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You Either Got It Or You Don’t – The Astrology of Charisma.

The air suddenly seems to stop and the room crackles a bit. We have all been in that situation. Someone has walked into the room who literally has sucked the air out. That person has IT – charisma. Is there an astrological signature that would indicate a person born with that little something extra? You have to ask??
Of course, there is!

Take a peek at Mercury and how close it resides next to the Sun in a chart. I mean really close. They must be in a conjunction for a person to even have a hope of charisma. A conjunction is when two planets appear to us here on Earth to be sitting next to one another in the sky. On the chart, a conjunction is when they are within 6 degrees of one another.

Take a look at Frank Sinatra’s chart. The Sun (the little circle with the dot in the center) and Mercury the sign for the female with a funny little hat on top) are in Sagittarius.

Another person noted for her ability to wake up a room was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis whose conjunction was in the fire sign of Leo. She had the energy of Sun adding further fuel to her charisma fire. Her husband,
President Kennedy had an interesting Mercury/Sun combination – they are not that close really. BUT right between them he had Jupiter – the planet of expansion and reaching out to people – especially those beyond our borders and hope – How could he not have had people flocking to him?

The charts of Princess Diana and Madonna bear this out as well. However, you don’t have to be a president or superstar to have charisma. I remember doing a chart of a man I didn’t know and he had that conjunction. When I spoke to his wife about the chart, I asked her what he did and how would the charisma play out. She then told me he was a chaplain on an Army base and everyone is always flocking to his door. “He can’t get away from them. The minute he walks on base they are following him.” Yup, he’s got it!

The Second House- Survival!

I know I have spent a ton of time of the 1st house or ascendant. It is a really important house, OK? However, there are other houses in the sky as they say. The second house is one easy to misinterpret. The traditional assignment given it is that it is the house of resources and money. Oh, have a strong second house and you will put Bill Gates in the poor house. Wrong! As is typical for much of Western Astrology that explanation is too pat, too compact, too trite.

The second house resonates to survival. More specifically it resonates to that which we need to ensure our survival…material goods upon which we rely to keep going. Yes, there is an aspect of money especially in a capitalistic society such as ours. Someone with a strong, well aspected second house is going to want more, as George Carlin would say, “stuff.” A person whose second house is badly aspected may fall into squandering money or even hoarding things. However, it is not all about money.

What resides in the second house is the question, “what do I need to keep me satisfied and comfortable?”

A heavily Aquarian second house is going to make a person really not concerned at all with wall paintings and McMansions. A car will have four wheels and an engine, of sorts. Work will be done for the pleasure of work or for the social good it will do and there will be little worries about building a pension. Top off the house with a strong Capricorn influence and that person will be toiling day and night perhaps in a job they hate to have the ability to buy what they want and to save up for old age. If Taurus alights there then hours will be spent a Neiman Marcus and Dolce and Gabana.

Each one of the latter two people will argue until death that all of things around them are totally necessary for them to survive. They don’t do it for the “stuff”. They do it for that inner feeling of peace of survival those goods bring them. That is the key to the second house.

With my Saturn in the second house I hated being a consultant because the paychecks were sporadic and the contract could be canceled at any time. (Saturn is ruled by Capricorn.) I had to build a business – steady and reliable. Now friends tell me to give up all other sources of income and rely solely on astrology. The picture is romantic – living in a small house with few financial responsibilities surrounded by my charts. But Saturn keeps screaming at me – are you nuts, you need money coming in regularly, you need security, and you need to save for your even older age? The idea threatens me at the level of basic survival and I shudder at that thought.

That is what the second house does to us. Pretty important little guy, No?

Order Your Holiday Chart Gift Today

I just got this from a woman whose chart I have just completed. Yes, glad we have stopped the witch burnings! Get your Winter Holiday Gift today! Order a chart for a loved one. Order right here on the blog!Don’t wait until the last minute — order your gift chart now!

I am reminded of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” when the crowd of peasants screams, “She’s a witch! Burn her!” Good thing we don’t go in for witch burnings nowadays!

So much of what you had to say resonated SO clearly and loudly it was downright spooky.

The March Girls

After my last blog entry about the astrological signs of the fictional characters of “A Streetcar Named Desire” someone asked me about the main characters of Louisa May Alcott’s classic “Little Women.” So here we go. I hope I don’t need to remind anyone that the book is a coming of age novel about four sisters growing up during the Civil War in the progressive but somewhat impoverished New England March family.

NOTE: Remember our public persona is mostly dictated by our ascendant, or rising sign. Our inner energy drive is driven by the Sun Sign – it is who we are underneath the public masks.

The leader of the pack, although not the oldest, is Jo March. She speaks and then thinks, has trouble controlling her temper, wants more than anything to travel the world and write and hates the boundaries inflicted upon 19th century females. She suffers fools not at all but is deeply devoted to her family and hates the idea that they are actually growing up and going out on their own. The idea of her little nuclear family being torn apart is very painful to her. I see Jo as a person born with a Moon Child Sun because at her core she is devoted to her family and she mothered sickly Beth until her death. At heart she is the little mother hen of the group. However, her public persona (her ascendant), the boldness, the honesty, the temper, the wanderlust is all Sagittarius.

Meg, who is the oldest and prettiest of the girls, often takes a back seat to Jo. She is allowed to tip-toe on the outskirts of genteel society because of her role as governess to the children of a wealthy family. However, she rejects marriage for money and becomes the wife of a tutor with whom she has three children. Astrologically, I find her one of the most interesting characters because she is a one of those unfortunate people born with a sun sign and ascendant which are at odds with one another. Pretty Meg is Taurus rising. She is pretty – Taurus is ruled by Venus – and she really wants to have worldly goods and comfortable things. However, she suffers two traumatic romances and only then learns that her inner drive – which is Aquarian – is the one which will bring her happiness. The last thing an Aquarius at heart cares about is money and status. They want friendship and unity and peace. However, an Aquarian can be quite stubborn and after she gives birth to twins she almost ruins her marriage by neglecting her husband. They come to the brink of separation when she finally listens to him and starts to discipline them and include him into the family again.

Beth is the sweet tragic character and she will eventually die of complications from scarlet fever. Beth is a musician; seamstress and a healer (remember her “hospital” for her six kittens?) She is the perfect example of someone on the Pisces/Virgo – victim- martyr axis. Pisces and Virgo are opposing one another in the zodiac thus forming an axial line between them. Pisces are often martyrs’ to a cause or they martyr themselves to a person. You often see Pisces people suffering “in silence” when they are being hurt by someone. Beth was the sacrificial lamb of the March family – the other sisters went boldly into the new post Civil War era and she was the symbol of the older, “weaker” traditional woman of the pre-bellum days. Her dedication to healing, and of the more domestic duties all point to a rising sign of Virgo.

Then there is spoiled, vain, temperamental Amy. She and Jo fought tooth and nail and Amy even tossed some of Jo’s early writing into the fire in fit of anger. Of course, they clashed. They were both fire. Jo’s Sagittarius fire often ignited Amy’s Leo Sun. Oh yes, Amy was a Leo. She had to have the best clothes, the finest carriage and she made sure she married rich Laurie. Leo has to have the top of the line in everything. However, that is not the end of fire for I believe Amy is Aries rising. What does she do when she doesn’t get her – way? She pitches a holy fit, of course! How Aries-like! They are the babies of the zodiac – and make quite the fuss when the world fails to comply with their demands.

I always knew she would wind up with meek Laurie, a sweet, handsome but confused Pisces/Taurus combo. He was initially and wrongly drawn to Jo’s watery Moon Child Sun. Pisces and Moon Child are both water signs and find comfort with one another. Jo knew better. She knew she would be bored with him. It was in the double fire sign sister, Amy that he found he could satisfy his Piscean need to be in service to someone by showering her with worldly Taurean goods!

STELLA!

OK so I am wasting time on a Sunday afternoon, flip on the tube and find “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the original 1951 version. (Is there any other?) I am hooked instantly. At one point Blanche asks Stanley about his astrological sign. (She may have been a little nutty but the girl was enlightened, no?) She says, correctly in my humble opinion, that he was to be Aries the Ram because of the way he bounds around the house so. However, his wife responds that he was born 2 days after Christmas which would make him a Capricorn. Capricorn? Stanley? Mr. Williams you were a magnificent writer but rotten astrologer.

I will give you that he might have been a Capricorn Sun but he had to have Aries rising. The rising sign or ascendant is our projected personality. Aries rising people are prone to rages, they want what they want when they want it and being the “enfant terrible” of the zodiac they find a way of making everyone uncomfortable until they get it. Now, I am talking about the shadow aspect of Aries of course but didn’t Stanly exhibit the shadow aspects of life?

So if Stanley was Aries rising, what was Blanche? Let’s see, she lived in a dream world, couldn’t stand the harshness of the Earth, escaped into the bottle and lived in her childhood fantasies. Can you say Pisces? Again, we are talking shadow here so don’t start getting your scales in a tizzy you Fish!

Stella was strongly Virgo. She gave up the trappings of her ancestral home and became the long suffering wife of Stanley. Virgo’s in shadow have a thing for being victims. In the movie they made her leave Stanley because of the ethics of the day in the play she stayed with him even though she was fairly certain he did rape her sister. That is a total Virgo action. However, and some people may disagree with me on this, I am going to give her a Scorpio Sun. Yes, Scorpio is known to be dynamic and strong but what drew her to Stanley? His passion – these two were great in the sack. He was forbidden, the other side of the tracks kind of guy with great passion, all things that spark Scorpio interest.

I take that back Mr. Williams perhaps you were a great astrologer and understood that rising signs are much more powerful indicators of who we are then Sun signs. The Sun signs give us our inner energy but the persona is all ascendant.

Ironically, in her other great incarnation the great Vivien Leigh embodied the ultimate depiction of an Aries woman. I am speaking of Scarlett O’Hara. Fiery, impulsive, courageous yet very childlike in some of her thinking, Scarlett was all Ram.

What makes these great characters is that they embody the extremes of each sign.

Why did Rhett and Scarlett hit it off? He was the perfect Leo man – fire attracts fire. Brash, arrogant, hot tempered and seeking the spot light always, Rhett was the archetypal Leo rising although I am sure his Sun was Aquarius. He was detached for such a handsome man and slapped society in the face with his war views and his taking up with “painted women.”

Melanie Wilkes, Scarlett’s demure but intelligent, sweet, nurturing but tough as nails sister-in-law was Cancerian through and through with a touch of Scorpio. Her first reaction was to forgive and mother and she called on her Cancerian sense of patriotism to get through the years she was separated from Ashley. (Who by the way was all Pisces.)

Most great fictional characters are archetypes for the various signs. Hmmm what sign do you think was Miss Havisham?

Alice

I just finished reading Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker by Stacy A. Cordery – a very interesting take on a woman who led a fascinating life. I was going to say a fascinating woman who led and amazing life but Alice was a hard person to like. She was terribly cruel to her cousins Eleanor and Franklin, was spiteful and capricious. This is what makes the book more interesting – it has a protagonist with major faults and yet kept my interest.

Well you just know I ran to my computer and whipped up her birth chart as soon as I finished the book!

February 12, 1884, 8:30 PM in New York City. The first thing that grabbed my eye was her Aries South Node. Remember that is our karmic identity – the memory of who we were in our past lives. Aries is the ruler, the sign that demands everyone to follow. Aries, ruled by Mars the god of war, wants its way NOW and if you don’t listen to me I will let you know about it. Let’s flesh this out more. Her South Node is in conjunction with Pallas Athena, the androgynous warrior goddess and in the 10th house – the house of government and societal structures. Do you think that before she came into life as the rambunctious daughter of the President of the United States, Alice lived lives as the leader of society – a woman but one who led her society with force with power and with an iron fist? She was used to being the undisputed power source and wouldn’t allow anyone to usurp her power.

Now let’s look at the ruler of her South Node. The planet that rules our South Nodes indicate where our strongest karmic identity exists – where it is hardest for us shake our karmic past. Alice’s Mars (the ruler of Aries) is in her first house in the fire sign of Leo, in retrograde for goodness sakes! Our first house is the ascendant, where we project ourselves to the world. She carried that Aries ruler identity into her current personality. It is no wonder she had a love hate relationship with her father. She wanted to be the President!

With her Mars in retrograde – a pause for karma – this is an indication that she overstepped her bounds in the past and has to learn a new way to express her power. So she was born female in a society that wouldn’t allow them to advance. She was born next to power – married power but never found satisfaction because the males in her life held all the cards. (Her husband was a known womanizer and alcoholic.)

With her Leo ascendant giving her a regal, domineering bearing – she was fire personified.

The “trick” to her life would have been to move from the Aries dominance to a Libran existence – one in which she became more involved with “the other.” Did she do it? Well, that is something each person can only know for themselves. Judging from the book I would kind of doubt it.

The confusion of Libra

It is no wonder why my astrology teacher pounded into my head that I should try to forget at least 70 percent of what I learned of “boxy Western astrology.” Keep the basics but leave the silly interpretations behind, he would say. It took me a while to figure out what he was saying but it became very clear when we dealt with a sign near and dear to my heart…..Libra. And happy birthday Libra Sun people!

I have Libra rising. Remember, your rising sign or ascendant is the sign on the Eastern horizon at birth and it really dictates our outward persona – how we express ourselves to the world. Every analysis I read when I started out insisted that a Libra rising person likes to bring order and balance and is a born diplomat and is all about being the epitome of balance and harmony. Huh? Me? It drove me loopy until the universe sent me into the wonderful world of evolutionary astrology.

Libra is about trying to FIND balance not being balance. Libra rising and to a lesser extent Libra Sun people go to extremes in their quest to seek balance. We often have co-dependence issues because we are so attuned to “the other.” Many Libra risings spend a good chunk of time running around saying in essence, do you like me now, well, if I do that will you like me then? Yes, the answer to your question is yes. Sally Field is a Libra rising person. (“You like me. You really like me.)

Venus Libra people use their romantic entanglements to search for self as well. They literally learn who they are through the other person. Well, so and so liked it better when I responded this -so that must be right. However, I got a negative reaction from so and so, therefore, maybe I need to work on it more. It is all through the eyes of other with Libra. We have a really hard time coming from a point of ME.

Libra rules the 7th house – the house of close personal relationships with other people.

The shadow comes into play when we continue to seek approval — and never feel satisfied with our own views and beliefs. Be careful Libras! At some point we have to stop with worrying about everyone else. It is one thing to learn from others it is another to spend life without any self awareness.

the 2010 Elections

OK I admit it freely I am a coward. Several people have asked me to look at the 2010 Midterm elections and I have just not wanted to go there. In truth, the only accurate way to do this is to look at each candidate in every single race and compare their charts. In lieu of doing that I decided to look at President Obama’s chart to see what will be cooking for him on election night.

The President was born with Ceres and Vesta and the Moon all conjunct in the 7th house. Ceres is the mini planet that vibrates to the energy of a Mother Earth, Vesta is the burning heart’s desire and the Moon is our emotional barometer. This not only makes him a devoted family man it is what makes him connect emotionally to people. He thrives on nurturing and serving others. On election night his combination will be opposite transiting Mars and Pallas Athena, the warrior goddess. Both of these will be in the fire sign of Sagittarius. In short, what all this means is he is going to be a fighting mood. He will be able to see the big picture and will come out swinging. His masculine energy will far outweigh his feminine.

Will he be fighting mad because he lost the House or Senate and will now bring back the fire of his own campaign or will he be rejuvenated and vindicated and come out renewed and energized to fight for his goals? Yup, the million dollar question!

He will have transiting Juno, our loyalty marker, in Virgo transiting his Pluto in the 10th house. Juno in the 10th is a wedding to career and with Pluto playing there it gives a deep transformative urge. Juno in Virgo brings a desire to get down to the nitty gritty and plan action.

Transiting Sun and Vesta will be in his 12th house and conjunct his natal Neptune. The 12th house is always an indicator of pulling in. This is actually a sign of a spiritual rejuvenation – of going inside self and finding a spiritual calling.

Because I am an optimist I see a night that will not be as bad as the talking heads predict for the President and that he will find a new energy and a new fight. Of course he could also get his political butt kicked and go inside himself and come out fighting to regain control. It won’t be pretty and we might lose one of the two houses of Congress but I just don’t see the tidal wave they are babbling about.

There is one astrological source for my optimism other than my hope that Americans can’t fall for GOP crap again can they???? is that his Part of Fortune – that little karmic blessing is on the cusp of his 10th house. The 10th deals with society and government structures… Hey every little bit helps.

Oh No Not You Again! How You Can Find The Karma That Binds

Do you have a family member who just drives you around the bend…someone who pushes every button, who manipulates and uses you and your emotions? Yeah, well join the club. Maybe now is the time to try to figure out the deep, karmic reasons for this person being in your life this go around. It may not stop the person from being a pain but understanding where they are coming from goes a long way in keeping your headache away. Knowing where you are destined to travel with this person during this incarnation can also help mitigate any negative karmic influences for the future.

Some of the best tools an astrologer has are the synastry chart and the Davison combined chart. A synastry chart is a grid that matches one chart against the other. If your Venus is squared the other person’s Venus any romantic relationship is going to be bumpy. If your Venus is square their Uranus – well you may have a quick love that ends suddenly. If we see Mars and Saturn together especially in romantic relationships or child/parent combinations we have to warn about potential violence. By examining each planetary aspect we can get a pretty good picture how you and the other person will interact.

We can take this one step further with a Davison Relationship Chart. This combines both charts into a single chart. So we take your chart and Pain in the Neck Relative’s chart and make a new chart that combines the two. Then the real fun begins. By coming up with a new chart just for your relationship, we can read it like a birth chart and look into your past lives together. For instance, I put the chart of a rather heinous member of my family together with mine. The placement of Pluto in Leo in the 8th house shows that in our past lives we were involved in a power game. 8th house is power and Leo is the Lion who wants the center of attention. Our combined Pluto is in conjunction with Ceres – the mini planet that was the ancient symbol of Mother Nature – as well as Mars and Venus. All of these planets are in Virgo. This is a male-female power struggle over who can organize and structure (Virgo) issues surrounding goods and money.

Our current soul desire is to – what we should be getting out of this to evolve – is indicated by Pisces in the 2nd house (the opposite of past Pluto). This means that we should be teaching each other how to connect with self and accept who they are. Well, I know that through the pain of this relationship I took a huge step in learning who I am. I hope my family member has done the same but I am not sure. It was a torturous lesson but they taught it to me that is for sure!

Our South Node in Cancer in the 7th shows that we were linked in a very personal close relationship. Ironically, our combined South Node is conjunct both Uranus – the quick change artist and the rebel and Juno, the consort asteroid which indicates where our loyalty lies. The first image I see flash before me is two people married to each other who fought and separated and played tricks and fought and separated but never left each other. It was a horrible death struggle of constant battle and tricks. Sadly, that was symbolic of our current relationship. Although not married this time – we are linked as immediate family and until I walked away and said you can’t be part of my life if you can’t treat me as a human – this was the exact relationship we had.

With our combined North Node in Capricorn in the 1st we are both destined to learn how to embody ourselves. The first house is the house of personality and Capricorn is all about putting form and structure around something. I know that I have fulfilled this North Node command. Through the Hell this relationship put me through I had to say no more. I had to go inside and learn about myself and define myself and be true to that self. Again, did the other person learn this? Only they can know. I can only hope but from what I hear I doubt it.

Through this analysis I can look back and actually be thankful for this person. It was a horrible lesson but once learned it propelled me much further on my evolutionary track. I not only defined who I am more clearly (a first house issue), I realized I had more self worth than I had thought before (a second house issue.) Even if I lost every other member of my family I had to be true to myself and stop the attacks and secret tricks. I stopped the negative karmic identity we held as the two battling cats in a sack as indicated by our South Node, I learned the lessons and moved on in my life.

If we meet again in future lives I won’t fall back into that old South Node pattern – I stopped that karma. If this person comes to me with negative energy again I will have the subconscious memory of what I did in this lifetime and will be able to walk away. If they too have learned the lessons then hopefully we can come back together in a positive fashion and help either other in a much less painful way. Here is hoping!

Rally for Sanity!

OK, you know I had to do this. Last week I talked about the electric religious fervor being wrought by the Uranus/Jupiter conjunction in Pisces. My last line mentioned perhaps something coming along to tamp down the zeal and low and behold here comes Jon Stewart with his Rally for Sanity scheduled in Washington on October 30. (And Colbert’s March to Keep the Fear Alive – you gotta love them.) You know I ran to the computer to gin up a chart for this one right away!

Mars will be in retrograde in Sagittarius in the 11th house. The 11th is the house of group humanitarian activities. Sagittarius is the sign of searching for truth. This is a perfect setting for a large gathering of people tired of the yelling and name calling and the stupid signs who want to come together and show that America can indeed spawn normal people looking for a different way to express themselves. With Mars in retrograde the anger will be turned down. This is good.

The 10th house – the house of government – will be inundated with touchy-feely planets and asteroids on that day. We have Venus, the goddess of love, and Vesta, the asteroid that signifies where our burning heart’s desire – where we are dedicated to something – both in conjunction with the Sun and Mercury! All are in Scorpio. This may have started off as something that appeals to the Comedy Central college frat boys who are a big part of Stewart’s audience. However, this is going to become something very different – very deep. Scorpio in Venus and Vesta – especially when conjunct – will not only feminize this but will bring a devotion, a dedication that is going to surprise both the organizers and the people who attend. Mercury in the mix will make sure the message gets out no matter how Fox and the Main Stream Media try subduing it. This is all happening in the 10th house, remember – this is going to make an impact. I hope it is held in time to get this people to the polls for the midterm elections.

Capricorn, which vibrates to the 10th house, will be on the ascendant during the time of the rally. It is conjunct Ceres, the Earth Mother mini-planet. This is a day for those who want to restore caring and concern to government.

I understand the Fox Noise Machine is already decrying this rally – and they have reason to be nervous. It will show their noisy minority is just that.