Tag: Capricorn

Ode to Betty White – and other solid Earth Signs

A few months ago during the Screen Actors Guild Awards Betty White, while introducing Sandra Bullock said, “I will be 88 years old next week.” I checked the calendar – mid January. Yup, she is another Capricorn. No surprise that the octogenarian is still at her performing best at an age most people have shuffled off to the shuffle board or beyond. She was born with her Sun in Capricorn – the longest lived of the Earth signs – her Ascendant in fixed Leo and both her Moon and Mid Heaven (the marker of our career and social status) in Virgo, another Earth sign.

At the risk of generalizing, Earth signs are the sturdiest – think of it – they plod the Earth and are not burning at both ends like Fire signs or swimming in seas of confusion and the supernatural like Water signs or bouncing around smashing themselves about like the Air signs. Capricorns because they are sure footed goats are the strongest of all. In fact, here is a little trick about Capricorns – they get younger as they grow older. Usually, Goat children are “little old men and women” – acting well beyond their years. As they age, the cares seem to drop off and they become more youthful in their outlooks and more playful.

Although Leo is a Fire Sign it is also a fixed sign. (See last week’s entry for an explanation of fixed vs. mutable and cardinal signs.) What comes to mind with the word fixed? Determined, stubborn, strong, right? Right.

I can hear the cynics now, so what about Angela Lansbury? She is 85 and winning Tony Awards on Broadway. Ok so what about Angela Lansbury? Yes, she has a Sun and Moon in airy Libra. However, look at the cusp* of her sixth house – the house of day to day work. Yes, that is the glyph for Capricorn! Move up to the cusp of the tenth house – the house of career and social status. Taurus the Bull sits there – sturdy Earth sign.

Astrology is not one sign fits all. We must look at the totality of the chart. Also, having a lot of Earth signs in the right places does not guarantee long life and long career. I had a Capricorn uncle who died at 54 but he was unhappy in most aspects of his life and suffered from malaria and other illness in World War II. However, both of these women indicate what can happen when you have fulfilling lives and a good chart!

I understand there is a new movement on Facebook to get Carol Burnett to host SNL soon. Why not? She is Sun in Taurus, Moon in Taurus and Midheaven in Capricorn!

*Cusps – look at one of the charts and note the outer rim where you will see glyphs for the various signs. That is the cusp and those signs have a very strong influence on the house they guard.

What’s up with the Earth? Volcanos and Earthquakes and Sinkholes Oh My!

Since I am NOT heading to the airport to catch a flight to Stockholm as I thought I would be doing today thanks to a “friendly neighborhood” Icelandic volcano- I decided to take some time and ponder the question, “What is the deal, Earth?” From earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and Mexico (among others) to this volcanic eruption, it seems “terra firma” isn’t so much these days. If you listen to Pat Robertson (and, why would you) he would say it is a sign of the “end of times.” Why do these guys love the end of the world so much? Could it be it is all the better to control terrified people? But I digress.

If you are a beloved follower of this blog you will know that I have spent some time on the movement of Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto is a pokey, mini planet that packs a punch because it deals with transformation and change. Because it moves so slowly, Pluto has time to get into the “guts” of the sign it inhabits and really penetrate to the core making changes to long standing beliefs.

Capricorn is the sign dealing with the authority structures that keep society in place….the structure we live within.

In previous blogs I have talked about the changes Pluto in Capricorn is bringing to politics from the sublime – Obama – to the ridiculous – the Tea Party. (NOTE to the Republican Party, while you are trying to harness the power of the Tea Party while keeping them at arm’s length, just keep in mind the last time we had Pluto here we had the French Revolution. It was the epitome of gang revolt that went too far and feed off those who brought it to power.) All things have a positive and shadow outcome – it is the yin and yang of life.

Pluto here also changed the monetary system and brought around failures to long standing financial institutions.

However, let’s take this another step. What can be more “Capricornian” that Earth – the actual structure of the land on which we stand? Right now, Pluto and Saturn are making a “trine aspect” a flowing aspect of 30 degrees and both are in Earth signs. Saturn is now in Virgo. Because Saturn rules Capricorn – we are now in a period of double dose of change to our structures. What better time for earthquakes and volcanoes? Remember last week I spoke of “aspects”? This is a very powerful one – Saturn, ruler of Capricorn is trine to Pluto in Capricorn – that is whole lot of shaking up going on.

Pluto will remain in Capricorn until 2024, the Earth won’t keep rolling the whole time but it will be an active time and when strong aspects like this come around we will be more susceptible to this kind of natural “disaster.” I put that in quotes because while these things are devastating to the people in the area, the Earth changes it is the nature of the beast.

When Pluto was in:

Sagittarius 1995 – 2008 – the time of spiritual awareness – the shadow being fundamentalism.

Scorpio 1983 – 1995 – the time of the sexual revolution – the shadow being sexual prevision made more public.

Libra – 1971 – 1983 – the time when relationships and the ideas of romance changed – the shadow being our obsession with youth, beauty and cosmetic alterations.

Virgo 1958 – 1971 – the time of the rise of the women’s movement – and environmental movement –
The shadow being the growth of “fast food” and environmental pollutants.

Leo -1939 – 1958 – the time when the “baby boomers – the ME generation was born.” It was the time when the individual came into focus – the value of one person was learned but can you find a more self obsessed, ego centric group of people than we boomers?

Ted Kennedy – Capricorn Tenacity

When I heard of the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy I did what I always do – I ran to my computer and looked up his chart. While it may seem odd to some, death times in karmic astrology are as important as birth times. (More on that issue later, I promise.)

What struck me so much about Sen. Kennedy’s chart was the high concentration of Saturn in his first house (the house which dictates how we present ourselves to the world.) The ancient Sumerians, who are credited with being the first known astrologers, didn’t deal much with a Sun sign because when the Sun was up they couldn’t see the rest of the stars. It was your first house – your ascendant – that was key to them.

Sen. Kennedy had Capricorn on the cusp of his first house and its ruler, Saturn, in the first house. That is a lot of Capricorn! At first it seemed bizarre. Capricorn is known to giving form and structure and being very much “within the lines” while Senator Kennedy had been known for – how shall I say this – living outside the lines for a long period of his life. I “credit “that to his heavy Piscean influence – the escapist. However, it was that strong Capricorn which gave him the courage to go on when things felt hopeless and which allowed him to prevail even over his fatal illness when he mustered the strength to speak at the 2008 Democratic Convention.

If it weren’t for that Capricornian tenacity (symbolized by the sure-footed mountain goat) he never would have been able to face and ultimately triumph over life’s traumas and his own self inflicted wounds.

Saturn – Uranus – The Past and Future of the Presidential Election

On election day 2008, Uranus and Saturn will be in exact opposition to each other. That is, they will be directly across from one another on their path around the Sun. The choice has been written in the stars – old and new across from one another. Which way will we go?

Saturn is all about tradition, and doing things by the book – all about form and structure. Uranus is new, electric and represents upheaval and change. I don’t have to tell you which candidate is represented by each do I? The fact that we have the elder McCain, and the young, unique Obama as our choice seems to have been written in the sky!

To add some mystery to it all – Pluto is making a move in Capricorn. Actually Pluto moved into Capricorn briefly this year but quickly retrograded back in Sagittarius where it will remain until after the election. Pluto is the harbinger of slow but deeply felt transformations and because it moves so slowly around the Sun, it stays in a sign for years, sometimes decades. When Pluto was in Sagittarius we saw the rise of spirituality around the world – as well as fundamentalism. (To everything there is a positive and shadow aspect!) With Pluto moving in to Capricorn we will see changes in those structures that control society – government and the financial infrastructure to name two.

I saw one of the best albeit unwitting explanations of this Pluto-Capricorn placement in the commentary section of the October 7, 2008 edition of “The Nation” Magazine written by William Greider. “Our country is at a rare and dangerous juncture. The old order is crumbling, and virtually all centers of power that govern us have been discredited by events.”

The last time Pluto was in Capricorn we had the American and French Revolutions… does that tell you something about Pluto power?

But Joan, you say, you told us Pluto has moved back in Sagittarius so what is all of that talk about Capricorn? Well, I did say that – but I said it was just retrograding back for a short time. In fact, I believe that dip back into Sagittarius manifested as Gov. Sara Palin being named as VP nominee by John McCain. It was a life line tossed by the McCain campaign to the religious fundamentalist groups who are currently in control of our government. Hopefully the rope will slip from the hands on both sides.

There is no doubt, Pluto will bring change to governmental and societal structure and change is always painful. We are going to have to fasten our seat belts tightly as everything we once believed in and trusted is shaken to the core. This won’t be fun.The choice is ours – in our fear do we follow Saturn back to an even more restrictive and authoritarian government or do we hold on to Uranus and have it guide us to a more open, exciting and humanitarian government?