A client wrote to me earlier this month with the following query regarding her partner of several months. As they were approaching the first Sun square of their nascent relationship, naturally conflicts and questions about quality and trajectory had begun to arise.

The client noted that, while the Quesited, who is on the tail end of a somewhat recent divorce, was quite capable of being a boyfriend, she is more in need of a partner in the deepest sense of that word, and suspected that he has the capacity to become one but the level of work that he will need to do in order to become so is manifold. The client likewise explained that she and her partner had an open relationship, but there was some tacit disagreement between them as to where the line between consensual openness and infidelity lay. The Quesited was giving her radio silence at the time of the question.

Her question, which I have truncated for brevity’s sake, is thus:

Is he able to heal fast enough (so I don’t get burned out trying to fix my triggers all on my own) and level up to the communication/level of presence I need, or do I need to rule him out as serious partner material for a while until he’s recovered himself post-divorce?

The chart is drawn for 8:29PM on January 7th, 2018, in Lexington, Kentucky.

My response was thus:

“I’m glad I don’t have to write another “dump his ass” judgment, and, I’m really glad this particular chart is extremely easy to read. The symbolism is all clear.”

The Querent is represented by the Sun, at 17 degrees Capricorn in the 5th house. The Quesited is represented by Saturn, at 2 degrees Capricorn, also in the 5th house. The Sun presages a mature woman with light hair, full of body, robust, and of ruddy complexion, confident, humane, and deliberate at risk of haughtiness or being overbearing or demanding. Likewise Saturn: the Quesited is older than the Querent, with long and dark hair, pale, with a broad and high forehead, someone of patience and responsibility but with a share of discontent or emotional repression.

Now, there is no aspect joining these two planets at the moment, but they are in the same sign, and as a matter of fact the Sun is in the sign of Saturn so Saturn is setting his agenda for him while he is there. As this is not a “will we get together” question I am less concerned about finding a contact point.

I identified that the Querent felt, for better or for worse, at the mercy of the Quesited’s emotive state in the midst of this question. However, the Sun is peregrine where he is in Capricorn, meaning that he doesn’t have the ability to shine as brightly or act as clearly as he would normally. Likewise, the Querent doesn’t quite know what to do right now and feels like she’s floundering. A peregrine Sun is not a good place to be making final decisions from.

Saturn (the Quesited) on the other hand, is in his element in Capricorn; he is in a sign of structure and discipline and slow growth through boundary setting and rigor, which are all things that Saturn presages. However, Saturn has only just come home to Capricorn over the last couple of weeks, and we see in the chart that he is still freshly there.

Saturn has everything he could possibly need right now, but it’s as though he’s just walked in the door from a hellacious trip and is still standing in the foyer taking his boots off and getting his coat hung up and his shit put together so that he can be home and enjoy it. I reminded my client: you know what Saturn is bad at sometimes? Communicating. But you know what Saturn is really good at, when he has space and time to do so in his own sign of Capricorn? Embodying maturity.

Venus is applying by conjunction to the Sun. She is a planet of healing and peacemaking, but I notice that she also is coming between the Sun and Saturn. Saturn sees this and thinks, “hmm, well, the Sun’s not as accessible because Venus is in the way.” The Querent had mentioned an issue surrounding the openness in their relationship having happened on the 28th of December and the superior Venus/Sun conjunction speaks to this.

The Querent did not consider her actions to be unfaithful within the boundaries they had set for openness in their relationship; in fact, Venus in this position is extremely weak as she is fully consumed in the Sun, so the Querent has more of a solid handle on the situation, but from Saturn’s perspective, all he can see is the Sun consuming Venus in fire and wondering if the Querent do that to him too.

It’s as though Saturn has walked into his own house to see this whole situation unfolding and he’s wondering what the hell is going on. Pluto is right there, too, and, while we don’t read a lot into Pluto in traditional horary, his presence is worth noting—he is the bringer of deep and irreversible change. Let the reader beware.

Another prominent thing I see when I look at this chart is the newly-separating conjunction of Mars and Jupiter being directly on the cusp of the fourth house in Scorpio, which is very much a sort of deep “real talk” energy, the kind that brings epiphanies and healing — although not necessarily easy epiphanies and healing. This energy is coloring the entire chart because of the strong position of these two powerhouses.

The Sun is applying by sextile to both of those planets at the moment of the chart, and Mars is more like to receive him than Jupiter — there’s a sense to which the Querent’s approach to this question is much more conflicted than necessarily needs to be, and Mars is receiving the Sun’s energy and running with it, sowing conflict at home. Jupiter’s beneficence can’t shine as brightly in Scorpio so the penetrating conversations which the Querent’s thoughts and actions are leading into with the Quesited are going to have a more Martial feel—conflictual, even if they are not actually conflict.

Now, let’s look at the Moon: she is in Libra, the sign of Saturn’s exaltation, and has recently pinged him with a tense square aspect. This is another testimony to the Querent’s recent interactions with the Quesited having been cause for concern; she feels so strongly about him and he is ready to have her, but he hasn’t been as able to give her what she needs because he has been in a place of debility, as I mentioned.

The next thing the Moon will do, before she leaves Libra, is to hit Venus and the Sun with a square aspect as well, meaning there will probably be a couple more pings of conflict over the next couple of days (even if they are just internalized conflicts). After that, she will cross over into Scorpio, passing the newly separated Jupiter and Mars in a few days. At that point she’ll be tying the energies of Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and the Sun all together, making for a powerful time to have a conversation that, I think, will ultimately be about healing.

The other thing to mention about this chart is that the whole pileup of Sun, Venus, and Saturn, while they are in the Querent’s fifth house, are placed in the Quesited’s turned 11th house, which is associated with hopes, dreams, restoration, healing, and growth.

Here’s the skinny: in my estimation, the Quesited is 5000% percent able to mature to the level the Querent needs him to be, but he will likely not be able to mature on her timeframe because he is represented by Saturn, who is the slowest of visible planets and who does not do anything unless it’s worth taking a long time to do. 

I advised the Querent, if she valued his partnership, to utilize the energy of the next couple of days not to set ultimatums with him but instead to have some heart-to-heart conversations about the things she needs in a true partnership with him. It’s as though the Cosmos is asking her to step up to an elevated level of commitment with him, and saying “I’ll walk with you through the next few steps,” while it’s not marriage, might be the level of commitment that would help him grow in such a way as to enable both of them to be the best versions of themselves in partnership.

The Querent contacted me several hours after I sent her the judgment (at about 11:39PM local time) to inform me that she had just had a lengthy conversation with the Quesited that ameliorated many of the issues that had been raised, if not totally resolving them, and she mentioned that the Quesited had done a lot of emotional work during his period of radio silence and thanked her for provoking him into doing the work and asking for what she needed. I’m excited to follow up with her and see how this is continuing to unfold!

This judgment was shared with the permission of the Querent.