Happy Hallowe’en!!

October 31, 2008 By

pumpkinMost people know by now that the holiday we now celebrate as Hallowe’en comes from the old Celtic holiday called Samhain (pronounced Sow’-en).  There are many “Days of the Dead” celebrated around the world at this time, when the veils between the worlds are said to be thinner and the living can communicate across those veils to the dead.

The fact that this holiday takes place in Scorpio is no accident.  The actual Samhain holiday is astrologically based and occurs at 15 degrees Scorpio which will put Samhain on November 7, smack in the middle of the Sun’s travels through Scorpio.

Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld, and under the influence of Scorpio we gain an intimate familiarity with Death and Rebirth.  When we are faced with Death our experience of Life becomes more profound.  When we understand that life has an end, we have a much greater appreciation for its mysteries.

As you delve into the mysteries this Hallowe’en, don’t forget to vote!!

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Sarah Palin’s Leadership Future

October 30, 2008 By

I sure wish we have a birth time for Sarah Palin which would help to give us more specificity about her personality and help us to forecast with more accuracy.  (There is a 4:40 pm time circulating around the internet but it is completely unsubstantiated and should not be relied upon.)  However, it is growing ever more clear that Governor Palin will not be a flash-in-the-pan vice presidential pick if McCain’s bid for the White House fails – her aspirations run much deeper.

Personally, I like a 9:00 am birthchart for her that has Aries rising, expressing her fearless warrior personality, and Jupiter, King of the Gods, right on the ascendant mirroring her shameless raw ambition and boundless confidence.  This fantasy chart has Capricorn on the cusp of the Tenth House of career with the South Node conjunct the Midheaven where it would explain her comfort with her public role and a conflict between staying at home (North Node would then be on the cusp of the Fourth House of home) and career.

Her Moon would then be at the first degree of Aquarius and it would conjunct Mercury, reflecting her ability to convey her words (Mercury) in a way that hits people at an emotional level (Moon). The Uranus/Pluto conjunction in this chart falls in the sixth house of work, service and the employee/employer relationship which fits well when you consider her efforts to completely control the behavior of her subordinates.  Unless an official birth time is released, though, all of this is just speculation.

In any event, transiting Jupiter has been making a square to Jupiter in Palin’s chart since March of 2008, with the second phase of that cycle occurring in July at the beginning of the Troopergate scandal.  The challenging aspects of Jupiter inflate our confidence and give us a sense that we want to be bigger, and there can be a sense of urgency and reckless overconfidence with the squares.  The final phase of this Jupiter square is today, October 30 and for the past week leading up to this big Jupiter event there has been evidence of Governor Palin’s ambitions to be seen as a major leadership figure, including her interruptions of John McCain in their joint appearances which led unnamed McCain aides to say Palin had “gone rogue” and off-message.

Sarah Palin has a square from Neptune to the Sun in her chart, just as Barack Obama does.  The Neptune/Sun square can show a difficulty in establishing a strong personal identity that makes it easy to take on different personas and roles, often in an attempt to build an identity later in life.  Transiting Neptune began a transit over Palin’s Aquarian Sun earlier this year, coinciding with the beginning of the Jupiter transit, suggesting that there is an element of illusion (Neptune) in the grandiosity (Jupiter square) of Palin’s ambition.  Neptune transits can be gloriously spiritual, opening doorways to a direct experience of the divine within us.  Or they can lead us through illusion, delusion and confusion that make it difficult for us to find our way.

Once Neptune is through with Palin’s Sun it will continue to her Mars, and then her Saturn, ending this cycle in 2010.  But Palin will experience a big shift around the end of 2009:  the shift of her progressed Mars into Aries where it will be squared by transiting Pluto.  That will be a very interesting time to watch.  Transits of Pluto to Mars can destroy us, or they can make us stronger and build tremendous reserves of internal power.

Over the next 18 months or so Palin’s relationships and alliances will be tested with a triple threat:  Pluto will completes a square to Venus in her chart that began earlier this year, and transiting Chiron (wounding and healing) and Jupiter (frustration in expectations) will both square Palin’s progressed Venus beginning next spring.

No matter what you think of Sarah Palin, you simply cannot ignore her.  She’s a force to be reckoned with and it will be interesting to see how she manages these Neptune cycles over the next few years.

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Saturn/Uranus: Electricity Found on Saturn’s Moon

October 30, 2008 By

Thanks to Shane for this cool article and to the Daily Galaxy for the cool image:

Recently identified electrical activity on Saturn’s largest moon bolsters arguments that Titan is the kind of place that could harbor life.

At a brisk -350 degrees Fahrenheit (-180 Celsius), Titan is currently much too cold to host anything close to life as we know it, scientists say.

But a new study reports faint signs of a natural electric field in Titan’s thick cloud cover that are similar to the energy radiated by lightning on Earth.

Lightning is thought to have sparked the chemical reactions that led to the origin of life on our planet.

“As of now, lightning activity has not been observed in Titan’s atmosphere,” said lead author Juan Antonio Morente of the University of Granada in Spain.

But, he said, the signals that have been detected “are an irrefutable proof for the existence of electric activity.”

Electricity is ruled by Uranus, and the timing of this announcement just as Saturn opposes Uranus is the kind of wonderful synchronicity that we astrologers love.

It’s always fun to see that Science is a living, breathing organism that changes and morphs as new information is available.  This is another representation of Uranus, with its new discoveries and exciting new ways of looking at the world, facing off with Saturn representing the established scientific theories that resist an open mind.

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New Moon Today!

October 28, 2008 By

Photo by John French. I’m pleased to interrupt the political whirlwind to bring news of a New Moon in Scorpio.

The New Moon occurs at 7:15 pm tonight (October 28) Eastern time, with the Sun and Moon aligned at 5 degrees Scorpio. Scorpio is intensely emotional and private, and this New Moon offers an opportunity to begin to really plumb the depths of our own emotional natures and find our source of empowerment. What is it we are truly feeling?  What motivates us below the surface? Where do we lose power and how can we regain it? Where have we misused our power? These are Scorpio issues, best handled in the privacy of our own soul.

The upcoming opposition from Saturn to Uranus which will culminate on November 4 is a part of the lunation, and suggests a pull between that which feels safe (Saturn) and that which is new and untested (Uranus). Uranus seeks to impel change in order to create a world with greater authenticity and freedom, and this New Moon provides a chance to strip away the fluff and nonsense of our life (Scorpio), leaving only that which is real and allows us to thrive and continue to grow.

People like me with lots of Pluto and Scorpio in our charts enjoy these times more than those with lighter charts who prefer times of ease and joy, but it’s all part of the natural cycle of life.

Mars is also in Scorpio now where it charges fearlessly into combat, and Mars is square to Chiron now where that combat can bring up some painful issues that need resolution.  Fortunately Mars is harmoniously linked to the opposition of Saturn and Uranus where it can help us to find a way to balance the dichotomy of risk and stability – the excitement of the new with the safety of the old.

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Political Advertisement: Spiritual Leaders for Obama

October 27, 2008 By

In this blog I try to present as balanced a viewpoint as possible when analyzing the astrological charts of public figures.  But we are facing a historic election and I am unabashedly using this pulpit for a political message:  Vote for Barack Obama on November 4.

Today’s spiritual leaders have gathered together to present the case for Obama.  Deepak Chopra, Pema Chodron, Shiva Rea, Jon Kabat-Zinn and many others write:

As spiritual leaders signing this letter we are stepping forward
to say: “We can make a difference” As our spiritual practice
empties, opens and strengthens us, we are naturally moved to
engage in the world with compassion, equanimity, and the
dedication to live our values.
We know many of you are already both concerned and
involved in this year’s Presidential election. Yet, in the past
weeks, many of us have heard friends in the spiritual
community expressing ambivalence about voting. When
asked why they wouldn’t vote we heard things like: “It doesn’t
make any difference”; “I’m more interested in spiritual
practice than politics”.
This election, we have an opportunity to create a paradigm
shift in the nature of politics. Senator McCain has voted with
President Bush over 90% of the time leading to policies that
have increased violence the world, furthered environmental
destruction, tried to force religious views on the country, and
shown a staggering lack of compassion for those most in need.

Play a role in bringing peace and justice back to the planet.  Vote for Barack Obama on November 4.

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US Has Attacked Syria

October 27, 2008 By

This comes as Saturn approaches within one degree to an opposition of Uranus. Mars today is in an exact square to Chiron which just turned direct and this event is certain to push with aggression (Mars) old wounds (Chiron) in the Middle East.

A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted the network of al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters moving through Syria into Iraq. The Americans have been unable to shut the network down in the area struck because Syria was out of the military’s reach.

“We are taking matters into our own hands,” the official told The Associated Press in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of cross-border raids.

The attack came just days after the commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq said American troops were redoubling efforts to secure the Syrian border, which he called an “uncontrolled” gateway for fighters entering Iraq.

A Syrian government statement said the helicopters attacked the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal, five miles inside the Syrian border. Four helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction shortly before sundown and fired on workers inside, the statement said.

The government said civilians were among the dead, including four children.

This was the first large-scale US raid conducted within Syria by air and eight people were killed, including four children. Talks between Syria and the UK were canceled as a result of the raid and it is feared that diplomatic efforts by Syria towards Israel will also be damaged.  Unfortunately I am out of town at the moment without my book of World Horoscopes but I looked at the Geodetic chart for Abu Kamal, Syria where the attack took place and the Mars/Chiron square falls right on the angles of the chart, with Mars on the IC (cusp of the fourth house of home and country) and Chiron on the descendant (cusp of the seventh house of partners and open enemies).  I am just learning about Geodetic astrology after taking a workshop at the Blast astrology conference, but the placement of this attack seems very particular and suggests that this is an event of major significance, not only for Syria but for the region and the world.

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Power to the (Working) People!!

October 26, 2008 By

Ray Merriman has a new article up about Saturn in Virgo and the Saturn/Uranus opposition. Ray writes:

Saturn in Virgo … relates to the growing frustration of those who do the work – the working class, the middle class. They look around and they see that they do all this work. Yet when the business fails, it is they who suffer, not the management that made the decisions that led to the failure. The workers are the ones who lose their jobs or give up benefits. And oftentimes when those in management make these failed decisions, they leave the company and receive huge financial bonuses, known as “Golden Parachutes.” And even while they are there, if the company prospers, it is these decision-makers who also receive huge end-of-year bonuses – at least huge in comparison to the much smaller bonuses given to those who did the hands-on work. It is not that these conditions have not existed forever between management and labor, between the wealthy and the middle class. It is just that now, in the first decade of this new century, the rate of growth and rewards between management and the work force has widened to its largest distortion ever.

I might add that it is largely the Pluto in Virgo generation that is suffering at the hands of the power elite, and I think it’s also noteworthy that this executive compensation issue went to the extreme under Saturn’s ride through Leo, the sign of ego and kingship.

Ray believes that the opposition from Uranus to Saturn will lead to an uprising (Uranus) of the working people against the power structures (Saturn).  I would like to think that’s true, but I don’t believe we will get to that point until Uranus enters Aries in 2011 and the force of resistance and change (Uranus) is energized by the fiery Aries energy.  People are floundering now under Uranus in Pisces, looking for the peaceful way (Pisces) to revolt (Uranus).

They have plenty to strike over though, Americans have lost trillions of retirement dollars thanks to the reckless activities of our banks, which our government has just bailed out for hundreds of billions of dollars.  It looks like they didn’t need the money, though:

Despite the Wall Street meltdown, the nation’s biggest banks are preparing to pay their workers as much as last year or more, including bonuses tied to personal and company performance.

So far this year, nine of the largest U.S. banks, including some that have cut thousands of jobs, have seen total costs for salaries, benefits and bonuses grow by an average of 3 percent from a year ago, according to an Associated Press review.
“Taxpayers have lost their life savings, and now they are being asked to bail out corporations,” New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said of the AP findings. “It’s adding insult to injury to continue to pay outsized bonuses and exorbitant compensation.”

When Barack Obama says it’s time to spread the wealth around, he means give it back to the people from whom it was stolen. Unfortunately, it’s those very same people that are reacting with such fear to the idea, calling it socialism.  With the opposition from Saturn to Uranus, new ideas and change (Uranus) will become even more frightening for those who cling to the past (Saturn).

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Chiron Turns Direct! And Other Planetary News

October 25, 2008 By

“The Wounded Healer” by Alex Grey.

Chiron has been traveling retrograde since May 25, and changes direction today.  It has been virtually at a standstill since August, holding our feet to the fire as we release the wounds of our past in order to gain in wisdom and true knowledge. The accumulated understanding we’ve gained over the past month or so will have an opportunity for release now.

Chiron is known as the “wounded healer” (read more about Chiron here), but he is much more than that.  Under the influence of Chiron, we revisit the wounds of the past and transmute them into wisdom and the ability to heal and protect in the service of others.  As the bridge between the personal (inner) planets and the transformational (outer) planets, Chiron also provides the inner teachings that facilitate our transformation from ordinary human to transformational being.

Chiron is just completing a conjunction to the North Node now, the 15th being the final phase of a three -part conjunction that began June 1 and hit for the second time August 11.  The Nodes are not planets; they are signposts in the sky that mark the places where the Moon crosses the path of the Sun’s passage through the zodiac. The signposts point to our past (the South Node) and to the future (the North Node). Throughout May Neptune and Chiron both conjoined the North Node, signifying an important event to facilitate inspiration (Neptune) and healing (Chiron). When planets conjunct the North Node they by necessity oppose (180 degrees) the South Node, setting up a tension between the influences that hold us back (South Node) and the pull to continue evolving (North Node) by fully experiencing the wounds of the past and then letting them go (Chiron). Chiron will conjunct Neptune next year, completing the process that was begun this summer.

Tomorrow (October 26) Mercury forms the third phase of a trine to Chiron and a square to Jupiter. Combinations of challenging aspects such as the square and harmonious aspects like the trine can be the most powerful, because the challenging aspects creates conflict followed by resolution and the harmonious aspect facilitates the resolution. This is when real change can happen. For a few days there is a unique opportunity to engage in active debate (Mercury/Jupiter) that facilitates real understanding (Mercury/Saturn), followed by a square from Mars to Chiron and sextile from Mars to Jupiter on the 27th. Here we have Mars acting as a trigger for Chiron’s surgical knife, accompanied by a positive flow of energy (Mars/Jupiter) and a desire (Mars) to learn about the world views of others (Jupiter). This is a wonderful aspect to take us up to Election Day!!

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Obama’s Grandmother and the South Node

October 24, 2008 By

A reader wrote to me the other day about an article she had read where a Vedic astrologer predicted that Obama would be assassinated because Ketu (the South Node of the Moon) would be conjunct Obama’s Sun.

I dearly want to respect my colleagues, but I feel that when we predict death of any kind we are stepping over the line.  First, I’m not sure how possible it is, and second, I’m not sure how useful it is to have that kind of information.

The conjunction of the South Node to the natal Sun is something that occurs for all of us every 19 years or so.  I looked up my own last transit of the South Node to my Sun, and since my Sun conjuncts Saturn, another “malefic”, a Vedic or traditional astrologer might predict terrible things for that day.  As far as I know, nothing horrible happened although I did post an article on Lindsay Lohan’s “annus horribilis.”  Maybe that was the way the South Node expressed itself.

The South Node represents our past and things we must learn from the past.  The conjunction of the South Node to the Sun, our Essential Self, may put us in touch with something unfinished from an earlier part of our life that needs resolution.  Obama’s grandmother IS his past – she raised him and is credited for helping to shape him into the man he is today.  The timing of the transiting South Node across his Sun at this time appears significant in light of the failing health of his grandmother, and the fact that she may not survive to see him elected which would coincide with the exact hit of the South Node to the Sun.

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The Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind

October 23, 2008 By

Newsweek has an article online that has been the topic of much discussion:

Is technology changing our brains? A new study by UCLA neuroscientistGary Small adds to a growing body of research that says it is. And according to Small’s new book, “iBRAIN: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind,” a dramatic shift in how we gather information and communicate with one another has touched off an era of rapid evolution that may ultimately change the human brain as we know it. “Perhaps not since early man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically,” he writes. “As the brain evolves and shifts its focus towards new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills.”

Uranus is the planet of technological innovation, and ever since it was discovered in the late 1700s the technological revolution has accelerated exponentially.  I believe it won’t be long before computers will be wired directly into our brain!!

Since Neptune entered Aquarius in the late 1990s following the Uranus/Neptune conjunction of 1992-1995, the boundaries between humans and technology (Uranus/Aquarius) have blurred (Neptune).  When Uranus entered Pisces in 2003, instigating the mutual reception that has been in place since then with Uranus in the sign ruled by Neptune and Neptune in the sign ruled by Uranus, this blurring has increased exponentially.  So really, for the last 15 years we have been wandering into uncharted technological territory.  This period saw the explosion of the internethttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/2_bing.gif and the wiring of nearly every human being on the planet into the World Wide Web.

This hard-wiring of technology into our brains comes easier for those of us who are already rather electrichttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/2_bing.gif in nature, with Uranus strong in our charts.  For others it’s a more difficult process.

For many, the online and wired world is already more real than the world of nature.  Can a more natural way of experiencing the world live in harmony with this technological alteration?  Only time will tell.

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