Born to be weird: Neurodivergent astrology in your birth chart
Episode 4
🦄 AuDHD Magic is a celebration of Autistic and ADHD magic, mysticism, and sensitivity, hosted by Stephanie Elizabeth!
In this episode of AuDHD Magic, we’re diving into the astrology of neurodivergence! Tune in to discover:
the key signs I use to identify neurodivergence in the birth chart as a professional astrologer focused on highly sensitive and neurodivergent clients
the part of your chart that may reveal your masking strategy
how some of these signs show up in my own natal chart
the astrological explanation of why I’m drawn to create more astrology content these days, AND
the secret sign of neurodivergence in your chart that you probably have never heard about!
Listen now:
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Read the text version:
Hello, hello, and welcome back for episode four! I am still basking in the post-Halloween glow over here. I’ve truly been living my best feral cosplay life.
I actually dressed up twice for Halloween this year, first as a flower fairy, aka myself, and then also as a look that I called “Lilith the angry feminist,” complete with a sword, of course, to cut through patriarchal bullshit. And honestly, it was one of my favorite costumes ever.
So today I wanted to lean in and tackle a topic that I have often spoken of with clients and friends, but which I haven’t fully articulated in words yet, which is: the astrology of neurodivergence, and specifically how neurodivergence shows up in your birth chart.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you might remember my work and my online platform actually started with astrology. Even though I’ve still been doing private readings this whole time, I have branched out and pivoted away from astrology-focused content over the last few years, as my interest was just pulled elsewhere. (I know my fellow AuDHDers know that feeling!) But lately, my love for astrology has been sort of rekindled, and naturally, there’s an astrological explanation for that, but I’ll get into that later on.
I wanted to make this episode not just because it’s a fun topic that I think people are interested in, but also because I want to actually articulate and organize my thoughts on this in one place!
So keep listening if you’re curious about the signs of neurodivergence in your chart. I’m going to share not only ones that probably a lot of astrologers agree with, but also I’m going to drop a top secret sign that I look for in the chart that most people don’t even know about!
Intro & Disclaimers
Because I’m an AuDHDer, I have to start, of course, with a bit of a preamble. So first to say that this is all going to be my opinion, and this is based on almost a decade of reading charts professionally, combined with just my own personal gnosis, things I know intuitively.
I’m not here to diagnose anyone or tell you whether or not you are a neurodivergent based on your birth chart. I’m just going to be sharing some of the patterns that I’ve observed, and it’s up to you to draw your own conclusions about that and how it might relate to you and your life.
What I’m going to share here is also not a definitive, exhaustive list, because when we’re examining something through the lens of astrology, we are always looking at a layered, interconnected web of meaning and mythology.
Yes, astrology is quite technical, and it actually involves math, which I never thought I would be doing work that involves math, but here I am. But beyond the technicalities, there’s also a sense of poetry to it, because astrology is a symbolic language, and it’s always going to have a subjective element, which is why every reader will have their own spin on a chart.
So just like with writing, there are multiple ways to express an idea in words. The same holds true with astrology. There’s never one way that something can show up in the chart.
Additionally, when we’re looking for the core themes about someone’s chart, those are going to show up in multiple places in the chart. It’s not going to be just one thing. It’ll be echoed over and over and over.
And finally, there could be exceptions to everything I’m sharing here, because ultimately, the expression of neurodivergence is an individual matter, and that’s true in the birth chart, just as it is in life. As the saying goes, if you know one autistic person, you know one autistic person. In other words, generalizations are always going to be imprecise and at times inaccurate. We are complex individuals.
The signs of neurodivergence in the birth chart
Okay, so now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s dig into the topic at hand: the astrology of neurodivergence and high sensitivity in the birth chart.
So there’s sort of a key theme that I want to start with that’s going to inform everything else that I have to say, which is there are three planets in astrology that I personally associate with neurodivergence. These planets are Uranus, Mercury and Neptune.
The reason that I start with Uranus is because Uranus is a more recently discovered planet. It was discovered, I believe, in the 18th century, and so it’s not part of traditional astrology. And it has an association with revolution, with liberation, with things that are different and perhaps out of sync with generally-accepted ideas and principles. And also has a strong association with technology as a concept, and tends to also go with a stereotype of the crazy genius, the mad scientist. Somebody who dares to look at something differently, who dares to question the commonly accepted ideas, and therefore is able to discover something, articulate something, that has not yet been acknowledged. And as I discussed in episode two, this also correlates with anyone who really has a marginalized identity in society.
Mercury is associated with the intellectual realm, the mental realm where we’re discussing ideas and just anything that we’re communicating, exchanging information.
Neptune is one of the signs of neurodivergence that’s especially associated with highly sensitive people, as well as anybody who sort of has an experience outside of consensus reality. Neptune is often traditionally associated with the concept of insanity in the chart, and that’s obviously, again, a laden term. It has a lot of problematic elements to it, but we’re just saying that Neptune can show somebody who has a different neurotype than what is normalized in Western culture.
And these planets rule some of the zodiac signs, that are also associated with neurodivergence. So Uranus is the ruler of Aquarius. Mercury is the ruler of Gemini and Virgo. And Neptune is the ruler of Pisces.
So when we are looking at a chart, we’re first going to look for any of these planets or zodiac signs to be prominent in the chart in some way: planets Uranus, Mercury, Neptune, and the signs, Aquarius, Gemini, Virgo and Pisces.
I’m not going to keep making this disclaimer, but just want to say that these are not the only ways that this can show up, but these are the ones that, to me, ring the bell.
So what are we actually looking for in the chart? What does it mean to have these planets and signs being prominent? Some of the ways that this can show up most clearly:
Number one would be with the chart ruler. So we each have a rising sign. You might know that as part of sort of the big three pieces of your astrology chart. The rising sign is represented by the ascendant. That’s what it’s officially called in the chart.
The rising signs that I look for in neurodivergence are those ruled by the planets that I mentioned earlier. So we’re looking at rising signs, Aquarius, Pisces, Gemini and Virgo.
Now I would also say that having just generally a water sign as your rising goes with high sensitivity, so that can go in there as well. But really, these four rising signs are the ones that I see the most, and especially with folks who identify as autistic and or ADHD.
So in addition to your chart ruler, having the above signs in the first house of your chart, which represents your sort of physical presence in the world, your embodiment.
And it also has some insight on your masking strategy, if you are a neurodivergent person who masks in order to fit in with a neurotypical dominant society, as many/ most of us have to do, your masking strategy will be revealed in part by your rising sign. Now I’m not going to get into the specifics of that here, but I definitely will think about making another episode on that specifically.
So we want to look at the chart ruler and your rising sign. And then also, we want to see if you have any planets in your first house that were on that list. So again, we want to look for Uranus, Mercury and or Neptunein the first house, especially if these are near your ascendant.
Your whole first house is sort of associated with the ascendant, but if you have one of these planets really close to your actual ascendant point, that’s even more so. And I would say with all of this that Uranus is the most indicative of neurodivergence overall.
So we also want to see, are any of these planets near or in a prominent aspect a connection to any of the luminaries (your sun and your moon), or any of your personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars).
We also want to see, are any of these planets near any of your chart angles? Your Ascendant is one of the chart angles, and there are three other angles. I’m not going to get into that, but you can learn more here if you’re not familiar with the angles.
And then also we want to look at your lunar nodes. So we each have a south node and a north node. And the lunar nodes are especially important in evolutionary astrology, where we’re looking at sort of your soul’s journey through your lifetime, and where we are sort of finding more integration and balance of different astrological archetypes and energies in our lives.
So again, we’re looking at these planets being near or in connection with any of these key points in your chart, as well as having any of these planets, points, luminaries, in the signs that I mentioned: Aquarius, Gemini, Virgo and Pisces.
Another layer of meaning here we want to look at are the houses of your chart that are associated with these signs and planets. So if you’re not familiar with the houses, the houses are sort of different segments of your chart. Each chart is divided into 12 houses, and I actually like to think of them more like rooms within the house being your entire chart. But each house is sort of like you could think of it as like a clubhouse as well. It has different themes and areas of your life associated with it.
The houses that are associated with Uranus, Mercury and Neptune are the third house, the sixth house, the eleventh house and the twelfth house. So we want to see if you have a lot of activity in any of these houses. Do you have personal planets? Do you have your sun or moon? Do you have a chart angle? Do you have your lunar nodes?
Another thing, just more generally, that might be accessible for you even if you are a complete beginner to astrology is looking to see which elements are dominant in your chart. Now I will say that there’s no one element that is or is not neurodivergent, but I will also say that some of the people that I see having the strongest neurodivergent signatures have dominant air and or water elements in their chart. So the air is Aquarius, Gemini and Libra, and the water signs are Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio.
Now, why is this? The Air signs are associated with Mercury because they operate primarily in the intellectual realm.
The Water signs are operating on the emotional level, the level of subtle energy, that which we cannot see, touch, feel, measure, but which we sense. And so having a lot of water in your chart tends to correspond to being highly sensitive, and oftentimes being what people like to call an empath. Now, obviously being an empath is sort of a stigmatized, highly debated term at this point, but that’s outside the scope of what I’m getting into. If you have a lot of water in your chart, especially Pisces, but really, any of the three water signs, you’re probably absorbing a lot of the energy around you.
So we want to see if you have multiple of these placements, which would suggest that you have an experience of neurodivergence, most likely from birth, but possibly also acquired during your lifetime.
And this could sound all really abstract, unless you’re really an astrology buff. So I wanted to give an example to show you what this can look like in a real chart. And we’re going to use my chart, because why not?
My birth chart:
So first off, we see that I have a Virgo ascendant, Virgo rising, which means that Mercury is my chart ruler.
And then when we go to look where is my Mercury hanging out? My Mercury is very prominent in a conjunction with my Sun in Libra. A conjunction means that two planets are close together, and on some level, there’s a fusion there and operating together. And not only is it conjunct my Sun, one of my luminaries, but this is all happening in Libra, an Air sign associated with Mercury and the mind. I also have Pluto just over the cusp in Scorpio, but still in a conjunction with my Sun and Mercury. And so this just adds quite a bit more oomph to the whole situation.
The Mercury theme also continues in my chart, as I have my Midheaven in Gemini, which is also, of course, ruled by Mercury. And the midheaven is one of the chart angles that I mentioned earlier. The midheaven is sort of the pinnacle of your chart. For lack of a better example, it’s the church steeple in the center of the village, the highest point, what is most visible in terms of your public life and legacy.
So oftentimes, people associate this with work, but it might not be. In my case, with my midheaven here, my voice, my words, my ideas, my perspective and my, I guess, mental agility are key attributes that I carry with me, by way of Mercury being my chart ruler and also having my mid heaven there. And in terms of my career, there’s a sense of multiplicity as well with Mercury. It shifts, it’s not just one or the other. And with Gemini, we have the sign of the twins. So it’s not just one. There’s more than one.
So for me, I’ve worked in a lot of different roles and industries and settings over my working life. I started working at age 14 at a museum. I have worked in the legal field. Obviously, I do this work as a creative and writer and intuitive and I also have done some marketing and copywriting work at times, as well as just all manner of organizing and project management, managing information, sharing information.
My public persona itself is multidimensional. And again, there’s a multiplicity. I literally have multiple stage and pen names that I use professionally. Not to mention the way that growing up as a high masking AuDHDer forced me to constantly code switch and curate my social persona for different environments. All of this is encapsulated by the Mercury, ruler of my chart, and the Gemini midheaven.
Moving on, I also have my Moon in Cancer in the eleventh house. And the eleventh house is ruled by Uranus, and it is the natural Aquarius house. So again, we have themes of neurodivergence, and my Moon being in Cancer is very strong, because Cancer is the sign that the Moon rules. And this is an exceedingly sensitive placement with strong intuitive potential. And I don’t just say that because I’m a professional intuitive, but for me, it’s especially strong in expression, also because it is the personal planet or luminary that is closest to my midheaven. So it’s closest to the top of my chart, and thus more prominent.
I have Pisces in my seventh house, which is the house of partnership, and it is naturally ruled by Venus and the sign of Libra. So again, we have a link back to my Mercury and Sun in Libra.
There’s even more— I could keep going on for quite a while, but I’m going to stop there, because this has been a lot of technical details. And what I’m really trying to illustrate here is the interconnectedness of it all, and the fact that evidence of my neurodivergence, of my embodiment of a neurotype that is not preferred in the mainstream, that all shows up in numerous places in my chart. And there’s probably things that I don’t even notice yet in my chart that are hinting to my neurodivergence.
I also want to just quickly touch on why I feel there’s an astrological explanation for my sort of return to astrology. And again, this is something I discuss in detail on Episode Two, but I have a lot of Uranus and Aquarius energies activating in my chart right now through astrological transits to my chart, my Year of Profection being in the sixth house Aquarius, as well as my progressed moon being in Aquarius. So this is why I’m committed to being weirder than ever at this time in my life.
Astrology being an esoteric subject, and arguably also a kind of technology, is itself considered a Uranian/Aquarian pursuit in contemporary astrological theory and imagination. And this type of thing is why I geek out on astrology so much, because it has so many layers of meaning.
The secret sign of neurodivergence I look for
I mentioned in the intro of this episode that I have a sort of a secret sign that most people don’t know about because it’s kind of a small detail that most astrologers don’t look at. But to me, this is an incredibly strong indicator of neurodivergence, and that is having luminaries or personal planets that are out of bounds.
So what does out of bounds mean? You may not have even heard of this concept before.This is a technical concept that describes a planet or luminary that is operating sort of outside the typical range of motion of where we expect to see it in the ecliptic, which is a sort of imaginary pathway that we see the Sun following in the sky, and it is a key area in astrology, in constructing the chart.
So when we have something out of bounds, we could say it’s going to extremes in its expression. It’s going beyond what is normalized or typically seen. And so with a personal chart, this tends to correlate with non-conformist tendencies. And this could be on purpose, like willfully, or not, because sometimes you literally can’t conform, even if you want to. Even if you’re trying really hard, some of us can’t mask. Some of us can only mask in certain scenarios, some of us hold embodied identities that are immediately marginalized before we even do anything, just through our existence.
When I came across this concept, I then, of course, had to go check my own chart. I would say I’m a very intense person. I feel a lot, and I discovered that I have both my Moon and Mars out of bounds in my chart. This was absolutely wild to discover, and I found out later that my father also has Moon out of bounds in his chart.
So with all this, I would just say this is majorly Emo, and especially since my Moon is in Cancer. You might know that we’re widely viewed as the cry babies of the Zodiac, and it’s true, the feelings are really, really big sometimes, but that’s partly a function of the sensitivity that we experience. We’re picking up on every little thing. We are more impacted by our environment, and oftentimes we’re picking up on that sort of subtle energetic level that other people aren’t even acknowledging or might not even be aware of, but it is impacting us, like the canary in the coal mine. That sensitivity is also one of the reasons that there are so many artists with Moon in Cancer.
Now I also have my Mars placement being in my Fifth house of Capricorn. I go hard in my drive to play and create, sometimes too hard, and it does go along with some of my perfectionist tendencies that I’m always trying to loosen a bit. And that’s certainly a process, and I always have to look out for where I am bringing the perfectionism to my pursuit of imperfection!
So I digress. What I want to say is that out of bounds planets are relatively rare, which is probably why it’s not something that a lot of people are looking at, as well as the fact that it’s fairly technical, and that’s something you can necessarily see at a glance in the chart. But if you are curious about this, whether you might have out of bounds planets in your chart, there is a way that you can easily look it up with your birth details on Lunarium.
And if you’re totally confused with all of the jargon here, you can also just book a private reading with me and leave the technical details to me. In my Soul Session Birth Chart readings, we dive deep to understand the full scope of what you’ve got going on in this lifetime, what you’re here to do and experience, what you’re learning, what you’re working on. And these are not just informational readings, but they’re also transformational, at least according to my clients. So if you’re curious about that, you can find more details and booking information on my website at Stephanie-Elizabeth.com
Call for podcast guests
And that brings us to the end of today’s excursion into the world of astrology! But before I go, I have one more fun announcement to make, which is that I’m looking for podcast guests. I would love for some folks to join me on future episodes, and this invitation is open to AuDHDers and anyone who listens and resonates with this platform, especially if you are some flavor of neurodivergent.
My vision for these guest episodes is for them to really be more conversational, rather than a stiff, pre-scripted interview format, because part of AuDHD magic, as I understand it, is emergent and it’s relational. So I want to create space to see what emerges here in conversation with you.
You can find more details and submit an application to be a guest right here.
And with that, I thank you for reading today and until next time, take care and stay magical. 🦄
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AuDHD Magic is created and produced by Stephanie Elizabeth. Our theme song is Crystal Waves by Starry Eyes.
