arden astrology

natal placements vs transits II

2009-04-05T17:42:00.004-06:00

so to continue this reverie about transits and how they differ from natal placements,I've turned to the slower moving planets, and want to focus on the "social" planets, jupiter and saturn. jupiter and saturn have medium length cycles, but certainly short enough for visits to each of the 12 signs more than once in a normal lifespan. jupiter will spend about a year in each sign, and you can expect a "jupiter return" every 12 years (again, a return is when a transiting planet returns to a native's birth placement). saturn, with a 29 1/2 year cycle, spends about two and a half years in a sign.

the jupiter and saturn cycles are about the growth and consolidation of one's participation in society at large. through jupiter, we experience the expansion of our knowledge of the world, our understanding of our own belief systems and cultural ways, and hopefully, those of others. (Americans are less likely to experience other cultures than Europeans or Asians). natally, where jupiter is placed shows where you can most easily absorb new ideas and experience, where your personality can be most expansive, and even where good fortune can happen. transits are opportunities to expand in a particular area of your life, to find new meanings and new understandings, e.g. about yourself (1st house), family (4th) or new associations (11th).

as we cannot know everything, or believe just anything, it is through saturn that we consolidate those experiences into social norms and forms--into a way of life in our particular society. saturn is about limitations and boundaries; natal placements of saturn can indicate an area where you feel naturally constrained or even frustrated; however, there can be great strength and fortitude as well. natal placements indicate the potential for great authority and leadership. folks often dread saturn transits as times of loss, loneliness and depression, but the primary purpose of a saturn transit is to align oneself with natural law. for example, saturn transiting your 6th house may indicate a need to address health or the proper level of dedication in your life. if you make any needed adjustments, you can gain greater strength and a firmer foundation for your life. if you fail to make the necessary adjustments, saturn can prove a harsh teacher, which is where he gets his dour reputation.

many people have heard of the first saturn return, around the age of 30, a time when one is considered to be a full adult and picks up the mantle of responsibility and authority. this is a good segue to the next part of this musing: the outer planet transits as milestones. come back for part III.

natal placements vs transits I

2009-03-28T13:38:00.004-06:00

I am trying to develop a working theory about the differences between a natal placement of a planet in a sign(say, Venus in Aries) and the effects of a transiting Venus in Aries. it's not that the energies or the potentials for expression of the energies are dissimilar. if they were, astrology would be both unreliable and inconsistent. there are, however, significant variations between these two "conditions" in how they manifest in one's life and that is what I'm attempting to understand. additional complexity arises when you add aspects (contacts between other planets, either natally, or transiting) or the houses in which the planets lay.

the first issue, of course, is duration: a natal planet is in that sign and house in perpetuity (we're going to ignore progressions for now) while a transiting planet is moving through an aspect/sign/house for a knowable length of time.

this time element serves to identify one aspect of the differences: natal planets suggest long term areas of evolutionary potential that a native is working on in this life. the issues/conflicts/growth spurts/crises will predominate in the areas of life indicated by house, the energy and motivation the native brings to these events are colored by the planet, and the sign provides the characteristics of the native's mode of expression: e.g., Venus in Aries in the 6th house could describe a native who is an advocate for women in the workplace, a health worker who does couples counseling, etc. issues of relationships, work, justice and dedication are hallmarks of this natal placement, along with money, conflict and perfectionism.

meanwhile transiting planets create "windows of opportunity" that bring the energy and the motivation of a specific planet along with a particular mode of expression, but are not limited to a particular area of one's life. thus, that Venus in Aries energy - fighting for what you value, the attraction-repulsion in relationships, may end up in the 10th (career) or 4th (family) or 12th (what you need to let go of).

part of what this brings is that even though you were born with Venus in Aries (or whatever), Venus will go through all the signs repeatedly during a normal lifespan, and thus you will have many opportunities to express your venusian energies and motivations in all the different modes (signs) in many areas of your life. this is one of the 'evolutionary' aspects of astrology; there are opportunities for growth and development beyond what is expressed in your birth chart.

Part II: inner planet vs. outer planet transits.

greed, greed and more greed

2009-03-05T08:42:00.002-07:00

I've been incredibly frustrated by the corporate world's response to the current economic crises (this includes most Republicans in my view). Their inability, unwillingness and self-interested obstinacy in the face of much-needed changes in their expectations and behavior has both appalled me and confounded me. what's up with these supposedly smart folks that they can't see the results, both material and psychological of their refusal to change?

well, it's Pluto in Cap, remember?! this is about power! who's the biggest, baddest, most controlling guy on the block? why, Hades, of course and the rest of you can just drop dead for all he cares.

once this concept got through my own thick skull (Pluto in Cap can be most incredibly dense and stubborn, btw ;-) it made sense. They feel they have the power, because they have had the power all these years. what's ironic is that it's that type of thinking that will bring the entire system down (which if GM goes, the rest will drop like a well-laid-out domino pattern). If the corporate world could just make a few, fundamental changes, they could pull out. meanwhile, life goes on and people and institutions that can make those changes are going to flourish. (think dinosaurs versus mammals after the great asteroid strike).

1.5.2009

2009-01-05T17:12:00.001-07:00

Happy New Year to you. I have changed the look of this page as part of my resolution to blog more often, with less trepidation and more confidence, and on a wider range of astrological topics.

as my little grandson is about to celebrate his first year birthday, I've been thinking about solar return charts. this is a simple technique of forecasting for the coming year; you cast a chart for the exact degree of the native's sun at birth, then interpret the chart as you would a natal chart. you do not need to look at contacts or aspects with the natal chart.

I have found that the sun and moon seem to be the most relevant contacts, but close aspects between either of these and other planets or angles can also be indicative of strong energies for the coming year.

having done this for my grand-baby, his coming year is all about expanding his relationships and lots of dealing with the larger society (6 planets in Aquarius!). while this seems pretty silly and obvious for a 1 yr old, try it for yourself and see if it gives you some new information about the energies occurring around you. (this is for the year beginning on your birthday - for those of you celebrating this spring on summer, you'll probably need to wait awhile)

science picks and Jupiter/Neptune

2008-12-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

Jupiter enters aquarius the first week of 2009 and will conjunct Neptune, also in aquarius, three times in 2009. as the ruler of “the higher mind” jupiter is the planet of philosophy, religion, learning and exchanges with other cultures. aquarius is the sign of the intellect; science, technology, the creative process in social groups (think the Manhattan Project, or more recently, mapping of the Human Genome). This will be a very interesting year as these two planets come together three times; in May, when both are direct, in June, with both retrograde, and finally in December, when both have turned direct again.

The Bush administration was hostile to any science that stood in the way of their neo-con agenda, and global warming was high on that list. Obama has just picked a science team that understands the threat of climate change very broadly; to our environment and sustainability, to our energy needs, to human health. This is a very positive change and during the first year of Obama’s term, the Jupiter/Neptune alignment could be very supportive.

I say could be supportive as the alignment suggests potentially great advancements in our knowledge, and not just our knowledge, but a deeper understanding of how natural systems work. Natural systems (neptune) are elegant solutions (aquarius) to the problems of existence. But they are killer complex and most are both elusive and beyond our current understanding. Together, these two planets could bring about fundamental advances in both our understanding and our ability to address the problems.

But, as we have seen since neptune entered aquarius way back in 1998, we have also experienced a kind of narcolepsy socially, unwilling or unable to recognize the changes that were taking place in our natural world. We’ve been living in a dream, literally, that we are in control of the natural world, that our artificial/technological/scientific systems have domesticated and subsumed natural systems to serve our needs. We’ve been a ripe audience for the propaganda of “it’s not really happening”.

The pitfall of the coming alignment is over-optimism; this of course will initially affect the entire Obama presidency. The change that has come to the US is the most dramatic and encouraging in decades. but there is true work to be done, and Pluto in Capricorn looms over all 2009’s transits.

The support of science is more fundamental to redressing the policies of the last 8 years than most people think, and I am very encouraged by Obama’s picks. Look for truly impressive discoveries in september when uranus aspects them (in mutual reception to neptune) at 24 degrees of pisces.

models of the world

2008-12-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

“So the problem here is something which looked to be a very solid edifice and indeed a critical pillar to market competition and free markets did break down and I think that shocked me. I still do not fully understand why it happened and obviously to the extent that I figure out where it happened and why, I will change my views. As the facts change, I will change.”
Alan Greenspan, Oct 2008,congressional testimony

"We are, without question, the strongest and most effective industrial union in the world," We have taken on the most powerful corporations in the world, and, despite their power and their great wealth, we have always prevailed."
Walter Reuther, UAW president, 1970

as humans, we try to make sense of the world around us, both on the mundane, day-to-day level, and, for most of us, on a cosmic ‘why’ level as well. Science, religion, ethics and morality, laws and governance are all means for investigating and promoting a sense of order and meaning in our lives. In current parlance, we create “models of our world”; holistic pictures of how things work, what the rules are, the customary behaviors of the actors or forces within the model that we can expect to see.

our models can be self-reinforcing; the more they seem to prove themselves true, the more likely we are to follow them, to invoke their rules if people’s actions don’t follow, or raise expectations about who the winners or losers will be within the model. we begin to believe that our models equal reality and become attached to our expectations. we are comforted by the predictability of things, and when hard times come, we assume we understand the whys and wherefores, and can fix it.

the 'free market' and auto workers' union models worked in their times as responses to those times. but the thousands of intervening days brought incremental social, economic, political, demographic and natural changes that did not fit into the “model”. the models did not change and now they have collapsed. this is Pluto in Cap; the changes that are coming will be fundamental.

but our universe is not static. change is a constant. models need to remain flexible and open to new input, new conditions or risk diverging from reality. when the gap between our view of reality and true reality gets large enough, we have crisis. we have to change.

it is time to look around and see what’s really happening and make the necessary adjustments and re-alignments. many are having this happen to them through external forces of foreclosure and job loss; they are caught up in the immense realignment of the ‘American’ model. once a beacon of light in the world, the fundamentals of freedom, opportunity and ingenuity have been perverted into recklessness, self promotion and greed. it is time to realign those fundamentals within the reality of limited resources, inequality, and the need for tolerance and sustainability. The US made a huge stride in that direction with the election of Obama and I am hopeful that we can make the needed changes. but there are still dark and difficult days ahead. It is our individual choices that will swing the balance and you should take this opportunity to give your own model of the world a reality check.

more pluto in cap

2008-12-04T11:55:00.001-07:00

yesterday I wrote about the current contraction that is taking place in the global economy and the evolutionary reason for this. a really good example of re-learning the value of things appeared in one of my favorite blogs yesterday (dec 2).

The yarn harlot's blog is a wonderful canadian take on knitting by a truly compulsive knitter/author Stephanie Pearl-McPhee who also mixes in her own perspective on many, many other topics. on the 2nd, she posted a rave about a brand of knitting needles she had discovered and suggested as a perfect "knitter's gift". superbly-made knitting needles are the quintessential capricornian gift; useful yes, but also a joy to touch, work with and gaze upon. check it out!

can you spell . . .

2008-12-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

C-O-N-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N ??

capricorn is ruled by saturn, the lord of constraint, limits, accountability, strength and authority. pluto has now entered this sign and will remain here until 2024 or so. as Michael Lutin (his website here) said in a recent talk, pluto will bring to the surface all the issues surrounding a sign when it first ingresses into that sign. for capricorn, this is about curtailing the unfettered growth and optimism of the pluto in sag years in order to strengthen how we structure human life in harmony with the natural world and its laws.

the current contraction is painful, disruptive, destructive, and eventually, transforming. however, we have gone so far into the sag exaggeration of everything, that this has been and will be particularly painful for many.

the evolutionary purpose, however, is to make us regain a sense of proportion and value: in institutions, towards people and for things; to help us regain the knowledge of what we need and how to sustain the critical resources that help us all survive. we will have to go backward however, before we can go forward. this is a time to strip down, cut back, and retrench in order to find out what is truly necessary, and therefore valuable. it is a time to discard what is unsustainable and therefore insupportable. you are very lucky if you are going into this holiday season with plenty. you will be blessed if you can share some of your plenty with others.

pluto: lord of death, wealth and transformation

2008-09-17T17:32:00.000-06:00

I’m retired, which has given me a lot of free time plus a lot of personal interest in what’s going on with the crisis in the US financial markets. there is a lot of good stuff out there, both in terms of the astrology and the financial analysis. a lot of people are anxious, and anxiously watching what will happen next; tomorrow, next week. I thought a bit of a look at the astrology out in the future (6 months – 1 year from now) along with a little review about old man Pluto, who seems to be the catalyst for a lot of this destruction, might be useful in understanding what’s happening now.

you have probably read a lot about Pluto moving into Capricorn later this year, and maybe have even read some of the blogs about how its recent station direct in the last degrees of Sagittarius has triggered the current turmoil. but why??? what is pluto’s role in the freaking stock market, for heaven’s sake??

Pluto represents hidden wealth -- all those underground resources and natural riches (although most astrologers have Neptune as the ruler of oil – go figure). Pluto also rules those incredibly powerful processes of transformation that can create wonderful results, but would you really want to go through them? (think diamonds!). as many have already said, “hang on” because the ride is just beginning.

Pluto in Capricorn is going to transform our social institutions. period. by that, I include markets, governments, energy, education, health care, justice, families. Seriously. because Capricorn IS serious. time to grow up, time to throw out the crap, the frivolous, whatever no longer works. Time to get serious. and because it is Pluto, in Capricorn, whose opposing sign is Cancer, it is going to make us feel very, very unstable for a while… everything will feel like it is at risk, everything will seem to be changing, blowing up in our faces, violently ending. witness the current financial crises. Sucks, no?

so where’s the good news? it is happening to make us MORE SECURE, STRONGER, to restore our moral authority and institutional validity. so much has broken, gone sour, deteriorated, been exhausted, over the last few decades. time to shake things up, break things up, raze the city so we can build the new city. yet, at the same time that Pluto is exploding the crap and bulldozing the rubble, the new, radical, green, or faith-based programs/actions/groups/ideas that are percolating throughout everyone’s communities will be getting stronger and stronger. necessary changes for the better that have been decades in the coming will actually arrive… seriously. (some you’ll like, some you’ll hate… just like now).

saturn turns retrograde Dec. 31. to me, this indicates that the president is going to have a very difficult first few months dealing with the sick institutions and policies left by the previous administration. however, by May Saturn has gone direct, Jupiter and Neptune are conjunct in Aquarius, and some of the new humanistic, inclusionary ideas and policies will be articulated and manifested. (see above).

in March 09, Venus goes retrograde in aries, and by April will square Pluto in the early degrees of Cap. could this be a time of deep reflection on how fair and just our fiscal policies are? why do private companies get to keep their profits, but if they fail hugely enough, the public has to bail them out?? where is the balance between growth and sustainability?

getting from now to then will require taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships. it means being conscious of your resource use; everything from your money to your carbon footprint. moderation and diligence are the watchwords for your everyday life. and if a crisis does occur, the questions you may have to ask yourself are “can I do without this? do I still need this in my life? how could I do this differently?” Pluto can suck, but he really, really sucks if you resist. so I am envisioning the future optimistically, and although I can’t exactly welcome Pluto’s transits, as a scorpio with her sun square Pluto, I’m getting better at dealing with them.

mars/uranus opposition

2008-08-04T08:24:00.001-06:00

there's a lot of good stuff out there about this already (astrotabletalk as always) but another manifestation of this aspect is the horrible tragedy on K2 in which 11 (or maybe 12) climbers have died as the result of a freak accident.

there was a collapse of an ice pillar that held fixed ropes high up on the mountainside to aid the climbers across an ice field. an avalanche swept most of the climbers away. this type of highly technical climbing fits exactly with the mars in virgo signature, while the collapse of the ice is equally well described by uranus in pisces -- a sudden, natural event with radical consequences.

this opposition is about bringing together the precision and careful analysis of the mars in virgo energies for the purpose of creating new things in nature. but it is a very powerful energy and can easily go awry or get out of control. watch the news over the next few days for additional manifestations of this erratic aspect.

UAC: Day 2

2008-05-17T20:44:00.000-06:00

today's post is the result of a discussion I had at lunch today with some other conference attendees. it gives a bit of the flavor of the wide-ranging interactions that are going on this week in Denver.

saturn turned direct about 2 weeks ago, and is moving toward an opposition with uranus later this year. these two planets will oppose one another through the end of the US presidential campaigns, the election and inauguration of our 45th president. but closer in time, we have just had two catastrophic natural events that i believe presage this opposition: the cyclone that hit Myanmar and the 7.9 earthquake that occurred in Chengdu, China. what might these two disasters tell us about the upcoming Saturn/Uranus opposition?

casting Myanmar as saturn is not too big a stretch. we are watching as the repressive, xenophobic military junta is controlling the distribution and direction of the very stuff of life: food, water, shelter and safely. relief efforts have been unnecessarily slow and constrained, and are resulting in the deaths of potentially hundreds of thousands of people, and the risk to the security of a million or more. the coldness and stern refusal of the authorities in accepting international help is breath-taking. the misery and suffering is heart-breaking.

casting China as Uranus may be a bigger stretch for you. historically conservative, inaccessible to foreigners, and forbidding, China appears to be the perfect saturnian state. so why do I see it at the uranian side of the coming opposition? because of the response by the Chinese leader Hu, the military and the government media, they have mobilized the entire country, accepted aid from the international community and has show great compassion for their citizens. they have provided unlimited media coverage, 24/7 (this in contrast again, to Myanmar where journalists are being smuggled into the country at great risk of discovery by the authorities). China has awakened, and is shifting consciousness before our eyes. very uranian.

Chinese soldiers providing earthquake relief

while most of us are watching the US presidential election, which, btw, will take place on the day the saturn/uranus opposition is exact, other events help us to understand the significance of this aspect.

UAC: Day 1

2008-05-17T10:37:00.000-06:00

as I wrote yesterday, I am “working” the Mythology and Archetypal Astrology track at UAC. actually, there was a bit more work involved today as all of the presentations were hugely popular and a lot of chairs had to be added, moved around, etc. to accommodate everyone. by the end of the day, I was a limp rag from trying to process all this amazing information/insight. what follows is my choice for, not the high point of the day, (all of them qualify as “the best”!) but rather what was most resonant for me.

today it was a panel discussion on mythology and astrology that stretched across individual areas of study/research/interest of the presenters to general discussions of the subjectivity of archetypes, the boundaries between fate and free will, and the intersection of myth and individual lives. Ken Johnson reminded us that astrologers are artists and magicians as well as technicians, and encourages us to not over-interpret our archetypes, but to feel them. Melanie Reinhart currently is working with myths as descriptions of human biological processes, literally, and thus suggests that sources of healing can be found within them. Darby Costello is fascinated with how being “captured” by your own personal myth, or by having an archetype thrust on you (which happens to political leaders or other prominent public figures) can greatly limit the life choices available; thus free will becomes limited by “fate”. Brian Clark advises us as counselors that many myths have multiple outcomes or endings, giving astrologers some options when it comes to giving advice. If there is a choice between giving your client a bleak, hopeless ending and one that, while troublesome, can be accepted, tell them about the latter.

myths are alive. they change over time, they morph genders and hierarchy; what was old becomes new, what was once dominant is subsumed. (Ceres was once considered a planet, then demoted for 100 years; Pluto was also once considered a planet. They are both now dwarves !)

at then end, the panelists honored Joseph Campbell who brought consciousness of myths and archetypes to the public in the 20^th Century. If you are not familiar with this man and his writing, he’s a very good place to start you own study of myth and archetype.

UAC: pre-conference

2008-05-15T18:52:00.000-06:00

UAC does not formally open until tonight but already there are about 2200 attendees and the buzz is constant. literally every big, new or rising star from all branches of astrology are in attendance. the 15 tracks cover medieval, evolutionary, vedic, financial, esoteric and uranian/cosmobiology astrology, to name a few. there is a track on community issues, and one on astrology basics. the best news is that I got my dream track – mythology and archetypal astrology. it’s heaven!

today we had the preconference workshops; 5 half-day sessions given by the cream-of-the-crop astrologers on topics both timely and timeless. More on this below.

I spent my first day as a “room monitor” trying not to be too terribly officious while asking for proof of payment for the workshop, counting heads and distributing handouts. my ”monitor buddy” (there are two room monitors for every workshop and talk) was responsible for doing the digital taping. the good news is that I didn’t have to deal with the high-tech digital recording aspect of the job – not my forte, to say the least. the better news is that everything I wished I could attend but conflicts with my monitor duties can be purchased (at very reasonable prices) in CD or MP3 format practically within minutes after its presentation!

I "worked" Nick Campion’s presentation on national charts. it was fantastic and fascinating. he spoke about “the theory and use of the national horoscope, looking at some practical examples including the USA and Iraq. …what moment a chart should be cast for, and does a country have one chart or many? what information does a national chart reveal?” he correlates different charts from historic moments in a country’s history to find repeating patterns that expose fundamental issues that a country may have to address. (e.g., for the US, the chart of the declaration of the 13 colonies’ independence and the chart from the 9/11 terrorist attack). he also shared with us his Rules of Astrology:

Rule # 2: Thought is more important than technique.
Rule # 3: Astrology doesn’t work, astrologers do!

He couldn’t remember Rule #1 (or if there was one ;-) he’s a great speaker.

More tomorrow…

Blogging at UAC

2008-05-10T06:47:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, it's been a month since a new post has arrived. with apologies, I am a new grandma, remember! but, starting next week, I'll be at UAC in Denver and will be posting daily about the conference, talks, astrologers and ambiance so please bear with me!

UAC

Sound Circle

2008-04-15T08:21:00.000-06:00

for those of you who live in the Denver/Boulder area, Sound Circle, a womens' a capella group, will be giving a concert about Fear and the Failure of Imagination next month. this fits so well into the current astrological energies that I hope you can check it out.

pluto and saturn

2008-04-10T12:06:00.001-06:00

pluto and saturn have been dancing around each other for a while now. back in august, they formed a trine in the last degrees of the fire signs of leo and sag. o, happy days of summer when beliefs and expectations were one and the same, possibilities were still open-ended and faith in leadership was untested.

with saturn's ingress into virgo, and then turning retrograde in december, and pluto moving into capricorn for the first time in 240+ years, the second pass of the trine feels substantially different in character. both planets are now in earth signs, ruling physical and practical matters. saturn rules structures, boundaries, social forms and norms. in virgo, saturn requires moderation, maturity, careful planning and strong dedication to doing things in the 'right' way, according to natural laws. this is a big change from leo's need to be center stage and to express its individuality.

pluto's temporary move into capricorn gives us a glimpse of the next 16 (yes 16!) years. there has been a lot written about what this time may be like; much of the predictions have been dire. the past 15 years or so of pluto in sag has also been dire at times, with religious fanaticism and resultant wars; ecological disasters and extreme events (think the Christmas Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the melting of the arctic glaciers).

many many hundreds of thousands of people were affected by these events. many many hundreds of thousands of people will be affected by the events during pluto's transit of capricorn. these have terrible personal and individual consequences, and sometimes even 'change the world' as the result; new global relationships, or policies, or knowledge arises from the ashes of calamity. that is the role of pluto - to take us down on the deep psychological journey of death and separation and return us with new eyes, new understanding, furthering our soul's journey towards perfection.

saturn and pluto together present us, in the words of Richard Tarnas in his amazing book, Cosmos and Psyche, with a cycle of crisis and contraction (see page 209 for a very succinct description of this time period). so much astrological discussion is about potential consequences of placements and contacts; however, the value of astrology lies in understanding the purpose of the energies reflected in the planets. and during this particular time, while pluto and saturn are retrograde, we are offered an important opportunity. yes, there is plenty of anxiety circulating today, and it is easy to become paralyzed by that, or the myriad details of our complex modern life. and yes, some of the changes your need to take, or the medicine you may need to swallow could be harsh. but as they form an ongoing trine, pluto and saturn provide both impetus and insight into what may be amiss in your life. it's an opportunity to prepare for the coming contraction and crisis. how is your work situation? your health? how you are squandering or devoting your energies and resources? are you still living that completely unhealthy lifestyle? eating junk? smoking? working too hard? (not working hard enough?). it is time to clean up past mistakes, own up to your misdemeanors, get clear with the authorities. by beginning now, saturn can help you own up to your responsibilities and act like an adult.

pluto in capricorn will take society and its institutions through that underworld journey, to transform how we live together on this planet. there is much room for optimism and anticipation as there is much that should be changed for the better for everyone. but change is also very difficult, so take whatever assistance you can. now is a good time to begin the process.

I've been tagged!

2008-03-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

I have been tagged with a Meme by DR, which goes as follows:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

(i had never heard of a "blogger's meme" before, so had to look it up, in wikipedia, of course)
so, a "unit" of "cultural information" to send on. ok.

the book I'm currently reading is by a Scotsman, Rory Stewart, who walked across Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban called The Places in Between. he had previously walked across Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal... on foot, 20 - 25 miles a day. when he heard the Taliban had fallen and left the country, he decided to walk from Herat to Kabul. in this passage, he is walking with a local man and meets a mullah who begins to question him about religion:

"What religion is he?"
"He's a Jahdui - a Jew", said Dr. Habibullah. "No, no, I'm an Esawi - a Christian."
Dr. Habibulla turned around, looked at me, and then said to his friend, "I can't work this out - is there a difference?"

NY Philharmonic and North Korea

2008-02-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

I have been captured by this visit to N. Korea and checked out some of the astrology. The trip was planned over a year ago, when “relations” were a bit warmer than they are now, but it appears that the experience was a great success (see below, text and photo compliments of today’s New York Times).

The chart for North Korea, formally known as the DPRK is based on a US state department website. I have chosen a time that puts Mars in the first house.

The first thing you notice is the mars on the south node, in scorpio. this is a signature of tremendous suspicion, violence, power struggles and militance. and it squares venus in leo, suggesting that the country takes all these threats very personally and with high drama. but the history of Korea (a unified state for centuries before Japan occupied it in WWII and the US and Russia divided it) is one of great creative expression and sophistication, which is echoed in the neptune/mercury conjunction in libra as well as the saturn in leo in the 10^th. some clues about the current situation in North Korea can be found in the chart of Kim Jong Il who is given two birthdates and two birth locations in wikipedia. Surprisingly, (or not) both show a taurus stellium (saturn/uranus with either jupiter or mars making the 3^rd member) which explains the incredible paranoia about security. mars aspects the nodes in both charts.

On feb 26, the NY Philharmonic visited:

It was the first time an American cultural organization had appeared here, and the largest contingent of United States citizens to appear since the Korean War. The trip has been suffused with political importance since North Korea’s invitation came to light last year. It was seen by some as an opening for warmer relations with the United States, which North Korea has long reviled.

The concert brought a “whole new dimension from what we expected,” Mr. Maazel told reporters afterward. “We just went out and did our thing, and we began to feel this warmth coming back.”

mercury, venus and neptune are currently in aquarius, the ‘collective creativity’ sign, and the sun and uranus are in pisces, the ‘we’re all in this together’ sign. pluto has moved into capricorn, opposing DPRK’s natal uranus in cancer exactly. this will continue for quite a while… I like to think it signifies DPRK’s need to join the global family and transform its rigidity into a more mature form of strength. uranus has just transited into a tight orb of opposition to DPRK’s virgo sun, highlighting the need for a more enlightened and tolerant management. For me, however, the most interesting aspect is the nodes on DPRK’s natal saturn at 28° leo . the aquarius/leo nodal axis is about integrating mind and heart through recognition of one’s own as well as others' creativity. my creativity is not the only contribution to the cosmos; yours is needed as well for evolution of our souls. standing apart and merely criticizing others is a self limiting use of energy. life requires participation, exchange, learning from others’ achievements, and the desire to leave something behind once we’re gone. this concert seems to have been one of those exceptional moments when, through heart-felt emotion, progress was made.

Three Cups of Tea

2008-02-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

I have just recently read this amazing book with my book club and became so interested in greg mortenson, the mountaineer turned school/peace-builder that I searched the web until I came up with his birth data (sans birthtime). using placidus houses, here is the chart.

i freaking love astrology, mostly because it works! here is a guy who was born in the US but raised in africa, became a mountaineer, a nurse, and found his life's work after a failed attempt to summit K2 left him in a tiny remote village in Pakistan, being taken care of by people who were to become his second family.

evolutionary astrology starts by looking at the nodes of the moon and pluto to attempt to understand one's soul's purpose. with his nodes in taurus/scorpio, greg is concerned with life and death issues; the basic needs of life - shelter, safety and resources (taurus) and an acute awareness that the lack of those basic necessities can lead to struggles, conflict, reliance on others, even death (scorpio). uranus, the planet of modernization and community creativity, is in the sign of leo which rules children and other creative activities. uranus is square his nodes, signifying that the way for greg to integrate the opposing energies of the nodes lies in "improving the lives of children" (among other possible meanings). this is exactly what he has devoted his life to do.

venus is also in a close opposition to uranus, in aquarius (ruled by uranus). venus rules our relationships and our money, and in aquarius, it can mean that one is very attracted to the finer things in life. in greg's chart, however, this signifies his love of the global community and his desire to improve that community through his own unique creative gifts. it is interesting that the original donor to his activities was a self-made millionaire who made his fortune in technology (ruled by uranus) and greg's work is supported by hundreds of donations from the global community.

with his sun in capricorn, he is stubborn, pragmatic and has earned great respect in the global community. his pisces moon speaks to his ability to have compassion for others and his feeling of being a global citizen (as well as indicating his ability to accept any and all food/environments/hardships during his work).

finally, his pluto in virgo, which indicates the soul's purpose, signifies his need to find "the right work". it is squaring his mars in sagittarius, which urges him to seek meaning in his life, be adventurous, and be interested in other cultures and ways of life. squares require action; as a result, greg is a man who has found his path in life and is following his bliss. it has been dangerous, and not without sacrifice, but it has been a huge success.

if you are interested in learning more about greg, his work, or his book, here is the link.

cancer moon baby

2008-02-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

the little grandson has arrived! and, he has a cancer moon inconjunct neptune in aquarius.

astrology is such a rich symbolic language; cancer rules nutrition and food, and the moon signifies the mother (among many other tangible and intangible meanings). neptune can signify the public, impersonal things in life, or the public arena. it can also indicate difficulty achieving something, or a lack of something due to its dissolving and dissipating nature.

for this little boy, it meant that his feeding had to be supplemented by donor breast milk while his mother recovered from a c-section. his nurture/nutrition (cancer) could not be satisfied by his own mother (moon inconjunct neptune) so he had to go to donor milk, provided by anonymous mothers, all mixed together and kept in a modern 'milk bank' (neptune in aquarius).

this is one of several indications that this little aquarian will benefit from modern technology; he was due to arrive when the sun was still in capricorn, but was breech, and required a c-section to be delivered, allowing him to enter only after the sun had moved into aquarius. this suggests to me that souls do know what they want!

waiting for the baby...

2008-01-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

this is not really one of those first-person blogs, but my private life has been absorbing most of my attention these days.

my daughter is about to have her first child, but the path to birth has been fraught with frustration and anxiety as the baby boy is breech and refuses to flip over properly, even with some rather appalling external manipulation done in the hospital, and headstands by the mother-to-be. sigh.

instead, she has scheduled a caesarian on the day the sun moves into aquarius --an aquarian caesarian. rather fitting for the techno-crazy, a-biologic water bearer sign dontcha think? what has also caught my eye, however, is she will have her ceres return (in taurus) a few days before the scheduled surgery, while the sun remains in capricorn. lots of earth.

soooooo.... we are hoping that he will slide into place and come the natural way, as the celestial body that rules motherhood becomes prominent in her chart.

free universities

2007-12-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

so many of us have been concerned about what the coming years will bring, focusing on the potential disruption/destruction/end-of-life-as-we-know-it-ness of it all. while undoubtedly there will be many profound and likely disturbing changes, there will also be wonderful new things coming up that we cannot now imagine. change and transformation can also be a positive experience.

one of these changes is already on the horizon and continues the amazing democratization of information that the internet provides. now, in addition to wikipedia, (which you know is my new drug) we have greatly expanded accessibility to university courses on-line. Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins, and many many other private and public institutions are offering complete materials and a full experience of their courses with video, transcripts, notes, readings and reading lists, and study sheets for a wide variety of subjects. now, you can listen to a lecture or take a semester-long course from your laptop. check out some of these links; they may restore your sense of balance about the impending future:

MIT
Yale
Johns Hopkins

happy solstice!

2007-12-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

early this morning (US west) marked the winter solstice - the annual standing still of the sun; the astronomical new year. this uttermost point of the annual cycle of the sun has been a time of celebration and awe for us humans, as the life-giving warmth and light begins its return journey in the sky.

astrologically, we can use the chart of exact entry of the sun into capricorn as an event chart - a harbinger of the year to come. it can suggest the areas where this new beginning will occur for you as an individual. (you can use either your birthplace to cast the chart, or where you live now. the rising sign and house placement depend on your latitude, but the planetary contacts and signs will be the same.)

the chart suggests this is a year of new beginnings and old conflicts; jupiter and mercury have just entered new signs, the lunar nodes have shifted to aquarius/leo, and pluto is in the last degree of sag. old conflicts are represented here by the retrograde mars in cancer opposing the sun/jupiter/mercury stellium in cap.

cap is the sign of wisdom, judgment, maturity and authority. it rules government, punishment, social forms and norms. it is how societies organize themselves, the laws and limits they impose on the individual. it is a "collective" sign and as such, can indicate how an individual will interact with and succeed in the larger world. the sun in cap is about creating those forms and norms in our own life -- where we feel most authoritative, what we have mastered, how we express ourselves and what we strive for. for some solar capricorns, this comes off as overly ambitious, social climbing, or cold and judgmental. evolved caps are hard workers, seek social justice and are experts in their field; puissant is one word to describe this enlightened soul.

jupiter expands, explores, seeks meaning from new ideas and experiences. the giant planet rules philosophy, travel, higher education, religion, business and social interactions beyond one's significant other. in cap, there is inherent conflict for jupiter as its expansive nature is confronted with cap's sense of limit and boundaries. a positive expression of this is "practical solutions that result from thinking out of the box". you must work within the given limits, but go far afield in your thinking.

mercury in cap gives logical organization to your thought processes and can help you work through problems systematically. it can give you the objectivity and dispassion you might need with a knotty issue. it can also be a rush to judgment however, so let jupiter into the discussion.

mars is opposing all three of these, retro in cancer. kind of like a kid throwing a temper tantrum when compared to all these mature cap placements. but the purpose of this mars contact is to remember that our deepest security needs are real and we have to take care of the individual if the collective is to function in a healthy manner. the cold, dispassionate forms that most appeal to saturn can be very harsh on living organisms. so mars is there to bring the warmth, the care and attention, and the outrage, if needed, to ensure that the new forms and norms that this ingress suggests are ones that actually meet our needs. the opposition represents the inherent conflict between these two, and can indicate a back-and-forth approach where we overdo one end of the opposition, then flip back and go too far in the opposite direction. the purpose, however, is to integrate the two ends, to balance our need for nurturance and security with the requirements of natural limits, authority and maturity.

next post: new nodal axis.

shout outs

2007-12-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

astrotabletalk has just done two outstanding bits on the significance of pluto in cap for all the signs (and a great one on the "death ray black hole today);

a truly great astrologer, Bill Herbst, has been having some health issues and is offline for a bit. his articles are archived, however, and you might want to go visit;

lynn hayes has some great historical stuff on pluto's previous forays into cap here;

and here is a nice little bit on today's shift of the nodal axis into leo/aquarius from tom jacobs.

cri·sis (krī′sis)

2007-12-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

the turning point of a disease for better or worse, esp. a sudden recovery
an intensely painful attack of a disease; paroxysm

a turning point in the course of anything; decisive or crucial time, stage, or event
a time of great danger or trouble, often one which threatens to result in unpleasant consequences an economic crisis

Etymology: L <krisis < krinein, to separate, discern <(s)krei-, to sift, separate <(s)ker-, to cut > shear, L cernere, to separate, Ger rein, pure

as we approach tomorrow’s conjunction of pluto and jupiter, it is worth considering the above word crisis. (the definitions are from two online dictionaries). most people are used to thinking of crises as definition #3 – times of great danger or trouble, often confusing a crisis with disasters and unexpected misfortunes. but for astrology, I prefer definition #2 – a crucial stage or event, a turning point, in a natural process. this can be a fulfillment of an organic process, when something becomes fully itself, or when something reaches some “point of no return”. we experience a process as going along a certain, expected path, and then suddenly, it seems, something “changes” and voila, we are confronted with a crisis. the current sub-prime mortgage situation is a perfect example. for most of us, we didn’t have an inkling. but those who were paying attention, who were familiar with the economics of the situation, knew that this situation could not last, that there was a “point of no return” coming soon.

what often makes a crisis so unfortunate is that the moment of the turning point can initiate a whole new set of problems, as the course of events is changed by the crisis. the culmination, conjunction or event, of the crisis then affects the subsequent energies and events (e.g. the credit crunch that has resulted from all those foreclosures).

on an individual level, crisis can be a time when one’s resistance to a natural process of change reaches a point that can no longer be sustained; one is finally, suddenly, forced to acknowledge, change or re-direct their energies. this is the purpose of crisis in evolutionary astrology terms, to make you move forward, be more conscious, to improve your interactions with the universe. a health crisis leads to improved self-care; a relationship crisis leads to counseling, better communication, redistribution of household chores; a financial crisis leads to better budgeting, more savings, etc.

unfortunately, crisis can bring uncontrollable turning points; the heart attack that kills you, the divorce, the bankruptcy. If you resist the necessary changes in your life, if you fail to act responsibly or make the improvements you know are needed in your life; if you blame “the other guy” for all your problems, crisis, when it comes, may have unpleasant consequences, indeed.

with pluto and jupiter conjunct in sag tomorrow, the crisis is about power and beliefs and all the combinations of the two: the power of your beliefs; the power struggles around your truth; your need to be freely who you are; how you need to be right, and whether you allow others to be right; tolerance. Or, it can be about opening yourself to the power of intuition, to own your psychic energy, to find the truth, even if it’s deeply buried. this aspect is the culmination, the peak of the pluto in sag transit - my hopes are for the end of religious wars and greater tolerance for all belief systems. (see astrotabletalk.blogspot.com for Dharmaruci's comments on this.)

can't keep up

2007-11-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

so I'm struggling with what the true nature of this blog should be. I really don't want it to become one of those personal, gossipy blah blahs about my life, that only my family will ever read. but the amount of research I'm trying to do so that I'm writing an informative, entertaining and clear astrology blog is overwhelming.

in the past 10 days, i have started to write about Dennis Quaid's twins and the whole Heparin fiasco (saturn on the south node + natal cancer going retrograde and forming an exact square with transiting venus); Comet Holmes, and my favorite athletes. here's as far as I got on the sports topic:

athletic ability can be signified by mars and jupiter, their contacts, and any reinforcing placements in the chart. now all three of these incredible athletes have such contacts. Tiger has a mars/jupiter sextile, with mars in the 9th house (ruled by jupiter) close to the midheaven, (signifying not only talent, but exceptional talent as the midheaven is the pinnacle of the chart). his jupiter is in aries, ruled by mars, so in effect he has a triple signature by contact, house and signs. Johnny also has a mars/jupiter sextile, with his jupiter and mars also contacting his natal sun by opposition and trine, respectively. this contact, along with mars in scorpio in the 5th house, signifies that he expresses his whole being through his talent, and it is a flamboyant and overtly sexual expression (imho). Federer, by contrast, has absolutely no mars/jupiter contacts in his chart, either by aspect, house position or sign. rather, he has jupiter trine his midheaven and mars sextile his ascendant, indicating the power of aspects to the angles of the chart.

so why weren't these posted? well, for example one, the news moved so fast, that by the time I did the natal charts (without birthtimes), researched the potential rulers for blood (venus) and IV's (mars), and did the transits, it was old old news.

as for Comet Holmes, I got completely distracted by the "oohs" and "aahs" of its magical explosion. did you know that when it was first observed in 1892 it did the exact same thing?? o yes, it has a 6.9 year periodicity, which makes it a jupiterian comet, rather than an oort cloud comet. I so totally love wikipedia!!

on the whole mars/jupiter thing, I was going to do the transits/progressions for tiger's slump, but as usual, got totally enthralled by wikipedia, and didn't get everything lined out until this tuesday (i try to post on sundays). and what is the "sunday posting" thing all about? this whole experience of not being a buck-an-hour-bucaneer is really taking some getting used to. I can post any time, any day, on any topic I want - that's what blogs are all about!

I'll post again soon, as soon as I get another idea...

midpoints

2007-11-18T16:34:00.001-07:00

one of the more fascinating things about astrology is that there are so many different techniques to improve one’s knowledge (and eventually, interpretation) of astrological charts. I have been spending some time with midpoints. midpoints are the locations, or points, in a chart midway between two planets. any object in a chart can have a midpoint, but there are several major ones: Sun/Moon, Venus/Mars, Jupiter/Saturn.

the sun/moon midpoint can be thought of as the “sum of you” – where your life force (sun) meets your emotional body (moon). It is also the yin/yang point, where masculine and feminine meet in your chart. depending on the house and sign, you can learn a lot about where you are most completely yourself, where your desire to implement meets your inner sense of surety.

the venus/mars midpoint deals with relationships. in synastry, (comparing two separate charts) any conjunction with your venus or mars can indicate interest (if not outright compatibility) with another person, but if there is a contact with this midpoint it can also signify potential relationship. depending on where this point falls in your chart, it can also indicate specific areas in your life where relationships will be important (if it falls in your 10^th house, it may be your work buddies that are your greatest friends – a whole universe of TV sitcoms are premised on this idea).

the jupiter/saturn midpoint is where the two “societal” planets meet; jupiter as the ruler of philosophies and belief systems, saturn as the ruler of collective norms and forms. this can be your point of greatest strength and authority in society – where you can contribute the most, be a leader, and gain the greatest sense of satisfaction. it can, however, be the point of greatest conflict if not well integrated. the expansive properties of jupiter constantly rub up against the constraints of saturn, leading to either a sense of great frustration if one’s dreams cannot be realized, or feeling like a wet blanket when everyone else is having fun.

midpoints work in your chart, in synastry, or by transit. If you’re having a hard time, but nothing seems to be actively contacting any planets or angles in your chart, check out your midpoints. The outer planets especially move very slowly and they may either be contacting one of your midpoints, or the transiting midpoint of a planetary pair may be contacting one of your planets.

my second saturn return in virgo has just occurred; also, I have numerous midpoints in virgo that transiting saturn will be contacting over the next year or so. this is presenting me with all the usual saturnian issues: health issues and the need to create some discipline around my daily life forms, a sense of isolation and even a fair amount of dread. As it approaches my uranus/sun midpoint, I find myself actively engaging in meditation again for the first time in years and generally trying to re-invent myself, now that I’m retired. other points coming up include venus/pluto midpoint (please please please let me win the lottery!) and neptune/pluto, a point of understanding the limits of power, among other things. as a scorpio, all these pluto midpoints are especially salient to me.

Being in the world

2007-11-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

I went to my local Shambhala Center this morning to meditate - actually to receive some instruction on meditation as it has been years since I've practiced this. There was a lot of history and background on the center provided, and then questions from my fellow instructees that our meditation teacher answered, and then we went into one of the shrine spaces and sat meditation for about 30 minutes or so.

well, call me crazy, but it was after this brief meditation that I began to think about what it means to be in this world. to be alive in this universe, as this type of creature. I kept thinking, "I'm not a squirrel". it's not like I have a role in the ecosystem, like a particular plant or animal. I don't behave instinctually. theoretically, I have something called consciousness, and possibly even Free Will. What does it mean for me to be in this world? do I have purpose, or is it completely random that I am here in this space and time?

it was a pretty weighty question to arise from a mere 10-15 minutes of meditation, let me tell you!

so what does this have to do with astrology, you're wondering? well, I'm not sure, but there seems to be some connection with the basic question I've posed above and the human need for systems-of-meaning, of which astrology is one (for me anyway). given that I am not a squirrel, my consciousness requires some kind of meaningful context within which to live; something in between instinct and... enlightenment, I guess. astrology provides this grounding: it is both practical and useful (like instinct) but also is a portal to the infinite connectedness of all things in our universe. I find this both satisfying and comforting.

Lunar calendars, Samhain and Happy Halowe’en

2007-10-28T12:58:00.000-06:00

Early societies confronted the need to correlate the various natural cycles with human needs. Day and Night provided the most basic separation, each with its own “light”. As humanity began to order and give meaning to existence, the Moon became associated with the feminine, variable, hidden aspects of all life. Her growth, fullness and diminishment became synonymous with all cycles that waxed and waned; special significance was given to those human cycles that seemed to most closely mimic her: female menarche, pregnancy, and menopause. The Moon became synonymous with the miraculous and the mysterious. Agriculture, tides, fertility of animals, an association with blood, and the darkness and death that follows all growth, became her domain.

We think of time in familiar terms of minutes, hours, weeks and months, but these are just the familiar patterns particular to our 24-hour-a-day global business cycle. Earlier societies used movements of the sun and moon to keep them in sync with the organic cycles of mother earth. (Donna Cunningham wrote a marvelous book, The Moon in Your Life, a classic addition to astrology of the moon, as well as a philosophical musing on what it means to be a “lunar” personality in our “solar” world. )

The Celts’ starting place was the dark-of-moon, a lunar calendar that broke the year into “dark” and “bright” halves, adjusting the number of lunar months as needed, and marking lunar cross-quarter days in between the solar equinoxes and solstices.

Samhain is such a day, when the summer has ended and the “dark” half of the year begins. The old Coligny calendar, dating from 800 BC, marks this cross quarter day, along with Imbolc (February) Beltane (May), and Lughnasadh (August), ordering the agricultural cycle of harvest, birth of new livestock, seed planting, and ripening. These were not specific days, but rather nights, celebrated with Lunar rites of bonfires and purifications. These celebrations have come down to us as Hallowe’en, Oidhche Shamhna, El Dia del Muerte and Samhain.

The recognition of, much less celebration of the dark, goes against our more modern sensibilities. Instead of welcoming the night, with its opportunity for rest and relief from stimulation, we fill it with light, night shifts of workers, 24-hour everything. We resist the innate knowledge that things never stay the same, that old things must die before new things can begin, that there is no such thing as unlimited growth. But in doing so, we submerge and ingest the darkness itself. The darkness dwells in the 15 million depressed Americans, in the physical, emotional and sexual abuse in our families, in the anxiety and despair of citizens watching the richest country in the world spending its wealth on war and destruction instead of building a better world for everyone. But the cycles are the ultimate truth. Things do change. Diminishment and death are inevitable precursors to initiation and growth.

As you celebrate this Hallowe’en, you may want to reflect (such a lovely Moon word) on what you’re holding onto past its needfulness. What darkness are you trying to hide that would benefit from a bonfire or other form of purification? And what relaxing welcoming night are you sacrificing to too much work?

Mount Kelud, NEA Apophis and other earth catastrophes: the problem of prediction

2007-10-21T11:24:00.000-06:00

astrology is an amazing body of knowledge; rich, meaningful and applicable to all aspects of life. however, its very richness leads to problems with interpretation of meaning. for example, let’s take mercury in scorpio (where he currently is). he’s flying backward, about to return to libra, before going direct on nov 1 and eventually returning to scorpio nov 11. (he’s the messenger of the gods remember – think of it as shuttle diplomacy like in the 70s). everyone has experienced some retrograde mercury problems – important papers that didn’t arrive, the fender bender, the breakdown of a usually reliable piece of machinery, the problem with the neighbor, the old flame suddenly showing back up in your life. on this trip, old MOTG is trying to tell you about some unfinished business, some old power trips you thought were over, some deep psychological truths you’ve been tying to avoid, a legacy you were expecting that suddenly disappeared (don’t worry, once he goes direct it will probably get cleared up).

you get the picture right? but which picture is the right one? they can’t all be right, can they? well, yes, they can, depending on who you are or what we’re talking about. and that’s the problem with astrological prediction. these planets and signs and their myriad interactions are supposed to cover a universe of events, developments and relationships. the marvel is that they do. the nightmare is that the astrologer is supposed to be able to apply the correct interpretation to any singular, particular relationship with a person, situation or global event. tricky, huh?!

now, being a pluto in leo child (perennially!) I live on drama, especially catastrophes. they appeal to my need to live life to the fullest, adrenaline-pumping anxiety possible (scorpio w/double capricorn as well, am I). thus my interest in global warming, pandemics, cosmic collisions and volcanic eruptions. the last two are of particular interest to me today: Mt. Kelud, a volcano in Indonesia, is rumbling again. Apophis, the asteroid that was supposed to hit us in 2029, but may now only graze us, caught my eye this past week. It could return in 2036 and/or ‘37 for more potential cosmic rounds of “you’re it” (very old tag game we used to play). here is one possible chart for the first approach:

so what can we say about this? at the time I’ve chosen, we’re got signatures for “battling for survival” (sun/neptune in aries in 12) and “destruction of humanity” (pluto in aquarius at the MC) squaring “loss of security” (moon in scorpio). Looks grim, you say? But it could also be interpreted as “enlightenment regarding the human community” combined with “expansion of resources for all” in order to “improve our sense of security and meet our growing needs” (pluto in 9 in a T-square with jupiter in taurus in 12, opposing moon in 6th). This could be a time when, near-earth-asteroids aside, we finally begin to make the enlightened transformations needed to meet everyone’s needs and apply critical thinking to our endless desires for more, more, more. it's unlikely that I'll be around to witness which (or whatever) it really is, but it's always fun to speculate.

For those who are interested, here is the chart for the next pass, exactly one year later… what do you see?

pluto in sag and school violence

2007-10-14T10:26:00.000-06:00

As pluto ends its stay in sagittarius, where it has been continually since november ‘95 (it made a brief sortie into sag at 0° 36’ stationing retrograde the previous march), I have been reflecting on its impacts other than wars and violence around belief systems (religion).

the sagittarius/gemini axis also rules education. through gemini we learn how to integrate into our environment, how to name and orient ourselves to the tangible objects that surround us. thus, the Twins rule communication, transportation, and other forms of elementary, concrete learning. the Centaur, meanwhile, takes on the intangibles and the abstract, the intuitive mental processes that can lead us to truth, philosophy, and considerations about how other people and cultures do things, away from our own direct experience (thus its rulership of foreign travel).

so how does this relate to school violence? pluto is the planet of power and transformation, but it also relates to feelings of powerlessness – that terrible feeling of being at the mercy of something larger than oneself. In sag, that something can be your school – the place where you are required to take in and fit into the teachings of your society. and those feelings of powerlessness can lead to explosive violence.

according to the website infoplease.com, there have been over 45 school shooting incidents worldwide since feb, 1996 (pluto at 2°sag) resulting in 129 students and 33 school administrators dead with 178 left wounded, not including the shooters who committed suicide after taking out their victims. almost without exception, these crimes were committed by fellow students who had been bullied, scorned or who felt like pariahs among their peers*. from a peak of 7 incidents worldwide in 2001 (pluto halfway through sag) they have tailed off; but, as often happens towards the end of a planet’s stay in a sign, there can be a single, major event that encapsulates the signature of the placement. for me, this was the Virginia Tech massacre, the deadliest school shooting in US history.

none of these crimes are justified. yet many of these kids were known to be struggling with depression or other behavioral problems, or the schools later admitted to an atmosphere of bullying among the student body.

so, what have we learned from this, to carry forward into pluto in capricorn (coming to your neighborhood this December)? capricorn rules institutions, law, social reputation and stability (among other things). it is concerned with what works, and what makes us secure. does this mean that future plutonic transformations will find our schools locked down, with security guards, retinal scans and metal detectors? or will we choose the less Draconian strategies of school uniforms, lessons in equality and tolerance, and vigilant school administrations that mix compassion with control? the true lesson of pluto is that it can be felt both as power and the loss (as well as misuse) of power. we need to be conscious of these, no matter the sign it occupies.

* these numbers do not include the other “school located” massacres such as the Beslan, Russia crisis of September, 2004. that event was also perpetrated by cultural “outcasts”, Chechan rebels.