April 2012 Taurus New Moon

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Photo stolen from my friend Beth

by Lynn Hayes The Sun enters Taurus on the 19th and seeks comfort and pleasure in the simple and the safe, especially at the Taurus New Moon when the solar conscious principle aligns with the lunar instincts in the sign of Earthly experience and stability.

The New Moon is the initiation of the new lunar cycle, and after a month of working through imbalances in our personal lives and unearthing Plutonian treasures and being exhausted by Martian passion, this Taurus New Moon will provide a resting place within which to find harmony and serenity.

The New Moon is in a harmonious trine to Mars which helps to activate our inner desires and inspire us to take the kind of action that will facilitate our growth. Venus, the lunar ruler, makes no major aspects and is thus enabled to operate free from constriction and restraint. This is a beautiful time of retreat and enjoyment of the simpler things that bring simple pleasure into the human life.

Mercury is within a day of its final conjunction to Uranus, so the mind is stimulated and ready to embrace new ideas and ways of thinking although with the strong Earth influence in the New Moon chart any action will be slow to unfold. Uranus is getting ever closer to the exact square to Pluto, though, so there is a hint and an echo of the revolutionary excitement that is just around the corner.

Mercury is the translator here between Uranus and Pluto, since Mercury conjoins Uranus on the 22nd and then squares Pluto on the 25th. We can make the argument that the Uranus/Pluto conjunction will really begin with this event as Mercury brings the two dramatic forces of liberation (Uranus) and total transformation (Pluto) to the battlefield.

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Communication systems go haywire: Mercury conjunct Uranus

by Lynn Hayes

Art by Chris Johanson

Mercury represents communication and the transmission of energy, and Uranus represents radical change, surprise, and innovation.  When these two planets get together, as they do nearly every year because of Mercury’s orbit pattern, things can get a little wonky.

When the conjunction of Mercury to Uranus coincides with a Mercury retrograde period as we just saw happen, things can get quite wonky indeed.  Some of you may be familiar with the story of Mike Daisey whose one-man show about the Apple factory in China was adapted for an episode of This American Life in January but then retracted on March 16th, two days before the second phase of the exact Mercury/Uranus conjunction and just after Mercury turned retrograde.  Re-tractions are just one of the thing Mercury Retrograde periods are good for as we turn our attention to the past and re-do anything that was not done right the first time.

Uranus is in charge of electricity and electromagnetic energy, and those of us who are more sensitive to this kind of energy may be having trouble sleeping, or feeling jittery.  Mercury and Uranus are both in fiery Aries now (Mercury dipped briefly back into Pisces while in its retrograde phase which is now over) and the intensity of the energy is amped up as a result.  Interpersonal communication may be more bizarre than usual.

Eric Francis commented on his Facebook page yesterday: “Has anyone noticed this energy in the air that it’s been difficult to keep a grip on the facts? I’ve had more fact checking issues in the past seven days than I’ve had in the rest of my journalism career combined.”  He went on to say, “.I own three electric guitars, and they all developed similar problems [a few weeks earlier]…it was so weird I started to speculate that a power surge had come through, or that solar flares were to blame.”

It may sound like an extended Mercury retrograde period, but this is all very Mercury/Uranus, as is any disruption (Uranus) to communication equipment (Mercury) and tornadoes and electrical storms such as the ones which spawned 100 tornadoes in 24 hours in the midwest last weekend.

Uranus can be somewhat reckless, and when combined with the communication aspect of Mercury we all may end up saying things that we wish we hadn’t, or feeling like  discussions are out of our control.  This is a great time for planning and developing new ideas, but not the best time to implement them.  That will be better left until the conjunction has passed next week.

The final phase of the Mercury Uranus conjunction culminates on April 22nd, and the personal intensity should settle down a bit after that.  On a broader level we will continue to see the level of unrest continue to build as the square between Uranus and Pluto peaks this summer.

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Neptune in Pisces: “The future of live entertainment is dead”

While Neptune is usually considered a planet of spirituality, it also is the ruler of the experience of the masses.  We usually put “entertainment” in that category, and now that Neptune has slipped into Pisces the nature of reality and entertainment is beginning to have the famous Neptunian blurring effect.  Augmented reality will change the way we view our world, and now holographic performances are making an appearance at rock festivals.

Last weekend at the Coachella festival an apparent holographic image of the beloved rap icon Tupac Shakur gave a featured performance.

The holographic image wasn’t actual footage of Shakur: “This is not found footage. This is not archival footage. This is an illusion, and this is just the beginning, Ed Ulbrich told WSJ. “Dre has a massive vision for this.”

The last time Neptune was in Pisces, beginning in 1848, print magazines were just beginning to bring news to the masses in a more entertaining form.  Plays and vaudeville act attracted the average citizen into theaters around the world and made entertainment itself more accessible.  Neptune’s travel through Pisces this time will no doubt continue to change the entertainment industry.

 

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“What happened to Lynn Hayes?”

I noticed that a surprising number of people used this search phrase to find this blog, so I thought I would put up a post with this very title to make it easier for people to find me.

For the whole messy drama of why I’m no longer on both Patheos and Beliefnet, you can read this post.  And I hope that some of you will leave comments on the Beliefnet blog that still uses the title Astrological Musings illegally and against the terms of my contract with them.

At any rate, I am still very much here and glad that you have found me!  Please post links widely because I have to rebuild my readership from scratch. And thank you so much for visiting!!

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Wow: a big solar eruption

The sun has been very active over the past few years; as I wrote in August 2010 the prolonged “solar minimum” period meant that the maximum period which follows would be delayed somewhat beyond the predicted 2012 date. Solar cycles tend to last anywhere between 9 and 14 years, but they average about 11 years. Most astronomers now say that the current solar maximum cycle will peak in late 2013, thereby relieving the stress of doomsday predictions which suggest that a breakdown of the electrical grid could cause the predicted end of the world in 2012.

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Saturn and Neptune and the boundaries of compassion

reposted from February 2007

Last night I watched part of a Dog Whisperer episode that I missed about Howie, the (adorable) rescue dog that lived at an animal hospital in Atlanta because he was “unadoptable.” Howie had been terribly abused before his rescue, and while his body had healed he was still terrified and growled whenever anyone new came near him. The ladies who cared for him were very protective of him and did all they could to keep him safe. He lived at the animal hospital for two years before Cesar Millan came to help Howie become adoptable.

When Cesar arrived, he found that Howie had been indoors for two years. Because of his abuse, his foster moms had been afraid to put a leash on him for fear it would bring back memories of the terrible times. They felt he had been through so much, and they just wanted to keep him safe and loved. Cesar always says that dogs live in the moment, and that if we keep living in the past and reinforcing that for them that they will never heal.

Chiron teaches us that our desire to heal others often stems from a wound within ourselves. In the highest form of this “Wounded Healer” archetype, we wait to heal others until we ourselves have been healed. Once we have walked into the fire and shadows of our own wounds and the energy held in the cellular memory has been released, we then experience the empathy to be able to help others heal. However, there is a shadow side to the Wounded Healer in which the wounds of the patient activate the wounds of a healing provider who has not yet fully healed. Jung called this phenomenon “countertransference,” and in this circumstance the patient and healer become locked in a drama from which neither can escape without outside help. This is likely what happened with Howie the rescue dog and the ladies who rescued him.

Those of us (myself included) who rescue animals or who otherwise have rescue fantasies are sensitive souls who have been wounded and who seek to heal ourselves through healing the animals we rescue. This is a Neptunian experience, since Neptune bestows boundless compassion, sensitivity, and an empathy which causes us to experience the suffering of others as if it were our own. While these are beautiful qualities, without the boundaries and discipline of Saturn we become codependent and unable to be effective in either our own healing process or the process of others. Cesar Millan’s famous refrain “rules, boundaries, and limitations” is the Saturn influence that, when combined with the Neptunian empathy, creates a truly effective healer.

I have had to learn this the hard way. With Saturn on one side of my Sun and Neptune on the other, it has taken me a lifetime to learn to balance the two. For years I tried to rescue myself by rescuing others, and finally realized that until the work on myself was closer to completion I would never be able to help anyone else. In the story of Howie, his rescuers were so overcome with grief and compassion at the plight from which he was rescued, they were unable to perform the simplest act that would complete the healing process: put a leash around his neck and take him for a walk. It was evident that Cesar felt compassion for Howie when he gently encouraged Howie to take his first steps outside. But the boundaries that he maintained in not falling into the pool of Howie’s pain helped him to truly heal this dog.

In the same way, those of us with strong Neptunian influences (planets aspecting Neptune or in Pisces and the twelfth house which are ruled by Neptune) need to cultivate the influence of Saturn in order to function effectively in the world. Cesar Millan’s pragmatic approach to dog psychology teaches dog owners this balance, but his lessons are valuable for anyone who lives on Planet Earth.

Here is an update on what happened to Howie.

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Sunday Inspiration: Being human is like a guest house

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

–Jalal adDin Muhammad Rumi

Photo is from Elk Ridge Garden

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Hearing Voices: “auditory hallucinations” or multidimensional communication?


Researchers in Ireland
have discovered that more than 20% of children ages 11-13 reported hearing voices.  The study showed that these “auditory hallucinations” stop as they get older and only 7% of older adolescents (aged 13-16) continue to hear voices. It does not appear that the study looked at younger children, who often retain the ability to remember past lives and “see” through the dimensional wall to their “imaginary” friends.

The study also reports that nearly 80% of the teenagers who did continue to hear voices also had a psychiatric disorder, although I couldn’t find details about this in any of the news reports.

The planet Uranus is associated with radical experiences of all kinds, but it also has a connection to multidimensional experiences.  Uranus rules electricity and electromagnetic energy, and our human energy grid is electromagnetic in nature.  I personally believe that human consciousness began to change in the late 1700s when Uranus was discovered, and that every major cycle involving the planet Uranus opens more energetic doorways of human awareness.  This was especially true during the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune in the early 1990s, and there is no doubt that children born since this time have been more sensitive and unique than any other generation before them.

I wrote about the “hearing voices” phenomenon back in 2010, quoting a New York Times article reporting that since the early 1990s (when Uranus conjoined Neptune) a growing number of researchers have been examining the phenomenon of voices in our heads.  That conjunction of Uranus and Neptune linked the electromagnetic expansion of Uranus with the transcendent experiences of Neptune, resulting in lots of self-delusion but also the growth of personal spirituality (as opposed to religion and dogma).  The Uranus/Neptune idea that we can communicate with spirit guides and guardian angels accelerated during this period, and this whole concept is grounded in the fact that we do in fact hear those voices in our heads.

Astrologers are not like psychic readers in that we read the birthchart rather than pull information from the ethers, but about 10 years into my astrological career I began to hear voices in my head when I was doing a reading.  I tried to ignore those voices, but when I began telling the clients what I was hearing I started getting powerful feedback.  Often I didn’t even understand what I was given, but the client always did.  I’m embarrassed to say that nearly 20 years later I still don’t trust those voices 100% despite the fact that they are always accurate.

Listening to voices across dimensions isn’t always a benign experience.  Many mass murderers have also heard voices whose messages were not so positive.  But I personally feel that branding these experiences as psychotic breakdowns without further investigation does a profound disservice to the affected children for whom it is possible that real magic and awakening is occurring.

According to Wikipedia, The Hearing Voices Movement began in 1987 with the work of Marius Romme and Sandra Escher.  1987 was the year of the Harmonic Convergence during which eight planets were aligned in a Grand Trine and Grand Sextile.

Because we live in a physical world, the inability to separate any kind of transcendent experience from a material experience is, if not a disorder, problematic.  We have to be able to attend to our jobs without being taken down a path by the faeries, and we can’t become so ungrounded that we can no longer attend to our daily needs.  This is the basic premise of the Virgo/Pisces polarity: the balance between the details of our material world (Virgo) and the transcendence of spiritual experience (Pisces).

Still, any discussion of mental illness necessitates the examination of the possibility that there is an element of consciousness present, instead of looking solely as an aberration as being some kind of disorder.

 This coffee cup can be yours!

 

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are engaged

angelina jolie brad pittThis time it’s official: after seven years and six children, the stars of the glitterati have formalized their relationship and plan to marry.

I’m always struck by the significance of seven-year periods in relationships.  I first wrote about this back in 2006 in an article called “Astrology and the Seven-Year Itch.”  Relationships have birthdates just like people do, and after seven years Saturn comes to the first square in the cycle of aspects to Saturn in the relationship chart.  In addition, many people formalize their relationships under Saturn transits which tend to morivate us to want more stability and structure in our lives, so after seven years Saturn revisits those same issues.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt met on the set of their movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith in 2004 when she was in the middle of her Saturn Return, the time at age 28-30 when Saturn returns to its place in our birthchart and we are forced to recognize that time is short and we need to begin to do something worthwhile with our lives.  At the time their relationship became public transiting Saturn was sitting right on Jolie’s Venus, preparing her for commitment.

During this same period Brad Pitt, who was married to Jennifer Aniston at the time, was going through two stressful cycles affecting his Venus.  Venus is the planet that inspires affection and describes the way we relate to others and what we need in our relationships.  Transiting Saturn (disappointments, restriction) was opposing his natal Venus, which was putting pressure on his relationship and perhaps bestowing a sense of confinement.  At the same time his progressed Venus was opposing Pluto in his natal chart.  Pluto is the Great Transformer, and only the strongest of relationships will survive a cycle like this.  During any Venus/Pluto cycle we are likely to attract a relationship that hits us like a thunderbolt, and that appears to be what happened in this situation.

So now these two are at the next phase of these Saturn cycles and choosing to solidify their commitment by becoming engaged.  They are still not talking about marriage, and that is not surprising when you look at their composite chart (the chart of the relationship itself).  The composite chart has Uranus (planet of radical change and personal space and autonomy) sitting right on the Libran ascendant.  So while the relationship (Libra) is important, it will always have to have a unique flavor that plenty of personal space between the two.

Uranus has been transiting in opposition to the Uranus/ascendant conjunction in the composite chart since May of 2011 which is when the Jolie Pitts started talking about marriage.  Of course they were talking about NOT getting married until everyone could marry, which is a very Uranus/ascendant thing to say since Uranus desires justice and equality for all.

It will be interesting to see whether these two actually do tie the knot.  For more astrological profiles of the Jolie-Pitt phenomenon, you may enjoy this article and this follow-up.

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The arrest of George Zimmerman and the healing of wounds in the US Sibly chart

Trayvon martin astrologyThe shooting of Trayvon Martin has made national headlines in the United States and in a country that likes to think of itself as being “beyond race” this story has brought the matter of racial bias and injustice to the front page of American news.

George Zimmerman was arrested yesterday just as Mars, planet of aggressive force, changed direction to turn direct.  Because this case has had so much impact on the American discussion I wanted to see if there were any significant connections between the charts of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin and the generally accepted chart for the US, the Sagittarius rising “Sibly” chart.

In order to assess the effect these individuals are having on the evolution of the United States I examined the progressed charts for all of the players using the information available  without accurate birth times.  Trayvon Martin’s progressed Saturn was exactly quincunx the progressed Moon in the US chart, demonstrating the challenge (Saturn)  to the emotions (Moon) of Americans in a struggle that, like the quincunx aspect, has no real way of achieving resolution. Both progressed Mars and Jupiter in Trayvon’s chart are trine Progressed Chiron in the US chart, motivating the desire (Mars) to raise up painful old wounds (Chiron) so that they can be healed and some meaning (Jupiter) found from the situation.  And Trayvon’s progressed Neptune, illusion and mystery, conjoins the US progressed South Node (karmic matters), with his progressed Uranus (shocking events) sitting right on the US Pluto (revelation of secrets and the principle of destruction).

George Zimmerman’s progressed chart also has interesting and potentially significant relationships to the US chart.  In the US progressed chart itself, progressed Sun is in an exact square to progressed Uranus which suggests an event that comes out of the blue to change the country forever.  Zimmerman’s progressed Uranus is exactly opposite the US progressed Uranus and squares the US progressed Sun, suggesting that he is the instrument of this sudden event.  His progressed Pluto is exactly square to the US progressed Pluto, which again ties into the intensity of his connection to a major transformation in the culture of the United States.  And while we don’t know his Moon placement without an accurate birth time, the progressed Moon using a noon time is exactly conjunct US progressed Mars and opposite US progressed Chiron.  It is the workings of his emotional world (his progressed Moon) that is stimulating the necessity of the US to force the healing of old and unspoken wounds as represented by Chiron.

Mars and Chiron in the progressed chart of the United States have been in a dance for a long time.  The two first opposed each other in 1985, with that dance beginning several years earlier as Ronald Reagan took office and arguably began dividing the country into conservative and liberal.  Without getting into a whole political discussion, it is widely accepted that the economic policies of those times have created the greatest wealth gap of any country in the world today.

The US progressed Mars turned retrograde in 2006-2007 which in my view was a turning point for the US and its military (Mars) dominance in the world.  Now that P Mars is approaching the second opposition to the US progressed Chiron (culminating in 2019) the fruits of these economic policies will make themselves known and a battle (Mars) may be necessary in order to heal the wounds (Chiron).

The shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman brings some of these matters into the public eye so that they can be dissected and examined, and hopefully some resolution and healing can occur.  George Zimmerman’s progressed lunar nodes are in exact harmony with the US progressed Mars/Chiron, which suggests that he has an important role to play in this national discussion and on some level is just an echo of a larger dynamic in the healing of the greater wound.

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