Astrological Mentors

Posted on September 22, 2012 by ohioastrology

Many years ago when I began my study of astrology, there was no blogosphere (or Internet usage) so the sharing of astrological thought was limited to books.

Books are wonderful, of course, but after a few years of study, the books became redundant, generally geared to a reader who is interested in basics and maybe more interested in figuring out a loved one than truly interested in astrology with all its angles and math.

In the early days of my astrological homeschooling, these were my three mentors, in order of discovery:

Linda Goodman

Sun Signs is the book, an associate once told me, which made astrology a household word. It’s delicious double Aries writing, holding nothing back, but written like a crime novel, keeping you interested as you move from Gemini man to Gemini woman to Gemini boss.

As most people do, my beginning study of astrology focused on myself and my own chart. I recall the day that I sat with Sun Signs and thought about a friend and her quirky, unpredictable personality. I see that as the day I truly began my study of astrology.

Linda Goodman also gave me an image that has stuck with me my entire life – Leo sulking behind the “potted palms” seeking attention. That image has traveled far with me.

While some balk at sun-sign astrology, and I used to myself, I still think it’s accurate. Next to sun, moon is most determining, to me, with the other planets adding energy in greater or lesser extent.

For example, I once thought Virgo and Aquarius were similar in quirky personality. One day I realized that the Virgos of my generation had the Uranus/Pluto conjunction in Virgo. The Virgos carried two outer planets with the same energy. They are still Virgo energy but with the extremes that Uranus brings and the compulsion that Pluto brings.

In the charts I look at on OHA, I rarely have time of birth so mostly focus on sun and moon.

I still enjoy reading Sun Signs after all these years.

Jeanne Avery

After a year or so of sun-sign astrology, I learned one could cast a thing called a natal horoscope. The natal horoscope is based on the date, time and place of birth and contains the ten “planets,” each in a sign, in a house (area of the horoscope) and forming geometric relationships to each other.

That’s a lot of data.

As I got familiar with all the data, I learned through an Indian friend about the idea of past lives. About the same time Jeanne Avery published a book titled Astrology and Your Past Lives which described past lives and imprints as represented by Saturn’s placement in the horoscope.

Today, I don’t care whether or not there is such a thing as past lives (or future lives). I did learn from Jeanne Avery that the images we see in a past-life regression (or imagine as future lives) are at their core the archetypes and patterns of our current lives.

I also learned something important from Jeanne Avery at the American Federation of Astrologers convention back in 1992 that only today I truly understand — It’s not about finding answers; it’s about asking the right questions.

This is very much like querying a database. You write a query which returns a result. If you didn’t write your query correctly to answer the question you are asking, you return the incorrect result. That doesn’t make the result “wrong,” it simply means it didn’t answer the question you were trying to ask.

In searching for Jeanne Avery recently, I learned that she passed away earlier this year. It’s too bad that Scorpio sun Jeanne Avery isn’t here now to help us understand the incipient transit of Saturn into Scorpio.

Liz Greene

Like any study, there is ebb and flow, peaks and plateaus. At a certain point in my study of astrology, I plateaued while trying to synthesize all of the information in a horoscope.

Astrology books published a couple decades ago were often on general topics. While every astrologer has a unique take, horoscope synthesis is difficult to tackle as a book subject.

Then along came Liz Greene and her astrology school with lecture books such as The Development of the Personality and Dynamics of the Unconscious that included topics such as alchemical symbolism in the horoscope, the puer and senex and parental marriage in the horoscope.

These topics were like going from Math 101 to physics in a day.

A Jungian psychologist by trade, Liz Greene can provide a depth in her analysis that the average astrologer isn’t privy too. For example, I once told a Venus in Leo woman that she was jealous. She claimed she wasn’t but that everyone around her was!

Liz Greene, through stories of analysands, as she calls them, can dissect a statement about jealousy to understand fully the dynamics of jealousy and how it’s represented and affected by a placement of Venus in Leo.

Reading Liz Greene and her students, I often wonder what kind of astrological thought could be produced if it were a subject one could study at major universities. I’m glad there are dedicated astrologers who devote their energies to the subject with or without reward and who have the courage and determination to open schools.

The Blogosphere

Today we have the blogosphere which provides a forum for professional and amateur (yours truly) astrologers to write and share.

It’s a delight and my own favorite blogs are on OHA blogroll. It’s amazing the variety and creativity of thought that exists that was once far away and inaccessible.

Posted in Astrologers | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

What sign of the zodiac is income tax?

Posted on September 20, 2012 by ohioastrology

My tuxedo cat Lacy was absent when I came home from work. I searched the house for her and found her hiding in a closet. I asked why she was hiding.

“I’m ashamed,” she replied.

“Ashamed of what?”

“Ashamed that I don’t pay income taxes.”

Oh, no, I thought. She was watching TV again or reading The Washington Post. She learned that Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney complained about 47% of Americans not paying taxes.

Last week I had to teach her about political hyperbole and convince her that Ohio Congressman Steve Stivers doesn’t make the sun rise. Now I had to explain income taxes.

It’s going to be a long October.

“Don’t worry,” I said. To make it simple for her I added, “We do pay income taxes. I pay for the both of us the way Mitt Romney pays for both himself and Ann Romney.”

Lacy looked relieved.

“Moreover,” I added, “We pay more as a percent of income than the Romneys. There’s no reason to feel ashamed.”

Lacy crawled slowly out of the closet, looking left and right before finally exiting. She then asked:

“So who are the 47% that don’t pay?”

“I’m not sure,” I answered truthfully, “but I’m wondering if this isn’t another Romney subliminal suggestion. He was born in 1947 so maybe the 47% is a way to make us think of his birth year. Hopefully his wife won’t wear her Pisces fish shirt again.”

Income Taxes

The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified on February 3, 1913, allows Congress to levy an income tax.

In that same year, 1913, the Federal Reserve Act was passed. I’m wondering if 1913 wasn’t the most important year in financial history, more important even than 1929 and the stock market crash.

The income tax amendment was ratified as Uranus, Mercury and sun were in Aquarius and Jupiter, moon and Mars were in Capricorn. Saturn was in Taurus, Venus was in Aries, Pluto was in Gemini and Neptune was in Cancer.

The Jupiter/moon/Mars placement in Capricorn says it all. If you want to know what I mean, find a moon in Capricorn person and try to borrow some cash (or get a hug). Good luck.

If that person has a generous sun in Leo, they will give you the cash but there will still be a mental register of what is owed at some point in time.

No surprise that the income tax is a stingy entity constantly trying to acquire more money and status while feeling the Saturn in Taurus lack of material stability (“I don’t have enough”).

The Aquarius energy, on the other hand, should make the income tax more equitable. I did find on Wikipedia that the first income tax was to fund the Civil War and, if the article is correct, very few paid the income tax (around 10%). It’s Aquarian only in that most of the population didn’t pay taxes.

Pluto in Capricorn

Are you back from trying to borrow money from your moon in Capricorn friend? Do you wish you hadn’t wasted the money on the gas?

If you felt slighted that your moon in Capricorn friend offered only sound advice but no cash, don’t worry. In the next 15-20 years, all the stability that has been built up by your friend will be razed by Mr. Pluto, who is transiting Capricorn right now.

The income tax may very well go through a transformation through a break or crack in the foundation. Will it change form? Be destroyed? Be rendered inoperative because there is no money with which to pay income taxes?

Capricorn is a stubborn and rigid sign which usually sides with authority. Pluto trying to change the mind and mode of Capricorn has to inflict some tough love. Pluto is not subtle regardless of the sign it is visiting.

The Cat Connects the Dots

As I explained all this, Lacy began to form a look of understanding. She still wondered about Mitt Romney.

“Will Pluto in Capricorn affect the Romney’s wealth?” she asked.

“Maybe,” I answered. “But the incipient transit of Saturn into Scorpio is what he needs to fear most with his moon in Scorpio. Whatever wealth he has that relies on the efforts of others or is “residual” will go through a Saturnian contraction.”

“Will something happen to his Swiss wealth?” Lacy asked?

“Since Scorpio is water,” I pondered, “maybe the Cayman Island assets will be first to contract.”

Posted in 2012 Presidential Election | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

What sign of the zodiac are apples?

Posted on September 16, 2012 by ohioastrology

My health insurance website has a picture of an apple with a measuring tape around it. Apples, I reflected, clearly represent good health. Of course, there is the saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

This website lists ten health benefits of apples which include preventing cancer and Alzheimer’s. This site also mentions that apples contain boron, which, in a classic Freudian fashion, I misread as “bacon.”

What sign could rule apples, such a perfectly healthy fruit?

Virgo Perfection

The astrologers in the room knew where I was going with this right away. They could probably sniff it out like a rotten apple in the back of the refrigerator behind the leftover pizza.

Health is ruled by the sign of Virgo which also monitors and governs the sixth house of the horoscope. The sixth house traditionally rules health, work, servitude and pets.

If in your sixth house you have sun in Virgo, then you probably eat a lot of apples and other healthy stuff (and have a clean colon).

If in your sixth house you have, say, moon in Sagittarius, then maybe your eating is something like one day just apples, the next day a five-course steak dinner and the following day just a six pack – to be repeated weekly.

If apples are so gosh-darn wonderful, why don’t we bring apples (which can be cold stored) to each others’ houses on the high holidays?

Why instead of apples do we bring eggnog and cookies and turkeys and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pies and deviled eggs?

Why not apples?

Simple Perfection

Perfection, in the apple and maybe in the rest of life, is simple. The world discourages simplicity. If Virgo, the mutable earth sign, represents simplicity, then the other mutable signs might represent other aspects of life in “square” (90 degree angle representing discord) to this simplicity:

Gemini promotes stimulation and constant activity.
Sagittarius promotes seeking, wandering and wondering.
Pisces promotes merging and becoming the energy of others.

Each sign, of course, has its place in life. When we are three years old, we need Gemini activity, not simplicity.

While we seem to want perfection, we appear to seek the opposite – the busy and the complicated.

Simplicity, as represented by the apple, is often perceived as boring while non-simplicity, as represented by eggnog, is perceived as more tasty, more interesting, more exciting.

I agree!

On the other hand, during a meditation retreat while eating a granola bar and tea, I suddenly had the heightened sensation that this was the best breakfast I’d ever eaten in my entire life.

Granola bars have since lost their appeal.

But I wonder if through quiet and simplicity we can experience an eggnog-and-pumpkin-pie rush while eating more simply and more healthy.

Maybe we’re not fully experiencing the apple?

Maybe if we eat quickly while preoccupied, we need increased taste sensations?

Pluto and Uranus in Virgo Generation

The Pluto and Uranus in Virgo generation, those born in the very late 1950s to late 1960s, are the generation that is bringing us the current interest in living green, healthy and simply.

They are also bringing hand sanitizers and anxious fear of germs, but all energies have multiple manifestations.

Another manifestation is the Virgo busy mind counting calories and calculating vitamin and mineral intake with every bite.

That’s where Virgo’s opposite, Pisces, helps out. Virgo might choose simplicity, but Pisces experiences it. It’s a polarity and balance is the key.

This Pluto and Uranus in Virgo generation is just beginning to feel the Neptune in Pisces transit, which opposes the Virgo energy. The next step in being “green” is to enjoy it, not analyze it. Thinking too much about simplicity might make it complicated, as with the business of orchard apple picking.

The Big Apple Mystery

The big mystery remains — if apples represent simplicity, why is the busy, bustling New York City called the Big Apple?

According to this Wikipedia article, European settlement began on September 3, 1609, which is in the sign of Virgo. And those coming in 1609 did come for Virgo religious purity and simplicity, didn’t they?

Posted in Planets and signs | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Steve Stivers and the Sunrise

Posted on September 12, 2012 by ohioastrology

My sweet tuxedo cat, Lacy, thought that I took the sun with me to work. I asked why.

“Because when you leave in the morning, the sun is in the front door. When you come home at night, it’s in the backyard where we sit.”

I explained to Lacy that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west – it’s merely a coincidence that the front door faces east and the back door faces west.

Lacy twitched her nose in disbelief.

“Does Steve Stivers have something to do with the sunrise?” she asked.

Huh?

Lacy told me about the new TV commercial for Stivers, Ohio 15th District candidate, which opens with:

“It’s morning in Ohio. A National Guard Colonel, Steve Stivers, is reminded daily the sacrifice made to keep the sun rising over our nation.”

Explaining Political Hyperbole to Your Cat

It took a few minutes and an old astronomy textbook to explain that Stivers doesn’t make or help the sun rise.

“So why did he say that?” she asked while licking her left foot.

“It’s called hyperbole,” I explained. “All politicians use hyperbole during the election. He simply wants to say he believes in defending our nation.”

“Do all politicians say they keep the sun rising?”

“Maybe Stivers went a little far,” I pondered, “because he has sun in Aries. His moon could be in either Sagittarius or Capricorn. Sagittarius would suggest out-of-control hyperbole (among other out-of-control activities) while moon in Capricorn would suggest extreme reverence for authority. If he does have sun in Aries and moon in Capricorn, then he very well might be a one-man military.”

“So he could keep the sun rising if he wanted?”

My kitty is a little slow at times.

“Maybe,” I conceded, patiently. “The commercial has a lot of coffee in it, so he maybe he keeps the sun rising over Mexico and Guatemala as well.”

“I like the sun, and Stivers,” Lacy said, yellow eyes staring in challenge. This is typical of her. She likes to play devil’s advocate in political conversation, taking the opposite view of her partner.

“I like the sun, too,” Lacy, “but Stivers might want to be careful with the sun hyperbole and stick to his record of sponsoring job fairs or something more practical.

It’s a lot sunnier in Iraq than in the 15th District of Ohio.”

Posted in Politicians - Ohio | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Mark of a Politician

Posted on September 11, 2012 by ohioastrology

When I was younger, it was common to hear the saying, “Behind every successful man there is a woman.”

That woman, supposedly, was the successful man’s wife.

First Ladies First

This article “Why Are Presidential Candidates’ Wives All the Same?” rekindled my thoughts on this subject in the political realm. As as aside, I think the article is brilliant and the last line of this paragraph is quite profound to me:

“In fact, this narrative has become a sort of fool-proof formula for contemporary presidential candidate’s wives since Laura Bush perfected it in 2000. After the damaging image of a power-mad Hillary Clinton, spousal reluctance has become a requirement, a kind of necessary modesty. That it’s so pervasive, despite the nagging voices in the back of our heads telling us it’s all PR, says a lot about what we still believe, or want to believe, about the modern first lady—how much we expect of her, and how little.”

The “how much” is passive femininity, which the author describes in detail, and the “how little” is any self-assertion or love of the dirty, nasty fight called politics.

Yet, as the author points out, many first ladies and first-lady contenders are as tough as nails but when they show it, à la Hillary Clinton, they get in trouble.

So is it true that behind every successful politician is a strong wife?

The Mark of a Politician

While politicians often describe themselves as “public servants” and strive to evoke our high school textbook images of 18th century intellectual lovers of freedom, a quick glance at the horoscopes of high political candidates points to something else.

While it’s not always there in a horoscope, I see it often enough to consider it the mark of a politician, at least one who makes it to the top of a political mountain – hard moon-Pluto contacts.

By hard, I mean the opposition, conjunction or square to the moon.

Both President Barack Obama and Republican opponent Mitt Romney have moon-Pluto square. For Obama, it’s moon in Gemini and Pluto in Virgo. For Romney, it’s moon in Scorpio and Pluto (and Saturn!) in Leo. Romney’s “square” is a wide aspect and some astrologers would disregard it. For me, the energies are still square albeit in wide aspect.

Romney also has moon in Scorpio which is ruled by Pluto. Moon in Scorpio is similar in effect.

What does moon square Pluto mean and why are these folks drawn to politics?

Moon-Pluto Hard Aspects

The moon represents are reactive state, our emotions. Pluto is rules transformation and evolution and often is involved in power, from personal to political.

From the blogosphere, here are some excerpts on moon-Pluto hard aspects.

Café Astrology

“Emotional satisfaction for you runs deep and is very complex. You yearn for intensity, but at the same time you may fear your own emotional nature, leading you to take great pains to keep it under wraps. Compulsiveness is a byproduct, and you find yourself easily swayed by your emotional yearnings and desires. The desire to merge with another human being is strong, yet can also be a fear at the same time.

It is very possible that you were especially sensitive to your maternal figure’s emotions, and picked up on her feelings of being overpowered, overwhelmed, resentful, or mistrustful. A strong love-hate attachment to her, or crises surrounding your experience of her, may be something that you live with and it could be undermining you in some manner. Some people with this aspect feel the need for early independence from their mother or families in order to feel released from the intense and conflicting emotions they attach to them. However, removing themselves entirely from the problem may not be a healthy, long-term answer on a psychological level. At some point, confronting early childhood conditioning is a necessary process. You may find that you can use music as a means by which you can express and release the emotional drama inside of you.”

Dark Star Astrology

“Moon square Pluto is probably one of the most intense and hungry moon aspects you can have. This is the raging Kali archetype par excellence. Moon square Pluto can be the product of an obsessive, possessive mother or be obsessed with being a mother. In some cases (The West’s, Kenisha Berry) the mother as destroyer can be literal. The moment HMS Titanic struck the Plutonic iceberg the Moon was square Pluto (63′). How symbolic of this aspect, the great ship weighed down by her treasures, plunged deep into the underworld with the loss of so many lives.”

The Strange House

“Intimate relationships may be difficult, with emotions intense and extreme. An atmosphere of emotional brooding may surround you; and others may prefer to withdraw as they sense elemental danger.

Needs for control influence choices and actions; you believe your environment and emotions need controlling to avoid ‘threats’ from others. This increases your preference for relationship dominance, often demanding that others acquiesce to [your] desires and wishes, yet this will inevitably imbalance relationships. You intend to rule, and will never willingly be submissive. If [forced] to do so by partner or employer, you will later try to undermine their dominance by subversive efforts to regain control. You can react almost violently toward anyone trying to change you, and may deliberately act in more extreme ways when displaying the behaviour that another hopes to change.”

Controlling the Environment

Moon-Pluto folks have a compulsive need to control the environment. My own belief is that Pluto-moon can indicate a psychic invasion which creates the response of constant vigilance and control, the same way you would check the locks on the door several times each night after your house had been robbed.

The moon’s involvement means the invasion is from the mother or other females. Liz Greene first introduced me to the concept of the “devouring mother” which is what moon-Pluto can describe to others, even in a non-mothering role.

Controlling the environment can take many forms – controlling the money, controlling the power (politics) or controlling the emotions.

And what’s the best way to control others through emotions?

For me, it’s guilt. I think moon-Pluto and moon-Saturn can be manipulated by or manipulate others through guilt.

Is there a strong woman behind every successful man?

If there is, it’s probably the mother who created political drive in her son.

What’s interesting, to me, is how strong woman in politics are often seen as threatening and must hide behind more traditional and softer images of femininity.

Is this what’s occurring on the US political stage? Rule by moon-Pluto men and subsequent attack on strong women because they feel like the devouring mother?

This reminds me of Bill Clinton who embarrassed his strong wife on the public stage. What was that about? Clinton, surprise, also has a moon-Pluto square.

Maybe Republican Veep candidate Paul Ryan can help. He’s the only one of the four men running for the White House without the moon-Pluto square (Joe Biden the moon-Pluto square), if he was born before afternoon. If he was born in the late afternoon or evening, his moon would be in Scorpio, and we’d be back to the Pluto influence.

Pluto help us!

Posted in 2012 Presidential Election | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

What sign of the zodiac are alcoholic beverages?

Posted on September 8, 2012 by ohioastrology

Alcoholic beverages, according to this Wikipedia article, are grouped into three general classes: beer, wine and spirits.

Wikipedia calls alcohol in beverages a “psychoactive drug” that alters perception, mood, consciousness, cognition and behavior.

What planet does that?

Neptune is the planet that “alters perception” when it passes over or makes aspect to another planet. Neptune is associated with foggy or unclear states – the kind of state where you fall in love with a frog and the kind of states where you sell roses 15 hours a day for a guru who lives in a mansion.

Neptune clearly rules “beer goggles.”

Goggles are the perfect image of Neptune – we can see, but we see through a think layer of glass, plastic stuff.

What is the stuff we’re looking through?

I don’t think it’s simply our psychological stuff – that would be the moon. I think Neptune rules the fourth dimensional “stuff” of all that we collectively see, feel and believe. If we’re a culture that believes in fairies, that is part of fourth dimensional stuff. If we’re a culture that believes in technology, likewise that is part of the fourth dimensional stuff.

Even if you don’t personally believe in “the stuff,” it hangs around the environment like pot smoke and may still give you a contact buzz.

Pisces

Neptune is the planet rules the sign of Pisces, the two fish swimming in opposite directions. Pisces is emotional, sensitive and empathetic.

Empathy evokes images of morality yet Pisces is empathetic whether it wants to be or not because it has no psychic skin between itself and the world. Don’t think all Pisces are able to help you simply because they truly feel your pain.

With no skin between itself and others, Pisces goes with the flow and can be pure water flowing from the mountain to the ocean or polluted water flowing from a toilet to a sewer.

Pisces needs to choose its water carefully because whatever water it swims in, it becomes.

Alcohol by rising sign

While the three categories of alcoholic beverages all provide the same effect in varying degrees, each has its own “culture,” which delights me to no end. It’s a “psychoactive drug” with a story.

Let’s have some fun and assign each classification a rising sign (ascendant in the horoscope) that describes how it presents itself to the world.

Beer is associated with the average Joe, the guy sitting at the bar watching the sports game. It is consumed at sports events is often the subject of sports-events’ commercials and relates to joining the gang. Beer is for everyone and has no class or caste system.

Beer’s rising sign can be Aquarius, the sign of the humanitarian. Even if Aquarius can’t stand the taste of beer, it would drink it to prove camaraderie.

Wine is associated with “culture” itself which likes to attach itself to the country of France quite often. Seeing the drunken, vomiting and goggled state of inebriation as something beautiful is clearly in the realm of Libra.

Libra is ruled by Venus and rules pleasure, beauty and art and brings these impulses to wine. Libra hangs a picture in the stockroom, brings a table cloth to the picnic and puts candles on the kitchen table.

Spirits are tricky to me. There are so many spirits, each with different images. Absolut drinkers and Wild Turkey drinkers evoke way different images. Hmm. I need help, dear reader, with spirits. Maybe spirits should be sub-categorized:

  • Whisky is associated with rough types, hunting men and a shot that takes away the pain of the day. I’ll brand whisky a Scorpio because whisky drinking involves serious business.
  • Vodka is associated with what? I don’t drink enough to know but see it in Ohio as between wine and whisky in terms of seriousness and intensity. I’ll brand it, for the moment, a social spirit and will honor it for the time as Gemini, the sign of the social butterfly.
  • Brandy is both a romantic and girly drink. I don’t think, but am not sure, that two men after work will go for a brandy. What’s sweet and comforting? I’ll go with Cancer on this one, which I also think rules ice cream.
  • Rum is from sugarcane and the Latin and South American countries. Since rum is associated with those cultures and fun, good times, I’ll brand it a Leo, a sign preferred by Latin and South American rulers.
  • Tequila is from Mexico which is a Virgo country. I can’t imagine Virgo ruling any alcoholic beverage, but what the heck, let’s invite Virgo to the party, even if it’s a teetotaler.

Then there is the drink of Drinks:

Martinis are associated with business lunches, advertising executives and success. Martinis, then, might be represented by Capricorn.

Now a big question remains – what rising sign to have after dinner tonight?

Posted in The most . . . sign of the zodiac | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Scorpio Mud Slinging: Not Just for Politicians

Posted on September 7, 2012 by ohioastrology

My 12th grade political science teacher told me all I think there is to know about politics. I quote Mr. Silverman:

“Politics is power and it’s all about whose ox is being gored.”

It’s funny how you can learn the truth so early in life yet search for years for answers, in this case, for political answers.

Sports and Political Fervor

As the US election nears, I’m seeing more political talk on my social media. Political fervor reminds me a lot of sports fervor, such as with American football.

If I’m watching, say, an Ohio State University game and happen to be an Ohio State University alumnus, it is assumed I am rooting for “my team,” the Buckeyes. If I root for, say, The University of Michigan Wolverines, I will get both angry stares and possibly hostile responses.

If I root for the Wolverines, no one will call me “open minded.” If I root for Ohio State University, no one will call me “narrow minded.”

Yet when we make our political choices, it’s like we’ve picked a sports team and the opposing team hates us by default. It’s important to remember in the US we usually have only two viable choices and many like neither but still exercise their right to vote.

You have to vote for someone, right?

Politics, of course, is far more important than sports. If I root for the Wolverines, no one is going to take away my right to a fair trial or cutoff my only form of sustenance during a Great Depression.

I’m starting to understand why the US elections are held in the sign of Scorpio and am feeling the current Mars in Scorpio transit and am beginning to dread, just a bit, Saturn’s two-year transit of Scorpio that begins on October 5.

Scorpio – Life and Death

Scorpio is a fixed water sign. Fixed means steady in behavior and belief. Water means emotion. The combination creates an emotionally intense, sensitive, never-forget-a-slight personality who treats most matters as ones of life and death. Scorpio understands the motivations of others and is always looking under the surface.

Scorpio loves and Scorpio hates. In response, Scorpios are often loved or hated.

Sound like politics?

When we love our sports team or our political party, any disagreement is like an insult to one’s child – the response is quick and hostile. You can insult a person much more easily than his or her child which brings out a visceral protective and emotional response.

Mars in Scorpio this month has heightened and brought out early the natural intensity of the US election process, what is often called “mud slinging.” It’s going to be a nasty one.

But who’s being nasty? We complain it’s the politicians but I fear we have our own inner mud to release and politics is simply the way to do this, much like how people watch horror movies to release fear.

But politics is real, you say!

I agree and there is a segment of the population that is always engaged in politics. But the discussion of abortion and attendant anger and hostility we have every four years for many will recede the second week of November as the election passes and the holiday season begins.

The election is like a fight in the middle of the school yard – you have to go look. And when you become a spectator, you become involved. You might even root for one of the fighters, yelling their name and shaking your fist.

Letting Go

When you love or hate something intensely, you create attachment.

The lesson for the intense Scorpio is letting go, in hatred for sure, but sometimes in love too. Letting go has a religious term which is called forgiveness. I think forgiveness is emphasized in religion as it releases a person from his or her own emotional prison. It may also help the object of resentment, too, but I think ultimately helps the person doing the forgiving.

When Scorpio doesn’t let go, it falls into a default mode of obsession – that’s what you get when you mix a fixed mode with a water element.

There’s a line from an episode The Big Bang Theory I enjoy which relates to this. The character Sheldon is obsessed with hatred for Wil Wheaton, who is on the opposing bowling team. Wil Wheaton points at Sheldon’s head and says that is where he, Wil Wheaton, is “living rent free.”

Our obsessions allow others to live “rent free” on our energy.

Two More Years

The Scorpio energy originating now will move from an aggressive form (Mars) to a more constricted form (Saturn) for the next two years.

Whoever wins will have to deal with an obsessed, possibly depressed but inevitably emotional environment. While this energy can’t tell me who will win the election, it feels a lot more like Mitt Romney, Pisces sun and Scorpio moon, than Barack Obama, Leo sun and Gemini moon.

The Mud Slinger in All of Us

Scorpio is a sign that likes to dig in the mud to see what it can find. That makes Scorpio the ultimate detective.

The US elections occur during Scorpio and seem to represent a time of digging into others’ mud as well as our own.

Don’t forget that the other event that occurs in Scorpio is Halloween, a holiday where we dress up as ghouls and goblins and knock on people’s door asking for candy.

Sounds a little like politics too, doesn’t it?

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Henry Rollins: Rebellion Times Two

Posted on September 4, 2012 by ohioastrology

What’s the most rebellious sign of the zodiac? For me, rebelliousness is independence with a bumper sticker. One of my votes for most independent sign goes to Aquarius (Sagittarius ranks high too).

What if you have both sun and moon in Aquarius?

That makes you independent to the point you might want to move to Uranus (the planet that rules Aquarius). I think it was Jeanne Avery who said of Aquarius that it’s the sign that says, “Stop the world and let me off.”

To Aquarius, the world is a nutty place. To the world, Aquarius is the weird one.

What do you think?

Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins, former lead singer of the band Black Flag, has sun and moon in Aquarius. His moon could be in Pisces, but his intensity suggests that he has a double dose of a fixed sign (Aquarius is fixed air).

[Painting by J. Gray]

What Rollins also has is the 1961 conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Capricorn. Folks with this aspect seem to sway toward 1) following the rules 100 percent or 2) not following the rules 100 percent.

Why?

Jupiter is social convention. Saturn represents the rules that uphold the convention. In Capricorn, these individuals grew up hearing, “This is how you SHOULD do things,” and “What will the neighbors think?”

In response, sensitive souls with sun in Cancer or Pisces might very well alter their lives to the liking of the neighbors. Those born under more rebellious signs, say Aquarius, smash the neighbors’ Halloween pumpkin and steal their lawn ornaments in response.

By the way, the band “Smashing Pumpkins” was formed by a man with the 1967 Uranus/Pluto opposite Saturn aspect – another “stick it to the man” formation in the skies.

Rollins has two planets in Aquarius and two in Capricorn; neither sign near what is called “emotional.” Rollins has some ideas for a better society and you ought to listen. If you don’t, he will simply repeat it for you – again and again.

But he’s not totally unemotional under those tattoos – Rollins also happens to have a grand water trine with Mars in Cancer, Neptune in Scorpio and Mercury in Pisces. He’s driven by emotions but swayed by logic and reason.

Venus in Aries is, for me, the image I most see when looking at a photo of Rollins – intense, physical, sexy aggression – the kind of aggression that separates the men from the boys.

Lastly we have Uranus in Leo and Pluto in Virgo. Pluto in Virgo came to clean up the planet, make us give up Styrofoam cups and is the Official Planetary Sponsor of hand sanitizer.

Uranus in Leo opposes Rollins’ sun in Aquarius adding a slightly quirky edge to an already weird and unique personality.

I wonder if Rollins is trying to get his ship to beam him off this crazy planet?

As Pluto transits Capricorn for the next 20 years, Rollins may find that the world finally knows what he’s been talking about his whole life.

Uranus transiting Aries is tromping on his love life – sudden changes will occur.

Neptune in Pisces is moving toward Rollins’ Mercury in Pisces making an already misunderstood person a little more obtuse. However, as Neptune continues in its own sign, more people will understand what Rollins is on about.

Oh, to be understood – finally!

Now the big question for Rollins – can he handle being understood? What do you do when people finally start to get it?

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The Astrology of Diamond Wedding Rings

Posted on September 4, 2012 by ohioastrology

This blog on “Venus Square Saturn: Love the Rock” made me think of diamond wedding rings. They represent, ostensibly, love, and they are also called “a rock” as in, look at that rock on her finger!

When you marry, in the United States, you complete paperwork and buy the female (in the  heterosexual version of marriage) a ring, for most a diamond ring. These two elements – wood (paper) and earth (rock) are what makes hanging out with another person and, maybe, having sex with them, into a Marriage.

I remember in the mini-series “Roots” the slaves jumping over a broom to make official the marriage. Brooms are wood.

The day before you get married and the day after are the same – you are two separate individuals. The marriage is in the commitment.

The ring and paperwork are symbols of the physical, spiritual and emotional commitment. Earth and wood are part of earth and the symbols of marriage relate to earth.

Really, you can’t make another person play by any rules unless you tie them to you physically with rope (i.e., the old ball and chain) or lock them in a room (as some do).

The rock, the diamond, represents the crystallization, the grounding, of the relationship into a marriage. The diamond represents making the intangible tangible.

What sign does that?

Saturn

Those beginning their study of astrology might learn that the planet Saturn was the ancient Great Malefic, creating burden, responsibility and duty. Just when you learned to dislike him, some astrologer comes by and tells you that without a strong Saturn connection between you and your loved one, marriage might never occur.

Saturn is the three-dimensional world of matter. Turning the feelings of two individuals into a “marriage” is Saturn.

Saturn rules the sign of Capricorn. Capricorn loves marriage in the same way it loves all rules and institutions military, political and religious in addition to Hoyle’s Rules of Games and Robert’s Rules of Order.

Venus is the planet that rules pleasure, which includes love, a great pleasure. When Venus is in Capricorn in a person’s chart, pleasure involves concrete, tangible items. In Capricorn (as opposed to the other earth signs of Taurus and Virgo), the tangible items ideally represent status and position.

Venus in Capricorn evokes for me the image of the diamond wedding ring.

When I saw the blog title, “Venus Square Saturn: Love the Rock,” I thought immediately of a diamond wedding ring. The blogger fears that Venus square Saturn will ruin the night’s date. Maybe the blogger will be surprised that the evening’s date might have a diamond ring attached, or a request for commitment. I’ll have to check in to see how Venus square Saturn played out.

Without Saturn, it’s just a date.

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The Tornado – America’s National Storm

Posted on September 3, 2012 by ohioastrology

At lunch the other day, my co-workers were talking about tornadoes and asking a European at the table about tornadoes in Europe. It seems there are few twisters on the Continent.

Are tornadoes uniquely American, I wondered?

My Google search revealed that tornadoes can occur anywhere in the world but the Continental United States has the majority although Bangladesh may have more per square mile and has had some of the worst. Who’d have thought that the United States and Bangladesh had anything in common?

The United States

The United States has sun in Cancer (water) and moon in Aquarius (air). Tornadoes, swirling wind, develop in “warm, most air.”

The Cancer is the warm, moist air and the Aquarius is the wind, the wind that can pick up your car and move it hundreds of feet away.

Aquarius is fixed air, the air of idealism and brotherhood. Swirling air seems more like Gemini, the sign some consider the rising sign for the July 4, 1776 chart. The U.S. does have Mars in Gemini.

Interestingly, current U.S. military intervention often begins (or is only) in the air, with military aircraft dropping bombs.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh was formed on March 26, 1971 when it split from Pakistan. That puts sun in Aries (fire) and moon in Pisces (water).

There’s not much air in the chart except for Uranus in Libra opposite the sun in Aries and Venus in Aquarius.

Fire and water together – what does that make?

Petroleum? This Wikipedia article calls it a “flammable liquid.” Sounds like fire and water to me. Bangladesh does have petroleum.

(I found this lovely fireplace site while searching).

In addition to tornadoes, Bangladesh seems to have its share of floods, cyclones and monsoons, all great water in the spirit of Pisces, the ocean.

Pisces seems to want to engulf Bangladesh.

The current square of transiting Pluto in Capricorn with Uranus in Aries is sitting right on top of Bangladesh’s sun in Aries square Mars in Capricorn.

Will there be another revolution in Bangladesh? Aries is independence and Capricorn self-reliance, but who would this country break away from at this time?

Or maybe Bangladesh will unite with another region for more Capricorn political authority. Will it join OPEC?

Brothers in Weather

The United States can add tornadoes to the list after apple pie as a cultural identifier. We have the most tornadoes.

Still, the United States and Bangladesh may be brothers in weather. The only difference is that Bangladesh carries the weight of so much destructive weather in a much smaller area. And would Bangladesh fight the United States for the rights to a National Storm?

Two countries – so different, so far apart, yet sharing the same weather. Who’d have thought?

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