Weight Loss and Astrology, Part I – Your attitudes towards food

There are many things to consider when we look at astrology and weight loss. Arbitrarily, I am going to start with our attitudes towards food. Remember, have your chart handy and refer back to the links below for additional information if you need help in understanding the astrology comments.

Food is represented by the 2nd house of our horoscope. This means that it is part of the “flavor” of Taurus/Venus/2nd house. In Astrology, each house encompasses more than one thing. The second house also covers money, security, and feelings of self worth (to mention a few). Many of us have food, money, security and self worth all tangled together in our minds and subconsciousness. This is certainly understandable.

Have you ever eaten when you were worried about money? When you had feelings of low self worth? When you felt insecure? Welcome to the club. As we know, food is not the answer to money problems. It is not the answer to low self worth or insecurity either, but astrologically, because food is in the same house as these other values, it is easy for us to confuse them.

I remember a roommate that I once had, Becky Gilpatrick. Becky had a take it or leave it attitude towards food. Food just did not appeal to her at all. She made herself eat because she knew that food was necessary for life. Money had no appeal to her either except as a means of acquiring the necessities of life. She lived very simply, to the point of being Spartan. She spent almost no money on herself. She lived so simply–no television or radio, few clothes, few books–that after she made her car payment and paid her share of rent and utilities, she always had money left over. She sent this money to her brothers and sisters, whichever ones were currently having the most money problem. (She had 8 brothers and sisters.) She was extremely secure, had an incredibly positive self image, and had strong personal values, mostly family-centered.

I have never seem Becky’s astrological chart. I wasn’t into astrology when we were roommates, but I’m fascinated and curious about her second house.

Look at the sign on the leading cusp (edge) of your second house? What is it? This will tell you something about your attitudes towards food and security. Are there any planets in your second house? What are they? What sign are they in? Is this sign different from the one on the cusp of your second house? Each sign has a ruling planet. Look at the list of planetary “flavors.” What planet is associated with (rules) the sign on the cusp of your 2nd house?

With this information, you are ready to look at and examine your attitudes towards food, security, money, self worth, and values and to see how they work in your life. (Remember that I recommend that you use the Koch house system. I believe that it is more accurate for the cusps of the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 11th, and 12th houses.)

As an example, in my own chart, I have Leo on the cusp of the 2nd house (using Koch). Leo, ruled by the Sun represents the joyful, playful creative side of our nature. It is what gives us pleasure. This suggests that for me, food needs to be creative, playful, joyful, and that I get a great deal of pleasure from food. This is true. I like to try lots of different foods. I find eating out great fun. When I cook, I don’t use recipe books. Instead, I like to invent and try out new combinations on my own, never fixing anything the same way twice. Sometimes my creations are less satisfactory than others, but I always enjoy doing something different. And, quite frankly, I love food. Also, I need to cut out eating that isn’t fun. (How many diets are fun???) All non-fun eating will not satisfy me, and eating without fun will only serve to encourage me to overeat later.

I have found that deprivation diets do not work for me. For me, food needs to be playful, fun, creative, a pleasurable activity. I can eat reduced fat products and cook without oils without any loss of pleasure. I eat lots of naturally low calorie foods, and this isn’t a problem either, but I have to be very careful to keep the boredom threshold down. In other words, I do best if I get really creative in trying out new produce imported from all over–if I shop at interesting little markets with all sorts of odd foreign foods. Of course, I have to be careful to read labels and to be an informed shopper because many of these foods are high in fat, but my family has learned to enjoy many foods that other families have never heard of.

I have the Moon in my second house. The Moon is the planet of nurturing. It represents how we nurture others and how we like to be nurtured. This means that I find the second house qualities nurturing–food, money, security, values, self worth, etc. These all nurture me, and I nurture others with second house qualities.

This is difficult. We all need to be nurtured. Unfortunately, one of my chief ways of nurturing myself and others is via food. So, what I’ll need to do in order to be successful in my weight loss is to substitute other second house components for food–money, security, values, etc. I have to nurture with these things. When I do use food, it needs to be healthy food, naturally low in fat and empty calories.

Finally, let’s look at the placement of the Sun, the ruler of Leo which is on the cusp of my 2nd house. I have the Sun in the 5th house in the sign of Scorpio. The 5th house is the natural home of the Sun and Leo. This just emphasizes those Leonine/5th house qualities as being very important for me when I try to lose weight. Other good ideas for me are to transfer some of those 2nd house hungers into 5th house activities: creative endeavors, play, children, gambling, anything primarily pleasurable, anything done primarily JUST FOR ME. In other words, I need to be selfish. My Sun is in Scorpio. Scorpio is very intense, so whatever I do for fun, I do intensely. I’m not much of a dabbler, and if I find myself dabbling, I am most likely bored. And, for me, boredom is a no-no. Boredom for me is a danger sign for eating excessively. Food has been a great boredom reliever, but I must find other boredom relievers, healthier ones.

These guidelines will be different for each of us, depending on the sign on the cusp of the second and on the planets in the second house. For some people, order is necessary for eating, for other people, meals are spiritual. Some people do best with eating alone. Others do best when they eat with people.

Last updated on October 1, 2014 at 1:07 am. Word Count: 1175