Which came first?

Here's something you probably know if you follow me at all: conjunctions are when planets are next to each other in the sky. They're fusions of energy: you can't really tell what's doing what when you have a bunch of conjunctions in your own natal chart. Which I do, by the way: of the 10 planets we're concerned about, only two of mine are not involved in a conjunction, so it took me extra time to figure out which energy cluster behaves which way (and in some cases I am still figuring this out).

What most people don't know is that the planetary order matters a lot in terms of how the energy expresses itself. Important: the order is counter-clockwise, and it takes a few seconds to think about clocks while looking at charts to get your wits about you.

Let's say you have a Venus-Jupiter conjunction. Venus is first. Being nice, being a diplomat, receiving gifts, thinking about stuff you want, or being exposed to love and affection (the Venus part) will make you more expansive, generous, open-minded, or prone to wanting to travel/broaden your horizons/learn something (the Jupiter part). Now flip it: if Jupiter's first, travel, religion, learning, being open-minded, being generous etc. will feel nice, make you think about stuff you want, or make you pursue romance or social status. It matters which one comes first, and then the energy falls like dominoes in a sequence.

This works no matter which planets are in which order. Personally, as I am from the generation of Saturn-Pluto conjunctions, I will share my own experience. Pluto is crisis and Saturn is concentration/hard work, and what I am about to say is an overgeneralization, but I’m still going to say it: people with Saturn first react to hardship as though it’s a massive crisis (and will often try to pare down or reduce exposure to it), and people with Pluto first react to crisis with a “so what are we gonna do about it” Saturnian work attitude. Obviously there are other chart configurations involved when you consider individuals, but as a generation, the older Saturn-Plutos tend to try to avoid crisis while the younger set (with Saturn on the other side) quietly stare at crises and then start making tactical moves toward addressing whatever the issue is. Neither wants to talk much about the problem, though: that’s what we have in common.

Another configuration that's really common in people born in the 90s is the Uranus-Neptune conjunction that lasted for a *while* (back when everyone was infinitely hyped about The Internet). Neptune and Uranus have so many positive and negative ways they could be interpreted so my take here is not intended as a standard definition, but Neptune is feelings of bliss at best, dissociation/confusion at neutral, and being very wrong and convinced you're right at worst (and having a terrible substance abuse problem at very worst). Uranus is rebellion, liberation, chaos, and needing to be different or incredibly open-minded. Actually, both of these two can be chaotic: Neptune is can be emotional overwhelm and Uranus depends what sign it's in but the chaos tends to be visible somehow. I digress: having Uranus --> Neptune: acting like a rebel can cause feelings of euphoria or peace. Getting free from something or someone can be followed by confusion and doubt that you did the right thing. Reverse it: Neptune--> Uranus: pondering ideals (Neptune) gives a feeling of freedom or separateness from the herd. Or: altering your consciousness, usually with substances = a feeling of freedom (more than the normal amount). Dangerous, no?

As with everything, you find out how individuals with specific aspects express their energy by observation and asking questions, so I sure didn't just say all people with Saturn--> Pluto can't handle a crisis and all people with Neptune--> Uranus have a raging drug problem, because neither is true. Energy will be expressed but there's an infinite spectrum when it comes to how, which is part of what makes this fun.

XO,J