Why You Can’t Stick to One Thing, According to Your Sign
A few weeks ago, I was listening to astrologer Chani Nicholas‘ weekly forecast, and she started talking about the mutable signs (known, in traditional astrology, as double-bodied signs). My ears, naturally, perked up.
The four double-bodied signs: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, are signs I associate with multipotentiality. They all have a plural (or a “doing many things”) quality to them, whether it’s the classic Gemini project-juggler or the Sag who is off to explore the NEWEST MOST FASCINATING IDEA EVER!
The sections of sky that correspond to the mutable signs also happen to be where the Sun lives when the season is changing. For example, the Sun moves through Gemini in June, which is the transition between spring and summer in the northern hemisphere and between fall and winter in the southern hemisphere. Each mutable sign marks a change of season.
Chani points out that even if we don’t have any planets in double-bodied signs, we all have these four signs somewhere in our birth chart. And the houses these mutable signs correspond to will tell us something about the locations in our lives where we need variety.
Thinking about multipotentiality like this offers a new way of considering the age-old question, “Are we all actually multipotentialites?”. (By the way, I don’t have the answer.)
Instead of asking whether we’re all multipods, this framing suggests that we all need variety somewhere in our lives. Whether that variety is needed in our everyday routine and communications, in our career or public roles, or in some other facet of life, will depend on what houses the double-bodied signs fall into. As you’ll remember from my first article on the birth chart, most astrologers split the space surrounding earth into twelve slices known as houses. Each house is said to represent certain aspects of one’s life.
I thought it would be fun to break it down for all of the astro-curious in the community. Let’s take a look at your “sign,” and consider the facets of life where you might need to express your multipotentiality.
I’ll be referring to whole sign houses in this article to keep things simple (and because it’s the most ancient form of house division).
What’s your rising sign?
Before reading any further: If you don’t know your rising sign—also known as the sign of your Ascendant—look it up now.
You’ll need to know your birth time to do this. If you don’t know your birth time, you can use your Sun sign.
Alright, let’s get into it!
If your rising sign is Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn…
First off, this means you have some serious cardinal energy! You like to start things. Aries loves initiating all kinds of projects and adventures, and often find themselves in leadership roles. Cancer initiates emotional bonds. I have a Cancer friend who LOVES surprising her friends on their birthdays with crazy elaborate cakes made with their favourite flavours. Libras are always initiating social connections and helping to make sure every voice and opinion is considered. And Caps, well they will quietly start climbing a mountain (literal or otherwise) of epic proportions!
Since your Ascendant is in one of these cardinal signs, the double-bodied signs will fall in the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th houses of your chart. These places, where mutable signs land in your chart indicate where you need variety in your life. Here’s what that means:
You need variety in your daily routines
As an Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn rising, you have a mutable 3rd house. The 3rd house is the place of siblings, neighbours, daily communications, every day routines and short distance travel (i.e. the places near home that you frequent regularly, like your local coffee shop, grocery store, gas station, etc.). It also relates to your elementary school and childhood experiences.
You likely need a lot of variety in your everyday activities. Maybe you need to mix up where you go every day, how you structure your time, and the specific activities in your schedule.
Having the same routine day-in and day-out just isn’t for you! So, be sure to take some surprise meanders and try new things, both in your physical world and in your creative life. If you have trouble jumping from thing to thing without losing yourself in a multipotentialite rabbit hole, try using timers or the tinkering time method.
Mix up your work and self-care practices
Next up, let’s talk about your mutable 6th house. The 6th house also relates to our daily routines, but it has more to do with acts of service that we perform through our work. The 6th house is also related to health. It’s sort of the “house of maintenance.” Not the sexiest house, but very essential!
As an Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn rising, this means you’ll want to vary the tasks you perform every day in your work. Perhaps you need multiple diverse revenue streams to keep it interesting, or maybe you just need to switch between many different hats while engaging with your job each day. You might also want to switch up your exercise routines and self-care practices on the regular.
Explore a number of different philosophies and worldviews
You have a mutable 9th house, and the 9th house is the place of foreign things, worldview and your long term plans. It signifies traveling to far away places, exploring philosophical ideas, and learning about people from different backgrounds. It’s also the place of higher education, law and publishing.
As someone with a mutable 9th house, you need spiritual and explorative variety. Maybe you love traveling and learning about different cultures. Or, maybe you’re someone who has deeply studied multiple, very different subjects. Perhaps you just have the heart of a philosopher and are always learning about new perspectives and worldviews.
Having a mutable 9th house means you’re unlikely to become stuck in a single world view. You’ll always be searching for new ways to see things—and that is a pretty awesome way to move through life.
You’ve got a lot going on under the surface!
Aries, Cancer, Libra and Cap risings have a mutable 12th house. The 12th house is thought of as the site of hidden things. It’s where our unconscious processing happens, and often where our shame and mental health challenges lie. It’s related to isolation, enemies, loss, secrets and “self-undoing.” Traditionally, it’s a bit of a scary house, but these darker topics are a part of life, and the more comfortable we can become with our 12th house, the more at ease we’ll feel with ourselves.
Having a mutable 12th house means there’s a lot going on under the surface for you. Maybe you have a lively inner world or a lot of hidden feelings to process.
It may be worth looking into the challenges for your particular 12th house sign, since the 12th house tends to be a place of difficulty. If your 12th house is in Gemini, for example, be extra careful about not gossiping too much or divulging other people’s secrets. With the 12th house in Virgo, the key to your mental wellbeing might be in staying organized but not being too rigid or critical of yourself. Having Sag in the 12th house means you might struggle with feeling lost or scattered at times. And having Pisces in the 12th would give you an extra rich fantasy life, which could be exhausting if you aren’t careful. (Make sure to take naps.)
If your rising sign is Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius…
As a multipod, having your Ascendant in a fixed sign can be a blessing! One of the biggest multipotentialite challenges is balancing our need to explore with our need to make progress on our projects. Having prominent fixed signs can help us stay the course a little longer. Fixed signs can make us a bit stubborn, but they also make us more reliable and give us some lasting power.
If your Ascendant falls in one of the fixed signs, then your double-bodied signs fall in the 2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th houses. Here’s what that means:
Cha-ching! You need variety in financial matters
You will be most content if you mix up your 2nd house: the place of finances, material resources, wealth and values. The 2nd house is your money, your attitude toward money, the stuff you own and the skills and talents you use to make money.
You approach your finances and resources with a sense of plurality. Maybe you thrive when you diversify your income or use a bunch of different skills in your career. Perhaps, you own an eclectic array of treasures or like to adorn your home (Taurians, I’m looking at you) or yourself (Leos!) with an assortment of beautiful, diverse, adornments. Maybe you just feel the urge to get creative with the way you make and spend your money.
The things you make are multifaceted
As a Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius rising, you’ve got a mutable sign in the 5th house of creative projects, children, joy, fun, games, sex and sexuality. This house is all about your progeny (creative or literal) and the things that lead to that progeny (like creative activities. Or procreation). In Hellenistic astrology, the 5th house is referred to as the house of good fortune. It’s usually a very lovely place, and having a double-bodied sign in your 5th brings even more activity to this realm of life.
You love to create many different things. You might literally have multiple children, or the sign can represent your children themselves. For example, if you have Gemini in the 5th, you might end up having a chatty, curious child. But the 5th house doesn’t have to refer to children. Having a mutable 5th house could simply mean that you need a plurality of creative projects, joyful activities and play in your life. Enjoy your mutable 5th house! Your creative world is a great place to express your multipotentiality.
The people in your life are rich in resources—be they creative or material
You have a mutable 8th house, and in traditional astrology, the 8th house refers to other people’s resources. It can relate to material resources, like money and objects. (Topics like taxes and inheritance fall into the 8th house.) But it can also refer to less tangible resources, like other people’s skills and talents.
Your mutable 8th house means that other people in your life might have an array of different assets—literal and/or creative. Since the 8th house is linked with inheritance, you might have inherited your multipotentiality from a parent or caregiver who has many different skills or passions. This is also the house of collaboration, so you might be someone who needs multiple collaborators.
You have a diverse group of friends & loved ones
The 11th house is the place of friends, associations and community. Your mutable 11th house means you have some multipods in your friend group! It could also mean that you have an eclectic group of friends. Ever throw a party and marvel at how different (but equally awesome) your friends are from one another?
Multipotentialites are typically curious folks who love to learn and can connect with all kinds of different people. Having a double-bodied sign in the 11th house would enhance this multipod super power, as your friendships and community would have a diverse quality to them.
If your rising sign is Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces…
Alright, first things first… You’ve got a mutable rising sign! That means that your most important houses—what astrologers refer to as your angular houses—are all mutable. This is a clear sign that your need for variety runs deep. Not all Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces risings are multipotentialites, but many of us are. I am! Let’s get into what your double-bodied signs in the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses mean.
YOU embody variety
Your 1st house is the same as your rising sign. It’s the sign that was rising up over the eastern horizon the moment you were born. It represents you, how you come across to the world, people’s first impression of you, your appearance, your energy and your physical vitality. Chani Nicholas describes the rising sign as “what we want to be known for, and our motivation for living life.” Astrologer, Nadine Jane, refers to it as who you needed to become as a child to survive. The first house/rising sign is a very big deal.
Having a mutable rising sign means you embody that mutable energy. The need for variety is a core part of who you are. Even if your Sun, Moon and Ruler of the Ascendant are in fixed or cardinal signs, simply having a mutable rising sign would be enough to make you at least come across as a multipotentialite.
You belong to a long line of multipotentialites
Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces risings have a mutable 4th house. This is the house of parents, family, lineage, ancestry and home life. It’s where you come from, the people who raised you, and the vibe of your home and private life.
You may have been raised by one or more multipotentialite, or come from a whole lineage of multipods. Maybe you had caregivers who introduced you to a range of activities, cultures and ideas. A mutable 4th house could also mean that your current, adult home life is a place of many things. Perhaps you explore multiple topics with your partner, children, or on your own, at home, and you have a dynamic household. You’re doing your best to seed the multipotentialites of the future by having a household and family (biological or chosen) that value variety, flexibility, and movement.
Your partners and partnerships are extra multifaceted
Your mutable 7th house refers to long term partners and partnerships. It’s long-term romantic relationships and other more formal arrangements like business partners and long-term creative collaborators.
You need partners who are either multipotentialites themselves or who are at least happy to explore many different realms with you. As someone with Pisces in the 7th, my relationship with my wife has a very creative, imaginative, flowing quality to it. And Sagittarius is in her 7th house, so part of our love is going on epic adventures together.
Your multipotentialite reputation precedes you
You have a mutable 10th house: the house of career and/or public roles, as well as your public reputation. It’s usually the house that’s highest in the sky at the moment of your birth, which is why it represents your most public self.
This means that you are essentially a public multipotentialite! Being a person who does many things is one of the strongest impressions you give to the world.
The 10th house often corresponds with our career, but it doesn’t have to. We aren’t always best known for the work we’re paid for. Sometimes we’re best known for our volunteer work or for our creative or even our social/emotional skills. In short, having a double-bodied 10th house means that you have the reputation of being someone who pursues many domains.
Many different elements in a birth chart can point to one’s multipotentiality. Having planets in mutable signs can place a greater emphasis on your need for variety. And like I mentioned in my previous post, Mercury and Jupiter can be important factors, as well as the placement of the Ascendant ruler. But at the most basic level, simply considering where the double-bodied signs fall in your chart is a really good way to identify where you might need some variety in your life.
I hope this article helped you understand yourself a little better. I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about astrology: it can speak to our lived experiences and give us a bit of insight into who we are and what makes us tick. And that’s always good to know as a multipod who’s frequently changing and exploring new things.
If you’re interested in learning more about your personal birth chart, head over here and schedule a session with me.