The 2016 US Presidential Election: Sponsored by Saturn (in Sagittarius)

Posted on January 10, 2015 by ohioastrology

Saturn entered Sagittarius late December 2014 beginning its two and a half-year transit of that sign which covers the entire 2016 US Presidential election cycle. It’s going to be a Sagittarius election filled with idealistic and lofty promises and a strong battle of ideologies.

Jupiter, which travels faster, will pass through portions of three signs – Leo, Virgo and Libra during the election cycle. The outer planets are transiting the same signs they were transiting in 2012 – Pluto, Capricorn; Neptune, Pisces; Uranus, Aries.

What 2016 Presidential Election cycle you ask? You say it’s too early to start campaigning for an election that will occur on November 8, 2016?

Think again.

Spring 2015 is when we meet our potential presidential suitors, looking for that personality spark, that connection. We see them in the news, maybe they write a book about hope and community and love. We want to believe that our political partner will change our world. We begin to fall in love.

Summer 2015 is when the heavy dating and debating begins. This is the best part of the cycle – who doesn’t love a new political romance? Debates, done right, reveal the true color of the candidates. This is when we must look ’em in the eye and wonder, “How could this fellow have run a Federal Reserve? Is he good enough to be President?”

Late fall 2015 is when the dating gets serious and we have to break off with a few candidates who we realize are not our type: s/he’s too extreme in views; s/he’s less cerebral than we’d like; s/he’s extramarital affairs are revealed; s/he’s changing views on abortion are confounding; s/he’s run out of money and no one likes a cash-poor candidate; or maybe we just decide we’re not compatible and move on to another candidate or, even, another party.

Then in early 2016 we vote in primary elections!

This election will be even more fun-filled than the the 2012 election as both the Democrats and Republicans duke it out in the primary elections.

You may still be saying, “Who cares? This election is practically two years away. Shut up and look at my new iPhone.”

Keep in mind that if you skip the dating portion of the election cycle, you will find yourself in an arranged marriage come 2016. You’ll then go to the primary box and wonder how two aliens from the planet Mars ended up on the ballot.

Don’t let that happen – date now.

Political Match.Com

So before we go on a first date with the presidential candidates, let’s take a look at the candidate dating site 2016 Election Central and take a glance at how the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto transits might affect our potential suitors.

There are too many candidates and too little time, so I’ll focus on five. I planned to be fair and choose an equal number from each party to include Joe Biden. I left Biden out, frankly, because he’s just too boring and he really hasn’t exhibited any “I’m running in 2016” behavior. I know the veep must be silent to support his presidential benefactor, but Biden is so quiet, I wonder how many people know that he’s the veep.

I’m choosing those I’ve heard most about in the news recently. I would love to add Chris Christie because he’s so much fun to think and write about, but I’ll leave him for later, maybe for next summer when Jupiter enters Virgo creating Christie shenanigans.

Jeb Bush (Republican) – Here’s where astrology can fail even the most die-hard astrologers. I’d love to analyze former Florida Governor Bush’s chart for indicators of success/failure but when you have a family name behind you, does it matter?

What matters in this case are the motivations and outcomes of such powerful influence. Bush is of the Pluto in Leo generation as will be many of the other potential candidates as this generation is making its last hurrah in the world of success. Pluto in Leo is the “Me Generation” also known as the Baby Boomers. As they are older, they’ve had more time to develop connections and power bases.

Jupiter transiting Leo conjunct Pluto brings the big show-down with Pluto Power Plutocracy. Robert Hand in his book Planets in Transit describes this transit as bringing “the urge to achieve to the forefront of your life” and a “tremendous drive to gain power.”

To run for office, you’d need this drive, but remember during your political dating that Bush, Clinton and Webb have this drive as a compulsion. Compulsion often leads to irrational behavior.

The Astrotheme chart has a time of birth so this Jupiter transit occurs in the 11th house of community and group relationships. Bush’s natal Pluto is opposing his 5th house sun in Aquarius – a very tight opposition. Born of a powerful family, we see this in Bush’s chart – could he say no to power if he wanted to? Could Henry VIII have said no to power if he wanted to?

Pluto transiting Capricorn is near Bush’s moon in Capricorn. Sun in Aquarius and moon in Capricorn makes for a rational individual who is distant from the feeling nature, so distant, in fact, that this is the person you send to put the pet to sleep.

This Pluto transit will force him to feel which for moon in Capricorn is a bit like dental surgery without anesthesia. Transiting Pluto is taking a bulldozer to Capricorn ideas of duty, obligation and responsibility. This Pluto transit will square a natal Neptune/Saturn conjunction in Libra for Bush (which itself makes a wide square to Uranus in Cancer). Capricorn wants to make the rules but Libra wants everyone to get along which creates a conflict. In the 2nd house, this can involve money and assets.

There’s a lot going on in Bush’s chart right now, including a Saturn transit of the 3rd house of education, short-distance travel and neighbors. When Saturn was in Scorpio for the last couple years, it was in the 2nd house of money and some loans may have been called due. Transiting Uranus will move into the 8th house of others money in June 2015 so Bush may suddenly request new funds from others.

Transiting Saturn in the 3rd house is in Gemini’s playground – a place to learn, explore and grow. Saturn in that house tells Bush he doesn’t need to learn or explore anymore, that his Sagittarian viewpoint is all he needs. If Bush does run, evolving his message based on electorate feedback will be particularly difficult.

While these powerful influences may put him into office, I can’t imagine him feeling happy inside. The kings that toppled other kings may have felt that rush of adrenalin, but what about their children who were raised in the protected castle and inserted onto the throne? Happiness is probably a plebeian thought anyway. Happiness to a powerful family may be like green peppers to a cat. Then again, for Capricorn moon, lots of duty can be happiness.

Hillary Clinton (Democrat) – Secretary of State Clinton just experienced a Saturn transit through the sign of Scorpio in the 12th house (using the Astrotheme chart). In that sign, this transit can feel a bit like wringing out a wet towel – and you are the towel.

Saturn has just begun its transit of Sagittarius which is conjunct Clinton’s natal Jupiter in Sagittarius. Hand says of this transit that “you should work very hard to take advantage of every opportunity for growth and expansion that presents itself.”

Nice advice for a politico who has done just that for most of her adult life.

Jupiter is transiting natal Pluto in Leo which for Clinton also involves Mars and Saturn. Mars/Pluto/Saturn is a powerful and cruel aspect – consider that you are joining the God of War, God of Underworld and God of Responsibility in one room with a bunch of Leo “me” energy hanging about. Pluto and pals square Venus and Mercury in Scorpio.

Love, communication, pleasure and power – all the same for this personality. The Mars/Pluto/Saturn conjunction is in the 9th so there was definitely an upbringing that demanded personal power and success as criterion for love.

Clinton’s moon in Pisces is the ultimate feeling, empathetic placement. No matter how cruel and calculating she can be, there is something that can feel so I’m wondering how she deals with this. Maybe this moon in Pisces is the reason in a room full of men watching Osama bin Laden being assassinated, she’s the only one appearing shocked.

Neptune has been transiting Pisces since February 2012. It will take a long while (10 more years) to touch Clinton’s moon. Neptune dissolves and I’m still wondering if Clinton isn’t experiencing some health degeneration. I still suspect she will sit out of the presidential election due to health restrictions.

Uranus transiting the 5th house of children often brings children or grandchildren, which I believe just occurred for Clinton (grandchild). It also brings spontaneous and impulsive personal expression. Transiting Uranus opposed natal Neptune in Libra might bring some unexpected change as to how she interacts with the world. Clinton in her earlier years was associated with children’s causes – maybe that will be re-ignited.

In medieval times, when royalty “retired” (which was rare since most died natural or violent death first), they often went to the monastery, the original retired living home it seems.

I’m wondering if Uranus transiting the 5th and a Neptune closing in on her already monastic moon might not turn Clinton to a religious path. Religious sentiment, like any other trait, comes in a variety of flavors. For the politically powerful, religion might also contain elements of power and control. But Neptune’s lesson is the opposite of all that – it dissolves. It’s a scary feeling for those who like to remain in control of their personal selves and entire surroundings.

Pluto is transiting Clinton’s 2nd house and money and will enter the 3rd house of education, close-distance travel and neighbors. Maybe Clinton will found her own school/church?

I’m still not seeing Clinton politically or astrologically becoming president. Politics suggests to me (as a female) that it’s a long path to the White House for a woman. As an astrologer, I think Clinton will take some unusual and new path.

Rand Paul (Republican) – While the Pauls – Ron and Rand – aren’t royalty, there’s still a father-son political mentoring occurring. Astrotheme has no time of birth for Rand, so we’ll have to look at a noon chart.

Kentucky Senator Paul has sun in Capricorn and moon in Gemini, like Ohio’s Attorney General Mike DeWine. This is a shrewd combination, able to play and win the shell game, but not particularly able to feel for others. Rand’s only water (feeling) placement is Jupiter in Pisces.

Neptune transiting Pisces conjunct natal Jupiter may be bringing out the feelings in Paul. While that can be a good thing, for controlling Capricorn it can feel like being in public without your pants on. According to Hand, this transit “is one of the most idealistic of times of your life. This transit arouses your natural sympathies for others and makes you want to help them.” If Paul runs, he will certainly feel inspired by this transit, feel he’s running for the sake of others.

At the same time, Pluto transiting Capricorn is conjunct sun in Capricorn so Paul might want to dig deeper on how much the “helping others” truly supports his own goals.

Saturn just entered Sagittarius and is smack on Paul’s Venus. Someone might be walking out the door – if not now, in about a year or so when Saturn opposes moon in Gemini (since no time of birth, not sure when this will occur).

Paul has mutable square energy with Jupiter (in Pisces), moon (in Gemini), Uranus/Pluto (in Virgo) and Venus (in Sagittarius). Mutable energy is adaptable and flexible. In US politics, these are characteristics viewed in a highly negative light. “Waffling” might be the charge filed against Paul.

Rand’s natal Mercury in Aquarius is widely conjunct Saturn. Aquarius is the sign of “the people” but Paul may not have the ability to connect with them verbally. While his personality is flexible, his speech comes across much more rigidly as though the plan is laid out and you’d better follow if you want to be a good citizen.

Looking at Paul’s horoscope in 2012 and now, I’m struck with the same sense – his personality is not coherent and cohesive enough for politics. It’s a talented personality for many activities and interests, but politics requires fixed and focused energy that Paul doesn’t possess.

Charisma, a magical and mystical quality, seems also to be associated with fixed energy. Not sure the connection here between fixed energy and charisma, but writing this blog has given me new admiration for fixed energy’s ability to stay on track and bring others along as willing, devoted follwers.

Jim Webb (Democrat) – I’ve added Former Virginia Senator Jim Webb not because I’ve seen him on the news, but because, according to Election Central, he’s formed an “exploratory committee.”

I’m not finding a horoscope for Jim Webb on Astrotheme; he hasn’t even earned a noon chart. How can an individual think to win the presidential election when they don’t even have a chart on Astrotheme?

Webb has sun in Aquarius (cushioned by Mercury and Venus) with moon in Taurus or Gemini. The moon sign can make a big difference here about Webb’s nature. Aquarius/Taurus is extremely fixed energy, which as I mentioned is a plus in US politics.

Moon in Gemini is more changeable, unpredictable. Aquarius/Gemini is more the idealistic, futuristic academic/scientist type. This type is more comfortable with ideas, including the “idea” of people rather than their scented and germ-filled corporealness.

We have in Webb another Pluto in Leo generation so the Jupiter transit of Leo is bringing the powers that be to his doorstep so that he can fulfill “the urge to achieve to the forefront of [his] life” and actualize the “tremendous drive to gain power.”

Jupiter opposes the Aquarian energy in his chart which can create expanded thinking of the type called delusional. Jupiter in square or opposition to the sun can create inflated ego; if there is no earth in the chart, the work needed to fulfill the ego’s ideas is delegated to others which makes for an arrogant appearance.

Transiting Pluto in Capricorn is opposed to a natal Mars/Saturn conjunction in Cancer. Mars/Saturn is a harsh combination not known for being nice about your ugly new haircut. In Cancer, there’s a strong desire to belong to group (and family) yet a sense of rejection at the same time which creates the need to create a new, select group to call family. Ultimately, there is a lack of trust in close groups.

Uranus transiting Aries is opposing Jupiter in Libra. According to Hand, “during this transit you should watch the affairs of your life very carefully. Situations will arise suddenly that can be extremely productive and beneficial if you recognize them in advance or extremely difficult if you do not.”

Now that’s some medieval astrological advice!

Hand goes on to write, “Events happen so fast that you will not have the usual time to figure them out before you act.”

If Webb’s moon is in Taurus, this could be a problem. Taurus is methodical in the extreme and needs to know the plan before putting the toe in the water. Moon in Gemini is much more quick to comprehend and react which would aid in this transit.

I’m not sure how to assess Webb without knowing where that moon resides. If the moon is in Taurus, the fixed energy is there as well as my “mark of a politician” moon square Pluto. If the moon is in Gemini, it may be making a wide conjunction to Uranus which provides additional unpredictability.

The Aquarius/Taurus combination makes me think of the idealistic “serious statesman” more than the model of the current US President which involves some rock star element of charisma or powerful family background.

Marco Rubio (Republican) -¡Oye! Have you heard that Florida Senator Marco Rubio plans to run for President? ¡Mira! Just look at the news and you’ll see.

We can’t leave out the outspoken Rubio. As with Webb, we don’t have his time of birth to known house placements or moon placement.

Rubio’s sun is in Gemini and moon is in Cancer or Leo. His prominence suggests Leo as Leo moon has a compulsive desire to be center of attention (as opposed to sun in Leo which simply adores being center of attention). A sure-fire way to identify Leo is watching for excessive focus on the appearance of hair (ones own and others).

In searching for “Marco Rubio hair” I noticed that others are focusing attention on Rubio’s purported balding. That’s Leo energy, but not coming from Rubio. But has any other male candidate received attention for his hair? Hmm. Maybe the media are sensing some undue attention by Rubio on his hair and are exploiting it. If so, more evidence for Leo moon.

If moon is in Leo, the Jupiter transit brings extra attention and additional feelings of self-worth to Rubio. During the election cycle, Jupiter will transit through Virgo, where Rubio’s Pluto is placed.

The Pluto in Virgo generation is different from the Pluto in Leo “Me Generation.” The Pluto in Virgo generation manifests great anxieties about work and health with fears of germs and illness that border on collective obsessive-compulsive disorder. As this generation has matured, anxiety disorders have been Virgo-identified and Virgo-categorized so that we all carry one of these labels.

As with a Jupiter transit of Pluto in Leo, there is “the urge to achieve to the forefront of your life” and a “tremendous drive to gain power.” In Leo this is for personal aggrandizement; in Virgo, it’s more like an obsessive-compulsive urge to put things in order and make things perfect.

During the first portion of Jupiter’s transit of Virgo (early fall 2015), it will square Rubio’s sun. This is when the true anxiety will begin for Rubio. Jupiter will travel to about 23 degrees of Virgo then go backwards for awhile then forwards as it finally meets Rubio’s Pluto at the very end of August 2016.

If Jupiter is guiding the election cycle for Rubio, it will be back and forth for him until August 2016, which is about the time of the Republican convention. The back and forth will be anxiety-provoking both for Rubio and his admirers.

Without Rubio’s time of birth, it’s difficult to assess Uranus, Neptune’s and Pluto’s influence on his life. By aspect, only Neptune is noticeable squaring Rubio’s natal Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in Sagittarius. That square, coupled with a potential Leo moon, brings a confidence of the type associated with Don Quixote. Right now, transiting Saturn is also sitting right atop that Jupiter/Neptune conjunction. External forces are saying to Rubio, “If you want to chase that windmill, do you know that you have to do, really do, to get elected? You need to do this and this and this? Can you really do this?”

Transiting Pluto in Capricorn is trine to natal Venus/Mercury in Taurus and wide trine natal Pluto in Virgo. This bodes well for the practical, money-collecting aspect of the campaign. This candidate is not cash poor! However, Rubio’s natal Saturn is in Taurus suggests feelings of lack with regard to material resources and physical affection.

Saturn in Taurus could live in a palace and still pine for insignificant material objects that others possess. Rubio definitely has sentimental value attached to many of the objects around him. Do not take his toys away!

Although the Saturn conjunction and Neptune square to Rubio’s idealistic Jupiter/Neptune in Sagittarius could be a huge liability, don’t forget that idealism is powerful and may draw organic followers that aren’t concerned with one’s financial situation. That may be a life lesson for Rubio – it’s not really about the money although he may have the subconscious belief that he must impress others with material success.

Looking at Rubio’s chart, I’m wondering if it isn’t time for the Pluto in Leo generation to step aside. Current President Obama has Pluto in the very early degrees of Virgo. Maybe the Pluto in Leo generation has already passed from power.

If Rubio does make it to the convention in the summer of 2016, he’ll be taking his generation’s anxiety with him – anxiety about health, work and the environment. Whether or not he personally cares about these issues may make the difference in his future.

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Imaginary-to-Real in Three Easy Aspects

Posted on December 27, 2014 by ohioastrology

Do you wish your imaginary friends were real?

What, you say you have no imaginary friends? Is the person you spend most of your time with what you imagined him/her to be?

You had an imaginary friend.

How about that job you took? Is it what you imagined?

You had an imaginary job.

How about that vacation you took. Was it all that you imagined?

It was? Then you made the imaginary real. You did it at least once, you can do it again.

Just follow these three simple astrological aspects to make all that is in your imagination real.

Aspect One: Neptune in Pisces

First, you must have imagination. If, until now, you saw life as one day of drudgery after the next, I have good news. Neptune has been transiting Pisces since 2011 and will be in Pisces until 2025. Pisces is ruled by Neptune and both fuel imagination (amongst many other mystical and escapist states).

For those with a heavy does of Pisces or Neptune (or both), imagination is actually where they are living. You see the body at the dinner table but notice you reflections on your day at the office are not really being absorbed by those distant eyes. I can’t tell you where the eyes are, but they are far away.

Neptune and Pisces are also the experience of magic and wonder that can’t be described in the way of Virgo, the opposite of Pisces. An example of the Pisces/Neptune experience is hearing a piece of music and feeling the body dissolve into the music and having the heightened sensation of peace and harmony.

Virgo, the opposite of Pisces, will try to analyze it. Virgo will run to the store, buy the music, invite over all its friends, play the music and expect the room to enter this same state. It never happens because the Neptune moment can’t be repeated by formula. Pisces/Neptune is not of the world described by Virgo.

Now that you’ve captured the moment, lets move on to aspect number two.

Aspect Two: Saturn in Sagittarius

Saturn has just entered the sign of Sagittarius. As Saturn moves through this sign for two and a half years, it will make squares to the long transit of Neptune in Pisces.

The square is an aspect of friction. Bringing your imagination into reality takes this very friction. Call it a reality check. If the aspect was more pleasant, you’d probably still be okay with living in your imagination and, possibly, on a friend’s couch.

Saturn is form and structure and all the rules, laws and responsibilities that come with it. In Sagittarius, the sign that seeks meaning, Saturn challenges you to have the discipline to live your beliefs.

Funny thing about Sagittarius, it’s ruled by the expansive Jupiter so in addition to finding meaning, Sagittarius also likes to indulge in worldly pleasures, especially those that create heighted sensation.

Because of these inherent characteristics, Sagittarius is a sign can dream of being a priest but spend the weekend at the casino trying to win big.

Saturn in Sagittarius, if you make it your friend, can help with this (if it’s a problem, and it may not be). When we create a rule for ourselves, the opposite of the rule is always tempting us.

But what if we don’t make it a rule and instead change it into something we truly do not want? Then there’s no temptation, no double standard and no charges of hypocrisy.

Aspect Three: Pluto in Capricorn

Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008 and will be in that sign until 2024. Pluto transforms and evolves what it touches. In the sign of Capricorn, structure itself is being transformed. You may have noticed since 2008 a bit of change in the economic, social and government structures across the world.

Pluto in Capricorn is a big heavy, a reality check where your house falls on your head (in the case of 2008, by losing all its value). Capricorn is the path of most resistance and the lessons are never soft and gentle, Disney style.

But you can take this serious goat by the horns and direct your own destiny before the plans of others become the only choices available.

Reality may be the only consensus we’ll ever have and in one way or another we’re offering an agreement if we don’t present our imaginative options.

What’s in Your Imagination?

As the saying goes, “be careful what you wish for, lest it come true” which I learned is from the short story The Monkey’s Paw.

The challenge may not be turning imagination to reality, which may be exactly what’s occurring every day, but understanding what lives in the imagination and why. Our world is filled with images which feed the imagination.

Which images are yours? Which images come from outside of you?

Which images are becoming reality?

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Saturn in Sagittarius FAQ

Posted on December 24, 2014 by ohioastrology

ohioastrology's avatarOhio Astrology

Dear Sagittarians, please sit down.

A little over two years ago Scorpios had to sit down for “the talk.” Now it’s your turn.

In just a few months at the end of December, Saturn, the great taskmaster, is visiting your sign. He visits every 29 years and stays for two and half years.

Saturn is the planet of form and contraction and manifests as responsibility, duty, obligation and serious pursuits. Saturn gone wild can’t relax and is always working, always doing something productive.

The Saturn-in-Your-Sign Task Force has developed a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) to make the Saturn transit easier.

Will I have any fun in the next two years or will life consist only of duty and responsibility?

Do not fear. People can have fun during a Saturn transit. For the first seven months of Saturn in Sagittarius, Jupiter will be transiting Leo while Uranus will continue…

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Putting the Saturn back in Saturnalia

Posted on December 18, 2014 by ohioastrology

Our modern day Christmas celebration occurs around the same time as the ancient festival of Saturnalia, which, according to this website, became absorbed into the Christmas festivities about the fourth century AD.

According to the site:

In the Roman calendar, the Saturnalia was designated a holy day, or holiday, on which religious rites were performed. Saturn, himself, was identified with Kronos, and sacrificed to according to Greek ritual, with the head uncovered. The Temple of Saturn, the oldest temple recorded by the pontiffs, had been dedicated on the Saturnalia, and the woolen bonds which fettered the feet of the ivory cult statue within were loosened on that day to symbolize the liberation of the god. It also was a festival day. After sacrifice at the temple, there was a public banquet, which Livy says was introduced in 217 BC (there also may have been a lectisternium, a banquet for the god in which its image is placed in attendance, as if a guest). Afterwards, according to Macrobius (I.10.18), the celebrants shouted Io, Saturnalia at a riotous feast in the temple.

A couple paragraphs later we learn more about the festival:

During the holiday, restrictions were relaxed and the social order inverted. Gambling was allowed in public. Slaves were permitted to use dice and did not have to work. Instead of the toga, colorful dinner clothes (synthesis) were permitted in public—as was the pileus, a felt cap normally worn by the manumitted slave that symbolized the freedom of the season (Martial, Epigrams, XIV.1). Within the family, a Lord of Misrule was chosen. Slaves were treated as equals, allowed to wear their masters’ clothing, and be waited on at meal time in remembrance of an earlier golden age thought to have been ushered in by the god. In the Saturnalia, Lucian has the god’s priest declare that “During My week the serious is barred; no business allowed. Drinking, noise and games and dice, appointing of kings and feasting of slaves, singing naked, clapping of frenzied hands, an occasional ducking of corked faces in icy water—such are the functions over which I preside.”

As for the astrological Saturn, Café Astrology has a nice description:

In astrology, Saturn is associated with restriction and limitation. Where Jupiter expands, Saturn constricts. Although the themes of Saturn seem depressing, Saturn brings structure and meaning to our world. Saturn knows the limits of time and matter. Saturn reminds us of our boundaries, our responsibilities, and our commitments. It brings definition to our lives. Saturn makes us aware of the need for self-control and of boundaries and our limits.

It’s interesting that the festival of Saturnalia dismantles all that is Saturn – let’s forget our hierarchies (master/slave), our boundaries (clothing), our responsibilities (saving our money for necessities) and the drudgery of life on earth (work). In fact, Saturn talk (business) was completely banned.

Saturnalia is not about honoring Saturn but about putting Saturn in a closet for a good, solid week. Originally the festivities began on December 17 and lasted seven days. I suppose Saturnalia was the original vacation. Maybe we Americans are lucky to get two weeks now instead of just one.

Vacationalia.

Saturn Changes Signs

It seems quite relevant that on December 24, Christmas Eve, Saturn will change signs moving from the fixed water sign Scorpio to the mutable fire sign Sagittarius.

Two and half years of Scorpio meant Saturn focused on squeezing out every last bit of obsessive emotion from your being the way you squeeze every bit of water out of your wet bathing suit. We talked a lot about rape during this time as well. Rape is Scorpio in that it’s a crossing of the physical and emotional boundaries, but without consent. With consent, we call this intimacy.

The suit is dry, let’s move on.

If you’re a Sagittarius worried about this transit, here’s an FAQ for your reference. You might want to print it out and pin it to the wall since Saturn takes a couple years to move through a sign.

Sagittarius is about experience and finding meaning from those experiences. I’m wondering if December 24 this year won’t bring the Christians of the world a new religious experience. I sense a major shift, but don’t have any creative images on how that could manifest.

December 24 stands out as a meaningful day, more meaningful than normal. Saturn likes rules so maybe a new religious directive or proclamation from religious leaders will be issued.

Saturn is changing signs and it’s doing it on a holiday celebrated in the very beginning of Capricorn, the sign ruled by Saturn. Saturn is coming for Christmas.

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Your Horoscope: the Wheel of Fortune or The World?

Posted on December 7, 2014 by ohioastrology

The Rider Waite tarot cards The World and Wheel of Fortune are similar in their astrological symbolism. Both have the circle (or wheel in the center) and are surrounded by the four fixed signs. From upper left clockwise we have Aquarius (air), Scorpio (water), Leo (fire) and Taurus (earth). Aquarius and Leo are opposites as are Scorpio and Taurus.

tarotwheeltarotworld

In The World card, the fixed signs have their traditional symbolism of the human water bearer (Aquarius), eagle (Scorpio, which is also the Scorpion), lion (Leo) and bull (Taurus).

In Wheel of Fortune, our fixed signs have wings and each carries a book. According to Rachel Pollack in Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, they are holding books because they are “identified with the four evangelists” of Christianity.

Pollack further describes the symbolism of the Wheel of Fortune’s letters (taro, rota, etc) and the animals riding on the outside of the wheel (snake, jackal Annubis and sphinx) which represent stages of life, death and rebirth.

Pollack goes into much greater detail. If you use tarot and don’t have her book, run, don’t walk, to your nearest Amazon.com.

In the Center or Hanging Off the Wheel?

Another important difference in these two cards is that the Wheel of Fortune has the sentient beings on the outside of the wheel while in The World card, the being is in the center. The being in the center looks quite balanced, connected and happy.

The eye of the storm is calm as it creates the force rotates around it. Possibly this is the same with the horoscope. By being in the center, we are not subject to the ups and downs of that rotating wheel which bring cycles of life, death and rebirth.

The cycle of life, death and rebirth seems beyond our individual life. Yet maybe it’s not. Maybe all of our “ups” and “downs” are merely this cycle which we simply don’t acknowledge.

For example, in this culture at this time, illness is viewed as a preventable aberration. No matter how many shots we get, how many vitamins we take, how many healthcare plans we have, the common cold prevails. When the common cold occurs, there is a strong resistance to allowing it to be what it is. If the body is simply seeking rest, why are we so resistant?

In the north, we get most of our colds during the late fall winter, as nature around us is dying. Nature is dying, the sunlight is lessened, so maybe it’s okay to crawl in bed for a few days. Why are we so resistant?

The World card, with the being at the center, brings to mind the concept of meditation. Being centered doesn’t mean the external doesn’t cycle and rotate. Meditation tries (I think) to alter the relationship to that motion. In simple terms, you don’t have to react to every single stimulation.

In the eye of the horoscope, maybe you don’t have to worry about full moons and Saturn transits and someone’s Pluto on your Venus (although I’d still suggest running for the hills on this one). As an astrologer, horoscopes are accurate to me, which is bothersome. I’d much prefer they weren’t.

In the center of the horoscope, maybe we can surprise ourselves and others.

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Lois Duncan’s Charismatic Characters

Posted on December 4, 2014 by ohioastrology

While it’s been years since I’ve been a young adult or actively read young adult literature, one of my favorite young adult authors is still Lois Duncan.

Since I don’t have a young adult in my environment, I see the literature from afar and only get wind of the most popular and film-worthy– stories involving vampires, magical boarding schools and teenage death matches.

And astrologers are the weird ones?

Duncan’s Killing Mr. Griffin and The Daughters of Eve present the charismatic character that brings out both the good and bad in others. When these books were written, the late 1970s, we were closer to WWII and closer to cult murders (Manson killings) and cult suicides (Jamestown).

The message may have seemed more relevant then, but charismatic leaders certainly haven’t gone extinct.

In contrast to the charismatic character, Duncan’s novels include a counterpart – the intuitive. In The Daughters of Eve, the new art teacher is the charismatic leader who faces a group of naïve young girls and makes them more aware of the world.

As the art teacher’s energy begins to infuse the girls in her tutelage, the intuitive character sees ugly images in her mind’s eye and flees from the group. The intuitive is like the charismatic in the ability to perceive the energies of a situation. The charismatic channels the energy for various purposes; the intuitive is simply sensitive and vulnerable.

The art teacher’s influence at first is rather refreshing – she awakens young and naïve girls to their power and guides them to take control of their lives.

As with many a charismatic leader, it goes bad when the art teacher’s own hostilities and need for revenge filter through the tube that feeds her acolytes. In the epilogue we learn that some of the girls progressed unscathed and others did not. The experience, however, was transformative for each.

Lois Duncan

Astrotheme places Duncan’s moon in Libra, just a few degrees from the sign of Scorpio. Duncan’s intense, controlling, intelligent and charismatic characters ring an awful lot like Scorpio. Could she have been born just a couple hours later with the moon in Scorpio?

Pluto, the planet ruling Scorpio, is square the moon (in Libra). Maybe that’s the Scorpio influence?

Scorpio energy is fixed emotional energy – intense to obsession. It’s also extremely perceptive of the environment. The natural Scorpio desire for connection can lead to the boundary crossing with those of gentler or more confused mindset. For those not so intense, the energy is attractive and appealing. Scorpio is often viewed sexy.

Duncan’s Saturn in Aquarius is trine the moon and sextile an interesting Mercury/Uranus conjunction in Aries. That Saturn is also inconjunct Pluto in Cancer.

These aspects could have something to do with the focus on powerful individuals in group dynamics. Saturn in Aquarius with the trine to Uranus suggests unusual friends and not fitting in with the “normal” people. Pluto in the sign of Cancer wants to belong but Saturn says it’s never really going to happen because air Aquarius wants to connect mentally and Cancer just follows you around the house and wants you home for supper.

Uranus/Mercury in Aries is opposed to Jupiter/moon in Libra in the 9th/3rd house axis. The 9th represents the world view taught to us and how we respond. For Duncan, the worldview of her upbringing was unique, unusual and prone to change. It doesn’t have the Scorpio feeling of her novels.

Duncan’s sun and Mars are in earth-sign Taurus, a strong, fixed sign. Air-sign Aquarius is also a fixed sign, but Saturn is too far out in Aquarius to be at a square relationship. If Duncan’s ascendant is correct, it’s in another fixed sign – the fire sign Leo.

Taurus, Leo, Aquarius – that’s three of the four fixed signs. The only one missing is Scorpio. Possibly the interest in Scorpionic characters is due to this lack in the horoscope?

Is Scorpio the missing link?

In a quick glance at cult leaders, I noticed the predominance of fixed signs. Some of our most influential cult leaders were sun Taurus or its opposite Scorpio. Maybe this missing Scorpio energy what brings the attraction.

On Duncan’s website, I learned that she had a daughter murdered in the late 1980s, possibly by organized crime. This situation is also in the realm of Scorpio, which rules death. Pluto was in Duncan’s 4th house of emotions during that time. Currently Saturn is transiting Scorpio, very soon to move into Sagittarius. Possibly some closure of that situation has occurred for Duncan as Saturn passes where Pluto once traveled.

Somewhere, somehow Duncan is picking up on a Scorpio energy ley line – from charismatics, to intuitives, to secrets and deaths.

Where is the Scorpio hidden?

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The Unplanned

Posted on November 30, 2014 by ohioastrology

When a very busy colleague became ill this week, I provided my favorite mantra: “There’s never really a good time to be sick.”

Accidents and death are two other events in which there’s never a good time for them to occur.

I’ve always assumed that accidents, illness and death were events of scorn simply because they were physically and emotionally unpleasant. But now I’m wondering if they don’t have something else in common – they are the very few events that are unplanned.

Winning the lottery may also be unplanned but an event that we could absorb easily into the flow of our daily lives. While winning the lottery would radically change our lifestyle, we welcome it, unplanned.

Or is winning the lottery truly unplanned?

Ask someone who has played the lottery what he/she would do with the money. I suspect you will hear a long and detailed plan – probably more planning than you’d hear if you asked, “What do you expect to do in the next five years?”

Meditation teachers often suggest you notice and label your thoughts. Many thoughts, you may find, involve planning.

Why do our minds plan so much?

Searching on the “psychology of planning,” yielded few results that get to the core of why we plan. Planning clearly is as essential as breathing in that it’s not studied as something that could be unusual or aberrant.

Is it critical to survival to always think about what we’re going to do next?

The blog The Perils of Plans: Why Creativity Requires Leaping into the Unknown from Brain Pickings has some interesting thoughts on the negative effects of planning including a quote from another work:

Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind,” I offered in one of my 7 lessons from 7 years of Brain Pickings. Indeed, nothing stunts growth more powerfully than our attachment to the familiar, our blind adherence to predetermined plans, and our inability to, as Rilke famously put it, “live the questions.” Keats termed the willingness to embrace uncertainty, live with mystery, and make peace with ambiguity “negative capability” and argued that it’s essential to the creative process; Anaïs Nin believed that inviting the unknown helps us live more richly, and even psychologists confirm that embracing uncertainty is essential to creativity. And yet we cling so vigorously to our comfort zones, our plans, our knowns — why?

So planning might be an effort to ward off the unknown. Accidents, illness and death have a very strong component of the unknown.

We rarely “plan” our next accident or illness. We may prepare for death, but few (hopefully) plan it.

Does unplanned simply equal unknown? Is planning an effort to make the unknown into the known?

Energies from the Unknown: Uranus, Neptune and Pluto

The outer planets represent the energies of the environment and the times. These planets represent collective energies, not personal energies. They do not represent your personal likes, dislikes and moods. These planets are the collective uprisings, physical earthquakes, mass movements, mass hysteria and any energy that flows through humanity at large.

The energies are like wind. The wind has its own force, but what it carries comes from what lies in its path. Does it carry leaves, dust or radiation from distant shores?

The outer planets are a good representation of the unplanned and the unknown.

Uranus, the awakener, brings the accidents because of its nature to be sudden. Some accidents are bad, like tripping on the curb and falling down. Some accidents are good such as those that lead to discoveries.

Neptune, the dissolver, can bring illness. Neptune dissolves boundaries and alters perception which can make the known into the unknown with terrifying fuzziness. The experience can lead to fragility and vulnerability which is where the illness seems to attach. The positive side of the Neptunian experience is a connection with all-that-is.

Pluto, the transformer, can bring death among its many transformations. Does death always mean the big D or can it also be the little D? Transformation, of course, can be positive but is more scary than it sounds because often the identity shifts, which is unpleasant for the sense of self.

In Lois Duncan’s young adult novel Killing Mr. Griffin, there’s a poem that’s always stuck with me – the last two lines at least – which evokes thoughts of Pluto’s big and little Ds.

Yahoo! Answer seems to have the poem in its entirety:

Where the daisies laugh and blow,
Where the willow leaves hang down,
Nonny, nonny, I will go
There to weave my lord a crown.

Willow, willow, by the brook,
Trailing fingers green and long,
I will read my lord a book,
I will sing my lord a song.

Though he turn his face away,
Nonny, nonny, still I sing,
Ditties of a heart gone gray
And a hand that bears no ring.

Water, water, cold and deep,
Hold me fast that I may sleep.
Death with you is hardly more
Than the little deaths before.

Energies of the Known: Inner Planets

The energies of the known – sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – represent our personal and social selves. These are the planets that represent what we think of as our identity.

These planets are the planners who create the continuity of our sense of self. The unplanned Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, are the disruptions in the sense of self that can occur during intense encounters, unusual situations, catastrophic events or just because it’s time.

Those that don’t lose a sense of self during these times probably have a lot of fixed signs or earth signs.

When Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, the Capricorn banking and government structures experienced a strong disruption – unplanned, of course. It’s both scary to experience and interesting to watch as the world tries to return to the planned.

The world experienced an outer planet energy that created a crack in the egg of our system and quickly tried to recover the inner planet experience – a return to normal, the known, the expected.

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The Quality Formerly Known as Greed

Posted on November 8, 2014 by ohioastrology

A couple decades ago when vanity license plates surged in popularity here in central Ohio, a friend remarked, “Isn’t vanity supposed to be a bad thing?”

Recently while reading a book, the author commented upon greed. Like the word vanity, I haven’t heard of anyone calling another “greedy” in quite a while. Dictionary.com describes greed as “excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions.”

Has Ohio eradicated greed? Should Ohioans be promoting the non-greedy life among their fellow men?

Or is greed strong and healthy living an anonymous life under another, assumed name?

Greed in the Horoscope

The houses of the horoscope that rule money are Taurus (2nd house) and Scorpio (8th house) which I think of as “my money, your money.”

Looking for greed in the money houses is logical, but I don’t think it’s entirely accurate. Greed, like any quality, is separate from the object of desire. The object isn’t the greed; the energy is the greed.

While the earth-sign Taurus may like objects more than other signs, I think it tends less toward greed because of the fact it actually enjoys physical life. Greed, as this Psychology Today article describes, is more like an addiction. If you were gratified by something you built or bought, you wouldn’t need more and more and, therefore, wouldn’t be greedy.

Taurus, unlike other signs, can be quite content with what it has. Contentment, in fact, is a trait I associate with Taurus (especially moon in Taurus) which also lessens the tendency toward greed which is a seeking of something else.

When Taureans go bad, however, they do tend to focus their energies in the material realm such as with Bernard Madoff.

On the opposite pole of Taurus is water-sign Scorpio which wants connection through sharing a bed or a bank account – a physical merging. Because Scorpio, the fixed water sign, tends toward obsessiveness, I can see it being more prone to the energy of greediness, yet I don’t see it ultimately seeking the objects of the world that greedy wants. Scorpio ultimately wants emotional connection, not physical objects.

There are two other earth signs (besides Taurus) that seek fulfillment on the physical plane – Virgo (mutable) and Capricorn (cardinal).

In a Forbes article on billionaires’ horoscopes, it found Virgo as the prominent sign, although Scorpio Bill Gates was on the top of the list. We also must consider in that type of list that some have inherited their wealth and some earned it through creativity rather than pure desire for capital accumulation.

But that’s the interesting thing about wealth – it bestows power and control. Talking about power, we’re back in the realm of Scorpio which is ruled by Pluto. Control is Capricorn which is ruled by Saturn.

The last and cardinal earth sign, Capricorn, is not on the billionaire list but is well-known astrologically for its ambition and materialism. Capricorn is the mountain goat which climbs up, up, up. As they say about power, it’s lonely at the top. Capricorn gone bad can sacrifice a lot of personal relationships through drive for success.

If you find a Capricorn content with his/her position in life, please let me know.

Virgo is the most passive of the earth signs, generally focused on practical aspects of life such as work, health and diet. While I don’t have time to trace the Virgo billionaires, I wonder if Virgo wealth doesn’t come from good old-fashioned penny-pinching. I’m guessing those Virgo billionaires may still clip coupons.

Virgo is more about efficiency than gain, but can get caught up in its own devices in what today is called obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Virgo, Capricorn and Scorpio, then, seem to have a tendency toward capital accumulation or material accumulation not for its own enjoyment, but as a type of addiction or compulsion.

The Roaring 90s

A couple years ago, the most popular post-graduate degree became the Masters of Business Administration – MBA (25.4%) surpassing education (23.6%). Education degrees, keep in mind, are often a requirement. While the years are spotty on this site (some years are not represented), the surge in business undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees came in the early to mid 1980s.

While business degrees increased in the 1980s, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the US had an economic boom. As this Economic Policy Institute site notes:

One of the big stories of the 1990s was the acceleration of productivity growth in the latter part of the decade. Productivity growth averaged 2.5% in the second, compared to 1.5% in the first part of the decade. This improvement primarily resulted from more investment in new technologies, mainly computers and software, and from a tightening labor market that forced firms to utilize their existing pool of workers better.

This resulted in the great increase in consumption as percent of GDP:

Consumption is both the largest component of GDP and a leading indicator for future investment. Consumption as a share of GDP grew steadily throughout the 1990s to more than 68% by 2000.

Is consumption just another word for greed?

The Socialization of Greed

At the beginning of the 1990s, Jupiter was in Cancer while Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were all transiting Capricorn. Pluto was in Scorpio.

By the mid 1990s, Saturn had moved to Aquarius. Jupiter changes signs every year so in the decade passed through 11 signs from Cancer to the beginning of Gemini.

The economic boom of the 1990s occurred with Saturn and two outer planets (Uranus and Neptune) in the Capricorn with Pluto in Scorpio.

What’s so fascinating here is that the economic boom occurred with three major planets in Capricorn. Come 2009 Pluto begins to transit Capricorn and a great portion of that gain of the 1990s was destroyed.

Let’s start with Saturn in Capricorn. Saturn rules Capricorn so Capricorn is very happy with this overseer. Saturn in Capricorn are the solid, practical messages sent by our traditions and elders to follow the rules, follow authority (true authority, not anyone that calls him/herself authority), be stable (like buy a house) and save your pennies for a planned future. Oh, and make sure you have insurance.

So far, so good.

Uranus in Capricorn says that conscious awareness and sudden shifts will occur through this same energy.

During the 1990s sophisticated and abstract trading began from individuals known as “quants.” Their trading took down a few corporations from Long-Term Capital Management to Lehman Brothers. The high mathematical and statistical nature of these business practices meant that the average person couldn’t understand them yet one day would find the price of their house had diminished and wouldn’t exactly know why. Electricity trading also rose in this period, as Uranus rules electricity. Enron’s paper financial gains occurred during this period and collapsed in 2001.

Let’s not forget all the technology developed during this time was part of the boom. This increase in technology has further increased our dependency on electricity, which began being traded during that same time (interest to speculate where this will lead).

All the while Saturn in Capricorn had been telling us, “What’s more unassailable as an investment than your home?”

Uranus made us aware of abstract practices that we average folk could never understand but that affected whether or not we had a job and a home.

That’s quite an awakening.

Which brings us to Neptune in Capricorn which “spiritualized” this same energy. Neptune is the glossy glow that is put around the lover’s face in the movies. This halo increased substantially around the individuals who brought us technology and economic growth (which at the time was believed to be a real thing).

The spiritualization of Capricorn seemed to create the belief that “if it’s good for the economy, do it.”

This Neptune in Capricorn energy (which moved to Aquarius and is now in Pisces) worshiped and admired anyone that made money through Capricorn endeavors. These became our new heroes.

The Capricorn and Scorpio (and Virgo) tendency toward greed does not appear to have been eradicated but transformed through the spiritualization and socialization of business.

If greed is consumption which is the basis for the US economy, greed, then, must be promoted for us to survive in this country as we do today.

What if the US economy wasn’t consumption (greed) based? Would we be forced to travel into our own greed to discover what this addiction is truly seeking?

I wonder what an economy of contented people who didn’t need much would look like.

Prone to Greed, Prone to Depression?

What’s interesting, too, about Capricorn and Scorpio energy, is that, according to astrologer Liz Greene, these two signs are also prone to depression (Dynamics of the Unconscious, p 95).

When our economy fails, we call it a Depression, although we’ve also decided to transform that term and instead call it a Recession. Pluto began transiting Capricorn in late 2008-early 2009 and, with it, came a depression of the financial and emotional kind.

Your house is gone, your job is gone so who are you? What is the point of this life? What was the point of all that striving? What was I truly striving for? Will I ever find a job? Will I lose my house?

For Americans, work is defining so loss of work can be extremely traumatic.

If Capricorn and Scorpio tend toward both greed and depression, is greed an attempt to alleviate depression?

An NCHS brief states that:

From 1988–1994 through 2005–2008, the rate of antidepressant use in the United States among all ages increased nearly 400%.

While our economy was booming, our spirits were falling.

Possibly instead of trying to fix the economy, should we try to understand and alleviate this collective depression? Maybe then we wouldn’t have to ever again worry about the economy because we would be happy with our material goods and not constantly seeking more and more.

Greed can then have its name back.

We can then spend some time searching under rocks to find where vanity is hiding.

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Personal and Social Consciousness

Posted on November 3, 2014 by ohioastrology

Personal consciousness in the horoscope is represented by the sign Cancer and the 4th house. Its opposite, social consciousness, is represented by the opposite sign Capricorn and opposite 10th house.

Personal and social consciousness is a polarity, one of the six polarities symbolized in the horoscope. In Alchemy of Nine Dimensions, Barbara Hand Clow describes this polarity as feeling (Cancer) and power (Capricorn).

While watching a documentary recently, I wondered again why we try to force beliefs on others. It works, but with the disastrous effects that the extremes of any polarity cause.

It’s the polarity’s extreme, not the particular beliefs, that cause the problem. As I was once taught about the tai chi symbol, the sigmoid curve represents this idea that anything in extreme becomes its opposite.

That any extreme becomes its opposite is visible in individuals detonating bombs to protest war; in individuals killing others to create a more pure moral environment; in individuals promoting hatred to produce love.

It’s the same pattern over and over. It seems to occur in just about any cause that exists in organizational form. Maybe the organizational form is the yeast that helps it rise.

Recently someone provided an image that has stuck with me – that of the pendulum. Extreme is a strong pendulum swing that sends the energy back in the opposite direction. As the pendulum slows, the swing is less extreme until it is balanced.

Our strong desire these last few thousand years to force others to believe what we believe is the pendulum of the 4th and 10th houses. The 4th develops a personal moral code. When others agree, we create a social moral code. For all the killing that exists in the world, it’s amazing that murder is the one activity most humans through time and space agree is immoral.

If we all agree on this one thing, why do we continue to kill each other?

When every belief I have must be shared by the entire world, then my 4th house has taken over my 10th house and now personal consciousness is deemed social consciousness. Believing the entire world must agree with me is a goal (delusion?) that will never occur.

Why do we want this?

In the documentary I watched, a group of young people (20s-early 30s) are in a van in a foreign place on their way to spread their message. In the van they are filled with the energy of their mission and are singing loud and joyfully.

That’s the Cancer experience, the sense of belonging, of being accepted, of being part of a family, clan or other close-knit community. Who would want to intrude upon a joy such as this?

To get Cancer energy, do we need to go to the extreme of Capricorn authority to create and enforce the sense of belonging? Possibly the promotion of individuality in the US culture creates more separation and, therefore, an extreme desire for belonging?

What’s in the US chart to signify this?

The sun in the US chart (July 4, 1776 – Sagittarius rising) is in the sign of belonging, Cancer. The moon, however, is in the hyper-rational air sign Aquarius and may explain why so much technology also is developed here.

In the US chart Saturn resides (in Libra) in the 10th house. The 4th house is then ruled by Aries but there are no planets in that house. Saturn in Libra in the 10th is a nice representation of the US desire to make the laws of the world, Saturn in Libra being exalted. This placement seeks fairness and justice.

Saturn in the air sign Libra is given additional energy by the moon in air sign Aquarius and Mars and Uranus in air sign Gemini. That’s a grand air trine and a lot of idealism and also a lot of talk that may or may not come to fruition.

Yet Saturn is Saturn and in Libra in the 10th, others may not feel the partnership and feel, instead, restrained by Saturn. Saturn also squares the sun in Cancer.

In the US chart, it’s actually the 2nd and 8th houses – my money and your money respectively – that are emphasized. Sun in Cancer in the 8th suggests material dependency and sense of belonging through that very dependency. Pluto in Capricorn in the 2nd is transformation through money and resources which ultimately lead to transformation of values.

A Sagittarius rising, that mutable fire sign, adds a crusading urge to the national psyche.

The US chart seems to reflect the Cancer desire to belong with the moon in Aquarius desire to remain separate and individual. That’s a conflict. We travel far to promote belief yet put fences up on our southern border to keep the neighbors out, neighbors who want to participate in our culture, who don’t need to be coerced.

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Interest and Awareness

Posted on November 2, 2014 by ohioastrology

We’re all familiar with the phenomenon of hearing a new word, discovering a new idea, seeing an icon and suddenly seeing it, hearing it everywhere.

Was it always out there and we didn’t notice? Or did our awareness of it create an attracting energy?

For most of us, empiricists as we are, it was always out there and we didn’t notice. Option two is more mystical and can lead to self-awareness but can also lead to self-absorption.

There is a third option that our mind takes when it has no out – coincidence.

Coincidence is a word in our lexicon, like déjà vu, that allows for itself without explanation. It’s like the “none of the above” option on a test or survey. It doesn’t provide an answer, but doesn’t accept the listed answers.

Why the ancient gods?

Recently while at a data visualization conference, Neil deGrasse Tyson spoke as one of the keynote speakers. While talking his trade, he noted how scientists in his field were logical so tended to describe things literally and logically such as (paraphrasing here because I can’t recall the exact example) calling a small, round-shaped galaxy “The Small Round-Shaped Galaxy.”

Yet later, while discussing an asteroid that may collide with the earth, we learned that scientists gave this asteroid a name – Apophis. To deGrasse’s credit, this asteroid was originally named, according to Wikipedia, 2004 MN4.

But the name changed to Apophis (also referred to in Egyptian mythology as Apep), an Egyptian god described in Ancient Egypt Online as:

…the ancient Egyptian spirit of evil, darkness and destruction who threatened to destroy the sun god Ra as he travelled though the underworld (or sky) at night. Originally Set and Mehen (the serpent headed man) were given the job of defending Ra and his solar barge. They would cut a hole in the belly of the snake to allow Ra to escape his clutches. If they failed, the world would be plunged into darkness. However, in later periods Apep was sometimes equated with Set who was after all a god of chaos. In this case a variety of major and minor gods and goddesses (including Isis, Neith, Serqet (Selket), Geb, Aker and the followers of Horus) protected Ra from this all consuming evil. The dead themselves (in the form of the god Shu) could also fight Apep to help maintain Ma´at (order).

The Astrophysicist Public Relations Department probably caught on to the fact that if you want the public to take seriously the threat of an earth-colliding asteroid, you do better with Egyptian gods of destruction than letters and numbers.

But why an Egyptian god? Why go back 5,000 years for an image?

We could have come closer in time and referenced a Greek or Roman god.

Astrologically, Pluto represents the destruction that precedes evolution. In mythology, Pluto rules the underworld. Possibly we rejected this choice since astronomers recently downgraded Pluto from planet-status.

It’s funny we diminished our own destroyer but picked up the Egyptian one on the way back from the incinerator.

Interest

Since a child, I’ve had a great interest in Egypt. When I heard of this asteroid named after an Egyptian god (not a closer-to-our times Greek or Roman god like Uranus, Neptune and Pluto all named in the 20th century), I wondered if I truly had an interest in Egypt or if I was simply aware of an Egyptian undercurrent in our culture.

When I arrived in Ohio’s capital city for college, I brought with me a deck of Tarot cards. I’d been exposed to them just a few weeks earlier by a Scorpio relative. I thought they were fun and interesting!

My experience with those cards and the unintended accuracy scared me for a number of years. Astrology replaced it (not intentionally), a discipline more analytical and left-brain and, therefore, safe.

My deck was the classic Rider-Waite deck and one of my first perceptions was that there was some medieval soul lurking in the depths of the freedom-seeking American. The images in this deck are medieval with kings, queens, knights, hanging martyrs, people falling from towers and magicians. People responded quite strongly to those images.

It took years to understand those images outside of the cultural and historical context, but back then I was amazed at our medieval fears.

Awareness

These perceptions and many others accompanied my new life. Only later, when fully understanding astrology, did I understand that the very month I arrived in college, Uranus, the great awakener, was transiting my first house.

Astrology was also an interest brought from childhood but began flowering at this time. This is when a friend very casually asked if I’d ever cast a natal horoscope. What was that?

Uranus is sudden, electric – a bolt of lightening as it were. This is a known image and a very good one for the Uranus experience. But who, really, wants to be struck by lightening?

The excitement comes from a sudden understanding or connecting of the dots. A world opens, fresh, clear and vivid. The shock comes from the changing of perception, of ideas. With Uranus, the challenge is whether the awe can outweigh the shock. A well-functioning nervous system is essential for this experience.

What comes after Uranus, Neptune, is more scary because after the awareness comes the dissolving of old identity and beliefs. If this occurs while young, it’s easier because there is less to dissolve. At an older age, you’ve got lots more stuff in the closets, attic and basement and when dissolution arrives, it’s much more difficult to let go of all that stuff.

Interest or awareness?

Am I interested in Egypt or am I picking up on the underlying Egyptian energy in the environment? Are we technological creatures with ancient psyches?

If science is enlightenment and the way out of superstitious thinking, why does science continue to reference mythology of the most ancient kind?

To create concern about the total destruction of our planet, why do rational beings need ancient myths rather than simple facts?

The need for ancient myth seems to relate to the human need to see things visually in story form – when a Hollywood movie is made about Apophis destroying earth, when we go through the visual-feeling experience, only then will we worry.

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