Return of the Daughter: How's Your Love Life?

The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen. photo © 1981, Kit Sutorius courtesy of the private collection of Marisa Folse & Bellezza Squillace

by Bellezza Squillace

If you look at your natal 7th House, you get a small part of the answers to questions about your love life. A number of Astrologers focus only on this area, when it comes to love, because the 7th House rules intimacy and the most important of our relationships or partnerships.

A life of love includes more people than just our partners. It includes our parents, siblings, children, friends, co-workers, teachers, the clerk at the grocery store and the womon on the street. It is influenced by public media, elected officials and rulings they make, as well as those preaching in pulpits and others fighting for the rights of the Planet.

Whatever you love is part of your love life. Whatever you notice and put energy into is your love life.

Among those who speak about the Return of the Daughter is a group of people who understand that Her return is something less noticed as it gets closer. I think the reason is that we have no resources to cite to say, "This is like something else that happened before." It is speculation rather than documentation. It is that old-fashioned thing called faith.

We feel it more than we can prove it.

For thousands of years, astrologers advised clients using transits and placements of visible planets named from the Greco-Roman pantheon. Then, in 2003, Sedna — a new and very distant and cold planet — was discovered and named for a Goddess out of an Indigenous culture.

Although there are a number of versions to the story, this mythological theme is one of an abused/abandoned/betrayed Daughter. It is a story of forbidden love, meeting family expectations for life, and the extremes people will go to in order to protect themselves.

The Daughter is forced by circumstances into the depths of the unconscious, yet establishes an aspect or specialty of healing the world moving above and without Her through the ministerings of the tribal shamans (clergy).

There is no living Mother visible and available to this Daughter. Mythological characters are Her Father, Her Lover and their mixed-breed Children, and a Mate forced upon Her, a Mate from whom She flees to avoid further abuse.

So how's Her love life?
Well, it depends upon which stage of Her life we examine, as well as which character in the myth is seen as a protagonist. As in an interpreted dream, all the characters are aspects of the whole being in action. It is far too easy to look at all that created havoc. We take the risk and look at the ways the Daughter becomes healed and healer, where She becomes Divinity and contributor to Her community.

And your love life?
To see ourselves through Sedna, as healed and healer, as daughters returning with divinity, contributing to our communities, let us examine not the 3rd House of mundane communication or even the 7th House of intimate relationships, but let's look instead at the 9th House of our Spirituality to answer the "How's your love life?" question.

The 9th House is associated with all our attempts to create ritual and ceremony, where we develop our philosophies and where we attempt to describe the incomprehensible. Our love life begins with our deepest relationship to the Divine forces in our lives. It further expands into our relationships with our Goddess sisters, with our coven circles, with clergy within our religious organizations, and with other spiritual leaders, as well as with our peers, our students, and members of our temples and congregations. How we support or challenge our sisters, our congregations, our spiritual directors and/or our spiritual congregants has an impact upon our well-being.

For a complete picture of how you fit into your spiritual community and express your Divine Love, look at planets, transits and aspects to your 9th House. For now, take a look at your natal chart rulers for the 9th House and consider the myth of the Daughter for yourself as you read these affirmations.

ARIES in the 9th House: My life is inspired by positive thinking and high energy. Each moment is an opportunity for me to connect with the Divine. My relationship with Goddess opens me up to new and exciting possibilities. I love spiritually by example.

TAURUS in the 9th House: I have strength of purpose and determination to continue. I know the face of the Goddess on Earth. Here She touches me, sensually within all that I taste and feel with my body. I love spiritually in my body.

GEMINI in the 9th House: I am the communication bridge to others in my spiritual work. The Divine Light exists for me to play. I love spiritually through my sense of humor and appreciation for the spoken words in chants, prayer, and song.

CANCER in the 9th House: My spiritual life is one of nurturing others and myself. I have the perfect balance of strength and vulnerability. I love spiritually through the cycles of the world around me as well as those within me.

LEO in the 9th House: My spiritual love opens hearts and lights the fires of passion and joy. I shine charismatically and confidently in spiritual leadership. I love spiritually when I create an atmosphere of safety and support.

VIRGO in the 9th House: I embody pure health in all I do. My spiritual life is rich in every detail. I love spiritually in service to others and to the Goddess.

LIBRA in the 9th House: I open to receive higher thoughts and healing. My spiritual life is tranquil and peace-loving. I breathe in harmony to those around me. I love spiritually through maintaining a balance between what I give and receive.

SCORPIO in the 9th House: My feelings are my power. I am most powerful in the relationship I have with the Divine as I delve into the Mysteries of life, death, and rebirth. I love spiritually as I embrace the wisdom of the world.

SAGITTARIUS in the 9th House: I am filled with Divine inspiration and sacred energies. I love spiritually in a way that models our human connection to the angels, spirit guides, and the Creatrix. I love spiritually within every fiber of my being.

CAPRICORN in the 9th House: I am structured to provide safety and hard work where it is needed. I am trustworthy in all my dealings. I love spiritually by building the temples for the Divine energy around me.

AQUARIUS in the 9th House: My mind is meditative and peaceful when I consider all of what humanity needs and desires. I explore the Divine with original thinking. I love spiritually when change is within reach.

PISCES in the 9th House: I am the eternal mystic. I see the beauty and wonder in all things. I am most in love spiritually when my intuition is in full expression.

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