Philosophy, long-distance travel, higher education
10 Capricorn-Saturn-Ambition, status, career, public image, fathers & authority figures
11 Aquarius-Uranus-Social groups, causes, long-term thinking
12 Pisces-Neptune-Psychic ability, the occult, hidden places
(The houses you need all of this information as it will help defines each house)
Planets-Planet Meanings:
Sun-Energy, enlightenment, radiance, active
Moon-Reflection, cycles, changes, receptive
Mercury-Speed, communications, commerce
Venus-Love, beauty, attraction, romance, fertility
Mars-War, self-defense, and aggression
Jupiter-Growth, expansion, luck, and enthusiasm
Saturn-Boundaries, limitations, discipline, tradition
Uranus-Freedom, rebellion, independence
Neptune-Illusion, glamour, sensitivity
Pluto-Death, regenerations, unavoidable changes
Zodiac-Zodiac Meanings:
Aries-Leadership, authority, influence
Taurus-Beauty, stability, comforts
Gemini-Communications, ideas, messages
Cancer-Protection, nurturing, home
Leo-Courage, determination, showmanship
Virgo-Health, cleanliness, prudence
Libra-Balance, fairness, diplomatic
Scorpio-Mysteries, darker aspects of life, death, sex
Sagittarius-Adventurer, philosopher, independent
Capricorn-Business, career, social standing
Aquarius-Visionaries, revolutionaries, futuristic dreamers
Pisces-Restless, Imaginative, artistic, changeable
This is pretty self-explanatory at this point, after you pick out either the zodiac or planets. Or maybe both if you’re new to the whole astrology idea. This would allow a horoscope chart to become a physical representation for you, letting you touch and move the stones around.
Paint or write the glyph on each stone; one stone per glyph. If you’re doing the zodiac you may want to use red for fire, blue for water, yellow for air, and green for earth. If you’re ambitious and neat with your painting you can add a symbol showing if that zodiac is Cardinal, Fixed, or Mutable.
After you paint your stones and cover them in clear coat. Once they are dry, you’re ready to start casting your astrology stones! Note: keep in mind that the center of the horoscope chart where all the houses meet is the Earth or our place on the Earth.
For me, it made more sense to use planets only; casting them over a blank horoscope chart. Focus on your questions, cast your stones like you would dice, and you’re ready to read. If some stones fall outside of your chart, don’t worry just ignore them as part of the reading. This is not meant to be a full on horoscope reading, it’s going to give you a snapshot of a question. The major bonus to this is it will help you learn astrology.
Focus first on which planets land in which house. Next which ones are closes to you (the center of the chart)? Which ones are outlaying? Is there a pattern? If you’re deep into astrology you can use the aspects and angles. Does the house the stones land it make sense to your question or is it trying to get you to refocus your attention elsewhere. Are the stones clustered together? Is there one part of the chart more covered than another? Is the void area telling you anything?
Example reading: What do I (Tabi) need to focus on right now?
Looking over the cast, I’m struck by the fact most all of the stones are either in the first house or at the top of the chart, that three planets aren’t in the chart: Mars, Neptune, and Pluto. Also none of the planets are in their own houses. Let’s look at the rest of the reading:
Starting at the first House of Aries, which deals with Leadership. I see that there is the Sun, Moon and Jupiter. The Moon and Sun are close together both being luminaries tells me that it’s trying to light my way. To help guide me on my path, but I’m going to need some luck (Jupiter) to help reach my goal.—I’m trying to get a promotion at work so I can go back down to one job.
The next one is Uranus on the Cusp+ of Leo and Virgo, technically it’s actually outside of the chart. Yet being this close its suggestion that I should curb my traditional self. I’m a Virgo, we’re annoyingly OCD with the Cusp of Leo also implies showing off that needs to stop.
Mercury (communication) is in Scorpio (death, mysteries), this honestly isn’t making much sense to me. I admit that I don’t have the most faith in my job when it comes to fairness when it comes to promotions. Or it could simply mean that the news will happen quickly and I won’t know about it.
Saturn (limitations, boundaries) in Sagittarius (philosophy, adventure). I need to sort out what’s important to me, my need for knowledge and expressing myself. Or my need to support and help provide for my sons and myself? Limits of Saturn combined with the adventurous nature of Sagittarius is telling me that I need to evaluate what is important to me and what I truly want out of this promotion.
Venus
(possessions, value, beauty) balanced on the cusp of Sagittarius
(philosophy, adventure) and Capricorn (social standing, status). This
planet’s positions is already giving me an idea of what it is that
I want out of this promotion. I want to help not only provide for
myself, but I want to raise my status at my job. I also want some of
the finer things in life, even though this all started out with
simply wanting only one job again.
-A quick follow up to this reading which was done in July. I did in fact get the promotion.
Have fun playing around with this. You can check where the zodiac is sitting at this point in time turning your chart so that the first house is showing what sun sign we are in. As we’re in August the first part is Leo; the second part is Virgo. Then first house than becomes Leo, the second Virgo, etc until you move around the entire zodiac wheel.
*You can use crystals, all stones are associated with different planets so shouldn’t be that hard to find an array of stones and gems to do your readings with. I wouldn’t suggest painting them. Or like I’m going to do, just make a master list using the stones I’ve already got a hand.
+Cusps
are when a planet is on the line between two houses. Or when two
zodiac signs are about to change, as it changes from year to year.
Here is a simple casting chart that you can print and use.
Click to Enlarge
The chart used in the sample reading is from Enhancing your Mind, Body, Spirit published by IMP, INC Summertime Publishing, Ltd 2002