The Luckiest Sign of the Zodiac is . . .

Posted on March 21, 2012 by ohioastrology

Jupiter is the planet associated with luck and abundance. When Jupiter is transiting, it is seen as a lucky time.

Modern astrologers recognize that “luck” is in the eye of the beholder, as are many qualities. Jupiter represents abundance, which has a positive connotation. An abundance of money is a nice thing but an abundance of carpenter ants in the basement is not.

If you have Mars in Pisces in the 4th house, for example, and Jupiter transits Pisces, you might receive a “lucky” offer to live by the ocean or you might find, unluckily, that your basement isn’t sealed properly and your basement is an ocean every time it rains.

Jupiter “expands what it finds” I learned from an astrologer at the 1992 American Federation of Astrologers convention. That valueless statement is the best one, I believe, when dealing with Jupiter transits.

Jupiter can expand waistlines, too, by the way.

Sagittarius

Jupiter is the planet that rules the mutable fire sign Sagittarius. Sagittarius, you may remember, was also branded by OHA as Clumsiest Sign of the Zodiac.

Are luck and clumsiness related?

I think they are.

Look at it this way. Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) are known to be routine. If you know someone who gets up at the same time each day, eats at the same time each day and pretty much has the same routine all the time, you’re probably looking at an earth sign.

If every day you do the same thing, most likely every day you will have similar experiences. You certainly may run into some new people or situations, but after a few days of routine, the staff at Starbucks will soon know your order upon hearing your voice, the waitress at the diner will give you “the regular” and your pet will know to wake you at 6 a.m.

When following routine, magic rarely happens.

I think what’s called “luck” occurs more to the Sagittarius simply because Sagittarius (and its polar opposite Gemini) is unpredictable. Sagittarius follows the scent of the sublime and that scent may lead it to a stick of incense or a perfume shop or to a million other places.

When you are open to unique and different experiences, “luck” may occur.

When you’re open to new experiences and your head is in the clouds, you may also trip on uneven pavement invoking the title of clumsy.

Two Shades of Luck

Luck comes in two varieties – good and bad. Both are ready to strike a blow at the individual who opens to experience and looks at each day as a unique moment of time and space.

Being open, I’m learning, means holding back on the value judgment and experiencing the experience. Often when perceived “bad” experiences occur, we shut down the path to any experience that may resemble the bad experience. If “good” experiences occur, we seek more of the same type of experience.

Sagittarius has good “luck” because it accepts both the good and bad that comes its way without judgment. Sagittarius may be headstrong and opinionated, but it is not judgmental. Sagittarius, then, has both “good” and “bad” luck.

“Luck,” then, may simply represent unique experiences rather than unique experiences leading to “luck.”

If you’re not a Sagittarius, you can have “good luck” too. You simply have to be open to all luck, both “good” and “bad.”

Posted in The most . . . sign of the zodiac | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Get Your Saturn Off My Sun! (Romney in Illinois)

Posted on March 19, 2012 by ohioastrology

You have a horoscope. Others have a horoscope. Planets in their horoscopes can be compared to planets in your horoscope. The planets in their horoscopes, if they were placed on top of your horoscope like a stencil on top of paper, would create aspects in your horoscope.

In life it feels like this: You meet someone and instantly feel attracted. Conversation flows, you say your witty things, the other laughs. The other says interesting things, you ask questions. You never stop to think “What should I say next?” There is no awkward silence.

You and this person have some nice aspects. Maybe it’s a love attraction and his Mars is on your Venus. Or maybe it’s an intellectual attraction and her Uranus is sparking your Mercury. Or maybe it’s just affable friendliness and your moon is conjunct her sun in a sunny, extroverted sign.

You’ve also sat next to someone at dinner or an event where you asked a question and received a conversation ending answer like “yes” or “no.” You try again and get another short response. Every question is a tortuous attempt to create a natural flow that never happens.

Maybe that person’s Mars is squaring your Mars meaning you just don’t flow the same direction. Or maybe that person’s Venus is opposite your Venus and you relate differently. Or maybe that person’s Saturn is conjunct your Mercury and he just doesn’t want to talk.

Or maybe it’s the dreaded Saturn conjunct your sun.

Saturn

Saturn is about responsibility, control and discipline. That’s nice stuff to have if you are responsible for something, in control of a nuclear reactor or planning to run a marathon.

At a dinner party, Saturn isn’t as much fun.

The sun is our conscious self, the self we try to project.

Their Saturn on your sun means there is a parental, controlling feel when in the presence of that person. If you like that sort of thing, it can create a partnership of shared responsibility. If you don’t like that sort of thing, it feels like that person is a drag, a wet blanket. Often the person is older and feels like a parent figure.

For the Saturn person, the sun person feels irresponsible or out of control in some way. The sun’s behavior embarrasses the Saturn person.

Mitt Romney in Illinois

Speaking of Saturn on one’s sun, Illinois, the state of next week’s primary, has Saturn and Pluto in Pisces. Neither is in the exact degree, but they are in the sign of Mitt Romney’s sun.

This kind of aspect doesn’t tell me whether Romney will win Illinois or not, but it definitely says that Illinois will be very heavy on Romney’s shoulder.

The feeling I get is of a school kid walking home trying to avoid bullies. Illinois is the street Romney must walk to pass the bullies, the street between “school” and “home.” Saturn and Pluto ganging up on a person is a mafia-like energy.

Next Tuesday’s primary is like running the gauntlet for Romney.

Illinois is a Sagittarian state with Mars, sun, Uranus, Mercury and Neptune all in fiery Sagittarius. Sagittarius squares Pisces.

Back to the dinner party, Romney sitting next to Illinois. Illinois says, “How about them Bulls?” And Romney says, “The Bulls, basketball, yeah, I love basketball.”

Illinois, the Sagittarian gambler, then says, “How much you betting on the Bulls?”

Romney, the spiritual Pisces says, “Aw, I don’t really bet on sports. I only make bets with anxiety-ridden political opponents during debates. Sports are fun to watch, but it doesn’t really matter who wins.”

Illinois wants some hard-talking, spirited, opinionated Sagittarian banter and won’t like Romney’s Piscean “let me get along with everyone” talk.

To Romney, Illinois will feel like an irresponsible, freewheeling gangsta state.

Romney just needs to remember that we’ve all run past bullies at some time in our lives.

Run, Romney, run!

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Ohio Political Fight Club: Beatty and Long

Posted on March 18, 2012 by ohioastrology

Ohio’s re-configured 3rd Congressional District will have a new representative this fall. Joyce Beatty, Democrat and Chris Long, Republican, will be duking it out for a seat in the House of Representatives.

Trying to find Long’s birthday, I stumbled upon his website. If that’s all one can muster, I thought, I’d definitely vote for his opponent. A man with a 1990s website may have difficulty with 21st century issues. Long’s website reminds me of the old diners you find in some small towns (like Mount Vernon) that have a sign in the window announcing the restaurant has air conditioning.

Beatty’s website, powered by Blue Campaign Solutions, appears much more polished at first. So I began to dig through her site to find – nothing. I either donate or volunteer. I’m guessing with Blue Campaign Solutions behind her, the site will improve.

Here’s where Democrat and Republican can meet for some bi-partisan website development.

Long can steal Beatty’s look and feel while Beatty add information about what she plans to do for the people who may elect her.

Both need to remember that this is OHIO. This is the state where Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney dueled like 18th century dandies for the hand of OHIO. In the fall, politicians will be traversing our state like chipmunks running across back patios hiding nuts.

Develop a good, navigable, relevant website, Beatty and Long, and make OHIO proud.

Joyce Beatty

I found Beatty’s date of birth, but not Long’s. Beatty is a Pisces sun and Capricorn moon.

You heard it, Pisces and Capricorn. I talk about those signs a lot because Neptune has just entered Pisces for its 13-year travel through that sign. Pluto is in Capricorn and will be there for about ten more years.

Beatty’s Saturn is in Virgo and Mars/Neptune in Libra.

You heard it, Virgo and Libra. I talk about these two signs a lot because Saturn is still transiting Libra and Mars is retrograde in Virgo until mid-summer.

This is an interesting time for Beatty.

Sensitive and Hard

Sun in Pisces and moon in Capricorn is an interesting combination. Pisces is the mutable water sign, the last sign of the zodiac, the one that is most sensitive and feeling. Pisces feels so much and so strongly that it often must retreat for protection.

Retreat for Pisces can involve imaginative play, creativity, daydreaming or pure escapism through drugs and alcohol.

Pisces is the most empathetic of the signs – the only sign, I sometimes think, that truly feels others’ pain. Pisces is associated with mediumistic tendencies.

Because of this sensitivity, Pisces is prone to easy manipulation through outside influences. More than any other sign, Pisces takes on the quality of the environment.

Moon in Capricorn, on the other hand, is NOT like Pisces. Rather than feeling, it is about control. This can be good for a boundary-less Piscean soul but also can be difficult because the feelings have difficulty being expressed.

How does this play out in the personality?

Beatty might be a sympathetic soul who listens and understands yet still demands that you do the work to change your life. She will have sympathy for you as long as you DESERVE sympathy.

Go ahead, cry on her shoulder, then get back to work. Try to cry every day on that shoulder and that shoulder will turn very, very cold.

Beatty might be drawn to politics out of a Piscean desire to help humanity. We’re seeing a lot of Pisces energy this election season, with Piscean sun Mitt Romney running for the presidency.

It’s raining Pisces.

Saturn in Virgo

Beatty’s Saturn in Virgo means she’s a perfectionist who never truly feels she’s good or perfect enough. Capricorn moon usually supports this kind of thinking and often punishes itself for every little deed considered bad (which is just about everything).

Beatty tries hard to be good and is more upset with herself that you’ll ever be when she feels she’s failed.

No need to punish Beatty, ever. She can punish herself much better than you can.

Mars and Neptune in Libra

Mars and Neptune in Libra bring charm and a warm, approachable demeanor. This conjunction trines Beatty’s Venus in Aquarius which makes friends with everyone, engages with everyone and is everyone’s best friend.

Beatty is best friend to many and close friend to few.

Moon in Capricorn is the boundary that the rest of her chart lacks. While in some ways this is good, I bet it troubles Beatty that at a certain point, her friendships start to fizzle. She makes friends fast and quick, but at some point the friendships may grow cold and distant.

Current Transits

Pluto in Capricorn will be conjunct that moon in Capricorn. Beatty can expect some female friendships to grow cold, very cold. Beatty, sun in Pisces, may wonder why. There’s a moat between Beatty and her friends that her friends may be explaining to her.

Uranus in Aries will square that moon causing additional, sudden disruptions in female friendships. Also, Beatty’s suppressed resentments will rise like volcano ash.

Beatty’s north node is in Aries so she is meant to assert herself. She may be learning some lessons about being tough versus being mean.

Saturn has passed its conjunction of Mars and Neptune, which must have also been rough. The charm wasn’t working for a while. By fall, the faucet of charm should be fixed as Saturn moves into Scorpio.

Neptune in Pisces will be conjunct Beatty’s Mercury in Pisces. This is story telling at its finest. You can say the water is poisoned or you can say it contains a necessary mineral.

I’m seeing a lot of Pisces in this election and I’m wondering if these Pisces are supposed to tell us about some pollution or water-borne issue (as Pisces is collective water). Hopefully one of these Pisces will spit out the truth if something like this is occurring.

Mars in Virgo until mid-summer will be triggering Beatty’s insecure Saturn in Virgo. She will be incomplete and insecure until sometime in June. As Mars passes from Virgo to Libra, she will feel energized, both charming and charmed and popular.

Late summer will be a pleasant and fun time for Beatty. Going into the fall election, she will feel like a million bucks.

Improve the website

Hopefully Beatty will improve her website to include her Piscean sun and Aquarian Venus vision for her electorate.

I suggest that Beatty add lots of pictures of herself. Pisces sun with Mars/Neptune conjunct in Libra make for a physically beautiful person. Attractiveness is a quality few of us can resist.

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Republican Fight Club: True Grit Versus Cheesy Grits

Posted on March 16, 2012 by ohioastrology

Ya’ll may have missed the Alabama and Mississippi primary results this week. Rick Santorum took both states although Mitt Romney is still way ahead in delegates.

I can’t help it – I like it when Rick Santorum wins.

Don’t tell my friends.

Articles are using the word I planned to use to describe Santorum – grit. Santorum has that fixed-sign perseverance called grit. Romney seems to want to buy the election so every time Santorum steals some ground, I feel excited.

It’s an underdog story that usually does well on the other side of the fence (Democrat) in politics.

Grit versus Grits

The word “grit” is not to be confused with “grits” which is (courtesy of dictionary.com) “coarsely ground hominy, boiled and sometimes then fried, eaten as a breakfast dish or as a side dish with meats.”

Ya’ll may have missed the news that Romney, in an effort to relate to the folks down yonder, mentioned at a rally how he’d eaten “cheesy grits” for breakfast.

Maybe Romney had humble pie for supper.

Cheesy Grit

Why did Romney’s comment about cheesy grits come across as cheesy and Santorum’s win down south come across as personal grit?

It keeps going back to the same thing for me – Santorum is being himself and Romney is not.

This is an astrology blog so you knew this was coming – What is different about their charts that Santorum is comfortable being himself and Romney is not?

Earth and Water

Santorum is a fixed earth sign (Taurus) and Romney is a mutable water sign (Pisces). I can’t confirm either man’s time of birth although I’ve seen a chart for Romney which gives him a (believable) Gemini rising.

Earth

Earth signs are practical and take care of the everyday matters of life that some of the other elements find difficult such as:

  • Paying bills
  • Paying bills on time
  • Cleaning the dirty mess in the corner
  • Organizing the shoe closet
  • Making a plan and sticking with it
  • Eating the same meal at the same time for a long, long time
  • Having the same views for a long, long time

Being earth myself, I understand how Santorum thinks. He looks at politics in practical terms as when he says things like, “It’s a great idea, but you’ll never get it through Congress.”

Practical.

Santorum describes how he voted yes on bills that included things he didn’t like because if you’re a Republican and other Republicans support it, you say yes.

Practical.

For Taurus, this is all very easy, really. The world is Boolean for a Taurus so making decisions is easy – there are two choices, right and wrong. Just choose the right one.

To a Gemini or Libra, this makes no sense.

It’s practical.

Water

Water signs are emotional and notice the undercurrents in the room that other elements, such as earth and air, do not notice.

Here are some things that water signs notice that you completely missed:

  • When you said you liked the casserole, your left eye twitched a little indicating that you were lying
  • At the loud bustling party where you can’t hear yourself think, there is a person standing in the corner feeling sad
  • Your mother wants you to call
  • Your girlfriend doesn’t really love you
  • Everyone at work would like you better if you wore some deodorant
  • No one really liked the punch

Water notices and FEELS everything. For Pisces (and Scorpio moon) Romney, standing in front of a crowd trying to act like one of the fellas must be extremely, and I mean EXTREMELY, difficult for such a sensitive fella.

Imagine if you could feel the emotions of each person in a crowded room. For a sensitive Pisces, it’s a circuit-breaking experience.

In a colossal Piscean effort to relate, Romney seems to try to change his persona for the people in the room. The irony is that he probably relates more than any other candidate but appears to relate less than any other candidate.

Romney comes across as cheesy because he’s trying to be a Political Candidate rather than himself which could simply be Sensitive Political Candidate.

American men, in general, don’t wear sensitivity well.

True grit or cheesy grits?

While the math suggests Santorum can’t win the Republican nomination, he is a practical man who has some strategy. If he’s continuing in the race, there must be some way he’s worked out that he can win (such as being nominated at the convention).

I’ll sit back and enjoy the movie, I mean electoral process, and see if True Grit can overcome Cheesy Grits.

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Neptune in Capricorn: The Legalization of Drugs

Posted on March 16, 2012 by ohioastrology

Astrologers are forward-looking individuals, always trying to predict the future. Much of the reason, I believe, is due to astrology being considered fortune telling which creates in astrologers the need to predict future events.

Much of the world, really, is involved in trying to predict future events from past data. All of these folks do this on a daily basis: economists, bankers, meteorologists, pundits, sports anchors and marketing analysts. As I think about it, much of the world is involved in prediction.

When you plan your drive to work in the morning, you make predictions about time spent in traffic, traffic patterns, the estimated time the boss will arrive and time needed in bathroom prior to work.

I should start selling crystal balls.

Unlike these other disciplines, astrology is not taken seriously in the West so there is no money provided for students of astrology to share knowledge formally or engage in astrology as a serious discipline which would involve not just predicting future events, but a thorough analysis of past events.

I’m thinking about this because I found a used astrology book this week called “Astrocycles” by Vivian B. Martin. It’s a neat little paperback that explains astrological planetary cycles. It was published in 1990 and my edition released in 1993.

Ms. Martin has an entire chapter entitled “The Aquarian Conspiracy,” devoted to the Neptune/Uranus conjunction in Capricorn that reached its closest conjunction in 1993-1994.

In a section of this chapter entitled “Changing Realities Throughout Society,” one of her bullet points talks about drug use and says:

“Neptune, the planet of escapism and drugs, moving through the sign of government and business [Capricorn], runs deals in the highest reaches of society. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse estimates that substance abuse is costing the workplace more than $80 billion. Twenty percent of workers abuse drugs and alcohol. The war against drugs at the office and on the street continues. But nothing gets better until societal leaders address ethical and spiritual decay.”

Ms. Martin’s prediction is a little vague to me but seems to suggest that she believes drug use will increase. Her comment about “runs deals in the highest reaches of society” is interesting to me because of what has occurred since the early 1990s – the increased use of pharmaceuticals.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy

As there is no university of astrology where I can be funded to spend the next two months researching pharmaceutical use in the US from 1993 to present, I have to stick with finding what I can today through Google.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was created in 1988 as a result of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. In 1993, an executive order “assigned ONDCP responsibility within the executive branch of government for leading drug-control policy and developing an outcome-measurement system.”

At the time of the Neptune/Uranus conjunction in 1993, the ONDCP was moved to the executive branch.

Looks like Ms. Martin got it right, in the US at least.

Predicting the future involves imagining how energies might manifest in the future. While I think Ms. Martin got it right, I think her ideas are wider and broader than she wrote (but may have been thinking).

Have we already legalized drugs?

Throughout time, humans have used both “medicine” and “drugs” for health and pleasure. But what is the difference between a legal and non-legal drug?

Just that, I believe – its legal status.

Why is marijuana illegal (mostly) and Prozac legal? You might answer that it’s doctor intervention. The doctor does not prescribe drugs for pleasure and proscribes Prozac only when necessary.

I believe I could walk into a doctor’s office today and get Prozac if I wanted. Could I get any medication I wanted? That I don’t know. But I’m quite sure I could get a mood-enhancing drug simply by walking into a doctor’s office and saying I feel depressed.

The late Peter Tosh, composer of “Legalize It” might need some Prozac if he were alive now. It appears that mood-altering drugs have been legalized, but one must acquire them through the system.

The system is Capricorn.

Capricorn

In case you’re not an avid reader of this blog, I’ll review Capricorn for you.

Capricorn is a cardinal earth sign most associated with ambition, success and reputation. Capricorn is the ultimate “career” person who wants to be successful and respected in the public sphere.

As I often do during election season, I recently watched the movie “Election.” Tracy Flick, the nauseatingly ambitious student running for Student Council President, is the ultimate negative portrayal of a Capricorn, ruthlessly ambitious, using other people as a means to an end.

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn which rules structure. Life in this three-dimensional world is created by structure. From roads to the skeletal system, structure keeps us from blowing apart into bazillions of molecules and floating away or hitting each other at four-way stops.

Capricorns, then, love authority and structure. Authority starts with parents and moves onto school teachers until we finish with cops and lawyers. Isn’t it funny that cop and lawyer TV shows are created continuously and we never bore of them?

Societal structures ruled by Saturn include any institution from government to religion to “institutions” like marriage.

In the mid-1960s as Saturn opposed a Uranus/Pluto conjunction, a group of people rebelled against structure. They called structure “the system” and called themselves “hippies.” They wanted to “drop out” of the system. They dropped out using perception-altering drugs (like LSD).

Neptune

Neptune is the god of the seas and in astrology rules spirituality, oneness, merging with others and drugs or altered states. In its negative form it refers to escapism.

Anyone who has had a beer knows that it’s easier to merge with the people around when you’re having a beer than when you are drinking, say, water, or not drinking at all.

Neptune is quite Dionysian. He rules ecstatic pleasure and transcendence of three-dimensional reality and if attempting these things at home one often is threatened by madness.

So there is a good reason to watch the drug use – it does make you feel good but when its effects wear off you return to three-dimensional reality with a hard thump.

The stronger the drug, the harder the thump.

Meditation may be the slow road to this state for that very reason. One can only meet the divine taking baby steps to build endurance of such powerful energy.

In other words, before you go off the deep end, you must learn to swim.

Neptune in Capricorn

What happened when Neptune transited Capricorn in the 1990s?

One of the effects, I believe, was that mood-altering and non-necessary drug use became socially sanctioned. It was socially sanctioned because of a reverence of business and idealization of making money for its own sake – if something creates jobs and makes money, it is good.

The National Center for Health Statistics published a report on prescription drug use in September 2010. Three of their key findings state:

  • Over the last 10 years, the percentage of Americans who took at least one prescription drug in the past month increased from 44% to 48%. The use of two or more drugs increased from 25% to 31%. The use of five or more drugs increased from 6% to 11%.
  • In 2007–2008, 1 out of every 5 children and 9 out of 10 older Americans reported using at least one prescription drug in the past month.
  • The most commonly used types of drugs included: asthma medicines for children, central nervous system stimulants for adolescents, antidepressants for middle-aged adults, and cholesterol lowering drugs for older Americans.

According to the ONDCP, “Prescription drug abuse is the Nation’s fastest-growing drug problem, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified prescription drug abuse as an epidemic.”

The word “control” in the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is clearly a double entendre. Drugs are certainly “controlled” better since its inception.

We’re all taking pharmaceuticals

With the increased use of pharmaceuticals by man, these drugs are now prevalent in our water supply (Neptune again). Whether we want to take these drugs or not, we are.

In addition to human drug use, our food is increasingly being drugged from livestock drugs to increase animal size and output to genetically modified food (probably more a Saturn than Neptune phenomenon) and use of chemical fertilizers.

Here’s an interesting article on pharmaceuticals in water and wildlife.

Not only are drugs legal now, we’re all taking them.

Alcohol

As prescription drugs have become the path to socially-sanctioned mind-altering states and as our food and water have become petri dishes of chemical mixtures, old-fashioned alcohol sits quietly on the shelves doing the business it has done for eons.

While there has been a lot of outrage about drunk driving, there has been very little outrage about “drunk” itself.

Neptune has just entered its own sign, the sign of Pisces. While Neptune is in Pisces, Pluto is (and will be) transiting Capricorn.

Maybe as Pluto tears down structures (currently banking and economic), we may see a change to the negative side of Neptune in Capricorn where business has been promoting drugs for material gain. Pluto in Capricorn may bring down the pharmaceutical business as it’s bringing other industries to collapse as well.

Neptune in Pisces may then return us to both alcoholic and spiritual states of bliss.

This astrologer predicts a Neptune in Pisces rise in alcohol sales, possibly due to a desire to return to “natural” mood-enhancing techniques and also because, simply, a bottle of beer is cheaper than a prescription and brings pleasurable sensation with it.

In order to pay for prescription drugs, one must have health insurance which means one must work at a large company that offers health insurance. As unemployment increases, there may be a return to the cheaper and ancient method of stress relief – alcohol.

I’m guessing, too, that there will be a parallel desire for natural Neptune in Pisces experiences which comes not from drugs or alcohol but from spiritual exercise and lifestyle.

As Ms. Martin said in her book, “. . . But nothing gets better until societal leaders address ethical and spiritual decay.”

Peter Tosh

This beautiful and poetic man with Neptune/Mercury/sun all in Libra said it first about marijuana – legalize it.

“Legalize it – don’t criticize it
Legalize it and I will advertise it”

What would Peter Tosh think?

Guess what, Peter, many drugs are legalized. Unfortunately, they are “legalized” in a roundabout way that means your people are still poor. And there is plenty of advertising.

Peter Tosh wanted us to “get up, stand up” for our rights. Maybe he would have continued this to “get up, stand up, for your economic rights.”

Why shouldn’t the local marijuana dealer be able to compete with the large pharmaceuticals the way local farmers’ markets are competing with large grocery stores?

Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces may bring us these types of questions.

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Ohio Cat Wants Gingrich to Exit Primary Race

Posted on March 12, 2012 by ohioastrology

Today my tuxedo cat Lacy asked me why I haven’t blogged about the Mississippi and Alabama primaries that will occur tomorrow.

“Because nothing much has changed in the skies,” I replied.

“Something must be different,” she challenged, her feline astrological knowledge improving through a deep and thorough reading of my astrological library.

“Of course,” I answered. “The moon will be in Sagittarius and Mercury is now retrograde in Aries.”

“What does it mean that Mercury is retrograde?” she asked.

“Retrograde is the apparent backward motion of a planet due to the distance between the earth and that planet. Mercury retrograde in Aries may bring up past primary results and some fighting about those results. Mercury will be conjunct Uranus so there will be sudden announcements of something from the past. Who knows, maybe Maine will finally finish counting their votes and announce that Ron Paul actually won the caucus and not Mitt Romney.”

“Maine hasn’t finished counting their votes?” Lacy asked, clearly shocked.

“I guess it takes a while to count a thousand slips of paper.”

“So just the moon and Mercury have changed since Super Tuesday?”

“All the planets move,” I answered. “But Jupiter is still in Taurus providing physical wealth to Rick Santorum with sun in Taurus and Paul with moon in Taurus. There’s still a grand earth trine with Jupiter (in Taurus), Pluto (in Capricorn) and Mars (in Virgo). Uranus is still in Aries and Neptune is still at the very early degrees of Pisces.”

“Mars is still doing its long haul through Virgo,” I continued, ”giving Romney nervous ulcers and triggering a manic bi-polar episode from Newt Gingrich.”

“Gingrich is still in the race?” Lacy asked. “I didn’t see him on the Sunday morning news shows last weekend.”

“I’d like to say you didn’t see him because he was at mass,” I began, “but most likely he wasn’t invited on because Santorum is running second to Romney so he got the air time. Gingrich is doing pretty poorly.”

“If Gingrich is doing poorly,” Lacy began, “why is he still in the race?”

How do you explain Super PACs to an innocent feline who thinks every vote counts?

“Because he can afford to.” I left it at that.

As she often does when thinking, Lacy scratched behind her ear, licked under her leg, spun around three times chasing her tail then settled back down again.

Finally she said, “I wish Gingrich would get out of the race. It would be more fun to watch Santorum duke it out with Romney.”

“I agree,” I replied. “But with Mars transiting Virgo and Neptune transiting Pisces triggering Gingrich’s crazy T-square of sun, Saturn, Uranus and Mercury in Gemini, moon in Sagittarius and Neptune in Virgo it’s like asking someone who’s just taken LSD to help you do a crossword puzzle. We have to wait for the drug to wear off. And when it does, Gingrich may collapse like a rag in the laundry pile.”

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American Dualism: Time and Newsweek

Posted on March 10, 2012 by ohioastrology

In the American tradition of splitting the world in half to create dualistic opposites (Democrat and Republican, Coke and Pepsi, Colgate and Crest, etc.) historically we’ve had two major print magazines – Time and Newsweek.

While doing research in high school, I often felt they were the same magazine presented as two magazines so that people who thought they didn’t like one would just like the other and the real owner would make money either way.

The other side of the argument is that news is news and if something major happens all media will probably cover it, have similar pictures and learn similar information.

I learned today that Time is ten years older than Newsweek, the first issue released on March 3, 1923. Newsweek’s first issue was February 17, 1933.

While both titles appear so similar to me, the charts are quite different.

Time is Pisces sun and Virgo moon.

Newsweek is Aquarius sun and moon in Scorpio or Sagittarius. I’m going to go with Scorpio because for an issue to be released on particular day, it would be ready in the morning. Also, the first issue of Newsweek is covered in images of Nazi swastikas, photographs of Stalin and Roosevelt and images of war. It’s a dark, Scorpionic cover.

Time’s first cover has a boring, innocuous portrait of then-Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Joseph Gurney Cannon.

Time

Sun in Pisces is opposite moon in Virgo. Virgo is the discriminating mind which looks at details, compares to other details and is critical. Pisces is the non-discriminating mind which looks at the big picture, the feeling behind the façade and is accepting.

Pisces is the forest, Virgo, the trees.

Pisces is the big picture, Virgo, the details.

Pisces is the soup, Virgo, the ingredients.

This Pisces/Virgo combination seems a good one for a magazine that needs to find facts and then make stories.

Neptune has just moved into Pisces and Mars is taking an especially long time (six months) moving through Virgo. Time is probably feeling some anxiety right now. There may be a story or stories that are confusing the detail of Virgo with the feeling of Pisces. Time may be under the spotlight for manipulating a story or stories.

Pluto in Capricorn is opposing natal Pluto in Cancer which means it’s time for a family breakup. The breakup may be forced by government (Capricorn) entities.

From a larger perspective, this Pluto in Capricorn is destroying and transforming many societal structures. Media is just one of the many structures that will continue collapsing in the current restructuring of institutions.

Uranus in Aries will transit Time’s Mars in Aries in about six to seven years. Mars in Aries says “me first.” According to Wikipedia, Time has the world’s largest circulation for a weekly. In seven years, that may change.

Newsweek

With sun in Aquarius and moon in Scorpio, Newsweek is more about investigative journalism. More than Time, Newsweek will include unseemly sources in unseemly stories.

With Uranus in Aries squaring the Pluto in Cancer, this magazine has always challenged the existing family and collective structure. With sun in Aquarius, Newsweek is focused on an idealistic world while being plagued with moon in Scorpio hidden motivations.

Neptune just finished its transit of Newsweek’s sun, so the magazine’s reinvention should last for a while. Neptune will transit in the next year Newsweek’s Mercury in Pisces and oppose Newsweek’s Neptune/Mars/Jupiter in Virgo.

Like Time, this opposition will create issues with what are facts and what is manipulation of facts. Unlike Time, Newsweek’s core business (sun) should not be threatened.

Pisces also rules images and motion pictures, so there may be issues with picture tampering for both Time and Newsweek.

Jupiter’s transit through Taurus opposes Newsweek’s moon in Scorpio. Jupiter in Taurus brings money but opposing the moon means that money needs to be spent. There may be money spent on a new building or other infrastructure.

Republican or Democrat? Coke or Pepsi?

If Time and Newsweek were political parties, which would they be?

Hmm. I’m going to say Time would be more conservative (Republican) and Newsweek more liberal (Democrat). Newsweek, with sun in Aquarius and moon in Scorpio, might be more fixed and stubborn in beliefs but really can’t play by the rules. Time is more conservative in personality and wouldn’t like to rock the boat due to extreme sensitivity.

Following the blog on Coca-Cola being a Republican and Pepsi Democrat, Time would drink Coke and Newsweek would drink Pepsi.

Marketers may not use astrology, but if they did, they might find some useful partnerships and alliances.

Posted in American Dualism | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

If You Want to be an Astrologer, What Sign Should You be?

Posted on March 10, 2012 by ohioastrology

Back in the 1980’s when looking for books on astrology, I often found myself in the “Occult” section facing books on haunted houses, exorcism, black magic and some very creepy book covers.

Astrology is really more like marketing analysis where you have lots of bits of data and you try to put them together into a whole. Astrology works with astronomy and geometry analyzing ten “planets” in 12 signs placed in 12 houses and all the geometric relationships that exist in the 360-degree circle that is a horoscope.

For example, if your sun is in 10 degrees of Aries and your moon in 10 degrees of Libra, those two planets are in 180 degree aspect called an opposition. A sun-moon opposition creates a full moon. If your sun is in 10 degrees of Aries and your moon in 10 degrees of Virgo, that’s a 150 degree aspect called the quincunx. An Aries with a Libra moon is quite different than an Aries with a Virgo moon.

Now what if your sun is in 1 degree of Aries and your moon 29 degrees of Virgo? Twenty nine degrees of Virgo is just one degree from 0 Libra which is then more clearly an opposition. One degree of Aries and 29 degrees of Virgo is still considered an opposition, just an out-of-sign opposition. The characteristics of the person will be different than an Aries/Libra opposition.

Get it?

Or are your eyes rolling in your head as you think, “What the heck is she talking about? I’m so bored.”

Astrology is analytical. That’s why I think of astrologers as “the nerds of the New Age Movement.”

To be an astrologer, you must be analytical. You must like to delve through lots of data and detail and make little-bitty parts into a coherent whole.

Pieceing the parts into a whole is what you can’t find in a book on astrology. Astrology books will tell you that your Aries sun is extroverted and your Cancer moon introverted, but won’t describe how this square sun-moon aspect will manifest (An aggressive chef? A pushy mother?)

To be an astrologer, you must enjoy discovery for its own sake because you may sit up all night, losing sleep, obsessing about some topic and researching every chart you can get your hands on only to find that no one cares (in the Western world anyway; many Asian cultures embrace astrology).

If you sit across from a live person doing his/her chart, the astrologer has to learn to stop talking in angular relationships because the questioner rarely cares about those things. He/she simply wants to know, “Will I fall in love?”

What Sign are Astrologers?

As with all questions, there are several aspects.

As mentioned above, there is the data nerd sitting up all night obsessing over data that many consider empty superstition in a solitary quest to know.

This is the Virgo or Aquarius astrologer who is analytical yet willing to look toward non-traditional sources of information for answers. Aquarius, especially, is associated with astrology because Aquarius is willing to go against the crowd in its quest for ideals.

Both Virgo and Aquarius would spend long hours to find a certain piece of information that no other living soul really cares about.

Then there is the astrologer who uses astrology in an occult way to learn others’ secrets. This is the Scorpio astrologer who likes astrological knowledge because it’s taboo.

Scorpio is the detective of the zodiac and detectives look everywhere for information – under rugs, in the dirt and in a horoscope. Nothing is of limits for a Scorpio seeking someone’s motivation.

And lastly, I see Sagittarius and Pisces as lovers of esoteric knowledge, but not necessarily attracted to the detail-driven astrology. Sagittarius is the philosopher and Pisces the mystic. Both like the bigger picture and get bored with the details below. Regardless, if they are interested in astrology, they would be best at seeing the haystack instead of millions of pieces of straw.

Quest to Know

To be an astrologer, you must possess the quest for knowledge. After many moons studying astrology, I now believe that’s it’s not truly the study of our fellow men. Astrology is the study of cycles which affect man, animal and plant.

If I put on a Buddhist hat, I might say that the form created by the mind follows patterns and astrology represents those patterns.

Many start a study astrology from a desire to understand a loved one. Those folks rarely move past sun-sign astrology because the goal is a desired object, not a need to know.

Someone looking for a mate bores easily at talk of sesqui-quadrates, intercepted signs and out-of-sign square aspects.

While many signs are interested in the patterns astrology represents, only lovers of detail and those willing to spend hours with their noses in a book (or on a computer screen) move from sun-sign astrology to the real deal wheel of the natal horoscope.

Posted in If you want to be a . .. what sign should you be? | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Does Mitt Romney Truly Want to be President?

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ohioastrology

What would you do if in the middle of a presidential campaign you decided that you didn’t really want to be president, that you’d changed your mind?

I suppose you could panic.

All that money, all that time, all those supporters you gathered would be let down. Who would throw in the towel on such a large endeavor?

Watching Mitt Romney’s speech early last night, early in the Super Tuesday evening, before the Ohio results were decided, I began to wonder if this man truly wants to be president.

Rick Santorum, on the other hand, clearly wants the job – wants it like a man who has spent the entire summer alone walking the Appalachian Trail wants a girl and a beer.

Astrologers are not psychics (although some may be) so I don’t know what Romney is feeling. Neither the political observer nor the astrologer in me can figure out Romney’s true motivation.

So back to the astrology books I go. Let me start from the beginning.

Moon in Scorpio

Romney has sun in Pisces and moon in Scorpio. I’d really love to know his time of birth to see his house placements. Astrotheme has a time so I’m going to take that chart into consideration.

First, moon in Scorpio. Scorpio is an intense, fixed water sign. Scorpio is known for obsession, often of the sexual kind. Scorpio, like Aries, is intensely competitive. Never think Scorpio doesn’t care if it wins – it does and it is watching the results closely.

Scorpio, like other water signs, has insight into others true motivations. Scorpio unlike its water sign siblings is somewhat paranoid and uses the watery insight into others as a defense. Extremely sensitive and extremely stubborn, it is easy to offend a Scorpio. And when this happens, the sign that is your most loyal friend can become your most dedicated enemy.

Fixed signs (Taurus, Scorpio, Leo, and Aquarius) can view life in a black and white manner. On one hand it makes for rigidity on the other hand the ability to focus and stay on message. Scorpio’s fixed nature manifests in every activity being a life and death drama. Scorpio loves and hates and others often have strong feelings in return. There is no middle ground, no medium, no tepid for this sign.

With moon in Scorpio, Romney clearly has compulsive drive. He sees your weaknesses and knows how to undermine you when necessary. At its worst, Scorpio is ruthless and vindictive.

Moon in Scorpio is enough reason for someone to run for president. It’s driven to intense emotional connections which can involve domination and control.

If Astrotheme’s chart is correct, this moon is in the 6th house, the house of work and health.

Sun in Pisces

Pisces is also a water sign, the mutable water sign. Like Scorpio, Pisces has deep insight into human nature. Unlike Scorpio, Pisces is malleable and easily manipulated.

Pisces has sometimes been referred to as the garbage can of the zodiac – it contains pieces and parts of every other sign. It’s also the sign of self-undoing.

Pisces wants to merge with others, mostly in a spiritual sense. Because of that, boundaries are rice-paper thin. While thin boundaries make for massive amounts of empathic and psychic ability, they also make for someone who needs emotional protection. Often Pisces retreats physically or mentally when life is too tough (or ugly).

The glyph for Pisces is the two fish swimming in opposite directions. To the late Linda Goodman it meant that Pisces could connect the past and future unlike any other sign. The Age of Pisces has a prophet who is associated with the fish. Pisces is the sign associated with sacrifice, the sign that truly will give up self for another.

Pisces is not rooted in the three-dimensional world like other signs and often can’t follow time requirements or other earthly activities such as paying bills and taking out the trash. Don’t expect the pure Pisces to realize he/she is late. They can’t; they aren’t really in our time zone they are actually in an imaginative other world.

Pisces is so approachable and non-judgmental that others easily reveal secrets to a Pisces. Pisces is a great counselor, listening and absorbing like a sponge.

Like a sponge, Pisces often soaks up the grime of others and may take on those traits if they do not understand what they are doing and learn to discharge that energy.

Pisces is the sign most likely to let others take over the personality.

If Astrotheme’s chart is correct, this sun is in the 11th house, the house of groups and shared ideals.

Religious Mission?

Both the political me and astrological me suspect that Romney’s true motivation is a spiritual mission. The 11th house Pisces sun says “I sacrifice for the group.”

What Romney’s Scorpio and Pisces water energy seems to have trouble understanding is that running for president is a POPULARITY contest. You might say that’s superficial but for a nation to elect a person in its top post, they have to LIKE the person first.

Romney may be having feelings of personal sacrifice and not understand that folks would rather have fun with him than worship him. Romney might not understand that he has to be liked for no reason other than the look of his face, the sound of his voice and the energy he brings as he walks in a room. If you’re liked, those that like you will justify all that you do.

Fire, which Romney lacks, is the element that is most confident and feels no need to justify its existence. Romney does have two planets in Leo – Saturn and Pluto – but having these two planets holding one’s confidence and spirit is like putting your confidence in a metal box and carrying it around. Saturn is where we lack and Pluto is where we transform. This life is meant for Romney to beef up the sense of self.

Unlike fire, water is prone to guilt. Romney’s less-than-stellar wins are probably eating him alive. Without fire, Romney may not truly feel worthy. Or he will only feel worthy if he has sacrificed himself in some way.

Romney was quoted this week in the Washington Post as saying, “I’m not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am who I am.”

While this is a perfectly rational statement, it does not project confidence, a fire-sign quality.

Pisces is spiritualism in its diffuse form that doesn’t attach to a particular organized religion. Scorpio is about religion as an emotional relating. Only when you believe exactly as I do can I trust you.

Sun in the 11th in Pisces is someone who merges with his/her spiritual group and is willing to give up the individual self. If I saw this chart without knowing the owner, I would have suspected a counselor or mental health worker. The Scorpio moon is in the 6th house of health so I would have suspected some hospital or prison work.

This chart makes me think of Ralph Nader, also a Pisces sun.

Anxiety

Mars is currently in its long (six-month) transit of Virgo, opposing Romney’s Piscean energy. This causes anxiety because external discriminating minds are challenging Romney’s non-discriminating motivations. Romney works from the gut so having to explain every word and tick is probably also eating away at his intestinal lining.

The Virgo transit squares Romney’s natal Uranus in Gemini (which squares his sun in Pisces). Gemini Newt Gingrich changes his views like a clock changes time because Gemini is like a piece of paper floating in the air, going with the flow.

When Romney changes, it’s due to anxiety. Gemini, when backed into a corner, sneaks through a hole in the wall. Pisces, when backed into a corner, becomes what you want so that you will leave it alone.

Astrotheme gives Romney a Gemini rising, which make sense to me as I watched the debates closely. Romney changes almost as much as Gingrich, it’s just more subtle. Or, as I watched it, Gingrich changed views and Romney changed personalities.

Neptune has begun its 13-year transit of Pisces so this anxiety will pass and Romney will return to a blissful state of merging with his people.

I can’t tell if Romney will be president during this time as I don’t think astrology can tell such things (although better astrologers than me may be able to figure it out), but if he is, I don’t think he’ll like it. If he hates the pestering little questions now, he will despise them later.

Like Rick Perry, Romney may begin to stutter and have the anxiety-produced blank mind. Pisces is also considered the sign of self-undoing so if somewhere deep down Romney doesn’t want the presidency, he will subconsciously sabotage himself.

Does Mitt Romney Truly Want to be President?

A spiritual, emotional person can want to be president just like anyone else. Yet, Romney’s chart makes me wonder if others want him to be president and he’s simply internalized that view.

From yesterday’s primary results, I’m sure I’ll have the next eight months to observe Romney and continue with the puzzle of what makes him tick.

Maybe Romney will do something definitive that will convince me he wants to be president, BADLY. Maybe he’ll tell Santorum to suck on his 12,000-vote lead in Ohio. Maybe he’ll tell Gingrich to go with the devil down to Georgia. Or maybe he’ll look Paul in the eye and say “get the hell out of my way.”

When people want things badly, it often shows.

Posted in 2012 Presidential Election | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

T. J. Lane: Astropsychology of a School Shooter

Posted on March 5, 2012 by ohioastrology

[A little bird sent OHA the birthdate of Chardon school shooter T. J. Lane. OHA sent the birthdate off to Ohio astrologer Mark Metheny, an expert in the astrology of serial killers. Mark has written a guest blog for OHA. His own blog is Astrology Revolution].

T. J. Lane: Astropsychology of a School Shooter

by Mark Metheny

Once again we have heard of a school shooting this time in my home state of Ohio. There are always many theories that surround why these happen and what makes the people that commit these acts tick. I will try to use Astrology here to see what causes the mental cracks in someone and what they may be thinking or feeling as the news reports often just focus on the sensational aspects of these events.

I will at some point do a bigger blog on serial shooters but today we’re going to take a look at T. J. Lane’s chart who shot 5 fellow students at Chardon High School near Cleveland. I was passed his Birth date from a friend who got it from the court transcript as being September 19th 1994.

In the many charts I have looked at for people who have committed mass and or random acts of violence I have found a few factors that appear:

  1. A tendency to anger or violence [ this is usually a Mars/Pluto function ]
  2. An ability to shut off their emotions or for cruelty [ this is often a Saturn / Pluto function ]
  3. A psychological break of some kind or the inability to separate their needs from the needs of others, or an obsessive type personality [ This is often a Neptune / Uranus/Pluto function ].

In looking at the chart for T. J. we see he has a heavy preponderance of Water in his chart. Venus, Jupiter, North Node and Pluto all in Scorpio, Mars in Cancer and Saturn in Pisces. We do not have a time of birth but the Moon is also very likely in Pisces unless he was born very close to Midnight on the night of September 19th.

This is a person who is extremely sensitive to his environment and is probably easily overwhelmed by his emotions and takes any sort of criticism extremely hard. Water signs or people with lots of Water in their charts almost have no defenses from the outside world at times and while they may appear quiet or shy on the outside there is lots going on underneath the surface. Someone with this much Water certainly had a very active imagination and would escape into a fantasy world whenever they felt threatened.

Not to make any excuses but from reading the stories in the media he had a very abusive and traumatic childhood. Different people handle this different ways but the natural function of Pluto and Scorpio [ the sign that it rules ] is Death, Transformation and rebirth. It is said that people with heavy Scorpio influence in their charts die many times within one lifetime as their main goal on a soul level is to transform. They want to shed the old parts of themselves that are no longer useful and they attain this by creating [ sometimes subconsciously ] or being put in situations where they are not in control of their environment or where they are abandoned.

Many souls with heavy Scorpionic energy have a hard time getting over the past if they do not know how to deal with the intense energy Pluto brings with it. When this “steam” is not able to be let off gradually it festers and can release itself in rage when the energy gets too intense.

Saturn in Pisces is a difficult placement; on the good side it can be someone who is very artistic or perhaps works in the music industry [ Pisces / Neptune rule music] or in the shipping industry [ Neptune rules Water and the Oceans]. On the negative side it can be expressed as someone who is very fearful or paranoid or has delusions. Saturn rules structures, including the structure of consciousness.

Saturn rules Capricorn which is one of the most stable and goal orientated signs while Pisces is very dreamy and idealistic. Saturn in Pisces can be a difficult combo to navigate if you don’t understand the mechanics of what you’re working with.

Also T. J. has a Neptune Uranus conjunction here in the sign of Capricorn. Neptune rules Pisces so again we have the repeating Capricorn /Pisces theme. In fact have Saturn and Neptune in mutual reception which means each of those two planets are in the sign that the other one rules. This usually means that these planets work well with each other but being that Pisces and Capricorn are so different in how they perceive things this can lead to a break between what is real and what is not real. Adding in the Uranus in Capricorn conjunct Neptune can lead to odd obsessions or mental “ticks” if you will. Uranus and Neptune both have to do with subliminal and subconscious mental patterns.

Mars in Cancer is an archetype of someone who can be very nurturing when they feel safe but when they feel threatened they can defend themselves fiercely. This is the motherly instinct of Cancer mixed with the warrior of Mars.

To go back to the Scorpio theme again Lane had Venus, Jupiter and the North Node all conjunct in Scorpio and the North Node also conjunct Pluto this is someone who was very intense and was going to make a big impact somehow. Unfortunately, it was in a misuse of this powerful energy. This is the branch of Astrology that I most identify with that says “things that aren’t dealt with become repressed, that which is repressed becomes distorted, things that are distorted eventually release themselves in rage.” Also on a more literal level Pluto rules death, the North Node is the future and Jupiter magnifies anything that it touches.

One other thing in the chart that stands out is that Mars, Pluto and the Moon form a normally positive aspect called a “Grand Trine” in water signs. Water is associated with emotions and normally this pattern is someone who is very sensitive to others and intuitive. However, water can turn dark quicker than other elements because there is so much emotion packed into every event.

While the Grand Trine configuration can be very self-sufficient it can also feel isolated. The Mars Pluto Trine is usually harmonious but is always an explosive mix as it contains a huge amount of energy and is liable to explode when it feels hurt or threatened.

The last piece of the puzzle is the Sun in Virgo, Virgo wants to take corrective action or fix things that it feels is wrong. It can also be overly analytical and operate out of a continual crises mode when stressed.

At the time of the shootings Mars was retrograde [or moving backwards and felt more internally than normal] and it was just past a conjunction to his Sun and was making aspects to almost every planet in his chart. Mars retrograde tends to lead to feelings of frustration especially in a busy, active sign like Virgo thus turning up the pressure cooker.

Again, this is not to make excuses for any actions but to try and help explain why sometimes people make the rash decisions that they do. Psychology is important in understanding these events as are cultural conditions as well as having help available to people who have been through traumatic situations. My main point here is that using the Birth Chart can be a powerful tool combined with other knowledge in helping to make sure we see these kinds of tragedies less often.

Posted in Famous people | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments