A monster storm on Saturn!

January 31, 2011 By

Storm on SaturnUniverse Today reports that a storm on Saturn has turned into a monster storm, at least ten earths’ wide.

Saturn has exhibited storms before, and I wrote about the one in 2006 here, but the current storm is so huge that it is visible with the naked eye.   In my article linked above, I wrote about political activity that coincided with the earlier Saturn storms in 1994.   During the Saturn storm in 2006 there were mudslides, stampedes and sinking ferries.

Astrological Saturn is the taskmaster, demanding that we face the cold hard realities of life. It’s hard to know how much influence events on the planetary bodies themselves have in our personal world but it’s always useful to pay attention.

Share
Filed Under: Astronomy Tagged With: ,

More musings on the Egyptian revolution

January 29, 2011 By

Egypt astrologyI was listening to the BBC news coverage of the momentous events in Egypt, and one of the journalists remarked that the protesters in Egypt no longer have any fear of the oppressive government.  His point was that once the inhibitions of fear have been broken there is no turning back, that any attempt to reassert control will just inflame the situation.

This comment, and the events unfolding in Egypt, perfectly mirror the astrological symbolism at work here.  Jupiter, bringing an expansive confidence and urge for a life with more meaning, is in Aries which is all about bursting through one’s fear and finding the courage deep within to fight for that which is most important.

An Egyptian American expressed it here:

As the people of my homeland, Egypt, stage a popular uprising against the 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, the White Stripes keep singing in my head: “I’m gonna fight ‘em off /A seven-nation army couldn’t hold me back!”

I don’t know if Jack and Meg of the White Stripes are watching the breathtaking developments taking place in my country. However, their thumping, pumping “Seven Nation Army” is a perfect anthem for the defiance and adrenaline-fueled determination that must be propelling the tens of thousands of courageous, protesting Egyptians.

And against what odds!

In addition to Jupiter entering Aries, the Sun and Mars have been within a few degrees of a conjunction in Aquarius over the past week, a conjunction which doesn’t culminate until February 4th.  Since the Sun and Mars began to align we have seen protests spread like wildfire throughout North Africa and the middle east.  Mars is the ruler of Aries, the sign that Jupiter is in right now, and the fire of the Sun is inflaming the Martian principles of righteous warfare just as Jupiter is expanding the courageous and primal urge to defend oneself and break through to a new reality.

In Aquarius, the Sun and Mars are fighting for social justice and personal liberty.  Aquarius doesn’t care much about personal lives – the individual must be sacrificed for the greater good if necessary, and the old structures must be destroyed so that a new Utopian reality can take its place.

It’s not insignificant that transiting Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius and the instigator of revolution and the destruction of the old and decaying order, is in the final phase of a square formation to the Sun in the chart of modern Egypt right now.

On Friday President Hosni Mubarak responded to the protests by firing his whole cabinet, honoring the Aquarian pressure to destroy the government and recreate a new one, attempting to save his own position in the name of increasing democracy in the country. This is not likely to quell the rage of demonstrators however; as the Egyptian quoted above writes:

They will not sacrifice their freedom and dignity so Western allies can feel better about Egypt — which means a future government must reflect all those Egyptians out there, day after day.

Future leaders be warned: a seven-nation army won’t hold them back.

This feels very much like the coming square of Uranus (freedom) to Pluto (oppression) over the next few years.  I’ll be writing more about the dance of Uranus and Pluto, so stay tuned.

Share
Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

And the revolution begins.

January 27, 2011 By

astrology of Egypt protestsJupiter entered Aries last week for the first time since leaving that fiery sign of war last fall and retreating back into Pisces. You may remember that Jupiter and Uranus were conjunct in Aries back in late May and the summer of 2010, coinciding with the rise of revolutionary fervor in Thailand, Krygystan,  Israel.  This was also the time of the first big Wikileaks.

Aries is all about self-preservation and self-initiation, and Jupiter’s entry into Aries means that it is getting closer to a challenging face-off against Pluto in Capricorn, where power (Pluto) is compressed and channeled through governments and corporations (Capricorn).  The writing is on the wall, and when Uranus joins Jupiter in Aries this fever of revolution and surge of protests against the establishment (Capricorn) in a call for liberation (Uranus) will continue to escalate.

Last week it was Sudan, Jordan and Tunisia, and now it is Egypt, Lebanon and Yemen whose people are rising against the oppressive government in that country.  This puts the United States in a difficult position – on the one hand, we supposedly stand for freedom and personal liberty, yet the regimes that we support in the middle east are repressive and corrupt.  Still, those regimes provide some stability in a region that has the ability to erupt like a powderkeg in the upcoming Uranus/Pluto square.

I can’t help but think this is a good thing, even though like all difficult planetary cycles it won’t be comfortable and is certain to be accompanied by bloodshed.  But balance must be achieved, and it’s the job of Uranus (and Jupiter, to a lesser extent) to emancipate the oppressed and when in a square to Pluto in Capricorn, to destroy (Pluto)  the old structures (Capricorn) that are already rotted and decayed.

Uranus enters Aries in the later part of March, but Jupiter will move ever close to a square to Pluto that culminates in mid-February.  Jupiter brings confidence and demands to be heard – Jupiter after all was the King of all of the gods on Mt. Olympus.  Jupiter refuses to take a back seat to the Lord of the Underworld, no matter how much destruction will ensue.

So fasten your seatbelts folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride for the next few months.

Share
Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , ,

Saturn retrograde, January 2011

January 26, 2011 By

Saturn retrogradeThe other day I wrote about the expansive energy of Jupiter moving into Aries, but we are also dealing with a more contracting influence at the same time: the retrograde turn of Saturn.

(Astrology lesson: Because of the way we view the motion of the planets from earth, they sometimes appear to move backward and we call that retrograde.  When a planet is appearing to change direction, its motion slows down and we call that “stationary.”  At that time its influence is often particularly powerful.)

Saturn governs hard work, discipline, responsibility.  In his guise as Kronos in ancient Greece, he was the God of Time – the one that reminds us “Tempus Fugit!” (Time is passing!)  We don’t have forever, so if our lives are not as we want them to be we’d better get to work and get serious about things.

Astrological Jupiter and Saturn are not naturally compatible.  Where Saturn tells us where we’re not good enough and that we have to do more, always more, Jupiter has faith that everything will turn out just fine.  Jupiter wants to be optimistic and trust that good things are possible, and Saturn won’t let us relax because even if everything is going well, disaster could be right around the corner.

All of the planets serve an invaluable purpose, and no planet is better than the other.  We need Jupiter’s faith to keep us going, even when the light appears to have dimmed.  We need Saturn’s perseverance and retreat into isolation so that we may emerge with our skills enhanced and our resolve strengthened.

Over the next few months Jupiter and Uranus in Aries will fill us with more energy than we know what to do with, making the Saturn retrograde turn just a blip on the radar.  So for the next few days see if you can transmute every negative thought (Saturn) into a plan to achieve something greater in your life, and allow the enthusiasm of Jupiter in Aries to propel you into action to make that happen.

Share
Filed Under: Astrology Tagged With: , ,

Jupiter in Aries 2011

January 24, 2011 By

Jupiter in AriesJupiter first moved into Aries last spring with the first phase of the  conjunction of Jupiter to Uranus.  This meeting of the two planets of liberation in the sign of initiation was the instigator for the alignments in cardinal planets that I called the Cardinal Drama.  With up to seven planets and luminaries interacting in the early degrees of the cardinal signs (Aries, Libra, Cancer and Capricorn) last summer, it was a powerful force for change.  Jupiter and Uranus then retrograded back into Pisces where they completed the second two phases of their conjunction.  With Jupiter now back in Aries, we begin to move forward to complete the work of last year’s planetary events.

Aries is the first sign of the zodiac.  This is the beginning of new experiences – in Aries we tend to approach our lives from a place of innocence.  Jupiter in Aries is accurately depicted by the Fool card in the Tarot.  The Rider Waite fool depicts someone who approaches their life with complete trust and innocence.  It’s a beautiful day, the Sun is shining, and they’re about to walk off a cliff.  The little dog is barking in warning, but the Fool has complete trust that the Universe will take care of him and protect him.  Jupiter in Aries offers a fresh new beginning of faith and trust in the Universe and in our own ability to follow the path that our soul has set out for us.

Over the past few years Saturn and Uranus have been in opposition to each other, pitting the conservative thinking and desire to retreat to the past of Saturn against the tremendous force for change that Uranus inspires.  Uranus rebels against the past and wants to experience something new and fresh – Uranus wants a life that is better suited to a changing world.  We have seen this playing out in global politics, but also in our own lives.  The goal when two planets are in opposition is to integrate both polarities and find harmony in the balance. Until we do that we are pulled back and forth – pulled by Saturn back into the past, reflecting that which is safe, that which we’ve depended on, and then pulled by Uranus which wants to break free into something totally different and new.

When Jupiter conjoined Uranus, encouraging that urgency for change, Saturn became the weak point.  Regression into the past was no longer an option.  When Jupiter and Uranus retrograded back into Pisces they were not as active, and the pressure to create change in our lives lost some of the impetus of the beginning of the cycle.  At that point Saturn was interacting with Pluto and we were pulled for a bit into the darkness and may have had a re-emergence of some of the fear of change that Saturn can bring.

With Jupiter in Aries, there is a desire for constant growth.  Jupiter expands, and Aries is endless energy and initiation of new actions.  We don’t want to be still – we don’t want to submit to any rules.  There’s lots of enthusiasm and passionate and pure, unadulterated drive and this will be accelerated when Uranus enters Aries in March.  Jupiter will remain in Aries until June 5, at which point it will move into Taurus and have a grounding influence which will be very helpful as we move into some of the summer’s more challenging planetary cycles.

This kind of energy with Jupiter and Uranus in Aries is very exciting for people that have a lot of fire and air in their charts.  They love this opening door of freedom, and the feeling of change in the air.  Others of us that are more conservative or cautious by nature may find this big push of energy flying around somewhat frightening.  It’s important to remember that this is the time to break free of old patterns and beliefs that hold us back.  We can’t go back through the door – the old ways are gone.  Human consciousness is accelerating now and we have to break through the barriers that keep us stuck in a box.

Physical exercise will help us to release any energy that we cannot handle, and help to ground us so that we can better utilize the flow of electricity and magnetism that is affecting us right now.

The last conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus occurred in 1968 – in fact, the Apollo mission landed on the very day of the second phase of that conjunction.  At that time, the Uranus/Pluto conjunction of 1962-1968 occurred first, creating the breakdown of the old ways, and then the shift into consciousness occurred with Jupiter and Uranus (in Virgo at that time).  This time the shift in consciousness of the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction occurs first, and then when Pluto squares Uranus next year the changes in the outer world and global transformation occur in response to the alterations of the inner world.

For daily planetary news, visit my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Share
Filed Under: Astrology Tagged With: , ,

Keith Olbermann loses his job

January 22, 2011 By

Keith Olbermann astrologyWhether you love Keith Olbermann or hate him, there is no doubt that he was a groundbreaking journalist during the administration of Bush II, reporting on stories that the mainstream media ignored and bringing a fresh new perspective to evening news.

You can read my original post on Olbermann here, and my post on his November suspension here.  There are rumors that he was fired, but that hasn’t been confirmed and news reports suggest that he has signed a nondisclosure areement.

It’s interesting that this happens just as Jupiter enters Aries, giving a new and more brash expression to Jupiter’s confidence and braggodocio.  Olbermann’s progressed Sun is at 29 degrees Pisces, preparing to move into Aries in a few months.  Jupiter just moved into Aries today, so Friday morning when the agreement to terminate Olbermann was signed Jupiter was at 29 degrees Pisces, sitting right on his progressed Sun (the exact transit occurred on January 18th).  In addition, the previous week (January 12th) transiting Jupiter made an exact trine to Jupiter in Olbermann’s chart, along with transiting Uranus.  This is a double whammy of expansion and new opportunities for change.

Transits of Jupiter generally serve to liberate us from something that has been stifling us.  Comcast is preparing to purchase NBC Universal, the conglomerate that owns MSNBC, and there has been talk for months of a political crackdown once that sale is finalized.

Transiting Uranus (rebellion and radical change will conjoin Olbermann’s progressed Sun in early March, stimulating him to engage in new and different projects that significantly alter his trajectory.  His progressed Sun moves into Aries in late September, beginning a new 30-year cycle.  Regardless of what happens, Mr. Olbermann is in for something completely new and different in this next phase of his life.

For daily planetary news, visit my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Share
Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , ,

“Self-knowledge is only the beginning”

January 21, 2011 By

self understandingCartoon by Doug Savage. One of the more challenging yet rewarding aspects of my work with clients is taking the leap from “here is why you have had these problems” to “here’s what you can do about it.”  It’s always reassuring to hear that your desire to flee a committed relationship comes from the fact that libertarian Uranus challenges your “I want to be closer” Venus.  Or that you are afraid of success because Saturn’s voice of “You’re not good enough” sits right on your Jupiter in Leo that says “But I should be fabulous!”

After a few years of exciting realizations like this coming out of consultations, I started to realize there was a big need for something more – a way to help a client strategize their way out of the boxes they put themselves in.

The New York Times has an interesting article on the same topic:

It is practically an article of faith among many therapists that self-understanding is a prerequisite for a happy life. Insight, the thinking goes, will free you from your psychological hang-ups and promote well-being.

Perhaps, but recent experience makes me wonder whether insight is all it’s cracked up to be.

Not long ago, I saw a young man in his early 30s who was sad and anxious after being dumped by his girlfriend for the second time in three years. It was clear that his symptoms were a reaction to the loss of a relationship and that he was not clinically depressed.

“I’ve been over this many times in therapy,” he said. He had trouble tolerating any separation from his girlfriends. Whether they were gone for a weekend or he was traveling for work, the result was always the same: a painful state of dysphoria and anxiety.

He could even trace this feeling back to a separation from his mother, who had been hospitalized for several months for cancer treatment when he was 4. In short, he had gained plenty of insight in therapy into the nature and origin of his anxiety, but he felt no better.

What therapy had given this young man was a coherent narrative of his life; it had demystified his feelings, but had done little to change them.

Was this because his self-knowledge was flawed or incomplete? Or is insight itself, no matter how deep, of limited value?

Psychoanalysts and other therapists have argued for years about this question, which gets to the heart of how therapy works (when it does) to relieve psychological distress. …

I recall one patient who was chronically depressed and dissatisfied. “Life is just a drag,” he told me and then went on to catalog a list of very real social and economic ills.

He had been in therapy for years before I saw him and had come to the realization that he had chosen his profession to please his critical and demanding father rather than follow his passion for art. Although he was insightful about much of his behavior, he was clearly no happier for it.

When he became depressed, though, this insight added to his pain as he berated himself for failing to stand up to his father and follow his own path. …

[H]e came to see me recently looking exceedingly happy. He had quit his job and taken a far less lucrative one in the art world. We got to talking about why he was feeling so good. “Simple,” he said, “I’m doing what I like.”

Many of my clients report that “astrology is better than therapy,” because it helps us to zoom right into the heart of the issue like a laser, enhancing our self-understanding and giving us new insights into the root of our behavior.  But we still have to change that behavior in order to find happiness and release the past.

We often believe that our patterns of behavior and thinking are who we actually are which makes it more difficult to alter them.  But the smallest alteration in our thought patterns and accompanying reactions can take us to a new destination of greater empowerment and joy.

Share
Filed Under: Consciousness Tagged With: , ,

Full Moon in Cancer, January 19 2011

January 18, 2011 By

Cancer Full MoonThe Full Moon occurs on January 19th at 4:21 pm Eastern at the 29th degree of Cancer. The sign of Cancer is ruled by the Moon, so the Moon is particularly powerful during the Cancerian Full Moon.

Like the Moon, Cancer is emotional and vulnerable – tender and soft and needing to be nurtured. A cardinal water sign, the emotions of Cancer are active rather than passive – there is a need not only to feel deeply, but also to take action in some way such as offering food or providing some other kind of sustenance.

In the dance between the Moon and the Sun, the cycle begins at the New Moon with the Sun/Moon conjunction, and reaches its apex at the Full Moon when the Moon opposes the Sun and challenges its authority. Ancient customs of howling at the Moon to release one’s instinctive side reflect the fact that the subconscious interior of our innermost being is more easily accessible when the Moon is full. And when the Moon is full in Cancer, it’s time to delve into the realm of feeling and open the door for the inner child to enter.

This Full Moon occurs at the 29th degree of Cancer. The 29th degree is the completion of one sign and the transition to the next, so here we are completing the sensitive emotionality of Cancer as we prepare to move into more of a focus on Self in Leo with the solar polarity moving from the practicality of Capricorn into the quixotic unpredictability of Aquarius. The lunation makes no aspects to any other planets so it is not likely to be experienced with much intensity. A pleasant sextile from the Sun to Jupiter helps to foster feelings of optimism and confidence as we find our emotional stability.

For daily planetary news, visit my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Share
Filed Under: Moon Tagged With: , ,

Rachel Maddow refuses to change her sign

January 16, 2011 By

There’s no such thing as bad publicity, and astrology has had LOTS of publicity over the past few days with the big news over the 13th sign and the precessional shift.  Rachel Maddow weighs in and explains the whole thing, except I’m not sure that her astronomy is correct when she ties the Moon into the situation. The astrology comes in at around four minutes and be sure to catch her very last line:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Share
Filed Under: Astrology in the news Tagged With: , , ,

Your “zodiac sign” has not changed!

January 14, 2011 By

zodiac sign has changedStories like this have been circulating in the news media like wildfire over the past few days as astronomers discover something that astrologers have known for nearly 2000 years, that the zodiac that we use in Western astrology does not line up with the current placement of the constellations.  This is due to what is called “precession,” in which due to the earth’s wobble the relationship between the earth and the stars changes over a “Great Cycle” of 26,000 years.  This is why every 2160 years or so we go through another zodiacal age, like the transition from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius that we are in right now.

You can read more about the science of precession here.

Astronomers will be disappointed to learn that this debate has raged through astrological communities ever since the phenomenon of precession was discovered sometime around 130 bce.  The astrology that is typically practiced in the West is called “tropical” astrology which is based on the seasons and the earth’s relationship to the Sun.  Another branch of astrology originated in India and is called “sidereal” astrology which relates to the stars rather than the Sun.

Some people like to call the zodiac “star signs,” and while they are incorrect in terms of Western astrology, in which signs are called “sun signs,” the terminology “star signs” is accurate where sidereal astrology is concerned.

The astrological pantheon that we call the zodiac is a symbolic system.  The constellations do not align into nicely divided 30 degree sections as they do around the birthchart, and as many of these news articles mention there is a 13th constellation that the Sun passes through on its trip around the Sun called Ophiuchus.  This last idea has given rise to the question about whether the zodiac should have 13 signs rather than 12.  These are concepts that for many years have caused astronomers to dispute the validity of astrology.

Astrology is not astronomically correct.  Planets don’t really move backwards, and the earth isn’t the center of the solar system.  But that is how we observe the planets astrologically, and we observe them against a backdrop of symbols that are named after the constellations that form the backdrop of our observed world.

Vedic astrology continues to use the sidereal zodiac and we won’t go into that debate here.   When I first started using software that can switch between the two zodiacs in the flip of a switch I tested the sidereal zodiac and found it to be inaccurate in my work.  Occasionally I have a client from India who wants to know about the Vedic/Tropical debate, and they generally agree that the Tropical system is more accurate.  But obviously there are thousands of astrologers who would disagree, and quite vehemently.

In the tropical zodiac, the cardinal points line up with the changing of the seasons.  This is true in the northern hemisphere AND the southern hemisphere, although the seasons of course are reversed in the southern hemisphere.  For example, zero degrees Aries marks the Vernal Equinox in the tropical system, and zero degrees Libra is at the Autumnal Equinox.  In my work with clients in the southern hemisphere, despite the fact that Aries is actually the Autumn season, Aries works exactly the same way, and so does Libra.

As we practice it in the West, astrology is a symbolic system largely credited to the work of Ptolemy whose “Tetrabiblos” was written about 300 years after the phenomenon of precession was discovered, but when the zero degree Aries point was still aligned with the Vernal Equinox according to Rob Hand’s excellent article.  Rob also points out that there is evidence from translations of other works that the Tropical zodiac was favored by the Greeks back to the fourth century bce.

It’s gratifying to see astrology discussed in the mainstream media, and ABC News has even printed a retraction (sort of) to the story.   Our own Matthew Currie was quoted in this nice article on Salon.com.

So don’t worry – your zodiac signs have not changed.  The news media is just catching up to astrologers.

Share
Filed Under: Astrology in the news Tagged With: , , ,
« Older Posts