Answering Blogging Questions With An Astrological Twist

I love blogging. I also love astrology. And I love to spot connections, contrast, compare, mix things up. So I thought I’d answer some questions about blogging using astrology.

This may get very complicated, confusing, and I may lose the point and plot, but that’s okay, I’m at home in strange waters.

The questions about blogging which I’m going to be answering come from Rory of A guy Called Bloke and K9 Doodlepip:

Blog Series Questions Recap

He’s working on a project for his blog which he hopes will be something that the blogging community will enjoy participating in, and he’s been asking questions of us bloggers to help with his inventive endeavour.

Pisces by Amrit Brar Illustration – Shitty Horoscopes, Book IV, Resolutions

My personal Sun sign is a skeptical old goat, who tends to view the world of human with a cynically raised eyebrow, and would, upon hearing about Rory’s project, probably say something along the lines of:

“Good luck getting the blogging community to support you in your project, bloggers are like all the other creatures in The Little Red Hen fable, they want to eat the bread once you’ve finished making it but they don’t want to help you make the bread.”

I’d include myself in the “all the other creatures” group. My school report card always had – Does not participate enough – written on it. I would give myself the same report when it comes to blogging. Whenever I see a blogger asking for help for a community project… I slink away, muttering nope, that’s not for me.

I did that twice in the last couple of days. But I am participating a bit with Rory’s project.

Perhaps because my blog’s Sun sign is Pisces, which likes to immerse itself in the consciousness of the collective… but only when it feels like it.

I’m answering the blogging questions backwards, from last to first. I’ll be using the natal chart of this blog to do so rather than my own natal chart.

the natal chart of An Upturned Soul generated by Astrodienst

I have answered some of these questions before, but not from this angle.

I’ll be using my own unprofessional mistake-making mess version of astrology, with excerpts from Astrodienst’s Astro Click Portrait interpretations. The “Youth Portrait” extracts go well with my blog which will be 6 yrs old in March.

Have you found that maybe your audience has expectations of your style and personality and perhaps they have stereotyped or pigeon holed you at all into one genre?

No. I thought they did for a while, felt trapped by it, but then I realised that I was the one who thought they did and thus I had trapped myself. So I freed myself.

In a natal chart The MC (midheaven) represents the point at which you are most visible to others. It’s your Public Status.

The Sabian Symbol for the degree of my blog’s MC is – A Teacher Gives New Symbolic Forms To Traditional Images.

Most of the top posts on my blog are popular because I offered a new spin on a subject. I went off the beaten track. Those posts have a life of their own and get shared online, often in forums by members saying – read this, it helped me because it gives a different perspective.

Uranus is conjunct my blog’s MC, from the 9th house side of it. The 9th house represents philosophy amongst other things, and philosophy is basically the sharing of experience and perspective, what you’ve learned from living life.

People should be prepared to encounter in you an extreme individualist. Even while you are very young, you insist on doing everything your own way, and you strongly resist any pressures to conform.

On the other hand you can be very creative with this aspect, because you have much originality and can see life in ways that others are blind to.

Teachers might find you quite difficult to deal with, not only because you insist on breaking rules, but also because you are very restless and hate to sit still for long.

Eventually you should learn when it is worthwhile to rebel and when it is not. However, adults who want to restrain you should not try to do so by force.

Uranus conjunct MC – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

Has your blog evolved to accommodate the desires of your readership in any way? To the point that it detracts you from your initial creative path? Do you write things only for your audience that you normally wouldn’t write?

Yes. Thanks to the feedback and sharing of themselves of those who have read my posts, my blog has evolved and so have I.

My initial creative path for this blog was to create a place where I could share myself, all of me, the good, the bad, and the uncategorised.

I never write about anything that I’m not interested in personally, however I’m open to trying something out just to find out whether I should do that or not.

In astrology the 11th house is where the individual meets community, where your creativity merges with the creations of others.

Jupiter in Gemini (the sign of communication of ideas) is in the 11th house of my blog’s chart, and it also aspects the MC.

You will always be able to bring people into your life who can help you move forward in pursuit of your life goals. And you will help them in return. You know how to make a group of people work harmoniously so that everyone can get some part of what they want.

You are psychologically and emotionally sound, and you do not have neurotic habits that work against you.

Often other people will put their resources at your disposal, because they realize that you can do more with what they have than they can.

While you are young, this aspect will bring you sudden opportunities that will help you get where you want to go in life. You will get along with superiors and authority figures, because you make it clear to them that you want to learn and are willing to put aside your own ideas and desires until you are wiser and more mature. Some people with this aspect know what career they want to pursue very early in life.

Jupiter sextile MC – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

Now how influenced are you by your readership? Also how does that affect your decision making with regards your personality within your blog?

All relationships, ideally, should flow both ways. You give and receive, and receive as you give. The more I feel welcome and appreciated by others, the more I welcome and appreciate others. When I feel rejected or attacked, I reject, defend and attack.

I go with the flow of me, letting all the facets show and share as they need to. I sometimes temper the flow especially when I’m overwhelmed or when I think I may end up overwhelming others.

In astrology the ‘meet and greet’ personality, the first impression we make on others, is shown by the rising sign/ascendant (AC or Asc).

My blog’s ascendant is Leo. The Sabian Symbol for the degree of my AC is – A Formally Dressed Elderly Man Stands Near Trophies He Brought Back From A Hunting Expedition. 

That made me chuckle… I do love sharing links to interesting things I’ve found on the internet.

You like to be the center of attention, to appear strong, confident and dominant, even if something is bothering you.

You like to be the leader, and you can be a good one as long as you remember that leadership is a responsibility as well as power and privilege.

You can be stubborn, especially if your pride is involved. You are idealistic, and people have to prove to you that they have integrity.

You like to have rich and elegant things that you can show off to others. But remember that just because something impresses people, it is not necessarily good. You need to learn the difference.

Others may or may not see you as beautiful or handsome, but as you grow up you will develop a regal bearing that will make others feel that you are dependable. Many people will like you, and most will also respect you.

Leo rising – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

How Specifically Unique … are you to your blog’s personality today?

I am very unique – I’ve been told that so many times that it must be true.

I’m still not sure if it’s a compliment or criticism, mainly I think it’s an observation to be viewed from a drop in an oceanic vastness perspective. In other words – we’re all very unique.

My particular uniqueness just tends to hit people like an unidentified flying object which may be an alien but hopefully is just a pie to the face, so it’s a bit more noticeable… in your face. Splat!

I used to use this pic of me taken by me as my header image.

In astrology uniqueness, especially if it’s of the UFO alien pie to the face, wearing weird clothes, doing odd things, and saying crazy shit kind tend to be a Uranus thing.

Uranus aspects my blog’s Asc.

Even at a very early age, you insist on your right to be yourself. You may or may not be particularly rebellious, but as you grow up you do need a lot of room, without restrictions.

You like to find things out for yourself instead of being told about them or reading about them in books. The reason for this preference is that you see and experience everything you encounter quite differently from others, which gives you a great creative inventive drive. The old ways never seem satisfactory to you.

You like to be with other people who share this attitude, rather than with people who are afraid of change or who are totally predictable. You like to be excited by your friends and, within reason, startled by new and exciting ideas.

No matter what comes at you from other people, you can take it. You are very adaptable and can handle changes very quickly.

Uranus trine Asc – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

How Much Time … do you spend in your blog?

Enough time to make a mess, not enough time to tidy it up.

I’ve shared this before, but here is a screenshot of my posting history from March 2018 to Feb 2019.

As you can see I didn’t spend much time on my blog last year until late Autumn/Winter.

The time I spend on my blog varies. When I am spending time here, it tends to be focused and intense. I give it my all in the moment.

In astrology work ethic, routine, daily schedules, rituals, and stuff like that is shown by the 6th house.

My blog has Pluto in Capricorn in the 6th house.

You approach work with great intensity, and you prefer tasks that involve you completely. You like to shut out everything else and simply be involved in what you are doing.

Also you prefer to work by yourself, and you do not care to have people interfering with the way you do things. You should be careful of your health, for otherwise you will have a number of serious health crises in your life.

Pluto in this position can be a sign that you might work in some area involving investigation, research, psychology or secret projects.

Pluto in the 6th house – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

What do you want ultimately from your blog?

My blog has given me far more than I ever expected. I had no plans for it when I created it, other than for it to be a place where I could express myself as is and see what happened when I did that.

It’s been an amazing experience thus far, with many surprises… I think what I ultimately want is more of that.

The concept of want, of desire, of passionate goals, goes with Venus and/or Mars in the chart. Mars tends to go after what Venus wants.

In my blog’s chart, Venus is in Pisces (which is the same as my personal natal Venus) in the 8th house.

You enjoy your senses, and you want to experience the world as vividly and totally as possible.

You seem to be looking for a hidden dimension of the world that will transform your life completely. Often you will seek this dimension through relationships with others, which will be very intense and full of feeling.

Be careful not to be too possessive of your friends. Also, you shouldn’t choose your friends according to the advantages you will gain from their friendship.

While you are young, you should begin to take care of your health by not eating or drinking too much and by getting plenty of physical exercise.

Venus in the 8th house – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

In the future … where do you hope your blog will take you?

The other day I was reading and that gremlin in my mind turned the word – future – into – futile – which made me go hmmm…

I don’t think about the future of my blog at all. It’s very much a Be Here Now place for me.

Astrologically if I’m considering matters of the future, I tend to look at the North Node because it’s a point of karmic challenge. It says – this is what you’re here to learn.

The North Node of my blog’s chart is in Scorpio, just over the cusp of the 5th house – the house of creativity and creation.

The Sabian Symbol for my blog’s NN is – A Woman Draws Away Two Dark Curtains Closing The Entrance To A Sacred Pathway.

Ha! Someone said that my most recent header image looks like a curtain of hair with my face peeking out of it.

The Astro Click Portrait doesn’t include the North Node, so I’m going to share an excerpt from an excellent astrology post about it:

Explore your creativity. Study the imagination. Connect with children. Play! Love with your heart open! Take a risk.

North node in the fifth house life issues include your birth children, your inner child and the ways you creatively express. It’s also about how you give love to others and romantic love affairs too. It covers actions that involved risk taking, from gambling in Vegas, to playing the stock market. It’s also about vacations, parties, playing games, social activities and generally having fun.

No matter how foreign this sounds to you, these are the life issues to explore over the course of your lifetime. Questions around love affairs, enthusiasm, and how you create joy and pleasure in your life are included here. Also how you can manifest using your imagination. The 5th house is your uniqueness and how you express love to others. It’s about mastering one’s life, and manifesting what you want.

With a North Node in the fifth house, generously expressing your love, and exploring YOUR passions are the key to happiness. More than any other soul mission, your own children figure prominently (if you don’t want children, then what you birth creativly). The more you take risks, have fun and explore your passions, the easier you’ll achieve your goals (and meet your soulmate along the way).

More than any other, a North node in the fifth house supports risk taking. So act from your gut, and follow your hunches. This goes for gambling, the stock market and other speculative activities, too.
Embody the essence of your soul mission sign as you define and manifest your heart’s desires: this is the key.

Excerpt from North Node in the 5th house – Karen Black

If you have one what is your End Game?

The concept of having an End Game probably goes best with the ego, as the ego is the game player with an end in sight.

In astrology the ego is the Sun.

My blog’s Sun is in Pisces in the 9th house. It’s part of a stellium, a grouping of planets, so there’s a lot going on, but the Sun would see itself as the leader of the group.

You have a strong sense of curiosity, and you want all your questions answered as soon as possible. You are interested in studies that reveal the most about the world around you on a broad scale.

You are fascinated by anything concerning foreign and distant places; you want to travel and see the world.

You are tolerant of people’s faults and willing to ignore the bad side, as long as there is sufficient good in someone. You do not like people who are too critical or who see only the bad side of things.

Sun in 9th house – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

What inspires and motivates you?

Everything and everyone.

However I would say that what keeps this blog going the most is an undercurrent which is best described by the Italian word – grinta. Which is a steely, passionate, gritty determination to keep going. For me that is directed towards expressing what has been oppressed, suppressed, repressed.

The astro of the undercurrent is in the 4th house of roots, family, home, wherein reside Moon and Saturn conjunct in Scorpio.

This is a very important aspect, and its effects depend heavily on how your parents feel about you. Unless you have a great deal of emotional support from your parents, especially your mother, you will grow up feeling unworthy, doubting your abilities and being unable to live easily with your emotions.

You may have an unusual ability to control yourself very strictly, to sit on your feelings and make decisions according to reason alone. Just be sure to take your feelings about matters seriously as well, because they are important.

With this aspect you tend to refuse emotional help from others. You may feel that your own inner feelings are not important because they belong only to you. Even while you are young, you have a very “old” idea of self control and self discipline. You should control your feelings somewhat, but you should also express them.

Moon conjunct Saturn – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

What helps you … to be continually creative, inventive or imaginative with your blog?

My mind.

In astrology the mind is the realm of Mercury. My blog’s mind is represented by Mercury in Pisces in the 9th house.

It’s part of that grouping of planets with the Sun, and has a lot of aspects, connections shooting off on tangents hither and thither. It’s a very busy blogging mind.

When I write a post, I pause and ask – What shall we write about today? – the ‘we’ means the internal collective.

Usually one idea stands out from the rest, it’s what wants to be written about. My thoughts are often a mess, writing a post gives a structure, a container, in which to explore and make sense of the mess. It gives me a way to figure something out.

This aspect usually means that you have a sharp mind and great ability to understand ideas that aren’t obvious to others, but you will need a lot of discipline to make the most of it.

Otherwise, your thinking is likely to be rash and sloppy, and you will jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts.

You need to train yourself to work carefully with some kind of system. When you start a project, make a checklist of the steps that you might overlook and then make sure that you take care of each one.

On the plus side, you are able to put together ideas and understandings that to others seem unrelated. You are generous and optimistic, which will make people like you.

Mercury square Jupiter – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

Have you ever considered … the impact you have on people?

Yes. Throughout my life the ‘impact’ I’ve had on people has been an issue.

Blogging has given me much food for thought about the impact I have on others. Many people have commented on my posts, and have thanked me for sharing my life stories and perspectives because it has helped them.

At first when people started thanking me… it didn’t compute. I was so used to a very different type of reaction, being told about the negative impact I had. Being told that I had a positive impact threw me, it was mind-boggling and deeply impacting to me.

The main impact blogging has had on me has been one of healing old wounds. So I’m going to look at Chiron in my blog’s chart. Specifically Chiron conjunct Sun – the healing of the ego and its wounds.

Astrodienst’s Astro Click Portrait doesn’t include Chiron, so I’m going to share an excerpt from a brilliantly inspiring post.

Sun conjunct Chiron stands for authenticity, for the utmost expression of our uniqueness. Because the Sun when touched by Chiron cannot hide his wound, this process –  if handled well – ultimately leads to undying beauty and authenticity.

The process of learning about your true self, the process of becoming what you are meant to be, cannot be an easy one. Hence the wound.

Let’s take the example of pearls. Do you know how they are made? A parasite tries to work its way into the oyster. As a defense mechanism, a fluid is used to stop the intruder. Layer upon layer of coating is deposited, until a lustrous pearl is formed.

The process takes years. For years and years, the mussel has to fight an endangering force. And after years of struggling, something amazingly beautiful emerges.

So many times we fail to see that it is our shadow, our “handicap”, that is the keeper of our greatest power. But for this, you must find the strength to open the wound and pull out the core of the pain that is buried inside. You need to bring the pain out!

The path to self-mastery is about recognizing our inner pain and bringing it to the “next level”. Chiron triggers our deepest wounds and pains. But it is through our pain, that we have the opportunity to hold a larger perspective.

Excerpt from Sun Conjunct Chiron – Feed The Hungry Horses by Astro Butterfly

What has been the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far?

Getting attention, and learning to enjoy it instead of wanting to run away and hide from it.

My blog went through a period of getting a lot of traffic, attention, comments, shares, eyes watching my words, and while it was wonderful, it was also overwhelming and intense.

Here’s a screenshot of my blog’s all time views from birth to now:

I can be acutely sensitive. Sometimes that is a useful ability and sometimes it proves to be problematic.

Neptune in my blog’s chart explains the challenge well…ish. It’s in Pisces in the 8th house.

You are unusually interested in matters of the mind and in finding out what makes people tick.

You see mysterious forces at work in ordinary everyday events that others can see only the surface of. But you must be careful, because you can become rather morbidly obsessed and scared by the strange fantasies that you concoct.

Your fears may make it difficult to go about your daily affairs. It is important to realize that these fears are based on what is happening to your mind rather than on anything that exists in the outside world.

The best solution for all of these problems is to take up some activity that completely involves both your body and mind and absorbs the energy that would otherwise go into these negative emotional states.

Neptune in the 8th house – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

How … competitive are you?

Very. In an unconventional manner.

The more traditional and conventional manifestations of competitiveness don’t interest me. I tend to avoid competitions, unless I’m competing against myself, and have challenged myself in some way – such as to enter a competition because I avoid them.

Competitiveness is usually the domain of Mars in astrology.

Mars in my blog’s chart is in Pisces which brings a mellow ethereal quality to the god of war, in the 9th house which brings a tendency to charge out into the world to explore it, conjunct Mercury – it’s a mental activity.

I have Mars aspecting Mercury in my personal natal chart too. If my mind is passionately stirred, it’s game on. My mind is my weapon of choice, watch out for shurikens.

This aspect usually means that you get into arguments a lot. You decide on your position and jump to a conclusion, and then you will defend your point of view against all comers, whether or not you are right. The problem is that you act as if your beliefs are you; that is, if someone proves you wrong, you feel threatened.

You think for yourself and don’t need to get anyone else’s opinion in order to know how you feel. You do not particularly care if anyone else agrees with you, because you are most concerned with being true to yourself. And being an argumentative person, you always stand up for what you believe.

You have a sharp tongue, which you should use carefully, for the way you say things can start many a battle. You must learn to state your case without forcing others to defend themselves against you.

Mercury conjunct Mars – Interpretation by Robert Hand from “Youth Portrait”.

I’d really like to argue with that interpretation, but… my mind is telling me that it’s time to stop.

There are more blog series questions to answer… I’ll do them in another post, probably in a different manner.

If you made it from all the way up there to all the way down here, thank you very much for sharing your time with me and reading my post.

I hope you got something out of it.

My favourite posts to read, are ones in which I find something… it’s not always what the blogger thinks they are giving away. That’s part of the fun of exploring the places, people, and words in this world, you never know what your eyes will discover when they look and see.

Pisces by Amrit Brar Illustration – Shitty Horoscopes, Book XI, Illuminate