Future Takes Care of the Moment

NEPTUNE INTO PISCES …. the significant effects .. deep & subtle ...

2012-01-14T05:18:00.001-08:00

On February 4th 2012 Neptune enters its own sign of Pisces. Neptune as a planet was first discovered in our solar system in 1846. Its position was postulated at first because it was obscured behind Uranus - the planet just before it. This obscurity or hidden position was held to be symptomatic of Neptune's veiled strength, its behind-the-scenes proclivities, its elusiveness and its formless, boundless and non-material nature. Neptune has to do with acts of illusion, and also illusion itself.

As the sign it rules Pisces is key where it comes to the same kind of themes. If we live in a world of material illusion, then it begs the question of where the illusion starts and finishes. The question of what reality is in its basic nature is one of the big ones. Our world is increasingly made up of illusion or 'virtual reality' via computers, digital processes & other technology involved in making the unreal come to life. Will Neptune into Pisces carry the mystery of what reality is and is not to ultimate heights. Might it demonstrate for us or expose more of where the possibility of illusion can be taken ultimately. The laws of creation and the Causual Plane.

Pisces is noted for its dreamy quality, its deceptively deep nature. Although appearing often as a lighthearted and superficial type of energy it is actually enigmatic and given to dichotomy. Pisces Sun people are among the hardest to fathom and as the popular description has it, they are full of inner duality of direction and manner, like the two fish swimming in opposing direction in the glyph depicting their sign; they are either given to the mysteries of the universe or to trying to apply formless rules to the practical world in which they live. For this reason Pisces can be utterly creative, or very destructively negative. Often Pisces influence is less than practical and struggles with the need for logic, order and conformity.

In the general sense, since the extra Saturnine planets act like a vehicle for mankind as a whole and play a serious part in our collective evolution, the effects of Neptune/Pisces will really start to bite from March to May but will then back off as the planet retrogrades, and as 2013 comes in will take a serious hold on our psyche.

Since Neptune rules altered states of consciousness, the unconscious and comatose states, we can only hazard at what effects individually will be and where that will impact on the collective or society as a whole. It will take approximately thirteen years for Neptune to finish its journey through its own sign, but like all the slow moving outer planets it will thoroughly make its mark.

It will most probably test the tenets the Age of Pisces brought over the last 2,000 years and see if the legacy is worthy of having.

Neptune rules: anaesthesia, narcotics, addiction, memory, hypnotic states, mediumship, fears and phobias, loss of all kinds, the distant past, illusions, delusions, disappearances, idealism, magic acts, mystics, meditation, nebulous states, invisible factors, the unconscious and the ocean depth.... and probably umpteen other things we have for gotten about.

In Pisces, Neptune is at home, so Pisces people will feel that some (not all) of their favourite subjects and predispositions are ones that become key within society's thinking .... spirituality, the thorny subject of altered states of consciousness and yes, the big one .. death itself! They may not parade the fact but Pisces are quite often quietly confident that the transitional state between physical and non-physical is just that - a change of energy or vibration into something else. Pisces rules the twelfth house of the wheel, the other worldly and that which cannot be quantified or even properly construed.

More and more will be talked and learned of unconscious states and new dimensions over the next thirteen years, which will alter the way we treat death and the way it is viewed, in the clinical and the religious sense. Hopefully death might lose its sting.

There are two zodiac signs which historically concern themselves with the after-state (or death) more than other vibrations – Scorpio and Pisces. Both in differing ways. In an astrological convention once in the U.K. I remember listening to various Pisces Sun people of mixed ages talking about how they randomly and calmly visualized their own deaths and fantasized about their own funerals. Not in a morbid sense, but in a sense of natural acceptance and curiosity. Whereas Scorpio is more fascinated with the clinical side of death and the modus operandi. Pisces, it could be said, loves the aesthetics while Scorpio loves the mechanics.

The very height of the Spiritual revolution and its thrust into mainstream society was the doing mainly of the Victorians. The Victorians loved all that stuff - seances, psychic investigations, exploring the occult etc. And the appearance of Neptune in the solar system was synonymous with it. Or was it the other way round? the fact that these sort of questions were being asked by a great deal of mankind necessitated the energy and therefore the appearance of Neptune! This is the kind of thing we can never rule out astrologically and cosmologically.

Quantum theory may now be the new religion but it is just as mysterious to laymen as the religions of old. Major difference being that it can be questioned and scorned without fear of reprisals, which wasn't the case in the days when religion dictated to both science and philosophy.

The effects of Pisces/Neptune are yet to be seen and felt. We can only make observations of the planet in its sign as the time and the influence move through. It might be too out of-this-world or sublime – which is the very nature of Pisces - that we actually do not understand it.

As well as virulent idealism Neptune rules fears or phobias, so maybe we will be made to take a different look at some of these, and maybe people will find new ways to deal with them.

Will we be less fearful under Neptune/Pisces or more fearful? We will have to examine the nature of fear itself perhaps, rather than the symptom or the object of the fear, as the next ten years or so elapses?

Below are some of the possible effects of Neptune by house within the birth chart:

1^st House: Impractical ideals or unreachable aims.

2^nd “ Predisposition to defrauding, obfuscating, or being prey to these things.

3^rd “ Loneliness, reclusiveness, fears of everyday living or denial of its importance.

4^th “ Lack of stable home surroundings, fear of being isolated.

5^th “ Idealism in love matters, romanticism, creative need to look back.

6^th “ lack of vocation, addiction to habits, loss of loyalty.

7^th “ Fear of commitment, lack caused by partnership.

8^th “ Money problems, instability within intimacy, deep fear of dying.

9^th “ Mysticism, loneliness away from origins.

10^th “ No stable career, creative endeavours for money, loss of goodwill

11^th “ Lifestyle gaps, associations that bring negative reputation.

12^th “ Mediumship, heightened intuition, isolation, unknown fears.

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Mars Major Transit through Virgo - the 8 month effect ...

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

Mars through Virgo loves revelations, exposing faults, loopholes and limitations. Skeletons rattle in cupboards during this combination of energies & symbols.

The long transit of Mars through Virgo began in November last and continues until July 2012. When Mars does an extra long transit through any sign it means a thorough movement or purge of that sign - and the house it presides over. A particular house in a personal birth chart shows an area of life (a compartment almost) but the transit has a mundane (or collective) effect too. The general or outer effect often impacts the personal situation in which someone finds themselves.

The transit takes so long because the planet retrogrades for a while mid-way through the eight month period and then goes straightforward again. Think of it like a telescopic light sweeping in an arc and then doubling back before going on to complete the arc, in order to double-check.

Virgo (mutable negative earth) is ethical, zealous and scrutinizing. While Mars is forceful, uncompromising and resolved. People with Mars placed in Virgo in a natal chart are noted for being self-critical, driven to perfection and sometimes excessively over-anxious about detail.

The transit of Mars through this sign over that eight month period may not exactly be restful, but it will in the long run be revealing and probably quite cleansing or purifying. The movement can be likened to a JCB ploughing through land and churning it or turning it over. Apply those traits described in a general sense to various life-scenarios and you have the rough idea of how everyone will feel about some area of their life. Bear in mind that even if you do not have planets in Virgo you will know others who do, and the effect on them can result in an effect on you via their circumstances. In this way we are all linked. In this way we are all part of a greater script.

Below are some of the effects of the long transit. Keep in mind that these can be both personal and transpersonal. The mundane level (trans-personal) and the individual level (personal)......

Off the record audits. Close scrutiny of charitable causes. Demands for more explicit rules. Sudden surges to get ambitions off the ground. Ground excavation for interesting or intriguing reasons. Scrupulous declarations of high intent. Noble causes pursued. Vulnerable situations bringing attention. Austerity measures unveiled. Violations of modesty. Agricultural reform. Farming proposals. Changes in Maternity & mid-wifery legislation. Revolutionary gardening produce. Land reform bills. Hygiene issues. Cemetery & graveyard legislations. Rise in sexually transmitted diseases. Crusades for puritanical monitoring. Questioning of long term loyalty. Personal integrity tested to the limit. The first shall be last and the as shall be first. Boom in homegrown food. More businesses started from home.

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2011-12-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

Success or failure in life may depend on how we learn to deal with disappointment ....

One of the most understated of emotions is ‘disappointment’ .... whoever you are and whatever you aspire to be there’s no getting away from the natural ebb and flow of personal fortune. Tensions and situations are winding us up, knocking us back or letting us down. Ranging from mild discouragement to chronic soul-destroying disillusionment, it affects everyone from the cradle to the grave at various times, and our success or failure in life may depend on how we learn to read it and deal with it.

To understand early on what disappointment is and how to deal with it is to know that a) the world doesn’t revolve around us. And, b) not everything we think we want comes in the package we envisage. Only people who have weathered disappointment and immersed themselves in the aftermath and made something ‘else’ with the remnants are the true philosophers. They have probably understood that within their life script there is an unknown hand at work that is both rebel and tyrant and acts without the consent of the logical mind, but perhaps with the backing of the heart! and maybe at some unconscious level they knew exactly what they were doing all the time!

The often ignored territory around disappointment is ‘choice’. Sometimes we have to learn how to choose or simply how to choose again on something we thought we wanted. And sometimes we have to learn when not to choose at all, but to wait and see! If insight is missing or limited then so is choice. Choice comes and goes, or so it seems. Often its presence has not been obvious until it has passed. But if disappointment takes root in the soul as an accepted state of existence it may become apathy, which in turn becomes rigidity, which can then become despair with unknown origin.

Anticipation is linked to expectation which is close to desire and what is strongly felt as desire becomes an absolute rule of consciousness - even an obsession. (This is why mystics and aesthetics throughout the ages practised self control to the point of self denial - to understand the mastery of self). But the whole business of wanting things through to totally being unable to live without them is part of the human experience. And never has it been more prevalent than in today’s society - ‘delayed gratification’ is no longer a very fashionable mind-set.

Influencing the material world is one thing but controlling other areas of life where disappointment arrives in varying forms is something else entirely; a broken relationship! a bereavement! a business failure! These are occurrences that may or may not be soothed by a credit card spree or a holiday. There are distractions which might or might not be viable substitutes for those kind of losses but overall, eventually, and in some way, the disappointment has to be dealt with. And by the time this happens we may have blown ‘disappointment’ up into something else.

The bigger and more expansive our access to life experience becomes these days the more important it is to let ourselves feel the subtler emotions Iike sadness or apprehension! There is a tendency we have to drag subtle feelings by the scruff and shape them into states like depression or anxiety, when they may actually have started with something as mild as disappointment or discontentment - which we refused to absorb or acknowledge - but we are liable to transform them into some massive upset or trauma.

Over-blowing feelings is as bad as not acknowledging them at all. The middle ground is both the goal and the key. Among some draconian cultures, feelings of disappointment are repressed or discouraged, whilst in the more indulgent of societies those same feelings may be bought off with alternative consolations and substitutes. It is only in the most enlightened of environments where we are actually taught to understand the balance between wanting and accepting lack, and perhaps re-appraising the whole matter. Meanwhile stressing over things we can’t have, or even over potential failures to acquire, is like the hair-shirt of past religious martyrs - if it isn’t done we may forget who we were when we got out of bed in the morning! Or incur the wrath of the invisible gods of beneficence!

Disappointment is in fact an anti-climax, a landing stage to other shores, a chance to re-trace steps and take a different route. If only we can gird our loins, grit our teeth, go back to the drawing-board and start again. Was the desire wrong? or was the planning just flawed? That is the pivotal part of the necessary post-mortem. Once we have dealt with that we can move on.

If disappointment is not properly addressed and absorbed, or is refused admittance, it can become the sort of frigid pining which breeds paralysis - a state where we cannot risk anything new for the fear of being let down and so we live in a perpetually nostalgic limbo. This is similar to once having sustained a painful injury and then forever protecting the affected part of the body against reoccurrence!

To experience too much disappointment without fighting back is to invite all sorts of later psychological-through-to-physical consequences. Conversely, to expect life to be free of disappointment is to remain unseasoned: a sapling never grown into a tree, a bud never opening into a flower. If we don’t eat life then life eats us! The seasons have to take us and we have to let them. Otherwise we will never know who we really are!

The Uranus in Aries Process

2011-12-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

Uranus through Aries is taking some situations and events around in a loop ....

It means a widening of an arc or a circle formed from March 2011 until April 2012 when it passes its peak point of the preceding twelve months and forges ahead. It may feel like you’re going round again and again .. but don’t despair, it's just deepening any existing understanding of new ground you may have made

Uranus/Aries ... the laws of attraction & a mighty leap of faith
In with the laws of attraction and to get where we’re intending to be there’s often the need of a massive leap of faith, resulting in action. This is what the planet Uranus is all about - pushing concepts, innovations and forward thinking matters to new ground, regardless of consequences ... or so it seems ....

The saying ‘brave new world’ springs to mind when we’re talking of the movement of Uranus into Aries. And so does the cliché 'give me a break' - Probably because with Aries - the sign of things to the fore and bold in outline - there is liable to be a cutting edge somewhere within situations both individual and collective.

In June 2010 the first movement of Uranus into Aries (however brief) was inclined to cut through some of the tense situations set up by the Saturn/Pluto square of that year because Uranus would then be forming one angle of a T square involving the Saturn/Pluto aspect already in existence. Added to this is the fact that Jupiter was accompanying the first entrance of Uranus - the second and full entrance was in March 2011- and it means that the energy is enlightening, maybe dramatic, but certainly beneficial, by courtesy of Jupiter, if the circumstances are used in the right way.

The message at the June/July juncture was to get a good view of what you can positively do with the new horizontal possibilities. At the very least that was a trailer or a forerunner of things to come, getting more solid or permanent in the spring of 2011.

Uranus in Pisces gave a deceptive effect to future changes in many ways; Pisces does not lend itself to the natural dynamic of Uranian energies without resistance. So the effects were fogged or fudged or subdued - even maybe driven undercover. In Aries they can be none of those things as Aries doesn’t trade with anything too subtle. Fire, cardinal and yang in nature, Aries is naturally overt, outgoing and forceful in energy. The exact opposite of Pisces. Therefore one symbolic description of the changes might be that whatever was traveling incognito or out of sight now emerges to be seen and heard. Apply this to your own life circumstances, the collective as a whole and various situations you are aware of round about and you have the general idea.

These interjections or breaks obviously may occur in varying ways - as varying as there are people and situations - and will be subject to interpretation. It must be remembered that all astrology is subject to interpretation and that three people with similar charts experiencing identical planetary influences will express things in different ways, this is why we say the person 'stands before their chart’- meaning that the individual psychology, life situation or general mood can diffuse and colour the overall influence as a merging of those influences with the free will of the person takes place.

In a general sense the intervention of Uranus into Aries might be invasive, loud and totally ‘in your face’ .... It might be, but there again, it may not at first be felt that way. The months after June/July 2010 when it retrograded back into Pisces until March 2011 could have seen any stark change or occurrence forgotten, reversed, or even diluted by familiarity to what is gradually taking shape, or at least becoming familiar by the spring of 2011 when it re-enters and takes up fuller residence in Aries. Therein lie the surprises - that certain things have been in attendance or jogging alongside all the while.

The natural cycle of Uranus through a sign is seven years. It is in fact the very epitome of the septimal laws (divine rule of seven). At one time there were seven planets visible to the naked eye, and the seven pillars of wisdom and seven rays aligning with the archetypes. Hence the seven stages of man, talked of in Shakespeare's plays.

Planet Uranus is concerned only with breakthrough and transformation, that which is untried, avant garde or revolutionary, the downright anarchic and the mad. Uranus loves change and transformation at any price and is not part of the peacemaking process afterwards. That's for other more pacifying influences.

Aries as the first zodiac sign rules the head, the new and the prominent. It's rather transparent, but it will be diluted somewhat by other planetary effects as they occur over the next seven years of its transit through the sign. The direct and underlying message remains however; new cycles, reform and maybe a lot of revolution along the way as this comes about.

The effects of Uranus cannot sustain without the support and movement of other planetary influence, it is part of the integrated system we know as astrology. It is both heartening and a little frightening, this combination of Aries/Uranus. Take note all you Aries sun and Aries rising people - there will be a call to arms of some kind. A call to use your strengths and attributes towards the whole in some way, for better or for worse, although those born in the last two deconates of the sign will feel more of the effects as 2013 comes in.

Uranus hates stagnation and Aries loves to pioneer: the result is unavoidable progress!

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Neptune Changes the Face of Group Activity Subtly from Within ...

2011-11-20T04:11:00.000-08:00

As Neptune sweeps between Aquarius & Pisces the changing use of Group Activity or the way we see the group is quite marked...

Okay, so the age of Aquarius is a lot about ‘the group’ and group action and the combined energies of those on the same wavelength within any group or collective. But the other part of the Aquarian energy often overlooked is the radical sense of the individual and their autonomous need to become a law unto themselves. Even to the point of eccentricity .... the outcast, the loner, the solitary activist.

The more popular slant on Aquarius in this New Age, so called, is that of alining our principles and thoughts and actions with those of others. It is thought sometimes that the strength of the group gives the focus and the energy to whatever objective motivates the group.
But as Neptune now leaves Aquarius after twelve or so years and heads for its own sign of Pisces we begin to see the fragmentation of ‘the group’ in various forms and the ‘regrouping’ of collective numbers in favour of the individual need to honour their inner world and give it pertinent energy in the outside world. Individual Creativity.

More and more we see this ... in popular forms of entertainment, sport, and certain forms of spirituality. We live in the age of the social entrepreneur.

Of course groups will still form but the group itself (in the future) can only be as tenable and necessary as the strength of each individual’s endeavour or belief allows it to be; the group will need to serve the individual and not the other way around. Another way to view it is that the individual will becomes quite naturally equal to the collective will and unless the group supports the individual the individual cannot support the group. It is evident then that the group can no longer carry individuals who are not alined with the group consciousness. And this puts a radical new twist on personal integrity within group behaviour.

The evidence of the current dissolution of groups-for-the-sake-of-groups is all around for anyone who cares to look. And if it sounds like a shift to massively selfish behaviour, it may also be a way of highlighting the kind of sycophantic urge of some to draw from a group on false pretences or for hypocritical reasons other than the main consciousness or focus of that group.

Neptune entering Pisces - by courtesy of it’s nebulous element - will naturally call into question the integrity of people within groups . In commerce, in families, in political factions and religious areas and so on. Anywhere where there is a collective for the sake of an ideal or a main value.

It is easy to see how the fragmentation of society can take place when large planetary influences move. None more so than Neptune moving from the Uranus ruled Aquarius into its own gentler but less transparent wavelength of Pisces. Creating the dissolution of associations that have held sway for long periods of time. Whether they are personal or non-personal collectives.

Politics follows the individual's philosophy on a larger and transpersonal scale - if those individuals go to vote. But in the end the strength will lie with what the individual actually does and is allowed to do because of where they find themselves placed. The movement of Mars through Virgo - November 2011 to July 2012 - is set to instigate the sorting of values within factions or loyalties.

Is group based on loyalty or is it based on something else! This is the big political hot-potatoe at present, not necessarily for politicians themselves, but for voters or those interested in what makes politicians and governments tick. And it merely follows on from the whole issue discussed here. Conspiracy theories aside, the history of human evolution on earth is not based on anything so well documented to date as power, greed and the occasional quantum leap in understanding by the few. That is changing.

Whether we distrust groups or not, there is a need to look to the power of our individual belief and focus - and to that mysterious thing called the ‘law of attraction’ and the unconscious forces of faith.
The unconscious has a collective too, as any Jungian well knows, and in the end it is what we believe and truly believe that moves our destiny forward. Both as individuals and as individuals contributing to collectives or groups.

n.b. Neptune is currently retrograde in the last degrees of Aquarius. It will enter Pisces fully in February next year.

Mars Through Virgo - November 2011 to July 2012

2011-11-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Mars through Virgo loves revelations, exposing faults, loopholes and limitations. Skeletons rattle in cupboards during this combination of energies & symbols.

The long transit of Mars through Virgo will begin next month and last until July next year 2012. When Mars does an extra long transit through any sign it means a thorough movement or purge of that sign - and the house it presides over. A particular house in a personal birth chart shows an area of life (a compartment almost) but the transit has a mundane (or public) effect too. The general or outer effect often impacts the personal situation in which a person finds themselves.

The transit of Mars through this sign over that eight month period may not exactly be restful, but it will in the long run be revealing and probably quite cleansing or purifying. The movement can be likened to a JCB ploughing through land and churning it or turning it over Apply those traits described in a general sense to various life-scenarios and you have the rough idea of how everyone will feel about some area of their life. Bear in mind that even if you personally do not have planets in Virgo you will know others who do, and the effect on them can result in an effect on you via your circumstances. In this way we are all linked. In this way we are all part of a greater script.

Below are some of the effects of the long transit. Bear in mind that these can be both personal and transpersonal. The mundane level (public) and the individual level (personal)......

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2011-10-27T11:07:00.001-07:00

In Real time .... a question of personal purpose .....

Nothing happens for just one reason. To allow this to permeate the thinking, or simply to take it on board, is to see how diffuse time really is. And to understand it is to automatically make better use of time here in this dimension. There is no effort involved; it is a mental shift only, but as the mental is creative it begins to shorten the length of development within certain issues and experiences. In the area of problem solving for one thing, it becomes automatic that two or three minor problems get sorted within one big one. Some people stumble on this information accidentally whilst others search to find it. It has little to do with speed, or even with acuteness of vision, it has more to do with the idea of cause and effect and intrinsic or personal purpose.

A good example might be a family member needing attention or some other obligatory duty. This obligation fulfilled or catered to may be a way of preventing you from doing three other things, and those three other things being off the agenda might finally result in you doing only two of the other things. And perhaps you then make a long term decision regarding the third eliminated thing. Or maybe a decision regarding all three things together, consolidating or prioritizing through a different agenda, but still a reshuffle diffusing results in time.

Results in time is a key: deadlines, sell-by dates; time decrements and that is the fact we tend to work with. But is it right?

To take another generic example: someone gets on the wrong train and heads in the wrong direction and misses the estimated time of arrival at the other end, thus delaying the person picking them up, which in turn has a direct effect on the schedules and lives of a number of people connected with both the first and second persons mentioned   This then effects people connected with everyone concerned, either directly or indirectly, in ways that cannot possibly be known. It can be likened to so many ripples reverberating outwards from a central point in time. A point known variously by the people involved in or around the scenario described. But there is never one central point, this is a variable depending on factors.

Nothing happens for just one reason. Even very narrowed vision, thought and movement have ways of finding branch roads. And the branch roads often come upon us suddenly and unexpectedly when we’re least expecting them - and then we call it interference, disturbance or coincidence.   Nothing can occur alone, Nothing can happen randomly and nothing can happen from only one cause or lead to just one effect.
Of course, the ripples-in-a-pond-effect would support the free will of choice within multiple options. If this were not so we could all be in perpetual repeats of the day before. But most of us know that we are not; we choose, make mistakes, have regrets, re-choose, backtrack and try again.

Nothing is unconnected, nothing is unsupported, nothing happens for only one reason.   Doesn’t that give us endless possibilities at all points!
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2011-09-22T04:19:00.000-07:00

Eye & voice nourish the spirit ...... the natural senses have to be valued ...

Nowadays on some levels we have less and less reason to make face to face transaction with people! .... is it something we have chosen or is it something foisted upon us against which we should now and then rebel?

Text and email and whatever else we have in the way of gismos to convey our instructions and needs and feelings have overtaken us as a means of communication. And while no-one would deny that all of it is convenient, fast, and absolutely to-the-moment, there are times when it’s just bleak and dreadful!

There has always been, throughout the ages, some form of third party facility available for when we did not wish to go eyeball-to-eyeball. But setting aside the ’dear John letter’ or the ancient protocol of having your best friend deliver a message to save face and embarrassment, there was never an age like ours for avoiding the bother of personal contact while still generally ‘mouthing off’ ... whether out of moral cowardice, shyness or plain indifference and laziness.

We’re leaving out of the equation here the politeness of sending a text when you’re behind schedule, or reminding someone of something it’s imperative they remember. We’re on about the more random form of texting observable often in the very young and very stupid whilst crossing the road ... or in the ignorant during dinner parties and wedding ceremonies etc! This has reached quite staggering proportions in its abuse of the facility. And setting aside the threat to mortal damage maybe it’s actually dangerous in other ways - unless we want to transmute into some kind of mobile software downloads or robotic species!

The truth (spiritually and emotionally) is that when we communicate we do so with our eyes and our voice - if we are fortunate enough to have all working senses - and often with our body language. Our very heart and soul at times goes into what we are saying, conveying and trying to express. We are sentient beings with the need for much sense nourishment and if we are reduced constantly to typing on a machine - any machine, even a three thousand pound gadget, then we are starving something within us.

It is easy to sack someone by text, dump someone by text, break bad news to someone by text. It is often very hard to look them in the eye and share their emotions. But that is how we actually grow as humans.
And for the argument that there is more than one text or email available to form a rounded dialogue, the counter-argument has to be that if this is so why are we not having the conversation face to face? Or at least voice to voice!

Sure, it’s very relaxing or therapeutic to text; it saves intruding on another person at a time of rest or solitude! It is also very apt from the point of view of not putting someone on the spot.
But the fear has to be that there is a generation or three already emerging who do not, or will not, know how to handle people in all the fullness of the life skills they ought to be inheriting in these advanced times of psychology, freedom of information and greater self-awareness.

There may well be people who do not need to see another human being for weeks on end, owing to the automated systems passing for communicational devices in commerce, welfare and life assistance mechanisms. It is frightening. We already have an ethos where relationships are made and broken on Facebook.

The endless implications are in front of us. We don’t take them seriously because it is easier not to. And yes, we do know that a computer is allowing this article to exist. The technical age of such things is thrilling, as an aid or an adjunct, not as a wholesale substitute to the warmth of human interaction. What is indispensable is not usually missed until it’s disappeared.

The warmth of human interaction, is second to nothing, even among strangers, perhaps especially among stranger in times of crises. Is that why we seem to be having such a lot of these recently in some places?
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2011-09-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

Talking of Rising Signs (Mutable)

Talking of Rising Signs .......

Mutable Quality … Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces.

The Qualities can be too easily overlooked in astrology – they are the mode of expression the signs have: Cardinal, Mutable & Fixed. On the ascendant or rising sign they are as important as the Elements (fire, earth, air & water).

The ascendant is taken from the time of the day on which a person was born, rather the day of the year. The rising sign is what the person is becoming, the Sun sign is what they already are. For this reason the ascendant gives the greatest clue to the ways in which the person will change and gradually begin to approach life. It is very much to do with the Soul's Purpose.

Mutable ascendants are amenable and amicable to seeing all angles of a situation. Mutablility on the ascendant is possibly the most complex of the Qualities and can lose direction most easily due to a liking for line of least resistance.

Gemini ascendant brings a divided pattern in the unfolding of the psyche, and gives a restlessness of movement in either the mental or physical capacity. Whilst being able to remain open-minded and embracing all life experience, Gemini rising is often distracted from its main focus too easily because of its hunger for variety. Positive Mutable Air, Gemini rising is showing a need to have diversity and to understand the correct use of freedom. Unity within diversity is the hardest thing to pull together and this ascendent experiences problems with commitment through those dilemmas within its various life situations and scenarios. It wishes to remain free while being ‘wired in’ to whatever is going on. Whatever the Sun sign and the rest of the chart, Gemini rising is learning to communicate the more extrovert part of its nature with better balance..

Virgo ascendants are concerned with their conscience in that they are discerning and thorough about life in ways which leads them to be critical, caring and fastidious. They like to see loyalty and allegiance displayed in everything they do and will be genuinely offended when their personal values are not met.
Virgo rising people seem to be mellow and self-effacing in all circumstances but often display the fiercest of opposition to unfairness or dishonesty and become dogged and difficult in times of personal confrontation. Mutable Negative Earth, they are inclined to be either very trusting or very suspicious in varying degrees. The quality of Mutability is seen at its most productive in Virgo because Virgo can put the cause first before its own welfare and truly wants to be of service in the best way it can to what it considers most meaningful.
Sometimes there is a morbid peoccupation with their own health or that of others.

Sagittarius on the ascendant, despite its Mutability, is the most daring or outgoing of all the ascendants. Risk taking goes hand-in-hand with the adventurous side of Sagittarius, as does pleasure and enjoyment, and on the rising sign it is showing the need to venture farther than recent lifetimes might have permitted.
Mutable Fire Positive, Sagittarius rising will push boundaries. The inclination is to extreme passion within things undertaken. There can be a careless or cavalier approach - depending on other chart factors. For the more reticent or shy Sagittarius ascendants there is often a calling to dedication in some studious or cloistered pursuit which is none-the-less intense.
Sagittarius rising is often associated with emigration, travel and the propensity to end up in a country other than the one of original origin.

Pisces ascendant is the most mutable of all four. The Negative Water characteristics add to the Mutability, and combined with the Neptunian traits of its ruler give a yielding and often surreal overload to the character. With this ascendant the individual is either reluctant to face the harsher realities of life or seeks out creative and spiritual pursuits at the expense of more practical things.
Given to emulation, simulation and avid imagination, Pisces rising people can lose their own identity to whatever or whoever has the strongest influence upon them.
Pisces takes at least twenty minutes less to cross the eastern horizon in the twenty four hour day and therefore it is said that Pisces rising denotes a crucial stage within the soul’s purpose in any lifetime as fewer souls are reincarnated in that time slot.
People with this ascendant are capable of great sacrifice, or great artifice. It is a very difficult vibration to cope with, especially if the sun is in one of the positive signs.

More about the other Qualities Rising a few blogs further on.

Loss Matters .... the energies beyond survival

2011-08-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

Loss Matters ….. there are energies beyond mere survival..

Losing in things that matter actually matters. Although there is a popular belief that the way through is to pretend they don't.

Loss of any sort really matters. Not for ever, but at the time. And what is worse and more damaging is suppression or denial after the fact. Refusing to recognize what the experience meant is the fast track to greater unhappiness – and sometimes not until much later on.

We might ignore it or make out it hasn't happened; a survival technique bought at a price. ( Karma is most active in the parts of our life that we push into the body's cellular memory and do not deal with emotionally through the conscious or rational feeling nature; the feeling nature does have a rationality, yes, all of its own).

To experience hurtful or painful (even damaging) life event is not the end of the world, it is actually a beginning. We are not talking about sticking around in an arrested stage of development like 'masochism' or 'martyrdom' - we are talking about the strength that comes from building upwards and outwards and adding in positives maybe missing previously. But if there is no admission of truth or self honesty then it doesn't happen. The reverse can happen instead: we begin to shrink the nervous system, the energy systems and the general balance.

Something suffers or dies within us when we reject what we have seen or where we have been. When we deny who we are at source. We are only what our experience makes us – we are no more and no less. It is what the physical realm is about. It might all be a hologram, it might just be moving atoms, it might be an illusion, but it is still the main theatre in which development is tangible and effects our body, mind and soul.

Losing in things that matter, matters! Losing what our heart tells us is someone or something that is actually a part of us, an intrinsic link to higher-self, is one of the most radically reforming experiences. Good or bad is relative only; in the metaphysical sense reform is reform, whatever way it seems to the personality.

Heart break, over varying periods of time and via convolute roads, regenerates us and we change.

This may be why romantics often translate suffering and difficulties into something more interesting and exciting. Why they welcome the challenges and pain in the 'tangled web' of love's journey. A kind of 'carrot and stick' thing which the soul employs to urge us on to greater understanding.

We are only as strong as our last great love, or our last meaningful relationship.

Passion is not something categorised by magazine quizzes or scripted by film makers, florists and novelists. It is something which each of us has, in bucket loads. We express it variously and colourfully in ways which are possibly high profile and graphic, or subtle and less obvious. A person devoted to whatever they do best with passion will excel when they are inspired by love, or moved by something within them, and although not the same thing as romance it is what the romantics are aiming for; the renewal of (or the rechargeable) energy which isn't easily described or contained and gives the reason or the purpose to life beyond mere survival.

If we lose the facility to understand or relate to this we lose something so fundamentally precious that we are crippled. It matters not how old we are or how limited by life in other ways. We must have something in our heart to connect us to the magical link between the vibrational energies of love and the vibrational energies of activity. Or we don't live in any real sense. We atrophy, shrivel and stagnate – until something arrives to shock-change all that. And in some lifetime, at some point, it invariably will. We will then call it tragedy or trauma or illness, but the effect will be from the same cause, maybe long forgotten (or suppressed).

To have lost in love is not the same as never having loved. It is another matter entirely. To have lost in love is important to note. Many people pretend not to have loved rather than admit to having lost. Is it better to have loved and lost than never loved at all?

The shame of losing is present now in a lot of society's unwritten laws. Sadness has become a euphemism for losing . But in the strength of the human emotional repertoire we need to have full experience of the negative as well as the positive. And sadness is part of something which transmutes us to something else and eventually into something stronger and higher. That which doesn't destroy us strengthens us.

If you lose in love then in the long run it is less painful to admit it. It's even harder not to decry or deny the love itself, to trivialise what was felt, what was happening and how it changed us. But in doing that we run the risk of dis-allowing ourself the right to a retry or maybe the chance to walk that way again.

Disappointment is part of life. Even disappointment in love is no different. Maybe especially disappointment in love! We cannot dictate to another person about how or what to feel. If we love and it's returned we are very blessed. If it is not returned we are still blessed but in a different sense, and it might take some time to understand that. Goethe said: 'If I love you it need not concern you'. What he probably meant was: 'don't feel it as pressure!'

The expectation or projection factor is a prelude to loss, since everything has to pass and change. The pressure we put on ourselves and others is enormous. But with lateral thinking it's easy to see that the loss factor becomes greater with the pressure.

It matters to lose something. It always will. But can we lose things in the same way ever again once we realize we don't own anything!

Loss always has a counterpart, it always has a compensatory nature. It doesn't matter how long ago it happened. The Law of Compensation (one of the seven Universal Laws) always pays out in some way. And if you missed it then go back and look, and claim it. The key is acknowledgement of the loss itself. Loss matters, sadness matters, pain matters. But they are not the end of the equation.

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If you like our articles you may like our fiction: available in paperback & digitally, can be sampled & bought from Amazon & other online outlets (not from book-stores). see http://wwwpercpetivity.co.uk & click ‘Lyn’s Fiction’

2011-08-13T04:29:00.000-07:00

Uranus-Aries & Anarchy ... the power of an archetype.

We think of Mars as being warlike - but Mars energy is tame compared with an undisciplined Uranian energy. Look at the world in general, but look at the U.K. riots over the past week

There’s a Mars, Pluto, Uranus aspect of profound intensity been going on the last few days, due to pass by the 20th of August and moving to simmering now. But whatever else is at play the energy - collective and individually - of anarchy is the firm prerogative of Uranus.
In Aries it is destined not to care about repercussions and consequences, the inclination being ‘act now and think later’...
Certainly there are people who will be more susceptible; there own chart disposition will show that. But there will be people we would least expect to be taken up in that feverish bid for change & revolution at any violent price. We would have to dig into the aspects of natal charts giving way to progressions and triggered by transits, but it would be there - the signs and the signals. The normally mild mannered who are suddenly lost to the persuasion of a collective planetary energy.

An archetype has formed with this T. Square, led by Uranus, and lots of people are absorbed.

The extra Saturnine planets are said to be ‘generational’ because they move slowly and involve numbers of people in similar experience or wholesale collective events. We look at Uranus in Aries and we see that in its first degrees of the sign it is bringing sudden, unexpected and often freakishly dangerous situations in all kinds of ways to all kinds of people. Maybe only astrologers would know that, but for us it is indisputable.

Astrological influence isn’t used as an excuse! - it’s a backdrop to events, a rhythmic stage setting in which life can take place ... good, bad or indifferent. People seek to learn about themselves and others through experience. When major events and world situations happen all kinds of small to medium events are triggered. This is how karma takes place. We evolve through strong movement and strong movement is the prerogative of those three planets - Uranus, Mars & Pluto.

See more about Uranus & its influence on the individual over 7 years in the next blog..

2011-07-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

Talking of Rising Signs (Cardinal)

2011-07-23T03:58:00.000-07:00

Talking of Rising Signs ….

Cardinal Quality … Cancer, Capricorn, Aries & Libra

The Qualities can be too easily overlooked in astrology – they are the mode of expression the signs have: Cardinal, Mutable & Fixed. On the ascendant or rising sign they are as important as the Elements (fire, earth, air & water).

The ascendant is taken from the time of the day on which a person was born, rather the day of the year. The rising sign is what the person is becoming, the Sun sign is what they already are. For this reason the ascendant gives the greatest clue to the ways in which the person will change and gradually begin to approach life. It is very much to do with the Soul's Purpose.

Cardinal Ascendants are eager to go out and break new ground and often lead by example rather than design. They usually display a confidence in life which allows others to believe in them.

Cancer by nature is responsive/sensitive to others. On the ascendant, whilst giving a certain reticence or modesty, it is concerned with a growing awareness of its own and other people's emotions. Negative Water, Cancer is one of the empathetic signs and can aline itself very much with what others are feeling or experiencing. This trait can become exaggerated within the lifetime so that the person goes through overtly shy periods and is overly sensitive to how others are perceiving them. There is often a need to build 'moral stamina' in order to stand up for what they believe is right for them, despite what other people might think. The mother influence figures largely, often in a problematic way, and Cancer ascendant can be too absorbed in pleasing people as the Cancer vibration loves comfort and ease of passage.

Capricorn rising is often given to bleak or difficult conditions in the early life, so that the harder or robust side of Capricorn has a setting in which to thrive (any ascendant vibration attracts or builds live-scenarios from which to have activity). Negative Earth, Capricorn on the ascendant is concerned with acquiring the abilities of tenacity, endurance and perseverance; able to build and plod for long periods of time towards a project or an ultimate aim, it has a stoical attitude to itself and life. If this is not accompanied by a philosophical tendency there can be a bitterness or a vapid sort of misery clinging to individuals with this ascendant which alienates them from others or renders extreme disappointment as they age. Capricorn ascendant is usually loyal and strong on behalf of those people who depend on it.

Aries on the ascendant often brings impatience or impetuousness. It is the stuff that pioneers and innovators are made of and uses these traits variously (depending on the rest of the chart) towards goals and pursuits which the individual is passionate about. Positive Fire, they can not be held back for long from what they have chosen to do and will sometimes display these talents/interests early on in life. The vast need Aries rising has to experience itself in all its glory often renders to the individual a selfish or egotistical appearance which might be entirely unjustified. Nevertheless people warm to this ascendant and sense a bravery, whatever else the chart contains, that can be somehow relied upon in times of stress or trouble. Aries rising often courts danger rather than tolerate boredom.

Libra is naturally given to fairness and the need for balance. Libra on the ascendant grants probably the most generous of natures to the individual (depending on other chart characteristics). Positive Air, it loves to sit in the midst of varying attitudes, opinions and types of people. Libra rising is bringing the qualities of mediation, altruism and deliberation to the personal life experience. The 'liberty' to have free choice is always a topic which remains paramount in importance for itself as well as others. There is a concern for the opinion of people round about, sometimes too much so that there is a loss of will power, and this rising sign loves to put things to the vote and gain a consensus of opinion on the most trivial of matters. This is because the individual's lifetime is unconsciously devoted to understanding how to consider self in relation to non-self and the power balance contained there.

For More Astrological info visit http://www.perceptivity.co.uk

Talking of Rising Signs (Fixed)

2011-07-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

Talking of Rising Signs ….

Fixed Quality … Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius.

The qualities can be too easily overlooked in astrology – they are the mode of expression the signs have: Cardinal, Mutable & Fixed. On the ascendant or rising sign they are as important as the Elements (fire, earth, air & water).

Fixed ascendants of their nature are most resistant to change. But it is also good to remember that change is not movement.

Aquarius by nature is restless. It loves to move and travel, but that is not the same as radical change. Aquarius ascendant may travel and roam in familiar patterns, or sometimes in 'ever decreasing circles'. The Fixed Positive Air of Aquarius on the rising sign is particularly fond of ideas or beliefs which give it a base in an otherwise topsy-turvy world. The providence of Aquarius on the ascendant is to lend to the lifetime a campaign or project that takes forever to achieve. The air (mentality) and the fixity (steadfastness) can then both be used in a forward looking or visionary sort of way, beloved of Aquarius.

Taurus rising is often very resistance to change (sometimes not outwardly) but this isn't to be confused with the lack of acquisition. The Negative Earth Taurus loves to take hold of the best and harness it, but remains loyal to the tried and tested. So the fixity of Earth on the Taurus ascendant makes for investment lovers and builders of enduring schemes, both large or small. They love to expand, but in ways which preserve what is already established. Don't ask Taurus rising people to make on-the-spot or overnight decisions, it makes them too stressed and they can become evasive or inhibited.

Scorpio is the most tenacious or gripping of all the fixed signs. Negative Fixed Water, it is capable of holding onto information or knowledge for long periods, often bringing the same, or similar, projects through from past lifetimes and bringing to bear the greatest influence on the lives of others, either close or more publicly. It loves to delve and analyze and it will patiently study and probe both its own inner secrets and those of others. The element of Water here, although Fixed, still brings fluidity of response or memory. The unchanging quality comes in the purpose or direction or motive. Scorpio rising people will struggle with things against the odds, they are dogged in what they determine, sometimes beyond reason.

Leo is perhaps the least 'fixed' of the Qualities. Positive Fire it is highly persuadable by people it loves and will change its mind to suit others. But still it goes towards wherever it is best received and responded to, putting its heart interests before anything. The fixed nature of Leo rising people is seen in their dedication to things and people they decide they will champion or love. They are becoming braver in any given lifetime about who they really are and about promoting their own interests (possibly after lifetimes of not being so or not being able to be so). Matters of the heart and concerns about heritage are to the forefront of their issues. Leo on the ascendant is learning how to open the heart (chakra) and embrace life, but has to know the difference between the ego props and the real deal.

For More Astrology visit http://www.perceptivity.co.uk

2011-05-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Becoming a species of Perfection .... Is it More than just the Balance of Brains and Beauty!

It used to be said, and sometimes still is, that brains and beauty are rarely found in one package (package being a euphemism for person). This was perhaps the resultant thought of a more fundamentally modest era and the moral codes evolving from it. But it’s changed ... radically of recent years. So that it’s no longer good enough to be just a model or a super model - once that status is reached the need to be also something or someone clever occurs. “Super Model and Business Woman” .... “Super Model and Actress". Not wishing to confuse cleverness with talent or natural gift, it’s certain that both categories fit the bill where personality improvement meets impressive looks.

All beauty contest winners (or whatever the modern equivalent of those events might be called) are often “Nuclear Physicists” or “Undergraduate Archaeologists” or wanna-be orthopedic surgeons. The need to balance off the visual with the aesthetic is an urgent and pressing matter in the early stages of the twenty first century.
Being beautiful and decorative isn’t enough. It's now necessary to be useful, erudite and intellectually respected as well.

And what of the male sex? Can we reverse things here? are men becoming more visually aware of themselves? Without a doubt! But for some of them it is only after being generally hailed as intelligent, successful or powerful in the worldly sense. We look at politicians and see them smarten up their acts with their heightened profiles. Or we look at sportsmen turned t.v. presenters suddenly appearing with line-free, lifted faces.

The number of people using cosmetic enhancement has more than trebled in the past twenty years. And the number of people attaining academic status in later life has also risen steeply. The scale then is seeking to even itself between mind and physique. It’s worth noting here that neither brains nor beauty equal personality or charm, but maybe that will be the next thing for us as a species to realise at a generic and global level. The way people realised back in the eighties that skin care was superior to good make-up and style was better than ostentation.

The ancient Greeks famously believed that a healthy body bestowed a healthy mind. And going way back to ancient forms of worship and myth it was said that the gods favoured and smiled upon those with beauty and brains. Perhaps that inherent belief in us - through the ancestral memory gene pool - is resurrecting and we have again the urge to be perfect, to be favoured, to be safe. Perhaps the obsession with our looks, our presentation, our image, our need to gain gorgeousness and favourable response is no more than an unconscious need to be alined with the Divine Spark whom we somehow sense and therefore seek the good favour and co-operation of.

The acceptance and approval of our peer group may be just the mirror we use on the way. The need is undeniably to be in all ways a species of perfection!

2011-05-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

A paradigm shift is signaled by the movement of the planets through Aries ... if anyone is sleepwalking through their days it’s high-time to become awake and aware

The world is interesting - or possibly dangerous, depending on your view point - but very seldom boring, and if you find it so it’s time to review your energy levels (mentally & emotionally) along with your mind-set. It doesn’t matter what you believe you need as long as you know why you need it and the belief is alive and real.

Passion and focus are currently the things which make the difference to life quality and determine individual future.

Every planet is in Aries, except for Saturn, Neptune and Pluto, and the Sun and Moon (which are actually luminaries not planets). This strong fire line-up in Aries is undeniably dynamic.

Nothing is very safe, nothing is steady and nothing is sure. Things are changing, in flux, and no possibilities or probabilities you can envisage clearly can be ruled out. Fire is the most transformational element; it fuels imagination (collective and personal) and uses it to create.

Air breeds intellectual reason, but instinct born of fire has passionate imagination and results in desire and causal seed. It’s inflammatory!
We’re not talking just of Aries Sun/Moon people or those with their ascendant in Aries. We are talking of the Aries planetary influence as a whole.

Astrological influence in the cosmos is a collective affecting everyone in various ways from different aspects and angles. When larger planets move every one of us is affected - our individual birth chart is simply a means to interpreting where we stand in relation to the effect

We’re now at the foothills of renaissance and paradigm shift. World events, personal situations, human possibilities .....Most of us will experience it in our different ways

It might steady off temporarily in June when Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury enter Taurus. But steady is not necessarily better. It’s just steadier. Things then can be more easily stabilized, harnessed, practically analyzed or managed.

The important thing to realize now is what we’re developing or opening, whilst the pioneering spirit of Aries allows for discovery and movement. Because when the fixity of planets in the earthy Taurus prevails in June and throughout July it is harder to have the flexibility or leeway in matters untried, new or embryonic.

So be vigilant ... if you don’t want it don’t accept it ... If you feel you’re out of your depth say so, pull back a little, halt, wait until 2012 before leaping and splurging or nailing your colours to the mast. If you half want it then test it ... if you definitely want it then run with it!

Aries allows the most wonderful canvass for discovery, opens up myriad possibilities and gives scope to those who want to find out more. It favours the brave, tempts the foolish and demonstrates that there is no standing still .. We move, we grow, we are part of something unstoppable and indestructible.
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To see more astrological info related to your own sign go to:
http://www.perceptivity.co.uk/astrologyframes.htm

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2011-04-11T04:14:00.000-07:00

Déjà vu is not so rare an occurrence ... the feelings give it away...

If we are to develop then playing it safe isn't guaranteed. We have to walk on the wild side now and then.

Sometimes things that are difficult at the start turn out to be the best in the long-run, like some people who we immediately dislike turn out to be the most valuable and dearest to us. But not always. It isn’t to say our instinct isn’t in working order, more that from a psychological perspective we unconsciously scan experiences from the beginning of any interchange and don’t necessarily cut to the the climax or denouement of the episode.

Talking reincarnation: the ‘between-acts’ or ‘between-lives’ pause may have occurred after a defined or pivotal turning point in relations with that person - a moment when they actually started to offer a positive note towards the vibrational atmosphere and we responded positively. And then suddenly the curtain went down. The physical interaction was terminated. Job done - for then!

It isn’t a question of good or bad: it is a question of what is resonating with a view to the development of the rays the soul and personality are trying to advance to. (There are seven rays underpinning the universal modus operandi. Seven pillars of wisdom pertaining to Universal Laws).

The fact that light exists means that dark exists, as a contrast rather than as an enemy force. The concept of good and bad are different in meaning to how they might be construed at this level of three dimensional existence. The reflection here may be of good or of bad, but the originating concept in the causal plane or the karmic sense is neither good or bad but just an extant rhythm - like an electrical current which can be tapped into safely or dangerously.

The things to look out for and to avoid at those times of potentially challenging experience, or the threshold of a new situation of importance, is the feeling of dread. That feeling of dread is different than the feeling of mere mistrust. It warns of what the unconscious already knows it can cope with (or not) and reveals the opposite of mutually cohesive and co-operative interaction - it says that history is so overloaded with negatives it may repeat itself at a high cost to our welfare or advancement. But sometimes we will do that thing anyway. Simply because we need the experience, or have opted to take the risk, or have decided to go in there to help someone else....the reasons are myriad, and they are karmically under-written into the 'new life policy'.

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2011-03-22T04:09:00.001-07:00

Eye & voice nourish the spirit ...... the natural senses have to be valued ...

Nowadays on some levels we have less and less reason to make face to face transaction with people! .... is it something we have chosen or is it something foisted upon us against which we should now and then rebel?

Text and email and whatever else we have in the way of gismos to convey our instructions and needs and feelings have overtaken us as a means of communication. And while no-one would deny that all of it is convenient, fast and absolutely to-the-moment, there are times when it’s just bleak and dreadful!

There has always been, throughout the ages, some form of third party facility available for when we did not wish to go eyeball-to-eyeball. But setting aside the ’dear John letter’ or the ancient protocol of having your best friend deliver a message to save face and embarrassment, there was never an age like ours for avoiding the bother of personal contact while still generally ‘mouthing off’ ... whether out of moral cowardice, shyness or plain indifference and laziness.

We’re leaving out of the equation the politeness of sending a text when you’re behind schedule, or reminding someone of something it’s imperative they remember. We’re on about the more random form of texting observable often in the very young and the very stupid whilst crossing the road ... or in the ignorant during dinner parties and wedding ceremonies etc! This has reached quite staggering proportions in its abuse of the facility. And setting aside the threat to mortal damage maybe it’s actually dangerous in other ways - unless we want to transmute into some kind of mobile software downloads or robotic species!

The truth (spiritually and emotionally) is that when we communicate we do so with our eyes and our voice - if we are fortunate enough to have all working senses - and often with our body language. Our very heart and soul at times goes into what we are conveying and trying to express. We're sentient beings with the need for much sense nourishment and if we are reduced constantly to typing on a machine - any machine, even a three thousand pound gadget, then we are starving something within us.

It is easy to sack someone by text, dump someone by text, break bad news to someone by text. It's often very hard to look them in the eye and share their emotions. But that is how we actually grow as humans.
And for the argument that there is more than one text or email available to form a rounded dialogue, the counter-argument has to be that if this is so why are we not having the conversation face to face? Or at least voice to voice!

Sure, it’s very relaxing or therapeutic to text; it saves intruding on another person at a time of rest or solitude! It is also very apt from the point of view of not putting someone on the spot.
But the fear has to be that there is a generation or three already emerging who do not, or will not, know how to handle people in all the fullness of the life skills they ought to be inheriting in these advanced times of psychology, freedom of information and greater self-awareness. There may well be people who do not need to see another human being for weeks on end, owing to the automated systems passing for communicational devices in commerce, welfare and life assistance processes. It is frightening! We already have an ethos where relationships are by preference lived out on Facebook.

The endless implications are in front of us. And yes, we do know that a computer is allowing this article to exist. The technical age of such things is thrilling, as an aid or an adjunct, but not as a wholesale substitute to the warmth of human interaction. Look into the eyes of someone you like, whoever they may be, and feel the difference within yourself. Look into the eyes of someone you love and pause to feel the shift in your own vibration.

The warmth of human interaction, is second to nothing, even among strangers, perhaps especially among strangers in times of crises! Is that why we seem to be having such a lot of those recently in some places?...

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If you want to see more of Lyn Shea's work go to www.perceptivity.co.uk

2011-01-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

Why an increasing number of people believe in other lifetimes....

In some places now it is more uncommon for people not to believe in reincarnation (or past life) than to believe. Even adverts for some ancestry sites employ the implication of 'life behind life'.
The doubts people may have in general about anything at all before or after this material existence are a separate matter; it is not a given that if you believe in reincarnation you don’t have doubts, or times of scepticism about the whole subject of what is often referred to as 'the continuum'.
Although in general once the belief of life beyond physical life is a firmly rooted proposition it becomes necessary to conjure with the possible mechanisms linking the planes of existence together.

The theory of life here as a testing or learning ground of some kind is a long held one, but as we change our morality we change our philosophy. The learning style beliefs tend to border on the semi-religious and the hang-over from this, and as we go more into physics and quantum mechanics it becomes less likely that the only reason we might come back is to learn or improve than it is simply an inevitability of some kind within the laws of physics! an unavoidable facet of the recycling process of natural energy and memory within energy.
Perhaps it's just as inevitable, for example, as driving onto a roundabout and having to drive off again at some juncture.

For some people reincarnation is not just a fanciful speculation. It is a simple deduction derived from the cyclical nature of the Universe.
If energy is invincible and we are energy then we are subject to the laws or the formation of that energy.
It becomes as obvious at certain points of speculation to believe in reincarnation as it does to breathe. The differences are ones of degree and vary with the psychology of the individual or possibly the belief system the individual subscribes to at any point of evolutionary thought or study.

Karma is a football within all this; just because there is reincarnation doesn’t mean there is karma necessarily. Some would say that the theory of karma belongs to the ‘learning/testing/remembering’ school of philosophy and is a substitute for conscience and morality in the absence of dogmatic religious code. But is it? ...

If energy doesn’t die, and we are energy, then we are fused with the occurrences and happenings which effect the ether (a subtle form of energy from which our earthly surroundings are made) and therefore we cannot escape the heritage of the ether or the photographs it contains. When we become mortally conscious or are made aware within that same ether then we are influenced by it and react to the stimulus provided from that memory:
karma as a theory and a practice is perhaps the essence of all that. As with the natural flow of the cycles, we have no choice but to be part of something larger, or more powerful, and the intensity is a matter of degree, subject to the same laws as above. In fact it could be said that those laws are karmic laws and that is what is meant by the word itself.

On a more mundane level: why do we know some people on sight, or like and dislike them without prior reason? Why do we resonate to certain locations, display extraordinary talents at an early age? Why do we yearn to be in certain places?...
All of that stuff is part of the less scientific material and might be the more convincing, if for the only reason that it appeals to the heart or emotions of us as humans.
Reincarnation as a premise feels right or it doesn’t. And when it does there is no justification or denial that makes sense except to the individual in his or her own inner journey.

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2011-01-18T12:54:00.000-08:00

A Few Words about the 13th Zodiac Sign ....let’s not get too carried away.

It has long been known that there is (or could be) a 13th sign - because the lunar calendar has 13 months. The lunar calendar was in force prior to the Romans under Julius Caesar.

Just a few years ago this 13th sign was thought to be of the arachnid family in some quarters, and falling between Taurus and Gemini. .. anyone remember that? And this new one is thought to fall between Scorpio and Sagittarius.

People get very excited about these kind of discoveries, and very disconcerted; they feel they may have been cheated of their true astrological heritage or given a bum steer in past astrological readings etc. ... Not so! .... And why? ....

For starters, Astrology is not a physical science. Astronomy is a physical science (as much as any cosmology can be considered physical and not quantum) and we look to that for our tables. But astrology itself is a subtle counterpart of that.

Plus, good astrologers do not only consider the Sun sign They take into consideration the planetary system from the Sun to Pluto and lay it onto a grid known as the Zodiac. it is within the zodiac that the problem is arising. Not within the planetary system in use astrologically. Much of the depth information extracted from a chart is taken from the integrated chart, the whole thing considered as a unit of moving parts. Not just from one sign.

Many people consider the zodiac to be nothing more than a frame of reference whilst the real power lies with the planetary energies. The writer would tend to agree. The zodiac can be likened to a setting and location, whereas the planets are the interactive agents or actors.

It will take years of observation before we know what influence these new stars have on the rest of the zodiac.

The whole zodiac is a collective; one sign polarizes with and leads into another.

Astrology is about perception. Astrological data - although allied to historical theory - is open to interpretation.

A lot of what we may glean from this new star system (when we can table it) will be accessible in the meantime from other parts of the zodiac via planetary energy. Much of the valuable information from any astrological profiling comes from more than one source and is validated by more than one direction.
This is after all a code we are talking of in astrology, a way of deciphering higher energy merging with human energy.

We are in an intelligent and sentient Universe. There is cohesion and order and fusion. This new star system may not be live in the independent astrological sense at all yet. It may come to nothing.

Meantime, it is fun to speculate.

2011-01-08T08:38:00.001-08:00

STRAIGHT TALKING .... why & how affirmations work...

Affirmations work - provided they are well thought out. The thing about affirmations is that they are entirely an individual matter and not a generic fix-all. The words that work for one person in a situation will not work for another person in the same situation. Why? because each person’s understanding of where they are at, even within the same time-frame or circumstance differs. Plus, one person may not be really committed to the process of making affirmation but simply going through motions. While someone else might take to it like a duck to water. Nevertheless, it remains one of the truly reliable ways to gain mastery or control of ourselves and our lives.
We actually affirm all the time, often negatively, without knowing it. ..... “I’ll never lose enough weight for Christmas!” .... “I’ll never get the house ready in time for Saturday night!” ..... “I’ll never be able to afford the holiday!” ....

If we are not doing a specific litany of words at a certain time in a certain order we don’t see those kind of statements as affirmations. Even though they are just that - a way of autosuggesting to the unconscious what we want and believe. The Universe believes with us, not for us, and the unconscious is highly suggestible, so every time we state something about our ability, belief or intention we set in motion a train of reaction and consequent actionable result. It’s about magnetism as much as anything else; a subject written about at length by latter day mystics and by modern day physicists. (see for e.g. Michael Talbot’s ‘The Holographic Universe’)

Affirming is a very old way of talking to the Universal Mind through the self. Mentioned in the sacred books of most religions in different ways. ... “As your faith is so be unto you...” (the gospel of Matthew) for one example, affirmations are among the oldest known tenets of psychological wisdom. They are about thinking on the plane of the absolute and reversing the senses. They have the ability to correct wrongly held core beliefs by signalling for outer proof of more valid ones. But they have to be right; the words have to have meaning and that meaning has to be felt emotionally and have a resonance with the core self. They cannot be faked or any result will be counter-productive. It was said by the wise and ancient ones that when affirmations are given to you by another there is a blessing on them and they work twice as quickly. Probably one of the best ways to do them is to say them out loud, not necessarily very loudly, but enough to hear your own words. There is something about the voice which vibrates or resonates with the etheric matrix in which we live. It is also effective to repeat them twice since the subconscious mind thrives on repetition.

The key is always knowing that the present holds the power. Affirmation does not ask to receive, it seeks to confirm the fact that the thing to be achieved is present, near at hand, in the current moment. When we analyse these differing tenses and senses of time we see a lot about the way we usually might push things into a non-existent future, or lack the perspective which makes our sense of ‘the now’ so much more powerful once this is understood.

Make ‘thinking time’ for yourself, that way the realizations of what is going on in you become clearer if you listen in the following hours and days to what comes back from your inner self. That way the affirmations can be quickened by different words. If for instance you affirm for more air miles to be at your disposal and don’t address your fear of flying, then the affirmation cannot take root and work properly because it is fighting your unconscious for emotional priorities remaining to be sorted.

The unconscious mind holds keys to our untapped potential and to our older scripts, and also to our severe blocks and go-pass-nots and that is when affirmation is often necessary. It unlocks parts of our psyche which hold negative values that have, and still might, seduce the ego to cling to the outworn and the negative despite our protestations to the contrary. Affirmations move gently and thoroughly over time to correct the parts of our consciousness which deter us, lock us out, and won’t allow progress or healing in whatever it is we are seeking to manifest.

The earth plane is here for the purpose of manifestation, the appearance of the physical or material from a prior or hidden intelligence. Intelligence is everywhere, but it is on particular waves or rays or streams of consciousness. Our consciousness is not alone, and anyone who still thinks so must understand nothing about the world in which they live.
To think is to make a shift in the ether, to say something repeatedly is to make a dent, a curve or a wave carrying information. These thoughts need to be polarised and then they return in representational form. “What goes around comes around” .... “As you sew so shall you reap” These sort of sayings depict an age old knowledge of what the universe is really doing all around us. It doesn’t matter which science describes it or which philosophy embraces it; there are things we just know and feel and so did some of our ancestors and our predecessors, often better than we do now.

To practise with your own exactness of words will sharpen your insight into what is really going on with you. We play tricks with ourselves. We say we want things, and we aspire to have or own things that we really do not want to have or own. Why do we do this? Because we are at the mercy of differing parts of our own ego structures. We need the game of acquisition to keep us going. But affirmation sharpens our sense of who we are needing to become and what we are playing, so that we can stop wasting time. Affirmations unite or reconcile our divided selves and heal rifts between our negative and positive thinking.

Affirmations don’t work miracles overnight, but sometimes they astound us with some amazing sorts of happenings which highlight awareness. On the way to anything we need or want we have awareness, that is why we want things in the first place, whether they be tangible or not. We need to become aware of who we are in relation to where we are.
Affirmation is often like layers of an onion - it brings you to the edge of something new, something other that the desired object, and then the desired object changes somewhat until it is exactly what you really need. And sometimes affirmation brings you exactly what you affirmed for. Be careful what you wish for ... as the adage goes ... for it shall surely be yours! Affirmation is a mighty tool of development and self-help, it works for everyone, provided they are patient, and if it takes some people more time to manifest things it is because the doubts about themselves are greater.

Think carefully about what it is you need to have in your sight next. Some people cannot cope with winning the lottery or having the house of their dreams tomorrow. They need to prepare themselves first in some different way. They might for instance need to get rid of their fears about change, or their feelings of guilt or low self worth etc. So the affirmations should be geared towards safer states of being and less material things, until there is a knowing that the change is acceptable. What we cannot handle or adjust to will dissolve or evaporate or go from our life because it is actually only a vibration, we live in a vibratory universe, and we need to adjust our own vibration to what it is we are manifesting. Affirmation is about manifestation. It is about tuning into the core of our own power and harnessing it to a universal power that is actually one with us all the time.

2010-12-17T09:16:00.000-08:00

Imagine life without escapism & folly .... Enjoy your own stage and forget the judgement!

So much of what we experience - especially when we look back - is totally ridiculous, cringingly embarrassing and downright daft. Theatre of the absurd or comic farce. The trick of the light here is that when we are going through these situations in some depth, we may even see them as radically serious or crucial to survival. And maybe at some level they are.
Let’s be plain, we’re not speaking now of things which may be tragic and genuine crises - like illness or accident where normal behaviour is not on the agenda. We’re speaking of lesser unforgettable scenarios ... going out on a limb for misguided causes or perpetuating scenes involving misunderstanding. Things which at the time seem to suck us in and continue against all the odds to grow and take us with them.

We look back at ourselves and we relate funny stories for the entertainment of others, and there is often a touch of embarrassment, no matter how much the story is appreciated, or how hilarious it is, because seen through the lens of our greater wisdom onto our more bizarre behaviour we can’t imagine allowing ourselves to be such stooges or such saps for the extraneous doings of the world and its brother. But if we can’t ‘eventually’ laugh at ourselves (and we do stress the word eventually rather than immediately) then we’re in trouble. Some of the stuff is neither here nor there, trivial and hardly worthy of second thought as it flits through the memory, but some of it isn’t and we have trouble gauging whether it was a tragedy or a comedy, and seeing as both are symbiotically interwoven we may never reach a conclusion. These things stays with us for the rest of our lives, and unless we get a perspective on them they bother us.

One of the more extreme examples of this is illustrated here by someone who relates the story of a set of events happening shortly after she entered the adult working world as a teenager in the mid 1960’s......

This episode in her young life involved being hooked into a phone conspiracy during office hours and agreeing to act as a liaison between her then best friend and one of her own bosses (a partner in the small business where she was employed). All because the best friend and the one boss had a telephone affair going and rarely met in person (her best friend was also sixteen and hiding the fact). This resulted finally in the teller of the story being sacked by her other meddling boss who was resentful of his partner’s peccadillo, kept out of the loop of what was truly happening and felt the situation to be threatening to his business and his political aspirations.
The whole fiasco had its roots quite innocently in the best friend’s quest to bring spontaneous fun to a man for whom she held an illogical attraction, and both girls believed the cause of his depression and psychological ruin lay with his controlling and bullying business partner, who then became the butt of several phone pranks and a string of practical jokes (which he naturally found unfunny).

All hell broke loose and what started out as juvenile experimentation and good fun grew into a melodrama of sinister proportions with quite detrimental consequences, as the egotistical boss went to ridiculous lengths, embroiling everyone he could think of to aid his solving of a mystery that essentially was not his concern (if you disregard what he called the misuse of his phone lines). These lengths included enormous expense employing private investigators, approaching the girls’ parents and threatening both girls with criminal proceedings. Exploding the situation out of all proportion. (small wonder he was inclined to politics).

Screen writers may be paid to elaborate realistically such events, and it is why novels and films exist. We accept that life reflects art just as much as art reflects life. But it is only when the girl in the story (now in middle age) looks back that she sees it was both absurd and mad - not just the happenings but the drastic results. It might all have been sorted out happily, as in a farce by Moliere. And it doesn’t matter that it was perpetuated mostly by adults while she was still virtually a child. It happened. She learned from it, even if the price was high.

There is a saying: if you don’t eat life it eats you. Rarely do we know what we will incur when we decide to go into the outside world, whether it’s a stroll in the park or a blind date or an excursion into new territory. We become the pawns of so-called fate, and hopefully our free will and instinct are enough to inure us from the worst side of this. We try to protect ourselves from the upsetting unknown, yet we watch films and drama for stimulus of one kind and another involving other people’scliff-hanging circumstances or their cutting edge dilemmas.
So what did our ancestors do before there was t.v. and radio (and heaven forfend, the invention of the internet?) and they couldn’t get to a theatre!! And what if they weren’t allowed to read books or could not afford books ... Try to imagine it! A world without escapism. The thought of it is awful. How bleak is life without human folly? anyone’s folly will do! As long as it’s not our own!

With hindsight, on reflection and in retrospect, it very often is our own. But we not only survived it, we triumphed and lived to tell the tale. We grow older and matured and more seasoned on the rich tapestry of life, together with the more harrowing side of absurdity, disconcertion and gob-smacking stupidity. It’s what it is to be humanly involved in the world and its stage.
It was Jean Paul Sarte who said ‘life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think!’

2010-11-24T02:41:00.000-08:00

Financial Wealth & personal Worth - Saturn, Pluto & Neptune Moving into Pisces.

Astrologically speaking, it’s natural that things are messy, clouded or just disillusioning at present - Uranus, planet of revolution and chaos, is winding down in Pisces. The planet is retrograde until the middle of November and there can be no arguing with that in terms of trying to wade through the treacle. By the time it goes direct in the first few days of December, Neptune (ruler of pisces) is direct also by three weeks, and Jupiter by two and a half weeks. Then comes the lifting and the de-misting and more clarity.

The more clutter you have left unsorted (mentally, emotionally or materially) the more time it takes to get the new chapter underway. Sort out the clutter, deal with the unfinished business and refuse to be bogged down by the pessimism universally waging war now or by the emotional exhaustion - your own and others. Most of all, know that if you experimented with heady financial heights or edge-cutting corners (which a lot of us did in the first decade of the new millenium) then the sorting out of the dangerous results takes more patience and time than the preparation to go headlong into them ever took in those heady old days ... property speculation, foreign investment, unique business speculation and unlimited geographical movement, or just a few blocks farther along the highway than you thought you’d ever dare venture! Matters not. Everything was on the table. It was all possible - in the limitless nineties and the enticing ‘naughties’.

Everything has a price! For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction! That doesn’t mean it can’t be balanced and steadied. If you were on your way up and things got halted it doesn’t mean you are on your way down - it means that the altitude was misleading and needs some further research. Things are difficult, yes, but not impossible. It isn’t a recipe for disaster, it’s an agenda for modification and damage limitation. For some people, it can be the sudden dawn of success from unlikely quarters. Especially when Uranus enters Aries proper in the spring of 2011.

The vast sums of money and prosperity on offer at the beginning of the new century are mostly seen now as not viable. What is on offer is a lot of alternative ways ahead, and previously undisclosed paths to security. Uranus in Aries, Saturn in Libra - this speaks of new framework for untried design and the rapid expansion of untapped talent and alternative method, waiting in the wings for the appropriate entrance date. The winding down and the dissolution of the old is as vital to the process of creation and maintenance as it is in any cycle of nature.
When Neptune begins to dally in its own sign of Pisces in 2011 it lauds the dreamers and the creatives to a great extent. But the ever and ongoing presence of Pluto in Capricorn pushes forward the need for sounder and more grounded foundation to enterprise and initiative.

Fact is, if you’re monetarily wealthy at the end of this decade you’re worthy. Make the affirmation ‘worthy to be wealthy’ and see progress take root and sustain and mean something more than you thought it might mean in times gone by

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2010-11-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

A Short Burst of Karma ..... the unstoppable force ...

The release of karma now is perhaps at one of its strongest points; manmade laws can not contain it or keep apace with it. Extraordinary and terrible things happen, of course they always did, but not necessarily in front of our eyes or on our own doorsteps. If karma exists at all it exists because free will and cause and effect within prevailing conditions allow it to become extant, or give it a stage. The stage and the conditions are not mutually exclusive to the karma: the setting and the characters are interlinked. What is often heard are questions like ‘Is that karmic?' or 'Is this a result of my karma?” ... as if karma is a rarified happening or set of happenings within an otherwise innocently random unfolding of time. But karma and time are inseparable - we have entered into 'time' for the purpose of karma, the living off or the living out of something already in motion. Most things are a continuation of something gone before. The real question being asked is ‘Is this negative, surprising or unsettling karma? the kind of thing we have no control over?’

If we have now a peak in terms of communications and information and the technology which conveys it, then we are open to a rush or a tidal wave of release (the expression of karma) coming at us from all quarters at an unwelcome juncture in time. However, it has to be something we need to know or observe, or have been a part of, or it will pass us by as surely as a tornado passes by whole streets or towns and rips through others. Our mood may detect a karmic event coming from a mile off - it’s a bit like detecting thundery weather or hot summers: an instinct finely tuned, sometimes listened to, and sometimes ignored. Our better judgement says ‘avoid that event or that person’ even though it is seemingly not possible to do so.

Statistics taken over several years of analysing air travel bookings revealed that records examined after certain fatal disasters showed more last-minute bookings had taken place, as well as last minute cancellations, than for other uninterrupted or successful flights. It would seem that people positively rushed to meet a certain end in life. The entrances and exits to mortal life are subject to strong karmic laws, both from the perspective of time and effect.

Many people who win fortunes on lotteries, or other numerically based games of chance, report changing there usual mathematical systems just prior to the win. And interestingly, so do many who might have won but seemingly chose to miss the opportunity of winning.... or the opportunities that winning would have afforded. So is that losing streak, or swerving away from success, purely for reasons of karma? So much karmic effect is unknowable. Otherwise we would not be able to serve it, expunge it and spin it forward. There is nothing random; if one thing is part of a framework, then all is part of the planning within that framework and nothing can be random for long.

The choices made towards large and definitive changes are not made primarily at a conscious level - although the consciousness listens in and follows orders - but also from a higher self or unconscious level, because at those areas of self we are largely unafraid. That which makes the personality or lower self quiver with fear, leaves the higher levels cold or untouched. And so we are able to live out the script here, on contract as it were to the soul, whether you believe that to be individual or collective.

All of life is karmic, it is the result of everything and anything that has gone before.

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2010-10-25T02:37:00.001-07:00

The Power of Retrograde Venus in Scorpio is often not seen as a whole ... it is thought of as idle or absent but nothing is farther from the truth ...

Both Venus and Mars are alined in in Scorpio now, but Venus went retrograde on October 8th. This in many ways portends a deepening of what has gone before, a 'souping up' of situations or personal matters already simmering - being that the personal planets in Scorpio can hardly avoid bringing intense issues to your attention .... intrigue, embroilment, sometimes the unsavoury face of human desire .... there is nothing that Scorpio won’t delve into, whether you like it or not. So whilst the retrogradation of Venus is underway there is the need for the acceptance of what is usually unacceptable; the understanding of such matters become a foregone conclusion.

We don’t always want to know, accept or understand, but once past a certain point of evolution we opt for it without the volition of our conscious ego, and the process becomes almost one of higher or deeper initiation.
Venus is the utmost in Universal feminine rhythm, a yin vibration, a subtle and seductive power which often goes undetected for periods. Joined by the Positive and strident Mars she has the wilful ally she needs to work most powerfully.
Given that Uranus is closing chapters via its last trail through Pisces, but is also retrograde until mid November, we see sensitive and sometimes sad issues which are somewhat below the radar being forced upwards and onwards.

The darker side of our nature, the even more dreadful darker side of the nature of others, the underbelly of life.
Beyond the platitudes spoken of regarding Venus in scorpio there is a broken or wounded female vibration/pattern waiting to be healed, through re-enactment, emergence into light (another word for acknowledgement) and the awakening of the part of the human psyche where the power lies. It is psychosexual, it is transformative, it is unparalleled in terms of sheer unexplained magic.

Make of it what you may - not perhaps just what you will - and all should be revealed and set to a design by the end of November.

2010-10-20T04:37:00.000-07:00

Mercy/Jupiter & Cameron’s Spending Cuts

Now that transiting Saturn is between his ascendant and his natal sun in the first house Libra he really is between a rock and a hard place! he can’t do right for doing wrong. That maybe the cry of any politician in his position .. he has to do something to save the U.K from bankruptcy and with the Libran first house planets he really will want to ‘please all of the people!’ or at least placate them. But at the moment it will not be possible. Not with the ever vigilant monitoring of Saturn calling for hard-line truthful measures. Although it’s just possible that he could buy some time with the more drastic of the decisions until December. Then Saturn will sit on the natal Sun and demand his focus and some more precision-decision making.

Transiting Mars from his own house of finance had been pulling his natal Moon in Leo at the end of September until the second week of October, so his area of power through social standing, and community issues, has been under intense focus. The heat is off to that aspect now but it would be safe to say that some of his main decisions were made a lot earlier than this week, they were probably in the freezer waiting to be defrosted today ... possibly open to comment and some discussion, but he is a leader who brooks no real argument: once he ‘s made up his mid he will stick to what he feels right in that first logic.

Today Mercury is at the end degree of Libra and in strong aspect to his natal Jupiter in the the area of the chart concerning social power and the populace, mentioned above. He’s at the beginning of making his mark, he has the world’s attention and that of his voters, so there’s bound to be some division of what otherwise would be hard-line or straight down the middle cuts. The cuts may be sectioned in some places and not the deep incisions causing untold bleeding.

He is trying to get a country back on course, that is what he has been voted in to do. He cannot play to an audience if he’s to win. He is too smart to even try, but he is too strategic not to be able to account for every last penny-pinching pound.

2010-07-25T01:50:00.000-07:00

Curtesy of Abraham Hicks Publications

Don't get lost in the diagnosis, the medicine, or in the statistics about what somebody else did about it. If you don't feel good, it's because you're not thinking in a way that allows the Energy to flow. You could just get really, really mad at someone you love and make every muscle in your body stiff. And you would ask,"Why does my body feel this way?" And we say, because you've had a Vibrational tug-of-war going on...Stop looking for anything other than your mental and emotional state of being as answers to why you feel how you feel in your body. It is all Vibrational - no exception! And when you get that, then it doesn't matter what diagnosis has been given to you - it doesn't matter - it's temporary.

2010-06-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

David Cameron Prime Minister. Born 9th October 1966 London.

There is some controversy surrounding David Cameron’s time of birth, and therefore about his correct ascendant. The known birth time, which we believe to be correct from reliable sources, is 5.55 a.m. This would give us 0° degrees - 47 minutes into Libra. With a Mid-heaven of 1° Cancer. Whilst It is true that 0° of any sign and 30° of the sign before are so similar that it’s hard to say which should rule, it’s also true that the forty seven minutes into Libra has to be the final stamp - with the caveat that any such cuspal position should give sway a little to the preceding sign, and therefore the traits of Virgo will have a bearing on this man's potential and outlook.

There are perhaps going to be arguments raging about the exact degree of this ascendant within the astrolgical world, but the writer is of the opinion that there can always be an amount of uncertainty about even the most certain of birth times ... clocks stop, run slow, people misread them, forget what they’ve read, and - let’s face it - in the U.K. unless you’re a Caesarian birth or a twin the time is not usually recorded, other than by a parent or onlooker. However, the seal of approval in Mr Cameron’s case is that the Saturn, Pluto square was forming in exact aspect with his angles at the time of the General Election. Saturn moved onto his ascendant in November 09, beefing up in March 2010 and going onto his ascendant at 0° Libra for the last time in August 2010. This aspect, given the square it forms with the planet Pluto, couldn’t be more pertinent from the point of view of someone wishing to be (or destined to be) Prime Minister of England?

Added to which this has now (June 2010) joined a larger T.Square with Uranus in his seventh house squaring up to the Mid heaven at 1° Cancer....unusual arrangements in partnerhips, cutting through historical ties etc, as we come into spring 2011.

But the most dynamic of times for David Cameron could be August 2010 when Venus and Mars join Saturn around that Libran ascendant. This may well be his first major test when it comes to maintaining unity within diversity: the balance his rising sign so loves and the overall designing of his future within a unified and cohesive cabinet.

His Mid-heaven in equal house terms is 1° Cancer in the tenth. He has no planets in his tenth house, but he has three planets in the eleventh. This will provoke a lot of astrologers to say that the birth time of 5.55 a.m. is wrong based on the wisdom that politicians and other positions of public prominence are usually the territory of the tenth house. But what does give greater evidence as to predilection is the Moon in Leo conjuncting Jupiter in his eleventh house of ambition, association and society at large. This might well explain his motivations, psychologically and personally.

These planets in the eleventh house show that he believes in being well connected, and probably subscribes to the old saying that it’s not what you know but who you know. Eleventh house people are often Socialites (not to be confused with Socialists). Or they are given to working within the larger community or their own community. The Moon/Jupiter combination highlights this value. The eleventh house Moon/Jupiter is driven to use the energy in terms of popularity and must be seen or heard and respected. People with this combination generally must shine and be remembered for what they do well

The ruler of Libra is Venus and David’s natal Venus is in his first house. Was there a more superb beginning for a politician/diplomat! His natal sun in Libra forms a wide conjunction to Venus at 15 ° in his first house - a people person if ever there was one! Maybe a philosopher and possibly a ‘smoothie’ ... but as neither the Sun nor Venus make any particular or pertinent aspect to other natal planets we cannot tell which way they might be used until transits give us a clue as they move through. Time, as they say, will tell.

If we take the square Mercury makes from Scorpio second house to the natal Moon in the eleventh we see a more serious flavour to the personality of that Moon in Leo, in the ability to strategize and raise the game to a more intense level from the often superficial side of both Leo and Libra. This guy is very much Leo/Libra in overall vibrational approach and it will show in his ability to hold the stage, make impact on an audience and be tireless in his public appearance or performance. It’s the energy of high profile, extrovert talent. This conjunction gives the ability to be in the public eye and hold his own in the world amid many different types of people and situations.

On a different note, the natal Pluto/Uranus conjunction in Virgo twelfth house gives rise to power struggles behind the scenes or behind closed doors. Unaspected natally, it more than ever signifies real ‘corridors of power’ stuff. It will be interesting to observe what might happen when transiting Saturn meets his natal sun at 15° Libra in December 2010, March 2011 and finally September 2011. A three point turn forced by unequivocal situations perhaps! Or the three stages of more definitive position within what must be a shaky dual arrangement at times! Will this be a deepening of his responsibilities, a widening of his role? Giving him a better hold on matters? Or will it be an erosion of his confidence by stronger situations and characters. Libra sun is well known for often not being strong in its own convictions, but for being an exemplary light when part of a group. It is said that there is always betrayal or treachery associated with the vibration of Libra, either given or received or both. Think of Marageret Thatcher, another Libran sun, and her last weeks in office.

The Cameron story is set to unfold as Uranus gets a grip on Aries in his seventh house, the house of significant others and partnership arrangements. The planet is not finally in its own power yet, but March next year (2011) changes all that when it enters Aries and goes straightforward. The current Saturn, Pluto, Uranus T.Square will be finished - havin done its work - but the Uranian energies will still be enough to wobble the Cameron collective if things don’t go his way. In September the planet Uranus will retrograde and back up to his natal Saturn in the sixth house - the house of loyalty, vocation, duty and service.......

About that Saturn in the 6th Pisces .... The Saturn placing here is a singleton and is possibly the weak spot or blind spot of his whole chart. Famous for rendering to us a kind of karmic powerlessness in the face of overwhelming circumstances. And if we then take the natal Neptune in the second house of business and self earned money in sharp aspect to Mars eleventh we see possible a strain on finances in lifestyle or a loss of money or position through excesses of one kind or another. It is wide square but it still applies.

Saturn sixth is about work, health, burdens and everyday schedule. His natal Saturn is in opposition to natal Uranus twelfth: on the one hand this man is an open book and on the other he is a volume of surprises. Has he the integrity to lead? Probably! But the Neptune/Mars square leading from Leo and pulling on Scorpio second house says there can be a fair amount of dissembling or disingenuous behaviour. Of course, there will be the view that this is not only foregivable but necessary in modern politics and despite the hype around cleaning up and being 'above susupicion' only the naive believe that a job at that level can be undertaken without some sort of strong ego and the ability to be expert in the art of ducking and diving - in this day and age of manipulation, hype and heightened communication. it shuld be borne in mind, while giving a new era and a new arrangement a fighting good chance, that there is no such thing as a perfect vessel.

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2010-06-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

TAROT AT IT’S BEST & MOST REVEALING

Way back in history (and there are numerous arguments about first dates) the reason for the creation of the tarot was to preserve important human insight in the times when there was only one source of superior wisdom, the Church. Free will in matters of spirituality and belief through to action was not endorsed. Therefore the tarot’s arcane wisdom was always obscure, camouflaged as mere card games. The result is that there are two meanings to every card: an obvious and outer meaning and one that must be searched for.

For example a particular tarot card in one position within a spread does not have the same implication as the same tarot card in a different position in the same spread.

More than that, each arcanum or card will evoke various hidden meanings to different tarot analysts. To say you can teach people to read tarot in a seven day course is like saying you can invite people to do a trolley dash round a supermarket and then teach them to become a master chef with any and all the ingredients. It’s possible but not reliable. The basics of tarot can be taught, but then there must follow a period of time for the unfolding of an innate source of knowledge on each arcanum. To expand on this ... the querant will draw a card, not just explicit of their situation but explicit of what the reader can interpret within that situation. The need for the reader to understand what they see is an obvious requirement, but they also have to be able to aline with the feel of the problem in a way which is unique to them in order to be able to pull off the business of seeing beyond the norm. Work which sets analysts apart from hobbyists. For this reason the querant or the client must be attuned with a rhythm or a frequency or a vibration (call it whatever you will) which passes also through the reader. Tarot analysis is an interpretation service. The words must vibrate with the reader and the querant alike.

Each card suggests an action as well as a situation. The karma and the drama, or the cause and the applied effect. The card must be saying something to the reader about what that card means in that situation NOT what the reader ‘thinks’ of the whole issue, that is entirely different. The reader is entitled to an opinion but it must be secondary to what the cards suggest, or the result is the projection from the reader’s unresolved issues onto the client. Any reading should be based on what the reader sees/feels through that particular content inherent within the card or cards. Or it is not an accurate and impartial reading.

The cards assume very different guises and angles when in sequence to each other than when they stand alone. This is why the tarot is very powerful in practise. It is capable of speaking and revealing facets and angles in accordance with whom is asking and who is looking. It is a two way process which results in a three way dialogue concerning the archetypes, the querant and the tarot analyst.

People may go to different readers with the same question, and although usually all the readers describe the situation with accuracy, they may not agree on what is happening currently and what is likely to be the best potential. This is because the future is not set and the possibilities are open-ended. The tarot is described often as a way of fortune telling but as there is, strictly speaking, no set future it is an inaccuracy which does the tarot a disservice. The tarot is an adjunct to understanding, it is a key to a realm which is not of the earth plane but still pertains to the earth plane. Therefore, it can only compliment what is known and what is possible. For example one person will draw a different card to a second person asking about a similar situation, because their lives and environments and potential to solution are very different as individuals.

The tarot deck will continue to be recreated by people with artistic gift and a need to express what they see as the inner or esoteric meaning to the cards. It is really within the way each card is depicted by an illustrator which gives the inner meaning to what they feel and this will reflect in the choice of pack that a reader chooses to use. There are some packs by some illustrators that speak to you and some packs that don’t. It is not that you cannot read from the ones that don’t - it is that you cannot read as deeply as you can from a pack that you personally resonate with.

The tarot will outlive all its critics and its experts and go on into other centuries, and for that reason people will feel the need to depict and describe their own pictorial images. But the meanings will remain and its power will sustain because what is invested in it is human learning and discovery and although the wisdom widens it doesn’t, at the universal level, change.

Cartouche @ http://www.tarot-online.net

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2010-05-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

Change of U.K. Government Mirrors the Saturn/Pluto Hard Square ...

How appropriate to the current Saturn/Pluto square is the outcome of the new U.K. Coalition Government formed yesterday (11th May)!! ... Conservative Prime Minister (Pluto/Capricorn) with a Liberal Democrat deputy (Saturn/libra).

Be interesting to see how the Uranus/Jupiter entrance onto the scene effects things in June and July, stretching and spicing up a presently passive T Square.

Could it mean bold new measures? Or could there be pressing issues of National importance which neither Cameron or Clegg have as yet envisaged needing urgent attention, causing them to re-think some of their agreed long-term proposals? The disruptive influence of Uranus never guarantees anything, except surprises.

Although Uranus is already technically forming part of the T square it isn’t pressing any advantages until it breaks free from Pisces. Especially with Saturn presently retrograde (it goes direct at the end of May).

Could be storms in tea cups at nought degrees Aries, but may still cause some reverberations with the often dramatic and display-loving Jupiter keeping company....

6th to the 8th June could call it, with the Moon entering Aries and instigating both Jupiter/Uranus, whilst Mars glides into the exacting sign of Virgo.....

We wish them well.

see our fuller article on Uranus in Aries and what it means to individual charts...

2010-03-19T06:11:00.001-07:00

“For Crying Out Loud ... ” a random explosion of inner mystery ...

Why do we cry when we’re overwhelmed? And especially at seasonal anniversaries! Crying isn’t the prerogative of any one sort of person of any one sex or age in any particular given situation or in the grip of any specific emotion. It’s a random explosion of inner depth and mystery to the individual.

Why do we sometimes cry when we think of the past, even though in that past we did not cry and seemed to have those same things reasonably in hand? Why then do we suddenly have that horrible feeling - part way between nausea and anguish? Maybe it’s because the past was and is a living breathing space, a palpable piece of the matrix to which part of our dynamic in the sense of our subtle bodies or inner spaces are still attached. Like a webbing of tautened and sensitive strings, the past often still holds us in a dynamic. There is a continuity of consciousness which lives and vibrates and plays us like instruments!. And why we often feel the past as present reality. Because no reality once experienced can ever be lost - diminished perhaps, but never erased. So crying dilutes and erases the connection, and depending on how deeply the pattern is encoded in our cellular memory the weeping and releasing of emotion will vary in occurrence and duration. Clinicians of all varieties know how good it is for the system and mechanics of body and mind. Science doesn't understand it at all.

It is natural to think of the past. The past is why, how and who we are. We cannot dismiss it, we can only move on from it and look back now and then and be realistic and honest about what we feel. Crying is a release of patterns in the emotional/vibrational body interlinking with the physical. It is healthy, it is indispensable to our empathetic development, it is necessary to the ongoing whole, and clinically to the cleansing of the lymphatic system. Essentially we have three sets of feelings - in tune with what we see as past, present and future. So we feel something, and then with reflection we feel it again only a little differently, and then again we feel it maybe for the last time and we know the truth of it. Life is multidimensional and we cannot feel everything there is to feel about any situation as we go through it. We have to revisit and digest it at several levels of sentience.

Life is not simply a flat tableau of events, but an unfolding of ideas attuned to the emotional framework of individual minds. We feel and we resonate emotion in a sensory capacity as well as a demonstrative one, and then we know we are in existence as part of the whole.
Crying is as fundamental to the unity or the wholeness of mind. body spirit as the air we breathe and the water we drink. It’s part of our support system or our survival equipment. And we often enjoy it; like sneezing it has the universal and mind-blowing quality of lightening the load.

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2010-02-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

The Jupiter in Pisces effect starts January ..... the message in the first half of 2010 is very clear ... stay grounded and practical,

Jupiter is set to make a quick and full transit of Pisces from January to June 2010 before it enters Aries in early June. The planet will retrograde in June and then go direct again to re-enter Pisces in September until the following mid January 2011. But the message in the first half of 2010 is very clear ... stay grounded and practical about plans for the next year, or risk seeing hopes and half built certainties disappear into a parallel universe of some kind in the autumn of 2010 when they may tend to disappear without substance or warning and prove to be a waste of time.

With Saturn in first deconate libra and Jupiter travelling through pisces it is necessary to stay focused and practical. And ... try not to get rebellious in June when someone or something reminds you of commons sense and the fuller cost of the picture. Don’t just go it on your own until you’ve seen what’s really involved - which could be by the following year.

Whatever your birth chart, the extra-Saturnine planets effect us all, that’s why they are called ‘generational’ planets; they portray a myth or a storyline, and although the devil is in the detail and those will vary immensely depending on your circumstances, there will be something in the Jupiter energy that applies to your life and events.

More planetary profiles further on in blog ... and more to come.

2010-02-14T04:25:00.000-08:00

VALENTINE’S DAY THIS YEAR UNDER PISCES ... a persuasive & mystical power .... what did you create?

Love it when a plan comes together! and nothing does it better than the astrology of our solar system!

For Valentine’s Day the presence of Jupiter and Venus so close in pisces literally oozes the powers of desire, love, persuasion and wild passionate notions. It gives a surreal (or unreal) flavour to whatever the day has to hold. ... a usually curt brush with someone you’re indifferent to can feel like an interesting discovery in human dynamics. The nostalgia of the overpowering atmosphere the day brings makes some rush to the phone, computer or whatever and contact people (lovers probably) who they fell out with years ago.... and so on.

But what and who is Pisces when it’s receiving visitors? It’s the most sensitive and instinctive of the zodiac vibrations where human feelings, needs and empathy are concerned. But the piscean influence is nebulous, it rules the invisible, the hidden and the depth of the sea. The latter is symbolic of our emotional psyche within the unconscious.

The depth that pisces can evoke is legendary, especially when touched by the two 'benefics', Jupiter and Venus. At first there is the floaty and escapist angle to whatever the imagination engages, and then the more passionately enduring (not to be shifted). And finally, the possibly painfully exploratory and often heart-wrenching aftermath which takes a long time to erase from the memory (memory and unconscious being one and the same).

So if you went out Saturday/Sunday 13/14th especially to be escorted, paired off or loved up, just because the Valentine’s Day thing (much like Christmas and New Year) is too much to bear on your own, then you may have bitten off more than you can chew. And this may mean anything from someone who doesn’t leave you alone (even after the novelty has worn off) to someone who just disappears in the night from whence they came! Neptune ruled pisces is nebulous and often covertly sneaky.

If you’ve been with someone for twenty year or more and simply wanted to experience a rekindling of young and foolish, what has this brought up as an extra?

That which is born of the moment has the quality and time of that moment. To quote C.G. Jung. And the pisces flavour this month, especially on a hallowed day like Val’s Day (celebrated in our mass consciousness for aeons) carries the weight to heal, transport or disillusion.

The Jupiter effect in pisces is the messenger/manager here and makes possible the greatest access points with the invisible doors included - through which things escape again unnoticed or move to an unexpected dimension previously unlooked for. Valentine’s Day in the pisces vibration is a force in time to be reckoned with. But It is what you do with it, or how you embrace it that seals the deal.

More about Jupiter in pisces in ealier blogs.

2010-02-09T02:40:00.002-08:00

Personal Energy & Attitude via Saturn-libra & Jupiter-pisces

Strengthen your ideals and acquire unswerving focus - Saturn is in libra and Jupiter is in pisces, so this is what the combined energy will demand. You will have partly succeeded (or been thrown off track) by the time June arrives. And then Jupiter in aries will begin either take you out on a limb and/or produce the support and backing to help you step independently ahead. Maybe both. But you'll need to sort out which of these effects is which, and the main clue is that the backing should be apparent at least in outline if not in full detail between June and next the end of August.

Prepare now by knowing where the power deficits lie or perhaps the snags that are not within your main control; take care of business, mend sails, fix things and have the belief and the conviction that the Jupiter in pisces effect will require, while Saturn observes from the tolerant vibration of libra. Dream the dream but tend the hearth and do the chores......

There are also two other articles blogged: Saturn in Libra & Jupiter in Pisces

2010-01-31T04:52:00.000-08:00

PLUTO-CAPRICORN/SATURN-LIBRA .... 'an iron hand in a velvet glove!'

Pluto is the planet of regeneration and reform. Saturn is the planet of judgement and consolidation. Saturn in libra is now squaring Pluto in capricorn (in both strong and weak degrees) until about the end of October this year - the struggle between authority and liberalism is subtle, because it involves all sort of situations in all sorts of ways and has various meanings in the lives of individuals and groups alike, all over the place. It can take the form of tyranny, covert to begin with (an iron hand in a velvet glove!) which gradually equates a more obvious form of oppression. Or it can mean that there is an unfair bias towards ability, status or favour within the group, family, coupling, business or whatever other association you care to think of.

Pluto has to be strongly backed by other astrological factors before it becomes the total heavy or the bully; it's general effect is far to insidious and intricate to simply take on one guise. The Pluto effect in any chart is where there is obsessive or intense focus or love of power. But power is not always negative, it can generate tremendous energy which benefits many in different ways. It goes into abuse where it is not challenged or understood. Leaders and facilitators and people carrying immense responsibility for others will show Pluto strongly in their natal charts. So Pluto in relation to Saturn (and more especially to Saturn in libra) is obliged to soften or disguise it's heavier handed approach.

When the Saturn/Pluto aspect kicks in you will see the worst and best of these things, depending on where you are and who you are with. What you will firstly see is an extenuating circumstance rather than an issue in which it is necessary to take sides. You may feel it as a family concern, or an ad hoc situation which you stumble into accidentally. Or you may look at the current political climate in some places and see bias of power and blatant denial of common sense. But if you think generally of concerns where the percentage or the price is too high, or where the effort outweighs the reward but the reward is more like necessity you will begin to see where this influence is taking place. Pluto is an archetype which carries immense influence, and therefore seeps into roles which we as humans play. The same with Saturn.

Saturn in libra is the democrat and Pluto in Capricron is the absolute Chief of Staff. There is no arguing with Pluto in some of it's phases; it's the ultimate say, the final cut, the executioner.

Whilst Saturn strives to bring a more placid judgement or balance through libra, the judgement is still obligatory. Situations of democratic, beaurocratic or hierarchic basis must be experienced and and brought to awareness. Even if the deliberation is long-winded. But it's worth remembering that some of these resolutions called down by the Pluto/Saturn influence will then be irreversible.

Be aware most of all of the situations in your own life and environment where there is an ongoing and repetitive pattern of supply and demand, or take without give. Where there is misplaced onus or burden. A labour of love become a chore of resentment. An old arrangement turned into a harrowing ritual. That's the Saturn/Pluto aspect bringing your attention to unfairness which can eventually become the norm or the untouchable. These situations are liable to go down in tablets of stone unless the struggle for rebalance and redress is recognised and entered into. Whether they are little or large, whether they are personal or public. Don't be daunted or overwhelmed by lengthy or drawn out procedure. It doesn't have to be all out war; it can be quiet and constant vigilance within relentless position that wins the day.

Libra loves compromise and Capricorn loves endurance.

See also our article further on in the blog 'Saturn in Libra'

2010-01-06T04:45:00.000-08:00

Mercury & Mars Retrograde in Capricorn & Leo ...........

Mercury and Mars are both in retrograde motion. Mercury is in capricorn and Mars is in Leo. These two personal planets are responsible for much movement - or lack of it - and therefore expect little forward development until at least Mercury is direct again on the 15th of January. (Mars doesn’t go direct until March).

Mars is responsible for the driving force of human life, both as an internal energy and an external force. And Mercury for the movement and connection of issues at a very basic level. So with the heat of Mars now down to a struggling flame and the alacrity of movement missing in Mercury we can expect to feel like tortoises, as we labour through weather conditions and other obstacles, either directly or indirectly an offshoot of it. Nothing happens for just one reason, and the reason for the retrograde motion of these two planets is probably to store up energy and focus for a later date, and to cause a lull in the plans of individuals and of larger situations. Holding off and staying put or restraint with intent to restructure or rethink.

Even when Mercury goes direct on the 15th things still have to catch up to where they were before they slowed. So think back to your own stuff around the 9th December and then think the beginning of February before things are looking more ‘black and white’ (very Capricornian) and gaining momentum before setting off into the wider circles of communication and connection.

Retrogrades cause pauses or undisclosed openings to alternative routes, ways and means. Use them and don’t waste what they offer.

2009-11-25T05:54:00.000-08:00

SATURN IN LIBRA - the 'form' may easily overtake the purpose ...

Although Saturn through Virgo these last two years has brought accountability in the harshest of ways for many, it has released others in the most surprising of manner from heavy work load or enduring burdens of seemingly unrelenting duration. We have long known that Saturn is the judge, and not just the teacher, as some schools of thought have it. And now that Saturn is due to enter libra in the autumn there will be a lightening of previously doomy or censorious atmospheres - but is this because we have got used to the climate and are immune to it now , or is it because we have learned what to ignore and what to give up? It might be better to find out which, or the chances of certain areas of our lives becoming too much the province of the interference of others is highly likely.

Saturn is exalted in Libra, which means it shows at its most lenient. But again, that is merely a deceptive light. Because there is a pause whilst we are allowed to make mistakes regarding our views and attitudes following the bleakest of purges nationally, collectively and individually over the past couple of years it may lead to the most apathetic bouts of do-nothing cynicism the west has seen in a long time.

Astrology works collectively as well as individually. The vehicle is moving but the occupants all have their own plans and views on what they want to do, where they want to go. What we do and think in our own life is contributing to the whole but the whole can overwhelm us if we don’t take account of where we fit in. Fitting in is a very libran quality.....

Fitting in and aligning with the stream of consciousness we call life is the trick we all have to learn. Libra is liberal, of course, but also very sensitive to discord; it loves conformity. Therefore democracy fights for its life in the real sense of the word, and to be better understood. Conformity taken to an uncertain extreme degree robs people of the ability to act and think for themselves. The ‘form’ takes over and the design and its appearance is everything.

But who is designing our life? The religionists will say it is God. The conspiracy theorists will say it’s the Illuminati and the economists will say it's the banks. But maybe in actual fact the design is in our imagination, and we can therefore paint bold and use whatever shapes we wish. The ‘form’ libra requires is the one that balances your life, the people around you who matter to you most and what you value most. Don’t be fooled by the fads of the philosophical and media obsessed jungle. You are in charge to a greater extent than you think.

2009-10-16T03:25:00.000-07:00

Mars in leo Effect

October is the time for some big about turns in most affairs, individual and collective. As Saturn moves from virgo and enters libra for a two year span, Mars also enters leo for a long haul out to next June. The combined effect of these two movements is a smoothness at best, or an apathy which passes for ease at worst.

The effects of Mars are always dynamic as this is the planet of drive and innovation. Given the nature of both libra and leo the need for presentation and gloss is ever present (the zodiac vibrations always incline to their extremes in the wider sense). So the shams, the scams and the downright impractical hover in the wings in the last three months of this year ready to make an appearance in whatever sector of your life is given to leo in your natal chart. This will mean the heart of matters, the exalted, the ruling, the celebrated and the powerful. Not necessarily in that order.

By Christmas Mars will have done its opening best, or worst, as the case may be, and shown what is desirable and what is most welcoming. Whilst Saturn through libra stands back after its exertions of recent times in virgo, and says ‘Don’t look at me, I’m through highlighting the pitfalls for you, if you haven’t learned in the last 18 months then you deserve all you get!’

Okay, so Saturn doesn’t actually speak, it uses archetypes instead. So in libra think democratic representatives, governing bodies, facilitators, team leaders, of all varieties in all sorts of places. As Pluto then firmly squares Saturn from capricorn the likelihood is that in smaller or greater ways the right people are in the right place by hard experience over the last two years or they are not.

By January 2010 the gaffs and gaps illuminated by the last three months of this year are ripe for appraisal and amendment and need to be addressed without frill by March 2010. Mars then begins another sojourn through leo, this time surpassing the hitches and glitches of this November and December and sailing right to next May, taking no prisoners, and going straight to where you now think you want to go - and this by mid June! That is providing the great democratic revolution of Saturn in conflict with Pluto has given you the right papers, the go ahead and the balls to stand up to some of the opposing forces taking the form of petty officials and/or bigwigs with clout. This proviso in place, then and only then do you pass through.

However, in the heart sense (the true nature of leo’s essence) the bravest of all sorts and the keenest in all types of motive progress forward many steps from where they were, because they can not help but do so. They jump or they are pushed.

The Universe acts in mysterious of ways (rather like the power about whom nought can be said) and not all prosperity is obviously quantifiable by accountancy and banking. And not all advancement is measurable by credit rating or qualification. Or in fact by anything but the heart of whoever is concerned . The balancing of the heart chakra is the only mechanism to sustained success. So go for it! But remember it can’t be substituted, it either is or it isn’t. You either feel it or you fake it. And the difference is everything to long term result.

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2009-09-30T03:19:00.001-07:00

Rising Sign & Sun Sign Effects

A lot of people wonder about the effects of a sign on the ascendant and the effects of the sun sign in the same sign. For example: the effects of an ascendant in gemini as opposed to the sun in gemini.

The ascendant or rising sign is coming to the fore or developing the energies of the individual to its nature and type. Put another way, the sign on the ascendant is aspiring to be what the sun sign already is. So a taurus ascendant has in embryo the traits of taurus, whereas the sun taurus has them fully developed within the character.

The ascendant is a very powerful rhythm. More so because it is at work unconsciously. It is more covert, where the sun is overt, and it becomes more powerful or obvious with the maturity of the individual. The sun is extant and rests on its laurels, so to speak, whereas the rising sign resonates more subtly, slowly and profoundly with the growth and deepening maturity of the individual. It shows the style in which we approach life. It reveals the the soul's purpose for incarnation. It resonates to the Universal energies more strongly than any other point in the chart (it is a point of light or access) and it shapes patterns which result in life scenarios and pull us from our comfort zones into relatively new horizons (new from an earthly perspective) and situations that push us to evolvement via experience.

Where the sun and the ascendant fall in the same sign there is usually a very strong impact from that particular zodiac vibration onto the psyche and often something left unfinished or pressing (from former lifetimes) which coerce the individual into achievements or developments. In modern astrology we do not like to think of predestination or fate, but often the inclination within the human being is so strong to do something or be somewhere that it amounts almost to fate in that the urge is undeniable and irresistible and must be brought into manifestation or to fruition.

The ascendant and the sun sign are actually working together to achieve a blend or a balance. For example, a gemini sun person (with natural powers of versatility) possessing a capricorn ascendant will work to put down firmer values or establish that versatility to something lasting or practical; career, family, business, or just the way in which they express a passion or strong absorption. A sagittarian sun with an aries ascendant may be prompted to use distinguishing talent or knowledge in a braver or more innovative way, either for self development or more worldly campaigns. These are only two examples. There are obviously many more possible permutations of ascendant/sun sign effects.

The ascendant is extremely important in a birth chart. It is taken from the time of day in which the person was born rather than (in the the case of the sun sign) the day of the year. And people who don’t know their birth time will usually be asked to wait until the astrologer has done a rectification process or has dowsed to find out the time before a chart is erected. Although sometimes a solar chart may be raised - this is a chart based on the noon day planets only, using the sun as a starting point for the first house instead of an ascendant. The rising sign is a very powerful tool, but the sun sign is the heritage from which it will take its lead. However, the ascendant may be weaker in some charts and stronger in others, depending on aspects to other planets.

2009-08-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

Experience of life involves absurdity & hilarity! Enjoy your own stage and forget the judgement!

So much of what we experience - especially when we look back - is totally ridiculous, blood curdlingly embarrassing and downright daft. Theatre of the absurd or comic farce. The trick of the light here is that when we are going through these situations in some depth, we may even see them as radically serious or crucial to survival. And maybe at some level they are.

Let’s be plain, we’re not speaking now of things which may be tragic and genuine crises - like illness or accident where normal behaviour is not on the agenda. We’re speaking of lesser unforgettable scenarios ... going out on a limb for misguided causes or perpetuating scenes involving misunderstanding. Things which at the time seem to suck us in and continue against all the odds to grow and take us with them.

We look back at ourselves and we relate funny stories for the entertainment of others, and there is often a touch of embarrassment, no matter how much the story is appreciated, or how hilarious it is, because seen through the lens of our greater wisdom onto our more bizarre behaviour we can’t imagine allowing ourselves to be such stooges or such saps for the extraneous doings of the world and its brother. But if we can’t ‘eventually’ laugh at ourselves (and we do stress the word eventually rather than immediately) then we’re in trouble. Some of the stuff is neither here nor there, trivial and hardly worthy of second thought as it flits through the memory, but some of it isn’t and we have trouble gauging whether it was a tragedy or a comedy, and seeing as both are symbiotically interwoven we may never reach a conclusion. These things stays with us for the rest of our lives, and unless we get a perspective on them they bother us.

One of the more extreme examples of this is illustrated here by someone who relates the story of a set of events happening shortly after she entered the adult working world as a teenager in the mid 1960’s......

This episode in her young life involved being hooked into a phone conspiracy during office hours and agreeing to act as a liaison between her then best friend and one of her own bosses (a partner in the small business where she was employed). All because the best friend and the one boss had a telephone affair going and rarely met in person (her best friend was also sixteen and hiding the fact). This resulted finally in the teller of the story being sacked by her other meddling boss who was resentful of his partner’s peccadillo, kept out of the loop of what was truly happening and felt the situation to be threatening to his business and his political aspirations.

The whole fiasco had its roots quite innocently in the best friend’s quest to bring spontaneous fun to a man for whom she held an illogical attraction, and both girls believed the cause of his depression and psychological ruin lay with his controlling and bullying business partner, who then became the butt of several phone pranks and a string of practical jokes (which he naturally found unfunny). This, of course, was after the best friend took offence at his scathing verbal attacks whenever he intercepted the romantic phone trysts in the domineering manner he felt was his right somehow with his weaker business partner.

All hell broke loose and what started out as juvenile experimentation and good fun grew into a melodrama of sinister proportions with quite detrimental consequences, as the other boss went to ridiculous lengths, embroiling everyone he could think of to aid his solving of a mystery that essentially was not his concern (if you disregard what he called the misuse of his phone lines). These lengths included enormous expense employing private investigators, approaching the girls’ parents and threatening both girls with criminal proceedings. Exploding the situation out of all proportion. (small wonder he was inclined to politics).

Screen writers may be paid to elaborate realistically such events, and it is why novels and films exist. We accept that life reflects art just as much as art reflects life. But it is only when the girl in the story (now in middle age) looks back that she sees it was both absurd and mad - not just the happenings but the drastic results. It might all have been sorted out happily, as in a farce by Moliere or someone. And it doesn’t matter that it was perpetuated mostly by adults while she was still virtually a child. It happened. She learned from it, even if the price was high.

There is a saying: if you don’t eat life it eats you. Rarely do we know what we will incur when we decide to go into the outside world, whether it’s a stroll in the park or a blind date or an excursion into new territory. We become the pawns of so-called fate, and hopefully our free will and instinct are enough to inure us from the worst side of this. We try to protect ourselves from the upsetting unknown, yet we watch films and drama for stimulus of one kind and another involving other people’s cliff-hanging circumstances or their cutting edge dilemmas.

So what did our ancestors do before there was t.v. and radio (and heaven forfend, the invention of the internet?) and they couldn’t get to a theatre!! And what if they weren’t allowed to read books or could not afford books ... Try to imagine it! A world without escapism. The thought of it is awful. How bleak is life without human folly? anyone’s folly will do! As long as it’s not our own!

With hindsight, on reflection and in retrospect, it very often is our own. But we not only survived it, we triumphed and lived to tell the tale. We grow older and matured and more seasoned on the rich tapestry of life, together with the more harrowing side of absurdity, disconcertion and gob-smacking stupidity. It’s what it is to be humanly involved in the world and its stage.

It was Jean Paul Sarte who said ‘life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think!’

2009-08-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson’s chart at the time of his death ....

Born 29th August 1958. 11.53 p.m. Gary. Indiannapolis. (16 degrees Gemini Rising. 22 degrees Aquarius Mid-heaven)

For all the astrologically minded and for anyone interested in Michael Jackson’s death and the planetary aspects surrounding it.....

Transiting Mercury in Michael's chart was at 14 degrees gemini in the 12th house (by equal house system) just behind his 16 degree ascendant in gemini: hidden factors and motivators.

Mercury squared transiting Saturn in virgo and Saturn was cuspal between his 3rd and 4th house. (Mercury rules physicians, friends and the mind - among other things and Saturn rules the body.)The cusp between the third and fourth is the line between the outer environment and the inner private domain, both literally and in the metaphorical sense.

Mercury in the 12th house suggests the possibility of unexpected callers or messengers, and - because of the gemini factor -persons in pairs. Mercury is an instigator and rules both the issue and the bearer of any issue. The issue being unknowable or unknown and Mercury lying as it did behind the ascendant. There was perhaps a two day window between the 24th and 26th of June when these unclear events could take place.

Transiting Venus and transiting Mars were also in his 12th house, in taurus, so the possibility of male and female conspirators is not out of the equation. The 12th house is about secrets, classified information and things beyond normal control. Low profile activity or subversive activity is given strong foundation by both the nature of the 12th house and Saturn entering the 4th.

Since February 2008 transiting Neptune has been hovering on his Mid Heaven at 22 degrees of aquarius in his 9th house (finance and legality) and often in square to his natal Mars in the 12th. This is suggestive of subversive, undermining or undue influence affecting his estate or assets.

Added to which on the day of the 25th transiting Uranus was conjunct his natal moon in the 10th (surprises from the outer world) and transiting Moon was conjunct his natal Uranus in the 2nd (money and possessions). A double whammy, displaying the possibility of the sudden appearance of people with intent of theft, embezzlement or extortion.

Astrologically speaking, It is doubtful that Michael Jackson’s death was straightforward, natural or clear of nefarious circumstances.

2009-07-31T04:04:00.000-07:00

Living & Dying.

Metaphysics advocates the survival of energy in a wider sense, and includes topics such as reincarnation and the survival of the human spirit. But so do other branches of science and physics nowadays, and for that matter a lot of other people who prefer not to wear name tags. Does this collective slant or silent witness automatically address the dilemma of suicide or assisted suicide? Maybe not, because it is an entirely personal decision and the choice of those involved. Metaphysics looks at the condition of the human spirit within the human body. In a religious sense, it is only the Spiritualist Organisations, and maybe the Buddhists, who go beyond the confines of material existence and actually examine the potential connection between the ‘here and there’.

With the onset in recent years of extreme medical intervention into fields undreamt of and unheard of a hundred years ago there is a growing case for people wanting to risk the dimension ‘beyond the veil’ as a preference to living within the perimeters of what some (no doubt) extremely well meaning physicians have decided is a good enough quality of life.

Where are the guidelines though? where are the no-go zones to say what is good medicine and what is counter-productive tampering? Perhaps there are none! perhaps that is a question best left to the patient (if they are conscious ) and only the patient. And what of the people who are unconscious with no-one to speak for them? This is surely where the wisest of the medical world need to be consulted, not just the cleverest and those with egos to prove or papers to publish.

Does modern medicine goes too far in its absolute insistence on life here at any price! The victory of the Diane Purdey case is a victory for the right of the individual over one of the most important acts of life, the act of passing from mortality in the way best suited to their state and condition, and the supremacy of intelligent free will over doctrine.

Everyone must have a right to die with dignity because that is the right of control over their own physical body. Their spirit is another matter and one which exceeds this argument. Some people may actually prefer the oblivion of death - they do not need a belief either religious or metaphysical in spiritual survival to uphold that, and whether or not people believe in life hereafter is an issue for them. It is the church who outlawed suicide in any form, of course, so it is the church now who will oppose it, because unlike medical science they do not gallop ahead, or indeed move on very much at all. Most churches openly eschew the idea of any sort of tampering with the area beyond death, if you exclude euphemistic references to heaven, squeamish as they are about the limitation on total proof. But the right to die should not be a theological or even a moral argument. It is a civil, psychological and humanitarian matter.

Some people are living with the most hideous suffering . And to use a tired old cliché, we wouldn’t do that to an animal! (no, we often do worse, but that is yet another argument). It is all very well for zealous medics to pioneer their knowledgeable discoveries, and those of pharmaceutical manufacturers, and to use their brilliant expertise and cleverness without exercising wisdom - because that is what healing is; it is not merely technical and physical efficiency, it is something more and requires the co-operation and the trust of the patient.

Medical intervention possibly has gone too far, and when we have have a great percentage of society in some kind of acute but just about bearable torment (and torment is mental and emotional as well as physical) then it’s time for some ‘wise’ person to say ‘enough’.

There is just no denying, especially to anyone who has witnessed it, that in the case of ongoing and terminal illness it gets to a stage of not being afraid to die but of being afraid to live.

2009-07-13T02:50:00.000-07:00

The difference between Astrology & Mediumship

Astrology, despite being centred in the wider universe, is different in principle and practice to mediumship. And many people confuse the two. Essentially, astrology deals with the physical universe whilst mediumship deals with the non-physical. Many astrologers are psychic and they may also be mediums, and many mediums may also be astrologers - practitioners might blend or use both - but the application of the two things come from separate angles using different rules. Occasionally astrologers and mediums arrive at similar conclusions or insights, from the source of information known as the Akashic Records. Possibly both astrologers and mediums will pass through this when focusing their mind or higher mental on some specific with the intention of ‘knowing’.

The Akashic is perhaps the epicentre of transferring information from the unknown into the known. But where mediums will give credence for what they know to beings or guides, astrologers use calculations and planetary definitions from mathematical tables to reach their main conclusions. Each branch of metaphysics must respect another's field of work, but the access points to higher knowledge or information should be better understood as far as theory goes The main purpose of mediumship is to manifest evidence of the existence of life continued beyond the physical plane, and the purpose of astrology is to understand the energies of the solar system influencing life on the physical plane.

Whilst it is true that within the esoteric practises it’s the singer not the song, most astrologers will be able to follow a collective score,so to speak (even if they disagree about interpretation). While mediums are not subject to that restraint, and may individually differ in what or who they channel on any one matter or subject. They can be autonomously separate within the source of knowledge or the hierarchy of what or who is seeking expression through them. The British Astrological Psychic Society (B.A.P.S.) was formed more than thirty years ago to progress astrological study beyond the dogma deterring intuitive astrological work and insisting on very regimented mathematical astrology. Most astrologers will readily agree that it has happened successfully. But the distinction between mediumship and astrology remains a very real one.

Zodiac sign overviews for summer @ http://www.perceptivity.co.uk

2009-07-08T04:49:00.000-07:00

Legends & Icons - Indispensible to Society

Michael Jackson was a huge talent and he deserved the fuss and the clamour he received; besides being a great entertainer he seemed - despite his decriers and his critics - to be a nice human being. But the bigger our world population grows and the more we lose spiritual and cultural roots the more we need to have legendary people and more than that, legendary ceremonies when they depart. This takes nothing from the MJ’s of our world and what they did, it says more about our appreciation of people who really stand out, who dare to take the time to be uniquely talented and different. (And yes often it is a question of taking the time and the effort to polish and practise end become extraordinary).

The iconoclastic need in society is geared towards deity, whether it be mortal or not. We want gods and god-like figures, and maybe those becoming godlike find it harder and harder to take the strain. Look at the list of the hugely talented in and out of show business who have died untimely deaths (if there is any such thing). To live is one thing but to live not fearing our own potential greatness is another. When there is a death of someone who brought light and life to others there is reason to grieve - whether we knew them personally or not, because often we can’t be bothered to do that for ourselves. That is what the arts do for us in all their forms, especially the performing arts - they close gaps and span Continents, as was pointed out by erudite speakers in Jackson's memorial service.

We need the Michael Jacksons of this world, we need the fact that people like him are larger than life and are bigger than the sum of their parts. The discrepancy between the on-stage and off-stage personna is almost an inevitable price to be paid for the mega publicity and attention of a massive world public. And it would be odd if celebrities like him didn’t become eccentric or a bit weird: a release valve for the mental/emotional pressure of just being who they are. Those aware of the metaphysical in life will know that to be thought about is as powerful as being approached. Since thought and feeling are an approach of sorts. The resonance from a world view, the sheer volume of frequency is massive. It is not for nothing that we need Messiahs, Saviours and Martyrs. We need people to take from us some onus of the sadness or great emotion that we cannot carry, so we sing their songs and hear their words and look at their philosophies and we are energized, and therefore to a great extent healed.

Cartouche! foremost in tarot wisdom! http://www.tarot-online.net

Stimulation or Stagnation

2009-07-03T12:41:00.001-07:00

Time Rules

2009-07-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

Optional Life

2009-07-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

Playing it Again

2009-07-03T10:29:00.000-07:00