I was recently interviewed by ABC7 News to explain the meaning of Mercury Retrograde, from both an astronomical and astrological point of view. As the presenter (community journalist Jalyn Henderson) explains, people tend to get a bit excited or even freaked out when Mercury goes retrograde. But as I tend to explain to those who ask me — you can relax, this is not a bad thing.
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On Valentine’s Day Mars made its entrance into Taurus, where it will remain until March 31. This planet and sign combo is a curious one, given Mars's tendency towards passionate action and Taurus's relaxed complacency. Mars in Taurus evokes aggression with relaxation, fast movement with rooted stubbornness, new frontiers with known environs. Fire finds its fuel from earth and roots down into solidity.
To understand this transit and the kinds of experiences and events it can correlate with, we might consider what happens when Mars, the god of war, takes a break from the bloody conflicts of Aries to revive and rejuvenate. His focus has shifted from fighting battles to a passionate deepening into a calm environment, taking in salves that help heal and erase the traumas of war. At other times Mars in Taurus asserts, or defends, for the sake of preservation, stability and comfort.
Continue readingI was again interviewed on another podcast, Cosmic Keys. We had a fun and spirited discussion on astrology and finding meaning in life. Hosts Dan and Scarlet asked some great questions exploring the science of astrology and the poetry of discovering one's spiritual path.
I was recently interviewed on the Occult Power Hour podcast. We discussed many issues related to astrology and spirituality, and did some reading of the interviewers' charts. It's a great podcast about all things occult, spiritual and local to Chicago. Please check them out.
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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.
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 readingOn 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.
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.
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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.
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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?
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Hi, I'm Brian, the author of this blog and founder of Soulrise Astrology. Thanks for visiting my blog, if you like what you read please feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line.
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