Astrological Musings Radio, now at 11 am EST Sunday!

October 31, 2009 By

The show on November 1st will be the rescheduled show for Saturn’s entry into Libra.  I’m also going to talk a bit about the upcoming square from Saturn to Pluto.  Many of my clients lately have upcoming transits from these two power players, so I’ll be talking about how best to anticipate and manage times like this.
I’ll also give you a rundown on Monday’s Full Moon in Taurus.

From now on the show will be at 11 am Eastern, but there will be no show on November 8th when I am on vacation.  Here’s the November schedule (topics are subject to change depending on current events):
November 15:  Scorpio New Moon and the nature of Scorpio and the Underworld
November 22: Sun enters Sagittarius: Looking for optimism in times of darkness
November 29: Mars turns retrograde: How are we affected?
You can also download or subscribe to the podcast or listen to archived shows, here are the details!
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Happy Samhain/Halloween/Day of the Dead!

October 31, 2009 By
Those who decry Hallowe’en as a pagan holiday are, of course, correct!  In medieval Europe the pagan (country) people celebrated the the midpoint of the fixed signs as periods of power.  These times correspond to the fixed signs of Aquarius (Brigid in February), Taurus (Beltane in May), Leo (Lugh in July) and Samhain (pronounced Sow’en) in October for Scorpio.  These times exactly between the solstices and equinoxes, and are called the “cross-quarter” days.
At Samhain it is said that the veils between the worlds grow thin, and it becomes easier to communicate with the souls of loved ones who have passed on.  They are also more easily able to offer advice, and divination is a key part of Samhain festivals even today.  Samhain marks the beginning of the dark half of the year, after the balance of light and dark at the equinox.
The actual festival of Samhain is November 1, and now corresponds to All Saints Day in the Catholic church which celebrates the dead, but only those who have been beatified.  The rest of the dead are celebrated on All Souls Day on November 2.
In Latin America there is a similar festival called the Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos which corresponds to the Catholic festivals.  Similar festivals are held in Spain and in Brazil, and presumably derived from the adaptation by the Catholic Church of the Samhain festival.
Astrologically, the entry of the Sun into Scorpio in the northern hemispheres marks the return of the dark time, where we are drawn into the darkness of our own psyche to discover the treasures that lie there, ready to be harvested.  In the southern hemisphere of course the nature of the experience is different because the days are getting longer rather than shorter.  (Amazingly, chart readings for my clients in the southern latitudes are still quite accurate, despite the difference in weather correspondences!).
So delve deep and mine the treasures that lie within your own soul. This fearless trip into the Underworld is the lesson of Scorpio!
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Stalin’s Astrological Secrets

October 30, 2009 By
You don’t think of Communist Russia as being a hotbed of astrological thought, but evidently Stalin’s seven Moscow skyscrapers were part of a plan to rebuild Moscow with astrological symbolism (hat tip to Astrococktail):

Rumor has it that Stalin planned to re-build Moscow to make it look like a Zodiac table. The metro loop line with 12 stations and nine skyscrapers representing planets were designed for these purposes. The Exhibition of Economic Achievements and the Ostankino TV Tower were to represent an asteroid belt. The metro loop line and the skyscrapers were built concurrently.

I’m not sure what a “zodiac table” would look like, but although there’s little evidence to prove that Stalin was a devotee of astrology, there’s no doubt that occult sciences played a major role in the scramble for power that followed World War I.  The occult practice of the Nazis are well-documented, and since Stalin was a bitter enemy of Hitler it would not be surprising if Stalin secretly pursued occult methods of gaining power.

Philosophies of the Russian Revolution centered around the use of science to improve the state (a very Uranian concept!) and astrology in many ways aligns science with mysticism.  In any case, it’s an interesting and thought-provoking article!
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Revisited: China, the Face of Pluto in Capricorn

October 29, 2009 By
Nearly two years ago, when Pluto had first entered Capricorn, I wrote this post about the new balance of world power which will likely see China at its head:

Remember that Pluto rules over breakdown and destruction, followed by transformation. The elevation of Ceres to planet status has coincided with the eruption into mass consciousness of an acceptance (finally!!) of the need to protect the planet’s resources. Capricorn is concerned with matters of business, factories, governments, anywhere things are made and commerce is conducted. The emergence of China as a world power, without the democracy that helps to put safeguards in place, is likely to be the focal point of the Pluto in Capricorn period. Already we are seeing the emergence of a deadly “people’s revolution” to protest the devastation of the environment there that is likely to come to a head with the upcoming square of Uranus in Aries to Pluto in Capricorn.


Pluto is just finishing a square to the Midheaven in the (Sibley) chart of the United States, signifying a death and transformation in the position of the United States relative to the rest of the world.  In addition, Mars in the US progressed chart recently turned retrograde and there is more of a sense of looking back and repairing past errors than moving forward into new frontiers.

Now comes this interview with George Soros in the Financial Times, echoing what astrologers have been saying since Pluto entered Capricorn and began to require that corrupt and decaying structures be removed and transformed.  Soros says that the global economic system is broken and “needs to be reconstituted.”
Soros is also using the keywords that strike fear into the hearts of conspiracy theorists everywhere:  New World Order.

[Y]ou really need to bring China into the creation of a new world order, a financial world order. They are kind of reluctant members of the IMF. They play along, but they don’t make much of a contribution because it’s not their institution. Their share is not commensurate … their voting rights are not commensurate to their weight, so I think you need a new world order that China has to be part of the process of creating it and they have to buy in.

The concept of the New World Order is symbolic of the consolidation of power that can occur when Pluto travels through Capricorn, and one of the dangers of the next 13 years or so is that the threat of this concentration of power becomes a reality.  That will be more difficult when Uranus, the radical revolutionary, forms a square to Saturn and Pluto and threatens the foundations of these new powers but the overall trend towards consolidation will remain.

Soros reaffirms what I’ve been writing in these pages from an astrological point of view: that the economic downturn in the US is not over because the general economy is not healthy:

[A] decline in the value of the dollar is necessary in order compensate for the fact that the US economy will remain rather weak, will be a drag on the global economy. China will emerge as the motor replacing the US consumer and, of course, it’s a smaller motor because the Chinese economy is much smaller. So the world economy will have less of a motor, so it will move forward slower than it has in the last 25 years. But China will be the engine driving it forward and the US will be actually a drag that’s being pulled along through a gradual decline in the value of the dollar.

So it really is time to rebuild our own economic structures from the ground up and change the way we think about our finances and the life that we are living.  There is still plenty of room for optimism and for expansion and to realize our dreams, but we must now do it within a context of realistic expectations.  Focusing more on a vision of stability and security in our personal lives will help to lay the groundwork for similar realistic expectations for the US as a whole.

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Musings on Planetary Transits and Ten Rules

October 28, 2009 By
Note: “transits” are the passing of planets in the sky to planets in our birthchart.  The geometric angles that planets make to either other describe the nature of their interaction.  There are harmonious transits, which bring ease and opportunities; there are also challenging aspects, which can bring discomfort but motivate us to change areas of our life that aren’t working.  For more information see this article on my website.
Everyone experiences planetary transits differently, and that’s why what we call “cookbook” interpretations, while helpful, can only go so far.  Depending on where we are in our life and in our soul’s evolution, we can experience planetary cycles on a physical or reactive level, on an emotional or instinctive level, or on a spiritual and integrative level.
When I was new in the astro biz, I had just completed my first Saturn return.  I have an extremely difficult chart, and any time a planet moved it bumped into something in my chart and created stress for me.  In the readings I did for others, I assumed that the challenging cycles would create similar stress for them.  That did not always occur, and I assumed it was my faulty prediction.   But I came to see that while some people do become rather stuck in a particular place, others more through challenges more easily and as we get older this difference can become more pronounced.
Some of my greatest teachers have been my elderly clients who, on a path of transformation their entire lives, have become more and more free as they integrated the difficulties in their chart.  And as I’ve matured myself I’ve come to see this in my own life; a Saturn transit does not now hold the same fear that it held for me twenty years ago.  Saturn is getting ready to hit my Mars after a two-year visit of Pluto on my Mars, and I’m ready to get down to business.  I often have clients call me who are getting ready to go through their second Saturn return and they are fearful because the first one was so difficult but the second Saturn return is nearly always easier than the first.
If we resist the lessons of the planets, though, and fail to integrate those energies into our life (for example, in the case of Saturn if we flee from responsibility and shirk our duties) these transits will be more difficult.  There is a certain amount of planetary alchemy that we can create through our own intention, but any lessons that need to be learned will still come about.
We can’t solve every planetary problem with planetary alchemy, though.  A couple of years ago Saturn was about to transit my Leo Moon/Pluto conjunction.  My relationship with my mother has always been treacherous, and though it has greatly improved since she moved to North Carolina about eight years ago I didn’t want to take any chances, so I told her that while Saturn was on my Moon I thought it was best if we didn’t see each other for a few weeks.  She agreed and I prepared to hunker down for my Saturn transit, journaling and working hard.  But then she found a tumor on her dog and I ended up having to take her to the Vet hospital and we ended up in a raging battle.  So Saturn got me after all, but we did work through it eventually and ended up in a better place.
Planetary cycles are not to be feared; each planet has its own job and its own lesson plan for us and will only create challenges where we are weak and need to develop inner strength and resilience.  Approaching a transit with trust and openness will help us to get the most out of the experience.
I visited a friend yesterday and on her computer she had this list of Ten Rules for being Human.  I love this list and it’s relevant to this discussion, so I share it with you:
by Cherie Carter-Scott
1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, “life.”

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”

4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.

6. “There” is no better a place than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”

7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this at birth.
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Chiron and Kundalini

October 27, 2009 By
As many of you know, Chiron has been a specialty of mine for many years and one of the lesser-known roles of Chiron in the birthchart is to reveal the way energy flows in the body.  This energy flow through the energy centers that we call the chakras is called “kundalini,” and my friend Greg over at the Occult of Personality podcasts posted an article by Gopi Krishna on his Facebook page today about Kundalini that I thought was particularly relevant to Chiron in the astrological chart:

I am irresistibly led to the conclusion that the human organism is evolving in the direction indicated by mystics and prophets and by men of genius, by the action of this wonderful mechanism, located at the base of the spine, depending for its activity mainly on the energy supplied by the reproductive organs. Though not in its general application as the evolutionary organ in man, but in the individual sphere as the means to develop spirituality, super-normal facilities and psychic powers, the mechanism has been known and manipulated from very ancient times.

When manipulated and roused to intense activity by men already advanced on the path of progress and subject to numerous factors, especially favourable heredity, constitution, mode of conduct, occupation and diet, it can lead to most remarkable and extremely useful results, developing the organism by general stages from its native condition to a state of extraordinary mental efficiency, conducting it ultimately to the zenith of cosmic consciousness and genius combined.

This indeed is Chiron’s role – to forge a bridge between the trappings of personality that are the domain of the personal planets, and the transformational work of spiritual evolution and development that are the domain of the transpersonal (or outer) planets.

Barbara Hand Clow wrote about this phenomenon in her book The Liquid Light of Sex, which is rather little about sex and more about the flow of Kundalini energy, and you can read more about it here in my article from last year as well.
You may also be interested in my podcast about Chiron which you can listen to here.
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Holy Spaceman!

October 26, 2009 By

From the Telegraph:

The sergeant, who has not been named, was off-duty when he saw the figures standing in a field near Silbury Hill, and stopped his car to investigate.

However, as he approached the ‘men’ – all over 6ft tall with blond hair – he heard “the sound of static electricity” and the trio ran away ”faster than any man he had ever seen”.

Wiltshire Police has refused to comment on the incident, saying it is a ”personal matter” for the officer involved.The officer returned to his home in Marlborough, Wiltshire, and contacted paranormal experts and told them he had spotted a UFO.

Crop circle researcher Andrew Russell, who is investigating the bizarre sighting on behalf of the officer, described the moment his sighting was made.

He said: ”At first he thought they were forensic officers as they were dressed in white coveralls. He stopped his car and approached the field.

”The figures were all over 6ft and had blond hair. They seemed to be inspecting the crop. When he got to the edge of the field he heard what he believed to be a sound not dissimilar to static electricity.

”This crackling noise seemed to be running through the field and the crop was moving gently, close to where the noise was.

”He shouted to the figures who, at first, ignored him, not glancing at him. When he tried to enter the field they looked up and began running.

”He said; ‘They ran faster than any man I have ever seen. I’m no slouch but they were moving so fast. I looked away for a second and when I looked back they were gone.

Update:  Something is a little fishy about this.  Crop Circle Connector, a website that details all of the latest crop circles, is showing no circles in September or October yet the report was of aliens standing by a freshly made circle.  I will continue to investigate this matter, and please feel free to add your own comments!

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Morrisey Hospitalized After Collapsing on Stage

October 26, 2009 By
Singer-songwriter Morrissey collapsed on stage last night and was rushed to the hospital with an unidentified respiratory ailment.
Morrissey (May 22, 1959, time unknown, Lancashire England) is a complicated personality astrologically, with a lighthearted Gemini Sun squared by Pluto, the god of death.  He has said that he began taking prescription drugs as a teenager to combat the depression that often accompanies this kind of planetary combination, and he is known in the British press as the Pope of Mope.
He is also well-known for his ambivalent sexuality. Pluto is the planet of intense emotional experiences, and this encompasses the experience of sexuality which draws us into the underworld where we may feel we have lost control.  This conflict between Pluto’s darkness and the lighthearted Gemini Sun and the fear of being overpowered is exemplified in this lyric from the song “Handsome Devil”: “And when we’re in your scholarly room, who will swallow whom?”
Gemini rules breathing, and that square from Pluto in the natal chart can create breathing difficulties.  Morrissey also has a square from Jupiter in Scorpio, which has a tendency towards intensity anyway, to Chiron (the Wounded Healer archetype). This aspect bestows a powerful sense of social justice and a need to feel important and that one was put on the Earth for an important reason.  It also expands (Jupiter) the requirement by Chiron that undigested emotional material be released and healed, so transits to these points can create health problems that arise from emotional and psychological disconnects.
Morrissey’s Moon is involved in this combination as well; depending on the time he was born, his Moon either conjoins Jupiter in Scorpio and squares Chiron (if he is born before noon)  which would create a fair amount of emotional sensitivity, or if he is born in the afternoon his Moon is in the early degrees of Sagittarius where it is squared by Pluto, another challenging dynamic that can add to the feeling of being overwhelmed.
In any event, as we get older our unresolved psychological issues begin to lodge themselves in the body where they lurk until we go through a holistic process of healing the body, mind and spirit.  The Triple Conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune that we have seen in the sky this year formed an exact square to Morrissey’s Jupiter for the first time in February of 2009, when he canceled concert dates on his US tour.  The second square of the Triple Conjunction to Jupiter in his chart took place on May 29, the day that he canceled a series of concerts in Britain.
Morrissey’s Chiron Return begins next year – this is the time at around age 51 when Chiron in the sky returns to the same degree as it occupies in the birthchart so he is likely to continue to experience health problems unless he seeks healing in the emotional and spiritual realm as well as the physical.
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Top Planetary Picks of the Week, Oct. 26-Nov. 1

October 25, 2009 By
  1. Chiron has slowed down to a crawl in preparation for its change of direction on Friday, and its influence will be more powerfully felt.  Sensitivity of emotion, physical ailments that mirror inner turmoil – all for the purpose of releasing undigested emotions to free us forever.
  2. On the 28th, Mercury leaves Libra for Scorpio.  Expect all kinds of exchanges of information to intensify and add a touch of drama.
  3. That Scorpio Mercury forms a sextile to Pluto near midnight on the 28th, assuring that we dive deep to discover what lies beneath every rock and in every cranny.  Plus,
  4. Venus forms a trine to Jupiter the evening of the 28th – when the two benefics combine in harmony, it is a sweet song indeed. As long as we don’t become too self-indulgent, the 28th and 29th ought to bring positive experiences.
  5. Chiron turns direct on October 30, and now it becomes easier to implement the lessons we have learned under Chiron’s tutelage for the past few months.
  6. On the 31st the Sun conjoins Ceres in Scorpio – this is no time to hide from your needs.  All will be illuminated, so go for it.
  7. Venus is trine Chiron on the 31st as well, so if any problems come up as a result of #6 they will be easily smoothed over.
  8. Mercury squares Mars on the evening of November 1st, bringing with it the potential for arguments or at the very least an animated discussion.  Mercury is in Scorpio now, and Mars is Scorpio’s ancient ruler; don’t expect to be able to hide from the truth!
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Filed Under: Planetary cycles

Scorpio Time

October 24, 2009 By
With the Sun now in Scorpio, there is a cooling down of the heat of action, and a deepening of our awareness into the realm of emotion and raw experience.  The days are getting shorter, and the dark is in ascension.
Scorpio often gets a bad rap for being manipulative and full of secrets, but we can all learn from the Scorpionic fearless embrace of the sheer reality that underlies all of life.  Death, sex, jealousy – all have a role to play in the human experience.
The Sun illuminates any sign through which it passes, and for the next month or so we have the opportunity to delve deep.  Thanks to Molly Hall for this quote from Thoreau which exemplifies the passage through Scorpio:  ”Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw at it still.”
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