Retirement Planning with Iggy Pop

Posted on May 4, 2013 by ohioastrology

Apparently Iggy Pop wants to know if his new album will be successful and has been consulting tarot readers. According to this video, he wants his new album “to sell.” He says he “could sure use a hit.”

That sounds like the wish of a businessman, not a rock star. Makes sense for a guy with sun and moon in Taurus (according to Astrotheme) who enjoys luxury and material goods. Mr. Pop is possibly broke.

While Jupiter was transiting Taurus in from June 2011 to June 2012, Iggy may have had some windfalls of material gain. Today the astrological landscape is a bit different.

Saturn is transiting Scorpio creating a tense T-square with the sensual and material sun/moon (in Taurus) and the controlling and self-centered Saturn/Pluto in Leo. Saturn will conjunct natal Jupiter in Scorpio in fall of 2014.

The Scorpio/Taurus opposition creates a complicated financial situation. Pop may have some gains, but he may also find that his assets have lost value. In the case of Pop, his asset is his identity and he may be facing some unpleasant realities about time and space. Trying to sell an “album,” for example, is a bit dated.

Pop might do better selling his identity than selling music. Identities can be “monetized” these days in many ways: action figures, motivational speaking, reality shows, clothing lines, perfume, food, grills, theme parks and much more!

If Pop were to invest his identity through material means, I would suggest he involve his chart’s Taurus/Leo T-square and create the Iggy Pop Resort in Las Vegas.

Taurus likes material comfort and Leo likes grandeur. It’s the perfect way to remain a “name” and also “sell” stuff. Vegas is the perfect place for Pop’s energy. The resort would be big as everything in Vegas is monster-sized (appealing to both Taurus and Leo), ostentatious (Leo) with a few wild animals in the lobby (T-square tension).

Everything would be soft and comfortable with minimal effort exerted to derive pleasure. That means “you know what” would be encouraged here, maybe even the goal. OHA dares not speak the word, but suffice to say Charlie Sheen would like this resort.

This advice is free, as that is the kind of good OHA promotes, so pricey astrological consulting fees won’t threaten the profitability of the venture.

Escape from the body

Having seen Pop in the late 1980s, I was convinced his thrashing energy was due to something like the electrical energy that you see with Mars or Uranus. By the way, I think I blew an eardrum at that concert and should get some proceeds from the new album to cover the cost of all that I haven’t heard in the last 20 years.

Pop does have Mars and Mercury in Aries, but I think the thrashing is really about that T-square of Taurus and Leo. I’m wondering if he’s trying to get out of his body. He seems like a cartoon character that is trying to push its colors outside of the lines.

Taurus, Leo and Scorpio are fixed signs which are intense, focused and set in their ways. Fixed signs make great leaders because of this unwavering focus. If you’re not in a position to rule a small Communist island nation, too much fixed energy can create a bit of rigidity seen as uncooperative.

The moon in Taurus is considered its exaltation. The moon is where we react and Taurus is slow to react thereby calming the emotions. Taurus moon is a deep pool of water that ripples at the top from the wind, but not below the surface.

The princess and the pea, where the princess can feel a pea 20 mattresses deep is more like a Pisces or Virgo moon, so sensitive to the environment that they are like embodied emotional allergies.

Taurus moon, on the other hand, is not sensitive in that way and can drink its liquor straight. Because of that calmness, I find Taurus moon likes extreme sports. I think it’s because they have such thick skin, it takes a stronger force to feel what others feel more easily.

Possibly Pop’s extreme thrashing is simply a way to feel the pulse of the music. Others tap their foot for the same effect.

The thrashing might also be a way to push that T-square energy out and relax.

If the Astrotheme horoscope is correct, transiting Pluto in Capricorn is in Pop’s sixth house of health. Capricorn rules skin, teeth, bones and knees. Pop may be having health problems in these areas. This transiting Pluto is squaring natal Neptune in Libra in the third so the problems might be due to smoking (Libra being an air sign indicates something with breathing) or some other toxin in the immediate environment (third house being neighbors, siblings and neighborhood).

Pluto square the natal “make love not war” Neptune in Libra placement suggests some problems with a romantic partner.

Transiting Jupiter is completing its passage through Gemini this month, passing over Pop’s Uranus in Gemini. May will be a fun month, but then Jupiter will be hanging out in Pop’s twelfth house for a year. Pop may be spending more time at home than he expects.

Retirement planning

In summary, Pop’s album may do well in the first couple months of release, but probably won’t relieve him of his financial obligations. By fall 2014, money owed will come due. Health problems may also prohibit Pop from thrashing on stage which is his signature behavior.

If Pop is planning for retirement, he may want to consider other things to sell besides music. Because Taurus is an earth sign, it tends to approach the world from a material point-of-view. Pop wants to sell an “album,” a physical thing that no longer exists.

Pop might want to consult with air sign friends who sense opportunity in the air and know how to sell things in a non-tangible form or can help merge tangible and non-tangible. Music, for example, is what Pop is truly selling and music is now sold in bytes, not on plastic.

With Saturn transiting Scorpio in the fourth and fifth houses, debts from home expenditures, romance and children are coming due. It’s time for Pop to have a more creative approach to solving his financial problems.

Pop might be helped by his own Venus in Pisces which is hanging out in his intense chart promoting a more gentle and fluid approach to life.

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Pier 1 Does Astrology

Posted on April 28, 2013 by ohioastrology

Retailer Pier 1 ever-so-boldly has a zodiac gift guide. It’s adorable – love the write-ups. Anyone out there write it?

Pier 1’s Zodiac Gift Guide

From the pictures:

Gemini, Libra and Sagittarius drink the most while Cancer eats the most.

Virgo cooks but doesn’t eat because it is busy keeping lists and using hand sanitizer.

Taurus and Leo like pillows.

Aries and Scorpio probably should never hook up – too much intensity.

Capricorn could decorate from discarded university furniture.

Pisces should live in the ocean.

Aquarius is weird, cats are weird and Uranus probably rules cats.

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Snobbery is Ubiquitous

Posted on April 24, 2013 by ohioastrology

Watching the documentary Helvetica, I learned that Helvetica font ubiquitous. Watching designers struggle over font and identity, I realized, too, that snobbery is also ubiquitous.

What is snobbery?

Dictionary.com defines snobbery as:

  1. A person who strives to associate with those of higher social status and who behaves condescendingly to others.
  2. A person having similar pretensions with regard to his tastes, etc.

I think of snobbery as creating a hierarchical system where the bottom is perceived as bad, the top good and one’s own background, values and preferences are on top.

Gloria Steinem describes it best in “If Men Could Menstruate:”

“Whatever a ‘superior’ group has will be used to justify its superiority and whatever an ‘inferior’ group has will be used to justify its plight.”

Because it’s so funny, I have to share a little more of her essay. She goes on to write:

“So what would happen if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate, and women could not? Clearly menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event:

Men would brag about how long and how much.

Young boys would talk about it as the envied beginning of manhood. Gifts, religious ceremonies, family dinners and stag parties would mark the day.”

She has many more, laugh-out-loud examples.

Pie Snobbery

Snobbery, then, is structure and within that structure can be any type of “snobbery.” It’s like snobbery is the pie crust and the pie filling is the type of snobbery.

You can have apple pie snobbery, or cherry pie snobbery or pecan pie snobbery (apple pie being the best, of course).

There can even be pie snobbery, like the kind you see at the county fair.

Michael Kinsley also describes “reverse snobbery” where the snobbery involves a reaction to perceived snobbery:

“Reverse snobbery, unlike the traditional kind, is a tribute to democracy—it’s egalitarianism overshooting the mark. And it is a countervailing social force against growing economic disparity. But when you’re faking it, if you’re not careful, reverse snobbery can look a lot like the traditional kind.”

Reverse snobbery is sort of like a pie without a crust claiming it’s not a pie but really is a pie. As Honest Fare says in this crustless pie recipe:

“If it looks like a pie and it feels like a pie, it’s a pie!”

While Dictionary.com defines snobbery as involving social status, that is just one form of snobbery.

Snobbery is Saturn

Saturn rules structure so snobbery is an offshoot of having to order the world from bottom to top, from good to bad, from Fords to BMWs.

Saturn rules Capricorn so this sign is particularly snobby about the fundamental societal hierarchy – social class. And, of course, Capricorns are often the ones leading the definition of social class.

Saturn in your horoscope may be where you exhibit the most snobbery in your life.

Are you a second house snob about money and possessions? A tenth house snob about career? A fourth house snob about your home environment and cooking? A fifth house snob about your creative work?

Saturn also represents our weakest link or insecurity. Often our snobberies are fed from our own insecurities. Seeing oneself as better than others can alleviate feelings of unworthiness.

Hyacinth Bucket

A most enjoyable, stereotypical social snob is found in Hyacinth Bucket (her last name she pronounces as “bouquet”), the main character in the 1990s British comedy “Keeping Up Appearances.”

Turning bucket, a common slop pail, into “bouquet” a beautiful gathering of flowers, is funny enough. But one day when someone brought a bouquet of hyacinth into the office I fully understood the pun. A bouquet of hyacinth is quite overpowering, so much so that we moved the offending bouquet into a closed office.

The character Hyacinth Bucket is also overpowering, as when she organizes an “indoor outdoor luxury barbeque with finger buffet” to impress the local garden store owner who has been “on the television.”

Hyacinth Bucket is the quintessential snob, and a British one at that.

The Land of Hierarchy

At one time I believed that all literature originating in England had snobbery as its foundation. I changed my mind on that for a few years, or possibly it was just a few minutes, I can’t recall, then returned to harboring this thought.

According to Astrology Weekly and Wikipedia, there are three main dates are associated with the “birth” of England:

  1. December 25, 1066 – the date of William the Conqueror’s coronation.
  2. May 1, 1707 – the date of merging of Great Britain and Scotland as the Kingdom of Great Britain.
  3. January 1, 1801 – the date of merging of the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland.

Two of those three dates are in the sign of Capricorn (1066 and 1801) while one is the sign of Taurus (May 1), which like Capricorn, is an earth sign.

One of the first astrologers I met commented that England is even shaped like the glyph for Capricorn/Saturn (glyphs in that order).

Capricorn.svg

Saturn_symbol.svgSatellite_image_of_Great_Britain_and_Northern_Ireland_in_April_2002[Images from Wikipedia]

What’s interesting too is that 1066 and 1801 both have Pluto in Pisces. This would suggest that Great Britain’s formation into nationhood contained religious/spiritual roots and/or motivations. I don’t know the history of religions/spirituality in Britain to comment on this.

Maybe it’s the Pisces “merging” in this commonwealth of islands that is represented by Pisces.

Snobbery Quantified

When asking a woman traveler on the Tube in London if one could take jelly through airport security, my answer was “you mean jaaaaam (jam).” Every time I talked to a native during my week in London, my English was corrected in an insulting manner.

It felt a bit like this thing called snobbery. I would say language snobbery is a third house (communications) type of snobbery.

Or possibly it’s simply my perception as a profiled “Emergent Service Worker,” according to the “Great British Class Calculator.”

Who knows?

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May 2013: Saturn Opposing Taurus

Posted on April 21, 2013 by ohioastrology

Welcome to Taurus. The sun, Venus and Mars are now in the fixed earth sign.

Feel calmer?

The earth may still continue to shake as Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn rub each other the wrong way in a cardinal square, but day-to-day might feel a little slower than felt in April.

Good time to plant that garden.

Calm is nice, yes, but while several planets enter Taurus (Mercury will be there too in May), Saturn is hanging out in Taurus’ opposite sign of Scorpio. Saturn transits a sign for two and a half years. This May and next May will have this Scorpio influence.

That’s called an opposition.

America loves opposition. Do you remember the day you had no view on abortion? Some readers may be too young to recollect this time (it did exist – it is not a myth). Today every American is expected to have a view, for or against, on this issue. It is a defining issue for candidates during elections.

Why?

Opposition occurs naturally, of course, but opposition can provoke you into responses for the sake of releasing your energy to the provoker. Scorpio lessons involve transfer of energy so it’s a good time to track energy that is released through provocation and see who benefits from it.

Expect more opposition in May of the kind that involves Taurus and Scorpio – body issues, sexual issues, religious issues and money issues that involve borrowing and lending.

Rape, a Scorpio issue in my mind, has been frequently in the news since Saturn entered Scorpio last October from a gang rape in India to girls being raped in the US and pictures of rape disseminated through social media.

Rape -what a terrible word. In a Google search some horrific stories appeared. During this opposition it may be necessary to stomach the intensity that arises when dealing with this issue.

On the positive side, one’s first pleasant sexual encounters are called a “sexual awakening.” My Google search on this revealed that awakening doesn’t always correspond to the beginning of sexuality.

What is it that has awakened?

Parents seem extremely distraught with the idea of their children ever having sex. When children have sex, is the parental bond severed forever?

On April 25 the moon will be full in the sign of Scorpio. This is the Halloween half-way point in the year and it might be a good time to dress up as ghouls and goblins and get a little wild.

Taurus – Scorpio Axis

As always, I’m thrilled and delighted with the amazing astrology blogs found in the Blogosphere. I’d like to share some varied and interesting blogs on the Taurus – Scorpio axis and current Saturn-in-Scorpio/Taurus oppositions.

Taurus-Scorpio, Part I: The Desire to Know and the Path of Illumination

CPA Seminar Series: Taurus/Scorpio Axis

A Deeper Cut: Saturn’s Opposition to Taurus

Scorpio and Taurus, the 2nd and the 8th

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Ryan Gosling’s Stare

Posted on April 20, 2013 by ohioastrology

More than acting, Ryan Gosling’s movie presence seems to involve staring. Long stares. Quiet stares. Pensive stares. Emotionless stares. Mesmerizing stares.

A plethora of stares.

A congress of stares.

A fluther of stares.

A drove of stares.

Gosling, no wonder to astrologers, is a Scorpio sun. Of this sun sign the late Linda Goodman in “Sun Signs” writes:

“Look at the eyes. They can be green, blue, brown, or black, but they’ll be piercing with hypnotic intensity. Most people feel nervous or ill at ease under Scorpio’s steady gaze. You’ll have to break the spell and look away first. He’ll outshine you every time. It’s a foolproof identification of the Pluto personality. Scorpio eyes bore deeply into you, mercilessly, as if they’re penetrating your very soul. They are.”

Take a look at Gosling [picture from Wikipedia].

Ryan_Gosling_2013

Controlling personality

Gosling has Mercury, sun and Uranus in Scorpio, a Capricorn moon and Jupiter/Saturn/Venus/Pluto all in Libra. Neptune and Mars are conjunct in Sagittarius.

There’s a complicated dude behind the stare.

Gosling is a controlling personality type having lots of Pluto and Saturn influence in his chart (Scorpio, Capricorn, Pluto conjunct Venus, Saturn conjunct Jupiter).

Here’s an image. Gosling mesmerizes you with that stare and you feel like the most special person in the world.

You plan a party together – a beautiful, elegant party where fine guests and fine food merge into an exquisite evening. All has gone well and you and Gosling joined in hug wave to the departing guests. They leave, you turn back into the house and suddenly Gosling has gone quiet, turned cold.

What happened?

He won’t tell you. You wonder, you worry, you fret. After a dramatic period of insecurity, you learn that you let one of his guests use his special silk napkin. You also, you learn, enjoyed kisses on the cheek from male guests a little too much. Your dress, by the way, was ugly.

You’re shocked and stunned.

Next afternoon the guests come over for leftovers and Gosling treats them and you with the same mesmerizing, engaging charisma of the night before.

If you told someone what last night felt like, would they believe you?

Drive

The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) writes that Gosling’s trademark is that he “often plays quiet, emotionally distant characters.”

“Such mastery of the personality has to be envied. No matter how his emotions are stirred, you’ll rarely see them reflected on Scorpio’s frozen, immobile face.” [from Linda Goodman’s “Sun Signs”]

In the movie Drive, Gosling is “quiet and emotionally distant” but also an extremely talented. I don’t think we ever learn the reason for the emotional distance.

Is he playing himself? What’s he distancing himself from?

Gosling is probably distancing himself from his own intensity. Living with sun conjunct Uranus in Scorpio is like carrying a black hole around that threatens to suck you in and spit you out at the other end of universe. It’s attached to you like a Siamese twin so you learn to live with it.

Scorpio and Capricorn are serious bedfellows and I’d expect Gosling to be drawn to roles of mafia or organized crime. I see a movie called “Gangster Squad” on his Filmography. In that movie it appears he’s on the side of the cops. I could also see him being drawn to the gangster side, as the head honcho.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

When our personality has no conflicts, we are comfortable with being serious or not-serious or whatever we are. Most of us have a conflict, which actually is a good thing. Conflicts or frustration often are the impetus we need to change and grow in life.

The conflict I see in Gosling’s personality is the Mars/Neptune conjunction in Sagittarius. This combination cares about the world but does not carry the weight of the world on its shoulders as does Scorpio and Capricorn.

Mars and Neptune in Sagittarius can be addicted to anything that provides a rush or sense of heightened experience. Gosling’s emotional distance may be in part to distance himself from his addictions.

In “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” Gosling’s character is the Mars/Neptune in Sagittarius conjunction – sexy, appealing, charismatic and having a good time. Sagittarius is not in love with commitment the way some other signs are.

The character in “Crazy, Stupid, Love” is teaching the frustrated, soon-to-be-divorced husband how to pick up women through developing style and confidence.

“Remark to a Scorpio that he has a talent which will someday be recognized, and he smoothly, casually replies, ‘Yes, I know.'” [from Linda Goodman’s “Sun Signs”]

Lars and the Real Girl

In “Lars and the Real Girl,” our character Lars has decided that his mannequin is real. Those around him share in the delusion to help Lars through his issues.

While I can’t imagine Gosling falling for such delusion as it is a way of losing control, having four planets in Libra makes one uber-concerned with finding a mate.

Libra is seeking a mate and Scorpio is seeking an intense emotional relationship. The Libra mate-finding is complicated in Gosling’s chart because Venus is saying it’s about pleasure, Pluto wants control, Saturn wants boundaries and Jupiter wants shared ideals.

Jupiter and Saturn conjunct in Libra can represent partnership with someone of a different racial, social, religious or cultural background that creates a separation from the personal background. It can also create issues through those differences.

Gosling, like Lars, has some high ideals in a mate. Not deluded ideals, but a strong need for beauty and balance in a partner.

“There are Scorpios who can live a spartan existence in a bare room, denying themselves every comfort for some obscure, aesthetic reason, but the true nature of the sign is sensual. Normally, Scorpio will surround himself with luxury. He’ll lean toward excesses in food, drugs, drink and yes – in love.” [from Linda Goodman’s “Sun Signs”]

Gosling’s next movie

Gosling’s next movie involves more Saturn and Pluto – Saturn transiting his sun and Uranus while Pluto transits his moon.

In this movie, Gosling meets a girl (I’m assuming he likes girls) from a different time and place. Her differences are extremely attractive but also disturbing. He’s obsessed. He has a compulsion to understand the differences.

This girl gives Gosling a pair of magical eye glasses then takes him on a walk through wet, swampy area in the middle of the night. The glasses throw him off balance and the girl is in control of where they walk and where they are going. In fact, having been led in wearing magical glasses, Gosling does not know the path out.

The world looks the same, but different with these glasses. What is it exactly? Is it good? Is it bad?

The eye glasses are removed and Gosling finds himself staring at his own obsessive melancholy. He can see both the depth and poetry of that character but also the futility of playing hard to get to test others’ devotion.

“Pluto’s symbol is the triumphant phoenix rising from its own smoldering ashes, and Scorpio personifies resurrection from the grave. Both the gray lizards and the stinging scorpions can become proud eagles without ever revealing the secret of their sorcery.” [from Linda Goodman’s “Sun Signs”]

Please silence your cell phones as the feature presentation is about to begin.

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Edwin Abbott – In Love with Ideas

Posted on April 14, 2013 by ohioastrology

In a delightful bout of synchronicity, yesterday the novella “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” fell upon my feet as I was taking my reserve video off the library shelf. The delightful part was that I had just finished a blog about Taurus and speculated in that blog about why the earth being round and not flat was so threatening to some during a previous portion of our history.

“Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions,” written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott, takes place in a two-dimensional world populated by geometric figures. The figures never see themselves or others in their entirety because of their two-dimensionality.

One day a visitor, Sphere from “Spaceland,” comes to visit our narrator, a self-defined Middle Class Square. Sphere looks like a circle because of Flatland’s two-dimensional reality.

The narrator is a middle-class “square.” Sound familiar? This is 1884, about 75 years before calling someone a middle-class square was an insult.

Sphere: Now stretch your imagination a little, and conceive a Square in Flatland, moving parallel to itself upward.

Square: What? Northward?

Sphere: No, not Northward; upward; out of Flatland altogether.

Edwin A. Abbott

abbott

The brief Wikipedia biography of “Flatland” author Edwin A. Abbott describes him as a schoolmaster and theologian.

[Picture from mathaware.org]

Abbott had sun in Sagittarius and moon in Aquarius, conjunct Neptune in Aquarius. Those placements are enough to earn a person the “Absentminded Professor” award. This combination is always thinking, always creating the perfect society – in its head. If others could just understand . . . If others could just see the perfection . . .

Neptune conjunct the moon in the rational sign of Aquarius is a bit confusing. Are the compulsive ideas truly rational or truly emotional? Have you gone crazy or have you truly penetrated the mysteries of time and space? If you’re emotionally attached to your radical ideas, will others see past the emotion?

Moreover, if you do penetrate the mysteries of time and space, how do you manage to return to the three-dimensional world?

As Sphere describes a three-dimensional cube to Square, Square has this reaction:

“‘Monster’, I shrieked, ‘be thou juggler, enchanter, dream, or devil, no more will I endure thy mockeries. Either thou or I must perish.’ And saying these words, I precipitated myself upon him.”

In addition to sun and Venus very tightly conjunct in Sagittarius (more on Venus later), Abbott also had Saturn in Sagittarius suggesting that his environment put limits on the meaning of the world around him. Sagittarius is ultimately about meaning and therefore drawn to religion. Saturn in religion makes rules whereas Sagittarius’ ruler Jupiter is about expansion and inclusion. As Sagittarius the archer gallops over fences, it runs smack into Saturn, the end of the world.

Past Saturn are Uranus, Neptune and Pluto which are like the psychotropic drugs ingested all too willingly and recklessly in the early 1950s and 1960s. They break the barrier of Saturn, but it is dangerous to travel past Saturn without psychic protection.

Square’s entry into Spaceland:

“. . . When I could find a voice I shrieked aloud in agony, ‘Either this is madness or it is Hell.’ ‘It is neither,’ calmly replied the voice of the Sphere, ‘it is Knowledge; it is Three Dimensions: open your eye once again and try to look steadily.”

“Flatland” is set on the night where 1999 becomes 2000. Abbott may well have enjoyed living in 1999, a technology and information age.

Air, air everywhere

Abbott had much air in his chart with moon/Neptune in Aquarius and Jupiter in Libra.

Air is detachment, air flows:

“I looked below, and saw with my physical eye all the domestic individuality which I had hitherto merely inferred with the understanding. And how poor and shadowy was the inferred conjecture in comparison with the reality which I now beheld.”

Air looks at the world and sees patterns:

“The further we receded from the object we beheld, the larger became the field of vision.”

As Square experiences Spaceland he wonders:

“. . . that this Space is really Thoughtland, then take me to that blessed Region where I in Thought shall see the insides of all solid things.”

Sagittarius, the philosopher

Those who look for meaning were once called “philosophers” and relate to Sagittarius. I fear in today’s world philosophy has been replaced by its polar opposite – Gemini, the journalist. We’re bombarded with facts but very little meaning.

Sagittarius is the philosopher in the ancient Greece sense of the word. Philosophers are seekers and teachers. In this part of the world at this time, respect for both philosophers and teachers seems to be at an all-time low due to the focus on profession with material output.

“Nothing could stem the flood of my ecstatic aspirations. Perhaps, I was to blame; but indeed I was intoxicated with the recent draughts of Truth to which he himself introduced me.”

A glimpse of the third dimension had the Middle Class Square seeking even higher dimensions:

“But my Lord has shewn me the intestines of all my countrymen in the Land of Two Dimensions by taking me with him into the Land of Three. What therefore more easy than now to take his servant on a second journey into the blessed region of the Fourth Dimension, where I shall look down with him once more upon this land of Three Dimensions . . .”

Three dimensions leads to a desire for the Fourth Dimension. Then more:

” . . .In that blessed region of Four Dimensions, shall we linger on the threshold of the Fifth, and not enter therein? Ah, no! Let us rather resolve that our ambition shall soar with our corporeal ascent. Then, yielding to our intellectual onset, the gates of the Sixth Dimension shall fly open; after that, a Seventh, and then an Eighth . . .”

Ecstasy of ideas or any other sort is difficult to maintain, although many a Sagittarius will try. An effort to maintain ecstasy can lead to what today are called addictive behaviors.

Once you fly high, the ground hurts on impact. Sagittarius can have as much melancholy as the most Saturnine Capricorn:

“One glimpse, one last and never-to-be-forgotten glimpse I had of the dull level wilderness – which was now to become my Universe again — spread out before my eye. Then a darkness. Then a final, all-consummating thunder-peal; and, when I came to myself, I was once more a common creeping Square, in my Study at home, listening to the Peace-Cry of my approaching Wife.”

The Wife

It’s interesting that the subtitle of the book is “A Romance of Many Dimensions” yet there is no romance in the physical sense. The wife is just a neurotic ball of emotion that must be managed.

A woman in “Flatland” is:

“a needle; being, so to speak, all point, at least at the two extremities. Add to this the power of making herself practically invisible at will, and you will perceive that a Female, in Flatland, is a creature by no means to be trifled with.”

With Venus and sun so closely joined, Abbott was probably quite attractive to the ladies (and gents) but may not have had a full awareness of this with moon in Aquarius. Neptune on the moon also emanates a charismatic, attractive quality.

I’m sure Abbott had devoted followers and admirers.

But “the wife” for Middle Class Square was clearly part of Flatland, a non-dimensional entity that didn’t factor the mathematical romance in any way. A point of pure, non-rational emotion.

“For whenever the temper of the Women is thus exasperated by confinement at home or hampering regulations abroad, they are apt to vent their spleen upon their husbands and children; and in the less temperate climates the whole male population of a village has been sometimes destroyed in one or two hours of a simultaneous female outbreak.”

How a needle has a spleen is a mystery unexplained.

Romance for the author (as he titled the book), was clearly a romance of ideas. I would suspect, however, that with Venus on the sun, there were a few (or more) physical attractions of the Aquarius kind – sudden, electric, intense but short.

The genius rebel

Aquarius is the water bearer, but is not a water sign. Aquarius brings “spiritual food” to the world. Aquarius can become the rebel due to the fixed nature of ideas which are not always in sync with the times.

For that reason, Aquarius is the sign of the genius. I think genius refers not simply to analytical smarts, but the ability to see past the current paradigm. To jump out of Flatland, however Flatland is defined during one’s time in three-dimensional reality.

“Flatland” has an unhappy ending. Our Middle Class Square has been imprisoned (at the time he writes, it’s been seven years) for spreading the word of Spaceland.

Square leaves us with this entreat:

“Yet I exist in the hope that these memoirs, in some manner, I know not how, may find their way to the minds of humanity in Some Dimension, and may stir up a race of rebels who shall refuse to be confined to limited Dimensionality.”

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Almost Taurus

Posted on April 13, 2013 by ohioastrology

How’s Aries treating you? Hopefully you get along with the first, cardinal fire sign that pretty much wants everything its own way and is ruling the skies right now (through sun, Venus, Mars and Uranus).

Who doesn’t love that?

Next week Venus will enter Taurus, the following week the sun and Mars, and by the beginning of May, Mercury.

Don’t worry Aries lovers. Uranus will stay in Aries for about five more years. Don’t think impulsiveness has buried itself in the Taurus earth. Uranus will simply have to work harder in May to crack the earth for the energy to be released.

Moving from full throttle Aries to placid Taurus feels a little bit like this: you’re driving on the highway and the flow just isn’t fast enough for you. So you pass the slow drivers (many of whom are just busy on the phone or texting) rush past the bovine horde to find yourself slamming on the breaks. Traffic is stopped for miles due to something you can’t see.

Will you be stopped for minutes or hours?

You’ll be at a halt through the end of May.

You were going so fast and making such good time! What a shame!

But if you like things to slow down, the stop is a good time to catch up on texting (while not driving), find a new station on the radio, pick up the trash that flew all over the dashboard as you hit the brakes and open the window to allow some fresh air in the car. And you might even notice the beautiful sun peeking from behind iridescent clouds.

Sounds lovely, no?

Taurus

Taurus is ruled by Venus although I believe Taurus is ruled by the earth itself. We have too many signs and too few planets (the moon is a “planet” in astrology) so Venus and Mercury get to do double duty.

Taurus is calm and stable, the least emotional of signs. The moon, which rules emotions, is considered in its exaltation in Taurus. In other words, a calm emotional state creates not only peace but the true enjoyment of earth sensation. When we’re bothered by emotional states, we rarely enjoy the environment.

Taurus is the fixed earth sign. Think fixed and think earth and you then think “stubborn.” The fixed signs are all determined in their element: Aquarius is determined about ideas, Leo is determined about expression and Scorpio is determined about feelings. This determination leads fixed signs to positions of leadership.

Taurus, then, is stubborn about earth – habit and material life. Oh, and money.

A good example is the recent debate we had on earth about whether the earth is flat or round.

Standing on the earth, it appears flat. Flat is the sensation and the appearance. Which one of us would have questioned the flatness thousands of years ago?

Looking at the earth from the moon, it’s clearly round. But it takes the vantage point of 239,000 miles away to see this.

How did we figure out the earth was round without the vantage point of thousands of miles?

Those looking into the sky discovered it. They figured it out by watching the sun and moon. They looked at the appearances of things in relation to each other and did some math. They wondered “why?”

Why was a round earth so scary to some, especially those in authority (which is ruled by another earth sign – Capricorn)?

It’s scary to discover that appearances are not the full reality. It’s scary to earth signs and scary to the “earth” in each of us. Earth signs are concerned with practical affairs and often look down or straight, but not up and out.

It’s particularly scary to authority because stability rests on common, unchanging belief. If the people wake up one day and ask, “How does the king have authority?” the kind had better start looking for a new job.

Questioning the earth was questioning the reality of appearance itself.

Taurus Holidays

The two holidays that occur during Taurus are Earth Day (April 22) and Mother’s Day (May 12 this year), which, by the way, OHA recommends combining into “Mother Earth Day.”

Earth Day is clearly a Taurus holiday where we can remind ourselves that in this body at this time we do, truly, live on earth. The earth is our home and our food, all rolled up into one ball. That means, in Taurus logical fashion, if I pollute the water I pollute myself because I have to drink water.

So simple!

Mothers, too, can (and possibly should) provide “nourishment” to the beings that enter the world through their bodies. Mother’s body feeds us, literally, until we enter the world. Then mother continues to feed us through her body until we have some teeth (Capricorn) to bite into the world on our own.

The sign of mothering is actually Cancer, which belongs to July. Cancer is the emotional side of mothering. It’s interesting that we have Mother’s Day in the physical side of mothering.

Rushing to slow down

Now that you’ve been warned about the traffic jam up ahead, go ahead and rush about getting those last-minute Aries ideas in motion. Ideas and inspiration come with Aries.

When Taurus arrives, it’s time to actually go to the store, buy the wood and make that birdhouse.

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1913 and 2013

Posted on April 5, 2013 by ohioastrology

Astrology is just one of the many symbolic means to view the world in a multitude of ways. Literature, religion, art and culture are other ways we can look at the view in front of us and interpret.

For example, while blogging about the Federal Reserve and US income tax, search lead me to the year 1913. Astrologically I thought I would find something money-oriented such as earth or a year of represented by Scorpio where we had “others” taking our money.

Looking at a year or era of time in astrology leads one to the outer planets which take several years or a decade even to pass through a sign.

Looking at 1913 I didn’t find the Scorpio energy that I expected. Instead I found air – Pluto transiting Gemini and Uranus transiting Aquarius. Neptune, however, was in the home-loving, mother-loving, comfort-loving sign of Cancer.

What does finance have to do with air? Where is the earth? Where is the Scorpio?

1913: Communication Revolution

Governments always try to collect taxes through a variety of means – sales taxes, import taxes, property taxes and income taxes. Taxes are not new.

In the US, the Revenue Act of 1862 established the first income tax in an effort to fund a war (surprise!). The income tax was to be collected “at its source.”

Clever.

Unfortunately, this tax didn’t collect enough revenue and was deemed unsuccessful. Over 50 years later in 1913 the 16th amendment was ratified allowing the federal government to collect income tax at its source and continues, quite successfully, to this day.

What changed in 50 years?

The Revenue Act of 1862 was passed with Pluto in Taurus (earth, finally!), Uranus in Gemini and Neptune in Aries.

There’s Gemini, again.

Possibly what changed over 50 years is represented by Gemini. Gemini rules communication.

In between the Revenue Act of 1862 and the 16th Amendment of 1913 these communication devices were being invented:

1. Telephone
2. Radio (called “wireless”)
3. Television

While these devices weren’t completely functional by 1913, they represent a revolution in both personal and mass communication.

For money systems to function properly, such as the Federal Reserve, there must be a belief and trust in those systems. Belief in money doesn’t come through the traditional belief infrastructures – family and church. In fractional reserve banking, believing the money you put in the bank exists and trusting you can get it back takes public education and cultural training.

While communication devices were being invented and refined, two of our largest existing newspapers were founded: The New York Times in 1851 and the Washington Post in 1877.

Compulsory education laws, according to this Wikipedia site, occurred in the US between 1852 and 1917.

Phone, radio, television, newspapers and education are all in the realm of Gemini.

What changed in 1913 wasn’t banking and taxes, but communication and the ability to disseminate information more effectively.

2013: Digital Revolution

If the advent of communication tools brought such massive changes in governmental control of banking and finance, what is the Digital Revolution bringing?

The Digital Revolution, according to the Digital Revolution’s own messenger – the Internet – began in 1947 with the invention of the transistor. The rise in personal digital use began in the 1990s. At that time, Uranus and Neptune were traveling closely through Capricorn then Aquarius while Pluto was in Sagittarius.

If the Communication Revolution was Gemini, the Digital Revolution is Aquarius. The radio, television and newspapers (and education?) are one-way communication devices. Aquarius brought us two-way, multi-way communication methods (aka “social media”) through the Internet.

Somewhere between the Communication Revolution and the Digital Revolution we changed from a manufacturing society into an information society. Although we don’t make the products we love to consume here in the US, our economy is still dependent on buying those products.

George Orwell

George Orwell, author of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (written in 1948), had sun and moon in the sensitive water sign of Cancer. He also had Mercury and Pluto conjunct in Gemini (wide conjunction) opposite (wide) Uranus in Sagittarius.

In his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (from what I recollect having read it in 1983), television-like devices were used to communicate to and control the populace. In the morning, the television would guide the people through exercises (sound familiar?). People were constantly monitored. Words were used contrary to their meanings (“doublespeak”).

Author and journalist Orwell may have had his own control issues with communication represented by Pluto/Mercury in Gemini. In his novel, communication tools are methods of control, not enlightenment. I’ll have to find a biography on Orwell and get a sense of what drove him to write Nineteen Eighty-Four.

It’s interesting to glance back at Orwell’s vision of communication technology to see how he viewed it and what is has become.

As in Orwell’s novel, today we are constantly taped, our movements monitored from security badges to time clocks to checking ourselves in on social media.

What’s interesting is that today we are active participants in our own monitoring.

Is this bad?

What’s interesting is now there is so much information, it’s called “Big Data” and companies are trying to figure out what to do with it.

In 1913 we still trudged to the library and found information using the card catalog. Today we receive a tsunami of information everyday. Possibly too much information has the same effect as too little – we ignore most of it. Finding the accurate and relevant is increasingly difficult. We are also inundated with trivia which can distract from other, important, information.

There are no more secrets, but what’s real is increasingly up for debate. Posting your birth certificate on the Internet is not enough to prove your birth facts. How does one prove something in world of ever-changing bytes?

Scientists remind us that reality is just a bunch of molecules floating around. It seems they are right.

A common reality may become a problem as Neptune transits Pisces and we increasingly wonder what is true in the fog of information.

Maybe the next revolution will involve not just the devices of communication, but the content.

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Astrology Alert

Posted on April 4, 2013 by ohioastrology

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The National Bureau of Astrological Awareness has issued an “Aries Alert” due to the sun, Venus, Mars and Uranus all transiting this sign.

During this period of pleasure-loving, impulsive and enlightening planetary energies in fiery Aries, residents are warned that self-motivating energies may occur involuntarily. Residents are warned that actions may occur without the prior consent of the part of your being that says, “No, don’t do that.” Inanimate objects are also under the influence of this energy.

The following events may suddenly occur before you have a chance to put up your Pluto in Capricorn defense and control systems:

  • The nuclear power that lives just north of you may decide to nix all treaties (link)
  • Large multi-ton cruise ships may come loose from moorings and drift (link)
  • Cars may suddenly find themselves against buildings with increasing frequency (link link link)
  • You may say things out loud that normally reside only in your mind
  • Others may say things to you that normally reside only in their minds
  • You may have the urge to take over and rule a small country
  • Headaches may occur more regularly
  • Your employees will call off sick more often when really they are just hung over

When dealing with these events it advised to use caution but not reason as reason is completely ineffective during this period. It is inadvisable to tell employees to stop partying on work nights and get in the office on time; they may yell back at you.

Aries energy is balanced by Libra energy, so talk of peace and love might deflect the situation until the energy passes naturally at the end of April.

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April Self Day

Posted on March 30, 2013 by ohioastrology

April Fools’ Day, officially April 1, is in the sign of Aries and is the day we play pranks on others to make them look like a fool.

In other words, we challenge their sense of self.

The smart look dumb, the beautiful are made to feel ugly, authorities have a sense of losing control.

Maybe we should practice this day more often.

What’s a fool?

For the definition and understanding of a fool, I’m going to refer to the tarot. Here’s the Rider-Waite Fool card (picture from Wikipedia), which is numbered as zero in the deck.

220px-RWS_Tarot_00_Fool

Let’s look at the card. It’s sunny out (nice), there are beautiful peaks in the background (nice), the fool is holding a pretty flower (nice) and looking upward (nice) while carrying a very light load (nice). Thoughts are floating seamlessly away from his head through a feather (nice).

There’s only one little problem – for all that lightness and joy, the fool is perilously close to walking off of a cliff. There is another being in the card – a dog. In “Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom” by Rachel Pollack (the only tarot book you’ll ever need), she refers to the dog as a companion.

Looking at the card, I don’t see the fool interacting with the dog. The dog may very well be warning him about the upcoming trip to the bottom of wherever. Some have dogs as pets for this very reason – to warn us of impending danger.

If this card were a movie still, what would happen next?

Would the fool fall into a great canyon to perish? Would the fool fall off the cliff to a lower plateau, “pick himself up, dust himself off and start all over again?” Is the fool so light that no fall would harm him?

Most of us travel with much more than a little bag hanging off a stick (sounds like a familiar object . . .) so we might not fall because our load would be too heavy.

Self and the world

A story of “self” is found in Ohio Senator Rob Portman’s “gay marriage conversion.” Portman, formerly against gay marriage, is now a supporter due to learning that his son is gay.

That’s nice, of course, for those who support gay marriage.

But what if Portman had never had a gay son? In order to understand the feelings of others, must we always experience those feelings directly?

Washington Post blogger Petula Dvorak also ponders this in her blog, “Why a gay son or cousin matters in the debate about same-sex marriage.” Her conclusion was that politics is about whom we know. She leaves the reader with this question:

“But shouldn’t we hope that all of our leaders — elected and appointed — have enough intelligence and empathy to believe every American deserves dignity, respect and equality? Regardless of whom they know?”

For those believing in reincarnation, Portman’s changing view based on personal experience provides a sort of justification for reincarnation. Must we live different lives in different conditions as the only way to understand others’ realities? Is it through countless lifetimes that we understand the human condition inch by inch?

Understanding others through the self

A sense of self appears to be a component of the human experience. In astrology, Aries is the first house representing “self” while its opposite house, the seventh, is “the other” represented by Libra.

Libra rules balance so self and other must be balanced.

There are people I find inspiring with regard to self because through their own sense of self they find humanity.

Consider the abolitionist movement in the United States. While slavery was a legal institution in parts of our country, many non-slave citizens simply believed it to be unfair.

A slave, on the other hand, we can assume would consider it unfair.

Former slave and activist Frederick Douglass understood something more profound than how his own experience as a slave was inhuman. He also understood that slave owning turned good people into bad people.

Slavery wasn’t bad simply for the slave. It was also bad for the slave owner. Abolishing slavery was good for humanity.

Around that same time, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was learning that she was “just a woman.” In pioneering for women’s suffrage, Stanton merged male and female into “citizen.”

In a fascinating book on Stanton “The Solitude of Self,” Virginia Gornick writes of Stanton (page 38):

“How many times over the next forty years must she have experienced that hot, hard amazement that every woman feels when forced to realize that in the cause of women’s rights men do not see the cause of humanity itself at stake; never would it seem an urgency to any but the women themselves .”

Both slavery and women’s rights are about human rights.

Philosopher and writer Ayn Rand believed that in protecting the rights of the individual, you protect the rights of all.

“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”

Rand was also to point out that protecting the rights of individuals didn’t mean you liked or agreed with those individuals. She differentiated the right to like or dislike with the right to take away others rights because of our own dislike.

Our Aries self

April Fools’ Day is a time to experience how others perceive your “self” through the jokes they play on you to remove that sense of self. Find the Aries in your horoscope to see where your “self” lives.

Aries is also, like the Fool in the tarot deck, a chance to experience the self in all its joy. In the tarot card, the fool is not trying to change anyone. He’s not reacting to anyone. He’s simply experiencing his self and deriving pleasure from it.

The fool’s load is light so he’s not asking for lots of stuff from others to be happy. He needs only a rose and the sun to grow her by. Existence is its own joy.

If we truly derive pleasure from our “self,” do we really want to change others? If we are truly happy with ourselves, would we want to harm others? If we truly experience the self, do we only then truly experience others?

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