The Cycles of Being Seen: Using Astrology to Navigate Online Visibility
In this blog post, we dove into your natal, born-with-it capacity for being visible and seen online. Today, we're going to take it deeper and talk about the astrological timing behind seasons of visibility and invisibility.
Just as a reminder, when I say “being seen”, I mean things that require a high level of energy, a lot of live attention, sharing personal stories, or showing your face very frequently.
You can be born with a certain natal comfort level for being seen, and that may never change, but that doesn't mean your capacity to be seen will never increase or decrease throughout your lifetime. The way we determine if your capacity for being seen has increased or decreased is with astrological timing techniques like secondary progressions, annual profections, and transits.
Why You Need to Know Your Current Visibility Level
Understanding your current cycle of visibility is essential info as a business owner. It gives you permission to relax and just be with the cycle that you're in, guilt-free. It also gives you clues about what type of business activities are most likely to succeed right now. You could call this living in alignment, which really just means jumping into the current of time and floating down a lazy river, which sounds a lot better than swimming upstream.
If you're in a visible season, you’re going to find more ease in outward-facing tasks and projects. It’s also a clue to shine the spotlight on yourself. It might be time to push a little harder, and you might have more capacity than usual.
If you're in an invisible season, you’re going to find more ease in inward-facing tasks and projects. These are going to be more behind-the-scenes activities that build or maintain your business.
An invisible season gives you permission to retreat. It gives you permission to leave the public eye and to be a little more quiet and still. It doesn't mean you're not working or making money. Rather, if you’ve prepared for an invisible season (thanks to knowing about it ahead of time because of astrology), you ideally have systems and structures in place that continue to keep the machine of your business running without you having to be in front all the time.
I want you to be really mindful of not thinking of seasons of invisibility as “bad”. They're not bad, they’re just different. You’ll simply need to have different priorities and ways of running your business in place.
What I share in this blog post is just the tip of the iceberg. It'll get you started, but I want to make sure you understand that in astrology, we have cycles upon cycles upon cycles. You could be in a really long season of darkness with shorter seasons of lightness popping through, or vice versa. When in doubt, see a professional.
Cycles of Visibility and Invisibility
The Phase of the Secondary Progressed Moon
Your progressed chart describes your inner evolution, as opposed to transits, which generally describe events and changes that come at you from the outside.
The brightness level or phase of your progressed Moon very generally describes how much you want to be seen right now. You can find the phase of your progressed Moon with this calculator.
If your progressed moon is in a bright phase (first quarter, gibbous, full, disseminating), you're in a longer season of visibility. If your progressed moon is in a dark phase (new, waxing crescent, last quarter, balsamic), you’re in a longer season of invisibility.
Each progressed moon phase lasts about 3.5 years. And because each phase leads from one to the next, if we do the math, that's about fifteen years of brightness or darkness. That's a really long time! Clearly, there's going to be shorter cycles of dark or light within that longer cycle. That’s where the following come in…
The House of the Secondary Progressed Moon
Your progressed Moon doesn’t just change phases, it also changes houses. The house of your progressed Moon changes about every 2.5 years.
If your progressed Moon happens to be in a very favorable, light, or angular house, you're in a season of visibility. This includes houses 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, and 11, but I’d especially highlight the 1st and 10th houses. These two houses are extra potent.
If your progressed Moon is in one of the “shady” houses (2, 6, 8, 12), this is a 2.5 year period of focusing on less outward-facing business tasks.
Visibility in Annual Profections
The next way to determine your current level of visibility is with an ancient timing technique called annual profections. You can get started with the technique in this blog post or order my book.
Essentially, in annual profections you’re attaching one year of your life to a house in your chart. When you have a birthday, you “profect” or advance into a new house of your chart, and that house and its topics become activated.
If you profect into a house that's especially bright, light, and favorable, that will typically coincide with a year-long season of visibility. Again, I would especially highlight the 1st and 10th houses, but I’d also include years where you profect into the house that holds the midheaven, aka the career point. (Because if you're using whole-sign houses, the midheaven can be in a house other than the 10th.)
If you profect into a shady house (2, 6, 8, 12), it usually coincides with a year-long season of being behind the scenes. Now, each of these houses has a different flavor of being behind the scenes. During a second or sixth-house year, you’re usually really busy working and just don't have the time or desire to be out front. You might be busy in operations and not so much in marketing.
An eighth or twelfth-house year might bring a more psycho-spiritual or emotional desire to be less visible. These years are correlated with seasons of just wanting to retreat and recuperate instead of push, push, push.
Time Lords and Visibility
Very simply, your time lord is the planet that’s governing your year right now. You can find your time lord in this free webinar. The time lord comes directly from your house of the year, which you determined using annual profections.
For example, I’m in a fifth-house year. Aries occupies my fifth house. Mars rules Aries. That means Mars is my time lord this year.
If your transiting time lord (the time lord in the real-time sky), is moving through a favorable house in your birth chart, or a favorable sign, this could be a moment of visibility for you. By favorable sign, I mean the zodiac sign of your time lord’s domicile or exaltation.
For example, this year began with Mars moving through Capricorn. Mars is exalted in Capricorn, meaning it’s very strong and dynamic there. Since Mars is my current time lord, I chose to take advantage of this and launch my VIP program the Cosmic Marketing Plan during this time.
If your transiting time lord is actually invisible (i.e. it’s really close to the Sun), that’s a clue that you’re invisible too. It might be a little harder to get noticed, and your marketing efforts might not go as smoothly.
To determine if your time lord is under the Sun’s beams, you want to know where the Sun is and where your time lord is. If your time lord is within fifteen degrees of the Sun on either side (this fifteen degrees may cross zodiac sign boundaries), it’s invisible.
If your time lord is a planet that travels rather closely to the sun all year, like Mercury or Venus, there's going to be several moments throughout the year where it's invisible.
The duration of these seasons are highly variable. The length depends on who your time lord is and how fast it moves. To figure this out, you’re going to need an astrology calendar or an astrologer like myself to pinpoint these dates and times for you.
Jupiter and Visibility
Jupiter is all about growth and expansion, and in business that often means getting attention and growing your audience. If transiting Jupiter is moving through your 1st house, 10th house, or the house that contains your midheaven, you’re in an approximately one-year season of brightness. Enjoy!
If Jupiter is aspecting your ascendant, midheaven, Sun, Moon, or chart ruler, you’re in a roughly two-week season of brightness. Go, go, go!
The Sun and Visibility
Very similar to Jupiter, if the transiting Sun is moving through your 1st house, 10th house, or the house that contains your midheaven, this is a month-long season of brightness.
If the transiting Sun is aspecting your natal ascendant, midheaven, Sun, Moon, or chart ruler, this is a moment of brightness. And it really is just a moment because this transit lasts about one day.
Saturn and Invisibility
And finally, our friend Saturn. If you're receiving a transit from Saturn, especially to the Sun, Moon, chart ruler, ascendant degree, or midheaven, you’re in a behind-the-scenes season. A Saturn transit lasts about nine months in totality, give or take, and that's about how long you can expect this season to last. This post has a lot of good info on what to do with your Saturn transit.
Going Deeper
If you want to create a marketing plan that's in alignment with your current visibility cycles, come work with me in the Cosmic Marketing Plan. Or, treat yourself to a Birthday Ritual where we’ll uncover all of the cycles you're navigating this year.