Blog Posts

Learning to Make Friends with Saturn by Genevieve Vierling

8/18/2013

Making friends with some crusty old codger who seems bent on tormenting us and making our lives more miserable seems like the last thing we’d want to do, but I’ve decided to give you a few tips based on my own life experiences and the observations of many long years working with clients in my professional practice.

First off, we all have Saturn somewhere in our natal chart, so no one is exempt on planet earth from learning something about this planet which has come to represent hard work, delays, restrictions, frustrations, and the arduous climb up the mountain of our own private ambition. Saturn is often used as the symbol for what we lack; therefore we strive to fill that hole with substance over the course of our lives.

For those of you, like myself, who have Saturn as ‘Ruler’ (the Ruler of a chart is the planet which rules the Ascendant) of your entire chart you know well the message of Saturn, “The tortoise will win the race in the end by never giving up, by persevering, and by taking one step at a time towards the goal.” I’m talking about you Capricorn rising souls out there!

One of the first books I ever read on Saturn was by Liz Greene entitled ‘A New Look At An Old Devil’. I remember I read that book from cover to cover and got quite depressed because Liz has a way of being very sardonic and Saturnine herself. It was the same Liz who gave a lecture at a conference I attended while smoking non-stop and blowing it out into our audience as she spoke! That woman knew a thing or two about ole Saturn, and I was both impressed and rather intimidated at the same time as a young woman just learning about my ‘ruler’. I remember well that I put that book far away from me for a very long time until one day years later I read it again and realized the efficacy of her message. By then I was more mature, more confident, and wiser, and Ms. Liz made a lot of sense by then.

So here we are today working with Saturn moving through Scorpio. I refer you to an earlier article I wrote back in February 2013 (see my archives) for more insights into this 2.5+ year passage and the major themes of Scorpio emphasized. Let’s just briefly review the time frame we are experiencing:

Saturn entered Scorpio on October 6th of 2012.
Saturn turned Retrograde February 18th, 2013 at 11 degrees of Scorpio
Saturn turned Direct on July 4th, 2013 at 4 degrees of Scorpio
Saturn leaves the 11th degree of Scorpio (the 3rd time) on October 18th, 2013
Saturn turns Retrograde at 23 degrees of Scorpio on March 2nd, 2014
Saturn turns Direct on July 20th, 2014 at 16 degrees of Scorpio
(Are you getting exhausted? I am! It is when Saturn reaches its final leg of a journey through one sign that it begins to feel like it is endless and is never going to end. Just ask a Libran who went through it all not too long ago.)
Saturn enters Sagittarius on December 24th, 2014
Saturn turns Retrograde on March 14th, 2015 at 4 degrees of Sagittarius
Saturn still Retrograde re-enters Scorpio at 29 degrees on June 16th, 2015
Saturn turns Direct at 28 degrees Scorpio on August 2nd, 2015
Saturn FINALLY leaves Scorpio on September 18th, 2015

We are really talking about nearly three years this time around for Saturn in Scorpio: October 6, 2012 to September 18, 2015 when it is finally over. It truly behooves us to make friends, does it not?

How do we do this? Let us learn to apply these character strengths:

Patience and Persistence
You can not push the river when under a Saturn transit so becoming patient yet persistent is the best use of your energy. It is said that when Saturn makes a hard aspect to one of your planetary energies that the brakes are on. If you push harder, you will only meet with resistance. We are talking about the pace of walking here; not running faster. So keep going but do it ever so slowly. Persist! Learning the art of patience is something all spiritual teachings encourage us to practice. It is a wisdom learned only through practice, practice, practice. This is especially true when Saturn is applying to a planet like Mars or even Mercury, which also likes to move quickly along. There is a pressure going on which can not be hurried under such transits. So be the Mountain Goat and move carefully but surely towards your goal or ambition at this time.

Discipline
This quality goes hand in hand with patience, but may be called for when attempting to learn a new skill or develop strength in achievement. Saturn is the epitome of discipline which involves the right use of our will to become more exacting and careful. One aspect of discipline involves doing something whether you feel like it or not. Another aspect of discipline might be restraint where you hold yourself back rather than lashing out impulsively. Discipline can involve action, but it can also involve the emotional body. There can be mental discipline as applied in study or meditation. In order to surmise where you need to apply more discipline look to where Saturn is moving and aspecting some of your own energies. If the Moon is involved it may be emotional discipline. If Mercury is involved, it’s mental discipline. If the Sun is involved it is the right use of your Will.

Responsibility
The wise use of Saturn is applied responsibility. This gets better with age if one is willing to learn and become wiser. Of course young children with strong Saturn in their charts are often responsible far beyond their years. Under a Saturn transit it is important to see what house requires greater responsibility on your part or someone else in your life. If Saturn is moving through your first house, it is obviously you who must become more responsible first of all to yourself, and then to others. If Saturn is moving through your 7th or 8th houses, perhaps you are looking to others who are responsible and needing them in your life. If they are not, perhaps you need to end those relationships are begin to require that they respond with greater strength of character towards you and others.

Respect for ‘Real’ Authority
This can be tricky. Saturn does represent authority, but what kind of authority? Real authority is responsible, disciplined, and respectful of others. False authority doesn’t give a dam. Sorry to be so blunt, but we do have a lot of false authority out there compelling us to decide whether to obey or not their injunctions. A young child experiencing a Saturn transit may not yet have the power of that choice, or may not yet be ready to discern who is wise in their authority and who is not. It is not until the first Saturn Return that we are truly ready to have enough experience under our belt to determine our own course in life and become our own inner authority probably. The first Saturn Return occurs around the age of 28 years. It is a time, often, of great struggle for the young adult who must leave behind anything which doesn’t ring true as he/she determines their path in life towards their own ambition.

For those of us older, and hopefully wiser, a Saturn transit is a good time to look to our own ‘inner authority’ based upon our solid experience and tested philosophy of life. There are solid and good natural laws that are worth having respect for such as ‘respect for all life’, ‘respect for individual rights’, and even ‘respect for higher wisdom’.

Even so, under a Saturn transit it is prudent to respect society’s authority figures or pay the consequences! Restraint is usually called for at these times. Sometimes it is better to be silent than to mouth off, for example. Sometimes it is better to just pay the traffic fine rather than protest if Saturn is bearing down on you heavily.

‘Reality Checks’
It is said that Saturn ‘tests for reality’. Again, this is dependent on one’s philosophy of life and mind-set probably, yet I would say in general that Saturn does present the mirror of what is factual and real more than say Neptune as a transit. Saturn often represents cause and effect and under its auspices something put in motion in the past may finally catch up with us to be reckoned with. That’s the reality of life on a planet where the accepted paradigm still is a three-dimensional reality. Of course some of us know other-wise and love to journey into those other realms, but let’s say the foundation of your house has serious cracks in it. It’s time to use that Saturn transit to get some contractors over and fix the problem. Or if your teeth have cracks in them, why not go to the dentist and have him take care of them? That’s what I’m talking about here.

Money matters, health matters, real life issues are often improved under Saturn because we pay attention and get real with fixing whatever it is that needs improvement. If Saturn is present during an illness you are probably going to get some facts about what the problem is and how to solve it.

Self-Mastery
There are other planets which also represent aspects of Self-Mastery, especially the outer more transpersonal planets, but Saturn is the best friend you’ve got for climbing that mountain you have designated to be your ambition. Along the way you are sure to meet obstacles and challenges. Saturn will be your friend if you are willing to be patient, discipline yourself, take responsibility, and persist in your efforts to achieve that high goal. This is what self-mastery is all about. It doesn’t come in a jar that you can apply. It isn’t some quick fix. It is all about the journey, often taken alone; that only you can do that brings you finally to an inner place of knowing you have mastered something. Perhaps you are trying to master an emotion that always seems to trip you up and sabotage you. Perhaps it is a skill that you have worked long and hard to perfect. Perhaps it is a spiritual path that has required your devotion and life-long persistence to achieve. Whatever it is, Saturn is the surest guide and—yes—FRIEND you’ve got towards becoming a true master.

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com

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Your Personal Guide to Jupiter’s Transit through Cancer until July 17th, 2014 by Genevieve Vierling

7/28/2013

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On June 25th/26th, 2013 Jupiter entered its sign of exaltation in Cancer, and there it will remain until July 17th of 2014. What exactly is meant by ‘exaltation’? Exaltation is a term used by astrologers to emphasize the ideal expression of a planet’s energy for creative purposes.

Jupiter Exalted in Cancer
Jupiter has come to represent something big, bountiful, and ever expanding. After all, the planet itself is enormous and gaseous. Buoyancy describes Jupiter to a T. The sign of Cancer is where we need to focus which includes our most immediate circle of family, close friends, our ‘clan’ and/or community in addition to paying attention to our innermost feelings. With Jupiter in this sign enthusiasm and grandiosity may be tempered by sensitivity, especially towards others where empathy and consideration are exercised. That certainly is the ideal to reach for especially in our world today where the global village concept has now taken root as an antidote to the ‘New World Order’ and where perhaps kindliness and gentleness can expand beyond the perimeters of tribal consciousness to encompass a greater family of life which includes not just humans but all our kinfolk here on Earth. I know here where I live in the woods I consider the ravens, the wild turkeys, the beautiful little foxes, the hummingbirds, the deer, and all the other creatures that find homes around our simple cabin to be ‘family’. What about where you live? Perhaps you live in a city but have raccoons around you, like in San Francisco, or pigeons. Of course include your pets! Perhaps it’s that homeless person who begs on the corner every time you leave to go about your errands in the city. Consider that person ‘family’ as well. I think Jupiter in Cancer is about enlarging the concept itself of family/tribe.

General Themes
Watch your feelings during this year ahead.  Allow them a place in your life to expand. If you feel more optimistic that would be great, but if other feelings well up in you, give them some space and honor them. Feelings, like water, need to move freely along. It’s when they are dammed up that they cause trouble if unleashed suddenly. This is actually a good year to develop more fully your own emotional sensitivity. If excessive fear arises Jupiter can be that support to help you to move beyond those limitations with greater faith in something bigger than yourself to sustain you. Cancer, by its very nature, is a highly protective sign and has a great mothering instinct embedded in it. Jupiter will enlarge upon this theme so watch for where you feel extra protective in the months to come.

Issues of privacy may also become a central theme.  We certainly have that in our face now due to the startling revelations of just how deeply invasive the NSA has penetrated into all our private lives. Perhaps this will be a personal theme for you in various ways in the months ahead. What kind of privacy do you need? To what degree do you protect your own privacy rights? What about those around you? Do you respect their rights to privacy as well? It’s certainly time for further dialogue and even debate on all these highly important themes. I remember vividly as a child, due to the religious beliefs I was raised with, that God could see every single thing I was doing. I used to wonder about that when sitting on the toilet! It actually had the effect of creating great caution in me to always ‘do the right thing’. Well now—-guess what?—–we have something similar in a new way with big brother having access to all our thoughts, feelings, and inter-change with each other. It does make you ponder, except that this ‘god’ is a far cry from the heavenly father I wondered about. Cancer feels vulnerable to over-exposure. That’s why it is depicted as a Crab with a shell protecting its soft inner body. So where are your defenses? That’s another issue arising with Jupiter in Cancer.

Family values will be a major theme ahead. The good news is that Jupiter has already expanded the concept of family with a recent USA Supreme Court ruling that those states wanting to make legal marriage between same-sex people is now A-OK. This means that family cultures will be changing to include two men or two women legal partners who may choose to have children as part of their family. Of course this has already been going on, but not legally sanctioned. Jupiter has a lot to do with the beliefs and mores of a culture. Also the theme of extended families will be enlarged upon. Do you feel that your friends are more like ‘family’ than your family of origin? That might be one theme. Maybe you considered your cats and dogs to be your children. Somehow the sense of emotional attachment is always expanded upon with Jupiter in Cancer.

Higher values may be now placed on our basic nurturance needs which certainly include food, and housing. These are becoming increasingly important topics everywhere.  The entire GMO topic may gather force both positively and negatively as more and more people begin to question the rights of companies like Monsanto to monopolize the seed industry and thus the food supply. There is a great article right now in The Mountain Astrologer discussing the chart of Monsanto that I encourage all of you to read. I had actually done research for a potential article on Monsanto several months ago, but Eric Francis Coppolino has done a superb job in his article ‘The Cosmic Signature of Monsanto & GMOs’. Mr. Coppolino has been tracking this company ever since 1991 when ‘electrical transformers filled with Monsanto’s PCB insulating fluid exploded in dormitories on my local college campus…’ That’s when he actually began his in-depth investigations as a young reporter. Now he is a very astute astrologer as well. Jupiter encourages us to learn and explore topics of importance, and what could be more important than what nurtures and sustains us. If we don’t have good and clean air, water, and food we are doomed to nothing but hardship and disease

Housing will also be an important theme. This is certainly a good year to improve your home and its surroundings. Ordinarily it would be a good year for real estate, but now the world is forever altered and the normal Jupiter/Saturn cycles don’t seem to work as rhythmically predictable as they used to. Even so, do what you can to improve your physical home life whether that means buying and moving to a new home, or improving the one you have.

Cancer-related businesses are also traditionally where growth and improvement can occur during Jupiter’s passage. These businesses include real estate and all home-related industries and businesses, food-related businesses such as farming, food-processing, food wholesalers and retailers, the restaurant industry, even bars. Then there are the hospitality industries such as hotels, motels, resorts, etc. Have you heard of the AirBnB phenomenon? It has really taken off world-wide but will undoubtedly be opposed by the hotel industry, and already is. Big business simply doesn’t like it when small people find a way to ‘beat the system’. Other possible industries and businesses which might find growth or issues during Jupiter in Cancer include the insurance industries and any industry which looks after people’s security needs, such as home alarms/security systems, etc. Let’s see what takes place in the USA with Social Security! Jupiter in Cancer ideally wants to protect the weak and helpless. Will we see that actually occur in governmental policies in the year ahead?

Re-unions and nostalgia for the past will flourish. People have always loved their high-school and alma mater reunions, but these along with family reunions will undoubtedly proliferate as Jupiter moves along in Cancer. Cancer, after all, has nostalgia for things of the past, so get out your scrapbooks and old letters. It’s a great year to bring further meaning to any sentimental journey you wish to embark on whether it is creating your own memory lane gathering or private journal, or literally traveling back to where you came from in some manner. Ancestry.com should gain a lot of new members this year!

Finally, there may be growth and prosperity for all women’s issues and Goddess-related themes including women’s movements of all kinds. The Great Mother, the Triple Goddess all harken from the archetype of Cancer. This nurturing, fecundating principle may now be filled with new inspiration to move forward. Up here in Nevada County there is a large community of women working in such organizations as Gather the Women, and now Marilyn Nyborg’s newest endeavor,Women Waking the World. What is going on where you live that is supporting and encouraging women to make positive changes and strengthen their many gifts? Another wonderful movement has been started by another outstanding woman, Wendy Silvers, with her Million Mamas Movement. This movement is for mothers (and fathers) who truly love their children and want to create a better world for them.

I certainly haven’t exhausted all the possible themes relating to Cancer. Let our readers know if you think of another general theme.

Personal Themes

Pay attention to where Jupiter in Cancer is moving in your own chart. Do you have planets in Cancer such as Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, or Mars? Jupiter will both support and expand upon those energies for you personally. Is your Ascendant or Midheaven in Cancer? If it is your Ascendant, you are truly at a new beginning of self-confidence to launch something out into the world now. If it is your Midheaven, you are ready for expansion and growth in your public life and career. It is generally considered to be a good year when Jupiter is moving through your Sun sign for it gives you energy, buoyancy, and optimism to fulfill your life purpose. The Moon is your emotional body, but also your personal needs. Jupiter here can support you and supply some grace in your life.

Jupiter in its positive manifestation is akin to Zeus who was raised on milk and honey according to the myth. Jupiter has come to represent good fortune, growth, and grace. Jupiter also represents expansion of your soul and higher mind which reaches towards super consciousness through the realms of religion, metaphysics, and philosophy. Jupiter equals your faith as well as your enthusiasm for life and higher learning.

Keep in mind that aspects from Jupiter to any of your planets will tend to benefit those energies, whatever the aspect, with some cautionary advice to be aware of. Jupiter does have a negative manifestation. For example, one caution for people with Jupiter transiting through either their 1st or 6th houses is that weight gain is a possibility. So unless you are super thin, this might not be what you want! Negative traits of Jupiter are excess, extravagance, extreme and fanatical beliefs, and wastefulness. Jupiter can represent over-load and over-whelm as well. So pay attention to those qualities when factoring in the effects of Jupiter transits to any of your energies, especially when you are dealing with squares or oppositions to a planet, though conjunctions may also be problematical, such as Jupiter over the Moon (weight gain again!).

One way to get a perspective of what may be in store for you with Jupiter in Cancer is to look back to when it was in this signnearly 12 years ago, keeping in mind that all the other planets are undoubtedly in different positions now so the patterns of energy aren’t quite the same. Jupiter was last in Cancer from July 14, 2001 through August 1, 2002. What was going on in your life back then? That cycle is now renewed again where Jupiter is concerned. I remember that I got to travel to Italy with some of my clan and we had a fabulous time in the Cinque Terra region, but it was also when I got to visit Damanhur in Northern Italy, an incredible spiritual community with an amazing temple created inside a mountain with powerful energies emulating from it. It was a spiritual high point in my life.

The United States was experiencing its own Jupiter effect with a Jupiter Return year, plus Jupiter in this country’s Sun sign. But guess what? It was the year of 9/11. That event occurred as you well know on September 11th, 2001 as Jupiter was at 11 degrees of Cancer. The United States Sun is at 13 degrees of Cancer. We’ve now had nearly 12 years since that key demarcation year. Homeland Security was born out of that. Is it a force for good or ill now? The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were also spawned from that event. The home-mortgage fiasco ensued in the following years. All these themes around purpose, nurturance, security, patriotism, and the ‘home land’ have drastically changed since that defining moment in time. Much to contemplate that is beyond the scope of this small article. Still it’s good to now reflect on what was going on in your life wherever you are on the globe and how that event also impacted your life in subtle and not-so-subtle ways since.

Let’s now look at Jupiter through each of the twelve housesas a transit. In looking at your own birth chart you may see that the sign itself starts in one house and ends in another. If that is the case, consider both houses. If you don’t know the time of your birth and have to work with a Solar Chart where the Sun is placed on the Ascendant, you can still track Jupiter’s cycle by considering the ‘Solar house’ where Cancer falls. This is actually how all those major horoscope columns work. They all work with Solar houses, not actual houses, when they make their ‘predictions’. Finally, be aware that Jupiter will go into its retrograde phase starting on November 7th at 20 degrees of Cancer. It will move back to the 10th degree before finally turning direct on March 6th, 2014. So the degrees of 10 to 20 (the second decanate) are going to be emphasized for a long time; actually from August 11th, 2013 to June 4th, 2014. Any planets, angles, or other points in your chart at those degrees will be more strongly impacted for a longer period of time by Jupiter.

Transit Jupiter through the First House:
You may now launch something new that has personal significance for you. I launched this blog when Jupiter was in my first house, for example. You may feel more confident, optimistic and up-beat during this time. You are entering a time of self-discovery and self-improvement. It is time to advance yourself! You may feel both blessed and protected as you begin your new cycle of personal growth. It’s a good time to draw benefits from others to yourself as well as to go out there and pursue your own interests. Yes, it’s a good time to travel, study something new, and expand your philosophy, just as it’s a good time to invest and even take some calculated risks.

Be also aware that you can gain weight because you may become over-indulgent. Watch your ego as well and be careful with over-exaggerating from an egoic place.

Transit Jupiter through the Second House:
You may experience a greater sense of self-worth now as well as abundance in what you possess, including monetary gain. You may want to acquire certain possessions now, but be aware that you may be tempted to spend too much and become extravagant with your assets. Ordinarily, however, this is a happy period of your life where you feel blessed, secure, and protected by the physical realm. It’s a good time to actualize more fully what you truly value. If your values are highly spiritual, you’ll truly experience an increase in that sphere.

How you manage all of your resources is a theme, so pay attention and try not to mismanage your gifts and assets now.

Transit Jupiter through the Third House:
What a great time period to increase all of your contacts with others, whether those in your immediate surroundings and neighborhood or in places like Facebook and other social net-working sites. Your relationships with siblings, cousins, and peers may be either enhanced or exaggerated if there are problems. Jupiter, however, may give you the grace to handle some of those problems through better communications.

It’s a great time to acquire new skills that become automatic once you’ve mastered the steps required to learn them. By the same token, if you train others in some field, you will really thrive now. Communications of all types are encouraged and possibly less subject to failures now. You’ll find yourself more mentally receptive, open, and even optimistic now. It’s a great time to shift your attitudes towards the positive with greater tolerance for other’s points of views as well.

Watch out, however, for bombast and verbose, loose-tongued rants and raves!

Transit Jupiter through the Fourth House:
This is a wonderful year to improve your home life and personal inner world whether physically or emotionally. If you need a bigger, better home, what a great year to move forward with that goal. If you want to improve the land around your home by landscaping, growing a garden (Yes!), go for it. If you want more peace and privacy in your personal world, secure it. In fact, this is a good year to create more security for yourself and your family.

This is also considered a year when your personal life won’t cause problems in your professional life. You may want to have more gatherings in your home socially. In terms of your family life, happiness may increase, but if there are dysfunctions within the family they will also be exaggerated. Jupiter, however, symbolizes a support system to heal and clean those problematical areas up if you are willing to invest. It’s a good year for therapy.

Transit Jupiter through the Fifth House:
This can be another great year for increasing your self-confidence and creative abilities. Your courage to just be yourself may blossom. When it comes to enjoyment and romance, this is a banner year. Of course, like all Jupiter times, you can over-do a good thing and then suffer the consequences when Jupiter moves into your 6th. Matters of the heart, however, are encouraged and supported primarily.

If you have children, they may very well flourish. You will certainly have opportunity to enjoy them now. If you are a teacher or work with children, this may be a very positive year. Outings, sports, entertainment, and performing at whatever level feels good are all encouraged.

So have some fun, take a few risks, and live it up! Just keep your judgment intact.

Transit Jupiter through the Sixth House:
So you’ve had your fun in the 5th last year; now is the time to improve yourself and master any creative skill that may have been awakened. This is a good year for making gains in your work and daily routines, whether that includes exercise, diet, meditation, or work-related routines. Any new regimen that you want to start or improve will be supported.

If you are seeking new employment or better working conditions, this is a great time because you’ll feel a sense of fulfillment growing. You can take on more work as well. It’s a great year to start a new project or complete one already in process because there may be less stress involved.

Of course you’ll want to watch your weight being careful with carbs, excess fats, and sweets.

Transit Jupiter through the Seventh House:
You’ve just completed approximately six years of personal development and growth as Jupiter moved through the 1st through 6th houses. Now you’re ready to move up and out. It’s a year which will favor all your 1:1 encounters including your major personal partnership as well as any business or professional partnerships you are involved in. This is a bountiful and fruitful year for bringing in helpful people where there can be mutual exchanges. If you need good advisors such as lawyers, doctors, consultants, or counselors, this is a time to benefit from their advice. You’re going to feel socially optimistic and want to perhaps expand your sphere with others.

Jupiter types of people may enter your life now such as teachers, mentors, guides, or even people of means and wealth. You may also encounter people from other cultures, countries, and ethnicities.

If you are married or in a long-term partnership, this is a good year to improve your relationship. If you can’t grow together more, you may grow apart however. This includes business partnerships as well.

Transit Jupiter through the Eighth House:
Growth now extends to a deeper level with partnerships into the realm of mergers and sharing of resources. You may see your partners benefit in some way during this year, or you benefit from their largesse of resources. For example, this is a good year to get a loan from a bank or financial institution, just as it is a good year to gain a grant, scholarship, or stipend. It’s a good year to make gains on your investments just as inheritances are favored now. Jupiter here favors most joint resources.

On an emotional level it’s an excellent time for improving your most intimate relationships increasing your tendency to be more open and even vulnerable in sexual and close bonded relationships. You may experience a richer connection with another opening you to the magic of true intimacy.

On a spiritual level all manner of occult teachings and the mysteries of life/death transformations may be opened by Jupiter’s teachings and experiences. Your values may go through powerful transformations as you move from the personal to the transpersonal and even universal now. Jupiter in this realm is considered powerful and fortunate.

Again, the admonishment of good judgment is called for in this natural house of Scorpio. You may also experience extremes and enormous upheavals if too drawn to powers in others or the universe which you aren’t strong enough to handle.

Transit Jupiter through the Ninth House:
Ah, Jupiter is now back in its own realm/house. Travel, higher education, and expansion on so many levels are favored here for approximately one year. You can explore the outer world through long-distance travel with a true sense of adventure, but you can equally explore the inner realms through reading, studying, or spiritual practices such as meditation this year. This can be a great year for consciousness expansion.

If you want to write and publish you have tremendous support. If you are working on a major project, thesis, preparation for big career shifts, this year provides support to push on through. If you are a teacher this may be a banner year for you.

Of course you may just want to have adventures which are out-ward bound in nature or the world of sports. Jupiter brings success and fulfillment now for you.

Your world view could grow and expand this year encompassing much more than you ever dreamed of. The sky is no longer the limit here as outer space and inner space beckon with new worlds to be discovered.

Transit Jupiter through the Tenth House:
Like the first house, this can be a year of major launching, but it is truly your public life that is being supported and expanded upon. Your profession, your career, your social status and reputation are all supported by the Jupiter effect. This could even be a year of fame for you! So go for it big-time.

You may experience rewards and awards for your accomplishments. You may gain a promotion. You may be favored by authority figures in your life. Certainly it is a good year to move forward with new ventures in your career or to make gains in what you are already involved with. The key is your own attitude towards your true calling. If you truly love what you are doing, you will be blessed inside no matter what is gained in the outer.

Just be aware that hubris and false pride which often accompany an inflated ego may also be present. Some with the Jupiter effect become even more overbearing, domineering, and arrogant during this passage. I doubt those of you reading this are in that category however.

The tenth house, like the fourth, has much to do with parents and parenting as well. So if there are issues needing support and attention with your parents or with you as a parent they may well be supported or exaggerated with Jupiter’s transit this year.

Transit Jupiter through the Eleventh House:
This realm is often where you experience success or failure as a result of what has transpired in the tenth house. In general, Jupiter promises fulfillment of your goals and long-term ambitions once it arrives in this sphere. You may feel a deepening sense of satisfaction for a job well done even as you set your sight on new goals and distant horizons. This is the house of futures, and it’s time to dream big dreams for your own future now, or even those dreams that you participate in with your community and the world.

Certainly your circle of friends and colleagues may now enlarge and your may want to take advantage of these circles for they will benefit you in a variety of ways either for professional reasons, or simply to gain that feeling of belonging. This is a good year to be with others and participate in community. It is also a good year to help out in the world to make it a better place for future generations.

Transit Jupiter through the Twelfth House:
This final arena before Jupiter once again enters the First house and a new beginning can be a time of completion in its twelve-year cycle around your personal wheel. Jupiter also classically rules Pisces and the twelfth house, so there is spiritual protection and potential rewards when it is here. If your spiritual life means a great deal to you, this is a wonderful time to immerse yourself in that realm. If you are helping others spiritually, you will only increase in that capacity.

This is a year to gain a sense of unity and wholeness with all of life if you are willing to become more introspective or contemplative. All aspects of mysticism are now supported and encouraged just as an increasing sense of empathy and compassion for all is encouraged as well.

Exploring more fully the subconscious realm through dream-work, trance-journeys, and even private journaling is enhanced by Jupiter during this year. You can certainly gain more insights into your inner-most nature as well as the archetypal world during this period. If you want to increase your intuitive abilities, this is also the right time to do so.

The pitfalls of Jupiter here are obviously exaggeration of these realms and becoming ungrounded. Especially dangerous would be the use of drugs when the urge to escape is stronger than the urge to gain deeper understanding. Use of psycho-tropic substances when used by a trained and skilled shamanic guide could be enlightening, however, under Jupiter’s grace here. The twelfth really is the most spiritual of all the houses, and if approached with the intention of gaining true spiritual growth the initiate will benefit greatly during this years sojourn prior to Jupiter’s passage over the Ascendant once again.

(You may want to print parts of this article out to refer to as the year progresses.)

May your journey with Jupiter be blessed!

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VERNAL SPRING EQUINOX and the Next Three Months by Genevieve Vierling

3/24/2013

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Vernal Equinox 2013

When the Sun hits 0 degrees of Aries we arrive at that pivotal point once again when the day and night are equal in length—-ever so briefly. Nothing is static in our revolving solar system within the larger galaxy within the larger universe. All is ever changing. Yet we tropical astrologers mark the high turning points of each revolution by paying attention to the Solstice points and Equinox points each year as our planet makes its own revolution around our star, the Sun.

I am sharing the exact moment of this Equinox with a chart for Washington DC in the USA because this country, for better or worse, continues to impact the rest of the globe mightily. We see a Pisces rising chart with Sun/Mars/and Uranus all intercepted in the 1st forming a strong T-square with Pluto in the 10th in Capricorn, and the Moon in Cancer in the 4th. Dynamic tension exists here setting the stage for the next three months.

So let’s talk about the Fire of Aries. Aries likes to impulsively push ahead through the resistance and inertia of the past (Pisces). The force of spring does that in the northern hemisphere whilst in the southern the descent towards autumn has begun. Where in your life is it now necessary to push through something? Where do you need to strive with a great blast of fire to overcome the inertia of the past? Do it!! These four turning points of every year are Cardinal in nature, but none more so than Aries. Aries doesn’t like to muck around, stall or debate. Aries likes to take immediate action on what is impelling from within to burst outward.

Containment and Control

The reason I am urging you on is because there is way too much inertia still. The forces of Pluto in Capricorn are daunting because they represent the great weight and over-bearing power of centuries of institutionalized programs and structures that require massive change or they will literally snuff the life out of all of us, including our planet’s eco-systems (Moon in Cancer) that now hang in the balance. They are like a great dam which attempts to totally control the watery realm of feelings, caring, nurturing, and natural flows and rhythms we so desperately need to stay alive.

A watery time ahead

You see Uranus in Aries is now the only solid FIRE we’ve got for quite a long while. Right now we have Mars joining it for a few weeks, as well as the Sun for just a few short days. Then what? Yes, we have a bit of air from Jupiter in Gemini, but predominantly we have water, water, water. And that watery realm will increase once Jupiter joins by entering the sign of Cancer of June 26th.

So where is the balance? There is quite frankly, very little balance right now. Things are pretty skewed, screwy, off-kilter. That’s why we need to exaggerate the fire for a bit within ourselves right now. Yes, go ahead and get angry at all the injustices around you. But don’t just get angry. Do something about it. Act according to your conscience. Act with determination and passion. Act as if your life depended upon it, and your children’s lives, and your grandchildren’s lives, and the life of this dear, precious planet that is our only home.

Helen Caldicott

One woman acting with this much anger, passion, and intensity because time is running out is Helen Caldicott. She proves that anger is a force which gets things done positively. She inspires. She motivates. That’s the kind of anger needed now. When you see what is wrong, get angry and DO something about it that is a force for good. Even Christ did that when he drove the money changers out of a holy place. Our earth is holy. It is sacred. We have plenty of money-changers to take care of now, do we not?

On this same theme, here’s a book to raise your consciousness:  Soul-Sick Nation, An Astrologer’s View of America by Jessica Murray. I consider Ms. Murray to be the most articulate and eloquent mundane astrologer writing today. No man touches her with the clarity and punch she delivers. This book has many chapters which are tour de forces of high-consciousness delivery designed to awaken us all to the true beast that America has become with its dominant Pluto in Capricorn now running the show. Ms. Murray takes it all on chapter by chapter until you really see the under-belly of what can only be labeled ‘soul sick’. Perhaps only a woman could write like this at this time. I’ve read almost all the male versions of mundane comments on the world scene and they mostly pussy-foot around all the emperors with no clothes. She tells it like it is without rancor, and with a great deal of compassion. But she speaks to truth in a way that simply can’t be refuted.

I give you a couple quotes from her book by way of illustration:

Chapter Five, “Power Madness”, Pluto and American Hegemony: “….Americans are starting to notice the connection between the fact that they heap more non-biodegradable trash upon landfills than can be absorbed and the fact that they heap humongous social debt upon future generations because they cannot pay for what they consume. The phrase throwaway culture was not even in the lexicon a generation ago; now someone can make reference to the forests cut down for the sake of the Sunday paper and everyone gets it.
As is usually the case with Plutonian subject matter, however, the most troubling features of the issue are the last to be talked about. Far more worrisome than barges of garbage carted out to sea are the tens of millions of American computers and cell phones piling up in dumps—-in the Third World, where they are picked apart for reusable parts by, in the many cases, the tiny fingers of children. The peculiarly toxic nature of these consumer goods—compounded by the fact that their manufacturers build them to self-outmode at faster and faster intervals—raises the horrific issue of environmental injustice: the tendency of carcinogenic, chemical refineries, nuclear plants and toxic dumps to be built either in impoverished foreign nations (Chernobyl is only the most notorious example) or in parts of the USA where the populace lacks the political and economic clout to stop them.
The idea of a throwaway culture is a deeply uncomfortable one. The notion of a throwaway world is more than merely uncomfortable; it is apocalyptic. The twin issues of global warming and peak oil have recently exploded into collective consciousness, taking the idea of misused wealth to a new level of relevance and urgency. Americans are beginning to realize that the way they use their resources is going to mark the difference between planetary health and ecocide.”

This book was written in 2006. As I write this article we are faced with the impending and horrific construction of the Keystone Pipeline through the heartland of America. You won’t get the facts through main-stream media or official Whitehouse statements. Only sites from people concerned will give you the truth such as  Tarsands Action.org.

In her chapter ‘Kill Your Television, Pluto opposite Mercury’ she states: “Part of America’s current crisis of self-revelation concerns media hegemony, bias and corruption, all of which have been duly outed in a flurry of bestsellers (e.g. Weapons of Mass Deception) and films (e.g. Outfoxed) exposing the news industry as an intellectual property cartel. But we have seen that myths grow up around Pluto, keeping it strangely isolated in the chart. These serve to protect the planet, perversely; from scrutiny and integration…….Obsolete notions and fantasies about free speech (Mercury) in a plutocratic economy (Pluto in the second house) abound in the national ethos.
One of these myths is that the availability of five hundred television channels means freer choice and higher quality programming—-a notion that falls away when we consider the ramifications of the fact that the same four corporations own everything from TV satellites to billboards. As industry watchers know, these mega-companies do not really compete with each other. Like a mafia family, the form a cartel that operates through a carefully controlled arrangement: Fox movies have to be sold to HBO, Warner cable has to take Fox because they’re the one with sports teams, and so on; all of which keeps the power locked in, and the independent producers shut out.”

Which takes me back to this Equinox chart where we see Neptune (planet of both vision and illusion) conjoining both Mercury and Chiron in Pisces squaring Jupiter in Gemini.  We are living in a time of high propaganda. It takes a highly discerning mind to filter out the lies that are disseminated daily from so-called experts and authorities (trine Saturn in Scorpio)

This chart has some amazing configurations which point to further control of people through manipulation, secrecy, and double-speak or to grass-roots movements of people everywhere tuning out the ‘official platforms and dogmas’ of mass media and connecting the dots by sharing and disseminating news from all the many outposts that by-pass officialdom. That would take us right back to Sun/Mars/Uranus, wouldn’t it? We can’t afford to stay asleep at the wheel right now. This Equinox is one more wake up call before the next Uranus/Pluto square becomes exact on May 21st, a month before the Summer Solstice.

There are so many ways to analyze this chart with its T-square in Cardinal signs, Grand Trine in Water, Kite pattern with Pluto at the head, Moon at the tail, plus two (count them!) Yods. (Fingers of God/Destiny aspects involving both Saturn and Jupiter) Whoever is born on this day will have a major destiny to unfold! Let’s hope these new little beings are infused with high levels of consciousness.

I just want to address before closing the Kite pattern: Pluto at the head of the kite is neutral remember. It simply represents a death-rebirth process that includes a breakdown of whatever it touches. It can represent the darker, more secretive powers at work which wish to break-down the all others into dependent and defenseless creatures (opposite Moon in Cancer) at the mercy of it its ruthless power and will. That would be symbolic of one scenario playing itself out like ‘Lord of the Rings’ on the planet right now. OR, it can represent the rising up again of the feminine forces, archetypally-speaking, (Neptune in Pisces trine Moon in Cancer, trine Saturn in Scorpio all inter-acting with Pluto at the head of the Kite) that connect the dots and work with the powers of alchemical transmutation to invoke a rebirth out of the ashes of that which must surely decay and die (Pluto in Capricorn).

We who adhere to metaphysical knowledge and wisdom know great cycles are coming to an end now. We know the last-gasp clutches of old patriarchal systems are attempting to maintain control. (Witness what is going on with the Catholic Church right now as a literal example). We don’t really know what the future will bring. Not really. Prophets are meant to warn us of the future in order to awaken us, but not necessarily to truly ‘know’ what lies ahead. I do feel we need to be AWARE in the deepest sense of the word. We can not flinch from the perversities and degradations we witness, but I feel we also need to stay strong and willing to do whatever is calling us to help to create a better world for those who will follow us. Finally, I feel in my bones that thankfulness for each new day is tantamount, whatever is to take place. When I walk in the woods I thank the trees, the birds, the little salamanders, the ravens for continuing to be there. They are gifts just as they are. I do not need to own them nor use them. They live as I do right now. And I am thankful to simply BE in life with them in kinship together.

Water free to flow

This Equinox chart shows us a mirror in place for the next 3 months. We initiate change with FIRE, we spread the word with AIR, we connect through the realm of WATER with our feelings, and we invoke the powers of EARTH to ground deep spirituality into the crass materialism that is attempting to control and contain the natural flow of life on this beautiful planet Earth.

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com

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The Accomplishments Of Capricorn by Genevieve Vierling

1/13/2013

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From the Winter Solstice around December 21st to January 20th we are in the time of Capricorn. Those souls born under this sign often have a sense of mission, a sense of strong purpose. Gradually over time they climb the mountain of their ambitions, like a sure-footed goat, and achieve their goals and intentions until they can truly say, “I have accomplished what I set out to do.”

Sign of the Goat Fish

This ancient symbol of Capricorn has roots in many civilizations: the Babylonians called it Suhur.mas or ‘goat-fish’, the Greeks named it Aigokeros or ‘goat-horned’, to the Indians it was Makura or ‘sea-monster’, to the Romans it was caper (goat) cornu (horn). The Chinese evolved ‘The Ox’ into MoKi, the Goat-fish, after being introduced to the Western constellation by the Jesuits, and the Jews called it Azazel, the scape-goat.

This extremely old zodiacal creature is found in the myths of the Indus Valley civilization now known as Pakistan, which thrived around 2000 B.C. The Babylonians called it Oannes or Ea, a creature said to have come from the waters of the Persian Gulf who was both half-man and half-fish; a wise being who taught these early people how to link the world of spirit to that of matter.

Ea was also known as ‘the antelope of the subterranean ocean’. Goats generally speaking, and antelopes in particular, were often depicted in Mesopotamian art as feeding on the leaves of the ‘Tree of Life’. Thus, Ea, also as antelope, brought great knowledge and wisdom on how to become more civilized to these early peoples.

While many Capricorns remain quite earth bound their entire lifetime, there certainly is a more spiritual and mystical side to their nature as symbolized by this sea-goat. Within the sea imagery is the infinite potential of the spirit, which if applied to Capricorns natural ambition can lead to great spiritual development of character strength. Having a plan and executing it with great patience and perseverance is what is needed for the gradual ascent towards spiritual authority and leadership.

Accomplishing Rather Than Just Doing

Capricorn is both the final Cardinal sign and Earth sign of the Zodiac. Cardinal signs are action oriented, while Earth signs like to be pragmatic, thus Capricorn doesn’t just ike to do to keep busy, but rather does to accomplish a tangible, and often socially-oriented goal. The roster of Capricorn-born souls is formidable in terms of what these people have accomplished during one lifetime; not that the accomplishments are always of the highest and purest of spiritual motives, mind you. There are plenty of people in this list who have achieved much that was questionable in terms of ethics and true social service for the highest good, for example: Joseph Stalin, Al Capone, F. Batista, and Richard M. Nixon. Nonetheless, the roster certainly includes more souls of high-minded motives who made their contribution to society in a positive and substantial way such as Clara Barton, Louis Pasteur, Joan of Arc, and Martin Luther King,

My own files are loaded with accomplished clients from all walks of life including psychologists, teachers, CEOs, nurse-practitioners, authors, landlords and real estate agents, producers, etc. Those not necessarily involved in professional careers can be multi-talented and accomplished in the home, on the ranch, and involved with civic and socially-involved organizations.

Qualities and Characteristics

Whether born under the Sun sign of Capricorn, or having Moon, Ascendant, or a Stellium in Capricorn, or a strongly placed Saturn, the following characteristics can be a part of the natives nature. There is often a compelling sense of responsibility at an early age that pushes the Capricorn type into action by taking on a great deal. I’ll use our youngest daughter as a perfect example: with her Moon in Capricorn, from a wee age, she had a need to take care of animals, and I don’t mean just a few pets. Our home, over the course of her childhood, was filled with cats, dogs, birds, reptiles including turtles, lizards, and snakes, hamsters, rats, geese (well, they had to stay outside!), and even a wolf. She gave each pet a name and loved them all with a passion. Later, as a teenager, this penchant for taking on a lot got transferred to other peers who often came from broken, troubled homes, and needed more nourishment. One morning I counted 15 kids on the living-room floor asleep in sleeping bags or bedrolls. She was a veritable taxi for the community-gang, transporting them in her old Jeep, and she was always asking if this friend or that could live with us for a bit until their family ‘tragedy’ got sorted out. Today, as a young and highly productive adult, she has transformed this need to be responsible for much more than just herself into a professional life which involves groups of people.

Work is often ‘play’ for a Capricorn. They are Saturn-ruled. Mars is exalted in this sign. Known for their seriousness, methodology, and determination to reach their personal best, they can be accused of being workaholics. It is perhaps better that they acknowledge this trait and just say, “I enjoy working!”

Capricorn is the planner and organizer, and they are willing to endure short-term hardships for long-term gains and rewards. They have the qualities of endurance built in to their very bones! Sometimes I wonder why the camel wasn’t ascribed to this signs symbology. The qualities of the camel are such that they can travel long distances through arid and hostile terrains without fussing, fainting, or faltering because they have the ability to sustain themselves quite nicely for such harsh conditions. Their temperaments are also notorious for being no-nonsense and sometimes down-right nasty to anyone foolish enough to get in their orbit without due respect.

Capricorns like that which is time-honored, classic, and traditional. Quality, not quantity, would favor Capricorn’s taste, like good quality fabrics such as silk, cashmere, wool gabardine, and fine-gauged Egyptian cotton rather than hi-tech polymers or polyesters. Antique furnishings, heirlooms, traditional architecture may be a part of their life-style. A sense of lineage, history, and continuity of genealogy takes the Capricorn from the solid past towards establishing something more permanent and long-lasting in their own wake. They like to keep the threads of civilzation going rather than necessarily revolutionizing them. Unless a good dose of Aquarian energy is mixed with this sign, it is tradition that is to be honored. Capricorn wants, by nature, to build even more solid social structures and institutions. It is a sign meant to participate in the greater social order rather than defying it. Perhaps that is why so many public leaders and politicians, as well as prominent industrialists and heads of long-standing corporations have this sign prominent in their make-up such as Howard Hughes, Helena Rubenstein, Conrad HIlton, Aristotle Onassis, and David Lloyd George.

Saturn, as ruler, is not just the ‘grim reaper’ emphasizing the seriousness of the sign. To the Romans Saturn had an extremely sensual and sexual side to his nature, which their major event held every December, the ‘Saturnalia’, expressed most ardently. In this great time of festival all roles were reversed as master became slave, and slave became master. All sexual mores were put on hold and anything went with literally weeks of celebrations, feasts, and orgies, if so desired. This original ‘return of the Sun’ festival allowed for the greater collective release of pent-up primal earth energies to emerge in a socially-sanctioned container where absolute license and permissiveness prevailed.

In the evolution of a lifetime, the Capricorn should, by rights, get a bit younger with age and let out gradually all the stops of anything repressed or denied in their earthy nature. Like Merlin, coming in feeling older and wiser than need be, they may balance out their seriousness with greater frivolity as they mature. Perhaps ‘the lecherous old goat’ cliche comes frm this need for Capricorns to get more ribald and lusty with age. Developing a sense of humor is part of this journey; the kind of wry, tongue-in-cheek humor, which is often a gift of this sign.

Since Capricorn deals with structure and organization, the parts of the body ruled are the bones, skin, and the knees. The bones certainly give our bodies structure and form, and the skin keeps us intact and covered as a biological unit separate from anything else. The skin, as a boundary system, also allows the entrance and exit of elements both from within and without. Capricorn is said to rule all ‘boundaries and gateways’. The knees symbolically show the need for Capricorn to bend, and to learn humility in acknowledging a higher authority spiritually. Capricorn achieves by delegation of authority. They usually work their way up the ladder to success, unlike Leos who seem to feel they’ve been given the ‘Divine right’ of stature from the get-go. In the process of gaining status, Capricorn needs to learn flexibility and humility or suffer later in life from the rigidities and hubris of its shadow side. Public service is the key-note here with the emphasis on ‘serve’. The knees are linked to so much in the body. They certainly don’t function well by themselves. Capricorn is linked to something greater than itself, and does best by yielding to it.

Capricorn Constellation

This is the smallest of the 12 constellations, and the 40th in size of all listed constellations. There are only 31 visible stars of which Deneb Algedi is the most well known. This was a star used by both Greek and Arabic astronomer/astrologers. Ptolemy, of the 2nd Century AD, claimed that it shared both the qualities of Jupiter/Zeus and Saturn/Chronos. If the native was born with this star over-head at birth, it could bestow Jupiter’s benefits, but if born with it close to the Sun, Saturn’s difficulties might follow with later loss of property and postion in life. This star seems classic in describing all the myths and tales which told of individuals born into great advantage later sucumbing to hubris (pride, arrogance, and complacency) and thus falling from grace. Deneb Algedi seems to represent this cyclical rise and fall bearing the message of developing humility, caution, and devotion to a sense of duty if given the role of status and leadership in life.

The Myth of Pan, the Goat God

Whie many myths are allocated to Capricorn, including Hestia, Ea, Rhea, and The House of Atreu, the Myth of Pan yields some interesting insights into a side of Capricorn less publicized.

Aleister Crowley, the great occultist and originator of the ‘Crowley Tarot Deck’, assigned Pan, rather than the traditional Devil, to represent Capricorn in major arcana. Pan is one of many from the family of Satyrs written about in Greek and Roman myths especially. As a primal deity, he is full of lusty and wild natural urges that, shall we way, sometimes border on the obsessive, however if we stop to think about how nature works, and what lurks beneath the wintry surface during the Capricorn time of year, we can see that a raw primal force is needed to build from underground the energy needed to rush forth unbridled in the spring with Aries and the Spring Equinox. Capricorns need to acknowledge this more primal aspect at root in their own natures, which if kept unconscious can lead to all manner of excesses and eccentricities such as visible in people like Edgar Allen Poe, Rush Limbaugh, and Howard Stern.

In one version of Pen’s myth we find him leaping into the Nile in order to escape the wrath of the giant Typhon. While mid-air his head, which has remained above the water, turns into the head of a goat, while his lower body turns into the tail of a fish, and the goat-fish is born. Some say that within this Greek myth is the Christian over-lay seen during the Age of Pisces where Pan’s sexuality is repressed or controlled for 2060 years. In fact, what we’ve seen during this Age are Christian myths, and edifices super-imposed and replacing the pagan myths as well as power centers of Pan. Pantheism means ‘God in everything’ basically. Monotheism could never tolerate such a concept, and thus the more primal forces of life have been ‘sublimated’ and/or pushed down into the Collective Unconscious.

In Capricorn we have this civilized need to control often turning highly repressive and even diabolical when the cold austerity and materialism of church and state attempt to crush out the primal qualities that Pan represents. A good movie on this theme is Fanny and Alexander,

In the ’80s Pan began to have a revival in such far flung places as Scotland with the community of Findhorn. One of the founders called ‘Roc’ communed with Pan during his daily walks in the woods. He describes these remarkable encounters in the book The Story of the Findhorn Garden. Findhorn created a way to dialogue between the angelic kingdoms and the devic kingdoms of Pan with humans acting as the bridge to build and create a community based on co-creation with these other realms.

What is the lesson that Pan is teaching Capricorns? Pan, as a sexual and primal archetype needs to be honored and brought more fully into consciousness so that the earthly drive of Capricorn can honor the Earth and ancient ways while still performing a role in creating social structures that build civilization. Nature and the natural world must become an intrinsic part of the human drive to excel and accomplish, rather than what has often been the drive to control and conquer what can never be totally controlled. Pan is alive and far more powerful than ever. Cooperation with the natural world is the only viable way humans can now go in order to survive as a species. If you desire to study further this fascinating archetype read some of the classics like The Golden Ass by Apuleus or Homer’s Ode to Pan

Famous Capricorns

There are so many to choose from! I have chosen three that I found interesting; one was the wife of a former USA President who eventually made her own mark in the world, another is a famous actor who continues to practice his craft at 71 years, and the final is one of the great ‘fathers’ of astrology—surprise, surprise.

Let’s start with ‘ladies first’:

“Lady Bird” Johnson

When you look at her portraits and photographs you just know she was a ‘lady’, but what an accomplished woman she truly was. Her famous or infamous (depending on your politics) husband, Lyndon, was thrust into the Presidency following John F. Kennedy’s tragic assassination, Perhaps few people realize just how instrumental Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor Jonson (December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was in getting her husband to that pivotal point in time.

A part of her original inheritance, $10K, helped launch Lyndon’s political career, and it was her own business acumen and skill that turned an additional $41K into more than $150 million for the LBJ Holding Company that she served as President of. It seems she was capable of doing everything well including running her husband’s congressional office after he enlisted in the Navy at the beginning of WWII. Later she campaigned for Kennedy, because Jackie was pregnant, with the stamina of a seasoned politician. This Capricorn penchant for planning, organizing, and persevering certainly took her and LBJ to the top.

Yet once at the top she accomplished something truly special. It wasn’t just her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, or in the Great Society’s War on Poverty, or the Headstart Program, for she was active in all of these programs. It was her co-creation with archetypal Pan best expressed in her own words, “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”

I have in front of me, as I write, her marvelous book Wildflowers Across America, co-written with Carlton B. Lees in 1988. This book is testament to her passion and sense of mission to beautify America. She worked hard to do this through the Highway Beautification Act, and she founded much later in life, with actress Helen Hayes, the National Wildflower Research Center, which has helped to preserve and reintroduce native plants into already planned landscapes.

Towards the end of her book she writes, “Saving our legacy of wildflowers is something I am convinced can be accomplished with the right combination of workable ideas and citzens with spirit. How much poorer our world would be without this bounty!”. Spoken like a true Capricorn.

Anthony Hopkins

Born the son of a baker in Wales on December 31, 1937, Hopkins, due to dyslexia, veered away from scholastics towards the arts and music in his youth. A fellow Welch peer, Richard Burton, encouraged him to become an actor, and so he did. Like a true Capricorn he rose in the ranks by first becoming the understudy for Sir Lawrence Olivier in 1965. Appropriately, this was the year of his first ‘Saturn Return’ called the coming of age year astrologically.

His long and illustrious career continues even though he is now 71 years. Does he continue to work hard? Probably. It is said that he spends vast amounts of time preparing for his roles privately until he can ‘do it without thinking’. Wikipedia lists 26 different roles playing famous historical and fictional characters from books including another infamous Capricorn, Richard Nixon (Nixon, 1995). The fact that Hopkins can portray actual character so incredibly well speaks also to the complexity of the sun sign he was born under.

Like Lady Bird Johnson, Hopkins has also given back some of his well-earned wealth to many charities including becoming President of the National Trust’s Snowdonia Appeal. If you’ve ever visited the wild and beautiful Snowdonia National Park in Wales you will realize how much Pan is alive in Mr. Hopkins. He, too, has written a book about his passion for nature entitled Anthony Hopkins’ Snowdonia

Johannes Kepler

This great German mathematician, astronomer, and—yes—astrologer was born December 27, 1571. There is now an excellent astrological college named in his honor, Kepler College in Washington state. The world, of course, honors his scientific accomplishments, but to Kepler the two were intertwined. In his first book Mysterium Cosmographicum(The Cosmographic Mystery) he began to explore the concept of planetary orbs around the central star, our Sun, which to him was the ‘Great Father’ principle. He sought some kind of Capricorn elegance in his ‘harmony of the spheres’ and later attempted to refine his theories mathematically.

Joe Landwehr, one of the most scholarly and wisest of today’s contemporary philosopher-astrologers, writes this about Kepler, “Aristotle, Paracelsus Bacon, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and other pioneers at the cutting edge of science were all versed in astrology, and did not dismiss it categorically as their more arrogant descendants have, simply because it did not fit the paradigm they were articulating. On the contrary, in astrology they saw the possibility for reconciling the new causal order with the metaphysical underpinnings of the cosmos they were describing in scientific terms”.

Kepler figures strongly in both the history of astronomy and the history of astrology. Joe’s masterful, in-depth look at the history of both can be studied in his book The Seven Gates of Soul.

Today we astrologers honor Johannes Kepler for the steps he did take to understand our world in relation to the universe more fully. Because of souls like him, we all climb more easily the path towards the summit of wisdom. Capricorns’ achievements pave the way for those who follow to go even further up that mountain.

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com

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Relating to Sagittarius by Genevieve Vierling

12/30/2012

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There is something wild and free about this sign that ignites enthusiasm in others when a Sagittarian is humming along in true alignment with their core. Like a flock of wild geese soaring toward some distant destination, the Sagittarian guides energetically whether acting as a wilderness guide exploring the natural world or in the class room exploring history or philosophy. This is a sign designed for exploration, and it is really the journey, the quest that fires up their energy. Once they’ve arrived they get bored and are ready for the next adventure.

Jupiter, the Kingly god, is their natural ruler and he was forever chasing after something (especially women!) though he was also known for his generosity when the spirit moved him.

So our Sagittarian friends, lovers, husbands, and wives, and—yes— children all, without exception, need a lot of space and room to spread their wings, or shoot their arrows in the directions that turn them on, fire them up, and lead them forever toward distant goals. Don’t try and fence them in or, like a stampede of wild stallions, they’ll break down the barriers of your constraints and bound off towards better fields of gold. Give them space and they’ll stay around to enjoy your companionship, especially if you’re willing to explore and shoot for the stars with them. They can truly be your boon companions in life!

Like all signs, there are the extroverted types and the introverted types in Sagittarius. An extroverted Sag may be found roaming wild places, using their bodies to perform ever higher feats in athletics like Joe DiMaggio, performing on stage as a rock stars like Jim Hendrix and Jay-Z or pop divas, like Tina Turner, Britney Spears, or Christina Aguilera. Many action heroes and heroines in the movies are Sagittarians like Brad Pitt, David Carradine, Kirk Douglas, Jane Fonda, and Daryl Hannah. In politics and public positions we have Andrew Carnegie, Winston Churchill, Augusto Pinochet, and ‘Lucky’ Luciano running the gamut of ‘givers and takers’.

Illustrious introverted Sagittarians can be found in writers and mystics such as William Blake, Emily Dickenson, Joseph Conrad, and Madeleine L’Engle. Major Science Fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick also take us on amazing adventures far into some future world, while authors like Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy write eloquently about present-day dilemmas. Movie directors such as Scott Ridley, Steven Spielberg, and Woody Allen explore different aspects of space, both inner and outer, while holding us on the edge of our seats through pure excitement, terror, or humor.

One of my favorite all-time Sagittarians is Walt Disney. He would classify as an introvert because much of his creativity and vision was incubated privately. Yet the results were a fantastic array of extroverted experiences for the rest of us! The magical world of Mickey Mouse brought laughter and delight to millions of young and old. And who could forget that first ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ brought vividly to life on the silver screen followed by ‘Pinocchio’, the ultimate adventure; then ‘Fantasia’, the ultimate out-of-this world extravaganza, where his genius (Sun conjunct Uranus in Sagittarius) took us into flights of fantasy that were also breathless in beauty. Finally, his creative arrow swept us all into even more magic through his wonder theme park, Disneyland.

Why I remember going there as a twelve-year-old when it was literally still surrounded by orange groves. A group of us whooped around freely in what was still a fairly small park. Some of the guys actually jumped off the cars on the ride through ‘Peter Pan’ in Fantasyland. Those were the days. We loved Tomorrow land where live male models stood like statues as you entered the ride based on the movie ’20,000 Leagues Under The Sea’, and then scared the bejeezus out of you by moving! Yes, it was still evolving and somewhat up close and personal back then. The last time I went was back in 2000 while attending a big ISAR conference in one of the large hotels next door. No more orange groves. I went all by myself and rode all the roller-coasters. Somehow I was gifted with the front cars in every single one. Still a thrill! Thank you Walt Disney!!

More up close and personal is my Sagittarian friend, Anni McCann. Anni shows the best of both the extroverted and introverted sides of this sign. When I first met her she was already a well known singer in a group called ‘Backwoods Jazz’. Her voice gave me chills. She was also an excellent yoga teacher, and gave these incredible massages as well. She spent every spare moment down by the Yuba River where she immersed herself in the elemental magic of that magnificent wild and free river and canyon while also engaging in meditation and writing music.

Anni has a wonderful album that I highly recommend called ‘This Moment’. The subtitle says, “Feel the wisdom of the true feminine spirit through the voice of the womanheart.”

Anni is now very involved with Native Americans and tries her best to humbly serve and participate in their age-old rituals and ceremonies such as the ‘Calling Back the Salmon’ and Indigenous Peoples Day. I feel she embodies both the physical athletic quality of her sign, as well as the mental quest to know, but beyond that she is on a true spiritual journey towards source and oneness that brings us full circle to what the Sagittarian journey is all about.

This quest for meaning drives the Sagittarian like nothing else. They may reach far and wide for their truth, but it is ultimately their deep and abiding need to reconnect with the source of creation and life and keeps them ever searching, searching, searching.

The Sagittarius Man
If you want some excitement and adventure, this just might be the man for you, though you’d better make sure you truly enjoy these experiences yourself, because it’s not easy to tame this ‘Centaur’. Fire tends to attract Earth, and earthy people look for some realism in others which includes being responsible or well-grounded. The truth is that most Sagittarian males don’t want to necessarily grow up into stodgy, routine kind of guys. They need a lot of slack and rope. In fact, they hate to be tethered. They seek something larger than life. All Fire signs tend towards the mythic. These men seek a kind of ideal mate and may never quite find her or him. Of course many do stay committed in long-term relationships as we’ll see in some of our examples later on. It’s undoubtedly because their partners allow them the freedom they’ll take anyway!

Keith Richards would be a case in point. Evidently, Mr. Richards is quite an intellectual in private. He reads a great deal; yes he does.

Sagittarian men are travelers of the mind often. They like to roam through a plethora of ideas, philosophical treatises, and even mystical/spiritual explorations in order to seek the meaning in life that lures them on. They can have a breadth and knowledge of history like no other because they seek to relate fields of knowledge into a meaningful whole that makes sense both intuitively as well as logically. They are also sometimes the most amazing story tellers and yarn weavers you’ll ever encounter. That’s why they are also great song writers and movie directors. They love epics!

At their core they are romantics in the true sense of enjoying a good adventure. Don’t try to strip them of that inner life. If they show irony and even contempt as an attitude, it’s because they’re shielding that inner vulnerability which gets bruised quite easily. They seek trust and friendship perhaps even more than most. They need someone perhaps who can take care of earthy matters, but that partner must tolerate them as a true friend first and foremost.

The Sagittarius Woman
Jane Fonda is probably as good an example as any of this fiery sign seeking adventures bigger than life. Of course it helps to be born the daughter of Henry Fonda! Her illustrious father may have given her some grief, but certainly supported her bent towards acting and all the amazing roles she’s played in one way or another on screen and off.

She started out as ‘Barbarella’ under the svengali guidance of Roger Vadim. What an adventure that movie was! The sex goddess image brought her fame but she went on to pursue political freedom when she met and married Tom Hayden of the ‘Chicago Seven’.

The Vietnam War and the protest movement in the ‘60s brought her notoriety as she spoke out with vigor in true Sagittarian style.

That adventure, however, was left in the dust as she pursued fitness in the ‘Health and Fitness craze’ of the ‘80s. Who didn’t get a Jane Fonda video back then aspiring to be just like her long-legged beautiful svelte self?

And then she met Ted Turner, the media tycoon of CNN, and disappeared for awhile out into the wilds of one of his vast empire ranches in places like Montana.

Jane has reappeared, once again, looking very sophisticated still in leopard print outfits, but with a new smart edge to her rhetorical style as she leads a baby boomer anti-aging crusade. We might say that she is the epitome of the extroverted Sag female.

Sagittarian women are highly opinionated and usually do have something important to say. They don’t mince words and get right to the point. I value that in one of my best friends who will call me on my blind spots, and even get a bit angry, though I always feel her heart behind her words. These are warrior women in a different way from their more earthy sisters. They have a way of directing their energies forcefully with arrow-like speed. Zam! They do often hit the target they are aiming at whether it is a project, a speech, a book, or even a relationship.

Even the more introverted women know what they want usually, and it isn’t a drab, ordinary life. Like their male counter-parts, it needs to be bigger than life in some way. These women can make great professors, for example. I know one who teaches sociology and writes a great blog on fashion complete with social commentary entitled ‘The Social Life of Second Hand Clothes’. The more intellectual types are generally liberal-minded and well-traveled souls. Those on a spiritual quest enjoy philosophical discussions about the meaning of life and whether some divine force is at work in the wonders they behold.

Sagittarian women can be cosmopolitan. Some prefer high-rises in large cities to ranches in the out backs. They can be zestful and inspiring in any sector of society. They can also be dignified and prudent because they wish to maintain their sense of strength on all levels.

In relationship they are also seeking their ‘boon companion’; a man or woman who can match them in zest for life and style of adventure whether it’s traveling from one 5-star hotel to another across the globe, or staying in remote villages and ashrams in third-world countries.

The Sagittarian Lover
Playfulness has to be a factor here, and the ‘sport’ of sexual repartees. These are lovers who don’t want to be bored, remember? They may need something ‘bigger than life’ to engage them in fantasy, or they may prefer au natural to artifice.

Often a state of non-marriage is desirous for many because they hate to be confined by fences. Zeus was certainly a good example of one such style, and to keep a Sagittarian lover happy you best not become too nagging, jealous, or suspicious! That’s the biggest wet blanket you can douse their fire of ardor with. Even so, they actually need some stability, and if the home fires are bright with love and acceptance they’ll stay awhile.

All fire signs have some difficulty with being in a physical body, but especially our Centaur friends. They so desire a realm of spirit where they can be free and unfettered. Perhaps, like Pegasus, if you can soar with them in mind and spirit the physical resting point will also be the vehicle of the animal body that carries you towards higher states of bliss.

When their lovers allow Sagittarius to simply be themselves, they return with a heart full of spontaneous fiery love, and keep things lively, entertaining, and endlessly exciting as they open new doors of possible adventures ahead on the road of life. Remember, play is a big portion of the fire of life.

Sagittarius’ Shadow
What possible shadow could this bright sign have? Truthfully, I’ve seen more Sagittarius people succumb to depression than any other sign. Why? Because when they lose a sense of hope, a sense of future possibilities, it nearly kills them and their fire simply goes out. They need, above all else, inspiration and something to look forward to. Life must have new goals ahead for them to thrive. So when their fire dims low and begins to flicker, they need a spark from someone or something whose fire is still strong.

Another aspect of their shadow seems to be their penchant to promise something and not completely carry through with it. They have a tendency to over-extend themselves when in some moment of enthusiasm or wild abandon they thought they could give you the moon. This passionate outburst may be forgotten as they bound off to other pastures, or simply ‘forget’ about it.

Liz Greene, the authority on ‘shadows’, states that often the root of their difficulty is found in how they adjust to the limitations of reality. If they are unsure of themselves in the world, afraid of failure, or can’t find sufficient maturity and/or discipline within themselves to stick to something and finish it, they often fall into the hands of their shadow which can be promising more than they can deliver, but also trying so hard to ride on someone else’s efforts, which she calls the ‘Groupie Phenomena’. These are the name droppers who always seem to know ‘the right people’ and are intimately connected with them in show business, literary, esoteric, political, scientific, legal, or even medical fields. This groupie phenomenon is observable in any field where fame, glamour, and excitement are part of the show. It’s the penchant for basking in someone else’s limelight. Certain magazines show this off in the photo-ops of parties, benefits, and soirees where everyone is grinning from ear to ear and showing us they’re in on the ‘in-scene’.

Keep in mind that every shadow looks for power of one kind or another. The defense mechanism of always being ahead of the pack, whether it is in knowing the right club, the best of the best in anything, or even the newest guru and spiritual guide is somehow meant to make everyone else feel shabbier and less interesting—downright boring by contrast.

So for Sagittarius to get back to their natural state of nobility and heart-felt warmth, they need to drop these ego-bound defense mechanisms and just enjoy the adventure of life without attaching themselves to the ‘who’s who’ list of fame, glamour, and glory.

The Sagittarius Parent
These parents make marvelous teachers for their children. They truly can aid their child in finding the right path and providing them with the best possible education to reach for their individual star. They are also the type of parents who like to have adventures with their children; taking them camping, traveling, and gaining a sense of the bigger, wider world out there.

My mother had Sagittarius rising (her Ascendant) and I remember well the outings she would take my brother and me on when we lived in Chicago. We loved those adventures of riding the El and going into the bowels of the city to old bookstores, spending hours in the amazing Museums of Natural History and Science, as well as the beaches of Lake Michigan and the zoo. She also read us stories at night, which we loved. She dramatized them and they came alive for us. She had fun with us! Later as a Grandmother she took my first born on a trip to the Grand Canyon—just the two of them. She took my daughter on a special trip to British Columbia—again, just the two of them.

Brad Pitt is another good example of a Sagittarius father with his large brood of multi-ethnic children. He is photographed often on outings with them and obviously enjoys exposing them to multi-cultural places as well as the adventures of living in different countries while he and Angelina are on location. Another point here is that one of them is always with the children when one is occupied with acting in a new film. This dedication to parenting is noteworthy in a super-star like Brad.

The forever young-at-heart aspect of Sagittarius also makes for joyous parenting. As long as they don’t overly moralize, these parents can be some of the most supportive because they participate in guiding by being fully engaged.

Now we’re ready to look at Sagittarius with each of the other signs:

Sagittarius with Aries
Here we have two bright fire signs where exploration should ideally be easy to share. Aries likes action and both are miserable when tied down. Neither is usually afraid to rough it and both can share inspiration which leads them into experimenting with new ideas as well as following their vision. Aries likes to be physical even more than Sagittarius, and both are mentally alert signs. So why couldn’t I find more famous examples?

I give you Britney Spears, the American dancer- pop diva who began at age 11 her stellar rise to fame as part of the Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse Club show where another Sagittarian pop diva got her start; Christina Aguilera, as well as Aquarian Justin Timberlake, rumored to have been romantically involved with Britney for a time. I considered doing a feature article on her during her melt-down phase in 2007-2008 when Saturn was pelting her with hard reality going over her Uranus/Mercury/Sun and Neptune planets in Sagittarius. Note the bigger than life aspects of this combination pKate’s Sun conjoins Steven’s Moon creating a terrific bond in Scorpio. Their Mercury’s are conjoined in Sagittarius creating true friendship. How they handle a square between their Mars is probably by ‘making love, not war’. They both share Cancer as their Ascendants and thus are considered strongly soul-linked. Both have a great need for family and children which is an added blessing for all.

Sagittarius with Sagittarius

Can two ‘Centaurs’ romp happily together through the elysian fields of gold?rone to being ‘a law to her self’ as well as ‘a shocker’. This can also be a configuration prone to eccentricities and even psycho-pathologies. In her case, I wouldn’t call it ‘genius’.

Her marriage to Aries Kevin Federline barely lasted three years, though two children, both Virgos, resulted from this union. Kevin has a lot of fire including Venus in Aries and Moon in Leo (his inner anima) but his Moon is solidly grounded with Saturn. He is quite capable of responsibility as a parent, and he now has five children. Britney has conflicts over being responsible (Saturn/Pluto/Jupiter square Venus) and no longer has custody of her children. Very sad. Her lack of maturity and self-destructive/self-indulgent bent ruined what could have been a harmonious union and a happy family life with a man who’s Mars in Cancer was trying to show her the path of greatest growth (her North Node in Cancer). It would seem that Self-love is her missing step towards greater evolution which no amount of fame or money will assuage. (Venus conjoining her S. Node in Capricorn).

Sagittarius with Taurus
As I said in my ‘Relating to Taurus’ article, this is a difficult combination. Taurus is far too earth bound and security seeking for Sagittarius to be truly comfortable with.

I still could not find a famous example other than Cher (Taurus) andGreg Allman (Sagittarius). So I refer you to that write up for now.

Let me know if you’ve found a successful famous couple with this combination!

Sagittarius with Gemini
Here is the polarity of Mutable Air with Mutable Fire. Both are part of the same spectrum and both can certainly find compatibility with each other. Gemini likes to collect all sorts of experiences, ideas, information, and even people as they move through life. They are lively, quick souls with boundless curiosity. Sagittarius doesn’t like to waste too much time on trifles, but rather searches for the connections that create a meaningful coherent fusion. One seeks Reason while the other seeks Revelation.

I used Angelina Jolie (Gemini) and Brad Pitt (Sagittarius) in my ‘Relating to Gemini’ article so I won’t be too redundant here. Brad is more grounded than most typical Sagittarians with an enormous stellium in Capricorn (Mars, S. Node, Mercury, Moon, & Venus). Once committed he is responsible, and Capricorn in men is very drawn to women capable of nurturance. Angelina has Saturn/Venus/Ascendant all in Cancer. Bingo. A good match for family. Her Moon in Aries can spark his Sag. Sun. They both have Jupiter in Aries which means he is philosophically more aligned with her than he was with his first wife, Jennifer Aniston. There’s that search for meaning again.

Pop diva Christina Aguilera (Sagittarius) was married to Gemini music marketer Jordan Bratman for six years, parenting one son together. They have worked out a joint legal and physical custody agreement which shows her ability to be both grounded in reality (Moon in Taurus) while projecting multi-level fantasies through her public persona (Sun/Neptune/Mercury in Sag. In the 10th house). Jordan’s Moon is in Capricorn, so as parents they are compatible even if he couldn’t really keep up with her thrust towards higher and greater stardom. (His Sun/Jupiter fall in her 4th house)

Sagittarius with Cancer
A difficult combination due to both elemental differences as well as modes. The fiery mutability of Sagittarius must adjust to Cancer’s ultra sensitivity and need to be secure, though both signs are linked by Jupiter which is exalted in Cancer. In other words, both signs are characterized by an urge to grow.

I’m returning to an example used before, only this time emphasizingKatie Holmes, the Sagittarius, who chose to leave her high-profile marriage to Tom Cruise (Cancer). Again, the dream of an ideal quickened her response to him. After all, as a young girl she actually had dreamed of marrying him! But in the end, it was his philosophical path that entombed her (His Jupiter/Chiron in Pisces conjoining her S. Node and in square to her Mercury/Neptune in Sagittarius close to her Sun). Tom has a grand trine in Water and Scientology became his home and groove out of which even he had become trapped. Katie desired to explore, once again, her potential as an artist/actress (Sun in the 5th) and her lawyer father (Sagittarius) helped her to quickly break out of the corral! It looks like a lot of her fire was nearly put out by her watery mate in spite of the fairy-tale wedding and bigger than life image of seemingly having it all.

This shows clearly the journey of Sagittarius to continue the quest rather than stay stuck in what might appear to be ‘heaven’.

Sagittarius with Leo
Mutable Fire with Fixed Fire brings visionary ideas into form. Both signs are future oriented together.

I give you two rather unusual examples of this pairing; neither involving marriage.

William Blake, the great mystic/visionary writer/artist (Sagittarius) was undoubtedly a great genius. He was the more introverted type of Sag since most of his life was lived out in Soho, a district of London. He certainly is worthy of a more detailed article correlating his birth map with his life. He had a devoted wife who was his sustenance, but I am rather drawn to his dear friendship with John Varley, a Leo famed astrologer of his time. John’s Sun lit up Blake’s Neptune/Mars in Leo further igniting his Jupiter/Sun in Sagittarius. They also shared the polarity of Gemini/Sagittarius in that John’s Moon/Uranus/N. Node in Gemini acted as a catalyst for William’s Sun/Pluto. One wonders what lively discourses must have filled the space between these two on special evenings in a London long ago. William Blake had a great inner faith that drove his enormous creative fountain. It was a faith in himself. His dear friend, John, looks to have totally supported and encouraged that faith and drive as true friends are meant to do.

The second example is between the famous Sagittarius, Jim Morrison, and a long-time friend of mine, Judy Huddleston (Leo) who wrote a book about her relationship with Jim in the ‘60s: Love Him Madly. Judy is highly intelligent and probably understood her lover even though six years his junior at the time. She also has an artistic bent. They shared a Sun/Jupiter conjunction which means that she lit up his philosophical side immensely while being simultaneously compatible with him energetically (fire with fire). I highly recommend her book to get an insider view of aspects of this highly complex man not visible in his more public and flamboyant persona.

Sagittarius with Virgo
Mutable Fire meets Mutable Earth with some dissonance but actually the ability to adapt to each other providing there is some cohesive glue such as emotional attunement or philosophical alignment. Both can be mental signs but Virgo may seem too narrow and again—that word—confining for Sagittarius. Especially if nagging enters in to the dynamic, a Sagittarian will want to bolt.

The great film director, Steven Spielberg, with his Sun in Sagittarius conjoining Mars in Capricorn and opposite Uranus, has shown us that little boy hero ever on a quest in such films as Indiana Jones in the Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. to the more mature and sobering revelations of Schindler’s List and Saving Pri vate Ryan. This is a man with a great deal of Scorpio depth to back up his wide-ranging Sagittarius mind (Mercury) and Sun.

Spielberg was married to Virgo, Amy Irving, for just four years. They have one son to unite them. The divorce settlement gave earthy Amy a whopping $100 million. Philosophically they simply didn’t jive with her Jupiter in Gemini conjoining his Uranus and opposite his Sun, but especially inconjunct his Jupiter/Venus in Scorpio. Initially they must have seen ‘stars’ with her Moon in Libra conjoining his Neptune. The dream probably ended when her Virgo tried to squelch his fire, or his Saturn/Pluto authority squelched her Venus in Leo.

Sagittarius with Libra
This can be a highly enduring combination since Air and Fire are in a nice sextile to each other which is energizing for both. Venus and Jupiter as ruling planets of each also combine well for expansion, social sharing and abundance.

Ozzie Osborne (Sagittarian), the rock musician even got President Bush to joke: “The thing about Ozzy is, he’s made a lot of big hit recordings—‘Party with the Animals’, ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’, ‘Facing Hell’, ‘Black Skies’ and ‘Bloodbath in Paradise’. Ozzy, Mom loves your stuff.” Sharon Osborne (Libra), Ozzie’s wife has been his partner for 30 years now. Life in their world has been both gloriously famed and fortunate (they are said to be worth over 110 million British pounds) as well as hellishly violent and explosive.

Their Suns are held together by the nice sextile while their Moons don’t really connect (His in Capricorn and hers in Gemini). They both have Venus in Scorpio which aligns their values as well as their penchant for drama. They have some strange out-of-sign polarities involving Mars/Moon/Jupiter indicating wild times and powerful emotional surges.

Another long-lasting couple with this combination is the equally strange alignment of Woody Allen with his wife’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. They began their affair in 1992 when Soon Yi was 19 and Allen was 56 years.

They married in 1997 had are still a solid couple. Are there significant astrological connections here? You bet! While their Suns are in a nice sextile, her Uranus in Libra (close to her Sun) ignites Woody’s Venus (his ideal woman). Further more, their Moons are both in Aquarius within probably only two degrees of each other. Simpatico beyond words……

Sagittarius with Scorpio
These two are side by side, and Sagittarius truly leads Scorpio out of any pits it might get stuck in towards bigger, vaster spaces. Both are interested in meaning and both can move towards transformation together if willing to merge the dark with the light.

We covered Jane Fonda with Ted Turner in ‘Relating to Scorpio’ It’s interesting to note that their separation was in part due to Ted’s finding her latest ‘cause’, that of becoming a Christian, not quite to his liking. Jane’s Jupiter is opposed by Ted’s Pluto which mirrors her own dilemma. She is ever metaphorhosizing her beliefs to keep up with the times in true Sagittarian fashion.

A highly destructive combination was Sagittarius, Tina Turner, and her rampaging husband/music partner, Ike Turner. This burning bed duo cost her a great deal of pain, but it ultimately has been her Buddhist belief system which kept her sane and focused.

She is one woman to admire for her endurance and ability to thrive. She has a mutable T-square with Mars in Pisces at the apex showing just how much violence she was able to endure as well as the transformation possible due to her faith. Ike’s Mars in Sagittarius was exactly on her Sun, squaring her Mars and opposite her Moon. Ouch.

My third example is so far seemingly doing fine, and that is Steven Spielberg (Sag) and his actress wife, Kate Capshaw (Scorpio). She met Steven while starring in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. (1984) Thereafter they became companions and began living together in 1989 after he and Amy Irving separated. They have been officially married since 1991 and share a large extended family of many children both their own and adopted.

Kate’s Sun conjoins Steven’s Moon creating a terrific bond in Scorpio. Their Mercury’s are conjoined in Sagittarius creating true friendship. How they handle a square between their Mars is probably by ‘making love, not war’. They both share Cancer as their Ascendants and thus are considered strongly soul-linked. Both have a great need for family and children which is an added blessing for all.

Sagittarius with Sagittarius
Can two ‘Centaurs’ romp happily together through the elysian fields of gold?

Well, Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden tried for 17 years. Not bad for the merging of fame and politics. Her Venus in Sagittarius conjoined Tom’s Sun exactly, and Tom’s Moon at 29 degrees of Sagittarius conjoined her Sun exactly. Those are considered strong and wonderful bonds. Their Moons were in trine and they must have shared much harmoniously. Both, however, are restless souls. Both have their Sun at the apex of a mutable T-square involving Neptune. High ideals can be disappointed. I haven’t read biographies on either to know what finally led to their divorce. Perhaps it was simply time to move on…..

Actress Daryl Hannah, that tall and beautiful film actress of “Splash”met another Sagittarius, John Kennedy Jr. at the 1988 wedding reception of his aunt, Lee Radziwill and her former film director, Herb Ross. It’s easy to see why they were energetically attracted to each other with both sharing Venus/Saturn in Capricorn, Mercury’s in Scorpio and even Jupiter in Capricorn. Why they were practically twins! Even their Moons were in Air signs in trine to each other. They almost made it to the altar, but perhaps it was his mother Jackie’s dislike of Hannah that shifted their love in 1994 and they parted ways. Now he is gone and Daryl continues to live up to her Sagittarius purpose by being both cosmopolitan (with homes in LA and Manhattan) and an outdoorswoman who prefers her ranch near Telluride and is basically not attached to creature comforts and is ‘proud of her rustic lifestyle of splitting logs and eating nuts and berries….”

Sagittarius with Capricorn
Side by side, this time it is Capricorn who leads Sagittarius towards solidifying their ideas and aspirations into concrete manifestations and even institutions. Earthy Capricorn may bring form to Sagittarian’s dreams and fantasies.

It’s difficult, however, to see how this abstract construct was actualized in the likes of Jim Morrison and his common-law wife, Capricorn Pamela Coursin. She, like Leo Judy Huddleston, was an art student when they met. He did call her his ‘cosmic mate’ and she was the sole beneficiary of his will. But she, too, had a heroin problem and died just three years later of an over-dose. Her Mercury was conjoined his Sun in Sagittarius. Her Sun/Mars was conjoined his Mercury in Capricorn. Her Moon in Sagittarius also widely conjoined his Sun. These kinds of mergers create the feeling of a mystic bond. They were tremendously linked all right and one wonders what they could have created together had they not lost their way in poppy land.

Doomed in a different way were JFK Jr. and his beautiful blonde Capricorn wife, Carolyn Bessette. She had an intricately woven birth map with almost a six-pointed star pattern. Only a highly challenged Jupiter in Gemini seemed to seal her fate in that final flight with her Sagittarius pilot, for this Jupiter also squared his Nodes.

Sagittarius with Aquarius
Here we have another sextile relationship between Fire and Air which certainly can be compatible on many levels. Both tend toward far-reaching visions of the future and both excel in education and global endeavors. Sagittarians don’t like to be bored and Aquarians, with their Uranian minds can perhaps hold their attention longer than most.

I found four examples but will probably save Mary Todd Lincoln (Sag.) for later when I write about Aquarius and her most famous husband, Abraham.

Brad Pitt, of course, was married to Aquarian Jennifer Aniston, the darling ‘friend’ of countless fans. They did have that powerful Sun/Moon bond in the classic male (His Sun)/female (Her Moon) conjunction. They even had a wonderful sextile between their Suns. The real rub seems to have been his Capricorn planets, including his Mars, all in conflict with her Venus in Aries and Jupiter in Libra. He went cold on her. That can happen when there is a Mars (male) square Venus (female). Plus something about Angelina’s Cancer qualities captivated his desire for family which is missing in Jennifer’s natural make-up.

Jane Fonda’s first husband, Roger Vadim, was also an Aquarian whose Sun illuminated her Jupiter. (the ruler of Sagittarius). They seemed to have a karmic relationship as well with her Venus conjoining his S. Node and Saturn, also in Sagittarius. One beautiful daughter, Vanessa, came from that union which forever bonds them.

Sagittarius and Pisces
Again we have two Mutable signs but one is fire while the other is water. Certainly adjustments are necessary but both share Jupiter as a ruler and while Sagittarius is decidedly the more goal driven, questing adventurer, Pisces also seeks an inner experience which ultimately is vaster and deeper because it involves a direct experience with the Source, the divine. So both can be compatible.

I’ll save Woody Allen (Sag.) with Mia Farrow (Pisces) for later when I write about Pisces.

The one good example from a famous couple that I have found is none other than Sagittarius Keith Richards and his present wife of 29 years, Patti Hansen. They have two daughters together and continue to be photographed looking like a still-in-love couple. Their Suns are almost exactly in square to each other. Their Moons, while both in Earth, are not linked. They do have a Mercury/Mars conjunction in Capricorn with Patti owning the male aspect (Mars). She has a lovely trine between her Mars and Venus in Taurus and this Venus is in trine to Keith’s Moon in Virgo. All that harmonious earth between them keeps a stability and continuity to their union. Plus, it would take a Pisces’ tolerance and understanding to accept and go with the flow of a rock stars flights of fancy as well as his notorious tribulations. They share Venus/Mercury trines both ways adding to their compatibility and friendship.

In conclusion I’d like to say that studying the different signs with each other is highly skewed by simply looking at famous people. At this 9th sign completion I’m struck by the high levels of failure in intimate relationships due to fame, fortune, and glory. The lives of the rich and famous don’t have a very good track record when it comes to true spiritual unions. We would have to explore less obvious, more obscure folk to find those examples.

Like a wise man once said many moons ago, “Blessed are the poor in spirit (humble souls) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com

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Winter Solstice 2012: What is Ending? What is Beginning? by Genevieve Vierling December 15, 2012

12/30/2012

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There seems to be a desire for something big and momentous to take place on December 21st, 2012. What if it just quietly slips on by? What then? There has been so much discussion and speculation preceding this specific date. It almost boggles the mind. I have articles on file going back 10 to 15 years where various authors write about what is now at my very doorstep and yours as well.

So what can I add to the hullabaloo that might have any significance or meaning at all? What I feel I can do is give you a synopsis of what I have researched, and what I do know surrounding the astrology of this date. After all, you probably don’t have time to do the digging and searching I have done. We all have our interests and specialties. So I am going to use a question and answer format that guided me to find some answers:

What is the significance of 12-21-12?
We know from our point of view here on Earth, the Sun crosses in front of the plane of our galaxy twice a year. At the Winter Solstice we experience our Sun at its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. Fair enough. It is the longest night of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere and we celebrate ‘the return of the light’ as the Sun begins to ‘ascend’ back towards the Summer Solstice and the longest day of the year.

This year, however, is supposed to be the end date of the Mayan Calendar on 12-21-12. Again, this is debatable since there is no conclusive evidence other than one small fragment of Mayan writings found in a museum in Germany of all places which gives this date in Mayan terms, not Gregorian terms. Even the Mayan elders, such as Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj, head of the National Mayan Council of Elders of Guatemala, Day Keeper of the Mayan Calendar, the 13th generation Quiche Mayan High priest, and a Grand Elder of the Continental Council of Elders and Spiritual Guides of the Americas says, “We don’t know exactly if it is going to be 2012 or if it is going to be later on. Because 2012 is a Gregorian date, sometimes it does not coincide with the Mayan calendar…” Even the researcher and scholar, Carl Johan Callerman, who wrote The Purposeful Universe: How Quantum Theory and Mayan Cosmology Explain the Origin and Evolution of Life argued that the end date of the Mayan Calendar was October 28, 2011.

It just seems to be a general consensus that this winter Solstice marks the end of the Mayan’s Long Count Calendar which began in 3114 B.C. (Gregorian) and is a 5125 year period of 13 b’ak’tuns (each b’ak’tun is 394.2 years long) since the beginning date inscribed on Mayan monuments such as the Temple of the Cross at Palenque. The ‘zero date’ of 12-21-12 is simply like resetting your odometer to zero. One cycle has ended. Time to begin a new cycle. Remember, Mayan calendars are circular. Think cycles. We in Western traditions are in the mode of linear thinking or Big Bang beginnings and Big Bang endings. Mayans were not.

The other major significance is this: the Solstice Sun is aligning with the Galactic Center and completes a 26,000 year cycle. This is big, dramatic stuff! This is where I encourage you to read people who have been studying and delving into this one as their sole life work/journey such as John Major Jenkins who has written multiple books on the subject. The one I like is entitledGalactic Alignment,The Transformation of Consciousness According to Mayan, Egyptian, and Vedic Traditions. Mr. Jenkins has a mission and he is thorough in his investigative style. He puts together all the major cycles: the Hindu cycle of 25,920 years, the Nordic great cycle, the Babylonian, and South American/Central American cycles which he calls ‘vast cycles of collective spiritual gestation for humanity’ and argues that they are all inter-connected and pretty much all are coming to a conclusion sometime between now and 2220.

He writes that we are about to enter a 13,000 ascension phase of the ‘Great Year of Precession’. He writes that our Western Civilization has had a major death wish and that ‘it is time for our deepening immersion in materialism and death-worshipping behaviors to end.’

He writes that the 2012 shift ‘is really about an open door, a once-in-a-precessional-cycle zone of opportunity to align ourselves with the galactic source of life’ and that ‘we as humanity have been falling deeper into unconsciousness for 13,000 years (!), but the alignment of the Solstice Meridian with the Galactic Plane (1975-2021) is the shift zone, after which consciousness begins a reversal, a disembodiment of spirit as we en-lighten through each successive year and each successive incarnation, the universe now fully supporting our spiritual endeavors and our yearning for the highest freedom. Our role, as the alignment generation, seems to be to not blow it, to believe in our highest potential, buried though it may be under millennia of ignorance and materialism.’

Wow. I certainly hope he’s on the mark, because the signs of the times splashed across the headlines every day of national/global news are not very encouraging. What is encouraging are more what we share as people making effort to become conscious and share love and light with each other. That evidence is passed off as ‘new age’ fluff by many, or simply ignored as inconsequential in economic/political frameworks. However it’s people like Inelia Benz with her Ascension 101 who are igniting global awakenings and a different form of community. These movements are coming in many styles and forms through many light workers around the globe. I find that heartening.

What is the actual astronomy of this particular Solstice?
I think it wise to check out the scientific realm, particularly NASA when it comes to astronomical information. I also think it wise to realize that NASA’s view is purely materialistic. For example, I recently attended an evening slide presentation and lecture by the highly esteemed Dr. John Billingham who was inducted into the NASA Ames Hall of Fame for his contributions to space medicine, astrobiology and SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). He’s a funny little man, quite in his head. I found it astounding that after 30+ years of searching, plus millions of dollars invested, NASA has not one sign of intelligent life anywhere in outer space. No, not one sign. Did it ever occur to them that ‘intelligence’ might be something other than what can be measured by sound signals? Haven’t they ever heard of or explored the right brain? Simply baffling this idea of one-sided intelligence…

NASA is writing dozens of articles on this 12-21-12 date, however. They only address ‘the end of the world’ scenario which is obviously connected with Western thoughts obsession with big bang beginnings and endings. Not yet, they say. Definitely not this Solstice. No rogue planet Nibiru returning, no major comic alignments, no comets or asteroids about to wham us, no flipping over as in ‘pole shifts’. As their spokesman astronomer, Don Yeomans, says, “None, zero, zip, nada.”

They don’t even consider the sun a threat even though it is approaching maximum activity in its 11-year cycle when it does reverse its poles. This Solar Cycle 24 will peak in 2013, so there’s still some unknowns due to the fact that Earth’s magnetic field is decreasing, which is its only way of protecting all of us from the Sun’s harmful rays.

There are, however, certain people who work with both science and astrology that I also like to read. One such man is Tapan Das ‘who has 37 years of technical management experience in telecommunication, wireless, IP, WiFi and ASIC. He holds M.Sc in Electronics from the U. Of London, and a PhD in Microwave Electronics from the U. of Bradford, UK ….He holds 7 patents……..He has an active interest in astrology and has published a paper on the scientific theory of consciousness in the journal ofNeuroQuantonology. He has even published a book titled Why Astrology is Science: Five Good Reasons. Mr. Das does state that the Earth, and the Sun will be exactly aligned with the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, for the first time in 26,000 years. There will be The Great Celestial Conjunction when the ecliptic cross and the galactic cross form an eight pointed cross overlapping together. Also, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn will line up roughly along a line which is an equally rare event. He suggests that possible magnetic turbulence could be the result.

Mr. Jenkins also theorizes that our Sun is heading for its closest approach to the Galactic Center sometime in 2220, +/- three years. Obviously, we won’t be around to herald that one!

What do respected Mayan Elders today say about all of this?
My research found five different elders speaking out on the potential meaning of this time period.

I’ve already mentioned Alejandro Oxlaj who also says, “…..one thing is for sure, it is certain that you all will know when this happens, because it is going to be a long period of darkness. It is a change of sun; it is another sun that is coming……Nobody can stop this………..it is a change. But all the beings on Earth, like people, animals, plants, there is always seed left behind for the next generations…..”

Don Cirillo, a Mayan Elder who is from the Maya Itza Council, also implies that there is now a window of time in which Maya prophecies will be fulfilled that began in October of 2007 and ends as late as December of 2015.
Miguel Angel Vergara, a Mayan priest and Master teacher, and a director at Chichen Itza for many years states in a transcript from he teachings at a ‘Prophet’s Conference in July 2012: “…..What is going to happen on this date? What this stele tells us and in a clear and direct way, is that we are going to conclude a period of time, an era, a sun, a final cycle, and then initiate a new one…..”

Think about this, Miguel Vergara is not a ‘New Ager’. He is a respected Elder of a very ancient indigenous people and this is more of what he has to say, “We are living, in this moment, a process of Change of Consciousness in all of us….A golden era, but based on a change in thinking and a change in consciousness, based on being and acting differently; loving, respecting, and honoring all the elements of life on this planet: earth, water, air, fire, ether, human beings, mountains, rivers, volcanoes, lakes, animals, plants, trees, caves, cenotes, temples, pyramids, etc. etc.”

“The Maya teachers taught us saying, ‘If you believe, you can create, and if you can create you can manifest.’ You can do it since you are a potential creator!”

“Each atom of creation has three parts:
1. Material
2. Consciousness
3. Energy
We are able to communicate directly with the consciousness of the atom that forms the elements of life; the Sun, the Moon, the River, the Sea, a Mountain, a Volcano, the wind, the rain, a hurricane, an earthquake, the fire, and ask them, with great faith, these Guardians, caretakers, or Divas of this phenomenal nature whatever it may be, to transform to a different form, a positive form, a form in balance and harmony.”

“This is a part of our Maya Consciousness. Imagine that thousands of human beings unite with us in this great crusade to activate our Maya Consciousness: a consciousness of love and wisdom, to help our beautiful planet and all the beings that live here.”

Mayan Elder Apolinario Chile Pixtun states that ‘apocalypse’ is a Western concept that has little or nothing to do with Mayan beliefs. His native Guatemalans if asked the significance of 12-21-12 probably wouldn’t know what you were talking about. They have real concerns such as ‘Is it going to rain today?’

Finally, Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq’ij (a ceremonial priest and spiritual guide) of the Eagle Clan, says this, “Anthropologists visit the temple sites and read the inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It’s just their imagination. Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed.”

“We are no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun. This is the time in-between, the time of transition. As we pass through transition there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth Changes………It will be the start of a new era resulting from and signified by the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator and the Earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy.”

“Humanity will continue, but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human. We are living in the most important era of the Mayan calendars and prophecies. All the prophecies of the world, all the traditions are converging now. The is no time for games. The spiritual ideal of this era is action.”

Having covered a very brief (though long for a blog) synopsis of my discoveries, I give you the actual chart for Winter Solstice on December 21, 2012 exact in Washington DC, USA at 6:12 AM EST.

Winter Solstice 2012

What does this chart symbolize?

First of all we see an exact and amazing Yod, or Finger of God configuration lining up across the Ascendant/Descendant axis of the Washington DC chart. Jupiter, the great god of expansion, sits at the apex of the Yod retrograde in Gemini. At either end of the base of this Yod is Saturn in Scorpio sextile Pluto in Capricorn, and even more amazingly sits Venus in Sagittarius opposite Jupiter, nearly at the degree of the Galactic Center, and also conjoining Mercury in Sagittarius. Five planets in one configuration!

Jupiter holds the focal point of powerful energy that involves radical transformation (Pluto), painful learning experiences relating to our relationships with the earth and each other (Saturn) and our philosophical belief systems symbolized by Venus/Mercury in Sagittarius. Jupiter in Gemini must try to understand something crucial to changing consciousness (Gemini) that may be both dazzling and confusing as Neptune/Chiron in Pisces activate the focus of a T-square also involving Venus/Mercury opposite Jupiter. The Neptune/Chiron pair brings in suffering and redemption themes as well as the need to bring a spiritual essence into the equation of all this mighty change. Now we have 7 bodies in our Solar System involved in one strong configuration!

Jupiter in Gemini retrograde may mean that we have to process all the data swarming in every direction now. We are literally bombarded with energies that impact our mind, body, and consciousness; not to mention our feelings. The Moon in Aries sextile Jupiter and trine Venus/Mercury may mean that many of us are excited, even exhilarated at the changes coming so thick and fast. For others it may be just too much intensity since Pluto is also squaring this Moon of the mass unconscious. But Jupiter in Gemini demands that we keep moving and staying curious. We need to keep asking the right questions in order to receive the right answers.

And then there’s the Sun in Capricorn still conjoining Pluto, as it has been for several years now. What powerful transformations are in the works? What are yet to come? Pluto is squaring Uranus and certain upheavals are yet to unfold as we head for 5 more exact hits before 2015 is over and done with.

There is also a ‘mini-grand trine’ in this chart. Look at that Saturn trine Neptune/Chiron in water signs, both in sextile to Sun/Pluto in earth/Capricorn. Hard work and perseverance coupled with intuition and spiritual guidance will lead to greater transformation and healing.

I would love to keep going, but I feel this is long enough. Too many words! We also need to ‘feel our way’ and trust what arises in our hearts. By keeping our hearts open we will receive exactly the truths and information we need to know through this gateway into a new cycle yet to be revealed. Namaste.

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com

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Relating to Scorpio by Genevieve Vierling

11/6/2012

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We are fortunate that most Scorpios are profoundly good people. I know quite of few of them, starting with my dear husband of forty years! If you seek depth of emotion, strength of character, and you never want to be bored, go find a Scorpio.

Scorpio is a fixed water sign following airy cardinal Libra. Both signs are relationship oriented, but first Libra tries to achieve the archetype of true union/marriage and like all good fairy tales, the couple is supposed to live ‘happily ever after’. Scorpio comes next and takes us into the deeper aspects of relationship where power struggles are likely to develop after the honeymoon is over. It also supports something sacred and soulful that can only develop as two people become more open and vulnerable to each other emotionally. That is what Scorpio is after.

Scorpio seeks a profoundly close union with another that is unrestrained much as pure orgasmic release pitches one head-long into an experience which can not be controlled. Scorpio seeks passion as a way to connect with the object of their desire whether it is another human being, or any relationship involving an engagement of energy such as work, creative expression, or even socio-political activity. I remember well a Scorpio client who was a top executive in a major financial firm asking me each time I did a session for him, “Where is my passion? How can I get it back?”

Soulful is a term that probably appeals to this sign more than air types. A plunge into the mysteries is often more about descent first before some type of triumphal ascension can occur. The emotional roller-coaster ride along the way could be described as exciting, terrifying, exhilarating, intensely stomach-churning, and profoundly cathartic.

Is it any wonder that this sign seems to be seen by many as intense, dark, power-driven, jealously possessive, and sexually obsessed? All those emotions that often pulsate under our conscious radar are projected onto Scorpio who is expected to express them in spades. Perhaps this, in part, is why those born with major emphasis in this sign retreat behind an enigmatic mask or even isolate themselves in order to maintain some equilibrium. This is a strongly sensitive and empathic sign whose emotional body is susceptible to all the unconscious undercurrents of others. This is a sign that can be easily hurt, yet pain is often borne without complaint by these strong souls. Scorpio is also good at expressing these raw emotions creatively such as writers like Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Margaret Atwood, and Fedor Dostoevsky, or as artistic masterpieces such as Picasso’s Guernica or Georgia O’Keefe’s many skull paintings.

Ms. O’Keeffe is one of my favorite painters and if you really want to get inside the workings of a Scorpio read Laurie Lisle’s great biography of her Portrait of an Artist. I’ll briefly outline some of the qualities brought to life through ‘unraveling the threads of O’Keeffe’s singular life and career’. She lived to be the ripe old age of 98 years which is true of many Scorpios staying power. They can be very long-lived once they persevere through their internal angst and pain. She was dedicated and deeply committed to her path as an artist from an early age and in her early ‘20s weathered through the censorship and prejudice as a teacher in rural Texas in her effort to simply survive on her own while continuing to paint every spare moment in the privacy of her home. Once she met the love of her life, Alfred Stieglitz, her opposite in nearly every aspect, her passion was ignited and her creativity bloomed.

Her paintings evoked the deepest levels of feminine opening and ecstasy through images of great beauty and mystery—–all those amazing flowers!

Shortly after her first Saturn Return when her special destiny was already bringing her recognition and she was gaining respect amongst her peers, she realized that Lake George, the beautiful farm estate she shared with her husband in the Adirondacks, was not her place. What inspired her was the Wild West of New Mexico, and thus began her journey towards Taos, and a place in nature where her soul felt at home amongst the intense desert light and stark contrasts of desert, mountains, sagebrush, and brilliant early spring blooming flowers. “….Georgia was exhilarated by it all—the vast scale of the remote mountains, the deep silence of the land, and the empty arc of the infinite sky. It did not make her feel diminished at all.”

Each Scorpio must find that which resonates most with their deepest Soul and then the underlying passion will well up like a mighty spring giving them the renewal and life force that they desire. So while a human relationship with Stieglitz began this process, it was ultimately her relationship with a special place that completed it. “In old age O’Keeffe’s passion for Ghost Ranch remains as powerful as the day she first saw it more than forty years ago…..”

Was she lonely in her isolation? Definitely not. “Sometimes I think I’m half mad with love for this place.”

The biography ends with a couple more choice quotes from this archetypal Scorpio woman: “When I think of death, I only regret that I will not be able to see this beautiful country anymore, unless the Indians are right and my spirit will walk here after I’m gone.”……”She also says that she has plans to be reincarnated in her next life as a blond with a beautiful soprano voice. ‘I would sing very high, very clear notes’ she says, ‘without fear.’” Well said…….

Fleshing out this highly private and mysterious sign isn’t easy. Their life journey is often a paradox of effort to be in absolute control and experiencing absolute helplessness in the face of that which they simply can not control. Nothing ever seems to be in between with them. The ‘all or nothing’ cliché really does fit for the most part their stance. In myth it is the serpent who may best describe their archetypal cycle of outgrowing their ego/skin, sloughing it off, and growing a new one. Of course the other great archetype is the Phoenix bird rising up from its own ashes. These are the phases of their life journey and they span the entire spectrum from heaven to hell, and back to heaven once again.

Scorpio Women
These are women of great complexity, mystery, and intense pride, like their Leo sisters. They will also lick their wounds in private because they are often intolerant of weakness of character. Like their Aries sisters, both being ruled by Mars, they expect honesty of character in their beloved and truly do seek a soul bond with no secrets withheld once they give their heart. This is why they are so selective in choosing their friends and potential partners. They have high standards and would rather go it alone than compromise.

When I think of the many fine Scorpio women I have been privileged to know for long periods of time I admire their great loyalty and compassion, and their tendency to put your concerns ahead of their own. That is why many of them are drawn to the healing arts and do admirable work in a variety of ways as therapists, Reiki healers, and skilled professionals working with people such as customer service representatives, public relations and quality control experts. They also make very fine teachers.

The United States has had two back-to-back Secretary of State women; Condoleezza Rice followed by Hilary Rodham Clinton. Remember, this is a Mars/Pluto ruled sign and there is a decided warrior quality to many female natives. Dealing with conflicts and negotiating deals, often in secret, is probably a forte for these types of women. If you want your confidence held, no one does it better than a Scorpio. They do know how to keep secrets!

They are seldom frivolous, light-hearted women. Their awareness of the less visible realms of the psyche makes it difficult to just skim the surface with others. So for anyone seeking a committed partner who will give her all, but let you know when her trust has been violated (think Hilary again), the Scorpio woman will provide great inner stability, passion, and emotional depth. She will be willing to meet the travails of life without flinching and she will move heaven and earth for those she truly loves.

Scorpio Men
Equally private and paradoxical are the men of this sign. Probably more than their female counterparts they protect their sensitivity with personas that can appear even cold and impersonal, yet once their guard is down they can be one of the most demonstrative of the entire zodiac and truly do know how to treat women as near goddesses, showering them with attention, affection, and even adoration. They are also capable of great gentleness and compassion especially if they see your pain. The mature types make great alchemists and healers.

Scorpio men do like to control their destiny more than most and their desire to master aspects of themselves in the bargain creates a type of mystique which often sets them apart. Teddy Roosevelt coined the phrase “Walk softly and carry a big stick” describing their need to keep their iron strength fairly under wraps until needed. When watching General David Petraeus you get that sense. Robert F. Kennedy had it too. These are not men easily molded by others. In fact, Scorpio men do need respect and understanding for only those qualities will allow them to open and learn from another. If you don’t like something about them, too bad. You’re not going to change them.

This is a sign rarely childlike even when small. They abhor weakness, especially in themselves, and they seek strength in a partner as well. A healthy fight with a Scorpio man is better than icy silence or a sniveling ‘poor me’ attitude. They appreciate a woman with self-respect but generally can’t abide arrogance.

Can they be trusted? It depends………. They do keep their secret ways and many have what seems like a double standard. Look at Pablo Picasso or Prince Charles as good examples, but quite frankly Scorpio men tend to be more faithful as life-long partners than is generally believed. Once in love, they are deeply serious about their commitments and they won’t play silly games just to pump up their egos.

I have an enormous list of world leaders, past and present, who are Scorpios. They run the gamut from extreme right to extreme left. Some notable present-day men are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, VP Joseph Biden, Prince Charles of England, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, and Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin.

On a lighter note, I did find a Scorpio whom practically everybody loves. Yes, the one and only MICKEY MOUSE born/created on November 18, 1928. Watch him and learn!

Scorpio Parents
The ones I have known made great parents, including my husband who adopted my first two children. He treated them as his own and loved them as his own. A good Scorpio parent takes the time to find out what their children are feeling as well as thinking. They can be just a tremendous support especially as their children grow towards adulthood. I think of one totally committed mother whose son is autistic. She cares for him herself even though it requires a tremendous strength and sacrifice on her part.

The Scorpio Shadow
The key word for their shadow is probably fanaticism or as Liz Greene says, “The Othello Syndrome” where an opinion becomes a biased judgment that moves into gross generalization such as ‘all men are bastards’, or ‘you can’t trust anyone’, or ‘the entire government is evil’. This highly subjective way of looking out at life is actually a mental construct where objectivity is lost. Remember all water signs as a group are often unaware of their own thought processes and thus are prone to extreme opinions colored by their emotions. Water signs are often uncomfortable with actual facts and Scorpios shadow becomes quite negative when tied with a dark belief. Paranoia is often the result which can lead to horrendous manifestations such as the murderous mayhem of Charles Manson, or the red purging witch hunts of Joseph McCarthy.

Scorpios must face their ‘inner Hydra’ by shining the light of consciousness on those multiple-headed demons that lurk in all of us, but often gain greater power and control when fed obsessive feelings and thoughts in a sign known for its extremism and willfulness. The way through is served by real humility and the way out is served by forgiveness knowing that every one of us has both dark and light, good and evil within us.

Scorpio as Lover
This is probably the most erotic and passionate of all the signs. Taurus is sensual but the emotional component of Scorpio seeks more than just physical release. The Scorpio lover seeks a true tantric experience where the longing for a mystical experience of oneness is linked to sexuality. The great Gothic novels tried to describe these rapturous and even dangerous liaisons; Jane Eyreprobably being one of the best examples of a soul union between two tormented humans.

Highs and lows go with Scorpios capacity to love, and crises and blow-ups can take place especially if there is too much repression of feeling which seethes and then blows like a volcano. It takes self-mastery on the part of Scorpio to first deal with their own inner feelings of jealousy, possessiveness, and pain rather than taking it out on their partner. Passion is not a quiet row on a placid lake. To enjoy the love of a Scorpio one must accept the highs and lows of emotions that rise and fall like oceanic waves. Body-surfing anyone?

Now we’ll look at Scorpio in relationship to the other signs:

Scorpio with Aries
Since both are ruled by Aries there is an affinity in spite of the fact that Scorpio is fixed fire and Aries is cardinal fire, both quite different in quality that tend to force major adjustments to each other. Together they can unite with a vital force, grapple with tough jobs, and deal with life together in a vigorous manner.

My example for this combination is Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel (Aries) who had a very large family for modern times (nine children) and appeared to have a solid marriage even though we know that Marilyn Monroe proved to be a major distraction shortly before Robert’s untimely assassination. Robert was very yin in nature (much Scorpio/Cancer combined with Capricorn/Taurus) and thus was attracted to highly yang women. Ethel was very fiery with a stellium in Aries combined with Saturn/Moon in Sagittarius. She enhanced his Neptune idealism in the 5th (also children!) and supported him mightily from behind the scenes, but the truth is, they didn’t refuel each other energetically.

Scorpio with Taurus
Fixed opposite signs from water/Scorpio to earth/Taurus, this is a combination that I have seen work between people I know personally. I feel that Taurus acts as an anchor for Scorpio’s need to explore the high seas of life. Both are actually part of the never-ending cycle of life where Taurus builds and grows while Scorpio transforms and eliminates that which is outmoded. Values are an obvious theme here and the nature of desire becomes either a point of union or a source of separation.

An interesting example of this match is the marriage of Marie Curie (Scorpio) to Pierre Curie (Taurus). I remember being fascinated with Mme. Curie and writing a paper about her in my college physics class. It would be a Scorpio/Taurus combination that developed plutonium and later suffered the personal consequences of opening Pandora’s Box. Marie was a very strong Scorpio (no surprise) with S. Node/Moon/Chiron in Pisces. She was very yin. Pierre’s Moon in Scorpio conjoined her Sun and his Ascendant/Neptune in Pisces conjoined her S. Node/Moon/Chiron. It would seem that both a strange karmic fate and a mysterious destiny brought them together, for we all now live with the consequences of their union, for good or ill.

Scorpio with Gemini
This is another difficult combination due to the marked differences between the two signs where fixed water tries to relate to mutable air. The mercurial function of Gemini may serve to stimulate Scorpio in rather extraordinary ways as seen by the curious attraction of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco.

On some level it was a highly fatalistic attraction which led to her premature death whizzing down the steeply winding road (Gemini) from her fairy-tale castle. Grace had Moon in Pisces squaring Jupiter in Gemini and the Prince’s Sun/Ascendant activated that dreamy combination, as did his S. Node/Uranus in Pisces conjoining her Moon. His Jupiter in Scorpio conjoined her Mercury/S. Node/Sun in Scorpio symbolizing that both were reconnecting as souls to play out again the endless drama of myth where dreams come true, yet are shattered by the most unfortunate of accidents. In truth, they weren’t very compatible with Sun/Mercury inconjunct and Moons square each other, but Grace needed to live out something important for her as a Scorpio soul with Sun/S.Node opposite Chiron/N.Node. It is not for us to judge.

Scorpio with Cancer
Two signs of the same element but different mode according to traditional rules are highly compatible by nature. Both feel and harmonize on the emotional level. It can be a highly sentimental combination where union, then home and family become major themes.

Again, we have a mythic modern-day enactment of this combination in a surprising triangle between Prince Charles, the Scorpio, and his two Cancer partners; the true love of his life, Camilla, and his chosen consort, the love of the people, Diana. Why did one touch his heart, and not the other?

Charles and Camilla have the classic Sun trine Sun within one degree. Diana’s Sun/Mercury in earlier degrees was trine Charles Mercury in Scorpio, but not his Sun. Further more, Camilla’s Moon/Venus is also in the early degrees of Cancer in trine to Charles’ S.Node/Mercury implying a lot of affection and mutual understanding between them. Princess Di’s Moon was in Aquarius squaring Charles’ Sun/Chiron and her Venus was in Taurus, opposing him without really connecting by degree his Moon, also in Taurus.

You wonder, looking at these three, the strange twists of fate and destiny that played out and can readily be seen between the hits and misses of their energy matches. It is said that Camilla helped Charles to choose Diana as his Queen. Diana had a Sagittarius Ascendant conjoining Charles’ Mars/Jupiter. He desired her for a purpose, but not for herself. Very, very sad indeed. His Mercury/S.Node in Scorpio shows a soul well used to keeping secrets, but compromising himself for the age-old themes of power and status.

Scorpio with Leo
These two are often magnetically attracted to each other because both are passionate signs, and both respect power. Leo is fixed fire to Scorpios fixed water. Fire and water can get pretty steamy indeed, but they can just as easily blow apart if some aspect of display (Leo) or concealment (Scorpio) goes array such as it did between Maria Shriver (Scorpio) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Leo).

It was actually Arnold’s Sun/Saturn/Pluto in Leo square Chiron/Jupiter in Scorpio that finally got blown sky high for the entire world to see. His reveal/conceal modus operandi hit too close to home and he has, of course, admitted his grave error of decency and judgment. It’s interesting that Maria’s dynamic nearly reverses that of her long-term spouse, and probably love of her life. She has Sun/Saturn in Scorpio squaring her Moon/Pluto/Jupiter in Leo. They will always have a strong bond due to their four children, but neither Scorpio nor Leo will tolerate betrayal and once trust has been broken, there’s little that can mend humpty dumpty ever again with both fixed signs in one person. This all took place as Saturn was moving over Maria’s Mars/Mercury/in Neptune. All her dreams and illusions got crushed and now she is decidedly moving on

Another power couple that seems to by holding their own and have even formed their joint Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are Scorpio Bill and Leo Melinda. Bill is a classic nerd/introvert with one exception; his Moon in Aries high in the sky. That combination alone gives him enormous drive. Melinda has both Neptune and Moon in Scorpio conjoining Bill’s Venus/Saturn in Scorpio creating a tight bond between them. Bill’s powerful Jupiter/Pluto in Leo is conjoined her Sun where she lights up what they both want: wealth, power, and the ability to give to others as they see fit which shows up strongly in her chart as a type of nurturing the masses. (Mars/Venus/N. Node in Cancer in trine to Bill’s Sun)

Scorpio with Virgo
This can certainly be a good blend of strength and mastery. Both signs are yin and both are highly critical and analytical. Both like to research, dig into things, and create systems and order. Yet I still can’t find a single famous couple with this combination.

I know a couple personally who have survived a long-term relationship with notable reservations in completely bonding. The woman is a Scorpio and she is finally owning her own power and not constantly devoting herself to her male partner’s needs. She stated that he has felt her to be overly critical of him at times. Right now they continue to work together and there continues to be a deep resonance, but not the kind where living together could be possible as equals from her viewpoint.

Anyone out there knowing a good example of this combination, please let us all know.

Scorpio with Libra
I just covered this in my last article on Libra, but here we see Scorpio leading Libra to the next step of union which is merging the two energies so that the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. Side by side there is usually a bit of the other in each. Here is a Venus/Mars combination with Pluto thrown in to alchemize them. Both serve socializing functions in that the union between two people leads to mutual sharing of values, and thus a joint sharing of resources which in turn begin to build the web of what is to become society.

The former Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a strong double Scorpio (Sun and Moon) took the above formula to its extreme as the head of a patriarchal regime where societal protocol dictated his personal life. He married three times to gain an heir. I decided not to include his first two wives, though his second, the beautiful Soraya (Cancer), was tragic because he truly loved her.

His third wife was the lovely Farah Diba, a Libran. She bore him not only his heir (to the now defunct throne), but also three more children, and they remained married for twenty years until his death. As the final Empress of an ancient Monarchy she actually became publicly visible and productive in her humanitarian role of overseeing educational, health, and cultural organizations. She and the Shah shared a Mars in Virgo and hers conjoined his Venus. They were productive together! His Sun in Scorpio actually was trine his Uranus in Aquarius which her Jupiter conjoined, and has she had a wonderful grand trine in Air involving her Sun and Moon, she was able to truly grow and reach great heights of accomplishment with his support.

Scorpio with Scorpio

Both people would have an innate inner understanding of each other obviously. Scorpios tend to at least like other Scorpios because both have complex emotions and inner lives. The couples I have known with this combination did not last. In one case, the male was a rover and has yet to understand commitment and in the other case the same pattern has been there; one wanted to bond, the other remained unwilling.

Julia Roberts, a strong 5th house Sun/Mercury/Neptune in Scorpio married Lyle Lovett, ten years older but also bearing a Neptune/Sun/N.Node/Mercury in Scorpio. It was a short-lived marriage. While his Mars and Venus both made good aspects to her Moon in Leo, and his Moon was in trine to her Sun there must not have been enough depth in the relationship for her as she moved through her Saturn Return. Saturn provides the glue you see.

Scorpio with Sagittarius

Side by side, these two can get along famously due, again, to the fact that one might share planets with the other. Sagittarius takes Scorpio to the next step of opening back out and expanding into the greater world of either philosophy, higher education, or adventure.

Power couple Ted Turner with Jane Fonda certainly gave us a public glimpse of this combination. Both were high-profile public figures, yet both also had parents who committed suicide (Scorpio themes). Both had strong egos and Jane didn’t need Ted’s money. They must have initially loved being on his ranches, and sure enough, they shared a Venus (Jane) conjunct Mercury (Ted) in Sagittarius. Both dream big and then get disillusioned with Neptune in square to those two planets. It is said that Scorpio Ted had a terrible year when they split up and with his Sun/Venus square Jupiter everything becomes bigger than life, for good or ill. Perhaps we’ll look more closely at Jane when we get to Sagittarius for she has as most interesting birth map.

Scorpio with Capricorn

Water with Earth should be compatible yet we somehow feel the somberness of this combination. It’s a great combination for achievement and each can help the other on that score. Even passion can be great considering Scorpio’s non-stop theme and Capricorn’s ability to get lustier with age!

Georgia O’Keefe did gain both benefits when she married Alfred Stieglitz. Not only did he create a platform through his gallery for her to become world famous, but her deepest passions were initially aroused in the early years of their marriage. This very private woman was photographed in the most erotic ways by Alfred and the world saw those as well. Finally, however, their differences emerged and they spent long periods separate from each other, yet remained married until his death.

They had a very compatible Mercury combination with hers in Scorpio sextile his in Capricorn. Mercury plays an enormous role in a strong partnership because communication is so vital. Their Mars, however, were not compatible with Georgia’s in Virgo and Alfred’s in Sagittarius. At the beginning this is great sexually, but later on it turns into power struggles. They resolved it by going their separate ways. Their Moons were also not very compatible. Georgia had a Sun/Moon/Mercury tight combo in Scorpio. She was highly instinctual and able to be alone for long periods of time. Alfred had Moon in Libra in trine to his Mercury. He was highly social and needed a more metropolitan life style of soirees and gatherings. Georgia’s Venus in Libra moved with him enough, yet her longing for Ghost Ranch ultimately became her abiding passion.

Scorpio with Aquarius

Here is Fixed Water with Fixed Air. The old rule books say this is a ‘no no’, but look again. I actually have four examples to share of this pairing. It would seem that both are looking to balance themselves through the other. Water does seek Air, and Air seeks Water. It’s that feeling/mind dichotomy at work. Aquarius lends objectivity to Scorpio while Scorpio shows Aquarius how to get in touch with their deeper levels within themselves.

Let’s start with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. We know this relationship ultimately hit the rocks probably due to their wide age difference and Ashton’s need to move on. Demi is a very strong Scorpio with Mercury/Neptune/Sun/Venus all there opposite her Moon in Taurus. In fact, she was born on a Full Moon which isn’t usually an easy life for those who bear its imprint. With her Scorpio penchant for all or nothing it means she can’t compromise very easily on any level, especially with Mars in Leo! She also has Saturn in the final fixed sign of Aquarius. Her Saturn/S. Node sat right on Ashton’s Mercury. This is a typical parent/child or teacher/student combination. There’s a lot more, but you get the picture. Sadly it is her Moon in Taurus that desires to be young and beautiful for ever that took a real beating with so many of Ashton’s fixed planets squaring it, including his Saturn. Ouch.

Perhaps a more successful union with equally well known Julia Roberts and her present husband, Aquarian Daniel Molder, will prove easier for they are true peers. They share twins and a ranch life in New Mexico, far from the maddening world of Hollywood. That certainly helps. (Though strange that Demi was born in New Mexico) While Julia’s Sun/Mercury in Scorpio squares Daniel’s Mercury/Sun in Aquarius, his Mars conjoins her Mercury, and his Moon trines. In fact, he has a Grand Trine in Water which means that he has avenues of emotional expression that connect well with Julia. She has nothing in Air so he brings that element into her life. Let’s wish them a long and happy marriage!

Matthew McConaughey (Scorpio) is married to the gorgeous Brazilian model and designer, Camila Alves. They live in Texas, his place of birth, with their two children and one more on the way. Their Sun/Mercury are also in a square relationship but Camila has Moon in Pisces trine Matthew’s Sun as well as her Jupiter in Scorpio conjoining it. She’s an enormous support for him. His Jupiter/Venus in Libra conjoins her Mars/Saturn/Pluto in Libra which takes on a complex meaning, yet certainly bonds them through all Libran activities including partnership as well as business. Matthew, for all his charisma sexually, is a very serious man and appears to take his commitments seriously as well.

One more example that I want to include is the exquisite, goddess-like Aishwarya Rai (Scorpio) and her husband Abishek Bachchen. They met in 1997, but didn’t marry until 2007. They have a little girl. They have both Suns in square and Moons in square, but perhaps in Vedic astrology, which they are likely to use, this formula is different. Aishwarya’s Jupiter is in Aquarius complementing her husband’s Sun, and his Venus/Mercury in Capricorn complements her Moon in Capricorn. She has a very balanced chart where the elements are concerned.

Scorpio with Pisces

This Fixed Water with Mutable Water is harmonious and in general it is Pisces who has the ability to adapt to Scorpio more easily than the other water combination of Scorpio with Cancer. The classic Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor duo was much celebrated by astrologers long ago.

I thought I had a long-lived winner in Scorpio Goldie Hawn with Pisces Kurt Russell, but my understanding is that they are no longer a couple. Nonetheless, they lasted a very long time without ever being married. Goldie is an interesting study with her Sun/Venus both in Scorpio, but her Uranus/Moon in Gemini. No wonder she has been such a great comedian. Kurt’s Sun was in trine to hers by just 2 degrees, furthermore he has Jupiter also in Pisces and N. Node there. He’s a very buoyant guy! His Moon in Cancer conjoined Goldie’s Saturn creating a bond that didn’t really need marriage it seems. Transit Uranus seems to be creating huge changes for Kurt for the past several years and into the future. He has a lot of Aries energy which was in harmony with Goldie’s Mars and Mercury in fire, but life is change and he feels like the one changing the most dramatically.

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com I’ll end with Demi Moore, again, and her first husband, Bruce Willis with whom she is still bonded through parenthood and friendship (thankfully). Bruce was born with Sun in late Pisces conjoining Demi’s Ascendant and widely in trine to her Scorpio Sun/Venus. He, like Ashton, however has a lot of Aquarius (Moon/Chiron/Venus) which were at odds with her Full Moon axis. His Saturn in Scorpio conjoins her Sun, while his Mars in Taurus conjoins her Moon. Fixed signs truly are drawn to other Fixed signs. Great passion is ignited, but also great power issues and struggles.

Demi has had a true Scorpio’s life of heavens and hells starting with her early childhood. With Saturn now in Scorpio beginning to activate all of her Fixed signs, including Mercury/Neptune/Sun/Venus all in Scorpio, I do wish her grace from the Universe, and from within her own Scorpio stamina, to mature wisely and use her strength to endure and rise Phoenix-like into another ‘life within life’ for the next phase of her journey.

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com

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Mercury Retrograde And Election Madness by Genevieve Vierling

10/17/2012

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I’m encouraging anyone reading this to vote by mail this year if possible, or vote early at the designated locations in your precinct. Why? Mercury will turn retrograde on November 6th this year. Yes, right on Election Day. Anyone working with astrology for very long knows what can happen when the ‘god’ of communications, commerce, and routine travel stops and begins to move backwards. All sorts of imagined and unimagined mishaps can go wrong in the middle of an election when this occurs, and it has only happened once before. Guess when? When George Bush Jr. questionably won against Al Gore not that long ago. So here we go again!

Election Day in Honolulu 8 PM AHST

On this particular Election Day Mercury will be retrograde in Sagittarius in trine to Uranus also retrograde in Aries, and squaring Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, both retrograde. What this potentially means is a lot of upsets, surprises and excitement surrounded by confusion, lack of clarity, and downright chaos. Distortions of all types are possible. Resulting disillusionment is possible. So the more of us who quietly and sanely fill out our ballots and put them in the mailbox the better!

Could this Mercury retrograde have anything to do with the results of this election? Look back at the first time George Bush Jr. got elected and make your own conclusions.

Obama on Election Day

Romney on Election Day

There’s a lot of buzz even in astrological circles about who will win. I’m purposely staying out of that fray. A recent blogger, Jamie Partridge, listed all the astrologers who say Obama will win, and all those who say Romney will win. Check it out for yourself, but right now it’s still about 2 to 1 in favor of Obama.

What I’m more concerned with now is what is happening to America? First I’d like to quote Matt Taibbi a very astute national affairs commentator on our election madness, and then I’d like to briefly look ahead at what America has to go through astrologically speaking until 2015.

First Mr. Taibbi in his recent article “Blame the Media” (Mercury again):
“What we Americans go through to pick a president is not only crazy and unnecessary but genuinely abusive. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in a craven, cynical effort to stir up hatred and anger on both sides. A decision that in reality takes one or two days of careful research to make is somehow stretched out into a process that involves two years of relentless, suffocating mind-warfare, an onslaught of toxic media messaging directed at liberals, conservatives and everyone in between that by Election Day makes every dinner conversation dangerous and literally divides families.

Politicians are much to blame for this, but we in the media have to take responsibility for the damage we do to the American psyche in the name of election coverage. At this very moment, there are people all over the country who are stocking up on canned goods and ammo for the apocalypse they believe will come if Obama is re-elected. For the broadcast business to be successful viewers need to be not merely interested in our political melodramas, they have to be in an absolute state about them—emotionally invested in the outcome and frightened not to watch what happens next. And any person who’s been subjected to 720 consecutive days of propaganda is not likely to take the news well if he gets the wrong result, whether it’s a victory for Obama or for Romney. By that point, the networks have spent two years finding new ways each day to convince him that the world is going to disintegrate into some commie or Hitlerian version of Mad Max, to keep him coming back and watching ads.”

He goes on to suggest that our campaigns be limited to six weeks and have free TV access for both candidates. He also wants it to be illegal to publish poll numbers. “Think about it: Banning poll numbers would force the media to actually cover the issues. As it stands now, the horse race is the entire story.”

I remember one early morning years ago taking the bus from Dublin to the airport and being the only person on the bus. I got into a conversation with the driver who was from Slovenia, a small but beautiful Eastern European country. He told me that in his country each candidate got equal campaign funds to keep things fair, and that the elections were fair in his country. He thought our country was sort of nuts in the way we conducted our political campaigns. I sadly had to agree with him. I, for one, will be relieved when this final frenzy to the finishing line is over for another two years before we start it up all over again.

USA on Election Day

The concern I really have is for the future of this nation where I was born. Certain cycles are in place that portend of even greater upheavals and implosions than we have lived through since 2008, and these will concern the very heads of state themselves as well as the energy and purpose of America as symbolized by the Sun in Cancer. There are also cycles involving our nation’s Moon in Aquarius (the common people & public nature) which look quite challenging. Here’s the run-down of specific dates when the most intense periods will run their course.

Transit Uranus semi-square the Moon: June 18, 2013
Transit Uranus (retrograde) semi-square the Moon: August 16, 2013
Transit Pluto semi-square the Moon: January 27, 2014
Transit Pluto opposite the Sun: March 14, 2014
Transit Uranus semi-square the Moon: March 28, 2014
Transit Uranus square the Sun: April 17, 2014
Transit Pluto (retrograde) opposite the Sun: May 17, 2014
Transit Pluto (retrograde) semi-square the Moon: July 9, 2014
Transit Uranus (retrograde) square the Sun: November 8, 2014
Transit Pluto semi-square the Moon: December 2, 2014
Transit Pluto opposite the Sun: January 5, 2015
Transit Uranus square the Sun: February 2, 2015
Transit Pluto (retrograde) opposite the Sun: August 17, 2015
Transit Pluto opposite the Sun: November 1, 2015 (Note that Pluto opposes the Sun FIVE times.)

I’ve kept things as simple as possible citing only the Sun & Moon involved in the basic Uranus/Pluto square aspect that every astrologer is discussing intensely now. The aspects to the Moon are particularly troubling because semi-square aspects are aspects of great pressure either to over-come some obstacle (waxing) or to release and let go of a past cycle (waning). The Moon representing the people shows this pressure applied on either side, both waxing from Uranus and waning from Pluto, beginning in the summer of 2013 and extending to the end of 2014.

Pluto in America’s chart now enters its ‘Immanent Phase’ meaning that in a few years Pluto returns to where it was at this nation’s birth after 248 years of a complete cycle. This final phase is where endings and the seeds of new beginnings are mixing. Pluto in the natal map is opposite Mercury implying that the nation was born out of a power struggle of gigantic proportions involving differing ideologies. This struggle is back again in full force as the old ends and the new begins.

So whoever is elected President of this nation will be dealing with great transitions of primarily endings before what is to come emerges. Given the chaotic confusion of this Election Day on November 6th, the strange fate of the head of the helm will be determined in a most disturbing manner. The does not bode well for a bright and tranquil presidency as more sobering matters loom ahead after the madness and frenzy of one more election cycle.

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com

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Relating to Libra by Genevieve Vierling

10/13/2012

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The graceful and highly stylized pas de deux of the ballet seems to epitomize the quality of rarified love that those born under Libra, or those who bear some strong signature in that sign, yearn for in a relationship. This is a couple’s dance where every move and gesture is harmonious and ritualized to perfection. If you are looking for someone who is artfully engaged in expressing the right manners, the right socially acceptable protocol, and who seeks a balanced give and take of communication, as well as someone who enjoys beauty, art, and culture, perhaps you should find a Libran. And if you are born under this sign you absolutely need something elevated and romantic in a relationship to sustain you!

This is not to say that all Librans are stuffy or reserved. Far from it. The roster of highly sexually attractive people under this sign is a very long list indeed. My list includes Rita Hayworth, Heather Locklear, Suzanne Somers, Cheryl Tiegs, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet, Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews, Susan Sarandon, Gwen Stafani,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly Preston, Karen Allen, Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Kim Kardashian, Catherine Deneuve, and Marion Cotillard in the actress category. If you think about all these women a certain image of style emerges that has aesthetic appeal to millions. Many were or are trend setters. In the male category we have Matt Damon, Montgomery Clift, Eminem, Scott Bakula, Yo-Yo Ma, John Lennon, Christopher Reeve, Sting, Michael Douglas, Will Smith, Luciano Pavarotti, Yves Montand, Charlton Heston, and Roger Moore. Again, we see style and a certain social finesse in all of them even if some play highly macho and very sexy roles.

Because this is a sign which seeks relationship as an ideal, the actual arrival of that state of perfection is often a path littered with trial and error failures, for it is a mental sign more than an emotional one; thus it is the principle of love that is sought after more than an actual emotional bond which can get messy. When you start studying the lives of the famous in this sign, be prepared to read over and over again just how many of them have been married several times. Even the politicians and heads of state may break the public ideal by having multiple partners such as Benjamin Netanyahu with his three marriages, and Dennis Kucinich with his three.

Speaking of heads of state, statesmanship, and politics; here is a sign which produces its considerable share of well known public leaders: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Mohandas Gandhi, Lech Walesa, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Thatcher, John Marshall, William Rehnquist, Pierre Trudeau, Ehud Olmert, and Benjamin Netanyahu to name a few. Libra seeks a more socially correct and acceptable route towards relationship which includes public roles which are often held for long periods of time especially in the media world of today. Ed Sullivan started it with his long running television show where he brought to the world a number of talented people. Then there was Johnny Carson with his highly popular late-night interview show of the famous and notorious which seemed to be a staple on TV forever.

Barbara Walters is still going strong at 83 years! She is personable, engaging, always impeccably dressed and coiffed, and another mainstay that everyone knows or recognizes as a great interviewer and commentator. Finally, there is Simon Cowell, not exactly known for his finesse, but certainly one of the highest paid television personalities simply because he is engaged with the selection and promotion of people performing publicly.

This is a human oriented sign and the art of relating socially is a huge part of what many natives in this sign pursue, though many also pursue this art of relating through the actual arts where creating patterns, balancing one element against another, blending contrasting elements, and refining crude or rough elements shows up in the world of choreography, interior design, painting, and writing. Another way this art of relating shows up is in the world of law where the balancing of the scales of justice is pursued through codifying what is considered to be equal and fair in matters of human relationships.

In fact, this sign seems to be engaged in a great effort to ritualize so much in life that is imperfect and rough into ‘the Good, the True, and the Beautiful’. It really is the place where frogs must become princes again, and beasts of prey must be enchanted into elegant and charming kings and queens. It’s the most fairy tale-like sign I know of!

Just look at what that genius artist, Caravaggio did with the most debase themes imaginable, like slicing off someone’s head; he painted them with great elegance, compositional style, and lustrous perfection. You can look at the hideous and be enchanted! That’s a Libran skill I’d say. Anne Rice in her vampire chronicles tried to do the same thing in writing with long descriptive passages about lush elegant scenes where beautifully attired people were really quite beastly and insatiably blood-thirsty in their actual behavior.

Catherine Deneuve played with chilling elegance a vampire in ‘The Hunger’ where even young people were ultimately devoured.

Libra Women
I’d rather look at the real life people I have known, enjoyed, and even loved, including my own mother who was graced with a Moon/Jupiter conjunction in Libra in her 10th house of public life. She was kind, gracious, and definitely ‘socially correct’. She loved social events actually and wouldn’t miss a political campaign, the pomp and pageantry of a graduation, the beauty and ritual of a wedding. She excelled in diplomacy with her colleagues and tried her best to smooth the edges of controversy which arose quite often in the academic world she worked in. It was only after her death that I learned of another side to her nature while reading her letters to her mother where she expressed her gall and disdain for some of the political skullduggery that especially the men in her world indulged in. This ‘other side’ was her Sun in Aries asserting righteous indignation, but it was well hidden in her 4th house of home and family. The world saw her as cooperative and diplomatic and she was amply rewarded for this behavior in that sphere.

A lot of Libra women I’ve known have worked in the world of male dominated culture quite well. This is an assertive sign remember. And it is also a sign where the ‘marriage of the male and female’ takes place inside to a great extent. Libra women enjoy making inroads in mainstream culture as teachers, business savvy women, leaders, and professionals of all stripes. These women often wield their ‘iron fist inside the velvet glove’ quite easily to achieve their goals. They may enjoy all the beauty and grace of a swan, but inside is the mind of a bird of prey. They are strategic and able to zero in at will when necessary.

Yes, they are a romantic group! They like all those clichés of how to be courted properly with flowers, wine, and candle-lit dinners for two. They are the queens of good taste and desire love to be elevated to an art form. They are also in need of intellectual stimulation through conversation. Yes, the art of good old-fashioned conversation. Social skills men! Sometimes, sadly, it’s a lost art and Libra women don’t exactly enjoy boorish men.

Look how quickly Kim Kardashian dumped her hunk once the public courting phase and over-the-top wedding was over; just 72 days until ‘irreconcilable differences’ could not be diplomatically bridged. My guess is that with an attorney for a father, she is a lot smarter than she tries to appear.

In this journey towards equality, Libran women have made huge inroads into patriarchal territory since the early ‘60s. Doris Lessing,the author, championed women through her many writings and novels but Mary Daly fought hard as author, professor, and theologian starting with her first book, ‘The Church and the Second Sex’ (1968), and moving on to ‘Beyond God the Father’ (1973), Gyn/Ecology (1978), Pure Lust (1984) to her final ‘Amazon Grace’(2006). How’s that for a female Libran slogan? I like it. Amazon Grace. These new Libra women are not the white gloved breed of the ‘50s. That’s for sure!

Libra Men
My personal experience doesn’t jive with some of what I’ve read about Libra men, such as ‘they’re hung up on their looks’, they are ‘Don Juans’, and love to play ‘hard to get’. I also never found them to be too abstract or tending to retreat up into their heads. I actually had three boyfriends born under this sign when I was younger and they were certainly all of them romantic. One was a fabulous pianist who used to play rhapsodies for me in the dark, another was a poet, but the one I still can smile inwardly about was a surfer boy from Hermosa Beach who favored candle light, and wrote me the most beautiful love letters stained with candle wax drippings—–yes, incurably romantic. Yet I don’t remember any of these men being ‘stuck on themselves’.

Libra men seek artistry and/or statesmanship in various forms I’ve found. One man I know works with sacred geometry and designs energy tools that are both beautiful and functional. Another is a designer of homes which are also imbued with grace yet meant to be lived in.

There are so many Libran men of letters who write and speak well. I’ve always admired Gore Vidal for both his style and eloquence. Even Frank Herbert created the most mysterious and magical science fiction worlds at the same time grappling with issues of social justice. In another article on Libra I wrote about both John Lennon and Mohandas Gandhi, two great visionaries for peace and justice. John was a romantic at heart and Yoko brought it out into the open for the world to see.

I feel that, like Libra women, the men are trying to harmonize their inner female with their outer male within themselves. When they achieve this balance they are truly masculine with a gentility that is both gracious and pleasant. You can see this in Dennis Kucinich who is an astute politician, often critical of current policies, but ever the gentleman in style. There is nothing vulgar or coarse about this man. Of course we could contrast him with someone like Vladimir Putin who obviously has a long way to go in integrating his inner feminine, and he does seem to be ‘hung up on his looks’ which is categorically absurd if you have eyes to see.

Let’s end by saluting Libra men like Desmond Tutu who valiantly and eloquently continue to champion human rights and equality for all. These are the men who deeply appreciate the feminine side of life and try to protect and preserve it.

Libra as Lover
I think I’ve covered the romantic element quite enough already in this article. In terms of a deeper intimacy it’s probably necessary for Libra to have some Scorpio somewhere in their make-up. Often they do. The two signs straddling Libra are earthy Virgo and watery Scorpio. Either helps to bring Libra out of their theoretical airy spaces, but Scorpio imbues them with just enough passion to really qualify as lovers with a capital L. Virgo may keep them too reasonable to let go and get swept away.

Women, however, after the honeymoon phase has worn off in a marriage, often seek some Libran romance to bring the spice back into the bedroom. This human art, therefore, never will go out of style, because Libra truly bridges from the self-sufficiency of Virgo to the passionate desire to merge in Scorpio with that graceful pas de deux which keeps the dream of love alive.

Libra as Parent
This is not a Mommy or Daddy sign. It’s really a sign designed to partner. So in parenting there is a need to reason things through, talk about things, find the common ground where fair is fair. I actually have a lot of Libra clients who chose not to have children or couldn’t have them. Many of the women I know have sons. I think they make good mothers because Libran women can get inside a male head more easily. This doesn’t mean they don’t go through their trials with acting out teenagers. They do. Yet in the long run they have the opportunity to cultivate a truly harmonious relationship with their children where a sense of give and take, fairness, and communication rule the day.

The Libra Shadow
I always like to read Liz Greene’s analysis of shadow material. When it comes to Libra she calls it the ‘Coy Maiden’ syndrome of playing hard to get. She chastises Librans for not feeling enough, for craving approval and playing games of flirtation and competition with sexual partners, friends, business partners, and even parents to get their needs for affection and acceptance. That certainly wasn’t my experience with Libra men, and I haven’t seen it in the Libran women I have known either.

Here’s what I see as possible shadow material: it’s the actual uncertainty of whether they are truly male or female. In water signs, the gender issue is much more easily defined. In an air sign which has everything to do with balance and equality it gets pretty confusing knowing whether you’re one or the other! You look at someone like Kim Kardashian, or Brigitte Bardot and you wonder why they don’t exactly fit into the slot of traditional womanhood in real life, even though publicly they are ‘and God Created Woman’ personified.

Ms. Bardot finally left the world of illusion and became true to her own nature of loving animals more passionately than she does humans. Ms. Kardashian may also eventually tire of the feminine charade and own more dynamically her strong masculine inner self. On the male side, we have as an example Montgomery Clift who couldn’t completely reconcile his highly developed inner sensitive feminine side with his ‘reluctant-hero’ film presence. Alcohol is often the way of self-medicating the anxiety created by such a paradox. So gender anxiety creates one type of shadow with all of its compensatory elements.

The other shadow is what I call the ‘War and Peace’ syndrome. So many politicians possess this to a remarkable degree in giving lip service to public displays of peaceful diplomacy while waging vicious wars and intrigues behind the scenes or below the surface. If the ugly and bestial side of our human nature isn’t acknowledged it goes underground and creates mayhem and wars while polite protocols continue on the surface amongst ‘civilized society’. Our modern world is full of this shadow material and we are all suspect in some sense when we consume or use products that were created either through acts of violence, such as the meat industry, or even the clothing industry with its degrading sweat shops and violations of child labor laws in third world countries. The Bad, the False, and the Ugly lie somewhere in the shadow land of Libra.

Most Librans that I know, however, really do strive to work towards the ideal of a better, more fair and just world where kindness and reciprocity are exercised consciously and application of beauty makes for all of us a more enjoyable world to live in.

Now it’s time to look at Libra in relationship to each of the other eleven signs.

Libra with Aries
We start with the polarity of Libra with its opposite Aries. This polarization is so completely classic since Libra appears to be everything that Aries is not. Libra thinks ‘We’ rather than Aries, who thinks ‘I’. Libra is other-oriented, partnership-oriented, and always motivated by a drive to connect, balance, and harmonize with other things or people, while Aries seeks authenticity of self and being true to self irregardless of relationships. This awareness of the Self and the Not Self is part of both signs and to heal chasms between these two signs both must learn to love themselves. Libra certainly needs a sense of their true Self so that they won’t become lost in the energy of others around them.

Libran David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is married to Samantha an Aries. Both have backgrounds in the aristocracy, but David does often bicycle to work and is of the revolutionary Uranus/Pluto in Virgo 1966 generation. They have three children and suffered the grave loss of their first child, Ivan, who was born with cerebral palsy and epilepsy. I’m sure such grief has increased Mr. Cameron’s capacity for compassion, and he does have a strong Neptune in Scorpio. Samantha has Venus in Pisces where it is exalted and David’s Chiron/Saturn conjoins her there; truly a special bond. They are very much opposites, however, in Sun signs, and Mercury. She has a lot of Earth, including her Moon in Capricorn, to stabilize him since that is the element he needs most in his life as a career politician.

Mohandas Gandhi and his Aries wife Kastuba married when they were just 13 years old each. They had four sons together and she worked tirelessly with her great husband in his non-violent political resistance for Indian independence from the British. Their stellar love story deserves more than this short paragraph. After 62 years of marriage she died in his arms while both were imprisoned in Poona.

Gandhi had an incredibly strong chart with Moon in Leo at the apex of a fixed T-square. This strength of the feminine was mirrored in Kastuba with her amazing stellium of 7 bodies in Aries including a Sun/Jupiter heroic conjunction which mirrored her husband. She had a Grand Trine in fire and her Mars/North Node in Leo conjoined his Moon. It should also be noted that both had North Node in Leo reinforcing their great spiritual work of love for their people in a united path.

Libra with Taurus
While these two signs are inconjunct each other meaning enormous differences between the two for Libra is Cardinal Air while Taurus is Fixed Earth, they both share in common the same ruler, Venus. Both could share a natural love of art and beauty. The desire of Taurus for sexual satisfaction and progeny is legally sanctioned through a Libran marital relationship. Taurus lends a hand at acquiring money and property in supporting a socially sanctioned union.

I covered Margaret (Libra) and Dennis (Taurus) Thatcher in my ‘Relating to Taurus’ article. Margaret certainly lived out her masculine side as Prime Minister and gave new meaning to ‘the iron fist inside the velvet glove’. She out-lived her faithfully stable husband who probably did keep her sane and grounded with his sense of humor and quiet tolerance. Now she wanders the halls of memory in her own shadow land.

This second combination of Libra with Taurus is camouflaged well by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin who reportedly has been involved with the Taurus beauty Alina Kabaeva. The cool Libran Putin categorically denies such involvement. All we can do is note any major connections between their birth charts. Vladimir has a great deal of air with a Sun and stellium in Libra as well as Moon in Gemini. He does, however, have a Venus in Scorpio trining his Uranus in Cancer leading us to believe that a secret love life is possible. Alina has a massive stellium in Taurus including both Sun and Moon while her Venus is in Cancer in trine to Putin’s Venus, but more telling is his Mars in Sagittarius opposite her Venus while conjoining her South Node and Neptune in Sagittarius. Lots of pursuit and fantasy in this one! His Jupiter in Taurus does conjoin her Sun/Mercury which may have encouraged her back in 2008 to harbor the hope of a marriage.

Libra with Gemini
Air with Air should be an easy, sociable, and highly communicative coupling. These two potentially could thrive together by pursuing all the social and communication arts.

You would think there would be any number of examples to illustrate but I have to return to one already covered in my Gemini article, Arthur Miller (Libra) with Marilyn Monroe (Gemini). Arthur, the fine playwright and author had a great capacity as a Libran to get under the surface and connect empathically with people. His birth chart shows a great deal of Water, including Venus and Mercury in Scorpio. Marilyn’s Mars in Pisces conjoined his Jupiter/Chiron which truly did link them both sexually and emotionally. Further more, they shared the same Moon sign, Aquarius. That the marriage unraveled is well known. All the reasons as to why it did have been chronicled multiple times, but Arthur’s account is quite telling and his Libran nature was able to integrate within himself much of the shadow side of his own feminine through his inner work and writing for he went on to have a very long-lasting and harmonious marriage with Austrian photographer Inge Morath.

Libra with Cancer
Cardinal Air with Cardinal Water can actually work even though there is a decided conflict here between an emotionally oriented sign and a mentally oriented one. Yet creating a home life together where the one builds for a safe haven and the other for a beautiful sanctuary might just be a place where many would feel welcome.

Angela Lansbury (Libra) and her second husband, Peter Shaw (Cancer) were married 54 years until his death in 2003. Her first marriage lasted but a year to actor Richard Cromwell who was a bisexual. Angela’s chart shows a strong Libran bent with Moon, Mars, Sun & Mercury all in that sign. Mars is at the apex of a strong Cardinal T-square showing her strength as an actress and performer, but also the conflicts she needed to resolve involving the polarity of the male/female balance in Libra. Peter was also an actor and a producer. They had three children together. Angela’s Moon was exactly conjoined Peter’s Mars, while she too had Mars in Libra. This signature alone meant an enormous sexual and companionable bond. Both seemed to like a lot of action and were go-getters complementing each other strongly, though both must have pushed each other’s buttons as well over the years.

I’d like to take on a different type of relationship for the sake of interest and variety; that of the very strong Libra nation The People’s Republic of China and an equally strong Cancer nation, The United States of America. How is it that this communist nation with its strong signature of Neptune (Communism) conjoining Mercury, South Node and Sun in Libra is in such an alliance with a country like America that decidedly shuns even Socialism? Certainly there are enormous conflicts between the two birth maps: China’s Sun alone squares America’s Sun, Jupiter, and Venus. The tell tale signatures are tied in with money matters. The secret plutocracy side of America, Pluto, is conjoined with China’s Jupiter in Capricorn as well as a strange combination of their Moon in early Aquarius which is conjoining both Pluto and the South Node in Aquarius of the USA chart. This implies some sort of karmic bond from an esoteric point of view, but also explains the strange paradox of relationship between both nations who are obviously opposed to each other philosophically. China has a very secretive Venus in Scorpio square Mars/Pluto in Leo which probably represents an elite core who does pull a lot of strings monetarily. Their Mars is conjoined the United States North Node showing how strong the ties go into America’s need for mergers of all types with other nations. America’s Saturn in Libra conjoins China’s South Node, and on and on it goes. A very complex web of connections indeed!

It’s interesting to note that both nations are under the upheavals of transiting Uranus square Pluto for some time to come. Right now China has transit Pluto in Capricorn squaring its Sun and Uranus in Aries opposite. The retrograde phases were exact in August. What is going on with their heads of state, with their purpose as a Libran nation? Stay tuned and keep your eye on the money! This is a nation who is going to be raising the ante soon in wielding their power around the globe.

Libra with LeoCardinal Air with Fixed Fire should be a wonderful blend of style and flair enjoying life.

I found a great example of this highly fashionable partnership; that of Julie Andrews (Libra) with her husband of 41 years, Blake Edwards (Leo). Julie is practically a household word due to her amazingly successful career and lead roles in two of the most loved movies ever, Mary Poppins and Sound of Music. After marrying him she pushed into that more controversial area of Libra by starring in his movies ‘10’, S.O.B. where she barred her breasts, and ‘Victor/Victoria where gender roles merged and blurred.

Julie has both Venus in Virgo and Moon/Jupiter in Scorpio on either side of her Libra Sun. She has a wide range of avenues available to her in expressing the polarity of her Sun sign. Blake’s Sun in Leo was sextile to her Sun; their Venus’ were conjunct as were their Mars in Sagittarius. A well matched pair, they were.

Libra with Virgo
This has been called ‘the Harmonizing of Diverse Paths’ and rightfully so. In a couple we would assume that Libra leads Virgo on into the social realm and encourages greater expression of what has been mastered.

These two are side by side so in couples we will often see that there are overlaps such as in Will Smith with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Will is an early Libra with Mercury/Venus in late Libra. His great talent and flair for comedy shows in that entire Virgo backing up his Libra energies: Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto. He’s quite a force to be reckoned with as he also has Moon and Neptune in Scorpio filling out the trilogy. Jada is a double Virgo (Sun & Moon) with Sun conjoining Pluto mirrored by her marriage to Will, the power-house. Her Venus in Libra conjoins his Sun, as does her Uranus. It’s an exciting love and perhaps erratic. They don’t share the water element, so one wonders how Will gets his Moon in Scorpio needs met. Jada’s Moon in Virgo, however, sextiles that moon exact, so harmony is possible without watery ties.

Libra with Libra
My goodness, this is a popular blend!! Peas in the pod signatures abound in most interesting examples. I actually have four to share.

The first is Solar Twins Michael Douglas and his much younger ‘twin’ Catherine Zeta-Jones, both born on September 25th, but 25 years apart. She is one of those true Libra beauties and just keeps on unfolding since motherhood. She has a stellium in Libra which also strongly connects with Michael’s Mars in Libra. Her Venus in Virgo (she’s a great comedian actually) trines his Moon in Capricorn while her Moon in Pisces lends a sensitive and compassionate note to Michael’s life which felt a little hard and brittle around the edges until she entered it.

Barbara Walters, the Queen of the Interview, has, like a lot of Librans, been married four times to only three different men. Her famous quote could have been said by a number of other Libran women like Catherine Deneuve and Brigitte Bardot, “I’m convinced that you stay married when the sex is bad, only because you really want to be, but I always had an out. I had this job, and this life and enough money. I didn’t have to fight the bad days.” She, like Angela, loved a gay man for awhile. Merv Adelson, the CEO of Lorimar Television was married to her twice, both times ending in divorce: 1981 to 1984 and 1986 to 1992.

Barbara’s Sun is at 1 degree of Libra indicating a life of learning about Libra, while Merv’s Sun was at 29 degrees, the degree of expiation, implying his need to move on to Scorpio where his Mars is. They had a number of really good energetic connections, but her Moon/Jupiter in Gemini simply needs a lot of variety. With nothing in water, she probably doesn’t bond strongly enough with anyone, and Merv had Moon in Cancer which she simply couldn’t feed.

Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, both actors and Librans, never married but stayed together for 21 years. Both have Scorpio planets and Susan has Moon in Capricorn implying an ability to commit without necessarily playing by society’s rules. She has a strong Uranus. Tim seems to be the one capable of wandering a field with his Mars in Gemini and Moon in Sagittarius which conjoined Susan’s South Node. My sense is that their karmic bond fulfilled its purpose and they are both now moving on.

The final couple is Dennis Kucinich and his wife of seven years, the beautiful Elizabeth. For Dennis, this is the third charmed marriage hopefully. They both share Moon in Pisces and her Venus conjoins his Neptune, while her Pluto conjoins his Sun. They have an equally transformative effect on the other. Finally, they have a lovely Mars/Venus trine in water to add to their harmony and flow.

Libra with Scorpio
Now its Scorpios turn to lead Libra into deeper waters of emotional commitment. We all know that feeling, here in the northern hemisphere, of the golden days of autumn on the edge of the darkening time in Scorpio. Libra eventually takes that plunge when coupling with Scorpio for emotional life is full of storms and swampy places as well as cascading water falls and moonlit lakes.

The gorgeous rock singer and actress, Gwen Stafani (Libra) has been married to guitarist Gavin Rossdale (Scorpio) since 2002. Not bad for show people—10 years. They have two children. Gwen juggles a lot with her Cardinal Grand Cross of a chart. She thrives on action in spite of a Moon in Cancer which needs to nurture and be nurtured. Her Moon trines Gavins Sun, conjoins his Jupiter, and opposes his Moon in Capricorn which, in turn, conjoins her Mars. They have some marvelous connections which ease the strain of her many squares. She has a perfectionist Venus in Virgo as part of her solid earth Grand Trine which Gavin connects with beautifully with his earth/water harmonies. Fortunately his Mars/Venus in Sagittarius links with her Sun/Jupiter in Libra. Nice!

Libra with Sagittarius
We have two signs which should energize each other since air and fire here create a nice Venus/Jupiter kind of connection. Principles of cooperation with principles of justice should do well together, yet I couldn’t find a solid example in a famous couple.

The only example I’ve got is the short-lived engagement of Gwyneth Paltrow (Libra) with Brad Pitt (Sagittarius). They surely did match each other in looks back then. Gwyneth, like Barbara Walters, has much air including a Moon in Gemini, but unlike Barbara, her Moon conjoins Saturn. She is quite capable of strong commitments emotionally. Brad’s Moon/Venus in Capricorn needs a strong and capable woman, but Capricorn and Gemini aren’t that compatible as Moon signs together on a daily basis. Gwyneth’s need for conversation is large and Brad just wants to get the job done and then get out and adventure. They did have many good complementary connections, but the glue of Saturn to make it stick just wasn’t there strongly enough.

Libra with Capricorn
Both are Cardinal in nature and have a desire for societal law and order, however there is a conflict between Libras need for free-swinging interaction and Capricorns need to structure every situation. Capricorn will restrict Libras motion and desire for equality, yet together they can achieve much that is concrete by structuring their ideas into enduring forms.

I have three examples of this combination, the first being Sting (Libra) and his present wife of 20 years, Trudie Styler. They had also lived together 10 years before their marriage in 1992, so they have proven the test of time and also have four children together. Sting has a t-square in Cardinal signs with Capricorn being the ‘missing leg’. Enter Trudie with her massive stellium in Capricorn. While lacking the usual bonds of conjunctions, they do have a harmonious Venus trine indicating values shared. Both are highly active in their environmental Rainforest Foundation which supports indigenous rainforest peoples and their lands. Styler is also an Ambassador for Unicef and is a highly accomplished woman on many levels. She brings to earth Sting’s high idealism as shown by his Moon/Neptune in Libra.

On the opposite fence is Vladimir Putin (Libra) and his hardly there wife, Lyudumilla Putin (Capricorn). I could actually only find one photo of the two of them together that was downloadable! Right in front of the Taj Mahal no less, and undoubtedly in happier days. Their Venuses square each other. Her Moon in Cancer conjoins his Uranus indicating a constant disconnect. Their Suns are decidedly square. One wonders what on earth brought them together in the first place. Ah! His Venus conjoins her Neptune/North Node in Scorpio. Perhaps a fantasy for both. It has also been rumored that in their early marriage years Putin was unfaithful and beat her. That wouldn’t surprise me as his cruelly placed Mars conjoins her Mercury.

My final example is the highly accomplished Libran photographer, Annie Leibovitz, and her long-time relationship with Capricorn writer and essayist Susan Sontag. Leibovitz finally said this in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle: “Call us ‘lovers’. I like ‘lovers.’ You know, ‘lovers’ sounds romantic. I mean, I want to be perfectly clear. I love Susan.” And she did until Susan’s death ‘did they part’. Even so, Annie is a mother of three, her twins being born to a surrogate mother in 2005.

Annie is a strong Air type with Moon in Aquarius, though her Venus is in Scorpio. Susan’s Sun conjoined Annie’s Jupiter and was in sextile to her Venus. Susan had a strong stellium in Virgo involving her Mars/Moon/Jupiter which was in trine to Annie’s Jupiter. Yes, they collaborated well together without restricting each other’s personal freedom to create, a good example being their bookWomen.

Libra with Aquarius
Both are Air signs and would refuel each other energetically. Love and friendship could be blended really well. Both do their best work in groups and can be remarkably altruistic. Both require freedom, but especially Aquarius. This is a friendly, agreeable, and urbane combination.

Three outstanding examples are Eleanor Roosevelt and FDR, Kelly Preston and John Travolta, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono. I’ll cover the first two in my article on Aquarius.

John Lennon, the Libra who also became a chief spokesman for peace wrote that perfectly Libran song, ‘Come Together’. It was Yoko’s influence in his life that transformed him from a seeker to a staunch activist. Their relationship deserves an entire article, and of course books have been written about them, one of the best being‘Come Together’ by Jon Wiener. Yoko’s Saturn/Venus in Aquarius conjoined John’s Moon in Aquarius. She helped him to mature and deal with his emotional issues which were intense (Moon opposite Chiron/Pluto) and traumatic. She also boosted his fire with her Moon in Sagittarius activating his 8th house of intimacy and in sextile to his Sun. Their Mercury’s in water signs were trine each other harmonizing their need to truly communicate. They also harmonized philosophically with Jupiter’s in trine. Truly their relationship was intended to engage the public because they really did have a vision shared together to ‘Give Peace A Chance’.

Libra with Pisces
Here is another combination that seems strange in that a Cardinal Air sign with a Mutable Water sign feels rather mystifying. Yet together they can spell ‘Union’ due to each being romantic and able to look to each other for fulfillment. Venus, after all, is exalted in Pisces helping to create an artistic and sensitive connection.

Gwyneth Paltrow (Libra) did seem to find the right match in her husband and musician, Chris Martin (Pisces). They’ve now been married for 9 years and have two children together. Chris is probably able to adapt to Gwyneth’s mood swings more easily than Brad did, or Ben Affleck (the Leo). His Moon in Cancer falls on her South Node indicating his ability to nurture her and support her in many ways as he has a Jupiter/Moon sextile which keeps him pretty unsinkable. They both have Venus in Fire signs in trine with each other which brings joy and harmony of values into their life together.

My final example is Christopher Reeve the Libran actor who suffered a devastating paralysis following a horse riding accident in 1995. His Pisces wife, Dana Morosini, did not abandon him but remained faithfully by his side until his death in 2004. She followed him to the great beyond at 44 years, dying of lung cancer in early 2006, probably caused by second hand smoke inhaled while singing in nightclubs in her early career.

She was probably more of a horse lover than Christopher and told Larry King, “I rode my whole life, and after Chris had his accident, I stopped riding, primarily because he loved it so much, and I think it really would have been painful for him if I was going off riding and he wasn’t able to. And it didn’t mean that much to me to drop.” Spoken like a true Pisces! Her Moon in Aries was in trine to his Moon in Sagittarius. Her Mercury in Aquarius conjoined his North Node and was in sextile to his Venus in Libra. Her Jupiter in Aquarius was in trine to his Sun/Mercury. Communication was good here which enabled them to survive together his loss of all physical function. Something transcendent occurred between them as suggested by their Uranus/Pluto conjunction and her Venus in Aries trine his Pluto while opposing his Venus in Libra.

Sometimes the journey of Libra into relationship brings out the highest forms of being human. It would seem the above example illustrates this well.

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com

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Libra’s Balancing Act by Genevieve Vierling

9/30/2012

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After the busy harvest season of Virgo, and before the intense descent into the darkness of winter with Scorpio, comes Libra making great effort to maintain a delicate balance. From September 22nd, the well-known Autumnal Equinox, until October 22nd we experience those golden days when nature seems to take a pause and everything is a bit dreamy and hushed during the day light hours as the nights become ever crisper, colder, and darker.

The scales of balance known as Libra were called Zibanitum (scales) by the Babylonians, Zugas (yoke) by the Greeks, Tula or Tulam (balance) by those in India, and Tien Ching (Celestial Balance) by the Chinese. The Egyptians found a deep significance in these scales of balance. One mythic version has the goddess Maat, at the time of death, placing the human soul on one scale, and a feather on the other. Should the scale tip but slightly, the soul will have to reincarnate again with the goal of expiating that extra weight. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, as recorded by Thoth, Anubis weighs the dead person’s heart on a scale, balancing it against a feather, symbolizing truth. This takes place in the Double Hall of Justice in front of the deceased, and an entire assembly of gods and goddesses, with Osiris, ruler of the underworld, presiding. If the deceased fails by being too heavy, his heart is consumed by a beast, the Devourer. Yipes. Delicate balance is an understatement!

CONSTELLATION OF LIBRA

The Scales of Libra is the only constellation represented by an inanimate object. There has been considerable confusion over the origins of this constellation. We do know that in 700 BC the Babylonians used qaran zaquqipi (the Scorpion’s horns) as an alternative name for Libra. Alpha Librae, it’s brightest star, is traditionally known as the ‘southern claw’, while Beta Librae is the northern claw.

Unlike the constellation of Virgo, Libra ranks 29th in size and consists of just 35 visible stars It covers but 1.304% of the sky. A globular cluster within it, N.G.C. 5905,5M was discovered in 1702, and William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, later discerned 200 faint stars in it.

GLYPH

The glyph of Libra depicts the setting sun about to sink below the line of the horizon, symbolic of the withdrawal of vital day forces after the intense activity of spring and summer. It also reminds one of the beam of a pair of scales, which suggests the weighing of the self against the not-self in the hopes of achieving some kind of balance and equilibrium between subjective and objective consciousness.

QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS

Libra is a Cardinal Air sign whose ruler is Venus. The element of Air emerged first through Gemini, a Mutable sign, so that by now Libra’s thought processes are less inquisitive and more concerned with weighing everything to see both sides of any given issue, situation, or story. The Cardinality of the sign shows the ability to take initiative, but unlike its opposite polarity, Aries, Libra is more deft and subtle, so that others often do not realize that the initiative has been taken. This makes of Libra both an expert strategist as well as an elegant diplomat. Some famous Libras who showed these skills were Dwight Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Lech Walesa, and Margaret Thatcher. The cliche for the females of the sign, ‘the iron fist inside the velvet glove’, most aplty describes Ms. Thatcher’s style. The leadership of Libra tends to be marked with the finesse of manipulating both people and circumstances through the art of diplomacy.

The need to dialogue with others, and to seek others advice, is very strong in Libra, whether one has Sun in Libra, a Libran Ascendant, or several planets in the 7th house. Librans are often fluent in the art of communication and can be very good at saying challenging things without giving offense. Not only is diplomacy their forte, but mediation as well, for they are adept at settling differences between opposing factions. It was John Milton, whose 400th birthday is now being celebrated, who wrote in Paradise Lost the praises of Libra,
‘The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,
Hung forth in heaven his golden scales, yet seen
Betwixt Astraea and the Scorpion sign.’

Probably Librans do better as counselors and advisers rather than debaters. They are really better at helping others to make up their minds than doing so themselves for they are known for ‘straddling the fence’ and endlessly consulting back and forth with others before making a decision, though ultimately they often make the right decision after such lengthy deliberations. Even so, when faced with hard choices, which demand taking a stand, their innate desire for justice and harmony may even collapse unless they are fortified with elements of fire or Scorpionic planets.

Venus, as ruler of the sign, shows her more ‘airy’ qualities in Libra rather than the fecund, earthy aspects of her other rulership, Taurus. The movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen depicted with wit and style this Venusian quality. Aphrodite, played by Uma Thurman, takes the Baron up, up and away from her husband Vulcan’s dirty and fiery forge to the celestial dome of her idealized paradise. Such airy bliss is fleeting at best. Libra in its search for ideal love and union is often plagued with paradox along the way. Marriage, said to be under the jurisdiction of Libra, is often the ‘fiery crucible’ where true love is tested for its metal of endurance. The alchemical union of opposites is never as easy as it appears when young lovers are first star-struck by the arrow of Aphrodite’s son, Eros.

This search for harmony and balance can move into all sorts of other types of relationships such as the art of placement, interior design, floral arrangements, clothing and fashion design, etc. Good taste and manners go hand in hand with Librans, and their homes are often havens of peace and harmony, as well as centers for gatherings and soirees. Choreography is another excellent field for the Libran art of placement whether in dance, ice skating, or gymnastics.

Less artistic avenues of expressing balance are seen in the business world of accounting, banking, and merchandising.

Libra rules the kidneys, those two organs which regulate and balance the workings of the internal systems of the body by filtering and keeping the body pure of toxic substances. The lower back is Libran turf and its suppleness is important in maintaning good posture and grace of movement.

RELATIONSHIPS

Having progressed through the first six signs of the year symbolizing the soul’s journey to develop a sense of Self, the I of individuality is now ready to join with the Other and create union through partnership. Libra, of all the signs, has the most to do with relationship, especially of the one-to-one kind. It is a particularly romantic sign more akin to chivalrous love than the steamier Taurus/Scorpio types of love affairs. Libra truly enjoys the art of courtship.

Librans are ‘people persons’ and generally have a wide circle of friends. Their main thrust, however, is towards true partnership where equality and harmony are the ultimate goals. Libran rising people identify more as a ‘We’ than an ‘I’, as do those with strong groupings of planets in their 7th house. Sun-sign Librans are questing for partnership and will learn their greatest lessons in life by being in intimate relationship with another.

Contractual agreements come under the jurisdiction of Libra, and marriage is certainly a binding agreement. Historically, marriage was not about love but more of an arranged merger to aid political, social, or religious agendas. In mythology Juno/Hera, married to Zeus exemplified the power issues and struggles, which arose out of such a binding arrangement where true union was absent. She had been abducted and forced into the marriage, but she took vengeance on the ‘other women’ who allowed themselves to be involved with a married man/god. Vulcan, seemingly fared no better married to the goddess Venus, herself. His anger at her infidelities was sublimated into his art, but also used to trap her with her lover, Mars. These are not very encouraging ‘happily ever after’ archetypal tales.

Libra is a sign full of paradoxes and contradictions as it attempts to find the balance between life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, peace and war, love and hate. Certainly marriage is the testing ground for learning to love and accept that which we are not. Eros and Psyche is a more fully-balanced myth exploring these deeper themes.

THE MYTH OF EROS AND PSYCHE

This is a monumental story, which has been written and re-written in many and various ways for centuries now. My favorite version is by C.S. Lewis, Til We Have Faces. Both Erich Neuman’s Amor and Psyche, and Robert Johnson’s She explore this myth as they analyze feminine psychology.

Psyche, a mortal, is considered to be more beautiful than Aphrodite, whose vanity will not allow such competition. She thus arranges for Psyche’s death and asks her son, Eros, who is usually given the job of shooting mortals with his arrow, to make sure that she meets her demise. As he attempts to do this he accidentally shoots himself and is instantly in love. Hmmm.

He takes Psyche to his incredible castle in the sky where she is given every consideration to enjoy herself by day, but is blindfolded at night and told never to look at her husband, for he is an immortal. During their nightly trysts she is in total bliss. Finally, after wiling her days alone, she asks to be allowed to return to her home for a visit, and he obliges. While home she confides in her three sisters who place doubt in her mind that perhaps her husband is really a monster. This Air sign affliction to go up into the mind, rather than staying in the heart, creates a questioning that leads to Libra’s dilemma of ‘straddling the fence’.

Giving in to her doubt, once back with her Eros, she does the forbidden and lights a lamp to see for herself who her lover-husband really is. Of course he is absolutely beautiful and divine, but—alas—a drop of oil falls on Eros, he awakens and must then vanish from her. Thus begins her ordeal of mastering three nearly impossible tests, set for her by Aphrodite, to win the right to be re-united with Eros.

This tale, altogether too long to relay here, ultimately shows a triumphant Psyche completing all three taks with the help of the instinctual/animal kingdom, and winning her true love back, as well as immortality.

This myth is both symbolic of the outer, as well as the inner, alchemical marriage of opposites. In most modern-day romantic marriages there is the initial starry-eyed phase where love is ‘blind’ to all realities but the projections of ones anima or animus onto the other. Then disillusionment sets in at some point and the partnership must go through the tests, trials, and challenges of becoming conscious, sometimes through horrendous power struggles, before discovering how strong the bond of love really is. If these tests are endured and consciousnesses in love prevails, the couple is united, once again, in true equality where inter-dependency, not co-dependency defines the relationship in a bond of fairness, cooperation, beauty, harmony, and balance.

All three outer transpersonal planets made their way through Libra in the last 20th Century, changing forever the concept of partnership and marriage. Neptune was in Libra from 1942 until 1956, subtly but surely dissolving the older more patriarchal forms of pre-World War II. Those born with this signature have perhaps idealized romantic marriage, yet have wanted to maintain their right to individuality and creative uniqueness as a Pluto in Leo generation simultaneously. Uranus did its work of revolutionizing Libran concepts during the years 1968 through 1975. When Pluto passed through Libra from 1972 through 1984 great disillusionment and truth-seeking over-hauled the institution of marriage and brought a greater depth of understanding into the fields of psychology and sociology in understanding all relationships. Divorce was rampant during those years, but the ‘institution’ has survived and now encompasses more than just traditional hetero-sexual unions. The very nature of what it means to be ‘married’ has also changed as more and more couples prefer to create their own partnership outside the sanctions of church or state, or within those sanctions they are seeking greater equality and fairness in what each partner brings to the union.

The best way to learn about the real workings of astrology is to study the lives of real people and see how the characteristics of signs and planets play out in their lives. I have chosen two examples of Libra for this article.

JOHN LENNON, ‘COME TOGETHER’

John Lennon born October 9, 1940 in Liverpool, England, lived only 40 years before being assassinated in front of his home in New York City. In those 40 short years we can witness an amazing evolution of a Libran’s search for harmony and peace in not just marriage, but in his relationship with himself and the greater outer world. One of the better books to chronicle his journey is by Jon Wiener, Come Together, John Lennon in his Time.

I will someday write an in-depth article on his life and times in this blog, for he epitomizes Librans need to be in relationship in order to be true to this particular path. Rather than choosing to be a super-star without conscience and live on the surface of fame, glory, and wealth, he chose another path that was enhanced by his marriage to Yoko and his love for their son, Sean. He became a feminist father, he became an avant-garde peacenik, and he became a songwriter for the movement against war, racism, and sexism. His famous song, ‘Give Peace A Chance’ was recorded in June of 1969. By 1972 when asked by Mike Douglas what he would like to talk about, his answer was “Love, peace, communication, women’s lib, racism, war, prisons.”

Jon Wiener wrote,”Those who find satisfaction in squalid ‘revelations’ about Lennon’s life face a problem. John revealed his own weaknesses and failings ruthlessly. He spoke publicly about his heroin use and his drunkenness, and about the feelings of envy and bitterness that intermittently overwhelmed him. He also spoke publicly about his dream of peace and love. But it wasn’t his dream that made him a hero, it was his struggle to expose and overcome his anger, misery, and pain.”

Yoko, his Asian wife, was his beacon of light and they shared a philosophy that wove itself into all that John later contributed both artistically and politically. As a Libran, did he make the right choice in his partner? I think he did. Yoko said this, “…The difference between the privileged class and the people is that the privileged have put on blinkers. They don’t look on themselves as part of the whole. I don’t have blinkers on. I’m aware that I am only part of the whole and what happens to others affects my life directly and very fast. I try to do my best to help others because I know that that is the only logical thing to do if one wishes to survive. We have to survive together or we’ll all fall…”

MOHANDAS GANDHI

Born October 2, 1869 and killed at the age of 78 years by an assassin’s bullet, Mohandas Gandhi actively pursued the Libran dream of peace and love by dedicating his entire life to nonviolence and nonresistance as a collective and political path. He was a Double Libran with Sun in the 12th house of service to the whole and renunciation of the ego, as well as Libra Rising/Ascendant. He had enough Fire and enough Scorpio planets to break through his own resistance to ‘take a stand’. The principles he stood for were Truth, Nonviolence, Vegetarianism, Brahmacharya (spiritual and practical purity, largely associated with celibacy and asceticism), Simplicity, and Faith. (see Wikipedia)

The best way to learn about Gandhi is to go to the source, himself. He wrote his life story in The Story of my Experiments with Truth. Another excellent and easy to read book about him is Eknath Easwaran’s Gandhi the Man.

Like John Lennon, Gandhi stated that the most important battle he ever fought was in overcoming his own demons, fears, and insecurities. He did his own inner alchemical work. His relationship with his wife, Kasturba, began at the tender age of 13 years. Imagine! That he experimented with numerous active-celibate relationships with many other women later in life is no secret. They kept him warm in bed. He was certainly a skinny little man by then! “His relationships with women were, from beginning to end, as pure as mother’s milk”, said one female disciple. That he had an amazing mastery over himself is also no secret, and is mirrored in his birth-chart by a strong fixed-sign T-square.

The legacy that he leaves as a spiritual and political leader is immense. The concept of nonviolence is still very much alive, but practiced by the minority in most of the world sadly. Will the hearts of humanity wake up in time to end violence and misery on this planet?

Lennon said ‘Give peace a chance.’

Gandhi said, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall—think of it, always.”

Genevieve A. Vierling C.A.P.
Astrologer
www.bluelightlady.com

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