The Subtle Powers of Mutual Reception
“Mutual Reception” reminds me of time-share house-swaps: you have an apartment in New York City and want to summer in Florence; someone in Florence wants to come to New York at the same time. The deal is made, you live in each other’s domain, getting very close together without ever meeting, and the cooperation touches both lives.
It also reminds me of a magician and his assistant: the performer and his helper sharing a highly integrated performing rapport; the former is seen, the latter need not be, and the effect is remarkable!
Mutual Reception in astrology occurs when two planets relate by the fact that each is in the sign ruled by the other; that’s time-share swap. And when the two planets in each other’s domain are ALSO in aspect, the wedding of energies can be magical dramatic.
For example, the great actress/singer Cher (May 20, 1946 at 7:31 AM PST, El Centro CA) has a Cancer Ascendant with Saturn in Cancer in the first House. The Moon is in Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, in the 7th House, and the two planets, besides being in mutual reception, are also in opposition to each other.
This is an extremely powerful statement in the horoscope. I would synthesize it as “finding the Self (the Moon, ruling the Ascendant) through others (Saturn ruling the 7th).” This highly focused statement crashes into the horoscope through the door opened by Neptune in the 4th, squaring the Ascendant: confusion, bewilderment, in the early home [Cher’s father abandoned the family the day Cher was born]. Father surrogate outreach would have dominated Cher’s early years of development and begun in earnest with the arrival of Sonny Bono, much her senior, when she was 16 years old.
Michael Jackson’s (August 29, 1958 at 11:53 PM CDT in Gary , IN) Sun is in Virgo and Mercury-retrograde is in Leo. The two are in mutual reception but not in aspect. Each will reach to fuse with the other (a seasoning of idealism), and both will do so in terms of the House(s) involved by location and rulership.
The two planets occur along with Pluto, which is conjunct the Sun, in the 4th House, suggesting a major suppression and frustration within the early home. This could be relegated to the contrapuntal retrogradation complexity of Mercury. Mercury rules the 5th, introducing the concept of childhood, children, part of the sex profile. –Mercury also rules Jackson’s Gemini Ascendant; this mutual reception influence involving the 4th House, the 5th, and the Ascendant, the mind and life energy in development out of the early home sing a powerful idealized song of hope in his make-up.
Prince Charles (November 14, 1948 at 9:14 PM in London, ENG) has the powerful, sub-generational mutual reception between Pluto and the Sun –Pluto in Leo and the Sun in Scorpio—with the two in square aspect.
We feel a tremendous suppression of the powers to be. There is a blanket over Charles’ hand-grenade. The lid is tight on his pressure cooker. –With the Sun ruling his Ascendant, Pluto in the Ascendant, ruling the 5th, we readily suspect the focus of his frustrations in terms of loving another, being himself securely and openly (Neptune-Venus are on the IC!).
Actor Tom Cruise (July 3, 1962 at 3:06 PM EDT in Syracuse NY) has the Sun in Cancer and the Moon in Leo: a definite self-dramatization, acting out needs for appreciation and love. There can be a show of “rightness” that helps with understanding and acceptance by others. There’s an impression of pride and self-confidence established, and others believe it.
For Cruise, the Sun rules the Midheaven and provides the much needed anchor here for the peregrine Moon (dissociation complex), unable to fit in easily anywhere, constantly on the move, feeling lost. The Sun is in a water grand trine with Neptune and Jupiter: a closed-circuit of emotional self-sufficiency, which is led by rulership by the Sun of the Midheaven directly into career development. Cruise is his vocation. It defines him. It saves him.
Brilliant comedian, director, and philanthropist Jerry Lewis (March 16, 1926 at 12:15 PM EST in Newark NJ) has Sun and Neptune in mutual reception, but not in aspect. The Sun is intensified by the exact conjunction with Uranus, and the Sun rules the financial 2nd. –Neptune, in the 2nd ,with all its theatricality (Neptune=MC/Asc), rules the Midheaven. The mutual reception between Sun and Neptune links all of their experiential references together.
Toweringly celebrated evangelist Billy Graham (November 7, 1918 at 3:30 PM EST in Charlotte NC) has the Moon in Sagittarius, conjunct the Midheaven and Mars with Jupiter in Cancer quindecile the Midheaven, ruling the 9th House and trine the Sun! –No more need be said about the link of lofty opinionation, internationalism, education, and profession!
Sarah Ferguson (October 15, 1959 at 9:03 AM GMT in London ENG) has Mercury and Pluto in mutual reception and sextile. Mercury rules the MC and Pluto on the Midheaven (exhibitionism) rules the Ascendant. This links very, very strongly, the establishment of personal identity with the formulation of a major career. Ferguson could no more be kept hidden behind a stifling royal marriage than a bull could be kept out of a china shop!
I wish I had a dollar for every time I said, “I live in my Venus-Uranus quintile”! This creative measurement is so very strong because Venus is in Aquarius and Uranus is in Taurus; the two are in tight quintile aspect and also are in mutual reception! (Noel Tyl: December 31 at 3:57 PM EST in West Chester PA).
Uranus rules the 9th where Venus is located: I have published 30 books, lectured throughout 18 countries, and had long relationships with several foreign-born ladies. –Venus rules the 5th .
–After some experience, Mutual Reception just pops off the page. You can program your brain to watch for it, and you will begin seeing this interesting coupling quite frequently.
Wasn’t Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Mercury-Uranus mutual reception, with Mercury ruling his Ascendant and Midheaven (January 30, 1882 at 8:45 PM, LMT in Hyde Park NY) tied to his electrifying oratorical skills?
Isn’t Carol Burnett’s (April 26, 1933 at 4 AM, CST, San Antonio TX) extraordinary brightness with improvisation, acting, sounds reinforced through her peregrine Mercury in Aries in mutual reception with Mars in Virgo! And, to focus it, Mercury rules the 3rd and the 7th!
And Vice President Chaney’s (January 30, 1941 at 7:30 PM CST, Lincoln NE) Earth Grand Trine (aloof closed circuit of practical self-sufficiency) –without the Sun or Moon!— operates with enormous independence and dry separateness. This is echoed strongly by his Venus in Capricorn, ruling the 3rd, in mutual reception with Saturn ruling the 5th!
And Aretha Franklin’s (March 25, 1942 at 10:30 PM CWT, Memphis TN) five quintiles are echo-synthesized through Mercury and Neptune in mutual reception!
–Watch for the mutual reception: it can be a powerful dimension within synthesis; an energy in the bloodstream of the horoscope.