thelinksclan.myfastforum.org This forum is so the healers in The Linksclan International Healers Association can leave general informations/post healing requests ect if they wish
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:30 am Post subject: Astrology Know and heal thyself
Even if you do not believe in astrology you will find many words that are very much in sync with what is happening today.
Quote:
Special Note: There are so many profound Celestial Events taking place these days it is challenging to give them all proper voice. The events taking place in the Great Above help to inform us about what is taking place in the Great Below. When we remember we inform the mysteries as much as they inform us then we also remember it is helpful to know what these events are so we can more consciously participate in informing the unfolding mysteries through our intention and attention.
However, more important than knowing all the details of so many amazing events in a mental way is to take time to tune in and get your own guidance and sense of what these Times are about for you. Any one of the ways I am sharing with the Celestial Timings or ways others are sharing through their channeling and personal insights about these Celestial Events can be useful as a place to begin accessing our own conscious relationship with the incoming energies. It helps to remember that the mind can not know it all but we can feel into what is unfolding and trust our inner guidance is supporting us in successfully navigating these rapidly growing, changing, evolving times even if it doesn’t always appear that way on the surface. It is important to find your own tools and your own way through these times, however I will share that some of the best navigational tools I am finding include self-forgiveness, self-love, loving kindness and compassion for our transformational journey.
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 9:46 pm Post subject: Astrology in General
My apologies for anyone who may have been interested in the shasmanic
astrology liink.
I managed to get caught up in the net work and noticed that the website changed and is no longer free from the fair lady.
Here are 2 great links.
There are connections between the two.
Astrodienst free charting:
[url] www.astro.com
After free sign up
Be certain to click on the Free horoscopes on the top.
A bit of a hint for those that are not familiar with astrology.
To correctly derive at the first house ,
one must have birth time within 2 hours.
Remember to read your first house (rising sign ) .
This is how the charting is done.
Otherwise none of it will connect.
Happy Connections! [/url] _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Last edited by Pat on Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 11:25 am Post subject: Lunner Planner.. It takes two
From
Nick Anthony Fiorenza
Personal Permission to post and copy [quote]
Astronomical Myth is a "picture language," imagery that articulates the qualities of cosmic intelligence expressing throughout the greater heavens and through our lives. We are not separate from the greater heavens, from the stars and planets around us, or from our beloved Earth, but are intimate parts of this dynamic, continually unfolding heavenly symphony. This entirety is our cosmic consciousness, the totality of our being. To explore the greater heavens and the heavenly cycles is to explore that which we are--our embracing consciousness and our spiritual evolution.
[url]http://www.lunarplanner.com/LunarMonths2006/lunarmonth.06.06.25.html _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Reveiw your birth chart and see what" sign" is in your first house.
Example:
Leo in the first house .
What planet is in Leo now
Example:
Saturn is in Leo now.
Seems to be effecting many on a personal level especially those that
have Leo in 1st house (ascendant)
Saturn is a planet of restrictions and or Karma.
Then there will be the explanation of what it means
to have that planet in that" sign."
Note:
Another planet is in Leo now and that is Mars.
Mars being a fire sign and represents aggression .
For those that do not understand astrology and how it operates..
it is best just to start with learning about the "self" or ascendant or first house. All mean one and the same.
[/url] _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 7:32 am Post subject: Carl Jung -via Wekipedia
A real favorite of mine!
Quote:
Jung's unique and broadly influential approach to psychology emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Though not the first to analyze dreams, he has become perhaps the most well known pioneer in the field of dream analysis. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician for most of his life, much of his life's work was spent exploring other realms: Eastern vs. Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung also emphasized the importance of balance. He cautioned that modern humans rely too heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious realm. Interestingly, Jungian ideas are not typically included in curriculum of most major universities' psychology departments, but are occasionally explored in humanities departments.
Many pioneering psychological concepts were originally proposed by Jung. Some of these are:
The Archetype
The Collective Unconscious
The Complex
Synchronicity
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 7:03 am Post subject: August 20056 Free Celestial Timings
Permisssion granted by Ms. Cayelin K. Castell to copy and post this months email.
Happy Lammas August Cross-Quarter
I did not have a volunteer step forth to write the August Celestial Timings but the good news is I do have volunteers lined up for the rest of the year. I am including a planetary data table and the first week of the daily Celestial Timings I wrote that are available by subscription on my new websitewww.CelestialTimings.com If you would like to receive the rest of the Celestial Timings I wrote and are not yet a paid subscriber please visit my new website to sign up through PayPal or you can send a check for $24.00 made out to Celestial Timings and send it to Sky Dancer Enterprises, PO BOX 91451, Tucson, AZ 85752. If you have sent a subscription and do not receive the email with the password to retrieve them off the new website by end of day August 1 let me know and I will resend that information. If you sent a check within the last few days it is likely it has not yet been received as my mail is currently being forwarded to Wisconsin where I am spending the summer. I will send the August Timings information as soon as the subscription information arrives either through PayPal or by check.
Aug 1, 2006 Moon moves into Scorpio
Aug 02, 2006 First Quarter Moon - Scorpio 1:46 am PDT
Aug 04, 2006 Moon occultation of Antares
Aug 05, 2006 Moon conjunct Pluto (24 Sag)
Aug 06, 2006 Mercury 9° south of Pollux and conjunct Procyon as Mercury reaches greatest western elongation (19°) from the Sun on the Eastern horizon before Sunrise.
Aug 07, 2006 Sun conjunct Saturn 15 Leo at the Cross-Quarter between June Solstice and Sep Equinox
Aug 08, 2006 Venus 7° south of Pollux also conjunct Procyon
Aug 09, 2006 Full Moon conjunct Neptune 17 Aquarius
Aug 10, 2006 Mercury moves into Leo and Sun opposite retrograde Neptune 18 Aquarius
Aug 11, 2006 Moon conjunct Uranus 12 Pisces
Aug 12, 2006 Venus moves into Leo
Aug 13, 2006 Mars (12 Virgo) opposite retrograde Uranus (12 Pisces)
Aug 14, 2006 Moon moves into Taurus
Aug 15, 2006 Last Quarter Moon 23 Taurus
Aug 16, 2006 Sun (24 Leo) trines Pluto (24 Sag)
Aug 17, 2006 Begin the Lunar Standstill window at the Galactic Edge
Aug 18, 2006 Mercury (12 Leo) square Jupiter 12 Scorpio and Moon at exact Galactic Edge
Aug 20, 2006 Mercury conjunct Saturn (16 Leo) & opposite Neptune
Aug 21, 2006 Mercury (18 Leo) opposite Neptune (18 Aquarius)
Aug 22, 2006 Moon conjunct Saturn (17 Leo), Venus (12 Leo) square Jupiter (12 Scorpio) Sun moves into Virgo
Aug 23, 2006 New Moon 1 Virgo
Aug 24, 2006 Mercury (24 Leo) trine retrograde Pluto (24 Sag)
Aug 25, 2006 Venus conjunct Saturn (17 Leo) A.M. sky
Aug 26, 2006 Venus conjunct Saturn (17 Leo)
Aug 27, 2006 Venus (17 Leo) opposition retrograde Neptune (17 Aquarius) Mercury moves into Virgo
Aug 28, 2006 Moon moves into Scorpio
Aug 29, 2006 Moon conjunct Jupiter (13 Scorpio) Mars (24 Leo) square Pluto (24 Sag)
Aug 30, 2006 Jupiter (13 Scorpio) near Zuben Algenubi
Aug 31, 2006 Sun conjunct Mercury (8 Virgo) Saturn (17 Leo) opposition retrograde Neptune (17 Aquarius)
August 2006 Celestial Timings
By Cayelin K. Castell
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you;
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want;
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.
- Rumi
The Lunar Standstill At Callanish
July 9, 2006 Full Moon Rise at Callanish, Isle of Lewis, Scotland
Behind a dense cloud bank the Full Moon rose over the mountain known to the locals as ‘sleeping beauty’ or ‘the old woman of the moors” or a Celtic goddess known as Callieach. The Moon remained veiled much of the night. However, there were several brief glimpses of the Moon some occurring before the Moon had traversed all of Callieach’s body. The huge glowing golden orb of the Moon appeared, disappeared and reappeared each time a little further along her body. Then we were blessed with a longer view before the Moon disappeared into a dense cloudbank not to be seen again for the rest of the night. However, we did get to see the Moon long enough to get a clear sense of how the Moon walks on the land.
We were so very blessed and lucky to see as much as we did even though we had all hoped to see so much more. Callanish resident Ron Curtis, long time resident and researcher of the stones along with his wife Margaret Curtis, said the clouds have obscured any good viewing of the Moon Walk over the past few years and the past year especially. He blamed it on global warming and the shift in weather patterns that have changed so much in the last 19 years since the last Lunar Standstill that was visible in 1987.
Ron’s words gave me an immediate sense that the weather patterns of continual rain and clouds on the Isle of Lewis and droughts elsewhere in Scotland and the fact that the magic of the Moon Walk is being obscured for all who come to see it is a very strong warning that we as citizens of planet Earth need to wake up to our global climate crisis before its too late.
Consider that ancient people were so captivated by the magic of the Moon Walk they build these massive megalithic sites primarily to track this phenomenon. The knowledge they had, demonstrated through their attention to the tiniest details, is staggering, far outstripping our ability to create anything like it today. It was through their visual connection with the Moon Walk that they received the direct life changing transmissions occurring during the Lunar Standstill. To be a visual conscious witness to the magnificence of the magical relationship between land and sky is forever life changing. What little we did see of the Moon Walk that night at the main Callanish site impacted everyone in our group and I suspect on all those who gathered there from around the world. And for now we can only image what kind of magnified impact the entire Lunar Standstill has when it can be visually witnessed in its entirety.
Synchronistically as is the way of these times, upon returning from Scotland, I had the chance to see Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth bringing home the reality of the impact of Global Warming on our planet. Indeed, he showed the challenges of places drenched in rain and flooding while other places are suffering from severe drought and feminine.
I encourage everyone to see this movie if you haven’t seen it yet. Our life on Earth now depends on as many people as possible waking up and immediately taking action to become the solution rather than adding further to the problem. Meanwhile regardless of whether or not you have seen the movie or not here are two websites that have all kinds of information about what we can do to be the solution… www.climatecrisis.net and www.stopglobalwarming.org I am also adding many of the tips listed on these websites at the end of this month’s Celestial Timings. A saying I remember when I was growing up that fits this time is “Green Trees Make a Green Forest!” If each of us does our part then we can change the tide of global warming that is destroying our ability to live on this earth. However, time is running out and we must choose to take decisive, responsible, and inspired action today before it is too late.
Aug 1, Tuesday. We are entering the time of the August Cross Quarter that occurs astrologically on Aug 7 when the Sun reaches 15 degrees Leo the half way point between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox. In the Christian Calendar today is known as Lammas and in the Celtic Calendar was celebrated as Lughnassadh (pronounced Loo-nuh-suh) a time of harvest and victory. Lughnassadh was the first of three harvest festivals celebrating the plentiful ripening grain and the prosperity of the land and people. The Christian religion adopted this celebration and called it 'Lammas', meaning 'loaf-mass', the day the first fruits of the harvest were offered and newly baked loaves of bread were placed on the altar. (See Aug 2003 Celestial Timings Archives
http://www.shamanicastrology.com/celestial_timings_archives_2003.htm ).
This month begins with Jupiter (10 Scorpio) nearly exactly square the Sun (9 Leo) and square Chiron (7 Aquarius). The Moon joins Jupiter tomorrow (though visually very near Jupiter tonight) forming aspects with both the Sun and Chiron. The Moon is a catalyst to these forming energies especially when we are acting through passionate aliveness and the willingness to live beyond our current edges. Many have felt stretched far past any familiar edges in recent months, facilitating deep inner and outer changes giving us opportunities to expand and grow beyond previously known territory. All unresolved shadow issues will continue surfacing for acknowledgment and loving release. Denial becomes more and more painful to continue as we are being called to release it through acceptance and forgiveness.
Aug 2, Wednesday. Cartago, Costa Rica celebrates this cross-quarter timing on August 2. This is when La Negrita is honored and celebrated. La Negrita is a small Black Virgin statue found by a young girl in 1635. The statue demonstrated magical powers by always mysteriously returning to the spot where it was first found. It was decided a church should be built on the spot and that is where La Negrita resides to this day. On August 2, Pilgrims from all over Central America journey to honor her. http://www.isls.com/costarica/destination/cartago.html
Also today the first quarter Scorpio Moon (10 Scorpio) is conjunct Jupiter accelerating the effect of the Sun (10 Leo) Jupiter (10 Scorpio) Square. The Sun fuels and nourishes life. However, too much Sun scorches the Earth and destroys life and too little Sun prevents life from growing and flourishing. (See this month’s intro on Global Warming) When aspecting the Sun, Jupiter has the potential to be even more inspiring and expansive than usual. The challenge is to be alert to a tendency towards overexpansion, overdoing, overconfidence, overload and even over-optimism that is too idealistic or ungrounded. It is just as much of a problem to have too much of something as not enough and is ultimately not supportive to a practically embodied growth experience. This timing requires us to look at how to balance these energies. It may help to notice where you feel inspired and then act with wisdom and self-assurance to ground these intense light energies in ways that are beneficial and supportive.
Aug 3, Thursday. The waxing Moon enters Sagittarius this afternoon and is visible approaching the fixed star Antares tonight remaining in the Sagittarius domain until late on Aug 5. When it is healthy, the Sagittarian Quest for Truth recognizes that truth is a growing evolving experience. As our understanding of quantum physics and other sciences grows so does our understanding of how the universe works. This is not simply a cause and effect world as was once believed just as the world is not flat as was once believed also. Movies like What The Bleep Do We Know invite us to ponder how the truth of our reality at any given time is very much based on our beliefs. The movie describes how the native island people could not see the huge sailing ships when Columbus first arrived at their shores because it wasn’t part of their known reality, yet the truth of the ships existed though it took time for the native people to shift their perception enough to be able to see them.
Niels Bohr, known for his investigations of atomic structure and radiation winning him the 1922 Nobel Prize for physics, had this to say about truth.
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
So what is truly true??? What is the truth of our reality in this world of duality and polarity and how is that truth growing, changing, and evolving? Are we willing to release old outmoded beliefs in order to experience new realities based in new experiences of the truth? Is what we know to be true right now really the truth or some shadow of a yet deeper more expanded truth yet to be further revealed and understood?
Aug 4, Friday. The three-day Lunar Standstill window begins today as the Moon travels through mid to late degrees of Sagittarius. (See June and July Celestial Timings archives www.celestialtimings.com and the Lunar Standstill article on articles page of www.shamanicastrology.com)
The ‘out of bounds’ Moon challenges us to look at the truth of our reality especially what is shifting and changing outside the boundaries of what we consider standard life experience. As the Moon journeys through the Lunar Standstill extreme crossing over Galactic Center our attention is drawn to the possibilities of what this all means? When we are imaging the energy codes coming toward Earth producing maximum beneficial evolutionary results for all life on Earth while releasing our attachments to what that might look like we then are acting as co-creators and conscious participants in the current unfolding mysteries.
(See Aug 5 and the Introduction June 2006 and July 8, 2006 Celestial Timings Archives)
Aug 5, Saturday. The Moon is rising and setting at its most southern extreme today and conjuncts Pluto (24 Sagittarius) before moving into Capricorn across Galactic Center also known to the Mayans as Hunab Ku. The Mayans considered Hunab Ku to be the ultimate creator and conscious principle that organizes all matter in the manifest creation. The Mayas also felt that Hunab Ku or Galactic Center constantly gives birth to new stars and planets as well as being the portal or gateway to other galaxies beyond ours and that everything that happens in our Galaxy comes from the center through cyclical energy waves or bursts. As confirmation, scientists are now concluding that Galactic Center is not only consuming huge amounts of matter but it is also giving birth to stars etc. as well. http://www.aztlan.net/rumblings_center_galaxy.htm
Remarkably this is the year of Pluto’s exact alignment with the galactic core (for the first time in 248 years) and this year is the center point of the Moon’s 19-year lunar extreme. This means the Moon is passing furthest south of the ecliptic while in Sagittarius and Capricorn in its 19-year cycle causing it to actually cross directly over galactic center once each month for all of 2006 and 2007. When we consider how the center of the galaxy influences our evolutionary experience in general and then we add Pluto’s alignment in the time of the Lunar Standstill along with the Sun’s passage here at the December Solstice (something that can only happen for a period of time during a 26,000 year cycle) we know there is a huge activation occurring in the harmonic calibration of our galactic source through our space-time-grid experience.
Aug 6, Sunday. Still within the window of the Lunar Standstill and entering the window of the August Astrological cross-quarter the Sun (14 Leo) is just about conjunct Saturn (14Leo45) and will be exact in the early morning hours tomorrow. The Sun is illuminating and energizing Saturn qualities that assure success when we are focused in a good way on creating a healthy reality. The most effective key to this is through actively practicing self-forgiveness.
I forgive myself for all the ways I have not truly loved myself, forgiven myself, and approved of myself or others. I forgive myself for believing family, friends, spiritual teachers, and significant others, know more about what I should or should not do to live a fulfilled life. I forgive myself for placing my power, to know myself and what my needs and desires are for living a magical life, outside myself.
Aug 7, Monday. The Cross Quarter is exact today as both Saturn and the Sun reach 15 Leo or the exact halfway point between the June Solstice and September Equinox. The days are growing shorter, though still longer than the nights, and Autumn is just around the corner. In ancient times the cross-quarter dates between the equinoxes and solstices were celebrated as the “border time” or in-between time, the mid-point in-between two seasons and was a time for gaining insight and/or inspiration beyond the limits of ordinary time. Utilizing this time for divination, meditation or other forms of guidance is especially effective now in helping to further assimilate all the Harmonic Galactic Vibrational Shifts now in process. The Sun Saturn conjunction at this in-between time suggests another potent timing for doing a forgiveness/self-forgiveness kind of ceremony for the purpose of further structuring the principles of self-love and self-acceptance into practical reality.
I totally and completely love and accept myself even though I am still learning to forgive myself and others for all the wrongs and hurts and fears I have experienced.
Aug 8, Tuesday. 2006 is an 8 year numerological so today’s date adds up to 8/8/8. In August 2004 Celestial Timings information was available about the 8/8 Lion’s Gate on Gillian MacBeth-Louthan’s website the quantumawakening.com. At that time Gillian shared about the awakening cellular record held within a crystalline structure that exists in our DNA codes located in our Pineal Gland. This awakening is in part due to the quickening of time as we move into unknown territory beyond what the ancient Atlanteans or Lemurians had accomplished. This is another potent ceremonial window that can be utilized working with the power of the triple 8 and the approaching Aquarius Full Moon exact tomorrow within the window of the cross-quarter that was exact yesterday. The Fullest rise of the Moon is tonight (around 7 or 8 pm local time depending on your time zone and horizon line) having already begun to wane by tomorrow’s Moon rise about a half hour to 45 minutes later than tonight’s Moon rise.
This Aquarian Moon energy is transmitting the mysteries of the cosmic revolutionary, whose intent is to ultimately revolutionize conscious awareness through the living expressed truth of our divinity. Aquarius pushes for cathartic, liberating, evolutionary change and with the Moon passing by Chiron and Neptune with the Sun still within one degree of Saturn at this cross-quarter in-between the worlds time unexpected events beyond our current imaging are quite possible. The intended gift of whatever events are transpiring now is to assist in breaking out of old limiting patterns to break through to greater freedom of being.
For the rest of Cayelin's July Timings see subscription information above.
Some simple things you can do to help reduce Global Warming
For more information visit www.climatecrisis.net
Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. If every family in the U.S. made the switch, we’d reduce carbon dioxide by more than 90 billion pounds! You can purchase CFLs online from the Energy Federation.
Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer
Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has more tips for saving energy on heating and cooling.
Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Install a programmable thermostat
Programmable thermostats will automatically lower the heat or air conditioning at night and raise them again in the morning. They can save you $100 a year on your energy bill.
Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to choose the most efficient models. If each household in the U.S. replaced its existing appliances with the most efficient models available, we’d eliminate 175 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year!
Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
You’ll save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple action. You can save another 550 pounds per year by setting the thermostat no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.
Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes for 6 months out of the year.
Turn off electronic devices you’re not using
Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them
Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year!
Invest In Companies Who Practice Environmental Ethics
If you invest your money, you should consider the impact that your investments and savings will have on global warming. You can learn more about how to ensure your money is being invested in companies, products and projects that address issues related to climate change http://www.socialinvest.org and http://www.ceres.org
Make your city cool
Cities and states around the country have taken action to stop global warming by passing innovative transportation and energy saving legislation. 194 cities nationwide representing over 40 million people have made this pledge as part of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/mayor/climate.
Tell Congress to act
The McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act would set a firm limit on carbon dioxide emissions and then use free market incentives to lower costs, promote efficiency and spur innovation. Tell your representative to support it. http://actionnetwork.org/campaign...tion?qp_source=undo1&linkID=3
Make sure your voice is heard!
We must have a stronger commitment from our government in order to stop global warming and implement solutions and such a commitment won’t come without a dramatic increase in citizen lobbying for new laws with teeth. Get the facts about U.S. politicians and candidates at Project Vote Smart and The League of Conservation Voters. Make sure your voice is heard by voting! The league of conservation voters http://www.lcv.org/scorecard and
http://www.vote-smart.org/program_about_pvs.php
Buy locally grown and produced foods
The average meal in the United States travels 1,200 miles from the farm to your plate. Buying locally will save fuel and keep money in your community.
Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.
Seek out and support local farmers markets
They reduce the amount of energy required to grow and transport the food to you by one fifth. You can find a farmer’s market in your area at the USDA website.
Buy organic foods as much as possible
Organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from conventional farms. If we grew all of our corn and soybeans organically, we’d remove 580 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!
Avoid heavily packaged products
You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.
Eat less meat
Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.
REDUCE YOUR IMPACT WHILE ON THE MOVE
Almost one third of the carbon dioxide produced in the United States comes from our cars, trucks and airplanes. Here are some simple, practical things you can do to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide you produce while on the move.
Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible
Avoiding just 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year!
Start a carpool with your coworkers or classmates
Sharing a ride with someone just 2 days a week will reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds a year. eRideShare.com runs a free national service connecting commuters and travelers.
Keep your car tuned up
Regular maintenance helps improve fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. When just 1% of car owners properly maintain their cars, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere.
Check your tires weekly to make sure they’re properly inflated. Proper inflation can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Since every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, every increase in fuel efficiency makes a difference!
When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel-efficient vehicle
You can save 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year if your new car gets only 3 miles per gallon more than your current one. You can get up to 60 miles per gallon with a hybrid! You can find information on fuel efficiency by visiting http://www.fueleconomy.gov and http://www.greencars.com/
Try car sharing
Need a car but don’t want to buy one? Community car sharing organizations provide access to a car and your membership fee covers gas, maintenance and insurance. Many companies – such as Flexcar -- offer low emission or hybrid cars too!
Try telecommuting from home
Telecommuting can help you drastically reduce the number of miles you drive every week. For more information, check out the Telework Coalition.
Join the virtual march
The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is a non-political effort to bring all Americans concerned about global warming together in one place. Add your voice to the hundreds of thousands of other Americans urging action on this issue.
Cayelin K. Castell is available for personal readings in-person or by phone 520-744-6923 or email
News and Upcoming Events:
Sep 13 - 17, 2006 Sedona, Arizona Mandala Of Wholeness Sacred Marriage. Shamanic Breathwork and Shamanic Astrology Workshop with Daniel Giamario and Kate McKee. Call Jo Garceau for questions or to register 971-645-8099 or 503-668-4807. Cost $490 for individuals or $875 for couples includes Vegan Breakfast.
September 21-24, 2006 Fishlake Valley, Nevada Featuring 29 degree Virgo New Moon Annular Solar Eclipse and Venus (20 Virgo) at the Eighth Gate the morning of Sep 21. Shamanic Astrology Autumnal Equinox Night Sky Wilderness Camp with optional Sep 25 date for extended Vision Quest conducted at the ancient petroglyph mystery school with Daniel Giamario, Cayelin Castell, and the Shamanic Astrology staff. details Call Daniel's voice mail at 503-430-1836 or (310) 281-7651 to register.
Oct 11-15, 2006 Yachats, Oregon at Oregon House Note Location Change... Chart Analysis Intensive - Shamanic Timeline, Initiation Cycles and Planetary Complexes track with Daniel Giamario and Cayelin Castell. This in depth intensive teaches the most important tools of Shamanic Astrology and is a required course for those in the Shamanic Astrology Apprenticeship program. To register contact Cayelin Castell at 520-744-6923 or Daniel Giamario at 503-430-1836. Details
May 5 -9, 2007 Southwest New Mexico at Faywood Hot Springs between Silver City and Deming, New Mexico Beltane Cross-Quarter Celebration Night Sky Track with Daniel Giamario, Cayelin K. Castell and Shamanic Astrology Staff. Contact Carolyn (520) 744-6923 or email Cayelin Castell or Daniel. Counts as credit for Night Sky Track of Shamanic Astrology Certification Program. Details
Disclaimer...The Celestial Timings and the Shamanic Astrology Website is not responsible for the content of links to external internet sites and does not necessarily endorse all the views of any author, person, or organization in particular. Links are provided as a way to acknowledge where information is coming from whenever possible, so each individual can further investigate the information or quotes provided for their own assessment.
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Miracles come from your love... They are synchronistic events that usually occur when you let go of attachment and trust your inner guidance... -- Sanaya Roman - Creating Money _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:47 am Post subject: Carl G. Jung quotes on Astrology
Quote:
We are born at a given moment in a given place and like vintage years of wine we have the qualities of the year and of the season in which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything else. - C.G.Jung
Astrology is one of the intuitive methods like the I Ching, geomantics, and other divinatory procedures. It is based upon the synchronicity principle, i.e. meaningful coincidence. ... Astrology is a naively projected psychology in which the different attitudes and temperaments of man are represented as gods and identified with planets and zodiacal constellations. - Carl Gustav Jung
The starry vault of heaven is in truth the open book of cosmic projection, in which are reflected the mythologems, i.e., the archetypes. In this vision astrology and alchemy, the two classical functionaries of the psychology of the collective unconscious, join hands. - Carl .G. Jung
Astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call projected - this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations. This originally gave rise to the idea that these factors derive from the stars, whereas they are merely in a relation of synchronicity with them. I admit that this is a very curious fact which throws a peculiar light on the structure of the human mind. .... Carl G. Jung in 1947 in a letter to prof. B.V. Raman
So far as the personality is still potential, it can be called transcendent, and so far as it is unconscious, it is indistinguishable from all those things that carry its projections...[that is,] symbols of the outside world and the cosmic symbols. These form the psychological basis for the conception of man as a macrocosm through the astrological components of his character. - Carl G. Jung
Astrologers are influenced by theosophy, so they say, "That is very simple, it is just vibration!" ... But what is vibration? They say it is light energy, perhaps electricity, they are not quite informed. At all events the vibrations that could influence us have never been seen, so it remains just a word. - Carl G. Jung in 1929
Our modern science begins with astronomy. Instead of saying that man was led by psychological motives, they formerly said he was led by his stars. ... The puzzling thing is that there is really a curious coincidence between astrological and psychological facts, so that one can isolate time from the characteristics of an individual, and also, one can deduce characteristics from a certain time. Therefore we have to conclude that what we call psychological motives are in a way identical with star positions. Since we cannot demonstrate this, we must form a peculiar hypothesis. This hypothesis says that the dynamics of our psyche is not just identical with the position of the stars, nor has it to do with vibrations - that is an illegitimate hypothesis. It is better to assume that i is a phenomenon of time. ... The stars are simply used by man to serve as indicators of time... - Carl G. Jung in 1929
The collective unconscious...appears to consist of mythological motifs or primordial images, for which reason the myths of all nations are its real exponents. In fact the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort of projection of the collective unconscious. We can see this most clearly if we look at the heavenly constellations, whose originally chaotic forms are organized through the projection of images. This explains the influence of the stars as asserted by astrologers. These influences are nothing but unconscious, introspective perceptions of the collective unconscious. - Carl G. Jung
Synchronicity does not admit causality in the analogy between terrestrial events and astrological constellations ... What astrology can establish are the analogous events, but not that either series is the cause or the effect of the other. (For instance, the same constellation may at one time signify a catastrophe and at another time, in the same case, a cold in the head.) ... In any case, astrology occupies a unique and special position among the intuitive methods... I have observed many cases where a well-defined psychological phase, or an analogous event, was accompanied by a transit (particularly when Saturn and Uranus were affected). - Carl G. Jung
Obviously astrology has much to offer psychology, but what the latter can offer its elder sister is less evident. So far as I judge, it would seem to me advantageous for astrology to take the existence of psychology into account, above all the psychology of the personality and of the unconscious. - Carl G. Jung
It is indeed very difficult to explain the astrological phenomenon. I am not in the least disposed to an either-or explanation. I always say that with a psychological explanation there is only the alternative: either and or! This seems to me to be the case with astrology too. - Carl G. Jung in a letter to Hans Bender, April 10, 1958, Carl G. Jung Letters, Volume 2, 1951-1961, p. 428.
The truth is that astrology flourishes as never before. There is a regular library of astrological books and magazines that sell for far better than the best scientific works. The Europeans and Americans who have horoscopes cast for them may be counted not by the hundred thousand but by the million. Astrology is a flourishing industry. ... If such a large percentage of the population has an insatiable need for this counter pole to the scientific spirit, we can be sure that the collective psyche in every individual - be he never so scientific - has this psychological requirement in equally high degree. A certain kind of "scientific" scepticism and criticism in our time is nothing but a misplaced compensation of the powerful and deep-rooted superstitious impulses of the collective psyche. - C.G. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology
While studying astrology I have applied it to concrete cases many times. ... The experiment is most suggestive to a versatile mind, unreliable in the hands of the unimaginative, and dangerous in the hands of a fool, as those intuitive methods always are. If intelligently used the experiment is useful in cases where it is a matter of an opaque structure. It often provides surprising insights. The most definite limit of the experiment is lack of intelligence and literal-mindedness of the observer. ... Undoubtedly astrology today is flourishing as never before in the past, but it is still most unsatisfactorily explored despite very frequent use. It is an apt tool only when used intelligently. It is not at all foolproof and when used by a rationalistic and narrow mind it is a definite nuisance. - C. G. Jung: Letters, volume 2, 1951-1961, pages 463-464, letter to Robert L. Kroon, 15 November 1958
Astrology is knocking at the gates of our universities: A Tübingen professor has switched over to astrology and a course on astrology was given at Cardiff University last year. Astrology is not mere superstition but contains some psychological facts (like theosophy) which are of considerable importance. Astrology has actually nothing to do with the stars but is the 5000-year-old psychology of antiquity and the Middle Ages. - C.G. Jung in a letter to L. Oswald on December 8, 1928, in Carl G. Jung, Letters, vol. 1, 1973
Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 10:29 am Post subject: Key Life Planets Part 1
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THERE ARE two kinds of astrological transits, or personal planetary events: the kind that are specific to certain individuals because of how their chart is set up; and the kind that affect large swaths of the population based on the year of birth. Strangely enough, the ones that affect entire sub-generations are no less intense, interesting or meaningful than the ones that are highly specific to an individual.
[url]
http://planetwavesweekly.com/dadatemp/20060217xx.html
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_________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Saturn Return: The Twenty-Ninth Year
By Skye Alexander
Many of us approach our thirtieth birthdays with anxiety, even dread. We start looking for gray hairs and paying attention to ads for wrinkle creams. We question whether we are climbing the career ladder quickly enough. We hear the biological clock ticking loudly and worry that soon we will be too old to bear children.
Astrologers call the period between ages twenty-eight and thirty "Saturn Return." That's because it's the first time the planet Saturn completes its cycle through your birth chart and returns to the spot it occupied when you were born. Internationally respected astrologer Rob Hand calls Saturn Return "one of the most important times in your life. . . a time of endings and new beginnings."
For most of us, ending a phase of life that is familiar and embarking on one that is new and untried is unsettling, even painful. Few people describe Saturn Return as a pleasant period. While undergoing your Saturn Return you may find yourself turning inward and reflecting on your individual destiny. You examine your true needs and desires and the role you want to play on the world's stage. You may feel lonely and alienated from those around you, while family and friends think you are shutting them out. But this is a necessary period of consolidation, when you must retreat from the distractions of the outer world and focus on yourself at your most fundamental level. The Saturn Return is every individual's search for the Holy Grail.
Coming of Age
The first Saturn Return marks the end of youth and the beginning of the productive adult years. It is now that you truly become an adult--not at eighteen or twenty-one. You realize your need to define yourself as an individual within society and to demonstrate what you've learned. Newswoman Jane Pauley described turning thirty as having grown into womanhood. German film director Werner Herzog compared this period in his life with a maiden's loss of virginity, a line drawn across his path marking the end of his youth.
This transition into adulthood is often accompanied by a sense of urgency, a feeling that you must try to accomplish everything you've ever wanted or planned to do now. Goals start to come sharply into focus. If you have not settled into a definite career, or have been pursuing one that is inappropriate for you, you'll experience a strong push to establish yourself in a more fulfilling occupation. Sometimes this means a complete change. During his first Saturn Return Vincent Van Gogh decided to be a painter rather than a minister. More frequently it means a new direction or specialization within your chosen field.
If you have been building steadily toward a goal that's right for you, Saturn Return can be a time of achievement and rewards. Your labors bear fruit. Runner Bill Rodgers' Saturn Return marked the first of three consecutive Boston Marathon wins. William Faulkner published his first novel at age twenty-nine.
According to California astrologer Stephen Arroyo, author of Astrology, Karma and Transformation, "The quality of the entire experience and the extent to which it is felt to be a 'difficult' time depends entirely on how one has lived during the previous twenty-nine years." If you have been pursuing an unsuitable vocation or merely fulfilling someone else's expectations, Saturn can be relentless in prodding you to make adjustments.
Revising Worn Out Patterns
Saturn strips away illusions and points out limitations, allowing you to view yourself in a harsh, often unflattering light. At the same time, it endows you with prudence, practicality, and the perseverance to work hard toward achieving your purposes. Consequently, this is a good time to rearrange your career or lay the foundation for a new one.
Saturn Return almost always requires some major adjustments in lifestyle, attitudes, and relationships. Anything you have outgrown, or have tolerated but not found satisfying, must end now or be altered to meet your emerging needs. According to Hand, "Consciously or unconsciously, you are pruning your life of everything that is not relevant to what you really are as a human being."
Often interpersonal relationships are deeply affected by Saturn Return. Gail Sheehy writes in Passages: Predictable Crises in Adult Life that during this period "Almost everyone who is married will question that commitment." The U.S. Census Bureau lists the peak divorce years as ages twenty-eight to thirty. Some people experience more subtle or private adjustments in their patterns of relating, such as shifts in responsibilities. Many couples decide to become parents, not only altering their relationships but their financial obligations and perhaps their vocations as well.
If a relationship is sound, based on mutual respect, honesty, and sharing, it will probably survive the test of Saturn Return and become even stronger. But a relationship begun before the partners knew what they really wanted is likely to fall apart. Relationships that start during this period may have a "fated" or "karmic" quality about them.
When Enough is Enough
"Saturn. . . is never easy to deal with because his function is that of promoting growth," explains astrologer Liz Greene, author of Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil, "and it is only frustration and pain which at present are sufficient goads to get a human being moving." This frustration and pain have given Saturn a bad reputation. But the planet's often misunderstood value lies in its very ability to evoke pain. Like the pain of an illness, it warns that something is wrong. Saturn doesn't create the problems, it merely illuminates them.
Growth is often accompanied by trepidation and turmoil. As the old self is pushed aside to make room for the new, you may feel weak and vulnerable. You want to move ahead, yet are frustrated by a fear of doing so, torn between a compelling urge to throw off everything connected with your past and an equally frantic need to cling to the familiar rather than brave the great unknown.
Even if your external world seems to be in order, your internal structure may feel as though it's being assaulted with a battering ram. Nervous conditions, irritability, depression, insomnia, and feelings of insecurity are common. Most people go through some sort of identity crisis.
Even though your Saturn Return may be disturbing, ultimately it reveals what you truly want and sweeps away the clutter that may have been impeding your progress. Your Saturn Return is a personal spring cleaning. No matter how difficult it seems to let go of inappropriate people and things, the first Saturn Return is the time to do it. For if lessons are not learned, the problems will come knocking again during your second Saturn Return at about age fifty-eight, when you are more set in your ways. Once the conflict is confronted, the tension usually subsides. You feel stronger and more capable of moving ahead.
Saturn Return is one of the most crucial turning points you ever experience, when you assume the greatest responsibility of all: responsibility for your own life.
THE END
Skye Alexander is a Massachusetts astrologer and the author of Hidden Agenda and Planets in Signs. Her web site www.shore.net offers astrological information and horoscopes, puzzles, contests, and more.
Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:43 pm Post subject: Astro events..
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This week, devote yourself to letting go, and not only will you align with the stars, you will also align with the spirit of the season. Spring isn’t the only time of year to clean those closets. Autumn is also a time of distillation, when the early winds of winter separate the wheat from the chaff, and we experience the spiritual longing to know our value and worth in the world.
Several astrological patterns reflect the current change of season. First, the Sun, Mars, and Venus are all conjunct in Libra, the sign symbolized by the Scales, which represent the ability to measure and weigh choices, especially as those decisions relate to the people who populate our lives. Expect lots of people, including you, to be going through lots of changes about relating.
[url]
http://www.stariq.com/AquariumAge.HTM[/url]
_________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Think of King Lear, who sinned knowingly and scoffed at the stars. Or Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest, who defied the stars and then used them to his benefit. The "star-cross'd" Romeo believed the poison from the apothecary was the only thing that would "shake the yoke of inauspicious stars" from his "world-wearied flesh." And Anthony, in Julius Caesar, attributed his first defeat to the fact that the stars had forsaken him, blaming the moon's eclipse for his ultimate fall.
In all of Shakespeare's 37 plays there are more than a hundred allusions to astrology, and many of his characters' actions are said to be favored or hindered by the stars. The signs of the zodiac are mentioned in six of Shakespeare's plays, and the planets may even be blamed for disasters, especially as they wander from their spheres. Several of Shakespeare's characters were governed by particular stars, as Posthumous was born under the benevolent planet Jupiter, and thus had a favorable destiny at the end of the play. Another character, Monsieur Parolles, was born under Mars and became known fittingly as a soldier. The moon--known for its influence on emotions and self-image--was said to govern Elizabeth, who wept throughout the play Richard III. These examples and many other astrological passages scattered throughout his dramatic works show that Shakespeare was at least interested in astrology and used the art abundantly in the creation of some of his most striking passages. He probably did this because it would have an appeal to the Elizabethan audience at the time. Whether he had a sincere interest in astrology is unknown.
Elizabethan poetry contained a cosmic order that included stars, the planets, the sun and the earth. There was a general fear of chaos and upsetting the order of things. There was also a chain of being, and everything was related to that chain. Despite Copernicus, most Elizabethans believed the earth was flat and the heavens constituted fire and the highest perfection--light. There was a sharp division between everything beneath the sphere of the moon, and all the rest of the universe. The heavens were eternal and made of ether, while everything under the moon--such as man--was subject to decay.
Angels were the intermediary between earth and man, were purely intellectual, and thought to possess free will. However, this never conflicted with God's will. Angels could make the connection with God immediately as messengers and guardians of men. The nine hierarchies of angels were thought to inhabit the nine spheres: primum mobile, fixed stars, Saturn, Jupiter Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. The stars and planets were thought to sing to the angels, which were made of brightness and assumed a body of ether when they appeared to human sight. The planets, like other parts of nature, were merely tools for God's will, and their orbit and natural rhythms were kept according to God's order.
Many times a soul was compared to a planet or sphere, with an angel revolving it. John Donne's poetry reveals this, and poets such as Shakespeare wrote about how the motions of the spheres made music, although we as humans were not supposed to be able to hear it. An example is in The Merchant of Venice, when Lorenzo says to Jessica:
"Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."
The planets thus were communicating agents from eternity to mankind, and the stars were said to dictate how everything under the moon changes. The stars were the medium between God and man, yet sometimes an Elizabethan audience may live in terror of them. This terror was mostly superstitious, as many believed the stars could actually cause bad things to happen, especially natural disasters. God's Providence, however, dictated that superstition was man inflicting beliefs upon himself, and that the stars were not harmful but beneficent, and that they were created to do good.
Most Elizabethans believed the stars and planets held some kind of power over the 'baser side' of man, and were to be used as tools of God, but they did not believe the stars held power over the supreme side of man--the immortal part. Thus man had free will and could overcome his fate by choosing good; the stars couldn't force him to do anything. Religious education or art could overcome any fate written in the stars. The Elizabethans were still afraid, however, and searched for some answer to overwrite any destiny they saw shining for them in the heavens.
For many in Shakespeare's time, planets and stars were people personified. The heavenly spheres had eternal souls. The fall of mankind hurt man, but the stars completed him, as long as he realized his two highest faculties--understanding and free will. _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
The Aquarium Age is a report on the general astrological patterns of the coming week for all signs, not just Aquariums.
Jupiter in Sagittarius: Part One
We're out of the Water and into the Fire this week, as new planetary positions shift the center of astral gravity and generate an atmosphere conducive to altered states—no drugs necessary. Just be aware, while these changes are positive, bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits are still likely to need a few cosmic minutes to adjust to the transition. Expect some mood swings, yours or others. Also anticipate feeling just a little over the top. The Sun and Jupiter leave Scorpio and entered Sagittarius this week—the Sun moved in on Wednesday and Jupiter follows the next day, on Thanksgiving. Both Jupiter and Sagittarius, Jupiter's home sign, are infamous for excess. But don't worry about swinging to extremes—Jupiter is a big, fat, happy planet that thrives on joyous intensity. It is also the planet of perspective, and as it inhales the familiar fire of Sagittarius, it will exhale optimistic attitudes, personal and collective.
We love the symbolism of the Sun and Jupiter entering Sagittarius hand in hand—two bright celestial lights illuminating the entry into the darkest time of the year. And because Jupiter will stay in Sagittarius for the next twelve months, this initial coupling with the Sun speaks to a year of vital creativity that can be put to good use invigorating areas of life in need of enthusiasm and excitement. Contemplate where you want to channel this energy, and if you have time over the next few days, ritualize your intentions. Jupiter, as well as Sagittarius, thrives on festivals, particularly rites of passage that transform ordinary time into extraordinary time. The Solstice, for example, is the perfect Jupiter/Sagittarian holiday. It takes place at the final moment of Sagittarius, which is also the final moment of the old year, defining Earth Time as it celebrates Solar Time.
Jupiter is also the planet of hope—its expansive, generous presence signifies the power of possibility and potential, and as it gathers strength in Sagittarius over the course of the next year, it is sure to stimulate hope for the future. Be prepared to feel re-rooted in the certainty that the extraordinary is probable, maybe even necessary for the ordinary to be meaningful. And I'm not talking about an increase in religious fundamentalism. Jupiter isn't about rigid adherence to dogma of any denomination. Jupiter delights in diversity and encourages curiosity. So as the next twelve months unfold, anticipate more questions than answers.
Jupiter's journey through Sagittarius will inspire great leaps of faith, and even if some of those leaps seem foolish at first, they may not be foolhardy. A hopeful, optimistic heart is a great gift worthy of profound gratitude.
Credit to Ralfee Finn
[/url] _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 7:51 am Post subject: Molly's December Saturn and Pluto aspect
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These are two very powerful planets joining forces. Together they represent toughness, endurance, tremendous effort, self-discipline, painstaking research. This is about healing (Pluto) that goes to the bones (Saturn). It’s about transcending (Pluto) your former limitations and old paternal archetypes (Saturn), and opening up into a broader self-awareness and concept of leadership, and awakening a deep responsiveness to your heart’s desire.
During December, there are three planets that will touch off this Saturn-Pluto trine. These planets mark times to apply yourself toward solving difficult problems. Mark these excellent dates on your calendar: December 6-7, Venus touches the trine, time to reach out to others, make connections, heal relationships, make money. December 16-17, the Sun, time to go for it, let yourself shine. December 23-25, Mercury. Time to listen to others, share ideas, and solve problems.
Even with a soft, pretty trine, the energy of these two planets can be a bit turbulent. But trines do tend to open doors and clear a path for us. If you are looking for a healing, remember that Saturn is retrograde, as of December 4. Retrograde means look within yourself. Work on the inner landscape, and you’ll be surprised how the outer landscape responds as time passes! Saturn changes direction again in April, and that’s when we begin to outwardly manifest the changes we have been going through inwardly. This is so subtle that you might not even notice, unless Saturn transits a planet in your chart between now and then.
For more visit:
http://north-node.com/articles/december-2006
_________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:31 pm Post subject: Have you seen the star formation...?
What a beautiful site to see ! I managed to veiw them on my way home
from work in the wee morning hours.
[quote]
TO SEE the triangle of planets:
Look east just before sunrise !
From spaceweather.com:
"REMINDER: Don't forget to set your alarm. Jupiter, Mercury and Mars are converging to make a pretty triangle in the dawn sky. The action begins on December 8th and climaxes on Dec. 10th when the two brightest vertices of the celestial triangle, Jupiter and Mercury, will be less than a quarter of a degree apart. Visit http://spaceweather.com for observing tips and sky maps."
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Saturday night through Sunday (MST) will be the high-energy crescendo to the Jupiter, Mercury and Mars conjunction....
ENJOY !
From the Lunar Planner:
A Grand Conjunction
Immediately following the Disseminating Moon, on Dec 9 through Dec 10, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and the Centaur Pholus conjoin in sidereal Scorpio...
"This conjunction serves to mobilize" any plans formulated...
-text continued on -
Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 6:46 am Post subject: From Malvin Artley Dec. New Moon
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Chart Name: NEW MOON 20 DEC 2006
Date/Time: 21 Dec 2006, 1:00 am (AEDT -11:00) / 20 Dec 2006, 2:00 pm UT
Solar Period (Fortnightly Festival Period): 21 Great Snow (N); Corn in ear (S)
From the Center, even a small boy can lead an elephant. Honor and courage proceed from the Center. (Daytime)
or
Sickness begins with the phantoms of doubt. The Wise One fosters firm resolve. (Nighttime)
OK….This one is a bit long, but there are chase scenes……………
The time for decisions has come. The White Rat was in a predicament. As he sat upon the crossbeam in the roof of the barn and reflected upon his recent life, he could not believe how his luck had been. “So many possibilities!” he thought to himself. “How shall I choose? Every path I see holds a brilliant promise, but also the potential for disaster. It could go any way with any choice. At first, it seemed I had but few choices. Now I have too many. What if I make the wrong choice? I could go back to my old life, I suppose—or maybe I couldn’t. I cannot choose on the basis of what is before me or what was. It is all too good—and too terrible! It isn’t fair!” So, he sat, and he thought—and thought—and thought—and then he thought some more. He knew his time was running out, though. “Life shouldn’t be so difficult!” he complained. He was such a lucky little rat. Life was urging him onward, however, and he had to choose his path, and right away!
The White Rat was very respected by the other rats when he lived in the wild. He had always been strong and outspoken and had always made his own opportunities. The others always wondered at how lucky he was. Before he had happened upon the farm he had lived in the woods close by with a number of other rats in the area. There were dangers in the wilderness, to be certain, but he was very crafty and always knew how to get around dangers and come out the better for it. One of the ways he managed to avoid dangers was by his great acrobatic abilities. The White Rat was a bit smaller than most of the other rats and very wiry, which meant he could get in and out of places the other rats could not. There was one time when he went exploring in one of the larger trees in the area. He had noticed that one of the squirrels seemed to frequent this particular tree and his curiosity got the better of him. Upon ascending the trunk of the tree he found a small hollow that had been filled with nuts by the squirrel for the winter. “Jackpot!” he thought to himself and he promptly crawled into the hollow and began to gorge himself on his neighbor’s hard work. Alas, he was surprised in his repast by the owner of the cache, who was none-too-happy to find a rat munching away on his winter food. Heated words were exchanged and the White Rat had to beat a hasty retreat through a small opening on the other side of the hollow. The chase was on! The squirrel was not about to let this interloper get away with thievery, especially with all the hard work that had gone into the cache. The White Rat had a choice in that moment—retreat through the branches or go straight down. He knew he could better the squirrel in the branches and lose him, so the chase was on through the tree tops
The White Rat stayed just ahead of the angry squirrel, who chattered and snapped at him as they jumped from branch to branch and from tree to tree. The squirrel almost made a trophy of the White Rat’s tail a few times, but the White Rat always managed to find a new branch just in time and jump away to safety. Eventually the White Rat saw his chance to make a clean escape and he jumped onto a very spindly little branch—one which would not support the weight of the squirrel. Sure enough, as soon as the squirrel leapt and made contact with the branch it snapped, sending him to the forest floor with a loud thump. The squirrel picked himself up and cursed at the thief, but the White Rat was long gone by that time and safely in the top of another tree, hidden from view. As was the case many times before, the White Rat’s agility and pluck had saved him, but not by much this time. That episode had been a bit too close for comfort, and the White Rat was chastened and rattled by what had just happened. At that moment he was cast into despair and he thought there had to be a better way to make his way in the world, so his thoughts finally came to rest upon a nearby farm, about which he had heard so much from the other rats. Being the adventuresome little fellow he was, the White Rat promptly decided that he’d had enough of life in the woods and he made his way to the farm and to a more cosmopolitan lifestyle. Riches awaited him—as well as excitement, as he was soon to discover.
The White Rat had heard a lot about the farm from various animals about the woods, but especially from the rats themselves. Many had gone in search of the very things the White Rat was seeking—easy pickings and adventure—but very few had returned to tell their tales. The ones who had returned were never at the farm for more than a few days and were never quite themselves after the experience, either, largely because between the cats, the terrier, the owls and the farmer’s wife, the life expectancy of any rat on the farm was very short, indeed. Every rat before him had either met their doom or soon seen reason and beat a hasty retreat. His lot would be different, though, the White Rat thought to himself. He was smart. He was agile. He even knew how to out-fox the foxes in the woods, but he also knew the value of a balanced mind and approach. His life would be a successful one on the farm, he thought His possible future loomed large and seemed seductive there. He was full of ideas and he concocted many a plan on his way. Yes, he would take his time and go carefully, he surmised, and he would make certain that he had contingency plans ready if—heaven forbid—disaster ever befell him. His lot would be different. He would be successful and thrive. Yes, indeed! That decided, he knew his objective must be pursued.
Upon his arrival at the farm the White Rat found to his great delight that what was presented to him exceeded his wildest dreams. Food was everywhere! No wonder so many rats had been seduced by the life on the farm. He saw that he could pick and choose when it came to meals—grain from the feed troughs, bits of food from the dog’s and cat’s dishes, grain dropped on the ground and scraps of food from the farmer’s table that were thrown in the bin each day—and that was just for starters. There was food stored in sacks and boxes in the storehouse and the nearby fields were laden with the stuff. Who could ask for more? He could even eat the corn scattered for the chickens if he was quick enough to get some of it before they ate it all. That turned out to be one of his favorite pastimes, as well as his eventual downfall, but more on that anon.
The first thing he did upon his arrival there was to find some easy pickings away from the view of cats and owls, his biggest worries, so he could at least have good meals while he set himself up. He settled in quickly, though, and found a nesting hole away from prying eyes and noses. He was safe for the time. Once he had done that, he began to take his time and observe the movements of all the other animals there. There was a dog there—a terrier—but the dog was never a worry. She was always with the farmer’s wife. It was sickening to the White Rat the way the woman doted over that dog—and the dog was dumb enough to fall for it. No, the terrier was not really a worry to him. The cats were another matter, but he soon found out about their sleep schedules and their favorite paths and hangouts. So, he had the cats pegged in no time. The owls were simply not to be trusted at any time. They could detect the slightest movement, so the only time the White Rat could come out was during the day while the owls slept, but he always had to keep a wary eye above when he was out in the open. It didn’t bother him, though. He simply slept during the night safely in his nesting hole while the owls were awake. The only thing that remained was for him to gnaw strategic access and escape holes in the various buildings about the place in case he was caught by surprise in his wanderings. He had learned about the need for such things in the wild, and his experience there taught him that it is essential to take adequate precautions. Soon he was set up, and our little white friend then had the run of the farm. Yes, he was smarter than the other rats who had tried before him and he had made a good life for himself through his own cleverness.
Now chickens, on the other hand, are not the cleverest of animals, as most people know. They are also easily frightened as long as there is not a rooster nearby. There were no roosters kept with the chickens on this farm, though. The farmer’s wife didn’t like having to deal with them at feeding time. For some reason, they always flew at her. Every rooster that passed through the farm usually ended up in the pot, and usually because they had spurred her. No, roosters weren’t a worry to the White Rat. The chickens thus became his entertainment as a result of their skittishness and their silliness. The White Rat had come up with a game that kept him amused when he got bored with the ease of his life, which was often. His favorite pastime was to wait until the feed had been scattered in the mornings and then he would wait for the farmer’s wife to go back indoors. When the coast was clear he would run into the midst of the then-feeding chickens, screeching and generally acting crazily and that would scare the daylights out of the poor chickens, sending them to the far corners of the coop. That being done, he would quickly scoop up enough grain to fill his cheek pouches and make a hasty retreat to his nesting hole where he could munch away at his leisure and laugh at the silly chickens. No one had caught him in the act yet. Everyone just thought the chickens had gone a bit silly—until one day. On this particular day the White Rat had let down his guard and was a little too sure of himself to keep a watchful eye. So, as he played his favorite game he didn’t stop to notice that the farmer’s wife had not gone indoors. She had decided to hide around the corner and see what was spooking the chickens. She saw the whole game. The White Rat was about to get a lesson in humility and kindness to his fellow creatures.
The farmer’s wife hatched a plan that night. Quietly, while the chickens were roosted, she made a small hole in the fence out of sight of the main feeding area—just big enough for her terrier to fit through. She tied the terrier there overnight to keep out any predators and waited for the morning. In the morning just before dawn she untied the terrier and commanded her to “Stay!” (She was quite a dutiful little dog.) She went in and fed the chickens, then quietly walked around the corner behind the terrier, picked up a shovel and waited to see if her quarry would appear. She was not to be disappointed. Sure enough, the White Rat came running in from behind the coop, scared the daylights out of the chickens and began to scoop up the grain for the morning repast. The White Rat was particularly pleased with his performance that morning and was lost in his reverie when, all of a sudden, the hairs stood straight up on his back and he froze. Listening, he heard a faint rustle behind him and turned just in time to see the terrier running as fast as she could straight for the him— and she meant business!
Well, the White Rat shrieked in panic, and there was a flash of white light as he went airborne, hurling himself onto the nearest fence post and scampering onto the top of the fence for the coop. Grain and dust went flying everywhere. The chase was on in earnest then. The White Rat made a bee-line for the barn along the top of the fence, the terrier yapping away in hot pursuit below, the farmer’s wife yelling after her to “Catch the little bandit!”, running after them both with her shovel. The chickens were in an uproar. All the commotion attracted the attention of the cats and woke up the owls, too. All of them saw the scene before them—the White Rat running along the fence, the terrier in hot pursuit and the farmer’s wife trying to keep up with them both—and all of them joined into the chase. All of them wanted to have their little ‘meeting’ with our white friend, and they all headed straight for the barn chasing after him. It was a spectacle not to be missed!
As usual, though, the White Rat had planned for such an eventuality and made it to one of his escape holes gnawed into the side of the barn—and just in the nick of time, too. He made his way along the wall out of sight, trying to avoid the notice of the barn owls, who were now very keen to make his acquaintance. They could not see him, however, because his escape route was underneath a stack of hay bails against the wall. Eventually, our intrepid friend made it to the crossbeam in the roof of the barn. He knew he would be safe there for a short time while he worked out what to do. This particular beam was covered, but through holes in the wood he could see the scene below. Everyone was on the ground looking for him. The cats were milling around, sniffing and trying to pick up his scent. The terrier was still yapping away and making a general spectacle of herself, eventually annoying the farmer’s wife, who yelled at her to “Shut up!” Then the poor dog got chastised for not catching the White Rat. The farmer’s wife eventually left as things settled, muttering under her breath that she would “find the little rascal!” and have her day with him. In lieu of that, she told all the cats to be certain to bring her the White Rat’s head if her shovel didn’t get it first. It was not a good day for the White Rat, and he knew that unless he changed his tactics drastically, his days at that farm were very and truly numbered. He also knew he could never play his favorite game again if he wanted to keep his head. As his heart finally settled and his breathing slowed, our little friend had to take stock of his situation. All things must come to a conclusion, for good or ill, and the time had come for him to make some serious choices about his life. Yes, the White Rat was in a predicament ……………
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Now that our pulse rates have settled a bit and the dust has cleared, one might well ask why the story to go with the month is so long this time when the others have been short. The reason is two-fold. Firstly, I wanted to give you an example of how the stories for all 60 Pillar combinations will appear when in book form. I abbreviate them for these letters while still retaining the salient qualities of the Pillar. Some would be long, like this one, while others would be only a page. People remember stories, but the main thing to be imparted in these tales is a psychological quality for each individual animal, and that takes time to develop sometimes. The second reason is that—what the heck—I just got carried away and enjoyed writing it. The basic gist of this story is that every situation has a history associated with it, that there are background reasons for why people behave the way they do, which explains why we get ourselves into trouble at times and that everyone has gifts and faults that contribute to the playing out of any situation. This month marks a culmination of sorts and a pause before movement. It also marks the start of a new cycle in people’s lives, and certain choices have been building for some time that life is about to force upon many of us. If this sounds like your life at the moment, rest assured—you are not alone in feeling stuck and like something immanent is about to befall us, or hopefully to resolve things for us. So, let’s have a look at the Month of the Rat on the Crossbeam and see why we are feeling stuck and what awaits us in the days to come.
White is the color associated with the element Metal in Chinese astrology. Metal rules decisions and decisiveness. We may have noticed over the past few letters that this element has been largely missing in the charts for the new moons. Metal is the ‘Venus Element’, and Venus in Chinese astrology is about justice, decisions, the Law and truth—especially living one’s Truth. Metal is the Yang side of Venus, whereas Venus in Western astrology is given a much more Yin emphasis. As we can see from the Four Pillars, Metal occupies only one of the 12 boxes there and, as such, the interpretation points to people generally being gentle and indecisive. That is hardly the sort of energy the Rat on the Crossbeam presents to us. Life should be exciting and full of adventure. Experiences are to be relished and we are meant to stretch our boundaries, to stand up to challenges and to be heard amongst our peers. Strong Metal in a chart imparts those qualities. Metal rules the ‘animal spirit’, the lungs and our ability to breathe Life into our daily circumstances. It also rules athletic ability and oratory, persistence and daring. Sadly, it is lacking at the moment and we feel stuck as a result, especially when we see all the Earth in the chart, which has been strong for months.
Earth is the ‘Saturn Element’ in Chinese astrology and Saturn, as we know, is the Lord of Karma. How can we move forward when we are stuck in karmic scenarios? That is what is happening to all of us at the moment. Well, we either choose to move or we wait for life to do things for us. Do I sound like a broken record? (I wonder how many kids these days even know what a broken record is?) The general reading of the amount of Earth in this chart is “stubborn, circumspect and unyielding”. Situations seem stubborn and unyielding now. I think that pretty well sums up a lot of people’s lives at the moment. No one is giving anything away, everyone is content to sit where they are and would rather be miserable than to move, and nothing seems to ‘give’. The best description I can give to how life feels at an emotional level with regard to getting things moving at times is like trying to push one’s way through black granite. Things feel too hard and circumstances seem impassable. Again, I hear this from a lot of people. Basically, there has been a large upwelling of very old karma and it is difficult for people to either identify what it is or how to move through it. The point is, you cannot push your way through granite. You either have to go around it, smash it into little bits or stay with it and carve something really beautiful out of it. Karma is kind of like that. Few are the people who make something beautiful out of their discomfort. Most people try to rail against it and smash their way through their frustrations eventually. In the Month of the White Rat we are asked to apply ourselves to problems, make choices about our circumstances and to find ways around things if we can do nothing about them. Ingenuity, a fresh approach and quick thinking are called for.
The essence of the Month Pillar in this new moon chart, then, is outlined in red in the story: It is time to make decisions. A balanced mind and approach is the best means to success. Possible futures might loom large and seem seductive, but take time and move carefully if moving into new territory. The objectives must be pursued if the choice is made, though. It is essential to take adequate precautions and to have contingency plans. All situations must be approached with cleverness. Every Rat Pillar inaugurates a new cycle. If you find yourself on the verge of something new, go carefully and have a back-up, but stay your course. If you find yourself stuck in an old scenario, then cleverness and forthrightness are indicated. All situations will change if we choose to do go against the status quo of our lives. This has the potential to be an active and stimulating period. The seeds of transformation are definitely there for the month.
The Day Pillar describes how the month might be best approached. This month the Day Pillar is the Sheep in the Flock, which brings many strange twists of fate. However, we should be mindful that there are realities beyond our present circumstance and that a change in thinking may be just the thing that can break a static scenario loose. The Day Pillar also carries an admonition to stay composed within the crowded world of people’s thoughts. In the end, although there might be quick rewards, the initial returns will be small. Sheep are affectionate, caring and trustworthy. That indicates the best way to approach things and people in the White Rat month. Keep your communications open, be attentive to people close to you and be open to change, because it will come if we make the effort. Finally, as we enter into the Capricorn period, let us take time to sit and contemplate the next steps ahead. This is not a time to jump and do foolish things, although the temptation may be great to do so, given people’s level of frustration at the moment. Above all, enjoy your holidays with loved ones. May your new cycle be a joyful one. I hope your decisions are not as fraught as the one for our little Rat on the Crossbeam. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Cheers,
Malvin.
13 Dec 2006
_________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 2:27 pm Post subject: Capricorn Solar Festival 2006 by Malvin Artley
CAPRICORN SOLAR FESTIVAL 2006
4 JAN 2006
By Malvin Artley
Greetings, Friends!
I trust that all of you had a great Christmas and that you are looking forward to the New Year’s celebrations tomorrow evening. How does the old saying go? ”A change is as good as a holiday.”(?) Well, the events of the past few weeks have certainly proven to me that the saying is true, and I have seen its efficacy many times over the years. I was ready for a change this Christmas. Something inside me cried out for a change of scenery, of life, for something completely different. So, I decided that this year I would drive across to Melbourne over Christmas with a friend of mine. The open road has a certain appeal when one wants to clear one’s head. We left early in the afternoon and it was a good drive, but in the evening we decided that we would stop on the way at one of the little towns and villages that dot the map along the Prince’s Highway, rather than drive all the way into Melbourne. We were tired, worn out from Christmas preparations and ready to eat, but as we pulled into the town the main road was blocked off. Strange. We looked up ahead, but we couldn’t make out exactly what was going on. There was a large steel structure across the road, by all appearances. The police cars were blocking the way into the town center and there were detour signs around the obstructed main street. The truckies weren’t too happy about it and the local neighborhoods on the detour route were suddenly greeted with large road trains flying past their homes. It wasn’t exactly a good omen for a stop-over. We were open for anything, though, and undeterred by a little ‘road interest’.
So, we followed the detour around and eventually found a hotel. Once we were settled into our respective rooms, we went out to find a restaurant and maybe a little entertainment afterward. We were not to be disappointed. We hopped into the car and off we went. The parking fairies (you have to be in good graces with the parking fairies if you live in a metro area) found us a suitable resting spot for the car. Once the car was parked, we got out and started to walk toward the center of town, wanting to find out what all the fuss was about. Then we began to notice that everyone else in the town seemed to have the same idea that we had. As we got closer we could see what looked to me to be a large piece of farm equipment laid out across the main road. That was all I could make out in the dimming light and long shadows. I thought there had been an accident or that the thing had somehow gotten stuck or broken down. It was certainly painted in the colors of a piece of farm machinery—green and safety yellow. Being a city fellow, I didn’t know any better. We had parked along the detour route and we, along with everyone else, were dodging the trucks as we all migrated toward the town center and the eventual satisfaction of our curiosity.
Finally, we spotted a hotel with a restaurant and got up the courage to ask one of the locals what was going on. The guy we talked to was very personable and friendly. You meet wonderful people wherever you go, but there is something about folks in country areas that is especially welcoming, and I was about to get a taste of life in the outback. Finally, after due enquiry, my piece of ‘farm machinery’ actually turned out to be a carousel that had been set up in the center of town. What a let down! I was disappointed, because I am always interested in machines, and carousels aren’t exactly as interesting as a large product of mechanical engineering—at least to me. The kids of the town felt differently about it, as I was soon to see. I would get over it, though. So, why was there a carousel in the middle of the street? Yep, you guessed it—the town of Kaniva was about to have its annual Christmas street party, and we were just in time for the festivities! I would have to make do, I guess. You’ll have to forgive a man who works on machinery for a living. One’s consciousness tends to get fixed in certain grooves after a while, but it goes to show how our day-to-day concepts of life color our awareness of realities that are presented to us. My sense of community and aesthetics was about to be enriched (truly).
Kidding aside, it was a grand affair. One of the local bands had set up in front of one of the storefronts and soon the strains of classic Erich Clapton echoed through the streets. The pubs were jammed with locals soaking up the atmosphere and a few ‘spirits’ as well. There were kids everywhere, a few food stalls were set up, teenagers were making furtive attempts at romance, gangs of younger boys were running around with water pistols and my friend and I eventually treated ourselves to a 13 oz steak. It’s hard to beat an outback steak. And then, by 10:00 (that’s PM, that same night), it was all over. The streets were silent, the carousel was a lonely specter in the center of the town and the kids were all at home in anticipation of Father Christmas in a couple of days. Life was good. So, we returned to our rooms, wiser about the local machinery and customs, bellies bulging with steak and chips and in anticipation of the impending arrival of Father Christmas ourselves—and our trip ahead in the morning. Incidentally, if you want a café latte in Kaniva, at least, you generally get pointed to the coffee urn. Us city folk can be a bit presumptuous and ignorant of country life. It is a good life, though, and full of wonderful people.
Thus began my Christmas holidays, and there were many more pleasurable twists in the journey ahead for me, but those might find their way into other letters. I felt renewed from the trip and gained a different perspective on certain aspects of my life as it is at the moment. Upon arrival back in Adelaide it was business as usual, though, and life resumed its standard pace—but with a difference due to the perspective gained on the journey. With that in mind, we have moved into the spiritual interlude of the year (with the Sun’s ingress into Capricorn) and into the season wherein people begin to gain perspective on the year ahead and to hopefully make a firmer resolve toward achieving the goals they have set for themselves in life. My little interlude over Christmas did me a world of good. Since this is the final letter from me for 2006, I think it would be safe to say that most of us will be glad to see the back side of this year. When I was at uni (university), I had a classmate whose favorite saying was “Glad to see your back.” (instead of ‘you’re’ back) Basically, it is an insult and meant that he was happy to see the person referred to take their leave of him. That is certainly how most people I speak with refer to 2006 as a year. It is not that I mean to start this letter on a sour note or to end the year that way, but emotionally, it has been a difficult year for many. On the other side of things it has been a period of great realization, spiritual growth and the unburdening of the Soul from the binds of the past, so it has been a very good year, spiritually considered.
When the Sun enters the sign of Capricorn thus begins the most inward point of the year. In the northern winter the spiritual kingdom—the Kingdom of Souls—enters into its deepest meditative phase. It is a time of sabbatical from outer work and a period of the most intense spiritual focus. In a season wherein we are all supposed to be in retreat, most of us are in a frenzy of activity—buying gifts, catching up with friends and family, rushing to and fro getting the final preparations in order for the ‘big day’—doing everything but what our higher Selves would like us to do. For those who are more sensitive to the call of the Inner Voice, such activity and outward, material focus makes one feel ill-at-ease and like what is expected of us from those close to us is wrong and an imposition, which it is from the inner perspective. Really, from December throughout most of January is a time of great spiritual opportunity and a period wherein a closer contact can be made with the Teachers on the inner planes than is possible at any other time of the year, except for the three major spiritual festivals (full moon periods) of April, May and June.
During the Capricorn interlude the Teachers cast their eye out upon the sea of humanity and they look carefully for signs of Life, if you will—for those people who have made real progress during the previous year and whose Light has increased significantly. In other words, during the winter interlude, and if we are under instruction by a spiritual Teacher, we are assessed as to our progress during the year. It puts one in mind of the Christmas Carol “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. We are checked to see if we have been ‘naughty or nice’ and whether or not we are ready to take the next needed steps ahead in our development. It is also a time wherein the Teachers take on new pupils, at least on the inner planes, because if a person has ‘lit up’ spiritually, so-to-speak, during the preceding year, then they are approached by Teachers on the inner planes if the time is right (if the karma of the person involved dictates such). Thus, the Capricorn interval, especially, is a time of great opportunity, of choice and of fulfillment if we are ready. This whole scenario just described harks back to the old saying “When the student is ready, the Teacher appears.” What greater gift could we receive for Christmas? We may not take any note of it on the outer planes (in the physical waking consciousness), but it eventually filters through into our outer awareness. Conversely, if we have ‘stepped backward’ in our progress, then corrective measures are induced on the inner planes during this period that will work out in the year(s) to come in the outer life. We are often not conscious of those steps, either, but we experience them as compressive and limiting experiences later on.
This brings us to the rulers of the sign Capricorn itself. Each sign has three rulers: the orthodox, with which we are all familiar, the esoteric, which rules over our inner development and the archetypal or Hierarchical, which governs the archetypes each sign represents. Saturn rules Capricorn at the orthodox and esoteric levels. Saturn is the planet of ‘getting what we are due’. At one and the same time, it represents ambition and achievement as well as restriction and loss. In the ambition and achievement phase of its working, Saturn allows us to ‘ascend to the mountain top’, which is an archetypal symbol of the sign. It presents us with opportunities for work, struggle and final achievement if we are able to master the requisite tasks. We are always tested upon such matters during the winter months. In the restriction and loss phase of Saturn’s workings we are given opportunities to learn. We are stopped in our tracks in some way and made to look at our lives in order that we can take corrective measures. This is where the idea of New Year’s resolutions comes into our consciousness.
Nowhere do we see our progress during the year better indicated to us than through our intimate relations during the Christmas period. It is one of the most joyful times of the year, as well as one of the most painful. There are countless stories of broken family relations at Christmas, of arguments, hard feelings, separations and ‘missed steps’ or opportunities between intimates during a time of year when we are supposed to display all that is best within us. Sometimes such confrontations and crises are meant to move us on from destructive and abusive relationships when we cannot do it consciously or any other way. Other times such conflicts arise because we do not see past our own issues and take the necessary corrective measures. In other words, if we do not look inward and find the root of what is causing the conflict, then we set ourselves up to repeat the same scenario over and again until we get it right—until we finally gain the essence of the experience. Saturn governs the essence of experience. On the whole, most people find Christmas to be a joyful time of year (that is to say, the entire period from December through January). The true gift of the Christmas season is that it shows us where we have achieved and where we could perhaps do a little more work. We should be careful in our assessment of such matters, however, because the most obvious answer is not always the correct one. On the whole, we could rightly say that if the choices we make during the Capricorn interlude take us upon a path that will lead us to greater spiritual potency and freedom in the New Year, then we have chosen wisely and correctly.
Capricorn represents all that is best (highest) within humanity and all that is worst (most materialistic). That is why we see extremes of both sides of the sign during the Christmas season. I keep going on about Christmas because it is a good example, because most of the readers of these letters are Christian/Westerners and because it falls squarely within the Capricorn interlude. The entire Christmas/New Year’s period is embraced by and representative of Capricorn. Other traditions have their holidays during this time as well and they probably experience similar dynamics. I simply offer Christmas as an example because it is familiar to most readers, not as an archetype of the sign. In Capricorn we see the most spiritual and altruistic motives come out in people, and I refer to the time of the year here as well as the expression of the Capricorn type. We also see the grossest materialism. There is more money spent during the Christmas season on people’s selfishness than at any other time of the year. Of course there is a great spirit of giving in that and selflessness as well, but the end result is that a huge amount of money is spent that could go to better uses. How many useless Christmas gifts did you get this year? Perhaps the better question to ask is, how much did we give to those in need this year? Christmas typically marks the greatest time of giving to social causes, too. So, we can see that Capricorn is a real mixed bag in terms of how it manifests—all the best and the worst. It is how we choose that determines where the next year takes us, so Saturn thus guides us along externally and inwardly.
To cap off the discussion of Capricorn for this year, if we look at the archetypal ruler of the sign, which is Venus, then we see the principle of justice, fair play and right relations working out, all of which Venus represents. Ultimately, the Capricorn interlude should lead us to a much clearer sense of what is just and true in our lives. It should lead us to the pinnacle (the mountain top) of our essence and thus to self-mastery. The combination of Venus and Saturn is a most powerful combination when it comes to ‘the righteous way’ of living. With Venus we have the path of love. With Saturn we have the path of truth. When the two are joined and in harmony (through right-choosing and right-relating) then our success (spiritually speaking) is assured. No one ever achieves their best in life unless love and truth are one in one’s efforts. If we live our truth in the fullness of love, then there is no other way than ‘up’ so-to-speak. Our progress takes on a life of its own and we are literally impelled forward along our way. We feel a sort of irresistible force that will not allow for anything but our fulfillment as Souls, even if that means we have to make some very painful choices and ones that might seem wrong, ill-conceived or even cruel to the outer observer. No one can second-guess the higher Self, and painful choices can and often do lead to stunning and beautiful outcomes. When ‘Saturn and Venus are aligned’, figuratively speaking, there is no impediment to the higher Self and we can literally and figuratively move mountains. Thus, we come to a consideration of the dynamics of the full moon figure for this Capricorn Solar festival of 2006.
As is the case with any horoscope, whether personal or mundane (worldly/event), there are at least two distinct layers to the interpretation that comes out of the figure. On the surface, this will be a period full of surprises and turns of fate. In the ‘underbelly’ of the chart, we find the potential for obsessive thinking (seems to be a common theme of late), graphic resolutions of double-bind scenarios (also a common theme) and for potentially quite dramatic change. This full moon takes place on the 4th of January 2006 at 12:57 AM AEDT (3rd Jan at 1:57 PM UT). The tone or key note for this figure, aside from the Capricornian dynamics, is seen in the symbol for the solar degree, which reads:
“A fire worshipper meditates on the ultimate realities of existence.” 13 Capricorn
The reference to fire-gazing or fire-scrying, as it is sometimes called, is all-too-apparent. What is it about fire that draws our attention like nothing else will? It is hypnotic, trance-inducing and carries us away to the far reaches of our being. Well, our very essence is fire. We are fiery Beings, as seen on the inner, subjective planes. Our ultimate reality—our highest Essence—is fire itself. Our universe is warmed and run by fire. We are the products of the fire of countless suns. The higher Self is a Fire that warms, nourishes, burns away and cleanses. It is a Fire that liberates and moves us forward in evolution. Without Fire, there is no life. So, anyone who has an ability to scry fire has a key to the very mysteries of life itself. The higher Self is beyond all temporal time, beyond all personal boundaries, eternal and ultimate. Fire contains within it all the keys to transformation. It is no wonder, then, that the original interpretation for this symbol was ‘the subjective quest for ultimates beyond mortality’, as coined by Dane Rudhyar. Therefore, we have the summation of Capricorn in this symbol in certain ways. Firstly, there is the reference to meditation—that is, interlude, pause and contemplation. And, secondly, there is the reference to Truth, Essence, our highest goals and the transcendence open to us in this season of the year (and at all times, really). Fire is our highest good.
The counterpoint to the preceding symbol is found in the symbol for the degree of the Moon, which reads:
“A hand with a prominent thumb is held out for study.” 13 Cancer
Palmistry is both a study of character and of destiny. In the thumb is found an indication of a person’s will-power. The bigger the thumb, the stronger the will. The stiffer the thumb, the more intractable and stubborn the persona. So, in this symbol we find a clear reference to willful thinking. A strong will is needed if one’s spiritual destiny is to be fulfilled. We just have to be careful in the process that we do not become unbending and intractable in the process, unless it is called for to overcome some obstacle. In such a case, we have an example of what might be called ‘tough love’. Since the Moon always opposes the Sun during solar festivals, the symbol just described highlights what will be ‘in our face’, in a manner of speaking. It is that which we must examine, that of which we must become aware and, in many instances, overcome, since the Moon represents the past in esoteric matters. However, the Moon also represents emotions, and many people have exhibited the most stubborn and immovable emotional states in recent months, often without them even realizing it. The surfeit of Earth in the Chinese charts for the past few months has shown that very clearly. The scene is set then, for the dynamics of this full moon: personal will and transcendence, both very Capricornian qualities.
This brings us to the obvious and to the underbelly in this chart. On the surface of the chart (the obvious), the Moon trines Uranus, which is picking up speed since it is now direct. That also means that Uranus is sextile to the Sun. At its best, this augers well for personal transformation, positive experiences with the same, unusual occurrences with that and sudden twists of fate that will serve to bring that transformation about. This is a very humanitarian and broad-minded setup if we are open to receiving the wisdom. The problem is the Moon’s degree and the other aspect patterns of which it is a focal point. That brings us to the ‘underbelly’ of the chart.
There are two types of interlaced and regular aspect series of which the Moon forms the release point. The first is a rather striking ‘tetrahedron’ of undecile aspects, the other three points and the base of which are outlined by the South Node, Venus and Pluto. Now, if there has been a double-bind scenario in which you have been enmeshed, you will have an opportunity to see the dynamics of it over this period and, perhaps, break yourself free from it. This is a powerfully compulsive and entrenched sort of ‘love-triangle’ combination. People will either break free (Pluto/Uranus) or they will become even more hopelessly enmeshed (the other three points). There are midpoints in this chart that indicate over-thinking on matters of the heart, a lot of erotic imagination (which is fine if the relationship is sound), but also illusions about love, common tragic destinies, a lack of self-control and peculiar destinies in love. It all sounds like the makings of a great soap opera. The saving grace here is that the Moon will be powerfully activated by the other regular aspect pattern—a quintile kite.
The quintile is an aspect that brings ‘artistic or creative use of crisis situations’. The Magi Society of astrologers has maintained for a while now that quintiles bring catastrophes with them. I have certainly seen this to be the case, especially when there are regular patterns of quintiles. Since the Moon is the release point of the pattern, the implication is that people’s intractability will provoke crises that will bring about some pretty surprising results. We may not see it on a world scale, but it is very likely in personal relations. Once released, however, and once the dust settles, some very unusual and creative energy can be released that can go a long way toward a greater spiritual expression for people. I started writing these letters after such a crisis, and I had never thought of such a thing before. It just came to me ‘out of the blue’, but it has brought me a lot of joy since. The other three points of the kite are Jupiter, the Sun and Neptune, a powerfully creative trio of influences.
Finally, with regard to aspects with the Moon, the Moon is also the tie-point to two quindeciles—one to Pluto and the other to Venus. If you want to obsess about love, then write about it in your journals or actually write a romance novel. Quindeciles are all about obsession. If there is an actual relationship about which you are obsessing, though, it is perhaps better to take a step back from it and cool your heels until after this period passes. People can get into a lot of personal trouble if intimate personal relationships take precedence over spiritual realities right now. Let’s face it—the Moon is powerfully aspected in this chart, even though most of the aspects are ‘esoteric’, and the tendency will be for people to focus much more on emotional matters than they do on the higher Self over the next month or so, that Self being where they actually should direct their attention. I have seen time and again that regular patterns of the lesser-known aspects do indeed manifest powerful and far-reaching effects in people’s lives, and in world events. Let us be clear, then—if we focus upon the ‘surface’ (Sun/Moon/Uranus), then we can effect some very positive, humanitarian and far-reaching change in our lives. If we focus upon the ‘underbelly’ (the aspect sets to the Moon) then we could be due for, as we say in the South, a ‘whole heap of trouble’—and for some time to come.
Other than that (isn’t that enough?), we find Mars squaring the Nodes at the apex of a t-square. This configuration interferes with the natural flow of people’s instincts, introduces disharmony into communities and causes disruption of associations. Actually, this can be a good thing in relation to this chart. Unless I miss my guess, there will be certain ‘deal-breakers’ for people under this dynamic. Since Mars squares the South Node, the dynamics of the tetrahedron described before will probably tend more toward resolution of entrenched double-binds than toward further entrenchment. As is the case with any solar festival, the emphasis is upon movement forward spiritually rather than staying stuck in past patterns. Mars, as the agent of the Destroyer (which is actually a beneficent Force), acts in a very positive light in this chart.
Finally, Mars is also applying toward its conjunction with Pluto, which is exact on the 13th, adding further fuel to the fire (or should we say Fire) and we should see a good cleansing energy manifest around that time. Saturn is also slowly approaching its opposition with Neptune (yet again), which is exact on the last day of February, so we are beginning to feel the effects again of that opposition, if we remember from before, which brings a crumbling of belief structures, instability in relations, killing out of worldly ambitions (this aspect is great for spiritual/meditative work), a lack of self-confidence and a dampening of will-power. Last, but not least, Jupiter is square to Uranus, which can yield brilliant insight, broad vision and visionary plans, but it also introduces an air of impracticality and the possibility of sudden losses due to that impracticality or inattention to details. So, there we have it—all the best and all the worst.
Thus we bring to a close another series of letters for the year 2006. For those who have had a difficult year, I can say the following with certainty—the ‘hard yards’ that you have experienced in this period will set you on a course which will eventually bring you the joy for which your heart has yearned for so long. We all see ourselves and those around us much more clearly now than we did this time last year, do we not?—and that is a very good thing. The knowledge we have gained will enable us to live our lives more fully in the years to come and—more importantly—to live our lives more in accordance with our higher Truth. Now, it doesn’t really get any better than that, does it? As we have seen, this full moon period speaks to us of that very thing. To attain to our highest Essence—the Amrita of Spirit—is the goal for every seeker who has walked or will ever walk this world. Every year we are given the reminder of that and an opportunity to approach it closely in the Capricorn interval. May you choose your course wisely, my friends, for these times are fraught with karmic pitfalls. There is so much of our ancient karma that is crying out for healing in order that we can move into the future unbound by the past, and it pokes its head out at every opportunity. It is my wish for the New Year that we all have a much easier and more productive time of it. I am ready for a change myself. I enjoyed my holidays and the change gave me fresh perspectives on things. Change your routine every now and then—and for goodness sake, have some fun! May every piece of farm machinery you encounter in your life turn into a carousel, if you catch my drift. Life isn’t always what it seems. A change will give us perspective that routine often kills out. I could sure use another holiday, though—you know?
Happy New Year, All! (Please be sensible in your celebrations)
Malvin.
30 Dec 2006
These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know. If you feel so inspired, please feel free to pass them on, but do so without charge or alteration.
Recommended reading in the New Year:
The Body Never Lies by Alice Miller (a book about truth)
Controlling People by Patricia Evans (a book about love)
(Actually, they are both about Truth and Love) _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
A short reminder:
To find your rising sign one must have knowledge of your birth hour
within 2 hours or as close as possible.
For a free chart go to:
[/url]
www.astro.com _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Every New Moon marks the end of a lunar cycle and the beginning of another. It’s a time when the consequences of our choices are washing over us and we can step back and re-group. The New Moons fall in relatively the same place in each sign as each month passes. Our recent New Moons have been at the end of signs and we’ve been working with ending situations. This New Moon is in Capricorn (chart below) and is time for us to reflect on our career and political choices and their consequences. Have they created situations that we find healthy and rewarding? How are we spending our time? Do we feel useful and important to those in our world?
Rich Humbert
[/url] _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:40 am Post subject: 2007 Year of the Fire Boar
I chose to post a link to this site for the very fact of its many
good articles and the fact I was amazed by the prediction of how water would be uncontrolable this year. Already an understatement and we have not reached the starting point quite yet.
Quote:
Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology
Using Astrology, Spirit, and Archetypes to move and groove through the intersections of fate and free will.
The Australian Aboriginal's extensive understanding of the heavens and application of astronomical movement was integral in their early culture, indicating not only how to live in attunement to nature, like times to gather certain foods, but also indicating times for ceremonies. Aborignal astronomy is said to predate that of the Babylonians, Chinese and Incas by thousands of years. The Aboriginal understands the intimate connection between the heavenly spirit world, the natural physical world, and the human world.
"The Dreamtime is the Aboriginal understanding of the world, of its creation, and its great stories. The Dreamtime is the beginning of knowledge, from which came the laws of existence. For survival these laws must be observed."
" OUR LAND OUR LIFE "
'We don't own the land, the land owns us'
'The Land is my mother, my mother is the land'
'Land is the starting point to where it all began. It is like picking up a piece of dirt and saying this is where I started and this is where I will go'
'The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity'
'We don't have boundaries like fences, as farmers do. We have spiritual connections'
Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:06 am Post subject: AQUARIUS SOLAR FESTIVAL By Malvin Artley
Quote:
BRIEF
The full moon for the Aquarius solar festival occurs on February 2nd at 3:45 PM AEDT (4:45 AM UT). There are several rather interesting features to the dynamics of this full moon, which will be outlined below. On the whole, this figure speaks of tests around relationships, uncertainty, expectancy, personal and private adjustments to emotional matters, ‘getting back to basics’ as to life purpose and direction and earnest questioning about how we serve a greater purpose—especially when it comes to doing so with others. The tone for this period is set by the symbol for the Sun, which reads:
“A barometer” 13 Aquarius Here we find the idea of ‘testing the waters’, or the prevailing currents of whatever it is upon which we are focused. There is feeling of expectancy brought forward with this symbol, for as the barometer changes, so we see adjustments that must be made in our daily routines. Will the sun shine or will it rain? Can we expect drought or flood? Will the pressure be up or down? Who can say? We watch the barometer (and we all have one in our bodies somewhere, by the way). That which confronts us and with which must be dealt is defined by the symbol for the lunar degree, which reads: “An old sea captain rocking himself on the porch of his cottage.” 13 Leo This symbol shows us the need to retire from the cares of the world and give ourselves over to quiet recollection—remembrance of the past, but not being hooked into it.
--The Moon is the apex of a yod with a Mars/Uranus sextile at the base. The Sun is at the midpoint of the sextile. The base midpoint structure denotes a need to be able to quickly adapt to changes of conditions, circumstances or crises. The apex Moon indicates that there are likely hidden emotional currents that have stymied our progress in the past and which will now come up for reckoning. When we put the midpoint dynamics with the apex meaning, we have the basic structure for the figure, along with the symbols above: There is the strong possibility of potent change in our lives—especially our personal lives—and we must be willing both to sit quietly and allow what needs to come to the surface to do so and to be ready and willing to make rapid adjustments to our lives when we see that change is necessary. This is aided by a trine to Jupiter by the Moon, the implication being that some very positive outcomes can result if we are willing to sit quietly and see things through.
--The Sun is conjunct Neptune on one side and Chiron on the other. The Sun and Neptune are posited in the 10th Chinese lunar mansion [The Weaving Maiden], with Chiron in the 9th Chinese lunar mansion [The Ox Boy]. This configuration will manifest one of two ways: It will either bring forward escapist tendencies and old emotional wounds or it will bring the most scintillating insight and spiritual magnetism. The Chinese lunar mansions are of interest, for they describe the emotional dynamics of this full moon quite well (see the main body of the text)—the pain of separation if we do not follow the highest good in relationships. This configuration is aided by a sextile by Jupiter, making an ‘easy opposition’ with the full moon axis (resolution of opposing forces or outlooks is made easier).
--The highest good, as represented by Neptune, will be challenged either by karmic necessities, old debts or bad decisions, as represented by the opposition to Neptune by Saturn, which will be exact next month. This opposition has been with us off and on for some time now and it forces us to examine our old belief structures and to walk into new ones if need be. It takes away material ambition and is a paralyzing influence on decision making. Decisions that have been made prior to the New Year will be sorely tested over the next month or so. Decisions that need to be made will seem all-too-hard. Do we step up to our highest, or do we stay mired in the past? The best outcome from this transit is to be had if we are willing to retreat from outer efforts and reevaluate our lives—again, a common theme for this full moon. Because Saturn is retrograde, the effects of the transit are more insidious than is usual unless we are prepared to do the inner work.
--Jupiter squares Uranus and the Moon’s Nodes. The square to the Nodes indicates that people’s instincts are being interfered with, especially when we try to expand outward. This square can bring antisocial conduct and the tendency to look after No.1 instead of others. It flies in the face of the Aquarian ideal. The square to Uranus brings an over-riding desire to be free of all encumbrances, but also the likelihood that one would jump before the time is right. It can bring sudden fortuitous associations, especially with Uranus conjunct the North Node. Mars is in a tight sextile with Uranus as well, meaning things can change for people very quickly and forcefully. Just be certain to examine your motives well before jumping into or out of anything.
--Venus is conjunct Uranus, giving sudden associations, sudden love affairs, unexpected twists in affairs of the heart and sudden flashes of insight as the Soul ‘moves upon the waters’. It is the true union of higher and lower mind. Mercury is quite ‘happy’ in its sextile to Pluto, and this can bring communications with important and powerful people. It also helps to break down communications barriers between people.
In all, this is not a chart denoting action. Instead, we are being called upon to sit and reflect. Following the lead of the White Ox, which began the month (interesting in terms of the Ox Boy lunar mansion), it is a time to stay the course with decisions that have been made, but to be ready to make changes when need be. Despite the fact that we need to sit and reflect, the world must go on, and we are a part of all that. Determination will win the day, but there will be challenges to our decisions ahead, and this full moon will bring them out. Be resolute, and if the decision is correct, then success will come. In relationships, stick with the highest and don’t lose your resolve (Saturn/Neptune). It will be a time of separations if we are not in line with our higher Purpose. If separation does come, be sure that you are seeing your own purpose clearly. If we do our true work, then we will be placed where we need to be, and with the right people.
Greetings All!
Life does indeed offer up some strange twists of fate at times. For several years now I have kept a certain format to these solar festival (full moon) letters and they have been a source of adventure and joy for me. Perhaps it is because the Sun has entered Uranus-ruled Aquarius—or maybe it is due to the spectacular view of the McNaught comet we have had here in the Southern Hemisphere—but I feel like a bit of a change with this letter (which is not to say it will be anything permanent). Reports are that life has felt a bit surreal of late. I would have to agree. Let’s begin with a little story and see what unfolds. (Trust me. In a bizarre way this story ties in with both Aquarius and the dynamics of the full moon.)
The Weaving Maiden and the Ox-Boy*
A time long ago in a land free of care there lived a maiden with her father, who was a great King. The maiden was quite beautiful (naturally) and she was very skilled at weaving. Her cloths and tapestries were much admired and sought after and they were known for their daring and bold designs. They were known as well as for their entrancing qualities, for her designs had the ability to captivate the hearts of people who beheld them and to transport them to spiritual realms. To the people of the land, she was known as the Weaving Maiden, and whenever she made a new bolt of cloth the kingdom clamored to view it, for it always brought transcendent delight to the people. The cloths were always put on display at the palace and the people were invited in to view them. The line of viewers would stretch around the palace several times because, you see, entranced people do not move very quickly. The Sun God [the King] (for kings were gods in those days) was very proud of her ability. So, it came to pass that when she came of age for marriage and to reward her for her skill at weaving, he gave her in marriage to Keng Niu, the Ox-boy, whose herds drank from the River Han.
It was a lavish wedding with royalty and dignitaries attending from many lands. No one could really understand why a Sun God would marry his daughter to an ox herder—a commoner—but the people of the land surrounding the palace knew the Ox Boy and saw that he was a good stick, so they were happy for the union to take place. It was like a fairy tale. Marriage can change people, though, and the Weaving Maiden seemed to have no further interest in her weaving after the nuptials and instead eventually gave herself over to a life of idleness. Keng Niu was beside himself. Though he loved his wife dearly, he was most distressed by this change in her and he, desperate to have back the woman he knew before marriage, left his herds as a result to wander aimlessly through the land with his beloved wherever fancy took her (as you do). The King and his advisors, upon seeing this, were very angry at the dissolute behavior of the two young people—for their union was supposed to bring prosperity and a unique gift to the land and the people—so it was decided to part them for ever. Despite the warnings by the elders, the couple saw their error only too late and their fate was sealed. To this day the Ox-boy and the Weaving Maiden long for each other, forever separated by the River Han. He minds his herds on one side and she tends her loom on the other. However, once a year thousands of magpies flock together on the seventh day of the seventh moon [Month of the Horse] to form a bridge over the River Han in order that they might be together, if only for a brief time.
____________________
Amour. What is it that nourishes us, that makes us whole, that gives us a reason to live and to thrive? How do we define our raison d’être? Little as we might realize it, when the Sun enters Aquarius, these sorts of questions enter the human psyche at a subtle level and give us cause to assess our aspirations in life, as well as a great many of our outer associations. Aquarius is the natural ruler of the house of friends and aspirations but—more to the point—it rules how we serve others, especially in union with others. Aquarius is the sign that rules group work and it rules a Hierarchy of lives that is called ‘The Baskets of Nourishment’ or ‘The Blinded Lives’. This group of lives are what is called elementals in esoteric circles—those little lives that form the lower aspects of our nature—the ‘automatic’ parts of our being. I covered this group of lives in detail in the 2004 Aquarius letter, and that is available if you would like it and do not have it. For the purpose of this letter, however, there is one point to be made about this group of tiny lives that really puts the whole idea of Aquarius into perspective. The elementals, though acting ‘blindly’ and automatically do so, nonetheless, in a united and cooperative manner. Let us briefly take a look at how this works, for it gives us the true meaning of Aquarius.
Every cell in our body is a type of elemental life. A cell has its birth, its life cycle and demise. It evolves, can mutate and change, can reproduce itself, has its own ‘individuality’ if we can call it that, and forms part of a larger community of like cells—organs. Every cell is interdependent with its surrounding cells, exchanges energies with its neighbors, ‘does its job’ without questioning (serves) and contributes to the overall function and health of the organism in which it is found. And behind it all is this concept called purpose. Every cell has a purpose, both at its own individual level and in contribution to the purposes and evolution of the greater organism. Aquarius rules the blood stream and circulation, and every cell is part of a great circulatory flow within the system in which it is found. So, we see that even the most elemental forces within our being are constantly involved in service to a greater purpose, of which they have no concept or care. And what happens if a cell ceases to do its job? It is killed and absorbed by the immune system of the organism. Even in Nature and at every level, the law is the same—serve or die. To exist without fulfilling purpose is anathema to Nature. All that lives exists to fulfill a specific plan, and to do so in cooperation with other like units. The elementals serve us, nourish us and allow us to perform our work and fulfill our destiny in the outer world—hence the name ‘Baskets of Nourishment’. These are the lunar forces, as they are called esoterically, hence the rulership of the Moon over Aquarius at the highest level.
In human terms, we all know or sense that we have some purpose and work to do in life. When Aquarius rolls around every year we are reconnected to that. We may not, and often do not, know what higher purpose or Being we are serving, but that is actually of little consequence. If we could realize it, the great Being in whose body we are but cells has a purpose as well, and we have no inkling as to what that might be. We call this the great Plan. Even the highest adepts do not know, or only know the smallest details. So, in our own way, we are just as blind to the greater Purpose as our cells are to our individual one. On the whole we are born, grow up, play our roles within the greater community and fulfill the plan of our lives, most often with no real idea of what that plan is. We call it karma, for we are all bound to and by it, and it forms the ‘script’ of our lives for the vast majority of people. There are times in life, however, when we hear ‘The Call’ and we are rallied to contribute something more than the simple karmic necessity that confronts us every day. The Call is actually an opportunity to take our evolution up a notch—to mutate, in human terms and in a positive sense. Mutation can be a very positive thing. This ‘Call’ comes from the higher Self, and it comes when there is a need by the greater community for more than the normal output from its constituent members. In fulfillment of that higher calling we have the opportunity to be initiated into a greater awareness in some way. That increased awareness puts us in touch with the greater Plan with which we are involved. This expansion marks the action of Jupiter as the esoteric ruler of this sign.
Human beings are social creatures and we all have a need to interact with others at some level. If we can do so in a positive way, society progresses. The social organism evolves and can fulfill its work. The whole notion of giving and receiving, and being able to do both equally, is intimately tied in with Aquarius, for its symbol is the Water Bearer. The true server gathers up all that he or she has and holds it in trust to be dispensed to those in need at the appropriate time. The ‘water’ of which we speak is the Light of the higher Self, but it is as well the consecration of our lower nature toward fulfillment of the needs of others, and with self-forgetfulness at that. It is said that Aquarius is a sign where the energy is ever outgoing, with no central point of reference. In other words, the personal ego is dedicated to something other than meeting its own needs. Herein lies the first clue to the relation between the story at the start of this letter and the Aquarian ideal. Just as each individual has a destiny and plan to unfold so, too, does every relationship—every personal union. In our story, the young couple was meant to be productive in their individual works and in their union and to contribute their unique gifts to and within the society in which they lived. This idea of uniqueness marks the orthodox rulership of Uranus over Aquarius. When they failed in that task their union was dissolved. We see this all the time in relationships. There is an immutable higher Law that oversees the workings of all relationships which says that purpose must work out, and if that Law is transgressed there are inevitable problems that appear in the relationships and which can prove to be disastrous to them. We are eventually moved on if the Law is ignored for long enough, as was the case with our young couple.
For human beings love is the one force that drives us to fulfill our destinies and to want to work together. Without it our lives are empty and aimless and we somehow feel separated from life itself. Love is the force that guides the world server, of which Aquarius is the symbol. The love of which we speak here is not the sentimental love portrayed in the media and romance novels. It is a love that causes us to make sacrifices for others, often at great cost and personal pain to ourselves. It is a love without personal conditions or expectations, like a mother would give to her child or a soldier would give for his country. It ignores our comforts and calls us forth to grow and to serve a higher cause. It takes us out of our ego and our petty concerns. It calls us to serve. That is always the test of true love—how willing are we to make the needed adjustments to our lives to ensure that our highest purpose is fulfilled? Our purpose is our truth—our reason for being. Without that feeling or knowledge we simply drift through life and feel unfulfilled as people. There is nothing quite like the feeling we get when we know that we have made a contribution to something or someone. We call it joy, and of all the signs Aquarius is the greatest exponent of that. With that, let us have a look at the dynamics of the full moon.
The full moon for the Aquarius solar festival occurs on February 2nd at 3:45 PM AEDT (4:45 AM UT). There are several rather interesting features to the dynamics of this full moon, which will be outlined below. On the whole, this figure speaks of tests around relationships, uncertainty, expectancy, sublime inspiration, personal and private adjustments to emotional matters, ‘getting back to basics’ as to life purpose and direction and earnest questioning about how we serve a greater purpose—especially when it comes to doing so with others. The tone for this period is set by the symbol for the Sun, which reads:
“A barometer” 13 Aquarius
Here we find the idea of ‘testing the waters’ or the prevailing currents of whatever it is upon which we are focused. There is feeling of expectancy brought forward with this symbol, for as the barometer changes, so we see adjustments that must be made in our daily routines. Will the sun shine or will it rain? Can we expect drought or flood? Will the pressure be up or down? Who can say? We watch the barometer (and we all have one in our bodies somewhere, by the way). That which confronts us and with which must be dealt is defined by the symbol for the lunar degree, which reads:
“An old sea captain rocking himself on the porch of his cottage.” 13 Leo
This symbol shows us the need to retire from the cares of the world and give ourselves over to quiet recollection—remembrance of the past, but not being hooked into it. The Moon is the apex of a yod with a Mars/Uranus sextile at the base. The Sun is at the midpoint of the sextile. The base midpoint structure denotes a need to be able to quickly adapt to changes of conditions, circumstances or crises. The apex Moon indicates that there are likely hidden emotional currents that have stymied our progress in the past and which will now come up for reckoning. When we put the midpoint dynamics with the apex meaning, we have the basic structure for the figure, along with the symbols above: There is the strong possibility of potent change in our lives—especially our personal lives—and we must be willing both to sit quietly and allow what needs to come to the surface to do so and to be ready and willing to make rapid adjustments when we see that change is necessary. This is aided by a trine to Jupiter by the Moon, the implication being that some very positive outcomes can result if we are willing to sit quietly and see things through.
The Sun is conjunct Neptune on one side and Chiron on the other. The Sun and Neptune are posited in the 10th Chinese lunar mansion [The Weaving Maiden], with Chiron in the 9th Chinese lunar mansion [The Ox Boy]. Herein we find the other reason for the story at the beginning of this letter. The Weaving Maiden is the star Vega, the Ox boy is the star Altair and the River Han is the Milky Way, and both of these lunar mansions are wholly contained within the sign Aquarius for this period of world history. This planetary configuration will manifest one of two ways: It will either bring forward escapist tendencies and old emotional wounds or it will bring the most scintillating insight and spiritual magnetism. The Chinese lunar mansions are of interest, for they describe the emotional dynamics of this full moon quite well—the pain of separation if we do not follow the highest good in our personal lives and relationships. These lunar mansions are considered to be unlucky in Chinese practice and there is allusion as well with them to tests around filial piety and rewards for unselfish acts. This configuration is aided by a sextile by Jupiter, making an ‘easy opposition’ with the full moon axis (resolution of opposing forces or outlooks is made easier).
The highest good, as represented by Neptune, will be challenged either by karmic necessities, old debts or bad decisions, as represented by the opposition to Neptune by Saturn, which will be exact next month. This opposition has been with us off and on for some time now and it forces us to examine our old belief structures and to walk into new ones if need be. It takes away material ambition and is a paralyzing influence on decision making. Decisions that have been made prior to the New Year will be tested over the next month or so. Decisions that need to be made will seem all-too-hard. Do we step up to our highest Neptune), or do we stay mired in the past (Saturn)? The best outcome from this transit is to be had if we are willing to retreat from outer efforts and reevaluate our lives—again, a common theme for this full moon. Because Saturn is retrograde, the effects of the transit are more insidious than is usual unless we are prepared to do the inner work and it calls up aspects of situations that have been unresolved or improperly handled for a final resolution.
Jupiter squares Uranus and the Moon’s Nodes. The square to the Nodes indicates that people’s instincts are being interfered with, especially when we try to expand outward in the wrong way. This square can bring antisocial conduct and the tendency to look after No.1 instead of others. It can fly in the face of the Aquarian ideal. The square to Uranus brings an over-riding desire to be free of all encumbrances, but also the likelihood that one would jump before the time is right. It can bring sudden fortuitous associations, though, especially with Uranus conjunct the North Node. Mars is in a tight sextile with Uranus as well, meaning things can change for people very quickly and forcefully. Just be certain to examine your motives well before jumping into or out of anything.
Venus is conjunct Uranus, giving sudden associations, sudden love affairs, unexpected twists in affairs of the heart and sudden flashes of insight as the Soul ‘moves upon the waters’. It is the true union of higher and lower mind. Mercury is quite ‘happy’ in its sextile to Pluto, and this can bring communications with important and powerful people. It also helps to break down communications barriers between people. Here is the bottom line for this full moon: If we are in alignment with our higher purpose, if we will sit long enough in alignment with our highest good, then some very unexpected, dramatic and positive changes will happen for us. The higher Self will present us with some brilliant opportunities, and I mean this in the sense that some of our dreams can become realities. That toward which we aspire in our highest sense can be made available to us if we will do our work.
In all, this is not a chart denoting action in a worldly sense, except in terms of spiritual or inventive work, in which case its action can be surprisingly potent and dramatic. Instead, we are being called upon to sit and reflect from the angle of the lower self. Following the lead of the White Ox, which began the month (interesting in terms of the Ox Boy lunar mansion), it is a time to stay the course with decisions that have been made, but to be ready to make changes when need be. Despite the fact that we need to sit and reflect, the world must go on, and we are a part of all that. Determination will win the day, but there will be challenges to our decisions ahead, and this full moon will bring them out. Be resolute, and if the decision is correct, then success will come. In relationships, stick with the highest and don’t lose your resolve (Saturn/Neptune). It will be a time of separations if we are not in line with our higher Purpose. If separation does come, be sure that you are seeing your own purpose clearly. If we do our true work, then we will be placed where we need to be, and with the right people. May your life be blessed with some strange and wonderful twists of fate, and may the Aquarian “Light that shines on Earth, across the sea” illumine your path in ways which you never thought were possible, but maybe dreamt of. Aquarius does bring us things out of the blue. There is great promise in this full moon period for those whose faith is strong and who truly do love their fellow travelers on this Earth.
Peace and love, man!
Malvin
29 Jan 2007
These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. Please feel free to pass them on if you feel so inspired, but please do so without alteration or charge. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know.
* Story adapted from the legend as told by Derek Walters in his book Chinese Astrology: Interpreting the Revelations of the Celestial Messengers, Fig 1.3
Malvin Artley" <rosella2@chariot.net.au>
_________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 6:32 am Post subject: Mercury retrograde Feb. 14, 2007
Quote:
Mercury retro in Pisces, the sign of his fall, creates mental and emotional confusion, with strange dreams and sometimes psychic experiences. Mental processes being entwined with emotions, we find it hard to separate ideas and opinions from passion and idealism. Our mental orientation can be unstable, unrealistic and overly-spiritual, but it also inclines to laziness and increases the urge to consume alcohol. Nervousness and stress, even unfounded fears and paranoia are stimulated, especially from working or living in a hostile environment. Maintain privacy and dignity in the working environment and don't try to read between the lines, when there is really nothing to find.
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 6:47 am Post subject: Molly's Astrology March 2007
Quote:
March 1-9
So. Here we are at the beginning of March. Spring is in the air. In a few days, on March 3, there will be a Lunar Eclipse. Somewhere on Saturday, there will be a shadow on the Full Moon. We won’t see it here in the US, because the Moon will be under the horizon. But the energy is still potent. This Eclipse is in Virgo: getting organized, getting healthy, getting things done. Paungger and Poppe in their book Moon Time tell us, “Anything that you do in the two to three Virgo days for the digestion, the spleen and the pancreas has a doubly beneficial preventive and healing effect. With the exception of surgical operations carried out in this area1.” At the time of the Full Moon, according to this book, our bodies are absorbing more, so it’s a time to be especially good to yourself. Give your body lots of what’s good for it, and less of what isn’t. Focus on bringing order out of chaos, without worry. That will be difficult for some, because this Eclipse connects with Uranus, and Uranus loves to shake things up. And Virgo loves to worry.
Whether or not you’re a Virgo, you have Virgo energy somewhere in your chart. What if this doesn’t turn out perfectly? What if my souffle flops? What if I don’t do it right? Give yourself a break from your inner critic, Virgo. Worry drains your energy. Keep in mind that Mercury is still retrograde, and that it will end next week, and be followed immediately by a trio of very good Venus transits. Yummy. The Sun will conjoin Uranus on Sunday and Monday, a couple of days when we feel charged up, nervous, rebellious, jumpy, or full of ideas. But it’s best not to make rash decisions or major software updates. Give the idea some time to develop and morph. Let Mercury change direction.
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Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:09 pm Post subject: Pisces Solar Festival- Malvin Artley
Quote:
4 MAR 2007
By Malvin Artley
Greetings Friends!
‘Tis the season of festivals here in Adelaide, the Festival City. In the New Year there is always a sense of excitement here as we gear up for the coming events—the Carnivale, the Glendi, the Fringe, Womadelaide, the Schutzenfest and many others. And then there is the one festival that as many people loathe as there are those who love it—the Clipsal 500 stock car race in the heart of the Adelaide CBD. As I sat writing this letter I could look off in the distance and see planes flying in formation over the city as the first day of the race was inaugurated. A large dirigible has been slowly flying over different areas of the city for days now announcing the coming event and giving a lucky few passengers a view of the city and surrounds that not many people would ordinarily see. Pisces and Aquarius are always festive times in Adelaide, not that the city council would take much notice, but it does something for the psyche of the populace to have so many events bunched so closely together. It gives everyone here a unique experience of many different cultures, for many of these festivals are ethnic. Still other festivals here have acts that bring presenters from the world over. And here is the point—all these festivals bring together a sea of humanity (relatively speaking) in a celebration of both uniqueness and common identity. They are a celebration of shared, yet different, lives and they take us out of ourselves and the cares of the mundane world, at least for a time. They unite us after a fashion and in that we can all share and experience a side of life that we ordinarily do not have for the remainder of the year. For a time, we are able to escape and to see life differently. The change does us good.
Who couldn’t use a bit of celebration after the year we just had? The Year of the Red Pig is set to be a better year than last year, we are told, but if the way it has started is any indication, there will be a little bit with which to contend until we get to the ‘better’ parts of this year. Energies have been particularly intense over this Mercury retrograde period (since Valentine’s Day). True to form, it has been great for my business. Machines are breaking down left and right. Some people seem to be following suit. Universally, people seem to be psychically knocked about a bit here in Australia. Perhaps the best way to describe what is happening is to call the feel of things unsettled, electric and expectant—like something is about to give way. Such a dynamic creates a fair amount of fatigue. It will continue that way until the middle of this month. Then things should settle. We will see why in due course. The period of the Sun’s passage through Pisces always brings a sense of uncertainty or surrealism with it. People either just want to escape or there is a dream-like quality that sets in as we contemplate what is to come for the year. For those who know how to use the energy of this sign and who know its meaning, Pisces is a gateway—a pause and a period of shifting or culmination prior to moving into something new—much like the Year of the Pig, and it is this last sentence that bears the most relevance for the aspects of this sign to be activated in this period.
Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, or the first, depending upon one’s orientation in a spiritual sense. It is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last and a culmination prior to our being liberated into a more effective expression of life. More than anything else, Pisces is known as a sign of culmination and completion—endings, in other words. It is the one sign of the zodiac that brings with it true liberation, which only comes for us when we have made sacrifices for others in the field of service. It is the sign of the World Savior, and many great Teachers and avatars have been born under its influence. Its symbol is the two bound fishes—spirit and persona united, or separated as the case may be. It is a sign of bondage, either enforced due to a materialistic lifestyle or chosen because the person has consciously entered a life consecrated to the liberation of others from suffering. So, we see that people either suffer or gain liberation from suffering under this sign, hence its associations with internment, institutions, bondage and freedom. Every time Pisces comes around in the calendar we are offered an opportunity to set ourselves free from something that has held us back in a spiritual sense. Escape or liberation (freedom)—these are the two poles in Pisces, and they always come up for examination during the Pisces solar festival. Where are we bound, why are we bound, what have we been avoiding and how do we institute change in order that we are no longer spiritually ‘stuck’? These are the questions to ourselves that we must answer in the Pisces interval.
Pisces has been called the ‘sign of mediatorship’. Ultimately, it indicates the blending of Soul/Sprit/higher Self with the persona—the union of higher and lower. It is the most psychically gifted sign of the zodiac for that reason. Thus, it is the sign most associated with mediums. It can give one the most sublime insight into the subtle realms because the boundaries between the higher and the lower become blurred. It is that psychic ability that is at one and the same time the sign’s greatest blessing and its worst curse. When a Piscean type is focused upon the more material side of life, there can be great confusion because the person never knows from where their perceptions originate, that is, whether they are simply seeing in the astral light or actually being given a vision from the realm of the Soul. On the other end of the scale, Pisces brings ‘The Light of the World’, and, as such it ends forever the sense of separation between the outer and the inner worlds. This Light of the World is the very light of Life itself and is the sea of energy in which the higher Self lives and from whence it draws its Being. The Light of the World for the individual is indeed the Light of the higher Self. Pisces is a sign that carries with it unique dichotomies of experience, and it can bring either complete confusion or absolute clarity of vision. When one is in complete alignment with the higher Self and at one with it, then there is absolute clarity of purpose in life and the persona then stands as a mediator between the spiritual realms and the outer world—a ‘medium’ of the highest order and, as such, stands in the capacity of a world savior in some measure and capacity. Ultimately, then, Pisces presents us with opportunities to sense a greater vision, to salvage our lives in some fashion and thus help in the work of others trying to do the same with their own, to liberate ourselves from restricting circumstances and to move through a doorway—figuratively speaking—into something new and better in life. With that, let us have a look at what is gong on around this Pisces Solar Festival for 2007.
The full moon of Pisces for this year is an eclipse, and a “moon wobble” as well. “Moon wobble” is a term coined by the late American astrologer Carl Payne Toby. I described its effects in the Sagittarius letter of 2006. There is a very interesting sub-current—an inner script, if you want to call it such—that is playing out and about to end with this eclipse. I will describe that inner script in due course. This will be a full lunar South Node eclipse, which portends endings of emotional scenarios and closing the door on certain chapters of life, depending upon what is activated in a person’s chart. This particular eclipse belongs to a Saros series called ‘Nine New North’, and it is associated with accidents and sudden changes. It is said to be a particularly physical series of eclipses, but my experience has shown something more than that. In particular, from what I can see, this class of eclipses produces what may best be called ‘a state of precipitation’, and that particular dynamic was introduced by the Uranus transit over the eclipse point in the period from the 25th Mar-8 May 2006. Uranus is the ‘Lord’ of this particular eclipse and it thus produces what is known in occultism as a ‘dynamic point of tension’. On the whole—and people have been feeling this state of things building in recent days—this point of tension, as it is called, pushes people to the breaking point, hence the emphasis on physical accidents. If we do not pay close enough attention to our inner well-being, then inner tensions that remain unresolved can externalize in the form of physical accidents. In other words, change is upon us, and the force for that change is irresistible. No one resists Uranus. It brings us change, like it or not.
The full moon takes place at 10:17 AM AEDT (11:17 PM UT on 3 Mar 2007). The symbol for the degree for the Sun defines the tone for the full moon period and it reads thus:
“An ancient sword, used in many battles, is displayed in a museum.” 13 Pisces
This symbol denotes the use of the spiritual will in the resolution of life’s ‘battles’, or challenges. It is an admonition to stand courageously in the face of things and ‘do the right thing’ whether painful personally or not. What is implicated here is a Soul-faculty, built up through the course of many lives that enables us to wisely choose the proper course of events and to work for the greater good, for that is always the purpose of spiritual will. This is a degree that promotes self-empowerment. If there is something upon which you need to act, this eclipse shows that it is time to do so, or life will take care of it for you. It is of interest to note that the most potent time for acting has actually just passed, although there is still a window of opportunity. Uranus began to activate this eclipse point on the 14th of January, was exact on the 4th of February and just passed out of orb on the 22nd of Feb. Not to worry. The effects of this eclipse will be felt for some time to come and will ‘ripple through’.
The symbol for the degree of the Moon shows what is highlighted for us and that with which we must deal. It reads:
“A powerful statesman overcomes a state of political hysteria.” 13 Virgo
To what do we turn when it comes to the structure of our lives? Is it personal satisfaction, public need, spiritual inspiration, simple necessity—what is it that drives us to organize our lives? That is what is being confronted with this symbol. We have all been easily swayed in some way and at some point in our lives in times of crisis by people who have ‘it’—charisma, sex-appeal, raw power—any of a number of qualities. There is always some way in which we can be swayed. This is especially true when we are in a negative state. In a positive sense the dynamic of this symbol leads to organized and well-functioning societies. In the negative it leads to a populace that is easily seduced and manipulated. The same applies to personal life as well. What is implicated in the symbol is the emergence of powerful figures or forces in our lives in times of chaos and crisis. In the highest interpretation, the ‘statesman’ is one’s higher Self, with the ‘hysteria’ being the normally unruly and sometimes overly excited persona. In other instances the ‘statesman’ may very well be some figure who comes into our lives in times of crisis to restore order and to show us a better way. That person may or may not be the best thing for us. At any rate, the combination of these two symbols points to the need for us to ‘seize the day’ for ourselves and not to rely on someone else to bring restorative energy to us. This is the age-old battle between personal empowerment—which always comes from the higher Self—and looking for someone else to set things right for us. In short, this eclipse is about ending dependency upon others and fighting our own battles in life, but that does not mean we have to do it alone. This is about self-salvation and a more beneficent organization to our lives.
In regard to the preceding, I mentioned that there is a subscript that is playing out through this eclipse, and that has to do directly with the action of the planet Uranus. In the orbital pattern of every planet in the solar system there are periods of time when a planet appears to move backward in the sky. These periods are known as the planet’s retrograde phase, and they offer up unique opportunities for experiencing life in a different way than is experienced under the planet’s normal influence. There are distinct phases to this retrograde cycle, something which I have never addressed in these letters. As the planet begins the retrograde phase it appears to stop moving in the sky. This marks what is known as the ‘retrograde station’—‘station’ meaning that the planet appears to stand still (retrograde station meaning the standstill before it turns retrograde). Then, it slowly begins to move backwards. The important thing to note here is that the planet only appears to move backward, meaning that it is our perception with regard to the dynamics of the planet involved that is altered somehow, and not the actual order of things. Next, the planet will move backward for a time and then reach a station at the other end, known as the ‘direct station’ (stationary prior to moving direct). The entire sector of the zodiac in which the retrograde motion occurs is what is known as the ‘shadow area’ of the planet’s movement through the zodiac, and that is activated as the planet approaches its retrograde phase, as well as after it turns direct. In other words, if Uranus (since we are talking about Uranus in relation to this eclipse) stations retrograde at 15 Pisces, as it did, and stations direct at 11 Pisces, then the shadow area is 11-15 Pisces. That was activated on March 4th last year when Uranus wandered into its shadow area and the entire cycle will finish on March 7th this year. So, what does this mean to us?
The shadow area, as the name implies, is a unique experience with regard to consciousness. In psychological terms, it defines exactly what the name suggests—unresolved areas of our life or psyche that need to be addressed. So, when a planet enters its shadow area by transit or progression during the initial approach to the retrograde station we get either the vague or distinct impression that something is amiss with life. Indeed, outer circumstances may actually indicate to us that our lives are somehow out of order, but it might be something upon which we cannot quite place a finger. With our present Uranus consideration, that first shadow phase was from Mar 4th to 19 Jun 2006. We were then given a glimpse of where we were not moving forward with our lives nor instituting those ‘better conditions’ and needed changes for our spiritual progress in life which Uranus ultimately represents. To put it another way, we were given ‘warning shots across the bow’ and told that we needed to change and if we did not, then we would be given the ‘opportunity’ to take a closer look at things during the retrograde phase. Check your diaries, then, and look back at your life in that period.
During the retrograde period of any planet we are, in a sense, thrown back upon ourselves in some way. With Uranus retrograde we often feel that we have somehow taken a step backward and done the very opposite of what Uranus represents—movement into the future. Uranus turning retrograde can indicate sudden reversals of fortune. Uranus direct can appear to do that, too, when it activates certain sensitive areas in a chart. The difference between the retrograde and the direct action of Uranus is distinct, however, even though it may appear the same on the surface of things. Changes in fortune under Uranus direct will somehow always lead us into a better future with greater clarity of vision, even though the circumstances around it may be very unsettling in our personal lives. Changes under Uranus retrograde force a different dynamic upon us. During that period, in a sense we are shown those areas of our lives where we have missed opportunities for growth and we enter a cycle wherein we feel confused, disoriented, and unable to move forward and often have a strong inner sense of shock. When Uranus turns direct again we are given the opportunity for self-correction and, when Uranus leaves the shadow area, we should find ourselves on the right track again, all being well. Uranus leaves its current shadow area on the 8th of this month and enters its next shadow area the day after, culminating the current Moon Wobble, setting the stage for the next phase of Soul work and finishing the Mercury retrograde period. We can all breathe a sigh of relief then and get about the work of the next stage of our growth. Let us be clear: There is a big piece of work and clearing that is about to be completed and this eclipse will ‘seal it off’, in a sense.
There is one more area to be addressed with this eclipse and with what is happening in the world. We should keep in mind that eclipses always come in pairs. After the first one of the pair takes place the next one occurs roughly two weeks after. The next one will be a partial solar eclipse close to a 0-Aries point, which can often bring major world events when they are triggered. Both of these eclipses will be short-lived, the one on the 4th being ‘finished’ by Saturn (Saturn bringing completion, culmination and fulfillment) in Sept 2008 and the second in Oct 2009. Major world events are coming in the next couple of years and we will have a look at all that in future letters. Suffice it to say that we are all being set up to be where we need to be and doing what we need to be doing when that period is finally upon us. Most of us have probably seen a lot of emails about energy shifts, world upheaval, catastrophes, financial collapse and the like. The eclipse triggers to come will usher in some of that. A lot of what has gone around is nonsense, in my opinion, but we can look for some big changes in the world stage over the next few years. There is no real need for concern if we can see the larger picture, but change is certainly upon us, whatever that might mean. On a final note, the current eclipse has been triggered by Uranus from 14 Jan-22 Feb this year, so what it will bring for us has already been revealed. It is just a matter of seeing things through if there is something upon which we need to act. With that, let us have a look at the planetary dynamics of this current figure.
The first thing that stands out is the t-square with Jupiter squaring of the full moon axis. Freedom is the catch-cry here. Jupiter wants to expand. Uranus wants to be free. The square, however, makes people want to do things out of timing unless the course of action is clearly thought through. However, Jupiter is in a Grand Trine with Saturn and Venus. Now, this is a ‘money trine’ as well as a marital trine. This full moon will see the course of relationships of all types decided for a long time to come—at least until 2008 when Saturn finalizes this eclipse. There are many beneficial changes that will come of this for people, as well as a lot of healing since Venus is also in trine to Chiron.
For those readers who have planets or angles at 20 degrees of fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius), the Saturn Neptune opposition has just completed its exact degree. It has brought major changes in beliefs and personal relations. What we would like to fondly imagine about people and life in general and the cold reality of situations has come into focus and some big adjustments have had to be made. Saturn tries to structure and Neptune defies being structured. At the same time there is an opportunity with this opposition to set up new structures for life on more realistic foundations. Saturn and Neptune together, regardless of the aspect, are about giving form to one’s visions or dreams.
The Moon is the apex of a yod with the Venus/Chiron sextile at the base. What is highlighted in the yod is the need for emotional security, but since this is a lunar, South Node eclipse, such security may seem fleeting at the moment. If one is willing to be open to new connections with others, healing in an emotional context can come and some brilliant things can appear from the eclipse. If emotions are wasted upon trying to stick with old patterns then the yod will work against a person and strong, compulsive patterns will come to the surface for reckoning. Other than that, there are no other significant aspects to cover other than the Mercury sextile to Pluto which will greatly aid in communications after Mercury goes direct on the 7th. On the whole, then, we will need to wait and see what we have in the middle of March after the dust has settled from all the changes taking place due to this eclipse and the Moon Wobble.
This has been an interesting letter to write, meaning the experience of it. A week ago in my mind I thought it should go out, but every time I would sit down to write it there was no inspiration and I would often have to lay down and sleep. What we think as far as schedules and traditions is sometimes not the best approach. Sometimes events conspire to give us just what we need—not necessarily what we want. This has happened with me a couple of times in the course of writing these letters. Perhaps it is Pisces escapism for this one. Perhaps it is my own higher Self taking me out of body because I have had to delay sending them at other times. One thing that has come clear to me this week is that there are forces afoot that are not giving people answers right now until the last minute. Uranus is like that. We don’t know what will happen when Uranus is active until it happens. Whatever the case, now I have been able to complete it and we will see what comes of what has been outlined in the preceding paragraphs.
I was out for a walk a while ago and I was taking in the night sky. Late-night walks are common for me. The stars beckon at such times when sleep is not always a constant thing. Sleep has been difficult for many people of late. The Moon is full now and I was immediately struck by something that has been elusive of late as I looked at my constant and eternal muse—stillness. Calmness is perhaps a better term. There is something about this full moon, regardless of Uranus being Lord over it that carries a quality of calmness. Is it the ‘calm before the storm’? I think not. It is more a calmness borne of being in the right frame of mind—of knowing that one is on the right path and that life will work out as it needs to be. That calmness and stillness is what comes over us when we have found the right path. That state of being is how the higher Self or Soul is at all times. It is eternal, ageless, infinitely old, yet forever evolving. Though outer life may roar away around us, the Soul is ever the silent and constant Watcher and Guide in life. When we enter that calmness and silence, we know. As we look at what lies ahead for us, then, do we feel calm or do we feel the roar of a life that keeps going around the same track and never resolves? Do we feel a need to escape from what confronts us or do we move with surety and calmness into a future that we know is correct? There is no winning or losing in life. There is only a path to follow that takes us to our proper destination. As is always the case at key times in life, all we need do is to take enough time to sit in silence and commune with the highest to which we can attain within. The answers always come. May it be so with you all. Life is a festival of the Soul, at least it should be. May this solar festival give us all cause for celebration and a much brighter future, no matter how it might seem in the immediate moment.
Blessings, everyone!
Malvin.
4 Mar 2007
These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you would like to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know. If you feel so inspired, please feel free to pass them on, but do so without alteration or charge.
Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:32 am Post subject: "Life Force and the Use of it." -Nick
[/quote]
The March equinox in the annual solar cycle is much like the First Quarter Moon in a lunar cycle--a time creating "stimulus to action", marking entry into the "creative action" quarter of the solar cycle. Our current solar cycle, which began in December 2006, was presented in the Dec 20, 2006 lunar planner.
The vernal point of the moving vernal axis (of the Holy Cross) (changing its location in the ecliptic with Earth's ~25,000-year Precessional Cycle) currently residing at this ecliptical location (~5° sidereal Pisces) also creates the Erect Holy Cross. Thus, this Ceres New Moon Equinox Eclipse activates the Holy Cross portal creating a significant shift in the evolutionary cycle of the soul collective on Earth, a cycle governed by Earth's precessional timepiece--the cycle of the Holy Cross.
Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 4:00 pm Post subject: Astrology - know and heal thyself
Yo little lady
Good to see you are still out there .... I know I should have written to you ages ago -- what can I say I am poorly organised ... no time but but to survive - too much happening ... but you are are always in my thoughts and prayers ---- as are the other members - but as you well know you are at a special place ............ so much to read and digest in this forum ... my little brain cannot cope.
How you and your fellow participants manae to stay abreast of everything defies me .. I barely get time to read the daily newspaper.
There has been some serious thought provoking stuff of late -- you are doing a fantastic job as is young Anne
So many members now .. spring is upon us - the flowering cherry in my garden is about to explode into bloom - and so shall all the efforts of ll the participants of this forum .. a new time is upon you all .... new hands will reach across from spirit very soon and we will witness some amazing communications .. they are about to get it all together .. a few more members and everything will be set
To you my dear all my love and the blessings of the almighty be with you and all the other members of the forum
Murray _________________ Peace and light
Be in Tune with the "Oneness" and at Peace with the "Universe"
Namaste'
Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 6:05 am Post subject: Hello Bluestar!
I have to confess that Ms.Anne has held the reins for quite sometime
for herself.
I lost the address with cleaning out stacked emails.. my only way to get here. Otherwise I get lead to another site.
But thanks for your post, O received an email that led me this way.
Lots to talk about but not sure of who would be interested.
So I shall post a few..
Glad to get your post and surely would be great to get more! _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 6:11 am Post subject: From "The Aquarius Papers" by Robert Wilkenson
Quote:
Saturn is the nozzle for focusing planetary energies due to sitting opposite all of the other planets except the Moon. During past and future months, the primary line of tension and awareness is dominated by Saturn opposed Neptune, symbolizing the generic oppositional polarizing tension we've had to deal with since late 2005 and be living with through Summer 2007. Saturn is the means as well as the forms of expressing Neptunian energy.
This opposition represents an on-going lesson in managing dualisms and tensions through bringing the reality and the ideal back into balance. Find creative idealism, be loving when confronting the collective consciousness and unconscious, and focus on love and friendship as you learn to be patient and mature directors of an on-going Self-transformation. Get a clear focus on what your ideals truly are and how to achieve them using Saturn's discipline, organization, and persistent endeavor.
Saturn shows us how to focus the power of the NOW into forms appropriate to our highest evolutionary intention. It is the planet symbolizing Dharma, our Ultimate Purpose or "True Function." It requires focus, and making time our ally to achieve the steps toward our Leo heart's intention and enthusiasms. We can find natural ways to get work done quickly, reorganize our lives and affairs, and find creativity and enjoyment in doing our worldly thing.
From September 2006 through August 2007 Saturn continues to put pressure on 18-26 degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. Right now it’s focused on 18-20 degrees of these Fixed signs, and why sometimes things feel more stuck than others. Generate the virtues of these signs to express Saturn the best possible way. Simplify, purify ideals and lifestyle, and be as noble and loving as possible. We are learning over time, using patience to come to maturity, to break up pessimistic, inert, or unhelpful attitudes and needless drifting to enjoy life more fully and creatively.
As noted in previous articles, the theme of the first six months of 2007 is seeing how the lower self is being joined to the Higher Self through the death of useless things, and emotional stress is bringing forth forms of “spiritual linkage.” Saturn opposition Neptune will continue to show hard realities and greater ways to make our experience, discipline, maturity and wisdom real through August 2007.
Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 9:34 am Post subject: Aries Solar Festival by Malvin Artley
Quote:
ARIES SOLAR FESTIVAL 2007
3 APR 2007
By Malvin Artley
Greetings Everyone!
Well, as some folks would say—better late than never. I hope you all had a safe and happy Easter holiday. As I said in my last communication with you, there has been a lot going on, both energetically and outwardly. This is because we have entered into the high spiritual period of the year (April, May and June), so this letter marks an important time for us all. Lately the muse for these letters has seemed to escape me, hence their lateness. That is always a signal to me of internal shifts in consciousness, subconscious overflow or something new about to come into my life. I think we would find that the three scenarios just mentioned usually go together for all of us. The period over the last few weeks has been surreal in a lot of respects and there has been a fair amount of uncertainty and insecurity in the world. Events seem to conspire against us at times or throw us off schedule or balance. Still, there is purpose in it all. The last two eclipses have done their work and continue to do so. We have borne witness to many physical ‘accidents’, world disasters and the like. Adding to the mix is the fact that earth-energies have been particularly strong (we had a tsunami in these parts a week ago) and folks in Terra Australis and surrounding regions have felt pretty distracted and physically knocked about (aches and pains, pressure in the head, dragging sensations, etc., etc.). It all gets pretty boring after a while—or exciting, depending upon one’s outlook.
Perhaps the best way to describe what has been going on since the last solar festival is to say that there is a generalized feeling as though ‘there is something in the air’. As we would say in the South, a whole heap of change is happenin’ or about to happen. There is a consistent theme that has run throughout the past several months, and it goes something like this: We are finishing up that which was brought forward for clearing in the Year of the Yellow Dog (2006) prior to the institution of a new phase in life for very many of us. That new phase will commence as we are ready and have done the requisite work over the next few months. Change can come within days or in months, but come it will. On the morning of the 20th of this month Australia time Saturn completes its direct station at the 19th degree of Leo (which speaks of freedom from social rigidity) and goes slowly direct. Things will move steadily forward after that as it moves through its shadow area (to be completed on the 25th of July this year) and the scenarios that were started at the first of September or thereabout will be completed as Saturn moves past the degree of its retrograde station (26 Leo “After the heavy storm, a rainbow”).
The symbol for the degree just mentioned has set the tone for the period since the end of last year and the general mood around the place has indeed been fairly stormy. A lot has changed already. What has happened since the start of December has been what might be called a ‘karmic readjustment’. It has been needed. We are still in the storm, but the worst of it has passed. We will not see the ‘rainbow’ in fullness until July unless we have made the necessary changes in our respective situations. Does it feel like a tornado has visited your living room? If you think the storm is finished, hold your thoughts on that until after the Wesak Moon on May 2nd. Life could become ‘interesting’ again—or liberating, depending upon one’s outlook.
For all the Aries types out there, take heart. Though this letter is late, its effects last for the entire year, so you haven’t missed anything of great note by not having it in your hand at the time. The best ‘stuff’ usually comes after the Wesak Festival anyway, and that figure looks to be a powerful one. Funny how it always seems to work out that way. The festival we have just experienced is “The Festival of the Risen Christ”—the Easter Festival on the Aries full moon. It is the celebration of the expression of the Love of God and the ‘Teacher of men and Angels alike’. This is the festival in which we have our closest approach to the spiritual Hierarchy of the planet (realizing that the term ‘Hierarchy’ holds a negative connotation to some people). It thus opens a channel to the great fountainhead of Love which the Hierarchy represents. More than that, however, it puts us in touch with that stream of energy that is most intimately connected and concerned with the development of consciousness.
Aries is one of three signs that has a great catalytic effect in the lives of people, the other two being Taurus and Capricorn. In other words, it plants seeds within human consciousness that eventually institute change. That change can be slow or dramatic, but Aries always brings about change when it is highlighted. In terms of its connection with Hierarchy, Aries is ruled by Uranus, the planet that carries the ‘urge to better conditions’. It is the planet of newness and change, both concepts being intimately associated with Aries as well. Uranus has certainly featured strongly in recent monthly figures. It is in a combust conjunction with the North Node and it is thus either confusing people about their direction in life or it is bringing sudden unexpected associations that will further one’s aims down the track, so-to-speak. Aries is the sign that initiates cycles of manifestation, thus its association with birth, newness and the pioneering spirit. It is not a sign that one would necessarily associate with Love and the Christ, but it does transmit “The Light of Life Itself: The ‘searchlight of the Logos’, seeking that which can be used for divine expression.”
Under the impress of Aries we develop the power of organization, of control over forces, particularly of desire, cooperation with a higher Plan and—peculiarly—the power of destruction (endings of a personal nature) applied with love. It is this last point that so many people are feeling at the moment, allied with the beneficent reorganizing power of Uranus, and this is causing the most acute upheaval in the lives of people who have been reluctant to change or who have a larger work to do and thus must be clear in terms of circumstance before they can commence their work. For people who have made those necessary changes, Aries has been instrumental in putting outer circumstances into place that will aid in the future and those people will thus find themselves unexpectedly busy and literally run off their feet. It is a sign closely associated with what has become popularly known as ‘tough love’, but it is usually our Souls that provide that for us. Aries has been called the birthplace of ideas, and any new idea holds latent within it the seeds of the destruction of an old order. The human spirit is forever restless and, when moved by spiritual necessity (which Uranus brings) we can bet with certainty that old ways of living or doing things will have to either fall by the wayside or be greatly modified. So, with the preceding points in mind, how will the Aries Festival manifest newness, change, beginnings and—most importantly—better ways of loving and changes in consciousness or thinking?
The full moon of Aries took place on the 3rd of April at 3:15 AM AEST (April 2nd at 5:15 UT). As is customary, the symbol for the degree of the Sun gives the basic statement underlying the figure. It reads:
“An unexploded bomb reveals an unsuccessful social protest.” 13 Aries
Talk about a ‘loaded’ symbol! This symbol speaks of frustration, of reacting wildly to restraint but also of the necessity thereof and of refusal to conform. What is it in our life with which we must deal and confront but would do almost anything to avoid? By whom or by what do we feel controlled and frustrated at every turn? The human persona is rebellious to change, resistant in the earlier stages to the control imposed by a higher power (the Soul) and recalcitrant when it comes to things or people who demand unwanted attention. We humans are such a lovable lot at times. What this symbol clearly states is that our protests, no matter how vociferous, will go unheeded and will be unsuccessful until we either make the required changes within ourselves or conform to the greater order and work within that system to institute change. If we are unwilling, then it may be that we simply have to ‘leave the state’ until such time as conditions are more amenable to us, if that ever happens. Whatever happens, we have to make some sort of fundamental change in our life or either simply let go of our pet issue and get on with the business of living. There is another message here that is not so obvious, however, and that is to forget the outer circumstances and look at what it is within us that wants change, why, and what we must do to affect it. It is not about ‘the State’. It is about us, our obligations to the outer world, what we must ‘give unto Caesar’ and where we could be more understanding of ourselves and the processes of others. Tough love, indeed. The seeds of revolution are implied in this symbol.
The symbol for the degree of the Moon shows what is being reflected back to us and what it is from the past which we must release in order to move forward. It reads:
“Children blowing soap bubbles” 13 Libra
There are three things of importance in connection with this symbol. The first is that we must be imaginative if we are to find a way out of impasses. Any personal impasse implies a limited pattern of thinking that binds one to old habits and desires that are usually better left behind anyway. Imagination invokes the Soul and brings in intuitive awareness, but these insights often fly in the face of established ideas. Secondly, there is a warning with this symbol as it relates to the full moon figure not to get lost in fantasy and ignore the realities going on around us. Play is important and it has its place, but to play too much keeps us from the real business of living. We need to see ourselves and outer circumstances truly. Lastly, and most importantly, ideas tend to be given life in the mind but all-too-often only drift around in our heads, only to disappear as quickly as they come. The lower mind tends to be like that—ephemeral and inconsistent, always darting from one interesting thing to the next. The message of Aries is to bring ideas into physical reality, and to do that we must first recognize the inherent value of an idea, capture its essence and then focus upon it long enough to give it form and substance. Perhaps the best questions we could ask ourselves in relation to this symbol is what part of our life do we live in fantasy, when do we need to play and to be serious and how do we make our ideas become something of real substance in the outer world, rather than a simple passing fancy? Curiously, there is an implication of revolution in this symbol as well as in the previous one. What might seem a passing thought can become a powerful force for change if we seize upon it rightly.
An analysis of the full moon figure lends full support to what has just been outlined. There are two main aspect patterns to consider in this regard. The first and most obvious one is the Grand Trine involving the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter was almost at its retrograde station on that day and Saturn was retrograde as well. Under ‘normal’ conditions, this would be a brilliant Grand Trine for business and all sorts of big projects. It is a ‘money trine’ par excellence, when all planets within it are in direct motion, and all business people should benefit from its influence. The only problem is that it is largely stuck in terms of planetary motion, implying that there will be a lot of good ideas around but frustration around getting things off the ground. Saturn retrograde has a strong implication in money woes as well as problems with men and authority figures in general. Unfortunately, it is a frustrating dynamic, but with huge potential if a way can be found to release that pent-up energy. Fortunately, that ‘relief valve’ comes from the tight conjunction of Mercury, Uranus and the North Node which squares Jupiter and is quincunx to Saturn. The key to releasing the beautiful and powerful energy of the Grand Trine in this figure thus comes from unusual associations with people and/or ideas, although the two usually go hand in hand. Pay attention to everything, for that passing thought or seemingly banal conversation you overhear on the bus may be the very key to what you need to unlock a huge potential for you. The other way of releasing the potential of the Sun/Jupiter/Saturn Grand Trine is through the Moon, and more specifically through the methods described by the symbol for its degree—play, imagination, ‘becoming as little children’ and getting lost in the moment from time to time and where appropriate.
The other main aspect pattern in this figure is not obvious on the surface and, unless one knows about ‘minor’ (the term should be ‘harmonic’) aspects it would not even get a mention. I always look for interlaced and interlocked patterns of such aspects in a figure, for they denote special qualities and areas or modes of special talents that the standard aspects do not describe. The particular pattern to which I refer in this figure is one of three interlaced and interlocked septile-series triangles involving the Sun, Neptune, Pluto and the South Node. Furthermore, just five hours before the full moon, the Moon completed another such triangle, being at the base of a septile yod with the Uranus/Node conjunction at the apex. This yod is an exact reflection of another septile yod in the interlaced pattern with the sun and Neptune as the base and the South Node at the apex. This is a rare configuration, and it is very occult in its action and implication. I wrote at some length about septile patterns in the 2005 Aries letter. In that letter the following was stated about septile patterns: “1) They are strongly implicated in the charts of people who have revealed the hidden side of nature. 2) They are implicated in the charts of people who either work with or impose order. 3) They are often found in the charts of people who stand as examples for the shape of things to come. 4) They are found in the charts of people who work with cycles of destiny, either consciously or unconsciously. The preceding points are especially true when regular patterns of linked septiles occur in a chart.”
If we look at the planets involved in the septile patterns we find two of the main planets of occultism involved—Neptune and Pluto. Pluto clears the way for the sublime Light of Neptune. It brings about freedom from the past and the end of illusion. Neptune is Lord over Pluto and governs its orbital movement, so all outer occurrences that have the stamp of Pluto upon them are actually precursors of Neptunian enlightenment to come. This last point was covered in the 2005 Pisces letter. Any time we find both planets involved in a septile pattern then we can be certain that a rare opportunity for insight is to be bestowed if we are open to it. One could say that Pluto is the herald of expanded intuition, which Neptune represents. With the Sun completing the triangle, we find a high degree of impressionability, especially with Neptune as the midpoint of the triangle. The highest expression of this triangle, then, is the natural seer. It can give us a doorway into things of which we have yet to conceive or would not ordinarily perceive. The inner realms can be opened to us if we were to rightly use the dynamic of this full moon figure. We might think the time for that has passed since the Aries Festival has come and gone, but I assure you that is not the case. There are true revelations to come this year and new benchmarks to be set in human consciousness and relations. All we need do is to turn to ‘the Christ within’—our own Souls—and the way will be made clear.
On the downside of this septile pattern, the Moon’s South Node is at one point of another triangle and the Moon itself is disseminating the qualities contained in the yod described previously. What this means is that old psychological patterns, if adhered to, will trip us up if we try to move forward with things, ignoring the inner promptings given us from the higher Self. In other words, if we give ourselves over to escapist tendencies or outmoded forms of expression, then the inner process described by the septile patterns here could possibly lead to falls from grace, health problems, a lack of energy or, in extreme cases, martyrdom. What is being described here is what has been called the ‘Icarus Effect’ by a good friend of mine—we see a grand vision, are full of inspiration, try to ascend toward that which we desire but fall to earth instead because we have ignored certain fundamentals and weak points within ourselves or those close to us—not done our homework, in other words—and wind up crashing because of our own folly or blindness to our issues. As a warning here, be aware that martyrdom is a distinct possibility this year and is strongly indicated. Watch the news and, if you are in a dangerous area, be mindful and cautious. This full moon will work to the extreme on either pole. We will see people rise to the occasion and have brilliant insights into issues at hand, thus raising the bar for everyone (furthering evolution and society) and setting new and better structures into place, or we will see people completely losing the plot and crashing around us because they simply cannot handle the vision or energy that has been let loose into their system.
Be very clear: the period over the last two months has seen a strong increase of Light in the world. As a result, weaknesses are highlighted and strengths are bolstered. Because of increased energy the world seems a frenetic and strange place now, but it will settle and we will find that we are in a better place as a result if we have followed our inner guidance correctly. If we have not, then the Wesak period will bring further shocks. If we have, then the Wesak period will bring a powerful movement forward in terms of one’s life direction. The septile patterns and the Grand Trine are calling us to great things, symbolically speaking. Really, our Souls are calling us to awaken. I don’t know of many people who like to hear an alarm clock go off in the morning, but we are being aroused from our spiritual slumber in a lot of ways so we can start with a new sort of dispensation/life in the year(s) to come. Our Souls are calling us to awaken.
Aside from the main dynamics of the figure as outlined above, we find that this is not a particularly happy chart with regard to personal matters. To those steeped in the esoteric side of things, this is to be expected of the three great spiritual festivals (Aries, Taurus and Gemini). This time of year is when we are called upon to greater service and self-forgetfulness as a result. In this particular figure the lack of personal focus is shown by the t-square with Venus apex and the Saturn/Neptune opposition, as well as Saturn opposing the midpoint of a Chiron/Neptune conjunction—in itself a particularly sad configuration. Look back at the full moon on the 3rd. Were you happy, or were you bound by duty and/or necessity? Venus/Saturn is big on duty, short on happiness. Still, an obligation fulfilled is one less burden we have to carry through life, which means greater freedom in the long term. The Saturn/Neptune opposition speaks of our search for ‘lost time’. How much time have you had to do all the things you have wanted to of late? These aspects are not particularly good for business, either (re: Grand Trine) and there are many businesses here in Adelaide that are struggling at the moment. This is not to say that it will stay that way for the year. Certainly not. However, what is highlighted by this figure is where work needs to be done now to set things right in order that plans can unfold in a more prosperous manner over the months to come.
The only remaining aspects that stand out are the sextile between Mars and Pluto, Jupiter’s square to the nodal axis and the sextile between Mercury and Venus. The Mars/Pluto sextile is a saving grace in the chart aside from the Grand Trine, and it gives abundant energy and ego drive along with an indomitable will to push through obstacles. Jupiter’s square to the nodal axis warns of us being thrown off course through excesses, taking on too much and jumping into things out of timing. The Mercury/Venus sextile is good for all communications and aesthetic considerations and aids in conflict resolution, being an aspect that denotes ‘speaking professions’ (diplomats, teachers, sales people, media persona and the like). In the end, this is a powerful figure that holds within it a lot of spiritual promise and it can give people the capacity to change their lives in a very meaningful, unusual and big way. If there are obstacles to that, those will be dealt with under the impress of the next full moon—the Wesak Festival. If we are on track, so-to-speak, we will be propelled forward, literally. The Wesak period tells us of our purpose in the coming year, whereas the Easter Festival tells us where we can love and serve more fully. The way we love and serve is being put to the test now through our present situation. The purpose of all that is happening now will be revealed to us shortly.
The past weeks have been a ‘full’ time in many ways. Everyone I know feels unduly stressed in some area of life and stretched almost to the breaking point. Because of that people around us seem preoccupied, self-absorbed and ill-tempered. Things do not seem to go our way at times and we wonder “Why me!?” Basically, we are all in the same boat. I used to ask my Dad every year at birthdays and Christmas what he wanted for his gift and the answer was always the same—Peace and quiet. I could go with a bit of that right now. I haven’t raised four children like he and my mom did, but I know what he meant all those years. His answer is still the same, by the way, even though now it is a family joke. In times like these we should all give ourselves periods of what I have come to call ‘Dad time’—periods of rest and quiet, aside from our normal hours of sleep. Take a holiday, turn off the phones, stay away from emails—give yourselves a real break. Life right now reminds me of an old saying we used to throw around jokingly in my university days—It’s been real and it’s been good, but it hasn’t been real good! We are all being pushed to change our lives in a big way, ready or not. We may as well take the good from what is happening and see the possibility in it and the gift to come rather than think that the Fates are toying with us. Life really never really does that anyway.
In the Chinese New Year letter for this year I forecast that the first few months of the year would bring testing times as we finished up a few little items carried over from the Year of the Dog. Well, here it is. Things will begin to slowly or quickly sort themselves out after Saturn goes direct on Friday. Just see the present period as one of a big ‘spring clean’ by the Soul. That is all this period has been, you know? I can see quite a lot of good to come from what is happening now and people will be in a much better place when it is all said and done. Then we can begin in earnest to enjoy what is on offer in the Year of the Pig. Aries is about beginnings. I hope for all of you that something fresh and new presents itself if it has not already. There really is a lot to enjoy in this world of ours and it starts at home. Aries is also about individuality and self-effort. If we keep good company within ourselves, then the world will follow suit. Do something good for yourselves every day. We each deserve that. Ah! Peace and quiet. Thanks for the suggestion, Dad. I think I will finally take your advice!
Blessings, all.
Malvin.
18 Apr 2007
These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know. If you feel so inspired, feel free to pass them along, but please do so without charge or alteration.
_________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 6:53 am Post subject: The Wesak Festival by Malvin Artley
Quote:
WESAK FESTIVAL 2007
2 MAY 2007
By Malvin Artley
Greetings Everyone!
History was never one of my favorite subjects in school. I always had a difficult time remembering all the names and dates, let alone seeing what the relevance of something that happened, say, three thousand years ago had to do with what I was going to do the next day. Maybe it was because I just wasn’t geared toward the subject or maybe I just had boring history teachers, but science always had a much greater appeal to me, along with girls once nature deemed fit to bless me with hormones in my teenage years. Of course, that was a long time ago—ancient history, shall we say?—and I have come to appreciate the importance of the subject, especially when it comes to learning not to make the same mistakes over and over again. However, there is history, the subject, and then there is history—the kind that one never gets from books. When I refer to the latter, we begin to touch upon a subject that has quite an immediate importance to our lives and does indeed affect what we will do for the next day and all of our days to come, for what I mean when I talk about that is what most of us know as Soul-history. Soul-history forms a lot of what science calls the subconscious mind, which is the basic patterning that determines so much of how we behave. This is the patterning from relevant past lives that gives us our inclinations toward certain cultures, activities, foods, interests and talents, and it is that history that points toward an understanding of what our purpose is for life and how that is to work out.
It is a fascinating thing to watch children as they come into the world and grow up. They have certain distinct likes and dislikes. They gravitate toward certain people, objects, music, activities and so forth, each one as if there were something old and familiar in whatever they are drawn toward. I remember from my childhood that I was always attracted to the stars and science. When I discovered Chinese food in the fourth grade I was hooked. I could eat it at every meal and never grow tired of it. All things Chinese have held a deep fascination for me and, of course, music has been a huge influence in my life. There is one thing I always realized when I came across something new that spoke to me, though—if I felt pulled toward it, there was invariably a feeling of comfort, familiarity and peace about it. I didn’t have to think about it or try to figure it out. I always knew it was right. It was as if I was simply remembering something instead of learning new things, which is actually very close to the truth. In the end, though, what eventually evolved out all that ‘remembrance’ was a more or less clear sense of a direction forward in life, and when I would get involved with things that really spoke to me there was never any question in my mind as to what I should do or how I should do it. I just knew. My path for the time or period was illumined, clear and compelling. Such clear knowing is a characteristic of the sign Taurus, and the concept of purpose as a steadily unfolding process is as well.
Certain themes of Buddhism seem to stand out to me this full moon. There has been a strong undercurrent with this letter and a prompting to look at the Buddhist tradition as it relates to human spiritual evolution. Many people call the Taurus solar festival (full moon in Scorpio) the ‘Festival of the Buddha’. The phrase is actually a little unfortunate, for the Wesak period is not about the personage of Sakyamuni at all, but rather indicates an attainment or orientation to achieve a specific state of being—that of atmic consciousness, or spiritual bliss, if you will—which relates more to spiritual Will than it does to Love. Many people have commented to me how difficult each Wesak period has since I started writing these letters, and I would have to concur. It is because the sign Taurus has such willful energy and a one-pointed focus that the Wesak period is difficult for many, especially for those who are more heart-oriented. One of the main tenets of Buddhism is compassion for all sentient beings, however, so although the Wesak interval might seem difficult each year, it does highlight that we are all in this together and that we should have compassion for the trials of those with whom we have contact. In that realization we find that the Wesak festival says a lot to us about the opening of the human heart and that it is not simply a time of purging, hard work or simple realization of purpose in life. So, just what is Buddhism and why is this full moon always associated with it?
To begin with, there are countless Buddhas in our local universe—not just one. Each one of us is a buddha in our higher nature. We each have the Buddha within us, literally and figuratively. The Wesak festival is a celebration of that fact. What does it mean to be a buddha, though? Loosely defined, a buddha is one who has achieved liberation from the wheel of rebirth (one who has reached a stage of relative perfection in the human sense and no longer needs to be reborn in this world)—an Adept, in esoteric parlance—one who dwells fully and always in a state spiritual bliss (full functioning and consciousness in the realm of buddhi) and who has achieved a measure of consciousness in the realm of Nirvana (anupadaka). There is a great deal implied in this definition that would take too long to explain, but what has just been described is the simple truth of the matter. In short, a buddha is one who has completely gone beyond all association with the personal and who thus works purely in the spiritual realms, even though they might still be found with a physical form. The fact is that they are simply not identified with anything personal, and it is that term ‘identification’ that gives the key to buddha-hood. However, humanity has had one shining example of our own kind who reached that exalted state of affairs and that was in the personage of Guatama, the Buddha. Through his own struggles in life he came to certain realizations and was liberated from the need to struggle. His message was one of great simplicity, yet profound in its import, and it gave us the keys needed for our own liberation and realization of the essential purpose for our lives. His message goes something like this:
There are three basic laws of existence.
1) All phenomena is impermanent (change is the great constant in life)
2) Identification with phenomenal existence is unsatisfactory (to do so causes suffering because form is always changing)
3) There is no fixed essence (sense of Self), only becoming (all is evolving spiritually).
In addition, he gave us the Four Noble Truths.
1) Attachment to form is suffering.
2)Desire is the cause of suffering.
3) Suffering can be ended by the attainment of Nirvana (not the band, the state of being)
4) One should avoid all extremes of self-mortification and/or self-indulgence (the Noble Middle Path)
These laws and truths give rise to the Noble Eight-fold Path (the method of attainment), a simple statement but difficult of accomplishment, and those eight requirements are: Right view, Right intention, Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right mindfulness and Right concentration. There is a lot more to his teaching, but this will suffice for the purposes of this letter.
If we look at it, the Noble Eight-fold Path outlines a sequence and thus a process, all of which leads to one of the things for which Buddhist practice is best known—meditative discipline. It is only through meditative discipline that the exalted states of consciousness for which a buddha is known are achieved. Those exalted states of consciousness are beyond what we know as life, for what most people think life is about is all about what goes on around them, not who they are. So caught up in the drama of circumstance, ensnared by the thoughts that others have foisted upon us, bound by the duty of care and the necessities of modern materialism, we all lose track of our essential Being, yet it is there—we are there—at all times. In the West we tend to separate ourselves and talk glibly about this or that realm of existence and our other ‘bodies’ as if they were a thing somehow outside us, yet we live and move and have our being at every level simultaneously. We have simply lost our identification with what is real, only to replace it with what we perceive through the senses. It is an abstruse subject, but it is grist for the mill of Buddhist practice, for everything comes down to mental training in the end, all with the aim of going beyond that and back into our true essence, whatever that is. Even then, once attained, we are told even that essence is still in a process of ‘becoming’. Evolution goes of ad infinitum.
So, if we had to take one piece from the Buddhist tradition and relate it to our current world situation, what might that be? Basically, every being is in a long process of becoming—on the Path of ‘return’, so-to-speak. Taurus gives the Light which illumines that Path and points to the steady progress forward needed to attain the goal. Thus, we celebrate the Festival of the Buddha at the full moon of Taurus, whether Guatama was actually born in that sign or not. Since we are all in the same process of becoming, then we owe a duty of care to those who are not as far along and we should feel compassion for the struggles of those who may or may not see the issues at hand in those struggles as clearly as we do. On that path of becoming we find a sense of purpose in each life, for our purpose is to fulfill the obligations associated with our chosen way and to make the way easier for those who follow. We simply call that duty of care by the name ‘service’. The chosen way in a given life has a lot to do with one’s soul-history, for all outer life has some causative factor rooted most likely in previous lives. Therefore, the Wesak festival reminds us of our direction on the Path, what is needed to fulfill it and the purpose behind why we walk the path we do in life. Moreover, we are reminded of the wisdom behind all of which we encounter, for the wisdom of God (Life) is infinite and in our most refined essence, we are like unto God. With that, let us see what is on offer this Wesak interval.
Most of us have observed that the past few months have been rather unsettling personally in many ways. Currently we are under the stressful emphasis of Mars conjoined with Uranus—a very accident-prone configuration, but one also with a tremendous capacity for breaking out of restricting conditions or circumstances. There have been some terrible road accidents in Adelaide over the past week and many people I know have had accidents at home, all indicative of the energy of the Mars/Uranus conjunction. On the whole, though, the ‘air is being cleared’ in many ways and people are being given fresh starts or unwillingly being removed from situations or relationships that are no longer suitable. The whole idea of ‘liberation’, of which the Buddha was the key exponent, is being put squarely before us. The full moon occurs at 8:09 PM AEST (10:09 AM UT) on the 2nd of May 2007.
Aside from the association of this festival with the Buddha, the symbol for the degree of the Sun gives us an idea of how to proceed in terms of finding the purposes to work out during this year. It reads:
“A young couple window shopping.” 12 Taurus
Are we not always searching for something—the next step ahead, the latest and greatest gadget/seminar/item for the wardrobe, that special someone who can make one’s life complete or even, perhaps, the latest, most fashionable philosophy of life that will solve all of our problems? This symbol relates to desire, which is ever the keynote of Taurus. One of the big problems with desire is that, whether satisfied or not, it always leads to some form of dissatisfaction with life. This points to one of the main tenets of Buddhism—that the basis of suffering is desire. In his commentaries on the Sabian symbols (which is the set of symbols I use in these letters), Dane Rhudyar associated this symbol with what he calls ‘socialization of desires’. However, the true meaning here goes much deeper than simple socialization. What we actually glean from the Sun’s symbol goes to the very heart of the human condition and to why the world is in such a turbulent state at the moment. As human beings we are never content. We may satisfy our desires at any moment, but eventually the satiation wears off and we are left wanting again, only worse for it because we become attached to that which satisfies us and thus want more and more of the same. Satisfaction of desire sows the seeds of discontent in it more so, if not as much, as desire being unfulfilled.
Another note on the Sun’s degree symbol gives a view of Buddhist practice scarcely mentioned anywhere. ‘Window shopping’ can mean spiritual aspiration in the higher sense of the symbol—looking through the window of the mind toward the attainment of a spiritual goal and the use of the mind to visualize that which is desired with the aim of manifesting it. When we window shop we either ‘see’ ourselves with what is observed, in which case we go after it and actually manifest ownership, or we do not, in which case we move on to the next ‘window’. The fact that there is a couple looking together can also point to the attainment of the desired goal together as householders—as spiritual consorts for each other. There is a great amount of fascination with and misinformation about sex in relation to tantra. Some people call the sexual side of tantra ‘black tantra’, which is a misnomer if it is properly done. People might assume that sex is somehow unspiritual due to mistaken religious upbringing and social taboos, but there is a side of ‘white tantra’ (as spiritual practice) that actually uses sexual union as an adjunct to enlightenment. It is beyond the scope of this short missive to go into the subject here, but there is a close connection between the ‘mind of clear light’ (which is a specific type of mind that is used for true meditative work) and the sex force. There is a point to be made in this regard, however. The sort of sexual practice to which is referred here is only to be practiced under the strict guidance of a proper spiritual Teacher, and that is a rare commodity in the West at this time in history. Householder and Monk/Nun—neither state of affairs is any better for spiritual practice than the other.
The point here is not to emphasize sex as an adjunct to spirituality, but rather to indicate the use of the mind (which the window in the symbol represents) for the attainment of inner union, of which the sexual embrace is the outer symbol. This ‘inner union’ is actually the coming together of the lower self and higher Self for the purpose of liberation from the long cycle of birth and death to which we are all bound. There is something about self-forgetfulness in sexual union, as well as there is with high meditative practice. Both are a type of ‘little death’ when properly practiced, meaning that we are taken out of the realms of phenomena and thus merge with the timeless consciousness of the higher Self. Taurus has a long association with all types of desire, especially with sexual desire, but the highest expression of Taurus is the realization of the ‘Light of the Path’, which is always a manifestation of the ‘mind of clear Light’ in its essence, and that Light is only realized when we attain a state of being that is removed from awareness of the outer worlds and we are thus detached from the attraction that ‘window dressings’ (phenomenal existence) have upon us. Do we desire what is outside of us—things, displays or phenomena, in other words—or do we aspire to overcome the limitations of our desires and misguided thinking? That leads us to a consideration of the symbol for the lunar degree in the full moon figure.
The symbol for the Moon’s degree holds the key to that which must be resolved and which is reflected back to us for our learning. It reads:
“An official embassy ball.” 12 Scorpio
There is a lot in this symbol about ritualized display, a practice in which most religions and large organizations/governments place great stock. Ritualized display can either keep people hooked into old established patterns of behavior, thus keeping them more easily controlled, or it can be a vehicle for transcendent vision and real magical work in the hands of a spiritually-focused group. Embassy balls have the implication of nations coming together, if only on the surface, with the hope of peaceful cooperation between the attending nations after the fact. They are diplomatic functions for the ruling classes. The message here is that it is better at times to use established methods for the advancement of causes rather than self-effort, to forego personal effort and to see the greater picture in that there are often people better than we equipped to handle certain situations. On the other side of things, there is a need to forego display and established methods in favor of self-determining action. There is something about display in both of these symbols, as well as a sense that we need to be careful of that with which we identify. Do we rely on desire and display to advance along our path or do we seek the true essence life and find contentment in that? The previous sentence holds the key to the dynamics of this Wesak period and points us to look carefully at what our purpose for doing things is throughout the year.
This is quite a dynamic chart and the following aspects are in evidence for this figure:
The Sun and Moon are involved in a Great Cross with Saturn and Chiron. In addition, Saturn is opposite the midpoint of a Chiron/Neptune conjunction. Basically, if you want to be liberated from troublesome relationships, this is the figure that will give it to you. There is little in the way of personal happiness represented at this full moon. It is, on the whole, powerful in terms of detachment and people are likely to have some painful lessons around that for this year. Saturn, Neptune and Chiron together spell heartbreak, and when they are square to the full moon axis, the dynamic is further amplified. This is eased somewhat by sextiles and trines by the Sun and Moon to the nodal axis, which means that our instincts about where to take things should serve us well, but there is little in the way of personal comfort. The ‘personal planets’ (the Sun through Mars) are adversely aspected for the most part in this figure. When they do make favorable aspects those aspects are to the outer planets, meaning that the benefits come from impersonal avenues. The implication of what is shown is that if we want to resolve our personal lives in line with our higher purpose in the world we will have to look outside ourselves and our intimate relations to do so.
The Moon is trine to Uranus, giving a wide humanitarian outlook and an openness to many new avenues of thought, but this also tends to give a cool and dispassionate emotional outlook on life—not great for romance, but excellent for friendships and work in the world. Venus is trine to Neptune, also giving a very wide humanitarian outlook, as well as a high idealism. In addition, the aesthetic sensibilities will get a big boost through this influence. These are the only two favorable aspects to personal planets in the entire figure.
Mars is bringing a great amount of stress to bear at the moment. It conjoins Uranus and squares Jupiter and Venus. The indications from this are breaks in relationships, sudden associations, but quarrels as well, unusual associations between people, sudden or unexpected changes in relationships (not likely of a desired outcome) and accidents due to excess, carelessness and foolhardiness.
Jupiter has retrograded into a tight trine with Saturn, which is good for finance and big projects, but care should be taken at a very personal level due to all the other dynamics just mentioned. Otherwise, all the best laid plans can come undone due to frustration, things said and done out of turn and a distinct tendency to argue points when things are better left alone.
Venus, the orthodox ruler of Taurus, opposes the midpoint of a wide conjunction between Jupiter and Pluto, which is a big warning about not doing things to excess. Affairs outside of established relationships are a concern as well, because they have the capacity to do real damage to people’s lives under the very strong energy of the Taurus full moon period (always the most powerful full moon of the year). This is further amplified by the square to Venus by Mars, Uranus and the Nodes. If you are in a relationship and you or your partner are not happy, do all you can to mend things unless the relationship is better off ending anyway. There is a lot in this chart about changes in relations of the heart at many levels, not just between people. This refers also to one’s relationship to the higher Self, which Venus represents, and another thing that is strongly highlighted is a need to establish a much stronger and more regular link with one’s own higher Self on a daily basis. That is, after all, where the link to one’s true purpose is to be found.
Detachment, release from suffering, compassion, the impermanence of the forms we know, the avoidance of extremes, dissatisfaction with various forms of and in life and lessons in compassion—this full moon has it all. Of all the Wesak figures I have seen in recent years, this one is perhaps the one that most perfectly describes the Buddhist tradition in a way. We have everything we need at this Wesak figure, figuratively speaking, to give us a fuller idea of what the Buddhist tradition is all about. Struggle is indicated, but through that struggle we learn compassion for those around us because we see them struggle as well, and we eventually see the folly of chasing after things that are either unattainable or too easily had. Above all, we will be given an opportunity at some point this year to find out the essence of what is really important to us rather than focusing upon the outer trappings and the dramas that so often engulf us in our day-to-day life. From that, then, our lives will take on their proper tone and course and the way will not seem so hard because we will have let go of a lot of our expectations about things and other people. Most of our suffering occurs because of unfulfilled, thwarted or unrealistic expectations. Lastly, the truth of many aspects of life will be made plain to us as we are pushed and squeezed by the accelerated pace of our human interactions. People are quite stressed these days as we are increasingly nudged forward to a more goal-fitting existence. We are called upon to let go of our little antagonisms and worldly cares and to seek a simpler way of life wherein we can give more to those who struggle with meaning and devote more time toward the realization of our inner truth rather than everyone else’s projections upon us.
It is said that hindsight is a wonderful thing. It is a pity that our foresight is not nearly so revealing more often than not. Looking back at my own history has given me a lot of insight, especially when it comes to seeing how I could do things better. I have had many opportunities to have a good laugh at myself as a result. Then again, there have been many times where I have been able to look back after the fact and know that I did the best I could in any given situation or that I even had a great success here and there. Through it all I have been able to see a steadily unfolding purpose to my life—something that takes me beyond what the rest of the world would have me do (which is quite limiting in many instances) and past my own limited thinking. Struggle has a way of doing the latter bit for me. I have come to realize that my purpose is only where I feel joyful and that only comes for me when I know that I have wrested the truth from whatever I am presented, made my life better as a result and have then been able to offer what I have learned to others so their lives will be enriched as well. My existence thus feels like it has some meaning, rather than being an endless series of repetitive and soul-destroying activities day after day. There has to be some reason for getting up in the morning other than just simply earning a few dollars so I can gather more things around me and pay everyone else for their time. Life only feels right to me if I have somehow made things better for myself and others. Only then can I rest contentedly.
In these times may your own search for truth and meaning bring you great successes. May the times that you give pause to laugh at your own foibles be increasingly replaced by the mirth of shared successes with loved ones. In this Year of the Red Pig we will hopefully have a greater sense of our shared human familial lineage and a fuller sense of sharing amongst ourselves. We all have a few ‘war stories’ to share with each other when we come together. In that, we see that we are not so different from everyone else and that our way is perhaps not so difficult as we supposed. Take pause to listen, and then remember as we weigh what we hear against our own experience. As a result, we will find the grain of truth amongst the chaff of outer trappings. Yes, the days of late are intense in their application, but full as well in their offerings. Let meaning grow out of what we might call the ‘daily grind’. In my trade grinding brings out the luster of the base material and gives a polished finish to the work. Is that not what struggle does for the human condition? May your struggles bring Light and luster to your lives and may you be lifted as a result. We never toil alone. What we think is work and adversity is the playground for the Soul and the fountainhead of joy. History has shown it, if we care to look.
May the blessings of the Buddha bring you peace.
Much love,
Malvin.
2 May 2007
These letters are sent out as a blessing and a service. If you feel so inspired please feel free to pass them on, but do so without charge or alteration. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know.
rosella2@chariot.net.au
_________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:56 am Post subject: Skywatch by Lynn
Quote:
July 1st finds us still in the shadow of the Full Moon in Capricorn, the sign of achievement. We now seek solid ground which is made more difficult by the opposition of Saturn (discipline and material success) to Neptune (mysticism and transcendence). An aspect of Saturn to Venus encourages us to be responsible to others in our lives but also planting the seeds of self-doubt and insecurity for the first few days of the month.
Six planets are retrograde now, including Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron. When planets appear to be moving backwards (in retrograde motion) we find ourselves going back to previous episodes of our life and having to re-do them. Two steps forward, one step back as we perfect the past and move forward with new wisdom and maturity. An aspect between Jupiter and Chiron facilitates the healing process as Jupiter's expansive optimism and desire for faith and understanding opens doorways for Chiron's work in exposing our more painful memories and experiences so that they are made more available for healing and transformation.
Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:33 am Post subject: Astrology and the Mayan Calendar
It seems as if I have been caught in a whirlwind of many things since I last
visited your forum. I have thought of everyone and how all of you have been fairing with all that has taken place in this world of ours.
I received an email from Mayan Majix
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:12 am Post subject: Planetary Harmonics-by Nick Florenza
Quote:
Planetary Harmonics and Neuro-Biological Resonances
in Light, Sound, & Brain Wave Frequencies
Nick Anthony Fiorenza
"To support our greatest well being, and to make possible our evolution and spiritual awakening, we must allow ourselves (and our brainwave patterns) to breath in concert with mother Earth and with her natural cycles moment to moment. The Earth is a spherical receiver of cosmic energy (evolutionary intelligence) which directs our biological process and spiritual evolutionary unfoldment. The Earth re-radiates the cosmic information it receives from its core outward in complex long-wave signals. We receive these signals via our spinal columns and cranial structures (a vertical antenna system). The cranial cavity, the capstone to this antenna captures this information and re-focuses it to the pineal gland, a neuro-endocrine transducer in the center of the brain, where it is then transmitted (via the hypothalamus) as signals that direct the pituitary gland, the master control center of the brain. These signals are further distributed via the rest of the neurological sytem."
Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:16 pm Post subject: END OF YEAR LETTER -Malvin Artley
As usual, Malvin always has a way of transcending oneself into
the personal collective soul search.
For some, they may not totally understand.
For others, its the key that one was waiting for!
From my own personal experience with Mr. Artley's letters..
they are best read alone and in total silence.
It allows time for inner thoughts of ones own experiences
to connect with the messages that were written.
Quote:
29 NOV 2007
By Malvin Artley
Happy Holidays, Everyone!
I did my civic duty the other day and cast my vote in the Australian elections. It was a fateful day in many respects. Uranus had just turned direct after the 5 months in its retrograde period. I have to tell you, people were ready for change, as the election outcome indicated. The past five months have been a very frustrating time for many and a 12-year period is being brought to its conclusion in grand fashion. There will be resounding effects from last weekend in the months to come, both on the world stage and in many people’s lives. I had just finished voting Saturday and was on my way to get some lunch, when the sound of bagpipes in the distance caught my ear. It is not a sound one hears every day, but it has a way of drawing one towards it. I followed the sound and finally found its source in one of the local watering spots. As it turns out, the music was coming from the Adelaide Irish Pipe Band—and a fine show it was, too! I stood there for the longest time and listened to them until my stomach got the better of me and I made my way to lunch. There is not much to compare with about 20 bagpipes all playing at the same time in a small room, along with the accompanying field drums and bass drums. It was not an organized event. They were all having an impromptu gathering after playing a show and were just having a good time, along with the requisite ales. They were playing requests and whatever took their fancy. There were a few solo numbers, a few forays into untried jigs, a bit of highland dancing and even a drum solo. I enjoyed the informality of it and the joy the music brought to the faces of everyone there.
The music was mighty fine, as we say in the southern US, but that is not what really grabbed me about the event. What struck me was what happened after I had been there for a while. Between the wall of sound made by that many bagpipes, the crackling repartee of the field drums and the pulsing bass drums, one is quickly taken away from the world that had engaged the mind a few minutes before. A retinue of history began to file before my mind’s eye. I began to see armies marching into battle, grand state celebrations, funerals and weddings, a lone young Scottish woman dancing (this one particularly struck me because of familial connections)—it was like I was remembering, yet it all seemed so much in the present. Art, and particularly music, can have that effect upon a person. Perhaps it is the strong Anglo/Celtic strain that runs through my blood line. Perhaps it is simply the ability of music like that to rouse and inspire a person. Whatever the reason, I found myself entranced with it. I did not think about it until later, but at the moment I was listening to that band, Uranus had just turned direct. I had seen other things that morning, too that I could have taken as signs of things to come. I will have to see what comes of those, but at that time I knew that the election, at least, was going to have a strong twist to it—as it did—and that the full moon of Saturday and the ones to come over the next few months were and are going to bring sweeping changes with them. More on this latter observation in a bit. Before I get into the body of this letter, though, to all readers of Anglo/Celtic descent—or to those readers who have ‘pipe music’ in their heritage—next time you hear the pipes playing, take some time and see where it takes you. There is something about it that stirs the depths of one’s psyche.
This will be my final letter of the year to you. Thanksgiving has just passed and inaugurated the Christmas season. The US has just had its biggest shopping day of the year. The Macy’s Day parade has come and gone and we are all beginning to enter into the period of spiritual retreat for the year (the Sagittarius/Capricorn interlude), not that Macy’s and the spiritual interlude are related. There are several points that need to be covered in this letter. Firstly, a 12-year cycle has just ended and a new one about to commence. There are four significant retrograde periods that bear some examination and there are three full moon periods, especially, that are going to bring potent energies into lives of this planet. We will start with the 12-year cycle.
The Sagittarius solar festival (full moon of 24th Nov.) was the culmination of the Month of the White [Metal] Pig, the final of the 12 lunar months of the Chinese year. Since this year is a Pig year as well, we have just had the culmination of the subjective energies for the year in the Sagittarius festival. The Pig, for those unfamiliar with Chinese and Tibetan astrology, is the final animal of the cycle of twelve, whether that cycle relates to days, years, etc. The Pig, therefore, is about finishing, endings and making way for beginnings. ‘Double Pigs’ are a big statement to the collective psyche—wrap things up and move on. That is exactly what happened regarding the Australian electorate and the Howard government. The Chinese New Year of 2008 marks a period of new starts, being the Year of the Yellow [Earth] Rat (more on that when I do my Chinese letter in the New Year). John Howard took office for the first time in a Fire Rat year (1996). The ‘Rat’ is the commencement of the Chinese cycle. We know now that the electorate was ready for a change in 1996 as well. The tide has simply turned and the cycles have shown their imprint upon people. What the Rudd years (if they are to be years) will bring is anyone’s guess. 2008 looks to be a year of unexpected outcomes. It is of particular interest to note that the Chinese New Year begins on 7 Feb 2008, with a partial solar eclipse and a small stellium conjunct the 15th degree of Aquarius, well-known in mundane astrological circles as a ‘disaster degree’, with Pluto on an Aries point (0 Capricorn 21) as well in semi-square to the stellium. Hmmm………Again, we will look at that more with the Chinese New Year letter.
The Sagittarius festival occurred during the strongest point of a Moon Wobble, with the Sun/Moon axis within a degree of being square to the Nodes. You have probably noticed that emotional energies have been running high over the past week or so. Uranus was at its direct station and it was the ‘witching hour’ in much of Australia at the time of the full moon. There was not a single easy aspect to the Sun or Moon in that figure. People who are regular meditators probably noticed, too, that there were many interferences over the preceding week as the Moon Wobble intensified and the outflow from the subconscious was more strongly activated. Anyone with planets or angles in the early degrees of mutable signs would have felt that full moon very strongly, and they will feel the next few as well due to Saturn’s influence, all the way into mid-2008. All of those factors combined introduced a potent mix of energies for change and that will stay with us right through the first half of 2008. This should be seen as a positive time, however. Much has needed to change. The eclipse of 7 Feb 2008 is a North Node eclipse, bringing about new starts. For now, though, it is time to have a ‘spring clean’ for the psyche and prepare for the interlude of the spiritual year (December solstice and Capricorn full moon) in preparation for the high points of the year to come with the Aries, Taurus and Gemini festivals of 2008.
The next new moon takes place on the 10 Dec 2007 at 4:40 AM AEDT and inaugurates the Month of the Mountain [Water] Rat, hopefully bringing ‘recovery from misfortune’, as described in the dynamics for that figure. The admonition over that month is to take joy in volunteer work and to find contentment with small things. Overall, the underlying message for that lunar month is to give of one’s self and to take time ‘catch one’s breath’, as it were—an appropriate message for the Christmas season. The same dynamic is carried through into the following lunar month (the Month of the Ox By the Gate [Water]), commencing on Jan 8th. So, we have two lunar months indicating a ‘period of recovery’. Further, the ‘Ox’ Month speaks of taking time to observe, listen and not give advice unless it is requested. On this theme of recovery, though, we may well ask, “Recovery from what?” I would simply ask, has the past year or two been easy for you? The clues for the answer to those questions lay in the conclusion of the twelve year cycle, the long-running interplay between Saturn and Chiron (which will continue off and on via declinations until mid-2009), the conclusion of certain sub-plots (karmic, of course) that have been playing out since the end of 2005—and I have heard from many of you about those over the past two years—and the most recent direct and retrograde motions of certain planets, most notably Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It is this latter theme which we will examine now. Each planet will be taken in its turn.
Every planet has certain key words that describe its action on the human psyche. Beginning with Mars, perhaps the most appropriate key word or phrase for that planet is ‘personal volition/assertiveness’. That is what is typically imparted by Mars in its direct (normal) motion. When the motion is retrograde, however—and this applies to any planet—the normal expression of the planet is turned in on itself and is thus frustrated in the outer world. There is a blessing in this, though, because the energies of the planet can then be used as a springboard for an ‘inner journey’ of sorts—a vision quest, if you will—regarding the activities of whatever planet is involved. Mars, for example, largely has rulership over the persona esoterically considered, and imparts willfulness to the native. As such, it brings a fair amount of conflict with it because assertive people are not generally welcomed by many in our society, especially when we are on the receiving end of the assertive person. Overall, we need Martian energy to move us out into the world, to achieve our goals, to pit ourselves against the world, to test our mettle, to assert ourselves personally and to initiate action. That is how Mars ‘behaves’ when direct. When retrograde, the reverse is often seen to be true, at least to outer appearances. When a person has Mars retrograde natally they may be seen to be ineffectual in the world in many ways, being uncomfortable with what society deems to be normal modes of expressing one’s self. They may seem to lack courage in the outer world or to withdraw under stress. Instead of the fire showing on the surface, it ‘blazes within’, and until the Mars retrograde person recognizes their own dynamic and comes to terms with it, the result can decidedly self-destructive at times.
Mars is the ‘warrior planet’. For one with retrograde Mars natally, the fighting spirit is turned inward. The best expression of this type of dynamic is seen in the artist or the person of decided spiritual (inward) inclination. It is a brilliant placement for anyone seeking to face and do battle with their ‘inner demons’. Psychological work and counseling are natural avenues of expression for the Mars retrograde type. Such people need a safety valve, though, because all that energy turned inward, unless one knows where and how to direct it, can build up suddenly and manifest in any of a number of self-destructive actions—accidents, substance abuse, addictions, self-harming, etc. That is why any type of artistic or spiritual work is great for the Mars retrograde person because it gives a natural outflow for the Martian energy and creative impulse. Having said all this, the same applies when Mars goes retrograde by progression or transit, as it did on the 16th of this month. Mars will be in its retrograde phase until 31 Jan 2008. During that period (especially considering the lunar months during that time), find a creative/spiritual/psychological outlet, especially if you have planets around the first half of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn). If you feel frustrated between now and the start of the Chinese New Year, find a positive way of releasing it! Otherwise, accidents are a very real threat and the tendency will be for blow-ups, arguments, relationship breaks and problems with the law.
Mars crossed into its shadow area in mid-September of this year, so anything that was lingering on that needed to be dealt with at that time is coming up for review now. Look within for the reasons for your frustrations then, deal with them and be done with it, if you have not already. It is time to face the enemy within. It is a well-known Buddhist aphorism that if you want to be rid of your ‘enemies’, be done with your anger (Mars rules anger). I will say the following as well—if you have had some piece of spiritual/inner work you have been putting off, pursue it aggressively now. You will not get a chance like this again for another two years. In all, the Mars retrograde period is one in which personal affairs will feel thwarted in some way unless one spends a lot of time reflecting and doing something really creative—more in solitude, not so much in the world. The latter sentence takes on a special meaning at the Capricorn solar festival on Christmas Eve, because Mars is involved in a very potent pattern of planetary energies across the Cancer/Capricorn axis. We will have more on that in a bit. Mars will finally leave its shadow area on 4 Apr 08, thus completing the dynamics of the retrograde phase, which actually began in med-September when it entered the shadow area. (The shadow area is the span of the zodiac a planet traverses during its retrograde period.)
The next planet to consider in terms of retrogradation is Saturn. It crossed into its shadow area at the same time as Mars—in mid-September. Thus, we have a double emphasis upon events that were taking shape around that time and continuing during the entire period through mid-April of next year. Saturn reaches its retrograde station on Dec 18th on the 9th degree of Virgo, the symbol for which reads: “An expressionist painter at work.” It finally reaches its direct station on the 2nd degree of Virgo on the 3rd of May next year, the symbol for which reads: “A large white cross dominates the landscape.” What began in mid-September of this year might be called, as Dane Rudhyar states it, a ‘liberating ordeal’. It has certainly been a liberating period since then, and in a number of ways for different people. It has also been a trying time in many ways. What we will gain from the experience of Saturn’s sojourn in its shadow area is compassion and, hopefully, the requisite wisdom. The die has been cast since 15 Sept. The key word for Saturn is ‘necessity’. As Saturn moves in direct motion we are called to upon to do that which is necessary in the outer world and to find or create the opportunities for growth through the experiences of that. When Saturn reverses direction at the retrograde station next month we will have the opportunity to reflect upon what we have done or learned. If we have ‘done the right thing’ in the time leading up to the station, then the retrograde period can be a time wherein we can gain some very positive insights into our recent experiences. If we have missed something in the mix and not done what we were called upon to do, then the retrograde period of Saturn can be a painful and frustrating time.
A strong sense of unfinished business is likely to characterize the period between Dec 18th and May 3rd. There are liable to be setbacks to or postponements of people’s worldly ambitions (Mars and Saturn both rule personal ambition). If there are unaccountable setbacks during those months then one can be certain that there are inner adjustments to be made to one’s thinking, or that something vital to one’s plans has been missed or ignored. What is demanded during the Saturn retrograde interlude is the fulfillment of one’s inner growth. A very important point needs to be made here: Look back in your diaries to mid-September and see what was going on in your life. Then look at what has happened in the lead-up to mid-December. Have you had make certain necessary adjustments in your life? Were they made in accord with your own higher good and the highest good of those around you? Are conditions better since then, moving toward some sort of resolution, stalemated or has all gone horribly wrong? Has this especially been the case since the 24th of June this year? (More on that in a bit.) If mistakes have been made, then the retrograde period of Saturn will show us what those were. If we have made the correct choices, then we will have an opportunity to reflect upon how things can be improved even more. Saturn retrograde is a time of careful, inner planning and readjustments. If either station takes place near, square or opposing natal planets or on angles, then the effects of Saturn will be even more pronounced, poignant or fulfilling. Remember, Saturn hovers around the eclipse degree of 20 Aug 07 (4 Virgo/Pisces), so emotional concerns will take on an even more fated feel than usual, especially if natal planets are involved.
With the preceding, we need to take a look at the retrograde Uranus period which started 23 Jun 07 and lasted through 24 Nov 07. Uranus and Saturn form a pair in what they bring to a person’s life—a sort of ‘odd couple’, if you will. Whereas Saturn represents necessities which are borne out of causes often having their roots far in the past, Uranus represents progress, growing beyond the bounds of those environing conditions indicated by Saturn and brings about those circumstances that foster better conditions for the unfolding of one’s spiritual life. During the retrograde phase of Uranus, that progress can often get thwarted by the outer world and one then embarks on an inner quest to find out why things went wrong and what is needed to get one’s spiritual progress back on track. Uranus entered the shadow area in the first week of March this year and there were certain definitive steps that people made in that time that were meant to take them forward into a new phase of life or an expansion of sorts during that period. If there were setbacks after Jun 23rd it meant either the conditions for progress were not properly in place or personal difficulties kept one from realizing the full potential of what Uranus was supposed to bring from the first few months of 2007. Essentially, we are revisiting what was going on spiritually around the first part of March and we are being given another shot at whatever it was we were trying to externalize—if those steps were needed.
Both stations of Uranus this year had a strong theme of instruction in them. The direct station just past (Nov 24th) had as it symbol: “An officer instructing his men before a simulated assault under a barrage of live shells.” (15 Pisces) It is this symbol that is being revisited now, and Uranus is still on that degree. The degree of the retrograde station on Jun 23rd had as its symbol: “A Master instructing his disciple.” (19 Pisces) Uranus will pass this point again in March 8th of next year. The March ingress of Uranus into the Uranus shadow area and the November station were meant to encourage and empower us. Somewhere deep within the psyche we were and are again being called to take courageous spiritual steps forward. Curiously, Uranus will remain on the 15th degree of Pisces until Dec 14th, just as Saturn reaches its retrograde station for this year. Here is the scenario, then: We have a chance to take a step out of the comfort zone and do something daring—something that was beckoning in the first part of the year. When Saturn turns retrograde we will see if we finally got it right. Then, maybe, if there has been ‘misfortune’ over the past months or couple of years, real or imagined, the coming Rat and Ox months will supply the energies that will allow us the space to heal that. As for the retrograde period of Uranus, the symbol for that is fairly self-explanatory—there has been a lot of inner instruction going on since June 24th, either from real Masters or from the higher Self, which is the true Master anyway. I think it is fair to say that we have all learned quite a bit in the past few months, and mainly about ourselves. Now, it is time to apply all that garnered wisdom under ‘the barrage of live shells’ that life has on offer.
As for the final retrograde period under consideration—that of Neptune—it has been and gone, but we need to have a look at it anyway because Neptune will be in its shadow area until Feb 18th next year. Hence, we are now applying what Neptune brought to us during the retrograde phase (24 May 07—1 Nov 07). Neptune first crossed into its shadow area on 1 Feb 07 on the 20th degree of Aquarius, the symbol for which reads: “A large white dove bearing a message.” This symbol speaks of a deep and abiding message or indication from the Soul, the significance of which should bring us deep inner peace. Neptune carries the energy of truth—spiritual Truth. Therefore, look at what was going on in your life around the first part of February this year and in the first part of November as well. What was the higher message for you? Were you able to live it and bring it through into your outer life? This latter point is what was meant to be exhibited in the outer life through the agency of Neptune. Neptune will remain on this ‘dove’ degree until the 22nd of December.
When Neptune made its retrograde station in the latter part of May this year it was on the 23rd degree of Aquarius, the symbol for which reads: “A big bear sitting down and waving all its paws.” The message here is about inner training. However, training under Neptune often carries subtle meanings with it. Neptune is the planet of subtlety, nuance, refined sensitivity and understanding. The retrograde phase of Neptune this time was about overcoming coarser and heavy emotions—‘bearish’ problems—with aim toward being better able to implement what was being shown to us at the time Neptune crossed into its shadow area in the first part of the year. When Neptune finally crosses the degree of its retrograde station for the last time on 18 Feb 08, we will have hopefully learned the self-discipline needed to finally carry through with the message that the higher Self was trying to impart to us and thus be free of certain issues, or maybe just one issue, that had been holding us back prior to that. Maybe then we can all find a greater sense of peace within ourselves and have a message of cheer to give out to the world.
The final item for consideration in this letter is the full moon of December, which occurs on the 24th at 11:15 AM AEDT (00:15 UT). What a great Christmas gift this will be! (I am serious, now.) The full moon axis straddles the first degrees of the Cancer/Capricorn axis, which are also known as Aries points, being the 1st degree of cardinal signs. Thus, this will be a very powerfully-felt full moon and it will bring some big changes with it. It is a pity that it is not an eclipse, too. One can dream, though. In that figure we find the Sun conjunct Jupiter, Pluto and Mercury, with the Sun and Jupiter also in quintile to Uranus. Ring any bells? * Quintiles bring those crises that release creative gifts for people, and when Aries points are involved something of profound beauty can be brought into being, along with a little chaos to make it interesting. You may want to stay out of airplanes during those few days if you can. Uranus rules air travel. I am not forecasting any disasters here, but things could get a little problematic if significant planets or angles are activated in one’s chart. In addition to the little stellium, the Moon conjoins the retrograde Mars, completing the geometric pattern with Uranus, the Sun and Jupiter.
The symbol for the Sun/Jupiter degree reads as follows: “Three rose windows in a gothic church, one damaged by war.” 2 Capricorn This symbol speaks of the waste brought by conflict and the damage to the beauty in life that unnecessary upset can bring. It is also a warning not to give one’s emotions over to negativity, lest the ‘window to the Soul’ be damaged, especially in such a time of retreat as the Capricorn interlude. The symbol for the Moon is equally revealing: “A man on a magic carpet hovers over a large area of land.” 2 Cancer The message here is to rise above things when strife looms large and not to lose one’s greater perspective and sense of calm. Mars/Moon is a classic indicator for petty arguments and familial strife, and when it opposes such a powerful stellium, watch out! We know that the Christmas season can be a time fraught with family difficulties. Of course, if you want to end a relationship and burn your bridges, the full moon of December would be a great time to do so, but be very carefully considered before you do. Patterns, like the one indicated by this full moon figure, have a way of coming back on a person. Keep in mind, too, that Saturn is contra-parallel to Chiron during the full moon and will be exact toward the end of January. Just be careful, compassionate and kind in your dealings with people. There are some very fated circumstances indicated for the entire final part of this Year of the Pig. However, the December full moon is one of the more creative ones I have seen for a while and it has the strong tinge of originality and genius with it. Enjoy!
Well, that’s it for me for another year. I go into retreat myself after this letter until the New Year. Actually, I have a fair amount of work on over the holidays, but don’t tell anyone. I am supposed to be on retreat. Whatever happens, we go into 2008 with a fresh outlook, with a lot of old baggage left behind, with great hopes for the future and a few surprises in store—hopefully good ones! We will see what the new government has in reserve for us here in Australia. We will have to see what the inauguration chart holds. I will be doing the Chinese New Year forecast early in the year and I will be resuming regular letters again before too long. In all, I think 2008 looks a fair bit brighter emotionally. There is excitement in the air, and rightly so—new starts all around. The Earth Rat is about establishing stability and standing for something solid, about empowering one’s self and guarding what is good and true within us. Let us be certain that we go into 2008 free of anything that would prove to be a hindrance to those things.
After hearing the bagpipes the other day I was thinking about the strange twists that life has taken since I have been in Australia and especially since 2000. It has all been good in retrospect and has brought some very nice things to me—most especially, some mighty fine friends. I, and I dare say we, are truly blessed to have the lives we have. Count on your friends. They will get you through a lot. Mine sure have. I like to think I have done the same for them. We may not all march to the same drummer or know all the same tunes, but the shared music is a wonderful thing. In the sunset of this year let your music be joyful, and don’t let the sun go down on problems unsolved. Life is too short to worry about what might have been or what could have been different. Make things what you want them to be now. Don’t wait. I can see a lone piper in my mind’s eye standing on a small hill, playing a jig, moving with the music and rousing the hearts of all who can hear him. The music of the Soul has that effect upon people, too. We may stand alone or think that we do, but others hear us and they like what they hear more often than not. Pick a tune and play it for all that it is worth. Play it loud—play it proud!
Merry Christmas!
Malvin
29 Nov 2007
These letters are sent out as a gift and a service. If you wish to be added to or deleted from the mailing list, please let me know. If you feel so inspired, feel free to pass these along, but please do so without charge or alteration.
*From Quintile letter of 21 Sep 04
“In strictly human terms, though, quintiles work in one of two ways with people. In a person who is spiritually focused it indicates an acute linkage between imagination and hard mentality. Therefore, this indicates a person who has more than the average ability for working with symbolism, for making the imaginative faculty usable in the mundane world, for seeing things in any given situation in a way that is lost on other people, for getting at the very essence of knowledge and for being able to synthesize and/or organize hard data (concrete knowledge) in truly unique ways. It can be and often is an aspect that indicates pure and true genius. Much of what is passed off as genius is actually simply reorganization of already existent knowledge. True, there is a thing we could call organizational genius, but it has not the true spark of originality in it. It is this originality that the quintile confers or indicates. On the other hand, for the person who is materially focused quintiles often go unnoticed, primarily because their minds do not reach up into the realms of true imagination. They are “earth-bound”, for lack of a better term. However, when the quintile is activated and these people are given a glimpse of the higher realms, what they see is often misinterpreted and misappropriated and the Light the quintile bears is often de-stabilizing to such an individual. In this we see activated the phrase: “There is often a fine line between genius and madness.” Activated in a negative manner, then, the quintile will often bring with it uncontrollable compulsions and destructive behavior as the mind then becomes “the slayer of the real”. It is also often implicated in sexual aberrations, the energetics of which would take to long to go into here.
As a result of the factors outlined in the preceding paragraph, quintiles are found prominently in the charts of true creative geniuses, especially in science and the arts. There is a long litany of famously creative people who have quintiles to their Sun, prominent planets or in strong configuration with other planets.……”
_________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Written by Robert Wilkinson at the Aquarius Papers site
Quote:
In Parts 1 and 2 we explored general Spiritual factors of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto bringing forth our Higher Self as we stand individually and collectively at the threshold of a new era. I offered points of particular importance due to major aspect patterns going on in January and February. Today we continue to explore more about the pressure we're under and within, what it means, and how this is impacting us all.
[/url] _________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:00 am Post subject: THE YEAR OF THE GRANARY RAT - by Malvin Artley
Quote:
THE YEAR OF THE GRANARY RAT
CHINESE NEW YEAR 2008
PART I
7 Feb 2008
By Malvin Artley
Chart Name: NEW MOON 7 FEB 2008 for Adelaide, SA
Date/Time: 7 Feb 2008, 2:44 pm (AEDT -11:00), 3:44 am UT
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
Solar Period (Fortnightly Festival Period): 1 Spring commences (N); Autumn commences (S)
Solar Year: 2008
Li Ch'un (Start of the Chinese Solar Year): 4 Feb 2008 7:00 pm (CCT -8:00)
TETRAGRAM
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Tetragram 11:
Divergence: Yang chi, wriggling, breaks through, newly emerged, greeted by the Great Yang. All things are of mistaken appearance.
In hastiness the blind one fails to see the destination. (Nighttime)
or
Having reached the goal, the blind one turns to reclaim success. (Daytime)
What follows is a long story, but it will give some clues for the coming year……………..
Smoke from the incense censers traced eerie trails along the lines of the steadily lightening meditation room. The dawning of the day had been betrayed by the first furtive chirping of the lone bird in the courtyard, followed soon thereafter by the first dull lights from the horizon. Master Zhou had been startled from his meditations some time before, however. He was troubled by a vision he had seen in his reverie. In it his attendant was running—frightened, out of breath, his legs scratched from running along the dark pathways of the surrounding forest—exhausted. He came bearing news for the Master from the nearest kingdom. A shiver ran along the Master’s spine as he recalled the vision, struggling to see what the upsetting news was that his young charge struggled so valiantly to bring him. He rose from his cushion to go outside and wash since he had been up since the early hours of the morning tending to his discipline and his blessings. He had sent his young disciple to confer with one of Master’s old friends, seeking advice on a troubling matter within the kingdom. Some of the royal jewels had gone missing, and a few of those were highly prized, for they were talismans and held great power for the Emperor and the kingdom. Whosoever possessed them was said to be able to wield power over the realm, and they were thus jealously and closely guarded in a secret location. The jewels had been blessed and charged by holy men centuries before and their power was legendary. More than once they had brought aid to the ruler of the time when the kingdom was in dire need, and they were sorely needed now, for there are always those who will seek to usurp the ruler of the domain, and it was feared that there was a secret plot to overthrow the Emperor.
Master Zhou had been called to the palace by the Emperor himself some weeks before, seeking advice on the troublesome matter. The Master was held in very high regard, and he had taught the Emperor in his earlier years when the Emperor was but a young prince. As a reward for his service, the Master had been given his choice of quarters in the surrounding area and he had found a quiet place just out of view of the palace grounds, but close enough for safety and the convenience of the Emperor. On the day Master Zhou was summoned, he was asked by the Emperor to divine the outcome of the troubles. He was told the whole story. The Master’s response was clear, immediate and direct: “Beware of false friends and guard your resources well. Be prepared to take a firm stand. There will be a complete and sudden change of direction.” It seems that one-by-one, certain of the treasured jewels had begun to disappear beginning a month before. They were regularly checked by one of the Emperor’s most trusted ministers—a family member—who was beyond reproach and vouchsafed by the Master himself. Master Zhou knew people on sight. He had more than a few times caught out the then young prince in fibs to his father and mother, the Emperor and Empress at the time. So, it was known that the minister had not absconded with the treasures. But Master Zhou could not see who had taken the jewels. Yet, his vision and inner guidance to the Emperor was beyond doubt—someone was out to usurp the Emperor. Perhaps there was black magic involved and his sight was clouded, keeping him from seeing the culprit. He did not believe so, but just to be safe, he had sent his young attendant to ask his old friend, who was an older Master himself, about the matter. The attendant now returned with the response, but Master Zhou was deeply troubled by the fear on the young man’s face.
About the time that Master Zhou had finished his morning ablutions a rather haggard, exhausted, young man with sad-looking legs came running toward him up the foot path. He collapsed at the Master’s feet. It was Master Zhou’s poor young attendant. He was barely able to speak; he was so out of breath. The Master regarded him for a bit, told him to rest quietly and then promptly doused him with the bucket of water he had used for his own ablutions. The shock of the cold water was enough to revive the young man and give him enough presence of mind to relate his tale to the Master. As it was, the lad arrived after several days’ journey at the temple where the old Master was staying and he then proceeded to relate the meeting between Master Zhou and the Emperor, giving Master Zhou’s response and the entire story about the missing jewels. The lad said the old man then sighed, went into a trance for a time and abruptly stopped—opening his eyes, looking directly at the young man—wide-eyed and with a look of absolute terror on his face. The young man said that once had caught his breath the old Master spoke to him in slow and even tones, in the most solemn of voices and said “Your Master is correct, but he is in peril. There is a usurper in the palace and Master Zhou must find him out. Have your Master announce a date for a gathering of the court—a week after the announcement, and then have the palace guard gather everyone in the court together and parade them past the Master at the appointed date. He will soon find the usurper of the realm. I smell a rat. Yes, your Master is in very deep peril, for the Emperor will lose faith in him if he cannot find the jewels.” The young man said there was a long pause after that wherein the old Master regarded him intently. It was the most uncomfortable moment of his life.
Then, all of a sudden and without warning the old Master burst into a fit of laughter so severe that all he could do was to roll of the floor and clutch his sides, unable to even catch his breath between paroxysms of hilarity. He eventually caught his breath enough to motion the young man away, but as he did and between gradually diminishing fits of mirth, he gave one final message to the now terribly confused and terrified attendant: “Two days before the gathering, go before dawn with your Master to the small grotto near the treasury for the jewels and wait—and watch. There is a small path near the pond. Your thief will appear there. Follow him and you will find your jewels. They are all together and safe. Now, run! Run!! There is no time to waste!!” The young man thought the old Master was a bit out in the woods—bonkers, crackers—so he beat a hasty retreat. He could still hear the old man laughing as he ran down the path away from the temple. Master Zhou’s fear was not helped in the least by the young attendant’s news, nor was he happy at all that his young charge had not brought anything back with him from his old friend. This was not a good result at all—not at all what he wanted to hear! So, he threw another bucket of water on the poor, bewildered young man and stormed off into the hut to think on things. Later that day, when cooler heads prevailed, he gathered his grumpy attendant, calmed him down and made his way to the palace to carry out the behests of his old friend. Despite the old man’s peculiar ways, he had always given Master Zhou good advice.
A few days later in the early morning before the dawn, Master Zhou woke his attendant and they made their way to the grotto near the treasury, following the old Master’s advice. The lad fell back asleep. The Master sighed and settled in for what was to appear. He watched the path intently, like an owl watching for prey. Sure enough, just at the break of dawn, there was a rustle in the undergrowth at the path and Master Zhou’s mouth dropped open in astonishment at what he saw. There before him across the pond was one of the biggest yellow rats he had ever seen and to the Master’s astonished gaze one of the prized jewels was hanging from the animal’s mouth as it scurried along. Master Zhou poked his attendant, grabbed him by the arm and said “Come! It’s time to catch a thief!”, and they took off after the Yellow Rat. Being careful not to spook the animal, they followed at a safe distance, trying to be nonchalant about it all. They had to find those jewels! Eventually the Yellow Rat disappeared into a burrow in the underbrush. The two men sat and waited at a safe distance, careful not to disturb the Yellow Rat, waiting for him to leave the burrow. Eventually it did, and to their surprise and delight, every one of the missing jewels was found there, safely tucked away. They gathered them up, trying the best they could to restore the burrow to its original condition and went promptly to Master Zhou’s hut to wash the jewels.
On the day of the appointed gathering there was great turmoil in the Imperial court. One of the distant relatives had disappeared the night before, along with several of the palace guards. It was thought the guards had abducted him and were going to demand ransom for his return—perhaps some of the precious jewels. The Emperor was beside himself with worry, not just for the relative, but for the realm as well. It was a dark day in the kingdom. Master Zhou suddenly had a flash of insight upon hearing what had happened. “Could it be?” he wondered. He asked to go to the relative’s quarters and then it was confirmed to him: Yes, indeed, the relative was the would-be usurper, along with the guards. In his hasty retreat the relative had carelessly left behind evidence that clearly implicated him in the plot. In triumph, Master Zhou went to the Emperor and informed him, bringing a swift decree from the Emperor for the capture of the now hapless and soon-to-be very sorry ex family member along with entourage. What of the jewels, though? The Emperor was keen to know about that, too. Master Zhou thought for a moment before responding, not wanting to appear to be a complete fool before the Emperor. How could he explain that a rat had taken the precious jewels? How could he have not seen the Yellow Rat in his visions? Indeed, he wondered to himself. It was a question that would perplex him for weeks later. Then, he had an epiphany. “Your Excellence, I have a story about the jewels that you can relate to your children and that will eventually become a legend throughout the land.” As he laid the recovered jewels on the table before the delighted gaze of the Emperor, Master Zhou related his fantastic tale, all the while having to kick his attendant under the table to keep him from spilling the beans about how it all really happened. His story went something like this:
“Once there was a very wise man who possessed great vision. He could see the future and into the very hearts of people. One day he had a vision that the ruler of the realm was about to be overthrown from his rule by a devious and vicious minister in his court. The minister’s plan was to steal the talisman jewels and take away the spiritual power of the ruler, thus rendering him helpless before the minister’s attack on him. With the jewels thus in his possession the minister would then be all-powerful over the kingdom. The wise man liked the ruler, though, because he was kind and benevolent toward his people. So, he hatched a plan himself in order to thwart the evil minister. He searched with his mind’s eye through the creatures of the forest and found one whose daring and craftiness matched the task at hand—a large and intelligent Yellow Rat. He sent a messenger to the rat and told him of the plan. The wise man’s plan was for the Yellow Rat to break into the king’s treasury by night and steal a jewel a night for a month, hiding them away in the forest until the wise man would send someone after them. “Ah, but there are cats in the treasury” said the Yellow Rat. “Why should I get eaten to save a king who is nothing to me? What is in this for me if I go along with your plan?” The wise man said to the rat “You shall have great honor in the land and have a festival named after you. I will make certain that you are cared for in the rest of your days. You will want for nothing.” The Yellow Rat was pragmatic and no fool, so he accepted the offer and performed his task with great skill. When the minister eventually decided it was time to carry out his evil plan he went to the treasury and broke in, but the jewels were gone. He was found out and beheaded on the spot. The jewels were returned to the ruler, just as the wise man had foreseen. The king erected a shrine to the Yellow Rat and named a year after him for his cunning and bravery, making sure that food was left at the shrine every day. The Yellow Rat lived the rest of his days very happily indeed.”
“What a delightful story!” said the Emperor. “Now, what really happened and who really took the jewels? I want his head!” “Now, now!” said Master Zhou. “It is enough that the jewels are back in safe keeping. I have taken care of the thief with magic. He will never bother the realm again. You can be sure of it. Some things are better left unsaid.” The Emperor was not pleased, but he accepted the advice of the Master, for he knew he could trust him. Master Zhou’s attendant could hardly contain himself. It was all he could do to keep a straight face. The Emperor saw the contorted expressions of the young man and asked Master Zhou what the problem was. “I think he has problems with lung” said Master Zhou. “I have given him some new disciplines and he is still adjusting to them. I had better take him back to my hut and see what I can do for him.” and, at that, they took their leave.
Some weeks later and after Zhou’s attendant had been given instructions about court etiquette, a messenger arrived bearing a note and a package from the old Master at the temple. It was simple note. It read: “I am happy to hear that peace has been restored to the Imperial court and the precious jewels have been recovered. It pleases me that you told the truth to the Emperor about what really happened with the jewels. My little yellow friend performed his job very well, did he not? He deserves that shrine. He almost lost his own head to cats many times. Please accept these small gifts as gratitude for your services to the Emperor. I knew his father well in my younger years. The jar of pickled walnuts is for the boy. He needs to learn to laugh and to see through old men’s trickery. It is time for me to go to the Golden Fields now. My work here is done. May all prosperity and attainments come to you both, my friend of old.” The old man was gone. The other items in the box were the old man’s ceremonial implements. He had left them to Master Zhou. “What a precious jewel has been taken from us this day!” Zhou said to the lad, as he shed a tear. The old Master had planned the whole scheme for the recovery of the jewels, and the Yellow Rat had indeed been his willing servant, as had Master Zhou without his knowing. “The old trickster!” Master Zhou thought to himself. His heart warmed at the thought, a smile breaking across his face. “He even planted the story to the Emperor in my head!” The shrine to the Yellow Rat stands by the grotto to this day.
It is good to be back with you again. As you have seen, this is a two-part letter. In this first part we will have a look strictly at the Chinese New Year—the Year of the Yellow (Granary, or Earth) Rat. In Part Two we need to look at several factors from the Western astrological side for the New Year because those factors support what the key words from the Chinese astrology tell us. There is more than the usual happening astrologically at the inception of this year, so I have had to send out more than one letter. As I think we will see, 2008 is going to be an important year in many ways. It will be a year full of change, reversals, power plays, learning to save for a rainy day (Those rainy days will be ending in the latter part of this year for Australia. Sorry, folks.), and learning about who our true friends really are. The story, though a long one, is from the book I am in the process of writing (the reason I took my sabbatical), so I left it in its entirety. For the time being, at least, I will keep my correspondence to you to the full moon letters, which I am reinstating in a week or so. It is a year of beginnings, but often with a twist, folks. So, with that, let the Year of the Granary Rat begin!
The Rat in Chinese astrology always begins a cycle in their Four Pillars astrology. The first of the twelve animals, it was said to have tricked its way into being named as the animal to begin the cycle of the Great Year (the 12-year Jupiter cycle). The story goes (to be very brief): One day the Buddha called up the animals to decide how the years would be named. Invitations were sent to twelve animals, including the Cat, but the Rat tricked the messenger and stole the Cat’s invitation. So, the Cat did not show up when the naming of the years was done and the year got named after the Rat instead. When the Cat found out he had been tricked and missed out on the honor, he vowed to get even with the Rat. Cats kill rats for that reason to this very day. So the story goes. There are many variations of this story, of course. Rat Years, as with all the zodiac animals, occur every twelve years, beginning in 1900 for those of you who want to see if you were born in a Rat Year, so 1936 is a Rat Year, for instance. The Rat’s season is Winter, its direction is North, its ruling planet is Jupiter, its lucky gemstone is the carbuncle, it rules the eleventh Hsiu (lunar mansion, or constellation)—the Void—and it belongs to the Northern Celestial Quadrant, called the Black Tortoise. The 11th Hsiu is associated with the Sun or Neptune and Sunday, which is considered inauspicious. From The Imperial Astrologer *, we have the following synopses on the Rat:
“RAT: (From the 12 Animals section) The Rat represents charm, adaptability, creativity and inventiveness. Rats are quick witted, bright and sociable-ostentatious. They can also be irritable and upwardly mobile. A crafty and opportunistic character who will use friends before eventually losing or dropping them, Rats are erratic in financial matters. They are bright and gregarious, with a love of gossip. They can be nasty when riled. Especially good with detailed and complex calculations, they have a remarkable command of abstract notions. The Rat represents Commencement, the beginning of cycles, with a 1st House connotation in Western astrological terms.”
In addition to the ‘standard’ interpretations of the Rat, we also have to consider the larger mythology of the Rat:
“RAT: (From the 28 Animals of the Lunar Mansions section) All of the interpretations from the Twelve Animals section apply here as well. Rat meat is said to be a cure for baldness. Rats are said to be able to divine a person’s luck for the whole year and predict happenings 1000 miles away. It is a Yin animal [notionally] and it is an emblem of timidity and meanness, though also of sharp intelligence. It is one of the Five Feared Household Animals, and was said to be able to bring on insanity. It is inauspicious in astrology. The Rat is said to bring disturbed sleep and debauchery. It is an indicator, too, of writers and historians.”
I think historians are going to have a good time with 2008 when all is said and done. As you will see in the second part of this letter (to follow tomorrow), much of what is said about the Rat above holds true both in the Western astrology and in what tends to happen every time a Rat Year comes around. Since we are talking about the Earth Rat here, let’s have a look at what happened the last time we had a Year of the Granary Rat—1948—to gain some perspective.
1948 was a huge year, historically. The World Wars were finally finished and a new, colder version was just starting. Much of the world was undergoing reconstruction after suffering the decimation of WWII. About a week before the lunar New Year started, Gandhi was assassinated and the year started with much of the world in mourning his death, not to mention trying to put a World War behind us. In addition, and to name but a few events, we had the Chinese Revolution (Tibet was invaded the year after), the establishment of Israel as a country, the Marshall Plan, the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, the establishment of the International Court of Justice, the partitioning of Korea, the partitioning of Berlin, the Stalinist purges of the Jews in Russia, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Irish independence, the international war crimes tribunals, Dewey defeats Truman (we all know what really happened), Hell’s Angels was founded, the first Project Blue Book (a year after the Roswell event), the establishment of Echelon (electronic surveillance), the transistor was invented, the first television broadcasts took place, two-year community colleges were established in the US (trades schools) and Marilyn Monroe was proclaimed “Artichoke Queen” in Salinas, California. Aside from a couple of points, 1948 was a year of beginnings that changed the face of the world in the most profound ways, from the tiniest (transistor) to the large (Marshall Plan and Communist takeovers).
Even 60 years before that, in the 1888 Year of the Granary Rat, there were some inventions and events that changed the world in many ways. We saw the patenting of Coca Cola, the first electric automobile, the development of the pneumatic tire, slavery was abolished in Brazil, the Department of Labor was established in the US, Eastman Kodak was founded, electrocution was first used as capital punishment, the Fraternal Order of Moose was established, shorthand was developed, we had the first beauty contest, the first contact lenses and The Secret Doctrine by H.P. Blavatsky was published. Let’s not forget the first ball-point pens, either.
Earth Rat years seem to have a capacity for life-changing events and brilliant application of the soul’s wisdom. Such years can also bring about some of the worst and most separative instincts in people, too. The two most recent Granary Rat years set the stage for major dispensations of spiritual teachings to the West, primarily, and to the world at large, secondarily. The publishing of The Secret Doctrine introduced esoteric Buddhism to the West and really introduced the seeds for the New Age movement decades later. The communist takeover of China in 1948 and the subsequent invasion of Tibet in 1949 saw the spread of Tibetan Buddhism throughout the world in the decades to follow. It has been a horror to the Tibetan people, to be sure, but the blessing to the rest of the world in having the Tibetans in our midst has been immense. Earth as an Element is about karma. It is the Saturn Element in Chinese astrology. Earth as an Element sets things in place and also brings them to closure. It is also one of the more meditative of the Elements, tending toward circumspection. 2008 will be a year of many closures and commencements, all under Law and with great opportunities for those who can recognize and seize them. How many people would have seen the possibilities inherent in the lowly transistor, for example, or how it would change world culture in the years to come? Were it not for that little invention, you probably would not be receiving these letters.
So, with all this information in mind, what do I see for 2008? Earth and Fire will dominate the first half of the year. There is thus a decided emphasis on finishing up, finding one’s inspiration and moving on to greener pastures. Speaking of greener pastures, the rain will tend to dry up and stay that way for the next couple of years, in Australia at least, starting in the second half of the year. Earth is fairly strong all year. It will be weakest in the 7th month. Earth ‘controls’ Water in Chinese astrology. Next year is an Earth Year as well, so water concerns will come to the fore. Are you listening, ministers? Water types (especially in the Day Pillar**) will be more stressed this year. They had more control in the past two years. Now the tide has turned and events will conspire to moderate things. It is time for Water types to look within and not so much out in the world. The types that will do well over the next couple years are Wood (Earth is Wood’s ‘Money Element’) and Metal (Earth ‘feeds’ Metal). Fire types might feel drained this year, especially, but they can bring some good work to fruit if they apply themselves.
Government will change in the US (more on that in Part Two). The Neocon agenda will fade into the background. Don’t take that as a good sign. It will simply be working where few people will see it. Such a scenario is typical of Rat Years. Security issues, especially monetary ones, will have to be strongly examined. Saturn (Earth) rules restriction and security. We already see what is happening with the financial wobbles in the world, especially in the US. Earth, of course, governs mining. Australian industry should boom in the mining sector. The forestry sector and the Green Movement can both highly benefit over the next couple of years as well. The most productive part of the year will be the second half. Count on the first six months of 2008 being a time of readjustment and moving on. After that we can all get on with business. 2008 is what is called a ‘double blind’ year, meaning that the start of Spring (Li Chun) does not take place in that particular year. It is an inauspicious indication and points to stuck energies and issues, an inability to see one’s way clear and lessened potential (Spring is about growth and rebirth). That is, of course, a collective indication. Individuals can take full advantage of the year if their own makeup, astrologically speaking, fits in well with the Year’s dynamics. Look for bright lights in the populace to appear. Crisis draws out the Soul in people, and Earth as an Element has a way of bringing about events that conspire to do just that (introduce crisis). Remember the old saying: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” In addition, the tendency is for people to have to pay the price for their ‘sins’ in Earth Years.
I will keep things brief here because there is so much to cover, but I wanted to take a brief look back as well as forward and see how we fared last year. I compiled the specific forecasts I made for last year. A lot of it was quite general, but of the specific forecasts, I had the following for 2007:
*The Howard government may well be in for a big battle this time around come time for elections. (They were)
*National governments will have to answer more to the people than they have in the past. (They have)
*Governments in the world are going to have to make some big concessions this year if they want to keep the populace happy. (They didn’t and paid the price)
*It will be a wetter year. (It has been in Oz)
*Weather patterns will be more moderate (Well, they moderated, whether or not they were more moderate)
--The preceding points were relative to the world. The following apply more to personal matters, and you can gauge your own experiences last year against them.
*Last year (Dog) was like a huge mirroring effect in that life constantly seemed to hold us to account for ourselves and our respective pasts, not that we necessarily saw it that way. Many people felt victimized to a greater or lesser extent. This year will see a reversal of that, even though there will still be issues around the past to tidy up.
*Beware of hidden perils if one is to leave a pre-existing situation
The preceding is not to see how I did as a forecaster, but to show that Chinese astrology works and can work quite well in a given situation. To get even more specific about the year to come, we will have to cover that in Part Two of this letter. See you all there.
Malvin
6 Feb 2008
*The Imperial Astrologer Chinese astrology software. Produced by and available through Esoteric Technologies: www.esotech.com.au
**The Day Pillar in Four Pillars astrology represents the self. The Element that rules it is called the Day Master and the entire chart for an individual is read against that Element.
As an additional note of interest: The seven sins according to Mahatma Gandhi were: 1) wealth without work. 2) Pleasure without conscience. 3) Knowledge without character. 4) Commerce without morality. 5) Science without humanity. 6) Worship without sacrifice. 7) Politics without principal.
_________________ Many Blessings,
~Pat~
Time and a purpose for everything...
Everything is connected!
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