Oct 4, 2021
No year can go by without three or four mercury retro periods, as mercury’s year is only 88 days. Because venus and mars orbit at something approaching the same speed as earth, in no year will they be retro more than once, and in many years will skip the retro entirely. For jupiter outwards, every planet will spend from four months to 5-1/2 retro, but only when all these planets line up roughly opposite the sun will they be retro at the same time. This demonstrates just how very slow the outer planets are; in the springtime, early 1980s, uranus, neptune and pluto were in this area as the jupiter/saturn conjunction joined them; the next jupiter/saturn conjunction, in the 2000s, was out of phase for the retro, and by 2021, 40 years later, uranus had only progressed 5 signs, neptune 3 and pluto, 4 (it has a weird orbit which placed it closer than neptune for awhile). Thus they’re still all close together in the retro area, now in the fall, and after 40 years the second jupiter/saturn conjunction has joined them. This means the 5 outer planets are all retro together from Aug. 20th to Oct. 7th, and mercury makes six!
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sept 22-2021
The sun will enter libra today, or to put it differently, the sun as seen from the earth (represented by the center circle in the chart) appears to move into libra (represented by the line between the virgo and libra glyphs around the edge of the chart). While the chart as a whole is rotating clockwise at 1º every four minutes, the sun (as seen from the earth) is moving counterclockwise at 1º per day. Opposite the sun are all the planets except mercury and venus, which are always close to the sun, and mars, now only 4º away and getting closer, as the sun moves twice as fast. Any planets in approximately the one-third of the sky opposite the sun will be retrograde, as the earth (in the center) is moving faster in relation to the sun and appears to overtake them all, at rates depending on distance: about 1º per month for uranus, neptune and pluto, 2º for saturn, 4º for jupiter and 8º for mars. Currently, all the planets from jupiter outwards are in the third of the sky between taurus and capricorn, and thus retrograde (the moon is too, but it’s never retro). Mercury will also go retro in about a week, at a rate of about 1º per day, but it stays close to the sun. Expect confusion and distraction, planned and unplanned, until mid-October, but things buried for years will be revealed in the next four months.
The faces (or decans) in the Chaldean scheme are ruled by the planets in turn, but there’s a problem~mars rules two in a row (end of pisces, beginning of aries) for no apparent reason. The other scheme allots the second and third decans to the rulers of the other signs in the element; the three decans of aries (fire element) are thus mars (aries), sun (leo), jupiter (sagittarius), taurus decans are venus (taurus), mercury (virgo) and saturn (capricorn), etc. I don’t pay much attention to the terms or the decans, personally; I like to keep things simple and don’t care for the clutter. If you go down that rabbit hole you can put in Arabic parts, god only knows how many asteroids, etc. After a certain point all you have is mud.
It certainly can be subjective, which depends on the desires and orientation of the astrologer, the client, the planets, the time of day, phase of the moon, etc. From one generation to another the perspective and focus changes as well; on average just over 50% of all people should have one or more planets in scorpio, but for anyone born in the 2nd half of the 20th century the likelihood is over 95%. I don’t have one, so it often seems I’m on a rubber raft at sea when everyone else is talking scorpio-type themes; I can’t relate. Most born from 1995 onwards don’t have this strong scorpio theme in common, and everyone discussing generational differences notices a real change in gestalt at that time, whether they know anything about astrology or not.
My parents had my chart drawn when I was born and I carried it in my wallet from the time I was ten; I didn’t find anyone who could tell me anything about it for years, and with my first paycheck at 16 bought a bunch of astrology books and learned to draw and interpret charts on my own. I tried to make a go of it when I was in my 20s but never made enough in my shop to do more than pay my share of the rent. It has however been incredibly useful and inspiring over the past 52 years (am I really that old?). It takes a lot of years to read charts reliably but I did have some notable successes. About my seventh year of drawing charts I remember telling a friend not to party at a certain house on the beach on a certain weekend; as it happened the PRESIDENT visited the house next door and they all would’ve been busted! The one thing that will never change is that no two charts are alike; they may have things in common but every chart is unique, and demands a unique answer~
Anybody can be a fraud, so I won’t say astrologers can’t be, but people have their specialties and compatibilities; an astrologer can be a wonderful counselor to one person and struggle with another. Some people will hear and follow your advice, others will hear what they want even if it’s not really what you said. One of the problems is also the fight for the almighty dollar; it’s hard to refuse that $50 consultation when your refrigerator’s empty and you’re low on gas, even if you said everything you could think to say last week. It’s why I don’t much do that anymore; far too often I felt as if I were being drained, rather than being inspirational~
I want to see the patterns. Set the rulerships in a circle and the sun and moon (leo and cancer) are next to each other, mercury (gemini and virgo) next to those, venus (taurus/libra) next to mercury, mars (aries/scorpio) next to venus, jupiter (sagittarius/pisces) next and saturn (capricorn/aquarius) the two signs opposite the sun/moon. Masculine and feminine signs alternate, and each planet rules one masculine and one feminine (except sun/moon, one apiece). The planet ruling the opposite sign is in its detriment, and the exaltation and fall make a certain sense of their own, rather like music theory. I don’t use terms, but they’re based on “critical degrees” timed to the motion of the moon; a term is approximately half-a-day’s moon motion. Faces are essentially decanates, 10º divisions of the signs, which I also don’t pay much attention to but I’d hardly call anyone an idiot for using them. Ptolemy was a smart guy, he didn’t just make this stuff up.
And also, regarding planets ruling houses:
Everyone has their techniques, but I’ve never said planets rule houses. I relate the houses to the activities one is involved in when the sun transits that area of the sky. From about 6-8 AM one is in a netherworld between awake and asleep (the 12th house), while the opposite, 6-8 PM (the 6th house), one is leaving the business world and settling into the personal. The 11th is 8-10 AM; one greets co-workers and has meetings of a business or non-romantic type; from 8-10 PM (5th house) people socialize, look for romance and generally avoid business. The houses rule these opposites; they also relate in thirds such as 2-6-10 which rule various types of personal possessions, jobs, finance or 4-8-12 which are family and other people’s needs or property, but a house is not a sign, and I feel it’s a stretch to combine the two or to claim a planet rules a house. My 2¢.
Once I had a job where I could walk home late at night, for about a mile, through a deep valley oriented east to west. It was in a little town far from city lights and I found my way by the light of the moon, or if there was no moon by the light of venus, which cast a deep purple shadow, by jupiter, whose shadow was a royal blue, or saturn, a slate grey. I could never detect a shadow cast by mars; it’s just not bright enough, though the expected shadow would be a shade of green. The town is much bigger now and there are too many lights to see such shadows, even in a deep valley late at night. It’s too bad; they’re magical.
Anybody can be a fraud, so I won’t say astrologers can’t be, but people have their specialties and compatibilities; an astrologer can be a wonderful counselor to one person and struggle with another. Some people will hear and follow your advice, others will hear what they want even if it’s not really what you said. One of the problems is also the fight for the almighty dollar; it’s hard to refuse that $50 consultation when your refrigerator’s empty and you’re low on gas, even if you said everything you could think to say last week. It’s why I don’t much do that anymore; far too often I felt as if I were being drained, rather than being inspirational~
Astrology is related to meteorology. An astrologer is in many ways a weatherman, a forecaster. About 90% of the population lives above the equator, and for them the midsummer sun, in leo, is strong and hot; this month is said to be “ruled” by the sun. The opposite month, in midwinter, is “ruled” by the cold, dark planet saturn. Other planets “rule” other months in direct relation to their distance from the sun. This is the nature of “rulership”
The quincunx aspect (sometimes called inconjunct), is almost opposite but not quite; these are five and seven signs distant in the zodiac (150º apart). One sign is “feminine” (of the earth or water element), the other “masculine” (fire or air), but they share neither element, nor quality (cardinal, fixed or mutable are the qualities; these being the first, second or third month of the season) so this aspect is often found in crazy, overly-dramatic romances.
In my experience, there’s a very strong attraction from a sign towards the nearer, fifth sign, but not much towards the seventh. Aries is attracted to virgo, but not to scorpio; to aries, virgo seems organized and practical whereas scorpio just seems obsessed and extreme. Aries is impulsive and passionate, but to virgo this appears unhinged or unreliable, and virgo, instead, is attracted to aquarius, who’s intrigued by cancer. Cancer in turn moons over sagittarius, who hardly notices cancer while trying to chat up taurus, without much success. Taurus is baking cookies for libra, libra is sighing over pisces, pisces is writing poetry for leo, and leo is hanging around hoping capricorn will pass by. Capricorn does pass, right on by, intrigued instead by gemini, who is bewitched by scorpio, who is bedeviled by aries. Aries is, naturally, showing off for virgo who is, of course, entranced by aquarius. Ring-around-the-rosy, a merry chase!
Much more compatible, but not as dramatic, are the signs next to each other, the “semi-sextiles”(30º apart). These are also feminine-to-masculine and share neither element nor quality, BUT will often share venus, mercury or both, planets which cannot be shared by signs in quincunx (mercury will never be further from the sun than one sign, venus one-and-a-half). This provides a level of communication and harmony between signs otherwise, in many ways, “incompatible”.
My wife is a cancer and I’m a gemini, we’ve been together 38 years. It’s a good match, though we usually end up spending about a month apart each year. Sometimes, she has her life, I have mine.
We have some friends, he’s pisces, she’s aquarius, they’ve been together 40+. My brother, capricorn, was married 25 years to a sagittarius before she died. I think in general the semi-sextile is a good match, though yes, the two signs are very different. That keeps it interesting!
actually it’s more than just sun signs. Our moon signs are also semi-sextile, as are our rising signs!
People find themselves in the same patterns, somehow. I don’t truly believe in coincidence. Sometimes we can’t see, or understand, the pattern, but it’s there. This time, three cancers married to three leos. Awhile back, my wife and I had two couples over, it turned out all of us were married to semi-sextile partners, and all had leo mothers except one; she had a leo father! The random chance of that is clearly thousands-to-one, but I don’t see it as chance. I spent about five years thumbing around the country when I was in my 20s, and had friends I’d drop in on in half a dozen states. It was eerie how many times I’d find people in the same situations~the same players, the same circles of similar friends~thousands of miles apart. I attended a memorial in New York State, a couple years before The Big Chill came out. The friend was named Al, he died in a Porsche, the “cast of characters” was similar, and we all stayed the weekend at a big old house on a lake. I knew a Red-Haired Rick in North Carolina, another in Texas; they looked alike and acted alike; one was a few inches taller. I sat at two rustic tables in two similar bars a thousand miles apart. Five guys at the table, four named Dave. At one the fifth guy was named Dan, at the other, Don. I met a guy with my first name, we both had a younger brother named Rob, owned the same color and size car and had lived within a few miles of each other in three different states. I dropped in on the family who lived in the house I grew up in. The son looked like me and had the same job; his father was a teacher and mother a hairdresser; my father was a barber and my mother a teacher. I could go on for the rest of the day, but you get the point~
Usually “pop” astrology will state that earth and water are compatible, as are air and fire. Superficially, this is correct, but real relationships are much deeper; people are compatible in some ways but not others, and what’s important is that they’re compatible in a few ways and willing to overlook the rest. I call these toothpaste-tube issues; I often hear, “I could NEVER live with someone who….(squeezes the toothpaste tube in the middle, etc.) Guess what? You’re not gonna find anyone who matches everything on your list. Nobody’s perfect!
This is a chart drawn for the moment a question is asked (“horary”, “of the hour”). The querent (the one who asks the question) is a leo, and he’ll be putting on a presentation.
Only the traditional, “visible” planets, and their rulerships, are considered, because the outer planets are very slow moving and far away~if you have a flat tire, you don’t care about the rubber crop in India, though that may be of interest to a tire retailer six months from now.
We start with the chart ruler, the ruler of the ascendant, libra, which is venus. Venus is in virgo, and since venus is in the sign of virgo it’s “disposed of” by mercury. Mercury is in leo or “disposed of” by the sun, and the sun is in its own sign, leo, so it’s the “final dispositor”.
The focus of the chart is on a presentation which is beautiful (chart ruler venus), which is achieved through planning and attention to detail (venus in virgo). Virgo is ruled by mercury, and mercury in leo indicates success through the leo desire to show off, stand straight, project confidence. This is very strong in the chart, as sun, moon and mercury are all in leo. The aspectarian (aspect list) shows this in red, indicating “bad”, but this applies to planets too near the sun in general, not specifically when the sun is strong in its home in leo. The whole point of this chart is to project strength, so in this case and with this sun placement it’s good. We ignore uranus, neptune and pluto (the price of rubber in India six months from now) and only look at jupiter and saturn. They’re in saturn’s sign, aquarius, and not involved with the other five planets, just doing their own thing on the other side of the sky. Eventually everything needs maintenance, but for now the opposition of these two slower planets doesn’t mean much. Final conclusion: Organize, walk tall, put on a show and everything should go well.
The charts for the USA (sagittarius rising), the Pearl Harbor attack, the battle of Midway, the election of 2020 and inauguration of 2021.
I’ve stated before that the election of 2020 resembled the battle of Midway; to clarify, I should’ve said the election chart resembles Pearl Harbor, which produced Midway. Let’s look at why.
A quick glance at the Pearl Harbor chart vs. the 2020 election reveals a striking visual similarity; firstly, they simply look alike. Also, both began with four planets retro, mars in aries, and saturn conjunct outer planet(s) in earth signs. The Midway vs. election comparison reveals mercury retro for both, with mars and jupiter weak and venus strong. Finally, the inauguration chart contains a huge number of squares and, like Midway, the moon in its last degree.
The main point to remember about Midway is that the attackers were hugely confident and at first appeared to be annihilating the enemy; from the afternoon of June 3rd until mid-morning of June 4th, the Americans attacked, scored zero hits and lost about 50 planes, while the Japanese lost half-a-dozen.
By 10:20 am, about nineteen hours after their initial attack, the Americans were down to their last available planes, still having hit nothing. Suddenly, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, five minutes and nine bombs later, three Japanese aircraft carriers were doomed, followed by their fourth a few hours later. Three hundred years of Japanese dominance in the Pacific, gone.
USA (Sibly chart):
https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Nation:_USA_No.1
Pearl Harbor:
https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Military:_Pearl_Harbor
Midway:
https://www.astro.com/cgi/chart.cgi?clang=e;btyp=w2at;rs=3;nhor=86
Election 2020 (at sunrise in the eastern USA):
https://www.astro.com/cgi/chart.cgi?clang=e;btyp=w2at;rs=3;nhor=90
Inauguration 2021:
https://www.astro.com/cgi/chart.cgi?clang=e;btyp=w2at;rs=3;nhor=91Nation: USA No.1, horoscope for birth date 4 July 1776, born in Philadelphia, with Astrodatabank biography – Astro-DatabankHoroscope and astrology data of Nation: USA No.1 born on 4 July 1776 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with biography
An astrology chart is divided into twelve sections or “houses” based on divisions of twos and threes and their multiples. In all practical matters this geometry is essential; square rooms are useful, but are made with triangles reinforcing the corners because triangles are strong. Without triangles, squares are weak. This applies to all of nature; a cubic crystal (salt) is soft; one with a triangular or hexagonal structure (quartz) is hard. It applies in music; an octave is a sound wave exactly half as long as another, and a harmonic is a third or two-thirds as long. Bridges are built with harmonics in mind; the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse in 1940 illustrates why. When one hears about “angles” and “aspects” and “compatibility” in a chart, it’s literally geometry, applied to the concerns of everyday life.
2021
Mercury has left gemini, where it lollygagged for over two months (May 4th-July 12th). It will spend far less time in cancer, leo and virgo, 16-18 days each, then hang out in libra, again for over two months (Aug. 30th-Nov. 5th) before heading into scorpio. These two-month periods are the limit for how long mercury can spend in a sign; by the time its next retrograde period arrives in January of 2022 it will follow a much more familiar pattern, starting in aquarius, retrograding into capricorn and then back into aquarius. Gemini (and Trump, with a gemini sun) has enjoyed a long period of development and will now have a two-week period of frustration before mercury proceeds into leo, virgo and libra, all more harmonious. From the end of July through the first week of November things go smoothly again.
When I saw this Juneteenth was made a federal holiday, the first thing I thought was, mercury retrograde, this won’t be good. I suspect some years down the road it’ll be known for “the Juneteenth massacre”, or something like that~
Mutual reception refers to the ruler of one planet in the home of another, for example venus in aries, mars in taurus. In mutual reception, both planets are enhanced and strengthened regardless of whether they’re considered dignified (well placed, strong) or debilitated (weakened). They reinforce and support each other. Mutual reception favors a deep, complex, nuanced understanding of what is usually seen as simple and straightforward. In a chart with mutual reception there is no “final dispositor”, no single planet in its own home which provides a significant, obvious solution.
Horary astrology question: My son asked, “where is my wallet?”. The chart is radical (fit to be judged) because the ascendant (libra) is in the middle of the sign, neither in the first couple degrees nor the last. Ruler of the chart, venus (ruler of libra ascendant or “rising sign”). Venus is in gemini; the ruler of gemini or “dispositor” of venus is mercury, which is in its own sign, making mercury the “final dispositor”. The rising sign is of the cardinal quality (libra, capricorn, aries or cancer, the first months of their respective seasons) so the item will be found quickly. A wallet indicates money, ruled by the second house of possessions. The second house in the chart is ruled by scorpio, which indicates stagnant water, sewers etc. and bathrooms, which is where the wallet will be located. Mercury, the final dispositor, is in the ninth house, above the ground and in an air sign (as is the chart ruler) so the wallet will be found above ground in an airy rather than wet or hot place. Since mercury rules clerks and my son works as a clerk, it will be found in a place 1) somehow related to his work, 2) above ground (not an earth sign, and in an elevated [9th] house) 3) not in a hot or wet place (fire or water signs), and 4) in the bathroom or somewhere similar (scorpio).
The wallet was very soon found (cardinal sign rising), in a laundry bag in the bathroom (scorpio) hanging on the wall (above ground) in his work pants (gemini, the clerk’s clothes). Success! 
The wonderfully thorough astrologer Carolyn Dodson passed away in November of last year (at 83), so I can’t ask her why her chart of the USA is drawn for 2:13:32 AM standard time (2:10 AM local mean time), though I’m sure she did her research. Gemini rising seems a good choice, though what’s known as the Sibly chart gives a more logical time of 5:10 PM and sagittarius rising. This also seems a good fit for the expansive, adaptable American people, as well as the nature of the USA as a union of multiple states all with their own governments, and essentially makes the question a choice between (mutable) air and (mutable) fire.
Like all the planets (except the sun/moon) saturn traditionally rules one masculine sign (aquarius) and one feminine (capricorn). Since it’s the furthest of the “naked eye” planets it also receives the least light from the sun, so black. On a moonless night in a valley far from light pollution it’s also possible to see the shadow cast by saturn~a deep slate grey, essentially devoid of color.
doovinator 