Welcome to Wild Stars & Wellsprings: Musings on Art, Animals & Astrology

Greetings friend, and welcome to Wild Stars & Wellsprings!

This project has been percolating for a good few months now, and I think it's finally ready to grow legs and venture out into the big wide world. I know blogging might be considered a little old school, but I feel drawn to return to writing in this way, and if you'll humour me I'd like to take a moment to tell you why - because I think it will give you an idea of what I'm hoping to offer you in this space (and because my Virgo Venus - who is ruled by a retrograde Leo Mercury - always feels the need to explain herself!).

The desire to start a blog here on my own website arose largely due to feeling utterly disenchanted with social media. I was burning out and exhausted, spending dreadful amounts of time writing posts for my Pegasus Astrology Instagram and Facebook pages, which virtually no one would ever see (thanks for nothing, algorithms) and which ultimately caused me far more stress than they were ever worth. Because when writing on those platforms, I felt compelled to write in a certain way, pressured to keep to a certain length, and like I had to adhere to certain topics.

Part of that was because of desperately trying (and usually failing) to create something the algorithm gods would smile favourably upon - something I'm sure many aspiring content creators out there will relate to.

When writing for social media, I was pretty much exclusively writing about astrological transits, and it left me with no time or energy to write about anything else.

But the other (arguably worse) part of it was that I was trying to write in certain ways and about certain things because it was what other astrologers were doing. I was sacrificing the things that I wanted to write about in favour of what I thought I should be writing about. And when I realised this, it made my blood run cold. Because I have never done anything just because everybody else is doing it. In fact, historically I would usually always obtusely do the opposite, sometimes for no other reason than out of a compulsion to be defiant (and you can

probably blame my Moon-Neptune-Uranus conjunction for that).

But this deplorable habit had become so unconsciously ingrained in me that despite my best efforts I found it impossible to break free of it whilst writing solely for social media. And for the best part of the last year, I subsequently haven't written much at all. Now, for the sake of my sanity, I need to return to a space where algorithms don't matter, where I don't feel the pressure of competition or an irrational need to conform. And so here I am, paving my own way again on my own little corner of the internet, where the only rules are my own.

So welcome, my friend, to Wild Stars & Wellsprings.

Why Wild Stars & Wellsprings, I hear you wonder?

The name for this blog was inspired by both my work as an artist of nature and magical things, and as an astrologer specialising in working with other creative humans. Somewhat embarrassingly, it took me a long time to realise that the link between my creative and astrological practices was actually animals. I grew up surrounded by quite the menagerie, and animals have always been a cornerstone of my life; today, they are the focus of my artwork (if you've just found me through this blog, you can find out more about what I do here), and as an astrologer one of my favourite pursuits is deep-diving into the animal symbolism of the zodiac.

Zoomancy - divination with animals - was where my own forays into spiritual traditions and oracular practices began, and today I'm embarking on projects to bring working with animals more openly into astrology.

Did you know that the word 'zodiac' actually derives from the Greek word zōidiakós, meaning "circle of little animals"? Each sign of the Zodiac - even those you might not expect such as Gemini, Libra and Virgo - has its own animal representative (and some have more than one!). Working with animal spirits and totems formed the beginnings of my own spiritual path about a decade ago, and now as an astrologer I love to work with the animal energies of the Zodiac alongside the more conventional astrological interpretations. Thus the phrase Wild Stars was born from the joy I find in attempting to 'rewild the zodiac'.

Wellsprings is a nod to my creative practice, and indeed all creative practice. As I've said many times elsewhere, I firmly believe all human beings are creative in their own way, and that a wellspring of inspiration lives within all of us; the key is just figuring out how to tap into it. If you're interested, you can read a little more about the symbolism of wells and springs and their relevance to creativity on my Why Pegasus? page, where I discuss the mythology of Pegasus and explain why I chose the celestial winged stallion as the figurehead for my astrological practice.

All this is to say that Wild Stars & Wellsprings is a place where I can write freely about art, animals and astrology from the perspective of both an artist and astrologer, and explore the various links between these topics with you in a myriad of quirky and magical ways. I hope to spark your imagination and offer you permission to create even when you feel stifled or blocked, as well as present you with new and enchanting astrological ideas through a process of reintroducing the importance of the animal symbol into the Zodiac.

Ultimately though, I have little idea how this project will unfurl; I just hope that the journey into and through it will be as interesting for you as it is exciting for me!

If you read this far, my heart thanks you for being curious enough to do so. I'd love to hear your thoughts on anything I've written here, so please feel welcome to leave a comment below, and I look forward to connecting with you again in my next post.

With love and magic,

Merry x