Containing the Imperceptible
How to Get Saturn Retrograde on Side
Today, June 11th, Mercury finally breaks free of Taurus for home in Gemini today and Pluto retrogrades back in Capricorn. However, underlying these two ingresses is Saturn in Pisces slowing down significantly this week, getting ready to retrograde on June 17th and remain so for four months — which it does every year.
If you haven’t seen it yet, on Instagram, I riffed on the how Friday’s moon in Pisces transit to Saturn would be helpful in highlighting the issues that might come up during the retrograde. Check it out here.
This week is a great time to take stock of what structures / projects / work you’ve found to contain your creativity, dreams, ideals, connection to source, and ability to be a conduit of source into manifest / perceived reality. Ask yourself:
Which of these will stand the test of time?
Which will bring BOTH earthly, material as well as spiritual, universal benefits both to yourself AND reverberate through your relationships, communities, and eventually through to the world?
Which of these truly enables you to RECEIVE in order to SHARE?
Because of the stationary nature of Saturn this week, this is about standing still and dialing into your awareness — especially of your perception and use of time.
Saturn is the planet of time in the sign of timelessness … one of the primary lessons (for my money and mileage at least) of this transit and placement is learning when and how to enter into “flow states”. Saturn in Pisces is about learning how to properly contain that which is imperceptible — time.
This retrograde will provide a natural period to CULL your docket so that what you focus your attention on will both teach and enable you to create that timelessness in the time you invest.
“The task at hand is to eliminate the distractions that create resistance and hence disconnect you from grace and block your ability to effortlessly channel light and grace into the world.”
With that said, oh look! You have an amazing tool at the ready … astrology.
Astrology + Time Management
The ancient origins of astrology lie in our ancestors’ need to predict season shifts in order to organize life and death matters such as the planting and harvesting of crops as well as a search for meaning in omens that correlated with celestial cycles — aka time management and decision making.
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There are numerous contemporary schools of thought around time management and optimization along with the requisite apps and planners. However, below are ways that I often deploy myself as well as work through with clients in our 1:1 work.
Hopefully, they provide a more “seasonal” and “biorhythmic” option for you.
Energy Mapping + Time Blocking
Energy Assessment
Many moons ago, I randomly decided to take an online Design Thinking course that helps those going through career pivots to use the Design Thinking methodology to get unstuck from dysfunctional beliefs around career and life trajectory. (Btw, the app that I’m developing utilizes several of their methods — more on that hopefully soon!)
One of the techniques that was taught was one of “Energy Assessment” that optimizes time management and enables you to go through your week with more vitality.
Below is a summary of the method taught by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (I do not claim ownership or authorship of this method).
List your top 10 energy added or subtracted activities.
On an X- (the activities) and Y-Axis (positive = energizes you, negative = tires you out) graph, place your activities as they occur throughout your day and/or week.
Now, re-evaluate how you might re-sequence these activities in a way that can leave you energy positive rather than negative at the end of the day or week.
June books are open!
If you’d like to get the most out of the events and opportunities from this outgoing Mercury Retrograde season, please consider scheduling a reading.
In The Design Thinking Life Playbook , there is an even more in-depth energy mapping method that involves journaling your energy expenditure over two weeks to identify how activities trigger your entry into a “flow” state. Doing so also shows how your energy naturally ebbs and flows during the week. This then allows you to schedule activities according to what’s available in your tank — and guides you to avoid scheduling something that really depletes you on days/during times of day when you’re running on fumes.
CHRONOTYPE
The other way to map energy is to explore and discover your chronotype.
In short, chronotypes map out our circadian rhythms. The different types show which times of day are optimal for which activities — e.g., activities needing high executive function, physical exertion, rest, etc.
Try exploring your chronotype by experimenting with scheduling and time blocking tasks according to its recommendations.
Either way, this is step one.
Step It Up with Astrology!
Planetary Days & Hours
The activities we engage in fall under some kind of planetary and house rulership (and sometimes multiple planets and houses — but let’s keep it simple for now). Regardless of how well versed (or not) you are in astrology, you can use these to bolster your focus and engagement with a task.
Here are some examples to start with:
SUN | Accessing and Shining Your Divine Spark
Experiencing and expressing our individuality, creativity, and identity
MOON | Nurture, Nourishment, Security
Regaining homeostasis, allowing ourselves to be nurtured by our close relationships and environment, bathing, making our house a home, feeding ourselves and those we love, interacting with mother or maternal figures, attending to female health issues
MERCURY | The Mind Interfaces with the Manifest World
Traveling short distances or for work, communicating, learning new skills, engaging in business transactions, reviewing contracts, organizing, making things efficient, research, reading, following and satisfying your curiosity, gossiping, chatting, interacting with colleagues, problem solving, journaling, knitting, crafts that involve manual dexterity
VENUS | Becoming Conscious of the Divine and Self through the Senses and Relationship
Interacting with beauty, engaging your senses, creating stability, attracting material and financial prosperity, resetting the balance in relationships, negotiating (especially rates, terms, or peace), pampering (yourself or others), shopping for things that elicit enjoyment, gardening for pleasure, going on a date, interacting with women
MARS | Experiencing the Self Through Energy Dispersal
Taking care of dogs, cutting your nails (or hair), shaving, breaking up, asserting your boundaries or rights, engaging in conflict (hopefully productively), baking, sharpening knives, high impact workouts, sex, basically anything that makes you sweat and exert a lot of energy, “going for it”, repaying debts, philanthropic giving to benefit soldiers, veterans, or dogs, interacting with siblings or men
JUPITER | Becoming Conscious of the Divine and Self By Being Transported from the Same Old Same Old
Long distance travel, going on pilgrimage, spiritual retreat, publishing, mentoring, exercising and sharing your expertise, interacting with father or paternal figures, speculative ventures, anything that requires relying on and believing in your luck/intervention of a higher power, prayer, meditation, studying concepts, philosophy, spiritual systems, broadcasting, connecting to the collective consciousness, philanthropic giving (especially to organizations benefiting children), vision boarding, interacting with children
SATURN | Experiencing the Self Through Limitations, Boundaries, Humilty, and Service
Fulfilling your duty, setting boundaries and expectations, taking care of cats, maintenance, dealing with bureaucracy, volunteering/being of service, creating budgets and spreadsheets, setting (career) goals and quantifiable metrics, being held accountable/adulting, philanthropic giving to the elderly or un-housed, working with and honoring the elderly, fasting, decluttering and eliminating excess
This is by no means and exhaustive list. Many of my colleagues have written at greater length and depth than there is scope for here.
The above list describe the “natural” or archetypal expression of these planetary energies in human activity.
Incorporate Your Chart
If you’re acquainted with your natal chart, you also know that each house of the chart governs different areas of your life. Here’s a quick rundown of the houses (again also NOT an exhaustive list of the matters governed by each house):
FIRST | The Self
Your Unconscious Bias, The World You Seek to Confirm, Your Body
SECOND | Resources
What you need to exist and thrive, income, diet, the value and values you live by, moveable possessions
THIRD | Courage
Recognizing your fears and summon courage to deal with them, colleagues, your neighborhood, skills education, entrepreneurial ventures, close friends, communication
FOURTH | Your Happiness
Where you go to feel completely safe and accepted, ancestors, familial/inherited patterns, father’s side of the family, real estate, immovable possessions
FIFTH | What Makes Embodied Life Worth Living
Pleasure, children, fun, gambling, sex for fun, your unique genius/gifts, lovers, speculative ventures, gambling, the good karma you were born with, art, artists
SIXTH | Changing Diapers and Burping Baby (or the Shit Sandwich You Have to Eat)
Debts that cannot be outrun, the routine tasks needed to maintain the gifts of the Fifth House, managing your resources (body, time, physical resources, money), work done for money, dealing with direct reports, dealing with dis-ease and illness, dealing with enemies, organization
SEVENTH | 1:1 Relationships, Clients, Contracts, the Public
Creating and maintaining proper boundaries and expectations in relationships, dealing with the Public, getting married, entering into contracts, assessing client relationships, known enemies
EIGHTH | Intimacy + Trust
The processes through which you learn to trust and be trusted, the transformations required to share resources, shared resources, your partner’s money, your client’s money, sudden transformations, occult matters, research, dealing with secrets or confidential information, taxes, insurance, inheritance
NINTH | Wisdom + Expertise
Consulting with gurus, experts, launching campaigns or endeavors, travel abroad (especially for spiritual or educational purposes), university education, mentors, mentoring, inculcation into society, interpreting dreams
TENTH | Engaging in the Social Contract
Authority figures/bosses, career, what we service we provide society/our community in exchange for participation, social and public persona, branding, working for a corporation, the government
ELEVENTH | Wealth
Wealth as that which allows us to become conscious of Spirit through perception of our energy expressed in the manifest world, stakeholders, benefactors, engagement with humanitarian organizations, subsuming personal genius to contribute to a greater mission, social networks
TWELFTH | Being a Foreigner in a Foreign Land
Removing yourself from accepted identity projections, traveling somewhere where you know no one nor speak the language, hidden wealth, hidden enemies, the ways we self undo, expenditures and sacrifices we can never recoup, oblivion, yoga, meeting “God”, experiencing and moving beyond delusions
In your personal natal chart, each of these houses is ruled by a different sign and each sign is ruled by one of the planets. If you have to engage in an activity that belongs to one of these houses, then look to see which sign and planet combination rule it. For extra credit, knowing the condition of this planet can also help you get some added support.
Now Put It Together
Take your list from the Energy Assessment and figure out which planet corresponds to the activity.
Then apply astrology to boost the energy available to you achieve this activity and to get optimal results while also ending up in the energy positive part of your graph.
How? Combine the recommendations of your chronotype with planetary days and hours:
LIST OF PLANETARY DAYS
Monday | MOON
Tuesday | MARS
Wednesday | MERCURY
Thursday | JUPITER
Friday | VENUS
Saturday | SATURN
Sunday | SUN
To get planetary hours for your location, try this link.
PLANETARY HOURS CALCULATOR
For, example, try to do all of your Mercury related tasks on Wednesday if possible and in alignment with your chronotype recommendations.
However, say you need to get an email out to your boss ASAP but it’s Tuesday — and you need her to approve of the plan you’re proposing and it can’t wait until tomorrow! Find the nearest planetary hour for Mercury, Venus, or Jupiter — or the ruler of your Third or Tenth House, whichever planet is “stronger” in your chart.
There’s More!
Phases of the Moon
Okay. ANAK. Get real that is way to involved and complicated. I’ll wait for your damn app at this point.
Enter the phases of the moon which we’ll cover, appropriately enough when we head in Cancer season in a week or so.
THE TAKEAWAY
Using celestial cycles to manage and maximize your time and attention is literally astrology’s original purpose. To do so, you don’t need a complicated or complex knowledge base or system. Begin by mastering the basics of what planets support which activities, you can time actions to use the available planetary support..
If this newsletter in any way feels like it’s been of service, please consider making a donation that will enable me to keep writing this content here.
Lots of light,
Anak.
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