health and astrology

Jupiter on the MOVE

On July 16, that enormous planet Jupiter that is astrologically the sign of expansion and growth is moving out of Cancer, the uber Mommy constellation, into the fire sign of Leo, the sign of creativity and self-expression. What a great time! Think of it – we are combining the sign of seemingly never ending growth and discovery with the fiery Leo energy. We should all be running around working on making our most creative impact!

A wee bit of caveat here folks. When I began my study of Astrology, many people thought that Jupiter was the most beneficent sign in the Zodiac – it could bring no shadow. However, all of that expansion – all of the bigness – does have a downside. When Jupiter was transiting my sixth house, the house of health, I was as sick as a dog. I even have a good friend who was born with Jupiter in the sixth and she gets every weird illness going and gets it longer and worse than anyone else. It is a classic case of too much of a good thing.

Jupiter rules Sagittarius, a fire sign, and it is now transiting a fire sign constellation – so there is a danger of too much, “me first, you later energy,” where every way is emoting and no one is listening. Leo starts her journey in the ninth house – the house she naturally vibrates too – and in conjunction with the Sun (ruled by Leo.) The ninth is the house of foreign affairs – so hold onto your hats – that arena will get even goofier in the weeks to come.

As always, please remember we can use this energy for benefit too. Be creative, make those contacts, work on that book, paint that scenery, – go the extra mile to make the world a prettier, more creative place!

The Joy and Healing Possibilities of a Mercury Retrograde.

It takes the Sun 225 million years to revolve around the Milky Way center. Keep that in mind because now I have to tell you that Mercury will retrograde from June 7 to July 2 this year. See now it is not 225 million years in retrograde so no worries!

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I hate the doom and gloom energy that surrounds so much of astrological writings these days. Retrograde periods are a good time to go inward and explore that energy in our chart. We have an aversion to slowing down and assessing our talents in this society as we think we need to be always “on point.” We are so “go, do, move, be.” Instead of “think, assess, learn who you are and improve the inner self!” Retrogrades tell us to go within, assess and improve. As much as we moan about them, retrogrades are necessary evils. They are pointers to areas which need improvement in our lives. We have the choice of complaining or doing something about our issues!

With her permission, in fact, it was her idea; I am sharing the chart of Mari McCarthy, the dynamo behind CreateWriteNow, www.createwritenow.com. Mari’s mantras are Create Your Life Write Now with Mari, and Journaling for the Health of It! She is a no nonsense journaling coach who helps motivated people who want to do to the work to get the most of their lives. She is a teacher who lives the lesson every day and has turned her Mercury retrograde around and now shows others how to do the same.

Mari was born with her Mercury retrograded in her fifth house, the house of creativity and expressing our inner talents. With the Mercury in reticent Capricorn, an astrologer would immediately say this is a person with self-expression problems, someone who does not want her voice heard or cannot make it heard. That was the beginning of Mari’s story but not her current story. Through intense introspection, hours of journaling work – which she now teaches her client, and sheer courage, she has found the karmic and current life roots of that retrograde and has more than set that Mercury energy on a direct path again.

While as a child, she was afraid to express herself, always allowing others to be her voice Mari is now a fierce advocate for herself. She has literally found her voice – her singing voice – that she never felt had value and she has taken to the recording studio.

She didn’t stop there, however. Mari also has applied her journaling energy beyond “just” finding her voice and now is literally journaling her way back to physical health. (Notice that Capricorn, ruler of her retrograded Mercury, opens her sixth house of health.) She wouldn’t let the health problems caused by this energy debilitate her and every day she is on a return path to wellness.

Mari has not only reversed her Mercury retrograded action, she has taken her lessons learned and paid them forward to people willing to do the work with her. It is a classic case of karmic lemons into lemonades.

Mari and I became instant friends, having found each other through our work. One of the things that made me like her so quickly was that she didn’t give off the energy I see so often of “oh I can’t do anything because I have this retrograde here and that retrograde there.” Instead she was glad to see the retrogrades so that she could concentrate her energy on them. She had already been doing so much work on herself and now she said the chart was truly like a road map. Creative music to my ears!

So instead of complaining about the inevitable problems of a Mercury retrograde, use that inward energy to do that inner work necessary to correct your expression issues. While you are at it check out Mari’s website, CreateRIghtNow.com.

The Sixth

courtesy of arlenew.com

No not the sense, the house; today I want to talk about the 6th House of the zodiac, the house of day to day work and health. Now that sounds a little bit goofy at first glance but it does make sense. If you have health issues, either real or imagined it is going to affect your work, right? I know of one chart that, among many other “issues”, has Neptune negatively aspected in the 6th with Pisces on the cusp of the 6th. Neptune deals psychosomatic illness – Neptune is all about vagaries – so perceived illness, illness driven from the mental arena, these are all Neptunian in nature. This person hasn’t worked a full six months in twenty years because of a wide variety of health issues which always crop up when work gets too difficult.

My current interest in the sixth house is sparked by two occurrences. First, I have had those two very slowly moving planets Uranus and Jupiter transiting my sixth for about 5 months now and they will be there for a few more. During this time I have gotten more colds than I normally get in a year. One came upon me so fast (Uranus lightening) and just when I thought it was gone it came roaring back (Jupiter’s ability to be expansive. Thanks a lot.) I have also started acupuncture during this time – a very Uranian activity. Although acupuncture is an ancient science it is for Westerners new and unique. Acupuncture also deals with grids and the electricity which runs throughout the human body and all electrical matters fall under Uranus.

I have a friend who is having another recurring bout of coughing which is believed to be link to allergies and may be a mild allergy driven asthma. It appears as an annoying tickle in her throat. As always, when I hear of someone’s illness I run to look at their chart. Hmmm, remember that Mars/Mercury/Pluto mishmash I spoke of last week? Well guess where it is intersecting in her chart? Right, in the 6th. These planets are also now in conjunction with her solar progressed* Venus and to make it more interesting she has Pallas Athena also in her 6th right now.

Mars’ male energy, Pallas Athena coupled with, androgynous female energy with Venus – that planet which rules the throat all churning together. Can you see how the allergy has come back? What has me more concerned is that Pluto is in this mix. Pluto is the harbinger change and transformative. Some astrologers look at Pluto, with its rulership of the 8th house the traditional house of death and change, as a harbinger of death and rebirth. I don’t want to go there, but I do see a change in her health that she will have to take good care of.

*Solar progression is charts the movement of planets from the time of a person’s birth.

P.S. Does anyone else see the Wikileak attacks on websites as the secret “violence” I mentioned in my last blog entry?

Thanks for the Cancer scare

The question arose – what is going on in my own chart. There is no harder animal to interpret than my own chart! Right now I have transiting Juno in conjunction with transiting Uranus (both in my 6th house – the house of health as well as day to day work) opposing my natal Vesta which is in the 12th house in Virgo. Uranus and Juno are now in Pisces, the ruler of the 12th house (the keeper of the keys to the secrets of the universe) – – so this seems pretty significant.
To make matters more interesting, my natal Saturn/Juno conjunction in my 2nd house (the house of self worth and self possessions) is making a flowing aspect to the charming duo of transiting Uranus/Juno (I know that is a lot to picture but go with me here – Vesta on one side – Uranus/Juno in exact opposition and Saturn and natal Juno in between them.)

I was having a tough time with this until the universe handed me a very unique gift. Last Friday, I received a letter from the Virginia Hospital center which what I thought would be the mundane results of my yearly mammography…basically; everything is fine see you next year. This year the letter was longer and started off with, “We need you to come back for further analysis…..” Oh dear not what I was looking for! Hey thanks Uranus – you love to shake things up don’t you and there you are in my house of health. Isn’t it good enough for you that I fell flat on my face two darn times this past month???

Ok so now the mind goes in 1000 directions. Somewhere between, oh this happens to everyone occasionally and Lordie I am dead – my mind suddenly clicked on this question. How would I live my life if I knew I had cancer? What would I change? How would Cancer give me the license to be more authentic? Suddenly, I understood my planetary conundrum… Vesta is the burning heart’s desire –what we want to dedicate ourselves to. Mine is natally in the 12th house so my search for my universal truth is very important to me in this life. However, with Juno, the asteroid that shows where we dedicate ourselves to something else – where we stick to “other” sitting next to Uranus, that trickster in the 6th – the question was now clear. What parts of my life am I still too worried about what others think or how I can fit in with other people’s wishes and desires – to the neglect of my own search?

A cancer diagnoses would give me a license to be more authentic. But why did I have to lean on such a crutch? Why couldn’t I be more authentic just for the heck of it – on my own strength and willpower?

I was comforted in the few days before my follow up tests by the fact that the Uranus/Juno transit was making a harmonious relationship to my natal Saturn/Juno in the 2nd house. This is just a good lesson I said – and this will help me rely more on myself image and stop trying to see reflections in others. I kept repeating that as I waited yesterday first for the results of a second mammography and then when the technician said the Doctor wanted to take an ultrasound. I waited and repeated —. This is just a lesson to say live more authentically – live for self and say that is how you will build your self worth.

After three “lovely “ hours I heard the Doctor say that the ultrasound showed that there was nothing there – just some anomaly of the way mammography’s read certain tissue. As I thanked him for being so diligent (a sharp-eyed radiologist caught my sister’s cancer in very early stages years ago) and then melted off the table – I thanked the universe for the outcome and the lesson. Just one thing – hey Uranus can you move the heck out of my sixth house? You made your point OK?