On September 21st I gave a talk on dual-sign and dual-planet rulerships for Friends of Astrology, an astrology group local to Chicago. My talk explores the implications of various forms of dual rulership, the reasons these rulerships exist and how we might discover rich treasures of meaning from a fuller understanding of planetary rulerships.
Astrology & The Mythological Layer
Meeting Iron John, animation still by Xun Wang
In his book Iron John, Robert Bly writes about the collapse of the mythological layer. He’s referring to our culture’s sacrifice of a truly living mythology for hard idealisms of pure reason and delusional attachments to unattainable glamor. We’ve lost touch with the invisible inner realm of gods and goddesses that the Egyptians, Greeks, native peoples and other ancient cultures knew quite well. From our centuries-long infatuation with science and factual knowledge to the exclusion of the mystical dream source of experience, we’ve piled intellectual boulders before the gates to heaven and left ourselves bereft of its wonders.
This leads to all manner of great anxieties and dysfunctions. A murderer does not know about the mythological layer and thus identifies with the dark spirit that passes through him and acts out its intentions. A man leaves his wife after falling in love with the wrong woman because he confuses the idealized goddess that briefly moves through her as the woman herself. A father terrorizes his children because his ignorance of his own mythology produces resentment at what he believes to be his life’s ruin. The child becomes an adult who has also learned nothing of mythology, so frets endlessly over her terrorized childhood because without a mythological context we can only remain trapped in victimization.
What to do?
Continue readingPisces New Moon 2018
Chart cast in Astro Gold
The Pisces New Moon occurs Saturday morning March 17th, 8:14am in Chicago. It features a square to Mars at the last degree of Sagittarius, which can reflect an uneasiness about the dissolution of whatever adventures we've been on as we need to begin the work of building upon what we've learned from them. As this New Moon is also conjunct Chiron and trine to Jupiter in Scorpio, the work we have to do is connected to healing our souls. It's a great time to begin or deepen practices of inner journey work, energy medicine, depth psychology.
Whatever opportunities life is bringing up for us, including any apparent chaos or challenge, we can find that a simple adherence to seeing them through yields a profound sense of transcendent guidance, a realization that a compassionate hand is always at play in our lives, seeking to help us secure our faith in a divine order that works for us so long as we accept it.
Continue readingInterview with All Business Media FM
On March 1st 2018 I was interviewed by All Business Media FM, answering questions about my practice, my history with astrology and how astrology can transform our lives for the better. It's a short interview, about 8 minutes.
Jupiter Retrograde in Scorpio: Shadows and Shades of Inner Power
Image courtesy NASA
Jupiter entered Scorpio this past Fall and among other things is correlated with the #MeToo movement, as this transit tends to out secrets, deceptions and abuses of power. Conversely, Jupiter in Scorpio provides a safe haven for entrenched powers, making them appear more brazen, with greater scope and breadth (Russia, Trump, Assad). The Stoneman Douglas school shooting is a prime example of the contradictions inherent in this transit, as Jupiter gives an expanded sense of power to a mass murderer and keeps him safe from death (for the moment), yet this tragic event catalyzes a political movement based on deeply held moral principles that will have enormous future impact.
(Side note - The students of Stoneman Douglas high school are of the Pluto in Sagittarius generation. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter and Pluto rules Scorpio. This confluence of planet/sign affinity indicates we're seeing the beginnings of what may very well come to define this generation.)
On a higher level, Jupiter in Scorpio is the shaman, the wise woman or man who journeys between worlds of dark and light, acting as a guide to others and bringing back wisdom from hidden places. Jupiter in Scorpio is also the "blessing in disguise," the greater good that comes from an initially painful loss.
Continue readingSun Shrouds Over Empire: The American Eclipse of 2017
The path of the Aug 21 2017 Eclipse as it crosses the United States. Image courtesy of NASA.
Astrology is predicated on the idea that there is an intrinsic link between the orbital cycles of celestial bodies and the cycles of human consciousness. Everything is made of the same essential matter sprung from the same atomic well, forged and re-forged in stellar furnaces since the beginning of time, so it is reasonable to presume that the outer clock of planetary orbits and the inner clock of human experience follow a singular timetable.
Eclipses mark important moments on that celestial clock. Like clock hands joining at the stroke of midnight, the Sun, Moon and Earth all line up to sound the toll of a cosmic bell that signifies the time has come to begin a new hour of being. A substantial cycle is ending as a new cycle begins.
Continue readingUpset of Upsets: Astrology and the US Presidential Election
Image by boozker.
It seemed unbelievable at the time — Donald Trump elected president of the United States. A man who was laughed at during his initial bid for president, derided by everyone connected to societal establishment, including the media and even his own party. And then he won. How did so many people — liberals, pundits, dyed in the wool Republicans, and even the astrologers that analyzed all the relevant charts — get it wrong?
Now that the dust has begun to settle, we can see a bit more clearly how and why Trump made it this far. We can look to the suffering of great swaths of the American people, including those who voted for Obama in previous election cycles, who gave priority to venting their anger at the entrenched powers over the integrity of their nominee. The message seems to be: When you are facing financial ruin, possible homelessness and hunger, and a bleak outcome for your children, any change is better than more of the same. Whether that actually works out for the country's benefit in any measure is a topic for another day.
What perplexes me as an astrologer is how clearly Trump's win was spelled in the stars and yet how wrong the astrological community was in predicting a Clinton win. It speaks to me of the deluded mental placation that so many of us were under that such a wild card as Trump couldn't possibly make it to the top. For myself, when I first looked at the astrological maps in May of 2016, after Clinton and Trump took the nominee positions, I felt very strongly the outcome would go to Trump. But after listening to talk after talk by astrologers giving the outcome to Clinton, I fell for the delusion, setting aside the clear public message of desire for political revolution, evidenced by the fact that Sanders should have won the Democratic ticket to battle fellow outsider Trump.
So what do the stars tell us about Trump, Clinton and this election?
Continue readingNote to NASA: The zodiac has not changed
Ophiuchus from Urania's Mirror, courtesy Wikipedia.
There's a lot of hullabaloo on the web right now with respect to an article from NASA that claims that the zodiac has changed and that there is a heretofore unaccounted 13th sign, Ophiuchus. This all supposedly throws astrology into chaos and plants a final nail into its coffin as anything but charlatanism.
The truth is this, and I can't state this emphatically enough: Astrology has known about the precession of the equinoxes and the constellation of Ophiuchus for thousands of years. There's nothing new here, nothing has changed, your sign is still your sign, and NASA is, in actual fact, wrong.
Continue readingAstrology & Creativity, Part 2
© Agsandrew - Inner Life of Music
This article is a prelude to a workshop I'll be giving at Life Force Arts Center, 1609 W Belmont, next Sunday the 24th from 1-4pm. Details and registration here.
Please see Part 1 for the natal signatures that speak to creative ability along with some famous chart examples.
Creative Timings
Certain transits and progressions can indicate when creative inspiration and opportunity for cultivation and expression is at its peak. For day-to-day and month-to-month analysis, look to the Moon for cues on when you're likely to be most "tapped in" to your creative muse. When the Moon transits your 5th and 12th houses, or makes major aspects to your Sun, Neptune, Venus, or your 5th and 12th rulers, can be high times for creative practice and cultivation. When Venus trines and sextiles those same points you may feel a greater affinity and sensitivity to those energies and you might want to cozy up to the planet or house in question and explore its mysteries. Jupiter transits will expand those points and fuel your creative drive and output when transiting the 5th and 12 houses. Uranus and Pluto transits to your natal planets and angles, which are very long term, can actually awaken latent talents you didn't even know you had.
Continue readingAstrology & Creativity, Part 1
This article is a prelude to a workshop I'll be giving at Life Force Arts Center, 1609 W Belmont, next Sunday the 24th from 1-4pm. Details and registration here.
What creates us, moment to moment? From the pairing of tiny gametes to the full ripening of our being, there is a mysterious power of creative will that animates our life from beginning to end. We are at once a vessel and arbiter of this creative power. There is nothing that we do that is not creative, since all action, no matter how small, serves the creation of the world we live in. We are created beings, thus we seek to create.
When speaking of creativity, many people think of art, music, theater, writing or various forms of craftwork. But if we take a closer look, we can see that even our most basic day to day activities — speaking, working, cooking, parenting, how we dress, how we decorate our homes, how we treat our partners — all of these things have a creative element to them. Being creative does not have to mean doing something lofty or as a profession. We can be creative by simply doing anything that gives our life meaning and purpose.
Astrology looks at creativity as a force seeking to express itself through every area of the natal chart. The astrological symbols most often linked with creativity are the 5th and 12th Houses, their cusp rulers, and the placements of the Sun, Moon, Venus and Neptune. These areas are where we find creative drive, sensitivity to beauty, visioning and power of expression.
But creativity is not limited to any particular set of symbols. The entire chart is a mandala of creative energy, and any prominent planet, sign, and house combination can be a focal point for creative expression.
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