Weight Loss and Astrology, Part III – Passion and Intensity

Let’s look at passion and intensity in our charts. Every life needs passion and intensity. If you don’t get it, you’re likely to try and substitute something. A common substitution is food.

Astrologically, this makes great sense. Passion and intensity in a chart are represented by Scorpio, the planet Pluto, and the 8th house. Food is represented by Taurus, the planet Venus, and the 2nd house. Scorpio and Taurus are opposite each other, and the 2nd and 8th houses are opposite each other.

In astrology, opposites are really two poles of the same thing. If you can’t get what you want at one end of the pole, you are likely to slide to the other end of the pole. Therefore, often, an eating problem means that you aren’t getting your passion needs met. There is a whole school of thought which says that much overeating is related to sexual frustration. I think that this is an oversimplification, but there is great truth to it. In other words, if our desires for passion and intensity are being met, then our desires for food should diminish. For more on this way of thinking, see What Kind of Hungry Am I?.

If you are working with Tarot cards, this means that passion and intensity relate to Death and Judgement and that food relates to the Empress and Hierophant.

What does your individual chart tell you about your needs for passion and intensity?

Well, we look at your 8th house, at the sign on the cusp of it and at any planets in that house. We also look at the placement of the planet which rules the 8th house sign. Then we look at Scorpio in your chart. Where is it? Are there any planets in Scorpio? And, last but not necessarily least, we look at Pluto. What sign is it in? What house is it in?

My chart tells me that I have great passion needs, great intensity needs. All three components that we will be looking at (8th house, sign of Scorpio, planet Pluto) are strong in my chart. And, if I don’t have those needs met, I am in deep trouble, so, I had better get to work on meeting my passion needs!

In my chart, I have Aquarius on the cusp of the 8th and Mars in Aquarius in the 8th. This means that my passion needs are strong and I need to be passionately active. There is a strong mental focus to my passion, and it is also unusual, off the beaten track. Occult work would be good for me, as would anything that smacks of detection. I am a natural psychologist who has a fascination for death and transformation. I need to follow these interests rather than ignore them.

I am a Scorpio, and I have a total of 4 planets in Scorpio, three (including Sun) in the 5th house and the fourth in the 4th house. This means that Scorpio is on the cusp of my 5th house. This means that I need to be passionate about pleasure, about play, about creativity, about children. Boredom is deadly for me. However, as a Scorpio, play, pleasure and creativity for me are not merely fun; they are transformative as well. Shallow or superficial pleasure does not fulfill my needs. Instead, I need therapeutic play, play which challenges me, moves me towards self growth, self knowledge, self transformation. Serious play, in other words–not an easy thing to manage, but, looking backwards, I can see points in my life where this happened. Tarot is playful, fun, and pleasurable, but it is also transformative and challenging. I have found astrology also to be both pleasurable and challenging, and they are both considered occult areas, so this works with my Scorpio/8th house nature as well.

Now, remember, your chart will be different from mine. There will be some notes in common because Scorpio/8th house/Pluto can only have so many variations, but your variations will not be my variations unless your chart is a lot like mine.

I have Pluto in the 3rd house in Leo and it forms a square to my Sun. Pluto and my Sun are also in what we call mutual reception. This means that each planet is in the sign which the other rules. Pluto rules Scorpio; the Sun rules Leo. Pluto is in the sign that the Sun rules and the Sun is in the sign which Pluto rules. When you have a mutual reception (and it doesn’t have to be a Sun/Pluto reception), the two planets involved are emphasized and tend to blend into each other in many ways.

With a strong Pluto in the 3rd house, I am going to be passionate about communications, about siblings, about my car, about my neighborhood. It may be that I need to write, that I need to speak, that I need to communicate to others that which I feel passionately about. Well, enough said there. After all, look at who has a web site of 120 separate pages, mostly text-driven. This is one area where I have been exercising my passion, but, strangely enough, not enough. With Pluto in Leo, the sign of the actor, the performer, the star, there is not only the desire to communicate, but there is also the desire for applause. So, it is not enough to put the information out there and leave it. For me, applause becomes also essential. So, I have to speak in public where I get applause, and I also have to try and get more hits on my web page so that I get feedback. And this, I have been remiss about. I will try and do better.

So, where is Pluto in your chart (sign and house)? Where is Scorpio? Any planets in Scorpio? What sign is on your 8th house cusp? Any planets in the 8th house?

Follow your passion, and see if your desire for food doesn’t diminish.

Last updated on October 1, 2014 at 1:25 am. Word Count: 994