Hallo bb,
We’re here in the final few days of Virgo season and I am tired. How are you? This month, this lunar cycle (since the New Moon in Virgo on 8/27) did not go how I expected it to go. What I thought would be a season of cheeky pleasure (or just some cathartic laughs and closure to a weird summer) was filled instead with heartbreak and anxiety, and also some wonderful things (all surprises, nothing planned). Lots of long walks with no real destination. Learning through conversation. Less process and more processing.
From a forecasting perspective, September looked like a hopeful balm in the whirlpool of highs and lows that has been 2022. No “storms” per se. But often it’s only when the hard transits die down that we’re able to work through what came before. And to be real, was a calm really to be expected from a season that began with a New Moon square Mars? Ouch.
Mercury is retrograde in Libra through October 2nd, and for now, the Sun, Venus and Mars are all in Mercury ruled signs. From many angles, under Mercury’s guise, we’re being forced to go back instead. There’s a lot of necessary untangling in this moment. Things that have been on our minds since Fall 2021 are reaching the point of make or break.
The Sun, Venus and Mars are also all in mutable signs, giving everything a double bodied nature. Idk about you but my brain is scattered. I cannot focus on anything. I’ve started so many books and finished … none of them … yet!
But if you’ve read/are reading/or want to talk about: Polysecure (Jessica Fern), The Order of Time (Carlo Rovelli), Vladimir (Julia May Jonas), or No one belongs here more than you (Miranda July, which I last read in probably 2009?! and picked up in a Mercury retrograde related nostalgia spiral last week)— please let me know!
Other things I’m thinking about:
IRL events!
So fun! & so novel! Who knew?
Doing readings in person at Brick Aux in Williamsburg last weekend was sooooooo much fun. Thanks so much to everyone who came out, and to the lovely Theresa Buchheister for setting it all up! I want to do more IRL readings like this so let me know if you have a space / a place / an event / an idea so we can set it up!
More coming up! If you’re around NYC on 9/25 — please come out to Live the Process (102 Franklin St in TriBeCa) for the debut of Moon Moment! —a collab I’m starting with my dear friend Chloe Kernaghan. It’s a movement and journaling workshop for THE MOON! I’ll give you all a download on the New Moon in Libra and the lunar cycle to come and Chloe will lead a much needed yoga practice to help us all reset. Then we’ll journal about it! Snacks will be provided! It’s in a beautiful space! Please come! I’m as excited as the cow jumping over the moon about this !!!
More things I’m thinking about!
The astrology of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard “donating the company to the Earth”
If you weren’t very on top of the story that brought a wholesome calm to the news cycle last week, here’s the TL;DR:
“In a move with no precedent in the business world,” via the New York Times, “[Yvon] Chouinard, along with his family, have forfeited all their shares in Patagonia.”
Yvon Chouinard is an eccentric rock climber turned (self-identified) reluctant billionaire (press note: he drives a Subaru).
Patagonia was slowly born out of Chouinard’s humble business efforts—some date back as early as 1957 when he was 19—like making pitons (metal spikes meant for climbing) from a coal-fired forge and selling them out of the trunk of his car. Doing all this while he was subsisting on cat food and living that “Golden Age of Yosemite” rock climber lifestyle.
Since 2002 (the last time the North Node was in Taurus and the South Node was in Scorpio), Patagonia has been donating 1% of annual sales to the environment through a charity founded by Chouinard called 1% for the Planet.
In August (just after the conjunction of Mars, Uranus and the North Node in Taurus — an aggressive act of fate), Chouinard along with his family transferred Patagonia’s voting stock (2% of the company) into a trust and the remaining 98% into a non profit (a 501c4) called the Holdfast Collective; both moves meant to release Patagonia’s entire worth ($3 billion) into climate change efforts.
With the announcement of this shift, Chouinard declared that “Earth is our only shareholder.”
Yvon Chouinard was born on November 9, 1938 in Lewiston, ME. The birth time is unknown but bringing up his chart, the time isn’t necessary to see that this guy has a lot going on right now.
Chouinard is 83 years old (turning 84 in November) and going through a transit that everyone experiences should they be lucky enough to live to 84: the Uranus Return.
Uranus is radical. When we experience Uranus transits, we must change. The Uranus square at 21, the Uranus opposition at 42, and the Uranus return at 84 speak to the human experience of accepting our inner freak through various seasons of life. On a more personal level, we can only also experience Uranus transits to our natal planets or angles which bring rapid change to particular areas of life. New partners enter and exit. Career trajectories pivot or explode. Creativity blossoms. Identity evolves. Sexuality gets freakier. Social circles abruptly shift. Uranus can destabilize, but it never leaves you without options. When one thing goes away, another thing replaces it in no time, like a flash of lightning. Catch that electricity in a bottle or wait until the next storm. There are also those born with Uranus prominently placed in their natal chart. These are people who live life as a Promethean fire starter—which sometimes, yes, makes them agents of chaos—constantly stealing fire from the gods to keep everyone else moving.
Yvon Chouinard is not only experiencing his Uranus return, he’s also having Uranus hit his natal Sun (and nodal axis) by transit, and was also born with a prominent Uranus placement. He hits all three marks for Promethean impact. Of course the news about Patagonia has been (for 2022, when numbness is the norm) earth shaking.
There’s also some valid critique of Chouinard’s effort (highlighted in this piece from Bloomberg and this one from Quartz) re: the family actually skirting some larger tax obligations, gaining political lobbying power and effectively retaining control of the company (that is theoretically being “given to the earth”) through it. There really are no good billionaires. Even if it would be *so cute* if Chouinard was one. But then again, is Yvon Chouinard as humble as his story makes him out to be? His chart begs to differ.
Chouinard was born with the Sun in Scorpio conjunct Rahu, the lunar North Node—a point of excess, hunger, desire, and larger-than-life presence. Yes, our guy Yvon lives a pretty chill life, but it’s a pretty chill life that everyone knows about. Those born with the Sun conjunct the North Node can occasionally come off as full of themselves or preachy, but also for them, nothing is ever enough. It’s an imperative for them that their identity reaches others, that their impact is felt. Sure, it usually requires a big ego to make these kind of waves, but that big presence in the room is often what gets the rest of us moving. Eleanor Roosevelt, Jason Alexander, Matt Berninger (from The National), Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and Nina Simone all have this placement. Something that all of these people share is living loudly. As observers, we see all of them. Even the exhaustion and raggedness. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
This move is also as radical as it is controversial because Uranus is a planet, not a political affiliation. The Uranian impulse encourages us to stray from the norm, but not every Uranus transit is going to start a literal revolution. Not every Uranian person is running an anarchist cookbook club at the nudist colony. Sometimes Uranus just pushes us a litttttle bit to the left (or, unfortunately, a liiiiittttle bit to the right). As the New York Times headline reads, this move is “unprecedented.” That’s a keyword for Uranus. You can count on change, but you don’t know what kind of change it will be.
Another thing I’m thinking about —
As I mentioned above, Mercury retrograde has found me nostalgically reading No one belongs here more than you, the debut short story collection by Miranda July (2007). I read this collection during a languid summer between college semesters (probably the hazy summer of 2009), and have clung to a line from it, “What a terrible mistake to let go of something wonderful for something real” ever since.
This Mercury retrograde is in Libra. Miranda July is part of the Pluto in Libra generation (1972-1983) is the generation of tastemakers. This generation came of age and made the 00’s what they were. Defined that certain je ne sais quoi that we call “hipster” or “emo” or “indie.” Something else that came out of that generation? Death Cab for Cutie. Who just released a new album (?!?!) on Friday. No one asked for Asphalt Meadow. One wonders what Ben Gibbard has left to cry sing about, and yet, I listened to the whole thing (on a Private Spotify Session thank you very much) because why not continue to engage with the body of work?
Another dance with the nostalgia devil I’ve done this week is revisiting Grizzly Bear’s Shields (2012). An album that was, in some ways, a death knell for the “hipster” “era” (whatever that was). The album came out 10 years ago this week. Grizzly Bear is also made up of members of the Pluto in Libra generation.
Libra is the sign of balance, beauty, taste. This retrograde has me revisiting my influences. The Pluto in Libra generation has a lot to teach us about taste making—an art that dare I say we’ve lost touch with. On Thursday (9/22), Libra season begins, and then we have a New Moon in Libra (9/25) then Venus joins the party in Libra (9/29) before there is eventually a Venus cazimi at the final degree of Libra (10/23). There’s plenty of opportunity this fall to get back to art, beauty and inspiration. I’m thinking a lot about how the Pluto in Libra Generation can guide us back to slow taste.
Final thought:
Why do we celebrate boring milestones like 1 year, 5 year, 10 year, 25 year anniversaries? Why not celebrate timing that actually matters —
2 years - Mars’ synodic cycle / proof that something has endurance (and a good marker of whether a relationship will actually last last)
7 years - a Saturn square / proof that there’s something to stand on
12 years - a Jupiter return / proof that what once brought us joy will bring us joy again
That’s all for now!
the tl;dr is:
-Virgo season was chaotic (& maybe so was this email)
-Yves Chouinard is Uranus incarnate
-if you’re in NYC, come to Moon Moment this weekend!
-if you want to talk about how all the upcoming Libra action is hitting your chart, book a reading!
More soon xoxo, Jaime