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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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.

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