The United States’ Pluto Return: Own-to-Rent Culture

Posted on August 23, 2026 by ohioastrology

As we age it’s common to think of the past with nostalgia forgetting unpleasant aspects of experiences such as planning a picnic and not having a radar handy on a computer or cell phone. We remember the picnics that happened and forget the ones that were rained out.

The backward glance also lends insight into culture changes that are more subtle. We know, for example, that smart phones changed our lives. But do we remember that folks were less likely to cancel plans when they had to call you in person? Do we remember we had no way to track whether the bus was on its way? (I still recall having to wait an hour for a bus that I missed with no way to call anyone or call an Uber).

One subtle change I see that I’m sure is noticed — if not by people then by their bank accounts — is the shift away from ownership. Growing up, I often heard the phrase the “possession is nine-tenths of the law:”

.. not a literal legal rule. It means that holding or controlling physical property gives you a strong practical advantage, making it harder for someone else to take it back, though true legal ownership still wins in court.

Take music, for example. There was a day music was owned in physical form (records, CDs, etc.). Today it’s more common to have a much wider variety through subscription services. It’s a joy and pleasure to consumers although financially more challenging for those that want to make music for a living.

Subscription and license are forms of leasing or renting.

And it’s understandable, of course, that in instances like software licensing the seller provides ongoing support that costs money. But those are also sometimes sold separately anyway – a product and a service agreement.

Pluto in Capricorn Return

The United States turned 250 this year, a couple of years past the 248-year cycle of Pluto. It’s the nation’s Pluto return in the sign of Capricorn.

Pluto was in Capricorn from 2008 – 2024. Most all of us on the earth today – US and other countries – have lived through this aspect so can speak from experience.

At the beginning of the cycle the housing market collapsed due to over leveraging. Another way to look at it is simply pure greed by a few players destroyed the lives of many others. And others maybe should have known what they were getting into but finance and mortgages were made more complex.

At the end of the cycle the centers of power sealed in the corporate space including surveillance, logistics, and natural resources. Power had been shifting for a long time from individuals representing constituencies to individuals of corporate sponsorship.

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn which was once considered the last planets in the solar system until Uranus was discovered in the 1700s. The United States was “born” as Uranus was discovered which as a period was called the Age of Enlightenment.

Capricorn is authority, control, social structure, and hierarchical organization. Aquarius is group consciousness, fixed ideas, fraternities, and idealistic social organization.

Neither Capricorn nor Aquarius are emotional so may miss the emotional and psychological effects of systems of organization that may be efficient or “perfect” but don’t connect with human emotional needs.

Uranus rules Aquarius which is the sign after Capricorn. So, after the end (Saturn) comes awareness (Uranus).

The technology we enjoy today was developed as transiting Uranus and Neptune passed Capricorn then Aquarius. And we see the results.

There is technology and there is control. They are combined, not one or the other as folks tend to argue on one side of this unusual coin. Technology was developed from centers of control. The myth of the lone genius saving humanity through technology is pure, idealistic, Uranus.

Pure Uranus does not fare well historically or currently. That’s the true myth of Uranus which is the genius is not recognized in his/her own time.

Own-to-Rent Culture

If possession is nine-tenths of the law, then we may be left with a tenth of law in a rental culture.

While folks may feel they “own” their homes, the land is still subject to taxes or right-of-way so there is never true ownership.

Ownership is an astrological second house rulership opposed by the eighth house of taxes (death and sex) where others come in for intimacy, sharing, or intrusion.

The second and eight houses are a polarity which is an energy that exists, not a choice. Where there is ownership, there is also the need for sharing, for commerce. No man is a second-house island although there is a myth of self-reliance that also exists in my country.

With Pluto now in Aquarius, there may come enlightenment in this transition to own-to-rent. If we never really own anything, what are we protecting, what are we controlling?

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America’s Expanding Shrinkage

Posted on August 3, 2026 by ohioastrology

In the early 1990s, a Japanese friend commented on the Walkmans that Americans were using. He said he assumed Americans liked things big. Japanese electronics, I learned during a visit there, were much smaller, compact, and technologically advanced from what was available to me locally.

Why was this technological gadgetry and efficiency not available in the US?

Business logic tells me that we didn’t want the competition. But energetically, my friend may have been onto something.

As the American economy expanded, so did the products, so did the food, so did the bodies. Prior to 1980 research suggests obesity rates 13% to 15%. After 1980, rates expanded rapidly to the current 40%+.

Expansion and contraction

There is a Chinese parable about a farmer Sai Weng. When his horse runs off the neighbors comment on his bad luck. His response: Good luck, bad luck, who knows? Later his horse returns with some companion horses increasing his herd. His neighbors comment on his good luck. His response: Good luck, bad luck, who knows? In this parable, good and bad continue to shift back and forth.

Expansion is often viewed as positive, good luck. Contraction as negative, hard times, loss.

Was the expansion of the US economy good or bad? We have more things, and more pollution, and more car payments, and more utility bills.

And more health issues; or less good health.

Today we have inflation that is reported around 3.5% to 4.0% yet “affordability” is a major issue which doesn’t occur at 4% increases. Shrinkflation is the new term for paying more for less. Over here in Ohio, I’d say effective inflation is 10% – 20%. Expansion and contraction in the same package.

Shrinkage is expanding. It’s almost comical at times how small portions have become in relation to the growth of the price.

Jupiter and Saturn

Jupiter is the planet of expansion and historically considered a beneficial planet associated with good tidings and good luck. Saturn in contrast is contract and view as difficult times with added responsibilities. These are value judgments rather than energetic principles that can be good or bad.

Today’s response to the expansion of bodies are new pharmaceuticals that shrink the body. Research suggests about 3% of the population used these pharmaceuticals in 2024 and now it’s about 11%. If we follow the expansion cycle of the body, it may reach 40%+.

As we shrink the body, what else may expand in response? First thought is the liver that is ruled by Jupiter. Pancreas, I see, is also ruled by Jupiter. This is logical too as the weight loss drugs affect the pancreas and must, like all drugs, be processed by the liver. Dialysis centers, research suggests, will be growing at a compound annual growth rate of 5%+.

Saturn rules skins, bones, teeth, and knees. Shrinking bodies would help the knees. Research suggests that supplements are needed with weight loss drugs for calcium and vitamin D due to reduced food intake.

Changing bodies: good or bad?

Who knows?

Shrinking bodies amidst shrinkflation. Makes sense – less food for more money helps the body lose weight. It’s a resonance, the energy of the times.

Contraction of the body in this culture – thinness – is viewed as positive regardless of underlying health. Dieting is part of the American culture of abundance. There are still a lot of diets out there that “crash” into contraction. Often expansion results later because of the imbalance and unsustainability of continued contraction.

Expansion and contraction are a kind of polarity and astrology’s highest lesson is balance of polarity. The business cycle follows this imbalance with expansive growth followed by “crashes.”

Our culture; our bodies.

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Siders Family Astrology: Another Ohio Family Cult

Posted on July 18, 2026 by ohioastrology

In the United States it is said that violence is the price of freedom. If that’s so, cults might be the price of privacy.

Cult is a shorter form of culture, a subculture. You might have a friend in theater who talks of nothing but Broadway. That’s a subculture. Or people devoted many hours to online gaming or gambling. Those are subcultures.

Cult is used when the subculture is all-inclusive and controls the environment, controls who you can talk to, what you can eat, etc. Authoritarian regimes, then, make cult into culture.

In southern Ohio in 2016, the four-member Wagner family murdered eight members of the Rhoden family over child custody. Three of those members are in prison, two having confessed (younger brother and mother). One stood trial – the older brother – and was found guilty.

During that trial it emerged that he was raised in a cult-like way: homes in rural, remote areas; homeschooled (with mom doing a bit of homework); broken girls brought into the home to be mated to the brothers; dad involving them in crime from an early age.

The older brother took the stand in his trial and said that he once drove away but then turned around and came back.

Physical freedom from the cult was possible. Emotional freedom was much more difficult.

The Siders Family

The newest cult-like family to emerge in Ohio is the Siders Family in Vinton County. Unlike the Wagners, this is not a crime family (unless that is revealed later).

This family consists of a husband and wife, the husband’s parents, and 16 children. Reading a story, the wife (Elizabeth) had three sets of twins, one that died. If I’m doing the math correct, that still leaves 15 separate pregnancies.

Their crime, why they are in the news, is child endangerment. Supposedly the children all lived in one room; not sure how accurate that is; maybe they were just hiding.

The horoscope contains ten planets in 12 houses amongst 12 signs. That’s a lot of detail. Looking at the charts (birth times unknown) of the four adults and all their points of interaction would involve quite a bit of time, and blog.

Blogs come about when a theme emerges – in this case the sign of Cancer. As the situations suggests, it’s Cancer in extreme.

Belonging

Cancer is a cardinal water sign ruled by the moon and associated with mothering. From a larger perspective, it’s about belonging. The first “belonging” we have – although not for all of us – involves mother and family. When that doesn’t occur, life may be emotionally difficult.

Mothers traditionally feed infants through the breasts, through their bodies. That kind of closeness doesn’t occur much after mothering ends. Some continually seek it.

Belonging in Cancer is emotional (water sign). It’s family dinners, kisses and hugs, sharing of food, feeding others, watering the plants, and buying your spoiled-brat feline a $75 scratching post (which he had better start using soon).

In contrast is Aquarius (air sign) where belonging involves shared ideas and ideals. Reading about Civil Rights activist and late Congressman John Lewis, he found belonging with others in a shared ideal to end segregation. He was also close to his family. Both Cancer and Aquarius belonging were part of his life.

Good belonging is sharing dinner and family (or family-like group) times and then allowing everyone to go next where they need to go.

Bad belonging is when dinner is over and you find it’s difficult to leave. Cancer, ruled by the moon and carrying qualities of females, may often use guilt as a tool to keep people together. Guilt and family go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Ariel Castro of Cleveland, Ohio with sun in Cancer kidnapped and held three young women in the early 2000s until one escaped in 2013. Upon demolition of the house he claimed they had all been happy there.

Tenacity is a quality of the sign of Cancer and when combined with possessiveness may stifle rather than nurture growth.

But that’s in extreme. Most Cancer-ruled folks are taking care of things for us and making us feel “at home” or comforted.

The Siders

Where is Cancer in the horoscopes of the four adults?

Elizabeth (wife) has moon in Cancer and Saturn, the sign of restriction, in Aquarius. Clearly Elizabeth enjoyed the emotional comfort of a large family but was restricted in idealistic social life with those not related. In other words, she had no friends.

Gary (husband) has Jupiter and Chiron in Cancer which is abundant family but also wounds from family. He also has Pluto conjunct Venus in Scorpio which is controlling and intense in love. Possibly Elizabeth even going to the store created feelings of abandonment. With his Mars conjunct sun in Libra, he may have also been violent but feeling like he was fair (Libra) in some way.

Gary Sr (father/father-in-law) in pictures appears off and with Aries sun, may have had a head injury as Aries rules the head. His moon/Uranus in Cancer suggests his mother tried to be nurturing but may have had emotional instability. Mothering for him would be a need, or at least a need for consistent mothering rather than on-and-off nurturing. This inconsistent mothering appears to have affected his ability to have relationships.

Christina (mother/mother-in-law) stands out as being a bit different, possibly the woman-behind-the-curtain in this entire situation. Cancer is there – Venus. But that makes family feeling a pleasure, not a requirement. Moon, however, could be in Cancer but is close to Leo. Tricky here. She does have Uranus conjunct sun in Leo which is the need for attention. Add moon in Leo or close to Leo and this may be the seed sprouting the family possessiveness. She may be the one appearing most in her “right mind” but may have orchestrated the situation so she would never have to relinquish motherhood – the time when children leave to be on their own. In this way, she may be similar to Angela Wagner in wanting control of the daughters-in-law and all the grandchildren.

Elizabeth

Of the four adults, Elizabeth has the “gentlest” horoscope, none of the tension seen in the other charts with fixed Taurus also showing up a bit to square Scorpio, Leo, and Aquarius placements.

Sun/Jupiter/Venus in Virgo and Mars in Gemini – both mutable signs – for Elizabeth allowed her to both disassociate from the situation and tolerate it as a helper. She may have complained at times, or even often, but doesn’t carry the fixed and cardinal energies that outright fight.

Moon in Cancer likes the comfort and any resistance would most likely present as illnesses including of the stomach and nerves such as anxiety. Possibly she was given medications to keep her natural compliance in check. But she clearly is fertile; it still seems the math is high, so I do wonder if any of the children were having children.

Virgo is traditionally the sign of service. Service is often associated with cooking and cleaning but sometimes our “service” is emotional. Like the children, Elizabeth marrying at a young age may have inadvertently entered a cult and been recruited to mothering and serving everyone in that small house.

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Uranus in Gemini: Are your thoughts yours?

Posted on June 27, 2026 by ohioastrology

You’re lucky, very lucky. Lucky that I was not the first person on earth. If I had been, there would be no coffee and no bread.

For an entire lifetime I could look at a coffeeberry or stalk of wheat and never see breakfast of coffee and toast. Never.

Today I can be a connoisseur of both and feel like I know all about them, like I created them. But I know it never would have happened.

Likewise, while I can admire the genius of current digital inventions, they are entirely dependent upon practical uses of electricity that were developed long ago. And plastic. And much else.

American culture reveres the “lone” cowboy, hero, or genius who, like politicians, take credit for the whole without acknowledging precedents, tax breaks, and social systems that open their paths while those same precedents can also close the paths of others.

Which brings us to Artificial Intelligence or AI which you will hear about every day now. And why? AI learns and it learned to repeat itself.

What is it repeating?

Thoughts

Eastern culture has a practice of meditation with one exercise involving the examination of thoughts. Not where thoughts lead, but thoughts themselves. Not solving a problem but watching the mind that is trying to solve a problem.

Western culture does not have this practice and it’s a wonderful time to learn as AI is selling our thoughts back to us. Our thoughts, posted in countless forms digitally, is the food of AI. And those thoughts are our minds.

The “mind” in Western culture is simply the brain and its impulses. In Eastern thought, it’s a sense and the “objects of thought” a sixth sense – not telepathy – but manifested life.

We are experiencing our thoughts.

This sounds philosophical but it’s occurring in a more obvious fashion than in the past where we simply move along the path of stimulation, experience, and reaction.

Our thoughts and experiences are now for sale – to us.

Mercury

The planet Mercury in astrology traditionally represents communication, daily interactions, stimulation, and learning.

The glyph for Mercury is a circle (spirit) with the moon on top (mind) and a cross below (matter). Spirit, then, is sandwiched between mind and matter.

More than communication, Mercury is our experience of reality. Our thoughts on top start the experience which then becomes matter on the bottom. Our spirit is, let’s say, the slice of turkey between two slices of bread.

The top slice is the image and form of the sandwich. The bottom slice is the foundation keeping the sandwich together. Our sun sign is the turkey. Or ham. Or peanut butter.

Our moon sign forms the experience. Our Saturn solidifies it.

Uranus in Gemini

Mercury rules Gemini which represents our youth, especially teenage years, when learning and experiencing are most important as the growth that leads to the mature individual. What is not learned during this stage of development – such as a foreign language – becomes difficult to learn later in adulthood.

Uranus has recently entered Gemini for a seven-year stint. Leaving the fixed earth sign Taurus, you may have noticed how things have sped up from pandemic “shelter-in-place” to “now” – oh, sorry, you just missed now. It comes again in five minutes.

Uranus is enlightenment, ultimately, clarity. As noted in other blogs, enlightenment and clarity is sometimes refreshing (I figured out how to get rid of my acid reflux!) or devasting (I figured out that my spouse is not in Kansas City at a conference but in Las Vegas with a lover!).

It’s time to be enlightened about our thoughts. Or devasted by them.

Fears of AI

Our fears of AI taking over our lives, then, is fear of our own minds. We’ve already taken over our own lives with our thoughts.

The question then becomes, whose thoughts?

American culture is based on individuality and freedom. Feeling “unique” is an American characteristic, ironically, that we share. So, we all feel “unique” which means we all have learned to feel this way.

Is that thought our own?

When someone says, “That’s just how I was raised,” or “In my culture we do this,” they are saying, “I learned my thoughts.” Most practice the religions in which they were raised (and sometimes we have no choice).

Those that feel different than their family or culture, then, are most likely to venture out into their own thoughts, to examine, for example, why they are supposed to like the opposite gender but prefer their own gender.

A colleague of mine feared we’d all be equally smart with AI, all equal; my response is that when you scratch the surface, you can see what we really know. And if the electricity gets cut off, then we’ll surely know.

Equality, though, sounds nice.

Which thoughts are truly ours, developed by us, over time and contemplation?

AI, for sure, has created confidence in our positions whether fully understood or quickly gathered from videos and memes. But are these our thoughts?

The actor of your thoughts

In the British series Mum season three, last episode, there is a kitchen scene with “mum” making an hors d’oeuvre for a party while talking to her son. For a moment we think they are arriving, finally, at common understanding having experienced a very touching scene in the prior episode.

That, unfortunately, does not occur as this show mirrors the reality that folks don’t suddenly awaken and change. In addition to that, the son grabs a couple of hors d’oeuvres, a pet peeve so irritating to mum and to this viewer.

The actor playing the son, then, must understand that this action is obnoxious or irritating to certain people who will be watching. This simple act represents his ongoing lack of maturity and understanding of the needs and efforts of others.

The actor, then, is more mature, or at least gets insight into the fact that this can be inconsiderate to others.

When we have thoughts or use AI, are we like the actor understanding the meaning of the action or like the character that is experiencing the action?

With our thoughts – called “AI” now – will we be the actor or the character?

If we are so afraid of our thoughts, can we be the actor and change them?

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The Merging of Participant and Observer

Posted on June 7, 2026 by ohioastrology

In the 1967 movie Barefoot in the Park, the extroverted young wife (Jane Fonda) becomes angry with her introverted, lawyer husband (Robert Redford) for his reserve, his inability to appreciate “the ridiculous.”

How anyone can get angry with Redford’s face is a different blog.

After an evening of unexpected new food and culture (and a freezing February ferry ride to New York’s Staten Island), Fonda is ready for more spontaneous fun in her eccentric-filled Greenwich Village apartment complex.

Redford is angry and wants to sleep (he has a court case in the morning).

Off the effects of a wild-and-crazy night, Fonda has a wild-and-crazy meltdown seeing that she and her newly betrothed are opposites. She informs him that he is a “watcher” and she is a “doer.”

In 1967, watching and doing occurred in the same physical space. Fifty-plus years later, watching and doing are not so discrete.

Physical Existence

The zodiac has 12 signs yet we have only 10 astral bodies to assign to each (includes the moon and Pluto). Taurus and Virgo – both earth signs – get assigned a planet that is also assigned to air signs.

Taurus gets Venus (ruler of Libra) and Virgo gets Mercury (ruler of Gemini).

As an earth sign, I could complain here that earth signs always get the short shrift, the extra work, the sharing of a ruling planet.

But I won’t.

Personally, I believe Taurus is “ruled” by the earth itself. Virgo, some distant helper planet. Chiron the asteroid is included in some astrological readings as the “wounded healer” and Virgo seems fit for this.

We’ll take a vote on that later.

Taurus is the focus here, the fixed earth sign. Of all zodiac personality types, Taurus is the most present, the most truly involved in physical existence and true enjoyment of physical pleasures (Venus is pleasure but relies on “others” in some way).

Taurus is the “here and now” while the rest of the zodiac is living in relation to others in mind or emotion. Taurus is the stationary mountain while water, air, and fire are in constant motion. (Note that mountains do change but it takes a long, long time.)

Aries competes which requires a “loser.” Gemini explores which requires stimulation. Cancer belongs which requires a family. Leo performs which requires an audience. Virgo serves which requires the helpless or rich. Libra reflects which requires a partner. Scorpio penetrates which requires intimacy. Sagittarius explores which requires foreign people and places. Capricorn controls which requires social infrastructure. Aquarius idealizes which requires cults and conventions. Pisces sacrifices which requires dire situations.

Folks with sun, moon, or lots of planets in Taurus are one of the human personality designs and, of course, need other people. But this sign and those with second house sun (second house ruled by Taurus) are the most self-reliant with focus on material acquisition with enjoyment of those material objects without need for them to represent abstract desires.

Most materialism is for the requirements of the mind or emotions to keep up, to impress, to keep stimulated, etc. We’ve all had these Taurus moments, when a delightful thing – flowers and nature often capture this feeling – enthralls us with its beauty or function.

Mental and Emotional Existence

Visiting any of the Disney parks, I’m always stunned by how little is there. What brings us there, and me as five-year-old, are the mental and emotional images evoked through media. My five-year-old self simply wanted to see the Cinderella ball dresses in real life. No wonder I now subscribe to Vogue.

We bring to Disney to the rest of our lives as well with mental and emotional images. Marriage is a perfect place to see the mental and emotional images clash with the physical reality. Cinderella’s story ends with marriage; it doesn’t begin there.

There is no Taurus reality at Disney. We don’t see Cinderella dealing with the enemies that always want to assassinate the prince. We don’t see how she treats the servants. We don’t see her dealing with the British press . . .

We see the image before the reality.

Pluto-in-Leo to Pluto-in-Aquarius

In 1967 when Barefoot in the Park was released, the Pluto-in-Leo generation were challenging the rules of culture including rebellion from parental control of life. And what started that trend?

Television.

Radio came first bringing the same information at the same time to masses of people. The first World War was a direct result of having a “world” (and a Federal Reserve, I know, I know). At that time, there were still countries and groups of people isolated from “the world.”

Television brought the same images at the same time to masses of people. Early photographs of television show families sitting together in the living room watching the same show.

How often do we do that today?

In the US today, the only messages shared by masses at the same time are sports and politics. The rest is individual.

Is there anyone out there besides me reading an old copy of Marie Brenner articles? Maybe a journalism student somewhere . . .

The Merging of Participant and Observer

Pluto in Leo folks sat in parks, together, sharing experiences. That, of course, still occurs today. Some far away may choose to participate via social or news media.

Is that participant or observer?

Emails and social media posts provide links to one’s senators. Click the link, send the note. And then the politicians have auto-generated responses.

Did anything really occur in physical reality?

Am I really a participant in anything when I do that? Or am I simply an observer of my own desire to impact change?

Many years ago in new age circles, there were predictions of the earth “splitting” into two earths. A crazy thought then, it comes back now as having some odd validity in the merging of participant and observer, something, I hear, quantum physics is exploring.

From a pure Taurus perspective, it’s ironic that some folks have replaced Taurus physical interaction solely with digital interaction and feel it’s an equivalently satisfying experience.

From a non-Taurus perspective, most of our experiences are mental-emotional so the need for an actual energetic being in the experience has been removed – maybe it was never needed in the first place. The fears of Artificial Intelligence (AI), ironically again, created by AI, are nothing new but a reflection of our true nature that we are often not mentally or emotionally present.

Our bodies may be in physical reality but we “live” in our minds and emotions. With hand-held technology, we know the person across from us is no longer paying attention to our story. In the past, it probably was the same but instead of looking at the text they were thinking about what to make for dinner.

Here and now

Much of the here and now – now – is interaction with digital reality. Here, where I am, soon nothing will be done without some digital interference. My apologies to the techies but it was easier (and cheaper) to simply put some coins in the meter.

In the early days of digital, it was sold as convenience and was. Today, digital is a scammer playing field with each interaction a battle of wits – is this a valid website? Am I ordering a plane ticket or a bus tickets? Which portion of all the text is important enough to click on and read?

I’m the participant-observer in an interaction with nobody, and nobody wins.

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Thirty-Something’s Heed the Call

Posted on May 10, 2026 by ohioastrology

Starting in the mid 1980s, the outer planets Neptune (15 years in a sign) and Uranus (7 years in a sign) transited the authority-loving Capricorn then the technology-loving Aquarius.

And now we have authority with a love of technology. Or technology as authority. Or love of authority that creates technology.

The foot-washing messiahs have given way to the tech-creating messiahs.

If you were born with Neptune and Uranus in the Capricorn/Aquarius mixture, these are your times. Interesting times, as the old Chinese saying goes that refers to potentially chaotic, rather than truly interesting, times.

Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus are outer planets representing “the times” or era in which one lives with all its focus, obsessions, interests, and value systems. Capricorn and Aquarius created a world that was both larger and smaller: larger in that we could connect with anyone on the globe and smaller because we can become self-absorbed in narrow interests (ironically, a “symptom” of autism, a disease of increasing volume).

If you were born with Neptune and Uranus in the Capricorn/Aquarius mixture, your early years were filled with buttons and images and information – very stimulating for developing young folks.

And then came Pluto.

Pluto in Capricorn

At the end of 2007, Pluto entered Capricorn for a 20-year transit. If you were born with Neptune and Uranus in the Capricorn/Aquarius mixture, life suddenly changed. Your parents might have lost their homes in the global financial collapse due to investor overleveraging, primarily in the housing market.

Capricorn rules social structure and now those born to embrace technology discovered that “brick and mortar” was being eradicated. Who needs a house? Why shop in a store when you can have all stores available to you online?

Compulsive by nature, Pluto didn’t waste a moment in the evolution of social life starting with houses, then moving to finance and government. “The Cloud” was launched during these times to move away from the physical and tangible to the intangible and permanently accessible by those who know how to make keys, eventually if not already, for every digital house.

At the very end of Pluto in Capricorn, technology was cemented into daily life and so that when a new illness emerged on the planet, governments (ruled by Capricorn) were able to create a “lockdown” situation where needs could be met by fewer people and digital communication.

Capricorn and Aquarius merged.

Pluto in Aquarius

Capricorn’s key phrase is “I use” and government and other types of non-elected authority are using technology to maintain authority. Aquarius’ key phrase is “I know.”

Pluto in Aquarius – it entered in 2024 – is now asking if technology can replace humans. And humans don’t particularly like this. But technology “knows.” Increasingly we technology users believe “we know” when we don’t have foundational or challenging information due to the highly manipulative nature of visual media and the comprehensive responses of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Aquarius is also the traditional sign of the humanitarian, concocting ideas for the benefit of the whole due to a love of ideas and perfect societies rather than as a means for acquiring wealth and status – think of the brilliant scientist lost to history as a colleague was able to sell the idea first. The scientist seeking knowledge for its own sake is Aquarius. The one making money on it is Capricorn.

In these early stages of Aquarius energy, there is response against the negative effects of technology on people such as withdrawal from social media, parent challenges to social media companies, and, of course, the outsourcing of humans to technology.

Thirty-Something’s Heed the Call

Thirty-somethings, you with Uranus and/or Neptune in Capricorn and/or Aquarius – it’s your time, your era, your culture to shape and shift.

What will it be? Humans or machines? Or what combination?

Text me when you figure it out 🙂

Related blogs:

Gods in the Age of Aquarius
Through Capricorn to Aquarius – The Current Pluto Cycle
Born in the Air: The Progression of Aquarius
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Neptune in Aries: Fire!

Posted on April 25, 2026 by ohioastrology

Since the sun entered Aries this year, there have been a lot of fires.

There was a big fire at the Kimberly-Clark distribution center in California on April 7. On April 8, an Amazon warehouse in West Jefferson, Ohio caught fire. Then a week or so ago Columbus, Ohio news reported an uptick in fires across Central Ohio. Looking up Fuyao Glass America in Dayton, Ohio yesterday after seeing a documentary on the company, I read they had a fire on March 23 (early Aries).

What a coincidence!

I’m not one of those ‘spiracy people. I simply study patterns.

And the pattern is fire.

The Trouble with Patterns

There’s always a fire, or a flood, or a storm, or an illness, or a war going on. And everything else that can go on, goes on. And we get more information now – some useless to our survival. If a boy is bitten by an alligator, why would I care in Ohio?

Are there more alligator attacks now or am I just getting more alligator attack news because I clicked on a link?

While we’re taught that man is rational “animal,” I’m an astrologer because what I see is that we are patterns and motivations. I just caught myself repeating an old pattern I thought I’d ended years ago. And the motivation is the same. I caught this one in time.

Those that make up the rules believe they are rational so teach that man is rational. The reason is the same for doing something that can be rational or a rationalization. The reason is valid, but may not be the underlying motivation. Men are taught to be separated from their feelings so to me tend to rationalize – hide feelings behind “reasons” – more than women (although women who are proud to be “unemotional” tend to do this too).

These recent fires appear pattern-like because of the companies involved. These are very large organizations that must have more than one camera on the place, probably even have the most advanced technology for monitoring the sites for both foul play and environmental risks. In a surveillance culture, how can these foul-play fires occur?

Accidents happen, sure. But there is a movement occurring against the large data centers and warehouses used as makeshift prisons.

And warehouses are catching on fire.

Neptune’s Hazy Glow

Neptune idealizes what it touches. Idealization motivates us to be better humans. Yet if the reality is far from the idealization, we get into escapism and delusion.

Neptune is in Aries idealizing our sense of self determination, the Aries within us. Idealization of the self is positive – intrinsic self-worth; and negative, me first, me only.

Wars are associated with Aries, two or more parties in a struggle for self-determination. Wars have always existed. In recent times we like to create narratives, or long stories in the news for week or months, before attacking or invading a foreign nation.

Recently, a week or two of snippets of reasons – often with no cohesive narrative – before an attack that post facto folks seem to explain from past narratives. Ubiquitous digital information streams invite personal narratives – we don’t even need to agree as a country about an invasion (“war” is also a misleading term here).

It’s Aries at its worst, a self-centered honesty. Empathy is about other and that is the polarity of Aries-Libra. Polarity in science states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In spirituality, it’s karma of resultant challenges to learn from past experiences. In regular language, we say “what goes around comes around.”

The US invades a country under the premise that it has weapons that will destroy us. But are other countries creating weaponry to attack us or to defend themselves against us?

Smokey Bear

Smokey Bear campaign was created in 1944, appearing first on August 9. His “Only You can Prevent Forest Fires” was first rolled out in 1947. Public education on negligent causes of forest fires (cigarette, campfires, etc.) was the goal.

“Born” in August, Smokey is a fire sign, Leo, with a couple other planets in Leo and moon possibly in the final degrees of Aries. Astrological fire is energy, enthusiasm, and passion. Smokey is engaging and persuasive. He’s fatherly – I can imagine him at the head of the bear dinner table on Thanksgiving carving the turkey.

Should Smokey Bear expand his campaign for Neptune in Aries malicious fires? How about, “Only YOU can change the world without setting fire to it first”?

Fight Fire with Fire

“Fight fire with fire!” is another of life’s parables.

Neptune in Aries is starting in a quite fiery way. Will fire conquer fire? Or will we all become ashes?

It will be 15 years before Neptune moves into the earth sign Taurus where we will idealize stability and structure. In the ashes that are left from Neptune in Aries fires, the mythological phoenix may rise.

And the phoenix may embrace Taurus simple pleasures: a log cabin and a field of grass. And leaving others alone to live their lives.

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Spitting in the wind: Ohio’s Boredom Law Faces Uranus in Gemini

Posted on April 12, 2026 by ohioastrology

Empowered by their thrice-married, twice-impeached, sexual-predatory, felon president, Ohio Republicans are generating egregious bills aimed to heighten morality, very much like countries we profess to dislike and sometimes invade.

Some of the morality is simply medical fantasy such as bills requiring the replanting of ectopic pregnancies and abortion reversal pills. My own gynecologist entered Ohio politics to assist these politicians in understanding the female body. Recently she had to explain to them – as she did to me once – the role of progesterone.

In other morality plays, Ohio’s obscenity laws were updated to clarify rules on cabaret. At face value, it makes sense, times have changed, juveniles are exposed to much more adult behavior today than in the past.

Yet when an Ohio man lures a 12-year old girl from North Carolina into his car and drives out of state, why are we passing laws about cabaret rather than social media?

If protecting juveniles is truly the goal, targeting cabaret rather than social media is like trying to cure cancer by banning the eating of uranium. Yeah, that will help but no one is doing it. Our ingestion of chemicals via food and medicine may be the problem, something much larger to solve.

Much developed-world unhappiness could be linked our idealized versions of the world compared to reality of daily life. For example, holidays are promoted as a time of family harmony and joy, yet American families have one of the highest rates in the world of children living in single-parent homes. It’s the disconnect between the media-created images and reality that causes undue sadness during the holidays.

Likewise, American morality is idealized and does not exist in pure form except at a theme park in Florida.

Which is worse – seeing an areola or a newscast showing tens of thousands of people dying by the hand or help of one’s government?

Boredom in the US

Much of our idealized views of the world comes through media, television. Foreigners often see the United States through media as well and expect a US to be a New York-Miami-Chicago-Los Angeles experience when moving here. They are surprised by the reality, especially if living in northern climates during the winter.

The indie flick Frozen River is a better representation of a single mom trying to make ends meet in a small town. Or the indie flick The Florida Project where we see what happens when you don’t have enough money to put first and last month’s rent on an apartment. These are realities not portrayed in Hollywood movies. While they present dire situations, they contain realities that are part of living in the United States – choices between rent and other necessities, for example.

Is there a movie about people working long hours, getting stuck in traffic, and then falling asleep on the couch early?

Uranus in Gemini: Fun Times

In just a couple weeks transiting Uranus will move from fixed, earth-sign Taurus where it took down the toilet paper supply (being concerned with body and tangible items) and will now move into mutable, air-sign Gemini which is more interested in socializing, exploring, and having fun.

Gemini’s negative reputation involves these very elements: shallow, superficial, and constantly changing. Yet these very traits could be said to apply simply to human behavior.

Uranus is stimulating with sudden events. The more earthy types don’t care for this type of unexpected behavior. Fire and air signs seek it out.

Humans are hard-wired for stimulation. In the great debates about monogamy, we forget that we are applying a fixed quality inherent in mountains and rocks to a human being designed to learn, grow, and change. Extramarital affairs aren’t always about sex. Routine is known to cause boredom and the old-fashioned “rut.” Sex is a powerful stimulant and game changer.

Uranus in Gemini will not be bored, much like our Gemini president. In his recent invasion, the results were not quick or easy. It’s clearly fun for this man to invade a country. Not so fun to have intervention last longer than a few moments, like monogamy.

Cabaret in pure meaning is “a form of theatrical entertainment performed in restaurants, nightclubs, or specialized venues featuring music, dance, song, and often comedy or drama. It typically features a more intimate, informal atmosphere than traditional theater, often including a live band and tableside service.”

Is cabaret always men dressing as women or women displaying their areolas in public? (It’s good to know that Ohio lawmakers do know some parts of a woman’s body.)

Cabaret is fun. Maybe that’s the real concern.

Ohio’s Boredom Law: Spitting in the Wind

Updating obscenity laws to specifically target challenging entertainment is an attempt to hold in place an idealized past. I’d say “Ohio past” but Ohio was once the wild west. Our idealized morality comes from a mythologized founding.

Uranus in Gemini will not be bored.

The “pandemic” occurred with outer planets in earth and water, more homebound and introverted by nature. Since that time, these same planets have moved into fire and air. Getting folks to “shelter in place” with media and intoxicants will no longer be effective.

Now folks want to go out and play, like children kept inside during the winter. They go out, they run, they laugh, and they do, of course, forget to watch for oncoming cars.

Protect juveniles during Uranus in Gemini using its strengths: communication, learning, increased knowledge, exploration, and a fun and diverse playground.

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Neptune in Aries: War and Courage

Posted on April 8, 2026 by ohioastrology

When Aries energy becomes pronounced in the heavens, astrologers warn of war, Aries being ruled by Mars, the God of War. In March 2025 when Neptune entered Aries, astrologers warned of war.

And there’s war.

And there’s always war on this earth, right?

What’s different here is that an outer planet creates a generational effect – apologies to those that believe the energy will pass quickly. Neptune has a 15-year transit through a sign and just left Pisces which it rules and which is the last sign of the zodiac. It’s kind of a double ending in this way.

Neptune in the last sign of the zodiac appeared to dissolve consensus reality in favor of personal, idealized reality.

Neptune represents collective beliefs, collective idealizations, a halo effect on the object of focus. Think of those old clips of early Beatles performing in front of screaming, crying, light-headed teenage girls.

Today watching the Beatles and crazy fans I think, why? Four average looking guys playing simple songs in black suits.

“Beer goggles” represents Neptune-ruled intoxicants creating the hazy glow of loveliness on the undeserved. Neptune goggles come through intoxicants, media, music and other “lose yourself” activities. Neptune releases us from the day-to-day humdrum of existence. Spirituality does this too, interpreting life in a more meaningful way.

Pisces Andy Gibb did this for me in the 1970s. I still feel the Neptune.

Neptune in Aries: Men and War

If we idolized Mr. Rogers with Neptune in Pisces, we will idolize “General Rogers” now. While writing this blog, a commercial for the military appeared on the television (ruled by Neptune). This blog is blessed by the God of War.

“Men are from Mars,” you’ve read. Men have been the dominant gender for most of our known earth history. In contrast, “Women are from Venus.” Venus is focused on relationship and compromise, not domination. This is an astrological polarity.

Our recent generational shifts merging gender identities may pause until we balance our Mars (Aries) “Me” energy with Venus (Libra) “We” energy.

Aries with bold confidence does not avoid conflict to ask for what it needs. Venus will adapt, will go with you to the movie it doesn’t like, attempt to please.

Any activation of one side of a polarity will create the opposite and equal reaction from the other side. Neptune in Aries assertion will meet Libra/Venus accommodation.

We’re seeing that in our US invasions of sovereign foreign nations (propaganda translation: “war”) forcing accommodation on the other side to maintain relationships. Those on the accommodating side sometimes become aggressors themselves.

It’s a polarity see-saw.

The lesson of astrology is balance and in the early stages of Neptune in Aries, there is no balance. In 15-years we must re-balance our mutually dependent relationships. The US going “Aries” will push the global community to go “Venus.” The US will be learning Venus.

Neptune in Aries: Courage

What astrologers may forget to remind is that Aries is courageous. Spring begins in Aries with flowers busting through soil, bunnies multiplying, children playing. Flowers don’t worry about pesticides; bunnies don’t worry about healthcare; children don’t worry about retirement plans. They are programmed to be in the present, in purity and integrity.

Likewise, Aries courage can come from this naïve innocence. And because of that very lack of wisdom and discipline, will openly challenge an overwhelming, all powerful foe. And the fire energy of Aries can win! Aries moon in particular knows no fear as the courage and valiance is reactive.

While today’s focus is larger, global wars, smaller wars are fought during the regular challenges and injustices of life. Individuals challenging racism and persecution occurs daily – we don’t see the millions of stories in the news. Courage is everywhere. Living takes courage. Living with self-respect when someone is attacking you for no reason takes courage.

While the power brokers will glamorize negative Aries invasions, conquest, and destruction, the positive Aries courage is on the other side.

More OHA Neptune in Aries blogs

https://ohioastrology.com/?s=neptune+in+aries

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Waking, Sleeping, and the Alarm Clock: Astrological Style

Posted on March 29, 2026 by ohioastrology

Back in the 1930s, the ancient swastika symbol which can be found in various forms in ancient art across the world was used by an authoritarian regime as their logo. Asian Buddhists, North American Hopewell, South American Mayans, Ancient Greeks – all have some form of this rotating hooked cross. It might represent the flow of life force, projecting our thoughts outward and circling back to move us through time and space.

Or it might be something else.

Cincinnati Art Museum collection

The mass manipulators of the 1930s turned the symbol around. Instead of moving forward, it moves backwards.

The symbol is still symbolic but of a deeper meaning: how forward movement can be halted and turned into backward movement; how symbols and images are used for manipulation.

Likewise, today’s mass manipulators are taking the concept of awakening – “woke” – into a negative, backward manifestation. It’s stunning how easily a concept that is clearly positive can be turned into the opposite.

Astrology can help with awakening by reminding us we live in cyclical time, we are in polarity, and that duality is a human construct based on sports and war cultures with clear winners and losers.

What team, what tribe, what country never loses?

Waking Uranus

The three outer planets which govern generational human cycles are Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

Uranus is the great awakener. Seeing clearly is a prerequisite for other types of growth. Clarity, like all thoughts, is subject to debate. Spiritual awakening, this astrologer believes, is personal. It’s the “aha” moments of one’s life which can be intensely personal or involve life concepts.

Awakening, like waking up in the morning, can feel both good and bad. If you wake up from a cozy bed in a hotel awaiting room service in advance of your fun, planned activities, waking feels nice.

If awakening in the morning to rain outside and water damage in your home, that feels bad. But now you know that you have a leak. You are more aware now.

Finding out that your spouse has been seeing others since the beginning of your marriage is called a “rude awakening.” But now you know.

Spending private time examining your life may provide the awakening that your greatest happiness in life would be to work in nature, so you decide, inspired, to open a floral shop.

These awakenings are in the realm of Uranus. The placement of sign and house in the horoscope indicates in this life the area of greatest clarity and awaking. Awakenings create energy for growth much as nuclear fission releases energy.

Transiting Uranus has been in Taurus for the last seven years and will soon move to Gemini. During that time, we’ve had awakening and clarity about areas governed by Taurus – body, property, self-worth, supply chain, money, the earth, and boundaries.

If we Americans have awakened, we understand toilet paper supply chain and how dependent – not independent – we are of others for our clean butts.

Sleeping Neptune

If we awaken in our hotel room excited about a fun-filled day, our Neptune experience will provide bliss, spiritual feelings of connectedness, and the wonder of creation.

In contrast, if we’ve awakened to the flooded house – also a Neptune water experience – we may feel overwhelmed. We may not know what to do and worry about the house and resources to fix it. In this feeling, we may seek to escape a little bit, maybe with other forms of water like alcohol (“spirits”).

If we let our feelings process and then return to Uranus clarity, we have processed both Uranus and Neptune. We were overwhelmed, experienced it, maybe even had a beer, but then responded to the problem.

Neptune may call for help. Neptune may feel victimized and later sue the realtor who didn’t reveal the house was in a flood zone. Or maybe Neptune will glamorize the situation as savior (“How I Saved Raccoons During the Flood”).

Being stuck in Neptune involves avoiding the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness by looking for an escape hatch – intoxicating substances, excessive media, excessive pleasures, and denying that a problem exists.

If there is no problem, there is nothing to solve. It’s commonly called burying one’s head in the sand. It’s like sleeping – close your eyes and it goes away.

The placement and sign where Neptune resides in the horoscope indicates areas where we idealize or feel a glamorous allure but also an area where we may avoid reality and choose fantasy or escape instead.

Transiting Neptune just moved from water-sign Pisces – and last sign of the zodiac – which it rules to fire-sign Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. If Americans have learned from this transit, we understand there is no “me” and “them,” that we all share a planet. I and we are the same, like water. Pollutants in the water now span the entire globe. 

Alarm Clock Pluto

If we’ve integrated Uranus and Neptune, there is no Pluto. Astrological advice: integrate Uranus and Neptune so there is no Pluto.

The best image of Pluto in American culture is the scene in The Wizard of Oz when the Wicked Witch of the East, who we never meet outside of her shrunken feet, perishes when a house falls on her head. She did not see it coming and we’ll assume her witchy behavior in Munchkin Land was punished in the most harsh way the fates.

Let’s go back to the flooded house. Had Uranus been active, the event may not have occurred due to the Uranus focus on perfection and continuous improvement. Yet, things happen even with the best of planning.

Should Neptune decide, for whatever reason, to avoid the situation, then Pluto arises. Neptune with spiritual focus but avoidant tendencies may do “spiritual bypassing,” by looking to the universe when it ought to be looking in the supply cabinet.

There’s an old joke that explains the Neptune spiritual avoidance and the Pluto response:

A terrible, extreme storm occurs in a small town that brings a tsunami of water. A spiritual man living in a small house moves to his second floor when the water rises into the first level. Then when the second floor becomes flooded, he moves to the attic. The water keeps rising and he finds himself on the roof. On the roof, a neighbor in a boat passes and offers him a ride. His response is that his maker will save him. Another two boats pass and his response is the same. Finally, the water overtakes the roof and the man drowns. Upon entering the afterlife, he asks his maker why he wasn’t saved. The response: “I gave you three chances.”

Pluto rules death, the passing of physical to non-physical existence. That’s the ultimate Pluto which we will all experience. Before the Big Pluto, we’ll have our little life plutos.

Pluto alarms include the house falling on one’s head, the ground shaking beneath us, the rug pulled from under us. After that occurs, we may not find ourselves in the afterworld, but we will feel like a different person. As an astrologer I can feel what someone’s Pluto transit might be like, but I can never really explain it to them, to their frustration.

You can read a line of poetry and decided to abandon your life and walk the earth with a knapsack. Or you can be planning to stay put, do what you’ve done for the last several decades and learn the government is going to knock your house down as Right of Way. Pluto uses force so if not internally-driven is destruction. If one decides to do Pluto on his/her own, it’s a more conscious evolution.

Had our flooded house person passed the Uranus and Neptune tests, he/she might have rebuilt the house to be more secure, a Pluto response of transformation. Remodeling is a great hobby of house-loving Americans, so we already embrace the positive aspects of Pluto by rebuilding all the time.

Transiting Pluto moved from authoritarian Capricorn – where it was during America’s Declaration of Independence – to humanitarian Aquarius in 2024. As America was “born” in 1776 with Pluto in Capricorn, in 2022 we had a Pluto return, a 248-year cycle of evolution. If Americans have learned from this transit, we have learned that there is more to life than climbing the ladder of success at the expense of the family . . . and the world.

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