Category Archives: Consciousness Explored

A Little Something About Pluto and Finding Your Passion

31 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in Consciousness Explored, ECLIPSE magazine, natal placement, Pluto, Spiritual Considerations

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

Finding your passions in life might be a little like drinking from this fountain, according to this allegory of Love as a mystic and all-consuming experience. By Fragonard ‘The Fountain of Love’ c1785 {{PD-Art}}

This is from the most recent ECLIPSE (the new issue arrives in your email tonight Pacific time) and talks about the role of Pluto in understanding the nature of, and where to find, your passions in the natal chart:

Pluto: is the star in the passion universe simply because of his character; the intensity and depth inherent to the lord of the Underworld make him the essence of passion no matter what his contacts or sign placement. In the natal chart Pluto carries the part of us that is deadly serious, indeed, that registers life and death in our primal consciousness, that lets us know immediately when danger, or the need to walk the life-death-life line, comes into play. In Pluto we are all linked through those passions that are common to all human beings, the ones that drive our major choices, relationships, and that are similar to the life energy dedication of Vesta, but with a twist: where Vesta calls us to dedicate energy in a pure and Selfless way to a cause greater than ourselves, Pluto calls forward that life energy in fulfillment of personal, and often rather primitive, passions. We touch the greater Collective through the Plutonian similarities all humans share and, unlike with the other energies, all manifestations of Pluto are charged with passion, making it a consistent indicator of passion in the natal chart.

To see it all, and get a complete forecast with articles and commentary delivered to you weekly, as well as support the blog, please subscribe! Just so you know, in order to receive the article on finding your passions, you must subscribe before the new issue is released, approximately 6:30 PM Pacific time of the 31st. Thank You!

Order ECLIPSE Newsletter Now!

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Consciousness Explored, current events in the sky, ECLIPSE magazine, future events in the sky, Spiritual Considerations, Transit Effects Explored

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, ,

For the full picture, order ECLIPSE Newsletter; NEW Issue out NOW ‘The Valentine Issue, Pt. 1 & 2’ GET THEM BOTH FOR ONE LOW PRICE! by single copy purchase. Subscriptions span three (3) months for $15 or six (6) months for only $25 (that makes the 6th month FREE!)  You receive the current issue when signing up; back issues of the newsletter will not be available once a new one is published. Expect 1-3 issues per month. You also receive EXTRAs! sent to your email, a Weekly Aspect Digest sent to email every Thursday, and the password for the protected newsletter reader page (at right, under ‘Pages’), which features discussion of selected aspects, hour-by-hour daily Lunar prospects, charts featured in articles, and notable current configurations, planet changes and ingresses. A huge Thank You for making this third year of ECLIPSE possible!

The illustration is a little medieval something that represents your Libra astrologer, Julie


Bulletin: the Universe, Don Draper, and Dream Life

01 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by in astrology, Consciousness Explored, current events in the sky, Spiritual Considerations

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Claesz early 17th century {{PD-Art}}

What the Universe is Made Of

This is what I wrote last week about this past Sunday:

“Just after noon of the 31st, the Moon trines the North Node–and at about the same time the Moon also forms a loose Fist of God with a Moon/ Sedna square apex Pluto. The entire picture is one of unanticipatable material events (Sedna in Taurus) that have emotional results–and, contrary to the usual, we do not need to work out the square before Pluto is accessed–this time, it just happens. A Plutonian event can be anything that involves an exercise of power–just keep that in mind. It’s not necessarily a trauma, destructive act, or experience of rage–it could as easily be a transformative event that feels like a major blessing–so be ready for anything.”

I had no way of knowing how very true this would be for me. I experienced an unanticipatable transformative event, through another’s generosity and kindness. I don’t have specific permission to write about this, so I’ll keep things vague; it concerns a subscriber, an artist, who came to Seattle and invited me to meet with her. I and my daughters have been fans of her work since long before I started the blog, but it so happens that she found me, in a synchronicity of the Universe; I went to the meeting (as she was here on business, I knew she would have her work with her) planning to (and excited to!) buy a piece. Her work has a balanced, resonant, living quality that is both vibrant and serene; it contains that juxtaposition in a careful blend of delicacy and proportion that has always spoken to me. Small pieces of hers were some of the first real Art I’d ever bought–and now I would get to meet the Artist, and she liked me, too–I was going into the meeting ‘pre-approved,’ so to speak! which mattered to me; I’m not terribly good at meeting others, my youthful ease in making friends now replaced in late middle age by some distress: do I look all right? What will I say? Despite my chatty nature online, I have difficulty with small talk in person; I’m a get-to-the-point-er, with little capacity for graceful, cogent exchanges. She greeted me warmly, accepting and open, and that was gift enough.

In the course of working as an astrologer, I’ve received a number of presents, lovely expressions of gratitude and generosity: flowers, spa products, hand decorated boxes, handmade cards, all easy to accept as we judge them as small, a gesture rather than a sacrifice. So it made it especially moving for me when the Artist offered me the very piece I’d spotted and fallen in love with the moment I looked around; I wanted to buy it, but she made this perfect, simple piece a gift–and it challenged all my ideas of who I am, what I could accept from another, and what I deserved. It was especially touching to me in that we had spoken briefly about the difficulty of making a living in these times; I wanted to offer her the support she had been offering to me–but she rose above material considerations and gave me an invaluable gift of spirit. Through her amazing generosity she signaled an absolute faith and trust in the Universe–a statement of fearlessness about her own situation that says to me she is on the Path to transforming her life in amazing ways, and that gave me a gift much larger than the one I held in my hands. It’s been several years since my own faith in the Universe was tested through stress and fear; it was a wonderful reminder of the kind of positive energy that things run on, after all.

Have you ever experienced a gift or interaction that served to transform you, or that reinforced your positive beliefs about the Universe? How did it change your life? I want to say ‘Thank You’ to the Artist–and you might want to thank the one who gave to you, too.

The Changing View of What’s Manly

An especially well-written and perceptive assessment of the way popular culture’s view of vampires may be muddying the manly waters, and why Don Draper of ‘Mad Men’ has the vampiric appeal that ‘boy’ vamps lack.

Follow Your Dreams

Here’s a great source of dream interpretation

And Here Are Your Instructions

Subscribers, of course, please check the protected page, and everyone, visit Ravenesque here

I hope your week is getting off to a great start; I’m making slow slow slow progress on the Vesta book–but someday!

The Essence for 6 April 2011: A Spiritual Happening

05 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in Consciousness Explored, current events in the sky, Spiritual Considerations

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, ,

A Rainbow Gathering Photo by Dirk van der Made Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported via Wikimedia Commons

You may have noticed (or seen me mention) that the Sun/ Jupiter conjunction in Aries has perfected (at 1 AM of the 6th the Moon will semi-sextile these), and that this is semi-square Neptune freshly returned to his home in Pisces. Though the Sun/ Jupiter connection happens once a year, this time it seems both exceptionally strong (perhaps due to the recent New Moon within conjunction of this meeting) and in some way endowed with a certain Neptunian magic–or is it that the ‘Big Bang’ promised by a Sun/ Jupiter meeting will be transformed by the grace, spiritual power, imagination and creative surge, and compassionate mandate of Neptune’s energy? Neptune in Pisces is virile, at his best, and can manifest in his most ideal forms–and we have the chance to use this creative power as it contacts the Sun and Jupiter; like a magnifying glass refining the pure energy of the Sun, Jupiter exaggerates, expands, and pulls us all together on a social level, making for a massive energy burst on the social scene that can be infused with creative energy and ideals–we can make what we wish for all a reality, if we are willing to focus our efforts and perhaps put aside our attention to the Self and Self’s interests, if only for a short time. A major expression of compassion and spiritual ideals is possible–and if we can all channel our energies into healing on a mass scale (imagining the ideal) we may be able to achieve great things. I’m planning on dedicating several hours tomorrow to a meditation focused on imagining a healed planet, on promoting empathy and a recognition of spiritual connectedness among all who are here–and I hope you’ll join me–even a moment dedicated to expression of a pure and compassionate Neptunian energy can, I believe, do wonders–and the Taurus Moon is the perfect time to do this. I don’t expect anyone to surrender their day to dedicated spiritual practice–it’s an unusual choice for me, to say the least–but I do feel moved to concentrate my intention on repairing, and loving, the planet and those who occupy it–and maybe in the process something good will come of it :)

The Essence for 16 March 2011: A Body at Rest

16 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by in Consciousness Explored

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

,

Frederic Leighton c.1892 {{PD-Art}}

I think today it’s best to adopt a position of repose (at least in our own minds); the world doesn’t really demand our energy, not overtly. Instead, we must claim rest for ourselves, a moment or two to surrender every tension and stress. There’s no guilt, nothing that calls us from our time of recovery. We can become ourselves again–ready tomorrow to bring all we have to a new day.

For those who can’t sit still, Lunar influences are very briefly outlined on the protected page, available to subscribers (button at right, ‘Add to Cart’) Thanks to All, and please, relax–we can help the Collective immensely by allowing ourselves to emerge hopefully, playfully, and de-stressed, into the world once again, after a short but necessary respite.

What Do We Feel Now?

11 Friday Mar 2011

Posted by in astrology, Consciousness Explored, current events in the sky, Transit Effects Explored

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

,

Tamakatzura Tamatori 19th century

I’m stunned by what’s happening in the world, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. It’s not that I’m so sensitive, it’s that I’m human, and so are you, and we look around and find things happening that we never thought we’d see: massive earthquakes that have devastated Japan and that stretch tentacles across the globe–and that threaten a second tsunami of radiation if meltdown to Japan’s nuclear power plants can’t be averted; the violent deposing of dictators as nation’s seek a new voice; the stripping of worker’s rights in Wisconsin; the ‘business’ of hostage-taking as modern day pirates enter the oldest deal in the world (freedom in exchange for profit) that has international consequences; violence, assassination and assassination attempts predicated on hate-speech; and on and on.

I find myself wondering where astrology falls in all this. It’s a wonderful and useful art for understanding influences within and the system of the Universe without–but when we are in the midst of catastrophe, what place does it have? And the truth is my world is intact–I can feel for others at a distance, but how do I serve them and myself with my art, without seeming to take their trauma or tragedy or simple experience as an exercise, rather than as a human moment of depth and feeling? It feels odd to continue with ‘the usual’–and yet maybe that’s the best answer, to use our skills, all of them, in the best way we know how.

Is what’s happening a reflection of Uranus into Aries? Did it cast a shadow before it that pulled all Uranian energies in its wake, like water down a drain? Is it a reflection of the multiple, long-term 29 degree placements that are so stressful in expression? Is it Ceres/ Chiron with Neptune at their midpoint? I don’t know that there’s any one answer, or even that many factors can explain the state of things; I just know that we must do our very best as individuals, and call forward our faith, no matter what it’s placed in–and my thought is that, starting with Uranus in Aries, we might want to translate that placement as ‘The Group (Uranus) Is One (Aries)’ and live in accord with this new age we’ve entered.

4-11 October 2010: Taking Off

04 Monday Oct 2010

Posted by in Consciousness Explored

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

I apologize for not getting back here sooner; a series of tiny emergencies, crises, and surprises came up that demanded my attention. Since this is my Solar Return week, I’ll be taking off for a while–and hoping to take off with a couple of new projects, so, no more daily posts until next week. I will be back sometime between now and the New Moon with a post on the Lunar event; with Dark of the Moon in play right now, and other influences outlined in ECLIPSE http://dogandsunflower.wordpress.com/new-summer-2010-eclipse/ (and all publications will still be available–we’ll keep the presses manned! though I will not for now be accepting anymore Juno ‘thank you’ questions), plus the wide range of forecasts accessible through the blogroll, I think all readers will be satisfied.

For me Solar Return time is always a little melancholy, and I tend to review my Solar efforts over the past year carefully, assessing just how well (or not) things have gone. So, I may come back to this site with some changes to the routine, and possibly some big changes to my life. I told you all about the first ‘end of the world’ dream I had a few weeks ago; I’ve had more since. Then they became centered on other major changes, all of a destructive or frightening (from the worldly point of few) nature, until I dreamed of hovering over a road with a young woman and an older woman, both of whom had just died.

You can imagine what I was wondering the morning after that dream! Was I coming to the ‘end of the road’? After examining the possibilities, and (finally!) accepting that death could be on the horizon, I had another dream, which I think now was what all the other dreams were leading up to: I was living a completely different daily life than I do now–and I say ‘completely different’ only in that I was not occupying my time with astrology; I was instead doing what I’ve wanted to do since childhood, but have only sporadically indulged in. This had become, in the dream, my full-time job.

So part of what I want to do this week is to explore the possibilities, though I know I won’t entirely stop doing astrology (how could I?) I may change much of what’s going on. My Solar Return happens during the Dark of the Moon, and I can’t recall another year when that has been so (but may investigate during my time off); the SR will also see the ASC at 29 degrees, on my Venus/ MC midpoint, 4 other energies in the chart at 29 deg, Saturn within minutes of exact conjunct my Mars, T Juno conj my natal Pluto, and so on, certainly suggesting at the very least crisis and change. I know I will continue the magazine, at least for now; a new issue arrives at the end of this month, featuring work by Jude Cowell, Karen at Ravenesque, and of course, me.

‘Til I return with the New Moon report, have a great one, and I wish for all of us, that our dreams really do come true!

24 September 2010: Initiation

24 Friday Sep 2010

Posted by in astrology, Consciousness Explored, current events in the sky

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, ,

Everything changed; did you feel it? I think for many this was subtle but discernible, if only through the intuition; for some, the world appears exactly the same, but something tells us it has slipped slightly, like we’ve skewed to the very next dimension, thin as paper, right next to the dimension we were accustomed to, and we know it’s different, we just haven’t seen those differences yet. It’s almost a matter of faith. For myself, I know change has occurred, I can feel the shift all around me, but I can’t yet point to the results–all we can be sure of now is that the changes will show in different modes of action (Cardinal energies of Full Moon).

LRR, courtesy Wikimedia Commons and the Guttenberg Project {{PD-Art}}

The Moon continues through Aries like Red Riding Hood through the woods, alone and strangely unguarded; though the Aries energy is usually pugnacious, today the feeling is much more lunar, more receptive. It’s as if this Moon handed over the action urge when it contacted the Sun and Earth along the Aries Point axis, perhaps funneling all the energies into the T-arm formed by Pluto. It’s not hard to imagine the density of the tiny demoted body pulling the juice from every other contact into its dark maw, making changes to reality (in Saturn-ruled Capricorn) that are so extensive and quiet we’ve yet to truly see or grasp the result.

But back to our concern of the day, Little Red Luna, as she skips along and makes no aspect until much later. Alone and unafraid, she moves through what seems to be familiar territory, and it is–except it usually doesn’t hide a wolf. The emotions will be very Self-focused today, in a way that’s more like contemplation, like reflecting on the Self and one’s role, than it is anything else–so what a shock when one finally notices the wolf! Before that, though, Red is stalked, and remains unaware of the onlooker. This is very much like the Moon’s next contact, an 11:30 PM-ish PDT opposition to Vesta; what matters, the sacred, the home, the intimate contacts, are all suddenly making demands on the Self–the emotional energy can’t be kept all to oneself, and this makes it obvious.

A quincunx to Pallas about 4 AM of the 25th says we will need to adjust the emotional perceptions to accomodate what’s wise–it’s a brief schooling in which emotional perspectives may simply be foolish and indulgent, and which may need to embrace a smarter course.

It’s at the 5 AM hour PDT that Red finally gets rolling, forming a Grand Trine in Fire with Juno and Ceres, and a sextile to Chiron/ Neptune. Here’s Red’s initiation into the ‘real’ world, into the layers a reality can hold, into the what the Full Moon energy has subtly re-aligned; the emotional Self meets the possibility of creating a power outlet that is much more than the sum of its parts. The GT says the emotional Self holds the key to both expression of the individual’s innate power and authority, and the relationship to Mother Nature–and with this latter, the ability to manipulate, handle, direct, or otherwise use natural forces is all ours. Chiron/ Neptune adds one’s most unique skills and the ideals and creative capacity to the mix, making for a tremendously powerful period when the individual becomes an energy alchemist, transforming the unique relationship to skill and power into actions taken, initiating oneself into the ‘new’ relationship with the ‘changed’ Universal flow of the Full Moon. You can blow the doors off it, at this point; aim the energy and the intentions very very carefully.

Void begins at 7:12 AM PDT on the 25th; Moon enters Taurus 1:16 PM PDT. ‘Til then, have a great one!

Juno holds the key to partnership at many levels; explore your relationships here http://dogandsunflower.wordpress.com This blog is Moon-oriented; for the full aspect picture, the October forecast, and so much more, try ECLIPSE, which includes access to the Private Page here at the blog http://dogandsunflower.wordpress.com/new-summer-2010-eclipse/ Thank you!