The astrology of the Royal Wedding

April 29, 2011 By

Royal Wedding astrologyI confess I’m not that interested in the Royal Wedding that occurs today. I wasn’t that interested in Charles and Diana’s wedding either, even though that wedding had much more of the pomp and circumstance that we associate with royalty than the more modern wedding of William and Kate.

But then I read my friend Kathryn’s analysis and the whole situation became much more interesting.  Some of the interesting facts about the royal wedding according to Kathryn:

  • The wedding date occurs on the eve of the Beltane festival, also called the Festival of Unification.
  • The ascendant for the chart of the Coronation of William in 1066, the birth of England, is at 21.57 Aries. At the time of the wedding, Jupiter (“planet of Faith and Kings” ) will be at 21.56 Aries and will cross the ascendant of the 1066 chart just after the ceremony.
  • Mars (the defender) conjoins Jupiter (the Faith) at 21 degrees Aries on the wedding day.

Kathryn’s post predicts that because of the Mars/Jupiter conjunction you will see “lots of people wearing red or shades of it” (red is the color of Mars).  Sure enough, William will wear his red army uniform to the wedding.

With Jupiter sitting right on the Midheaven of his chart, Prince William was born to the throne, but Neptune on his ascendant makes it more difficult for him to know who he really is.  (Chart of Prince Williams here.)This makes him more malleable and easy to manipulate, which in some ways may be a desirable attribute for a royal character who is really a figurehead for the country.  He’s extremely sensitive, with the Sun conjunct Moon in emotional Cancer, and was very connected to his mother, the Princess Diana.

The exact conjunction of Venus to Chiron in his chart suggests that relationships are painful for him, and it’s well known that Kate Middleton was not his first choice of a bride.  His heart was broken several times before he came to this decision, and the fact that the decision to marry came during his Saturn Return is, in my mind, problematic.

The Saturn Return occurs around age 28-30 when Saturn returns to its place in the birthchart.  These can be challenging times when we are forced to make choices to grow up rather than continue to pursue childish things.  There is a tendency for Saturn Return marriages to fail because so often the decision is made solely for the reason of taking that step into adulthood, rather than for the emotional connection that sustains a marriage.

Prince Williams Mars conjoins his Saturn and is being affected by his Saturn return as well.  Mars represents our drive and our desires, and when Saturn is present there can be some inhibition of our ability to seek our own path.  The fact that both Mars and Saturn are in Libra indicates a need to please others and to put one’s own needs aside for the sake of harmony.

Kate Middleton (see Astrotheme chart here with an unverified birth time) has the Sun in Capricorn which is perfect for taking on the responsibilities of the royal family, but it lies opposite her sensitive Cancer Moon.  This is the Full Moon aspect that suggests difficulty balancing one’s emotions.   Both ends of this opposition are squared by Saturn, and so Kate is undergoing a long-term transit of Saturn which encompasses her Sun, Moon and also her natal Saturn.  There is a great deal of glamour in a royal wedding, but also a great deal of responsibilities to come.

The new planet Eris sits right on the ascendant of this chart, and we don’t know enough about how Eris works to be able to make predictions based on this.  But because Eris is the planet of discord and change, it appears likely that Kate will be shaking up the establishment in some way.

With both having Moon in Cancer, Kate and William share a deep emotional connection that will hopefully be able to overcome the fact that there are not many points of contact between their charts.  Those points of contact create emotional connections between two people that we don’t see here, and the composite chart (the chart of the couple) shows Aquarius is rising and Uranus, ruler of Aquarius, sits right on the Midheaven of the composite chart.  Uranus and Aquarius are about social change and the good of the collective, but rather impersonal.

With a Cancer Moon in the fifth house of the composite chart, children are likely, but an exact square between the Sun and Moon suggests a lack of emotional connection that will eventually drive the two apart.  Mars also squares the Moon exactly, suggesting anger and resentment, and opposes the Sun which would encourage long periods of separation and conflict.

All in all this is not the astrology of an ideal marriage, but royal marriages are rarely for the purpose of emotional harmony and personal growth.  It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

 

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Barack Obama releases birth certificate (again)

April 28, 2011 By

Barack Obama birth certificateAstrologers are always hunting for birth information, so we were the first ones on the trail of Barack Obama’s birth certificate.  Not that we believed he might be from Kenya, but we wanted to be able to construct an accurate birthchart. You can read the thread of my articles on the subject here along with my astrological profiles of the President.

At the moment Mars and Jupiter are moving into a conjunction that will culminate just after midnight (EDT) on Sunday May 1st, and right now they are within two degrees of each other and of the President’s progressed ascendant.  This may be a little too  geeky for some of my readers, but the simplification here is that the planet of aggression and inspiration (Mars) is aligning with the planet of expansion and opportunity (Jupiter) in Mars’s own sign of Aries, the sign of self-motivation and courageous pursuit of one’s Truth.

It’s hard to conjure up anyone who exemplifies the combination of Marsy aggression and Jupiter’s braggodocio better than Donald Trump, whose relentless pursuit of Obama’s birth certificate over the past few weeks led to the President’s announcement yesterday.  And as it happens, Mr. Trump’s chart shows Mars sitting right on the ascendant where it becomes a part of his persona.

The progressed chart shows our evolution through time, and the progressed ascendant reveals our changing image as we project it to others, and as we see ourselves.  With Mars and Jupiter, both in Aries, transiting President Obama’s progressed ascendant he is asserting (Mars) more authority and his poll numbers are already up as a result of the announcement yesterday.

Warning: political rant ahead

On a non-astrological note, many of the President’s critics are saying now that he should have released the birth certificate sooner.  Snopes has the entire history of this insanity.  But my question is, has any President in the history of the United States been asked to release his birth certificate?  And even after Obama released the “Certification of Live Birth” suspicions continued.  Even now there is talk that the actual birth certificate is a forgery.  Obama is not the first president to have had a foreign parent – Woodrow Wilson’s mother was English and Herbert Hoover’s mother was Canadian.  Perhaps we consider Kenya to be more foreign than England or Canada?

Surely there are more important issues facing Americans than this distraction over whether or not Barack Obama has fulfilled his duty to disclose that he is an American.  The timing of this craziness in the midst of an important budget debate makes this the perfect distraction.  ”Look over here folks, just ignore the people in Washington who are stealing your jobs and giving your money to the Wall Street billionaires.”

Rant over.  We will now return to your astrological programming.

 

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Financial news and the US Saturn Return

April 25, 2011 By

financial astrologyAs I wrote a few weeks ago, we are in the middle of the second phase of the Saturn Return in the US chart.  The Saturn return occurs every 28-30 years in a chart – whether of an individual, a marriage, or a nation – and requires that we learn the hard lessons of life in a material world.  Saturn insists that we keep our eyes open and nose to the grindstone, and develop positive habits that will help us to become successful.

The Saturn return in the US chart has brought with it the usual challenges, both financial and of a more subtle nature – the kind of “malaise”  that came with the last US Saturn Return.

The Wall Street Weather website is one of the best sources for financial astrology.  Deborah writes:

“Shock” and “surprise” were the words used to describe the market’s reaction Monday after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the outlook on the USA’s long term credit rating from “stable” to “negative” over concerns that the U.S. will delay addressing medium to long-term budgetary challenges until after the 2012 presidential election. Yet the real “surprise” was that the market was surprised since S&P (as well as Moody’s) had warned on January 13 that the USA’s outlook might be lowered in the future.

Those early warning shots were fired as Mars in Capricorn conjoined the USA’s natal Pluto, indicating serious and substantive action must be taken now to reduce the USA’s enormous debt mountain. Pluto in the sector of the USA chart representing the nation’s wealth and the overall economy reflects that a large amount of government spending is kept secret (“black budget”) and off the balance sheet. Government debt generates wealth for a select group of individuals and corporations (the plutocrats) who benefit from government (Capricorn) spending and bestowing all types of tax subsidies and loopholes for their benefit.

The ratings agencies’ warning came as Pluto in Capricorn was opposing the USA’s natal Jupiter for the first time in the nation’s history, indicating that the U.S. debt burden has become so large that decisions must be made to curtail its growth.(1) Reaching these decisions will force the nation to deal with the very deepest and most divisive ideological and philosophical issues of our time.

This challenging transit to the US chart of Pluto opposing Jupiter is just the continuation of a bigger cycle involving Pluto and the US Sun and Midheaven.  There’s no doubt that the US chart is undergoing a major Plutonian realignment under this influence, but the opposition to Jupiter will make it impossible to ignore or deny.

With Venus facing off with Pluto over the next few days I would expect financial matters to be dicey.  Venus rules not only relationships but also the things we value, including our valuables and money, and Pluto demands that we go deeper into the psyche and address imbalances of power or areas of life in which superficiality has led to problems.

All of us who are American citizens are affected by the US Saturn Return, and we must be exceedingly practical with regard to our connections to our American community.  Saturn wants us to work hard and be awake to our responsibilities, making this a good time to volunteer for causes we believe in (Pluto opposing Jupiter)  and build a stronger foundation for the future.

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Sunday inspiration for healing a wounded heart

April 24, 2011 By

Today the Sun is in a harmonious sextile to Chiron, the planet of wounding and healing.  Chiron in the natal chart shows where each of us have been wounded, and where the key to our reclaiming the soul lie.

When the Sun shines its brilliant light of self-realization into the wounds of the soul we have the opportunity to release our bondage to the past and gain greater wisdom.

Sun conjunct Chiron

“A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear [that results] from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl.”

Stephan Hoeller

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Here’s something to perk up your day!

April 22, 2011 By

Venus conjunct UranusEvery page is a new beginning.

Venus conjoins Uranus today, and since both are in Aries it’s gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight, if you heed the siren song of Venus, the planet of love and connection, hooking up with the iconoclast and rebellious Uranus.  And with both in Aries, the potential for fireworks is high!

Jeff and Michelle are having a fascinating discussion over at the Sasstrology site.  Uranus can bring sudden changes of fortune, and with Venus approaching Uranus this could mean sudden changes in our interpersonal relationships. Let’s listen in:

Michelle: They’re paired up in the sign of Aries, which is all about a new beginning. But Uranus can sometimes be about separation. So when we get Venus conjunct Uranus in Aries, it really begs the question, is it the beginning or the end? The answer to that isn’t immediately apparent, because Venus has just come out of Pisces, which is affiliated with endings, and then we’ve got the contrast with Aries (new beginnings), and then we have this unpredictable element provided by Uranus, which is associated with surprising plot twists. So this could signify a surprise beginning of a relationship; somebody brand new pops into the scene out of seemingly nowhere, but it could also signify separation. And again, that really depends on the strength and the quality of the relationship that you’re talking about.

Jeffrey: And sometimes a beginning brings on an ending. Venus is, among other things, the planet of love and relationships and romance. You may suddenly meet someone new, which—if you’re already in a relationship—could precipitate an ending. So one thing I would advise—especially because this combination is happening in impulsive Aries—is to look at where you are right now, if you are in a relationship, and think about what you value about it. Because sometimes if someone comes along and you get enticed, if the relationship you’re in isn’t strong enough, then it may crumble under that. But some people just take actions—even though they do value the relationship they’re in—because they just can’t resist what’s come up. Especially with this particular combination in Aries and with Uranus, which is about sudden risks and being impulsive, there is that possibility of just taking some action that you may regret later; like,I’m sure it will be a lot of fun in the moment, but you know, how does it fit in to the larger scheme of things?

Venus goes beyond relationships, inspiring a love of beauty and aesthetic quality in our surroundings.  Now that Venus is in Aries, for the next few weeks we will want to bring changes into our lives to energize us and help us to feel excited again.

This transit will only last a day or two, so by tomorrow the excitement will have faded into the distance.  But Mercury will be turning direct, giving us all something to celebrate!

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The roots of Easter in pre-Christian paganism

April 21, 2011 By

Easter Week continues at Astrological Musings!

Here is an interesting video detailing the pagan sources of the roots of the Christian Easter celebration.

This will be a controversial video for Christians, so please proceed at your own risk. There is a factual inaccuracy in the video in that its author, Acharya S, states that Easter means Pessach in Hebrew but I believe that this is incorrect. Pessach is the Hebrew name for the ancient Hebrew celebration of freedom after a long period of bondage in Egypt. Unlike the Christian holidays, which are rooted in pagan celebrations of the movement of the Sun and the Moon in an apparent path around the earth, Jewish holidays celebrate historical events. The Jewish calendar is a lunar one, so there is some connection to the soli-lunar path, but it is an accidental one.

She also claims that there is no historical basis in fact for the existence of Jesus, a subject of much debate that is better left to another time and place.

In any case, please enjoy the video!

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Filed Under: Holidays

Easter Week at Astrological Musings

April 19, 2011 By

inanna descent into underworldMost of the so-called Christian holidays have deep roots in astrotheology, and Easter is no different.  The very dating of Easter, the great holiday of resurrection, is based on the timing of the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox.

This week I’ll be posting articles correlating astrology, or astrotheology, and Easter.  Today’s post comes from Beth Turnage and focuses on one of my favorite stories: the descent of Inanna.  Often I tell this story to clients who are undergoing transits of Pluto that require them to venture into the Underworld and like Inanna, be stripped of all veneer and fakery that prevents them from experiencing The Big Truth.

[Inanna's]  story is a journey of development and evolution. The young Inanna rescues the huluppu-tree, the sacred tree, (whose four main branches pointed to each of he cardinal points) when a flood has carried it into the river; she plants this tree in her garden so that eventually its wood can be used to make her “shining throne” and “her shining bed”. From the beginning, her desire for rulership is paramount, and she is angry and frustrated because the older deities have all the me, the manifestations of authority, wisdom and ability. …

But Inanna’s twin sister, Ereshkigal, had a dominion all her own before Inanna secured her earthly authority, the Underworld. There she judged the souls of the dead. Barren though it was, it was a place of ultimate power, as even the other gods feared to entered and face the Voice of Ereshkigal, the ultimate judge, who could seal even the gods away into the depths of the Underworld.

Inanna is not satisfied with being just the Queen of Heaven, so she decides to face her sister in the Underworld. Under the pretext of attending the funeral of Ereshkigal’s husband’s funeral she demands admittance at the Gates of the Underworld. Wearing all her finery, and symbols of her earthly and heavenly power, to gain admittance she is forced to strip naked, giving up a different item as she passes through each of the seven gates of hell. Thus she arrives in front of her grief stricken sister naked yet not humbled. It is clear to Ereshkigal that Inanna arrives not in sympathy, but with ulterior motives.

Ereshkigal, in grief over her husband’s death, has no patience with Inanna, her pride, or her thin pretense to enter the Underworld. With her fearsome Voice, she judges, Inanna, finding her wanting in virtue, and in the process dries up the body of Inanna into a desiccated corpse. She hangs Inanna’s naked corpse on the walls of the Underworld where it hangs for three days.

Having taken the power of Inanna, she now experiences the flip side of fertility, the agony of the pains of childbirth.  Thus with one goddess dead and another incapacitated by excruciating pain, on the third day, grandfather God Enki steps in by creating two sexless creatures from the dirt under his fingernails. These creatures, not being of the living, were easily able to pass through the gates of the Underworld, and in coming to Ereshkigal, mourn with Ereshkigal, echoing all her grief and sorrow. Thus Ereshkigal was comforted and she was so grateful she offered gifts to them. The creatures asked only for the body of Inanna, which they took and using the water of life given to them by Enki, brings her back to life.

read more here…

The symbolism of the hanging of Inanna’s corpse on the wall for three days won’t be lost on students of both theology and astrotheology.  At the dark time of the Moon, the lunar light is hidden for three days before it re-emerges in the form of the crescent Moon.  At the winter solstice the Sun drops below the horizon for three days before re-emerging with the return of the longer days.

Resurrection Week will continue here at Astrological Musings while Mercury slows down as it prepares to turn direct next week.

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Nicolas Cage and the Libra Full Moon

April 16, 2011 By

Nicolas Cage was arrested today for assaulting his wife during an argument over which house was their New Orleans rental house.

Mr. Cage is no stranger to tabloid news, having recently lost homes both in New Orleans and Bel Air to foreclosure, was directly affected by the Libra Full Moon which peaks tomorrow and which exactly aspects an aspect between the Libra Moon and Mars in his chart.  That Moon/Mars aspect in his natal chart can be very difficult since the aggressive urge of Mars is constantly irritating the tenderness of the Libra Moon which creates dissonance.  The Full Moon tends to shine a light on our internal emotional world which is why so many people find a heightened intensity in all areas of life at the time of the Full Moon.

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Libra Full Moon, April 17 2011: A time for balance

April 16, 2011 By

Libra Full Moon The time of the Full Moon, when the Sun in the sky is exactly opposite the Moon from our vantage point on earth, is always a time for balance.  The Sun is our conscious Self – our goals, our visions, our ideas that combine to create our lives.  The Moon illustrates our instincts and our subconscious needs and desires – the emotions that can be murky but always real and true.

The lunar cycle is symbolic of the dance between our conscious awareness and the inner world of the emotions, a polarity which requires balance and integration just as all polarities in astrology do.  The entire wheel of the zodiac is a system of polarities, in which each pair of signs represent oppositional forces that require balance and integration.  The nodes of the Moon, which we look to for signals about the direction of our personal revolution, are in opposite signs and opposite houses and demonstrate the need, throughout our life, to balance these opposing forces.

Libra is the sign that embodies this principle.  Under Libra, the principle of balance and integration is at its strongest because Libra itself urges the understanding of elements that are in relationship to each other and the need to find balance between them.  We see this most easily in our own personal relationships, in which my needs (symbolized by Aries) may conflict with your needs.  The needs of the “I” and the “Other” must be balanced and integrated if healthy relationships are to occur.

When the Moon is full in Libra, it opposes the Aries Sun.  Under Libra we desire to connect with others, and Aries prefers independent action so this Full Moon requires that we find a balance between our more self-directed motivations from the powerful Aries influence this month, and our need for peace and harmony and connection, which is highlighted not only in this Libra Full Moon but also by Venus, Libra’s ruler, which is still in Pisces (the sign that longs to merge and dissolve boundaries).  Venus in Pisces is romantic and kind, but dislikes any separation yet this Full Moon requires that we be able to connect and separate, and then connect again.

An opposition of Mars (planet of action) to Saturn (planet of restriction), which culminates on the 18th, is embedded in the chart of the Full Moon which suggests  that our urges and desires (Mars) will not be able to operate unfettered by responsibility and a sense of self-discipline (Saturn).  This element could create a sense of frustration during the Full Moon period, which lasts for about three days after the exact lunar alignment.

Any Full Moon is a good time for emotional work, since the emotions are in the ascendancy with the bright Moon.  During this Full Moon you may want to examine where your own relationship life is out of balance.  Where are you letting your own needs take precedence over the needs of your loved ones?  Where do you give too much and neglect your own self?  The Libra Full Moon will help us to find that balance.

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Don’t fall for this!

April 15, 2011 By

mercury retrogradeMercury retrograde spray? Really?

Maybe I’m just a skeptic, but I don’t think aromatherapy will “cure” Mercury retrograde. Mercury’s job when retrograde is to perfect our plans and communications by inspiring us to think in a different way. Avoiding this necessary step of re-grouping and re-vising will not help us in the long run.

So enjoy this retrograde period – don’t fight it!  You’ll emerge when it’s over with better skills and greater confidence.

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