Mercury Overtakes Earth Again!

 Once again Earth is overtaken by Mercury.  You would think after 4.5 billion times around the Sun the larger planet inhabited by the children of GOD would catch on to the little booger’s technique for getting ahead.

Mars Slowing Down and The High and Low of a Daily Revolution

Before diving in to these Aquarian maps of the solar system I want to tell the story of a friend learning Tai Chi.  She is taking Tai Chi for the second time after an aborted attempt over 15 years ago.  After plenty of concentration, practice and returning to the first level class right after completing it, her joy in what she has learned is infectious.  Every time she talks about this new skill she is learning she recalls the first time she tried, so many years ago, and how discouraged she was.  There was only one teacher for more than 10 students, and she was taking the class at night after a long day at work and caring for a family.  This time she is retired and taking the class with a group of people dedicated to sharing this physical form of meditation with the wider community, and this time she is having much more success.

When she showed me some of the movements she has learned, it seemed as though energy was being made visible through the graceful motions of her hands, arms and entire body.  The motions looked elegant, yet had required weeks of sorting out which direction to move, and when, for every part of the body.  Even as I was amazed at the beauty of her movements, she was laughing about how clumsy she was compared to more experienced members of her group.

Like Tai Chi, astrology is a lot harder than it looks.  Even with someone leading you through the concepts, it requires diligent concentration to visualize what seems like a very simple system of planets circling a fiery ball.  Do not be discouraged if you have trouble making sense of the pictures and numbers.  Begin with something that intrigues you- for me it was the moon.   Study just one planet- and when you have 30 minutes where your mind is not occupied with daily tasks, try to picture how its cycle unfolds in the actual sky.  One short glimmer of life on this revolving sphere will make you feel so connected to real heaven - that chances are good you will want to see more. 

Earth catching up to Mars

The 3 featured planets for today are colorized; Earth, Sun and Mars.  Earth is getting ready to catch up with, and pass Mars.  Each day as earth gets closer to Mars, the planet of war seems to go a bit slower.  A month ago we were seeing Mars move forward 23 minutes a day, which is still pretty slow compared to 45 minutes a day last April.  Today it will only advance 10 minutes, or 1/6 of a degree.  (The sun appears to move about 1degree/day.) 

Next Friday Mars will advance 6 minutes, or 1/10 of a degree.  Friday, Feb 28 it will advance 1 puny minute, or 1/60 of a degree.  It will stand there, like a bunch of soldiers waiting for orders, Sat and Sun; then Monday it will go backwards one measly 60^th of a degree.

Fast forward to the future:

We will be lined up between Sun and Mars April 8.  Mars, the first planet beyond Earth’s orbit, is the cycle of separation; Venus and Mercury never get far from the sun, while Mars, with a cycle of only 2 years compared to Jupiter’s 12 gets to wander far and wide with the big ones.  So we associate this cycle with the process of separation.  This time around Mars spends 8 months in the sign Libra, it entered the sign of cooperation in early Dec 2013 and will not pass into Scorpio until July 26 of this year.  Every night, for the next several months, we can see the planet of war move across heaven at the balanced elevation of the celestial equator.  The warrior is learning to walk the tightrope of diplomacy.  Anyone born Oct 19-21 is energized by Mars today.

You can see Mar’s big sister Venus has recently overtaken Earth in her orbit.  She is now on her way and this summer will be approaching the far side of the sun from us. 

The High and Low of a Daily Revolution

Next up in this post –the first time on this blog - we zoom in for a close-up of earth, and show Raleigh’s high and low points in her daily trip round earth’s axis.  Today we reached our high point (Capricorn the goat) at 8:38am.  We were half way down to the bottom at 2:38pm. (Aries on the Midheaven)  Then, depending on the clouds, we will see Jupiter high in the sky when we are at the bottom (Cancer the Crab) at 8:38 pm.  

A point in the Northern hemishpere at its highest elevation is facing Capricorn on the Midheaven (MC)- while a point at its lowest elevation is facing Cancer on the MC.

Here are three charts for today showing when Capricorn, Aries and Cancer were on the Midheaven for Raleigh.

Raleigh was at the peak of her daily revolution at 8:38 this morn - the sign Capricorn was on the MC.  The midheaven is what we see when we look due south where the Sun is found at midday.

At 2:38pm Raleigh was half way to the bottom of her daily revolution and had already turned so the sun was getting ready to set in the west instead of rising in the east at 8:38am.  Any point on earth halfway down from the top faces Aries on the MC.

Cancer the Crab on the MC means we are at the bottom

Notice how the line for the Midheaven is straight up in Capricorn and Cancer, but inclined to the west for Aries.  When we are at the top or bottom of our revolution we can see as much of the ecliptic coming up in the east, as what we are turning away from in the west.  It is like climbing up one side of a mountain, and, upon reaching the top, being able to see equally what is on the side of ascent and what is on the other side where you are about to go down.  When you get half way down the mountain (Aries) you can’t see much of what was on the side where you came up, but you can see a lot of the side where you are descending.   When Aries is on the Midheaven and we are half way down, we can see more of the ecliptic coming up in the east than what’s going down in the west.

In a somewhat similar way, when we are at the bottom of our daily revolution, we see the path of the ecliptic highest in the sky, and we see an equal amount of it coming up in the east and going down in the west. 

There is not a chart today to show Libra on the midheaven.  When we are rotated half way to the top we can't see much of the ecliptic in the east, but we can see a lot of what is setting in the west.  Any chart for the northern hemisphere should show a line for a Libra midheaven inclined to the east, since the visibility of the plane of orbit is cut off in that direction.

Happy Birthday (a little late) to John Dancy-Jones!

This is one of the first charts I ever calculated way back in the days of the Thursday Night Open Poetry Readings.  I bought “The Handbook of Humanistic Astrology” at the Paper Plant, a very lucky find as back in 1985/6 there were few books floating around that explained how to calculate a chart.  

Here is a prettier version of the same chart.  I wrote that the moon in Sagittarius is the soul of a philosopher, but another sentence that can be made with that astrological placement in the 11th house of reputation is the soul of a publisher of wide repute.

 And last of all a chart for how the Raleigh Rambler has evolved up to this point in time, his 61st year.  This below is a progressed chart- a chart for 61 solar days after the moment (which may be approximate time) of John's birth.  The progressed moon in Pisces is about 18months into a 2 1/2 year period of swimming with the fishes in the wine dark sea. 

Happy Birthday John!

How Long it Takes a Sign to Rise

Watch as the line through the top of the circle labeled ‘MC’ moves back and forth like an inverted pendulum.

This is a series of charts to show the varying amount of time it takes for different signs to rise.  You can also follow the opening and closing of the line of the midheaven (MC).

The zodiac marches in regular time at the rate of 4 minutes/degree across the MC.  When we look due south (or due north from the southern hemisphere) we see the ecliptic move at a steady pace across the sky.  But when we look to the east or west it is a different story.  While Aries takes less than 1 ½ hours to rise, Cancer and Scorpio take almost 2 ½ hours.

The series begins with Aries rising and Capricorn on the midheaven.  The eastern sky opens quickly while Capricorn and Aquarius are crossing it (east is on the left), but begins to close when Pisces comes across.  The line representing the midheaven gradually moves back to the middle until it is straight up again in Cancer and then moves further and further east through Leo, Virgo, Libra and a few degrees of Scorpio.  In Scorpio we see the line begin moving back to the middle.  It snaps straight up from Sagittarius to Capricorn and the cycle begins anew.

I will make another post with a full explanation of how the chart maps our daily revolution from a specific point on the globe.

On the chart for Sagittarius rising don’t let the line pointing to the beginning of the 11th house (0degreesLibra04minutes) confuse you.  The MC is 11Virgo49.

Venus backs up almost all the way to Pluto

It was like a cross between a blown kiss and a peck on the cheek.  In fact, as I was putting my car in gear to back it down from the driveway Felix knocked on the hood and crossed his arms like a big X over his chest with the look of a sweet son to a grandmother.  I had been berating them for drinking and playing the music loud.  All they wanted was some juice in their battery so they could start the truck up and get the music going again.

“You know more than me,” Felix slurred humbly after I’d retrieved the cables from the trunk and was bringing them around to the front of our two cars where the two all night drinkers were waiting.

He gave me an opening and I pounced, “Are you drunk?” 

“A little bit.”  God I can see how she would have fallen for him.  But at the moment I am thinking of Eugenia washing dishes and cooking, and leaving before the sun comes up for her job at the bakery.

“And you’re going to drive drunk?”  Yes.  Yes.  You’ll see in a minute here.

“Nooh.  We just want the music.”  That’s all.  Why would I be on their case? “She’s not brava.”  This word I need to become more acquainted with.  Brava.  They usually ask me if my dog is brava, meaning I guess, does she bite?  I’m drifting in my mind like a car taking a corner a little too fast, wearing down those tires and swinging the occupants in a powerful arc, sometimes you just gotta take those turns in a hurry.

The cables are connected and I return to the driver’s side to start the engine.  I wanted America to do this but she deferred, I guess no matter how much I try to control it people must find it very evident that I am a steam roller today.  I tell them again not to play the music loud and tell Felix he should help his wife with the chores.

“She’s sleeping!”  He said.  I am turning ‘brava’ over in my mind as I look for the words.

“Yes.  But I’ve heard her yelling at you when she’s had you up to here!”  hand up to my eyes like showing how deep the snow is in Buffalo.  He laughs, the laugh of the relieved drunk.  They’ve got their music back and Maria is not mad.  They can pick a cd and get another beer.  Soon the others will be up and come drifting up to the truck.

But wait!  Maria can’t get into her car!  The key is locked in and the car is running.  Punctilious Maria, who would not give the cables to Felix until she had turned off the engine, has locked the keys in her car while it is running.  Oh no!  Yes, the 2^nd key is there on the hook in the kitchen.  How many little stumbles there have been just to get the music going! 

First America came in after a little back porch toke and wondered if I have cables Felix could borrow.   Sure, they are in the back of my car, I don’t know the word for trunk.  Here are the keys.

Then she comes back in several minutes later, asking about a different charger she’d seen me using that doesn’t need another car.  Oh, the plug in charger.  But “Why don’t they jump it off their car?”

“Because he's arguing with Eugenia.”

So I put shoes on my feet and take the plug in charger out to the fence.  “Oh.  Where are the big cables?  You plug this into the house?”

“Yes.  It takes at least two hours.”  And I realize they are picturing America describing one of those chargers that has power in ‘em, like a portable battery for giving the one in the car a quick boost.  “No.  This one doesn’t have any power in it.  You have to get the power from the house.”

Only after this series of exchanges do they push the car back in the driveway far enough for me to pull up beside it.  Meanwhile in my house I had given America my assessment of the situation.  “I don’t know how the women live with these men; with all the drinking and loud music.”  It’s 9:30 in the morning for Christ’s sake and their battery is already dead from an hour of loud music. 

“Well you must feel the same way about me,” says America.  So I have to explain the difference which she knows very well.  It is why she lives with me and not her sister.  She can’t stand living with a bunch of men who get drunk and yell and leave beer cans all over the yard and blast loud music at all hours of the day and night.  She lives with me because when she’s ready for the party to be over she sends her buddies home, shuts the door and returns to her peaceful existence.

“Look at Nati, she’s constantly cooking and cleans up after the whole bunch.  Same as Eugenia and Suzanna.  I don’t know how they put up with it.”  Nati is America’s sister.  They were both living together in a party house when I met them.  America slept on a cushion on the dining room floor with music blasting and at least 5 men, usually a whole bunch more partying in the yard.  Suzanna stayed in her room with her daughter and the television.  That’s back when I had energy to spare and loved the all night parties right down the street.  It wasn’t till I started having health problems that I began to resent people who could work all day and then party half the night. 

But that Maria is gone now, as Suzanna says, the Maria who danced out in the back yard with all the men in the neighborhood.  Christmas of 2012 I went over and asked them to turn down the music.  The windows on the house were shaking and I did it.  I did not go over for a plate of yummy food as they thought when they first saw me duck into the big tent.  No, I went right past the women and children to the dj and asked him to turn it down.  “Felix told me to turn it up,” he said.  So I had to approach the burn barrel with all the guys clutching their bud lights and coronas and get Felix.  “You have to turn it down,” I said.  “It’s too loud.”  Ooh poor Felix.  But they did turn it down and Felix was a sweet heart in the morning.

So, it has all turned out ok.  I did not want to be a good neighbor and put shoes on, so I chastised those men without mercy.  Now I sheepishly brought out the 2^nd key and laughed about how the one complaining of drunk and disorderly men had locked her keys in the car.  “Are you drunk Maria?”  Felix asked?

“No,” I said.  But immediately lit up with a mischievous smile and said “No, but I had a little toke this morning!” 

“I love you Maria!  Let’s get together!”  effused Jesus.  His nickname is Chupitas after a drunk and disorderly character on one of the Mexican comedy shows. 

“I don’t go with drunks.”  Laughs from both of them.  “But I would love it if you came over sober for a visit.”  Jesus/Chupitas is the most literate of the whole bunch.  Years ago I brought out a copy of “Los de Abajo” by Mariano Azuelas and Jesus was really excited to see it and have someone to talk about books with.  I’ve tried to get him to come over in between drinking with the guys, but it just never happened.  “I will!” he slurred, “You can help me get papers.”  That’s when I closed the door and Felix knocked on the hood to send me the hug through the windshield.

Sounds like the same tune that came on when I started my car is playing.  It started out just piano but now there are more instruments.  One of the many perks of living with a teenager is the music.  My son wants to hear something good and fiddles with the dial until he gets it.  I stopped listening to KNC when I kept getting the metal show.  But a lot of times I start my car after my son has used it and get the coolest music from Shaw or KNC.  This is great piano music, the kind of stuff that makes me glad to be human. 

By the time I’ve backed my car into its spot and am making my way up my driveway, they have the music going.  It sounds so fresh in the morning air. 

Charts for Rising Times of Signs

 

This is a series of charts to show the varying amount of time it takes for different signs to rise.  You can also follow the opening and closing of the line of the midheaven (MC).

The zodiac marches in regular time at the rate of 4 minutes/degree across the MC.  When we look due south (or due north from the southern hemisphere) we see the ecliptic move at a steady pace across the sky.  But when we look to the east or west it is a different story.  While Aries takes less than 1 ½ hours to rise, Cancer and Scorpio take almost 2 ½ hours.

The series begins with Aries rising and Capricorn on the midheaven.  The eastern sky opens quickly while Capricorn and Aquarius are crossing it (east is on the left), but begins to close when Pisces comes across.  The line representing the midheaven gradually moves back to the middle until it is straight up again in Cancer and then moves further and further east through Leo, Virgo, Libra and a few degrees of Scorpio.  In Scorpio we see the line begin moving back to the middle.  It snaps straight up from Sagittarius to Capricorn and the cycle begins anew.

I will make another post with a full explanation of how the chart maps our daily revolution from a specific point on the globe.

On the chart for Sagittarius rising don’t let the line pointing to the beginning of the 11th house (0degreesLibra04minutes) confuse you.  The MC is 11Virgo49.

Capricorn Jupiter Rising in the Chart of Lenny Bruce; the Mask of the Fallen Philosopher

Brenda used to pick up money every night for the club.  Lenny was staying at a motel nearby, so she’d pick him up too and drive him to work.  One evening they were passing a field full of flowers and Lenny yells, “Stop the car!”  He jumps out and starts running across the field, leaping around in the flowers and rolling in them and yelling gibberish.  Brenda thought he was insane; she didn’t realize he was high and just wanted to roll around in some flowers like any other junkie.  Then he got back in the car and they went to the club.     

                                                          From Last Words by George Carlin

                                                                                         And Tony Hendra

Progressed chart for April 1951 arrested for deceptive money making scheme

Above is the chart for the month he was arrested for soliciting contributions to a charitable organization and pocketing over 50% of the income.

Moon in Virgo in 9^th house of publication is a soul developing critical intellect through social justice.  No, you don't see his moon in Virgo in the above chart, we're talking now about his natal chart at the bottom of the post.

That moon in Virgo had been lined up with Neptune, the planet of collective vision, 16 hours before Lenny’s birth, so his soul was operating under the immediate influence of his generation’s great dreams.  While Neptune was at 24degrees Leo, those dreams concerned the worker’s understanding of entertainment and gross (as in mundane or pertaining to the real world) self expression. 

Libra Mars in the 10^th house of career had been passed by Sun back in Virgo (September) and at his birth the hero was one third of a sign behind the king (sun).  Lotta Libra!  Mars, Sun and Mercury.  Very balanced spirit, mind and inner soldier.  Even under attack, the hero can grasp the legitimate concerns of the attacker when Mars is in Libra, especially during the period when the big kahuna is passing through with clerk of court handily nearby.  Very civilized. 

And yet….there not far ahead in the zodiac is Saturn in Scorpio in the 11^th house of reputation and peers, an authority figure digging up the dirt and sifting for ballistic evidence of past battles. 

Finally, in the last house of fate and dreams is Sagittarian Venus, in the early stage (2degrees) of the zealous search for truth; this ruler of kindness and harmony is locked away in some institution or disabled through his/her own devotion to reform.

But back to the beginning, the first to rise in the east is Jupiter in Capricorn, taking chances with tradition and institutions. Jupiter in Capricorn is the teenager, the prophet, the philosopher, inside the social machine of shoulds, better nots and character shaping consequences.

In the house of communication, or language learned in childhood, is Uranus, the planet of social revolution in Pisces, the sign of compassion.

Pluto, the foundling that rose to stardom in the solar system, and then got demoted when the same strong telescopes that detected its distant reflection began to see numerous fragments of similarly small consequence as individuals; Pluto, named after the Greek god of the underworld had been in Cancer since the beginning of WW1  The planet of little consequence was almost half way through its long passage in the sign of the family and nationalism, in the section of Cancer associated with change, the Sagittarian duad or dodecatemoria, a romantically idealistic stage in the zodiac, a passionate nurturer of the exile. At the moment of Lenny’s birth in Mineola, NY Pluto was about to set on the western horizon, the area of the sky called the house of partnerships.  

I am posting both his natal chart and the chart progressed for the month he was arrested for a deceptive money making scheme, the Brother Mathias Foundation scam.      
    
The progressed chart at top of this post shows Jupiter exactly on his Capricorn ascendant.  Jupiter the teenager/prophet is in its fall in the sign of tradition and consequences; so this chart for the month he was arrested is a good example of the mask (ascendant) of a fallen gypsy.

Moon Meets Saturn in Scorpio

The old moon is up, a lovely large crescent still low enough on the eastern horizon that I can see it through the naked tree limbs.  I am washing dishes now that I am reenergized from an after dinner nap, and my kitchen window faces slightly east of south.

Tonight the lawsuit against teenagers for cyberbullying was up first on my attention grabbing Yahoo homepage, offering an inspiring example of moon meeting Saturn in Scorpio.  The planet associated with responsibility and consequences has been in the sign of secrets since Oct 2012.  By Dec 2014 it will have shed lots of outgrown skin and be ready for the next step in its 28 year cycle, the Sagittarian search for ….something.  What is the seed looking for when it travels on the wind?  A better life?  Or just a different one?  A fresh start?  Anyway, Saturn will still be in Scorpio for 10 more months, so there will be 10 more moments like this where the moon comes through and brings the protective gravity of nurturing parents into karma’s treatment of secrets.

I spotted Mercury tonight at least 20 minutes after sunset.  It has taken me over two years to catch that little bugger at sunset.  Earth Sky News had a headline about it being visible a few days ago so I went out tonight expecting another failure, but there it was, actually rather high on the western horizon, twinkling faintly above the lights of South Saunders Street. 

Now that I have gotten familiar with the movements of our neighbors in the solar system I am venturing a bit further…I studied the maps of our sun in the Orion Spur- and now imagine us on winter nights not just at the bottom of our daily cycle of revolution, but also facing away from the center of our galaxy as I look at the sword in Orion’s belt and recall the pictures of the Horsehead Nebula.  It has been a long road from elementary school wondering how people could possibly see hunters and crabs in the patterns of the stars to now feeling like I could go back in time and actually have intelligent questions to ask ancient astronomers about how they perceive the universe.  

In my internet surfing this week I landed for the second time on a wikipedia article ‘The Myth of the Flat Earth’; the article refers to Washington Irving’s ‘A History of the Life and Voyages Christopher Columbus’ and Thomas Jefferson’s ‘Notes on the State of Virgina’ as two recent promulgators of the myth.  Washington Irving was the author of the popular ‘Tales of the Alhambra’, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ and ‘Rip Van Winkle’.

Mercury Meets Saturn in Scorpio

And MP Goes on Hiatus

The climax was last night just after 8:06pm eastern time. 

I posted an essay (on the Our Sky Face Book group) earlier this morn about one responsibility I accepted yesterday and the stew of emotions it got bubbling.  This chart for the evening shows the many other wonderful things that the universe was spinning out in our corner of the galaxy yesterday.  I won’t tell about the lovely project coming to fruition in my family; I will just say that Venus is now reaching fulfillment in her cycle with Jupiter.  I will relate that as I was walking the second son home last night, Venus was bright in the western sky and the kindergartner was excited to share what he had learned about that wandering star; but that’s just one small blossom among the many that I can see currently unfolding.   

Mercury conjunct Saturn can be seen at the bottom of the chart, but were only visible at dawn yesterday.  Here in Raleigh the skies were clear and they were a beautiful pair on the eastern horizon before the sun came up.  Mercury is the most difficult planet to ‘catch’ visually because it is always so close to the Sun. 

Todd Clayton suggested I check out Michael Lutin’s astro site.  I have not done that.  I hope Todd will post a link; professional astrologers are a big help for people who do not yet know (it is always my dream that one day people will be as comfortable reading charts of the ecliptic as they are reading clocks and calendars) how to read a chart.  One of the most valuable psychological skills we neglect to develop by turning away from these old teachings is the ability to outline the conflicting thoughts and motivations which compete in our minds.  Astrologers show the resulting tensions as part of the natural unfolding of life.

Look who the Moon is approaching- Mars!  They only meet twice in Virgo this year compared to 9 times in 2011/2012 when Mars was retro in the 6^th sign of ripening to perfection.  Our upcoming Martial entrenchment from Dec 8, 2013- July 26, 2014 will occur in the sign Libra.  Prolonged challenges to our Venusian sense of beauty and fairness are on the way; we will be following Venus closely since it is the planet that rules Libra.

I leave you all with that.  An old family friend agreed to let me interpret his chart for practice, and for the last two months I have been searching for a block of time to focus on recording the reading.  Until I finish with that project I will not be posting.  Till then – mazel tov

What the Ancients Wanted to Say

About the word cryptic; Webster's Dictionary includes both Old Norse hreysi-heap of stones, and Lithuanian krauti-to pile up, with the more familiar Greek kryptein-to hide, as origins for the word crypt. I like 'heap of stones' because it echoes the image of the tip of an iceberg showing above water, an apt way of illustrating the depth of meaning tucked within each letter of these older languages.

Without extensive understanding of the relationships between the signs and planets, astrology is still a very beautiful language; but the real treasure is in the network of connections which are not immediately apparent. It is nice to know that the circle with the dot in the middle is the symbol for the Sun and that Venus is the circle with the cross underneath; but to see in the symbol for Venus the relationship between the sun and existence on Earth, which is what the cross stands for- the point of intersection, a specific location in time and space, a limited experience in physical existence; to see in Venus not just the goddess of beauty, but a philosophical construct about the nature of life on a planet in a solar system with other planets, gives a firmer grasp of the knowledge outlined in the language. To also know the cycle of Venus brings even more understanding; for instance to know that the cycle of Venus mirrors the period of human gestation, to know Venus is never visible for more than a small fraction of the night right after sunset or before sunrise; to know how much time Venus spends retrograde, how often it is lined up with other planets and in what order it moves from one to the next; and to be able to compare that with the cycles of the other planets, gives a deeper understanding yet of the 'meaning' behind the symbol of the circle over the cross.

In Spanish the expression for 'meaning' is 'wants to say.' That really bothered me when I first started speaking Spanish among my new friends. There must be some word for 'mean' as in "what does this word mean?"

"Wants to say." Now I appreciate that expression. It is perfect for describing the purpose of astrology. To seek an understanding of what astrology means is to search the language for what the people who devised it were trying to say. To study astrology is to study what the ancients 'wanted to say.'

They wanted to say so much more than the Sun conjunct Mars spells trouble with a capital T. They wanted to say life is not nearly as chaotic and ruled by chance as it may seem, that observation of the universe out there, beyond life in these beastly bodies, actually helps make sense of our beastly behaviors.

It is all there in this old language. Start with the rock on the top of the pile, maybe it is a planet, maybe it is a marker for a section of the ecliptic that has been given a poetic mascot for its name, such as Capricorn the Goat for when we are rotated to the highest point in the cycle of Earth's rotation on its tilted axis, or Cancer the Crab when we are at the lowest point, under the Earth, looking up at the plane of planetary orbits. Every symbol is just a poetic way of talking about the mechanics of Earth's motions in the celestial sphere. Don't let the sign posted in the heap of rocks distract you from the whole story of what the ancients wanted to say.

Venus Enters Capricorn

Well I had in mind to talk about Venus entering Capricorn today and getting a new team of dispositors.  Dispositor is the astrological term for what I call a subcontractor, or some might call expert.  The people newscasters introduce to explain a complicated situation, referred to as authorities, are like dispositors.  The dispositor is the planet best equipped to dispose of the task at hand. Today with Venus entering the sign Capricorn, the task is to build something, or keep a structure in existence, through times of low energy.  The authority on keeping things together, when there is a deficit of energy, is Saturn.

So Venus is leaving the umbrella of Jupiter (Link to Venus entering Sagittarius post) and coming under the roof of Saturn.  The planet of making the best of what there is, is now crossing through the territory where there isn’t very much.  This is a tough place for beauty (Venus), and while Saturn is away on private business (Saturn still has another year in Scorpio) it is even more challenging—because, taking a look at our List of Rulerships we see that Scorpio is ruled by Mars. 

Don’t get lost.  We went from Venus to Saturn, because Venus is in Capricorn, the land ruled by Saturn.  Now Venus has to look at what Saturn is doing if she wants to survive in his territory.  We look and see that Saturn is in Scorpio, which is ruled by Mars.   

Here’s the deal with Saturn; it is kind of like a parent with the responsibility of keeping things together through hard times.  If you put that parent in an atmosphere of moral and physical break down (Scorpio), well, I guess it is kind of like sending an experienced drill sergeant in to shape up demoralized troops.  There is a big difference between training new recruits who have no idea what they are getting into and training people who know very well what war is all about.  Saturn in Scorpio is not trying to prepare innocents for the world, but to convince battle weary soldiers of life that their integrity still matters in a world which they now know to be full of corruption. 

Saturn was in Scorpio Nov 1953-Jan 1956 then again Sept 1983- Nov 1985.  Anyone born between those dates ‘has’ Saturn in Scorpio.  They started out in life at a time when the planet of discipline was in the sign of loss.  Scorpio is the sign where the ecliptic descends below the celestial equator; we see it cross under in Libra, but in Scorpio the descent becomes starkly visible.  The Mars rulership of Scorpio mirrors this separation.  Mars is the planet of primitive individuality.  It rules this portion of the life cycle where the energy is steadily decreasing and reserves are visibly low. 

Most of us can easily see how Mars would rule Aries, the sign of life exploding into being; the association with Scorpio is not so obvious.  In Scorpio, Mars is preserving life for the future, it is storing its essence, or seed, for a time when the energy levels will again rise.  So Saturn in this sign of secreting something away helps keep the storage area free of rot. 

Many Saturnian types get pegged with being bitter.  How does a tree keep its growing mass of cellulose from being consumed by opportunistic organisms?  It produces a chemical that tastes bitter.  It is this bitter chemical in the flesh of the expanding trunk of the tree that keeps it from rotting, which is really just the process of being eaten alive by another organism.

Saturn in Scorpio is like an old soldier among a bunch of battle weary troops suffering from war and overindulgence in pleasure.  Saturn has the time, the experience, and the integrity those people who have been through the worst can admire.  When they talk about what they have seen and done, Saturn does not shrink in horror.  Saturn in Scorpio gives people who have something to be ashamed of a chance rebuild their self respect one small step at a time.  And for those who think they have nothing to be ashamed of, Saturn has ways of relieving them of their illusions.

It takes a lot of courage to face ugly stuff- where is the planet of courage now?  Mars is now in Virgo, the sign ruled by Mercury.  So the work now is being carried out in the clerical pool and communications battalion.  Corruption is being dealt with on a logistical level, as in let’s figure out where the problem is entering and how it is spreading once it gets in, by examining the situation…..as opposed to lets spray it with bullets or napalm.  Mercury right now is in Scorpio, so the planet of facing challenges and the planet of investigation are currently working closely together.  You could say they are codependent. 

And this morning Venus comes under the influence of this pact of war makers.

Yesterday I flipped through a book about the artist James McNeil Whistler, whose mother fled the chaos of the American war between the states to live with him in England.  If the bohemian painter’s puritan mother had not felt the need to travel to England, we would not have the painting that is now so popular in western culture.  Just one example of how great beauty comes from great trials and losses. 

Arrangement in Grey and Black no. 1
James Abbott McNeill Whistler  Portrait of the Artist's Mother

Looking at the lower left quadrant of this morning’s chart you can also see that the sun is meeting Saturn.  Earth is now lining up on the exact opposite side of the Sun from Saturn.  That should be about as far as we get from the planet of discipline; so why did I feel so melancholy yesterday?  I agree with Johannes Kepler; it is difficult to accept this ‘sublunary’ influence of the outer planets, how can something so far out there have such profound effect on us down here?   But like him, I find the evidence of my observations to confirm that of the ancients.  The Sun conjunct Saturn is not fun.

I love working for artists- the book about Whistler and his mother was at an artist customer’s house- on a different artist customer’s kitchen wall (right near the control panel for the security alarm) there is a small illustration of white bearded Saturn with his scythe as a staff, standing beside the luxurious bed of a sleepy woman.  On such a cold morning as this I can feel the warmth of the wine colored comforter she is not ready to leave.  The caption reads something like this: “The problem with the Father Time wake up service is that there is no snooze button.”

Link to Cape Fear Civil War Round Table essay about Whistler's mother (and brother).