Focusing on writing this blog has been difficult of late. Alot has been going through my mind, as I am sure can be said for most of us. The tragedy of the Newtown massacre on top of the still very real repercussions of Sandy, the Scorpio Eclipse season in November, the ending of the Mayan Long Count calender on December 21st, the Solstice, Christmas and Hanukkah, added to the surprises and turnings in our personal lives leaves little time for inner peace and reflection.
At first I wanted to write about the movie "Lincoln" and why that movie is premiering now (actually November 9th). It was in the news again having garnered 7 Golden Globe nominations last week. It is a fact, not readily understood by those not acquainted with astrological cycles, that one's birth chart does not die with one's passing out of earth's plane. Deceased persons, no matter what the age, when they become newsworthy again will have active planetary cycles hitting their natal placements and so get recaught in the public eye.
Both the publication of Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, from which the movie is taken from in part, November 6th, 2005, and the release of the current film, November 9th, 2012 show strong connections to Lincoln's natal chart. That is to say that the current planetary cycles, (planets orbiting around the Sun-placements that never repeat exactly alike, as no moment in time is like any other), in the sky at both times, (and all other times in the past when his life came into the public eye), are contacting Lincoln's natal chart in an area that guarantees prominence even after death. Why do some people become famous only after death? Why did Goodwin study Lincoln for 10 years? My guess is that her chart connects strongly with his; or her chart moved into connecting with Lincoln's during the years of her research.
In turning towards our current tragedy I turn to : "Guns Are America's Other Original Sin" an interview with Frank Rich from New York magazine. Of course our first original sin is slavery, the source and scourge of Lincoln's life's work to bear. Rich's point is that our obsession with guns (45% of all Americans have them in the house) is not something that can be legislated away in one Congressional session. Just as the fight to abolish slavery took decades, so will this project. But that is not to say that we cannot begin the process now. Both climate change and our culture of violence were not spoken about during the last presidential campaign by either party says Rich. "That's inexcusable, but we do have to fear that he (Obama) is taking his own life into his hands by venturing into this hot political area." It certainly seems from the tone of Sunday's address to Newtown and all of us Americans that the President is taking this seriously.
The one thing that Rich is probably not aware of is the significance of this happening so close to all the above astronomical and cultural events. Friday December 21st at 6:12 AM is the end of the 5,125 years of the Mayan Long Count. There are no extent predictions for the Long Count (there are for the Short Count). The current Maya elders are very forthright about the inability of any "New Agers" to predict anything about what will happen at the end of this calendar cycle and the beginning of the next. They do say that this might be a time when humanity can/will/ must overcome the "dark" and identify with and move more quickly toward the 'light", understanding that there is no calendar mechanics that can make this happen. It is up to each one of us to make the journey.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Friday, November 23, 2012
Scorpio Eclipse Season
As the Sun has just finished its passage through Scorpio it is appropriate to reflect back on what this month has been about. The visual transformations that the Sun's passage in Scorpio brings are seasonal. This time of year the Sun appears lower in the sky, light and heat lessen, the leaves turn and the animal, plant, tree and flower life around us begin to hibernate. There is consolidation happening below the ground as the earth takes in energy even from the solar system, to replenish itself so that there will be a renewal next Spring. This is the regular process of death and rebirth that all life forms process through.
This is Scorpio in its essence, something dies so that something else can be born again. "Deaths" in the natural world become "crises" in our personal lives which can manifest on many levels, physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual or psychological. In each event there is a separation from what was previously there. Between the end of something and the beginning of the new, the crisis occurs and a decision has to be made.
Each of us "dies" daily when we fall asleep (even that demands a decision). A crisis in our lives, especially when it happens suddenly is accompanied by a "little death". Crisis comes from the Greek meaning to separate or decide. In medicine "crisis" is used to signify the turning point in an illness when there will either be recovery or death. Scorpio is the sign that rules over the "deaths" and "crises" of our lives. We are having an unusual amount of Scorpio energy around us since Saturn moved into Scorpio on October 5th.
Saturn only passes through Scorpio every 30 years; last time being December 1982 to May 1983 and then late August 1983-mid November 1985. Those of us who can remember what happened then, can predict what area of life will experience some kind of crisis ( financial, health, emotional, psychological etc.); or the death of an old way of life or a transformation so that life is never the same again, that will occur this time. We all have Scorpio someplace in our charts, ruling some department of life, even if we are not Sun Scorpios or Moon Scorpios or Ascending sign Scorpios, or who were born with Saturn in Scorpio. Those people who do are the ones who will be most deeply affected during the next 2 1/2 years.
More energy in the same area creates more developmental pressure. Adding to Saturn's passage through Scorpio, we had a Solar Eclipse on the 13th of November at the New Moon at 22 degrees of Scorpio. No other astrological/astronomical event changes our lives more completely than Solar or Lunar Eclipses if they are affecting our charts. (The next Full Moon on the 28th is a Lunar Eclipse.)
The last time there were eclipses in Scorpio were 1993, 94 and 95. The last time we had an eclipse in this same spot in Scorpio was November 1993. A solar eclipse is like a light switch, something turns on or something turns off. New Moons are new beginnings that are in effect a month until the next New Moon. Eclipses effect us years into the future. Anything begun now will take time to unwind and fulfill. Being in the same sign as Saturn, the gods are pounding the same note in our lives. Saturn was not in Scorpio in those previous years when the eclipses were in Scorpio.
This eclipse is interesting for another reason. Bernadette Brady in her book The Eagle and The Lark explores the meaning of each eclipse based on the beginning moment of the series which it is a part. The current eclipse brings with it the joy that comes from a commitment. Some new undertaking or responsibility we take on with this eclipse brings a sense of joy with it. We can use this Solar Eclipse New Moon to identify who, where and what we will commit to, knowing that this commitment will transform our lives. It would be in keeping with the sign Scorpio that this commitment arises out of the dark, out of nowhere obvious.
There is still more Scorpio activity this month. The planet Mercury entered Scorpio the same day as Saturn, October 5th. Mercury has and will again pass over the degree of the eclipse igniting it. Other planets passing over trigger the eclipse even if the passage occurs up to 3 months previously. (Mars passed over the eclipse degree back on September 27th-so your commitment could have been ignited back then too.) Mercury first hit the degree of the eclipse October 22nd and will move back to forward motion on the afternoon of the 26th and pass over 22 Scorpio December 5th. With each pass of each planet over the eclipse degree there will be some news, message, purchase, communication, mental activity or travel connected with what you are committing to.
Still further, Venus moved into Scorpio the evening of the 21st (and the Sun moved into Sagittarius). Our desires, values and what we are attracted to are now more keenly felt. Our "darker emotions" can arise. Love is less platonic and diplomatic and more assertive and passionate.
Scorpio time of year is the middle of the Fall, when we are really experiencing the depth of its message. It is not transitioning into or out of the season but firmly in. Scorpio, like Taurus, Leo and Aquarius, each in the middle of their respective seasons, have a stubbornness and resistance to change quality to them. The fixed signs all have a streak of dig your heels in and "I will not budge". That characteristic is fine if you are building the pyramids (Age of Taurus) but not helpful when cultural changes are necessary and flexibility is needed. The transformations that occur in Scorpio often have dramatic quality about them as there has been a determination to keep things the way they are. We might have had hints of some changes that were needed in our lives but were good at not taking action on them, until a crisis happens and we have no choice.
I wrote this blog because I was struck by how many people's lives have been temporarily or permanently altered this past month here on the East Coast from Hurricane Sandy and the second storm. Adding to that are all the people across the country who have finished their activities around the Presidential election. Crises and transformations of this magnitude are what Scorpio is all about.
Is there a purpose? What are we supposed to think when our home and all our earthly possessions have floated away? What new decisions and commitments have to be made as a result? Will we succumb to the unbearable burden or pull ourselves together and build a new life? This is all Scorpio stuff. Crises are events that force us to look at things differently, to make a decision. We are forced to be present to the moment, and to grasp our reality (Saturn ) in a new way, the past is gone, the future not clear. Our new in Scorpio fashion commitment can be to that- to be fully present to what is arising right in front of us and to each and everyone we meet-especially those who are in dire need- and thus to feel the joy associated with the giving.
This is Scorpio in its essence, something dies so that something else can be born again. "Deaths" in the natural world become "crises" in our personal lives which can manifest on many levels, physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual or psychological. In each event there is a separation from what was previously there. Between the end of something and the beginning of the new, the crisis occurs and a decision has to be made.
Each of us "dies" daily when we fall asleep (even that demands a decision). A crisis in our lives, especially when it happens suddenly is accompanied by a "little death". Crisis comes from the Greek meaning to separate or decide. In medicine "crisis" is used to signify the turning point in an illness when there will either be recovery or death. Scorpio is the sign that rules over the "deaths" and "crises" of our lives. We are having an unusual amount of Scorpio energy around us since Saturn moved into Scorpio on October 5th.
Saturn only passes through Scorpio every 30 years; last time being December 1982 to May 1983 and then late August 1983-mid November 1985. Those of us who can remember what happened then, can predict what area of life will experience some kind of crisis ( financial, health, emotional, psychological etc.); or the death of an old way of life or a transformation so that life is never the same again, that will occur this time. We all have Scorpio someplace in our charts, ruling some department of life, even if we are not Sun Scorpios or Moon Scorpios or Ascending sign Scorpios, or who were born with Saturn in Scorpio. Those people who do are the ones who will be most deeply affected during the next 2 1/2 years.
More energy in the same area creates more developmental pressure. Adding to Saturn's passage through Scorpio, we had a Solar Eclipse on the 13th of November at the New Moon at 22 degrees of Scorpio. No other astrological/astronomical event changes our lives more completely than Solar or Lunar Eclipses if they are affecting our charts. (The next Full Moon on the 28th is a Lunar Eclipse.)
The last time there were eclipses in Scorpio were 1993, 94 and 95. The last time we had an eclipse in this same spot in Scorpio was November 1993. A solar eclipse is like a light switch, something turns on or something turns off. New Moons are new beginnings that are in effect a month until the next New Moon. Eclipses effect us years into the future. Anything begun now will take time to unwind and fulfill. Being in the same sign as Saturn, the gods are pounding the same note in our lives. Saturn was not in Scorpio in those previous years when the eclipses were in Scorpio.
This eclipse is interesting for another reason. Bernadette Brady in her book The Eagle and The Lark explores the meaning of each eclipse based on the beginning moment of the series which it is a part. The current eclipse brings with it the joy that comes from a commitment. Some new undertaking or responsibility we take on with this eclipse brings a sense of joy with it. We can use this Solar Eclipse New Moon to identify who, where and what we will commit to, knowing that this commitment will transform our lives. It would be in keeping with the sign Scorpio that this commitment arises out of the dark, out of nowhere obvious.
There is still more Scorpio activity this month. The planet Mercury entered Scorpio the same day as Saturn, October 5th. Mercury has and will again pass over the degree of the eclipse igniting it. Other planets passing over trigger the eclipse even if the passage occurs up to 3 months previously. (Mars passed over the eclipse degree back on September 27th-so your commitment could have been ignited back then too.) Mercury first hit the degree of the eclipse October 22nd and will move back to forward motion on the afternoon of the 26th and pass over 22 Scorpio December 5th. With each pass of each planet over the eclipse degree there will be some news, message, purchase, communication, mental activity or travel connected with what you are committing to.
Still further, Venus moved into Scorpio the evening of the 21st (and the Sun moved into Sagittarius). Our desires, values and what we are attracted to are now more keenly felt. Our "darker emotions" can arise. Love is less platonic and diplomatic and more assertive and passionate.
Scorpio time of year is the middle of the Fall, when we are really experiencing the depth of its message. It is not transitioning into or out of the season but firmly in. Scorpio, like Taurus, Leo and Aquarius, each in the middle of their respective seasons, have a stubbornness and resistance to change quality to them. The fixed signs all have a streak of dig your heels in and "I will not budge". That characteristic is fine if you are building the pyramids (Age of Taurus) but not helpful when cultural changes are necessary and flexibility is needed. The transformations that occur in Scorpio often have dramatic quality about them as there has been a determination to keep things the way they are. We might have had hints of some changes that were needed in our lives but were good at not taking action on them, until a crisis happens and we have no choice.
I wrote this blog because I was struck by how many people's lives have been temporarily or permanently altered this past month here on the East Coast from Hurricane Sandy and the second storm. Adding to that are all the people across the country who have finished their activities around the Presidential election. Crises and transformations of this magnitude are what Scorpio is all about.
Is there a purpose? What are we supposed to think when our home and all our earthly possessions have floated away? What new decisions and commitments have to be made as a result? Will we succumb to the unbearable burden or pull ourselves together and build a new life? This is all Scorpio stuff. Crises are events that force us to look at things differently, to make a decision. We are forced to be present to the moment, and to grasp our reality (Saturn ) in a new way, the past is gone, the future not clear. Our new in Scorpio fashion commitment can be to that- to be fully present to what is arising right in front of us and to each and everyone we meet-especially those who are in dire need- and thus to feel the joy associated with the giving.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Another View After the Storm
For me writing these blogs can be a little upsetting as things are never as perfect as I'd like them to be. I can always think about something else I should have said or explained differently. And then there's the fact that I think of something I'd like to say and I procrastinate long enough that another idea comes in my head and then I lose the excitement with the initial observation.
Adding to that is the chaos that happens when an event like post-tropical cyclone Sandy occurs at my back door. I am sure that it has not been lost on any one of you that the tri-state area of the USA has been spared any consequences of climate change until now. (I bow to those who have experienced the pain and suffering caused by the droughts, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis and floods that the rest of the country and world have experienced.) Even Hurricane Irene last year did not have such an impact as Sandy. Sea levels are gradually rising and will likely do so at a faster rate now and into the future. This Sandy is a game changer and is causing a "massive reordering of priorities."
In reading the NY Times last weekend I was struck with how much of the paper was focusing on the ideas for infrastructure changes in and around NYC to protect the City "before next time". New mossy wetlands strapped like a beard across lower Manhattan's chin would help to mitigate storm surge; oyster beds in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, not only to clean the waters but to protect the shoreline, and a huge storm-surge barrier across the Arthur Kill channel between Staten Island and NJ are some of the ideas proposed.
Some scientists have been working behind the scenes. According to the Times, there was a conference in March 2009 at NYU's Polytechnic Institute called "Against the Deluge: Storm Surge Barriers to Protect NYC". There was one journalist and one paying exhibitor. In the reporters words: "It had the sad air of what was then an entirely lost cause". But no longer...
From an astrological perspective we must go back to Pluto and Uranus. Those two planets symbolically represent innovative changes (Uranus) in our lives that affect lots of people (Pluto); transformational experiences which suddenly (Uranus) affect us so that our perspective shifts, we think of new solutions and take different actions. Events that cause sudden changes in perspective are the "new normal" now. There has been something brewing below the surface for a long time (Pluto) and then a sudden event (Uranus) occurs that ignites the unstable condition. This can happen in our personal lives obviously as well.
We can go back two years, December 17th to the desperate fruit peddlar, Mohamed Bouazizi, in Tunisia who lite himself on fire because he could no longer stand the injustice of the system. The act of one man spread to Egypt, the whole Middle East and eventually across the globe, starting the Occupy Movement, because the time is right. These events are outer manifestations of the geometric pattern Uranus and Pluto are making. NYC's birth chart is strongly affected by these two planets. But you do not need an astrologer to tell you that. You can look at the news (if you have power) and see it. We are in these shifting times through March 2015. And they can make one quite nervous.
Adding to that we have planet Mercury apparently turning retrograde. Actually we are passing by Mercury in our orbit around the Sun. (Just as when you are in a faster train and a slower one passes next to you it appears that that train is moving backwards). The key is our perspective!!! Earth never goes retrograde.
Mercury rules communication and travel, writing, speaking, moving from place to place, contracting, negotiating, buying and selling, our thoughts, what we fill our head with and what we speak. During this time as Mercury is changing its orientation to the Sun, or going into the underworld to get new information from a mythological perspective, we can expect to feel stuck, that things have come to a standstill. We get caught in a mouse-in-the merry-go round internal dialogue which gets no where. Watch for it. Also be careful with what you sign and agree to. It might come back to haunt you.
This Mercury retrograde periods, as all others, affect some more than others depending on whether the position it is when it starts (6:04 PM tonight) apparently moving backwards, hits your natal chart significantly or not. There are easier Mercury retrograde times and harder more confusing ones. This is a confusing one. Mercury hates going at slow speed so that is why there are more problems.
There are good things to do now too. Everything with the words" re" at the start are recommended. It is not a bad time and not a time to be feared. It is a time to get caught up, to catch your breathe, to re think things. Everyone's life out here has slowed down at this Mercury station, power outages and now a gas shortage. The longer "shadow period" of this time began the 19th of October. If you need a change in perspective you will know it as NYC knows it.
This is the first time this has happened on Election Day. Mercury was making a station but turning direct, that is leaving the backward time on Election Day in 2000. It did take 3 weeks or so to get the results of that election. Mercury was also in the middle of its retrograde period in the election of 1960 with Kennedy and Nixon which was very close and we did not have the results right away.
Most astrologers are saying that this Mercury retrograde could affect the election today by not having a clear winner after the polls close. But one can also say that Sandy and all the chaos it has caused, with the threat of another coastal Northeaster tomorrow, has already manifested the predicted chaos, confusion, stalling and delaying inherent with the combination of Election Day and a Mercury station retrograde day. But it has never happened before so we have nothing to go by. So much of life is like that these days.
In any event Saturday the 17th brings Mercury and the Sun together and the hardest part of this period is over. The new information that we needed that was hidden from view has surfaced.
Stay tuned for next time when we talk about the Scorpio Solar Eclipse New Moon on the 13th.....
Adding to that is the chaos that happens when an event like post-tropical cyclone Sandy occurs at my back door. I am sure that it has not been lost on any one of you that the tri-state area of the USA has been spared any consequences of climate change until now. (I bow to those who have experienced the pain and suffering caused by the droughts, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis and floods that the rest of the country and world have experienced.) Even Hurricane Irene last year did not have such an impact as Sandy. Sea levels are gradually rising and will likely do so at a faster rate now and into the future. This Sandy is a game changer and is causing a "massive reordering of priorities."
In reading the NY Times last weekend I was struck with how much of the paper was focusing on the ideas for infrastructure changes in and around NYC to protect the City "before next time". New mossy wetlands strapped like a beard across lower Manhattan's chin would help to mitigate storm surge; oyster beds in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, not only to clean the waters but to protect the shoreline, and a huge storm-surge barrier across the Arthur Kill channel between Staten Island and NJ are some of the ideas proposed.
Some scientists have been working behind the scenes. According to the Times, there was a conference in March 2009 at NYU's Polytechnic Institute called "Against the Deluge: Storm Surge Barriers to Protect NYC". There was one journalist and one paying exhibitor. In the reporters words: "It had the sad air of what was then an entirely lost cause". But no longer...
From an astrological perspective we must go back to Pluto and Uranus. Those two planets symbolically represent innovative changes (Uranus) in our lives that affect lots of people (Pluto); transformational experiences which suddenly (Uranus) affect us so that our perspective shifts, we think of new solutions and take different actions. Events that cause sudden changes in perspective are the "new normal" now. There has been something brewing below the surface for a long time (Pluto) and then a sudden event (Uranus) occurs that ignites the unstable condition. This can happen in our personal lives obviously as well.
We can go back two years, December 17th to the desperate fruit peddlar, Mohamed Bouazizi, in Tunisia who lite himself on fire because he could no longer stand the injustice of the system. The act of one man spread to Egypt, the whole Middle East and eventually across the globe, starting the Occupy Movement, because the time is right. These events are outer manifestations of the geometric pattern Uranus and Pluto are making. NYC's birth chart is strongly affected by these two planets. But you do not need an astrologer to tell you that. You can look at the news (if you have power) and see it. We are in these shifting times through March 2015. And they can make one quite nervous.
Adding to that we have planet Mercury apparently turning retrograde. Actually we are passing by Mercury in our orbit around the Sun. (Just as when you are in a faster train and a slower one passes next to you it appears that that train is moving backwards). The key is our perspective!!! Earth never goes retrograde.
Mercury rules communication and travel, writing, speaking, moving from place to place, contracting, negotiating, buying and selling, our thoughts, what we fill our head with and what we speak. During this time as Mercury is changing its orientation to the Sun, or going into the underworld to get new information from a mythological perspective, we can expect to feel stuck, that things have come to a standstill. We get caught in a mouse-in-the merry-go round internal dialogue which gets no where. Watch for it. Also be careful with what you sign and agree to. It might come back to haunt you.
This Mercury retrograde periods, as all others, affect some more than others depending on whether the position it is when it starts (6:04 PM tonight) apparently moving backwards, hits your natal chart significantly or not. There are easier Mercury retrograde times and harder more confusing ones. This is a confusing one. Mercury hates going at slow speed so that is why there are more problems.
There are good things to do now too. Everything with the words" re" at the start are recommended. It is not a bad time and not a time to be feared. It is a time to get caught up, to catch your breathe, to re think things. Everyone's life out here has slowed down at this Mercury station, power outages and now a gas shortage. The longer "shadow period" of this time began the 19th of October. If you need a change in perspective you will know it as NYC knows it.
This is the first time this has happened on Election Day. Mercury was making a station but turning direct, that is leaving the backward time on Election Day in 2000. It did take 3 weeks or so to get the results of that election. Mercury was also in the middle of its retrograde period in the election of 1960 with Kennedy and Nixon which was very close and we did not have the results right away.
Most astrologers are saying that this Mercury retrograde could affect the election today by not having a clear winner after the polls close. But one can also say that Sandy and all the chaos it has caused, with the threat of another coastal Northeaster tomorrow, has already manifested the predicted chaos, confusion, stalling and delaying inherent with the combination of Election Day and a Mercury station retrograde day. But it has never happened before so we have nothing to go by. So much of life is like that these days.
In any event Saturday the 17th brings Mercury and the Sun together and the hardest part of this period is over. The new information that we needed that was hidden from view has surfaced.
Stay tuned for next time when we talk about the Scorpio Solar Eclipse New Moon on the 13th.....
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
View After the Storm
Life looks differently today than it did last Friday when I was sitting in the audience at Lincoln Center listening to the NY Philharmonic and Mahler's First Symphony. I was struck then by the awesome level of mastery that that composer and those musicians had achieved in order to play that complicated music with so much emotion that it brought me to my feet with tears in my eyes. Listening to their level of achievement, gained through hard effort and discipline over a long period of time, is where Saturn comes in.
Taking the time and patience to become a master at something is under planet Saturn's dominion. The area of our expertise depends on what sign our Saturn is in at birth. This hard sought expertise is pointed out to us in the beginning of our lives by a complete sense of anxiety, insecurity, fear, dread and procrastination about those very same things that in the second part of our lives we gain proficiency in, as Saturn rules time. Whatever it is we are afraid of doing is most probably the doorway that we must walk through, if we are to feel towards the end of our lives, that we lived a successful life.
Saturn, in its orbit around the Sun, moved in front of zodiacal sign Scorpio October 5th. The planet will be there for 2 1/2 years. All those born the first 5 months of 1983 and September 1983 through November 1985 are having a return of Saturn to its natal place as it takes Saturn around 29 1/2 years to orbit around the Sun. Those persons born in the previous cycle with Saturn in Scorpio have birthdays between October 1953 through January 1956 and May 1956 through mid October 1956 when the planet went into Sagittarius. There will be a repetition of events now in the next 2 1/2 years for all those persons born in the above mentioned time zones. (There will also be rebounding affects at the cross quarters, those born 7, 14 and 21 years inside this larger 29 1/2 year cycle-another topic for another time.)
The next 2 1/2 years is the time period to get crystal clear about our expertise which will: be discovered for the first time, will experience growing pains in, will have to make a deeper commitment to, will have to overcome our fear of, and end our procrastination with in order to feel a sense of achievement. Why? Because when one person makes the effort through hard work and is noticed by another it stirs that one to do the same. Achieving inner satisfaction with a sense of self worth is very satisfying, which then allows you to give back to others from a place of wholeness and completion.
So what will those with Saturn in Scorpio become proficient in? Because astrological symbolism is as complex as human nature is, the mastery will/can be on many different levels: emotional self control, or lack of it, emotional independence or dependence; crisis management; penetrating investigation; transformational experiences, whether in the mind, body, or spirit; business acumen and management; money matters, especially monies that come from everyplace else other that what we have earned, that is inheritances, insurance, investments, wills, monies that we have together with a spouse; affairs of the dead, as in psychics and mediums; mysticism and the occult; detective work on any level whether it be a researcher, scientist, inspector or doctor. Scorpio loves secrets and getting to the bottom of things. Once set on a path they have an amazing level of endurance and forbearance, overcoming obstacles that would foil others.
I am also thinking about NYC at this time as having Libra rising, Scorpio is on the cusp of the 2nd house of money, possessions, tangible objects owned, resources. (5 boroughs incorporated January 1, 1898 12:01 AM.) The city in experiencing this level of devastation is having a Scorpionic experience and will over the course of these next years become masters at moving from total destruction and annihilation to resurgence and renewal. Money will have to be spent on infrastructure and with Saturn in the house of money it feels like there is none to do it. But with Pluto moving across their Capricorn Sun at the same time there is no limit to the possibilities.
Taking the time and patience to become a master at something is under planet Saturn's dominion. The area of our expertise depends on what sign our Saturn is in at birth. This hard sought expertise is pointed out to us in the beginning of our lives by a complete sense of anxiety, insecurity, fear, dread and procrastination about those very same things that in the second part of our lives we gain proficiency in, as Saturn rules time. Whatever it is we are afraid of doing is most probably the doorway that we must walk through, if we are to feel towards the end of our lives, that we lived a successful life.
Saturn, in its orbit around the Sun, moved in front of zodiacal sign Scorpio October 5th. The planet will be there for 2 1/2 years. All those born the first 5 months of 1983 and September 1983 through November 1985 are having a return of Saturn to its natal place as it takes Saturn around 29 1/2 years to orbit around the Sun. Those persons born in the previous cycle with Saturn in Scorpio have birthdays between October 1953 through January 1956 and May 1956 through mid October 1956 when the planet went into Sagittarius. There will be a repetition of events now in the next 2 1/2 years for all those persons born in the above mentioned time zones. (There will also be rebounding affects at the cross quarters, those born 7, 14 and 21 years inside this larger 29 1/2 year cycle-another topic for another time.)
The next 2 1/2 years is the time period to get crystal clear about our expertise which will: be discovered for the first time, will experience growing pains in, will have to make a deeper commitment to, will have to overcome our fear of, and end our procrastination with in order to feel a sense of achievement. Why? Because when one person makes the effort through hard work and is noticed by another it stirs that one to do the same. Achieving inner satisfaction with a sense of self worth is very satisfying, which then allows you to give back to others from a place of wholeness and completion.
So what will those with Saturn in Scorpio become proficient in? Because astrological symbolism is as complex as human nature is, the mastery will/can be on many different levels: emotional self control, or lack of it, emotional independence or dependence; crisis management; penetrating investigation; transformational experiences, whether in the mind, body, or spirit; business acumen and management; money matters, especially monies that come from everyplace else other that what we have earned, that is inheritances, insurance, investments, wills, monies that we have together with a spouse; affairs of the dead, as in psychics and mediums; mysticism and the occult; detective work on any level whether it be a researcher, scientist, inspector or doctor. Scorpio loves secrets and getting to the bottom of things. Once set on a path they have an amazing level of endurance and forbearance, overcoming obstacles that would foil others.
I am also thinking about NYC at this time as having Libra rising, Scorpio is on the cusp of the 2nd house of money, possessions, tangible objects owned, resources. (5 boroughs incorporated January 1, 1898 12:01 AM.) The city in experiencing this level of devastation is having a Scorpionic experience and will over the course of these next years become masters at moving from total destruction and annihilation to resurgence and renewal. Money will have to be spent on infrastructure and with Saturn in the house of money it feels like there is none to do it. But with Pluto moving across their Capricorn Sun at the same time there is no limit to the possibilities.
Monday, October 15, 2012
As Promised Saturn in Scorpio
A promise given while Saturn is in Scorpio must be kept or there will be retribution to pay. Saturn symbolizes our commitments, responsibilities, duties, necessities, burdens, right and wrong, boundaries, the law, the workings of fate, our capacity for discipline and duty, consequences of past action, and what we manifest. Scorpio the fixed water sign (think deep intense emotion) coincides with Autumn and the Fall-when the natural world around us dies. Do things really die or do they just transform? Leaves turn from green to yellow, red and gold and fall off the tree, get ground down into the soil to feed the tree silently from underneath so that there can be a renewal in the Spring. Life is a continuing process of birth and death, waking and sleeping, no thing or no one of us escapes.
Scorpio rules serpents and scorpions, all that crawls along the ground and hides in dark places. A scorpion is the only animal that can kill itself with its own tail. Our common human creation story has the serpent tempting Eve with an apple and the subsequent "fall" of humankind. Yet the eagle is also the totem for Scorpio-the eagle that flies so high and has such keen vision but is also capable of taking its prey quickly and fatally. Scorpios are represented by the two extremes of the scorpion and the eagle. They often do battle with different sides of themselves as their ruler is Mars, who wants passionate movement and action, and in Scorpio, control and power.
No preparation can be more helpful for the next 2 1/2 years than a re-reading of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The book is about a journey and when Saturn enters a sign a new journey starts for each of us; we have to walk through a threshold when Saturn enters a new sign. The trilogy begins at Bilbo and Frodo's shared birthday party September 22nd, as the Sun moves into Libra the sign of relationships and companionship. As the Hobbits meet the rest of their traveling companions in the first book, one of the themes is what it means to be part of an inclusive fellowship, with its compromises. A common goal binds them together. This is all very Libran.
But with the death of Boromir, the fellowship breaks up and 4 separate factions trudge on, each meeting intense trials and dangers, facing their greatest fears, having to endure beyond what can seem to be humanely (or Hobbitly) possible to achieve the goal of destroying the ring. No character is the same at the end of the story as they were in the beginning, or where they came in. This most certainly was their and is our Scorpio time, when intense focused effort, whether for good or ill, is in our control. We, like the fellowship, must draw on the hidden depths of reserve energy to endure and press on-never giving up no matter where it takes us. It is the passionate commitment to a goal that counts, with countless life and death struggles along the way.
As Scorpio rules the mysteries of life, death, sex, goods of the dead, taxes, inheritances, wills, monies owed, debt, loans, business monies, insurances, the procreative act, passions, things hidden either in our minds or bodies, spiritual and psychological release, jealousy, revenge, undercover work and Saturn becomes a "reality check", we will see the effects of what we have done (or not done) in all the above affairs. Saturn demands accountability and in Scorpio this is not a superficial glance, but a deeply probing intense look at any area of your life that perhaps you wanted to keep a secret. Scorpio loves secrets and if you are hiding something that needs to be brought out to the light, the next 2 1/2 years will bring it to the surface. Or if you are controlling someone or something that does not belong to you the consequences of that fixation will be manifest. It is in the letting go of the obsession that the redemption is found.
Because Scorpio has the most range of any sign (remember the serpent and the eagle) they have the capacity to dwell in a dark, depressing solitary place for a time but when the pain expiates, they can recover, come above ground, heal the wound by exposing it and soar above the earth gaining a wider perspective. There is embodied in Scorpio the need to journey down into the underworld, to uncover a buried burden or secret that is waiting to get exposed to the light, purified, transformed and released. This could bring an intense relationship into your life if it is passing into your 7th house, or a thorough cleaning out of the basement or project to uncover your family genealogy if it is going into your 4th house of the home and family. We all have Scorpio governing some area of our life. The thorough house cleaning will be true for you in the area of your life where you have Scorpio on the cusp.
The last time Saturn was in Scorpio was December 1982-May 1983, then again August 1983 until mid November 1985. The time we are in now corresponds to December 1982 and August/ September 1983, just at the beginning of the transit. Looking back on that time and reflecting what your outer world looked like, will give you a hint of where Saturn will be focusing this time. If something significant started for you in your life, then you know that Scorpio is on an angle in your chart and Saturn crossing an angle means home affairs, partnership concerns, career endings or beginnings, or to a new round of personal growth is in store for you the next few years (and sometimes all 4 areas at the same time).
Planets cycle around the Sun; every 29 1/2 years Saturn makes a complete cycle. If there were lessons from 1982-85 that we did not completely catch, personal growth that we did not complete we now get another chance to finish. Living until 90 gives us only 3 times Saturn will be in Scorpio in our lives. Saturn rules old age, time and the harvest. Saturn is hard on youth because often we do not take ourselves seriously,or act responsibly. For a successful life, as we age, we grow into accepting who we are; Saturn brings a sense of security.
Hopefully the gains you have made as Saturn was in Libra, the sign previously, can be solidified into personal financial gains now, maybe starting a new business, or at least a reckoning that allows the truth of your financial situation to come to light. These past few years Saturn was in Venus sign, we learned what we did and did not like in relationships, we learned balance and fairness, what we loved to do, we beautified our lives. Now that Saturn is in Mars' sign our actions will be the focus. Is our work truly and deeply meaningful to us? What do we really desire? Can we let go of any obstacles that are getting in the way of the realization of our dream? Can we cut out of our life that which has finished its useful life?
Fearlessly acknowledging the facts is what Saturn wants. He ruled the "Golden Age"in Greek mythology when all was right with the world. Peace, prosperity, harmony and stability prevailed. No one worked and all was provided by the abundance of the earth. No sickness, suffering or aging occurred. Everybody was responsible and acted in accord with the common good, not their own selfish interests. We could do with a bit more of that these days.
Scorpio rules serpents and scorpions, all that crawls along the ground and hides in dark places. A scorpion is the only animal that can kill itself with its own tail. Our common human creation story has the serpent tempting Eve with an apple and the subsequent "fall" of humankind. Yet the eagle is also the totem for Scorpio-the eagle that flies so high and has such keen vision but is also capable of taking its prey quickly and fatally. Scorpios are represented by the two extremes of the scorpion and the eagle. They often do battle with different sides of themselves as their ruler is Mars, who wants passionate movement and action, and in Scorpio, control and power.
No preparation can be more helpful for the next 2 1/2 years than a re-reading of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The book is about a journey and when Saturn enters a sign a new journey starts for each of us; we have to walk through a threshold when Saturn enters a new sign. The trilogy begins at Bilbo and Frodo's shared birthday party September 22nd, as the Sun moves into Libra the sign of relationships and companionship. As the Hobbits meet the rest of their traveling companions in the first book, one of the themes is what it means to be part of an inclusive fellowship, with its compromises. A common goal binds them together. This is all very Libran.
But with the death of Boromir, the fellowship breaks up and 4 separate factions trudge on, each meeting intense trials and dangers, facing their greatest fears, having to endure beyond what can seem to be humanely (or Hobbitly) possible to achieve the goal of destroying the ring. No character is the same at the end of the story as they were in the beginning, or where they came in. This most certainly was their and is our Scorpio time, when intense focused effort, whether for good or ill, is in our control. We, like the fellowship, must draw on the hidden depths of reserve energy to endure and press on-never giving up no matter where it takes us. It is the passionate commitment to a goal that counts, with countless life and death struggles along the way.
As Scorpio rules the mysteries of life, death, sex, goods of the dead, taxes, inheritances, wills, monies owed, debt, loans, business monies, insurances, the procreative act, passions, things hidden either in our minds or bodies, spiritual and psychological release, jealousy, revenge, undercover work and Saturn becomes a "reality check", we will see the effects of what we have done (or not done) in all the above affairs. Saturn demands accountability and in Scorpio this is not a superficial glance, but a deeply probing intense look at any area of your life that perhaps you wanted to keep a secret. Scorpio loves secrets and if you are hiding something that needs to be brought out to the light, the next 2 1/2 years will bring it to the surface. Or if you are controlling someone or something that does not belong to you the consequences of that fixation will be manifest. It is in the letting go of the obsession that the redemption is found.
Because Scorpio has the most range of any sign (remember the serpent and the eagle) they have the capacity to dwell in a dark, depressing solitary place for a time but when the pain expiates, they can recover, come above ground, heal the wound by exposing it and soar above the earth gaining a wider perspective. There is embodied in Scorpio the need to journey down into the underworld, to uncover a buried burden or secret that is waiting to get exposed to the light, purified, transformed and released. This could bring an intense relationship into your life if it is passing into your 7th house, or a thorough cleaning out of the basement or project to uncover your family genealogy if it is going into your 4th house of the home and family. We all have Scorpio governing some area of our life. The thorough house cleaning will be true for you in the area of your life where you have Scorpio on the cusp.
The last time Saturn was in Scorpio was December 1982-May 1983, then again August 1983 until mid November 1985. The time we are in now corresponds to December 1982 and August/ September 1983, just at the beginning of the transit. Looking back on that time and reflecting what your outer world looked like, will give you a hint of where Saturn will be focusing this time. If something significant started for you in your life, then you know that Scorpio is on an angle in your chart and Saturn crossing an angle means home affairs, partnership concerns, career endings or beginnings, or to a new round of personal growth is in store for you the next few years (and sometimes all 4 areas at the same time).
Planets cycle around the Sun; every 29 1/2 years Saturn makes a complete cycle. If there were lessons from 1982-85 that we did not completely catch, personal growth that we did not complete we now get another chance to finish. Living until 90 gives us only 3 times Saturn will be in Scorpio in our lives. Saturn rules old age, time and the harvest. Saturn is hard on youth because often we do not take ourselves seriously,or act responsibly. For a successful life, as we age, we grow into accepting who we are; Saturn brings a sense of security.
Hopefully the gains you have made as Saturn was in Libra, the sign previously, can be solidified into personal financial gains now, maybe starting a new business, or at least a reckoning that allows the truth of your financial situation to come to light. These past few years Saturn was in Venus sign, we learned what we did and did not like in relationships, we learned balance and fairness, what we loved to do, we beautified our lives. Now that Saturn is in Mars' sign our actions will be the focus. Is our work truly and deeply meaningful to us? What do we really desire? Can we let go of any obstacles that are getting in the way of the realization of our dream? Can we cut out of our life that which has finished its useful life?
Fearlessly acknowledging the facts is what Saturn wants. He ruled the "Golden Age"in Greek mythology when all was right with the world. Peace, prosperity, harmony and stability prevailed. No one worked and all was provided by the abundance of the earth. No sickness, suffering or aging occurred. Everybody was responsible and acted in accord with the common good, not their own selfish interests. We could do with a bit more of that these days.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
About a Jittery Equinox
Since the Equinox Saturday September 22nd, I don't know about you, but I have been very nervous. The Sun changed signs at 10:49 AM EDT into Libra as we officially moved into Autumn. This was just 3 days after the 2nd of 7 Uranus /Pluto squares that all astrologers are talking about. Uranus is sudden and Pluto is power-so shifts are occurring everywhere. Someone sent me photos of rebellions and demonstrations happening that week in: Egypt, Syria, Barcelona and Madrid Spain, England, Germany, Turkey, Mexico, Italy, the US, Athens Greece, Canada, Moscow, Palestine, Porto Portugal and Israel. That is quite a line up.
But no worries it has happened before. Between 1845-56, as Uranus and Pluto were also in aspect there were upheavals in almost every capital in Europe (specifically 1848-9): Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Dresden, Baden, Rome, and Milan. Literature was revolutionary as well. Marx and Engels wrote "The Communist Manifesto"; David Thoreau wrote "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience". Social justice issues arose with Frederick Douglas and Harriet Taubman leading anti-slavery efforts and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony with the beginnings of the women's movement. (read Richard Tarnas' "Cosmos and Psyche" for more details.)
We are not living through the most important or most significant of revolutionary upheavals as we sometimes think. (Or if we are who can call it?) An argument can be made, however, that with the ending of the Mayan calendar and the threat of our extinction due to environmental factors there is an overlay on top of the periodic rearrangement of the social order, which makes it appear and feel like we are in uniquely desperate circumstances. There is much that seems out of order and out of balance, almost everywhere you look. It is more important than ever to find and maintain an inner personal calm and tranquility.
It came to me this week that being an astrologer and knowing where the planets are is both a boon and a curse. Astrologers are aware that as planets change signs they change houses or areas in our life that get affected with the transition. My nervousness comes in part as a result of this heightened expectancy; then too I can assign a reason for my jittery nerves, which duty tells me I need to share.
My nervousness these past few weeks as we have passed through the time of the Harvest Full Moon last Saturday as the Sun and Moon connected with those 2 outer planets that shake things up (especially for those of us that have planets at 7-8 degrees of the cardinal signs -those signs that initiate the seasons), is palatable. Now we arrive to this week and a long lineup of planetary changes.
Today Wednesday, planet Venus moved into Virgo-all you Libras and Taurus take note-no more free time- time now to put nose to the grindstone; tomorrow planet Jupiter makes a station in Gemini going retrograde until the end of January-expansion now comes from the inner work on your thinking; Friday the 5th is a biggie both Mercury and Saturn move into Scorpio. Mercury routinely stays in a sign for a month-but Father Saturn for 2 1/2 years. So the pressure of the last 2 1/2 years is off all you Libras-having done the relationship work and taken on more responsibility you get a break; now Scorpios are in for the wringer-Sun sign Scorpios or rising sign people-get a grip and come out with integrity. ( I will write about that very significant change in the next blog.)
The week is not over either as Mars moves into Sagittarius at 11:21 PM EDT Saturday the 6th. If you have Sagittarius rising you need to be careful of getting into arguments or exerting yourself too much. This might well be the week that "was". As a planet enters a new sign and new residency in your natal chart for their particular cycle, be it a month or 2 1/2 years, there is often an event that puts you on alert that affairs of that house are going to be shaken up. Hence my nervousness-with so many planetary sign changes in so many different areas of life it feels like everything in our lives is breaking open/up. More to follow...
But no worries it has happened before. Between 1845-56, as Uranus and Pluto were also in aspect there were upheavals in almost every capital in Europe (specifically 1848-9): Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Dresden, Baden, Rome, and Milan. Literature was revolutionary as well. Marx and Engels wrote "The Communist Manifesto"; David Thoreau wrote "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience". Social justice issues arose with Frederick Douglas and Harriet Taubman leading anti-slavery efforts and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony with the beginnings of the women's movement. (read Richard Tarnas' "Cosmos and Psyche" for more details.)
We are not living through the most important or most significant of revolutionary upheavals as we sometimes think. (Or if we are who can call it?) An argument can be made, however, that with the ending of the Mayan calendar and the threat of our extinction due to environmental factors there is an overlay on top of the periodic rearrangement of the social order, which makes it appear and feel like we are in uniquely desperate circumstances. There is much that seems out of order and out of balance, almost everywhere you look. It is more important than ever to find and maintain an inner personal calm and tranquility.
It came to me this week that being an astrologer and knowing where the planets are is both a boon and a curse. Astrologers are aware that as planets change signs they change houses or areas in our life that get affected with the transition. My nervousness comes in part as a result of this heightened expectancy; then too I can assign a reason for my jittery nerves, which duty tells me I need to share.
My nervousness these past few weeks as we have passed through the time of the Harvest Full Moon last Saturday as the Sun and Moon connected with those 2 outer planets that shake things up (especially for those of us that have planets at 7-8 degrees of the cardinal signs -those signs that initiate the seasons), is palatable. Now we arrive to this week and a long lineup of planetary changes.
Today Wednesday, planet Venus moved into Virgo-all you Libras and Taurus take note-no more free time- time now to put nose to the grindstone; tomorrow planet Jupiter makes a station in Gemini going retrograde until the end of January-expansion now comes from the inner work on your thinking; Friday the 5th is a biggie both Mercury and Saturn move into Scorpio. Mercury routinely stays in a sign for a month-but Father Saturn for 2 1/2 years. So the pressure of the last 2 1/2 years is off all you Libras-having done the relationship work and taken on more responsibility you get a break; now Scorpios are in for the wringer-Sun sign Scorpios or rising sign people-get a grip and come out with integrity. ( I will write about that very significant change in the next blog.)
The week is not over either as Mars moves into Sagittarius at 11:21 PM EDT Saturday the 6th. If you have Sagittarius rising you need to be careful of getting into arguments or exerting yourself too much. This might well be the week that "was". As a planet enters a new sign and new residency in your natal chart for their particular cycle, be it a month or 2 1/2 years, there is often an event that puts you on alert that affairs of that house are going to be shaken up. Hence my nervousness-with so many planetary sign changes in so many different areas of life it feels like everything in our lives is breaking open/up. More to follow...
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Suffering, Surrender and Sacrifice
I was looking at Romney and Ryan's charts the other day and noticing that they both are under Neptune's spell. A few pieces of literature contributed to my deepening understanding of what that could mean. I was listening in the car to a recording of J.R.R, Tolkien's Return of the King and was struck by the phrase "suffer himself to be led". Here is Gandalf's 's horse Shadowfax, this great and noble stallion who allows no bit, bridle or saddle and few riders, who'd just taken the wizard at lightening speed to the Citadel at Minas Tirith; "suffered himself to be led away at the soft word of his master." This supreme act of sacrifice is met with the humility of being led away.
In the beginning of Portrait of a Lady, Henry James writes of his heroine, Isabel Archer and her cousin speaking about suffering. She says; "It's not absolutely necessary to suffer; we were not made for that". And later: "Only if you do not suffer they call you hard." What is it about suffering that softens us? Does compassion arise from suffering? Is that what is wrong with Romney and Ryan? They do not appear to have suffered much?
And in Mark's gospel Chapter 8 verses 27-38, Jesus asks the apostles and then Peter, "Who do you say I am?' Peter answers "The Messiah". Jesus cautions them not to tell anybody. Then Jesus begins to teach them quite directly that He will suffer, be rejected by the elders, be killed and rise from the dead 3 days later. 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?' What does it mean to gain your life by losing it? Does losing life imply surrendering the ego?
Suffering, surrender and sacrifice are in Neptune's realm. Romney and Ryan both are, at present, having planet Neptune transiting over their ascendants. The ascendant sign is about who we are, our approach to life, the personality we show others, how we see our place in the world, how other people see us, the mask we wear. It is the window through which we see the world and dictates how we go about fulfilling the rest of the planets in the chart. With Neptune sitting there neither man can be seeing very clearly, nor can they be seen very clearly.
Paul Ryan has Neptune rising on his natal ascendant at 0 degrees of Sagittarius. He is getting a double dose of the dissolver of boundaries as Neptune is sometimes called. Romney has one degree of Gemini rising, with ruler Mercury in Pisces, Neptune's sign. Both men are heavily influenced by the current transit of Neptune coloring the way they see the world, and will be for many more months. Their words and actions speak to its influence. Neptune is not only where we suffer or surrender or sacrifice, but also where we are in denial, are ambiguous, deceitful, where our imaginations have gotten away from us, where and what we are addicted to, where we sacrifice and for what. What are they surrendering too? Is it their egos? Or is it to a higher calling-one of service to a Higher Power where the ego gratification of the personal self dissolves into acting for the greater good and being able to see the whole picture.
If there has been one major theme in the Republican party's attempt to win in November, it is that they are vague on their platform, what they would do if elected to office to solve America's problems. This theme has carried on since the convention with the "weird" scene with Eastwood talking to an invisible Obama, the gaff when the Syrian Ambassador was tragically killed and just recently with the secretly obtained talk Romney gave at a high-end fund raiser where he clearly states he wants to be President of the "haves" not the "have-nots". Romney's position that 47% of the people do not pay taxes because they want to be taken care of and like their role as victims seems to say that some people are "better" than others.
Neptune has been at 1 degree Pisces from mid-August and will apparently move back to 0 degrees September 23rd, stationing there on November 11th. Neptune remains at the 0-1 degree mark through January 2013. That means that on election day, November 6th, Neptune will be the major influence in their lives. I doubt whether any clarity will come forth from either candidate now or then unless they get clear within themselves who they are representing-all the factions of American society, for not just those like themselves. Neptune will form a cloud over both men and either they cannot tell that they are lying or we are fooled by them or they are sacrificing themselves. Maybe they really do not want to win. If they have no solutions to offer, why would anyone want those jobs? They are in Neptune's dream.
If there is one lesson to note here it is that it is easy to kid yourself and delude others if you are not able to transcend the physical and look at things from a divine perspective. That is Neptune's kingdom. Neptune asks us to dissolve our egos by letting go of attitudes, habits, belief systems and words that separate us from one another. Neptune demands inclusiveness, it abhors boundaries. The boundaries we have put up to separate us from each other either by race, gender, age, sexual preference, religion, walls, gates, faiths, language, social class, income status, must be broken down. Unless Romney and Ryan can understand that we are all in this together, they have not risen to their Neptune's higher calling and will be mired in the confusion that comes from not seeing the community of man in its entirety.
In the beginning of Portrait of a Lady, Henry James writes of his heroine, Isabel Archer and her cousin speaking about suffering. She says; "It's not absolutely necessary to suffer; we were not made for that". And later: "Only if you do not suffer they call you hard." What is it about suffering that softens us? Does compassion arise from suffering? Is that what is wrong with Romney and Ryan? They do not appear to have suffered much?
And in Mark's gospel Chapter 8 verses 27-38, Jesus asks the apostles and then Peter, "Who do you say I am?' Peter answers "The Messiah". Jesus cautions them not to tell anybody. Then Jesus begins to teach them quite directly that He will suffer, be rejected by the elders, be killed and rise from the dead 3 days later. 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?' What does it mean to gain your life by losing it? Does losing life imply surrendering the ego?
Suffering, surrender and sacrifice are in Neptune's realm. Romney and Ryan both are, at present, having planet Neptune transiting over their ascendants. The ascendant sign is about who we are, our approach to life, the personality we show others, how we see our place in the world, how other people see us, the mask we wear. It is the window through which we see the world and dictates how we go about fulfilling the rest of the planets in the chart. With Neptune sitting there neither man can be seeing very clearly, nor can they be seen very clearly.
Paul Ryan has Neptune rising on his natal ascendant at 0 degrees of Sagittarius. He is getting a double dose of the dissolver of boundaries as Neptune is sometimes called. Romney has one degree of Gemini rising, with ruler Mercury in Pisces, Neptune's sign. Both men are heavily influenced by the current transit of Neptune coloring the way they see the world, and will be for many more months. Their words and actions speak to its influence. Neptune is not only where we suffer or surrender or sacrifice, but also where we are in denial, are ambiguous, deceitful, where our imaginations have gotten away from us, where and what we are addicted to, where we sacrifice and for what. What are they surrendering too? Is it their egos? Or is it to a higher calling-one of service to a Higher Power where the ego gratification of the personal self dissolves into acting for the greater good and being able to see the whole picture.
If there has been one major theme in the Republican party's attempt to win in November, it is that they are vague on their platform, what they would do if elected to office to solve America's problems. This theme has carried on since the convention with the "weird" scene with Eastwood talking to an invisible Obama, the gaff when the Syrian Ambassador was tragically killed and just recently with the secretly obtained talk Romney gave at a high-end fund raiser where he clearly states he wants to be President of the "haves" not the "have-nots". Romney's position that 47% of the people do not pay taxes because they want to be taken care of and like their role as victims seems to say that some people are "better" than others.
Neptune has been at 1 degree Pisces from mid-August and will apparently move back to 0 degrees September 23rd, stationing there on November 11th. Neptune remains at the 0-1 degree mark through January 2013. That means that on election day, November 6th, Neptune will be the major influence in their lives. I doubt whether any clarity will come forth from either candidate now or then unless they get clear within themselves who they are representing-all the factions of American society, for not just those like themselves. Neptune will form a cloud over both men and either they cannot tell that they are lying or we are fooled by them or they are sacrificing themselves. Maybe they really do not want to win. If they have no solutions to offer, why would anyone want those jobs? They are in Neptune's dream.
If there is one lesson to note here it is that it is easy to kid yourself and delude others if you are not able to transcend the physical and look at things from a divine perspective. That is Neptune's kingdom. Neptune asks us to dissolve our egos by letting go of attitudes, habits, belief systems and words that separate us from one another. Neptune demands inclusiveness, it abhors boundaries. The boundaries we have put up to separate us from each other either by race, gender, age, sexual preference, religion, walls, gates, faiths, language, social class, income status, must be broken down. Unless Romney and Ryan can understand that we are all in this together, they have not risen to their Neptune's higher calling and will be mired in the confusion that comes from not seeing the community of man in its entirety.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Epochs of Revolution
I took the title of this blog from Richard Tarnas' book Psyche and Cosmos. Each chapter is devoted to a pair of outer planets that periodically form geometric patterns in the sky. Tarnas writes about what synchronistically unfolded in the social, political, cultural, literary and scientific affairs in the western world at the same time. Uranus and Pluto is the pair we are focusing on with these days. Uranus coincides with sudden awakenings and Pluto with revolutionary uprisings and shifts in power that affect large numbers of people.This current alignment of these 2 has been in orb of influence since 2007 and will be until 2020.
Epochs of revolution have beginnings at the conjunction or apparent merging of the two bodies (think monthly New Moons when the Sun and Moon are together). At that time a new concept of what counts as truth is formed. The last time Uranus and Pluto were together was 1960-1972, most intensely exact between 1965-6. Approximately 40 years later the opening 90 degree square forms between the same 2 planets. That is when the seeds formed in 1965 have to be modified or redefined. One example of this is Medicare, enacted in 1965 and now by the agreement of all parties needs modification.
Certainly the polarity of the platforms held by the democrats and republicans in the current election is an example of this country (and many others) at a crisis point. Are going to go backwards from the progressive movement started in the 60's and undo those reforms in social policy made then, or are we going to strengthen and expand those initiatives? We are at a crossroads; voting for one side or the other will have a decided effect on our lives. The crossroads coincide with the opening square of Uranus and Pluto. Our change in perspective as to who we are, our place in and responsibility for the world we live in has to take a more defined form. There is a great deal of tension surrounding these shifts as there are many who are incapable of seeing the world differently than they have known it to be and hang on for dear life.
We are speaking of it today for two reasons. One is that becoming conscious of the second of seven exact 90 degree opening squares between Uranus and Pluto (through March 2015), occurring on the 18th of this month, will help us navigate our way ahead; and secondly I was inspired to write about a prime mover of another epoch of revolution as I heard Dava Sobel at Ross School speak about her latest book and play centered on Copernicus (1473-1543).
Copernicus was one of those highly educated persons whose intuitive and reasoned insights changed the way we thought of ourselves and our place in the universe. As Tarnas says: "The nature of the Copernican revolution was so fundamental that what had to be rethought was not only all the conventional scientific theories but the entire hierarchy of humanity's place in the universal scheme of things: its relation to the rest of nature and to the cosmos, its relation to the divine, the basis for its morality, its capacity for certain knowledge, its historical self-understanding."
The beginning of what was to become know as the Copernican revolution was at the conjunction of Pluto and Uranus that occurred during the years 1450-1461. Uranus and Pluto conjunctions form once approximately every 100-150 years and usher in periods of cultural and political upheaval. Guttenberg developed the movable-type printing press during the conjunction years, which was the necessary prerequisite for the Reformation, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment as new ideas could spread through printed materials. Copernicus was at Krakow University 1491-95 studying, among other things cosmology (not called that then of course) during the same opening square of Uranus and Pluto that we are experiencing now.
The publication of Copernicus' book did not occur until 1543 when Uranus and Pluto had come 180 degrees to each other and the fulfillment of the promise inherent in the coupling of the same 2 planets 100 years before. Copernicus knew that what he was proposing: that the earth moved around the Sun and also on its axis was revolutionary, upsetting thousand of years of unquestionable belief that the earth stood still. It was not until 50 years later when Kepler and Galileo made their mathematical calculations and planetary observations with the telescope that confirmed the heliocentric theory and the Scientific Revolution was advanced forward.
The next few years we will live through are the 1/2 way point between the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto 1960-72 and their coming 180 away from each other in the 2040's. We now need another Copernican Revolution as upsetting to the status quo as his theory was then. A revolution in rethinking humanity's place in the universal scheme of things, the consequences of our actions on our planet and towards each other, our morality and self understanding.
I heard Tim Bishop speak yesterday, incumbent in Congress running a race with a right-wing opponent whose policies, speak to holding on for dear life to the life they have made for themselves with those like themselves. Bishop said this election was a confirming or defining one. We voted "hope and change" with Obama in in 2008 but we need another election cycle, this one, to confirm we are set on the path chosen then, or do we want to regress backwards? We are at a turning point and the second square of Uranus and Pluto (with Pluto stationing direct-extra powerful) exact again on the 18th and close to the equinox on the 22nd will not go unnoticed. Are we able to move forward and free ourselves from old ways of seeing things or are we in denial of the realities in front of us?
Epochs of revolution have beginnings at the conjunction or apparent merging of the two bodies (think monthly New Moons when the Sun and Moon are together). At that time a new concept of what counts as truth is formed. The last time Uranus and Pluto were together was 1960-1972, most intensely exact between 1965-6. Approximately 40 years later the opening 90 degree square forms between the same 2 planets. That is when the seeds formed in 1965 have to be modified or redefined. One example of this is Medicare, enacted in 1965 and now by the agreement of all parties needs modification.
Certainly the polarity of the platforms held by the democrats and republicans in the current election is an example of this country (and many others) at a crisis point. Are going to go backwards from the progressive movement started in the 60's and undo those reforms in social policy made then, or are we going to strengthen and expand those initiatives? We are at a crossroads; voting for one side or the other will have a decided effect on our lives. The crossroads coincide with the opening square of Uranus and Pluto. Our change in perspective as to who we are, our place in and responsibility for the world we live in has to take a more defined form. There is a great deal of tension surrounding these shifts as there are many who are incapable of seeing the world differently than they have known it to be and hang on for dear life.
We are speaking of it today for two reasons. One is that becoming conscious of the second of seven exact 90 degree opening squares between Uranus and Pluto (through March 2015), occurring on the 18th of this month, will help us navigate our way ahead; and secondly I was inspired to write about a prime mover of another epoch of revolution as I heard Dava Sobel at Ross School speak about her latest book and play centered on Copernicus (1473-1543).
Copernicus was one of those highly educated persons whose intuitive and reasoned insights changed the way we thought of ourselves and our place in the universe. As Tarnas says: "The nature of the Copernican revolution was so fundamental that what had to be rethought was not only all the conventional scientific theories but the entire hierarchy of humanity's place in the universal scheme of things: its relation to the rest of nature and to the cosmos, its relation to the divine, the basis for its morality, its capacity for certain knowledge, its historical self-understanding."
The beginning of what was to become know as the Copernican revolution was at the conjunction of Pluto and Uranus that occurred during the years 1450-1461. Uranus and Pluto conjunctions form once approximately every 100-150 years and usher in periods of cultural and political upheaval. Guttenberg developed the movable-type printing press during the conjunction years, which was the necessary prerequisite for the Reformation, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment as new ideas could spread through printed materials. Copernicus was at Krakow University 1491-95 studying, among other things cosmology (not called that then of course) during the same opening square of Uranus and Pluto that we are experiencing now.
The publication of Copernicus' book did not occur until 1543 when Uranus and Pluto had come 180 degrees to each other and the fulfillment of the promise inherent in the coupling of the same 2 planets 100 years before. Copernicus knew that what he was proposing: that the earth moved around the Sun and also on its axis was revolutionary, upsetting thousand of years of unquestionable belief that the earth stood still. It was not until 50 years later when Kepler and Galileo made their mathematical calculations and planetary observations with the telescope that confirmed the heliocentric theory and the Scientific Revolution was advanced forward.
The next few years we will live through are the 1/2 way point between the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto 1960-72 and their coming 180 away from each other in the 2040's. We now need another Copernican Revolution as upsetting to the status quo as his theory was then. A revolution in rethinking humanity's place in the universal scheme of things, the consequences of our actions on our planet and towards each other, our morality and self understanding.
I heard Tim Bishop speak yesterday, incumbent in Congress running a race with a right-wing opponent whose policies, speak to holding on for dear life to the life they have made for themselves with those like themselves. Bishop said this election was a confirming or defining one. We voted "hope and change" with Obama in in 2008 but we need another election cycle, this one, to confirm we are set on the path chosen then, or do we want to regress backwards? We are at a turning point and the second square of Uranus and Pluto (with Pluto stationing direct-extra powerful) exact again on the 18th and close to the equinox on the 22nd will not go unnoticed. Are we able to move forward and free ourselves from old ways of seeing things or are we in denial of the realities in front of us?
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Checking In
It is right to acknowledge the passages that we humans go through as recorded by watching the stars and planets. Yesterday we had the Sun move into Virgo. Actually it is not the Sun that moves, as we know, but we who are passing in front of the part of space where Virgo roughly is. This passage coincides with each of us is transitioning our focus into a different area of our lives. Our new focus will last for the next month until the Sun apparently moves into Libra and the next area of life is highlighted.
Virgo is known for its being critical and judgmental of one's self and others But their theme is really about personal integrity. So if for instance, your first house or ascending sign is Virgo, then this month you will be focusing on your personal self-maybe a new haircut or a change in your dress style, wanting to present yourself in a new way-more in conformity with who you are. This passage could also bring a change in the people you associate with, no longer feeling comfortable with the familiar.
The department of life that is governed by Virgo stays that way all through our lives-so we are always a perfectionist in the same area of our lives-for good or ill. Furthermore the Sun apparently moves through that house the same time of the year each and every year. This is the chief regular bit of astrology- the Sun's passing through the same zodiacal sign always in the same order at the same time of the year,year in and year out.
Another passage we should acknowledge is planet Mars leaving equipose Libra where balance, diplomacy and politeness rule, to raging Scorpio when our passions and desires come forth. This passage occurred this morning. Obstacles and challenges are no match for Mars in Scorpio as the persistence to see things through to the end result is available. As too with the Sun, when Mars enters a new sign he enters a new house or department of life in our natal chart, signifying that our energy, drive and work will be in a new area.
However Mars' orbit around the Sun is different. Mars was last in Scorpio affecting whatever the department of life that has Scorpio on the cusp, (you need to know your birth time for this) 2 1/2 years before, October 5th -November 17th 2008. The good part of studying the cycles of the planets is understanding that we always get new chances to redo or revisit some area of life that perhaps we didn't completely take advantage of or get the message or learning from the last time. Mars will be in Scorpio until October 8th. So which ever house be it self, our finances, our thinking, our home life, creative endeavors, service or health etc. will get an energetic and thorough "house cleaning" as Mars is bringing strong will powers of determination and drive to complete the task at hand.
One other passage to note of late is the conjunction of Mars and Saturn which occurred last weekend. If you go out in the evening and look to the west you can still see them together with a very bright star Spica. They are visible in the western sky until about 10:00 PM and will be setting earlier and earlier as the month progresses. It is important to note this conjunction as it only occurs once every 2 1/2 years (Mars passage around the Sun ending up in the same place after that time, as mentioned above; Saturn's orbit taking 29 1/2 years).
We had the New Moon in Leo last Friday on the 17th and because this conjunction of Mars and Saturn was happening at the same time rest assured that something new is brewing. Sun and Moon coming together and Mars and Saturn coming together at the same time are big events that do not often coincide. Mars rules our energy, focus and work, where we are efforting and Saturn rules time. When the two get together it can mean a whole list of things. In the ancient world the conjunction portended a death as Mars is life force and Saturn is blockage or wall.
But taking a more positive outlook we can use the two coming together not as an ending but as a beginning (which all endings are after all). This will be in your Libra house. If that house is your 6th of work and service, then perhaps you might expect an invitation to do something new in the month ahead-a new line of work (Mars) that involves relationships (Libra) and will take a long time (Saturn) to unfold or be hard to do but worth the effort.
Virgo is known for its being critical and judgmental of one's self and others But their theme is really about personal integrity. So if for instance, your first house or ascending sign is Virgo, then this month you will be focusing on your personal self-maybe a new haircut or a change in your dress style, wanting to present yourself in a new way-more in conformity with who you are. This passage could also bring a change in the people you associate with, no longer feeling comfortable with the familiar.
The department of life that is governed by Virgo stays that way all through our lives-so we are always a perfectionist in the same area of our lives-for good or ill. Furthermore the Sun apparently moves through that house the same time of the year each and every year. This is the chief regular bit of astrology- the Sun's passing through the same zodiacal sign always in the same order at the same time of the year,year in and year out.
Another passage we should acknowledge is planet Mars leaving equipose Libra where balance, diplomacy and politeness rule, to raging Scorpio when our passions and desires come forth. This passage occurred this morning. Obstacles and challenges are no match for Mars in Scorpio as the persistence to see things through to the end result is available. As too with the Sun, when Mars enters a new sign he enters a new house or department of life in our natal chart, signifying that our energy, drive and work will be in a new area.
However Mars' orbit around the Sun is different. Mars was last in Scorpio affecting whatever the department of life that has Scorpio on the cusp, (you need to know your birth time for this) 2 1/2 years before, October 5th -November 17th 2008. The good part of studying the cycles of the planets is understanding that we always get new chances to redo or revisit some area of life that perhaps we didn't completely take advantage of or get the message or learning from the last time. Mars will be in Scorpio until October 8th. So which ever house be it self, our finances, our thinking, our home life, creative endeavors, service or health etc. will get an energetic and thorough "house cleaning" as Mars is bringing strong will powers of determination and drive to complete the task at hand.
One other passage to note of late is the conjunction of Mars and Saturn which occurred last weekend. If you go out in the evening and look to the west you can still see them together with a very bright star Spica. They are visible in the western sky until about 10:00 PM and will be setting earlier and earlier as the month progresses. It is important to note this conjunction as it only occurs once every 2 1/2 years (Mars passage around the Sun ending up in the same place after that time, as mentioned above; Saturn's orbit taking 29 1/2 years).
We had the New Moon in Leo last Friday on the 17th and because this conjunction of Mars and Saturn was happening at the same time rest assured that something new is brewing. Sun and Moon coming together and Mars and Saturn coming together at the same time are big events that do not often coincide. Mars rules our energy, focus and work, where we are efforting and Saturn rules time. When the two get together it can mean a whole list of things. In the ancient world the conjunction portended a death as Mars is life force and Saturn is blockage or wall.
But taking a more positive outlook we can use the two coming together not as an ending but as a beginning (which all endings are after all). This will be in your Libra house. If that house is your 6th of work and service, then perhaps you might expect an invitation to do something new in the month ahead-a new line of work (Mars) that involves relationships (Libra) and will take a long time (Saturn) to unfold or be hard to do but worth the effort.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
More Signs of Change
Elizabeth Kolbert's Talk of the Town piece in the July 23rd New Yorker really woke me up. She is responding in" The Big Heat" to the record breaking droughts, floods, wildfires and thunderstorms which scientists say global warming looks like on a personal and national level. Kolbert states, to my utter amazement, that the green house gases we are living with this summer were created decades ago. Today's emissions will not be felt until the summer of 2048. Her words speak to our experiencing its obvious effects and the insanity of not doing anything about it.
In a NY Times op-ed piece on July 23rd Michael Webber writes about the worst drought in 60 years here in the US, not only affecting the availability of water to drink and higher food prices (the highest price of corn ever), but affecting our power plants which are cooled by water, and the oil and gas fields which use millions of gallons of water to keep production up in the aging power plants, not to mention all the water that is used in the fracking process. In fact we take up more water to feed our power grid than we use in agriculture. Water shortages easily become energy crises. Adding to this the complete unknown factor of the Sun and its coronal mass ejections affecting our power grids and you have some serious climate change staring us in the face.
Beth Gardiner in her piece" We're All Climate-Change Idiots" in the July 22nd NY Times Sunday Review, makes the point that our brains are not wired to be able to cope easily with the more abstract global issues of climate change, but rather work more easily solving the practical day-to-day matters. There are scientists studying the behavioral and mental barriers to taking the actions to combat climate change. These behavioral scientists are working to improve the communication in how to frame the issues that need to be solved.
In the same Sunday Review, David Leonhardt says "There's Still Hope for the Planet". Even as we in the US are experiencing the warmest year on record, and since 1998 have had the 13 warmest years worldwide since the recording began taking in 1880- with no conversation about it even among the presidential candidates; Leonhardt says there are things happening behind the scenes.
The governments of Europe, China and the US are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on clean energy research. The price of solar and wind energy has fallen. Natural gas production (far less carbon producing than oil) has risen 25% with prices falling by 80%. When you recall that it was Washington-financed research that made semiconductors, radar, the Internet, the radio, the jet engine and many medical advances such as penicillin possible, then hopefully we can conceive of "some kind of disruptive technology that takes off on it own, the way the Internet and the fax took off."
Furthering on I read a piece in Aug/Sept Mountain Astrologer magazine by Ray Grasse speaking to the scientific breakthroughs that occurred in the 60's which time frame we are partially cycling back to with the opening 90 degree square of Uranus and Pluto (1st of 7 exact squares this past June 24th). These 2 planets not only coincide with huge social, cultural and political changes in power, (true in the 60's too), but the real possibility of some breakthrough technological and scientific inventions. (We have just had the announcement of the confirmation of the discovery of the "God particle" or Higgs Boson particle)
The development of the String Theory, Chaos Theory, Big Bang Cosomology, Mandelbrot's work on fractals, Bell's Theorem (the idea of underlying interconnectedness of everything), the discovery of quasars, the coining of the term "back hole", Gaia hypothesis, Rachael Carson's Silent Spring, major advances in lasar and computer technology and the American and Russian space programs climaxing with the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, are all from the 60's period, the last time Uranus and Pluto were in a close relationship. (For further reading and the scientific advances of previous Uranus/ Pluto cycles see Richard Tarnas's" Cosmos and Psyche").
Friday's NY Times had a front page piece announcing scientific evidence, for the first time, linking climate change with ozone layer loss. The strong summer storms are pumping water high into the atmosphere posing a threat to the protective ozone layer over populated areas. Ozone loss and climate change are coinciding says the Harvard scientists, who published their findings in the journal Science.
We can only hope that our seeing the effects of the extreme weather patterns on all life on the planet, behavioral scientists coming up with better ways to communicate the problem, successful breakthroughs in governmental clean energy research and Uranus and Pluto with their close relationship will converge to bring an end to our use of fossil fuels and our turning towards a more sustainable energy source in the next few years.
In a NY Times op-ed piece on July 23rd Michael Webber writes about the worst drought in 60 years here in the US, not only affecting the availability of water to drink and higher food prices (the highest price of corn ever), but affecting our power plants which are cooled by water, and the oil and gas fields which use millions of gallons of water to keep production up in the aging power plants, not to mention all the water that is used in the fracking process. In fact we take up more water to feed our power grid than we use in agriculture. Water shortages easily become energy crises. Adding to this the complete unknown factor of the Sun and its coronal mass ejections affecting our power grids and you have some serious climate change staring us in the face.
Beth Gardiner in her piece" We're All Climate-Change Idiots" in the July 22nd NY Times Sunday Review, makes the point that our brains are not wired to be able to cope easily with the more abstract global issues of climate change, but rather work more easily solving the practical day-to-day matters. There are scientists studying the behavioral and mental barriers to taking the actions to combat climate change. These behavioral scientists are working to improve the communication in how to frame the issues that need to be solved.
In the same Sunday Review, David Leonhardt says "There's Still Hope for the Planet". Even as we in the US are experiencing the warmest year on record, and since 1998 have had the 13 warmest years worldwide since the recording began taking in 1880- with no conversation about it even among the presidential candidates; Leonhardt says there are things happening behind the scenes.
The governments of Europe, China and the US are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on clean energy research. The price of solar and wind energy has fallen. Natural gas production (far less carbon producing than oil) has risen 25% with prices falling by 80%. When you recall that it was Washington-financed research that made semiconductors, radar, the Internet, the radio, the jet engine and many medical advances such as penicillin possible, then hopefully we can conceive of "some kind of disruptive technology that takes off on it own, the way the Internet and the fax took off."
Furthering on I read a piece in Aug/Sept Mountain Astrologer magazine by Ray Grasse speaking to the scientific breakthroughs that occurred in the 60's which time frame we are partially cycling back to with the opening 90 degree square of Uranus and Pluto (1st of 7 exact squares this past June 24th). These 2 planets not only coincide with huge social, cultural and political changes in power, (true in the 60's too), but the real possibility of some breakthrough technological and scientific inventions. (We have just had the announcement of the confirmation of the discovery of the "God particle" or Higgs Boson particle)
The development of the String Theory, Chaos Theory, Big Bang Cosomology, Mandelbrot's work on fractals, Bell's Theorem (the idea of underlying interconnectedness of everything), the discovery of quasars, the coining of the term "back hole", Gaia hypothesis, Rachael Carson's Silent Spring, major advances in lasar and computer technology and the American and Russian space programs climaxing with the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, are all from the 60's period, the last time Uranus and Pluto were in a close relationship. (For further reading and the scientific advances of previous Uranus/ Pluto cycles see Richard Tarnas's" Cosmos and Psyche").
Friday's NY Times had a front page piece announcing scientific evidence, for the first time, linking climate change with ozone layer loss. The strong summer storms are pumping water high into the atmosphere posing a threat to the protective ozone layer over populated areas. Ozone loss and climate change are coinciding says the Harvard scientists, who published their findings in the journal Science.
We can only hope that our seeing the effects of the extreme weather patterns on all life on the planet, behavioral scientists coming up with better ways to communicate the problem, successful breakthroughs in governmental clean energy research and Uranus and Pluto with their close relationship will converge to bring an end to our use of fossil fuels and our turning towards a more sustainable energy source in the next few years.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
The Way Things Are
Excuses for not writing in a few weeks. There are so many planetary happenings that it is hard to keep up. Planets changing signs, directions and speeds mean our lives are shifting as well. When so many planets are involved it is hard not to find anyone who has not been affected. Not that we are saying the planets doing their dance are causing these things to happen -as we are not saying that-we are saying that the planets are tolling the bells to "wake up" and use their cycles in our capacity as co creators to effect whatever movement is warranted in our lives.
It began (there are no beginnings because it is all a process-just as we will not walk through a threshold on December 21st and into the next Enlightenment) but this current rapid fire shifting period began June 24th-25th when Saturn turned back direct after being in his retrograde phase since February 8th. Those Capricorns or Aquarians or those who have those signs ascending in their birth charts take note: your ruler has now moved forward and so shall you. No more backsliding. Mercury also changed signs into Leo that day and the two outer planets Uranus and Pluto made their 1st of 7 exact squares, that being the most important aspect for the next 3 years (sudden shifts in power).
Just 3 days later on June 28th, Libras and Taurus had their ruler, Venus, start direct after a spell of apparent backward going since mid May. The Venus station has influence over our love life, money, values and artistic sense. After this period of retrograding, if an old love did not come back into your life then perhaps you more clearly identified who or what you want in a lover; and so being clearer about what you want from the universe, insures its easier manifestation. That same day was Chief Robert's surprising ruling and sudden shift, which was astrologically noted as the Sun connecting to the Uranus/Pluto square which we spoke about last time.
July 3rd saw the Full Moon and Mars, after a long spell in Virgo enter Libra. All you Scorpios and Aries take note-energy is being put forward into a new area of life. As planets change signs they also change areas of life where energy is focused. It will happen even if you are not consciously aware of it. But the consciousness will expedite things as the energy will be more available to work with. If for the past 9 months, we have gotten used to Mars being in our 5th house of artistic endeavors, enjoying ourselves, being children orientated, for instance, then as Mars moves into Libra, you might notice that focus shift. Now it is time to get to get back to work, the daily grind and your yoga fitness program..
Then we had the heat, July 4th crowds and last Friday the 13th, Uranus the planet of upsets and rebellions come to a station to go backwards until the 14th of December. If you are feeling rebellious this weekend for no apparent reason, and if you need something to blame, you can blame him. And last but not least we have Mercury stationing dropping to a slow speed, actually all of last week and as of last night apparently moving backwards in early Leo until the 8th of August.
It is good to reflect back now as Mercury, the fastest of planets, has no speed and is to stopping so much running around the Sun to apparently standstill for 3 weeks. Time to assimilate and absorb all that has occurred in our lives this past month. This week also brings us into the dark of the month period-those last days before the next New Moon just after midnight on Thursday the 19th. Never good timing to initiate anything new in these days-not enough energy to bring the project to fruition; and with Mercury retrograde to boot -you might change your mind about it.. One can speed ahead and exert our will forces but having the planets sailing in the right direction keeps the wind at our backs and the moving ahead effortless.
The only signs not seeing shifts in this time frame are the Pisces and Sagittarius, but their ruler, Jupiter, changed signs just before this period on June 12th when Jupiter moved into Gemini after a year in Taurus. Welcome Jupiter and all the opportunities and good fortune he brings to all you Geminis-but watch for excesses and weight gain!!!
It began (there are no beginnings because it is all a process-just as we will not walk through a threshold on December 21st and into the next Enlightenment) but this current rapid fire shifting period began June 24th-25th when Saturn turned back direct after being in his retrograde phase since February 8th. Those Capricorns or Aquarians or those who have those signs ascending in their birth charts take note: your ruler has now moved forward and so shall you. No more backsliding. Mercury also changed signs into Leo that day and the two outer planets Uranus and Pluto made their 1st of 7 exact squares, that being the most important aspect for the next 3 years (sudden shifts in power).
Just 3 days later on June 28th, Libras and Taurus had their ruler, Venus, start direct after a spell of apparent backward going since mid May. The Venus station has influence over our love life, money, values and artistic sense. After this period of retrograding, if an old love did not come back into your life then perhaps you more clearly identified who or what you want in a lover; and so being clearer about what you want from the universe, insures its easier manifestation. That same day was Chief Robert's surprising ruling and sudden shift, which was astrologically noted as the Sun connecting to the Uranus/Pluto square which we spoke about last time.
July 3rd saw the Full Moon and Mars, after a long spell in Virgo enter Libra. All you Scorpios and Aries take note-energy is being put forward into a new area of life. As planets change signs they also change areas of life where energy is focused. It will happen even if you are not consciously aware of it. But the consciousness will expedite things as the energy will be more available to work with. If for the past 9 months, we have gotten used to Mars being in our 5th house of artistic endeavors, enjoying ourselves, being children orientated, for instance, then as Mars moves into Libra, you might notice that focus shift. Now it is time to get to get back to work, the daily grind and your yoga fitness program..
Then we had the heat, July 4th crowds and last Friday the 13th, Uranus the planet of upsets and rebellions come to a station to go backwards until the 14th of December. If you are feeling rebellious this weekend for no apparent reason, and if you need something to blame, you can blame him. And last but not least we have Mercury stationing dropping to a slow speed, actually all of last week and as of last night apparently moving backwards in early Leo until the 8th of August.
It is good to reflect back now as Mercury, the fastest of planets, has no speed and is to stopping so much running around the Sun to apparently standstill for 3 weeks. Time to assimilate and absorb all that has occurred in our lives this past month. This week also brings us into the dark of the month period-those last days before the next New Moon just after midnight on Thursday the 19th. Never good timing to initiate anything new in these days-not enough energy to bring the project to fruition; and with Mercury retrograde to boot -you might change your mind about it.. One can speed ahead and exert our will forces but having the planets sailing in the right direction keeps the wind at our backs and the moving ahead effortless.
The only signs not seeing shifts in this time frame are the Pisces and Sagittarius, but their ruler, Jupiter, changed signs just before this period on June 12th when Jupiter moved into Gemini after a year in Taurus. Welcome Jupiter and all the opportunities and good fortune he brings to all you Geminis-but watch for excesses and weight gain!!!
Friday, June 29, 2012
Concrete Evidence of Things Heating Up
So to most everyone's surprise, Chief Justice Roberts sided with the liberal faction of the Supreme Court and upheld The Affordable Care Act as constitutional as a tax. With this one decision as David Brooks quotes: "Roberts has made a period of innovation and change more likely" (NY Times, Friday June 29th). Innovation and change is what Uranus and Pluto's exact squares are all about, exact Sunday the 24th and activated yesterday with the Sun passing over them. If you add another of Uranus' qualifiers (other than innovation) that being of exciting and sudden, then this decision perfectly fits the manifesting meaning of these 2 planets in their current opening square formation. As we wrote about last week, we can expect the sixties with all its progressive legislation to reassert themselves again in the next 3 years as this pattern stays active.
The promise of these times is that despite appearances and bucket loads of money to keep the wealthy where they are, the individual, the 99% cannot be forgotten forever. Thirty million people who cannot afford health insurance or who have been denied coverage will now be entitled to participate as the 1% do. The judicial restraint demonstrated in Robert's decision, who is quoted as saying: "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices", respects the mandate of Congress to write the laws.
The Court's role is merely to deem a law constitutional or not. The elected officials in the Legislative and Executive branches have the power to make laws that affect their constituencies. Not only is the Affordable Care Act law good for the 99% but Robert's decision also acknowledges that the power lies with the people who vote in their representatives, who write the laws. This is all very progressive (Uranus)-and very Aquarian-the individual counts -not just the corporations (Pluto). With this decision we had a change (Uranus) in power (Pluto).
The other interesting sideline is that Obamacare actually gives individual states the choice of taking the Medicare extension or coming up with a plan of their own to enroll their residents. This particular part of the law will be interesting to watch unfold. Most of the critics of the Affordable Care Act are not happy about having the Federal Government dictate to them, they want to see less Federal Government and more states rights. Is this the beginning of more regionalism here in the USA?
No one is saying all will be happy days from now on. In fact as you remember the sixties had much turmoil and counter reaction to the innovation and change. But that is how progress is achieved each side of the seesaw having their moments. But the feeling now is quite exciting. In fact at a restaurant last night strangers a table next to ours heard us talking about the decision and entered into the conversation. There was an excitement in the air yesterday all around this Village, excitement (Uranus) that I have not felt since Obama was elected and which I also felt in the sixties for a time.
The promise of these times is that despite appearances and bucket loads of money to keep the wealthy where they are, the individual, the 99% cannot be forgotten forever. Thirty million people who cannot afford health insurance or who have been denied coverage will now be entitled to participate as the 1% do. The judicial restraint demonstrated in Robert's decision, who is quoted as saying: "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices", respects the mandate of Congress to write the laws.
The Court's role is merely to deem a law constitutional or not. The elected officials in the Legislative and Executive branches have the power to make laws that affect their constituencies. Not only is the Affordable Care Act law good for the 99% but Robert's decision also acknowledges that the power lies with the people who vote in their representatives, who write the laws. This is all very progressive (Uranus)-and very Aquarian-the individual counts -not just the corporations (Pluto). With this decision we had a change (Uranus) in power (Pluto).
The other interesting sideline is that Obamacare actually gives individual states the choice of taking the Medicare extension or coming up with a plan of their own to enroll their residents. This particular part of the law will be interesting to watch unfold. Most of the critics of the Affordable Care Act are not happy about having the Federal Government dictate to them, they want to see less Federal Government and more states rights. Is this the beginning of more regionalism here in the USA?
No one is saying all will be happy days from now on. In fact as you remember the sixties had much turmoil and counter reaction to the innovation and change. But that is how progress is achieved each side of the seesaw having their moments. But the feeling now is quite exciting. In fact at a restaurant last night strangers a table next to ours heard us talking about the decision and entered into the conversation. There was an excitement in the air yesterday all around this Village, excitement (Uranus) that I have not felt since Obama was elected and which I also felt in the sixties for a time.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Things Heating Up...
I had a moment of acute understanding as I was reading David Brooks' op-ed piece in the NY Times, May 31st entitled The Segementation Century. Brooks discusses writer Reinhold Neibuhr's 1949 thesis that historical forces would bring about "the unification of mankind". A solution to the fierce nationalism of the 2 world wars was the thought that by forcing countries to work together (EU and UN), harmony would prevail as their values merged. This anticipated moral, cultural and political convergence never materialized, however, as demonstrated by the news stories from Europe that country after country is facing the prospect of returning to their own currency and leaving the EU experiment.
In fact current polling, Brooks says, by the Pew Research Centers and a World's Value Survey speak about the world becoming more segementated and fractured not less so, even as technology has brought the far corners of the world into our living rooms and started revolutions; we have become less and less trusting of one another. This is true even in this country, where even as we are exposed to an ever increasing variety of contrasting perspectives, we seem to react by narrowing our perspective and confining ourselves to listen only to those who speak our familiar values.
As an astrologer, Neibuhr's thesis "the unification of mankind" is completely understandable as an ideal characteristic of the coming of the "Age of Aquarius". Aquarius is a humanitarian sign, concerned with principles of equality, fairness, justice for all and a redistribution of wealth. I realized as I was reading the piece that in order for us to get to that 'better" place what is not working has to break up. This breakup began in the fall of 2008 with Pluto's sign change into conservative Capricorn and the global financial crisis brought on by excessive greed. The country voted in Obama with the hope that the new era had begun, but one cannot have a new era without the disintegration of the old ways. (Think Bastille)
This "heating up" of the breaking up of the systems, corporations, governments, countries is the stage we are about to begin as planets Uranus and Pluto form a 90 angle 7 times between Sunday June 24th and March 2015. They came to within one degree of each other last year at the Arab Spring, European Summer and Occupy Wall Street Fall. Uranus and Pluto were exactly together in 1965-66, with extended time period being 1960-1972, when this new cycle began. For the next 3 years we will be living through the birth pangs of that seminal period, the sixties, when there was something 'in the air" that for those old enough to remember, was completely different than times before or after. This new order was magical but suddenly disappeared until now when the 2 planets that started it come back together again to make what was only potential then more realistic and sustainable. Some of us will be experiencing it more strongly than others as long standing corruption becomes less and less tolerable as seen from other times in history when these 2 planets were together. (For extended reading please see Cosmo and Psyche by Richard Tarnas)
The conjunctions or oppositions between these 2 planets also occurred between 1533-1545 as the Reformation swept through Europe; 1643-1654 with the English and Puritan Revolutions; 1787-1798, the US Constitution, The French Declaration of the Rights of Man, the French Revolution and the beginnings of the world wide call for the end of slavery; 1845-56 when there were revolutionary upheavals in almost every capital in Europe, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Dresden, Prague, Rome, Milan and China, Japan, India, and the Ottoman Empire; the years 1896-1907 also saw these 2 planets aligned when all the progressive and radical labor movements throughout Europe and North America were born as well as the militant women's movement and black civil rights movements and Boxer Rebellion in China, the Russian Revolution and Gandhi in India.
The stage has been set now again in these next 3 years for the sudden rise and empowerment of youth and counter culture movements, when great social political revolutions occurred, with the rising and falling of empires, where the balance of power shifted suddenly. Our era will be no different than previous ones. We are called to live through it, each of us playing a part in the hopes that the unification of mankind will actually happen, not forced this time, but hashed out with workable solutions that can be sustained. The world is not coming to an end in 2012 but reforming itself again.
In fact current polling, Brooks says, by the Pew Research Centers and a World's Value Survey speak about the world becoming more segementated and fractured not less so, even as technology has brought the far corners of the world into our living rooms and started revolutions; we have become less and less trusting of one another. This is true even in this country, where even as we are exposed to an ever increasing variety of contrasting perspectives, we seem to react by narrowing our perspective and confining ourselves to listen only to those who speak our familiar values.
As an astrologer, Neibuhr's thesis "the unification of mankind" is completely understandable as an ideal characteristic of the coming of the "Age of Aquarius". Aquarius is a humanitarian sign, concerned with principles of equality, fairness, justice for all and a redistribution of wealth. I realized as I was reading the piece that in order for us to get to that 'better" place what is not working has to break up. This breakup began in the fall of 2008 with Pluto's sign change into conservative Capricorn and the global financial crisis brought on by excessive greed. The country voted in Obama with the hope that the new era had begun, but one cannot have a new era without the disintegration of the old ways. (Think Bastille)
This "heating up" of the breaking up of the systems, corporations, governments, countries is the stage we are about to begin as planets Uranus and Pluto form a 90 angle 7 times between Sunday June 24th and March 2015. They came to within one degree of each other last year at the Arab Spring, European Summer and Occupy Wall Street Fall. Uranus and Pluto were exactly together in 1965-66, with extended time period being 1960-1972, when this new cycle began. For the next 3 years we will be living through the birth pangs of that seminal period, the sixties, when there was something 'in the air" that for those old enough to remember, was completely different than times before or after. This new order was magical but suddenly disappeared until now when the 2 planets that started it come back together again to make what was only potential then more realistic and sustainable. Some of us will be experiencing it more strongly than others as long standing corruption becomes less and less tolerable as seen from other times in history when these 2 planets were together. (For extended reading please see Cosmo and Psyche by Richard Tarnas)
The conjunctions or oppositions between these 2 planets also occurred between 1533-1545 as the Reformation swept through Europe; 1643-1654 with the English and Puritan Revolutions; 1787-1798, the US Constitution, The French Declaration of the Rights of Man, the French Revolution and the beginnings of the world wide call for the end of slavery; 1845-56 when there were revolutionary upheavals in almost every capital in Europe, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Dresden, Prague, Rome, Milan and China, Japan, India, and the Ottoman Empire; the years 1896-1907 also saw these 2 planets aligned when all the progressive and radical labor movements throughout Europe and North America were born as well as the militant women's movement and black civil rights movements and Boxer Rebellion in China, the Russian Revolution and Gandhi in India.
The stage has been set now again in these next 3 years for the sudden rise and empowerment of youth and counter culture movements, when great social political revolutions occurred, with the rising and falling of empires, where the balance of power shifted suddenly. Our era will be no different than previous ones. We are called to live through it, each of us playing a part in the hopes that the unification of mankind will actually happen, not forced this time, but hashed out with workable solutions that can be sustained. The world is not coming to an end in 2012 but reforming itself again.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
The Venus Transit
A few of you have asked what my take on this time period is and so, belatedly, I am doing so..
We are very used to the Earth eclipsing the Sun's light to the Moon at a Lunar eclipse as we pass between the two, or the Moon eclipsing the Sun's light as seen from Earth at a Solar Eclipse, when they line up directly in front of one another. The size and distance of those planetary bodies fit across each other perfectly. Mercury transits across the face of the Sun about 13 times each century.We are less familiar with the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun, eclipsing a little bit of the Sun's light, as it occurs only in pairs every 8 years and then not again for another 100 years, the last time being this week June 5th-6th.
Venus' orbit around the Sun is inside ours and every 19 months Venus makes an inferior conjunction with the Sun, that is on the same side of the Sun as we are. Over the course of 8 years if you were to plot those conjunctions you would see that they form a pentagram in the sky, returning to the same place every eight years. The first inferior conjunction and the last are very close to the same degree of the zodiac. Eight years ago on June 8th 2004, the conjunction was at 17 Gemini, this year it is at 15 Gemini.
We are living through this special time when this rare event is occurring. The last time we had this 8 year cycle was December 9th 1874, and December 6th 1882. The next time this phenomena will occur is December 11th, 2117 and December 8th 2125, always occurring in Gemini or Sagittarius. We have inferior conjunctions every 8 years but we do not always have Venus transiting or conjoining or eclipsing the Sun, because her orbit can take her just above or below the face of the Sun and not directly in front of Him.
As to what this means..firstly Venus has to do with love, relationships, money, values, self esteem, what we are attracting to ourselves, our aesthetic sense, our artistic side, how we are relating to one other, what we desire, who and what we love. If you go back to June 2004 and remember what was going on in your life then and reflect on what is happening in your life now regarding those Venusian matters you might notice some differences.
I let go of a long term live in relationship in June of 2004, or started the process by sleeping alone. These last 8 years have been a process of increasing my own sense of self worth. This was not a conscious decision then, that that was what I was doing, but I knew that I could no longer live with the pain I was experiencing. It is only in reflecting back that I can see that that is what was happening. Maybe there is something in your life that has increased in value, surely Facebook, which was not even a company then, and the national debt have.
These 2 dates June 2004 and June 2012 become bookends for a section of our lives that might have increased our capacity to love ourselves, another or some possession either more or less so, finding a new set of values to live by. The process that began then will have some sort of resolution or sense of accomplishment now. Is it significant that we have been conscious adults through this time? Significance comes from our perception of it. It is one thing to watch the transit across the Sun but another to read into and reflect upon how these astronomical events can mirror our own evolution. One of my favorite quotes attributed to Socrates through Plato is: "An unexamined life is not worth living".
We are very used to the Earth eclipsing the Sun's light to the Moon at a Lunar eclipse as we pass between the two, or the Moon eclipsing the Sun's light as seen from Earth at a Solar Eclipse, when they line up directly in front of one another. The size and distance of those planetary bodies fit across each other perfectly. Mercury transits across the face of the Sun about 13 times each century.We are less familiar with the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun, eclipsing a little bit of the Sun's light, as it occurs only in pairs every 8 years and then not again for another 100 years, the last time being this week June 5th-6th.
Venus' orbit around the Sun is inside ours and every 19 months Venus makes an inferior conjunction with the Sun, that is on the same side of the Sun as we are. Over the course of 8 years if you were to plot those conjunctions you would see that they form a pentagram in the sky, returning to the same place every eight years. The first inferior conjunction and the last are very close to the same degree of the zodiac. Eight years ago on June 8th 2004, the conjunction was at 17 Gemini, this year it is at 15 Gemini.
We are living through this special time when this rare event is occurring. The last time we had this 8 year cycle was December 9th 1874, and December 6th 1882. The next time this phenomena will occur is December 11th, 2117 and December 8th 2125, always occurring in Gemini or Sagittarius. We have inferior conjunctions every 8 years but we do not always have Venus transiting or conjoining or eclipsing the Sun, because her orbit can take her just above or below the face of the Sun and not directly in front of Him.
As to what this means..firstly Venus has to do with love, relationships, money, values, self esteem, what we are attracting to ourselves, our aesthetic sense, our artistic side, how we are relating to one other, what we desire, who and what we love. If you go back to June 2004 and remember what was going on in your life then and reflect on what is happening in your life now regarding those Venusian matters you might notice some differences.
I let go of a long term live in relationship in June of 2004, or started the process by sleeping alone. These last 8 years have been a process of increasing my own sense of self worth. This was not a conscious decision then, that that was what I was doing, but I knew that I could no longer live with the pain I was experiencing. It is only in reflecting back that I can see that that is what was happening. Maybe there is something in your life that has increased in value, surely Facebook, which was not even a company then, and the national debt have.
These 2 dates June 2004 and June 2012 become bookends for a section of our lives that might have increased our capacity to love ourselves, another or some possession either more or less so, finding a new set of values to live by. The process that began then will have some sort of resolution or sense of accomplishment now. Is it significant that we have been conscious adults through this time? Significance comes from our perception of it. It is one thing to watch the transit across the Sun but another to read into and reflect upon how these astronomical events can mirror our own evolution. One of my favorite quotes attributed to Socrates through Plato is: "An unexamined life is not worth living".
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
On Venus Affairs
It is significant that we talk about Venus as she made her rare retrograde station in Gemini yesterday. As seen from the earth, Venus is in the western sky, brilliantly bright these evenings, but will now quickly disappear, move into the setting Sun, chasing him down into the underworld, catching up to the Sun in a rare transit across the surface on June 5th-6th and then will become visible again rising ahead of the Sun in the morning mid June. Venus does this apparent backward movement only every 19 months, the last time being October 8th-November 18th 2010 in Scorpio to late Libra. This time she stays exclusively in Gemini from April 3rd to August 7th, when her average stay in one sign is 4 weeks.
So what does this mean??? Firstly, those persons with Taurus or Libra rising, or Sun or Moon there, be on notice (we all have those 2 signs someplace in our charts); your ruler is taking a trip backwards to pick up money, values, friendships,self esteem, relationships, valuables, or possessions that you might have forgotten you had and need to be reminded of. Venus rules what we WANT, not with our heads, but what our hearts are telling us. We learn how to attract to us and receive everything we need with a well functioning Venus. When Venus connects with the Sun on June 5th at 9:10 PM EDT a new heartfelt desire begins to stir for each of us. This time of Venus' sacred journey to reconnect to the Sun gives us the opportunity to go inside to feel what that is.The connection between Venus and our physical bodies is strong and those who are in tune viscerally will have an easier time because our bodies know the truth that our hearts are trying to tell us.
Because it is happening in the sign Gemini, all Geminis will be affected too. Gemini is the sign of information gathering and communication. This signals that we have permission to take in information more selectively, with a care as to whether what we are choosing to think about is positive, to speak to each other in more warm and loving ways and to share with others only what feels right. We might find ourselves renegotiating a contract, running into an old love, reconnecting with a sibling, writing about values, justice issues or what it feels like to value certain possessions, one another and ourselves.
So much has been happening lately to highlight Venus' issues. Each of these events pinpoints a Venus theme in one way or another, what we value, are valuing, negotiate for, love to look at; the crisis in the USA's foreign policy toward China with the dissident Chan escaping to the American Embassy, potentially embarassing China. We had to stick by our valued Freedom, without having the Chinese lose face and not harm Chan; the painting "The Scream" sold for more money than any other painting before it, 120 million dollars; JPMorgan Chase Bank revealed they'd lost 2 billion dollars on a risky bet, which could have been prevented by stricter regulations that the bank has vehemently opposed; the upcoming FB stock option opening which will net the 28 year old (birthday May 14th, with planet Jupiter (lots of, success) conjunct his Sun in Taurus) 18 billion dollars; the Edwards campaign financing lawsuit involving a 90 year old society matron; 2 European elections lost by the prevailing austerity minded governments; the defeat of the legalization of same sex marriages in North Carolina; but the announcement that President Obama is supporting it, saying "treat others the way you want to be treated". Let us all raise a glass to Venus in her journey underground as she reconnects to the Sun and we all have the chance to acknowledge what our hearts tell us.
So what does this mean??? Firstly, those persons with Taurus or Libra rising, or Sun or Moon there, be on notice (we all have those 2 signs someplace in our charts); your ruler is taking a trip backwards to pick up money, values, friendships,self esteem, relationships, valuables, or possessions that you might have forgotten you had and need to be reminded of. Venus rules what we WANT, not with our heads, but what our hearts are telling us. We learn how to attract to us and receive everything we need with a well functioning Venus. When Venus connects with the Sun on June 5th at 9:10 PM EDT a new heartfelt desire begins to stir for each of us. This time of Venus' sacred journey to reconnect to the Sun gives us the opportunity to go inside to feel what that is.The connection between Venus and our physical bodies is strong and those who are in tune viscerally will have an easier time because our bodies know the truth that our hearts are trying to tell us.
Because it is happening in the sign Gemini, all Geminis will be affected too. Gemini is the sign of information gathering and communication. This signals that we have permission to take in information more selectively, with a care as to whether what we are choosing to think about is positive, to speak to each other in more warm and loving ways and to share with others only what feels right. We might find ourselves renegotiating a contract, running into an old love, reconnecting with a sibling, writing about values, justice issues or what it feels like to value certain possessions, one another and ourselves.
So much has been happening lately to highlight Venus' issues. Each of these events pinpoints a Venus theme in one way or another, what we value, are valuing, negotiate for, love to look at; the crisis in the USA's foreign policy toward China with the dissident Chan escaping to the American Embassy, potentially embarassing China. We had to stick by our valued Freedom, without having the Chinese lose face and not harm Chan; the painting "The Scream" sold for more money than any other painting before it, 120 million dollars; JPMorgan Chase Bank revealed they'd lost 2 billion dollars on a risky bet, which could have been prevented by stricter regulations that the bank has vehemently opposed; the upcoming FB stock option opening which will net the 28 year old (birthday May 14th, with planet Jupiter (lots of, success) conjunct his Sun in Taurus) 18 billion dollars; the Edwards campaign financing lawsuit involving a 90 year old society matron; 2 European elections lost by the prevailing austerity minded governments; the defeat of the legalization of same sex marriages in North Carolina; but the announcement that President Obama is supporting it, saying "treat others the way you want to be treated". Let us all raise a glass to Venus in her journey underground as she reconnects to the Sun and we all have the chance to acknowledge what our hearts tell us.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
A Personal Taurean Story
In case any one missed the blog I wrote for The Mountain Astrologer Magazine last week about what having Taurus rising means to me currently I am putting the link here. My sister Mary writes, edits and monitors their weekly blog posts which are terrific. http://mountainastrologer.com/tma/a-personal-taurus-report
Thursday, April 19, 2012
One Last Mars/ Neptune Reminder
People are always coming up to me and repeating what I told them, "Things will get better after Mars moves ahead again, right?" "Yes" I say, but the question becomes," better for what?" Mars stationed last Friday the 13th at 3 degrees of Virgo, looked across the zodiac and planet Neptune was staring back from 3 degrees of Pisces. This means several things to a person interested in using astrology to move in concert with the times.
One is that any action we take from now until March 2014, the next station of Mars, will have to incorporate all that Neptune signifies. Neptune is the planet of spirituality, self sacrifice, dreams, false hopes, visions and artistic pursuits. There will have to be a spiritual or artistic component to our actions in order to be completely authentic, unless we succumb to Neptune's illusionistic tendencies (always possible).
If you are designing a health regime (Mars in Virgo) for your self, you will be motivated more from a spiritual place, that is to rid the body of toxins (Neptune), or gain more clarity (clearer visions). Yoga is a perfect Mars/ Neptune pursuit. If you are pursuing a new creative endeavor, activities such as writing poetry, playing an instrument, starting an art class or joining a choir are perfect. If you are involved in work and an opportunity take on a new altruistic cause is presented that too is supported. Any activity that needs a meditative focus (including meditation itself of course) or involves self sacrifice for the good of someone else is highly recommended.
It is also interesting to witness the events in the outer world that materialize over the time span that Mars and Neptune are conversing. Last weekend was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic; the media was full of all the heartbreaking stories and scandals. If the You Tube videos, "Why They Sunk the Titanic" that astrologer Erik Francis brought to my attention, are to be believed it was actually her sister ship the Olympic that went down. This is one of many mysteries surrounding the Mars/ Neptune event; Mars (accidents, activity) and Neptune (oceans, sacrifice/ loss, frauds). We were enthralled in remembering that tragic event this past weekend as Mars and Neptune opposed one another in the sky.
Another event in the news this weekend was the Columbia women/Secret Service Presidential advance men alleged sex (Mars) Neptune (scandal). After a dispute over money, the participants turned the party into a scandal, which made headlines. It is also in the news that our soldiers (Mars) coming back from the Middle East since 2007 are reporting a 35% increase in the number of psychological problems (Neptune). The VA has to hire more professionals to heal (Mars) the sick (Neptune).
From my own life, I went to the movies last night and saw "The Way" with Martin Sheen. A father takes his son's ashes to finish the 1,000 km walk (Mars) from southern France to the Cathedral Santigo de Compostela in northern Spain to come to terms with the meaning (Neptune) of life his son had chosen. It was a spiritual journey. (Mars/Neptune).
One last thought-both planets are moving slowly so we have many examples from life of some of the many possible manifestations. Please do not feel if you have not already decided upon your own spiritual journey, that you have missed the boat (Mars/ Neptune). Neptune has a way of making us indecisive as to what action to take. You have from now until March 2014 to come up with something. If you do want to start this month -best advice- wait until Saturday when the New Moon occurs at 3:20 AM EDT. Always better to begin any new adventure after the Sun and Moon have married, and the tide is with us.
One is that any action we take from now until March 2014, the next station of Mars, will have to incorporate all that Neptune signifies. Neptune is the planet of spirituality, self sacrifice, dreams, false hopes, visions and artistic pursuits. There will have to be a spiritual or artistic component to our actions in order to be completely authentic, unless we succumb to Neptune's illusionistic tendencies (always possible).
If you are designing a health regime (Mars in Virgo) for your self, you will be motivated more from a spiritual place, that is to rid the body of toxins (Neptune), or gain more clarity (clearer visions). Yoga is a perfect Mars/ Neptune pursuit. If you are pursuing a new creative endeavor, activities such as writing poetry, playing an instrument, starting an art class or joining a choir are perfect. If you are involved in work and an opportunity take on a new altruistic cause is presented that too is supported. Any activity that needs a meditative focus (including meditation itself of course) or involves self sacrifice for the good of someone else is highly recommended.
It is also interesting to witness the events in the outer world that materialize over the time span that Mars and Neptune are conversing. Last weekend was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic; the media was full of all the heartbreaking stories and scandals. If the You Tube videos, "Why They Sunk the Titanic" that astrologer Erik Francis brought to my attention, are to be believed it was actually her sister ship the Olympic that went down. This is one of many mysteries surrounding the Mars/ Neptune event; Mars (accidents, activity) and Neptune (oceans, sacrifice/ loss, frauds). We were enthralled in remembering that tragic event this past weekend as Mars and Neptune opposed one another in the sky.
Another event in the news this weekend was the Columbia women/Secret Service Presidential advance men alleged sex (Mars) Neptune (scandal). After a dispute over money, the participants turned the party into a scandal, which made headlines. It is also in the news that our soldiers (Mars) coming back from the Middle East since 2007 are reporting a 35% increase in the number of psychological problems (Neptune). The VA has to hire more professionals to heal (Mars) the sick (Neptune).
From my own life, I went to the movies last night and saw "The Way" with Martin Sheen. A father takes his son's ashes to finish the 1,000 km walk (Mars) from southern France to the Cathedral Santigo de Compostela in northern Spain to come to terms with the meaning (Neptune) of life his son had chosen. It was a spiritual journey. (Mars/Neptune).
One last thought-both planets are moving slowly so we have many examples from life of some of the many possible manifestations. Please do not feel if you have not already decided upon your own spiritual journey, that you have missed the boat (Mars/ Neptune). Neptune has a way of making us indecisive as to what action to take. You have from now until March 2014 to come up with something. If you do want to start this month -best advice- wait until Saturday when the New Moon occurs at 3:20 AM EDT. Always better to begin any new adventure after the Sun and Moon have married, and the tide is with us.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Mid April
Seems like there is a lot going on-just past the Full Moon when things come to a head. Did you notice how bright the Full Moon was, and how big she looked? That is because this Full Moon coincided with the Moon's perigee, that is closest pass with the earth. This past Full Moon, the one May 5th (especially) and the Full Moon in June will coincide with the Moon passing quite close to us. It is not unusual for the Moon to pass close to the earth, but it is not often that perigees coincide with Full Moons. We know that the Moon and Sun's gravitational pull affects the tides on the earth. A correspondence has been observed between the Sun/Moon placement, either at New or Full Moon, combined with perigee and earthquakes. The news of one in Indonesia Wednesday and another in Mexico City yesterday is not altogether unexpected. We can anticipate news of others occurring at the next 2 Full Moons unfortunately as well.
This week has us coming off of a Mercury station. I view these times when Mercury is apparently at standstill as excellent times for me to standstill too. From the 31st of March until 10th of April the messenger of the gods only traveled 2 degrees. Mercury's normal speed is over a degree a day. So if you have noticed that things have been a little stuck lately, this will change. Mercury affairs (buying, selling, writing, traveling) will start to pick up again especially by Monday the 16th in the afternoon, when he moves back into fast paced Aries-good bye dreamy Pisces.
A good lesson about the potential of what can happen in a retrograde period is the Martin/Zimmerman case in Florida. The shooting occurred February 26th, just as Mercury was stationing to go retrograde. It took 6 weeks until Mercury was going forward at that same degree for charges to be filed. This is a very sad example of what can happen between the beginning and end of a Mercury retrograde cycle. Decisions made at first had to be rethought, with a different outcome by the end of the cycle.
Next we have planet Pluto stationing last Tuesday the 10th. Pluto, the god of the underworld, or Hindu Lord Shiva, the creator and destroyer, has come to call. Anyone born around October 2nd, March 30th, July 1st, and December 31st, any year, are already feeling the effects. There are others too, but you would have to know more details about your natal chart to know if you are having a Pluto transit. You cannot miss it-if you are having one, as Pluto is not mild or subtle. Either you have to go with someone into the dark side or will be taken there yourself. There is a sense with a Pluto transit that your basic survival is at stake.
The changes can come via a new person coming into your life or departing, or a situation or circumstance that has the same effect. Pluto rules the death of the old and birth of the new, demands complete honesty, and often gets us entangled in power struggles. Pluto will stay at 9 Capricorn for 3 months now through
the end of May. However, all that is being created and/or destroyed in your life will not be completely known until the end of 2013, when the transformation will be complete. There is a long grinding evolutionary process taking place. Then Pluto moves further along in Capricorn to bother other birthdays.
There's more this week with Mars stationing tonight at 11:53 PM EDT, but it will have to wait until next time.-maybe tomorrow..
This week has us coming off of a Mercury station. I view these times when Mercury is apparently at standstill as excellent times for me to standstill too. From the 31st of March until 10th of April the messenger of the gods only traveled 2 degrees. Mercury's normal speed is over a degree a day. So if you have noticed that things have been a little stuck lately, this will change. Mercury affairs (buying, selling, writing, traveling) will start to pick up again especially by Monday the 16th in the afternoon, when he moves back into fast paced Aries-good bye dreamy Pisces.
A good lesson about the potential of what can happen in a retrograde period is the Martin/Zimmerman case in Florida. The shooting occurred February 26th, just as Mercury was stationing to go retrograde. It took 6 weeks until Mercury was going forward at that same degree for charges to be filed. This is a very sad example of what can happen between the beginning and end of a Mercury retrograde cycle. Decisions made at first had to be rethought, with a different outcome by the end of the cycle.
Next we have planet Pluto stationing last Tuesday the 10th. Pluto, the god of the underworld, or Hindu Lord Shiva, the creator and destroyer, has come to call. Anyone born around October 2nd, March 30th, July 1st, and December 31st, any year, are already feeling the effects. There are others too, but you would have to know more details about your natal chart to know if you are having a Pluto transit. You cannot miss it-if you are having one, as Pluto is not mild or subtle. Either you have to go with someone into the dark side or will be taken there yourself. There is a sense with a Pluto transit that your basic survival is at stake.
The changes can come via a new person coming into your life or departing, or a situation or circumstance that has the same effect. Pluto rules the death of the old and birth of the new, demands complete honesty, and often gets us entangled in power struggles. Pluto will stay at 9 Capricorn for 3 months now through
the end of May. However, all that is being created and/or destroyed in your life will not be completely known until the end of 2013, when the transformation will be complete. There is a long grinding evolutionary process taking place. Then Pluto moves further along in Capricorn to bother other birthdays.
There's more this week with Mars stationing tonight at 11:53 PM EDT, but it will have to wait until next time.-maybe tomorrow..
Friday, March 30, 2012
Standstill
For the first time since I began writing this blog, today I felt at a standstill about what to write. Usually I have one or more ready ideas that just flow out . But today I am stuck. Then as I am an astrologer, or cycles scientist as I have started to call myself, I decided to find the meaning of this inertia in the movements (or lack thereof) of the planets.
When I look in the ephemeris I see both Mercury and Mars apparently slowing down to the place in the zodiac where they each will go forward. Mercury is beginning to station at 24 degrees of Pisces today, will move forward on the 4th, staying at 24 and 25 degrees until the 12th of April when he gets to 26. These next 2 weeks are the standstill part of the cycle known as a station. A station is where a bus or train is parked and does not move. So with the planets. Mercury rules communications, travel, writing, negotiating, contracting, selling, talking, moving from place to place and thinking. Mercury was the swift messenger of the gods. His natural speed is over 1 degree a day when he is in top form, where he likes to be.
With Mercury's speed being slow, ours words and movements are apt to be slow to non existent. Why? Well we are picking up information from one spot in the zodiac. Pisces is the sign of the poet and musician and dreamer. The information gained from Pisces is of the more subtle kind; seeing visions or images while walking, or listening to music, or evoked by feelings. If those 2 degrees of Pisces are important to you as seen in your natal chart, then this time can be quite significant in identifying an aspect of your self that you might have glossed over when Mercury is at the faster speed. The dreamlike quality we are experiencing now will disappear, as Mercury slowly picks up speed and returns to the sign Aries on the16th of April. So enjoy it while it lasts and don't try too hard to fight the natural course of things.
The same is true for Mars. He is backing into 4 degrees of Virgo now, will gradually back into 3 Virgo, station there, and begin to move forward on Saturday the14th. Mars does not get to 5 degrees until the last day of April. This is another case of a planet at a station. Our energy, will and drive is at a standstill. We might have a newly formed plan to fix an old unresolved issue with a male friend, or health regime program that we have been wanting to try, but there has likely been little or no will force available to make it happen.
Such is the case of the cycles of the planets. Knowing what they are doing is meant to be an aid to us; not as the cause of our adventures or misadventures, but as markers of phases of time.
When I look in the ephemeris I see both Mercury and Mars apparently slowing down to the place in the zodiac where they each will go forward. Mercury is beginning to station at 24 degrees of Pisces today, will move forward on the 4th, staying at 24 and 25 degrees until the 12th of April when he gets to 26. These next 2 weeks are the standstill part of the cycle known as a station. A station is where a bus or train is parked and does not move. So with the planets. Mercury rules communications, travel, writing, negotiating, contracting, selling, talking, moving from place to place and thinking. Mercury was the swift messenger of the gods. His natural speed is over 1 degree a day when he is in top form, where he likes to be.
With Mercury's speed being slow, ours words and movements are apt to be slow to non existent. Why? Well we are picking up information from one spot in the zodiac. Pisces is the sign of the poet and musician and dreamer. The information gained from Pisces is of the more subtle kind; seeing visions or images while walking, or listening to music, or evoked by feelings. If those 2 degrees of Pisces are important to you as seen in your natal chart, then this time can be quite significant in identifying an aspect of your self that you might have glossed over when Mercury is at the faster speed. The dreamlike quality we are experiencing now will disappear, as Mercury slowly picks up speed and returns to the sign Aries on the16th of April. So enjoy it while it lasts and don't try too hard to fight the natural course of things.
The same is true for Mars. He is backing into 4 degrees of Virgo now, will gradually back into 3 Virgo, station there, and begin to move forward on Saturday the14th. Mars does not get to 5 degrees until the last day of April. This is another case of a planet at a station. Our energy, will and drive is at a standstill. We might have a newly formed plan to fix an old unresolved issue with a male friend, or health regime program that we have been wanting to try, but there has likely been little or no will force available to make it happen.
Such is the case of the cycles of the planets. Knowing what they are doing is meant to be an aid to us; not as the cause of our adventures or misadventures, but as markers of phases of time.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Toward A Deeper Understanding of our Country
It has occurred to me lately that we can use this Mars retrograde time frame to help us understand these interesting times. In the chart we use for the birth of this nation on July 4th 1776, planet Mars is at 23 degrees of Gemini square the planet Neptune at 23 Virgo. Those 2 signs being mutable, that is those signs that coincide with the change of seasons, means those 2 planets are at 90 degrees to one another. Our planet of assertion and aggression and will forces will always have Neptune connected with it. Neptune symbolizes our delusions and idealizations that have no basis in reality. In the USA chart in August of 1995 planet Mars entered 18 degrees of Libra, became stationary within one minute from October 2004, turned apparent retrograde October 2007 and will not leave that one degree of the zodiac until April 2017, when it goes back to 17 degrees of Libra. That makes 22 years that the planet that symbolizes how we use our energy is in the same spot in the zodiac. We are not moving forward.
As we are experiencing another time frame of Mars retrograde now, since January 24th, we can associate what we are going through now: a lessening of energy and drive to move forward, initiatives started becoming mired in frustration and delay, old arguments and fights coming back to haunt us, becoming impatient and acting prematurely, with what is going on in our country in regards the use of the military.
In August of 1995 NATO began the bombing campaign of Serb artillery. We began "Operation Enduring freedom" on October 7, 2001 when ground troops went into Afghanistan. The 2nd Iraq war began March 20, 2003, with Bush declaring "Mission Accomplished" on May 1st 2003 and the end of combat operations. We know that that war did not end until Dec 18, 2011. Each year that went by from October 2001 in Afghanistan through March 2003 into Iraq saw Mars slowing in speed and apparent direction as our troops got more and more bogged down. October 2007 saw Bush asking Congress for 189 billion dollars to support the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, just as Mars was retrograding officially.
If we have any doubts about the effects of Mars retrograding in our country's chart we can look no farther than the 4th deployment Sargent who went from house to house on a killing spree in Afghanistan last week and the burning of the Koran by US soldier on February 20th. These 2 grave acts of aggression occurred in the current Mars retrograde period starting January 24th, directly at 23 Virgo right on top of our natal Neptune square Mars, the misuse or idealized use of aggression potential in our natal chart. We are in a critically dangerous period until Mars passes 23 Virgo again mid June. We will also be in a critical period 6 months from now when our progressed Moon passes over that Mars.
So what can be the best outcome? We seriously need to consider alternative ways of solving problems other than invading foreign countries. And when we consider that not only is Mars retrograde in the USA chart, causing us to reflect on the efficiency of our current use of force, but so are Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn. That makes 5 out of the possible 8 planets that can apparently go backwards are. When they say we are a nation in decline that is why they say it. It is time for some self reflection.
As we are experiencing another time frame of Mars retrograde now, since January 24th, we can associate what we are going through now: a lessening of energy and drive to move forward, initiatives started becoming mired in frustration and delay, old arguments and fights coming back to haunt us, becoming impatient and acting prematurely, with what is going on in our country in regards the use of the military.
In August of 1995 NATO began the bombing campaign of Serb artillery. We began "Operation Enduring freedom" on October 7, 2001 when ground troops went into Afghanistan. The 2nd Iraq war began March 20, 2003, with Bush declaring "Mission Accomplished" on May 1st 2003 and the end of combat operations. We know that that war did not end until Dec 18, 2011. Each year that went by from October 2001 in Afghanistan through March 2003 into Iraq saw Mars slowing in speed and apparent direction as our troops got more and more bogged down. October 2007 saw Bush asking Congress for 189 billion dollars to support the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, just as Mars was retrograding officially.
If we have any doubts about the effects of Mars retrograding in our country's chart we can look no farther than the 4th deployment Sargent who went from house to house on a killing spree in Afghanistan last week and the burning of the Koran by US soldier on February 20th. These 2 grave acts of aggression occurred in the current Mars retrograde period starting January 24th, directly at 23 Virgo right on top of our natal Neptune square Mars, the misuse or idealized use of aggression potential in our natal chart. We are in a critically dangerous period until Mars passes 23 Virgo again mid June. We will also be in a critical period 6 months from now when our progressed Moon passes over that Mars.
So what can be the best outcome? We seriously need to consider alternative ways of solving problems other than invading foreign countries. And when we consider that not only is Mars retrograde in the USA chart, causing us to reflect on the efficiency of our current use of force, but so are Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn. That makes 5 out of the possible 8 planets that can apparently go backwards are. When they say we are a nation in decline that is why they say it. It is time for some self reflection.
Monday, March 12, 2012
What's Up???
I don't know about you but I didn't think things could slow down more than they already have with Mars in apparent slow motion, but now we have to add Mercury to the list of situations that coincide with stumbling blocks. We look to the motion of the planets in signs as symbols, that give us meaning not causes, of the situations in our lives. As of tomorrow morning at 3:45 AM Mercury, in the same degree of the zodiac since March 8th, will finally move from apparent standstill to apparent backwards motion. Astrology is about finding meaning in our lives, if one is interested that is.
The Mars retrograde period affects Scorpios and Aries individuals, making them less forceful and passionate in Scorpios case and less bossy with Aries. When planet Mercury does its loop it affects Geminis and Virgos more strongly because they are ruled by him. Mercury is apparently stopping at 6 Aries after having passed over the planet of upsets and surprise, Uranus, last week on the 5th. Uranus is our planet symbolizing lightening strikes, sparks of genius, surprises, mental awakenings and lots of nervous energy. The current retrograde motion of Mercury means that Mercury will back track and come back to Uranus again on the 18th-inciting that same nervous energy and then for a third time on April 22nd, after Mercury goes forward again on the 4th of April at 23 Pisces. So watch what happens in your life between now and the 22nd of April and see how your thinking has changed.
This will affect everybody in the part of your chart that holds 6 Aries to 23 Pisces. Aries wants to start something and Pisces just wants to let things float and see what happens. They are very different energies-but lie adjacent to each other. Our need to be part of the collective in Pisces gives way to the Arian initiatives that are inspired by our Piscean meditations. Mercury as the messenger of the gods, is the only one who could leave Olympus and go into Hades and come back (very important!). Therefore looking for symbolism-Mercury is going to bring up some new information that you might not have noticed before-or somebody kept hidden from you. This will have to do with selling, buying, travelling,communicating, young people, teaching, learning, negotiating, thinking. Do all projects with the words" re" in the beginning and finish up old projects before starting new ones.
One other thing-be sure to look up in the evening sky these nights and watch Venus and Jupiter come closer and closer together. Venus is brighter and on the right. Jupiter is on the left. They will conjoin early morning on Thursday the 15th. The combination can coincide with some over indulgence. Venus is love and money and Jupiter is lots of it. In spite of the fluctuations of Mars and Mercury, we will be able to focus in on our hearts desire and allowing for some extra time and renegotiating be rewarded with actually obtaining our hearts desires.
The Mars retrograde period affects Scorpios and Aries individuals, making them less forceful and passionate in Scorpios case and less bossy with Aries. When planet Mercury does its loop it affects Geminis and Virgos more strongly because they are ruled by him. Mercury is apparently stopping at 6 Aries after having passed over the planet of upsets and surprise, Uranus, last week on the 5th. Uranus is our planet symbolizing lightening strikes, sparks of genius, surprises, mental awakenings and lots of nervous energy. The current retrograde motion of Mercury means that Mercury will back track and come back to Uranus again on the 18th-inciting that same nervous energy and then for a third time on April 22nd, after Mercury goes forward again on the 4th of April at 23 Pisces. So watch what happens in your life between now and the 22nd of April and see how your thinking has changed.
This will affect everybody in the part of your chart that holds 6 Aries to 23 Pisces. Aries wants to start something and Pisces just wants to let things float and see what happens. They are very different energies-but lie adjacent to each other. Our need to be part of the collective in Pisces gives way to the Arian initiatives that are inspired by our Piscean meditations. Mercury as the messenger of the gods, is the only one who could leave Olympus and go into Hades and come back (very important!). Therefore looking for symbolism-Mercury is going to bring up some new information that you might not have noticed before-or somebody kept hidden from you. This will have to do with selling, buying, travelling,communicating, young people, teaching, learning, negotiating, thinking. Do all projects with the words" re" in the beginning and finish up old projects before starting new ones.
One other thing-be sure to look up in the evening sky these nights and watch Venus and Jupiter come closer and closer together. Venus is brighter and on the right. Jupiter is on the left. They will conjoin early morning on Thursday the 15th. The combination can coincide with some over indulgence. Venus is love and money and Jupiter is lots of it. In spite of the fluctuations of Mars and Mercury, we will be able to focus in on our hearts desire and allowing for some extra time and renegotiating be rewarded with actually obtaining our hearts desires.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Mars Retrograde Halfway Point
We are at the halfway point in the apparent Mars retrograde
cycle as the Earth in its orbit around the Sun is passing in front of Mars,
which because it is moving at a slower speed, outside our orbit, is appearing
to go backwards. The phenomenon is very
like two trains passing. You are in one train
that is moving quickly, the one in the next track is moving more slowly
and appears to be going backwards. The Sun and
Mars are in opposition, with the Earth in between. Mars is closer to us than in
any other time in its orbit. This occurred Saturday at 3:10 PM.
We should be now having some sense of what this Mars cycle
is about. Of course for each of us it
will be slightly different and affect different areas of our life, depending on
which house or department of life is the Virgo house in our natal chart. If you
happen to know that you will have an easier time reflecting. You have until the July 4th
weekend to figure it out though, when Mars finally finishes with Virgo and
moves into Libra. By then it should be abundantly
clear what area of your life has been reworked, even if you do not know what
house is Virgo natally. Frustrations,
false starts and recommitments to doing things better will be noticeable after
the almost 8 month sojourn (November 12th-July 4th) of
Mars in Virgo.
The position of Mars helps us to understand what we should
be noticing. We have been talking about
Mars and how our activities are in slow motion or so it seems. If the Sun
represents our purpose, our goals and what we want to accomplish and Mars
represents the will force that is needed to actualize that purpose then when
Sun and Mars are in relationship, the job is easier. If we feel like we have only been treading
water since the end of January, that our actions were feeling fruitless, then
this weekend is the time to begin to get clarity. The time to actually move forward is not
until after April 14th, but realization of what the issues are what it is we want to do about it should be coming now.
Mars rules our efforts and work, where we put our energy,
and in Virgo demands that we are healthy and have integrity . We might be feeling that there is a new exercise,
diet or health regime that we want to start but the will to go forward is
lacking. We will spend lots of time in
the strategizing stage before actually committing, figuring the best way to
make it work. This is appropriate for
this time. Or we can be moving too
aggressively in some direction and either our physical body is reacting or we
are not getting a desired outcome. It is very unwise to initiate anything new
now, as those affairs are likely to bring obstacles and challenges too great to
overcome. (The talk this weekend about
Israel bombing Iran’s nuclear sites comes to mind-whoever initiates during a
Mars retrograde cycle LOSES). But recommitting to projects already begun and
editing them or revising them is appropriate.
The other situation which could arise now is being forced to
rework some aggressive action that we took and that is coming back to haunt us
so to speak. We question..was that the
best way to handle that situation? Is there another way to assert myself? Maybe
a friend or colleague has reminded you of an old situation which is still not
resolved satisfactorily. Or you might
become aware that you are still angry at someone and by becoming aware of it
now can bring it to the surface and with some emotional detachment resolve it
more satisfactorily. Mars retrograde periods can bring back these uncomfortable
relationship issues and are excellent times for resolving longstanding
disputes. Reviewing our behavior is called for now, our own actions,
motivations or those with our sexual partners, fathers, husbands and all other males.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Pisces New Moon
The Moon is in Aries as I am writing this, just having separated from the Sun after their marriage in a New Moon last Tuesday evening. It happens each and every month, and along with knowing what planets are retrograding, like Mars, that we have been speaking about, it is useful information to have on hand. Why? Because at the New Moon we have the opportunity for a new start.
The coming together of the two luminaries, the Sun representing our purpose and goals meets the Moon, representing our emotional body, which is responsible for the interactions that bring the new purpose into fruition. The new beginning this month was in the sign Pisces. I think one of the problems with people not understanding astrology is that the language we use is not correct. The Sun and Moon are not "in" anything actually.
From our perspective, that is the Earth's, the Moon's orbit around us comes to a position in front of the Sun, which, again from our perspective, is in front of the section of the band of the ecliptic where the constellation Pisces is. (And actually this is no longer astronomically correct-it is no wonder astrologers have such a difficult time convincing people of its validity!!)
Anyway, whatever department of life, or "house" as the Greeks called them, that is governed by the sign Pisces is where the new beginning will be for you. This new beginning reaches culmination at the Full Moon 2 weeks later and then gets integrated into your life and winds down, ready for the next new beginning in the next sign along the ecliptic 2 weeks after that (which will be Aries).
Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, the wisest and most spiritual of all signs, because it encompasses all the others. It is where we want either to escape to the paradise of our choice, or where we want to help all our suffering fellowmen. Its symbol is the two fishes, representing our dual natures human and divine, held together by a silver cord. Listening to music, composing poetry, doing yoga, swimming in the ocean, meditating, cultivating compassion, philanthropy, getting visions for the future are all appropriate activities now.
We spoke about Pisces a few weeks ago as Neptune has just entered it. So this New Moon has an extra dose of Neptune in it-letting go and letting God is one of the ways I like to think about this time period, especially as Mars is retrograding. And one more bit of advice..do not think that you have missed the boat if you did not start something on Tuesday. In fact it is always best to let the Moon move a little away from the Sun before acting. You have these 2 weeks as the Moon is increasing in light to begin-as the Moon is gaining light each night we humans too are gaining momentum, this month in our spiritual life.
The coming together of the two luminaries, the Sun representing our purpose and goals meets the Moon, representing our emotional body, which is responsible for the interactions that bring the new purpose into fruition. The new beginning this month was in the sign Pisces. I think one of the problems with people not understanding astrology is that the language we use is not correct. The Sun and Moon are not "in" anything actually.
From our perspective, that is the Earth's, the Moon's orbit around us comes to a position in front of the Sun, which, again from our perspective, is in front of the section of the band of the ecliptic where the constellation Pisces is. (And actually this is no longer astronomically correct-it is no wonder astrologers have such a difficult time convincing people of its validity!!)
Anyway, whatever department of life, or "house" as the Greeks called them, that is governed by the sign Pisces is where the new beginning will be for you. This new beginning reaches culmination at the Full Moon 2 weeks later and then gets integrated into your life and winds down, ready for the next new beginning in the next sign along the ecliptic 2 weeks after that (which will be Aries).
Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, the wisest and most spiritual of all signs, because it encompasses all the others. It is where we want either to escape to the paradise of our choice, or where we want to help all our suffering fellowmen. Its symbol is the two fishes, representing our dual natures human and divine, held together by a silver cord. Listening to music, composing poetry, doing yoga, swimming in the ocean, meditating, cultivating compassion, philanthropy, getting visions for the future are all appropriate activities now.
We spoke about Pisces a few weeks ago as Neptune has just entered it. So this New Moon has an extra dose of Neptune in it-letting go and letting God is one of the ways I like to think about this time period, especially as Mars is retrograding. And one more bit of advice..do not think that you have missed the boat if you did not start something on Tuesday. In fact it is always best to let the Moon move a little away from the Sun before acting. You have these 2 weeks as the Moon is increasing in light to begin-as the Moon is gaining light each night we humans too are gaining momentum, this month in our spiritual life.
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