Hey, I'm Ash Burnside

about 2 months ago

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11 min read

🥄The Stir✨ dollywood eclipse

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YOUR WEEKLY DOSE OF PRACTICAL ASTROLOGY FOR REAL LIFE​
BREW #127

I admit, I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to myth and symbol.

My head is full of eccentric references and my phone's screenshot's folder probably needs a good organizing by now due to the sheer number of tidbits I commit to filing away, either intellectually or digitally.

I keep spiritual references in my back pocket like a homeless person might keep the last nub of a sandwich.

Gotta be prepared because you never know when circumstances will flip, leaving you to starve (for meaning).

It's a love language at this point. I hear someone going through it and I immediately am flipping through my mental rolodex of symbology to offer a morsel of encouragement and direction that fits the situation.

You're bucking against the expectations set upon you and feeling a bit black sheep'd about it? Let me introduce you to Lilith.

You think being "feminine" is a curse that means you're to dissolve yourself in the trenches of motherhood and call it submission? Imma need you to meet my friends Freya, Persephone, The Morrighan, and Innana.

You're aging out of the youth-obsessed beauty standard and feeling discarded and not sure where your worth lies now? Behold, Hekate, Demeter, Grandmother Spider.

Archetypes and symbol gives us the power to SEE OURSELVES in the stories of yore, to use them as a template to weave our own myths and make meaning out of the darkness we find ourselves in.

Story/archetype/symbols spark something in us. I know you've had it happen: you hear it and something in you clicks quietly into place. Oh, I've never thought about it like that before.

That piece of clarity has the power to silently rearrange reality because it's fanned a small flame of hope that helps us realize possibility can take a different shape than we originally thought.

And that is so powerful.

So imagine my bittersweet delight when I realized, we gained another goddess to call upon.

An ancestor has ascended! A new constellation will be twinkling down upon us tonight!

She's shining in the Virgo constellation and if you look close enough, you can see the rhinestones she wore twinkling in rhythm with her unmistakable twang.

I'm talking about none other than Dolly Parton, of course. The Virgo Earth angel herself.

Did you know Dolly was a Virgo? 'Cos I didn't.

I had my suspicions just based on what I knew of her character and feats throughout her life + career, but yesterday, I couldn't help myself and had to look it up.

Our Dolly was a Virgo Rising!!!

In a time when red pilled manosphere maga bullshit is actively suppressing women, telling us to go back home, coercing our younger counterparts into dangerous tradwife lifestyles (not hating! you CAN choose to be a tradwife! that's what feminism is about: the ability to choose! My beef is that there's no informed consent. But that's an essay for another time) -- being who she was and staying genuine to that was an act of courageous, heartful resistance.

In short, WE NEED MODERN SYMBOLS OF FEMININE POWER.

Of what it means to remain true to yourself,
to belong to yourself,
to create a legacy that exists outside the walls of your own household.

To show us that generosity is as classy as it is divine.
That The Starving Artist is a tired archetype and that when you let people take care of you, we owe it to them to repay it forward by taking care of others and letting that ripple out from there.

This is the Virgo way.

It's depth, precision, mastery of craft, humility, and a never-ending call to be of service.

That seems to be the golden thread with Dolly.

She was a celebrated, gifted musician, yes.

But she was also hilarious, charming, classy (a true feat considering her intentional choice of boob size and frequent jokes about it, lmaoooo), and above all --- GENEROUS with the resources she accumulated through the use of her gifts.

She was a force for community, love, inclusion, and social justice.

Without anger. Without pretense. Without judgment.

She was an advocate for trans and gay equality.
She was a champion of children's literacy (hello?! the Imagination Library?!)​
She was deeply considerate of our inherent collective connection and safety (helping to fund the research that led to the covid vaccine).
She was a genuine soul and actual philanthropist (how many celebrities and top earners can say that nowadays??) building charities and non-profit for the communities she hailed from, lived in, and prayed about.

Her whole life weaves a bedazzled tapestry of what it means to be of service.

And she did it with fabulous makeup, polished nails, her signature blond bouffant wig, and killer heels on -- without ever centering herself or making it about her.

This is the Virgo way.

Virgo is the backdrop to the final moments of eclipse season, closing out THIS WEEK!

Actually, TOMORROW is our final eclipse of both this year AND our Summer 2026 eclipse portal: a Full Moon eclipse bringing clarity, harvest, and release to the deep, spiritual, connective waters of Pisces.

This marks a massive turning point when it comes to finally finding clarity in creativity, connection, nourishment, emotions, dreams, or spirituality -- though it these themes can get more specific based on what house you have Pisces in.

Pisces is ruled by Jupiter, which is a magnifier. So expect anything that comes out of this eclipse to be BIG: big feelings, big downloads, big release, ok?

Eclipses play on an axis (translation: opposite signs), so while we're gonna be feeling the insights drop as it relates to Pisces in our charts, you can ground yourself through the waves of feeling by casting your anchor into Virgo.

When in doubt, light a candle and put on a Dolly Parton song.

♈️ Aries Rising

Pisces 12H → Virgo 6H

Your eclipse clarity may arrive through the invisible stuff: dreams, intuition, spirituality, grief, subconscious patterns, exhaustion, or the realization that something you've been carrying quietly has finally run its course.

And then Virgo says: okay, babe. Put the mystical download on the calendar.

Your 6th house is asking you to turn that inner knowing into tangible care: routines, boundaries, health, work rhythms, systems, rituals, and daily practices that actually support the person you're becoming.

Dolly translation: You don't need to explain the divine download to anyone. You need to make breakfast, drink some water, answer the email, and build a life that can actually hold it.

♉️ Taurus Rising

Pisces 11H → Virgo 5H

Something about your community, friendships, audience, collaborators, or vision for the future may be coming into focus.

You may realize who actually belongs in your future—and who was simply part of an older version of the dream.

Virgo brings you back to the 5th house: your creativity, pleasure, self-expression, play, and personal genius.

Instead of asking “Where do I belong?” the question becomes:

“What do I want to create when I stop worrying about belonging?”

Dolly translation: Your people will find you when you're busy making the thing only you could make.

♊️ Gemini Rising

Pisces 10H → Virgo 4H

Big clarity around career, reputation, leadership, or the legacy you're building.

Pisces can make the future feel hazy until suddenly—oh. There it is.

But Virgo brings the attention home.

What does your private life need in order to support the public life you're building? What foundations need tending? What does success actually need to feel like behind closed doors?

Dolly translation: Build the empire, sure. But make damn sure you like the house you have to come home to.

♋️ Cancer Rising

Pisces 9H → Virgo 3H

A belief, philosophy, spiritual framework, educational path, or worldview may be shifting.

You could be releasing an old idea of what you're “supposed” to believe—or realizing that your perspective has expanded beyond the container that once held it.

Virgo brings you down from the mountaintop and asks you to say the thing. Write it down. Teach it. Have the conversation.

Make the revelation useful.

Dolly translation: You don't need a PhD in your own epiphany. You just need to tell the story in a way somebody else can understand.

♌️ Leo Rising

Pisces 8H → Virgo 2H

This one can go DEEP.

The eclipse may illuminate intimacy, trust, shared resources, energetic entanglements, grief, debt, vulnerability, sexuality, or the places where you've merged yourself with someone/something else.

The Virgo counterweight asks:

What belongs to you?

Your money. Your values. Your resources. Your body. Your time. Your gifts.

This is a beautiful axis for disentangling your worth from what you provide to other people.

Dolly translation: Generosity is divine. Self-abandonment is not.

♍️ Virgo Rising

Pisces 7H → Virgo 1H

Oh, HELLO.

This eclipse lands directly across your relationship axis, potentially bringing major clarity around partnership, projection, attachment, collaboration, and the people you're choosing to walk alongside.

But the anchor is YOU.

Virgo in the 1st says: come home to yourself.

Not who someone else needs you to be. Not who you become in relationship. Not who you think you should be.

You.

Dolly translation: You can love people deeply without handing them the deed to your identity.

♎️ Libra Rising

Pisces 6H → Virgo 12H

The eclipse may expose something about your work, health, routines, responsibilities, or the ways you've been spending your energy.

But the answer isn't necessarily more optimization.

Virgo in your 12th asks you to look underneath the machinery.

What exhaustion is actually grief? What “bad habit” is actually a coping mechanism? What are you trying to control because you're afraid to surrender?

Your spiritual life needs tending, too.

Dolly translation: Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop producing.

♏️ Scorpio Rising

Pisces 5H → Virgo 11H

This eclipse could bring clarity around creativity, romance, pleasure, children, play, or the thing you've been wanting to make simply because it makes your heart light up.

And then Virgo asks:

Who is this for? Who gets to experience it with you?

Your 11th house brings community, collective vision, networks, and your contribution to something larger than yourself.

Your joy doesn't have to remain private.

Dolly translation: Make the art. Then give somebody a reason to sing along.

♐️ Sagittarius Rising

Pisces 4H → Virgo 10H

Home. Family. Belonging. Emotional roots. The private story underneath the public one.

Something here may be ready to soften, release, or finally be understood.

And then Virgo points toward your 10th house: what are you building from these new foundations?

You aren't just healing the past for the sake of healing it.

You're making room for a different future.

Dolly translation: You can come from somewhere without being required to stay there.

♑️ Capricorn Rising

Pisces 3H → Virgo 9H

Your thinking, communication, writing, learning, siblings, local environment, or the stories you've been telling yourself may be undergoing a quiet but significant rewrite.

Then Virgo asks you to zoom out.

What philosophy actually supports the life you're living? What do you believe now—not because someone taught you to believe it, but because you've lived enough to know?

Dolly translation: Update the story. Then live like you believe the new one.

♒️ Aquarius Rising

Pisces 2H → Virgo 8H

This eclipse may illuminate your relationship with money, self-worth, resources, values, or the gifts you possess.

But Virgo pulls you into the 8th house: interdependence.

Where are you trying to do everything yourself? Where could you receive? Where are shared resources, collaboration, trust, or vulnerability actually part of your abundance?

Dolly is an excellent patron saint for this one:

Get paid for your gifts. Then let those resources become something bigger than you.

Dolly translation: Wealth isn't the end of the story. It's what you do with it next.

♓️ Pisces Rising

Pisces 1H → Virgo 7H

This eclipse is PERSONAL.

You may be seeing yourself differently—your identity, your desires, your emotional landscape, the person you've become after everything you've lived through.

And Virgo brings that realization straight into relationship.

Who can actually meet this version of you?

Not the old you. Not the curated you. Not the version that's easiest to love.

This one.

Dolly translation: Belonging to yourself makes it much easier to recognize the people who can actually belong beside you.

From Ash's Corner

Any one person is only a few generations away from poor white trash.

My dad and I agree on very little, even less as time goes on, but this is one phrase that's always stuck with me.

I've always appreciated how equalizing it is: a subtle clue to social structure that lets you glimpse behind the smokescreen of luxury and comfort.

It's a type of classist memento mori, a chastising call to humility, to remember your roots -- a warning that one turn on the Wheel of Fortune can change your luck (+ wealth) for the worse.

But ultimately, it's because I can see how the truth of that statement has played out in my own family history.

Growing up, I had heard stories of my grandfather's upbringing: how they took turns waking early to start the woodstove because you could see your breath inside the house. Or his hilarious stories of needing to use the outhouse in the middle of the night.

It didn't dawn on me until much, much later in life that there was definitely electricity and indoor plumbing during my grandfather's childhood...they were just too poor to afford a home with either.

The third youngest out of 8 (and only 1 of 2 boys in the whole lot!), he grew up with stories about how his own father's family came up from Appalachia via 👀COVERED WAGON😱 when he was just a boy, trying desperately to manually turn the Wheel of Fortune themselves.

They landed in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a rural settlement that's damn near deserted these days, in search of jobs (lumbering and copper mining were a big deal then...still are, but destructively so).

As this last eclipse hits Pisces in my 4th House of home, roots, ancestry, and security, I can't help but think of the poor white trash I hail from.

To me, it's nothing I feel the need to hide. If anything, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for my recent ancestors, as rough as people as they were. Their survival and grit is what has brought me here -- a college educated woman with her own business, typing from a laptop I bought with my own money, in a home I own (that definitely has electricity! And, OMG, they'd shit their pants if they saw my bidet!).

Since the start of these eclipses on the Pisces/Virgo axis back in September 2024, I've been pulled deep into Pisces' swirling ancestral waters to learn the stories of those that came before me. It's been a wildly humbling, synchronistic, and meaning-making experience.

Maya Angelou in her iconic 1992 Spelmen College commencement address talked about this work:

It's important that you have a sense of yourself so that when you walk into an office, you don't go alone.Bring your people with you. Bring everybody who has loved you with you. Say Grandma, come on, let's go. Great Grandpa, you've been dead all this time. Come on, let's go....

And you know what? I think of that as I'm making moves towards my big, hairy, audacious goals.

I think of how proud, how mystified, how relieved they would all be to see and know how far their descendant has come. That their suffering was not for nothing.

And now, I'm gonna think of Dolly, too. Paving the way for feminine leadership rooted in love, joy, community, and that Virgo-powered notion of deep service.

Stay rooted and let this last eclipse wash over you, Reader.

See ya on the other side.

One Last Sip
for September 2026
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P.O. Box 532, Cedar Springs, MI 49319
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Hey, I'm Ash Burnside

I help smart, sensitive, spiritually-curious humans navigate the sacred aftermath of success, change, and burnout—so they can reconnect with who they are, reclaim their rhythm, and move forward with clarity. My work blends astrology, real talk, and modern self-growth tools to meet you where you're at and help you come home to yourself + find your next step (no matter what else is going on).

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