Where Do You Find Your Joy?

In this season of joy I ask the question, where on your chart do you show the capacity for fun and joy?

Take a peak at the cusp of your fifth house, that will tell you alot.  The fifth house is where we see our creativity, sexuality – fun things! A cusp is what opens each house. Look at the small outer wheel to see what sign is sitting on the line between the 4th and 5th houses. For me Aquarius is there – so I like to do things like read astrology charts for fun – (yeah I know), and read in general and do things that take me far away from where I am physically. I have a friend who has Scorpio sitting there sort of challenging her to find some fun – so she has the perpetual serious-ess!

Of course, the planets in the 5th play a roll in fun too – but take a quick peek at the 5th house cusp of friends and family – before you go Holiday shopping! It will get the right present!

On the chart below – the 5th house cusp sign is Moon Child, so expect this person to like cuddling up with a book and a hot cup of tea and doing other homey activities – as well as visiting historic sites!

Feeling Secretive in Love?

Well blame it on Venus! Venus is now in the 12th house, the house of hidden knowledge and the house of karma, and is conjucting that very karmic planet Pluto. Don’t be surprised if someone comes into your life who you knew many lifetimes ago. This placement could also make you feel like making a change in your love life – maybe even taken on a clandestine relationship. Now don’t go using this as an excuse to be bad! I am just saying if you are feeling a little frisky, if you want to add some zip to your love life or do something you would never -ever do…. now might be the time….Good thing Venus is in the staid sign of Capricorn or people would be running amuck. As it is you should use it to bring new life to an old situation – if you catch my drift.

Solar Eclipse Time

The day after Thanksgiving here in the States, we will experience a solar eclipse in Sagittarius. Eclipses happen when the Sun and Moon are within one degree of each other. For those of us on the East Coast that will be 1:10 AM on November 25, when the Sun and Moon will both be at 2 degrees Sagittarius.

There is a lot of energy behind an eclipse and when in the sign of Sagittarius can help boast you on a spiritual path or just help you find your truth. Sagittarius is all about expanding out in the world and beyond in order to find personal truth. So this is a great time to work on those areas where you have been less than honest or where you feel other are being less than honest.

For some real fun – start doing this at the Thanksgiving table!

To find out where this will impact you the most you need to do a biwheel of your natal chart and the eclipse chart which is something I can whip up for you.

Moon and Jupiter – Appearing Together Now!

There are many spots on planet Earth, including the East Coast, where you can get a good shot of a Moon/Jupiter conjunction. For the next few nights look to the right of the silvery Moon and you will see a bright dot – that is Jupiter. The Moon is now 7 degrees Taurus, and retrograded Juptier is 3 degrees Taurus. Now we know that the Moon and Jupiter are NOT right next to one another in the sky; four degrees of Taurus is a long stretch of  property. However, it gives you a good idea of what we mean by a conjunction.

You can see this conjunction on the chart above. Look on the right side in the seventh house. You see a quarter Moon and then slightly downward is the big 4 – that is the symbol of Jupiter.  Charts are snapshots of the sky at a moment in time!

Saturn Move Away From My Door

Oh crap I thought as I looked at my own little cute birth chart…. Saturn has just entered my first house. Now I don’t want to hear from Saturn anti-defamation league but there can be some real issues when Saturn comes near a personal “planet” – Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury and Venus – or if it hits the house of personality – the first.

Saturn is necessary for us to have order – it rules the bones of people and societies – so it is a necessary little devil. However, the shadow is that it can be so restrictive that it will lead to depression, or at best a sour mood. I was waking up annoyed at the new day – NOT something that is common for me; I did not want to interact with people – again not my thing. It would have been more worrying had I not be able to say – Ah Saturn having its way.

The benefits of Saturn in the 1st is that it will help me work on parts of personality and physicality that I know needs some tweaking, which is why I have started walking every morning religiously and watching my diet – for serious.

One of the many great things about Astrology is to know what the heck is happening to you. So now I won’t worry about the shadow and will instead concentrate on the good it can do me. Had I not known, I could have wasted valuable time worrying that perhaps I was becoming a mean old lady.

Yeah I know hard to believe – because I am soooo lovable………….

Nodal Return

Burnt Draw Overlook
Courtesy of arlenew.com

I had a birthday last week that is going to start a series of Astrological events that can be someone trying albeit educational. At the ripe age of 56, we hit our nodal return, that is, the North and South Node are back where they were when you were born. This happens once every 18-19 years but the ones we “feel” are the ones that happen between 37/38 and 56/57 because we have had some life behind us.

A nodal return brings up unfinished karma. Remember your South Node is where we are coming from in our previous lives – so if there are situations or people that we haven’t quite resolved they are going to come up and smack us in the face. That could be perceived as “bad” but it is really a great thing to be aware of what is happening. If you know that things are happening because of unresolved karma then instead of moaning and complaining you can make an effort to clear the annoyances.

When people are unaware of what is going on they are confused, angry and missing wonderful opportunities to move on and grow.

So check the calendar – is the nodal return happening? If so, take advantage of it. Let me take a look at your chart and see what issues might be on the horizon!

Rethinking Jupiter

When I first learned Astrology I was told Jupiter was the best thing under the Sun, pun intended. Oh, where you see Jupiter you see nothing but happy happy joy joy, was the general consensus. Then I started to  look at some charts. I have a friend with Jupiter in her sixth house – the house of health. If that theory held she should be a picture of robust health. In reality she is the person who gets the one disease in a million or the one complication that no one ever gets. Then I noticed that when Jupiter was transiting my sixth house I got cold after cold and my one sinus infection per year turned into three that year. What is it with you Jupiter?

As usual the easy explanation is rarely right. Yes, Jupiter is usually a harbinger of good things. However, as with all things Jupiter has a shadow and that is that it makes everything bigger. Someone with too much Jupiter in their chart can be a gambler or terrible risk taker with money because they think they will always be lucky even when the odds are against them. So Jupiter run amuck is not always a wonderful thing.

I have also learned to look for Jupiter as a harbinger of death. Saturn in the 8th – Pluto there as well usually portend death but so can Jupiter – as the spring board of something bigger – a life beyond.

As are all things, planets are not black or white, they are nuanced – even big, robust, loopy Jupiter.

The Real Eisenhower


First, I am sorry but we still can’t find Herman Cain’s birthdate… believe me, astrologers are spanning the universe to find it but so far it is a distant secret.

I did read a book this week about a real president, “Going Home To Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961-1969″ by David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon. I thought the book showed him to be petty and small – not things I ascribed to the great general turned two term president. Frankly, I think it was History rewritten with a Nixonian touch to show how much Ike really like Nixon – really, really and JFK was bad – bad…  Please.
 

When I went to his birth chart, I saw why Eisenhower presented that stoic, silent persona. Look at Saturn in the first house in quiet Virgo. His rising sign too is in Virgo. This gave him an unassuming personality – very methodical, very nose to the grindstone – you know all of those things necessary when planning oh say D Day!  I would love to read a good biography to find out about his secret doubts, fears and even depressive feelings.

The ruler of Virgo is Vesta – and we see that his Vesta is in the Cardinal sign of Libra. Cardinal signs are the movers and shakers of the zodiac – they take the lead and get things done.  This Vesta is conjunct his Sun, Moon, Uranus – and all in the second house – the house of stability and security. Can you see the picture of Ike emerging?

Lucky for all of us he had the Part of Fortune, a little karmic marker of good benefits right on his ascendant. The plans that he made with painstaking detail, with strong leadership had a little kiss of karmic goodness.

Oh and no, I don’t see anything that would make me think he was petty and mean spirited!

James Madison, the Constitution and Pluto

My History Group is doing a program on the Constitution and I am presenting a report on James Madison, the often neglected Father of the United States Constitution. So, of course, I have to run to my software to see what his chart looks like!

Jemmy as he was called by his family has a fascinating combination right on his first house. Remember, that is the house of how we express ourselves to the world.  He has as his rising sign, the sign on the cusp of his first house, Sagittarius. A Ha, the novice might say, there is an outgoing, robust, adventurous person! As usual, the novice would be wrong.  Look what is sandwiching his Sagittarius rising sign— Pluto and Saturn.

Anyone with Saturn in the first house, especially with one so close to the ascendant, is going to have a somber, perhaps even depressive personality. Madison was so shy, so withdrawn in a social setting that is said his effervescent wife, Dolley, had the band play a song to let people know he was in the room. This, if the story is correct, is the origins of playing “Hail to the Chief” when the President enters a room.

Pluto on the first house cusp gives someone the almost obsessive need to improve themselves .Pluto demands slow and grinding change – it gives a purpose and sense that one must make something of themselves. Important it is although not necessarily fun!

Looking a bit further we can see he has a Moon hidden in his 12th house, next to the sign of our deepest wound issue, Chiron.  Both of these are in the deep, passionate, introspective, very serious sign of Scorpio (ruled by Pluto. See the double Pluto hit?)  Any “personal planet” – Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, and Mars in the 12th house makes a person secretive and guarded.

Can you see how this 5’4” 100 pound man was often described as a withered apple john?  Everything about him was inward, driven and somber!

Next- I will look at his North and South Node axis which he used so well – thankfully for all of us!

Don’t Discount The 99 Percenters

I should know better. Watching CNN is not good for the blood pressure but, silly me, I was doing it anyway. There was the new “Outfront” anchor Erin Burnett smugly mocking the people occupying Wall Street something no one at the major networks ever did with the Tea Party. As I typed out a furious email to CNN, I got to thinking about the movement and how important an impact it will make on America. According to the stars, no one would be wise to mock or discount this movement.

Keep your eye on Uranus, in the chart it looks like a pink H on a unicycle. In the past few months it has moved in Aries, the sign of the ancient god of war. Uranus is electric and quirky and is the harbinger of unique and sudden changes. Meld the two together and you get the energy for the beginnings of a off beat mass of angry people to coalesce into something to be reckoned with.

Now if you look at the chart of the USA, seen on the inside wheel above, you can see that Uranus has just moved into our 4th house, the house of roots and home. So electric warrior energy in the roots of who you are – anyone paying attention yet?

Don’t forget, simultaneously we have Pluto, the transformer, in the sign of Capricorn transiting our first house. Remember what I said when Pluto moved into Capricorn? This is will be harbinger of change in those structures which keep society together – the government, the banking system. Pluto moved into Capricorn in 2008 – need I say more.

These guys are poky – both of them will stay in their respective houses for years – well through the 2012 elections and several years beyond. I would tell all politicians not to take anything for granted and be prepared for anything. Nothing will be normal during this time.