Monday, September 19, 2011

Lucky, Lucky Me

Just came across this article and just in time as Mars is transiting my descendant (as well as getting ready to oppose my Venus, sun and ascendant). Having just entered Leo yesterday Mars is now both in my 7th house of relationships and marriage and also will be crossing my descendant line in the near future. I was thinking this would manifest as dating activity, at the very least. And have been reading a lot of astrologers "warning" of possible difficulties in relationships. Mars is both action and aggression so either or both of these things is possible. What I wouldn't have realized on my own is the lesson of Mars, which is always good to be forewarned of.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

This Is Why I Know Astrology


All day today I've been in a mood. I gave myself the day off school, something I rarely do, because I just had a feeling it was for the best. All day I've been alternately trying to understand a reason for this mood and trying to find ways to distract myself from it or work through it and yet I can't quite shake it. It's been a pretty good day, too. With the weather suddenly cooling I went to one of my favorite thrift stores in search of sweaters and found an armload of clothes which I decided I required -why not when they're $2 to $9 a piece? The store itself was absolutely insane with a lot of the territorial energy of people wanting what they haven't found yet. When I got to the registers there were absolute swarms of people. Totally out of the ordinary. When I finally got to the cashier he explained that they're having a sale and all the clothes were half off today which was awesome because as much as I did truly need some of what I had I'd been working to convince myself that I needed everything I'd decided on (I also picked up a birdcage because it was only $10 and every so often I entertain the idea of a parrot or a pair of lovebirds or something). I kept trying to figure out if all of it was somehow related to Pluto direct and/or Venus in Libra and/or the Uranus aspect and so on.
I took my dogs for a hike and ran into lots of nice people and nice dogs and it was beautiful out. But still I have this strangling feeling in my throat. Finally I remembered to check my personalized daily horoscope on astrodienst and voila. Mercury square my natal Mars. Wouldn't you know it. The general forecast today calls for revolutions in love and I get Mercury square Mars. This is a great example of why I know astrology, because whether or not I understand it I certainly can feel it. In light of all that's happening in the sky this weekend, for myself and for all of us, I'm pleased to be able to say that I think I handled it really well. Another reason I love knowing astrology -I can see when I'm growing and I can see when I'm not. I hope everyone else had an interesting day with Venus and Pluto and Uranus, I'm a little disappointed to have had such a strong aspect get in the way of my experiencing those three in a purer way.
PS: I just got a new book about Pluto, Neptune and Uranus transits and am once again really disappointed. Why is it that so many (or all???) serious astrology books talk about these transits so much as being negatively disruptive rather than positively (and evolutionarily) disruptive?! I can't read this!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Mixed Messages

Olivia Bee (yes, again)

There's a hell of a lot going on these days. Pluto stationed direct yesterday and Venus is now in Libra, a sign of relationships and balance and also one of her home signs. Mars and the Sun are both about to change signs, Mars into Leo and the Sun into Libra. I don't know about you but I've been feeling some definite stirrings lately.
While Venus in Libra means good energy for us all there are also aspects inching into place that could mean something bigger than just harmonious relationships. This weekend Venus will be aligning with Uranus and Pluto which both have the energy of revolution about them. Uranus more of a lightning strike and Pluto a darker energy for whom I believe the metaphor is "change or die" which, if you know anything about spirituality, alchemy, astrology or metaphysics -mean the same thing. After all change is the death of what was. Both can cause considerable upheaval, which isn't really a bad thing but is difficult for a lot of people to process. I'll be expecting some chaos around me if not in my own life.
What I'm finding a little confusing is the many perspectives on this that I've read. There's the possibility of wild surprises in the realm of love and romance but it seems there's also some sort of required transformation in the works. I've seen some astrologers warning that if you're willing to take the chance there may be some amazing opportunities but not to expect them to be lasting, which is basically a way of saying you might get laid but you probably won't meet your future husband or wife so check your expectations for the time being.
While Libra is all about relationships Venus is also about money and what we value so let's not overlook the possibility of revolution is those areas, as well. I myself got some impromptu and very welcome encouragement today in terms of the new career I'm working to create. A lot of it having to do with assurance of all that I have to offer, which is an area I sometimes find difficult to cheer myself on in. As much as I love love (you will see) I don't want to overlook all of the other things that Venus deals with so do think also about possible revolutions to self worth, money and how it comes into your life and what you value in general.
To me this is much deeper than a flash in the pan, but then I've been told that the Pluto energy is very strong in my chart so it figures. There seems a distant and general humming underfoot, something like the sensation that a wave is about to crash and disrupt all of out beliefs about love and relationships (and all those other Venus themes), turn us all on our ears in a way that will stay with us for the rest of our lives and I'm excited to see what comes of it all.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Pisces Full Moon


(originally found here...)

The Pisces full moon (exact at 3:26 am PDT), from what I gather, is all about individuation. I have to admit, I've yet to have identified strong feelings for this moon. Apparently, it is a very low key full moon for us all but I went ahead and tried to put some images together anyway and perhaps will do an addendum later if I'm feeling it.

Moving Forward


What with this being a transition for me toward a more focused project and away from what was essentially a vanity or journal-ish blog I thought rather than try to move all my previous astro posts over here (why bring in the old with the new? Scorpio knows to shed what's old and build something fresh and new) I'd just give a link to my old blog in case you want to see what's in store. Not so much the personal stuff, gardena, thrifting and interior decor -unless I can relate it to the astro (I probably can if I try, as far as I'm concerned everything is related to the astro) but I'm sure I'll keep doing photo montages in honor of the moons, suns, and seasonal changes among other things.

Neptune in Aquarius for Aquarians


As you can see the blog is currently untitled. I'm not that clever or minimalist, no. I just realized I had some thing's to write before I was ready to name this thing or get it started. I went totally manic obsessive and scrambled to choose background and layout and all that nonsense and I could not for the life of me come up with a name for this thing. The whole "creating an image"thing can be sort of overwhelming. (And may change every month or so for up to a year. Maybe even longer.) So far I've treated the look of it sort of as if it's my living room, although I can't seem to find a way to represent a really gorgeous tufted leather sofa or potted plants or a cage with a pair of lovebirds. Not that I have the leather sofa or the lovebirds, but a girl can dream.
Anyway, this brings me to the next part. This all came to me because I've been trying to understand and/or explain the phenomenon of Neptune in Aquarius on Aquarians. Because I'm an Aquarian.
A little background? Neptune moved into Aquarius in 1998 for a 13 year transit. It moved out for the first time in April 2011 and has recently returned for a final six months before it leaves for good in February. In that time I've learned a number of things about Neptune and have probably forgotten most of them. Information just doesn't always stick when there's so much of it and one thing seems to replace the other unless you're reminded of it over and over. So I've learned a lot of different things about what Neptune does. It creates a fogginess that can create confusion, illusion and delusion. It can heighten your sensitivity. Provide you with wild dreams and psychic experiences. It is also referred to as the higher octave of Venus. It's a destroyer in that it's said to dissolve "things". (How to explain?...) Like an ocean of fog blanketing everything (which can be really difficult because it's blinding), causing a lot of confusion and that once the fog clears it's broken down all the crap, washed away the rubble, and left only the 'gems'. So throw that into your sun sign and tell me you're not bonkers.
I counted down to the day it would go. Seemed endless and I thought that at the end maybe there would be this huge revelation. As if the day after it left everything would suddenly be different. But that's not the way astrology works. It's not magic, it's just the influence of nature growing us all. We're like the universe's flower garden being watered and fed and pruned and attacked by aphids and protected by ladybugs and on and on. (Anyone who gardens knows it's a whole freaking world of it's own with just as many complications.)
When Neptune finally did leave Aquarius earlier this year I honestly didn't feel like I noticed anything for a while. The times when I did I would find that it was actually some other aspect I was feeling. The thing is that a long transit like that isn't something that you feel distinctly one day. It's an accumulation of a lot of experiences over all those years and I wasn't even aware of it for about the first five and even after that. Chiron transiting Aquarius more recently (for five years) was emphasized a lot too, and I spent a lot of time trying to figure that one out, as well. But I was obsessed with identifying the gems it was promised would be revealed when Neptune finally moved on. And just as I thought I was beginning to see them it happened all over again.
Last week I was absolutely off my rocker for a few days, didn't know which way was up. I still have many things swimming around my head that I can't quite focus on. So I tried to look again and find: what is the effect of Neptune in Aquarius on Aquarians? And I re-read all the stuff about Neptune in Aquarius in general -great advances in technology, blah, blah, blah.
I finally realized that what I needed to find about Neptune (at the moment) is that with Neptune in Aquarius, Aquarians will sometimes feel that they just can't see themselves clearly. And anyone who knows anything knows that when you can't see yourself clearly nothing makes any sense at all.
There are many things that I've loved about Neptune in Aquarius and many things that I've hated and overall I'm just exhausted by it all. It's a lot of work to deal with any transit that interacts with your first house or sun (my sun is actually in the 12th but Neptune is currently in my 1st) and I'll be glad when it's finally over. (I am so dreading Pluto moving in there but I've got like ten plus years to go.)

Sunday 11 September 2011

I think I've had an obsession about astrology my entire life. Since I was in my earliest teens I was buying books and doing my own chart.) Over and over... and over. About.... ten (?) years ago I found a horoscope by Eric Francis of Planet Waves that blew my mind. It was Flaunt magazine, I believe, that ran his horoscopes back then. I had never read anything so amazing and wanted to know what he knew. I stalked the website and subscribed to everything he sold, at the time I believe that was a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter with two monthly horoscopes for each sign and a big annual edition. I realized that there was better astrology writing available than what you find in the newspaper and half the online sites. Even the ones that I considered more insightful than the rest at that time I've since abandoned. I'll skip the endless praise and just go on.
I began to understand a lot more about astrology -it's history, much more in depth information about all it's elements. To go from the somewhat glossy explanations of things to the much larger explanations. In many astrology books, for example, which claim to be providing you with an entire overview -everything you need to know, they claim- they often provide a short list of attributes of a particular sign or planets properties. When I started to read all this new information (because once I found Planet Waves I kept finding more new sources) I realized how little I knew and I have never recovered. 
What I'm getting at is that I've been obsessed with serious astrology for ten years now and general astrology for quite a while before that. In all this time I feel that what I know is like a drop of water in a field in which the amount of information that needs to be absorbed is the size of all of the oceans in the world. The variables are endless. It's a freaking science and in a way it's a living science as the universe never ceases changing, readjusting and pulling out new tricks. Alignments that happen only once every thousand or so years. How much history is there to compare to the qualities of all these interactions?! It's endless. And as I'm not as much a "studier" as I used to try to convince myself, like those people who become interested in something and track down and devour all of the highest educational material possibly available on the subject and then remember it for life. I just keep reading the stuff they write and then pulling out some of the books that I thought would be really good but just give slightly less glossy overviews of things that you cannot possibly view glossily over. But I've come to terms with my casual ways and I've decided to just go ahead and start writing this blog anyway. I'm thinking it'll be some combo of informative, entertaining and educational (for me, that is) -in that I hope people will comment and help me clear things up when I'm questioning my understanding of it all, or just be conversational about it, at least. I just know that with all that's already out there there are still days when I can't find the information I'm looking for which makes me feel compelled to be one who throws a shovel load of dirt in that hole instead of passing by it every day and glancing in. 
I should warn you, I have a hunch it's going to be pretty narcissistic around here for a while. Like I said before, I still feel like I don't really know all that much so I'm betting a lot of the questions I pose will have something to do with myself but I'll try really hard to mask that somehow and keep it interesting to everyone else. And, ofcourse, I've gotten a lot better at interpreting what I collect from reading others, so hopefully that will make for something interesting, too. 
And with that, here I go!