Meditation on an 11th house profection year, so far...
Does the sun heal, or just burn?
I’ve been using annual profections as part of my personal astrology practice over the last few years, and I’ve discovered it’s one of the most enjoyable and insightful practices that I’ve been able to apply to my own life.
Every year, usually after the birthday celebrations die down, I sit down and pull my solar return charts, the annual profection info for my new age, and start meditating on the ruling sign and planet that I will be working with for the year. This process is usually pretty drawn out, as I am very much a cardinal air human, so I tend to start and stop this process over the next few weeks before the plan fully comes to fruition. My birthday is in October, and I am a Libra sun and rising, so this process aligns with the coming of winter and the beginning of my ‘hibernation’ season.
During this time, I will journal and come up with a general theme for my year. Then I venture over to Pinterest, and collect inspirational images to begin my moodboard. Once I have a clear picture of my focus for the year, I build my moodboard, and sometimes accompanying theme or mantra.
Now that we’re entering Aries season, I’m officially halfway through my 34th year. I thought it might be a good time to meditate on how things have been over the last 6 months, as I haven’t been connecting with the themes of my profection year as much as I did in the previous years.
Taking it back a little bit…
33 was a pretty good year, overall. I was in a 10th House profection year, ruled by the Cancer & the moon. My natal moon is in Virgo, and I married the themes of Virgo & Cancer with the 10th house to create a moodboard focused on manifesting the future of my spiritual business & astrological practice, while also supporting my continued growth in my ‘muggle’ career.
The actual events of my life turned out to be very literal 10th house themes, with growth, promotions and “leveling up” through out the year, especially during Cancer season. I was able to grow my understanding in my own natal moon, and bring that into my personal astrology practice.
So when October 2024 came around I knew that I would be entering into an 11th house profection year, ruled by the Sun (Leo). I also have Jupiter in Leo natally, and my profected chart, because of my Libra stellium, pushes my natal Sun, Mercury, and Venus into Leo as well. These should all be good, if not GREAT things, right??
My 34th Year Mantra + Moodboard
First, I decided that my 11th house year would embody a theme of community connection.
The 11th house is fundamentally a relationship house, but in a wider, less personal view. It could be any community you’re a part of - a church, school, town… or a group of people with similar interests, political views or ideals. As many of my millenial counterparts may agree, community is not always as simple to find as one might think, especially in our post-covid world. While I do have a wonderful friend group and family, I have never been one to get involved in clubs, groups, or community events. I definitely started expanding my horizons to new groups (witchy + astrology communities, mostly) in the last few years, but connecting with my local community is an area that I have not cultivated, and so I decided that this would be my focus.
The ruler of the year is the sun, which in my chart is ruled by Venus in Libra (1st House in WS).
I began my meditations on the Sun in Leo, and what that energy typically embodies. I really see this as embracing your true power, embracing authenticity, and essentially being a manifesting powerhouse. I gravitated towards a lot of images focused on women in crowns, royalty, and the tarot card of the magician. There’s something that feels intensely alchemical, as if anything you touch can turn to gold.
I also really loved connecting to the element of fire, as something that can destroy, but also purify. There is something about the Sun in Leo that is authenticity to the extreme, as its not about being diplomatic like Libra, but being so beholden to the truth of things, shining a light so brightly, that it’s impossible not to see.
Bring the magic: How do we make a cohesive theme for my year?
My moodboard focused on authenticity, being true to my inner power, and growing in my ideals, in order to show up for my community. My hope and goal for this year is to use my natural talents (as a Libra sun, who is ruled by Venus) to foster connections and relationships in my community. I could do that by offering my time to local organizations, joining local groups who share similar interests to my own, or offering my talents to help or guide others.
Moment of Truth…
All of these goals sound great and wonderful… but how have these intentions manifested in my life?
Well… they really haven’t yet. Here’s where we bring in the radical honesty. I don’t feel like I’ve had the opportunity or capacity to put these intentions into fruition at all so far this year.
My birthday was a pretty wonderful one - I was on a vacation in Italy, where I had attended my best friend’s wedding. After the wedding outside of Naples, I traveled to Sicily and Malta with friends. I ended the trip meeting my family in Rome, for a few days of birthday celebrations before heading home.
On paper, (or social media) it looked like it was a perfectly wonderful trip. But I got sick the first week in Italy, a flu that morphed from upper respiratory to a true stomach bug by the end. I was also simultaneously dealing with an abnormally long period, bleeding heavily for almost the entire 3 weeks of travel. I didn’t know it yet, but that would be the beginning of a health issue (and mystery) that I am still dealing with almost 6 months later.
After Italy I was exhausted both from the travel and also from the sickness. I had been very stressed before the trip, as I had a lot of things going on personally, as well as starting a new job, so I chalked all the health issues up to stress and tried to focus on relaxing and returning to a routine when I got back home.
In November and December, I was back on the work grind, busy with normal friend & family activity, and life was pretty normal. However, my hormones were completely messed up and so was my cycle. I became increasingly concerned and went through the lengthy process of just trying to schedule appointments with the doctors to start dealing with the symptoms I was facing. Of course with the holidays and with how our health care system is, that was no easy feat. By early December, I was having emotional breakdowns from the feelings of helplessness. And yet, the soonest I could even see a doctor was over a month away. I tried to research herbal remedies in the meantime, and waited for my appointments.
After the new year, I started going to the doctors and getting testing. Its now mid-March and while they believe I am dealing with some type of severe hormonal imbalance, and my symptoms are being managed, I am still in the process of going through additional testing, researching new specialists, and looking for the underlying causes. I consider myself lucky that this has been the first significant health issue I’ve had to face in my life. And I hope that testing and preventative care will get me back to normal without any lasting issues.
But because of how I was feeling, I have been facing near constant exhaustion since December. My symptoms got worse and worse, and I was barely able to get to the office 3 days a week. Many of my weekends have been spent at home (which admittedly, as an introvert, I like.) Many weekends I simply only had the energy for reading and watching tv with also taking naps. Doing chores and cooking for myself was at times so exhausting, as my energy levels have been so drained.
Ok, let’s bring the sun back from the rain clouds
Health issues aside, here are a few things I have done so far this year that could potentially carry some 11th house + Sun themes:
I organized a lovely gift exchange with my girlfriends, which I hope to establish as a new tradition. I found the idea on IG, where a girl hosted a “Favorite Things” party. We all brought an item we loved to use last year (a beauty product, gadget or other item) and did a Polyanna of sorts. It was a lovely excuse to get the girls together, post holidays, when usually we don’t have much planned.
I joined new team in August for work, and this fall and winter has been very focused on getting to know my new coworkers and team. While the usual complaint about corporate America is that its usually pretty soulless, I am happy to be part of the exception. I am surrounded by a wonderful group of people, as my team is entirely multicultural, ethnically diverse and only women (!!) - I can actually say with my full chest that I love working with this group. I have been at my company for 5 years, as of February, but moving to this team has allowed me to meet and work with a number of groups that I had not interacted with previously.
I have become a member of the wonderful gardens near my home, which I hope to utilize the membership for lots of walks in the spring and summer, as well as take advantage of their entertainment and events.
I’m here! Joined the Substack community and making an attempt to write about my love and passion for astrology.
Let’s dig into the astrology…
My biggest question lately has been, “What is in my chart that has thrown my year off balance?” IS my year even off balance? Is this what my 11th house profection year, my SUN RULED year, was supposed to be about?
The health issues began right at the time of my birthday so I feel whatever was activated happened right around the time of my solar return.
I remember the exact moment this transit took place. It was our first night in Rome, with my parents and cousin. We went to a restaurant right down the street from our Airbnb and sat outside. There was something about the excitement of being together for the first evening, of being in Rome and eating delicious pasta.. we were all giddy. While we normally laugh and joke, that night was another level, and we were in tears and fits of laughter.At least we were in an area where people are quite noisy and boisterous so we didn’t make a scene. One particularly hilarious discussion was about the Italian toilets, which always leave something to be desired. I went to the toilet and I came back to report that this one didn’t have a toilet seat, it was just a little bowl with hardly a lip to sit on. This conversation devolved to an ingenious invention - where we would use those inflatable travel neck pillows as a portable toilet seat… Culminating in my cousin doing a bit where she pretended to need to go to the bathroom but stopped to blow up her toilet seat at the table before going to pee. I’m still cackling thinking about it now - although I’m sure that for the reader there’s definitely an element of “you had to be there.”
Anyways - sometimes its fun to look at a chart of a good moment a see how it translates to a chart. Gemini rising gives a chart (and year) ruled by Mercury. As I was traveling, enjoying time with friends and family - chatting and yapping and exploring, my solar return was definitely heavy on the mercury themes.
I’m not going to spend too much time on my SR chart, but I do want to highlight a few things. I think it’s interesting that the sun was transiting the 6th house of health. Theres also a grand trine taking center stage, with Mars, Venus and Neptune in the water signs. This, plus the addition of Pluto, creates the kite pattern, with emphasis on the opposition between Mars and Pluto. Theres also an exact conjunction of the Moon and Saturn at 13 Pisces. It is even more interesting if you were to overlay this chart with my natal chart, as Pisces rules my 6th house, and this is where I have been experiencing the Saturn transit. Also, the chart ruler, Mercury, is at 1 degree of Scorpio, which typically rules reproductive organs, and its in the 6th house, and squaring Mars.
To move beyond the SR chart, I want to note that the transits we’ve experienced collectively over the last 6 months are also nothing to overlook. With Pluto transiting into Aquarius after 20 years, Neptune reaching its critical 29 degree in its home sign of Pisces, a lengthy Mars retrograde in Cancer, and the Nodes changing signs, this era is not for the weak. I have found some comfort and solidarity in many of my friends as it seems that trials and intense, difficult transformative life experiences seem to be showing up in many people’s lives at this time. It’s to be expected with so much going on in the heavens. So I hope if you’re also experiencing a crazy year, you can take comfort in knowing you’re absolutely not alone.
Some final thoughts…
As I write, I’ve started thinking about the themes of the sun and its ability to shine light on the ultimate truth, whether or not we want to see it. This year has forced me to face truths regarding my health, which is something I’ve always taken for granted and avoided when I was younger. The sun is unapologetic, and forces you to face realities. The sun, and fire, burns away the shadows, and may leave you raw and burned, but in your most natural, authentic self. There’s a reason fire is so magical, and its symbolism is something so deeply rooted in our psyche. We are aware of its power, of the fire in our souls, and how deeply it can bring us through the process of transformation.
I wanted to write this because I couldn’t see how the sun was showing up in my life this year - and I think I can safely say that now I’m beginning to see how its working through my life this year.
Thanks for reading!
xx Hannah
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