How to Write a Personal Essay Using Astrology
The personal essay is a process of inner inquiry, and modern astrology is sought out for the same reason.
At its core, astrology is storytelling. It conflates mythology with the movement of the planets to create an ever-evolving screenplay in the sky.
Personal astrology then takes this narrative inward, using what’s called a birth chart to map each planet to a part of the psyche, and the drama becomes interior dialogue.
You don’t need to believe in astrology for it to be a useful tool. A personal essay writer is always in search of good material, and I’m going to show you how to use astrology to unearth a compelling essay theme. Buckle up for liftoff in 3, 2, 1.
Select an Astrology Placement
When people say, “What’s your sign,” what they actually mean is, “Which astrological sign is your Sun in?” Each person actually has a birth chart that contains all the planets and luminaries: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and so on. Each of these will be in one of the 12 signs, and each planet represents a distinct aspect of your personality. For now, we’ll focus our essay idea on a single planet.
To see your birth chart, go to my favorite free astrology website, Astro-Charts.com.
Enter your personal information.
Choose a planet.
Go to the “Planets” section to see which of the 12 astrological signs the planet is in.
Then, scroll all the way down to the “Houses” section to see which of the 12 houses contains your chosen planet.
If you’re not sure which planet to choose, go ahead and stick with your Sun. You can always come back to the others later.
Write out your planet, what sign it is in, and what house the planet is in.
For example, I have my Sun in Libra in the 10th house.
Analyze the Components
Astrology becomes very simple when we break down each element, and then swap in keywords. It’s a bit like playing Mad Libs.
As mentioned, each keyword represents a part of the personality. The sign represents the motivation. The house represents the area of life.
Another way to say this is that the planet is Who, the sign is Why, and the house is Where. Now we have the basic elements of a story: character, character desire, and setting. And we’re going to figure out how that story might mirror our own real life.
You can find keywords by googling, “keywords for Libra” or “keywords for Mars,” and so on. If you’d like to see my list, I have a list of astrology keywords on my blog. Take time with this step and use keywords that resonate with you. You are the authority on your own personality, just as you own your truth when you write a personal essay.
Fill in the blanks:
My [planet] is motivated towards [sign] in my [house].
For my essay, I’d swap in keywords for my Sun in Libra in the 10th house: My identity is motivated towards balance in my career.
It’s a bit clunky, which is good, because that’s the cue for your subconscious to step in and connect the dots.
Analyzing Your Placement
We’re fishing for essay fodder, and our Mad Libs statement is the fishing line. Be patient, enjoy the process, and use these questions to see what you can pull up.
Reflection Questions:
What’s my gut reaction to this Mad Libs combination? Does it feel good, bad, flattering, confusing?
What’s a life experience I’ve had where this personality description is accurate?
What’s a life experience that conflicts with this personality description?
Is there anyone in my life who embodies this archetype? In a book or film?
If I were to embody this personality archetype to an extreme degree, what’s a choice or action I might make?
If you don’t resonate with the placement at all, you’ve struck gold. In the process of telling us why this placement isn’t right, you’ll discover something that IS true about your personality, and taking the reader on your own journey of inner excavation makes for the most unforgettable kind of essay.
The Framework of the Astrology Essay
A personal essay aficionado knows there is no limit to the ways a personal essay can be structured, but when starting a first draft of the astrology essay, I recommend keeping things simple. If the essay wants to go in a new direction, it will.
The standard personal essay structure we learned in school begins with a hook, followed by a thesis statement, then some personal experiences that support the thesis, and closes with a thought-provoking takeaway.
The astrology essay builds on this structure, with a few distinctions.
Hook: Establish “why you, why now.” In this example from Cassondra Elizabeth, she’s writing about the start of Virgo season because she has a Virgo sun.
Define the placement: In her bolded text, Fēnix Grace defines her placement, the Imum Coeli (IC), through a list of keywords.
Personal anecdotes to support (or refute!) the placement
Universalize with a conclusion: Fēnix Grace closes with a Winston Churchill quote that broadens her analysis to anyone having a difficult year, and I apply my takeaway on my North Node placement (keyword: fate) to a broader theme on getting outside one’s comfort zone.
Benefits of the Astrology Essay
Using astrology as a theme gives us a few advantages: It keeps the essay specific. We can cover a wild range of personal experiences because they’ll all be linked by the planet, which helps the reader follow from one to the next.
Second, astrology allows us to break up deep emotional material with the less-charged information about planets and archetype keywords. This allows for natural pacing. After sharing a particularly deep experience, you can pull back and mention something like, “It takes Jupiter 12 years to make a full orbit.” In this example by Kira Ryberg, notice how she begins some paragraphs with a personal anecdote and others with an astrology fact.
One of the greatest benefits of using astrology in your writing is that by treating the planets as sub-characters within the psyche, we see how the personality is a mixed bag of competing motivations, which has applications to writing fiction, memoir, and beyond.
