Mechanics of the Chart

The chart has a fixed inner  wheel divided into twelve parts, called houses, and an outer wheel (bottom figure) which rotates clockwise around the houses every 24 hours.

The outer revolving circle is the zodiac.

.   The twelve signs of the zodiac cross the ascendent every 24 hours

Every time we see the bowl of sky rotate once from east to west, we see the sun step one degree in the opposing direction.  (There are 360° in the zodiac; twelve signs of 30°each.)   In the northern hemisphere we see the ecliptic in the southern sky, so, unlike road maps, east is on the left and west on the right:  the sun rises on the left side of the horizon, ascends through houses 12-10 to the midheaven at noon, and sets on the right side of the chart (west) in the evening.

Think of all the planets as being attached to the outer wheel as it rotates around the inner wheel of houses.  

In the hand drawn chart above, 4°♋45’ is coming up on the eastern horizon and the sun is at 25°♒58’ in the 8^th house.  If I had made the post 4 hours later, the sun would have been about to set (followed by Neptune, the moon and venus). When I did publish the post at 1:44pm, Pluto was setting.  

Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2009 and will not cross into Aquarius until 2023; it's a very distant object that takes a long time to orbit the sun.

A 5:44 publishing time would have put 24°♌43’ rising, and mars, instead of being in the first house, would have been above the horizon in the last house.

 

In the four hours after I published my first post, Mars rose, Mercury set, the Sun advanced to two minutes behind Neptune, and the Moon went from 3°Pisces 09’ to 5°Pisces 07’ and overtook Venus.

Why Planets go through the Last House First

You might wonder why Sun and the other planets go backwards through the houses; in other words why is the 12^th house the first place we see the Sun when it rises?  Shouldn’t it be called the first house?

Actually houses are a relatively modern addition to astrology charts.  Originally the planets were spaced out around a square page more or less in a circle with their zodiac signs and sometimes the degree of the sign indicated.  Houses come from the Greek ‘topoi’ which in old manuscripts could mean a couple of things.

In one usage, a planet was ‘located’ a certain number of signs from another planet, for instance the Sun in Aquarius is the 7^th sign from Mars in Leo.  This is usually translated as the Sun being in Mar’s 7^th mansion or 7^th house.  The second way ‘topoi’ is seen used is where we get the modern concept of houses;  locating a planet a certain number of signs from the ascendant.  In the Birth of a Blog chart the Aquarian Sun is in the 8^th sign from the Cancer Ascendent  (counting Cancer as the first).  Another way to think of it is that Aquarius will be the 8^th sign to rise after Cancer.   We went from a sign being located 8^th in line to ascend, in manuscripts before the Renaissance, to a sign covering the 8^th house in the modern chart.

If you find this difficult to understand you are not alone.  All you have to do is go to the Astrodienst  Extended Chart Selection area for picking the kind of house division system you want to use- the 15 choices listed will give you an idea of just how unsettled the modern concept of houses is. 

The thing to remember is that houses indicate the order in which things appear above the ascendant.   As soon as a planet or sign rises it goes to the back of the line and must follow the rest of the wheel around before it can show itself again on the eastern horizon. 

For more on houses with a couple of example charts go to Houses

Sun, Moon and Earth

Spirit, Soul and Existence

The circle, the crescent and the cross are the three basic symbols of the planets.  Spirit, soul and existence are the root words of astrology.  We each live in a physical body that has limits in time and space.  We each carry a flame originated from the sun.  We come from past generations and our lives are a result of countless events that led up to the present moment; so too, everything we do affects the world we inhabit-we are sentient drops in the river of life.  In astrology we call the consciousness that we are connected to all events past and present ‘the soul’. 

The circle has a dot in the middle.  When I draw simplified maps of the solar system with the sun at the center, I skip the dot and draw little rays, like blades of grass or a comic character’s hair.  A circle with a dot for the sun in the middle: circles with dots, x’s and o’s, who can resist the promise of objective accuracy offered by a coordinate system?

We are employing a language that has survived thousands of years, since before calculus, the coordinate system and algebra; it is the great- grandparent of math and geometry.  What a thrill.  Oh well, as a Taurus it makes me feel much better about living a very imperfect life; I see myself as a mini chaos bumping around in a big stirred up soup of chaos, we’re all stirred up, or sometimes we’re bubbling.

A lot of people get squirmy at the thought of fate, or that their lives might be governed by it.  They want to believe they choose when they relinquish responsibility and that they can always be consciously controlling their lives through their own will.  And I say “Girl, you’re so fast!”  I know that’s old fashioned; nowadays we say “You go Girl!”  But you know I think it’s great to strengthen the will and exercise consciousness as much as possible; I’m all for that.

But sometimes, we all have to face the fact of existence that we are basically corpuscles with consciousness; we find ourselves trapped in endless tunnels from which we find no escape.  Sometimes, life gets the better of each of us.  Why some and not others?  How do the circumstances differ? 

How circumstances differ is what astrology is all about.  To see things from a philosophical point of view we must employ a language that facilitates analyzing an event from all points of view; past, present and future.  Astrologers assigned each category of experience a mascot; so, for instance, what we know about lions or rams helps us imagine what philosophers over two thousand years ago were saying about the fifth (Leo) or first (Aries) sign of the zodiac.

We have a good idea of what they thought about the moon and how they, as a culture, viewed its cycles.  The same is true of the sun; and though some of this cultural treasury is celebrated in modern holidays, the stories that describe the rest of the planetary cycles have been left behind in the industrious scramble to reshape our environment. 

Time and space is how we physically get a hold on existence.  If you wonder about the idea behind time and space, how your ancestors thought about it, what they thought was the purpose of life; then you are wondering about astrology.  It is more about analyzing our own behavior in the context of events, than it is about reshaping existence to improve our lives.

When we turn to astrology we turn to the sun, the moon and earth’s horizon; we think of how the existence we have now is born of countless cycles of the earth circling the sun.  How many times has the cycle of leaning our head into the fire given way to leaning away and warming our feet as we make our watery rocky way around the sun?  How many times have people on earth passed from light to darkness without a candle and match, or a switch to flip?  How did the sun give birth to us?

How does the moon change our world from day to day?  How does the sun change the moon?  How are we all connected?  These are the questions astrology answers, this is the gift of our ancestors.

Follow the sun, follow the moon, look at the real horizon. 

Containing Infinity: Neptune conjunct Pluto in 1398

We study astrology to understand the universe in its infinite permutations, to contain the universe within our minds.  Much of what we call science is really engineering, or an endeavor to manipulate parts of the universe.  Astrology is not about changing reality, but about observing it in the context of time and space.  We measure time by the lights that travel through the day and night sky.

As we follow the lights of the sun, moon and other planets we see that their patterns of movement are as complex as multiple traffic clovers at 5:00 in the evening.  Many people believe Newton figured out the defining equation for gravity when an apple fell on his head, because the fallen fruit and his equation for gravity are all that’s left of him in school books; but outside of government issued textbooks there is a Newton who spent a lifetime studying the time tables saved by generations of people who saw the sky as an extension of earth.  I’m talking about real time, like when the noon sun makes a line perpendicular to the horizon, or the moon is 180 ° from the sun on a circle of 360 parts. 

Astrology has been a victim of its own success; natural philosophers came up with such a teachable system, that powerful people with the will to conquer and lacking the motivation to learn, could charge others with creating simple devices to imitate it.  Calendars were so simple, yet so like the real thing, that any civil servant could administer the ruling government’s schedule in far flung conquered lands.  No need to observe the heavens from one night to the next and consult tables of where the planets should be seen, just mark off blocks on a calendar every time the sun comes up, collect tribute from the vanquished on the 30^th block and that was that.  Villagers learned that they didn’t need an astrologer to read the heavens, the blocks on the calendar told them when the ruling government allowed celebrations, and that’s when time started coming down to earth. 

I’m making it sound so imperialist, and it was, and people did fight back, as documented in the Adventures of Asterix and Obelix; but ultimately natural philosophers gave way not just to calendars, but paved roads, aqueducts, indoor plumbing, homogenized milk, electric lights and trash compactors.  So much technology has come between us and the real heavens.  Somewhere along the way we got this story of a Jew murdered by the Roman government that sits at the right hand of his old man in heaven.  It sounds bizarre, but the same people that repeat this strange story every Sunday help build the roads and the internet, making it virtually possible to be in more than one place at the same time; so why shouldn’t they believe that a political prisoner assassinated by the Romans can come back to life and float up to the sky like a helium balloon escaped from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?

In 1398 (calendar time) the planet Neptune was lined up in the solar system with Pluto, in a meeting that we witness once every 493 years.  Each successive meeting occurs only 6 degrees further along in the zodiac from the previous rendezvous, so it takes 5 of these nearly five hundred year cycles before a meeting takes place in a new sign (30 degrees in a sign), and 60 cycles before their point of conjunction returns to the same segment of the zodiac.  The 1398 meeting took place at 4 degrees Gemini; the first meeting in 2,500 years to occur in a sign associated with abstract reasoning.  The two meetings in the millennium previous to 1398 took place in Taurus, a primitive earth sign associated with the formation of roots.

The 1398 Neptune/Pluto conjunction in Gemini marked our first major historic period in 2.5 millennia when we poked our leaves out of the soil and learned to use the light of the sun; for over 10 years Neptune and Pluto could have been seen together (with the aid of a powerful telescope) progressing from the end of Taurus to the beginning of Gemini in the Renaissance night sky.  Oh!  But wait a minute; they didn’t have telescopes that could see Pluto back in the 14^th century, much less Neptune! 

Do two hands clapping from a distant planet make a sound?  Were Neptune and Pluto reflecting the sun’s light before humans invented telescopes to magnify it? 

What did happen when the modest gas giant caught up with the way out little rock?

“Wow, 493 years!  Damn it’s good to see you WeeMan.”

“You’re lookin good yourself, Little Cloud.”

 “That meeting with Uranus looked like a blast!” *

“Almost as wild as your meeting over in Aquarius with Saturn.  Yes, some very exciting works that won’t be read till the printing press, but the pipes are primed."

“We did have too much fun.  No one can best Saturn when he makes that turn at the Tropic of Capricorn, and by the time we met in Aquarius, well, you were there in the middle of the action though!”

“Oh yes; physics, geometry, they had a ball with the concept of infinity, went at it like fire and the wheel.  Excommunications all round, but the candle’s lit.  You know how things get rolling with Uranus in the neighborhood.  Yes, that was quite an eventful pair of conjunctions, and meeting Uranus half way to the tropic of cancer, I felt like Cinderella at the ball.  But I thought you would never get here!”

“Me neither.  I wonder how Mercury does this so often.”

“Not to mention earth’s moon, it makes me dizzy to think of so many conjunctions!”

“Lonely out here, but a lot less traffic…”

“Yup.  Easier to concentrate.”

“Looks like Saturn and Uranus are throwin some bolts over in Sagittarius.”

“Harvesting heretics.”

“How I have missed your black humor.” 

*In 1344 Uranus was conjunct Pluto in Aries while Saturn was finishing a conjunction with Neptune in Aquarius.

The Planets

The Planets

A Sun             Spirit

                         The flame of life- when we die, it goes out

B  Moon         Soul

                         The river of life- when we die, it is released from the body

O  Earth         Cross of Existence

                         We can only be in one place at a time

D  Venus         Plant

                         Earth rising up through the light of the sun

                               Spirit ruling over existence

E  Mars          Animal

                         The light of the sun rising up through earth

                                Existence ruling over spirit

C  Mercury       Mind

                          Earth and sun rising up through the river of life

                                Soul ruling over spirit and existence

F  Jupiter        Faith

                          Existence rising up through the river of life

                          Soul ruling over existence

G  Saturn         Tradition

                          The river of life rising up through existence

                                Existence ruling over the soul

           

H  Uranus         Revolution

                           The sun’s light rising up through souls divided in existence                                

                            

I  Neptune       Social Movement

                            Existence rising up through souls united

K    Pluto            Exile

                            Existence rising up through souls united in spirit

                 

                             

                          

                          

How Astrology Works

If you know most people eat lunch when the sun is at the midheaven, or sleep soon after the sun goes down, then you already understand astrology.  That’s all it is.  What happens when we have more or less light.  It’s a simple concept taken to the level of geometric calculus. We take any time and place on earth and analyze it according the events which come before and after, all organized according to the cycles of the solar system.  We begin with a moment and end with the universe.  We take a life event and place it within the context of infinity. Of course infinity must be broken down into comprehensible parts; it must be made finite...

the zodiac divides the infinite cycle of life into twelve finite parts.

Astrology is a language, but unlike most of the languages we learn to speak as children, it is spherical instead of linear.  It is a language that incorporates everything people knew in Hellenistic times about life, from agricultural cycles to those of the solar system.  Two thousand years ago, thanks to the Egyptians, Babylonians, Sumerians and countless other cultures that observed and mapped the heavens-  natural philosophers were able to articulate this cosmology of a blue ball floating in a sea of darkness and light, absorbing that light and spinning out of earth and water countless vessels capable of carrying that light for a few seconds or centuries at a time.

It is a complicated language, but the rewards are immediate.  The more we learn about the movements of our solar system, the more at home we feel in the real world.  The more we learn about astrology the more we know what our ancestors thought about time, heaven and the nature of existence.  We get a good idea of what philosophers meant when they used words like 'soul', 'spirit' and 'mind'.

Astrology is basically roots philosophy: to better understand Plato we study the language used during his time to describe the cosmos.

July Horoscopes

Aries:  Although your good news is received like Marco Polo’s amazing but true stories from the Orient, you are too preoccupied to get carried away in celebratory speeches. You have to sort through a mess of clues before your upcoming face off with They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Taurus:  On the heels of Independence Day your planet opposes Pluto.  While citizens confront each other about their so called rights, law makers and those charged with maintaining the peace are trapped in the middle, demonized by both sides.  It’s going to get worse before it gets better, but for now your modest acts of kindness support a sane society, which is what’s really at stake in this tug of war.

Gemini:  You are ready to have fun, but some practical limitation holds you back until the 8^th.  Then there is another problem called Mars, in your sign from June 21-Aug 3, stirring up passions and pricking you into action.  Don’t worry about feeling irritated; as soon as you meet the challenge at hand, you’ll feel very differently about what got you moving.

Cancer:  Venus enters your sign on the 4^th, bringing pleasant company and good vibes; but at the same time it will be hard to relax before the 9^th because of friendship or contractual obligations.  At the very end of the month Venus joins the sun in Leo, and a renewed fascination for the people you love contributes to your sense of security.

Leo:  You’ve got a test in humility at the beginning of the month, which will reinforce the classes in executive management you’re scheduled to complete over the next 10 years.  Your throne goes in storage till next summer, and you get a big desk with a filing system for sending invoices and paying bills.  July 29 starts your vacation.

Virgo:  If you’re one of those Virgo people that always have to be in control, this may not be such a fun month for you; there’s a lot of self expression on your list of things to do.  You do have some pressing communication that requires your grown up attention; but this month the inhabitants of the land of make believe would especially love to see you.

Libra:  This month you are a fine upstanding citizen in the country of do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Weeks one and two will cost you dearly, and you can expect to feel some resentment.  Hang in there till the 29^th and you’ll have a chance to tell war stories to some one who appreciates the sacrifices you’ve made.

Scorpio:  All this talking makes you want to crawl into a hole.  You don’t have to engage in every conversation, but the ones you do are like money in the bank.  By the end of the month you’ll be glad you took the time out for visiting while the opportunity lasted.

Sagittarius:  Mars opposing your sign makes this a challenging month.  It’s enough distraction to warrant moving practice to another field, if you had that luxury.  The upside is you have a whole month to figure out whether you can mentally adjust to this level of static.

Capricorn:  This month you get some tender loving care with a good dose of medicinal gossip.  The overdue acts of kindness are no problem, but at the beginning of the month, the grapevine will be.  As much as you appreciate the loving support and friendly conversation, you’ll have to stay on your toes mentally to steer shared news from away from the rut of criticism.

Aquarius:  On July 10^th begins our annual 5 month passage between the Sun and Uranus, an especially welcome retreat from the current supercharged revolution, not scheduled to peak until next summer.  Whether you’ve been out in the streets, or dismantling revered statues in more removed places, your attention will now be drawn to fulfilling contractual obligations and getting ready for an upcoming presentation.

Pisces:  Write it down, draw it; repeat the story.  Sometimes, it really does take years to make sense of a dream.  You won’t regret the time and effort it took to record the incomprehensible paths of the dreaming mind.

June Horoscopes

Our Sky Horoscopes also appear in The Triangle

Aries:  As the breastworks get under construction and all sides work to hold on to what they’ve gained, or not yet lost, keep in mind that all of this came about from people applying their minds to a problem as though their lives depended on it.  Your planet begins deal making on the 21^st; don’t take foolish propositions personally as the air is permeated with wishful thinking.    

Taurus:  Now that you’ve got the right company and a little elbow room you can actually accomplish more.  Starting June 10^th mounting distractions will make concentration difficult, but time-saving tips will be the tradeoff.

Gemini:  The opposite of a vampire, you thrive on light and know exactly how to use it.  By the 13^th you’ll be zipping around like a squirrel in its canopy of trees and insulated wires.  However, on the 19^th you begin a passage through ominously tender territory.  Stories about blood sucking demons are just that, good for thrilling those who know better or for controlling those who don’t.

Cancer:  Some babies cry the minute they have a dirty diaper, others cry only when we lay them down to change it.  The new disposable ones are so good at concealing the facts of life that baby can go all day without anyone realizing his wrapper is loaded with waste water.  This month it becomes clear; no matter how effective institutions are at turning out better diapers, we still need thoughtful grownups like you to change them.

Leo:  By the 23^rd you’ll feel like you can take a shower and shave, or maybe just soak in the tub awhile.  You will have zero control, but, according to the laws of luck and other factors, some mouse will be on its way to return past generosity.

Virgo:  On the 5^th you begin a year of experimentation, but first you have an obligation lasting through the 16^th to make sure everyone has the correct information.  In other words, whether or not you are a teacher, it is time to tally up the marks and get the grades out.  After that you can ride the currents of summer like a hang glider catching thermals.

Libra:  Your vacation begins on the 10^th; the weekend after that your charms peak as the industrious self control you’ve practiced over the last year makes a favorable impression on fascinating new friends.

Scorpio:  Sharing the facts is taboo for you, but starting on the 21^st you’re going to have to give a few up.  I can see you thinking, “How trustworthy is this person?  How much can I safely tell them?”  There is risk involved even after you make a penetrating assessment of the people you are dealing with.  Ultimately you have to take a chance; the contract will collapse without the relevant information.

Sagittarius:  The steam begins to dissipate on the 5^th and conservation becomes the new strategy.  Your commitment to the cause in the upcoming year will draw you into studious practice.  By the 28^th your planet will have gained enough distance from the Uranian revolution to concentrate on a revised code of ethics.

Capricorn:  If it seems as though everything comes to a standstill around the 12^th you’ll know you are right on schedule.  The Saturnian train is long and reversing course feels like a miraculous feat of engineering.  You’ll be able to see signs of advancement by the 22^nd.

Aquarius:  When Moses came down from the mountain to find all his comrades behaving badly, what did he do but go back up the mountain and write laws in stone.  Now that’s a serious dictator, but unlike pharaoh he fed the people without forcing them to build pyramids.  You may be brave enough and smart enough to whip pharaoh’s ass, but can you convince us to change our behavior?

Pisces:  I always wondered if Houdini got pissed off at cheap illusionists toward the end of his career because he was tired.  It must have been demoralizing to see fake spiritual fanatics raising the roof while he worked diligently to develop his skills.  Right now you are too busy testing your craft to worry about people appreciating your depth of devotion, but like Houdini, you are the one the students will come to when they want a real escape artist.

Astrology's Attraction

Is time a) the sun coming up in the east or setting in the west, or b) the little hand on the seven, big one straight up, or c) a seven and two zeroes.  Is time the moon appearing at sunset as a wry crescent just above the western horizon, like a looked-for signal light flashing from a mirror on a local mountain?  “So-and-so from the village will be back in time for dinner,” these promising reflections of the sun’s light say.  Or is it just numbered blocks in a document to be referred to in coordinating physical logistics?

I have lived with clock time since birth, and have managed with some difficulty to survive under its rule; but the discovery of real time was a welcome revelation.  I learned that I am not an organic robot, made to function for someone else’s purpose; my dad is the sun and I have a mom, the moon.  I am a creature of the universe, spun out of its dust, fire breathed into me, which I carry as long as I live.  When I die, that fire, poof, goes out.

What we get from the astrology born in Hellenistic times is an ornate geometric system, based on the movements of the planets and the cycles of nature, which sets out to mirror the processes of life.  It is a language whose purpose is to help observers categorize experience and look for examples in nature to gain different perspectives on moments that grab our attention.  It evolved as a wildly detailed meditation on how life’s events, as we experience them, are mirrored in the workings of the whole universe; how our joys, sorrows, birth, sickness and death are seen in the cycles of nature above and here below.  I see it as a gift from the generations uprooted in the wake of Alexander’s fury; they gave us this intellectual model of using natural geometric systems observed in nature to help us organize the chaos of  information in our minds. 

Most people think it is useless, this philosophical appendage of astronomy without demonstrable engineering applications.  I think that is exactly what draws many of us to astrology; it promises not to change the world, or save the world, but to help us interpret our experience from a more universal perspective.  Western astrology is the largely forgotten gift of the stoics, scantly valued in a time of rapid industrialization, when it is more important to motivate workers than it is to encourage enlightenment among a population.  

Circular Time

Can you imagine time as energy being spun out of infinite layers of concentric imperfect circles? 

May Horoscopes

Our Sky Horoscopes also appear in The Triangle


Aries: Though your historic party does not wrap up until June 5, you will be sidelined like a golf ball in a sand trap starting May 11. Don’t fret, just dig in with your characteristic strong will, and soon you’ll have help burrowing back to the rolling green.

Taurus: You begin May feeling like you’re in the middle of a wrestling match, but by the end of the month you’ll realize you’ve been dancing all along, it just didn’t feel like that until the 16th when you got to choose the music.

Gemini: The Twins start with some seriously fancy syncopated footwork and wrap it up with a few graceful and not so graceful (May 20, 21) twirls. You can edit out any stumbles later, or leave in the best face plants for future entertainment.

Cancer: By the time you sit down to dinner on the 24th you will have begun the process of letting go. Of course the chores of caretaking won’t be finished, but you will finally give up and babble like an infant or a resident in an asylum. These linguistic ramblings get you loosened up for an upcoming project.

Leo: Whatever you are building, the best help will show up on the 16th, and you get your chance to show how cool cats get kittens to help out on the job by turning it into a big production.

Virgo: For you and the Twins, May 11 and 21 are the challenging points where you have to think and act with determination. May 11 you have to choose and the 21, act; and we’re not talking about on a stage facing well dressed people in cushioned seats under warm lights, but then again acting is acting where ever we do it. You’ll be back in your own element on the 16th when you can get your hands on the keys.

Libra: As a typical atheist, Alhamdulillah sticks in my craw. But I am still alive while all around, people are wounded, sick and dying with little or no help available to them. Gratitude for the ability to keep going helps us carry on with a smile when the going gets tough. It also helps to look forward to the 16th when we can start putting things back in order.

Scorpio: Because you had the courage to lend a hand, you can hope for assistance not too long after you hit the skids on the 11th. You’ll have to hang on by the hair of your chin for almost two weeks, but then the patient fixer will pull up in the driveway.

Sagittarius: Having strong comrades at your side colors confrontation with the celebratory air of a party. But when one of the gang goes down the fight takes on a new dimension; you are reminded you’re not just defending an ideal, you are fighting for survival.

Capricorn: You are right to make sure everyone gets a chance to be themselves, as the month progresses you will get to see individuals whose unique qualities you have supported, gain stability as they overcome challenges.

Aquarius: You love them unconditionally the way a mother loves a child. You see in them hope for the future and so when trouble gets stirred up among the rank and file you take it as seriously as you would a feverish baby and do your best to exhibit calm control while identifying the source of anxiety.

Pisces: Willie Wonka is back to rule the land of pure imagination; last time he (Neptune) was ruling we got a sensational collection of ghost stories and the Fox sisters spiritual entertainment duo. Wouldn’t it be cool if someone started channeling messages from the microorganisms inhabiting our bodies? You’ll get a chance to hear stories from the other side in the last 2 weeks of May; the first half of the month is devoted to the field work of living the drama.

Mercury Retro in Aries

This Sat, April 23, 2011 mercury stops, turns around and returns to forward motion. In other words the planet of the mind will have finished its passage between us on earth and the sun. Normally these periods are only noticed for a few dropped bits of communication that are remedied with little inconvenience. No real harm done by the distraction of watching this 'train passing' in our solar neighborhood.

It may seem silly that we are so drawn to an event that after all occurs a few times every year; but if we see this solar system as our home, and the planets as our neighbors, and our friendship with them as dating back to the first generations of ancestors who followed their movements and wrote about them, the attraction to them when they pass between us and the bright kahuna becomes more understandable. When we, as a society, recognize the passing of our hot footed friend, we honor the urge among sky worshipers to take a break from daily tasks and observe the great mind of the universe.

Regardless of whether we as a society recognize tracking the movements of our celestial neighbors as a worthwhile pastime, (our slavish devotion to clock and calendar are evidence that we do not), the current unfolding of planetary events is not conducive to meditation on our sheltering sky. With an abundance of planets in the high energy sign of the spring equinox, events which demand attention for our survival are unfolding so quickly that we have no choice but to turn our gaze from the planets and apply our minds to the emergencies at hand.

So this passage of mercury flies by in a swirl of activity, for once not imposed by a society that ignores the real heavenly sphere, but by a series of natural emergencies generated by the movements of the solar system and our planet.

Neptune in Pisces

Neptune entered Pisces around 12pm EDT April 4, 2011; ruling the roost for the first time since the surrender of Fort Sumter at the beginning of the Civil War. The eruption of systematic national violence in 1861, was within a day of Neptune leaving its base of power and entering the high speed, explosive territory of Aries. It ruled as long as it was in the swimming sea, but as soon as it crossed into the land of exploding seeds, the undulating schools of fish were scattered in a flash of chaos. With Neptune in Pisces the question is where are we going? On which current are we traveling? We instinctively scan the horizon, searching for land rising up from this seemingly endless sea. We have no other recourse, but to trust the stories given to us, about the lives of countless generations; who obviously, ultimately, took root and flowered.

We are all capable of rational thought and understand that violence lies always up ahead, and existence is a web of possibilities and threats, sometimes confusing and others clear as the translucent drops of dirty wash water sparkling as they are thrown into the light of the sun. We know that everything returns to earth and that the earth is often swallowed by the sea. We know nothing is guaranteed, that a highly unlikely ill timed moment of distraction is all it takes, and we are on our way to the other side.

Sometimes we just have to feel lucky to be alive.

Uranus in Aries

Saturday  April 9, 2011

As Uranus completes its first of 98 new moons in the sign Aries we look back on the last time it was in this aggressive sign.  But first, when I say 98 new moons I do not mean that every one of them will be in Aries.  It is a high energy coincidence that Uranus entered the territory of Aries just nine days before spring equinox.  To get things charged up even more, when the moon met the sun, on April 3^rd, we also had mercury, Jupiter and mars in Aries.  As I begin writing this post, on April 9, the moon has waxed from the thin crescent it was in Aries to its first quarter and moved onto the sign Cancer; but we of course still have mercury, Jupiter, the sun and mars to keep Uranus company as it begins its 7 year Arian passage of rapidly increasing light. 

When the sun moves in to Taurus at the end of the month things should calm down a wee bit.  The problem is that by then venus will have entered Aries!  As our queen of balance and tranquility, she has a big challenge ahead.

Monday  April 11, 2011

Here we are two days later with the moon well advanced in the sign Cancer, and boy do I feel tender.  I’ve been in bed for the last two days with a cold rag over my head.  Last night I made my son cook dinner, and today the dishes and laundry are piled high. 

Uranus in Aries:  originality, excitement and inevitably there will be violence.  Nothing gets us going like a disturbing disaster or even a close call.  Adrenalin.  All Aries.  Aries is birth, the coming into existence of something that a moment ago was no more than a dreamy idea; the wet baby that was a dry black and white shadow on a computer screen.

What happens when the light is small, slow and distant, coming from a gas giant rolling around the outskirts of the hood, low rider anthems blasting from the speakers?  It can feel pretty threatening and in fact is.  It clearly was in April 1927, the last time Uranus started its term as an in-your-face iconoclast.  Honest.  What you see is what you get.  Like a duck running across pavement, you just can’t ignore those webbed feet slapping away on the hard, flat surface.

Here we are 84 years later, the ‘other’ ringed planet once again rolling on its giant bass-thumping wheels into the rough neighborhood. “Thank goodness,” say those of us with a low tolerance for adversity, “there at least is a civil sheriff in town.”  Back in 1927 this passage was accompanied by a lot less stirring up of the dust; the chorus was more of a march and a lot more organized.

Another thing that was a lot more peaceful about the Uranian spring of 1927 was that the martial element started out weaker than the rulers; the sun met mars in Libra in October of 1927.  The martial element at that point was diplomatic and shortly after, when they did gain power, exercised it more passively through shrewd politics.  So the beginning of this passage in 1927 was a lot less dramatic and chaotic than what we are experiencing now.

Another interesting and statistically significant difference between the current and the former Uranian crossing into Aries is the position of Neptune: in 1927 Neptune was in the last year of a 10 year old party in Leo; this month it enters its home territory of Piscean romanticism after a long, sobering passage through the Aquarian highlands.

It is hard to find another point in recent history when so many people have been so pumped up and eager to believe in fantasies.

Thank goodness indeed for the civil sheriff.  In October of next year (2012) that authority figure will cross over to Scorpio entering an arena where they are forced to deal from their gut instead of their head.  They will be organizing power plays and manipulating from behind the scenes.  The winds will die down, and many of the fires in the streets will have long since been extinguished.  Our attention will again be focused on the minutia of daily existence, rather than the eruptions of righteous citizens.

The Importance of the Moon in Astrology

Saturday  April 9, 2011
Well the moon will still be in Gemini all day.  It is a beautiful crescent tonight, quite high in the western sky, and as usual on a new moon I feel hopeful.  Even in the years before I knew anything about astrology, or much less followed the moon, I felt hopeful on those rare evenings when that smiling crescent magically appeared in the west as I walked home from the dinner shift at Balentine's Cafeteria.  I was almost 21, about to come out as a lesbian, completely estranged from my family and very alone in the world.  I suppose that was how I prepared myself for the big step, by leaving my family.

I remember riding my recently purchased motorcycle to visit a nun from the Daughters of Charity who worked for the local diocese; I felt so free with a paid week of vacation from work and my first personal vehicle, I had to go exploring, and found myself sitting in this woman's office for an unannounced visit.  I've always been into spontaneity and this is one of those occasions when it really paid off.  In those days I went to mass several times a week and felt at home in the Catholic Church.  I had received some literature from this nun's order and one of the sisters from out of town had dropped in for a visit with me when I lived at the YWCA.  I guess that is how I wound up sitting in the office of Sister Mary Henry on that beautiful sunny day.  I thought I was just a happy young person who really enjoyed meeting new people.  I didn't realize how seriously I was searching for answers to life's big questions.

I suspect I talked mostly about myself, Sister MH was at least in her late 40's and a very sober woman.  Looking back it seems as though she guided me with the deft moves of a magician, but I suppose I was just so eager to understand what it was that these people who I admired so much knew, that I jumped at every suggestion with literally no idea of what I was getting into.  Her first suggestion was that I come back for another visit, I think she asked if I would like to, and of course I thought that was a wonderful idea.  I had a date for a visit with a cool nun.  I guess it was more of an appointment, but the important thing was it gave me something special to look forward to; a new friendship.

It wasn't a friendship though, it was something more important.  It was an intervention.

On the second visit with Sister Mary Henry I don't think I was in her office for more than 10 minutes before I suddenly and unexpectedly broke down in tears.  I was shocked, but what could I do?  Sister Mary however seemed completely comfortable with my sudden tears.  They did not bother her a bit.  She actually behaved as though there were nothing strange about this obvious lack of self control and exhibited only patient curiosity.  I had stumbled into the office of a professional social worker and had no idea of the turn my life was about to take.

After a 45 minute discussion it came out that I had not spoken with my mother in a year and this was the second time I had broken down in tears since she returned a Mother's Day present that I had sent her.  I thought I was over it and happy in the big world where I could skydive, ride a motorcycle and come home from work to a peaceful apartment with nothing but a good stereo to interrupt my thoughts.  The tears suggested otherwise.  Then Sister Mary Henry made a very brave offer: she would be in Wilmington the following month, if I made the arrangements with my mother, maybe the three of us could get together for a meeting.

Before I tell about the meeting with Mom and Sister Mary Henry, even if you are Catholic, you might be too young to understand what lurks in the minds of many older Catholics.  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce would be the best description of the really strange things too many older Catholics believe.  My Mom was one of those Irish Catholics whose paternal grandparents escaped the Emerald Isle, but not the long  arm of the Roman Catholic Church.  Her mother's mother was from Poland, and believed cats went to heaven, so I think this stuff did not come from her mom's side of the family.

I rode the Greyhound or the Trailways bus to Wilmington, and we had the meeting in an office of the local church.  I had  given up the motorcycle after a few short months, which may seem kind of sad, but if I had ridden the bike to Wilmington, things would not have turned out as they did; and here I go again with Tolstoy, looking back it appears to have been destined. 

My Mom was her usual outspoken my-daughter-must-be-a-virgin-at-all-costs.  I really think in  those days she honestly thought her MOST important job in life was to make sure her daughters did not have sex before they married or entered the convent.  She said it was the dream of every Catholic family to have a daughter enter the convent or a son the priesthood.  You gotta be Catholic to understand.

Something came up about my friend from religious retreats leaving a condom in the toilet after spending the night with my apartment mate.  Yes I had a habit of telling my mother everything, except what I didn't tell her, which in high school she had found in letters stuffed between the mattress and the box spring.  I thought I was withholding the damning facts, but apparently not.  She damned me right in front of Sister Mary Henry for the condom in the toilet.  Somehow that made me a slut. Believe it or not I was still pretty innocent back then, and I still didn't get the whole deal about sex.  It would take coming out as a lesbian to figure that one out.  But I had been called a slut so many times, and heard my brother's girl friends called sluts, and Mom was so loud and red in the face as she attacked me for living with a roommate that blah blah blah.  And I really didn't care.  I had Sister Mary Henry for a friend, or at least someone who didn't freak out when I cried, and I was ready to move on.  In the last year I had forgotten about all the yelling that went on for such incredible lengths of time.

The nice thing was, for once I did not feel embarrassed about my mother's behavior.  Somehow, Sister Mary Henry made this too seem perfectly normal.  When my mother paused to catch her breath, Sister asked me about Ellen and Jimmy and I told about how they had gone off to the mountains and I would be going up in the summer for their wedding.  She asked if the condom in the toilet bothered me, and I told her that it did, and that I had told them so, but they just said they were sorry and they were still my friends.  The whole exchange made me realize that even though I was scandalized by the thing in the toilet, they were still my friends.  I felt that they loved me, and I loved them.

Sister just nodded thoughtfully.  It was the first time I had weathered one of these maternal tirades since I had decided not to go home at the end of my sophomore year in college.  Then the tornado was all about how I would discover how hard it was to live in a world where no one cared about me, but it would be too late because I had burned my bridges...

Now my mother was a smart woman; she was always deeply involved in local politics, knew the history of the town where she grew up, any town where she lived or visited for more than a day, and took great pleasure in reading and telling stories of politics and history.  She was often up until 2 or 3 in the morning with the television going and a newspaper on her lap.  As the years went by and the media became more saturated with news talk shows, she soaked it up and spoke freely to the talking heads on the tube.  She always remembered what they had said before they got elected or when they held an appointed office.  This woman who declared in all seriousness that her best friend couldn't get a husband because she was too opinionated, could hold her own against any politico.  She was a formidable figure for any daughter to look up to.

I remember as a child proudly tagging along to the town parade and helping to pass out campaign bumper stickers;  Mom often campaigned tirelessly for people she supported to gain elected office.  As the high school bands came marching down the street, I could feel tears welling up in my chest.   The country was in the middle of the war in Vietnam and many nights on the news we saw footage of burned down villages and screaming women running with babies in their arms.   I did not understand why the marching bands made me think of all the people suffering and dying in Asia, I only knew I could not allow her to see this, she would be exasperated and send me off to get myself back under control.

My father often told her she was too perfect and wanted everyone else to be perfect; this would be when she railed at him for his habit of drinking a six pack or more of Schaefer each night.  This was another example of a thought which I calculated should be kept to myself, and guarded for years in an attempt to wish away the critical judgments I held against others:  I thought she simply wanted to have her own way.

Even though I'm not sure of my mother's real age, I'm sure she was not born before 1928.  She gave me 1933 as her birth year, but that didn't jive with the adventures she often recounted of her move to Washington DC at the end of WWII.   When she died, it appeared from documents that she was born the day before Christmas, 1928.  This was the first year of Neptune in Virgo, a very difficult place of rules and regulations for dreamy Neptune to be saddled and bridled with a bit in her mouth for 14 long years. 

My father was at least 4 years older and known by all as the most easy going member of the family.  He never missed a day of work, always had a dumb joke and rarely came home from work without a pack of mint lifesavers in his jacket pocket.  We loved to play with his 'mechanical pencils.'

Mom often yelled in the middle of tirades that she was tired of wearing the pants in the family.  Dad would just quietly sip beer and watch the news.  His patience with her was amazing.  Or maybe it was determination.  Only now can I look back and see that he really loved her, and was probably thinking about her family and what he knew she had been through.  He was probably wishing that this beautiful determination of hers to remake the world as it should be could be penetrated by the admiration he felt for her and that they could relax and enjoy life together.  He was probably afraid this would be one of those times he would have to give up the beer for a week or so to get her off his back.

The last time my father had driven me back to college at the end of the summer break, Mom's brother was visiting from Buffaloe and rode along with us.  Of course there had been a fight before takeoff, and as usual it did not seem to bother Dad.  Uncle Joe cracked a joke about her temper and I worried out loud if she would follow through with the threats she had made as we pulled out of the driveway.  Dad just said, as if he were acknowledging the frustrations of being trapped inside on a rainy day, "Your mother's a difficult person to live with."  I was shocked; that was the most negative remark I had ever heard him make about her.

Now as I post this installment of MP's childhood, I must tell you that it has been two days since I began the essay, and the moon is now in Cancer growing its second quarter.  I hope you'll come back tomorrow to read the rest of the story.

Our Sky Daily Sat April 9, 2011

By 5:30 tonight EDT the moon will have entered the sign Cancer. Tonight's crescent will be thick and high in the western sky at sunset. Luna's growing light, now well in advance of the cluster associated with earth's current turmoil, will concentrate our attention this evening on issues of family and home.

Pluto is stationary today, before sunrise here in NC he placed his right toe smartly behind his left foot and made an about face: he's in Capricorn now so even this apparent change in direction comes with an air of purpose. It is a political retreat and must be executed with utmost seriousness even if there is a posse of agitated spinning tops kicking up the cosmic dust three signs ahead of him.  Tiny as pluto is, he moves so slowly that his message can feel like the lowered crossing rail in front of a 150 car stopped train blocking the road on the way home from work.  Patience.  Fortitude.  Or turn around and take another route home.  That's only if you are in a hurry, otherwise sit at the crossing for some meditative moments and imagine working on one of those massive beasts traveling what Frank Norris called The Octopus in his 1901 novel.

Yesterday I said I would finish the examination of our recent sun/mars conjunction- this is not a completion but a second installment:
When the sun took its big tumble in 1964 we were at the bitter end of the 114 year uranus/pluto cycle. Their last meeting had been in 1851.  1851-1965- an extended century born in weary struggle for the birthrights of all individuals.               
When uranus and pluto were conjunct in 1851, neptune was closing in on a 500 year old appointment with pluto (due in 1890). Neptune and pluto had last met in 1399 in Gemini and were about to reconnect right back in the same sign where they had mixed it up in mortally profound discussions concerning communication and rational thought.

So in 1851 as a very tired, highly romanticized struggle for the rights of individuals came into the light, we were in the mature, poetic stage of  a centuries old quest for communication above and beyond quill and scroll.

Let's fast forward to the 1965 conjunction of uranus and pluto, this time in Virgo, the sign of technology and the apprentice.  Here we experienced a renewed turmoil for the rights of individuals; this time the battle was led by students.  This is the seminal historic period that informs our current crises: since their meeting uranus has advanced a quarter of the way into its 115 year cycle with pluto.  A quarter- not half, or three fourths of the way around and back again to meet the existential truth of an icy rock on the edge of the solar system.  This is the most vulnerable period of the cycle for uranus; the preschool stage of revolution.  The seed has exploded (1965), the roots have extended down into the ground, leaves for catching sunlight have opened and now the first tender stalk is reaching up to the sun.

more tomorrow...

Our Sky Daily April 8 Featuring Sun/Mars conjunction from Feb 2011

Today we Examine Sun/Mars conjunction from Feb 2011

As we look at our nifty sky maps today we see mercury is only a day away from retracing its steps to the sun and it is arriving just in time to get in on the sun's meeting with jupiter.  This is party time for those who like philosophy or just thinking about the meaning of life.  

So in my little salon we are going to review the last 4 months focusing on the conjunction of  the sun and mars.   We see these planets come together about once every 25 months; the big ball of nuclear fusion and the martial element.  Normally I would think of Alexander reviewing the troops in Tolstoy's War and Peace when I see a conjunction like this; but this year was special.  It's not often that we see this conjunction in Aquarius, or see so many dictators get thrown out on their butts.  Astrologically speaking we haven't seen anything like this since the sun met mars in 1964 in- can you guess which sign?   Aquarius. 


As time progresses we see these extravaganzas take place about one or two signs ahead of where they occurred on the preceding meeting.  For instance the last time mars was overtaken by the sun was early Dec 2008 when they met in Sagittarius, an electric place for the sun, shining to the right of our feet if you think of the north pole as our head.  Keep in mind that zodiac signs are poetic shorthand to describe the angle of the sun's light shining on the earth.  This February they met two signs farther along than in 2008, in the sun's most difficult sign: Aquarius.  The sun rules in Leo (How we worship it in summer!) and is in its fall during the opposing month of Aquarius. 

Now without talking about the placement of historic planets like neptune and uranus, we already have a moment of historic proportion:  the blazing ball is without power and mars is descending from the top step of the Olympic podium where it had just received its gold medal.  This is the first time since 1964 that the shining gravitational center had been so weakened as it came upon the recently exalted troops.  This is what astrologers mean when they say a planet is in its fall, and in this neighborhood, the sun is the biggest and brightest of us all.

Tomorrow, when mercury is confiding to us directly from the line of the sun, we will put this year's sun/mars meeting in the context of the pluto/uranus conjunction of 1965.

Recent Sun/Mars Conjunctions

Feb 5, 2011   A ! E 16°k

Dec 6, 2008   A ! E 15°i

Oct 23, 2006   A ! E 0°h

Sept 16, 2004   A ! E 4°f

Aug 10, 2002   A ! E 18°e

July 2, 2000   A ! E 11°d

May 13, 1998   A ! E 23°b

March 4, 1996   A ! E 14°l

Dec 27, 1993   A ! E 6°j

Nov 8, 1991   A  ! E 16°h

Sept 29, 1989   A ! E  7°g

Aug 25, 1987   A ! E 2°f

July 18, 1985   A ! E 26°d

June 3, 1983   A ! E 13°c

April 3, 1981   A ! E 14°a

Jan 20, 1979   A ! E 29°j52`   Almost!  8 minutes away from k.

Feb 17, 1964   A ! E 28°k  Bingo!