Joan Porte – Page 25

Some Fun Dances in the Sky

Patricia Arquette’s Speech another Example of Ceres and Pluto

The only interesting thing that happened at this year’s Oscars was Patricia Arquette’s speech about women’s rights. (I am sorry but I do not understand the fuss over Gaga. If that range less exhibition was the result of six months of coaching then she has a long way to go.)

When Arquette took the stage and made a heartfelt plea for true equality for women, I chuckled to myself and said another Ceres/Pluto battle. Ceres and Pluto have been conjunct in the sky at 12 degrees Capricorn and doing a wonderful dance. Dance might be an interesting choice of words because these two have often been at odds.

Check out my Feb 10, 2015 entry on Ceres and Pluto for more details on the history of these two and see if you do not agree that Patricia was channeling this energy the other night!

Speaking of conjunctions

The Sun and Neptune are hugging close to one another these days. This is a great opportunity to incorporate even more spiritual practices into your life. Neptune is the planet that connects us to the universe. When our inner energy, the Sun, infuses with Neptune we can really make leaps and bounds in this arena. However, beware of these two because while Neptune is very good in the non-earthly realm, here it makes us victims of illusion. Someone can be pulling the wool over your eyes while you have your heads in the cloud.

It is always best to know what is going on and use these happy dances for good!

FYI check out my friend Julie’s free workshop on organizing your life! Feb 24

Free Virtual Workshop: Find More Time for Health, Wealth, and Fun in 2015.

This is a FREE 3-part virtual workshop series where you will create:

·   A clear map of how to spend your time based on your intuition and priorities;
·   Motivation and science-based strategies to start habits that last;
·   Personalized techniques for dealing with procrastination, limiting beliefs, and self-sabotage.

If you are sick of working too hard and still feeling overwhelmed, you really don’t want to miss this!

Click below to sign up for this free virtual workshop series. First session starts March 12.

https://profound-impact.com/virtual_workshop/

“21 Days: De-clutter Your Life”

With Ceres and Pluto hugging close to one another in the sky in organized Capricorn this is a good time to set your plans for change (Pluto) that will provide a more nurturing environment (Ceres) for you. What better time to take advantage of master journaler, Mari McCarthy’s “21 Days to De-clutter Your Life” program? External clutter we can but what about the internal clutter that clogs up our progress in life? Check it out.

We all hear about the need to de-clutter our offices, our homes and make our lives more streamlined. However, what about our internal clutter? What about the clutter that keeps our personalities blocked; what are we doing to remove that?

That is why this eBook “21 Days: De-clutter Your Life,” by expert journaler, Mari L McCarthy is so valuable. It leads you through a simple three-week process to straighten out the mess in your mind and toss out those feelings and beliefs that are doing nothing more than taking up valuable room.

As Mari says, “Too much stuff can be a burden, weighing you down and creating negative feelings, such as guilt, stress, frustration and panic.” I have found that this process has helped me hear the gunk I have knocking around in my brain. I love that it gives easy and fast solutions to bring that gunk to the surface and set it free.

The 21 Days De-clutter Your Life Journaling Challenge begins March 1, and it offers three weeks of journal prompts and tips, as well as online support. I urge everyone to sign up.

After all, cobwebs do not only hid in under the bed. Imagine how they are choking your mind!

http://www.createwritenow.com/declutter-your-life-journaling-challenge

Visiting Ceres and Pluto – and the rise of the sacred feminine

It always cracks me up when scientists, for whom I have terrific respect, act in accordance with universal energy (something most cast aspersions on.) This is happening right now as the robot aptly named Dawn, approaches the dwarf planet, Ceres, and then continues on to Pluto, recently demoted from full planet to dwarf. Ceres, for years dubbed merely another asteroid in the belt near Jupiter, recently received the crown of planet. The debate is on whether to elevate her to full planet status.

What does this have to do with universal energy? Pluto in Roman mythology was Hades to the Greeks. Both gave him rulership over the underworld, the dark and mysterious other side to life. One of the great Greek myths involves Hades, Persephone, Ceres and the coming of winter. In the first iteration of the myth in, Hades (the Hidden One) abducts Persephone, also known as Kore (“the Maiden”). While held captive in the underworld, her mother, Ceres, the goddess of Agriculture, begins a worldwide search only to discover her fate at the hands of Hades. Ceres goes into the underworld and eventually rescues Persephone but while she is gone, nothing can grow and winter comes over the Earth. The only way she can recover her daughter is to promise Hades that she, Ceres, will return every winter to live with him in the underworld for several months. This was one of the earliest mythological explanations for the onset of winter.

As the years progressed and male hegemony of mythology and theology grew, Hades became less a bully and Persephone became a more willing consort to Hades, not the abducted maiden. The man became less of an evil element and the woman more wanton.

As the world begins to evolve toward sexual equality and we now see the rise of the Sacred Feminine in spiritual and religious circles, we see the imbalance in the mythology of the skies begin a process of rectification. Ceres, once just another asteroid, is now a dwarf planet perhaps on her way to full planet status. Pluto, once the great new planetary discovery of the last century, is now just a dwarf planet.

Dawn arrives in Ceres orbit in March she will find a cold, rocky, icy surface similar to the veneer of outer planets. However, there are some hopes that she may have liquid ocean. Will she give up her secrets or play coy? We do not know. Dawn will then head out to recently demoted Pluto to see how they match up in size, rotational activity and gravitational pull. That ought to be interesting because you know how men hate comparisons!

Face it Pluto, as Ceres rises in stature you are going to have to take equal or lessor footing. You can deny universal energy but not escape it.

The Mystical Roots of Ground Hog Day

I love Ground Hog Day! I do not know if it is because we don’t need to buy gifts or because it is so wacky but I just love the day. What most people do not know is that Ground Hog Day has roots in a very spiritual practice. Coming half way between the winter Solstice, December 21, and the Vernal Equinox, March 21, this day, called Imbolg, by the ancient Celts honors the returning light. On the Solstice, the Sun begins to “return” and the darkness of winter begins to wane. The light returns, slowly. With the Vernal Equinox – the light and the dark are balanced and then the sun “wins” and we head into the long days of summer. Imbolg is a celebration of that returning Sun. This is time to celebrate the return of warmth to hearth and home, and prepare for the spring when one could leave the house and start working the fields again. Burning of fires, candles – anything that will shed light and heat is a central part of the celebration. This was Brigid’s day – the goddess of fertility. The ancients were preparing for the return to the time they could again plant crops.

With the coming of Christianity, this became the day of Candlemas also called St. Brigid’s Day. This is the time the church celebrated St. Blasé, who blessed the throats with fire. According to tradition, his parents presented Jesus (the light of the world) this day to the Temple. So the idea of light and fruitfulness continued. It is from Candlemas that we see a direct correlation to Ground Hog Day.

If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come, Winter, have another flight; If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Go Winter, and come not again In other words, if it is fair, bright he sees his shadow, and we have more winter, if it is cloudy and he doesn’t we get spring

It is amazing how these events come down to us through time and how we adapt them, for better or for worse – but somehow make them work. In other words, if it is fair, bright he sees his shadow, and we have more winter, if it is cloudy and he doesn’t we get spring. It is amazing how these events come down to us through time and how we adapt them, for better or for worse – but somehow make them work.

For more information check out my most recent podcast for more information and an astrological review of February. http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/2015/02/02/astrological-cook-from-imbolg-to-ground-hog-day-the-sacred-past-of-our-most-unusual-and-fun-holiday/

Fried Pasta

This is a good carb loaded recipe perfect for a cold winter’s dinner and quirky enough to satisfy your favorite Aquarian. Aquarians are the rebels of the Zodiac. They love to innovate and just shake up the normal flow of life. Often described as the teenagers of the sky, Aquarians have a low tolerance for the mundane.
In my cookbook, “Signs of the Tines: The Ultimate Astrological Cookbook” www.signsofthetines.com, I include this fried pasta recipe in the Aquarius section because it appeals to their sense of the different. Anyone can boil or bake pasta but it takes an Aquarian to fry it.

Serves 8
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 ½ pounds thin spaghetti – not angel hair
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-teaspoon red pepper flakes
5 tablespoons of basil pesto*
¾-cup ricotta cheese
10 sprigs fresh basil

In a large pot, add 3 quarts of water and salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti and reduce the heat to medium. Cook, stirring often about 8 -10 minutes until al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until it just begins to brown. Stir in the red pepper flakes. When the spaghetti is cooked, drain well and pour into the pan. Stir in the best, being sure to coat the spaghetti well. Lower the heat and cook the spaghetti for 4 minutes, flip it over and cook on the other side for 4 minutes.
Turn the spaghetti into a platter, dollop the ricotta cheese on top and decorate with the basil.

*You can purchase basil pesto or make it by mixing 1 cup fresh basil leaves, 2 tablespoons pine nuts (or walnuts or no nuts if you don’t like them), 2 tablespoons for freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese in a food processor. Start the processor and slowly pour in 1 cup of extra-virgin olive oil. Keep processing until the mixture is very fine.

Our first New Moon of the New Year!

In addition, it is a Super Moon in 2015 meaning the Moon is as close as it can get to Earth and in alignment with the Sun and Earth. In other words, it is one powerful and bright Moon!

The New Moon is a time for manifestation because it is the beginning of the cycle and holds our eternal hope for growth and renewal. With this New Moon in the rebellious, innovative sign of Aquarius, there is no reason to limit your dreams. Be bold, be daring. Think of Aquarius as the teenager of the zodiac. Do you remember those days when the sky was the only boundary to your thinking and you were going to take on the world? You had no history – all was ahead of you. Go back and grab that energy when you make your list of manifestations. What do you want? Do it – think it – believe it – go for it. It is all new once again!

OK now that we are all happy about that I have to tell you that Mercury goes retrograde tomorrow. Yup, the little devil goes retro from Jan 21 – Feb. 11. The good news is that he will not do that quite as much as he did last year –but still. Mercury, known to the Greeks as Hermes the trickster, was the messenger of the gods and goddesses to the mortals.

Mercury always had the twinkle of the devil in his eyes, as he loved to disrupt some of those messages. He was the patron of communications, flow of money, quick travel and thieves! That is why when he goes retro – he really goes retro!

Did you know that in 1782, Mercury became the first symbol of the postal service?

Pope Francis

I love this Pope. Really, if I still believed in one thing Catholicism and Christianity hold I might be tempted to go back just because of him. While I crossed and blew up that bridge, I still admire him and appreciate his efforts to modernize the church. Naturally, I had to look at his birth chart.

No wonder I like him! He has the same Nodal axis, as do I with a South Node in Gemini and North in Sagittarius. We South Node Gemini people are very adept at gathering and distributing information. Context is not important, it is just all about receiving data. With his South Node in the 12th house, the house that connects us to God, he spent his past lives as a channeler, philosopher or recording of religious works. He was, as we would call, an academic or someone who devoted his life to receiving the words of “god.”

In this life, with his North Node in Sagittarius in the 6th house, he needs to embody those words – to put them into action. All North Node Sagittarius people should be honing in on one study. We need to leave the obsession with data and delve into something with total devotion. Obviously, for Pope Francis this was Catholicism. He is putting the religious studies of his past existence into action after devoting his lifetime to being a priest and now Pope.

Is he putting his religious words into action? I would think so and I can see why. The ruler of Sagittarius, Jupiter, is on his North Node and his Sun. When the ruler of the Node is on the Node it indicates that he has had opportunities to put his words into action before but it never worked out. Now the universe has given him several indicators that is his time is now. His Sun, also in Sagittarius, is wedge between the Node and Jupiter and Ceres, the planet of nurturing is rounding out this group.

His road will not be easy. He has Retrograded Vesta and Pluto in the first house, meaning there are many roadblocks and power plays running interference but with Mercury in the strong sign of Capricorn in the 7th house, the house of dealing with people on very intimate levels, his Sagittarian word will make a tremendous impact in the long run.

A Wallop of a Full Moon

The first Full Moon of 2015 comes storming in late evening on Sunday, January 4 as part of another – yes, sorry to say – a cardinal grand cross. The Moon is in Cancer, Sun is in Capricorn and “crossing” them are Uranus and the South Node in Aries and the North Node in Libra. All of these are cardinal signs infused with the energy of action and strength.

While these dynamic energies battling it out in the sky may trigger emotional crises, they are also another dose of good “change” energy abundant in the New Year. (See my blog last week about the Pluto/Sun/Vesta conjunction.)

Cancer is the sign of emotional attachment – think of it like the nurturing – perhaps too nurturing – mommy of the zodiac. Capricorn is the rather stern daddy energy. Use this energy to remove undesirable emotional attachments from your life’s baggage. Where do you have to be rather stern and say “no more?” Stopping your conditioned emotional response to a person or situation may cause upheaval. However, isn’t that better than continued suffering? Growth is never pain free. Freedom always comes at some initial pain.

To be “full” the Moon must be opposite from the Sun. With our current Sun/Pluto conjunction, the Moon is now also opposite Pluto. There is no better time to undergo a deep transformation (Pluto) regarding people and things that trigger deep emotional controls on you. Pluto wants us to be self- empowered. Who is sucking your emotional energy, or should I say who are you allowing to suck your emotional energy? Where do you not have control over your emotional responses?

With the North and South Node axis a huge part of this cross, be sure to work on breaking free from karmic patterns of emotional addiction.

There is nothing pussyfooted about this Full Moon. It is your chance to go deep into yourself, deep into your past, deep into the ingrained emotional responses that may be ruling you subconsciously and reset them.

This Moon will be making a positive aspect to Chiron, the wounded warrior. The pain evoked by your Moon work, while troubling, is coming to the surface for an important reason. Emotional healing and clearing cannot happen without the wound reopening a wound, no matter how old, and applying the necessary ointment.

Happy 2015!

We have two good signs in the sky this New Years to help us make plans for 2015. I am not a fan of “resolutions” because I feel we make them under pressure and therefore they are often unrealistic. However, if you are prone to make them this year would be the time because we have Pluto, the change agent, and Vesta, the asteroid that makes us overcome obstacles, on the Sun (our inner energy) on New Year’s Day. Therefore, we can focus on the changes that we need to make with intensity and the drive to put them into action.

The other good sign for change is a Saturn/Pallas conjunction in Sagittarius. As I said last week, two days after the Solstice, on December 23, 2014 Saturn left Scorpio and, for the first time in 30 years and moved into Sagittarius. It will remain there, after a short retrograde back to Scorpio from June 16 – Sept 18, 2015, until December 20, 2017.

Sagittarius vibrates to the ninth house of higher education, foreign affairs, international travel, publishing and personal spiritual and philosophical growth. Its planetary ruler is huge Jupiter, with control over ideals, education, religion and laws. Pallas was the goddess of both war and peace – of fighting the good fight and then reveling in the peace afterwards by building arts centers and hospitals. She takes up the causes of the underdog and makes us fight the good fight. That is a lot of energy in Sagittarius – the seeker, the wanderer the sign most interested in intercultural, inter-religious exchange. In short, it is a lot of energy of learning, growing and moving forward that I hope we all use!

Happy New Year and keep these positive energies in the sky in mind as we open the door to 2015

As Saturn Moves into Sagittarius for the Next Two Years……..

Merry Solstice, Happy Yule – yesterday was the Winter Solstice, also called the shortest day and longest night of the year. From this day forward, the light will gradually return until the Spring Equinox when light and dark are again in balance. As we emerge from the inward darkness energy into the light again it is a good time to reflect (no pun intended) on the inward light that shines from us.

Two days after the Solstice, on December 23, 2014 Saturn will leave Scorpio and, for the first time in 30 years, move into Sagittarius. It will remain there, after a short retrograde back to Scorpio from June 16 – Sept 18, 2015, until December 20, 2017.

Saturn rules structure, authority and requires us to pay attention to rules while Sagittarius, although not one to mock authority, hates being hamstringed by outdated rigidity. This is a perfect time to re-evaluate religion and conflicts between extremist and hard right “religions” and true religions of goodwill and peace will be prominent. This will be most prominent in 2015 because Saturn will make hard aspects with Neptune, the planet of spirituality. Sadly, this could lead to some bloody clashes in areas where religion and violence doing a sorrowful dance.

New educational techniques will come to the forefront ad well and explosion in computer learning. I hope that we will take advantage of this passage to loosen the economic bondage now forced on students seeking higher education in this country.

Foreign boundaries can change as they did 1980’s. The recent opening of Cuba with the help of a progressive Pope is a perfect example of the energy of Saturn in Sagittarius. In fact, the whole idea of a Pope shaking up the bureaucracy is a Saturn-Sagittarius energy so expect some more surprises from Pope Francis.
We should see new forms of publishing and other methods for reaching the public that shake up the already shaky book industry.

Most importantly look for Saturn in your personal chart. What house is it in? What aspects does it make? Saturn brings worry and responsibility. For instance, with Saturn in the first you will put too much pressure on yourself and battle with depression or despondency. How can you use the expansiveness of Jupiter to lessen that burden, that constant pressure you place upon yourself to perform?

Remember Jupiter and Sagittarius encourage us to grow, seek, expand and explore!