It's the calm in between storms in my houshold. My husband and I are in between major Pluto transits to our charts (the last lot were some 5 years ago) and the new set of aspects to our Cardinal Signs (opposition to my Cancer Sun, squares to my Libra Mars, mutual Libra Pluto and his Aries Moon Chiron and Mars) have a few years before they start pumelling.
On the other hand as Jupiter and Pluto conjunct each other and the galactic center in Sagittarius, gearing up to transit into Capricorn everyone seems to be feeling it and for me this comes across as Pluto Amplified.
(And speaking from a long experience of Pluto transits, the fact that it's officially no longer a planet has not affected its ability to sucker punch me one bit).
And as a taster of all this Pluto-ey goodness, (and no doubt a preview of coming attractions to the natal chart) Pluto and Jupiter are starting to make a loose out-of-sign square to the Libra Sun of mine and my husband's composite chart.
In the composite Sun is conjunct Pluto anyway (with the IC sandwiched in between)
and from the start, the relationship had a feeling of union through a shared experience of hardship and oppression ie. "this world has teeth and little mercy for you and me, so watch my back while I watch yours and we'll take the bastard on together."
There is no negotiating with any of our planets but this is especially true of the three collective planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto). The forces they are symbols of are bigger than any single life, and the please and cries of the individual are as the beatings of a moth's wings in a hurricane.
Like the Tower card in the Tarot, Pluto is not interested in plea-bargaining. It cannot be swayed, or deterred, or locked out. Only accepted and rolled with, or fought tooth and nail against until it burns your house down.
Similarly, Plutonic experiences have little to do with justice. Earthquakes strike the innocent and wicked alike, and when burning ash is gearing up to fall onto your head, one of the least constructive things to do is ask "Why me?" (with or without the fist-shaking). Instead, I generally find it more productive to buckle down and get on with the business of breathing and surviving whatever is happening stage by stage.
And the transit to the composite has indeed coincided with irreversible changes to the relationship. December has been the month of Waiting For The Baby's Birth and Trying To Wrap Our Heads Around The Enormity Of Change That Will Mean, as well as the month of Fighting Shocking Assaults From Unseen Ennemies and Facing Up To The Threats To Our Home.
The stresses have been sudden and enormous, the Plutonic kinds of pressures that strip you down to your naked shivering core and challenge you to face up to what's truly real and fundamental to you. Pluto's transits are NEVER comfortable, but they can certainly be very exciting and if you play your cards right you are likely to emerge from its trials by fire singing "Je ne regrette rien".
And they're not all bad. December 2007 was the most challenging month so far for the relationship (previous record-holder, September 2006 when my mother in law died suddenly) but it's also been the most intimate. There are special kinds of bonds forged in the war against the world when your partner is the only one you can rely on and you realise how deeply (Pluto) love and trust go. When you finding yourselves turning to one another in your hour of need and see that both of you completely meant the whole "for richer, for poorer etc." thing.
Transits of Pluto last for years and they can be exhausting. They can also be intensely rewarding if you roll with them right. Pluto is an invitation to travel to the underground of the Self (or the relationship, or the family, or the collective), a primal force, a dare to see what you're made of and ultimately an invitation to truth.
Whereas the transits of Neptune mistify and cloud, transits of Pluto leave you in doubt about what's real and true what with the truth & reality constantly punching you in the eye.
The feeling of a Pluto transit ridden right is the euphoria of a hard test passed. The feeling of it ridden wrong is "Owwwwwwwwwwww, bloody hell this hurts". Either way though the long slow transits of this celestial body mean that frequent opportunities for re-testing present itself for better or for worse. And once you know they are inescapable it makes it so much easier to save your strength and face up to its invitations to dance or fight.
Friday, 21 December 2007
Monday, 17 December 2007
How to keep your marriage alive, by Venus in Gemini
1) Make prank phonecalls to your husband, every couple of days. (His paranoid nature will only benefit!)
You can indecently proposition him, ask him to clean your carpets and not take no for an answer, try to sell him some shingle for the roof, accuse him of seducing your teenage daughter and put on all kinds of snazzy accents. The possibilities are endless!
2) This all works significantly better if you manage not to crack and burst out laughing in the first 30 seconds. I am still working on that.
You can indecently proposition him, ask him to clean your carpets and not take no for an answer, try to sell him some shingle for the roof, accuse him of seducing your teenage daughter and put on all kinds of snazzy accents. The possibilities are endless!
2) This all works significantly better if you manage not to crack and burst out laughing in the first 30 seconds. I am still working on that.
Friday, 14 December 2007
Living with and loving: 12th house moon
If I can point to one way which astrology has enhanced my life and the lives of those around me, it has been through increasing my tolerance of others and my understanding of innate difference. This has been a truly helpful development for someone who had very firm attachment to the ideas of being right, and my way being therefore the most logical and favourable way of being.
Over the course of my life so far I have had the privilege to meet many people and learning their charts has been ever so helpful in quieting the voice inside my head which wanted to hit them over the head with mallets. Being able to sit comfortably with difference is a challenge, and one I've nowhere near sussed but the Living With and Loving Posts will be a log of my attempts to do so.
Thus, on the subject of 12th house moons...
In astrology the Moon represents our emotional and instinctive self. Where the Moon falls in our chart (by sign, house and aspect) describes something about our primal, innermost self: our hungers, our needs, how and where we seek security.
The 12th house describes the unconscious, the hidden. It is the vastest, and the most mysterious of astrological houses. Trying to see its contents is as useless and as dangerous as trying to discern how deep the ocean by looking at its surface. The only way to experience the 12th house is to sink into it with eyes closed, using intuition and sideways senses and allowing its contents to rise up and meet you, like the distant ancestoral memories we carry unaware most often of the voices which sing in our blood, whisper in our bones.
The 12th house obscures whatever it contains, and its contents are not easily reachable. Attempting to grab a part of us that it's in the 12th is very much similar to fishing - direction and depth are illusory, things slip from our grasps, float to us in their own time, of their own accord.
On the subject of how to spot a 12th house moon, astrologer Alexander von Schlieffen gives a deeply helpful definition; namely that with a 12th house moon person their needs are hidden, elusive, both from themselves and others around them.
I verified the truth of that when I met my husband.
Although his Moon is in the fire sign of Aries (the warrior, the hero; the bearer of courage, arrogance, drive, aggression) and trine a fiery Sun in Sagittarius, its placement in the 12th house obscures everything. While this has its benefits for my rather sensitive nature (he is not aggressive, he doesn't yell) in most aspects it's taken a lot of adjustment (my own Moon is in the 3rd house of ideas and communication, my own needs and emotions are easily verbalisable and plain and obvious to me).
So, here's a list of useless questions to ask a 12th house Moon (unless you are looking for an excuse to work yourself into a froth of frustration):
How do you feel? ("Don't know, can't put it into words.")
What are your needs? (A wide-handed shrug that equates needs to vastness and unquantifiability of the sea; "I don't know")
What do you want? ("I don't know"; "What do you want?")
Can you remember how you felt about that? ("I don't know how to put it into words"; "I cannot find the words to explain how I feel about you either, words are so inadequate, I just feel".)
What are your boundaries? ("I don't know, but when you cross them we'll both know.")
What makes you happy? ("When you're happy.")
In short, a recipe for insanity if you're looking for any kind of a straight answer.
A recipe for suspicion or interest too, if you happen to have a probing Scorpio Moon intrigued by the fact that your normally very keen sense about other people (what makes them tick, where they shine, where they are vulnerable, what they're feeling) is being completely eluded by a 12th house moon person who is ephemeral, keeps slipping away. It takes a different tactic to catch this fish.
You must use patience, and subtlety. Enter its world. Wait with no probing questions, no sudden movements. Move with eyes closed, or using only peripheral vision. Do not startle, do not rush. Gather what information is given and wait for more, wait until the fish swims closer, reveals itself to you. And when the fish comes to you do not frighten it, do not violate its trust by grasping it and hurting it. Respect what you are shown, and honoured with. Swim in its own world, drift with it.
It has taken me three years (and some Pluto transits) to see my husband's naked core, his raw emotions. To be trusted with his secret self. And the experience was all the more special for the waiting.
Over the course of my life so far I have had the privilege to meet many people and learning their charts has been ever so helpful in quieting the voice inside my head which wanted to hit them over the head with mallets. Being able to sit comfortably with difference is a challenge, and one I've nowhere near sussed but the Living With and Loving Posts will be a log of my attempts to do so.
Thus, on the subject of 12th house moons...
In astrology the Moon represents our emotional and instinctive self. Where the Moon falls in our chart (by sign, house and aspect) describes something about our primal, innermost self: our hungers, our needs, how and where we seek security.
The 12th house describes the unconscious, the hidden. It is the vastest, and the most mysterious of astrological houses. Trying to see its contents is as useless and as dangerous as trying to discern how deep the ocean by looking at its surface. The only way to experience the 12th house is to sink into it with eyes closed, using intuition and sideways senses and allowing its contents to rise up and meet you, like the distant ancestoral memories we carry unaware most often of the voices which sing in our blood, whisper in our bones.
The 12th house obscures whatever it contains, and its contents are not easily reachable. Attempting to grab a part of us that it's in the 12th is very much similar to fishing - direction and depth are illusory, things slip from our grasps, float to us in their own time, of their own accord.
On the subject of how to spot a 12th house moon, astrologer Alexander von Schlieffen gives a deeply helpful definition; namely that with a 12th house moon person their needs are hidden, elusive, both from themselves and others around them.
I verified the truth of that when I met my husband.
Although his Moon is in the fire sign of Aries (the warrior, the hero; the bearer of courage, arrogance, drive, aggression) and trine a fiery Sun in Sagittarius, its placement in the 12th house obscures everything. While this has its benefits for my rather sensitive nature (he is not aggressive, he doesn't yell) in most aspects it's taken a lot of adjustment (my own Moon is in the 3rd house of ideas and communication, my own needs and emotions are easily verbalisable and plain and obvious to me).
So, here's a list of useless questions to ask a 12th house Moon (unless you are looking for an excuse to work yourself into a froth of frustration):
How do you feel? ("Don't know, can't put it into words.")
What are your needs? (A wide-handed shrug that equates needs to vastness and unquantifiability of the sea; "I don't know")
What do you want? ("I don't know"; "What do you want?")
Can you remember how you felt about that? ("I don't know how to put it into words"; "I cannot find the words to explain how I feel about you either, words are so inadequate, I just feel".)
What are your boundaries? ("I don't know, but when you cross them we'll both know.")
What makes you happy? ("When you're happy.")
In short, a recipe for insanity if you're looking for any kind of a straight answer.
A recipe for suspicion or interest too, if you happen to have a probing Scorpio Moon intrigued by the fact that your normally very keen sense about other people (what makes them tick, where they shine, where they are vulnerable, what they're feeling) is being completely eluded by a 12th house moon person who is ephemeral, keeps slipping away. It takes a different tactic to catch this fish.
You must use patience, and subtlety. Enter its world. Wait with no probing questions, no sudden movements. Move with eyes closed, or using only peripheral vision. Do not startle, do not rush. Gather what information is given and wait for more, wait until the fish swims closer, reveals itself to you. And when the fish comes to you do not frighten it, do not violate its trust by grasping it and hurting it. Respect what you are shown, and honoured with. Swim in its own world, drift with it.
It has taken me three years (and some Pluto transits) to see my husband's naked core, his raw emotions. To be trusted with his secret self. And the experience was all the more special for the waiting.
Monday, 3 December 2007
The good, the bad and the retrograde - how I came to astrology
As part of my World Dominion Plans and leisure time afforded by sweet, sweet maternity leave I hope to spent a lot more time blogging(because the ideas they are always there; I just didn't fare so well on the actual turning-on-computer-when-I-could-be-sleeping-angle).
My first experiences of astrology were uniformly terrible ones. Readings so bad, that if they were not in the so-horrifying-they-are-quite-amusing category I would have banished the entire thing from my memory.
They were extremely useful though, in some respects. Firstly, I'm quite thick skinned and filter opinion with a healthy handful of salt so I didn't feel personally damaged by the readings no matter how often my mind went 'I can't believe you're saying this. Or this. Or that.' Secondly, it was an excellent tutorial in What Not To Do As A Practitioner Unless You Have A Hankering To Lose Clients And Alienate People. Thirdly, it made me take up the study of astrology just to satisfy my inner intuition that the astrologers in question were talking out of their asses.
So, for the purposes of amusement and education here are some extracts from those astrology readings reproduced verbatim.
Astrologer 1:
[upon placing the birth data of the person I was seeing at the time in her ephemeris, cries out in disguist] A Taurus! With a Sagittarius Moon! This is the worst sign and the worst moon placement a person can have. I'll tell you something for free: stay away from Taureans. They are cold hearted psychopaths who would ply you with flowers until they get you into bed and then reject you. Their hearts are made of stone. And as for the Sagittarius Moon... that my dear is the very worst partner placement for you.
She did not mind you extrapolate on why a Saggi Moon was such a bad thing for me to have in a partner. Or contemplate whether there might be a way of actually making a relationship with a Taurus work. Or view as anything but hostile my response that plying people with flowers until they get them into bed might be more of a feature of the Y chromosome than a Taurus Sun. She did however go on to regale me with further gems.
Your will fall in love with an artistic man who lives in a different country from you, an artist or musician of some kind who is a little bit famous. He will be your greatest love. But you won't last and you'll never love anyone the same way again.
Leaving aside the question of what constructive thing comes from giving someone a prediction like that, and that indeed distant loves and pining are not unusual expressions of my Venus-Neptune, I'm still not sure what alchoholic binge she was getting her information from. Happily she was blatantly wrong on all counts, and while my marriage isn't founded on the hopeless romanticism that gave rise to my previous relationships it's certainly in no way diminished by that (in fact, the opposite).
Your natal Mercury is retrograde and your Mercury sextiles Saturn. Unless they are scientific, your writing endavours will all come to naught.
An interesting perspective, and one that would have afforded much mirth to my MSc Supervisor, considering how little he thought of the quality of my written scientific work. In fact as a Mercury in Cancer fiction always came fairly easily to me, as did communication.
Astrologer 2:
Started off consultation with:
I can see from your chart that you are opinionated. Too opinionated. And that you talk too much. In fact you should shut up.
Skimming over all the ironies inherent in that message, it was certainly a novel approach to establishing a connection with a client.
And you're promiscuous. It's all sex sex sex to you. You flirt too much, and choose your lovers badly. You'll never be able to stay faithful to one person. In fact, you kind of have a deceitful nature.
The promiscuity bit came from the fact that I have a Scorpio Moon which was mostly a demonstration of shoddy astrology and the dangers of imposing a personal value system on a zodiac sign. For Scorpios it's less about physical sex and more about intimacy and deep connection. I did find her vision of me as a raging nymphomaniac rather comforting though, considering that at the time of the reading I was single and hadn't had sex with anyone for over a year. And if we interpret 'ability to have perfectly satisfying sex with people without being in a loving, long-term relationship sanctioned by priests' then she was correct and I was a Jezebel. On the other hand if we interpret it as 'having sex without much thought' then she is wrong since Scorpios worth their salt are not only extremely adept at self-control but also choosy about where they invest their energy.
Although my Venus in Gemini was affronted by the idea that there was a thing as 'too much flirting' and aware of the ability to love more than one person at the same time (oh mental sluttery!) I still fortunately didn't feel the need to scrub my thoughts out with soap (no doubt a product of my deceitful nature). And although my single status at that point made my ability to stay faitful or not an interesting academic point, I would have still liked more input into why I choose partners badly and what could be done about it none was forthcoming.
I'm not sure where in my chart it said "Won't sue for libel" but it was pretty much the most accurate interpretation that came out of it.
Part II to follow. If anyone has particular experiences of readings (whether good or bad) which they'd like to share, don't be shy and drop off a comment.
My first experiences of astrology were uniformly terrible ones. Readings so bad, that if they were not in the so-horrifying-they-are-quite-amusing category I would have banished the entire thing from my memory.
They were extremely useful though, in some respects. Firstly, I'm quite thick skinned and filter opinion with a healthy handful of salt so I didn't feel personally damaged by the readings no matter how often my mind went 'I can't believe you're saying this. Or this. Or that.' Secondly, it was an excellent tutorial in What Not To Do As A Practitioner Unless You Have A Hankering To Lose Clients And Alienate People. Thirdly, it made me take up the study of astrology just to satisfy my inner intuition that the astrologers in question were talking out of their asses.
So, for the purposes of amusement and education here are some extracts from those astrology readings reproduced verbatim.
Astrologer 1:
[upon placing the birth data of the person I was seeing at the time in her ephemeris, cries out in disguist] A Taurus! With a Sagittarius Moon! This is the worst sign and the worst moon placement a person can have. I'll tell you something for free: stay away from Taureans. They are cold hearted psychopaths who would ply you with flowers until they get you into bed and then reject you. Their hearts are made of stone. And as for the Sagittarius Moon... that my dear is the very worst partner placement for you.
She did not mind you extrapolate on why a Saggi Moon was such a bad thing for me to have in a partner. Or contemplate whether there might be a way of actually making a relationship with a Taurus work. Or view as anything but hostile my response that plying people with flowers until they get them into bed might be more of a feature of the Y chromosome than a Taurus Sun. She did however go on to regale me with further gems.
Your will fall in love with an artistic man who lives in a different country from you, an artist or musician of some kind who is a little bit famous. He will be your greatest love. But you won't last and you'll never love anyone the same way again.
Leaving aside the question of what constructive thing comes from giving someone a prediction like that, and that indeed distant loves and pining are not unusual expressions of my Venus-Neptune, I'm still not sure what alchoholic binge she was getting her information from. Happily she was blatantly wrong on all counts, and while my marriage isn't founded on the hopeless romanticism that gave rise to my previous relationships it's certainly in no way diminished by that (in fact, the opposite).
Your natal Mercury is retrograde and your Mercury sextiles Saturn. Unless they are scientific, your writing endavours will all come to naught.
An interesting perspective, and one that would have afforded much mirth to my MSc Supervisor, considering how little he thought of the quality of my written scientific work. In fact as a Mercury in Cancer fiction always came fairly easily to me, as did communication.
Astrologer 2:
Started off consultation with:
I can see from your chart that you are opinionated. Too opinionated. And that you talk too much. In fact you should shut up.
Skimming over all the ironies inherent in that message, it was certainly a novel approach to establishing a connection with a client.
And you're promiscuous. It's all sex sex sex to you. You flirt too much, and choose your lovers badly. You'll never be able to stay faithful to one person. In fact, you kind of have a deceitful nature.
The promiscuity bit came from the fact that I have a Scorpio Moon which was mostly a demonstration of shoddy astrology and the dangers of imposing a personal value system on a zodiac sign. For Scorpios it's less about physical sex and more about intimacy and deep connection. I did find her vision of me as a raging nymphomaniac rather comforting though, considering that at the time of the reading I was single and hadn't had sex with anyone for over a year. And if we interpret 'ability to have perfectly satisfying sex with people without being in a loving, long-term relationship sanctioned by priests' then she was correct and I was a Jezebel. On the other hand if we interpret it as 'having sex without much thought' then she is wrong since Scorpios worth their salt are not only extremely adept at self-control but also choosy about where they invest their energy.
Although my Venus in Gemini was affronted by the idea that there was a thing as 'too much flirting' and aware of the ability to love more than one person at the same time (oh mental sluttery!) I still fortunately didn't feel the need to scrub my thoughts out with soap (no doubt a product of my deceitful nature). And although my single status at that point made my ability to stay faitful or not an interesting academic point, I would have still liked more input into why I choose partners badly and what could be done about it none was forthcoming.
I'm not sure where in my chart it said "Won't sue for libel" but it was pretty much the most accurate interpretation that came out of it.
Part II to follow. If anyone has particular experiences of readings (whether good or bad) which they'd like to share, don't be shy and drop off a comment.
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Retrograde Mercury in Scorpio - words bite
Another scan of the British newspapers, reveals some quite explosive Retrograde Scorpio Mercury action as the likes of Dr. Watson and Martin Amis have spoken out about taboo topics (racism and Islamophobia respectively) and have then seen their words come back and bite them in the ass via the vehicle of the public's indignation. Interestingly, both have since disowned their statements and said they weren't sure what has come over them.
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Faith
Thinking more about Jupiter, and faith, it reminds me of a poem by Sheenagh Pugh (to keep in mind for when we are being pummelled by particularly gruelling transits, or angry constellations in the sky)
Sometimes things don’t go after all,
from bad to worse. Some years muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives;the crops don’t fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.
A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man; decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.
Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.
Sometimes things don’t go after all,
from bad to worse. Some years muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives;the crops don’t fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.
A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man; decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.
Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.
The Magician and The Party Pooper - influences of Jupiter and Saturn
In my natal chart, my ascendant falls between Jupiter and Saturn, with Jupiter conjuncting it from the 12th house and the effects of these two planets are something I've noticed quite strongly throughout my whole life. When I was born there was a food shortage-Saturn- (my mother didn't have any breast milk, there was no powdered milk available in any stores) but a donation from brought me suitcases full of powdered milk (Jupiter) which satisfied my rather vast Cancerian appetites. And even though throughout my life I kept encountering pretty much every kind of hardship (Saturn), there's also always been some kind of hidden benefactor or protective element (usually in a deus ex machina fashion) to intervene in my favour and see me through. After my father died for instance, and inflation reduced his life insurance money to the cost of a Kinder Egg and my father's friends robbed us, financial help from a relative from abroad (and Jupiter rules The Foreign) saw us through. A gift of foreign money (scholarship) paid for my education when I immigrated. I've had the tendency to get the mildest version possible of chronic, debilitating disease and several times when my life has been in danger strangers have appeared out of the blue to rescue me. When my childhood home burned down (mostly a Plutonic experience at the time, in terms of the planets) miraculously no one got hurt and an exploding window fell down, literally landing at the feet of an off-duty fireman who had happened to be walking down the street at that moment.
Most recently, it occurred to me that the pregnancy is an expression of the two as well - even though my external baby bump is quite compact (limits of Saturn), ultrasounds say that my unseen baby is actually a very long one (hidden Jupiter).
These experiences of hardship and faith have been profound, and ultimately very beneficial to me. I am quite resilient, I have a high threshold for endurance (Saturn) but I also don't live my life by fear thanks to the blessings of Jupiter (the accountant of the Zodiac, Saturn speaks to us through our fears and our cautions). Even when as now, when my family seems hit by one financial blow after another and I've spent my pregnancy beset by a string of irritating ailments I have not fear, that things will work out. Baby will be fine, birth will be fine, money will be found from somewhere, things will work out. That instead of endlessly worrying (Saturn) about the things I can't control, my energy is better spent in letting go, nurturing trust and being open to the appearance of hidden opportunity (12th house Jupiter).
If anyone else has thoughts on how the Saturn-Jupiter aspects have manifested for them (whether natally or by transit) please delight me by sharing. :)
Most recently, it occurred to me that the pregnancy is an expression of the two as well - even though my external baby bump is quite compact (limits of Saturn), ultrasounds say that my unseen baby is actually a very long one (hidden Jupiter).
These experiences of hardship and faith have been profound, and ultimately very beneficial to me. I am quite resilient, I have a high threshold for endurance (Saturn) but I also don't live my life by fear thanks to the blessings of Jupiter (the accountant of the Zodiac, Saturn speaks to us through our fears and our cautions). Even when as now, when my family seems hit by one financial blow after another and I've spent my pregnancy beset by a string of irritating ailments I have not fear, that things will work out. Baby will be fine, birth will be fine, money will be found from somewhere, things will work out. That instead of endlessly worrying (Saturn) about the things I can't control, my energy is better spent in letting go, nurturing trust and being open to the appearance of hidden opportunity (12th house Jupiter).
If anyone else has thoughts on how the Saturn-Jupiter aspects have manifested for them (whether natally or by transit) please delight me by sharing. :)
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
More Scorpio Mercury through the Media
I saw this news story on the BBC yesterday, about Interpol reconstucting the digitally blurred face of a pedophile from child porn footage and posting an appeal to try and identify and stop the man.
I can also tell that Mercury is going retrograde soon because when not dropping things and stamping down the urge to bicker with my partner (never is the urge to tell someone that their hair and shoes are STUPID and they've bought the WRONG KIND OF BREAD and other tragedies, more powerful for me than when Mercury goes stationary prior to the retrograde) I feel endlessly frustrated and near to tears.*
This too shall pass.
*edit to add another Retrograde Merc special: this post refusing to publish itself due to unkown errors, and it taking me three attempts to type in the tags.
I can also tell that Mercury is going retrograde soon because when not dropping things and stamping down the urge to bicker with my partner (never is the urge to tell someone that their hair and shoes are STUPID and they've bought the WRONG KIND OF BREAD and other tragedies, more powerful for me than when Mercury goes stationary prior to the retrograde) I feel endlessly frustrated and near to tears.*
This too shall pass.
*edit to add another Retrograde Merc special: this post refusing to publish itself due to unkown errors, and it taking me three attempts to type in the tags.
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Let's talk about sex, baby!
More Mercury in Scorpio action via the medium of the TV listings.
ITV is broadcasting The Secret Diary of A Call Girl based on the books and blog of the funny and straight-talking Belle de Jour.
A perusal of the rest of tonight's channel listings revealed two programs about sex changes as well as Lucy: Teen Transsexual in Thailand
ITV is broadcasting The Secret Diary of A Call Girl based on the books and blog of the funny and straight-talking Belle de Jour.
A perusal of the rest of tonight's channel listings revealed two programs about sex changes as well as Lucy: Teen Transsexual in Thailand
Happy 100th Birthday Granny!
In honour of a century of my granny's life and deeds upon the earth, I thought I'd take a brief look at her chart (and it's apt can't-die-won't-die Pluto Saturn square).
Centenarian record keeping and accounts of childhood ('I was born near dawn') being what they are the time of birth is approximate (although the angles fit very well what I know of her personality).
As a true Sun-Venus in Libra she was celebrated for her beauty throughout her life, and she also exemplified the Libran trait of being convinced of her own fairness even when even when nobody else agreed.
Her Virgo Moon has always shown itself through a need to be needed and her best attempts to demonstrate her love were through doing a service for others. However, her Moon is also trine Uranus and sextile Pluto - no pushover! In fact her caring often had very dark undertones and her self-sacrifice was done in part to bind others to her.
Though passionate and giving in love she was equally posessive and fierce (did not like to share those she loved with anyone else). A steely core, disguised by the glamour of the Libran charm.
A remarkable woman with piercing, electrifying blue eyes (Moon Uranus) an indomitable will (no doubt helped by the prominent Pluto), and an amazingly sharp mind that was incredibly apt at intuitive grasp of truth of people and situations (Moon-Pluto).
One of the most talked-about features of my grandmother is her incredible health. Well into her nineties she was doing headstands every day, had no sign of osteoporosis, required no medication, lived completely independently, cleaned house and walked the dog, cooked all her own meals and had amazing regenerative powers (her broken arm healed in four weeks). And although in the last year she has lost much of her vitality and ability to live independently, her endurance has remained to the degree that astounds the medical profession. She has recovered from two strokes, two lung infections and numerous falls (no broken bones in any of the falls, and any tissue injuries sustained healed within a couple of weeks when the usual recovery time is six months).
Although that crazy degree of health certainly transcends any aspect or chart (rather as I see it, it's some combination of astrology and an x factor in the personality/environment) there are plenty of elements in her natal chart which allude to her amazing stamina (Capricorn Mars, echoed also in the Saturn Mars sextile) and refusal to bow down lay down and die or bow down to mere trifles like conventions of biology (Pluto Saturn square).
Happy Birthday Granny! x
Planetary Transits through the media
Posts on Elsa Elsa about the way that planetary movements preceed and reflect various real world trends have caused me to notice the recent patterns in the British media.
For instance Mercury's current transit through Scorpio (the uber-sleuth and dirt-bringer-upper of the Zodiac) has coincided with headlines relating to the inquest into the long-ago death of Princess Diana. Due to my policy of ignoring as much as possible the antics of the British Royal Family (past and present) I haven't been reading the articles too closely - however all feature and debate various theories about her death (conspiracies, secret pregnancies, abduction, murder and other such nefarious plots). All these were rampant around the time of her actual death and its initial investigation, and it's interesting how they've resurfaced now in an inquiry that pledges not to leave any stone unturned in its search for the truth.
Similarly as Saturn has left the flamboyant Leo for conscientious Virgo and Pluto inches ever closer to good old belt-tightener Capricorn, we are seeing the emergence of new (more subdued and conservative trends) all over the place (including renewed rehab efforts from Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, no doubt related to the public's fed-up-ness with their antics).
An article by Fiona McIntosh in last week's Grazia sums it up rather well.
Here are some quotes (with added asides in brackets and emphasis in bold):
"Turn on the lights, call a tazi, the party's over. It was wild while it lasted, but it took a banking crisis for us to realise the Naughty Noughties are over. All the delicious blind greed of the decade (which coincided with Saturn's transit through Leo and the giddy joy of the world not ending in 2000) has evaporated faster than it took Northern Rock investors to empty their accounts. (...) Conversations at dinner have swung from how should I spend my money, to blimey, how safe is my money? (...) Ladies who lunch have begun growing their own lunch in greenhouses at the end of gardens. The fashion phrase of the moment is 'Future Heirlooms' - an investment piece built to last over several seasons is worth so much more than a dirty Primark binge. Belts, the hot new 'now' piece are being tightened both physically and metaphorically. This new Frugality has been bubbling under for some time, fuelled of course by the green movement. But it took the panic of a credit crisis for us to completely re-evaluate our lifestyles. (...) What were we thinking? This rampant consumerism is not only mad, it's vulgar. "
For instance Mercury's current transit through Scorpio (the uber-sleuth and dirt-bringer-upper of the Zodiac) has coincided with headlines relating to the inquest into the long-ago death of Princess Diana. Due to my policy of ignoring as much as possible the antics of the British Royal Family (past and present) I haven't been reading the articles too closely - however all feature and debate various theories about her death (conspiracies, secret pregnancies, abduction, murder and other such nefarious plots). All these were rampant around the time of her actual death and its initial investigation, and it's interesting how they've resurfaced now in an inquiry that pledges not to leave any stone unturned in its search for the truth.
Similarly as Saturn has left the flamboyant Leo for conscientious Virgo and Pluto inches ever closer to good old belt-tightener Capricorn, we are seeing the emergence of new (more subdued and conservative trends) all over the place (including renewed rehab efforts from Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, no doubt related to the public's fed-up-ness with their antics).
An article by Fiona McIntosh in last week's Grazia sums it up rather well.
Here are some quotes (with added asides in brackets and emphasis in bold):
"Turn on the lights, call a tazi, the party's over. It was wild while it lasted, but it took a banking crisis for us to realise the Naughty Noughties are over. All the delicious blind greed of the decade (which coincided with Saturn's transit through Leo and the giddy joy of the world not ending in 2000) has evaporated faster than it took Northern Rock investors to empty their accounts. (...) Conversations at dinner have swung from how should I spend my money, to blimey, how safe is my money? (...) Ladies who lunch have begun growing their own lunch in greenhouses at the end of gardens. The fashion phrase of the moment is 'Future Heirlooms' - an investment piece built to last over several seasons is worth so much more than a dirty Primark binge. Belts, the hot new 'now' piece are being tightened both physically and metaphorically. This new Frugality has been bubbling under for some time, fuelled of course by the green movement. But it took the panic of a credit crisis for us to completely re-evaluate our lifestyles. (...) What were we thinking? This rampant consumerism is not only mad, it's vulgar. "
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