Astrological Forecasts

Heads Up!

The Writer’s Astrological Almanac

May 2013 

Happy May Day! Whether you celebrate with May poles or with workers’ parades, it’s a holiday. (continue reading…)

Sending love and prayers to our friends on the East Coast as Hurricane Sandy makes landfall.  I am hoping that this storm will be a repeat of the hurricane that hit New York last September.

This is especially chilling, personally, because it is but seven blocks west of the 48 story luxury high rise, which, at that time was still under construction.  It was my job to close up the models, which were the only apartments that were finished. Since I had access to the elevator key, and being quite  young and adventurous, I loved nothing more to go up to the higher floors and sneak out to the balcony of an as yet unfinished apartment and look down and out across at the great metropolis of New York from as high a floor as the elevator would allow me to step out onto, as the papers blew across the apartments, because the windows had not yet been installed.

I am still optimistic that despite the wind and storm surge that the damage from Hurricane Sandy will not take a huge amount of lives. My reasoning is that we were lucky to have an exceedingly benign Spring Equinox Chart.

The reason that I do not believe we will see an enormous death toll, despite Saturn smack dab on the New Moon chart set for New York, is that the lunation, is on the most beneficial fixed star in the universe, Spica. Let us pray that this is the case.

I will send up the charts, in a bit, but please pray that I am not out in left field on this one. Pray for everybody on the East Coast.  Update at midnight nyc, time. I understand that the lights are out and there will be no subway service for several days to come. The storm made landfall at 8:00 pm local time.  According to Marc Lavorgna,  https://twitter.com/NYCMayorsOffice, the surge of water crested at almost 14 feet high at the Battery (the far south end of the Manhattan penninsula) and the waters are now receding at 9 feet. I am sorry to say that there are five deaths reportedly due to Sandy, which has now been downgraded from a hurricane to a superstorm. The good news is that reports of a fire at a hospital on Coney Island, are erroneous.

The first place we look to when forecasting or trying to explain great events of any kind, from weather to finance is the Spring Ingress chart. Generally we can set that to the capital. I tend to use New York City as the capital in many charts, because it was in presently flooded lower Manhattan that George Washington swore to uphold the Constitution, and where he fought his initial battle with the British for Independence.

The concept of prognosticating with Spring Ingress and all charts is based on the ancient concept of ‘ as above, so below. In other words, whatever happens down here  on terra firma is written well advance up in the heavens above us.  We look to the day that the Sun arrives at 0 Aries in the tropical zodiac, to ascertain what the coming events in any given year will be.  This date is known as the Spring Equinox, because the days and the nights are exactly the same length in time. It marks the beginning of the astrological year.

Right from the ‘get go’ we can see s that 2012 is going to be very unusual in the city that never sleeps, the Spring Equinox Chart’s Sun is associating with the planet of surprise, Uranus sits right there at the ground level of the chart, the 4th. Now, this is why, I am praying that the storm does not take as many lives as it might have. For evaluating deadly events, we always want to look to the 8th house, of death. In this case, using Regomontanus House Cusps, we see that the 8th house has Cancer on its cusp. Thus, the Moon will rule death and destruction. If we look closely, we will notice that the Moon is in Pisces. Since the Sun is in Aries, this indicates that the Moon is in its last days of light, what we call a waning Moon. A waning Moon is a weakened Moon. And thus, when it rules the house of the grim reaper, a dark Moon is a good thing to see. This is the first sign of hope for this storm. The next thing we see is that the Moon is in a cadent house, the third, where she joys. The Sun and Uranus conjunction, itself is in Aries a hot and dry sign, and yes, most of the country experienced the hottest driest Summer on record, but in New York City with Uranus placed at the ground zero, so to speak, we saw something different, flooding. This is because death and destruction, i.e., the 8th cusp, is ruled by a very wet Moon in Pisces, which is made even wetter by it’s conjunction with the planet of the seas, Neptune. It is this combination that brought this enormous tidal surge.

Why now? Well, one look at the previous New Moon set for October 15th 2012, in New York City will provide those ‘who are in the know’ about about that icy  ringed meanie, Saturn, the answer.

Notice that Saturn, the natural ruler of the grave, is situated smack dab on the cusp of the Ascendant. In mundane charts, the Ascendant rules we the people. Whenever we see Saturn in the first house, of any mundane map, be it Spring Equinox, to New or Full Moon Charts, we can expect trouble, and trouble Sandy brought.  And she is wet trouble because Saturn has just entered the wet sign Scorpio. Some might say, Saturn is not yet on the cusp of the first. Well, I refer you to the article below on the dark degrees.  Although Algol is on the cusp of destructive 8th house, I am praying that most of the people of New York will be okay when I wake up in the morning. I pray that South Node, also known as the Dragon’s Tail will hold Algol in check. We shall see in the morning. Please pray for all on the East Coast.

photo from NJ Real Time News

The upcoming vice presidential debate should be a more lively one than the first presidential debate. Both of the vice presidential candidates,  incumbent Vice President, Joe Biden and Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, seem to have little qualms regarding sharing their opinions. At the same time, their views for the future and their backgrounds are radically different from one another.

The debate is scheduled to commence at 9:00 p.m. EDT live from Danville, Kentucky giving us a rising of 28 Taurus. However, those who remember the first presidential debate will note, it did not start exactly on time. First there are the obligatory, niceties, which we gauge from the last debate last about 5 minutes.

This changes the rising sign, from Taurus, to the verbal Gemini. Once again, like the last time, we simply divide the chart straight down the middle. We give the left side, or the rising side of the chart, home field advantage to the seated vice president, Joe Biden and the setting side to the Republican challenger, Ryan.

The new chart has Gemini right on the Ascendant, representing Joe Biden, the seated vice president, will make Mercury, ruler of the first house, his designated player. Mercury is in the steady, Scorpio, which we noted last time, spells trouble for Joe Biden right off the bat. After all, a debate is a war of words. When a debater’s significator falls in a sign without a voice,  as we recently witnessed with Obama in the first debate, the words just do not just spring out at us. Further, Biden is also situated in a weak house, that of the sixth, of illness, and more importantly, on Ryan’s side of the chart. Even though at a disadvantage, when so placed, it makes sense, because the sixth is the house of the common worker and Biden worked his way up from his blue collar roots to become vice president. His father cleaned furnaces in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Even though his ruler is weakly placed,   Biden is not completely helpless.  According to the Indians, the sixth house is called an ‘upachaya’ or growing house. This implies Biden starts out slowly, but gains momentum. In addition, the rising lunar mansion is none other than the hot and fiery Krittika. In a situation where nice guys finish last,  it is advantageous  to have a mansion rising.  The ancient Indians said Krittika has razor like tendencies.  Krittika people burn others out with their ceaseless energy. It seems like they get up and have glass for breakfast, then ask for more. This hidden lunar mansion may help Biden, overcome his mute ruler.

The republican challenger Paul Ryan, will get the right or setting side of the chart. With Sagittarius on the cusp, the Republican contender, will be represented by fat cat, Jupiter in the talkative Gemini. Needless to say,  Ryan is  vociferously against entitlements to the poor.  His plan also calls for  privatization of Social Security,  repealing Obama-care while leaving military spending the same. Ryan’s Jupiter is in the in the, ‘do as I say, not as I do, sign, Gemini. This is one of the poorest places for the truthful, Jupiter because it is so hypocritical.  It is no surprise that Ryan’s plan to gut social spending, keeps the Bush era tax breaks, that garnered his presidential running mate, Romney a nice $26,000,000  yet only had to pay 14% in taxes.  Even though Ryan is clearly against government spending,  his family, from his grandfather, who built highways,  to his wife, a former lobbyist for Price Waterhouse all made vast sums from Uncle Sam!

Since nice guys finish last,  Ryan gets a tremendous edge over Biden,  initially,  with that Mars right on his first.  Ryan will put in a good fight, and will come right out of the box punching.  At first it may seem he makes mincemeat out of Biden. However, he walks a fine line. If he goes too far, he falls in Vice Presidential Biden’s lap, because Ryan’s Jupiter is in Biden’s own house.  Many of Ryan’s core beliefs,  alienate much of the female population.  Too much aggression,  will turn also turn the the elderly away, as well. The Moon is the designate for ‘we the people’ in any mundane charts. And the Moon is already hostile to both candidates, but the Moon is especially antithetical to Ryan because it applies by partile (exact) square to Mars in Ryan’s first and at the same time, she opposes his house ruler, Jupiter.

With so much on each other’s side of the chart, this should prove to be a lively debate.   With Ryan in  Biden’s first, neither side has a distinct edge.  With that angular Mars, we will see both pull punches. That aforementioned lunar square to Ryan’s Mars is a nasty one.  Even though Ryan will keep swinging,  the chart implies, Biden gets his own way. I may be wrong,  but I sense this will be so close a debate, that some will say, draw, but  I think Vice President Joe Biden has a slight edge with the Moon heading towards Venus, who as almuten of Biden’s hopes and wishes.  We shall see.

So what happened to the silver tongued wonderkund in last night’s presidential debate? Four years ago, Obama could not even utter a word that would not be dubbed the golden tongued. He was a fresh face jam packed with a comprehensive vision for the future, convincing us, ‘yes we can.’ Even the left winged San Francisco Chronicle conceded, “Obama seemed vacant and distracted while Romney scored his best performance yet: The former Massachusetts governor delivered a confident, often aggressive and energetic performance. It was among the best of his campaign and in clear contrast to the president, whose delivery was more muted, measured and, at times, meandering.”

If he had not shown so brightly, four years ago, we might be able to blame his poor performance on his reticent personality.  Surely with Aquarius rising and the South Node in the first house, we see that Obama is very altruistic, but will tend to hold back, giving the other side the benefit of the doubt. When debating an assertive woman, this quality might make him look chivalrous, and dignified, but when debating against a male opponent, that same South Node seemed to make him whither.

Looking at Obama’s chart, in essence we can see that his relaxed oratorical style is well depicted by the charming Venus is in charge of the communications department of his chart. Placed in the mute sign of Cancer, this will tend to make Obama hold back, sort of sniffing his opponent out, preferring to win others over with charm rather than pugilism.

So what happened to the golden throated wunderkind last night? Still holding back? How could a person who could never utter a dumb remark four years ago, manage to look so, well, confused, last night? Well, one thing we know is that when we read natal charts, we are looking at all the karma or activity that any particular person has decided to take on in this life. That is a lot of karma! The natal chart was never created to tell us everything. Natal charts, can only shows us the essential or bigger strokes in our lives.

We cannot judge a singular event by the natal chart, alone For the smaller more succinct events, we need other tools to determine how our golden throated new hope, could appear so confused and out of sorts last night.

There are several ways of examining the ‘smaller events’ in our lives. Horary is one of the quickest methods to understand the smaller strokes. What we do is we take the time of the debate and divide it pretty much in half. The left side, or the Ascendant side of the chart, from house 10 to house 3 will be the ‘home team’ or that of the favorite, i.e., the seated president.

In this case, Obama, since he is  the man to beat, and owns the all important tenth house of president.  Since a debate is a two person operation, the first house, will specifically represent Obama, while the 7^th house, will represent Romney. Strength is everything. So what we are looking for are strong planets, even malicious planets and we want them on our side of the chart.

22 Aries rises in the chart. Mars will rule Obama. This is a great start.  In debates, just as in war, nice guys finish last. Having mean planets helps to win.  Mars is a killer. Even better, Obama as Mars, gives him an initial edge, strong by essential dignity, placed in its own sign, Scorpio.  This makes sense. After all, Obama is the is the president, ahead in the poles, and so he is the man to beat.

Which brings us to the obvious, if this is so, why did Obama come off as such an empty shell? One of the problems of being in one’s own sign, is there is little or no need for others, which can result in a bit of complacency. Because a debate is basically a war of words, it is essential to clearly voice the issues. As strong as Mars in Scorpio is, it is a mute or voiceless sign.

Being strong of sign is great, but if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, no matter how strong, you die. This is where what the ancients called accidental dignity comes in.  Accidental dignity measures placement. It is all about, where you are and who you are with and or being influenced by. Feast your eyes on where Mars is placed – all the way over on Romney’s side of the chart!

Whenever we see our planets on the other guys side, we are in the other guys territory. This is a major sign of loss in war charts. Here Obama is not handing Romney his power on a silver platter, he is literally shooting himself in the foot, because as astute astrologers will notice, Obama is smack dab at the cusp of the deadly 8^th house.  Modern astrologers, and some others might say, ‘hey,  Mars is not in the 8^th, but the 7^th but following the ancient precepts of Ptolemy we know that planets thrust forward. Ptolemy taught us that any planet within 5 degrees of the next cusp is already doing the work of that house. And clearly, Obama was on the ropes last night, a confirmation of Ptolemy’s teachings in action – despite the differing signs on the cusps.

Finally, as we said, debates are nothing more than a war of words. Whichever party is more impressive with his words, wins the debate. And so the house of communications, the third cusp, is all important. Once again,  we see even more in the way of problems for the seated president. So the 3rd cusp, with Gemini, Mercury will show the effectiveness of Obama’s words. Here again, Obama is stymied with Mercury, not only on Romney’s side of the chart. To anybody watching, Obama seemed wooden, and there we see Mercury right smack next to cold and removed Saturn.

Romney on the other hand, will be ruled by Venus. Situated in her fall in the 6^th house is very weak by sign. However, at least Venus is on her own side of the chart and very importantly, even though she is fallen, in debates words are everything. Even if the voice is highly critical, its better to have one than to be mute.

However, as Yogi Berra said, “it is not over until its over.” This chart seems to imply that no matter how great Romney’s performance was last night, nor how dismal Obama’s was, Romney has a long road ahead of him. Notice, the 10^th house, or prize for Romney will be the 4^th, not the 10^th. Here we have Cancer on the cusp of the 4^th, and ruler, Moon on that remove of head’s Algol, and heading towards the South Node. One debate does not an election make.

While most everybody in the media has been down playing the problems at Goldman Sachs, recently, big changes are coming up in their future. Why, one of the ways in which we look into the future of any given companies stock by a method known to astrologers as directing. After all just as people grow, so do charts. Companies have their ups and downs, and directing is one of the easiest way to see those fluctuations in fortune.

There are several different kinds of directions, the one most utilized in the western tradition is called ‘secondary progression.’ When we direct This method takes the planets and luminaries and projects them forward in the sign they are in symbolically. In general, this moves the planets forward (or backwards) in general by ‘ephemeris’ time, which is approximately one day in the ephemeris is equal to one year in the life of the company.

In the situation we have with Goldman Sachs, we have a company that has had vigorous growth since the stock went public in 1999. Moving the Goldman’s stock (GS) forward by secondary direction, we see that the Moon has just come to the same degree as the Sun. Whenever the Moon and the Sun are one in real life, we call a ‘new Moon.’ The reason we call it a ‘new’ Moon is because it is the start of the lunar month. If you watch what takes place at this time, all the old business from last month comes to an end, and brand new focus takes place. The first sighting of the New Moon was so important to the ancients that 1st century CE astrologer, Al-Biruni tells us that the ancient Jews who would send forth their swiftest warriors to the mountain peaks, where they were instructed to build a fire at the very first second that they saw the tiny crescent of the New Moon. This is because our script changes, every time that the Sun and Moon are one, every month.

Because the directed Moon moves so slowly, the coming together of the Sun and Moon is a rare event in a stock’s life, taking place but once every 27 years. When this happens, as it with GS, sweeping changes take place, which set the stage for almost the next decade.  Goldman is going to see heads roll because the coming together of Sun and Moon took place on the dreaded fixed star, Algol, who represents the severed head of the Medusa. It is an indication that it will be hard for GS to get away with the ABACUS scandal as easily as it was able to cover its bad bets back in 2008.

This coming together of the Moon and the Sun is all the more poignant because the sign Cancer is rising on the eastern horizon. This makes the Moon the landlord, so to speak, of the chart. We see the Moon in the main or natal chart is in the devil may care sign of Sagittarius. This sign has a great deal to do with gambling and taking risks of all kinds. This is not surprising given the nature of this company, which is known to create and bet on all kinds of financial instruments. There is nothing controversial about an investment bank taking risks. However, legal problems arise because in the case of GS, it appears that the government, bailed this company out, using taxpayer money to cover for bets that appear that the risk was not fully disclosed to the potential investor.

The investor is the person that the company sells the stock to. This would be the 7th house. Notice when the Moon is in the 6th house, it subverts the customer, because it stands behind the customer, like a predator in the house of self undoing to the potential investor.

With Capricorn on setting in the west, the people who are sold financial instruments will be represented by Saturn. Now, a real problem arises for any potential investor because when we look at the condition of their representative, we see that potential customers are at a great disadvantage because they are not getting the full picture about the risks that they are about to take on because their rep is only 6 degrees shy of the Sun. When the symbolic client is too close to the Sun, they become blinded in the Sun’s glare. They are not given all the facts necessary to make a wise purchase. Even Lilly, made a misinformed decision when he went ahead and bought property, when his own symbolic ruler was in this state. In essence, when we see ruler of the 7th combust, clients get burned. In this case, they also get ‘taken to the cleaners’ given Mars opposition.

Management is full of hot air, promising one thing, and delivering another given Jupiter’s conjunction with Mercury in Aries. Most the money to be made on this stock go to the upper echelon. However, big changes are coming up at GS. Even though reporting huge profits for this quarter, the stock went down. Allegations of fraud are being played down by a complacent media. However, one cannot fool Mother Nature. Given Venus’ placement by direction, this is not GS’s death knell by any means.   Even if the SEC suit turns out to be a slap on the wrist, by Summer, we may see some top heads roll. Will one of those heads be CEO Lloyd Blankfein (born September 20 1954 NYC)?

Stay tuned ….

The subject of the famous savant, Michel Nostradamus,  probably one of the greatest astrologers of all time,  recently came up on our traditional astrological mailing list, Angelicus Merlin:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/angelicusmerlin

As many know, he was one of the greatest physicians of his era. He was said to have healed so many people during the Black Plague that his work was brought to the attention of the king of France, who hired him to become the king’s personal physician. It was no surprise that many know of his predictions, but it was very surprising to find that so few astrologers also knew that like most doctors of his day, he was also an astrologer.

In a case of serendipity, the gifted Australian astrologers,  Silva and Anne Fryer, had only recently suggested we spend more time on missing item horary charts,  I thought it might be fun to share a missing item horary reading from the great astrologer, himself.

I thank Anton Grigoryev for sharing this horary with me, many years, ago. The astute will remember that the late Olivia Barclay shared this horary at UAC some years back. Those who attended my talk at the South Bay Astrological Society, may remember I presented this chart there, in 2007.

Where are the Missing Church Bells?

February 13 1562 (Gregorian)

Feb 3 (OS)

18h30m LMT* (I have changed the time from 18:30 in my copy of this chart so we can arrive at the same house cusps as the original).

Provence 44n00 5e00

scan of the original chart

Provence 44n00 5e00

Nostradamus Missing Church Bells

To my venerable Lords, Messiers, the Canons of the Cathedral Church of the most ancient city of Orange. Venerable Lords, with respect to your inquiry concerning the specificd and enumerated sacrilegious thefts, concerning theft and hoard hidden but not concealed.

“According to the astronomical figure drawn above, you will see fully that it shows that the theft of the sacred objects has been perpetrated with the collusion of two of your brothers of the Church. Indeed, ones who have previously extended to you private counsel on several occasions as to what has befallen your silver. One of them gave his opinion that ith ad been takend to Avignon, the other that it had been taken to some other place. Both were of the opinion that it had been sold, as indeed was their intention.

“Booty to be divided among canons who were at present like soldiers. This opinion was not rendered as good and godly and commendable. Several would not agree with it, although some were pleased, though in the end not agreed on one point or another. But all was halted as the silver was put in the house of one of your people and locked up; which was not done agreeably to some. One opinion held that it was necessary to melt it down into bars and sell it, storing it for the present in the home of one of them.

“Then two or three came forth to say that this could not possibly be for scarcely any length of time, since the Roman Church would be involved in the most sinister events. It was locked up, and although with but tow of them remaining of the opinion that it should be sold and melted down and plotting secretly with one another.

“There were only three, and they brothers of the Church, and they have ravished that which was without fault with the intention of stealing everything and not withouth the collusion of the custodian, for you entrusted the sheep to the wolf. As indeed Jesus Christ for some committed His flock to long plunderings of His Church, wlso under the shadow of faith and probity, as you have committed your silver, sacred and dedicated as it is to the sacred ornamentation of your temple, donated in ages past by Kings and Monarchs, Lordly Sovereigns of the earth as ttrue observers of the faith and religion.

“But note, my Venerable Lords, that unless by those of your company who were not without knowledge of the day and the night when the theft of the sacred objects was perpetrated there be restored and replaced in full what was stolen, not only in its place and into the hands of those entrusted with its custody, but also returned into the temple, remembering the silver chalice, there will full upon them the greatest misfortune that ever befell anyone, on them and their family; and furthermore, pestilence will approach yhour city and within its ramparts as great as ever covered your city or was contained within your walls, and let them not object to the above. Priests are like comrades of propitious gods.

“But they will see, as it is said, that God takes his vengeance on those who have profaned his Holy Temple and who have stolen what has in ages past was donated by the observers of the Christian religion.

“Therefore, let this letter of mine be read in the presence of your people; as if not; opened until all are present, and then without fail the faces of those in collusion will change with great shame and confusion that they will be unable to repress.

“Therefore, keep this my letter as a complete witness of the truth, time to come to bear witness to it, and rest assured, my venerable Lords, if that which was stolen is not brought back one way or another, that they will die the most miserable death, more lingering and more violent and mof more inconceivable intensity than ever before occurred unless everything is restored and replaced in its ancient repository, and thus you will find it to be.

“I am grieved that the sheep has been entrusted to the wolf, as much to take note of it as to devise what message to send about it.

“What I write you is according to astronomical judgment and, I protest lacking in offense to anyone in this world. I am human and can err, be wrong and be deceived; nevertheless, be there anyone in your city familiar with the astronomical doctrine extending to the judicial, by the figure let him judge if he understands not that my saying contains the truth.

“Have no fear whatever, sirs but that shortly all will be found, and that if it be not thus, rest assured that their unhappy destiny approaches for those who have perpetrated sacrilege by their execrable crime.

“Further, I cannot write you for the present. God watch over you and to restore you to your first state. Although there are several who would be displeased if they had to wear again the amice, several of them near you, and one there is who will not want to find himself accompanied by another of the same type. God guard you from evil. From Salon, this February, 1562.”

-M. Nostradamus, Salon de Crau Provence

If nothing else, this reading proves that Nostradamus was not only an astrologer,  but practiced horary astrology. I adjusted the time so that it could agree with the house cusps of Nostradumus. I wonder if it really was 6:50pm, after all, a 5 and a 3 look very similar, and can easily be mistaken for one another, with the fading and ink blurs of ancient documents.

One of the things I found interesting is that it is clear that Nostradamus is following the same tried and true horary principles in his work on the missing church bells.

Here we have 11 Virgo rising, so the querent, will be Mercury. Mercury is in the 5th house on the very last degree of Capricorn, and conjoined to, but separating from Venus. By this, double bodied planets on the cusp of the ASC, and the ruler with Venus, we know that more than one person asked this question, as we can see from Nostradamus’ reference to ‘messieurs/’ The the next thing that we notice is that he said contrary to what some had stated, the missing bells had not been moved but were still there. Notice the ruler of the 1st house, is with the ruler of the 2nd house, Venus. This is a sign that the missing objects were close to the seekers, perhaps so close that one of the querent’s might well have been the guilty party!

One of the things that is interesting is that although both luminaries were below the horizon, Nostradamus said that they would be found. This could be because the Moon is just a hair beyond the Sun, and will trine her dispositor, Saturn, in the Midheaven. Saturn, has a lot of strength in Libra, as the almuten of the 2nd. Another thing we might notice is that Nostradamus ignored this age old warning to the astrologer of a malefic in the 10th and the artist getting no credit for his or her work.

Unlike Lilly, Nostradamus was not afraid to point fingers. He came right out and said that the thieves were the clerics, themselves!! How did he come to this conclusion? Well, if we follow traditional methods, for finding the thief, we rule out Saturn. The first place we are told to look, when trying to catch a thief is peregrine planets in angles. The only planet in an angle is Saturn, and Saturn has strength by triplicity. The next place to look is the ruler of the 7th, and there we see, Pisces at its cusp, with Jupiter, known as the natural ruler of priests, in the house of priests, the 9th house. Albeit the house of far away, that they didn’t go anywhere could be because they are in the fixed and earthy sign Taurus. Notice that the Moon last squared Jupiter, from the 12th house of the 7th, perhaps the theft, itself?

I find it most interesting that Nostradamus said for them to read his letter to the entire populace and the thief will be found. We look and see ruler of the 3rd house of pronouncements, in the 9th house, and fallen, but notice that the Moon will be on its contrantiscion, and that Mars is also approaching a trine to the Part of Fortune in the first. Perhaps this is why Nostradamus suggested the public reading.

We will never know if the bells were found, but I bet they were!

Theres a natural mystic blowing through the air;

If you listen carefully now you will hear.

This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last:

Many more will have to suffer,

Many more will have to die – dont ask me why.

Things are not the way they used to be,

I wont tell no lie;

One and all have to face reality now.

though Ive tried to find the answer to all the questions they ask.

though I know its impossible to go livin through the past –

Dont tell no lie.

Theres a natural mystic blowing through the air –

Cant keep them down –

If you listen carefully now you will hear.

Theres a natural mystic blowing through the air.

The carnage has already begun. 19 souls are now dead and more than 200 are injured. Doctors without borders have dispersed throughout the city and are setting up filed hospitals in the various embassies throughout Tehran. The family of the former president Rafsanjani has been arrested. The action can be heard thanks to Twitter, and  Huffington Post which has a livef eed from of the action down in the streetss.from the Huffington Blog: (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html)

(continue reading…)

There’s a natural mystic

Blowin’ through the air.

If you listen carefully now you will hear

This could be the first trumpet

Might as well be the last.

Many more will have to suffer.

Many more will have to die.

Don’t ask me why.

Things are not the way they used to be

-Bob Marley

Algol is said to make us lose our heads over trivial matters. However, because the Medusa is binary and eclipsed, and sits in the last decante of Taurus, the most patient of signs, she sometimes looks the other way for too long. Then when she finally reacts, well, she can be likened to a pot of water left to boil for too long. First, it patiently bubbles. Then it stammers, steam protruding in all directions. Finally, the last drop of moisture evaporates, and the pot turns red hot, and bursts into flame. And the rest, is history!

(continue reading…)

Is there such a thing as coincidence? For as I try to make sense of, Algol, the always impeccable Thomas Decker has already done a magnificent job of the emotions simmering under the cool reserve our binary eclipsing, Algol:

“Algol is described by Ptolemy as having the nature of Saturn and Jupiter.
It is associated with uncontrolled emotion and violence through which the
native literally or figuratively loses his head. At first it seems curious that it
should be of the nature of Jupiter and Saturn. But if you meld the warmth
and expansiveness of Jupiter with the coldness and brittleness of Saturn you
have a noxious combination. You can imagine it this way:

” Suppose someone falls deeply in love, their heart expands and enfolds the
beloved with warmth and joy. But what happens if this love isn’t returned in
the way expected, or worse, appears to have been given to another? Then all
the joy and generosity bestowed upon the beloved becomes poisoned. The
bitter cold and above all jealous voice of Saturn turns the beloved into a
calculating and heartless creature full of deceit. Love becomes hatred and
fury and vindictiveness are now directed towards the ‘beloved directed
towards the ‘beloved’. All rational thought is put aside, one loses one’s head
with an emotional surge that strives to damage and hurt, cost what it will.
This is the stuff of tragedy and Shakespeare’s “Othello” comes to mind.”
More

I only wish that some day, I may learn to write with half the verve and just plain raw talent that Thomas Decker can summon. Thanks to his astute observations, we are reminded that Algol is not just a bloody killer, but also expansive and forgiving, ruled as she is by the magnanimous, Jupiter. It is this all inclusive, nature of Algol, before being ‘jilted’ that Thomas so exquisitely describes in his recent piece, that made me sit up and take notice. Here we see that our binary eclipsing star, is not just a shrew, out to kill, but also has an intriguing and magnetic side, a welcome side, that until Thomas’s apt description, I have never seen discussed, but in all the Algol personalities, I have had the good fortune to meet, I have seen this, what can I call it, but a gentleness, that is always magnetic, and sometimes, even charismatic.

It was Thomas’ recent piece on Algol that reminded me how differently the very same constellational degree of Taurus is treated in western tradition, as opposed to eastern. In the west, we tend to focus rather heavily upon the bloody severed head, in Perseus’ hand – in other words, here in our western paternalistic society, we only concentrate on Medussa’s negative qualities. Yet, had we grown up in the astrological tradition of the east, Jyotisa, if we saw this very same exact same place in for the Moon, we would rejoice! Indeed, where we in the west place a severed head, is the very same spot that the Indian Seers placed the most revered degree for the Moon, that of her exaltation. Since traditional Jyotisa is star based, Algol stays on this very spot through time.

Now how can this be? How can the two systems be so alike, yet so different when it comes to this spot in the zodiac? I can only offer my humble explanation.

Consider for a moment, just how mesmerizing beauty really is.

For example, when we see a beautiful woman go by, so often, a portion of our rational brain is stopped dead in its tracks as we stretch our necks to take in the sight. Maybe, before being cast into the heavens, Medusa was not ugly, but instead, was perhaps, extremely beautiful and alluring. Never forget, it was not the intelligence that launched 1000 ships. It was Helen’s beauty. What we might be forgetting in the west, what our paternalistic forefathers were intimidated by was this very powerful female magnetism that is so imbued in this portion of Taurus, that makes us lose our heads when those possessing this fixed star strongly in their chart cross our path.

Next, let’s ponder how rumors grow, over time, until eventually they give way to myth.

First there is the truth, that is, what ‘really happened. Then as time goes by, rumors foment, and truth becomes muddled in the pain and torment of rejection that Thomas Decker so aptly describes. Each time the story is told, it is dramatized, perhaps to engage the listener or to win a supporter, perhaps just to tell a good yarn. Eventually, instead of hearing what ‘really happened, as time goes on, reality becomes twisted and magnified into something hardly even resembling the actual course of events. What I am trying to say is a millennia or two is a very long time.

Maybe, just maybe, when our Algol myth was first born, instead being the ugliest of three horrid sisters, perhaps Medusa was, the both the most beautiful and the brightest woman of the realm. Perhaps it was this heady combination that intimidated the egocentric Perseus or perhaps she spurned his advances, and so he offered Medusa’s skull to his king as a wedding present? We shall never know, but one thing we do know is how drastically a story can veer from the truth in but a few short months. We can only imagine how much a story can change over the course of several thousand years.

With this in mind, I thought it would be interesting to present some charts of some Algol folks, we all know and love……

Our first example of the Medusa/Lunar Exaltation Degree in action (MLED), is in the chart of a woman who was not only known for both her beauty and brains, but one who was also a legend in her own time…..but alas, you will have to wait until morning, for Morpheus is calling me……