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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Thoughts on Chiron

Posted on March 24, 2013 by ohioastrology

Chiron, a planet/comet between Saturn and Uranus, is known in the astrological world as the “wounded healer.” It has a 50-year cycle.

Earlier this month while sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Chiron and Neptune were all swimming in the Pisces ocean of all-that-is, I had some insight into what Chiron might be about. Still processing, but thought I’d throw out these thoughts and see what returns.

Astrology contains an inordinate amount of detail as an Indian astrologer pointed out at an American Federation of Astrologers convention many moons ago. This astrologer asked why we can’t, with all the detail of astrology, tell someone what he/she is going to eat for breakfast next Thursday.

Better astrologers than I can tell you what color shirt you will wear next Tuesday. Although plenty of people would be impressed with you for providing this knowledge, what is the purpose of knowing and providing this information?

Because of the incredible amount of information provided through the analytical discipline of astrology, I’ve ignored many aspects of the art. When you look back on your life, you forget hundreds of Tuesdays but you remember the important events in your life or the little moments that meant something emotionally or spiritually.

Chiron

Research on this “wounded healer” planet revealed why it seems like everyone has Chiron in Pisces. Chiron’s orbit is elliptical and spends fifty percent of its time in Aries, Taurus, Aquarius and Pisces. [This pdf link seems to be from Astro*Synthesis, but I’m not sure]. Aries and Taurus are the first two signs of the zodiac and Aquarius and Pisces the last two.

Chiron spends the most time in Aries (eight years) followed by Pisces (seven years).

Why does the wounded healer spend so much time in these signs? Are these the signs where we show the most wounding? Are we most wounded coming into life and leaving life?

AstroDienst writes that “Liz Greene sees Chiron as essential in deepening our understanding of solar consciousness; for in order to choose to live life to the full, we have to face that part in us that would rather seek death.”

Normally Greene’s thoughts are the “a-ha” moments in my astrological thought process. This time I’m wondering is she’s seeing it this way because of the preponderance of Chiron-in-Pisces folks walking the globe. Her example chart does have Chiron in Leo, but the scapegoating she describes rings of Pisces.

Eric Francis writes about Chiron’s discovery and expanded ideas of healing involving emotional, spiritual and physical components.

Bob Marks writes about Chiron that “It is an indicator of where we have problems that tend to keep recurring, in one form or another, throughout our lives.” He also believes “It shows where we can do things better for others than we can for ourselves,” and that “Chiron shows where we can have an affinity for teaching, but, ironically, that is where we can teach others how to do things better than we can do them ourselves. This can be maddening if that happens to be an area in which we want to excel.”

Wounding and Healing

“Healing” is a word that has a lot of connotations. I admit it’s a pet peeve of mine to see the new age community focus on “healing” because it assumes we’re wounded. It also can lead, unintentionally, to excessive focus on problems, the opposite of the intent.

Are we all wounded?

For the record, I believe there are victims. There are people who are harmed by others, did not bring it on, and are defenseless to the harm. Then there are people on the other extreme who are slighted by every sideways glance because of self-centeredness.

And then there is the mass of feelings in between.

Chiron-in-Aries Angelina Jolie describes how a visit to Sierra Leone changed her from an individual focused on her own problems and “wounds” to an individual focused on the needs of those who have more severe problems in comparison to her own life’s problems.

In this article on HuffingtonPost.com Jolie says of her change in perspective:

“I was young, and I was bold, but I didn’t have a sense of use. I didn’t understand the world, and I didn’t understand a sense of perspective that you gain as you get older. I started to travel, and I started to ask questions,” she recently told the Orange County Register. “About 11 years ago, I went to Sierra Leone for the first time. It was the first time I was in a war zone. I went to a refugee camp, and I was shell-shocked. Suddenly, the world changed for me. My understanding of the world changed. I never woke up again wanting to be self-destructive, self-possessed or self-pitying in any way. I realized that it was important to wake up every day feeling grateful for your family and for your opportunities.”

Jolie also has Mars, moon and Jupiter in Aries which can lead to great self-absorption. To have overcome the self-absorption of Aries but maintain a sense of self is a feat of alchemy or evolution.

Jolie isn’t saying she doesn’t have personal problems to solve, she has simply put them in perspective which frees the energy used to be “bold” into energy used for a different purpose.

Problems in this world can range from the leak under the sink to the futility of living in a torturous environment.

Where do your problems lie?

Thoughts on Chiron

In China and other parts of Asia and Southeast Asia there is a concept called “qi.” Wikipedia defines it as “an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as ‘life energy,’ ‘life force,’ or ‘energy flow.’ Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. The literal translation of ‘qi’ is ‘breath,’ ‘air,’ or ‘gas.'”

In the West, I believe some call it the “energy body.”

Chiron, moving between Saturn and Uranus, I’m thinking represents the energetic body. Saturn is the end of the corporal world and Uranus is the awakener into the transpersonal realm of Neptune and Pluto. Chiron, I believe, represents the energetic awareness of life that precedes the awakened state.

To get from Saturn to Uranus, you must travel through Chiron. It’s the shower you must take before getting into the pool.

Is the energy body wounded?

If the physical body buffers physical life, then the energy body buffers energetic life. If I walk in the cold without a jacket, my body will hurt. If I take my energetic body to a negative emotional environment, it will get hurt.

Because we in the West do not even acknowledge an energy body, we are more prone to putting it in bad situations unaware. Meditation, yoga, acupuncture and a host of practices are, I believe, truly energy practices that clean the energy body.

In the West there is no belief in the energy body so that body is never given a nice bath. Possibly that lack of energetic cleaning is what rises to our consciousness as “wounds.” Possibly that sense of a dirty energy body is what makes us so fearful of germs.

Liz Greene, assessing the myth of Chiron, believes the astrological planet relates to the will to live because of the mythical Chiron’s choice of mortality to end the suffering caused by pain from a wound.

Rather than Chiron representing a will to live or to seek death, I think Chiron is the choice between accepting the world in its physical manifestation only or accepting the world in both its physical and energetic manifestations.

If you have ignored the energetic body and become aware of it, it can be a painful experience. Retreat into the predictable, solid world of Saturn feels more than comfortable.

Think of a nightmare. When you wake to see the walls of your room, feel the bed beneath you and hear the sound of life outside, don’t you feel better?

I don’t think Chiron is a wound. I think Chiron feels that way simply because we ignore its existence. I think Chiron represents the energy body which must be healthy for us to travel into transpersonal realms. Its placement in the chart is where we have a tendency to be energetic fly paper and need the most energetic cleansing.

If we don’t cleanse, we have a buildup of wounds and pain, some the simple wounds of living in an energetic universe, others, major wounds of attack from forces outside of ourselves.

As Chiron spends much time in Aries and Pisces, possibly most energetic cleansing involves ideas of self and selflessness. Or possibly the cleansing of energetic junk from the collective unconscious.

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Five fun things to do while Mars is in Aries

Posted on March 20, 2013 by ohioastrology

Mars, our warrior planet, entered friendly territory on March 13 after swimming in the murky waters of Pisces for a month. Mars rules Aries so traveling through the first and fiery sign of the zodiac is like a hot coal returning to the grill. It’s at home. It will be at home until April 16.

There are lots of stimulating activities in the neighborhood while Mars is in Aries. Fire is never dull.

Here are five fun activities to burn away the Aries fight or fight (or fight) energy:

Drive fast

Ohio is taking impulsive and speedy Mars-in-Aries to heart and raising the speed limit to 70 mph (112 km per hour). What a blessing to be sitting around the house thinking about all the stuff I have to do and suddenly learn that now I can get everywhere FASTER.

When Mars begins to square Pluto (in Capricorn) next week (around March 27), maybe the Ohio legislature can add a “get out of my way” amendment that fines cars driving in the left lane but not passing. Passing should be defined as passing “now,” not 15 minutes from now. Let’s finish this good Mars-in-Aries work and go all the way.

Stage dive and speak your mind

In Kansas City yesterday, Derron Black interrupted the Mayor Sly James’ speech by jumping on stage, grabbing the microphone and attempting to make a speech.

Mars is what motivates us to jump on stage and speak our mind. Mars and Aries have a continuum that moves from assertive to aggressive to attacking. Like all energies, there is a time and place for each.

In which portion of this spectrum does Black’s intrusion lie?

According to this Kansas City Star online article, Black later said “about the true reality of the condition of the people east of Troost or just throughout Kansas City in general, you would absolutely be frustrated just like I am [sic].”

Frustration often stems from a square in the horoscope. I couldn’t find a date of birth for Derron Black, who ran for Missouri House of Representatives in 2012. I did learn that Mayor James is a fire-sign Sagittarius with moon in Aries or Taurus. Had this incident occurred in a dark alley, Black might have learned more about Mars energy from Mayor James.

Keep your assault weapon

Next month’s US gun control legislation, it appears, won’t contain an assault weapons ban. Anyone wanting to pass this legislation should have done it while Mars and a bunch of other planets were in watery Pisces last month, a period when many people were simply trying to get out of bed and stand up straight.

Mars in Aries is the fighting spirit. It doesn’t simply fight for gun control; it is fighting to feel alive, much like the main character in Fight Club. Mars in Aries is like an infuser filling the air with adrenalin. Taking a gun (or anything) away now is like taking a bone from a hungry dog. But with Aries, the dog challenges you to take away the bone.

Next week the sun, Uranus and Mars will all be in Aries squaring Pluto in Capricorn in varying degrees. Mars and Uranus square Pluto is the wrong-wrong-wrong time to take away a weapon.

For those that want gun control, OHA recommends the following strategy. First warm up the audience by passing legislation this year to allow broadcasts of sports events on free TV (if there is still such a thing). Then wait until January 2015 when Mars and Neptune are conjunct in Pisces to pass legislation on a foggy night while a feeling of unity prevails and folks wonder if anything is ever a true defense.

Pick a fight

If you have an Aries in your life, you have fighting in your life. Remember, fire signs are stimulated by challenge so put a bunch of challenges in the living room for your fire signs or you become the object of the fight.

Remember, if you don’t fight “with” your fire sign, you will be fought “at.” Choose “with” and not “at” for a more pleasant planetary stay.

There are two famous Aries actors who have sections of their Wikipedia articles labeled “incidents” or “altercations” or “controversies:” Alec Baldwin and Russell Crowe.

Both Baldwin and Crowe are known for their tempers from throwing objects to calling their loved ones nasty names.

Although Aries can be as nasty as Capricorn at times, Aries doesn’t have the self-awareness to understand why others are angry. Sometimes we do damage by being deliberately malicious and sometimes we do damage because we are ignorant or unaware of how our actions affect others.

Aries has what I think of as a self-absorbed, childlike innocence. When a young child tells you your hair is ugly, it still can hurt, right?

Play sports

A strong Mars placement, such as Mars in a fire sign in the first house, can indicate athletic ability. Fire contains energy, courage and a desire to create positive action in the external world. Sports are a fine way for fire to manifest positively. In sports, fire creates energy and enthusiasm for the community whereas at home fire can cause the house to burn down.

Fire needs lots of room and a big coliseum is the perfect place to diffuse one’s competitive energy.

In the US, mid to late March is the college basketball sports competition known as “March Madness.” Sometimes it begins with sun in Pisces but normally ends with sun in Aries.

This year’s March Madness will end on April 8 with sun, Venus and Mars conjunct in Aries. Uranus will also be hanging about in Aries. For fans, this should be an exciting game full of upsets and unexpected turns. With Uranus in the picture, I’m guessing an unexpected team will rise to the top.

Astrology Revolution is the expert in sports astrology, although I don’t yet see an update for March Madness. Keep checking for updates.

How I spent my Mars-in-Aries

In an episode of “Two and a Half Men” titled “Does this smell funny to you?” Jake has to give a report to his class about how he spent his weekend. The report, as you would suspect, involves the shenanigans of the womanizing Uncle Charlie.

As we listen to Jake’s report, we learn that Uncle Charlie’s new flame is a married woman whose husband comes looking for Charlie. While Charlie’s antics provide entertainment, the added level of humor comes from the innocent Jake describing his weekend in the same manner he would describe doing chores. He’s just saying what happened, not reacting or commenting on it.

A weekend with Uncle Charlie is simply crazy.

Mars in Aries is a little bit like a weekend with Uncle Charlie.

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More Fire in Venezuela

Posted on March 11, 2013 by ohioastrology

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela and fire sign Leo, died last week after a struggle with cancer. Chavez’s Vice President, Nicolas Maduro, was sworn in Friday as the new president.

Maduro was born in the fire sign Sagittarius. In fact, he was born just as the sun entered this sign. The man could have been a Scorpio but decided to wait a few hours and experience life with a little more levity. Second that with a pleasure-loving Libra moon.

Sagittarius and Libra – what we have here are rose-colored glasses with a designer label although Sagittarius claims the glasses were hand-made by laborers in a third-world country and purchased at fair trade value.

While both signs have lofty ideals, the reality of those ideals isn’t easy to maintain. It takes the serious signs of the zodiac – earth Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, water Scorpio to actually give up chocolate for the entirety of Lent without sneaking a piece of birthday cake while no one is looking.

No matter, who says politicians have to practice what they preach? Politicians are motivational speakers who inspire us to sit calmly in our seats while our money is deducted from our pay to provide community services for the common good – roads, sewers and electrical lines. So what if they eat a little forbidden food during Lent?

Maduro does have a few planets in serious Scorpio – Neptune, Venus and Mercury. That’s passion! Square Mars in Leo makes it rather eager passion.

Actually Mercury in Scorpio and sun in Sagittarius is a fine combination for a strategic risk-taker. Maduro will probably be savvier than purely emotional Chavez in communicating with the rest of the world.

Sagittarius does in fact like the foreign world and seeks those experiences. While I read the US kicked out a couple Venezuelan diplomats, I bet we’ll see a day not long in the future when Maduro touches US soil. For fun, I’m going to guess May 2016 when Pluto conjuncts his part of fortune in Capricorn.

In 2016, Maduro may find himself a wealthy man, possibly through business ventures. Maybe he’ll have transitioned out of public office by then, or maybe not. What’s politics and what’s business?

Although he might not show it, Maduro is prone to anxiety and depression. He’s probably feeling a little unsettled right now as Neptune is transiting his natal Jupiter forming an opposition with natal Pluto/Uranus in Virgo and squaring transiting Jupiter in Gemini.

This anxiety may lead to memory problems. I’m also getting a sense of diabetes. Looking for astrological significators of diabetes in the horoscope, I found this post:

Maduro has a fixed T-square in his chart with Mars (in Leo), Saturn (in Aquarius) and Neptune/Venus (in Scorpio). Fixed signs make great leaders and inspire both intense love and hatred. The T-square might be a little intense for Libra moon but it’s nothing that charm can’t cover. It’s especially important to have charm when one has a Sagittarius temper tantrum that involves spitting on others.

Fighting rage and cooling charm.

Saturn in Aquarius indicates insecurity about fitting in with the group. Maduro is better one-on-one where intensity and charm can be applied like lipstick. Moving into a crowd creates anxiety because no one can see his shiny eyes from the far end of the public square.

Sagittarius Maduro’s weakness might involve trusting the wrong people. Idealists are not shallow but are unfortunately prone to judging books by covers because they want to believe in the cover.

While OHA always (but always) promotes positive gender relations, Maduro might want to be wary of captivating females who are manipulating him through his male-mind-parts. He also might think those that look neat and tidy are more trustworthy.

¡ Buena suerte!

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Bowling Alleys are Sacred No More

Posted on March 5, 2013 by ohioastrology

Economic relief is coming to Ohio. Governor John Kasich is proposing a tax on entertainment, including bowling alleys.

Bowling is sacred no longer. Its hundreds (if not thousands) of years of protection are coming to an end. Bowling is known to take over the minds and souls of those that enter its alleys. It’s about time that bowling alleys pay their fair share of taxes.

Remember that it was Ohio’s governor that rose to the challenge.

The American Bowling Congress

What does the American Bowling Congress, founded September 9, 1895, think about a bowling tax?

My quick Internet search yielded nothing. The American Bowling Congress is content to allow this tax to pass. An organization with a Taurus moon might just do that. Taurus in general is a Type B, content until it’s not content, which can take awhile. This sign is not rushing to be first in line.

The sun is in Virgo on September 9 and Virgos have a lot to say about everything. If you need feedback on everything from your Ph.D. thesis to how to pick a banana, seek out this sign.

Virgo and Taurus – both are earth signs. Is bowling earthy?

Well, you use an object to knock over other objects. That’s kind of earthy. In other sports, you may be pushing, kicking, dribbling, knocking or throwing a ball, but you have other people interacting with you, even in billiards or golf. Their balls can knock into your balls if not they into you (sounds fun).

Bowling is solitary – it’s just you and the lane and those far away pins (and a bunch of people behind you who think they are bowling experts telling you what to do – hey, there’s your Virgo).

Other aspects of bowling feel Gemini, which is the third sign of the zodiac. The ball has three holes. There are ten pins lined up in a triangle, which has three sides. The high score is 300, which adds up to three. The toughest play is the splits, like the Gemini twins.

The Big Lebowski

If bowling is taxed, should The Big Lebowski be taxed as well?

According to IMDB.com, the plot to The Big Lebowski is as such:

“When ‘The Dude’ Lebowski is mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, two thugs urinate on his rug to coerce him into paying a debt he knows nothing about. While attempting to gain recompense for the ruined rug from his wealthy counterpart, he accepts a one-time job with high pay-off. He enlists the help of his bowling buddy, Walter, a gun-toting Jewish-convert with anger issues. Deception leads to more trouble, and it soon seems that everyone from porn empire tycoons to nihilists want something from The Dude. Written by J. Lake”

In one scene of the movie, The Big Lebowski is lying on a rug listening to the sound of a bowling alley, pins falling, power lift cleaning away pins.

The Big Lebowski was released on March 6, 1998 (Happy 15th birthday!). March 6 is Pisces, the sign that rules hypnosis.

Freaky.

This proves that bowling is hypnotic and should be taxed to prevent the innocent from having enough money to play more than one game. Because The Big Lebowski promotes bowling and bowling is being taxed, it makes perfect sense that this movie be taxed as well.

Camper Van Beethoven

If The Big Lebowski is being taxed as a bowling-related entity, then the musical group Camper Van Beethoven should pay a tax every time they sing “Take the Skinheads Bowling.”

Also, the American Bowling Congress adopted its rules “at the Sept. 9, 1895 meeting in New York’s Beethoven Hall.”

Beethoven Hall – Camper Van Beethoven.

Freaky.

Wikipedia has a birthday for lead singer and “Take the Skinheads Bowling” writer David Lowery. Lowery is a Virgo who may also have moon in Virgo. Reading to the end of this Wikipedia article (a rarity for me), indicates that Lowery is a derivatives trader.

I wonder if we could earn more taxing derivatives than taxing bowling? Hmmm.

Lowery has sun and Pluto conjunct (in Virgo) which is also a mark in Michael Jackson’s and Lance Armstrong’s charts and indicates more than a little intensity and need for control.

I wonder what Lowery thinks about the bowling tax. If you bring a skinhead friend bowling, should the tax be waived to encourage business growth? Or should the friend and the skinhead both pay the bowling tax?

In Summary

In summary, bowling is finally being treated like every other business (all businesses pay taxes, right?). Since bowling is being taxed, also too should The Big Lebowski and Camper Van Beethoven be taxed as well. It’s only fair.

In addition to the bowling tax, this article states that dating services could also be taxed. The big question here is who should pay the dating tax – the man, the woman or should they go dutch?

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Happy Birthday Mitt Romney

Posted on March 3, 2013 by ohioastrology

The American public may forget a political candidate faster than a bullet train leaving a Tokyo station, but Ohio Astrology doesn’t. OHA doesn’t write about a man for over year and just forgot about him. OHA is not so shallow.

Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican candidate for President, is turning 66 on March 12 (if this is truly his birthday and he was truly born in this country). Using the Astrotheme chart with time of birth allows the casting of a solar return.

The solar return is when the sun returns to the sign and degree of birth. Romney is born with sun in 21 degrees 11 minutes of Pisces. The sun returns to 21 degrees and 11 minutes of Pisces on March 11 this year (last year was a leap year).

It’s also important to know where an individual will be on his/her birthday to cast the solar return for that place. Not a personal friend of Romney, I cast the chart for Salt Lake City.

Looking at his solar return, I sure hope he stays in a high place this year. Romney’s solar return has seven (of ten) planets in water. Six are in Pisces (Neptune, Mercury, Venus, Moon, Sun, Mars) and one in Scorpio (Saturn).

Pluto is in Capricorn, Uranus in Aries and Jupiter in Gemini.

If I were some medieval astrologer (and I swear I’m not), I might advise Romney to stay away from water. Water, water everywhere . . .

Water is delightful in so many ways – it’s the better portion of our bodies, we huddle in the waters of the womb, we take nice hot baths and go for swims in pools and lovely beaches.

After the womb, we don’t solely live in the water, unless we are a fisherman or submarine dweller. Water is balanced with earth, air and fire.

The abundance of Pisces in Romney’s solar return represents both an emotional and spiritual year. Often emotional difficulties drive us to spirituality. Romney, with his religious history, may be up for this challenge. But challenges of religious duty are different than personal, facing a wall, spirituality.

Pisces Romney may be familiar with this too – I hope so, or it’s going to be a tough emotional year.

It was no surprise a month after the election to read Romney’s son proclaim his dad didn’t want to be president. OHA and the general public were onto that somewhere in July 2012. It was kind of sad to watch, in a way. It evokes the feeling of having to stand in front of a class in 4th grade giving a book report on a book you didn’t like and barely read.

The question remains – what does Romney want? Who was he serving in running for President?

The challenge of Pisces is to discern itself from others. This year Romney will be facing an image of himself in the mirror and may see others in that image. Or he may not and may feel very confused.

Hopefully Jupiter in his first house will encourage him (and OHA often does) to have some fun and forget that he must personally save the entire world.

Pisces really does want to save everyone, not in the hero way of Leo, but in a genuine caring for humanity way.

Pisces is also extremely psychic. That’s good, if you want to hang a sign and charge $100 a reading. People forgot (or don’t realize) that psychic ability is a two-way street. Your doors are open, others can walk in.

On other watery coasts, Saturn in Scorpio is nearing Romney’s Jupiter/moon conjunction. Has Romney been holding a secret for someone or some organization?

Scorpio loves secrets for the power it holds over others and Pisces loves secrets because it provides for a less-defined reality and more room to be something else if the opportunity presents itself.

Water signs can also be perceived as emotionally manipulative. Romney doesn’t appear to fall into that pattern but Pisces and Scorpio have intense emotional needs and this year no matter how much water is fed into the well, Romney will drink it all up.

A year of Pisces is also a nice year for poetry. Why should Jimmy Carter be the only man with “president” near his name that writes poetry?

Happy Birthday, Mr. Romney.

Link: Check out harenewscorp for a fill of information about Pisces. Harenewscorp specializes in Pisces personalities born mid-March.

Posted in Politicians - Republican Presidential Candidates | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Marissa Mayer – The Pregnantest Woman in America

Posted on February 26, 2013 by ohioastrology

On a radio news story yesterday about Yahoo’s ban on telecommuting, the NPR commentator mentioned that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer joined the company last year while pregnant.

Mayer’s son was born last September so it might have been more relevant to refer to her as “proud new mother” and Yahoo CEO. But no, Mayer was pregnant.

Pregnant.

The woman-who-was-pregnant just banned telecommuting, working from home.

Home.

Pregnancy and home.

Pregnancy and Home

What signs rule pregnancy and home?

On pregnancy, Horoscopes Within writes:

“The moon is a powerful symbol of feminine energy and represents the woman in a man’s horoscope, the type of woman he would be attracted to and his partner. Universally it represents fertility, motherhood, womanhood and babies. The moon is most comfortable in its own sign of Cancer and the other water signs. The moon’s 28 day cycle also coincides with the woman’s menstrual cycle. Its waxing and waning symbolizes conception, pregnancy, birth and corresponds to the growth cycle of every living thing. The moon rules the stomach and our gut reactions. It also rules the breast, the left eye in a man and the right eye in a woman. The Moon has rulership over Cancer, the sign that governs the 4th house in the natural zodiac.”

On home, Tryskelion.com writes:

“The Fourth House represents the nurturing parent, home, environment, domestic affairs, and general condition at the end of life. Also rules the outlook regarding lands, property, and the result of undertakings with respect to these. Also represents the emotional warehouse of memories from which one operates subconsciously.”

Both home and pregnancy are related to the sign of Cancer.

Is Mayer a Cancer? Is that why she will ever-be-known as the woman who sought a job, and a high-profile job, while pregnant?

Marissa Mayer

Mayer is not a sun-sign Cancer. Mayer has sun and Mercury in Gemini and moon in Aquarius, both air signs. She is intellectual, social, curious, flowing, changeable, rebellious, talkative, extroverted, fast-paced, easily bored and constantly seeking the ideal best friend.

Air is often perceived as fickle and lacking in depth, following fashion and trends, constantly curious but never going beneath the surface.

Mayer’s extroverted qualities are emphasized by Mars and Jupiter in Aries (fire), Neptune in Sagittarius (fire) and Pluto and Uranus in Libra (air).

With all three air planets in the horoscope, the next task is to look for the grand air trine and we do have one by degree – Pluto (in Libra), moon (in Aquarius although time of birth may change this) and sun (in Gemini).

Depending on where the moon is, the air trine could be moon (in Aquarius), Uranus (in Libra) and Mercury (in Gemini).

A news organization is a good place for so much air. Yahoo feeds probably don’t come fast enough for Mayer.

With no earth in the chart, Mayer is in constant motion. No sitting or rooting or planting for this woman. Her eye is always on the horizon for the next opportunity, the next piece of information.

So why the focus on pregnancy?

Oh, wait! There are two planets I missed. What have we here? Saturn and Venus are conjunct in Cancer.

Saturn and Venus

Saturn and Venus in aspect, even positive aspect, according to Liz Greene in “Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil” “strikes also at a woman’s basic attitude toward her own femininity and her worth as a woman . . .”

Greene also writes that “Venus-Saturn combinations imply a certain amount of emotional pain and rejection in early home life.”

Greene goes on to describe how Venus is femininity while the moon is mothering. Cancer, remember, rules the moon. Venus in Cancer is femininity combined with motherhood while Saturn in Cancer hanging around says one isn’t a good mother or female.

Saturn and Venus conjunct in Cancer is the wallflower of Mayer’s horoscope. The rest of Mayer is out on the dance floor, being approached by boys, boldly approaching some herself, wearing a silly dress and big feather hat.

But another part of her personality hangs off to the side feeling it doesn’t belong.

Media Focus on Pregnancy

Looking at Mayer’s chart, I’m beginning to wonder if being pregnant in the public eye wasn’t a bit of a conscious or subconscious desire.

If this mothering part of Mayer is a bit insecure, then putting the pregnancy in the news for all time might provide a bit of image reinforcement of motherhood.

Rather than focusing on Mayer’s extraordinary air and fire qualities, the media focus moved to her biologically female qualities – the ability to bring new life into the world.

Air signs are very often into the idea and image of things – they make natural rebels for this reason. They challenge ideas.

Maybe taking a high-profile job while pregnant was the ultimate rebellion. How many women would dare do this?

Or was it an effort to prove to the world she can be a mother as well as a professional woman?

The Cancer in Mayer’s chart squares the Aries (self) and Libra (partnership) energy. Mayer is much more comfortable as friend than mother. Wife might be okay with Libra and Gemini, but mother is where the insecurity lies.

Venus of Yahoo

Willendorf-Venus-1468

Like the Venus of Willendorf, Mayer is carved for all time as the woman-who-was-pregnant when she became CEO of Yahoo (picture from Wikipedia).

Venus of Willendorf was carved 24,000 years ago, according to Wikipedia. Like Mayer, she’s a bit of an enigma

Is she really a figurine of fertility?

Maybe she was a Neolithic fashion model. Or maybe she was Queen of an extensive Euro-Asian community. Or maybe she was the wealthy landowner who enjoyed the fruits of her land.

Maybe when we look at a prehistoric female carving or a modern-day news story about females, we are doing the same thing – projecting our own gender ideas.

Who was the Venus of Willendorf? And who is Marissa Mayer?

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The Homeowner’s Game

Posted on February 25, 2013 by ohioastrology

The board game Monopoly, according to this Wikipedia article, originated from a game patented on January 5, 1904 by Elizabeth Magie called “The Landlord’s Game.”

According to the article, Magie wanted the game to be a “practical demonstration of the present system of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences.”

The article goes on to say that Magie “based the game on the economic principles of Georgism, a system proposed by Henry George, with the object of demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. She knew that some people could find it hard to understand why this happened and what might be done about it, and she thought that if Georgist ideas were put into the concrete form of a game, they might be easier to demonstrate. Magie also hoped that when played by children the game would provoke their natural suspicion of unfairness, and that they might carry this awareness into adulthood.”

Did Magie achieve her goal?

Today about 65% of homes are owned by those living in the home, so I’d say yes, Magie achieved her goal.

That is until 2008 when there was a housing market collapse.

What happened?

In “The 2008 Financial Crisis and Its Aftermath: Addressing the Next Debt Challenge” by Thomas A. Russo and Aaron J. Katzel, the authors write that the financial crisis was caused by “. . . the incurrence of too much leverage on the part of all economic participants, including individuals, financial institutions, other private businesses, and governments.”

Individual leverage often took the form of borrowing against one’s home (i.e., equity lending). Financial institutions were lending frantically at historically low rates.

Who could say no?

A Pluto-in-Sagittarius generation said “yes” to more money, more leverage.

In 2008, Pluto entered Capricorn and the game changed. On December 30, 2008, according to Wikipedia, “the Case-Shiller home price index reported its largest price drop in its history.” On that date, Pluto, Mars, sun, Mercury and Jupiter were all in Capricorn.

The moon, Neptune and Venus were all in Aquarius. Uranus was in Pisces while Saturn was opposing in Virgo.

The bubble burst from a load of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces energy.

The Astrological Game Pieces

“The Landlord’s Game” was patented on January 5, 1904 with sun in Capricorn (that same year on October 17, a bank was founded in San Francisco called Bank of America).

In 1904, Pluto was in Gemini, Uranus in Sagittarius, Neptune in Cancer and Saturn in Aquarius.

In 2008, as mentioned above, there was lots of Capricorn and Aquarius energy with a pinch of Pisces and Virgo.

Our astrological game pieces need to include Capricorn and Aquarius for sure.

We also have the mutable square – Gemini/Sagittarius and Pisces/Virgo.

And there’s a little bit of Cancer.

The Homeowner’s Game

Now that we have the astrological game pieces, let’s see how we can both learn astrology and devise a board game based on homeownership.

First, what’s the goal of the game?

The goal of the game is to keep your property value level or increasing. The winner has the most expensive (or least decreasing) property value.

This game has two bankers. Pluto-in-Sagittarius is the banker that lends money, as much as you want at any time. Pluto-in-Capricorn is the banker that controls the value of the money that you have.

As Pluto in Sagittarius lends money, Pluto in Capricorn reduces the value of money. The players must balance the two extremes while maintaining their property value.

The players, who are Aquarius, must circle the board. As they get ready to pass Go and collect their salary, they must develop a new technology or lose three turns.

Now let’s bring in the mutable grand square (Sagittarius-Gemini-Pisces-Virgo). Let’s make these four signs the four corners of the board.

Virgo, which rules work, is the Go corner where we collect our salary. As in the game of Monopoly, no one wins the game simply by collecting salary.

The opposite sign Pisces is not jail in this game but the hospital. If you land in the hospital, you lose all your property in an effort to pay your mortgage(s). You can re-enter the game, but these players often feel the game is hopeless and tend to gravitate toward the kitchen between turns.

The Gemini corner is where you buy media. If you don’t buy media, you do not know the value of your house or how much money is worth. The media gets more expensive each time you land on this spot. It’s advantageous to land here once and no more.

And lastly the Sagittarius corner is the riverboat casino. When you land on this spot, you are taking a rest from the game and spend some of that hard-earned money on pleasure.

Neptune in Cancer is part of the game too. It’s the homeowner who stays home, enjoys what it has and doesn’t jump into the ring of borrowing and lending.

The game can be a little boring with the constant Sagittarius-Capricorn monetary tug-of-war and can go on forever (as we’ve all had occur with Monopoly). The Homeowner’s Game is meant to unite families, not bore them, so there is a twist on the board, a wild card of sorts.

If you land on the last spot before Go, a difficult place to land, you get to be one of the bankers!

Once a player becomes a banker, then the game is truly exciting. Bankers can change, when another player lands on the banker square.

Being the banker isn’t a guaranteed win. Players who become banker must strategically manage their side of the lending-money contraction tug-of-war for maximum property value.

The winner of the game has the highest property value, which comes through a combination of luck and skill, as with any game.

The winner of the game gets to keep the entire board. That shouldn’t be a problem as not many people want to play The Homeowner’s Game again once they have lost.

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Jason Bateman – Corporate Guy

Posted on February 18, 2013 by ohioastrology

Jason Bateman is an actor whose movies I see simply because I like looking at him. Although I hope for a good plot, if the script is just so-so, I’m not bothered because I still get to look at Bateman. Other actors who have graced my like-to-look-at list include George Clooney (could use a fix) and Ewan McGregor (who also does nudity, not that I’m tracking this).

The last two movies I saw Bateman in were “Horrible Bosses” and “The Change Up.” His new movie, “Identity Thief” has Bateman in a similar role to those other two movies. There seems to be a little type-casting going on here in these recent movies, but I’m not Bateman’s agent, so I’ll let it go.

And I don’t mind cause he’s nice to look at.

The type Bateman is cast in is the honest Corporate Guy, the one who plays by the rules, the one is is also a good family man and is cautious and diligent. Unfortunately, as the song goes, nice guys who follow the rules of corporate life often finish last. Corporate Guy gets passed over for a raise and publicly humiliated but manages to maintain his steady-guy composure and keeps trying.

Enter some unusual situation that forces Corporate Guy to take a walk on the wild side where he learns to experience life a little more spontaneously, all the while keeping the love of his good wife and children while sticking it to the Evil Boss or Obnoxious Authority Figure.

Maybe I like the plots too. They seem familiar in some way . . .

What sign of the zodiac is representative of Corporate Guy?

Capricorn.

Capricorn follows the rules until it gets to make the rules itself. Cautious, practical, shrewd, ambitious – these are all words associated with Capricorn and are qualities found inside the structure of corporations.

And what sign is Bateman?

Hey, he’s a Capricorn sun. What a coincidence!

Astrotheme places Bateman’s moon in the sign of Sagittarius. I now lovingly call Sagittarius moon the Charlie Sheen moon due to the impulse toward wild behavior that comes with this placement.

A little Wikipedia reading on Bateman reveals that he stays away from drugs and alcohol, both having caused him trouble in the past. Looks like this Capricorn has that moon in control.

Sagittarius has trouble saying no to indulgence. Bateman’s cautious Capricorn sun is at odds with his uncontrolled Sagittarius moon. Interesting that Bateman should play these cautious Capricorn types who get swept up not by drugs and alcohol, but by some crazy situation that throws him into the arms of risk.

As Pluto transits Capricorn, all Capricorn suns will go through periods of intense transformation. Bateman is no exception. It will take a few more years (like five to seven) for Pluto to transit his sun. Pluto transits are much like “The Change Up” in that one day we find ourselves inside of another body and the world looks at us differently.

Unlike “The Change Up,” the body is the same, but we inside are different.

What’s changing for Bateman?

If the Astrotheme chart is correct, Saturn in the 9th house is going to be a major focus due to the square with Pluto and conjunction of transiting Uranus.

Saturn in the 9th represents one who grew up with a lot of rules and shoulds and oughts and lots of fingers pointing at his nose telling him what to do. When Uranus hits (the fan), a few rules are going to get broken in Bateman’s world. That Saturn says there is a holding back of one’s true beliefs. While following the rules there’s a voice inside that says, “That’s not how I want to do it. This is how I truly want to do it.”

Breaking the rules doesn’t mean running traffic lights. For a person who feels they have to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast every day, breaking the rules can be having a candy bar and coffee for breakfast. Or noodles with paprika. Or a leftover hot dog. Or something else that is not bacon and eggs.

Bateman probably fears breaking the rules because his Sagittarius moon threatens to go overboard with any breaking of rules. It’s okay to eat a candy bar and coffee for breakfast once in a while; just not every day or then it becomes not a spontaneous expression but another tired habit in a world glued together by tired habits. Or an addiction.

Neptune is will transit Bateman’s dreamy Venus in Pisces in the next couple years. That’s always a fun thing, good for a romantic evening that lasts a couple years. For those that like to look at Bateman on the big screen, this should keep him nice-to-look-at.

I’ll have to check out Bateman’s non Corporate Guy movies and see what else in his horoscope is being channeled through his characters.

Maybe a little expression of that Mars in Scorpio is in order??

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