Our emotional bodies are an important part of who we are and how we experience life. Keep reading to learn about the water trine in astrology, and how to understand the emotional body!
The water trine in astrology refers to the important connections between the water signs Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, and how the interplay of these signs helps us to understand our emotional bodies.
In this article, I will be sharing the important connections between the signs of the Grand Water Trine in astrology, and how we can understand the workings of our emotional bodies from an evolutionary astrology perspective.
What’s your favourite song, and what does that say about you? How about favourite movie? Why is it your favourite? Every now and then I come across a song or a movie that speaks to me in a profound way. It always surprises me, and I always want to see or listen to the song again. Usually my response is emotional in nature, where as seeing an interesting insect or bird, for example, would cause a more mental response.
As I’ve studied astrology over the years, I’ve realized that usually the “energy” of the song or movie is quite apparent in my chart, and it also is typically a water energy, which means that it has to do with the emotional body. For me, my chart is quite water heavy, so this makes sense. For you, maybe you have more mental (air), heart (fire) or earth energy. If this is the case, I’m sure your favourite things would also be a reflection of this. (Emphasis in modalities also make a huge difference in the birth chart! Read more about that here!)
The grand water trine is made up of the signs Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. These 3 zodiac signs have an interesting interplay in that they are all supportive of our sense of identity, but in different capacities and relative to different contexts.
With the water signs, we are referring to emotional energy. (If this were a grand trine with fire signs (grand fire trine) we’d be talking about Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. If this were an earth grand trine, we’d be talking about the stable earth signs of Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn. If this were a grand air trine, we’d be talking about Gemini, Libra and Aquarius.)
Because a grand trine refers to elements that are all 3 the same (this is different than a stellium), there is a built in understanding of the way the energies desire to move and express themselves. Kind of like 3 people trying to work together: if they all speak the same language the action that needs to be taken will be a lot easier communicated and played out since everyone will understand what the others are saying.
Does everyone have a grand trine in their chart?
Not everyone has a grand trine in their birth chart. That being said, everyone has all the energies of all of the signs and elements, and so it is still helpful and a good idea to understand how the different signs of each element are communicating with one another in your birth chart.
In astrology, when we talk about a trine aspect, we are referring to an aspect of 120 degrees between signs and different planets. This is one of the astrological aspects that is considered “harmonious” or a “supportive aspect” or “good luck” or even “easy aspects” in that it is experienced as an easy flow of energy, almost as something that happens in the background and/or without much effort. This is not an energy that requires strenuous effort, it just…happens.
How do you know if you have a grand trine in your chart?
When there are planets in all 3 signs of the same element, and they are each 120 degrees from the other forming an equilateral triangle, it is referred to as a grand trine.
How do you know if you have a grand WATER trine in your chart?
If the planets in the grand trine in your chart are in the signs of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, then you have a grand water trine in your birth chart. (Remember, the planets must be 120 degrees from each other, and forming an equilateral triangle.) You can get a free birth chart created for you HERE to see whether or not you have a grand water trine in your natal chart.
Is a grand trine lucky?
In a natal birth chart, if there were planets in all 3 of the same elements, within an appropriate orb for them all to be making a making a trine to the others, that individual would have a true grand trine in their chart. Sometimes this is considered good fortune for that individual as they would have a mostly easy time accessing that energy, which, of course, seems like a good thing.
What does it mean if I have a lot of trines in my chart?
The challenge of this aspect pattern would be the tendency to develop a type of laziness towards that energy, as it is low hanging fruit and almost “too” easy. With hard work, however, and attention to these energies, there is a strong potential for the individual to develop their gifting(s) in an incredible way with a positive outcome. In a natal chart, the grand trine work to be done is taking advantage and taking initiative where the energies are concerned.
Cancer, first sign in the Grand Water Trine
When we talk about Cancer, we are talking about our sense of roots as far as our incarnation goes. The identity that we live and walk around with, and that inner security that arises out of knowing where we come from. It’s a “nest” of types, both emotionally and practically. This is more of a solo energy.
Cancer also tells us about our family lineage and our connection to our ancestry. Someone with a lot of Cancerian energy in their natal chart is probably very connected to the family line. This energy is connected to both the moon and the mother…and for good reason! When we are talking about the moon, we are referring to our emotional security, which is established in our youngest years, through our main caregiver and even prior to that during the gestational period.
It is in this place that we begin to understand who we are, where we begin to understand ourselves as being an entity separate from our mother, and separate from other beings as well. That we have a form, an identity, an ego. This refers to how you see yourself- it’s a subjective stance. It’s not a coincidence that your mother used to rock you to sleep with music as a baby, and as an adult, there’s just something about putting on your favourite play list that puts you back at ease.
The Cancer energy is known for being insecure and for walking sideways…the crab that pops back into it’s home (shell) when he senses an impending danger. This refers to the establishment of the inner security that happens here in the 4th house through family and the home; where we can come out of our shell..ALL the way out, emerge into the world in an emotional sense, with a deep understanding of who we are (both relative to our tribe and not), and of the inherent security and protection that we have due to the fact, alone, of our existence.
(Consider that mother earth takes care of all of her creatures. The fact that something exists means that it necessarily owns a spot in the grand circle of life, and, is therefore, inherently cared for and secured. This quality of being “inherently cared for”, or protected, refers to the opposing sign in the zodiac, which is Capricorn.) The Cancerian energy desires to carry around its home for the sense of safety that it provides; the perception that there is always a secure place to quickly poke back into in the face of threat. The lesson here, is that its connection to the Source of its creation is the surety of its security- not the can it lives in.
Scorpio, second sign in the Grand Water Trine
Scorpio, on the other hand, is our desires, which leads to our empowerment, or disempowerment, depending where we are in that cycle. Have you ever glued 2 things together, and then tried to take them apart, and the glue does not want to let go which means that the items get ripped or broken in their separation? That’s kind of like the Scorpio archetype.
This is the place of merging, where we become one with something, giving of ourselves and also taking on the other. It happens out of a desire for something, and when we reach to fulfill those desires, there is a deep vulnerability and emotional surrendering of inner boundaries. The thing that was once outside of someone is now a part of them. It’s the difference between saying “I work as a nurse” and “I AM a nurse”.
Of course death or endings are inevitable, so there will always be a point of loss in this cycle, which results in the disempowerment that is attributed to Plutonic energy. “I am no longer a nurse…so then what am I?” The challenge, and growth opportunity, presented in the death of a situation is the experience of perceiving that something was taken away, and then realizing that what we have is inherent to us, and can therefore not be taken from us. Even if it appears this way from an external perspective.
A relationship can be ended, however the love that made that relationship is intangible and belongs to you. A job can be lost, however the skills that got you that job and made you perform well belong to you regardless of your employment status. A person can die, however it is the person’s body that has died, not the person. Their existence and relationship to you has transformed into another form (one that perhaps you cannot experience the same way as a human living on earth), however it does not cease to exist.
The thing that was lost was a medium for the expression of the intangible asset that can not ever be taken away. This type of surrender has to do with accepting that something has run its course in your life. This is a more dynamic energy in that it includes a person, object or experience outside of one’s self. It’s like a “plus one” energy
Pisces, third sign in the Grand Water Trine
The last of the water trine is Pisces, which is the last of the outer planets. Often when I am talking to clients, I refer to the Pisces energy as a type of pureed soup. Once everything has been blended down, there is no way to tell the ingredients apart; everything looks, feels and tastes like everything else.
The Pisces archetype talks about endings. As the last sign in the natural zodiac, it is a return to Source; an even deeper release than Scorpio (if you can imagine that).
Where the emotion of Cancer brings us back to our roots, and the emotion of Scorpio brings us to our intimate one-to-one connections, the emotion of Pisces brings us back to our connection to “everything”. It is here where we contemplate how everything works together, how the circle of life moves, and why suffering and endings are a necessary part of the ever moving flow of existence. This is existential surrender and how we learn to transcend the suffering of human existence not by denying or bypassing it, but by finding purpose in it.
How do the trines between the water signs work?
Cancer to Scorpio
The trine that Cancer makes to Scorpio tells us about the easy flow of energy between the area of our psyche that has to do with our identity, and the area of our psyche that has to do with forming attachments. The attachment that we formed is an emotional one, and is based on the perception that we are completely seen (here’s where the vulnerability aspect of Scorpio comes in), and accepted in entirety (which makes reference to the sense of identity and emotional security that Cancer refers to).
Our emotional security is bolstered by the empowerment that happens in the Scorpio space, and at the same time, our identity is empowered by the strengthening that the enmeshment that the Scorpio energy facilitates. So we see here that they are supportive to one another: The Cancer energy communicates its identity and need for emotional security to the Scorpio archetype, where the Scorpio archetype communicates it’s need to enmesh and seek wholeness through the other.
Scorpio to Pisces
In Pisces, we flow back into the “ocean” of Source, where everything is interconnected and one and of the same. Where as Cancer is an individual energy and Scorpio is more dualistic in that it implies another, Pisces implies everything. In Scorpio, a deep emotional attachment arises, and then breaks, which speaks to the cycle of disempowerment followed by empowerment. At the end stage of the Scorpio, the individual realizes that what they lost was not actually lost because it is inherent to them, which is the bridge between that energy, and the energy of the Piscean domain.
The implicit discovery of personal power (a power that cannot be taken away) naturally marks an inward move to the last sign of the water trine, Pisces, where that desire is understood as a necessary beacon that allowed that soul, through the suffering of that disempowerment, to move back to the 12th house and reclaim its identity as an offshoot of Source, rather than as a striving human being who is stuck in the cycle of winning and losing.
The support between Scorpio and Pisces happens because in Scorpio, the individual develops an awareness of the natural laws of death which pertain to all life forms that live on earth, and at the same time an awareness of the inherent life (that which predates and postdates the existence and death of whatever it is that died) that cannot be taken away.
Pisces to Cancer
If Pisces is the last sign of the natural zodiac, and marks endings and the return to Source, the movement from the last water sign (Pisces) to the first water sign of the natural zodiac (Cancer) tells us about the movement from Source outwards. The movement of the first trine, from Source to experience and incarnation, has as it’s first step the building of an identity. (Prior to that, the soul goes through the first three houses in it’s incarnation journey. Aries: new beginnings, Taurus: survival and needs, Gemini: gathering information, labeling and communication.)
This movement outwards (and away) from Source suggests a type of focus on the human experience, which is established through the identity and ego of the 4th house. As far as the emotional process goes, the move from Pisces to Cancer says: “As a human, this is who I am.” This is the foundation that allows an individual to understand how to interact with all the other areas of their psyche and life and to firmly root themselves in the earth timeline.
At the same time, in this space there is an understanding of the “prehuman” roots, which acts as a support to the Piscean energy in that it acknowledges its transcendental capacities as a SOUL being, even while it lives in a human form.
Essentially, the grand trine pattern of water signs works in this fashion:
1- Cancer: Our identity and emotional foundation is formed
2- Scorpio: We have a desire and commit to something outside of ourselves, with the understanding that we will be empowered through the enmeshment that is necessary in attaining this desire. This enmeshment must, by natural law, come to a close, at which point we experience disempowerment.
3- The death that occurred in the Scorpio phase leads to a reconnection to Source, where awareness of our inherent power and connection to everything is reinstated. From this place of unity and wholeness, we are able to venture back out onto the earth plane, arriving again at step 1 (Cancer).
To learn more about the Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces energies, check out the following articles. They’ll give you more insight into the evolutionary objectives of each energy, as well as tell you more about the zodiac symbols and animals associated with each sign.
What’s your favourite song or movie, and how do you see it connecting to your own natal chart? Let me know below in the comments!
Still Climbing,
xx,
Celeste
P.S. As always, I’m available for private astrological consultations. To read more about what a reading with me looks like, go HERE. To book a reading with me, contact me by email through HERE and I’ll get back to you in a jiffy!
Aja Celeste is a mom to 6 beautiful children and a twin mom! She is also creator and writer of That Zoi Life and a professionally trained Evolutionary Astrologer who has been doing astrology for 7 years. She is also a health care assistant, has a Bachelor of Ministry Degree, and is passionate about supporting people in conscious parenting. She also does Psychosomatics using Recall Healing.
Please contact her at [info@ThatZoiLife.com] if you would like to find out more about working with her.