I am a huge advocate of common sense practicality in astrology, especially when it comes to synastry.
There is a process that takes place in relations. You meet someone however you meet them. There is a physical, intellectual, or just a great vibe between you. Things develop. There is sex along the way. Things may get serious. You have a relationship or a marriage.
What breaks the relationship up? What fulfills it? Unfortunately, for women, what breaks it up is infidelity. Chris Rock says that men are as loyal as the number of female options that they have. Infidelity is a basic fact of relationships. Women are victimized by it more but the pendulum swings both ways.
What else breaks it up? A basic inability to get along consistently strains things. The dam cannot hold any more water and it flows over. You break up.
Lies, money, family interference, carrying baggage from past relationships, carrying insecurities absorbed from childhood, differences of viewpoint, dishonesty…..fill in your own blanks. We all know the reasons why personal relationships can be unsuccessful.
Knowing all of the above, why is it that astrologers choose to gauge relationship potential with MEASUREMENTS? Measurements are math. Relationships are emotion. For example, a composite chart is a horoscope of midpoints between two charts. Her Sun is at 15 Leo. His Sun is at 15 Virgo. The composite Sun is at 0 Virgo. What information does that give you in reference to the potential of gauging the potential of two people?
Don’t get me wrong. Astrology, like the alphabet, IS symbolism. However, the symbolism has to be used practically.
If you know what to look for, you can see, for example, s great potential of dishonesty in the Clinton’s marriage chiefly because he has no sexual concerns whatsoever and she was/is a walking sexual issue. What happens when it is easy for one person and challenging for another? At best, you work on it together. Orherwise, infidelity happens. This conclusion about the Clintons does not come from math. It comes by way of analysis of both individual horoscopes and then comparing them.
I am a broad minded, liberal thinking person outside of astrology where I am firm because most astrology presentations give reason to be conservative. If I am paired with someone who is anal, very conservative, lives with blinders on and so forth, I would last a day!
Practical considerations must pave the way in synastry. Techniques and measurements are entertainment devices for astrologers. Just like two people meet and gauge the whole of what they see, you must also do the same in astrology. You do that by complete individual analysis of each horoscope, not through entertaining measurements.
In traditional astrology, the 8th House is associated with sex, mostly because Scorpio is the 8th Sign and we associate sex with Scorpio. Then some will say that the 5th House is recreational sex. Let’s clear it up.
The 5th House stands for the sexual identity. It serves the same purpose to your sexual identity that the Ascendant plays to your personal identity. It is the House of children, of creativity. Modern science aside, the most typical way to have a child is to CREATE it through SEX. Doesn’t it make sense that children and sex are in the same House?
An examination of the 5th House, its ruler and any planets in it with aspects tells the story about the sexual identity. For example, a woman has Capricorn on the 5th cusp. Saturn is conjunct Venus in the 4th. They are both squared by Pluto. This is a very challenging configuration. She is very orgasmically dysfunctional as a result of fears inherited in the early home. She cannot release. There is no masturbation and she rarely cums when having sex. That is who she is as a sexual being.
The 8th House symbolizes what happens to the sexual identity when it merges with another intimately.
Bill Clinton has Uranus ruling his 5th without tension. He has Venus ruling his 8th. It is strong in Libra. He has no sexual issues. His wife is just the opposite, explaining a lot.
If you are an old timer and have been limiting sexuality to the 8th House, please know that it is only because Scorpio is the 8th Sign. Sexuality cannot be separated from the creative spark and children.
Noel Tyl has me selected for his weekly vocational analysis. Just click the link.
I was looking through some old pictures. This was taken at UAC in what must have been 1998, just a few months before I moved to South Africa for a year.
That is Noel Tyl. Between us is Mitzi Wania, the South African lady who came up with the project idea. The other lady is a friend of hers.
Noel had won an award at UAC. It was an exciting time. I was about to move to another country. I had spoken at UAC for the first time. I think there was heavy Uranian activity in my horoscope.
I went to a web site and entered my birth data for a “psychological” analysis. This is a portion of it:
“Both astrology and psychology teach us that nothing that occurs within a relationship is chance. Your birth horoscope describes what you are like inside, and therefore what kind of patterns, needs and compulsions you are likely to bring into your relationships with others.”
“You have worked hard to accept your own limits, and to make the best of what life offers you without complaint. This has made you very strong and mature; but somewhere along the line you seem to have lost your soul. Therefore you are drawn to those women who appear to embody the qualities of soul - faith in life’s fairness, trust in love, and a deep belief that people are intrinsically good at heart. You are drawn to romantic spirits who can bring the bright light of idealism into your life and […]”
[..] You know how to let your woman exist as a separate individual independent of your need of her, which means that you are deeply tolerant - even when you are feeling angry or offended.”
There are few things I can think of that are farther from who I am than this portion suggests. These kinds of reports are based on cookbook planetary positions. It is unfortunately the way many astrologers practice, as well. These things are entertaining, like being in a carnival and having your palm read for $5. “Real” astrology is substantive. Real astrology looks at who yoiu are as an individual first and then the horoscope is related to your reality, not to cookbook planetary positions.
There are a lot of astrology books and web sites to choose from these days. The publication of new books has slowed down dramatically from the way it was before the Internet became the standard for information.
Please keep in mind that the great majority of what you will find talks about the pieces and parts. To know that Jupiter in the 5th House suggests something potentially good as far as children is concerned might be entertaining but it isn’t helpful.
Always keep in mind the idea that to really be helpful with a horoscope, you must blend all of the parts together to make a single whole. Discussions of the parts are enertaining. Some people prefer to be entertained. That is how they view astrology but to really be helpful, you must be able to synthesize all the parts into a single whole.
I can teach you the process!
Google something like, “Boston bombings astrology.” Just watch! It always galls me. Someone will come up with some configuration that the explosion happened because Mars, Uranus, and Pluto were in a doodinky aspect to the Midheaven and transiting Moon made an ice cream aspect to Chiron.”
No matter what you read and who wrote it, ask yourself, “Why didn’t you write about it before yesterday, last week, or last year?
No matter how many ambulance chasing articles astrologers do, nothing is ever done to help before tragedy takes lives.
One of the reasons that I was attracted to astrology in the beginning was because of a curiosity about what made people tick. It had more to do with knowing the human condition as opposed to any pie-in-the-sky, “I want to predict the future” focus.
The development of psychological astrology took place shortly after I started studying it. It was during the early 70’s. After a long time of perhaps 6 or 7 years reading absolute garbage astrology books, things started to turn around and I was very happy about it. Things started making sense.
I am 58 years old now. I started in astrology when I was 13 and nothing that has taken place since then has convinced me otherwise that the most important use of astrology is its ability to help people to understand themselves and to understand others and to get some sense off how life works and its cyclical nature. Nothing shows this need better then a recent television telecast on my friend and client’s TV show, “Iyanla Fix My Life.”
I believe that astrologers should be about the business of helping people to fix their lives and live as fulfillingly as possible. Everyone has some kind of an issue. There are some who have their issues well- managed and others who do not have the issues managed or even recognized at all. Some are dangerously off path to a point where they are destructive to themselves and others. One such person is rapper and occasional actor, DMX.
Iyanla’s help was recently requested by DMX, who has had all kinds of issues that stem from the reality that he has still not been able to come to grips with the rejection he received from his mother (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByBFSXTAd7Y). As an adult he has battled with drugs, he has had terrible relationships with women, he has not been a good father to his son, and much more. He is a flat out mess.
I have presented a clip from the show here just to show how angry DMX is. He is an angry man, taking his maternal pain out on the rest of the world. I cannot begin to imagine how many clients I have had over the years with similar issues, people who didn’t even realize it. As an astrologer, it is a great, great feeling when you can turn that light on inside someone and help. When a person has the self understanding and gets things managed, every facet of life becomes more productive and fulfilling. Less mistakes are made, especially in relationships and career matters. “Can you tell me my future” astrology is useless without self awareness because we are the ones who create our futures, not horoscopes, not planets. What you do and think today creates your tomorrow. You can have 40 Jupiters transit your Sun but if you have not prepared for an opportunity, you won’t get one.
In showing this video clip, I also wanted to show what real counseling is about. This is really no different then what a good astrologer should be doing with his or her client to do all that can be done to assist with the idea of living life as fulfillingly as possible. The only difference is that astrologers use horoscopes as their alphabet and Iyanla uses tools that she has learned from psychology and from the tragedies of her own life. Astrology should be much more than “The 5 planets in Aries we have now is in your 5th House. Devote time to children.” (I actually saw this today.) How helpful is that? If you have young children, isn’t all of your time necessarily focused on them? I just don’t get the shallow usages of astrology. What’s more, I think it’s done for the same reason a musician will do the most simple kind of music even if they can play difficult jazz……money.
As you view over the videos of DMX, know that there are scores of people like him. This isn’t about DMX. It is about the kind of pain that humans live with as a root to so much unhappiness and difficulty in life. You can find women, much like Marilyn Monroe, who never had a father relationship or had a difficult relationship. As adults, all they do is either marry their fathers or have multiple relationships with men who are really all the same as the father but are in different bodies. Even someone as sophisticated as the late Jacqueline Kenedy-Onassis: her father’s love to her was shown materially instead of emotionally. She grew to equate love with materiality, position, status. Her relationship choices were greatly influenced, psychologically speaking, by what happened/did not happen with her father.
This is DMX’s son talking about his father after the telecast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfAMvH6DH5I&feature=youtu.be
What a mess, right? But this is life. This is in a million families and has existed forever, which is the reason why astrology has to address it. It can’t be, “My Vesta conjunct Juno is opposed by Chiron and that’s why I am so _________.” That’s nonsense….unhelpful nonsense.
There are keys in a horoscope that suggest the kind of drama that DMX shows in these videos but if you are geared to “telling the future” astrology or cookbook astrology, you’ve entertained someone but you have not helped them. There are adults who are very dysfunctional. Astrology can help to manage it when in the hands of the right astrologer.
THE CHINA STUDY
Everyone has had a parent, husband, wife, friend, relative who has been ill, perhaps critically so. Maybe you have had issues yourself. I have been what most call, “a health nut” for many years. The great majority of my diet is plant based. I’ve not had red meat since 1983.
I recently rediscovered a book while getting some things from the house I was raised in before the new owners take over and I ran across the book shown here called, “The China Study.” It was still in the same bag, tucked away in a drawer. I bought it years ago and forgot about it.
The China Study is reputed to be the finest book on nutrition ever published. Many books on health and nutrition give opinions. The authors of this book worked from a scientific perspective. They did testing that showed tangible results as opposed to just giving opinions.
If you are one who deeply cares about your health and the health of your loved ones, I would suggest that you buy this book and read it – slowly. As an astrologer, it is especially go to know these factors and, as well, to know when horoscopes show a potential for critical illness. I teach the patterns in my Course and believe me, as an astrologer, there is no better feeling than detecting potential issues and essentially saving lives because you suggested that a client have a full checkup.
The detection of critical health issues and the advising that someone get a full checkup is one of the greatest services that an astrologer can offer. However, what happens after the checkup, what one should be doing to heal, is much of the subject of The China Study. If you are interested in doing everything you can do to have a good health quality of life while you are alive, The China Study MUST be in your library.
UPDATE ON POPE FRANCIS’ HOROSCOPE
This is an update on the horoscope of Pope Francis. My sources have found that the previously published birth time was incorrect. The chart shown here is the correct one.
When you look at the Horizon, it makes perfect sense from a timing perspective. The transiting square between Pluto and Uranus have both been close to his Ascendant. You can’t get more of an indication of a huge, huge change in one’s life than that.
The incorrect chart with the earlier time was a good psychological fit with the strong 8th House. This horoscope instead shows an orientation to others in a service capacity with an emphasis on helping others. We see this through the 6th House activity and the Moon’s position in Aquarius, ever so important in the horoscopes of those who want or need to help others.
Why is it that people will not hesitate to expect an astrologer to answer questions about their own horoscope for free? Answering questions about astrology is acceptable to a point. Answering questions about one’s own horoscope without having had a consultation is disrespectful.
When Saturn is conjunct, square, quindecile or opposed Venus, it suggests a challenging sutuation that often hits where it hurts the most. Saturn represents a control factor. Venus suggests our relational needs. They are not great bedfellows.
There are several possible suggested reflections in real life of the pairing between the two. In no particular order:
A) A difficulty with relationships because of constraints on emotional expression.
B) An attraction to and from those of a significantly different age group.
C) Relational fulfillment later in life than usual due to relational lessons that first need to be learned.
D) A fear of commitment
E) Being too controlled or too controlling
The bottom line here is that this relationship between Venus and Saturn means that the control factor has taken over the relational needs, resulting in challenged relationships. It isn’t a bad thing. It is the horoscope telling you that you have some learning and maturing to do before relationships will be fulfilling.
One particularly challenging contact here is the opposition because Saturn will be retrograde. This brings in a father concern. Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis had this contact. Her father was a serial womanizer who showed his love for her in material ways. She married two wealthy men, one of whom was exactly like her father. President Kennedy was also a serial womanizer. In these relationships, she was looking for Daddy. Make sense?
The Venus-Saturn relationship is importantly instructive because relating to others is a key component in feeling loved. Every human needs to feel loved.
I did a lecture the other day, a tough one because it was not in front of an astrological audience. It was in front of a “curious” business audience and they wanted to basically know what good, if any, astrology is. You can substitute the word, “curious,” for, “prove to us that this isn’t a bunch of BS.”
I summed it up by saying that astrology is best used for self-understanding, understanding of others, timing, and to help understand the ebb and flow of life and its cycles. I explained that no one in the room had even the most remote idea of what astrology is because what they see and hear of it is like saying all music is like the 11 year old kid in the music store torturing everyone while he bangs on the drums. To demonstrate, I asked for a volunteer who knew, for sure, what his or her time of birth. I wouldn’t take any volunteers with times on the hour, on the quarters or half.
The horoscope was so easy to delineate that I had it done before it stopped printing. There was a Leo Ascendant with 3 planets in Leo including the Moon, all at the focal point of a Saturn-Sun opposition with the retrograde Saturn in the 4th. Saturn was 9 degrees away from the cusp of the 4th House. My statement? “This horoscope suggests very strong ego needs that have been throttled by a parental situation that developed early in life, centering on the father. Please tell me what happened in the family when you were approximately 9 years old?” It was so funny….the man asked if he could see the chart and then see the software. He was amazed (he actually said, “I’m not being punked am I? There are people here who know my story). His father left the family when he was 9 years old and passed away 2 years after that. It left the family in a state of devastation and poverty. The dominate ego needs were subjugated to wearing hand me down clothes, sleeping in a bed with his sister, food stamps and more. There was a lot more that I said and he corroborated all of it. The audience applauded but I didn’t stop there.
I explained to them that it is all well and good to be able to detect those kinds of things but the point is to see it, try and get the client to objectify it and work on steps to wade through the psychology to improved productivity with people, places, and things in life. The man was twice divorced. The ruler of his 6th House was a mess. I asked the audience, “For those of you who work with Bob, how cooperative is he when you need to do things your way?” They laughed! The man was a good sport and is my newest student.
The thing that made it worth it for me was that people came up to me afterwards and said that they just had no idea that astrology was even something to be learned. They thought the whole of it was, “Scorpios like sex” kind of basic entertainment.
The group came in mouted with skepticism and left with respect. Astrology 1 / Skeptics – 0.
I copied and pasted the Bill Cosby posts below, not for what he is saying but to show a prototypical Moon in Virgo in action.
The Sign of your Moon suggests an awful lot about your main psychological needs. In Virgo, the idea of expressing opinions about what one sees wrong is key. Cosby’s rant demonstrates it clearly.
