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Astrology and Carl Jung: Part 3, Seeking Answers in the Paranormal

Beth Turnage — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:19:23 +0000

(Astrology Explored) Note: As my Facebook friends know I have reentered college to finish up my degree in psychology. As part of one class I wrote this paper on the influence of astrology on Carl Jung. Jung is widely embraced in the astrological world because his theories on archetypes, which he used to create a therapeutic model, fits neatly with the symbolic language of astrology.

Part One–The Influence of Astrology on Carl Jung

Part Two–Jung’s Childhood

When he was a twenty-three old medical student, two paranormal events, a walnut table splitting suddenly in two and steel knife that shattered spontaneously while in a closed drawer was said to influence his decision to enter psychiatry. However, even before these events, Jung attended and even initiated séances, (Main, 1997) a cultural fad in the late 19th and early 20th century. His doctoral thesis was on “The Psychology and Pathology of So Called Occult Phenomena” which featured his cousin as the medium. (Main, 1997). But rather than affirm the paranormal experiences of the feminine side of his family, he chose instead to announce through his thesis that mediumistic experiences were the result of psychological processes rather than paranormal events.

During the first decade of his career he continued his research into séances (Main 1997) and unconscious psychic states and explored dream symbolism (Campbell 1971) and mythology with Freud (Noll 1997).

A letter from Jung to Freud in 1910 gives a hint as to what drew Jung into astrology. Freud and Jung were at that time engaged in a discussion of the symbolism of the ancient mystery religion of Mithrasism.
“Mithras (‘s) . . . left knee is on the back of the bull, pinning it down. With his left hand, he is pulling the head of the bull back by its nostrils, and with his right hand he is slaying the bull by plunging a dagger or sword into its neck.  Mithras’s cape . . . depicted seven stars — the seven planets known to the ancient world” (Noll 1997).

Jung and Freud didn’t agree on the meaning of the Mithraic symbols mostly likely because they had intense personal meaning for Jung. Jung and Freud both recognized was that the Mithraic religion was rooted in astronomical observation. By the process of precession, that is the movement of the spring equinox through zodiac by virtue of the wobble of the earth upon its axis, the vernal equinox moved into the constellation of Taurus . This observation led the stoics to “hypothesize the existence of a new divinity responsible for this new cosmic phenomenon, a divinity capable of moving the structure of the entire cosmos and thus a divinity of great power.” Mithras was this deity, and he is seen killing the bull because the act symbolizes the ending of the cosmic age in which Mithraism was born” (Noll, 1997).

In 1911 Antonia Wolff entered Jung’s life as his assistant. According to Noll she taught Jung astrology. From that point on Jung engaged in a serious study of astrology, and may have done so to specifically to decipher Mithraic symbolism (Noll,1997).

Noll tells us, “In early 1912, Jung connected the Mithraic tauroctony with the astrological sign Taurus and with sexuality in a very suggestive footnote to the section on which the tauroctony is discussed in detail.” When Noll attempted to decipher the meaning of the dream, he speculated that the bull represented Freud, whose zodiac (sun) sign was Taurus. What most, except Jung, did not realize was that Taurus, the bull, was the zodiac sign Jung’s moon occupied on the day of his birth. For astrologers the moon represents the feminine, intuitive aspect of the individual, and specifically the individual’s mother. Given the relationship between Jung and his mother, Mithras, the intense male god figure who overthrew the reign of the Taurus bull, would have represented for Jung the male subjugation of an overshadowing and frightening female figure.

Thus in one symbolic insight, Mithras does for Jung what Jung can’t do for himself. Mithras subdues the ferocious mother figure.

Jung wrote a number of years later:

“There are mythological theories that explain everything coming from the sun and lunar theories that do the same for the moon. This is due to the simple fact there are countless myths about the moon, among them a whole host in which the moon is wife of the sun. The moon is the changing experience of the night, and thus coincides with the primitive’s sexual experience of woman . . . The moon, too, is a disturber of sleep, and is also the abode of departed souls, for at night the dead returns in dreams and the phantoms of the past terrify the sleepless. (Campbell, 1971).

Jung’s childhood seems to be summed up in the above paragraph. His sleep was disturbed by paranormal images of his mother, represented in astrology by the moon. Here we see why Jung ascribed the role of the moon as the “disturber of sleep”. The paranormal experiences Jung associated with his mother, the dead and phantom images, terrified him as a child. Astrology held the answers for what he yearned to understand.

References

Campbell, J. (ed) (1971) The portable Jung, Chapter 2, The Stucture of the Psyche, p.41 Viking
Penquin Inc. New York, New York

Main, R. (1997). Jung on synchronicity and the paranormal. Princeton:
PrincetonUniversity Press.

Noll, R. (1997) The aryan Christ: the secret life of Carl Jung, Random House, New York.

The Astrology of the Boston Marathon Explosions: Shaken to the Soul

Beth Turnage — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:28:34 +0000

(Astrology Explored) No one has claimed responsibility. 3 are dead, over 174 people were injured. The injuries were so horrific that Former Boston Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says colleagues have been “shaken to the soul” by the blasts at the Boston Marathon. He admits there is no shortage of possible suspects behind the attacks

Boston Massachusetts by U. S. historians as the birth place of American freedom. Every school child is taught the story of the Boston Tea Party, an act of rebellion against English taxes on the import of tea., taxes that were voted on by a parliament thousands of mile away. As a colony, the land in the America’s had no representation on Parliament, a fact that galled the growing and prosperous American colonies. Incited by by the rhetoric of the Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, a group of 30 to 130 men, some dressed in the Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded the three vessels and, over the course of three hours, dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water. In today’s dollars, this tea was worth close to a million dollars.

England’s response was to enact in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, or Intolerable Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston’s commerce.

Whether the perpetrators intended it or not, they could not have chosen a more potent symbol to attack. When you attack Boston you are striking at American’s concepts of freedom and liberty.

But who perpetrated this heinous act and why?

While the FBI Terror sifts through the evidence, speculation among news organizations runs rampant. The police questioned a Saudi Arabian student, and searched his home but now say that he is not a suspect. Of course, for traumatized Boston, the downtown now policed by armed soldiers, residents want answers, and those aren’t forthcoming.

Is this homegrown or foreign terrorism? To get at some answers we compare the chart of the 9/11 Terror attack and the Oklahoma City Bombing to the Boston Marathon explosion.

In the charts below, the events are in the inside of the wheel, the places in the outside. The reason I do this is that few cities have their “birthtime” in their information, but the time of events are certain. Arranging the charts in this manner gives us house cusps that are certain.

The first thing that jumps out is that the location Jupiter sits within 3 degrees on the ascendant of the Event for the 9/11 Terror Attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing. The ascendant (and the other house cusps) move one degree every four minutes. Imagine then the change of the number of th degrees on the ascendant as the movement of a clocks hands over the number.
the event Ascendant hitting the event Jupiter on two separate terror incidents is a huge coincidence.

What the Ascendant Tells Us

In the 9/11 chart the NYC chart has Jupiter is in Libra with the event Mercury there as well. Among the countries associated with Libra is Egypt. Mercury in one connotation is a child; Jupiter the father, so the ascendant reveals the agent of death, “A son of Egypt”, which can describe Osama Bin Laden.

By contrast, the event Jupiter sits on the descendant of the Oklahoma City Bombing chart. Sagittarius can be associated with a military career Timothy McVeigh was in the army. .

However not all associations can yield clues. In the Boston Marathon chart, Jupiter is in Virgo. Countries associated with Virgo are Brazil, Congo, Greece, Switzerland, Uruguay, Vietnam and Venezuela, generally not countries we consider as terror suspects. Opposite the Ascendant is Neptune and Chiron in Pisces. Skyscript tells us that the countries and cities associated with Pisces:

Include Portugal, Normandy, northern Egypt, Alexandria, Rheims in France, Calabria in Sicily, Worms and Ratisbon in Germany and Compostella in Spain

Aside from a weak association to Alexandria, Eygpt, the charts do not support foreign involvement.

However, local location associations to Pisces are Massachusetts locations, Fall River, Lowell and New Bedford. This is a person who lives in somewhere close to Boston, Massachusetts possibly in one of these three towns.

But as far as the person who is responsible, he could be ex-navy or possibly a Marine, as Virgo is associated with naval military service.

Pisces here indicates the confusion surrounding who the suspects might be.
With Pisces, however, its a sure bet it’s not who we imagine them to be.

The Gemini-Sagittarius Connection

All charts, (marked in green) have a strong Gemini/Sagittarius axis. In the 9/11 chart. Gemini/Sagittarius NYC Uranus/Saturn is opposite the NYC planet of transformation Pluto and both these configurations hit the Event Saturn hard.

In the Oklahoma Bombing chart, the event Moon and Jupiter in Sagittarius is opposite the North Node in Gemini.

Boston’s Pluto Uranus is opposite it’s Moon in Sagittarius, and all of that hit the Event Jupiter and Moon hard.

I hope my Gemini and Sagittarius friends forgive me, but whenever I find Gemini/Sagittarius oppositions active in the chart, and activated by transits, a whole new level of crazy manifests. A bombing of innocent people qualifies.

Mars and Pluto

Mars and Pluto have strong connections in all these charts and gives us further clues to the identity of the perpetrator. In the 9-11 chart Mars sits in the same sign Pluto, the zodiac sign of Sagittarius. With the identification of the ascendant with “a son of Egypt, the zodiac sign of Sagittarius confirms a “foreign person.”

In the Oklahoma City Bombing Mars conjoins Pluto. Mars in Scorpio confirms the military career of the perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh.

In the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Mars of the first Boston Marathon is opposite the event Pluto. Mars is in Cancer, denoting a loner, opposite Pluto, who suffered a traumatic loss, possibly works, or worked on boats or the docks. This configuration seems to confirm a military career either in the Navy or the Marines.

It is possible there are two people involved since the event Moon and Jupiter are in the sign of Gemini.

Conclusion

The Boston Marathon Bombing is an act of homegrown terrorism. One person, as described above is responsible for the planning, with possibly some help in its execution. The ideology is about security, possibly the unequal distribution of wealth. However we can not ignore that a group Sandy Hook parents representing a force that pushed for the strongest gun laws in the nation, were sitting close to that finish line. Also the date, April 19th, the date of the very first Boston Marathon is the same date as the Waco Massacre and Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of FBI headquarters in Oklahoma City on April 19th as a protest of that massacre. Someone was trying to make a statement. Sadly, it was a deadly one.

Photo published under a Creative Commons License issued by Flickr user hahatango.

References:

New York City Horoscope Information Horoscopes of U.S. States and Cities (Paperback) by Carolyn Dodson

9-11 Chart Information–Astro.com

New Moon in Pisces: Under the Influence

Beth Turnage — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:37:48 +0000

(Astrology Explored) With the new moon joining the huge alignment of planets in Pisces the floodgates are about to open. Rarely do we see this many planets in the same sign. Like someone arriving at the theater late, this moon will trip her way through the seats to take her place next to the Sun, stepping on the toes of the other planets. Then she’ll exit stage right until she arrives in the zodiac sign of Aries, a first harbinger of the new spring. There are so many symbols in this configuration; one hardly knows where to start.

Neptune, Chiron, Mercury, Venus, Sun, and Mars tenants the zodiac sign of Pisces. Many people have a difficult time understanding Pisces energy. To be honest, people with a significant Pisces signature in their chart don’t understand Pisces. Some people rail at the Pisces propensity to stay above it all. Truth is Pisces does not engage with the world in a way that other people consider normal. Pisces cries at weddings, laughs at funerals, and dances away from the motor vehicle accidents that they cause by not paying attention to the road. Much of Pisces life has a “do not try this at home” element to it. This sign is all about merging with the river of life, which they do without benefit of a life jacket. “Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke,” is the favorite saying of one friend with a huge stellium of Pisces planets in his chart.

Beginnings and ending are all the same to Pisces. Innately this sign understands the seed of one is in the other. When a Pisces looks you in the eye and tell you they love you, they do so with the full realization that in acknowledging the relationship’s beginning they see its end. Maybe this is why Pisces are so notoriously difficult to commit. They just don’t want to see the end coming.

Neptune, the planet of illusions, is the first planet in the stellium and the last planet in the caboose in this clattering lineup of railroad cars. Neptune gets that “the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” It would. It invented the statement channeled by the Nazarene.
When the moon joins him briefly, she enters the gates of spiritual realm, and emerges to her next stop to greet the planet of our wounds, Chiron. Chiron is an indefatigable guide that points out what is wrong with our lives. Deeply touched the moon feels the psychic wounds physically. She moves to Mercury and attempts to voice her pain, but it only comes out as a keening wail. There are no words to express her pain. She lights next on Venus attempting to attach meaning for her journey. Venus comforts the moon, but tells her that life lives for its own sake. The moon takes her place by her consort wrapped in the gray cloak of ethereal Pisces. They merge with the sexual energy of Mars in the sacred marriage under the blessings of Neptune. The Universe begins and ends in this merging, the infinite loop of cycle of life.

So much can’t be expressed in words in this conglomeration of energies that how we might experience this new moon is through tears that flow without biding. Do not be surprised. Stock up on the medicinals and Kleenex. Hide your car keys. We will all be under the influence of this Neptune driven moon.

This new moon will hit the house in your chart that Pisces tenants hard. If you don’t know your chart, well, what’s stopping you from consulting your local astrologer? For those that do know, here is a brief roundup of the issues you might face.

If Pisces is on the Cusp of, or you have a planet in Pisces in:

The First House: You question your attractiveness to other people. Actually, others are finding you quite glamorous at this time. They just don’t how to approach you. However, if you have an eating disorder, get help now. You could push yourself over the edge if you don’t get help.

The Second House: Money matters are harder to understand than calculus. You don’t know where the money is going and how you are going to make the bills. First hint; seal off the cracks of your money leaking. Turn off the lights when you aren’t in a room, buy your food once a week instead of day by day, don’t eat out, and go over your bank statements. Trust no one, with your money, that is.

The Third House: Brothers and sisters are up to their old antics. Turning a blind eye and deaf ear will save you many hours of aggravation.

The Fourth House: Traditionally, the fourth house is the house of endings. The moon is the ruler of the fourth house as well. Where does that leave you? Packing up and moving out? Or complaining that things aren’t good enough? Only you can tell, but what until Mercury goes direct before you do anything.

The Fifth House: You can pour your creativity into new projects or your children, but either way you feel sad you aren’t getting your due. Pisces is self-sacrificing, after all, and if you aren’t getting out what you are putting in maybe you should step back.

The Sixth House: You’ve learned from bitter experience that doctors do not take your complaints seriously. If you haven’t shored up your diet and exercise program you should. Try an aruvedic practitioner for answers.

The Seventh House: Partners are here one day and gone the next. You’ll have a crush of them at your door and then nothing. You can’t be all things to all people; something his particular moon wants to teach you.

The Eighth House: A gaggle of planets in the eighth house is a gang of people with their hands out waiting for you to grease their palms. They won’t go away easy either, so you’ll have to negotiate to get them out of your hair.

The Ninth House: If you haven’t paid those parking tickets you should. If you haven’t written that paper for school, get on it. Don’t complain to Officer Friendly about his rude demeanor and keep your firearms in your holster. Ninth house matters tend to blow up unattended ninth house matters. This moon will show you just how true that is.

The Tenth House: So many people are moving through your public sphere or your office that you need score cards to track them all. Are you missing something here? Most definitely. Can you do something about it? Probably not, but keep your eyes and ears open and sign nothing until you’ve thoroughly reviewed it.

The Eleventh House: Friends, groups of friends and causes dominate the scenery. Doing some charitable work is a good use of this month’s energy. You won’ be alone and you get to do something that makes you feel better.

The Twelfth House: Hidden feelings or hidden agendas mark this new moon. Whether yours or another’s, you feel that you an’t get a handle on what is happening. You might find yourself visiting someone confined to a hospital or in jail. Don’t make the journey of hose folks yours. In extreme cases don’t hesitate to seek help. People do understand if you let them.

Want to see a more traditional forecast for this weekend, check out Matthew Currie’s Love Forecast.

If you have a question that you would like to have answered on these pages, please send your question, birthday, birth place and birth time to starrynightastro@aol.com. Sorry, due to time limitations, only a single question will be answered.

Photo published under a Creative Commons License from Flickr.

The Probability of Predictions: Will and Kate So Far

Beth Turnage — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:43:03 +0000

(Astrology Explored) As a front line fighter in the skeptic’s wars against superstition, the paranormal and the supernatural, Michael Shermer has a whole line of pat answers to why people believe in what he and his fellows believe irrational. In fact he wrote a book about it The Believing Brain in which he postulates that the brain constructs its own belief systems based on patterns and culture, essentially creating its own reality.

Being a man of science, Shermer believes that science holds the answers about what is real and what is not. Science being his guide he tells us that what we perceive is true is only dictated by our belief systems.

When Shermer speaks about astrologers, psychic and fortune tellers, people who he believes are either deluded or charlatans, he says, “The way it works, people, is that they remember the hits and forget the misses.”

But what happens when someone who is an astrologer starts lining up a series of successful predictions? Is it unlikely coincidence? When is a prediction, which in hindsight seems like a likely outcome, actually an unlikely outcome come true?

Skeptics like to accuse people who make predictions of revisionist history, as one skeptic did of my old Astrology Explored.com blog. Fortunately to test a series of predictions, I have a set of mine that I can not edit, since it is an exclusive feature of on the site of a former employer, The Shoreline Times published on April 26, 2011.

The predictions are about the marriage of Will and Kate. Here are the predictions for 2011 and 2012.

2011: The couple is actively engaged in a round of public tours that are exhausting for both for them. The Queen is determined that this new marriage strengthens the image of the monarchy and the couple is pushed hard to do so.  

Whoa Nelly, now wait a minute, don’t we expect that a royal couples make public tours?

Well, not actually. In the previous four royal couples, one of who was became monarch, none of them went on public tours during the first year of marriage. In the case of Charles and Diana, they went on their first public tour after William was born. Elizabeth and Phillip did not go on their tour until after her coronation and six years into her marriage. Her parents, George VI and his wife Elizabeth, didn’t go on a tour until 18 months into their marriage, and his parents, George V and May didn’t go on a tour until the seventh year of marriage. The family custom then is to let the newlyweds as far as possible settle into married royal life without the pressure of world tours. But in Will and Kate’s instance, not only did they made an 11 day tour of Canada and America within their first months of marriage, Buckingham palace announced an ambitious Asian tour for September of 2012. These tours outdo past performance any modern British newlywed royal couple. Based on royal past performance, it is unlikely that William and Kate would be making one, let alone two, tours within one year of marriage.

The British Publication,The Sun, commented on these tours several weeks after my published prediction:

And the emergence of the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as a star double act will take much pressure off the Queen, who turned 85 last month.

The Palace insists that Her Majesty has no plans to scale back her commitments.

But her grandson and his wife have agreed to free her from some of the burden of foreign travel.

Prediction 2012: Mercury moves into the 4th house indicating a new addition to the family. This announcement is made a couple weeks before their first anniversary.

When the timing of the announcement didn’t work out this prediction had me a little worried. What I looked at to make this prediction was the composite chart of the couple, which combines the charts of the of the couple into one. Mercury moving into the fourth house indicates to me that a birth was likely. However, the sticky part is that we do not have Kate’s birth time. In the UK, birth times are not recorded on birth certificates (except in the case of twins), though royals birth times. Without a birth time, it’s not possible to have the proper ascendant, mid-heaven and moon position, important markers to calculate timing. The cusps on the composite chart are not correct and the dating of the prediction could be off. Some astrologers would argue against my sloppy predictive technique, but you work with what you have.

But wait! The possibly of the Duchess of Cambridge getting pregnant in 2012 was even more remote than anyone imagined. According to media reports, Will and Kate supposedly waited to conceive until after the Queens Jubilee. This meant that Kate and Will were only “trying” for less than six months before announcing the pregnancy. Statistically at Kate’s age, her getting pregnant within 6 months of trying is 50/50. The prediction I made, with the extra stressors of public life trimming that prediction, timing or no, of Kate getting pregnant in 2012 was more farfetched than it would seem on its face.

Prediction: This is a difficult pregnancy for Kate—Kate was admitted to the hospital for extreme morning sickness and was kept in for three days. Her husband spoke of her morning sickness as “all day and all night” sickness. Her doctors diagnosed it as the serious condition hyperemesis gravidarum.

The percentage of pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum is only 1 to 2 percent while 25% of women experience a complication of pregnancy. Difficult pregnancies are less likely than normal ones.

Prediction: The first child is a boy. Another prediction, based on statistics, says otherwise. Sasha Miller from the motherhood advice website Babycentre says statistically, Kate’s baby will be a girl. We’ll find out in July.

Prediction:   It becomes more obvious that William is being groomed for the throne rather than his father.

The Queen sent Will and Kate (and to a lesser extent his brother) on extensive world tours centered on the Queen’s jubilee while Charles, the heir apparent did a brief three-day tour of Canada. One might argue that this is a debatable point and that the Prince of Wales carries a heavier public schedule.

While I predicted that Charles, now 64, will be king in 2015, it appears at least from the astrology that William will step up soon after. Again we will see what happens.

So far these predictions, what skeptics like Michael Shermer would term coincidences, have a very unlikely success rate. Coincidence? I think not.

Photo published under a Creative Commons license from user oxfordian as explained by flickr.

The Kiss

Beth Turnage — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:11:35 +0000

The Kiss, a photo by Supermac1961 on Flickr.

The Kiss

Beth Turnage — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:09:24 +0000

The Kiss, a photo by Supermac1961 on Flickr.

The Astrology of Business: Walmart Execs’ Internal Complaints Backfire

Beth Turnage — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 16:16:58 +0000

(Astrology Explored)If it wasn’t so serious, it would be down right funny.

Bloomberg got its hands on some internal emails exchanged by Walmart (WMT) executives discussing recent sales figures, and they don’t paint a rosy picture.

“February MTD [month-to-date] sales are a total disaster,” said Walmart vice president of finance and logistics Jerry Murray in Feb. 12 e-mail to other executives. “The worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company.”

Internal memos like this are nothing new in the corporate world. They are in a twisted way a call to arms to address the situation which is more about executive bonuses than the financial health of the company. Since lackluster sales means no quarterly bonus, all this angst over sales is the whining of executives afraid they won’t make bonus.

Unfortunately, this vetching had unfortunate consequences. When this memo leaked out, sales of Walmart shares dove 3%.

So is Walmart doomed to depressed sales?

Wikipedia gives us the date of incorporation, when it became a fictitious legal person. We don’t have the time, so what below is the sunrise chart.

Walmart Corporation has the Sun in Scorpio with natal Saturn in Taurus, and a Moon in Cancer opposite its natal Mars in Capricorn. This is an ultra-security conscious company, with a natural inclination to aggressively manage its finances. Not only to they hold on to what they have, which explains their poor pay structure, they will stack the circumstances in their favor to keep it that way. If that means executives playing the martyr and manipulating others with their whining, so be it!

And it is true the company is experiencing a Saturn opposition. I call the Saturn opposition “the other Saturn Return”, because during this time there are difficulties, usually emotional ones manifesting in depression. So its fair to say that moral at this company is not in tip top shape.

But, fortunately for Wal-mart, transiting Jupiter in Gemini is making a trine to its natal Venus. This aspect brings in money. It’s fair to say that perception and reality don’t match at Bentonville at this time. Wal-mart going to do just fine and keep doing fine throughout the rest of this year.

So quit your bitchin’ Walmart execs. And next time you want to vent do it over the phone so you don’t leave a paper trail!

Walmart picture courtesy of a Creative Commons License issued by user Sven as documented by Wikepedia.

The Astrology of Saturn: Get Thee Back Satan!

Beth Turnage — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:48:51 +0000

(Astrology Explored) In my mailbox today a reader sent this:

I am a Libra, and have been undergoing a lot of difficulty over the past three years as you know. I was hoping you could explain something to me.

As I understand it, Saturn only visits signs for two years, but we Libras had to have it for three. That doesn’t seem fair.Mostly what I want to say is the fact that what Saturn did to me was make me lose my job. I noticed things going south back in October 2009 though at the time I didn’t know why. I was later laid off due to budgetary reasons in a mass company layoff in December 2010. I still don’t have a new job even though Saturn supposedly left in October 2012 and it’s January 2013. But now it’s in my financial house. So the one area of my life, which is my income, that Saturn has completely destroyed while it was in Libra, will now continue to suffer for yet another three years because even though it has “left”, it managed to stay in the one and only area where I actually need relief. So I would really like to know if you can offer any explanation or hope, to those Libras that will now have to suffer this miserable planet devastating their lives for a total of 6 years. Not 2, not even 3, but 6. Because I am my only source of income and am currently on unemployment. I am about to lose everything. In October things were supposed to get better but they are not, due to the fact that Saturn is staying with me in the one area where I needed it to get the hell out.

I’m sure there are other Libras that have suffered Saturn’s influence in terms of finances and employment, and for those of us that have, we now have to continue to endure this nightmare for another three years. So our suffering didn’t end in October 2012, but will continue for a total of six years. I suffered great financial loss already for three years and now I find out that this will continue for another three years until 2015. Where’s MY relief from this damned planet?

The short answer is this. When you learn Saturn’s lesson.

Saturn is not something you wait out until the ride is over. None of the planets are like that, except maybe the moon, where you can schedule your monthly mental health days.

Now wait. Saturn doesn’t want to punish you. Really. Saturn is like your mom and dad who push you to do things because it’s good for you, not necessarily because you want to do it.

According to Monique Pommier about Saturn in Libra:

it is a key participant in the dawn of dynamic selfhood. On the other hand, the self-expression or the creative will of the exalted Sun (Sun in AR) calls for the balancing and adjusting function of Saturn (LI).

Now most of us adore Libras. You’re fun and social and the life of the party. But being one of the two Venus ruled signs you are a little spoiled. You expect things and people to fall into your lap just as you wish it.

Saturn is your wake-up call.

And once you realize that Saturn is here to help you, you’ll like it. Or rather you’ll like the sense of balance and grounding you’ll get from learning its lessons. You’re a Libra. You live for balance.

Where Saturn is in the chart is where you need to do some work. If Saturn is going through your second house, then its an excellent time to look at your finances and do some serious planning (Saturn is planning). What are your resources, what kind of help can you get?

Saturn is not interested in stripping you of everything you have. Pluto does that. Saturn wants you to build on foundations. If your financial house is on shaky foundations, then you need to build a new house.

Saturn in the second can actually bring you a job. It may not be a job you like, or you have to work harder than you like, but you can have a job. You might have turned down an offer or two because they don’t quite come up to your standards. Maybe you should rethink that.

So all in all it sounds like you have some work to do. Things won’t get better until you do. Even if you managed to hunker down and wait for the worst to pass, you find you’ll be dealing the with results of not doing the work on your problems for years to come. So please stop treating Saturn as the devil to beat back. He is only here to help.

And by the way it wasn’t Saturn that lost you your job. It was Uranus.

The Astrology of Weather: New York, CT and New England Blasted by Winter Blizzard

Beth Turnage — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:54:34 +0000

(Astrology Explored) After three major storms in two years, the last thing New York and Connecticut residents need is another devastating storm. Yet, up to two and half FEET of snow is projected to slam weather weary NYC and Connecticut. Compared to the storm of 1978 which hit on February 5 and lasted until February 7, this Nor’easter is forecasted to produce winds of over 35 miles per hours.

Comparisons to the 1978 storm are apt. In both storms, the Sun is in Aquarius, the Moon is in Capricorn, and Jupiter is in Gemini. Uranus and Saturn influences predominate. Uranus highlights the unusual nature of these storms. Saturn brings cold and Jupiter in Gemini brings gale force winds.

Usually in storms we see a T-Square. Instead in both of these storms we see Pluto playing a strong role. In the 1978 chart, Pluto challenges (squares) the Capricorn Moon. Today’s storm has Pluto in the same zodiac sign as the moon. In the 1978 chart Uranus challenges (squares) Venus. In today’s chart Saturn challenges Venus. These are deadly storms. For safety we should stay put at home. Connecticut Governor Danell Malloy agrees. He put a rare travel ban for all vehicles on the major interstates.

Below are the charts for both storms.

Celtic Astrology: Spring, Imbolc and Groundhog’s Day

Beth Turnage — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:29:06 +0000

Statue of groundhog Wiarton Willie in Wiarton, Ontario

(Astrology Explored) Halfway between the Winter Equinox and the Spring Equinox is the cross-quarter day which the Celts called Imbolc (eem’ ul). We call it Groundhog’s Day, February 2, though the names are different they come from the same Celtic tradition.

Some ancient traditions marked the change of seasons at cross-quarter days such as Imbolc when daylight first makes significant progress against the night. Other traditions held that spring did not begin until the length of daylight overtook night at the Vernal Equinox. To reconcile the two traditions humans chose the actions of the groundhog prognosticated which date was the first day of spring . Sometimes spring begins at Imbolc, and sometimes winter lasts 6 more weeks until the equinox.

Imbolc marks the day when daylight makes significant progress against the night.

Wikipedia tells us:

“The holiday was, and for many still is, a festival of the hearth and home, and a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of spring. Celebrations often involved hearth fires, special foods (butter, milk, and bannocks, for example), divination or watching for omens, candles or a bonfire if the weather permits. Imbolc is traditionally a time of weather prognostication, and the old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens is perhaps a precursor to the North American Groundhog Day. A Scottish Gaelic proverb about the day is:

Thig an nathair as an toll Là donn Brìde, Ged robh trì troighean dhen t-sneachd Air leac an làir.  

Which translates as:

“The serpent will come from the hole  on the brown Day of Bride, Though there should be three feet of snow On the flat surface of the ground.”

Imbolc is the day when the Cailleach — the hag of Gaelic tradition — gathers her firewood for the rest of the winter. Legend has it that if she intends to make the winter last a good while longer, she will make sure the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood. Therefore, people are generally relieved if Imbolc is a day of foul weather because that means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over.”

Fire and purification are crucial aspects of this festival. Brigid (also known as Brighid, Bríde, Brigit, Brìd) is the Gaelic goddess of poetry, healing and smith craft. As both goddess and saint she is also associated with holy wells, sacred flames, and healing. The lighting of candles and fires represents the return of warmth and the increasing power of the Sun over the coming months.

Also:

Coming at lambing time, around 31 January, Imbolc (or Oimelc) celebrated the beginning of the end of winter. New lambs were born, and a dish made from their docked tails was eaten. Women met to celebrate the return of the maiden aspect of the Goddess. This survived into Christian times as the Feast of Brigid: the saint was a Christianized version of the pagan goddess who was the daughter of the Dagda (see page 00). In the Outer Hebrides, Celtic Christian celebrations of this festival lasted into the twentieth century, with women dressing a sheaf of oats in female clothes and setting it with a club in a basket called ‘Brid’s Bed’.”

Celtic astrology combined a lunar and solar tradition. The fire festivals, of which Imbolc was the second of the Celtic year, celebrated the cycle of fertility and the joining of the male and female principle. Samhain was the seeding time. It was considered the first day of the new year while Imbolc celebrated the maturation of the eternal feminine principle to a maid of marriageable age. Imbolc anticipates the spring, even as young maids anticipated their future role as wives. At Beltane, the next cross-quarter day between the spring Equinox and the Summer Equinox, Bridget and her lover, the Sun god born at the Winter Solstice, joins on Beltane in the sacred marriage.

In Celtic astrology, solar tradition, with months of roughly thirty days and corresponding the entrance of the sun in certain constellations seems to have been the province of day to day affairs. Every learned man is said “that every educated Irishman knew the names of the signs of the zodiac in order, and the correct day and month when the sun entered the signs.” http://cura.free.fr/xv/14boutet.html

The lunar tradition, similar to the Vedic tradition of 27 lunar mansions was the province of the Druid priests, whose job was to “tame” or reconcile the lunar calendar with the solar calendar.

The combination of the solstices and the Cross-quarter days as a set of ritual festivals is very reminiscent of the Vedic concept of “Yokes in the Wheel of Time”. Since these days always marks a festival in honor of some point in the cycle of fertility they seem to this astrologer to be mediators of the male and female principle, the mundane and the spiritual.

From what symbols and processes the Druids extracted their predictions from their “Science of the Stars” we are still largely ignorant. There is no evidence that they practiced astrology on the personal level that Western and Vedic do. Until we find out more, we are left with the tantalizing clues left in the rituals of the seasons, which for the case of Imbolc has morphed in the American tradition of Groundhog’s Day.

Photo published under a Creative Commons License as listed by Wikipedia.