astrology chart for the year

Forget Resolutions – Get Your Yearly Chart Analyzed

This is the time to make resolutions which only serve to make you feel terrible two weeks down the road when they already in tatters on the floor. Why not ask the stars what areas of your life that the will be highlighted in the next twelve months? Think about it – why bother working against the tide? If you are getting help from the universe in a few areas work with it!

Order the chart on the blog – you will get a full eighteen month – two year analysis for only $75.

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Michelle Obama – A Very Piscean First Lady

OK purists don’t pounce. Yes, Michelle Obama, born January 17, 1964, has her Sun was Capricorn. I know, I know. (Rats, it is terrible when the first lady is THAT much younger than you. That is a first for me! But I digress.) However, she has a lot of Pisces in her “personal signs” namely the Moon and Venus. Sadly, the time of her birth is not published and astrologers will need to hound her to get it I am sure. Regardless of the exact time, we know that the Moon and Venus were both in Pisces that day and it a very tight conjunction, only about one degree away from one another. Obviously, this will be a very strong influence on her chart.

With Pisces comes compassion and the ability to reach out and solve other people’s problems. Pisces remember is what connects us to the cosmic awareness – it is that great cosmic soup from which all spirituality emerges. It brings a deep desire to connect and meld itself with the universe. When she “defies protocol” to reach out to the Queen of England or hugs children of the Haitian hurricane she is honoring this Piscean desire to bring together – to touch a feel the universe around her. Pisces is a deep water sign and water does all it can to penetrate and encompass its surroundings.

With Venus and the Moon connected in Pisces, her emotions, her compassion and her love are all driven by this desire to unite – to help – to encompass.

Carried to the extreme Pisces can martyr itself – give itself totally for another person or another cause. Any Pisces Moon person has to watch not to allow others to pull on their emotional strings to the point that they become emotionally abused by them. Believe me I know – Pisces Moon here has been a real pain in my chart. However, I am a double water person – Scorpio Sun, Pisces Moon. Michelle has the steely determination of her Capricorn Sun — a Cardinal, Earth Sign. Cardinal signs are the rulers – the ones that initiate action. So that will give her the ability to set personal limits.

Still, how much of herself has she given up for love? I am in no way painting her as a victim. However, she did give up her career as a lawyer, which kept the Obama’s afloat during his community activist days, for his political career. That would not have been a decision made with such apparent grace had she been given an Aries or Leo Moon/Venus conjunction. Those fire signs would find the prospect of losing their position of prominence in the partnership a most distasteful proposition.

Also, regardless of her birth time, her North Node (where her soul is evolving toward) is in Cancer, another Water Sign. Cancer (or Moon Child) rules the Moon and is the sign epitomized as the care-giver, the mother. Moon Children want to mother (and can sometimes smother) people in their care – making sure they get all the essentials of life like a mother does for a child. In less than a year into her husband’s administration our Pisces Moon/Venus First Lady has quietly swum her way into the forefront of the childhood obesity debate. She is clearly evolving on a soul level in the direction intended in this lifetime which accounts for the ease in which she has slipped into this role. (When you are following your Node, the universe smiles on you!)

This also leads me to play with her chart a bit. What if she was born around 2:45 PM? What would her chart look like then? Well, first it would put her North Node in Cancer in her first house and would make her ascendant – her rising sign – her life force – also in Cancer. A water rising sign just intensifies her compassion but it also makes her rising sign Cardinal – like her Sun sign. So that compassion and concern is given a double dose of leadership ability. This is a perfect placement of someone destined to be the caring, compassionate but no nonsense mother figure for an entire nation.

This time also places Ceres, the Roman symbol of Mother Earth in the 6th house – the house of health and healing and places Pallas Athena, the warrior healer on the cusp of the 6th house.

I have no idea if this is the time she was born – so the chart below is NOT official in anyway. It is just what I see makes the most sense.

The important thing to remember is that we know she has the compassion of two of the water signs, with the strength of Capricorn abundant in her chart and right now she is using them for the benefit of all of us. No wonder she has said she has the fun job and seems to be thoroughly enjoying her tenure in the White House.

If you feel a little loopy on April 13……

blame it on aspects….or the lack thereof. On April 13 few planets will be in “aspect” to each other. An aspect is simply the appearance of planet orbits intersecting one another. For instance, have you ever looked up and spied Mars and Jupiter shining brightly in the sky together? Well their orbits are in conjunction with one another at that time. As planets zip around the Sun, their orbits can appear close to one another – a conjunction — or be in total opposition to one another. There are other aspects such as trine, and square…but the thing to remember is that aspects really impact how those planets play out in our lives. If you are born with Pluto conjunct the Moon, then the influence of Pluto – the need to change and transform – will cause you to feel the need tear down your emotions. You will always question your emotional response to issues and always double guess your reactions.

If you have no aspects to a particular planet that planet will run wild in your chart. For instance, someone born with no aspect to their Sun (our life force) will often not develop a strong sense of self. A famous unaspected (also known as peregrine) Sun person is Hillary Clinton. I always laughed when I saw her thousands of hair style changes while first lady…that is classic unaspected Sun. Who am I? How should I appear to the world?

For years she battled with the concept of am I a “traditional first lady” or do I want more? Then she seemingly settled into a role of Senator she decided to run for President. Remember what happened when her Presidential campaign started to go south? She became a chameleon and in the end was a populist stumper! Who was that masked woman? Unaspected Sun under pressure -manifesting in almost a textbook style.

On April 13, 2010 the planets will be making no exact aspect to one another. If you are born with an unaspected planet you are going to feel it big time that day — you won’t be able to find any grounding. If you have an unaspected Mercury you may find yourself babbling away or unable to concentrate, unaspected Mars people – watch your temper. It will be a day of free reigned energy!

Happy Equinox and the origins of the word Easter.

Tomorrow is the Vernal Equinox, a time for renewal and resurrection. Astronomically and astrologically it is when the Sun is at zero degrees in the constellation Aries. Astrologers call Aries, the baby of the zodiac, the first sign of the twelve…the beginning of things anew.

I remember being shocked at the first Passover Seder I attended when I saw hard boiled eggs on the table. Eggs? Isn’t that for Easter? How little I knew. We all have the same concept- eggs, fertility, rebirth and resurrection – they are all celebrated at the Equinox.

It is all about eggs – The Druids dyed eggs red – the color of the “returning” Sun. The Celts dyed their eggs blue in spring and the Ukrainians started dying eggs thousands of years ago. Spring is the time when the Earth comes back to life. It is symbolized by the goddess at her youngest – sowing seeds that will bloom in a few months.

In fact the word Easter comes from the Anglo Saxon goddess Eostre. Now there are two stories about Eostre. In some parts of the ancient Saxon world she was a goddess in the maiden stage who wandered the country side with her hare sowing seeds. This is also the beginning of the Easter bunny legend. In other parts she was a goddess who transformed herself from maiden to hare as she brought the return of spring and promoted the growth of crops. However, you get the general drift – spring is the time for renewal and growth.

The concept of resurrection was not new to the Christians – check out Osiris and Isis for the Greeks and Oden for the ancient Norse. Sorry, but there just is nothing new under the Sun – in any season.

But be a part of the ancient tradition, dye some eggs, plant some seeds – it is SPRING!

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!

Happy Birthday! Solar Returns

Happy birthday to me…. Happy birthday to me…. OK you get the picture – it was my birthday this week. The anniversary of your birth is called a Solar Return in the astrology world. Why? Well because the Sun is returning to the spot it was when you were born. See, this stuff is simple.

Birthdays are a great time to cast a Solar Return chart. By comparing your Solar Return chart to your natal (or birth chart) – we get a very good idea of what issues are coming around for you this year.

What a great way to start the next year of your life!

Contact me for your Solar Return chart – or for that of a friend. Finally, a gift you can use!