Heavenly Bodies Astrology

If you’ve ever tried to learn astrology but quickly suffered from information overload, then Heavenly Bodies Astrology could be the solution. It was for me. I have a tendency to go into things way too deeply, way too quickly, and before I know it I’m drowning in a ton of information. I bought Lily Ashwell’s deck to try and counteract that. My intention was simply to further develop my understanding of the astrological archetypes so that I could incorporate them into my tarot practice more organically. But it didn’t take me too long to realise this deck has more to offer than that.

About the Heavenly Bodies Astrology cards

For one there’s the artwork. Each card is hand drawn and beautifully rendered in muted pastel watercolours. But the art serves a greater purpose than to just look pretty. It forms part of the structure. For example, all the Earth-based cards feature roses in a heart-shaped vase. This makes it easy to form connections quickly. Without any previous knowledge of the Houses you can flip through the deck and quickly discover that Houses Two, Six and Ten are associated with Earth. Then you can find the Earth zodiac signs, (Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo), in the same way. And just like that it’s all laid out in front of you.

Now, I’ve watched a few Astrology 101 type You Tube videos that I really enjoyed. They even made complete sense while I was watching them. But, a few days on, I’d discover my short term memory had discarded the information. That’s probably because I learn better when I can connect things in ways that make sense to me. I need “aha” moments rather than a series of interesting facts. Therefore Lily Ashwell’s approach with the Heavenly Bodies Astrology cards worked well for me.

The keywords and symbols

Plus the keywords and the symbols serve as constant memory triggers. This further expedites the learning process. You’ll generally find the symbols in the top right corner. On some cards she does move them to the left but unlike decks such as The Tarot of Vampyres, you don’t have to spend time trying to locate the symbols. They are always readily apparent.

You can also start to understand various combinations by combining the keywords on the cards. So, if someone says their Moon is in Virgo you just need to select the relevant cards and then read what’s printed on them. For this example it suggests they “Satisfy Emotional Needs, Nurture Self and Others” through “Integrity, Reverence, and Service.” Obviously you would pretty up how you expressed that but you get the idea. Then you can turn to the book for more information.

This is a simple system to use which makes sense since Lily Ashwell created this deck to facilitate her own learning process. It also means she has most bases covered.

Deck structure

The 51 cards are divided into the following groupings:

• The Planets
• The Signs of the Zodiac
• The Houses
• The Major Aspects (conjunctions, sextiles etc)
• The Nodes of Destiny and
• The Natural Zodiac
  • These aren’t cards that combine the House with the Zodiac sign as you might imagine from the heading. Rather, she referring to the elements, yin & yang, and the modalities.

Working with the cards

This is a different type of deck for me to write about. I can’t pick out favourite cards because that feels counter-intuitive. I’m not going to pretend I don’t prefer the artwork on some of the cards, for example the owl on House Ten shown earlier, but that’s not what this is all about. That’s not to say that I don’t look at the artwork and consider why Lily Ashwell made the artistic choices she did. I’m still very interested in that aspect.

Take House Seven above. It reads, “Profound Relationships, Intimacy and Romantic Partnerships” which gives an overview of the the house. But when I look at the birds coming together above the mountains and clouds I think, “Yes! The “secret” to success in this is in being willing to come together despite the hardships, the challenges, the doubts. That’s what brings the depth to a relationship of any kind.” This highlights how the deck can also be used as an oracle.

Then there are all the ways the Heavenly Bodies Astrology can be used as a learning tool.

Astrology cards only

The ways you choose to use the deck depends on your existing level of knowledge. But below are some suggestions:

• You could start by lining up the zodiac signs in order so patterns become more obvious
• Or you could divide the deck in various ways to recognise and make associations.

Such as:

• divide the signs by their modalities
  • (Cardinal – Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn; Fixed – Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius; Mutable – Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces).
• layout the houses with their corresponding zodiac sign as per the Natural Zodiac
  • (1st house – Aries; 2nd house – Taurus etc)
• group the planets with signs they are associated with
  • (Mars with Aries, Venus with Taurus and Libra etc) or
• group them elementally
  • (Fire – Aries, Leo, Sagittarius etc)

Moving the cards into various groupings makes it easier to find connections. Plus it has the added bonus of creating a deeper sense of familiarity as you are constantly looking at the cards spread out in front of you rather than flicking through and looking at them in isolation.

Astrological correspondences of individual tarot cards

You can also use the deck to explore tarot cards through their astrological correspondences.

For example: 5 of Swords is said to correspond with Venus in Aquarius. So you can simply lay out each card side by side as I did above, and see what comes to mind.

For example:

• The need to take a more positive or, better still, a more agentic approach to a situation. You can acknowledge your part in proceedings if they go awry or choose to be kind when voicing an opposing opinion. Someone doesn’t have to “lose” for you to “win”.
• Or, rather than fighting against an idea just because it’s different from yours, value and seek to understand other people’s ways of thinking and being. This could help mitigate a lose/lose situation.
• Furthermore, in a different circumstance it might suggest that you need to find a way to value your uniqueness and what you have to contribute.

These are only three of the many possibilities. Simply drawing a tarot card and its respective Heavenly Bodies Astrology cards and journaling about whatever comes to mind can prove to be a very insightful exercise especially if you incorporate personal examples.

Please know though that the book doesn’t include the tarot connections. But this information is easy enough to source. (Labyrinthos provides some great resources.)

Dividing the tarot using modalities or astrological correspondences

There are several ways you can do this.

• You could group the tarot cards with their zodiac card.
  • For example the 5, 6 and 7 of Pentacles, The Hierophant and The Empress and for me the King of Pentacles with Taurus.
• Another way you could divide things up is to group the correspondences for a particular tarot suit
  • eg 2 of Wands is Mars in Aries, 3 of Wands is Sun in Aries, 4 of Wands is Venus in Aries, 5 of Wands is Saturn in Leo and so on.
• Or you might choose to group a planet with the tarot cards that correspond with it.
  • For example Jupiter and the 2 of Pentacles, 6 of Wands, 8 of Swords, 9 of Cups, X The Wheel of Fortune and XIV Temperance

Each of these can provide valuable information. For example, what would a number of cards associated with Jupiter in a spread suggest to you?

Nevertheless, while being familiar with the correspondences etc can add a wonderful new dimension when interpreting a tarot spread I have come to see the deck as much more than just a learning tool.

Spreads

The Heavenly Bodies Astrology book suggests three layouts but outside of those, or any spread you regularly use, these cards can be used to indicate the positions in a house-based spread. This is a wonderful way of exploring, and giving context to, all areas of your life.

I have also used them the way I’d use any oracle deck:

• as a stand alone deck
• with tarot cards as part of a spread
• to clarify or understand the connection between cards in a spread
• or to suggest an overall theme

So if this is how you were hoping to use them, from my experience I can say they work well.

Decoding using the Heavenly Bodies Astrology

So far I’ve covered Heavenly Bodies Astrology as a learning tool and as an oracle, but the use that surprised and perhaps even benefitted me the most was when I used it to decode my astrological placements. Personally, I describe this as the ‘getting to know yourself better’ option.

At the time of writing this Jupiter is in Leo, Pluto and Neptune are in Aries, and Uranus is in Gemini. You can use the cards to help you decode what this means. Or you can explore your natal chart including the aspects. When I did this so many things suddenly made sense. Before this exercise I could tell you the basic details of my astrological chart but I didn’t pay that much attention because I was more interested in the archetypal aspects of astrology than as a descriptor of who I am.

I just didn’t gel with the idea of ‘I was born here at this time on this date so I’m ……………’ concept. While I have calculated charts and read the blurb that pops up it all seemed quite generic. Looking at what these cards threw up felt more real. Maybe that’s because I’m comfortable drawing meaning from cards, so it felt less fatalistic. Maybe because I could divine certain patterns and the system made sense. To be honest, I don’t really know. I just know that my perception and how I see astrology overall has changed. How, I can’t really explain. I haven’t worked that out yet.

Physical aspects

I know that all sounds quite vague though so I’ll get back to something more tangible — the physical attributes of the cards. The cards measure 8cm x 13cm and are printed on matte cardstock. Despite their size I find they shuffle okay. The fact there’s only 51 cards helps, but I have big hands so it makes things a little easier. I think my daughter would struggle. I checked and she did. She really had to strain to get her hands around them. But she finds that happens quite often so she naturally rotates the cards and shuffles the short edge instead.

As you can see above, the backs aren’t reversible but I don’t think that matters because of the type of deck it is. Though I did consider reversing the cards to indicate retrogrades since there is no card to represent this planetary motion. Nor are their moon phases, or an Ascendant, Vertex, Part of Fortune, or Midheaven (MC Medium Coeli) card. Maybe these would have been more beneficial than the Yin and Yang cards but then again they can be used to divide the zodiac signs so maybe I’m being a bit harsh there. However I do believe adding the other cards would round the deck out well.

Before I move on to the book I have to mention the packaging. While I have some wonderfully packaged decks, (Housewives Tarot is another stand out), I think the Heavenly Bodies Astrology tops them all. From the slip case, to the solid clamshell outer box, to the inner two part box and the hardcovered book, every piece presents so well. If you love quotes and ephemera and muted greens, blues and purples then I’m reasonably confident you’ll agree. No opportunity for decoration has been ignored. It’s beautiful. On Instagram Lily Ashwell shares video of the hand-painted box she created for her personal deck. It’s so nice to see aspects of this original box made it through to production.

Heavenly Bodies Astrology – The Little Guidebook

Heavenly Bodies Astrology comes with a 144-paged, hard-cover, fully illustrated guidebook. It opens with an Introduction that includes a photo of Lily’s home studio. This is a nice touch. One of many. Just take a look at the inside cover of the book. I love the detail and the quote.

After the Introduction is a chapter “About Astrology” which provides a simple breakdown of the Planets, the Signs of the Zodiac, the Houses, the Major Aspects, the Elements, Polarity and Modes, and the Nodes of Destiny. The next chapter is “Working with the Deck.” She breaks this down into three sections — To Learn, To Decode and To Communicate — and provides examples of how to use the cards for each.

This book takes something complex, that can feel overwhelming to learn, and breaks it down into manageable chunks. Then she shows you how to bring it all back together again. It’s an effective approach.

As mentioned earlier she also includes three spreads:

• A Card a Day (1 card)
• Soul Growth Spread (3 cards)
• Third Eye Spread (4 cards)

From there she moves on to the detailed card meanings. Each entry includes a full-colour card image with an overall explanation of the card.

General information

For the Sun she writes:

The Sun is a symbol for life itself. Your heavenly soul was born into a mortal body and given a physical form, to experience the truth of who you are. Just as your human identity is an expression of your soul, life on Earth is an embodiment of the heavens. And the sun represents the birthright of all living things to self-express.

Some of these entries are much longer.

Keywords

Next she provides keywords. These are divided into two categories: Energetics and Experiences.

For Chiron she writes:

ENERGETICS:  The Deepest Wound, A Teacher of Wisdom
EXPERIENCES: A Spiritual Injury, A Healing Journey, Where You Develop Empathy and Heal Others, Self-Acceptance

She also includes shadow keywords for the zodiac signs. For example for Aries she writes:

SHADOW:  Impulsive, Impatient, No Follow-Through, Selfish

Omen

The entries wrap up with what she calls an Omen. I’ll use the Sextile card as an example:

OMEN
Clarify your intentions and move toward your dream wholeheartedly. But remember, an intention is a deeply rooted touchstone, not an external possession. It's your deeper purpose behind the thing you want. So can you affirm your intention with prophetic specificity, while allowing the shape of what you want to shift? Can you remain laser-focused, while trusting the hard lines of your target to form the closer you move toward it?

Shift your focus from external gains to the internal desires of your soul. You're supported, more than ever, in making your dreams come true, but first you must by crystal clear on what it is you truly want. Hold on to your knowing and move through life with unshakable integrity. Your reward is coming, it's already yours — you're just catching up with it. 

At the end of the book there’s a couple of “notes” pages and ” A short biography of Lily.”

Wrapping it all up

Some decks, such as The Herbal Astrology Oracle, I would recommend to anyone regardless of whether they were overly interested in astrology or not. It’s stunning. However, that’s not the case with the Heavenly Bodies Astrology deck. Despite the incredible experiences I’ve had with it, if you told me astrology just isn’t your thing then I wouldn’t suggest these cards.

But if it is then I imagine you’ll appreciate what’s on offer here and find all manner of ways to work with the deck. Further, I believe a complete beginner could develop a basic, yet solid, understanding of astrology fairly quickly. So, put simply, I’d say this deck is great for anyone interested in astrology.

Publishing Details

Created by: Lily Ashwell

Website: Lily Ashwell

Published by: CICO Books in 2021

ISBN: 978-1-78249-931-2