There are a few different prisms through which you can initiate yourself into zodiacal wisdom. The most obvious option is through the lens of your birth chart, learning about planets, aspects, and houses based on your narcissistic explorations. This is a valid pathway. I’ve done it. I’ve done it with myself, my crushes, and my celebrity crushes. When I was 10, I was desperate to find ways in which Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, and I could finally make it work. That romantic desperation was one of the touchstones of my present astrological expertise.
But if I could start over, I would begin with the elements, the most basic basics. In Western astrology, the 12 zodiac signs are divided into four different elements: air, water, fire, and earth. Each has its own traits and associations; the three signs and element rules incorporate those properties in different ways.
By understanding the elements, you’ll have a good grasp of every sign. Doing so will put the entire wheel of the zodiac at your fingertips. From there, imagining the planets in every sign becomes (kind of) easy. Even compatibility, which we’ll get to later, becomes simpler. Earth and water get along, fire and air get along, water snuffs fire, air floats above the earth … It’s like a cosmic game of Pokémon or Rock, Paper, Scissors.
The woman who first introduced me to this clever approach was, of course, an air sign. Air signs are intellectual and communicative. They are experts in the ephemeral, the things of this world that lack physical form, and this is especially true of language and information. The air element is our breath, the most necessary and invisible function of our human body. Air doesn’t exist in the Chinese zodiac as a classical element, but instead, it becomes qi, the ultimate force that resides in everything. On a Wiccan altar, the Air signifies the East, and can be represented by everything from a feather to incense; because there is no concrete material form, even in worship, the Air is untouchable and immaterial.
As air is formless, lacking a concrete body, air signs are especially vulnerable to their own personal projections. Air signs are unlimited by space, and can drift everywhere, from places to people; as such, they’re vulnerable to overindulging in absolute fantasy. They love theory over practice and can get caught in endlessly thinking or talking something out, instead of doing it.
The three air signs are Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. For now, let’s think of each of them as each representing a different stage of emotional and spiritual growth — of the three, Gemini comes first on the zodiac calendar, and Aquarius comes last, making it the most mature. So we have a baby, naïve variation on air in Gemini; an adolescent who wants to try it all in Libra; and a cranky, old soul in Aquarius.
GEMINI
Gemini is the twins. I think the areas in which zodiac signs have the worst reputations are really the qualities we tend to resent the most in ourselves, and poor Gemini is a perpetual victim of that unjust slander. In one of my favorite films, Paprika, a supporting character reveals himself as a villain, splitting into twin heads, his seam rupturing with cerulean butterflies. “I never knew this side of you!” shouts the heroine, in utter repulsion. “I have many sides,” replies our doubled antagonist, “and that’s what makes me human!”
A few famous Gemini Suns (who weren’t former presidents) include Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Kanye West, Che Guevara, Anne Frank, Josephine Baker, Tupac Shakur, and Angelina Jolie. Not knowing them personally, the most obvious commonalities are the malleability of their identities over time, even in the public consciousness, even in death. Sometimes that duality is terrifying, but more often than not, it’s a beautiful strength and survival skill.
LIBRA
Libra is the scale. Wouldn’t perfect balance be nice? Wouldn’t it be bliss to have it all, in theory? It’s an impossible reality, but that doesn’t stop Libra from seeking that ideal. Again, this Venusian energy can manifest as a shallow obsession with appearances, but it can also embody a deep understanding of the grandest and abstract measures of beauty — rhythm, poetics, and the golden mean. Libra represents an aspirational beauty or an inspirational splendor. Libra longs for justice, even in the face of the most unfair, compromised systems.
AQUARIUS
Aquarius is the water bearer. This often confuses people, including Aquarians, into believing it’s a water sign. But Aquarius is most definitely an air sign, probably the most ethereal and abstract of the three. If Gemini relates to self-identity and Libra relates to partnership, Aquarius takes a giant leap into outer space, relating to a universal understanding of air values. Aquarius is concerned with the bigger picture, the large-scale concepts that dreams are made of but can seldom be contained in waking reality. For this reason, Aquarians are just as likely to be involved in larger humanitarian missions as they are to ghost from daily interactions. Their preoccupation with theory often stands in the way of their ability to connect with the present, pressing needs.
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