I’ll just hang out here while you get your info ready. ‘The Valkyrie’s Vigil’ By Edward Robert Hughes 1906 {{PD}}
Let’s have a change of pace, shall we? The answer to that is Yes, and you can be part of it! I’d like to hear from readers who’d like a particular aspect in their chart discussed. As regular readers know, I do not like to discuss only one facet of a chart–it gives a lopsided and sometimes incorrect picture, when isolated–but with this we combat any distortions by having the aspect discussed as it functions within the whole chart. That means I’ll talk about the aspect, but as it fits into the entire natal picture. Emphasis will be on how it influences areas other than the obvious and expected ones (such as placement by House(s) or sign(s)). Expect about three paragraphs for any specific aspect–not an exhaustive analysis, though I do aim to make it an instructive one.
How do you play along? You can submit the aspect you’d like to hear about plus your complete birth data (stated as local time, date, and place–for example, 5:05 AM 6 March 1983 Los Angeles). It’s important you state the month in a word rather than a number, to avoid confusion (not doing so automatically gets your info discarded). You may also want to include a few words on how you feel this aspect has manifested so far. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SEND COMPLETE INFO–leaving anything out makes it impossible to use.
Allow me plenty of time to choose and write up what comes in. I’ll be accepting entries through the end of April, for this first round. There’s no guarantee your info will be used, but if it is, your name will not be disclosed. I will not be answering individual entries–if it isn’t addressed publicly in this blog, it won’t be. Submit info through the comments section of this post only.
For at least a while I’ll be going to more random posts, covering current aspects or upcoming astro events or analysis of interesting people, rather than a Daily; the last one of those will post on Monday the 27th for Tuesday the 28th. Stay safe out there, dear Readers, and be happy–and if you need to you can do as I have, and mix it up a bit!
This weekend reading is an ECLIPSE re-print, edited, augmented, and with completely new sections added on Uranus and Neptune.
‘A Double Portrait’ By Abraham de Vries c1630 {{PD}}
The internalized voices of the mother and father (or the caretakers) are something everyone absorbs in childhood and carries for life. We know how a parent would likely respond to most everything we do, and often as not that assumed parental assessment floats through the mind as we make choices. But, as we age, we’re meant to compartmentalize those particular voices, and replace them with a central one belonging to ourselves, with ones belonging to our idealized Archetypes—the Mother and Father of our dreams, so to speak—as secondary, as a set of counselors. These have the benefit of being all-loving and totally supportive; they tell us what we need to hear to assure our choices are healthy for us and supportive of our Soul’s needs, and best of all, these Archetypal voices support the adult that we are, rather than commenting on the child we were. We can if we’re so inclined characterize these as God’s voice, the voice of our incorporeal guardians or angels, the Higher Self, or of the sexless but living Universe—whatever fits your belief system. The internal Parents will speak to what’s most productive for us as individuals—and this ‘feedback’ varies from that of the actual mother and father in situations where they were truly supportive to a kind of neutral, responsible common sense advice meant to aid.
Have your internal voices (at least the directly real-life parental ones) evolved from the personal voices of the actual caretakers into an Archetypal energy that ‘speaks’ in your best interests, or is the voice you hear still the one of the actual parent, with all the encouragement, judgment, and limitations of their life imposed on yours? And do you get that confused—or more likely, allow it to sidetrack you—when you’re in the midst of decision-making? We get some clues in the chart on how to deal with the parental influence by examining contact between the personal planets and lights (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) and other bodies, some that are specific to the personal chart and some that are universal. Here’s a quick look at the info, cookbook-style. Remember, of course, that these are not the only meanings these contacts have–we’re just concentrating on particular manifestations and concepts.
Jupiter in contact with the personals seems to have two main early expressions: seeing the individual or subject represented by the contacted energy as god-like, or seeing the contacted energy as something we always need ‘more’ of. We tend to relate this attitude to, or draw it from, whichever parent seemed god-like at the time—so not necessarily the parent who held the most authority, but the one to whom it seemed nothing was denied. When this takes on an Archetypal maturity, we see the opportunities we’ve had related to the contacted energy, and we access direct knowledge of the related concepts. Natal Venus in Scorpio trine Jupiter in Cancer may suggest we had a female caretaker who ‘had it all’ emotionally, and that she was either provided this by a god-like figure or that she herself was that figure. She was cared for emotionally, at least (Cancer), and sex and mystery (Scorpio) may have seemed to be her province, denied to the individual with the aspect, as was a sense of truly being nurtured, with that reserved for the caretaker as well—and this may have resulted in over-the-top sexual experimentation, emotional spending, or having 15 children, trying to claim Venus-Jupiter for oneself. With maturity and an Archetypal Jupiter in place, one is not only able to claim the energies for the Self, but also to see how they may be best used. In this case, knowledge of what it takes to nurture (Cancer) combines with the worth of Truth, deep and intense relationships, and yes, sexuality, to inform the life choices and open the Self to the wider world and its worth.
As the Old Man of the chart, Saturn in contact to any of the personals can describe the permanent influence of an authority figure, usually the parent perceived as ‘in charge’. Typically this is a sense of suppression of the characteristics of the contacted planet, with maturity bringing a change that incorporates Self-discipline in place of external restrictions. For instance, the natal Moon in Aries square Saturn in Capricorn, with Saturn repping the father, may suggest the individual observed suppression of the mother’s (Moon) independence, autonomy, or leadership potential and incorporated this into the emotional make-up, or that the individual directly experienced it her or himself, possibly through a denial of the intuition or even the emotions themselves. Every time this person makes a move on his or her own, he or she may experience that sense of paternal suppression, and so may show temper, aggression, or insist on the ‘I want’ in response. With maturity and the Archetypal response, though, the individual may shift from seeing Saturn as conflict and potential negation of the feelings to support of these through following the ‘rules’ and through sufficient Self-restraint. This is just one possibility, of course. When we’re still hearing the voice of one or the other parent, we will tend to refuse or at least resent complying with Saturn’s requirements; by the time we form an Archetypal version, we will frame it as the inner voice of caution and common sense—and likely have attracted one or two ‘real-life’ versions, people exhibiting extraordinary maturity no matter their age, on which to model our approach.
Uranus related to the inner parent concept may stand for one or both as erratic, unreliable, Self-involved, and if it applies to both maternal and paternal authority figures (for instance, by ruling or being posited in the 10th) the parents may have presented as a ‘group’, sticking together so that there was no way for the child to make an end run around one parent to appeal to the other. The home life may have been perceived as chaotic, no matter the surface appearance of things, and the sense that accidents could happen anytime, or that the parent could simply disappear, could breed hyper-vigilance in the child that becomes an uneasy sense of distrust of all others, or the world itself, in the adult. Relationships may innately seem precarious, and if there’s a denial of this influence, the individual could be repressive and controlling themselves, unconsciously seeking to keep potential chaos at bay.
In my upcoming Moon book I discuss the personal effects of Uranus using the chart of singer Karen Carpenter; here are a couple of excerpts:
“She has a 00 Cancer 34 Ascendant, with Uranus retrograde at 00 Cancer 57–this shouts naturally wired, high strung, nervous, and in Cancer the likely conduit for the nerves is the stomach, and possibly in motherhood (or the rejection of it–Carpenter had no children). Uranus rules the Whole Sign 8th, which holds Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury. We can see anorexia, the disease from which she suffered and from which she died, in at least one sense as rebellion: from control of others, from norms, from forced sharing (8th House) in an attempt to create one ‘private’ thing in the life, one thing completely, irrevocably under the individual’s sole control—and these planetary and point relationships describe this to a ‘T’.
Uranus can be seen as a kind of co-Ascendant, so closely and thoroughly is it tied to Karen’s connection point with the world. It suffers significant isolation from the other chart energies, with only a semi-square to Pluto (which touches Uranus’ ruler, the Moon) and a square to Juno. These aspects suggest intense control issues, a known component of the equation that prompts anorexia. But, though the two bodies Uranus touches are control-oriented, the involvement of Uranus suggests a fear of losing control, a dread of the chaotic and the unanticipated. She may have identified herself as potentially always on the verge of personal chaos (Uranus closely conjoined the Ascendant)—and that easily could’ve driven her to be constantly vigilant, and to clamp down on anything and everything within her reach.”
Neptune to the personals and linked to the parental figures can make for a number of intensely disorienting experiences for a child: the parent may seem to (or even tell the child that) they hold all the creative ‘cards’, making the child feel they can never live up to the parental creativity (this is not uncommon in the charts of children of successful artists or celebrities). The suggestion in the mind of the child is that the parent presents an ideal that can never be reached, convincing the child he or she is drab and untalented by comparison, even if the parent has never implied this. Or the child may suffer from a sense of nebulous or incomplete identity, taking their cues about who they are and how they feel from the parent. There may be a lack of boundaries that, if carried into adulthood, can bring gullibility, unrealistic creative attempts, and co-dependent relationships until the individual learns to set boundaries and clearly differentiates the Self and the Self’s responsibilities from those of others. The child being persuaded they’re someone they’re not is a distinct danger. Learning they’re not responsible for those around them (and especially for the feelings of those around them) can be a significant milestone.
The sense that it’s natural for the individual to feel they are just a small part of something larger can bring perpetual uncertainty, and may be the foundation of a spiritual search in adulthood; a good parent will recognize the fears and inability of the child to know where he or she ends and everyone else begins, and can assist them in channeling that Cosmic awareness into appropriate expression–a not-so-good parent may use the child like a battery, absconding with the child’s creative and life energies, insisting the child exists as an adjunct of them. This can be a tough enmeshment to recognize, as it may present as the parent deeply concerned with fostering the child (the modern ‘helicopter parent’ comes to mind) which can easily smother or disorient the child’s creative and imaginative urges. Most difficult contact for the native within their own chart? Neptune and the Moon, no question.
‘Abduction of Persephone and Pluto on Horseback’ By Giuseppe Scolari c1595 {{PD}}
Pluto is symbolic of what’s commonly known as ‘The Devouring Mother’, but that’s too narrow a definition by far; this is really a designator of a power figure, male or female, who overwhelmed the individual, and likely persuaded them that, whatever energy Pluto contacted was not to be theirs. The typical indoctrination involves framing the energy as destructive, as likely to obliterate the individual if she or he engages with it. Who would tell (or imply) something like this to a mere child? Sometimes it’s done out of fear, in an attempt to protect, but just as often it arises from rage, an attitude that says, ‘If I can’t have this, neither can you!’ When this is the voice we carry in our minds, we are likely forbidden to even think about the energy too much; we have been so conditioned to see it as, essentially, death, that we avoid it actively.
As we see others access that power, though, this leads (at least at first) not to accessing it ourselves, but to rage of our own at being denied something we see others have: we in essence become, attitudinally, the mirror of our caretaker in regard to this subject. The classic example is Venus square Pluto, which traditional literature calls a denial of Love for the individual until they learn to be loving. I find this a misunderstanding of the dynamic at work: the individual appears to not understand Love and to behave badly because of it, but they are actually reacting to the denial of Love for themselves, in that they are raging at being denied what they see everyone else have. They are not devoid of Love themselves, but so afraid of it (and in some cases this applies to money/ assets, too) that they dare not approach it. Remedy begins when the individual first tastes genuine Love (not romance) and finds they don’t die; dramatic as it seems, that’s what it takes to show them they can not only have it, that they are worthy of it—and that is the essence of the Plutonian Archetypal form, the ability to be powerful and unafraid, and so abandon the need to rage and destroy.
I often see Ceres described as a kind of ‘Earth Mother’ figure, but that paints her as entirely too passive (and with far too little power of her own). She is an active energy, Nature itself, and though she nurtures, her mothering role is this: she cares for and carefully tends the welfare of her offspring, as long as they do precisely what she wants. I contend that the story we know of Persephone/ Proserpina’s abduction by Pluto/ Hades is told from Ceres’/ Demeter’s point-of-view; that’s why it’s an abduction, not an elopement, and imprisonment in the Underworld rather than the voluntary experience of sexual maturity, which in itself requires the individual to separate from the maternal figure. Ceres’ grief at her daughter’s escape to the Underworld in many ways resembles a fit by a too-controlling parent: I will withhold the very essence of life to all that grows on the planet (creating autumn and winter, which hadn’t existed–before that it was perpetual summer) until my daughter returns to me. The daughter is treated like a possession, and the negotiation for her partial return is carried out not with her but with Pluto—she is never asked what she wants!
With Ceres in contact to the personals, then, we may see someone who was required to conform to the caretaker’s expectations to the letter in the areas of life signified by the contacted energy. Getting free from that all-encompassing hold means acting, not necessarily in ways we want to, but in ways that take us outside the parental reach. That means early attempts to break free of Ceres’ hold can be very bad choices, indeed—but they serve to make the individual more autonomous, at the very least, and that may set them on their way with a determination not to return to a Ceres-approved life. When we bring the Archetypal version of Ceres into being, we connect directly with what we might refer to as the ‘Voice of Nature’; this energy makes us highly aware of and respectful of all living things (and even that life essence found in inanimate objects, invested by the Being who created them) and in its fullest form makes it very difficult for us to stand by and allow damage to the Earth. Natal Ceres conjunct the Sun, for instance, may start out with the individual placing a Solar entity (the father, or the person about whom their internal Solar system orbits) in the center of the life, which is really a position each of us should hold in our own lives—it’s inappropriate for another to be in that place. You can imagine the drama that would unfold as this individual struggles to claim the Solar energy for their own—and the life-or-death tinged threats that may be made if the individual withdraws from the temporary Sun/ Ceres individual’s compass. Eventually, though, withdraw they will—because in the end, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
‘Demeter Mourning for Persephone’ By Evelyn De Morgan 1906 {{PD}}
Bonus knowledge on Ceres: When one person’s Ceres makes cross-chart contact to particular natal bodies of the mate, a super anti-romantic energy can ensue. For example, a woman’s Ceres conjunct a man’s Mars may start out okay (he may like the sense of nurture and acceptance he feels from her) but quickly devolves into something akin to a repelling energy: she soon starts to feel like Mom to him, and only if he’s into sex with Mom do things work out! It may not be that blatant (or icky) but he will likely come to see her every interaction with him as emasculating, in a sense—the funny thing is couples with this cross-chart interaction can end up staying together for a long time, as he becomes a serial adulterer (for sex) then returns to the mate for comfort and a sense of home.
Not an object, but good that he was found! ‘The Finding of Moses’ By Lawrence Alma-Tadema 1904 {{PD}}
Please see yesterday’s post for the initial part of the article. Today is also bare of perfecting aspects, with only a semi-square from the Sun to Saturn suggesting we may be keenly aware of obstacles and rules–try to see that they seem larger than they are, and that’s because our attention is naturally drawn to them right now–and that can make problems appear much bigger than they are.
Our example in the article was drawn with Placidus Houses, but the rules apply to any House system–I only note it because of a mention of intercepted signs, which don’t happen in Whole Sign, which I use now.
We need to note some particular conditions applicable to finding lost items:
· If we are asking about something ourselves, we are designated by the 1st House, but if we are asking for someone else, we will cast the chart, then ‘turn’ it so that the House that represents that individual from our point of view becomes the 1st. For instance, if we ask about a lost item for our daughter (“Where is my daughter’s passport?”) the 5th House, representing our child, becomes the 1st, and so the significator of the lost item is found in the original 6th, which is the 2nd from the 5th. If, however, we ask and refer to our daughter by name (“Where is Hildegarde’s passport?”) we would designate her as the 7th in the original chart, and so the 8th becomes the house indicating the lost item. This is part of why in all Horary the framing of the question is of such importance. As an astrologer, one frames the question and reads the chart from the question-asker’s point of view. Example: If the person asking the question is named Chloe, the astrologer asks, ‘Where are my (Chloe’s) keys?’ and places Chloe in the 1st House.
· The first place to look for an object is indicated by the House where the significator of the object is found (so, if the ruler of the 2nd is Mars and it is posited in the 3rd, we would look in those areas represented by the 3rd: a sibling or neighbor may have taken it or know where it is, or it may be in their home, it may be in the garage or in the car, at a store or market, in or on a desk or other place where writing occurs or written materials are kept, in the TV or media room or on one of these appliances, in a hallway, stairway, or other passage, including out in the road or driveway, at a local school or park, or left on a bus or taxi) ; the sign of the significator, as well as its dispositor (ruler) can also give clues, as can the House where the dispositor is found. The House of any indicator often names the physical place (on a shelf, at the dump, in bed) while the sign describes the conditions (Scorpio= wet, marshy, low lying areas, humid places, near plumbing; Aquarius=uneven terrain, dry, literally in the air or hanging somewhere, where it’s breezy–near a window, for instance)–this isn’t a hard and fast separation, though, and lots of variation occurs (the sign pointing to location, for instance, rather than atmosphere). There are lots of possibilities for a significator–part of our job in reading the chart is to think logically about the object, and try to build a picture or three of where it might be from those many possibilities.
· Directions can be judged from the actual directions in a chart: ASC is due east, MC north, and so on, for charts drawn in the Northern Hemisphere. For the Southern Hemisphere, please see the link in the comments.
· The signs are of course associated with colors, the most famous probably being Aries’ Martian red. Sometimes colors can help with location, but as with direction, it may not be particularly helpful or necessary in finding a lost object.
· The Part of Fortune can be useful for locating lost objects. Its location can be read just as are those of the significators and their dispositors, though I find that it will give the most useful information when it is in the same number degree, regardless of sign, as one of the significators. Use the Part of the original chart, even if you turn it to accommodate someone else’s viewpoint.
· A retrograde planet as significator of the item suggests it will be found or return.
· If the significator of the lost object is in Virgo, Pisces, the 6th or 12th, or is conjunct Pluto or Neptune, the item is probably tucked out of sight, is hidden, obscured somehow, must be dug for or ‘revealed’, in some way, and sometimes may not be findable.
I decided to use a chart I’d just drawn for a real-life problem: I asked, “Where is my book?” The book I was looking for is the exceptionally useful Horary volume in the March and McEvers’ ‘The Only Way to . . .’ series. I’ve learned a great deal from other volumes on Horary, but theirs is the cleanest and most direct methodology, and never fails me. Though I know what I’m doing in terms of reading the chart, with lost items it helps to have a comprehensive list of possibilities for what a planet, sign, or House might represent, and these are included in their volume and I use those lists as references frequently–the last thing I wanted to do was overlook something useful in explaining things to you, and now the book I needed was nowhere to be found!
The chart is drawn for 27 November 2012 at 10:47 AM PST Seattle, Washington USA. The Ascendant is 18 Capricorn 27, and certainly reflects my serious attitude! Also accurate are the intercepted sign in the 1st (Aquarius, my natal ASC) and the placement of Neptune and Chiron therein, with Neptune signifying my distress and confusion at having looked for two days and not finding it, and Chiron in Pisces probably relating to the fact that I’m trying here to relay my unique skills (Chiron) to you! That Ascendant is safe to judge (though my significator does fall in the ‘fiery way’, perhaps reiterating my stress), the 7th is clear, but uh-oh! The Moon is Void, at 26 Taurus 57, though it is less than 1 degree past conjunction with the South Node. Now this is where the personal discretion of the astrologer comes in: the Nodes are not bodies but points where the Moon’s path crosses the ecliptic–the Nodes identify the most extreme points on this path at any one time–so does this count as the Moon being Void, and so should we abandon the chart right now as unreadable? Not every astrologer uses the Nodes in Horary, and though I do note that they often appear in a House significant to the question, and point in the inevitable direction that the question will evolve (the North Node) I still don’t consistently pay attention to them in Horary–but sometimes they become prominent, as here.
When I hit something so iffy that I end up not being sure what to do, I usually proceed, with the idea that if anything else is unclear then it’s over, but also open to the chart being legitimate if everything else tells a coherent story. Ruler of the 2nd, significator for the ‘lost object’ of the book, is Neptune, which sits in the 1st. This suggests I either know where it is or I’m the one who put it where I can’t find it–certainly descriptive of the situation and common to my difficulties! In its own sign of Pisces, the significator suggests the book is hidden or obscured from view, and as a location the 1st suggests that the book is in the area where I spend the most time–that makes sense–but where to now? The significator is its own dispositor, and the entire house is where I spend my time! We might now inspect the Moon, though it mostly says that it may be in a place I’ve stashed it before (Moon conjunct the South Node). The 2nd itself hold Pallas in Pisces (describing the esoteric wisdom contained in the book) and Uranus in Aries (suggesting perhaps that I need to aggressively continue looking, and that it might be found suddenly), and in Aries we might find a hint as to the location or circumstances under which it will be found: discarding the outside possibilities, we have somewhere near a heating source, somewhere not frequented often, possibly near the ceiling (because heat rises?) in or near something metal.
So, we go to another possibility, inspecting the ruler of a House where the object would naturally be found, in this case, a book would fall in the 3rd of written materials (yes, it’s been published, but the 9th would be more appropriate for Jupiterian items, like a horse or TV). Aries is on the cusp, with ruler Mars in the 12th conjunct Pluto with only 1 minute difference–the location says hidden, the sign (Capricorn) says in something solid, a box, perhaps, maybe black or dark brown, behind closed doors, something wooden, or made of cement or rock, contained, or maybe under a pile of other things, but put there with the idea of staying organized that is inherent to Cappy. Pluto hints that it might have been re-cycled (yikes!) or destroyed–but close as Pluto is to Mars, it’s not necessarily a player. Pluto does rule the 10th, implying that where it’s been put might have to do with my career, someplace I store professional papers–okay, but I thought I’d already looked in all those places?
Let’s review the clues: the book is hidden or obscured from view, placed somewhere I’ve put it before and where I spend a lot of time, probably in pursuing my career, in something solid, near metal or a brown or black Capricorn material (wood!) behind a door of some kind, placed there trying to stay organized–and then it hits me! This describes the seldom-used, re-finished to show its natural brown wood, drop-down desk that holds astrology papers and books, most of which I seldom access or need–unlike the book I’m looking for. I had looked in the drawers of this desk, and even opened the drop-down door, but somehow missed the book which, Eureka! I find tucked under some papers in one of the desk’s cubbies–oh, and there’s a large copper planter on top of the desk, and the hardware is black metal. This desk is located right next to the desk where my computer sits–it is the corner of the house I frequent the most, no question–however, the location doesn’t correspond to directional indicators–unless I imagine myself literally standing in the place of the ASC, facing in to the chart, as I’m sitting at my computer desk–then the book would lie physically to my left, where we find Mars in the 12th.
Horary can be extremely complicated, and it does take a long time to become comfortable making discretionary judgments about which clues to follow, but it’s a rewarding branch of astrology that can deliver some amazing and highly practical results. Good luck with your explorations!
Nothing new perfects today, as we breeze along under the light of the waxing Moon. Instead of a forecast, I offer a re-print from the pages of ECLIPSE:
Misplacing an object is one of the most common mini-upsets we can experience. After all, we wanted that thing right now, and somehow it is not where (we think) we put it! Astrology can be exceptionally helpful in locating what’s gone missing, living or inanimate–though right now we’ll concentrate on a simple method for finding objects, rather than people, or even pets, as finding the living can get a little complicated.
We start, not with the moment we begin looking for the object, but in the moment when our minds form the intent of drawing a horary to ask the location of the object. So, after 45 minutes of digging through couch cushions and going on hands and knees around the room, searching for our keys, we sigh and say to ourselves, looking immediately at the nearest timepiece, ‘Where are my keys?’ We proceed to the computer with the time in mind, draw our chart for that time, and then inspect it for a few matters that can affect its reading, before we actually approach the question.
There are four classic indicators that a chart will not deliver a reliable answer (or that the astrologer shouldn’t judge the chart). Please keep in mind that there can be much variation in method from astrologer to astrologer, largely through each person’s own trial and error to find what works best for them, or in their dedication to horary from a specific perspective (such as following ancient proscriptions). Do not think that comparing methodologies will get you any closer to definitive rules! But, there are some rules about when it’s safe to judge a chart that can be considered Universal. Here they are:
· An Ascendant that precludes learning anything new from the chart. This arises when the Ascendant for the question falls in the first 3 degrees of a sign, or in the last 3. With the 3 early degrees of a sign, we are looking at a matter that is in its infancy. The situation or circumstances are not developed enough to get a clear handle on–we can’t read what hasn’t yet taken shape. With the last 3 degrees of any sign on the Ascendant, we are notified that the matter is, in some essential way, already settled or formed. We can find out in what way by reading the chart, but in my experience these are always circumstances we are already aware of, and so the chart can add nothing to our store of knowledge about the issue. And as we know, should the Ascendant fall in the 29th degree, the querent (person asking the question), if not the situation itself, is under extreme stress (in fact, everything in the 1st House will describe the person asking the question. For example, if Mars is here, they are likely driven by anger, if Neptune, they are confused or distraught).
· The Moon is Void of Course. This is when the Moon will make no major Ptolemaic aspect before leaving the sign: conjunction, sextile, square, trine, or opposition. For horary we look at applying aspects only, though the wonderful March and McEvers suggest that if the contact is less than 1 degree past exact it can also be counted–and my experience supports this. I also use the quincunx, as it’s telling of the need for change or modification to the situation in question before a final answer is available; it can often suggest the possibility of a desirable outcome, or conversely the denial of fulfillment, dependent on the querent’s choices and actions from that point forward–in short, it tells you that something can still be done to affect the question. A good way to think of the results of a Moon Void of Course chart is to say, ‘Nothing will come of it,’ based on the idea that the Moon drives the action. March and McEvers also note that, if the answer to the question can be obtained without referencing the Moon, then a Void doesn’t matter–this is in my opinion true.
· Saturn in the 7th House, Capricorn or Aquarius on the 7th House cusp. Saturn in the 7th indicates that the one judging the chart (the astrologer) will miss something relevant and likely then come to a mistaken conclusion, make mistakes in calculation, or judge incorrectly some relevant part of the equation. Capricorn and Aquarius are both ruled by Saturn in ancient practice, hence the rule about these two signs on the 7th cusp suggesting the chart should not be read. I have read charts with those signs on the 7th House cusp, but with mixed results, and I have never read with Saturn in the 7th–both rules are worth noting and respecting–I follow about Saturn’s placement consistently, as well as when Cappy is on the 7th cusp, but since I use Uranus I don’t include a prohibition when Aquarius is 7th cusp ruler.
· Moon in the Via Combusta. This rule is the one most likely to be ignored by modern astrologers. It’s based on the passage of the Moon through 15 Libra to 15 Scorpio, the claws and body of the Scorpion, and which area at one time held several malefic fixed stars. The stars have since precessed (moved forward) in the zodiac, but the area of ‘the burning way’ or ‘fiery path’ is still held to be itself malefic by some astrologers. This is one rule I don’t follow, but have caught myself more than once checking it out in cases where it might provide the answer to why a chart isn’t working!
Now we have the basics as to when one should just throw up one’s hands and walk away from a reading. If none of these circumstances occur when we draw a chart, then we have the go-ahead. What we need to remember is that a horary chart is, just like a birth chart, a snapshot of a moment in time and space that contains information–and in this case, because we are focused on a specific question/ set of circumstances, we don’t read the entire chart, we only read the elements associated with the question–that trims it down quite a bit, and makes lost objects a good place to begin to learn about horary astrology, because they typically involve only two parties, the person looking for the thing and the thing itself.
Some astrologers only use the planets visible to the naked eye, in the tradition of those who first formulated horary rules (which gives us Saturn as ruler of Uranus and Jupiter as ruler of Pisces), and many modern practitioners use the higher and lower octave method i.e. for Aquarius on the cusp of the 1st and so representing the querent, for example, the astrologer might examine both Mercury (lower octave) and Uranus (higher octave), and some argue against using the outer planets at all as they move so slowly. I find that the outer planets are indeed usable, as they can often represent a certain sluggishness, impermeability, or static quality of the matter or person they represent, though those who stick to the ancient rules do not agree, and I also often examine both higher and lower octave, and ancient rulers, for corroboration of an outcome.
To find a lost object we look at the ruler of the 1st, which stands for the querent (the person asking the question), the ruler of the 2nd, which is the usual House used to represent a lost object, and the Moon, which is always co-representative of the querent (except when another part of the question commandeers this significator) and also acts as an indicator of the passage of time, and so can weigh in on expected events or help us discern how long we might have to wait until we once again have the object in our hands. As well, the planets that rule the significators are important for what they might convey. One important thing to note which seems to be very true: we should not ask questions idly–some emotional impetus is necessary to bring the ‘urge to know’ forth at just the right moment in the mind–this way the timing of a question has some rhyme and reason behind it.
Tomorrow I’ll post the second and final part of the Horary lesson on finding lost objects.
Another re-print from ECLIPSE, this time on the wildly original Spanish artist:
Born with Mercury retro, just after an Inferior Conjunction, Salvador Dalí (11 May 1904 8:45 AM Figueras Spain) spent his life as an innovative artist, so we might expect a prominent Neptune and Uranus, but the Merc retro natal point, at 23 Taurus 28 Rx, plays a big part as well. If Merc is our ability to communicate, Dali’s ability was shaped as a sense of anticipation. This is what we have in the post-Inferior Conjunction phase of the retrograde: a subliminal excitement, a shadowy coalescence of ideas and concepts, and we are willing to try things that are new and perhaps considered unusual for us—and somehow Dalí was able to translate this into his creative life, probably through the 29 degree Uranus in Sagittarius, a placement requiring expression of the individuality (and creating tension with the individuality!) perpetually.
Neptune is in the Whole Sign 1st, above the Ascendant, sextile Venus, trine Black Moon Lilith, and squared by the natal Aries Moon and Midheaven. He may have identified with being creative, but not entirely consciously. A great deal of his creative ‘fuel’ may have been women, relationships (he had many with both men and women, and met his wife Gala, 9 years older than he, when she and her husband, a poet, and daughter came to visit him—she remained when they went home). Dalí excels at delving into the material others avoided—as seen in his penchant for eyeballs, melting clocks, and the disturbing dreamscapes of his Art. The contact to Moon-MC is puzzling, until we consider that though the social sphere (Jupiter in the 10th in Aries) found him disruptive and odd (10th, ruler Mars conjunct Mercury—he was communicating), his parents, especially his mother (10th, Moon) encouraged his Self-indulgence and unusual creativity. This undoubtedly affected the emotional perceptions, with the Aries Moon emphasizing Self-Will as the way to feel emotionally nourished—and coupled with the MC, probably made him equate emotional satisfaction with fame and professional accomplishment.
Interesting to note that he was born 9 months and 10 days after the death of his older brother; given the same name and told he could never replace him, Dalí came to believe he literally was his brother’s replacement, his reincarnation. Mercury, the natural representative of siblings, is conjoined his Sun (in this case perhaps both suggesting the melding of identities and, as Merc is moving away from conjunction, the effort toward individuality and freedom). Merc rules his 3rd, representing his siblings, with Virgo there; it may have been the childhood criticism that made him who he was in a significant way—it certainly figured in his thinking.
His wife Gala may be key to so much here, in particular the extreme sexual nature, represented by Pluto opposed Ceres. This suggests his deepest sexual energy may have been at odds with what he considered ‘natural’, and yet Gala, an incredibly strong Mother Earth figure, came along and negotiated his own sexual nature with him—she was his Ceres, adjusting his sense of Self (Ceres quincunx the Sun) as well as becoming a foil for his passion (Ceres opp Pluto). Also interesting, this amazingly original and unique artist died in the period of his Uranus Return at the age of 84, at the point of a symbolic, and very real, completion of a cycle.
“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”– Salvador Dalí This from a man who wielded the most perfect brush strokes in his oil paintings I’ve ever seen.
Chiron has recently entered Aries (and later today the Sun will semi-sextile it from 00 Taurus, offering a solid, real-world glimpse of Chiron in action in your life). A change of sign for Chiron is like a change of sign for any other body: there’s the slightest shift to related energies in the air, but nothing changes for natal placements in Aries (or by hard contact to other Cardinal placements) until Chiron is within aspect orb, and of course, it doesn’t assert itself in general until there is contact between the asteroid (or is it a comet?) and other bodies. There, I’ve said it. Quit hyperventilating about how a body changes sign and the angels sing and fire falls from the sky and everyone gets a kitten–they don’t, it doesn’t, and we have to go out and find that kitten like every other time we’ve gotten one.
So what changes? Every time Chiron aspects some other transiting body, or is aspected by one, we have the chance to see Chiron in Aries in action–and that might be quite literal, in this Fire sign–so that we may notice how our own actions, or the aggressive choices of others, have caused wounds or healed them. The emphasis is on the individual responsibility for hurting and healing. During the transit of Chiron through this sign, we are bound to discover our own role in things, as well as the best actions we can take to make use of our Chirotic skills (indicated by Chiron’s position and contacts at birth). This may also foster expectations that alone we can move mountains–we may feel the hurt of trying to remedy something on our own, without assistance–but that is likely an illusion, created by too much attention to our own wounds. Handling this transit well requires enough humility to see that others are wounded, too, and that being responsible sometimes means recognizing the validity of others’ injuries, stepping out of the Aries box that says, ‘I, I, I, me, me, me’ and recognizing our likeness to and ability to partner with others (the reciprocity of opposing sign Libra).
Will this affect relationships? Yes! Especially early in the transit, before Chiron has made many contacts to other bodies or to individual natal ones, we may be prone to see ourselves as more separate than is real, to laundry list the ways others have hurt us–but perspective on our own role in things should be the goal, and when achieved will work wonders to illuminate all that’s right about what we and others do.
A Life Lesson in Astrology
You can skip this unless you’re a practicing astrologer or want to get the most out of your astrologer in your role as client–and even then, you have a choice 🙂
I once consulted for a corporation that was entering delicate negotiations; understandably, they wanted guidance that would result in them attaining their goals (yes, I’m being unusually vague here–though it happened almost twenty years ago, I still believe discretion is required). They filled me in on what they thought I needed to know, which resulted in a delay in understanding the charts, as I had to ask them multiple questions in order to sort it all out. So, lesson #1: astrologers, like physicians and lawyers, need to know the truth (or at least the actual conditions), if they’re going to be most effective in helping you.
Once I received answers what was showing in the chart became clear, and I provided a detailed assessment of the situation with the other side, and how to approach things in order to get the desired result. They went into the negotiations, came out three hours later, and immediately contacted me: they had chosen not to follow my recommendations, instead taking a radically different tack, and had not gotten their desired results–could I tell them what to do to get what they wanted now?
Dutifully I set about outlining conditions responsive to the present negotiation point. Things had ‘narrowed’, so to speak; by taking the actions they had, they had lost some of the options open to them initially, and I made that clear: the approaches they’d chosen in-the-moment had shut down certain options the opposing entity had originally been open to, meaning that the opposing side had seen demands and an attitude they didn’t like, right off the bat, and my clients were paying the price for that now. I did emphasize that it could all be saved, if they followed ‘x, y, and z’.
Negotiations resumed the next day, and my client contacted me at lunchtime. They hadn’t really liked what I’d recommended, had followed their own inclinations, and now wanted to know: could I tell them what to do at this point to get what they wanted? I understand that it can be tough to accept that someone many miles away has given you a battle plan that doesn’t seem the right thing to do when you’re in the room hashing it all out. Clients get spooked all the time, unable to believe that the advice they’ve paid for might actually see something they don’t, but that’s exactly it: if their own perspective was completely effective, they wouldn’t need someone else to weigh in, to provide guidance.
Of course, I outlined the present options, noting that several previous potentials had now been actively eliminated by the opposition (it seemed to me they were becoming more and more untrusting of the very aggressive and demanding tack my clients had taken and continued to take). Yet, there were still possibilities, and the whole thing could be salvaged, and I told them to the best of my ability how that could be accomplished–but they chose not to follow my recommendation, and when they showed up the next day to resume negotiations they found that the other side had terminated the interaction.
My client berated me: why didn’t I know they wouldn’t continue negotiations? If they’d known that they would’ve approached them in the evening, hoping to forestall a shutdown to talks. I apologized, saying there’d been no indication at our last point of contact that they would refuse to continue negotiations–and then it came out that my client had contacted them in the evening, and that’s what blew the whole thing up!
So here’s the point of this shaggy dog story: What you do with the information you receive from an astrologer (or any other individual offering life advice) is entirely up to you, and it should be–my judgment isn’t meant to replace yours, it’s meant to enhance it, to inform it with another viewpoint, to reinforce what’s working and minimize (hopefully) the effect of contrary forces. And as an individual, I don’t care what you choose to do–I can’t care, because if I did that would enmesh me emotionally in a way that would make my advice far less effective, as it would be far less objective.
But, and this is a massive one, to repeatedly return to a source for advice and repeatedly to then ignore that advice just doesn’t make sense; it instead suggests some kind of magical thinking is going on. Maybe there is a belief that simply contracting for services guarantees you get what you want–and then when you ignore the advice and don’t get what you want, you blame the astrologer, reasoning that they would’ve given you some kind of magic recipe or formula, or invested in persuading you, if they had been any good! Or you don’t blame the astrologer, but then feel justified in continuing a ‘poor me’ scenario, or maybe one of ‘confusion’, telling yourself, ‘Well, I tried to fix it’. Or maybe it’s the kind of thinking that can’t or won’t admit that current reasoning isn’t cutting it; a vanity that so distrusts contradictory input is bound to lead the individual astray, because that mind can’t learn. Or maybe it’s this: that in the end, each of us believes soundly that we know best for ourselves, and we do–but that works to our benefit only when we are honest enough to see that where we are is because of how we think and the decisions we’ve made, so that asking for help becomes genuinely looking for assistance by exposure to another point of view, not looking for a reason to continue a reckless and Self-indulgent ride.
‘Pythagoreans Celebrate Sunrise’ Presumably, they’ve already done the math. By Fyodor Bronnikov {{PD}}
We have a print in our house by the artist Julie Dillon. It’s called ‘Sleeping Giant’, and depicts an enormous ‘robot’, long ‘dead’, being worshiped as if it were a god, robed supplicants in attendance, votives and offerings placed before it. I love the way the picture tells a story, all at once: stripped of its original beingness, its purpose and point, the human mind sees this incomprehensible entity and fills in a scenario of what it must’ve been. The reverence is supplied by the observer; the thing itself is just what it is, and holds no sense of the sacred beyond what it’s given.
When we stop knowing what something is, we inevitably forget what it’s for; that seems obvious, but really isn’t. It’s easy to overlay our ability to perceive with expectations, judgments, assumptions, and beliefs, to the point where we not only don’t see what’s before us, we forget the original intent or purpose behind both the thing we’re observing and our decision to observe.
In astrology we transgress in this way when we see an aspect and think we know its meaning, devoid of context or other contacts; it’s why I’m so loathe to talk about aspects outside the landscape of a chart. Without House placement, rulerships, and other bodies or points aspected as part of the picture, what we see may be highly skewed, our own judgments and suppositions superimposed on the aspect; in reality, that aspect is a framework that gains full and nuanced meaning only when seen as part of a whole.
A brief example: if I say to you, assuming this is found in a natal chart, “Moon conjoined North Node in Aquarius”, and the conjunction is close, with only a seven minute differential, what characteristics spring to mind? Someone forward-thinking, intuitively inventive or innovative, a ‘free feeler’ with an emotional nature that embraces the intellect, and intellectual methods–and so may be a tad disconnected from the feeling nature–but we can’t be sure how this presents itself with so little info. To draw many conclusions about someone from this alone could be highly misleading–so what if we add more info?
“Ascendant conjoined Pallas in Taurus, only seven minutes past perfection, with this combo square that Moon-NN in Aquarius”. Now what might you think? Pallas rising suggests the individual meets the world in a practical or smart way, and that that’s what others see, someone wise beyond their years, especially when it comes to material matters, worldly things, survival and comfort. The square introduces the idea of conflict, and describes a smart personality at odds with an intellectual approach to feeling–which definitely doesn’t mesh with the Taurean predisposition to soothe through the senses. So, we have someone who presents much differently than they feel.
Now we add this to the picture: “Fixed T-square, NN-Moon as the arm (placing this combo at the top of the chart, in the individual’s 10th) to an opposition of ASC-Pallas to Jupiter and a stationary Mercury in Scorpio, roughly four degrees apart”. A T-square alerts us to the fact that all those seeming positives (wise presentation, progressive attitudes, keeping an eye on the future, strong connection among emotions, intuition, and intellect) might be part of a tense dynamic, one that could bring out their less positive sides. Jupiter-Merc in Scorpio suggests a deep, intense, almost cutting mental emphasis on knowledge, but whether that’s based in belief or actual facts we can’t determine outright, and exaggeration may be both a communication style and a way of thinking/ perceiving. But we do know that Mercury is stationary in a Fixed Water sign, which implies, just like the Moon in Aquarius, a mixing of feeling and thought, and possibly the emotions and mentality stubbornly ‘stuck’ at a particular phase, outlook, or level of development, and we get a glimpse of this through that ASC-Pallas picture: this individual is keyed to comfort and survival in whatever way the childhood environment dictated as practical or smart.
So what do we think now? Since our first aspect description, we may have decided this individual is much more emotional than we first suspected, and that they may be prone to use the mentality to justify what they feel–and that may be accompanied by the danger of presenting as very wise to others, which can be persuasive to those who may accept hyperbole as facts (as may the individual). We might think that spiritual or religious beliefs could permeate the mental faculties (and that beliefs, feelings, what’s smart, and the mental faculties could be in constant conflict or under tension), and that part of what this individual may do is bring these beliefs to others through the effectiveness of the personality. There’s also that cutting edge to Merc, Jupiter, Sun, and Venus all in Scorpio, that urge to destroy as much as to re-make, and the tension presented by the personal emotional make-up, that could clash and cry out for expression.
Two more factoids: Sun and Venus are closely conjoined in Scorpio (but not conj Jup-Merc), and Mars and Neptune are only 35 minutes apart in Virgo. How do these bolster either positive or negative impressions for you? What profession would you imagine this individual would choose–and what do you think life might choose, for them? Check back in a day or three, when I’ll present the chart these aspects come from, and you can decide how much or how little you really can glean from the one-aspect-at-a-time game.
Just to let you know: there’s a Russian language (scratch that, I think it’s actually Ukrainian) page offering Eclipse subscriptions–when Eclipse is no longer being published! So don’t give them your money, okay?
People are wondering . . .
. . . why so many astrologers got the US election ‘wrong’:
I think this is due to faulty assumptions underlying their interpretations. It seems to me they saw more positive/ ‘easier’ aspects in Hillary Clinton’s chart, and more challenging ones in Trump’s, and so assumed that meant a Hillary win; the problem with that is the belief that positive aspects imply winning a contest–but what they really imply is that what occurs is positive for the individual, from the individual’s point of view.
Centaur of Lefkandi, 1050 – 900 BCE, identified as Chiron, found in two pieces in two different tombs at the site of Toumba. It’s the first 3-D sculpture of a centaur ever. Archaeological Museum of Eretria. Photo By Jebulon CC0
. . . about an unaspected Chiron
Like any chart energy, an unaspected Chiron will generally function in one of two ways: either the wounded nature takes over the chart (and so the individual) becoming the most prominent thing within the psyche, or it floats around, disconnected from the individual psyche, so that when that wound is ‘touched’ the person reacts and doesn’t know they’re reacting. In both cases, the Chirotic nature has not been integrated with the other energies, impulses, and traits, and so either consumes the processing and perceptive functions or is completely denied by them–that is, the individual claims to carry no wound at all, or to have processed and dealt with wounds so completely that no psychic injuries remain–and that’s just not possible, for a human. It’s like an unaspected energy takes a bite out of our ability to comprehend the world and our place in it–Chiron (along with Mars and Pluto, and possibly others) is the kind that, as we try to reclaim it by consciously incorporating its energy and intents, just may bite us back, discouraging our efforts and making acceptance and absorption that much more difficult.
Check back in a bit for a new post that will give the answers to our aspect-reading example, along with more ‘What You’re Asking’, and have a lovely weekend!
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot – ‘Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld’ 1860 {{PD}}
Like everyone else, it seems, I’ve been having some highly unusual dreams of late, so I decided to run down some of the associated asteroids and other bodies, just to see what this might spell out by contacts to my own natal chart. I’ll offer my interpretations, and invite you to see where these might fit in your own chart–I’ll keep details of my nighttime adventures to a minimum; as author John Green (and a lot of other people) have said, “Nothing is as boring as other people’s dreams.”
First we look at asteroid Orpheus, named for the poet, musician, and prophet (that last not until after death, when his still-singing head was thrown into the sea, landing at Lesbos where an Orphic oracle was established). He was known to enthrall and charm (in an almost magical sense) others with his creations and performances; even the animals, trees, and rocks were said to have moved when Orpheus played. He learned his Arts from Calliope, the patron of epic poetry and likely his mother, while his father is said to have been either the King of Thrace or the god Apollo.
Orpheus voyaged with the Argonauts and saved them by blasting his boom box (or however they did it in those days!), drowning out the Sirens’ seductive call. Upon their return, Orpheus married Eurydice; the honeymoon had scarcely begun when she was bitten by a snake and died. Naturally, her husband mourned her with song. He charmed all who heard him, including Charon, the boatman who transports Souls across the river Styx, as well as Hell’s guard dog, Cerberus. His grief was so affecting that Hades chose to grant the disconsolate musician an exception: you can lead your bride out of the Underworld, Orpheus, on one condition, that you will not look back at her until you’re both completely above ground–and Orpheus readily agreed.
We all know what happened: Orpheus had almost reached the surface, and had managed not to look behind him, when he suddenly turned; some versions claim he heard a noise, some that he saw the Sun and wanted to share the moment with his wife, but in any case, she vanished, his mission ending in failure. So what does this have to do with a dream of mine? I was told that I was an Orpheus-like individual in a dream world that was supposed to be the 1920s. There were a number of people in a large, gold-walled room, and I was to round them up and lead them out–and that’s all I remember.
On the day of the dream, the asteroid Orpheus (3361) was at 19 Capricorn 53–within orb to both Pluto 21 Capricorn 11 (another version of Hades, which asteroid was at 5 Cancer 53) and Charon, the boatman, which is a moon of Pluto and travels with it, and asteroid Cerberus at 27 Aquarius 9, with Eurydice (also spelled Eurydike) at 9 Libra 28. The agent of dreams, Neptune, was at 15 Pisces 01.
Orpheus, Pluto, and Charon are all passing through my 12th, sextile my Moon and opposed my Ceres=this suggests an Underworld journey, in the spiritual or emotional sense, one that is meant to re-make the individual, or to be seen as part of a larger, life-death-life cycle–a winter experience, one of loss as part of a larger pattern, or of death or what’s beyond this life, perhaps? Hades is square my Mars=again, the trip to the Underworld, the result of my actions, or because of them?! Hades is the one who offered Orpheus the deal, that O couldn’t see through out of impatience, folly, impulsivity? The dog that guards the Underworld, Cerberus, is square my Venus and sextile my Sedna–maybe being ‘guarded’ keeps out love, or money, but allows the instincts and deep knowing to function without distraction–necessary for such a journey. Eurydice, a stand-in for what’s rescued from the darkness, sits conjoined my Mars=is passage through the Underworld a kind of retreat, necessary to save the Self, or perhaps to save the ability to act autonomously? Maybe. And finally there’s Neptune, in wide quincunx to my Sun=dreams that may disturb, just a bit, in order to reveal something of the Soul. And I’ll throw in one more, Hekate, the way-shower, which is at 23 Cancer, conjoined my Ceres=Mother Nature as guide–I hope she’ll show me more.
This is another ECLIPSE re-print, this one with updating and a significant amount of historical and astrological information added.
Periodically I like to inspect historical personages and events taking an astrological perspective, so when I ran across an article (no longer available, but see a similar one here) on England’s Richard III and a potential allergy, I had to check it out. Considering the way Ceres has shown herself to be a prominent factor in instances of allergy, sensitivity, and in autoimmune diseases of all kinds, I wanted to see if Richard’s famous change of demeanor after excusing himself for a strawberry feast during a council meeting of 13 June 1483 was possibly related to just such a reaction. If so, it may have had history-altering consequences, as Richard’s fear that he may have been poisoned or the victim of witchcraft (there is even a suggestion that ingesting a massive number of strawberries may have caused the withering effect to one arm that we heretofore had believed through eyewitness description was a birth defect) led him to lash out against those who might take the crown—including his nephews, better known as ‘The Princes in the Tower’, Edward V of England, for whom Richard was acting as Protector, and his younger brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. (At the time the Tower of London was not yet used exclusively as a prison; the boys were lodged there, under guard and for their protection, so the story goes). After the strawberry incident, Richard announced he was taking the crown for himself and the boys ‘disappeared’; his suspicion of even his closest allies planted the seeds for his difficult reign and the horrible reputation that follows him to this day.
Richard III is believed to have been born 2 October 1452 Julian Calendar 9:02 AM LMT (time is certain) Northhamptonshire England. Times of 9 AM and 7 AM have also been put forward, but the time of 9:02 was deduced by astrologer Martin Harvey in the British Astrological Journal Spring 1967, “Time deduced from a 1452 account in Latin, October 2, 1452 OS, 9:15 AM LAT ” as per Astrodatabank.
Could these have been the culprit? ‘Wild Strawberries on a Ledge’ 1703 By Adriaen Coorte {{PD}}
Right away we notice the Scorpio Ascendant sextile Juno (which body I’ve conjectured before may in a man signal a sense of Self-completion, as in not feeling the need for complementary energies, which means the psyche has no room for another–he’s a partner to himself—it’s a placement, then, of total Self-empowerment that claims the right to do as he pleases—because no one, and so no other viewpoint, figures in). The apex to the Finger created is the Earth-retro Mars conjunction in Aries—certainly easy to associate this vanity/ ego uncertainty/ identity as a man as it manifested through the personality resulting in the death Richard suffered, as a Warrior at the Battle of Bosworth Field, with blows to the head (Aries) so hard that his crown was driven into his skull (and we know this as his remains, verified by mitochondrial testing of two of his sister’s descendants compared to the DNA found, identified the skeleton discovered under a UK parking lot in 2012 as definitively his). This also, of course, catches the Sun at the sextile midpoint, implying the Soul itself might have felt ‘caught’ by the dynamics of the Finger.
The Ascendant is also square Black Moon Lilith and Sedna, and with a sextile to Mars-Earth BML-Sedna forms the base to another Finger of God with apex Juno. The Will, the ego, and the way they are so closely related to the material environment gets played out through the empowerment situation and the sense of personal completeness–and yet much of what drives the ego and material situation is hidden, ignored, denied, or enraging and then buried, in the instincts or in the ‘blind spot’–a terrible connection for a leader to have.
But was he susceptible to Mother Nature? Wow, was he ever! Ceres sits at 29 Libra 11, under stress and hidden just at the end of the 12th and a hair above the start of the 1st House (Whole Sign); it’s the T-arm of a wide Vesta-Uranus opposition, suggesting that stress from Nature shows up in erratic and sudden behaviors that are contrary to the highest values, and yet those rebellious or erratic choices may be justified in Richard’s own mind as sacred (the Vesta effect–see my book for much greater detail). Ceres is the body of latest degree; it implies that all matters end in some sort of ‘reaction’, in relation to his sense of authority, his boundaries, his negotiating power, or his interaction with Nature.
Ceres is quincunx the natal Taurus Moon in the 7th; the Moon is another indicator of sensitivity, in Taurus implying a sensitivity to the environment and particularly to food and atmosphere (and of course the meeting where the impressive change to his demeanor occurred was in mid-June, a high point for strawberries and every other blooming thing!) Placement of the Moon in the 7th suggests that Richard may have had a very reactive personality, emotionally and intuitively hypersensitive to others, and this is reiterated by the Moon’s opposition to Venus–relationships–in the 1st.
The Moon is part of yet another Finger, this one with base of Moon-Uranus, apex the North Node, and one apex Moon, base of Ceres-North Node, which latter also catches Venus in Scorpio in the 1st at its midpoint, with this little detail opening a whole other avenue for health affects–kidneys, blood sugar, venereal diseases–that could’ve weakened the constitution quietly, without anyone necessarily being aware of it.
Richard’s Ceres is also conjunct a 00 Scorpio Mercury (lungs, nerves, highly sensitive to what’s communicated, and at 00 he’s just learning to deal with this in a Scorpionic fashion–that is, one that may retaliate lethally). The asteroid also trines Jupiter, ruler of the 2nd (the Ceres nature affects his relationship with the social sphere, his knowledge—indicating potential for the mind and reasoning to be affected by any reaction—and his grasp of the ‘Big Picture’, and suggesting the potential for exaggerated effects from Ceres instruments), and is widely conjunct Saturn, again emphasizing the impact of Ceres and health on the reality picture, and in stoking fear, another Saturnian element.
As previously noted, we see his Mars in Aries conjoined Earth, both in the 6th of health, yet again showing the importance of the environment and his own choices and actions on the health picture. This is not to mention the Grand Trine of Ceres, Jupiter, and the South Node, which does suggest that knowledge from the past, lessons learned, would guide ‘reaching out’ efforts and attempts to widen his authority and influence—and this is something that probably initially went very right for him, getting him to the position he enjoyed in June of 1483.
A look at the transits on the day of Richard’s strawberry feast include the Sun fresh in sensitive Cancer trine his Ceres-Mercury, and Saturn at 00 Scorpio conjoined his Mercury, highlighting nervous sensitivity to the material world; transiting Zeus is exact conjunct his Pluto (destructive desires!), transiting Ceres trines his Saturn (again, the influence of Nature made manifest), and there were not one but three transiting bodies at 29 degrees during the day, if we include the Virgo Moon (so perfect for an allergic reaction, conjoined transiting Jupiter, opening up potential for both massive consumption of the allergen, and a massive reaction to it), as well as Pallas in Cancer (implying that what was sought as nurturing or soothing was questionable), all impacting natal Ceres and natal Moon, expanding the potential for sensitivity and reaction, and this in turn having an impact on the common sense and wisdom of the individual—and with Jupiter in the mix, we might consider the reaction could’ve been a fatal one.
There is one other thing: a natal aspect of the 24th Harmonic of 105 degrees (popularly termed the Squine, as it’s halfway between a square and a trine!) between Richard’s Zeus and his Ceres and Mercury. Though some feel there’s no reliable interpretation to be applied to this aspect, I believe that’s generally so because enough astrologers haven’t observed it in action for a long enough time to find consistent characteristics. We must keep in mind, too, that Ceres is not just about one’s interaction with Nature; it’s also about one’s sense of authority and interaction with those who hold authority, concerns boundaries and the propensity to overstep them, and applies to one’s negotiative abilities.
And we should add that natal Chiron in Cancer is also in the picture, trine Merc-Ceres and suggesting a primal wound possibly both figurative (to the thinking and communications) and literal (through allergies and sensitivities) that may involve an emotional reaction (Cancer). On the day of the incident, transiting Chiron was square natal Chiron (a moment of reckoning concerning wounds) and created a T-square by opposing natal Neptune, the ultimate obscurer of facts and sources, and the kind of response that can occur with the mental state (t Chiron quincunx n Mercury) in an allergic reaction: one can become ‘foggy’, losing orientation and even time, feeling physically irritated and uncomfortable–short of actual respiratory distress or anaphylactic shock, thinking unclearly, and perhaps prompting the imagination to set off on its own.
If Richard’s Ceres was ‘triggered’ by strawberry consumption, and this affected the thinking (Mercury), then too it could’ve affected the ambitions and desires (Zeus)—and as we know, when the ambitions are touched by fear such as may have occurred with a biological reaction interpreted as poisoning or an occult attack, then it wouldn’t be surprising for the ‘victim’ to have grabbed as much power and control for himself as possible, leading to the ominous and still unanswered disappearance of two little boys, and changing the course of a kingdom
As to the Princes in the Tower, though we still can’t be sure what was the fate of the two princes, the story is that the bones of two children were discovered in the Tower in 1674; these were re-buried in Westminster Abbey. Some examinations have been done, but with questionable results according to modern forensic scientists, and the Church of England and its head, the Queen, continue to refuse to allow exhumation of the remains. And so the mystery continues.
Inner ring is Richard’s birth data; outer ring is the day of the strawberry incident, set at noon.
Since Mr. Hefner has been in the news with his passing, I’ve seen mostly sentimentalized ideas of what he did and how he affected things–here’s my take, from March of 2008:
Eros as an energy that carries one away on a wave of passion outside the individual’s judgment and control is an idea I keep seeing put forward, and I feel compelled to poke some holes in such a Self-serving definition–it brings to mind those who say, when confronted with their highly un-loving choices, “But we’re in love!” Disloyalty, betrayal, or lacking respect for existing relationships is not a foundation of love, but of Self-indulgence, and it seems that these same people are the ones who want to point the finger and say, “Eros made me do it!” Well, all I can say is, that excuse doesn’t fly. (And in case you’re wondering, my vehemence doesn’t come from my own experience, as, even with a Venus/ Pluto natal square, it’s never happened to me; it comes from watching others feel that they are good, honest people who wouldn’t ever do anything to harm another, justifying causing others hurt in the name of love–and not seeing that what they are doing can’t be love when it’s perpetrated before extrication from existing relationships, causing pain based in duplicity.)
I thought a good way to show this is to illustrate an Eros that is being sold (literally!) as a combination of lust fulfillment, objectification, and the ‘appropriate’ expression of sexuality, defined as within a heterosexual Universe where the male is the aggressor and the female is a two-dimensional supplicant. You may recall from previous articles that in my view Eros is more of a projection than anything else, an eroticization of someone or something; as such, you choose the object; keep that in mind as we look at the chart of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner (9 April 1926, 4:20 PM, Chicago IL USA). Eros is involved in what could be considered a definitive complex for this man, with Eros at 18 Capricorn in the 4th, conjoined the South Node–already we have an indication that his concept of the erotic is at the least drawn from a past era or experience, as this was as true upon the founding of his magazine in the ’50s as it is today–already upon his publication’s inception the objectification of women as passive sexual objects was on the way out as an acceptable idea within the Collective. Here’s the real heart of things, though: his Venus sits at 3 Pisces in the 6th (“Women are my job!” is perhaps the perception?) at the midpoint of Eros/ Sun. We can say that his Soul intent and his erotic nature meet in his ‘ideal woman,’ who, ruled by Neptune, is either malleable, illusory, or whatever his imagination says she is! His Eros is also opposed Pluto, putting an almost mythic spin on things–he may strongly feel that he is in actuality defeating thanatos by expressing his idea of eroticism, and he may feel it was imperative this express materially (sextile to Saturn)–certainly his lifestyle choices, unchanged through the decades, supports this.
Venus is sesquiquadrate Earth and semi-square Sun and Eros–this suggests that he felt compelled to deal with his Venus issues (and to make money from it, as they’re intertwined here), in order to succeed in both material and Soul purposes–and yet the aspects themselves say that the challenge was in doing this in a positive way–I think the Collective jury’s out on whether what he’s done has any worth beyond the exploitative. Venus also trines a Vesta/ Pallas conjunction, adding points for truly admiring women as wise and a part of the sacred–but a Jupiter/ Juno conjunction in the 5th implies he thinks women have far too much power, in romance and likely through the ability to bear children (wow, that’s an ancient concept–and we’re idea-wise back to the South Node/ Eros conjunction).
How does he see himself? His Mars is in Aquarius, so his idealized Self is likely an intellectual–this has certainly always been one of the most grating of the Playboy pretensions–and it is quincunx Pluto (see thanatos, above), semi-sextile the Moon in Pisces in the 6th (remember, the 6th is also the House of those who serve us, and his Venus is there, too–I’ll let you parse that out on your own!), and lastly, his Mars opposes Ceres, perhaps implying that he sees Mother Nature and the inherent authority of the female as ‘against’ him somehow. What little we’ve talked about draws a relatively unflattering portrait of a man who in many ways created his empire more out of fear than a true ‘philosophy’–but is this really surprising? More on Eros is available in my book, THE ASTROLOGY OF INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP, at Dog and Sunflower Press, and if you’d like to look up your Eros http://www.astro.com/swisseph/eros.htm
I’ll be posting for the Full Moon of the 5th in a day or two. Have a great week!
Chiron has recently entered Aries (and later today the Sun will semi-sextile it from 00 Taurus, offering a solid, real-world glimpse of Chiron in action in your life). A change of sign for Chiron is like a change of sign for any other body: there’s the slightest shift to related energies in the air, but nothing changes for natal placements in Aries (or by hard contact to other Cardinal placements) until Chiron is within aspect orb, and of course, it doesn’t assert itself in general until there is contact between the asteroid (or is it a comet?) and other bodies. There, I’ve said it. Quit hyperventilating about how a body changes sign and the angels sing and fire falls from the sky and everyone gets a kitten–they don’t, it doesn’t, and we have to go out and find that kitten like every other time we’ve gotten one.
