When to Get a Pet

​Maybe you’re thinking of getting a pet, and you want to use astrology to figure out the best time to get one. Animals are split into two categories, with smaller and domestic pets (so cats and dogs and more traditional animals) governed by Virgo, Mercury, and the 6th house, and larger and exotic pets (usually what you’d consider a zoo animal) governed by Pisces, Neptune, and the 12th house.

You can get a pet when you have a transit (moving) planet going through the 6th/12th house, aspecting a natal planet in Virgo/Pisces, aspecting your natal Mercury/Neptune, or aspecting the ruler of your 6th/12th house. You generally want to see positive aspects (sextiles and trines) so it’s an easy transition (though a conjunction by the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, or Jupiter can be good as well). Positive aspects by Mercury or Neptune to any part of your chart can be good energy for getting a pet as well.

A return chart with the return planet in the 6th/12th house, the Rising of the return chart in Virgo/Pisces, or the ruler of the 1st house in the return chart in the 6th/12th house can also be good for getting a pet. Your progressed Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, or Mars in Virgo/Pisces, the natal or progressed 6th/12th house, aspecting the natal or progressed ruler of the 6th/12th house, or aspecting natal or progressed Mercury/Neptune can also be good for getting a pet.

If you don’t want to wait long, you can use the Moon, who travels quickly (zooms through the entire Zodiac is less then one month). You can get a pet when the Moon will be in your 6th/12th house, or conjunct your 6th/12th house ruler or Mercury/Neptune.

Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto in the 6th/12th house or making a hard aspect (conjunct, square, opposite) to your 6th/12th house cusp, ruler, or Mercury/Neptune can be difficult times to get a pet, and you have a hard time finding one, or it just doesn’t work out the way you thought it would. Retrogrades can be a bad idea for getting a pet if you’re getting a brand new pet; if you’re going to get the same kind of pet that you’ve had before, then doing it under a retrograde is a good time (for example, I have a friend who got the same breed of dog as her previous dog when Venus retrograde conjuncted her 6th house cusp - though it did turn out to be a little hyper!).

(originally from the March 2016 monthly newsletter)