April 22, 2011
Astrology: why it is fabulous
Image via Wikipedia
Astrology is, sadly, a much misunderstood topic. People think that their daily horoscope published in local papers is tantamount to good astrology. They then become disillusioned and confused when this is not accurate and it slowly dawns on them that the likelihood of everyone born in the same month having the same sort of day is actually slim to none.
Astrology is so much more than just your Sun sign. Astrologers will look at the position of all the main bodies in the heavens when they are calculating your astrological chart – the planets, usually the dwarf planet Pluto, and many will also use the Centaur Chiron, plus a couple of “hypothetical” bodies. The position of something like Saturn or Mars may even be more important than the placement of your Sun.
How does astrology actually work? In actuality, I have no idea, but I have seen enough evidence to know that it does. I do recall speaking to a gentleman one day about astrology, and he was happy that it was a viable paradigm due to the influence of gravity. That does make a lot of sense to me. The moon, for example, is a fair way from earth. The gravity of the moon, however, is strong enough to make the tides and affect the oceans on the planet. The oceans are pretty big, If the gravity of the moon can affect the oceans, surely we are delusional to think that it doesn’t affect us. Anyone who has worked in a call centre or an emergency ward will be able to tell you about how the full moon influences the behaviour of the general public.
Every person on the planet has a different astrological chart. Even just a few minutes difference in times of birth can mean different placements of the faster moving planets, ascendants, and house cusps, which can mean different interactions of bodies in the charts. One thing I would love to eventually do in my astrological studies is collect data for twins and examine what small things differ in their charts to make them such different human beings.
I don’t believe that astrology can accurately predict the future – it can give you an idea of things which may happen, but ultimately it is up to you. I think instead it is actually a tool for self improvement, and can be a bit of a road map to your life. When you look at a road map, you can see the where you want to go, and you can even get a good idea of how to get there. But you have no idea what will happen to you along the way and how the journey will turn out.
Astrology can give us an idea of how people perceive the world, and what has happened to them to give them this perspective, and how those thoughts and feelings make life challenging. If you are feeling down in the dumps, unsure about what you should be doing and which way you should be turning, an astrologer is an excellent person to consult. Chances are, your directions have already been given to you, and you are trying to put off a journey you haven’t quite come to terms with yet.
My goal as an astrologer is to help people get more out of their lives, to help them understand their emotions, thought processes and the choices that they make, to help them make better choices to direct them to a more satisfying and happier destination.
Any questions about astrology that you would like answered? Please leave a comment …..
March 23, 2011
Pholus, Uranus and Japan
Another week passes and I am putting together another article about a major disaster in the world. I’m actually getting this article out a lot later than I had anticipated. This is my third attempt to publish this article, after the internet ate my last two versions.
A lot of people are talking about this being the end of the world. It isn’t, it’s just geology.
That being said, this run of disasters is going to make the human race take a long hard look at the way we treat the earth, particularly how we use it to generate power and otherwise live off the land. The disaster in Christchurch gives us an idea that, just because there hasn’t been an earthquake in a zone which is close to a fault line, don’t make the mistake of assuming there will never be one. Japan takes the level of this assumption to new heights. Japan is an old culture, and they have had to deal with the earth moving and volcanoes inconveniencing them since the dawn of time. The Japanese are extraordinarily good at controlling their environment so that earthquakes impact day to day life as little as possible. However when the big one comes, inconvenience is the best you can hope for. This week, nature has shown Japan that they can prepare as much as they like, but they cannot stop the forces of the earth.
The chart I’m using for Japan is 29/10/1890, Tokyo, 9 am. Pholus is playing a major part in this particular event. Natal Pholus, at 29 degrees of Pisces, was being transited by Uranus almost to the second at the time of the quake. As the country finds itself drawn deeper and deeper into a nuclear catastrophe, the Black Moon is now settling into place on top of the natal Pholus. With Uranus focusing a bolt of light at the places where Japan is most vulnerable – areas of car production, fishing, and rice farming, the Black Moon follows that by focusing the bolt of light on the area’s production of power. The nuclear plants in Japan are older nuclear technology, and the greatest danger at the moment seems to be of what is referred to as a “China Syndrome” where the uranium fuel melts through the housing and bores into the earth. At this point, the unprecedented measure of using sea water to cool the fuel rods is being taken. This shows the level of concern about a meltdown, as the reactors will be rendered useless by the sea water.
The other interesting point in Japan’s natal chart is the North Node/South Node axis. Japan’s North Node has a wide conjunction to Pluto, and the South Node has very tight conjunctions with Venus, Juno and Ceres, an amazing trifecta of the feminine. Transiting Pholus is sitting right on top of Japan’s South Node, and Venus, Juno and Ceres.
Pholus draws attention to the need for massive change in the areas it touches. Sitting on the South Node, Pholus is drawing calling into question all the fundamentals of Japanese society. The Japanese have done amazing things for technology, but have allowed this “superiority” of the mind to lull them (as have we all in the Western World) into a false sense of security that the power of the mind will be superior to the power of the Earth. No matter how smart we get, Mother Earth will always be able to pull out something bigger which can bring us to our knees, and we would do well to remember that. Pholus is also impacting on the health of the nation (Pholus on Ceres). The fallout from the leakage from the nuclear plants will affect the country for many years to come, impacting on the food supply as well as the general health of the population.
Like Christchurch, Japan will rebuild. It will be a much longer process, and hopefully the Japanese will explore less dangerous versions of electricity production. Uranus has now moved into Aries, and Mars is now slowly approaching Japan’s natal Pholus. Hopefully this isn’t going to indicate a bigger, nastier meltdown in the country’s imminent future.
March 10, 2011
Pauline Hanson, Bringing out the Ugly
Australia’s least favourite ranga (red head for my non-Australian readers) has once again burst onto the political scene. Most of us are terribly disappointed, as we thought she had advised Australia to go to hell, and headed off for the shores of the mother country (ie, England). I’m not sure if she actually made it out of the great land of Oz, or, if upon arriving in jolly old England, realised there are even more non-whites in England than there are here and headed back. Either way, we appear to be stuck with Pauline.
The chart I’m using for Pauline is dated May 27, 1954 with a birth time of 15.10 in Brisbane. The first thing that leaps out of the chart at me is Saturn directly on her Scorpio ascendant. With its aspects to Jupiter, Mercury and Venus (trine) and Chiron and Pholus (square), this is indicative of her taking herself way too seriously, as well as her tendency to open her mouth and get herself in trouble by demonstrating the little that she actually knows (I know I will never forget that television interview and the introduction to the Australian lexicon of the nasal “Please explain”.)
The other aspect in Pauline’s chart that I love is a (wide) yod, with Pluto and Neptune the base points and the Moon at the tip of the Yod. To emphasise the watery and destructive nature of this yod, Pauline also has Uranus on both her midheaven and her South Node. Pauline is the bringer of chaos. She is the voice of the old, challenging the new, and doing it by appealing to people’s fears of the unknown and the Other. This is why people like my dad and Bob Katter think she is fabulous. White Australia policy? Great. No expression of different cultures? Excellent. Fit in or sod of? There should be more of it. Let’s go back to the days when Australians were white, and anyone who wasn’t was someone you picked on mercilessly and refered to as a wog or some other derogatory name. Pauline preys on the fears of those in society who don’t understand how fabulous it is to have a mix of cultures in this great country. She spreads the belief that anyone who doesn’t wear stubbies and thongs is perpetrating racist violence and hatred. I can think of someone who is perpetrating racist violence and hatred, and I don’t think it was any of the ladies I saw at uni the other day in their gorgeous berkas.
So why does Pauline’s particular brand of rhetoric appeal to so many Australians? The answer lies in the comparison between her chart and the chart for Australia. (Australian Federation chart – Jan 1, 1901, 13.35, Sydney.)
Pauline’s North Node and her Mars sit astride Australia’s sun in Capricorn. Pauline wants what is “best” for the country, and her drive and determination and focus on the working class are all very “Australian”. She’s a sheila with guts and she’s having a go. All very Australian stuff.
Pauline’s Uranus South Node conjunction sits right on top of Australia’s Pholus. She manages to stop people from seeing clearly. Her use of emotive language and the way she works the issues really appeals to the lowest common denominator, which is the fear of the loss of our fabulous Australian life style due to the (literally) dark and mysterious other. Freedom, mateship, red-heads running free without fear or favour are all endangered ways of life if the mysterious “other” comes in and takes over. No longer will fish and chips be freely available. We will be forced to eat terrible “ethnic” food like kebabs and pizza (although I for one am failing to see the problem with that).
Pauline’s Moon – and therefore, the tip of the yod with Neptune and Pluto – sits right on top of Australia’s Eris. Eris, as I have previously mentioned, is the Goddess of strife and discord. And the issue of race and the place of white Australians versus people from non-anglo-saxon backgrounds seems to be one bone of contention which will always exist in this country. There is a deep seated fear amongst some Australians that the country will completely fall apart due to “invasion” of other cultures. The Howard government played upon this very heavily in the Federal election of late 2001. The threat of hoards of “boat people” descending on the country, plus the added threat of the Taliban after the September 11 attacks in the USA proved too much for Australians to bear, voting back in the conservative government who appeared best able to protect them from the invading hoards. Another interesting point to note is that Pauline was originally kicked out of the Liberal party for being too right-wing …. and then John Howard adopted most of her ideas. It is a strange world we live in, no?
The Sabian Symbol for the degree of Australia’s Eris is “A man bringing down the new law from Sinai”. This is, indeed Australia’s biggest challenge – the ability to move forward and accept and encourage many cultures to live together in harmony, to take that spritual step forward, to take the best from the cultural melting pot we have here and make a new and wonderful nation. While Pauline is around, this will always be her point of attack. It’s cheap, and it doesn’t take much to incite fear of things you know nothing about. Hopefully her run this time round will be short-lived.
March 5, 2011
Forget Hansel, Sheen and Gaddafi are so hot right now ….
I found myself watching Gaddafi’s latest rant on the telly this morning, and found myself wondering if the same evil spirit had taken over both him and the delightful Charlie Sheen. While that seems like a relatively random comparison, these things rarely are and a quick examination of their astrological charts showed something very interesting. Both have Jupiter and Ceres at the same degrees (more or less) as each other. What is currently aspecting these two bodies makes for very interesting reading.
I’ve written more about Charlie’s chart here, which gives you a good understanding of the other things happening in his chart to make him a tad unbalanced. Gaddafi’s natal chart is also interesting – as interesting as you would expect the chart of a dictator at any rate – with the moon, Neptune, Mercury and Jupiter all playing a large part in the make up of his personality. If nothing else, he does love his people and wants to do the best by them, even if he is a tad delusional about what that best might be.
Both men have Jupiter at 29 degrees of Gemini. Neptune is at the moment playing the end of it’s long game of exiting Aquarius and will be retrograding back and forward over this point for the rest of this year and January 2012, leaving Aquarius for good on February 3. Thus, Neptune is currently quincunxing Jupiter in both men’s charts and the quincunx is one of the more difficult transits to deal with. The phrase I would generally use for this sort of transit or aspect of Jupiter and Neptune would be “delusions of grandeur”. I’m not sure if Gaddafi has any share in Sheens tiger blood or Adonis DNA, but he certainly has a very interesting perspective of what is happening in his country right now, blaming Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and drugs as the reasons his people are rioting in the streets, rather than being able to acknowledge that they have had enough.
The other body placement these two share is Ceres in the last degrees of Pisces, where it is currently getting a double whammy from Uranus and the Black Moon. The mental stability of both Gaddafi and Sheen has been questioned – and will continue to be questioned by the looks of it, and rightly so. Uranus does rule the nervous system and I always find Ceres says a lot about health in the natal chart. With the black moon coming into the equation, the push to the mental (im)balance which has already been given by Uranus is being followed up with a lot of deep, dark shadow material from the subconscious of both of these men finding its way to the surface. Of course, Neptune is also making an aspect to the Ceres in both charts, which is why it feels as though a tap has been switched on to the internal thought processes of both these men and nothing can be done to switch it off.
Chiron is also playing a role here and was one of the astrological factors to setting the wheels in motion a few months ago. Chiron is going to spend the rest of this year retrograding over 29 degrees of Aquarius, and I feel that Chiron may end up being part of the kill or cure of the situation. The other player in this game is Mars, which is currently in the early stages of Pisces. Both men have sensitive points around 10 degrees of Virgo (Gaddafi’s North Node and Charlie’s Sun). Next week, Mars will aspect both of those points and I daresay we will see an upping of the ante. Both men have a lot to lose, and seem to be doing their best to shuffle off this mortal coil with minimal effort or thought on their own part. Hopefully their choices will lead to better paths for them over the next week.
February 26, 2011
Christchurch and the moving earth
If you are not aware of the tragic circumstances currently being battled through by the people of beautiful Christchurch, you must have had your head in the sand for the last week. My heart goes out to the people of Christchurch and the surrounding villages. They will need our support for the months and years to come. Rebuilding Christchurch will take a long time, and the city will never be the same.
The astrology of this event points to a change of the very personality of Christchurch due to these events. The city will be forever sobered by the earthquakes and terrible loss of life. Of course, we don’t really need astrology to tell us that.
Eris is the name of the dwarf planet discovered beyond Pluto, which led to Pluto being reclassified as a dwarf planet. In mythology, Eris is the Goddess of strife and discord. She is cruel, starts wars and has no mercy. In the chart for Christchurch (March 27, 1848) Eris is conjunct Neptune at 1 degree of Pisces. This is a beautiful description of the New Zealand landscape – jagged mountains and rolling hills, created by strife within the earth, as the Pacific plate and the Australian plate grate against each other. This conjunction is currently being transited by Chiron and Mars. Eris and Mars, by their very natures cannot be the happiest of bedfellows.
Mars and Chiron are reminding everyone of the devastating forces applied by the earth to make somewhere as beautiful as Christchurch. While destroying the feeble buildings erected by humans, new geology is also being created. It is also a timely reminder of the power of the earth, an instruction to people to be careful about where we build our houses and make ourselves at home. While we like to think we control the earth, the reverse is actually true, and the rug can be pulled out from under us at any time. As Brisbane learnt during the floods, just because a natural event hasn’t happened for a while, forgetting the power of the earth is a great mistake. Certain types of buildings should not be built in earthquake zones, and there are certain areas in earthquake zones they should not be built at all. Christchurch will learn from this, and will be rebuilt to withstand this sort of event.
Earthquakes are very Plutonic events (and Pluto is sextiling the Venus in Christchurch’s chart) with mass destruction the preliminary to the creation of something beautiful and new. As with all Pluto transits, it does take a period of mourning and loss before we can find the beautiful and new, and I don’t think we have seen the last big earthquake for this particular event. Christchurch will rebuild, it will be wiser and stronger for this series of challenges and it will not forget its fallen sons and daughters.
February 21, 2011
Libya tries to walk like an Egyptian
As the fallout from the success of the people’s rebellion in Egypt sweeps across the Middle East, Libya teeters on the verge of middle war as the youth of that country tries to force Gaddafi out on his ear. Unfortunately, this will not have the same happy ending as has occurred in Egypt.
The chart I’m using for Libya is December 24, 1951 at 12.01 am.
Uranus in transit is making a huge impact on Libya’s chart as it is quincunxing the event chart’s Moon and squaring the Sun. In these sorts of charts the moon represents the people and the Sun the ruling regime. Normally the sextile between these two bodies would indicate that there is not much friction between the people and the ruling regime. However, with Uranus in this powerful position, all previous bets are off. Uranus is like a shaft of light streaming in through your bedroom window on a morning after a week of rain and misery. You wake up, enthused as this new energy and possibly a little confused as to where it has come from. Uranus is currently having just that effect on the people of Libya. They have seen the revolt in Egypt and appear to have collectively had the though “Why didn’t we think of that?” So, bless them, they are now out there giving it a red hot go.
The two other wonderful things happening in transit is Pholus crossing the IC and the event chart’s retrograde Mercury. People have seen the challenge by the Egyptian people as something they can also achieve. It’s as though the population of young people have suddenly realized they don’t need to put up with the regime anymore and are demanding a different outcome and different living standards. While journalists are now forbidden and the news channels in Libya aren’t broadcasting what is happening in the streets, there is vision from camera phones making it into the west so we can see what is happening behind the borders.
The last major transit I will look at in the Libyan event chart is Chiron, Neptune and the Sun currently transiting the North Node, which will also be presently transited by Mars. The current regime does only have a limited life span, and little left to offer. This is part of what is fuelling the frustration of the angry crowds. However, the people are not yet on the right wave length to have the same effect the Egyptian people have had. Notice the absence of women. There are no women in the streets demanding Gaddafi stand down. The protests are violent and there have been many deaths. With Mars dancing its current dance, the bloodshed will continue for the foreseeable future.
February 18, 2011
Egypt, the Centaurs and the Goddess Asteroids
When I was originally writing this article in my head, my headline was going to be focusing on Saturn (the planet of responsibility and government) and Uranus (the planet of sudden, incredible change) and their role in the chart of Egypt. I was so sure this was what I would see in the chart that I didn’t even look at the transits until a couple of days before I was planning to sit down to right.
Oh boy.
The country is having a Saturn return, which you would expect, but Uranus, usually the driver of these sorts of things is doing nothing. Bugger all. Zilch.
In hindsight, which is always very accurate, I shouldn’t have been as surprised. There are a few things which happened in Egypt which were unusual. The protest, while it lasted a week, was incredibly peaceful. The police attempted to incite the people to violence, but they refused to rise to the challenge. That in itself is amazing – keeping calm with a group of that size which is that angry is virtually impossible. Women were marching in the streets. The army refused orders to move on civilians. And Mubarak stepped down (well he would, he saw what happened to the last guy.)
Instead, the energies around what has happened in Egypt are very feminine and Pholus is directing the energy of change that we would normally associate with Uranus. This is very unlike what is happening with other countries in this area now following Egypt’s “lead” and asking for their regimes to stand down. These countries don’t have the same balance of the Goddess asteroids in their charts, and their protests are doomed to be bloody and in vain at the moment.
Event chart and aspects
The chart I am using for the modern Egypt is for the date of June 18, 1953, with a time of 11.30am local time. This gives us a Gemini Sun, Virgo Moon and Virgo Ascendant. The Black Moon is also on the ascendant, with the Black Moon and the Moon both falling in the twelfth house. This very interesting conjunction forms a grand trine with Venus in Taurus and Chiron in Capricorn.
In the past, women have been held in higher esteem in Egyptian society than elsewhere. This is of course a bit difficult under an Islamic regime where women are required to be segregated by the men, but the aspecting of these energies does emphasise that, although women have not been allowed to participate in society as fully as women have elsewhere in the world, they still have major influence on the way the country thinks and the way the country works.
There is also an interesting T-Square in action between Saturn/Neptune, Ceres/Uranus/Mercury and Chiron which deserves a closer look.
I am loving the Ceres, Uranus, Mercury conjunction, as this seems to reinforce that women (represented by Ceres, traditionally the mother of the harvest) are doing a lot of communication behind the scenes and that a lot of change would be coming from this area. Women are the communicators. Watching the footage of the protests, I saw more women than men speaking to the journalists, articulating very clearly what was needed and the outcome that was desired by the people. Women have had to suffer through isolation, but they also will be the country’s healers (opposing Chiron) .
The Neptune/Saturn conjunction is squaring the aforementioned, which can either be lovely or nasty. Saturn can represent the responsibility and dependability, or the old school, the authoritarian. Neptune can either be spiritual and creative, or lacking in direction, scattered and fickle. The Mubarak regime certainly represented the latter. However, with Saturn returning to its original place in the chart (and the chart for Mubarak’s reign also having a Saturn return) it was absolutely time for the Egyptians to reassess the system they had and to replace it with one they actually want.
The one last thing I want to look at in the event chart is the placing of Pholus, which is exactly conjunct the North Node. The nodes in astrology represent the journey being undertaken, with the North Node pointing out the direction a person or event is heading towards. With the North Node and Pholus in Aquarius, Egypt as a whole is interested in the bigger picture, the welfare of the group. Pholus in Aquarius can see the end result and will leave no stone unturned to get there. It may take a little while to throw off the shackles of the opposite pull from Leo, but change will be major, revolutionary and very, very fast. This also means that Egypt will be the political and social leader for the Middle East, and other countries will try, probably in vain, to follow their example.
Transits
As with all these sorts of things, the seeds of unrest would have been brewing for a while, although probably not in a way that was noticeable to us in the west who weren’t really looking.
There are two important groups of transits that I believe are very important in what is happening in the country at the moment. The first of these is the asteroid Pallas Athene, which is transiting over Chiron and, as such, is activating everything else which is aspecting Chiron.
In myth, Pallas was the daughter of Zeus and the only child born from his head rather than from a woman. She is a warrior and a woman of great intelligence. Pallas disliked fighting unless absolutely necessary, and would prefer to use her intellect to win her battles than her sword. Pallas aspecting Chiron, trining her astrological sisters the Moon, Black Moon and Venus it is little wonder the revolution was so peaceful. With Pallas on Chiron, opposing Uranus Mercury and Ceres, it was time for movement out of the shade by Pallas, riding on the back of Chiron into fight for the people and their values. It was interesting to note the role the media played in the uprising, to the point that journalists were being invited into groups of protestors because they wanted to show the world the Egypt they could foresee.
The peaceful nature of the uprising is also emphasized by the aspecting of the asteroid Vesta by the Sun, Chiron and Neptune. Vesta represents home and hearth the sacred heart of Egypt which was ripped out by Mubarak’s regime. This overthrowing is expressing a deep desire to return to what the country should be about – peace, happiness and the rich culture. Other countries in the region which are putting down revolts are dealing with protestors who are protesting for very different (Mars/masculine) reasons.
On the day Mubarak stepped down, the Moon was on the event chart’s Nessus. In the mythology of Nessus, Nessus is killed by Hercules for raping his wife Deianeria after carrying her across the Euenos. Prior to his death, Nessus gave Deianeria a shirt, telling her the potion on it would make Hercules faithful to her. Instead it was poison, and Nessus managed to posthumously kill Hercules.
It’s quite easy to see Deianeria as Egypt and Mubarak as Nessus. Mubarak did say he would prefer to die rather than hand over the reins of the country, although he became less serious about that when, possibly, someone offered to make that happen for him. Still, it does make you wonder if there is some sort of nasty surprise lurking which has not yet been revealed.
Trying times for Egypt are not yet over. A new government has yet to be formed, and there are some interesting transits coming up. Mars will become conjunct with the event chart Vesta on February 22. There may be some bloodshed around this time, or possibly there will be the announcement of a new military leader. By mid March, Pallas will be on Pholus, and once again the people will be demanding the new regime do what they have promised. Transiting Pholus is also making a slow painful creep towards the IC of the event chart. I’m not entirely sure what will happen when it gets there, but I’m sure it will be big.
