A day with Dharmaruci

May 30, 2010 By

This has been an amazing trip so far!! Today Dharmaruci and Vajramala hosted Rich and I and our friends Dianne and David for a delicious lunch on their courtyard. It was lots of fun meeting DR after corresponding for about five years. Many of you will recognize Dharmaruci from his Astrotabletalk blog (linked in the sidebar), another of my favorites and most sympatico to this one.

There was a debate a couple of years ago whether DR’s rising sign was Virgo, Leo or Libra – I’m pleased to be able to confirm that it’s definitely Leo! He is a very entertaining guy and lots of fun to hang out with.

From here Rich and I head off to Cornwall for more magical adventures. Meanwhile I hope you are enjoying the menu of posts I prepared for you!

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Filed Under: Astrology in my world

Memorial Day musings

May 30, 2010 By

While I am out of town I’ve selected some older articles to repost for you.

I was a student during the Vietnam war, and in demonstrations and marches against the war we decried the philosophy of our government that killing for peace made sense. On September 11 we were attacked by Osama bin Laden, and 2,646 Americans were killed.

Since then, 3,813 Americans have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 398 private contractors of various nationalities have been killed. Nearly 7,000 Iraqi forces have been killed, and anywhere from 60,000 to over 600,000 civilians and over 100 journalists.

I am not a pacifist, but I believe in healing. Where there is dysfunction, there is a need for healing that dysfunction. If Americans are hated, perhaps we should find out why. We had a beautiful opportunity in Afghanistan after the attacks of September 11 to go into that country and rebuild it; to drive out the Taliban and capture bin Laden and win the hearts and mind of the people. Instead we took every resource of the US military into a country that did not attack us and that we couldn’t maintain.

Perhaps we could take some of the billions of dollars being spent by military contractors to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan over and over again, and invest in programs in the middle east that would help the people in these countries. This is what Hazbollah has successfully done for years in Lebanon. This is what AlQaeda is trying to do; provide funds and a sense of pride.

Killing for peace has never been a goal that makes sense. In the ’60s, we used to say “Killing for peace is like f*#cking for chastity.” To kill innocent civilians for peace didn’t make sense then and it doesn’t make sense now. On this Memorial Day, let’s remember those that have fallen in the name of ego and finance and pray for wiser leaders, and then vote in that direction!!

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Voices in our heads

May 29, 2010 By

Art by Gayle Pritchard

While I am out of town I have selected some interesting articles to repost.

Nearly all of us hear voices of one kind or another. My mother hears the voice of her mother criticizing her in her head. Someone I know well hears music in his head – full orchestras. When I do readings, I hear voices describing aspects of the chart to me before I have a chance to notice them. Are we all crazy? Granted, this is nothing like the people whose voices urge them to murder and worse, but perhaps there’s more to this phenomenon than simply classifying people who hear voices as schizophrenics.

An article in the New York Times (thank you Ellie Crystal) asks the question, “Can you live with the voices in your head?” The article cites the work of a group in Britain called “Hearing Voices Network” whose purpose is to bring people that hear voices an opportunity to get together for mutual support. The Times article suggests:

Since the 1990s, a growing number of researchers and clinicians, predominantly based in England, have been comparing voice-hearing in psychotic patients with voice-hearing in nonpatients, measuring the incidence of hallucinations in the general population, and using cognitive behavioral therapy (C.B.T.), a popular, short-term treatment for depression and anxiety, to help them manage their responses to the voices they continue to hear. C.B.T. typically asks patients to scrutinize how they interpret their symptoms rather than focusing on an illness as an underlying cause. “The matter of whether it’s effective, and to what extent,” Lieberman says, is still being investigated. So far, the use of C.B.T. in the treatment of psychoses is much more prevalent in the U.K. than in the U.S.

I’m sure the powerful Big Pharma lobby has something to do with that.

But still, the whole concept of hearing voices opens up doorways that are difficult to enter. We like to think that the voices we hear are from our guides and inner teachers. Could it be that some people hearing voice are actually hearing voices of being that are located in other planes where they can’t be seen, just as we envision our inner guides to be? What if so-called psychotic people are merely tuned in to frequencies that the rest of us can’t hear?

Noted psychologist R.D. Laing raised this question back in the early 1960s when he linked the psychosis with the transcendent:

When a person goes mad, a profound transposition of his position in relation to all domains of being occurs. His center of experience moves from ego to Self. Mundane time becomes merely anecdotal, only the Eternal matters. The madman is, however, confused. He muddles ego with self, inner with outer, natural and supernatural. Nevertheless, he often can be to us, even through his profound wretchedness and disintegration, the hierophant of the sacred. An exile from the scene of being as we know it, he is an alien, a stranger, signalling to us from the void in which he is foundering. This void may be peopled by presences that we do not even dream of. They used to be called demons and spirits, that were known and named. He has lost his sense of self, his feelings, his place in the world as we know it. He tells us he is dead. But we are distracted from our cozy security by this mad ghost that haunts us with his visions and voices that seem so senseless and of which we feel impelled to rid him, cleanse him, cure him.Madness need not be all breakdown. It is also breakthrough. It is potentially liberation and renewal, as well as enslavement and existential death.

Another leap outside the realm of rational science into the world of magic, this time the magic of the psyche.

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Saturn gets a bad rap

May 28, 2010 By

Dharmaruci has a good article about Saturn’s role in Western society.  DR and I have known each other for about four years – we follow each other’s blog and at one point cross-posted for each other.  On Sunday we’ll be having lunch together in Glastonbury!  Life is an adventure.

Saturn sits on my Sun in my own chart, and I am very familiar with his many virtues so I particularly like the spin in this article.

Saturn sets boundaries and limitations and pushes us to achieve, to become good at what we do and to gain recognition for it. Negatively, he fills us with thoughts of what we ought and should be doing, and makes us feel guilty for not measuring up. Well, he doesn’t in reality push us or make us do anything, but he does describe those positive qualities and dysfunctions within ourselves. …

Being busy and working hard: those are the 2 great virtues of negative Saturn. So and so worked very hard for many years, so he is virtuous. No doubt many drug smugglers, gangsters and tyrants have ‘worked hard’ to get to where they’ve got to. And keeping busy and working hard are often an escape from guilt, from the miserable loser-ship of being idle or poor.

Negative Saturn divides society into winners and losers, judges on appearance and never looks beneath the surface to see what is of real value. It does not produce happiness, but it does produce a wealthy country, in which people can be relied on to keep working, keep busy and not to think. It is like the drug that the queen bee produces to keep the workers working and serving the needs of the hive. It is a brainwashing. It is the real conspiracy, except it is collective and unconscious.

read the whole article here.

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Uranus in Aries – May 27 2010

May 27, 2010 By

The power of the Full Moon in Sagittarius on May 27 contains the movement of the planet Uranus into Aries.  Uranus changes signs every seven years or so, and it will dip its metaphorical toe into Aries and remain at zero degrees of that sign until mid-August when it will retrograde back into Pisces until 2011, at which time it  will begin to face off against Pluto in their exact square confrontation.

Much has been written about the upcoming Uranus/Pluto square, in these pages and elsewhere – when these two planets get together there is a huge force for transformation and radical change.

Uranus is very much at home in Aries: the primal needs of Aries find pure and unfettered expression when Uranus makes its home there.  Uranus is a mental planet that brings focus to our ideas of what will make life better.  Uranus is an idealist; in the ancient myth he stole his children away from their mother Gaia and imprisoned them in Tartarus because they were monsters.  He dislikes messy emotional situations and prefers utopian environments where there is social equality and absolute freedom.

In Aries, Uranus is emancipated from any rules or structures that inhibit its revolutionary new ideas.  Aries is the sign of pure instinct and adventure; it tends to be always in motion, unimpeded by fear or caution.  In the sign of Aries, Uranus is inventive but also impulsive, and tends to shoot first and aim later.   Uranus is known as the planet that can truly “shock and awe,” bringing events that surprise us and change our lives forever, and in Aries its power to bring about sudden reversals is even more pronounced.

Uranus in Aries is filled with ideas for how to make change happen, but lacking respect for Saturnian structure and discipline can find it difficult to put those great ideas into motion.  We have seen this oppositional force at work since the fall of 2008 when Saturn and Uranus first opposed each other in the sky, and as Uranus slips into Aries for the first time, it is still within range of that opposition.  Uranus resists the practicality of Saturn, but is ultimately supported by Saturnian strong foundations.

On a personal level, the power of Uranus in Aries can also serve to break up blocks that have kept us from being able to move forward in our lives.  This may occur in a manner that is disruptive and uncomfortable, but if we allow Uranus to breathe light and life into our awareness we will find it easier to take the necessary steps to find the expansion required to grow.

Uranus was last in Aries from 1927 to 1935.  Keywords for Uranus are revolution, independence, technology, innovation, industry, inventions, science.  These historical events of that time period changed history forever:

  • In 1927, Mao TseTung activated the Communist party in China which is now “considered the initial and decisive step towards the successful application of Mao’s revolutionary theories.”  From 1931 to 1934 Mao established the Soviet Republic of China.  (Source: Wikipedia)
  • In 1927, Stalin expelled Leon Trotsky from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and instituted the Five Year Plan for National Economic Construction, transforming agricultural Russia into an industrial superpower. This period is now known as the “Stalin Revolution.”(Source: Wikipedia)
  • The Big Bang theory (a radical new idea) was proposed by Georges LeMaitre in 1927.
  • The film The Jazz Singer, with Al Jolson, was released in 1927 as the first talking motion picture.
  • Vatican City was established in 1929 as an independent entity.
  • In the US the 1929 stock market crash brought about a national depression and world economic crisis.
  • Spain became a republic when King Alfonso XIII was overthrown in 1931.
  • The Nazis took power in German in 1932 elections and after the Reichstag fire (commonly assumed to have been set by the Nazis themselves) began the campaign of oppression known as the Nazi Terror.

The events of the late 1930s that led to the Second World War had other astrological implications that are too complicated to visit in this article.  But we can see the trend towards revolutionary ideas that create a fever for change during this time period.

So what can we expect during this Uranus in Aries period?

We are living in a time when everything has been supersized.  The individual countries in Europe have been amalgated into the European Union, and the same thing has been tried in Africa.  A few multinational corporations produce nearly everything consumed on the planet.  Uranus in Aries will likely begin to break up the stranglehold these corporations have on societies.

Aries rules warfare and the tools of warfare, and financial astrology Ray Merriman says that Uranus in Aries will likely bring a bubble in arms investments.  It is also likely that gun rights will be even more of a focus during this period.  If the Uranus/Pluto square brings social chaos and upheaval as many of us expect, the right to bear arms will be seen as an imperative and we may see more and more guns carried in public.

These are interesting times we live in – but all planetary cycles carry with them the potential for spiritual and personal development.  Uranus in Aries ultimately is all about personal freedom and liberty, and in our personal lives we will be asked to shed all things that hold us back from liberation.

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Meeting Kathryn in London

May 26, 2010 By

Kathryn Cassidy is one of my favorite astrobloggers. Her blog, Collaborate with Fate (linked in the sidebar) is a consistently interesting trove of hidden symbols and astrological insights. Over the years she and I have shared our interests in many things from astrological details to conspiracy mysteries. So it was fun to meet her on person today when she gave us a wonderful tour of downtown London.

Kathryn was a great tour guide and had sent me a long and detailed walking tour of some of the more interesting sites on Fleet Street and other areas with a history of fascinating mystery.  Her tip to tour the Freemason’s Hall was a great one.  When we met she took us on a long walk around St. James Park and Buckingham Palace that was better than any tour we could have purchased!  And most importantly, in that afternoon we became real friends.

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Filed Under: Astrology in my world

Me at the Astrology Shoppe in London

May 26, 2010 By

I’m in London! What a gorgeous city. Today I made a pilgrimage to this astrology shop but since I have an unopened box of books from here I only bought three. :)

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Filed Under: Astrology in my world

Full Moon in Sagittarius: May 27 2010

May 26, 2010 By
Sagittarius Full Moon

Sailor Moon by K Bose

Tomorrow’s Full Moon is in Sagittarius, straddling the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity of learning and knowledge.  When the Moon is full, it is actually in direct opposition to the Sun which will be in Gemini and we see the Sun’s light totally reflected by the Moon without any earthly interference.

Zodiacal polarities are opposites, with each sign having something that the other lacks.  Gemini wants to take in every single bit of information without discrimination, just for the sake of learning and gaining experience.  Sagittarius, on the other hand, seeks greater focus and understanding with a desire to learn what is true and what is not.

This is the polarity that we balance in the Sagittarian Full Moon.

We also have the power of Saturn and Neptune bearing down with their full force since they are both stationary and preparing to change direction.  Saturn seeks to hold us back, and Neptune is all about achieving a higher state of consciousness.

Uranus also enters Aries the day of the Full Moon, so this is a fiery and impulsive period where we are shooting all of our arrows at once.  Yet at the same time, we are very aware of Saturn’s restraint and Neptune’s clouding of our vision.  We’re shooting arrows, but where are they going?  Where is our focus?  What are our goals?

If we utilize the time leading up to this event to make sure we are adequately protected and that these arrows are focused in the direction that will lead us on the correct path, this will be a powerful lunar event that can help to launch us ever closer to our dreams.

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The Uranus/Pluto Square: Responding Creatively to Crisis

May 24, 2010 By

Astrologer D.K. Brainard has a beautiful post about the oil spill in the Gulf, the extent of which is still unknown but appears to be spreading at alarming rates.  D.K. writes:

In her 1980 book The Aquarian Conspiracy, Marilyn Ferguson noted that a funny thing happened on the way to the revolution of the 1960s. Frustrated by the lack of real change resulting from marching in the streets, confronting the authorities and inciting young people to rebel against “the System,” many of the leaders of the 1960s counterculture eventually dropped out of the movement.

But they didn’t give up on their ideals, Ferguson argued. Instead, they did something even more radical. Rather than continuing to struggle in the world of effects, they turned inward to find – and attempt to heal – the evils afflicting their world. They turned on to meditation, yoga, nonviolent communication, holistic medicine, organic farming, and so many of the other spiritual practices that have become almost commonplace in forty short years.

The oil still gushing from deep beneath the sea off the Louisiana coast threatens to become the major man-caused environmental disaster of our lifetime. It demands a creative response from us, something better than blame, resentment, despair or hopelessness. We are now squarely in the zone of the Saturn-Uranus-Pluto “Cardinal Climax” of 2010. We knew the world would be galvanized by something; it appears we are being galvanized by the world itself – as Mother Earth erupts for the second time in less than a month.

Pluto represents the archetypal realms of the soul, both the individual soul and the world soul, and when dark clouds of volcanic material start spewing up from the depths of the Earth, we can be sure this is a signal to us to look inside our own psyches. “As above, so below,” runs the Hermetic axiom, and Pluto astrology commands us to look within ourselves for the cause of the malaise we see in the outer world.

I was a college student in the late 1960s (well, 1969-1974) and remember that fervor that inspired us to take to the streets and the frustration that Ferguson talks about.  This occurred under the Uranus/Pluto conjunction which inspired that revolutionary inspiration (Uranus) to “take back the power” (Pluto).

No matter how desperately we want to cling to the status quo and a sense of normalcy, we can’t deny that periods of crisis stimulate creative intelligence from the center of our beings that generate responses to that crisis which can effect real change and ultimate healing.

As D.K. says,

Use this incredible energy to re-commit to living creatively. Because we won’t heal the planet by projecting our own Shadows onto the “evildoers” or the oil-guzzlers or the other bad people. We will only heal the planet by healing ourselves – consciously releasing the guilt, shame, fear and other negative emotions, and intentionally reclaiming our creative birthright.

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On vacation

May 23, 2010 By

I’m leaving today for a long anticipated trip to England!  We’ll be in London and then traveling through the magical area of Glastonbury and then Cornwall. I’ll be meeting my longtime astro friends Kathryn Cassidy and Dharmaruci, which is very exciting!  I’ve pre-posted some new articles and some reposts for you to read while I’m gone, and I’ll also be posting from the road.  Sorry, I won’t be participating in the comments until I return.

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Filed Under: Miscellany
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