Astroweather

Photo by Red Ice Creations
Tomorrow begins a year long period in the Mayan Calendar called Night Five of the Galactic Underworld. It is very Plutonian in its nature, breaking down the material world so that we can experience the metamorphosis of Night Six.

More astroweather here...

Thoughts on the Astrologer as Counselor and Authority

I have been giving professional astrological readings for about 10 years. Before that it was 20 years of mostly free readings to friends and relatives and lots of reading and study. I have studied with a handful of respected astrologers, and I have incorporated what I loved about each of them and their approach. However, I also do something that almost every mentor I have had has warned me against, and so far it hasn’t hurt my business and the referrals keep on coming. I go out of my way to not set myself up as an authority of who they are or how they should live their life. This is a summary of my approach to counseling others using the astrological paradigm.

At the beginning of a reading I explain that astrology is both an art and a science, the science passed down through eons of observational correlations with the archetypal memes embedded deep with our collective unconscious. However, in a busy city hospital there could be several babies born within a few minutes of each other and having essentially the same chart. Although the core themes of their lives would resonate, they would also seem very different, depending on such variables as socio-economic status, education, religion, race, parents, karma and so on. The astrologer also has hir particular bias, agenda, worldview, background etc. and the art part is in the interpretation of the wide ranges and possibilities to something that both rings true for and supports the client.

My goal and desire is to give the client a deeper understanding and validation of who they are and what they are experiencing, and I feel like I have succeeded when someone leaves feeling grounded, positive, and with a satchel full of ideas and tools that help them with life decisions, feelings and predicaments. But, I warn them at the beginning that to get the most out of the reading, they will need to collaborate with the process because in the end they are the only ones that truly know themselves and I do not want to become their authority, but simply a learned but humble advisor. I ask them to interrupt, let me know if things don’t resonate or sound right, so that we can get the best interpretation for them. I say, “I don’t know exactly what that means” a lot, and ask them to throw out the window anything that doesn’t work for them.

I like to tell people that an astrological reading can take years off of therapy, and it does. But like any good therapist, I do a lot of listening initially, which is imperative to an accurate interpretation. I may have a very general and core idea of a chart’s meaning, but until I meet the client I have no idea how it plays out in their particular life. An initial set of questions always begins with finding out what they want to learn from the reading. I assure them that I will give a general overview, but the fact is that I could talk about a chart for hours on end and we only have 1 – 2 hours, so it is nice to know what they would like the focus to be. The answer to that question alone gives volumes of information on their values, philosophy, spirituality, education etc., and I feel an astrologer can give the most useful information through examples and stories that they can hear and relate to, which means putting oneself as much as possible into the clients perspective and shoes.

Giving readings is my primary learning ground. I found out what bears out in reality and what doesn’t, validating some authors and invalidating others. The symbol meanings are so comprehensive that we think we can never stop learning and start counseling, but it is through the aha’s and delight of discovering how what you have studied plays out in a real person’s life that grounds and anchors in the concepts that you accept with authority. At some point you know definitively what the symbols means and can gracefully and artfully discover with the clients help how it fits into their lives.

Emotions Continue

Some Mars in Cancer / Gemini retrograde highlights:

Mars is getting closer and brighter every night, climaxing to it's brightest of the year on December 18. The best time to see Mars is 2 – 3 hours after sunset due east, where its fiery colour is the brightest thing in the sky. Mars will also not be this high in the sky again until the year 2040.

Mars turns Retrograde at 12 degrees Cancer on November 15, 2007 at 3:25 EST, 8:25 UT.

November 16 – 17 is part of a yod, inconjunct the Moon / Chiron conjunction. This suggests a couple of days of noticing feelings of disconnection, or old wounds of abandonment or trauma resurfacing for healing through looking inward at how to take care of feeling nurtured from within. This is in the background until November 23 - 28 when an exact Mars / Chiron conjunction provides the energy for completion. This is also tense wounding and aggressive energy bringing defense issues to the fore whether personal or national.

As Mercury moves from Scorpio into Sagittarius on December 1, Mars is inconjunct the Sun in Sagittarius, the opening act for allowing the Truth (with a capital T) to bring further insights into our personal and collective Mars in Cancer retro issues.

On December 11 at 1PM EST, 1800 UT, the Jupiter / Pluto conjunction is exact. That same day will also bring a Moon / Mars opposition. The chances for irritability and anger, if one is not involved in some very proactive and positive work, is high. More on this last Jupiter / Pluto conjunction to come, but you may want to plan ahead for something very meaningful that day. With the Sun and Mercury also in the picture, our intuitive antennas can receive unbelievable information.

December 22 brings the Sun into Capricorn, conjunct Jupiter and Mercury who also just moved into Capricorn, and all opposite Mars in Cancer. The impetus to mature in the areas that have been triggered is never stronger, and from a mundane point of view, events may have led us to a place of more national control for the sake of security.

On one of the most powerful occult dates of the year, December 24, we have Mars both conjunct the Full Moon in Cancer, opposite the Sun. Cancer is family and with holiday traditions bringing families together, with the upcoming retrograde in Gemini involving the theme of siblings as well, this could be an extra volatile and emotional time. Forewarned is forearmed and the opportunity to use this strong energy to heal and bridge, and to become more emotionally self-reliant.

On December 31 at 11:20 AM EST, 16:20 UT, Mars retrogrades from Cancer into Gemini. New Year’s day will be much lighter and we can feel the impetus to begin the New Year by looking at what we have learned over the last year and a half or so, deeply integrating and tweaking our adjusted ideas and belief systems if we choose, continuing over the course of the next couple of months. Wait – did I say lighter? Maybe not as Mars is also exactly opposite Pluto and Jupiter, so that the compulsion to look at what we want relative to our truths and how to make that happen, is very strong. It’s transmutation time, and this powerful but neutral energy can be used in both positive and negative ways, remembering with Pluto that the aggressive energy can just as easily end up for the highest good of all in the end.

On January 10, Mars will once again be exactly opposite the Galactic Center, and as Philip Sedgwick says, “Keeping in mind that the GC bears the leading edge, ultra-progressive ideas, some down-streaming and making mundane of ideas might help disseminate great information. If no ideas have yet come your way, take down time from action and activity and establish daily listening spells to see if there are ideas seeking your attention.”

I think we are on the brink of understanding the mysteries and wonder of our place in the universe in new, amazing, and potentially scary ways, just because what is being unveiled is so new that we won’t be sure at first what to make of things.

More Astroweather here

SKY STORIES

Fixed Star astrology is based on what can actually be seen in the sky, although an element of abstraction is introduced when Parans are used, which are equivalent to aspects: they occur when you find a star on an Angle and a planet on an Angle at the same time, any combination of Angles. But they are still real entities (unlike the zodiac signs), even if you can’t always see them, because e.g. the Sun is up.

(PS The stars are called 'fixed' because they are fixed in relation to each other, unlike the planets which are 'Wandering Stars'.)

There are ways of looking at the stars that have no abstraction. One way is where you see a planet and a constellation coming together, and you’re left wondering, in an ancient way, what this might portend. This idea has, for me, a lot of power.


Confession: I haven’t actually done this yet, because I only just got my Starlight software that shows you what’s out there, and I’m waiting for a clear night with the Moon up, so I can orientate myself.

That said, there are some beautiful ‘Sky Stories’ (as Bernadette Brady calls them) in the night sky at the moment.

What you have is Jupiter at the foot of the constellation Ophichus, the Serpent Bearer, the Healer; and you have Venus on the tip of the left wing of Virgo, or Demeter the nature goddess. These 2 stories are nearing their end, and until yesterday Mercury was also in Virgo, on her sheaf of corn next to the star Spica, which bears great gifts.


Now I don’t know what all this might mean, but it’s certainly nice! Jupiter with Ophichus points to a good time for healing - the feet? Mercury with Spica is a time for intellectual brilliance. Meanwhile Venus, Love, can take wings. Anyone who’d like to comment with possible interpretations or experiences from the last few days would be welcome.

OF PRESIDENTS and SEA MONSTERS

Posted by Dharmaruci

The President of the USA is inaugurated on the same day and at the same time every 4 years, giving certain enduring qualities to the institution that are possible to analyse astrologically. The date and time are 20 Jan at 12pm in Washington DC. There are occasional exceptions, and before 1937 the date was the 4th March.


This consistency of time and date gives almost the same Angles and Sun for every inauguration. The fixed Sun (c.1 Aquarius) and ASC (c.14 Taurus) suggest the stability and endurance of the institution. Aquarius indicates the democratically-elected nature of the job, that the President is not there as a tyrant but as someone who ideally works with all the different groupings of people and interests. America is known for its wealth, which it does not have by accident, and Taurus Rising shows the importance of the President managing the economy well, perhaps also a need to express (ASC) his polices in economic, even materialistic terms. And the Capricorn MC shows that the President is there to achieve something and to leave a legacy. (Hence e.g. the Presidential libraries).

This consistency in the chart means we can also bring some of the stars into the equation. The strongest stars are those which are found on an Angle, and in this case, since the 1949 election, the star Menkar has been conjunct the ASC (using a 1 degree orb).

So more than any other star, Menkar describes the modern US Presidency. It is the brightest star in the constellation Cetus, the Whale. In ancient times, whales were not eco-friendly super-intelligent beings, but human-eating monsters from the depths. The Babylonians referred to this area of the sky as "the chaos of the deep". It is known as one of the most difficult stars to live with, because it makes you so open to the unconscious depths, to collective forces.

Menkar, or Alpha Cetus, is in the nose or jaw of the whale

All leaders tend to be an expression of the fears, desires and aspirations of the people, but Menkar here suggests that in post-war America this sort of identification has been unusually close. Positively, this can be a leader who is aware of, tuned into the collective but not unconsciously identified with it, and able to move it in a creative direction. An example of this is perhaps Roosevelt, who managed to get the economy out of the Great Depression and win two major wars with the country coming out thriving, as well as lay the groundwork for a really intelligent and successful reconstruction of Germany and Japan (cf Bush and Iraq). Menkar was just out of its 1 degree orb during this period, but you could argue that it was actually very active, with the wideness of the orb providing the possibility for self-awareness in a President, allowing him to be aware of and creatively use the collective forces.

The other possibilities with Menkar are that the President becomes an expression of the worst of the collective, or is a victim to it. Since 1949, with Menkar in orb to the ASC, this scenario would seem to have been more likely.


Certainly in recent times, I think we have seen that with both Clinton and Bush, both of whom interestingly have an outer planet on their ASC – Clinton has Neptune and Bush has Pluto – making them personally open to collective forces, for better or for worse. Clinton, via the Monica Lewinsky scandal, became a victim of the collective, of the right wing Republican mentality that could not stand him. But he was also able to use his connection to the collective more positively, so that he became known as ‘The first black President.’ Whereas Bush’s connection seems more one-sidedly negative, through his appeal to the rednecks and his ability to whip up the fears and prejudices of the collective to serve his own purposes.

Menkar will be conjunct the inauguration ASC for many more years. With the Uranus-Pluto square just around the corner, and with the forces for change gathering pace in the world, and with all the insecurity that brings, these are the sort of times we are most likely to see the collective rising up from the deep like the sea monster of old, and electing leaders that suit its purposes.

Theme of the Week: Emotions

About 10 years ago when I was hiking with my daughters on a beautiful summer afternoon, the conversation fell on how we felt about past lives and reincarnation. My daughter Canary was 6 at the time and mostly listened while Hawk, who is four years older, and I rattled on. At a poignant moment, Canary announced with a depth of knowingness that stopped me in my tracks, that she remembered most clearly being a tree and talking with the Moon.

This reminds me of the lessons of Venus in Libra as defined by Martin Schulman, who looks at the yod, which in this case would be Venus in Libra at the focal point of a Taurus / Pisces sextile. Libra’s sensitivity can want to put on rose coloured glasses, knowing what love is but being in love more with the idea of love itself. This is because real life love can be scary and messy! Taurus is the tree, earth and real life grounding, while Pisces could be the Moon, celestial and heavenly, with a loving blend of the two that brings the balance of love into the love of the infinite to the emotions and the harmony of all earthly life, including other earthly beings like trees and rocks. It’s a delicate balance. In the end, Martin Schulman says that Venus in Libra is about learning the lessons of selfless love which brings peace and tranquility to marriage and partnerships. Venus in Libra understands that love is the center of beauty around which the rest of life revolves.

This relates to the Venus / Pluto square (November 5 / 6) in that when you are able to love yourself completely without the need for another to fill in the missing gaps, then there is also the gift of being able to give selfless love to the other, only to find it is returned equally!

Complete Astroweather including this week's Water Grand Trine, Venus square Pluto, Venus in Libra, and New Moon in Scorpio.

News from Mars and Sirius Musings

The planet Mars has a lot in common with its namesake, the god of war. Both rule over areas of life where we need to harness our aggressive side - where we try to get what we want and protect what we have. Mars rules over boundary disputes and describes how well we protect our own boundaries and how concerned we are about the boundaries of others. Mars also has a lot to do with our physical energy and vitality and rules over personal impulses and drives of all kinds.

Mars has been in Cancer since the end of September. Typically Mars spends only 57 days or so traveling through a sign, but due to its retrogradation it will remain in Cancer until May of 2008. Mars retrogrades at 12 degrees 27 minutes Cancer on November 15 and will remain stationary within one degree of that point during the entire month of November, making this an extremely Marsy period.

When a planet is stationary in preparation for and during its retrograde turn, it demands our attention. I always compare transiting planets to cars with loud boomboxes - when they travel by our planets they get our attention, but when they park in front of our houses for long periods of time they demand that we take some action to resolve the issue.

Mars generates a tremendous amount of energy, and sometimes what we perceive as anger is simply the release of a build-up of energy. This is why I recommend increasing physical activity during intense Mars cycles so that this unreleased energy doesn't erupt into conflict or implode into health problems. This will be particularly important for those of us with planets from 7-17 degrees of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Capricorn, Aries). If you find yourself fatigued and exhausted, you are likely having a mars problem.

Mars will travel retrograde until February, so its time to hunker down and deal with our anger issues. Where do we need to better defend ourselves? How can we express our anger more appropriately? Where are our boundaries being violated and where do we need to calmly and with self-respect set better boundaries to protect ourselves? If we do good Mars work now we will be in great shape when Mars and Pluto face again in late December (that Mars/Pluto opposition cycle will complete in March so we have plenty of time to get it right!).

With Mars traveling retrograde we are internalizing more of these issues that are ruled by Mars ,and it may be more difficult to actually get anything accomplished. John Townley writes, "Rash actions taken as Mars is about to go retro usually end up in overextension and delay, such as Hitler’s invasion of Russia only two months before Mars went retro in the summer of 1941, the Allied invasion of Italy which hit a dead stop at Monte Cassino (summer of 1943), and but for the atom bomb, the same would have again applied to an invasion of Japan in the summer of 1945."

Mars turns retrograde within two degrees of the fixed star Sirius as noted by Rob Tillett at AstrologyCom (he reports the retro turn in the middle of the thirteenth degree but according to my calculations Mars turns at 12'26" Cancer, not 13.

I have a particular interest in the star Sirius because of its connection in Freemasonry and the writings of the theosophists as well as the ancient Egyptians. The Dogon tribe in Mali correctly identified that Sirius was a binary star system long before this was known by astronomers, leading to all kinds of speculation about extraterrestrial visitation. The rising of the star was celebrated during the secret mystery festivals at Eleusis, and was considered by many ancient peoples to be the Central Sun of the Milky Way Galaxy.

My solar fire interpretation file has this to say about Sirius:

The mundane becoming sacred. The brightest star in the sky apart from our sun. Known to the Egyptians as "The Scorcher" or "The Shinning One", this star is one of the great stars and it has the ability to make the mundane sacred. To make the ordinary charismatic. Small actions which may lead to large consequences. This may be positive for the individual or their needs may be sacrificed to the collective.

I don't know what kind of orb you would attribute to the fixed stars, but I would lean towards a tight one, probably tighter than the two degrees we see here. Still, it will be an interesting thing to watch!

GORDON BROWN'S FIXED STARS

Posted by Dharmaruci
I started looking into Fixed Stars a week ago, and I’ve worked out much of how it works technically; however, I haven’t tried any interpretation. So I thought I’d inflict a bit on the blogosphere, using the chart of Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister.

I’m just going to look at the stars that are active through the MC, the prime of life, when your ‘career’ is at its height. Gordon Brown has been in this phase for many years now, arguably since he became an MP in 1983, and certainly since he became Shadow Chancellor in 1992. It was during his time as Chancellor from 1997 to 2007 that we came to know him: a man who on the one hand is highly competent, driven, with deeply held ideals; and who on the other hand is authoritarian, ruthless, vengeful and socially ill-at-ease.

Brown has, as one might expect, several of the great stars guiding the prime of his life: Aldebaran (one of the 4 Royal Stars) and Rigel and Bellatrix (from the constellation Orion).

ALDEBARAN gives glory and success linked to integrity and honour. It is linked to Jupiter in his Chart, which would seem to be a happy aspect. The link to integrity is the test of this star, and I think that is why Brown was so popular when he was first PM: here was someone who, unlike Blair, had not lied to us, who made a point of standing on his integrity. In September it fell apart to a great extent when he made a shamelessly political visit to Iraq, and was equally shameless about deciding not to have an election because it didn’t suit his party. In a way he was behaving like any politician would, but he was seen to be doing so, and after Blair it didn’t go down well. But I think that success linked to integrity has been a keynote of Brown’s career: he has always been dedicated to his work, out of a genuine desire to improve the country and help those in an unfortunate position, and he has had personal success for many years now.

BELLATRIX also gives success, but only through personal growth, only if personal weaknesses are addressed. This star is linked to Venus in Brown’s chart, suggesting it is his relationships with other people that he needs to look at (or money: but in his case I think it is people). This area has always been his undoing, not so much because of his social awkwardness, but because of his reputation for authoritarianism, for not taking the views of others seriously, for plotting, for endlessly coveting Blair’s job and for holding grudges. Bellatrix linked to Venus is saying that in Brown’s case his success will always be limited unless he can transform his relationships with other people.

RIGEL gives the desire to teach, to bring knowledge to others, and it does not have a problematic side. While Brown was Chancellor, a lot more money went into education, and higher education was expanded. Rigel is connected to Mars in Brown’s chart, suggesting that education is something he will fight for. In 2000, Brown started a political row about higher education when he accused the University of Oxford of elitism in its admissions procedures, describing its decision not to offer a place to state school pupil Laura Spence as "absolutely outrageous". (Lord Jenkins, then Oxford Chancellor, said "nearly every fact he used was false.”)

There are 5 stars that are particularly difficult, and Brown has 2 of them, Algol and Zosma, affecting the prime of his life. What makes them even more difficult is that both have ‘curtailed passage’ i.e. he was born at a place/time where neither of them rose or set, so they do not have any contact with the earth, with human affairs, and are therefore more likely to manifest in a fated sort of way.

This is even more the case with ALGOL, because it is linked to his Sun, his very identity. Early writers all viewed Algol as the most malefic star in the heavens. This star contains immense female passion and power, but easily manifests in its outraged, demonic form. She represents “a strong consuming passion that may devour you with anger and rage.” We certainly saw this in the case of Brown’s ongoing lust to be Prime Minister while Blair had the job, a lust which was at the heart of the Blair government for 10 years, and which led to endless feuding. (I’ve always thought it was to Blair’s credit that he managed to work with Gordon Brown, who could so easily have destroyed the New Labour government under Blair.) Now that he at last has the job, the government may not be subject to this side of Brown – until he is thwarted. Gordon Brown is also passionate in a more positive way about people who are disadvantaged, whether in the UK or abroad, and this could also be seen as the influence of Algol. But with the star having curtailed passage, it is very difficult for Brown to work with or contain his lust for power, as we have seen. And it can cause a LOT of trouble, not just for him, but for the government and for the country.


Finally we have ZOSMA, which is linked to Brown’s Jupiter. This star is connected to those who are victims, who have been made powerless by society, as well as the compassion to help them. Being linked to Jupiter, I think that it generally comes out favourably for him, and it repeats the theme of his desire to help the disadvantaged. Zosma in its compassionate form does not seek fame or recognition, it just quietly gets on with helping, and I have heard that Brown also has this aspect to him: he will take the time to lend his personal support to certain compassionate causes, but you never read about it in the papers.

But Zosma also has its victim side, and it seems easy for people to feel sorry for Brown, like he is struggling, and you sense that in some ways he is wounded, he can’t quite pull it off. And it may be that after a lifetime’s struggle to become PM, he ends up the victim of the political cycle, managing just a couple of years in the job before the electorate tire of New Labour after 12 years in office.

So that is a snapshot of some of the Fixed Stars affecting Brown’s prime. There are other, more minor, stars which would round out the picture, as well as considerations such as the Heliacal Rising Star (which rules the day he was born). RIGEL is stronger than it appears because it is also tied in with another star, Diadem, which rose at the moment Rigel culminated (i.e. was on the MC). Similarly, ALDEBARAN is linked with Antares, one of the Royal Stars, which was on the Nadir when Aldebaran culminated, emphasising the success that has come to him. BETELGEUSE, the star which has the most unobstructed success, had a strong influence over his youth, via Jupiter, and his early life was broadly one of steady, even precocious ascent.

It would also be possible to predict the course of his later years through the setting stars. And we do find 2 of the major stars here: Regulus and Spica. The Royal Star Regulus – “success if revenge is avoided” – is in Parans to his Sun, so this is a very strong position for his later life, and seems quite appropriate given what he’s like now. Yes, he will be a sort of Grand Old Man of British politics, as long as he doesn’t spoil it by taking against whoever causes his downfall, which was the story of Ted Heath. In Heath's case, he had Zosma influencing his later years: he saw himself as the 'victim' of Thatcher, who he never forgave for ousting him from the leadership of the Tory party.