Tag: Asteroids

TIME FOR THE EQUINOX

March 20, 2014
12: 57 PM EDT
Happy Equinox all! This is the time when the Sun moves into the sign of Aries, the first sign of the Zodiac. It is no wonder that all of the major organized religions celebrate this time as a time of rebirth and renewal. Aries is the Baby of the Zodiac. It vibrates to the energy of the first house – the house of personality where we burst out and say hey world look at me. The Equinox brings forth the newness of spring – where we plant new seeds for change.
Plant the seeds now to burst forth with the person you want to be when the summer solstice comes around!
This year both Juno and Uranus in Aries are shadowing the Sun. This is great deal of volatile energy. Uranus in Aries is sending out energy that is almost daring us to be different. Juno, the goddess of loyalty, is conjuncting both Uranus and the Sun so we have no excuse – no excuse at all — not to make important changes now.
Aries is Cardinal energy (leadership energy). We have the Sun, Juno, and Uranus all giving us the ability to initiate change in our life. Of course, someone still living in shadow and not working to become the best but looking to be negative can use this erratic energy to cause harm. I have spoken a lot about the Grand Cross and the negative energy that can come from it. However, if we are looking to harness the goodness of the universe to elevate ourselves – use the energy of these three powerhouses today.

NO – Mercury Is Not in Retrograde But……………..

it might feel like it. I have gotten several calls from people complaining about blown circuits and miscommunications and computers getting Biblical on them. The repeated refrain is, “Is Mercury in retrograde again?” Nope. Actually the answer is just the reverse, we have too much Gemini energy roaming around and it is overloading the circuits.

Right now we have Mercury in it’s natural ruler of Gemini as well as Lilith, Jupiter, Venus and, of course, the Sun. That is a lot of quick, verbal energy flying through the air in very close in, personal planets. If ever the adage, “Think before you speak” is beneficial it is now. Slow down, calm down and remember Mercury is fast and will be moving out of most of these signs by the end of June.

ARIES IN THE HOT SEAT

Ok so I heard from some of my Pisces rising friends when I detailed the saga of poor Pisces being stuck on the first house. Whine Whine Whine J So I will now show you that every sign has a house which makes it feel less than comfortable if you will. Today I will risk the wrath of Mars and explore what happens to Aries when it is placed in the house of OOKEY SPOOKY…. The house in which Pisces feels totally at home I might add…. That is, the 12th house.

“What?” (Thunder clapping in the background.) “Twelfth house again? I WON”T. I hate it. No way. I hate all that karmic crap all that touchy feely connection to past lives and connecting to the god source baloney. NO NO NO NO – hear me NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.” “Oh, you ARE the god source? Oh, I didn’t mean baloney – you know when I get mad… I sometimes…..OK OK don’t get all huffy, already.”

Aries stomps off. There has to be a way out of this. After all, Aries is the warrior, a cardinal leadership sign. It can change and shape things to it’s will. Yeah, I will get someone else to do this. What better mark than Pisces. He looks to his right and sees Pisces happily communing with the universe in the 12th house.

“Oh Pisces my fishy friend. How are you today?” His voice is dripping with just enough untypical honey that Pisces incredible intuition kicks in. “Ah, fine Aries – fine. It is a beautiful day in the cosmos but what do you want.”

Aries is taken aback. Pisces isn’t quite the pushover she seems. Darn. “Oh nothing. Just a teeny weenie favor. You love being here in the 12th house and I just don’t get it. You know the compassion, the peace the joy of all as one – I gotta move, I gotta conquer I have to butt my ram head against great obstacles. Can you please – because you are such a compassionate creature – take my turn on the 12th house? Pretty please with butter?”

Pisces rolls her tail. Oh come on. “Thank you for the compliment but you know the 12th house with all that karmic connection might just be good for you. Actions have results – and you need to slow down and see your results once in awhile.”

Slow down? Slow down? This fish is bonkers. However, Pisces is starring right into Aries soul with her deep, penetrating eyes with such intensity that the warrior loses his nerve for a second. Recovering he huffs, “I have no time for THIS. I have things to do.” Pisces smiles peacefully knowing the lesson will be learned someday and swims off.

“Ouch, who the he….”

“Sorry Aries.” It is Sagittarius quickly pulling his arrow out of Aries back side. “ I just got a new quiver and oh geez that is going to leave a mark.”

“Think nothing of it friend,” grumbles Aries through clenched teeth. “But quid pro quo perhaps you can pay for pain with a little favor.”

“Sure I am all about universal justice and understanding.”

“Great, then take my turn on the twelfth house.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

“Ok sure but I promised the Unbonko people that I would sit in on a native tribal ceremony of unity and peace and well I guess I could be late. Hey, why don’t you come with me? It is a wonderful ceremony where everyone sits around and talks about how to bring justice and truth to the world in their every day actions and then there is dancing and then we eat native meals and then.”

“STOP – please you can’t be serious!”

Sag looks blankly at Aries who is pretty much jumped out of his armor at this point.

“You hurt me with your flipping arrow – you owe me now do it.”

“Oh now Aries I do appreciate you speaking the truth because I love truth – I am truth – truth is king tome -0 next to brotherhood…although it is a toss up brother hood – truth – truth brotherhood…..”

“Forget it. Not worth it!” Aries stomps off.

“Don’t even think about it ram!” Aries hasn’t even gotten to the front door of Scorpio’s dark, watery home yet.

“Huh?”

“You heard me. With my fantastic ability to cut through the crap I know exactly what kind of trick you are trying to pull so vamoose..”

Now that is spooky. Scorp is usually freaky but this time she beat even her record at perception. Aries walks off but keeps looking over his shoulder in fear and amazement.

“Oh Libra Libra Libra…my friend the balancing scales.” How are you? Eek, how do you stay on top this large medicine ball all day?”

“It improves my balance and balance is what I seek all the time. I bring people together, I see both sides of their issues ….”

“Issues, issues yes issues – I have one. I need someone to take my spot on the twelfth house and you can help lead people to examine their connection to the universe and balance their beliefs. A natural – I say a total natural at the job.” (This diplomacy makes Aries a little nauseous or maybe it is just the balancing on this stupid ball. Whatever, he has to close the deal on make another conquest…fast.)

“Well yes I would be good – I never know…but if you say I am good well then I must be. I always take the other person’s word for things. I always see myself through others.”

“Yeah it is call co-dependent city.”

Aries went to far. Libra’s eyes fill with tears. “I don’t mean too. I just always think of the other… Is that so bad? “ Aries tries to make the situation right but Libra is so upset he falls off and breaks his arm.

“Darn now you won’t be able to do this for me… I mean, oh you are hurt – poor thing.”

“That is ok, I will get friends to help me – friendship is so important. It makes us see other’s issues and balance them against our own feelings. It is all about the other…”

Libra is still babbling as he is being carted off. Aries is getting desperate and bored. No one has a shorter attention span or faster temper. The other signs are too powerful to conquer – Aries favorite way of doing things and this diplomacy is wearing him down. He walks into a huge garden in search of Earthy Virgo. She is fixing an organic poultice for Libra.

“Did you hear about poor Libra. Some fool knocked her off his scales. Who would do such a thing.”

Aries looks wide eyed an innocent. He can do it with some effort.

“Good thing I have worked all morning in the garden and I have several herbs ready that will heal him. They have to be applied quickly so have to dash off. Sorry Aries, but can we talk later? Come back around 3 and I will have organic breads and teas ready for us and we can have a nice long chant. That is until I have to organize the house again.”

“Um Ok I will try to do that – sounds grand. Yikes what is that?” Few things frighten Aries – well actually Aries doesn’t let on that anything scares him but being the baby of the zodiac he is frighten a lot and just uses his bluster to cover it. But the roar of Leo the Lion sends shivers into his military boots.

“Who dares approach the king of the jungle!”

“It is just me Leo – nice land you have hear.”

“Of course.” That is right – flattery gets you everywhere with Leo.

“Oh mighty and glorious one. Lovely hair day you are having.”

“I always do silly boy.”

“Yes of course. Oh royal one – might I ask a teeny favor of you?”

“Yeah right.”

“Well, I need someone to take over my twelfth house spot and you your royal one – will shine a light so brightly on the universe that the person will have no choice but to see how it is one with Man.”

“Of course I will. But it is not my turn and I never do anything I don’t have to. So be gone.”

“But”

“I said BEGONE.” Leo knows Aries is all armor little guts really and the roaring routine will work like a charm.

Aries heart is sinking and his mood doesn’t brighten when he reaches Cancers door. The door is normally hard to open because Cancer the crab retreats so deeply into her shell but today it is swung wide and Cancer is swimming out her arms full of baked goods and blankets.

“Did you hear did you heat?” Cancers home made bonnet is slipping she is in such a hurry. “Libra has broken her arm. I have to apply all my motherly qualities , all my nurturing and caring to get him better. Oh dear and so close to the 4th of July – you know how patriotic I am – oh and I love a parade. How can I get this done and make all my peach pies in time? Well. It will have to be done. Aries perhaps you can help me out and use your sword to cut up the peaches.”

“MY sword full of peach crap – are you out of your &&&*W** mind?” But Cancer is too far gone to hear the ranting.

“WHOA slow down with those words, Aries.” It is Gemini, the twins, the sign of duality, quickness of though and communications. “I am a wordsmith but some of those are a bit much. What is it with that temper guy?”

“OH sorry Gemini but I am having the worst freaking day.”

“YOU? I had to listen to a two hour speech by Sarah Palin.” Sitting for two hours is hard enough but what that woman does to a sentence shouldn’t happen to a buzzard. Oye. “

“Ok well if you go an take my turn on the twelfth you can have some karmic peace for a while it will help you recover.”

“No sorry twelfth house is too stable for me – I have just been sitting for 2 hours! I have to move, move, move – BYE.”

He has one chance left- Taurus the Bull. Nothing moves Taurus if Taurus doesn’t want to be moved.”

“Yes I have heard. Gemini is such a loud lout he woke me from my nap.”

“Then you will do it.. You can sleep in the peace of the cosmos on the twelfth.”

“Yes but I will have to move to get there. And I just started a new painting with my tail and ….”

“Forget it! I can’t stand it anymore. Nothing can be worse than trying to reason with you boobs. I have had it! “””

And so Aries stomped off to be on the twelfth house of some soul just being born and made darn sure they came face to face with their spiritual questions and destiny or else!

The Dark Moon May 10 – 13

The Dark Moon also called Lilith is astronomically the three days before the New Moon appears. The Moon, of course, cycles around us and appears with different “faces”, the full Moon, half Moon, quarter Moons. A new Moon is when it lies directly in the path between Earth and Sun, and appears to us to be in conjunction with the Sun. However, the three days before the Moon goes “new” every month it disappears totally from our view. To the ancients, it was a dark, mysterious time. Unfortunately, over the years as we moved from matriarchal religions to more male dominated religions, the dark and mysterious Moon has become demonized. It became the symbol of the “bad girl” and the baddest of them all is Lilith.

First mentioned in Sumerian mythology about 3000 years ago, Lilith was seen in Hebrew stories as the first wife of Adam. She was not too happy with the plan that she should submit to Adam and be that happy helper stuff that Eve fell for so she said “bye bye Adam” and went off to make her own way in the world. So forevermore, she was called the bad girl – the fallen woman – of the Hebrew Bible. Because the Moon has always been associated with the feminine the dark Moon, the time of mystery and secrecy eventually bore the name of Lilith.

Astrologically, the time of the dark Moon is the time when we should get in touch with the hidden side, with the side we hide from society because it is not acceptable. This is the time we need to assess why we keep the side hidden and why we dance to the rules of society.

Where Lilith is on your astrological chart indicates the area where we will often have a spiritual crises because we are hiding a part of our true self so as not to risk disapproval. Is it in Aries? Well, where is your fear of charting new courses? Gemini? Well, always seeking the unusual in travel is fun but are you running away from something? Scorpio Lilith brings passion and pushes us to be free of sexual inhibitions.

So use those dark days to see what you have kept hidden from yourself for fear of repercussions and assess if that is still working for you.

The Rise of Ceres and the Feminine

Hi there – Happy March!

You know that I always look at the four “girls” – the asteroids, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta. Well, now Ceres is a dwarf planet because of her size and gravitational pull. While this brings back bitter memories to me of the downgraded of Pluto from full planet to dwarf, I will put away my rage for a few minutes to praise Ceres.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter and appears to have some water frost activity on the surface. We won’t know much more about what is really going on until the unmanned Dawn Mission arrives there in 2015. Launched by NASA in 2007, the mission will also explore sister asteroid Vesta in 2011!

When the Greeks ruled the Western world, they prayed to Demeter, the Goddess who is the equivalent to Mother Nature. She made the trees and flowers bloom and the crops grow and when she went into the underworld to rescue her daughter, the blooming stopped and winter was born. In a deal to get her daughter released from the God of the Underworld, Pluto (boy they always picked on Pluto even then!) — she would return once a year thus bringing the winter every year. The Romans swiped the concept and renamed her Ceres.

More than two millennia later, the asteroid named after this archetypal mother energy is being elevated to planet just at the time the concept of the sacred feminine and the balancing of the male energy so dominate for so long. What a “coincidence.” The interesting part to me is that we are discovering a planet that deals with rather traditional female roles – that of nurturer and mother. That would seem to be incongruous with the rise of the power of the sacred feminine. However, think about how the power women have as creators, as those who keep life flowing, has been (and continues to be) undervalued. Indeed, it has been the fear men have for this ability they do not share, that has lead to the marginalization of the female for so long. You know the old joke that if men could give birth it would be done in the town square with cheerleaders- but because it is a female task, it has been consigned to scary dark rooms. Remember the days when a pregnant woman was not seen in public?

As the power between man and woman – yin and yang balance on a universal scale, woman must be mindful not to lose or themselves diminish that power which makes us so separate from the male. We don’t need to become men or lose what makes us uniquely female.

Vesta – The Fire Inside

The smallest but most determined asteroid goddess is Vesta. To the Greeks, she was Hestia who is actually the woman pictured in the Virgo the Virgin glyph. When the Romans took over the world, they renamed her Vesta and depicted her as the goddess of the hearth and the keeper of the sacred flame. (Remember the Vestal Virgins?) I, like a growing number of astrologers, assign Virgo rulership to Vesta. Poor Virgo doesn’t have its own ruling planet…Scorpio finally got Pluto but Virgo and Taurus are so far without rulers. However, Vesta’s dedication to a cause despite the hardship it causes her, the organized way she goes about keeping the fires burning – all sound Virgoan to me – and why else would the ancients make Virgo Virgin the picture of Hestia?

Simply, Vesta in a person’s horoscope indicates where their burning heart’s desire rests — some inner burning fire…for me it is in the 12th house. Duh — twelfth house our connection to the universe– astrologer – hello! Seen in the first house, it would be a dedication to self-goals -often to the exclusion of long-term relations with others. In the fifth house, it will give a dedication to artistic and creative goals. The eleventh house placement would lend a person to be dedicated to group humanitarian efforts — remember Jane Addams?

Vesta is the little but bright asteroid that keeps our inner passion and inner dedication burning. Someone with a strongly aspected Vesta will give up everything to achieve their goal – family, sex, society— everything! Now that doesn’t happen in too many charts but it gives you some idea of how intense she can be.

Girls will be girls. Don’t mess with them when they are set on something!

Another One of the “Girls” – Pallas Athene

Pallas Athene is one of the most interesting albeit confusing asteroid goddess. This is because of her basic duality. I am not talking duality like Pisces the Fish or Gemini the Twins. It isn’t that stark, however, she is the goddess of war and power as well as healing and wisdom. I guess, like most women, she figures she will have to clean up the mess others make so might as well get on with it. In her honor, the Greeks named their major city, Athens.

In classical Greece, this virgin goddess of wisdom was second only to Jupiter, king of the heavens, in importance. As the goddess of war, she was invincible in battle. In times of peace, however, her wisdom enforced the law and made sure justice prevailed. She was also patroness of the arts, architecture, cooking and weaving. Yes, insert your goddess multi-tasking joke here.

In the sky, Pallas Athene lies between the constellations Libra and Aquarius and opposes Leo – so when we use her in chart analysis, we see the flash of intelligence (Aquarius) and the driving originality of fiery Leo modified by Libra balance and fairness. For instance, someone with a well aspected Pallas in Taurus will have the ability to see beauty in new ways. Taurus is ruled by Venus – and is associated with the arts and beauty. A strong Pallas Taurus person is able to perceive art in a new way- with all senses – they might even “see” colors.* They could also be a fighter for the Earth – an ecological warrior. Taurus is the Bull, grounded in the Earth and earth resources (see my entry on Al Gore’s North Node in Taurus.) They will use the fire of Leo and the advanced mind of Aquarius to fight for Mother Earth.

Well aspected Pallas in Sagittarius people can become shamans or healers because the can actually see the big picture of someone’s health arc. Remember, Sag. is expansive in nature. Unfortunately, we also see Pallas Sag. people who have negative aspects and who can take that warrior energy and combine it with Sag’s belief in religious truth and become religious crusaders.

The main thing to remember is that Pallas packs a wallop of creative, fiery energy and high perceptive abilities. She was the original androgynous woman who competed quite well with men in the political and military arena.

*For more information on this see “The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion: How Feelings Link the Brain, the Body, and the Sixth Sense ” by Michael Jawer.