Mars and Jupiter in Earth Signs

 Blogspot has changed the format and I feel like I'm driving in an automatic after years of a stick shift. 


Not sure if this is Mars finally picking up speed after so many months in Virgo- but I tried to play a cd in the dvd player plugged into my little tv in the living room.  Except for computers we haven't had a working cd player in the house for more than 4 years.  They aren't as plentiful in thrift stores as they once were.  I remember when you could get a decent boom box for 8-10 bucks.  So, since the dvd player does play cd's; I've done like Dorothy did in the Wizard of Oz, I clicked my heals and got the music I could have had all these months.

There is a middle eastern disco beat pulsing in the living room.  A nice call and shout number is on the second track with women responding to men and lots of hand drums.  I get this stuff at the store where I buy olives, olive oil and feta cheese.  There is a really beautiful woman who treats me like a sister.  She is from Egypt and has a baby boy.  I have spoken with some of the other women at the store a bit, but she is the one who literally took me under her wing.  Since then I have noticed that she is outspoken with the men.  Though I'm sure she is not yet 30 years old, she has the spirit of a matriarch.

I love the combination of violins like plentiful water rushing over rocky creek beds and hand drums like many feet pounding the bare earth.   I will have to ask my friend what they are singing in these songs.  I tried to learn the alphabet in Arabic, but failed twice.  One day....when there is more time for these things.  

So crossing the obvious technical hurdle to get music could be Mars finishing up its extended stay in Virgo, but what to associate with the international theme it has fed in my world?  Maybe Jupiter in Taurus.  That stay has been a bit longer- about a year, and it has felt like a time of putting down roots, realizing a commitment, coming to an understanding of loyalty among people from faraway places.  Without traveling from my home, I have made a place in my life for strangers.  It has been very difficult; I am exceedingly selfish with my time, my words and attention to the lives of others.  My son and dog and housemate live with my antisocial behavior every day.

But today I am alone in the house with my dog who does not complain about my choice of music, getting the dishes washed with a lively beat, a foreign language and foreign musical flourishes gracing the air.  But I am late to clean a house...  jumping jupiter!

Looking forward to New Moon in Taurus

I am anticipating the Taurus new moon April 21 with peace already suffusing my happy heart.  The meeting of Jupiter and Venus in March was the highlight of a hope filled year for workers, even with all the violence of tiny people shaking their fists at death dealing weapons of the rich and powerful. 

Every day the atrocities are in the news.  The violence is just impossible to ignore.  And yet people still cry out for more, still refuse to return quietly to their humble homes in the shadows of well groomed palaces and lush gardens walked in peaceful meditation by the urbane shapers of their limited destiny.

Who is misbehaving?  Who is in need of a civilizing influence?  Are these people, who are splashing paint all over the walls in the street, thugs on drugs?  Do they require the iron hand of tanks and machine guns to make them respect the rights of others?  Where is this sense of entitlement coming from, that people are willing to kill and be killed in order to get their message heard?

I wrestle every day with the knowledge that this wave of destruction and chaos could reach my peaceful little world and suck me into despair.  What will I do when put on the spot?  I too am a no body, subject to the fickle winds of history; what will I do if forced to publicly declare what matters most to me?  Will I stand in front of an immigrant friend and say you take them away over my dead body?  Or will I crumble in cowered silence as they are taken off to work in a factory south of the border where heads get lopped off and rolled in the streets? 

I share responsibility for the suffering of others, but I live in peace.  I enjoy too many comforts to count, yet I live in fear that they could be snatched from me any day.  How?

The exercise of looking at crude maps of the solar system and seeing how its configuration changes from day to day helps me live with this real sense of foreboding.  I imagine my body rotting or going up in smoke when I die, all the mass of water, carbon and minerals just dissipating into the vast sky, evaporating peacefully from the ground, or violently in a stoked furnace, to my former home before individual existence.   I have a good idea of where I will go when this trip on earth is finished. 

With this awareness I can turn my attention to the niggling task of how best to love and accept love from the people around me, feeling like a somewhat educated flea, determined to enjoy the ride on my host and get the most out of it.

The 4th House of Home

Walked down to the river around three a.m,  the quiet roar of the surf breaking on the beach just over the dunes. To the east, i can hear the sea buoy outside the inlet, its foghorn echoing the familiar lonesome moan across the water that i have known since childhood, as regular as the ticking of a clock. The forlorn cry of a whippoorwill reminds me that no one is awake but me and my horse; a dark silhouette that snickers at my approaching footsteps and lowers its head to continue grazing. There is no moon, but the glow of a million stars lights the old worn path that my father and grandfather walked for generations. I imagine them walking beside me now, wishing i could shake hands with their ghosts and talk of the times and tides with them. I can see my greatgrandfather herding a stray hog back into the peanut field, mending the split rail fence behind him as he curses the hour and the obstinate nature of the beast. I can picture in my mind the indians who lived here a hundred years before him, roasting their oysters over a fire just as we still do today, hunting deer with bows and arrows and growing their corn and tobacco in the remote meadows of high ground among the swamps. I long for the days of my youth when no houses were in sight of ours; when we walked a mile through the woods to our nearest neighbor along the two deep sandy ruts that granddad told me was a horse and buggy road when he was a boy.

I call out loud for their spirits to come walk with me, but the hollow sound of the foghorn mocks my voice. I wonder why i am still here, toiling this land as they did, a slave to this little piece of earth bound by fetters and chains i willingly forged with my own hands. I am planning my escape, but just as a prisoner relies on his cunning and the complacence of the guards, i must bide my time until others afford me the opportunity to barter away my heritage, my home, my very soul. Then maybe i can reincarnate in another time, another place, another life.

Kenny Gray 

March 30, 2012

Holden Beach NC

March 2012 Horoscopes

Our Sky Horoscopes are published monthly, (and on time unlike the posts on this blog) in The Triangle with Tragic City Comics by Q Allen

Aries:  Now is time for the line drive.  You are shooting for the outer limits so expect surprises.  There will be extra thrust March 20-22.  By lunchtime the 23^rd romantic mists from late Feb return and you’ll have to feel your way through the explosive weekend.  March 25, 26 the pleasure of enjoying what you have comes over you. 

Taurus:  You rule from March 5-April 3, and by the 10th it will be evident.  If your ship does not come in by the 14^th, something equally uplifting will renew your faith in patience and hard work. 

Gemini:  This month you are like one of those performance chefs at Kanki amazing those around you with your ability to slice and dice and catch a flying knife by the handle.  On the 23^rd you move to the sushi table and concentrate on rolling rice in soaked seaweed while trading stories with relaxed guests.

Cancer:  The 7^th is heavy lifting day, plan to work hard.  Though positive attitudes continue to prevail, on the 10^th you will feel the weight of responsibility by evening.  March 15, around 11pm, whether you are awakened from sleep, dancing with friends, reading or watching a movie, allow yourself to grieve for someone you care about.  Big ideas come March 19, 20.  Watch out world on the 22nd.  Peace 25, 26; spirited birdsong 27-29; shelter 30, 31.

Leo:  Rest and relaxation begin for you on the 5^th.  If the weather is not right for gardening you can make bread.  By the 20^th you will be propelled into critical intellectual activity which will last till the 23^rd when stories and poetry take center stage.

Virgo:  Mars has not spent this much time in your sign since Nov 64-April 65.  (OK, Nov79-May 80 there was an abridged version.)  The language will be so far off the charts the night of March 4- March 6 you’ll have to laugh.   A measure of diplomacy will bring some relief the 9^th and 10^th and then it’s back to threats and demands.  With the neurons this fired up you’re bound to get something useful done that you can start to enjoy by the 25^th.

Libra:  Like Taurus, you rule this month.  Take a look at what Virgo’s up against and let them know they are not crazy, the world really is against them.  Don’t tell them that, just agree, or nod thoughtfully.  Let them vent, not too long though, and then gently move the conversation in a more neutral direction.  They will really mean it when they thank you.

Scorpio:  You get to feel pretty civilized this month as the words fly like a food fight in a high school cafeteria.  The more people posture the more you wonder if they understand what they are after.  The 11^th and 12^th are two days you’ll feel some answers that ring true to you.  By the 25^th the crusading will take a backseat to more immediate desires.

Sagittarius:  The morning of March 5, a bolt will strike the lightening rod minutes after you sit down to breakfast after feeding the hens.  (As if you didn’t already appreciate what farm workers do to get produce to market?)  The high voltage activity continues till March 23, but you’ll be canning at the wood stove after that close call so you won’t have to worry about it.

Capricorn:  This month (starting March 5) you find out the difference between dominating and being exalted.  While you can’t make anyone behave the way they ought to you can show them how to be good sports.  This is like the teachers playing kickball against the students.  It’s not whether you win or lose, but that you kick the ball pitched by people who look up to you.

Aquarius:  One year down and seven to go.  The eve of March 7 the critical force driving the current web of necessity will be illuminated.  The night of the 10^th the spotlight swings to you; people will be ready to hear a practical, balanced assessment of the situation, including a respectful nod to high hopes.  In spite of all the hot air, there is an urge (after the 4^th) to listen.

Pisces:  The heat is building up in our energy account and we’ll soon be caught up with the southern latitudes; meanwhile on the right, we glide past Vulcan’s furnace and get a peak in the steel shaper’s window.  This is where that sword from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was born.

The Apprentice Generation in the Crucible

All this month we have a chance to see Mars up close.  It rises in the east by 8pm and will glow deep red, like a bicycle tail light tracing a slow motion arc across the night sky.  Saturn comes up behind Mars at about 11pm.  And our favorites Venus and Jupiter illuminate the early night this month for at least two hours after sunset; they are the first lights in the west, visible as soon as the sun goes down.

Mars has been in Virgo since Nov and will not leave the sign of the apprentice till July 3.  This six month period is an opportunity that might not be fun, but will certainly train us to be the best we can be.  Think along the lines of a drill sergeant taking over Miss Manner’s School of Practical Perfection.  Where Mars is, is where the adrenaline flows.

For anyone with a planet in Virgo, fidelity to an ideal matters, and with Mars there now, anyone with a planet in the middle of that sign is put on the spot; that includes the people born form 1960-1967.  Pluto is currently at the beginning of Capricorn which is actually fun for non-Capricorns born in the 60’s; they are like student masons showing off how good they are at combining the infinitely differing shapes of stones that make humane institutions.  The problem is adjusting to this more aggressive level of operating. 

Imagine you are an apprentice stone mason working on a walkway to the governor’s mansion, and some veteran points out a few stones that are elevated from the rest.  Sure enough, when you stand away from the path you can see that they stick up so far above the surrounding stones you will have to take up all the stones, sand underneath, and landscape fabric to dig away another layer of soil.  Discouraging work, but necessary, in order to make the stones waiting to trip a guest, level with the rest.  When you try to remove another layer of soil, you uncover the roots of a massive Maple shading the pathway, and realize the depth of the problem. 

The Virgo experience is about reaching for perfection and coming to terms with the impossible nature of that goal.  So ultimately it is about becoming our best selves and in the process accepting the aspects of who we are that we want to change, but cannot.  For the Pluto in Virgo generation that means reaching for a perfect society and learning to adapt to the roots in the way.

Frozen in Time

Many years ago, when I was first studying astrology and in psychotherapy with a therapist who speaks astrology, I remember telling her about a dream theme of people 'frozen' in blocks of plexiglass.  There was no sense in the dream of death or tragedy; it was more frustrating than disturbing. I was comfortable at the time employing transits and progressions (tools for looking at the passage of real time), and mundane (historic time) astrology.  I believe she observed that the plexiglass people sounded like photos as opposed to videos.


I never felt like I quite got my hands on what those dreams were about.  Sometimes I felt like I was going through files of 3 dimensional playing cards of countless people, some of whom I recognized and others not.


In the last two months I have copied over three hundred charts from the Horoscope Drawings and Calculations section (click on Horoscopes and the option for Chart Calculations drops down) of Astrodienst; thus satisfying a long held desire to watch natural time from one moment to the next the way I watched the clock as a student in elementary school.  In the process of copying all these maps,  plotting where the planets are from one four minute period to the next; I have finally gotten a feeling for how astrology works.


In spite of my deep love for this subject which is at the very roots of our culture, it always felt too much like magic; a trick of language that as an astrologer I was playing on myself and the people whose charts I translated to 'plain English'.  I felt like a magician using a stage prop I did not understand, or a car driver with no knowledge of how the internal combustion engine makes the wheels turn.


In the centuries after the zodiac was defined (about 419BC) time became something to be managed rather than studied and understood; spherical geometry and time graduated from subjects to be researched and discovered, like unknowns in the classic 'black box,' to tools for researching still other mysteries of life on earth.  Once the Babylonians and Egyptians had amassed and analyzed thousands of pages of raw data showing the positions of the planets and their movements for short and long increments of time, a system as elegant as the periodic table of elements was developed (the zodiac) and there was no more need to follow minutes to understand why some constellations rose more swiftly than others on the eastern horizon, or winter days in Alexandria were shorter than those in the Nubian Desert: western culture had reached a historic plateau.

By the end of the fourth century BC, astrology/astronomy had evolved to a system that people could use without understanding how it worked, much in the way many of us drive cars and consult computers every day without understanding how they perform the magical wonders we have come to take for granted.  Imagine a future where the vast majority of literature preserved on paper and electronically; not just Mark Twain and Margaret Atwood, but works that outline the development of computers and computer programming languages, basic works on subjects ranging from electronic engineering to molecular biology; imagine it ALL GONE.  Gone, like the works of Aristarchus.  That's what happened sometime between the development of the zodiac and the Rennaisaince; the literature outlining how astrology/astronomy evolved was for the most part lost to posterity.


Twenty five years ago, without a computer and expensive astrology software, or access to the internet, it took me an average of 80 studious minutes to calculate an accurate birthchart.  While I found the task pleasurable, it was time consuming.  Fast forward to 2009 when I returned to studying astrology with the benefit of broadband access to internet.  All of a sudden I could have charts calculated for me in less than 10 seconds!   


Thanks to the computer programming magicians at Astrodienst (and other sites that offer free chart calculations), I have been able to travel wayyy back in time and get some idea of what hundreds of astronomers working together twenty five centuries ago experienced when they first completed a systematic analysis of the starry bowl's motions.  They must have gotten the same thrill as the people receiving data from the Hubble Telescope.


Until recently I did not know that Aristarchus (born around 310BCE) proposed that the earth revolves around the sun, or that in his time spherical geometry was employed by astronomers.  I expect to repeat these facts often in my career as an astrologer; I think it is a largely ignored part of our heritage that should be given more attention.


But back to my dreams of people trapped in plexiglass like three dimensional playing cards; I believe I was frustrated by the way astrology was being presented.  Daniel Chenneviere (a compatriot of Eric Satie who immigrated to the US in 1916 and soon after changed his name to Dane Rudyar), advocated an approach to astrology that viewed the chart in the context of all the cycles surrounding the moment analyzed.  He was my favorite astrologer in those days when so much about astrology was right before me, but trapped in vinyl tablets like the ten commandments brought down from the burning bush to the desert valley.


In these last two months I have gotten in the habit of drawing a chart for the day before leaving to clean houses.  I do not go to work without a list of the number of minutes it takes each sign to rise.  Instead of keeping up with clock time, I have attempted to become more aware of organic time.  This is difficult without the luxury of being able to actually gaze at the heavens.  On Jan 15, 16 when I did not have to work, I just spent the day copying charts and noting my thoughts and activities for the entire day.  Instead of clock watching, I was virtual sky watching.  In those two days, what flowed through my hands onto a couple hundred pages of charts, was a cartoon style flip book of how the starry sky moves over our heads from one moment to the next.  I can flip back through the assembled charts and see the ecliptic gradually widen, until it suddenly blossoms like a flower, then closes at variing speeds, and repeats the process.  I can see why the ancient astronomers divided the zodiac into twelve sections and have a good idea of how the system evolved.


As Neptune passes from Aquarius to Pisces, and I experience that awful sense of panic that so many of us are feeling as the mother ship leaves the harbor, I can now not only name that fear, but have a clear understanding of its place in real time.  I am more at home on the currents of darkness as the ship picks up speed and heads out to sea.

Mars Retrograde in Virgo

Not the most recent, nor likely most similar, but my favorite period of mars retrograde in Virgo is Jan 1822 when mars turned around at 9 degrees Virgo and went back even into Leo.  By the time it returned to forward motion in April it had gone back to 22 degrees Leo.  We won't have the same entertaining finale that folks got back then; among other historic fireworks, the translation of the Rosetta Stone.  Whatever happens we can expect to gain in understanding of governmental/historical documentation.


Our current period of passage between Sun and Mars began last night at 8:54pm local time.  Mars appears to stop and then go backwards for the next 3 months.  This time it all happens in the sign Virgo; what amazing things will we learn?

Analemma

I found a site today that gives a very helpful explanation of why the apparent path of the sun is sometimes slower and sometimes faster than clock time.


It is called analemma.com


P.S.
I started this post Wed, but did not publish it.  I'm posting it now because I like the visuals and explanations they include to help understand this cool concept of earth/sun time.

History of Analemma

Once again using this blog as a service for documenting the times of astrologically intriguing moments; in this case my sudden deepening of interest in analemma and the history of the concept.   Here is a link for the site just found....  Analemma Society.

Astrology as a Second Language

  Friday 13th
Astrology 
as a
Second
Language.


Sign up 7:00-7:30pm
10 minute limit

Everyone who signs up
gets a turn
kellagher@clearwire.net if you need directions
   or call mp at 264-4642

I've been thinking of getting folks together to speak astrology for some time.  This evening when I looked at the calendar to pick a date, Friday 13th with Mercury conjunct Pluto was the first day of the month I thought of.  It looks like there are actually two other conjunctions that day (as shown in chart above); Moon conjunct Mars and Venus conjunct Neptune. I'm guessing we'll have plenty to talk about.  Hope you can come!

 

Venus conjunct Pluto

I have to admit, finally and after months of consideration, that I'm not sure I want people to read my blog. It has become my journal, in the most literal sense of the word; when I am studying past planetary configurations and want to recall what I was doing or thinking at that time, my blog is a record with the exact time of publication included. I first noticed this when composing the post about the mechanics of the chart; it occurred to me that I could look up the exact time I started the blog by looking up the publishing time of the first post. This week when considering a period in Dec 2010, I went back to my posts for that period and was amazed to find such a telling record of what was occupying my mind at that time.


This morning I hit the send button at 9:16 am to send a warm and informative bit of electronic correspondence to my sister. I told her of a strange dream I had last night about our parents. This has been the best meeting of venus and pluto, only because I was able to make the connection between the planets and what was happening to me.


Blessings to astronomers and astrologers all over the world who make time so rich and fascinating.

October Horoscopes

Aries: This makes me think of the guy from Jesus Lizard diving over the mosh pit; and the ocean of hands taking him to the back of the room and up to the stage again. He was floating on the real thing, and so are you. The 9th a friend begins to help you distinguish what you really want, from what you are fighting for. On the 27th you’ll see how to be free as a child with a right to adult privacy.

Taurus: You begin the month as a happy student with cool teachers; the responsibilities are heavy but the shared load is light. On the 9th you enter the smoke filled room, on the 10th we all get a little jolt from nowhere, on the 13th you get a chance to see where the power is coming from and by the 25th you’ll be figuring out how to control it.

Gemini: Last fall when you passed through your annual karmic crucible you got to slap hands with a friend passing in the opposite direction, but this year you have a buddy waiting to hang out with you on the other side. On the 13th when you decide you have to figure the mystery out, you’ll be within shouting distance of your partner, and by the 25th when you’re about to crack the code you’ll be thick as thieves.

Cancer: Today the Political Junkie on NPR said the election campaigns are trying out their new slogans, testing to see which ones stick. A river puts roots down by washing sand from the bottom of its path and carrying it all the way to the sea. Which slogan will move the most sediment?

Leo: When the emperor of Byzantium asked Pope Urban for help in beating back the invading Turks, he got it; and ended up hosting the First Crusade. Your rowdy element stays till Nov, but by Oct 24th you will be making sure the party has soul.

Virgo: Soon after you have fulfilled your responsibility of surveying and sharing intelligence with the opposing camps, you’ll come upon someone struggling with vision problems. Oct 13 you’ll be drawing close enough to show them how to adjust the angle of the blinds and bring in more light. It will be like demonstrating how to tie shoe laces, but you have the whole month to do it.

Libra: Do you feel like you’ve been through the sailors’ induction of being dunked (the old fashioned way) at the equatorial crossing? Aren’t you glad to be on a ship with veterans who don’t humiliate pollywogs? The rose colored glasses will start clouding up on the 9th, and though you’ll have a dispassionate friend who knows what you’re going through, it won’t be the kind of realization you can share casually.

Scorpio: You may not notice it till after the 13th, but as the month progresses you’ll see more and more people scratching at guilt, putting a band aid over it, or suddenly shamed by the awareness of it. Don’t laugh and ask them what made them take their head out of the sand; listen and come up with a story to suit the occasion.

Sagittarius: Sagittarians do not have high expectations, as much as knowledge that they can make music regardless of the instruments at hand. When venus enters Scorpio Oct 9th, someone will be down. What do you say to the apples left on the ground for gleaners? The 13th will be an inspired day in the school of human arts.

Capricorn: The first 2 weeks of Oct are filled with friendly conversation. As the month progresses you’ll know you have established real rapport when people feel safe enough to tell the truth instead of boring stuff they think you want to hear.

Aquarius: Even if you are not a traveler, the people passing through can broaden your view of the world. The ones in your life now are eager to sing their hit songs and tell their popular stories.

Pisces: The refresher course in psychology as a second language begins Oct 9. Compared to accepting people as they are and doing what needs to be done, probing for motive can seem high handed and foreign; the problem is that heroes who are unfamiliar with the unruly winds which govern emotions, have a tendency to fly right past the landing target.

September Horoscopes

Our Sky Horoscopes appear each month in The Triangle

The LGBTQ Resource for the Raleigh  - Durham - Chapel Hill Area

Aries:  On the 19^th mars enters Leo and by Fri Sept 23 the celebration will be in full swing.  This will be like those weddings where people shoot rifles in the air; while you are accustomed to this level of enthusiasm don’t be surprised if some of us keep a careful distance from the festivities.

Taurus:  We see venus meet the sun once every 9 months, first on the far side and then between us and big sol.  In mid Aug she lined up on the far side, in Leo; which means you made a Lion happy.  On Sept 14^th she’ll enter Libra as she swings back on her return to us; a good time to give feedback that will help friendships mature.

Gemini:  The getting to know you fun and games comes to a grinding halt on the 9^th and you get down to the nitty gritty business of giving and receiving.  On the 26^th horizons will open up for you and the social pace will be back up to speed.

Cancer:  You begin Sept finishing up partnership responsibilities that had you running the last two days of Aug.  Sept 5, 6 comes the monthly check in with grim reality.  Things will be stirred up on 13-15, but generosity will prevail on the 16^th.  The big news is the 19^th mars moves into greener pastures and the hardest part of declaring your territory is done.   Sept 27,28 will be a sweetened repeat of Aug 31.

Leo:  The 19^th brings a challenge which will not peak until early Oct.  If you can hold off on negotiating till Sept 23^rd you will be less tongue tied.  This will be more about self preservation than the courage to create, and you can prepare by making a thorough inventory.

Virgo:  The closer you get to the 25^th, the more thinking on your feet will be required.  Sept 7, 8 you can put a ‘gone fishing’ sign out front.  Make a list on the 9^th but don’t panic if it loses meaning on the 10^th.  On the 12^th you will smell conflict, but still have time to think.  While tensions will be released by the 22^nd, events after that will begin to unfold quickly, and you’ll be proud of your ability to respond intelligently.  Beginning the 26^th you can just toss a coin.

Libra:  “She’ll be riding six white horses when she comes,” is the line that follows “She’ll be comin round that mountain.”  That’s you on Sept 15 when venus rounds the far side of the sun and enters Libra.  Your diplomatic skills will be needed before then but you’ll be like a scared performer in the final dress rehearsal of a play.  You won’t know until you settle into your role on the 17^th that practice made perfect. 

Scorpio:  On the 19^th your mature sense of humor begins to spark, but before you make light of sacred cows there’s more higher learning to do.   While you are irrigating wounds and changing surgical dressings your faith in the secret power of calamity will be renewed.  The increased energy on Sept 13-15 will signal your returning strength.

Sagittarius:  You are such an eager student teacher, you won’t realize this month that you have your students’ undivided attention.  That will change on the 15^th when the reflection of your life in their faces will come into clearer focus.  On the 19^th your passion to reach out and touch will put on a clown suit and you’ll have people seriously glad to be under the big top.

Capricorn:  For Capricorns born on or before Dec 26 the worst is over.  Not everyone makes this passage like a camel through the eye of a needle in their life time, but Capricorns are least prepared for the procedure.  Dec 27-31 b-days get ready to shed baggage between now and April.

Aquarius:  Right now you’re resigned to the current status as the logical outcome of past events.  On the 16^th you’ll gain a broader perspective, which will be critical on the 19^th when the revelers start blasting their music.

Pisces:  This month your planet (Jupiter) comes up around 11:30 and catches the eye all night long, like venus with the ability to go wherever she wants.  Free love; it will steal over you on the 15^th after 24 days of mental exertion.  Peace.

Return to The Consolation of Philosophy

(You are not lost-the next 10 or so paragraphs have nothing to do with the above chart.  I’ll get to Boethius after this rant about Rousseau.)

I’m back, and transiting mercury, that little devil, is trining my natal mercury in Aries. The sun is currently in Virgo, so putting all that info together means transiting mercury can only be in Leo; in other words good luck getting me off my soap box.  Here goes…

So, as per the Confessions of an Astrologer post I am trying to make myself read Rousseau.  Ugh!!!  I made it through The First Discourse and am now trying valiantly to wade through the second.  Only thinking about guys getting picked off by snipers as they wade through rice paddies on the far side of the earth, or dying in moon suits while disarming IEDs in Afganistan, makes me stop feeling sorry for myself as I plow through this Cancer native’s hypocritical tripe.  (Now, for you people innocent of the vocabulary of astrology, what I’m doing now is a perfect example of natal mercury in Aries inflamed by transiting same in Leo; even though I’ll regret this later I’m spilling it all and won’t stop till after I’ve hit the publish button.  That’s Aries!)

I try to pick at the sides like a healthy guest forced by courtesy to eat food overly rich with cream and sugar, that is I go to the Stanford on line encyclopedia of philosophy, where I might get a more objective view of this …man of letters… who should have just gotten a job and earned an honest living instead of writing about how the world would be better if everyone would just work and earn an honest living.  The Stanford people present a fine overview of his life and work, but I just can’t get with the program.

So I take my dog for a walk; she is so cool, she loves me so unconditionally since she thinks she needs me so completely, which I guess she does.  I hate having to bathe her, and worry about her legal status (rabies shots, leash laws) and I’m just not into being responsible for other lives, so I really appreciate how her needy love has forced/challenged me to be a more responsive person.

On the walk I think if I had money to throw away on one of those people that hypnotizes folks to go into the past (another example of firey☿-I have ‘thrown away money’ on a past life therapist and had a very enlightening experience, but that wouldn’t support the argument I’m spewing right here) anyway I would ask to be taken to the desk of Mr. Jeanne Jacques as he is writing and thump him upside the head every time he writes the word ‘patriot’ or ‘virtue’.  That’s a lot of thumping and I start to feel like I’m getting control of the situation as I think about all those satisfying thumps.  I would say for every thump. “Get a job!” Thump. 

“Get your baby back from the orphanage where it is sure to die!”  Thump.

I’m starting to feel better.  Thank God for souls and past life regressions.

Now I can be a little more objective about this: Taurus should have no problem getting along w/Cancer (Me Taurus/Rousseau Cancer).  There are other things (which I won’t list here) in my chart which I use as my excuse for having so much trouble w/Cancer.  (When I got pregnant at an advanced age I feared by my calculations that the baby would come out a Cancer, and was very relieved when the woman at Planned Parenthood got her little wheel-of-life out and predicted a birth date in Gemini.  Ok, a Gemini is flighty but it’s better than Cancer.)

I’m going to lose my few Cancer friends.  I don’t deserve them anyway.  But I need them.  They teach me about love and how people help each other out.  They teach about forgiveness.  They teach that feelings are real and though we should not always act on them we should always trust them.  So forgive me Cancer natives, but this guy’s just pissed me off with his talk about utopian states where every body loves each other and obeys the laws and it’s all so blissful and orderly I want to set off a bomb.

2 pages and I’m not even started.

Let’s see.  What’s next?

Cancer and government.  It was the anniversary of Pluto in Capricorn that got all this started.  I had to read Rousseau because his career took off, (and he fled Paris soon after) when transiting Pluto entered Capricorn which means it was opposing his natal Cancer sun.  Big daddy government (Capricorn) and the children or obedient, happy citizens (Cancer).  Cancer is water and as such needs something to give it form, to contain it, to direct it-citizens need government like a river needs banks to take it to the sea.

So, Ok I guess I’ve just got too much fire under my butt right now to swallow his recipe for social bliss; which brings me to my hero of the month and I suspect for many years to come- I think this guy is bigger than Jesus,  Ancius Boethius.

Ahhh.  I’m going to go wash some dishes before proceeding with the good part.

So the chart at the top is of a moment I picked as a possible time for when Boethius was in prison- we only know it was 524 or 525.  We have his year of birth (480AD) but no date.  Pluto, the year of his death, was about 14°♐.  I chose a date following the conjunction of sun with mars in Scorpio, which I think is a time any astrologer would expect a leader to come under the influence of corrupt forces.  I picked Dec 16 because mercury was in Sagittarius reflecting the mental anguish tormenting him on death row; but it was coming up on Jupiter, so we got that soaring work of genius where he records his conversation with Philosophy.  What a heartbreaking, but truly inspired end to a well lived life.

I chose 4:30 in the morning to show mercury rising, his mental anguish being transformed by action in the first house.

In The Confessions of an Astrologer post of a couple weeks ago I included the paragraph about “The whole of this earth’s globe” to present documentation that people knew long ago that the earth is a globe which occupies a minimum of space in the vastness of the universe.  I don’t know about education for everyone else, but I was taught that Columbus sailed to America to prove that the earth was round; it has been a valuable eye opener to read ancient writers like Ptolemy and Boethius and discover that people way back when knew a lot more about the real world than I realized.

Last of all I am including a chart for the year Boethius was born.  I hope people will note

 

Saturn coming up behind Neptune in Libra, the sign of diplomacy.  I always mention when I do charts for people born around 1952 (when Saturn and Neptune were again conjunct in Libra) that their generation grew up to be the most serious about civil rights for all members of society, and as a group they emulate that ideal in cooperative marriages.

All accounts portray Boethius's marriage with Rusticiana, the daughter of his adoptive father, to have been a happy union.  He was a man blessed richly in life and left the world a great work of philosophy to repay his good fortune, even after Fortune had abandoned him and left him to die at the hands of corrupt statesmen...

 

Rousseau was just a wussy wanna-be intellectual that should have gotten a job, which probably bothers me because I’m afraid that’s what I am.  Wait a minnit!  I do have a job.  Whew!

Confessions of an Astrologer

 

I am observing the modern passage of Pluto into the sign Capricorn a couple of years late; Pluto is now at 5°♑.  I have begun reading The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, published in 1762, the year Pluto entered Capricorn in its previous incarnation.

When Pluto is in Capricorn, it is time for serious talk about civilization and its effects on the quality of human existence.  I hope to return soon with relevant information about this influential philosopher and putative bad dad...

But I keep falling back to The Consolation of Philosophy written by Ancius Boethius during his imprisonment in 524 before being executed by the state.  I'm so late coming to these seminal works, but glad to at last be reading them.  Pluto, by the way, was in Sagittarius when Consolation was written.  Here is a link to the full text of what is copied below --->The Consolation of Philosophy: Nero's Infamy


The whole of this earth's globe, as thou hast learnt from the demonstration of astronomy, compared with the expanse of heaven, is found no bigger than a point; that is to say, if measured by the vastness of heaven's sphere, it is held to occupy absolutely no space at all. Now, of this so insignificant portion of the universe, it is about a fourth part, as Ptolemy's proofs have taught us, which is inhabited by living creatures known to us. If from this fourth part you take away in thought all that is usurped by seas and marshes, or lies a vast waste of waterless desert, barely is an exceeding narrow area left for human habitation. You, then, who are shut in and prisoned in this merest fraction of a point's space, do ye take thought for the blazoning of your fame, for the spreading abroad of your renown? Why, what amplitude or magnificence has glory when confined to such narrow and petty limits?
 From The Consolation of Philosophy by Ancius Boethius  written 524 AD

More about Mars Opposing Pluto

Monday I posted one chart for 1763 showing Pluto in Capricorn and then two showing our current Pluto about to 'return'.

The only people who experience Pluto returns are vampires or any one that lives to be 250; that’s how long it takes Pluto to make a complete circuit around (mostly) the perimeter of the solar system.   

The actual conjunction will occur in 2022, so it may seem premature to be talking about
our Pluto return now.  It may also seem strange that I have posted a USA chart for 3:10 am; right now I can’t remember where I got that time, but I do like to imagine someone finishing up the famous Declaration of Independence in the wee hours of the morning, feeling the incredible exhilaration of taking such a tender diplomatic leap, as venus and Jupiter were about to rise with the sun in Cancer.

But getting back to our nation’s Pluto return; this makes a Saturn return look like a child eating pudding.  Think of how many nations have not even survived to their first Saturn return, much less one of Uranus or Neptune.  We are fortunate in the length of time we have managed to hold together as a nation.

Saturn returns, Pluto returns; what does return mean?  It means a planet has circled all the way around and come back to the place it occupied at a designated moment.  We are taking the Declaration of Independence as the designated moment, with Pluto at 27°♑34’; and looking at an ephemeris (Thank you ASTRONOMERS!!!) to see when Pluto returns to that spot.  (Feb 2022) 

Returns are occasions that mark the repetition of cycles, just like birthdays mark a return to a special day in the year (sun/earth cycle).  So returns are like birthdays, or in the case of slow going Pluto, birth years.  2022 is our Plutonian birth year.

Now we come to the part that makes a lot of people squirm, where we talk about the meaning of Pluto.  Pluto in Greek mythology is the god of the underworld.  The story goes that he felt humans' life spans should be limited so they would have more respect for the gods.  This could be because he got stuck with ruling an obscure and thankless area of experience compared with Jupiter and the rest of the heavenly celebrities.   Can you see why modern astronomers would attach his name to the virtually invisible planet in the farthest reaches of the solar system?  

'The lines were dead.'  'Dead air.'  These are common expressions to indicate a failure in real communication.  This is the signal of the exile; too faint to be visible or audible.  This is the signal coming from distant Pluto, a planet that may as well exist in the middle of the earth considering how little we know about it.  

Monday, I posted charts that highlighted Mars opposing Pluto.  Mars is the will, or the light of the sun rising up through existence; it is animal, animus, or animated mud.  What are animals?  They are something spun out of countless revolutions of the earth the same way plants were, but these organisms animated with the energy that comes from the sun, can travel at will.  That’s mars.  It has nothing to do with following a map or morality or any soulful reflection on the cause and effect of actions.  Just an animal with the will to survive.

So what’s highlighted this month (mars opposing Pluto) is the brute struggle for survival in the face of exile; or we could say the hero (in the sign of the family) opposing the god of mortality (in the sign of institutions).  The other planets have not disappeared.  In fact the moon is visible tonight in the same sign (Capricorn) where Pluto is invisible; and Saturn, bless the souls of Libran’s everywhere, is still highly appreciated in the sign of diplomacy. 

 

Right now, there is a fear that diplomacy is failing because we feel overwhelmed with three planets in Leo stoking the Uranian bonfire in Aries.  The temporary Leonine roar is making it hard to concentrate and take a balanced, critical look at this struggle, which as rational adults we are craving.  On August 22^nd when venus leads the sun and mercury into the sign Virgo, we will see the fireworks calm down a bit and have a chance to begin sorting out the mess; all part of the real gift of still being alive.

One more thing.  Since we are still 10 and 1/2 years away from the actual conjunction between transiting pluto and its position in our national chart, this anxiety about our existence as a nation will continue building for some time.  While the martial peaks will only occur every couple of years, there are other opportunities for stumbling along the way.  Pluto appears to be moving so quickly that Uranus will not complete its square with it until 2015 when there will be three planets in fire signs for the occasion.

Now is the time to learn about the history of governments and come to a better understanding of current events.  Though fortune is indeed fickle, providence favors  prepared minds.

Mars Opposing Pluto

I wonder how many tea party activists know they are a text book example of how astrology works.

In 2009 pluto entered Capricorn, the same sign it occupied in the years leading up to the American Revolution. 

You are probably wondering what the Siege of Fort Pitt has to do with the Tea Party or the American Revolution.  I chose a chart for June 22, 1763 because, like Aug 2009, it is the first time mars opposed Pluto during Pluto’s unbroken transit through Capricorn.  246 years, that’s how long it’s taken Pluto to return to the position it held after the Seven Years War when tensions between the colonists and British authorities began the inexorable build up to the American Revolution.

Pontiac’s Rebellion was a series of attacks made by several banded Native American tribes against British colonial forts soon after the French and British signed the Treaty of Paris.  Many of the Indians in the Ohio Valley fought on the side of the French and did not like the way they were treated by the British colonists.   Meanwhile, the colonists resented the way they were excluded from service in the British war against the French and Indians; and the British resisted the colonists’ drive to expand westward fearing their growing power and the troubles it would stir up with the Native Americans.  As soon as the French were gone there was no common enemy to bond the colonists to the crown and they started to get uppity.

♇ ♇ ♇ ♇ ♇

The tea party movement comes on the plutonian anniversary of the colonists’ drive toward independence.  People all over the world are learning how to govern themselves while fighting to throw off the yoke of oppressive institutions.  This is more than the return of a single planet to a previous moment: note Uranus in Aries in the above chart, another astrological repetition from 1763 that we are experiencing right now.  So the tea party is on schedule, but something does smell fishy.

Below is the chart for Aug 16, 2009 when the protesters were breaking up town hall meetings on the health care bill.  See if you can spot the similarities and differences between the chart for 1763 and the one for 2009.

 

And now, a chart for mars opposing Pluto this month, the second of about 7 mars-Pluto face offs that will occur while Pluto is in Capricorn.