Hi all! ICYMI, August’s month-ahead is out to paid subscribers.
Also! I’m going to be test-driving a new, astrology-meets-publishing lecture series for the next few months. In the interest of accessibility for all, it’ll be donation-based rather than flat-fee. Depending on interest and overall attendance, we’ll see if this becomes a permanent installation here at astrology for writers. I’ve gotta be honest, it’s a little bit of a selfish endeavor: I’m looking for an outlet for my inner ex-academic.
The first on the docket, connected to the themes of today’s newsletter: a 90-minute lecture on The Astrology of Book Bans.
We’ll explore the birth charts of commonly banned books and their authors, as well as the astrology of the present moment, major obscenity legislation and legal challenges past and present, and more. Wednesday, August 30th at 7pm Eastern! (Registration is required, even if going for free.) Hope to see you there!
And now, while we’re on that topic.
The Full Moon in Aquarius.
Xx,
Jeanna
Some lunar cycles make themselves very obvious on a cultural, collective scale. The moon tells us much about the physical body in a person’s birth chart; in the chart of a nation or an event, the moon signifies the population, the body of folks who are impacted. And so the news events that pop up in moon cycles are very telling.
This latest one in Aquarius is particularly loud — especially on the subject of book bans, which are on the rise. According to the American Library Association, 2023 is on track to beat 2022 for the most book bans on record in the United States. There were 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number on record since the ALA began compiling data 20+ years ago. And, of course, the vast majority of titles, as publicly acknowledged by the ALA and other groups, are written by LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC authors.
We have recently seen a heartening wave of backlash to the backlash. In Illinois, which has one of the most corrupt state governments in the Midwest (and the nation) but is also, perhaps consequently, one of the most resistant to ideological fascism, a ban of book bans was passed — the first of its kind in the country. Which is one way to go about it.
And in Indiana, MG and YA author and friend of the newsletter Leah Johnson recently announced that she’s opening a bookstore in Indianapolis, Loudmouth Books (in advance of their opening, you can shop their Bookshop account here). Johnson is focusing on books that have been challenged or banned in schools and libraries.
But those beams of sunshine are few and far between. Florida has received much national attention and criticism due to Governor DeSantis’ support of outrageous legislation, as well as the local activism — from parents, Moms for Liberty chapters, hyper-conservative school board members, and more — who have attempted to (and often successfully) have everything from Nora Roberts to, most recently, Arthur books (?!) removed.
In my own home state of Iowa, the Urbandale School District flagged nearly 400 titles to be banned just this week based on a heinous law recently signed by Governor Kim Reynolds which restricts books with references to gender identity, sexual orientation, and other sexual content. (One wonders if the Bible might apply, given the Song of Solomon?, but I’m sure Republican lawmakers weren’t thinking about that.) A good amount of the list, helpfully published by the Des Moines Register (which continues to be out here doing the Lord’s work), includes classics like Ulysses (which I hate, but which others should have the chance to discover that they hate, too!), The Catcher in the Rye, and The Color Purple.
And in Texas (where I drafted this from during a recent family visit), which has banned more books than anywhere else in the country, bans and other egregious laws are on the rise. Two bookstores, including my sister’s local Blue Willow Bookshop, and several organizations (the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund) are suing the state for requiring them to rate books for so-called “appropriateness.” This comes on the heels of the Houston Independent School District’s move to turn libraries into detention centers — recent developments as this full moon waxed.
*
I do not think it is accidental that Venus, the artist-lover which tells us about what exactly we value, is involved with both the New Moon in Aquarius in January and this Full Moon in Aquarius.
In January, she was also in Aquarius, co-present with the moon as well as Saturn, and consequently answering to Saturn in their strength as the keeper (and fucker, and rebuilder) of Aquarian systems. Venus in Aquarius is Weird Barbie. She feels and fucks and beautifies outside the box. Venus in Scorpio is patron of the artistic outcasts and the abject, but Venus in Aquarius is patron of the fuck-the-system folks. (There is overlap.)
Notable, then, that with this Full Moon we find Venus in bright, shiny Leo — but retrograde. In her mythological descent to the underworld. In the midst of transformation. This isn’t weird Barbie — this is stereotypical Barbie in the Real World, figuring out why things are broken and not working and discovering that maybe… maybe she likes it here?
(There is overlap.)
Culturally, there is a shift happening. It is slow. Right now, there is an underworld component to it, because Venus is retrograde, and she takes some time to emerge as the morning star.
I do not think it is accidental that at these 2023 Aquarian Lunations, where the collective consciousness turns towards how the system might work for us all, there is enormous constriction and effort put towards legislating and locking up artistic expression. The dying gasps of patriarchy, desperately clinging to power; the potent stink of desperation, even as the masses say, no, that will not work for us.
Venus cannot be contained. Art cannot be contained. The people involved in making art, in discussing it, in spreading it cannot be controlled.
Earlier this year, for the New Moon in Aquarius, I wrote,
Aquarius is the ancestral transfer of shared experience through oral storytelling, of what we in modern times often call the power of “word of mouth.”
It is harder to gatekeep and control stories when they are shared between people themselves. And as powerful as reading a book that helps you feel seen is, how much more powerful is it in conversation with others who also share that experience: whether those communities are online, in person at events or book clubs or your local library, or simply in gatherings with friends.
The Aquarian networks that support the conversational transfer of shared story and experience.
The intellectual, educational, community spaces that hold space for our hearts to grow.
For all that stories are a Mercurial experience, they are a Lunar and Venusian one, too.
Something for us to remember as we process what this Full Moon has brought us, and as we collectively move through the Venus Retrograde. As we write, and listen, and dance, and feel our way through the gnosis that only comes through what Audre Lorde called the erotic life force that is most generated through mutual co-creation with each other.
Happy Full Moon.
P.S. You can register for The Astrology of Book Bans here! Hope to see you there!
Oooh- this is fascinating. Astrology of book bans sounds incredible. Sadly, it’s at 2am my time on my birthday 😂 Woohoo Virgos! Will there be a replay? I’d love to hear this talk.