What to do with an over the border planet?

A wonky spot in my astrology chart that has always puzzled me.

Like, I know it's there, and I easily interpret the spot six degrees clockwise, but this little bit, I honestly have never really understood.

And by the way, I've been looking at my chart for years, so if you have a spot that doesn't reveal itself easily, don't worry. Every astrologer struggles with this at some point. Understanding unfolds over time, like the blooming flower.

But anyway, about a week ago, my inner self started telling me that this was important. It's my Pluto, specifically, and I heard the word “Pluto” floating in my mind along with an image of the chart and the spot where Pluto sits.

For days, I had no idea why it was important or what it actually meant.

I know what Pluto in general signifies: deep transformation, cthonic entities, unavoidable change, the steamroller that will flatten you if you don't hop on board for the ride. My Pluto's in Libra so my particular transformation should have something to do with aesthetics or relationships. But somehow the pieces just weren't coming together. Like floating pieces at the edge of a puzzle, the picture on the box tells you where they should go, but you don't have enough of the surrounding context to figure out exactly how they fit.

Then I started to help a client with her website. She is super smart and had all kinds of amazing ideas, but she was struggling to figure out how her dazzling content fit into the visual layout.

Something that's easy for me!

Not only have I designed 13 websites, but I also am really good at merging written details with the visual arrangement. I think that's why I like making those cheat sheets on my Etsy shop! There's something so satisfying about fitting all the information into the right visual boxes.

Christmas morning, actually, I woke up with this realization: It's my over-the-border stellium!

Here's a quick technical explanation.

“Stellium” is the astrology term for a cluster of three or more planets within a few degrees of each other.

In your life, it indicates a cluster of energy, a bunch of momentum in a single sign and house that signals a big focus for your activities and interests, an area where their attention or efforts are continually drawn.

So for example, I have Mars, Mercury, and my Sun within three degrees of each other in Virgo in my 7th house, and I'm consistently drawn to problem solving (Virgo) for other people (7th house).

But modern astrology has never really known what to do with a cluster of planets that crosses the border between TWO signs.

In fact, I coined the term “over-the-border” stellium because as far as I know, there isn't actually a technical word for this arrangement.

But I have one.

In my natal chart, this Virgo cluster - Mars, Mercury, and the Sun - is joined by Pluto in Libra. The very planet my inner self had been highlighting in the two weeks leading up to the holiday!

Mercury and Mars are at 21° Virgo, my Sun is at 24° Virgo, and then Pluto is at 1° Libra.

So it's close enough – within 7° of the Sun – to mingle its energies, but it's not in the same sign as the Sun. And furthermore, Virgo is an earth sign, and Libra is an air sign, so those don't meld easily. Earth and air are not traditionally compatible.

That, by the way, is always true of an over-the-border stellium. If you have a cluster of planets that bridges Scorpio and Sagittarius, you're trying to combine fire and water. That's not a natural combination!

But even though they're in incompatible signs, over-the-border planets are still energized by their proximity to the group.

So you likely find that all of the planets’ significations are highly active in your life. However, because the signs are not compatible, it may feel hard to understand exactly how they all work together.

I think that's why it took me so long to understand my own over-the-border stellium.

I couldn't figure out conceptually how this Pluto in Libra was tagging along with all my Virgo planets. Until I understood the pattern while working on this website! When I work on writing website copy or editing articles for my clients – a very “7th house Mercury in Virgo” activity – I inevitably end up creating a much deeper transformation than any of us originally anticipated. Transformation…Pluto, get it?

Someone hires me just to tighten up the copy and correct any grammatical errors, but then I end up rearranging the paragraphs, writing a brand new hook, and adding a few examples from our conversations. We always end up with a much more impactful final product.

It's like the worst thing you can say to me is, “Just do what's easy and simple,” and imagine that means I won't make very many changes. Because what's easy for me actually is to transform the whole thing!

It's nail biting to try to not make an impact!

Clients often respond to the final product with comments like, “That's exactly how I wanted it to sound, but I didn't know how to get it there!” Or “I didn't realize that all that was in there…”

For years I puzzled over this, and worried about it, too, to be honest. Was it a problem that people would come for me for something simple, and I would end up redoing much more than they had planned? Was I overreaching my mandate or poking my nose in where it didn't belong?

It's like, I would be focused on the Virgo problem solving, but the deep transformation of Pluto in Libra couldn't help but creep in…

On the other hand, clients never complained.

In fact, people always seemed overjoyed to discover that they were getting much more out of the process than they had bargained for.

I just had a client who came to me with an article for a small publication, but after I finished editing, it ended up getting published in the “National Journal of Geo-Cosmic Research”

!

So here I was working with this client on her website, and instead of just adding a single page and cleaning up her copy, we ended up finding better photographs, diving into a bunch of case studies, and energizing the layout with new text on every page. We both agree that the new website presents a much broader range of her offerings and highlights her skills in a more dynamic and engaging way.

I finally could see my stellium at work.

Not to say that planets are actually causing this…we don't really understand whether astrology is causal (do the energies of the planets actually affect us, or is it just an indicator, like the clock on the wall that tells you what energetic time it is?)

But it's pretty clear to me that my stellium indicates that the energies of deep transformation in relationships get drawn into my problem-solving activites, even though the planets spread across the border of two incompatible signs.

It may not be easy for me to see how this happens, that doesn't mean it's not powerful!

And I’m learning to embrace the unknownable factor!

I now go into client meetings a bit on the edge of my seat to see how it's going to work out since even I can't really predict what's going to happen…

Honestly, it feels really great to be anticipating and enjoying my own energies.

Okay, so how about your chart, or the charts of the people that you work with?

Can you find an over-the-border stellium and do a little meditative inquiry on how those energies might work together in unexpected ways?

If you don’t find one, you can do the same analysis with a sign that has its planetary ruler in the house next door. (If you’re not sure about planetary rulers for each sign, they’re listed on my free 1-page cheat sheet available on my website at www.spiritsaid.com.)

So for example, my husband has his Sun, which rules the sign of Leo, in the sign of Cancer, right next to Leo. For a long time, he had trouble expressing his passions (a Leo activity) because he was so focused on taking care of other people (a very Cancer activity). In fact, this is a chronic problem for people with the Sun in Cancer (born between June 22nd and July 21st), and now you know why! That “ruler next door” energy makes it hard for the planet to vitalize the activities of the sign it rules.

If you have situations in your life where you're not really sure how energies go together, it's very possible that you have an over-the-border stellium or a ruling planet in the sign next door (or also, it could be 5 signs away, which is 150° angle).

Understanding how our life experiences are represented by our astrology charts helps us not only figure out what’s happening but also feel more confident about what we do. We can identify abilities to really dive into. Now, I’m more confident that it’s not a fluke that I end up initiating transformational conversations. In fact, it’s a skill I can feel proud of and rely on to help my clients.

What about you? Where are you looking for more confidence or more direction to help you rely on your abilities and feel confident about your skills?

If you want help understanding this, feel free to reach out to me. But I bet if you access your own inner intuition, and look at the keywords for each planet and sign, you'll come up with some situations in your own life to help you understand how this functions for you.

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think of this article. I’m really eager to work on these tougher nuts to crack in astrology to help us all understand ourselves and our lives better.

Thank you, and I hope you had a very happy holiday wherever you were celebrating!