Love is a learning game

This post was originally published on The Mountain Astrologer

Query: The client is a very wealthy businessman who had been in an on-and-off relationship for over four years with a partner who is a former sex worker with a long history of severe mental health issues, alcoholism and drug addiction. In late November 2023 he asked me how their relationship would be in February 2024. (They had not met in-person since early November which was their only meeting in 2023; it would be Valentine’s Day and her birthday in February.)

Question: How will my relationship be in February?
November 24, 2023
2:16 p.m. AEDT
Regiomontanus houses
Sydney, Australia (33°S52’, 151°E12’)

Analysis: Pisces rises therefore Jupiter signifies the querent. Jupiter is not in great shape, being peregrine in fixed sign Taurus, retrograde and in the succeedent 2nd house, indicating the querent’s feeling of things being stuck and inconsistent within the relationship. It also showed how resolute he is to turn things around. There’s also a focus on money matters (2nd house) and the pleasurable Venusian things money can buy (Taurus). Neptune is conjunct the Ascendant highlighting themes of depression, anxiety, over-idealisation, loneliness, loss, deception, evasiveness as well as substances such as drugs and alcohol. (The list of mostly negative significations for Neptune is intentional, the reasons for which will become apparent when we discuss Mercury.)

Virgo’s on the 7th-house cusp, thus the quesited is signified by Mercury, which is in woeful shape to say the least. It is slow in motion, detriment in Sagittarius, applying to a square to Neptune in the 1st house which could very well bring negative and disorienting experiences for the querent. Mercury is also soon to go under the beams of the Sun as well as station retrograde. In my practice, this often means the quesited will not be physically present in the querent’s life after a period of time.

These extremely worrisome signatures for Mercury indicate the quesited may not be acting from her “best” self and her thoughts and actions may be foggy (intentional or not) due to the square to Neptune. For starters, Mercury in Sagittarius often reminds me of what my father used to say in jest: Why let the truth get in the way of a good story? To add to that, Chris Brennan of The Astrology Podcast often describes Mercury-Neptune hard aspects as the famous Donald Trump phrase “fake news.” None of this bodes well for a relationship rooted in honesty and truth.

There are two silver linings though. One, Mercury is angular giving it accidental strength — i.e., the energy and opportunity to take action, and two, Mercury’s dispositor is Jupiter, suggesting her strong interest in and dependence on the querent. With Mercury being the only angular visible planet in the chart and conjunct the Midheaven, its dominance in what happens with this relationship will be quite unambiguous very soon. Mercury’s overall condition strongly suggests the quesited’s questionable and likely negative motivations and actions could be driven by or connected to her home and living situation (turned 4th house) and/or the querent’s work situation (radical 10th house).

The Moon is peregrine, growing in light, in impulsive, ambitious and passionate Aries, separating from an opposition to Venus suggesting there’s been a period of disharmony and imbalance recently in the relationship. The Moon, ruling the 5th house of romance, gifts and sex, is also conjunct the North Node and is placed in the succeedent 2nd house (themes of finances or financial exchange again.) It is worth noting here that the North Node is an eclipse point — i.e. it blinds and confuses a situation and/or a person. In Vedic astrology, it is referred to as the head of the dragon and represents an obscure, activated, and insatiable hunger for a thing or person regardless of the cost or consequences involved.

At this point, we also note that the Moon (querent) is applying to a trine with the deeply troubled Mercury (the quesited), suggesting some consistency in communication, meetings and an overall unobstructed energetic flow between the two parties. Under normal circumstances, this will be a great sign for a relationship but not so much in this instance.

I felt this combination of Moon in Aries conjunct the North Node and trining Mercury would result in some form of unhinged, unbridled and obsessive drive on the querent’s end to win over the quesited’s love through numerous acts of impulsive gifts, as well as moments that feel great only in the short term (Aries) because of deception, self-sabotage or unclear communication on the quesited’s end.

Judgement: As an overall outcome, I told the client that this may feel like going on some terrific dates with someone and showering them with several grand gestures (“love bombing”) but that person was intoxicated every single time you met them. You may feel you are getting quite close for a period of time only to realise later that the whole thing was perhaps a charade (a slow Mercury in detriment, square to Neptune.)

My specific reasoning for this outcome: the querent intentionally or not unsees reality — i.e., the quesited’s red flags; he focuses more on the potential of the relationship than what it really is; there is a sense of unfair give and take in terms of time, effort, energy and emotional investment within the relationship, and the quesited’s actions and communications prove to be deceptive or manipulative at a later stage.

These signatures should manifest within four to five weeks from when they reconnect in February — the Moon applying to the North Node, and Mercury’s square to Neptune are each four to five time units away from perfecting their respective aspects. That is, by late March (perhaps sooner), the disappointing components of this chart should be revealed.

Further Updates: By February the two had not met since early November (the Moon separating from Venus by opposition and Jupiter in aversion to Mercury). Around mid-February, the quesited messaged the client asking him to deliver recreational substances to her doorstep as it would help with her mental health issues and suggested they could then spend some time together. The querent did have his fingers in the substance-trading world but also was a devout Islamic man, and therefore reluctant to agree on religious grounds (Ascendant in Pisces). However, he saw no other option but to agree in order to spend more time with her.

Thus began once-a-week meetings between them which involved his purchasing substances and delivering them to her in-person near her house (Moon conjunct North Node not suggesting happiness) but, for some peculiar reason, never inside her house (Mercury debilitated and placed in the turned 4th house). She also told him she was struggling financially at which point he started paying her share of the weekly rent, adding up to thousands of dollars a month. Furthermore, for her birthday in mid-February, he got her quite a dazzling piece of very expensive jewellery (thoughtless acts of “giving” as suggested by the Moon applying to North Node).

On February 28, the two recited marriage vows to each other under the influence of substances. Our ecstatic, love-struck querent understood that as a commitment to each other for life, which she affirmed was her desire as well. Strangely, despite his polite insistence (especially now that they were married) he still had never been into her home.

The weekly substance deliveries and meetings continued although deceptions and lies soon became apparent. On March 17 the quesited told him that he could never come inside her house because she was living with her platonic boyfriend. Per the querent, she cried profusely, insisting the relationship was only platonic and that she never wanted the querent to leave her: Mercury in Sagittarius square Neptune — untruthful storytelling. This was completely new information for the querent who was naturally quite distraught. He cut off all contact with her on March 26, the lunar eclipse in Libra which happened in the 7th house of relationships in his natal chart. Whilst this was indeed heart-breaking, I am happy to report the querent is already turning many things around in his life — his business profits and his health both are on the upswing in the last few weeks.

Tanuj J. Narula is a practicing astrologer, Psychic, and Medium based in Sydney, Australia. He has been interested in astrology for over ten years. He holds the STA’s Practitioner Level Certification in Horary and is currently completing the STA’s Advanced Level Horary Diploma.

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