ASTROLOGY & TAROT WITH ALICE
WONDERLAND CHART INTERPRETATION
A Wonderland Chart Interpretation is a journey into literature. You will be transported through time & space onto the pages of Lewis Carroll’s 18th century Wonderland, & experience your chart through the reality of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, & Through the Looking Glass, & What Alice Found There.
Alice is Wonderlands protagonist. In the birth chart, she is both the Sun & the Moon. The Moon is our inner life, what we need to feel safe, & represents our inner child. The sun in our chart represents our quest this lifetime. The sign in which it is placed, is commonly known as our star sign. The placement of the Sun in our birth chart symbolises how we will shine in the world. The Moon pulls us back into security. The Sun seeks experience. It is through the experience of shining in the world that we integrate & fully realise our solar sign, thus the process of self actualisation.
Think of it as if Alice has fallen into her own unconscious, she has entered a dream like state where she encounters parts of herself. The other planetary bodies in our chart, like the White Rabbit (Mercury) & the Mad Hatter (Neptune), are parts of our psyche. All are longing to be acknowledged, engaged with, & integrated. They all support Alice in her journey, often by creating obstacles that she must overcome as they assert their own urges and desires, & learn to co-exist with one another. These obstacles & tensions push Alice to ask questions about herself, reality, & her role in creation.
This journey is for anyone who believes that self-awareness is linked to imagination, that story is a gateway to understanding, & that healing requires a leap into the unknown.
The Personal Planets & Nodal Points
The Sun: Alice
The Sun is the I, the part of us that seeks identity through coming into consciousness. The Sun hopes for experience & adventure. The urge of the Sun is to shine. It provides us with the vitality we need for the quest we have chosen this lifetime. Our Sun Sign is the energy signature that lights the way for us to express openly our authentic self. In every moment of our lives our solar light shines, providing opportunity for our potential to unfold. The Sun finds form through our willingness to engage with the phenomenon of our experiences. The placement of the Sun in the birth chart is commonly known as our star sign. Our star sign is the expression of our choices, & the energy through which we can discover ourselves, if we are willing to risk failure.
As with us all, Alice is thrown into, or rather falls into her solar journey. In her own unique way, she is learning about her own radiance by engaging with the other characters in Wonderland. The other characters offer her different perspectives, challenging her self concept & worldview. Alice is the willingness to go on an adventure in order to find her way home. She is the emerging soul that continues to strive for understanding, through the courage to ask, "Who am I"?
The Moon: Alice's Inner Life
We are born into our moon. It is our inner child and the sum total of our souls experiences through all the lifetimes we have lived. Our moon is our personality. The energetic signature of our personality is reflected in our moon sign and astrological house placement. Our moon seeks security. It longs for the past, & harbours our memories. It is the intersection of all our experiences from which our intuition emerges. It speaks to us in dreams, images, emotions & feelings. Our moon gestates, births, and nurtures our emotional experiences. Just like the moon watches over the ocean, so too does it bear witness to the tidal currents of our emotional cycles & experiences, from which are feelings find form.
As Alice journeys through Wonderland she not only comes into relationship with the occupants of Wonderland, she comes into relationship with her emotional self, her moon. She is forced to navigate her feelings and emotions, listen to her intuition, & face the impact of her lived experience on her ability to resource her inner qualities. It is the strength & quality of her luna resources that creates the container from which her Sun will emerge.
The Nodes: The Red Queen & White Queen
The North Node: The Red Queen
The North Node is the path of Spiritual Growth. A point of soul evolution. Our North Node shows up where new growth is need. Where we need to focus our energies. We are drawn to seek experience & knowledge in the house of the North Node, but we will often find in intimating & uncomfortable to explore the themes of the North Node house placement. The Red Queen probes Alice in to action, she demands movement and presence. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place".
The South Node: The White Queen
The South Node is the path of Personal Growth. The South Node is where we feel comfortable, where we have developed skills & gifts that now need to be used in the house of the North Node for our soul development. We will only develop personally if we use our South Node gifts to support the North Nodes expression. The South Node draws us back into our past life patterns. The White Queen is lost in the past, she is the embodiment of what was & what has been learnt. "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards".
Mercury: The White Rabbit
Mercury is said to be the mind, the intellect. This is partially true. A more comprehensive description of Mercury would be, Mercury is the way we understand ourselves as well as the physical, social & spiritual worlds around us. Mercury's sign and house placement reflects the energetic signature of how our mind will collect, sort & discern information. It represents how we communicate, what sparks our curiosity, & reveals what we are a voice for in the world. Our language, logic, timing, movement of our ideas, & mode of learning are all flavoured by our mercury signature. Mercury is the impulse to be curious about life. Mercury seeks out experiences & opens doorways, both figuratively and literally. The Sun seeks experience, Mercury helps us understand experience.
When Alice sees the white rabbit she is led to the doorway of her unconscious mind, & down the rabbit hole she falls. The White Rabbit leads her to Wonderland, directed by her own curiosity about the rules of her reality. It is the White Rabbit that propels her through her adventure, & reappears throughout the story when she has lingered too long in one place, in order to move her to her next encounter and learning.
Venus: Alice's Sister
Venus is the goddess of love & beauty. She represents our values. Venus is interested in relating & relationships. It is through Venus that we find alignment with the aspect of our personality that draws life towards us. Creative & pleasure seeking, she is the urge to overcome materialistic living through love. Love makes us conscious of others & evokes in us a deep appreciation of beauty, whether that be the arts, nature, or the pure joy of being at ease in the social world & relationships. Through Venus we come into relationship with the language, movement & embodiment of our self-worth. It is through Venus's relationship to & appreciation of the beauty of the natural world, that we come to the understanding that we are not on the earth, but rather that the bodies that host our souls are of the earth.
Alice's Sister is an anchor to the world outside of Wonderland. She attempts to school Alice in her history lesson, embodying the Venusian appreciation of culture & history. She does not brush off Alice's story of wonderland, she listen's with care, recognising the value of Alices imagination. Upon falling asleep herself, she enter's Wonderland, but knows she is dreaming. She explores the narrative, finds meaning in Alice's experience, & through her valuing of Alice's story, allows herself the experience of Wonderland. In true Venus form, she does not analyse the dream, she appreciates & relates to it.
Mars: The Red Knight
Mars fills us with energy. It is through Mars that we reach out for what we desire. If our boundaries are crossed, it is Mars who responds to the violation. He is the energy of the base and sacral chakras manifest through action. He is the urge to be competitive, to propel us into action, & fight for what we want. Mars serves the expression of the Sun, & provides the courage & drive to achieve the personality's goals. Mars is interested in conquest, his actions initiated by desire, his energy fueled by willpower.
In Wonderland, he finds expression through the Red Knight. Like Mars he is action-orientated. He charges at Alice in all his fury. He is assertive & combative. The Red Knight attempts to take Alice as his prisoner, but the White Knight comes to Alice's rescue. He only appears in one chapter, but he explodes into the narrative with sudden force, the manifestation of conflict and masculine assertion. His presence is both confronting & powerful. He does not enter the story, he collides with the narrative.
THe Asteroid GodeSS'S
Ceres: The Rose
Ceres is the earth goddess. She represents how we nurture ourselves & others, our relationship to food, & is associated with the cycles of life, grief & loss. Sadness, depression & yearning are all associated with Ceres, as is spring & renewal. Where Ceres is located in the birth chart will speak to the area of our life where we offer and withhold our presence and nurturing.
In Wonderland she is the Rose in the garden of talking flowers.
Spiritual Properties of Rose: Healing the whole system, especially the healing of the heart, supporting the heart in the journey through grief.
Pallas Athena: The Tiger Lily
Pallas Athena is the goddess of warfare, wisdom, crafts, & public administration. She wears a helmet that protects her in battle & shields her thoughts from the manipulation of others. Her mind is her fortress where she weaves a network of strategy, diplomacy, & mental clarity. She is prudence in action.
In Wonderland she is the Tiger Lily in the garden of talking flowers.
Spiritual Properties of Tiger Lily: Confidence, prosperity & protection from negative energies.
Juno: The Violet
Juno is the the Queen of the Gods, wife to Jupiter. She is the goddess of marriage & childbirth. She bestows protection over families, women & all aspects of female life. Her animal is the peacock, a symbol of beauty, pride & immortality.
In Wonderland she is the Violet in the garden of talking flowers.
Spiritual Properties of Violets: Humility, quiet strength, faithfulness & devotion.
Vesta: The Daisies
Vesta is the goddess of the hearth, home and family life. She is known for her purity and virginity. Her temple in Rome held a sacred fire that protected the prosperity of the state. As long as the fire burned, Rome remained prosperous. The attendants to the flame were known as the Vesta Virgins, known for their humility, modesty & devotion.
In Wonderland Vesta and the Vestal Virgins are the Daisies in the garden of talking flowers.
Spiritual Properties of Daisies: Soul purity, happiness rooted in presence, truth & renewal.
THE SOCIAL PLANETS
Jupiter: The Caterpillar
Jupiter is the planet of abundance. The urge of Jupiter is to expand. No limits, no boundaries. It is known as the greater benefic. The placement of Jupiter in the birth chart will indicate the area of life where we tend to be lucky, or more easily achieve success. It can also indicate where we may overindulge. As a social planet, Jupiter is concerned with systems & broad concepts. Jupiter asks the big questions. Why am I here? What is the meaning to my life? What is God?
In Wonderland the Caterpillar is the embodiment of Jupiter. He sits on a mushroom, smoking a hookah, both consciousness expanding symbols. When he asks Alice "Who are you"? he is inviting her to question her identify & socialisation process. He is the voice within the psyche that pushes Alice to question her existence, to revisit her self concept, & invites her into the possibility that Wonderland is not happening to her, that it is coming from her.
Saturn: The Dodo
Saturn is the planet of limitation. Saturn supports us in making things real & brings form to our ideas. Through Saturn we meet time, structure, delay & caution. Saturn needs to feel safe, & is skilled at risk assessing & managing the risk through the establishment of boundaries & structure. The placement of Saturn in our birth chart will indicate where we meet obstacles & experience set backs which force us to work this area of life. As a social planet Saturn is concerned with systems, organisational behaviour, laws & policies, governance, & karma. Through Saturn we reap what we have sown. Through the pain and challenges of the Saturnian process he draws out our gifts, creates structure for our ambitions and provides a platform so that our spiritual ideals are integrated into the structures of our lives.
Alice meets the Dodo early in her arrival into Wonderland. He takes charge & creates structure through the caucus race. Through his actions Alice has the opportunity to learn that she needs to question the processes that she is directed to follow & can free herself from the rules & politics that are imposed upon her that don't serve her. In Wonderland the Dodo is a leader & demands action. He is the voice of getting to work & achieving an outcome. He actions push Alice to question order, examine imposed structures, & he is teaching that if she is distracted & runs in circles, she will not achieve her objective.
THE CENTAUrs
Chariklo: Dina
Chariklo was a nymph, a guardian of sacred thresholds & unseen spaces. Chiron, the wise centaur & wounded healer, saw his form of half man, half horse as hideous, as it had marked him with pain & otherness. But when Chariklo first encountered him, she looked at him with eyes full of love & saw only beauty. Moved by this deep soul recognition, she willingly transformed herself into a centaur to walk beside him. Her myth is one of sacred devotion, as conscious alignment with love. She represents the part of us that sees through compassion, that holds space for our wounds without needing to fix them. Through Chariklo’s gaze, the exiled parts of ourselves are seen, accepted, & welcomed home.
In Wonderland Chariklo finds expression in Dinah, Alices's cat. Dinah appears only briefly in the books, but she anchors Alice to her home. When a cat is curled up in our laps, it is a moment of stillness, our body relaxes, our breathe settles, & our nervous system has an opportunity to reset. This is the gift of Chariklo. The love that Dina provides Alice tells her she is safe & she belongs.
Chiron: The Mock Turtle
Chiron is the wounded healer. He is a Centaur, half man, half horse. Chiron was mortally wounded, as he is an immortal he cannot die, instead existed in agony. It is through his journey to heal his own wounds that he becomes a skilled alchemist and healer. It is the Chiron aspect of the personality that teaches us that our wounds are our greatest super powers, as they are gateways to the transpersonal aspects of our psyche.
The Mock Turtle is a hybrid, half cow, half turtle. He is a wounded soul that carries great pain. His wound is his excessive sentimentality which has led him into sorrow without reprieve. Just like Chiron the Mock turtle is a teacher, teaching Alice his dances. But a teacher who is not yet fully realised. He represents Chiron before he has integrated his pain into wisdom. The Mock Turtle embodies the stage of Chiron where pain becomes identity rather than medicine.
ThE OUTER PLANETS
Uranus: The Cheshire Cat
Uranus brings sudden unpredictable change. He awakens us to what is possible & shocks us into new awareness. It is not change for change sake, he is liberation through a shift in perspective. If there are systems in life that are working he can bring rapid progress to these structures. As he works at lightning speed, Uranus is the intellect working so fast that it appears to be intuition. Through his unpredictable methods he forges alignment with our creativity & inspiration, so that the uniqueness of our personal nonconformity finds form in thought, & our ideas can be articulated in order to serve humanity.
In Wonderland he is the Cheshire Cat. He is a truth speaker in that he articulates that the madness is madness, & highlights the absurd authority of the Queen's power. He talks in riddles in order to destabilise clarity so that a higher truth can be realised. The Cheshire Cat is a trickster, placing Alice in harm's way. Not to cause harm but to facilitate a catalyst, to shift the higher mind into gear. Through his actions Alice is being shown that the peril she finds herself in is not happening to her, it is happening for her. It is his disruptive influence that can awaken her. Alice is not inside of Wonderland, but rather Wonderland is a reflection of her consciousness.
Neptune: The Mad Hatters Tea Party
Neptune's urge is to free the personality from selfish pursuits. He dissolves patterns so that new patterns can emerge. As a transpersonal planet, where Neptune appears in the natal chart is where self interest needs to be replaced by humanitarian interests, & where self sacrifice is required. Neptune teaches us that self sacrifice will both hinder & support our journey, & reflecting on our relationship to self sacrifice can align us with our spiritual values. His lessons can be hard to navigate as Neptune creates a fog, & the vision of what is trying to emerge can be hard to realise. To integrate the gifts that Neptune brings, and to navigate his currents, it is helpful to develop a spiritual discipline to support intuitive & psychic perspectives.
In Wonderland Neptune is the Mad Hatters Tea Party. The Tea Party is never ending, it is a Neptunian bubble where there is a broken relationship with time. The Mad Hatter replaces meaning with confusion & absurdity, the Dormouse drifts in & out of consciousness, reflecting Neptune's link to escapism & the unconscious, & the March Hare's erratic behaviour expresses the chaos that the Neptunian experience can bring. Alice's experience of the Mad Hatters Tea Party is an opportunity for her to understand that language is a social construct, not truth. It is a lesson in discernment. When cycles no longer hold meaning, they must be dissolved. The endless Tea Party is what happens when nothing new is allowed to form.
Pluto: The Poem of the Boy & the Jabberwocky
Pluto is the planet of transformation. It is the soul calling for recognition. He brings growth that emerges through painful experience, purging, surrender & rebirth. Pluto is where we must evolve by facing what we can no longer avoid. He is associated with Volcanoes. Total destruction of what was, that forces regeneration. The lava that destroys, is rich in nutrients.
In Wonderland Pluto is the journey of the boy who goes into the woods to confront the Jabberwocky. This occurs in a poem within Through the Looking Gass & What Alice Found There. The Jabberwocky is a threshold creature who comes from the woods. The boy in the poem leaves what is familiar & goes into the woods (the unconscious), slays the Jabberwocky, & returns with his head. He has passed through the Plutonian experience, the world he returns to is the same, but he is forever transformed. What he has faced, cannot be unseen. The Plutonian experience is the whole journey. It is the boy, the Jabberwocky, the woods, the confrontation & the return home. Pluto is the poem.
MIdPOints
The Unconscious Sun-Moon Midpoint: The Queen of Hearts
Midpoints are the exact halfway point between two celestial bodies. When any point in the birth chart is brought into consciousness it becomes creative, intentional & individuated. When unconscious, it tends to be projected & can be expressed in a compulsive & defensive manner. The Sun-Moon Midpoint is where our solar (self-expression) & lunar (emotional receptivity) energies are integrated. This is an important point, especially in terms of relationships & our capacity for self-actualization. When denied & unintegrated, the Sun-Moon Midpoint can manifest as our emotional life & ego fusing defensively. In its most extreme expression, this fusion will emerge from the psyche through behaviour that tears apart our relationships, hijacks our dreams & ambitions, & leaves us broken & isolated.
In Wonderland the unconscious expression of the Sun-Moon Midpoint is the Queen of Hearts. She is the embodiment of emotional reactivity fused with will that is blind to consequence, wielding arbitrary & tyrannical power, reacting before reflection. She is a well of unmet needs, for while she is surrounded by subjects, she is alone & unintegrated. She is the Unconscious Sun-Moon Midpoint in an extreme expression, longing to be seen & brought into consciousness. When integrated, she represents inner sovereignty the alignment of our will & instincts, which is one of the highest potentials of the Sun-Moon Midpoint.