This seems like a lot of effort to me. Then I thought, "Hey, wait, aren't I planning on going out of town on mine this year? I wonder where I'll be?" (Then I found that mine would be at 7:30 a.m. this year and thought, "Never fucking mind. I'll still be home getting ready for work.")
Mine this year has almost every planet above the horizon except for Saturn in the fifth. Blech.
Interesting points:
- Taurus ascendant right on my natal Venus.
- Mercury is right on the solar return chart ascendant.
- Sun and Moon are loosely conjunct in different signs (Aries moon this year).
- All of that stuff is in my 12th...sigh.
- Venus and Mars are conjunct in the 11th in Aries again.
- For once, Venus and Saturn are not tied in the chart. Yay.
- 10th house has Neptune/Chiron/Jupiter conjunct. That conjunction is sextile the moon.
- Pluto is off by itself in the 8th, trine Sun...yeah, BAD. And squares the Venus/Mars.
- SR nodes are conjunct the MC/IC axis.
- SR moon is opposite SR vertex (not pictured)
Let's go to Cafe Astrology...
In Taurus, domestic issues and finances will be on your mind. This is a year of overall stability. Your approach to life is markedly conservative and practical. You are resistant to making big changes, and you are skeptical of new initiatives. You are generally content to leave things as they are, and you are not inclined to seek out brand new experiences (or people!). Inertia and resistance to making changes may characterize the period. You have the power to attract this year, especially through patience. You may also feel the need to have more beauty in your life, via your surroundings and perhaps with regards to a desire to improve your appearance.
Okay, that would be good.Material matters will be very important to you this year. This is a favorable period for increasing your financial position. You may start looking for new ways to increase your income and, if other indications are favorable, you will find the means to do so.
Okay, that's not bad.
You could find yourself being more realistic and stubborn than usual. You will be more tenacious and persevering in pursuing your dreams. It is important, however, to not be so obstinate and unwilling to compromise that you cause undue tension and resentment in others. You may find yourself having the desire to acquire beautiful or expensive things to a greater degree than you are used to.
This year will bring you in contact with practical people with whom you could possibly form a productive business arrangement. But you should be cautious about moving too fast in these ventures as you might find that the results do not meet your expectations.
If you have artistic inclinations, it will be a positive year for expanding your creative talents. This influence may attract you to begin to study such fields as art, interior decorating and design, or crafts such as pottery, which could ultimately result in material profit.
*shrug*
During this period you will find yourself wanting more stability in your life. Emotionally you could experience contradictory feelings. You will find yourself encountering Scorpio types of people who could have a strong influence on you. Be careful not to get involved in scenarios which create tension, jealousy or possessiveness in you or those you are dealing with. You should select your friends carefully and try to keep cool and calm when a difficult situation presents itself.
The public part could be good, legal no. Important union...not holding my breath.Solar Return Ascendant in natal 7th house
You will announce an important union during this year. If you have plans for marriage, it would be the right time to tie the knot. On the other hand, you also could get involved with some new business associations.
Your personality will be favored by the public and you will make a very good impression. This will benefit you, if your activities are related to dealing with the public or to politics. You also could get involved in some type of litigation or legal suit during this year.
Hm. Probably on the beautification thing.
The natal Venus is therefore conjunct the Solar Return Ascendant, and one can presume that the condition and issues surrounding the individual's natal Venus will be highlighted (effectively coming to the fore) in the Solar Return year.
Not holding my breath on that. But new beginnings in general might be good.When the Sun conjuncts, opposes, or squares the Moon in the Solar Return chart, this points to a key period in the native's life when major new beginnings, endings, and activities occur. For example, marriages or births of a first child occur frequently when the Sun conjuncts the Moon in the SR chart.
The Sun-Moon conjunction is a dynamic aspect, but besides signifying new beginnings, it is also a very receptive energy. Things tend to come to the native,
Well, a 12th house emphasis doesn't exactly strike me as being all that exciting (I'd rather it be 10th for the public thing), but...
This astrological influence is very strong and accentuates the possibilities of the Sun's position by house. The energy of these two adjacent luminaries could be very intense. You will be more sensitive and will react more strongly to things around you. The New Moon under which your birthday falls indicates new experiences, initiatives, and success in projects that are begun in this period. This energy is concentrated in the house that the Sun occupies during this year and will benefit you immensely.
You may also become more sentimental and have the need to strengthen your family ties. Your interest in discovering your roots will increase and you will feel more connected and attached to those who have had an influence on your childhood and your early home environment. This influence also favors contact with the public, especially women.
O RLY?Solar Return Sun semisextile Solar Return Venus
Your artistic inclinations will surface during this year and also your more romantic side. You will express your emotions in an open and direct manner. There is a possibility for a romance in your life that will come about in a way and in a location where you don't expect it.
Hm.
Solar Return Sun semisextile Solar Return Mars
Your enthusiasm will be contagious and you will always be ready for action. You will receive support and protection from people with certain power in your environment, although you most likely will not need it. It is advisable to direct your dynamic and constructive energy appropriately during this period. Put more emphasis on your own ambitions than to those things which could cause you to worry. Trust your own resources.
All RIGHT! Good interpretation!Solar Return Sun trine or sextile Solar Return Pluto
During this time you will feel the desire to investigate and study the mysteries of life in depth. You will be interested in the occult and also will bring to the surface memories or impressions of your past that affect your present conduct. It is a year of positive transformation and of freedom.
Good!
All changes that begin now will enable you to live with more freedom in the future. If you were contemplating some type of therapy, it would be a good time to start and would be very beneficial. You will be attracted to any type of activity that tests your ability and level of energy. You will need to reaffirm and rely on your own strength, and during this year you will be willing to move ahead.
Oh good. I want that.
You will express yourself with authority and strength in your relationships with others, causing a strong impact and making a very good impression. Due to the strength of your great inner convictions, you will more easily persuade others to adopt your ideas. Your authority will be notable and you could become a leader in the group that you are affiliated with.
This astrological influence brings concrete action and will solve many aspects of your life. Once you have made a decision, you will be devoted to working toward your goal. You will experience a transformation and renewal of your life in general.
Solar Return Moon in Aries
You have an emotional need to start something new this year—to make a fresh start somehow. Impulsive decisions characterize the period. This promises to be an active and energetic year in which you feel renewed self-confidence. You are more assertive and enthusiastic, and also more willing to let go of the past.
Sounds good.
when the natal descendant sign is on the Solar Return ascendant, we might feel we are dependent on others during that period.
Not so good.
Yay!Jupiter in the Tenth House of Solar Return is almost always a positive signal concerning your growth – normally it’s a professional growth. Such a growth may refer to more general kinds of emancipations, such as learning to swim or to swallow pills (many adults are not able to do it in fact). Some people ‘grow’ by getting rid of an unpleasant person; some others fly for the first time in their life. Others get a perfect sight thanks to a successful surgery. Others learn a foreign language perfectly; others get to master a personal computer. You may also become stronger psychologically; overcome fears or taboos; identify profitable projects for the future; meet people who can change your life; complete your university education; purchase your dream house; become a father or a mother; get married, and so on. Nonetheless I have to say that such a position is much less powerful than an Ascendant of SR in the 10th House of birth (on the other hand the latter has got contraindications, while Jupiter in the 10th hasn’t got any at all). I don’t know why, but I’ve personally experienced it over thousands of cases. The results that can be obtained by a Jupiter in the 10th House of SR are, almost always, irreversible. It is my opinion, formed after many decades of experimentation, that (expect a few cases) a Jupiter strictly conjunct with the MC is the best combination that one can obtain in a Solar Return chart. In some cases this celestial position announces a very good period for the native’s mother: she may improve her professional position; she may become famous; she may get financial benefits; she may experience a particularly good period for her health or her love; or it may be that the native’s relationship with her mother gets better.
Taurus (April 19- May 20)
Rare is it that we get a glimpse of the future, much less an opportunity to experience who we might be in the future. This is what I see in your charts now: a window into witnessing your own potential. You may get a look at this portal at the expense of frustration, self-inquiry and some backpedaling. You may go through substantial doubt before you arrive at a place of witnessing yourself. And you may need to burn through the floor of what you consider a self or an identity before you decide that what you are looking at involves a different concept of existence than something you choose with a “lifestyle.” I am talking about a discovery that will change the course of your life forever.
I totally agree with this:
"I have a few e-mails re why i altered the Sun Sign name for Cancer to Kataka in the Nightly Scopes. The e-mails are amazingly non-narky. Okay, Cancer is Latin for Crab and the Crab is ONE of the symbols for the constellation that the Sun travels through from late June to late July. ie; if you born then, you are deemed “a Cancer.” Moon-Ruled, a mood-swinger, a sexy empath, nostalgic, home-loving & a fiend in biz. But the name has come to be more linked to oncological disorders.
I got a really emo yet lovely letter from a Cancerian girl writing from her boarding school & I was about to send her back this long-winded explanation. But then i just thought screw it & changed the name of it. For her. She said that whenever she googles her sign, it comes up with a disease and that it made her feel sad, sick and ugly etc etc.
Sooo another symbol for this sign is the Ancient Egyptian sacred scarab - symbol of immortality."
This sounds like the guy has Mars Saturn or Mars Pluto to me... (Upon attempting to figure out a chart since he mentions his birthday, looks like he has Mars semisextile both planets.)
"There was a time in my undergraduate studies when I decided to reject everything considered masculine. I had just started learning about feminist philosophies and the associated feminine ideals: pacifism rather than violence, gentleness rather than strength, and love and the erotic rather than pain and competition. My readings convinced me that maleness was something to diminish rather than champion. The patriarchal structure of societies seemed to be the root cause of oppression and warfare. Matriarchal societies, as illustrated in my books, were about cooperation, farming, and a communal society of ideals. Matriarchal religions, worshiping a feminine goddess or the sacred feminine, were more about love and the erotic, and less about hellfire and beating the loving snot out of heathens.
Additionally, I had a thing for scarily smart women (still do) and a lot of them were getting into that avenue of philospophy.
I learned a lot about gender and women during that period of my life, but I remember feeling disquieted, like I was hungry and wasn't feeding. Riding wildly through D.C. on my motorcycle provided some sustinence, but it wasn't quite my thing. A ticket for reckless riding stopped that sort of nonsense quickly.
One evening, while drunk, I received a text from a friend that set me off. I don't even remember what the text was about, but I do remember pounding on my dorm door until it busted off the hinges and bounced off the opposing wall. My hands hurt. The door was trashed. People were coming out of their rooms to find out what the hell was going on. And, I felt good. Real good.
I've always been a violent sort. My mother used to joke that our phone number was on the principal's speed dial. Weekly meetings with school staff about my fighting became routine for both my mother and I. The kids in the school yard had a deal - they'd get to make my life miserable and in return, I'd get to beat the snot out of them.
My mother tried her best to channel this aggression into sports. I played ice hockey, but preferred bashing people into the walls instead of playing with the puck. In middle school and high school, I wrestled. I also tried football, but found that my size hadn't caught up to my aggressive tendencies. The bigger boys made short work of my knee and that was the end of my sporting career.I needed an outlet, otherwise I was just going to take Hellspawn, put him in the car, and drive off without telling anyone where we went. Getting into tussles at parties helped a bit, but it ruined my clothes and there was always the risk of hurting someone badly and being on the hook financially. While flipping through the net some time in the early morning, while taking a break from watching Hellspawn sleep and doing homework, I stumbled on some pictures provided by the Society for Creative Anachronism. The pictures showed folks in full metal regalia pounding on each other with sticks.
I looked at the pictures, and corresponding movies, for hours. I wanted to do that. I needed to do that.At 26, I've come to terms with my violent tendencies. But, I've tempered them, and redirected myself to the appropriate activities. That's ultimately the crux of being a man - knowing the strength and dangeousness of the masculine and using them wisely. A real man doesn't beat his wife and kids. He beats other people with sticks within a structured environment. A real man embraces his competative nature, but cautions it with humility and a bit of chilvarly thrown in."
Digital Collaborators: 8% of adults use information gadgets to collaborate with others and share their creativity with the world. These are the Libras - the ones for whom relationships and connections are critical.
Bwah, sounds like John Mayer, who the other day said something along the lines of "Yeah, I just hop on any tech bandwagon that comes along, even if it's stupid like Twitter." (Note that this is the guy Twittering about a sensitive point of his anatomy falling asleep and when he's pooped. I guess that would make the point.)
Sounds like me. I hate hearing my phone ring. I love e-mail and if I ever invest in a decent phone (I have ghettophone now) I'll text. However, I hate phones so much that so far I have not upgraded to anything yet. Maybe a Pre when it comes out.Ambivalent Networkers: 7% of adults heavily use mobile devices to connect with others and entertain themselves, but they don't always like it when the cell phone rings. It would be Aries and Scorpio, the Mars-ruled signs, that like to control when and how electronic communication takes place.
I dread the day where I will have to have my PDA and phone combined, so then I can never turn the phone off. Argh.
Heh. I sometimes do too. Twitter is pretty asinine to me, and I'm already bored of social networking sites. I only got a cell because I was in an LDR and at some point, you just gotta be able to make a call when you're stuck on a late train again.Mobile Newbies: 8% of adults lack robust access to the internet, but they like their cell phones. Our Taurus friends are usually the last to jump on a fad bandwagon. They are just discovering cellphones but find the rest of it just silly.
Not a Virgo, but I wouldn't argue with this either.Desktop Veterans: 13% of adults are dedicated to wireline access to digital information, and like how it opens up the pipeline to information for them. The Virgos among us are practical and find browsing the internet on a phone far less practical than the desktop computer.
Well, I could do without the phone....Drifting Surfers: 14% of adults are light users - despite having a lot of ICTs - and say they could do without modern gadgets and services. These are the Sagittarians who would far rather be outdoors having adventures and meeting real people that browsing the internet on their cellphones.
That sounds more like my Pisces moon mom.Information Encumbered: 10% of adults feel overwhelmed by information and inadequate to troubleshoot modern ICTs. This would be our Pisces friends, who find it easy to get lost in the barrage of information technology and the need to continually update their products.
Both by transit and natally (in the comments). I have Pluto in the 12th natally, so the comment part really, well...I can't argue with it.
Having a natal 12th house Pluto, I can tell you the tapping into the collective un/consciousness is definitely a gift, although as a child it didn’t feel that way.
It made my childhood feel extremely unsafe, and in fact it was. I learned through my teens either the energy would take me or I would have to learn how to go with the flow as well as how to absorb it without it killing me. I know that sounds rather extreme but it actually was.
Learning how to ground and applying psychic shielding was also a life saver. It is good you have such a positive attitude with the transit, as well as the life skills Elsa, because from my experiences it is like trouble or turmoil will find you. It most assuredly can play out as the scapegoat among other things. It is like having some beacon that just draws stuff to you. You already have the ingenuity to deal with that but with the transit it may come in spades.
The positives are like gold though, defeat is never an option after you live through that stuff.You know how poetic the words seem about rising like a phoenix from the ashes, well I think I grew a second skin of asbestos. I may get knocked down but no one can ever keep me there.
Trouble will find you- GOD YES, I'm a chaos magnet.
And yet, somehow nothing ever kills me. Go figure.
Not at all a helpful outcome here, is it?
"To translate, you are at a crossroads at which there are many changes ahead for you. The New Moon suggests that these will be positive new beginnings, although there’s a lot of heavy energy playing out in your life right now, so I don’t expect you’re feeling anything like “excitement about new adventures” and all that. By the looks of it, you may feel backed into a corner and forced to accept circumstances that you would not have wanted, given a choice.
At the same time, transiting Saturn has just passed over your Sun and is squaring your Moon in Sagittarius. Challenging Saturn-Moon transits can make us feel depressed, isolated, and alone, even if it isn’t the case, although unfortunately sometimes a key relationship does end under this influence.
On the bright side, Jupiter is making a nice trine to your natal Venus-Uranus conjunction and also to your Ascendant. I think this will bring you some relief. If your husband decides to leave, it looks to me like you will find someone else very quickly."
So I'm taking Elsa's beginner astrology class, and I figured I'd mention a few of the posts I did over there.
The point of the class is to talk about Suns and Sun house placements ONLY. (I feel like I have every limb but like, one big toe tied behind my back not to go advanced on this. We have a lot of advanced folk taking the class because Elsa is cool, but we're getting told not to go into much beyond that.) One of the points made somewhere was that where your sun is is where you are supposed to SHINE and if you don't, it's a big ol' problem.
So, here was my total whining about it:
I have a question regarding this quote about not letting your Sun shine = massive dysfunction: what about the 7th? The entire problem is that I don't have control over whether or not I get a partner and the sun gets to shine. Yeah, I could and should force myself to online date (though at this point I'd rather pine alone or shoot myself than do it, I feel sick to my stomach every time I look at the ads, they're all terrible!) because I have no other options for meeting people at this age short of lightning striking. But even if I meet someone and there's mutual liking, I can't control how long someone wants to stay with me and I don't have any power over that. All my power is gone because someone else has to hand it to me.
I hate being astrologically codependent. I hate it SO much.
See, it's totally frustrating. I have to have someone else's wind beneath my wings before I can fly? WTF? I can't make my own wind? I have to sit on the ground for years waiting for someone to come along and decide that they wanna inflate me? Grrrrr. That is just SO disempowering. It's what pisses me off about that placement, that you are NOT ALLOWED to go it alone and like it or function independently. (Says the Aries South Node.)
Someone asked me about projection issues and here's what I came up with. I'm actually fairly amazed at my insight on this. Not so much that I project onto actual people...
I am pretty much only satisfied with a partner, but on the other hand, DRAMA comes along with partners. They have problems with what I do and they tell me and I get upset and can't ever manage to "fix it" to their satisfaction, I have problems with what they do and don't tell them because I can't bear for the relationship to end, eventually they get sick of me and dump me... Partnership really isn't a cure-all or something that "fixes" me, but I think when you have personal planets on the descendant, you're going to be inclined to think that this will be the cure-all even when your rational mind knows better. I think that's my projection, that I can't be happy alone and it's better to be with a loser than to be alone, even though my rational mind learned that isn't true the hard way :P My mom has moon in 7th and I got raised this way as well.
So as far as I'm concerned, the projection thing kind of happens even without an actual person to project onto. Now, you might have to tie my Sun conjunct Chiron into it, i.e. Chiron is where you are broken and I just feel broken in general, and maybe those without it don't feel that way. But on some level, EVEN THOUGH I MENTALLY KNOW BETTER BY NOW, and learned that the hard way, my hormones/limbic brain/id/what have you is darned convinced that "get a man and it fixes everything." (Michael Lutin seems to think this if you read SunShines, which makes me wonder what the hell his node placement is. He very specifically says that your personal issues of self-hatred go away if you have some other person around to interrupt the self-hate chanting you do when alone.) And in real life practice, no it doesn't. Hell, that causes even more problems!
Anyway, the answer to the question of "is my Sun shiny" is nope, no it is not.
Doing a little catch-up on reading his overall weekly chats. There will be tons of whining within.
As I've observed how this Venus retrograde is hitting the charts of my clients, I've been letting them know they're presently getting a sneak preview of what's coming down the pipeline in 2010 and beyond.
Venus's retrograde through Aries carries her over the same steps that both Uranus and Jupiter, in conjunction with one another, will soon be following.
And you can't find a more potent astro-symbol of hot, fast, sudden and abrupt change than a Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Aries, headed our way next year.
Those most impetuous impulses you've recently experienced, then, tempting you toward some wild-and-crazy entrée into a new world (new job! new relationship! new place to live! a whole new life!) aren't entirely without merit. They point to a hot-button issue that will, over the next year or two, increasingly compel you to take a gutsy risk—one that affirms you're spunky and spirited enough to choose your own freedom—regardless of whatever other collateral disarray your personal uprising will leave in its wake.
Hell-bent on 'holding it together'? Committed to preserving the status-quo? This Jupiter/Uranus-in-Aries energy is not one to mess around with. It'll take out an entire city block, if that's what's required to shake you out of complacency and liberate your spirit. Between now and 2011, you will change that dramatically. We all will. If you don't spread your wings and fly away from the nest, then the almighty hand of some secretly benevolent force will push you out. Which way will you have it?
And this is where I'm ah...metaphorically losing it entirely. (I just restrained myself from using a bodily function example. Why be that gross?)
I am having the urge to find a more artistic job. I've been doing my current one for six years or so now and I like about everything there BUT what I do on a daily basis any more, which has gotten more rote and less fun.
Problem being, it's not like I'm going to get hired to do crafts or write any more. My former industry is flushing down the toilet, as are all writing jobs as far as I can tell, which is why when I got booted out in the last recession, I switched to doing something more stable. Of course, I live in one of the more budgetarily fucked states to boot (then again, the only state I hear that wants to hire people any more is North Dakota, and uh...no.) That sort of thing doesn't exist as a stable job with health insurance either. I volunteer at the lone artistic place I know of with insurance, but very few people get paying positions there (I am actually not legally allowed to be paid by them and I do two jobs there!), and I'm not qualified for any of the two paying jobs that exist there now.
And that's pretty much my sticking point. Nasty health conditions run in my family and I am butt-terrified of getting diagnosed with one someday and not having insurance. Yeah, sure, I could get away with getting some individually now, but that won't last forever.
I keep coming back to the same problem: If I want to work in something more artistic, I'm going to HAVE TO, NO EFFING CHOICE ABOUT IT, be an entrepreneur. There is no option for stability and safety out there WITH artistic fun, short of marrying for money (and despite my Jupiter in the 8th house, I don't think I'm going to be managing that). And with all my heart and soul, I don't WANT to be the one financially in charge. I've made attempts at starting my own business for years and my heart is not in the business end. It kills the fun entirely for me and even when I made money, I didn't enjoy it and felt crappy about it. And if you have your own business, no "must take you" insurance for you, baby.
I cannot see any way around the have to's of this, because our world doesn't work in any other way. And I am PRACTICAL (Taurus), and I can't just be all airy-fairy pie in the sky "follow your dreams like a scampering puppy" here.
And given the timing of this, it's just really, REALLY bad to not be able to come up with any kind of practical anything. The only talents I have in the world are not in the slightest bit valued, are "frills," and are the first thing to get booted in a "everyone hunker down and sit in the dark so as not to pay the electric bill" world. I hate this, I hate this, I hate this.
I would much rather hold at status quo. That was my life plan after getting booted from the "dream" job. Well, I should say that that was my plan (such as it is 'cause I can't really make plans) before I got the "dream" job as a fluke, and I pretty much planned all along to endure at a day job and then use the money to do my own thing on my own time.
I am pretty pissed knowing that in a year or two or three (at the very least in 2013, transiting Uranus hits my sixth house around my birthday. Gee, THANKS) I will be forcibly booted out.
I mean, I guess it's better than getting booted right here and now. I have maybe a year or more to plan ahead. I just...can't come up with a plan! Nothing works on a practical level for this! I keep reading entrepreneur blogs and I truly do not get how they can think like this and somehow make money.
We're not at that peak moment yet, alas. Eternally grateful as we are to astrology for its ever-present heads-ups, we see we have a good year or so before such choices will be made for us, should we refrain from making them ourselves. In this interim, blessedly, await countless chances to pick the option that'll leave you feeling pumped up, energized and 110% alive over the other safer possibilities. The more audaciously you base your decisions on that spark of what is personally true for you (though it may baffle those around you who don't understand), the less pressure from having ignored your inner insight will have built up inside you…and the less likely your 2010-11 version of 'hot, fast, sudden and abrupt change' will destructively blindside you.
The temptation to bust out and embrace impulsivity, which is currently being dangled in front of you by Venus retrograde, may be enough to kick-start the bolder among us on this voyage to fresher pastures. Including both the pre- and post-retrograde shadows, this period from February through May 2009 is dripping with circumstances to suit our personal whims on the spur of the moment…and if we grab those shots when they appear, launching a cascade of one snap decision fueling the next, we're carried off into that 'whole new life' before we get the chance to determine what's hit us, and away we go!
You are right to be scratching your head, of course, since Venus retrograde supposedly confuses our ability to discern 'golden goose' from 'fleeting folly'. If we opt for the impulsive now, aren't we gambling with the possibility that what we so heatedly desire is, in fact, not what we imagine it to be…and that, in the end, we'll be disappointed?
No question about it: Yes, it's a gamble. There are no guarantees as to what's behind the mystery door—only the knowledge that, if you do indeed feel moved to open it but are simply too fearful to let yourself proceed, you'll always wonder what was there.
And if instead you go for it, only to find you just sold your farm for a handful of beans, all hope needn't be lost. Maybe they're magic beans, which you never would've wound up with if you hadn't taken the initial step. Maybe they'll grow into a giant beanstalk you can climb up, carrying you to the next mystery you'll encounter. Or maybe, in the momentary sorrow following your immediate disappointment, you'll come across someone compassionate to your plight…and the two of you will fall madly in love. Who could know in advance? There's only one way to find out: by doing.
This current phase confronts us with both the pros and cons of making split-second, impulse-driven decisions to suit our own self-directed preferences. In an instant, we can turn left instead of right and alter the whole destiny of our existence. That weightiness is sometimes sufficient to paralyze us, in worry that we haven't properly analyzed the relative benefits of the leftward and rightward avenues. Yet, no matter our careful analyses, we still can't know what's behind the next curve—even if we have a detailed map, we cannot account for adverse weather conditions or other acts of fate.
How bravely we're willing to march on now, when we aren't sure where each additional step is carrying us, will only assist us in treading the ever-more-unfamiliar ground that lies ahead. By mid-2010, when both Jupiter and Uranus converge in Aries—in opposition to Saturn and in square to Pluto—we'll encounter a similar-but-more-dramatic need to proceed against a backdrop of truly foreign terrain. In such settings, our in-the-moment instincts are all we've got.
I feel sick. I do not know how to balance the Saturnian practicality with the Uranian ZANY GO FOR IT SCREW PLANNING-itis. I don't even HAVE Virgo or Pisces and I feel the dilemma.
"I'm actually quite a skeptical person, and I do know that I don't believe in any woo-woo vibrations from planets, and I don't care if Pluto has been demoted by the scientists, and I’m simply not interested in trying to prove astrology to anyone—but I am interested in explaining it.
And then I hear myself saying: Have you heard of the concept of synchronicity? Do you know about the Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung? Do you know about the Nodes? About then I know I'll need to have another cup of coffee because the conversation isn't going to end quickly. People are curious and they want to know more.
In 2003, according to the Harris Poll, 31% of Americans believed in astrology. That is roughly 100 million people; 1/3 of the almost 300 million people we are in this country. I don’t know what the figures are now, but in this year alone, Americans will buy approximately 20 million books on astrology—which is 4 times the numbers of such books they bought two years ago. But still—it’s the black sheep of the family in most circles. And that is because astrology, like religion, or alchemy or even the nature of love, is something that rational reasoning and scientific inquiry will never be able to prove.
I can easily accept the hypothesis that astrology, may not be verifiably 'true' at all, and that the planets in the heavens are simply the names we give to deep psycho-spiritual processes. But when astrology is dismissed glibly by people who have never experienced it, it’s more than annoying.
So why does it work? It appears to be a richly symbolic language of the Soul that defies reason. And it works, as said before, not because of any woo-woo vibrations of the planets, but for two reasons. One, because when we ask questions in a spirit of sincerity I believe the Universe conspires to show us answers if we listen well. It follows Jesus’ law: “Ask and ye shall receive.”
The second reason is because of the grace-filled principal of synchronicity. The philosopher Plato, and the late Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, developed this theory of synchronicity, which literally means "united time"—'syn' means 'to unite', and 'chronos' means 'of time'.
Synchronicity is the theory of meaningful co-incidences in which there is no rational causal connection between event A and event B. But instead there is a meaningful relationship—and as Carl Jung noted, one's birth time and place is a truly meaningful synchronistic event, and that astrology works because of it. He once said that "We are born at a given moment in a given place and like vintage years of wine we have the qualities of the year and of the season in which we are born." Jung didn't understand the mystery of this process, but found that by experience—that astrology simply works. So he used it in his analysis with clients, even though he was often reluctant to talk about it because he feared professional criticism."
