The Elemental Alignment of Lana Del Rey
Subject: Lana Del Rey (Elizabeth Woolridge Grant), born July 21, 1985 — Cancer (Cusp to Gemini).
Performed: November 9, 2018
Original Post Date: November 14, 2018
Spread: Elemental Alignment, original design by BlueMoonPunch
Deck: Wild Unknown: Animal Spirit and the Rider-Waite Tarot
Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Details: The Elemental Alignment reading is designed to showcase an individual's energetic alignment and balance with the elements, then compare it to that of the Higher Self's alignments.
Pre-Reading:
The great Lana Del Rey is literally part of my holy trinity when it comes to the people I look up to, admire, and respect in this world as an artist and someone who is able to communicate their vision in such a way that captures and holds the attention of anyone who even happens to catch a glimpse of any of their work. Because of that, I really want to be sure to take care of this reading and really give as clear of a picture as I can in terms of what I’ve always seen and understood of her as a fan of and spectator to her work.
First off, I did look at her birth chart because it’s available with an accurate time. Usually, I don’t like to look at charts before readings because it fucks with my way of reading energy, but I wanted to point out the fact that homegirl is a Cancer. The number of times I’ve seen people on Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter get in arguments over whether or not she’s a Cancer or Gemini is astounding. She was born on July 21, dead in the middle of summer and on the day that the Sun transits from Gemini to Cancer. No matter the accuracy of the degree, she is a Gemini cusping Cancer OR Cancer cusping Gemini. And because she is within three degrees of both, she carries strong traits from both signs.
So… for this reading, where I focus on the core energy in its totality, it doesn’t really matter all that much what the specific Sun Sign is. I just think its interesting.
In terms of core energy, both Gemini and Cancer are very present internally, but neither actually dominate the core wall or what is consciously projected. The mix of Air and Water literally has her more aware than most people of how she comes off to others especially when it comes to how she communicates. This means that in her work, her music and image, she can show you exactly what she wants when conscious direction (Gemini) is pushing the creative output (Cancer). Unconsciously, when she’s less conscious of her projected energy, Cancer energy, or just Water energy in general, is more prominent and can trigger overthinking, anxiety, or nervousness that can come off to people upon the first impression as awkwardness and discomfort.
The first four signs of the zodiac are what I call the “baby signs” as they are the starting points for each element, the first introductions to the four main stations of internal awareness, external awareness, internal connection, and external connection. Cusping on Cancer means there’s this point in her energy where she’s never going to be 100% balanced in her internal communication (emotions, creativity, and intuition) or her external communication (direct expression). It’s always going to be one or the other. This can very easily lead to frustration with that Gemini energy assuming everyone else is stupid for not getting what she’s saying, and insecurity and stagnation with Cancer as she can feel misunderstood and disconnected from other people.
The best way for her to utilize this (which she does because she be on that higher consciousness shit bruh) is to fully seclude herself and go full on hermit when “planting the seed” and writing, getting those ideas which would stimulate that Water energy that she carries, and then later going full on and just working with a bunch of people and spreading those ideas as far as she can and getting as much external input as she can, which would go with that Air energy. She works with a lot of people with her music and that’s why her music is so full and robust — it has very stable roots within her own creativity and image and then is “fertilized” and sustained by a bunch of other input of creativity and guidance. And because that Gemini energy gives her a very stubborn and headstrong kind of vibe, she’s definitely not one to allow people to walk in and tear down what she has, so it’s this really great balance of maintaining the Water energy’s integrity by having external input processed through the Air energy.
You can kind of look at this as Air energy only being there as a bodyguard to the star of the show which would be her Water energy. This can manifest as her potentially being more “sharp” and “bitchy” as a way to protect her more vulnerable parts. She can be aware of her own sensitivity, so she has to “set the scene” with people by making it clear that she’s not the one to fuck with.
The visual I got for this were these energies literally looking like they were dancing together, spinning around each other, getting as close as they can, but not really merging together and becoming one. There’s this polarity to that and it makes the core wall slightly unstable and that means that unconscious projection or how people perceive her can be extremely different person to person. First impressions can be very different person to person.
Because Gemini and Cancer are both very unfiltered energies they come with this very self-focused vibe where the thoughts and emotions are always valid, important, and the priority. Boiling that down, it just means that she’s gonna let you know if you’re a dickhead and she won’t even try to hide the fact that she doesn't like you, but she’ll also give certain people opportunities to redeem themselves. Just as she doesn’t want to be judged, she won’t pass judgment on others unless she feels like you’ve already painted a clear picture of yourself to her. And even with that internal insecurity that can come from feeling disconnected from the general public, her connection to people of like minds (people she works with and admires and trusts) allows her to be incredibly critical of the criticism that comes towards her from people outside of that bubble. Basically, if your opinion is shit, it doesn’t receive an emotional response, it receives an intellectual response of “fuck you.”
With these imbalanced and slightly conflicting energies, as well as her very strong Water energy with a lot of retrograde planets in her chart, there is room for a lot of instability and obstacles, which she has already gone through and has been open about through her music and sharing in interviews and whatnot. Luckily she has found a good balance and is able to channel the negative aspects into something constructive, something creative that can build her up rather than tear her down. That’s one of the things I admire most in my holy trinity of artists. They don’t try to shut down or rip out their negative aspects, they embrace them and use them to create something that is positive and that can help others do the same in some fashion.
In her birth chart, she has a good balance between all elemental energies, and this kind of balance being imprinted in her core energy gave her that foundation and inner knowing that triggered that part of herself to “wake up” and start utilizing her creativity more. I expect to see all the elements present in the main spread for her. In addition to that, I expect to see a few alignments that sync with the Higher Self as she, with where she is with her career and ability to express and balance her own internal and external energy, is showing the advancement of the soul as well as having transcended superficial level consciousness.
This seems like a lot going on, but it’s all pretty condensed and simple, which I think is a great representation of the image of Lana Del Rey as a lot of people, dedicated fans included, can get caught up in the mix of reality and fantasy, the superficial and the supernatural aspects of her.
The first card down was The High Priestess, showing a solid foundation in her Water energy, a very developed and highly utilized intuition, and emotional connection that sets the stage for everything else here. In connection to the High Priestess, you have the 4 of Cups envisioning the 10 of Cups while presenting the 9 of Pentacles, showing this “see it and it shall be” level of manifestation occurring. The fact that it goes from the 10 of Cups to the 9 of Pentacles rather than 10 of Pentacles shows that there’s this sense of something missing, something of that dreamlike quality of her perfect world that is not actually making its way into the physical reality, most likely because it is too perfect.
Either way, this energy does manifest physically, she has a great ability to bring about change in her own life as suggested by the Knight of Swords carrying the Ace of Swords and the King of Pentacles carrying the Ace of Wands. As long as there is a clear vision and determination all the way from her conscious mind through to her soul, she can match that frequency and pull that reality, that vision into existence.
The Sun card over the High Priestess suggests illumination, understanding, and projection of hidden knowledge through the use of intuition and inner connection. This is a connection to Divine Guidance as well, a deep connection to what she may consider being God, guardian angels, or the higher self. She may only consider this to be her own understanding and intellect, but I feel like she does have a sense of this light and ability to connect being something separate from her.
The Reading:
Current State of Core Energy: Unicorn — Spirit
So, with her current core state, she’s actually perfectly aligned with her Higher Self in the sense of Soul Progression as her Higher Self’s core state is the Phoenix, which I get to at the end.
The Spirit cards in this deck, there are seven of them, are each associated with one of the seven main chakras of the body. This one is associated with the Third Eye and is imagined as the Unicorn because the Unicorn is associated with fantasy and other worlds, something the Third Eye is connected to. This, as her core, reflects the placement of The High Priestess as well as the Sun and implication of projecting reality from the mind into existence.
As always, I have trouble explaining things as I’m seeing them visually, but from what I see with this is that this mode of Core energy being projected through the Third Eye specifically is something that is following a “trial” of some kind. Like, in terms of karmic waves, she dealt with her shit as a soul and this is something she unlocked during and after those low points. It’s like a reward to the conscious mind for the struggle, but also something the soul was waiting to unlock.
But yeah, this just reiterates that whole balance between the spark of Water meeting the structure of Air. It is understandings through the Third Eye, through awareness beyond the conscious mind of herself and other people. I have no doubt this is something that she is very aware of and is something that she works with quite often.
Elemental Water Alignment: Dragonfly — Air
And again we have a mix of that Water and Air energy, not just with the alignment, but the card itself is a mix of Air and Water. The keywords for this card are “master of light, illusion, and the mind,” which is exactly what I was getting at with The Sun and The High Priestess. It’s this balance and connection between the conscious and unconscious mind through the subconscious (which would be projected through the Third Eye).
As of right now, this would indicate that her emotional state, awareness, and control is very stable and is in a place where she allows herself to feel things, good and bad, but does not allow them to overtake her in any way. As I mentioned, my holy trinity of artists have this incredible way of processing their emotions specifically for the sake of creation through self-understanding that leads to this very pure form of self-expression that isn’t 100% for the sake of image or piggybacking on mental illness or some other romanticized nonsense that ends up just coming off as offensive.
The visual I have for this, or the difference here is that some people are deep diving naked, going under the water (emotions and subconscious connection for creativity) and try to bare their soul, try to rip something out of themselves for the sake of having something to hand over to other people. With this tactic of deep diving, they literally go too far down, have no equipment, have nothing to stabilize with, and eventually drowned and get crushed by the pressure.
Other people deep dive but with a shit ton of equipment that allows them to breathe underwater, allows them to maintain their position, check their depth, all that kind of fancy shit. They can go within and because they have those protective barriers, have some awareness that the levels of the mind are all separate and can be observed and experienced independently, they are able to “collect data” while observing through feeling.
She’s a dragonfly resting on the Water’s surface, displaying that body of Water as her own, but not falling into it so deeply that she can’t get back up or is crushed by the pressure. She is simply existing here in this in-between state where Air and Water are balanced, leading to a stabilized Water alignment.
Elemental Fire Energy: Tiger — Fire
Seriously, if I had to pick a card from this deck to represent the image of Lana Del Rey, it is this card. Just as the previous card combines Water and Air, this card is a grand mix of Water and Fire energy. As I’m sure you can guess, Water and Fire are very difficult to balance properly and in most of the Elemental Alignment readings I’ve done on this blog and for clients, I’ve noticed that most people have an imbalance between those two energies and it usually leads to imbalance and instability everywhere else.
The dominant energy here is Fire, which makes sense for the Fire Alignment, so not only is this showing balance between Water and Fire, self-connection and self-projection, it is aligned perfectly. To boil it down a bit, this just means that all of that Water energy, that balanced energy that is already being stabilized by the Air energy, is being utilized and projected by her.
This card is heavily associated with the Moon and energy of the Divine Feminine, the energy of illumination of the subconscious mind and what is hidden. The idea here is that the Tiger will hunt at night when others find it too dark to see and too quiet to be able to sneak. The Tiger has a clear vision and skill whether the Sun is up or not as it’s own natural sight is capable of shining that light for it.
This energy as it combines Fire and the Divine Feminine also points to a lot of projected sexual energy here in the Fire Alignment, which would make her very appealing and alluring to a lot of people. She’d be very attractive on a physical level, but also on a mental level to a lot of people. There’s also a sense of mystery as well, as everyone would be able to feel this projected energy, but almost no one would ever really be able to fully grasp or understand it as, like the Tiger, the full image is hidden in the shadows — it’s kind of like, she can see you, but you can’t see her, and she uses that to her advantage.
Elemental Earth Alignment: Whale — Water
This is a card that always points to a highly developed soul, especially when it is in the Water Alignment or the Core State. As I mentioned with The High Priestess being a foundation, and the Water energy being what is underneath everything else and is brought to the surface, the Whale card goes right along with that as this shows her Water energy, mostly what is stemming from her Soul rather than her core, is what grounds her and keeps her steady and on the right path.
I did say in her Core energy section that it seemed like her soul was waiting to unlock her Water energy, that use of intuition towards creative pursuits, and this is related to that. The difference is that this card would suggest that the Soul wasn’t waiting to unlock the Water energy, the Soul is the Water energy and there were just certain blocks that were put up for the sake of soul progression in this lifetime, certain trials and tribulations she needed to experience before she could go back to this familiar state of being where she is connected to the depths of the soul and human consciousness. And yes, this would imply that most of what she came into, not just fame and money, but her artistry, her way of communicating, and her understanding of things, especially all of what seemed to just “click” in her early to mid-twenties specifically was connected to past lives and was being laid by the Higher Self.
The visual of this card, the actual image on that card, is literally what I was seeing with that whole deep diving thing I was talking about. The Whale is a much better example of what I was talking about as it is something that naturally has the “equipment” for the deep dive, can go very far down for a long time, but can and has to come up for air at some point.
It really is a much better representation not so much of the image of Lana Del Rey, but a representation of her as a soul where it is completely submerged in Water, in connection, in-depth and awareness, but there are still bits in pieces grounded in reality, filtered by Air.
All of this being in her Earth Alignment shows that this factor, this soul connection is something that really brings a lot of stimulation, maybe not always good or beneficial, but it brings something that keeps her “awake” in some fashion, keeps her progressing. And that progression itself is something that stabilizes her. You can think of it as someone riding a bike. They have to keep it moving or else they’ll have to put their leg out to hold themselves up, making it an imbalanced state, or it will just fall over completely.
This would probably put her as one of those artists who say that music and their art saved their lives, as it would seem this connection pretty much set her on the right path and then kept her moving on it.
Elemental Air Alignment: Bee — Air
Out of everything here, this is the most “earthbound” energy in the mix. It is relatively simple and clean cut, which is what I would expect from her Air energy as it acts as a more mechanical “coating” to the Water and Fire that make up her projected energy. On a conscious level, this is what brings her stability.
The Bee is, as you can imagine, associated with group work and communication. It’s a “busy bee” kind of energy where it whips around from one flower to the next, talking to all of the thousands of other bees, figuring out the game plans and whatnot.
This reflects that aspect of her respecting everyone’s input on her work, but still maintaining integrity and independence when it comes to how she actually puts that work out there. Like, all the bees instinctively go out together, but they work as individuals, they’re not like working all together to carry a bucket of pollen back to the hive, they’re just each using their own bodies to do it as individuals.
Of course, with this mix of being very independent while also being very considerate of other’s input on her work there can be cases of frustration and over-stimulation where she can get that stinger out and be a bit more headstrong, angry, or very defiant towards input or opinions that she feels are extremely unnecessary or threatening to her sensitivity — that goes with the Gemini acting as a bodyguard to the Cancer energy.
Higher Self Core Alignment: Phoenix — Spirit
And finally, we have the Phoenix in the Higher Self’s core state. This Spirit card is associated with the Root Chakra and kind of points to a new start or a new phase in soul progression that I was seeing leading her into a core state where the Crown Chakra was in play.
In terms of what I was seeing with this, it’s like she has small bursts of Kundalini energy and it would hit one chakra at a time, like building up through different phases from the early to mid-teens through to the late twenties. Right now she’s on the Third Eye. When she aligns with her next phases, which is still pretty far off from what I can tell, she’s right where she needs to be, she will sort of experience of the moment of “reset” and then that energy will shoot straight back up past the Third Eye and to the Crown.
It’s hard to say what that will bring around for her other than a clearer image, a better understanding of that expanded awareness that she already has, and a deeper connection with the Soul and whatever the Sun card was representing for her. I’m sure she will enjoy the experience nonetheless and I imagine some great music or poetry would come out of it in the end.
That’s all I have for this reading. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! :)