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Aspects in Astrology

The horoscope chart is like a roadmap. It very succinctly shows us the things we can take for granted as well as the areas of life that we’ll need to work on. Astrological aspects give us one way to analyze the map’s potential.

“Soft” or flowing aspects indicate things that are easy for us. With sextiles and trines, only a little effort is necessary to maximize what’s promised by the linked planets. With the Moon sextile Venus, for example, one easily finds opportunities to develop relationships with women and can have an intuitive connection with them. However this aspect does not push one toward any kind of spectacular achievement. If things become difficult, other relationships generally come along to release the pressure.

“Hard” or challenging aspects are motivators that force us to do more. These planetary patterns are not easily ignored and will be activated periodically throughout life. The Sun square or opposite Saturn demands hard work in order to succeed. Those with hard aspects may also experience more disruptive changes or set-backs from time to time than a person with the Sun trine Saturn. People with challenging aspects might crave a comfortable rut, but the Universe will not let them rest in it for very long. These aspects create those determined to achieve, who can learn to make the most of what they’ve been given.

Of course, the ideal is to have both hard and soft aspects in the natal chart, which most of us do. While we’re given challenges to motivate us, there are also opportunities to embrace. We’re pushed to solve problems but also have enough support and opportunity to help us do so.

Aspects in Astrology

The horoscope chart is like a roadmap. It very succinctly shows us the things we can take for granted as well as the areas of life that we’ll need to work on. Astrological aspects give us one way to analyze the map’s potential.

“Soft” or flowing aspects indicate things that are easy for us. With sextiles and trines, only a little effort is necessary to maximize what’s promised by the linked planets. With the Moon sextile Venus, for example, one easily finds opportunities to develop relationships with women and can have an intuitive connection with them. However this aspect does not push one toward any kind of spectacular achievement. If things become difficult, other relationships generally come along to release the pressure.

“Hard” or challenging aspects are motivators that force us to do more. These planetary patterns are not easily ignored and will be activated periodically throughout life. The Sun square or opposite Saturn demands hard work in order to succeed. Those with hard aspects may also experience more disruptive changes or set-backs from time to time than a person with the Sun trine Saturn. People with challenging aspects might crave a comfortable rut, but the Universe will not let them rest in it for very long. These aspects create those determined to achieve, who can learn to make the most of what they’ve been given.

Of course, the ideal is to have both hard and soft aspects in the natal chart, which most people do. While we’re given challenges to motivate us, there are also opportunities to embrace. We’re pushed to solve problems but also have enough support and opportunity to help us do so.

Bill deBlasio’s Inauguration Horoscope

New York City’s new mayor Bill deBlasio took the oath of office at approximately 12:01 AM on January 1, 2014 at his home in Brooklyn. He campaigned on a platform of change, and with a dynamic grand cross in the horoscope for the new administration, there will be major changes in store for the City. DeBlasio is our first new mayor in 12 years and the first Democratic mayor in 20.

Angular planets dominate any horoscope, and with six angular planets in the grand cross, this is a powerful figure. The planets involved – the Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto – are all energized and placed in lively cardinal signs, making for an extraordinarily active and forceful chart.

Jupiter in the tenth house represents the authority figure, deBlasio himself. Since Jupiter is exalted in the sign of Cancer, he’s riding high in popularity and support. Yet he’s besieged on all sides – from influences both inside and outside of the City – so there will be many issues and challenges to address.

Jupiter trines Saturn in Scorpio in the second house, suggesting that stable finances will help keep the new mayor in power. Taxing the wealthy is probably the least controversial thing he’ll do.

Home and family are represented by the 4th house and deBlasio’s priority of affordable housing is indicated by four planets in thrifty Capricorn in the 4th house. Yet the mayor may face opposition from historical preservationists, who are also ruled by Capricorn.

Let’s look at Bill deBlasio’s promise to reform the controversial “stop and frisk” policy. Gemini is on the 9th house of the law and its ruler Mercury conjoins the Sun and Pluto at the bottom of the chart, with all three part of the grand cross. The control (Pluto) of law (Mercury) opposes the mayor (Jupiter in the 10th house). Due to the oppositions and squares in the grand cross, there are strongly differing points of view, so a compromise will have to be reached.

DeBlasio’s tenure as mayor will probably be filled with polarizing elements (4 opposition aspects) and diverse factions squaring off against one another (8 squares), although he is empowered to pursue his agenda. With the epoch-making Uranus-Pluto generational square prominent in the administration’s horoscope, we can certainly expect some surprising and even dramatic events surrounding the new mayor and the City’s progress.

The Astrology of a Derailment

Whenever a horoscope in longitude doesn’t reveal the obvious, I turn to declination, our alternate measurement in astrology. Declination can help us better understand the tragic train derailment in the Bronx on Sunday, December 1, 2013 at 7:20 AM.

The regular horoscope for the crash has the Moon, Mercury and Saturn in Scorpio conjunct the 12th house (an intense experience), Sun rising in Sagittarius trine Uranus (unexpected events in travel) and Mars opposite Neptune (engineer dozing at the controls?). But it doesn’t really have the most obvious things we expect from an accident of this magnitude. Four were killed and over 60 injured, many critically.

Turn on the declination grid and everything stands out more clearly. The Sun in Sagittarius is parallel Pluto and closely parallel the Ascendant. Then powerful Jupiter in Cancer contraparallels Pluto and tightly contraparallels both the Ascendant and the Sun. This pattern more clearly presents a situation where destruction (Pluto) from excessive speed (Jupiter) is possible. In addition, there’s an exact Mars parallel Uranus as well, the two planets most often associated with accidents and sudden crises.

Venus in Capricorn had been Out of Bounds in declination (beyond the planets’ usual path on the ecliptic) for a number of weeks at the time of the accident. The odd coincidence is that the train’s engineer has this placement in his birth chart as well! Venus OOB generally represents one with an artistic temperament or the tendency to “love not wisely but too well,” as Kt Boehrer put it. Extraordinary relationships are possible. Certainly the engineer is now unfortunately in the midst of unusually challenging relationship issues involving the passengers, his employers and government authorities (transiting Venus OOB in Capricorn). Venus goes Out of Bounds only once every 8 years or so for a few months.

Perhaps the prominence of the benefics Venus and Jupiter in this disaster accounts for the fact that not many lives were lost. At the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, there were fewer passengers to the City than usual at such an early hour.

Declination measures planets north and south of the equator and their aspects in parallel and contraparallel. This may at first appear a bit simplistic, but as we can see, declination can provide information that we may not find in longitude. It truly adds another dimension to astrology.

Astro Twins

Astro-twins are two people who share the same birthday – day and year – not necessarily the same time of birth.  All the planets in the two horoscopes will be conjunct.  If we look back to our youthful days we’re more likely to find people we know with the same birth date.

I went out with my sister’s astro-twin for a while.  I guess he felt very comfortable to me – although not the other way around as he soon broke it off.  One of my best friends had a crush on my astro-twin.  He seemed like a nice guy, but neither of us ever got to know him very well.  I can only imagine that what she liked in me she saw in him, too.

I had the same singing teacher as another of my astro-twins.  She was a dancer and earned money horseback riding and I had also done both.  I later learned that she left town owing the teacher a bit of money, but I always paid on time.  Go figure.

A young Al H. Morrison married his astro-twin – they were born about 12 hours apart.  (This was before he became interested in astrology, and if anything, he was then a skeptic.)  He later complained that after a year it was “like masturbating.”  From which I take it that he needed stimulation from someone less like himself.  This may have been especially true since he had a Libra Moon.  It’s hard to balance one scale with another one.  The relationship didn’t last. 

Evangeline Adams’ astro-twin (2/8/1868) was Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, a British zoologist.  Evangeline, too, always loved animals, but was never able to attain the noble title to which her Leo Moon naturally aspired.

I’ve generally liked other Capricorn people, while I’ve noticed that when Aries are together they tend to fight.  It seems to me that Scorpios and Leos marry each other the most often of the signs.  The Leos have a mutual admiration society and the Scorpios must enjoy the emotional resonance.

2013 Election Winners

Both Bill deBlasio and Chris Christie enjoyed landslide victories in this week’s elections.  It can be challenging to choose the winners, but astrology always helps us figure out exactly what happened.

Bill deBlasio was born on May 8, 1961 at 7:03 PM in New York, NY (his campaign manager gave the data to astrologer Shelley Ackerman).  The new NYC mayor is a very idealistic guy, with Neptune on his Scorpio Ascendant squaring Jupiter and opposing his Sun.  Transit Saturn in Scorpio was conjoining his Neptune and Ascendant in the last months of his campaign, an aspect that can help clarify ideals and may bring unusual career developments.  It also holds the possibility for publicity, which was immensely helpful to him.  DeBlasio’s campaign heated up this summer, when his son Dante appeared in TV ads.  Broadening Jupiter combined with the Saturn-Neptune pattern at that time to popularize the candidate’s message, and the momentum continued.

Saturn transiting the first house will bring up significant developments in deBlasio’s life and career as it makes major aspects in early 2014, when he begins his new duties.  This influence often indicates a turning point in life.  DeBlasio will be taking on important responsibilities (Saturn opposite his Sun) and is moving in a new direction (Saturn square his Uranus).  Saturn repeats a cycle that began in 1984 when he first began his career with a job for the NYC Department of Juvenile Justice.

Chris Christie was born on September 6, 1962 and was re-elected as Governor of NJ with over 50% of the vote.  Transiting Saturn was helping him, too, as it sextiled his Sun almost exactly at the time of the election.  This aspect is not as powerful as deBlasio’s Saturn-Sun aspect, but Christie will not have such a major change in his life.  Saturn sextile the Sun usually gives us some career movement, often just what we can expect based on past experience, but not a significant change.  So Governor Christie is continuing what he began four years ago. 

Christie had lap-band weight-loss surgery in February of 2013 and already appears to have dropped from his speculated 300-lb. weight.  Transiting Pluto was exactly square his Mercury, which often coincides with important decisions and transformation in a particular area of experience.  And with the Sun conjunct Pluto in Virgo in his birth chart, he certainly has the ability to reinvent himself and take control of his life and habits.  At the time of the surgery, the Saturn transit stationed in a near-exact conjunction with his Neptune (the same aspect deBlasio had at the time of the election), and this, too, was an unusual life development that gained publicity.  It certainly influenced his career as well, as his health should improve and he’ll be a more appealing candidate for the future if he continues dropping pounds.

Neptune and the War of the Worlds

Orson Welles’ broadcast his War of the Worlds Halloween radio show on October 30, 1938 at 8:00 PM from the CBS studios in New York City (see the data here).  The radio play was carried by affiliate stations across the country. Some people assumed the story of Martians invading the Earth was real. While historians today tend to feel there was less panic than we’ve been led to believe, the incident demonstrated the power of technology to influence the public, and Orson Welles became famous.

The illusion of truth comes under the purview of the planet Neptune. Some people initially felt uncomfortable with the new radio technology because people could be “there” and yet “not there” at the same time, something like disincarnate spirits. Interestingly, transiting Neptune at the time of Welles’ broadcast was nearly exactly conjunct the U.S. Neptune (a Neptune return, which occurs approximately every 162-164 years, give or take). It was also nearly exactly parallel its own place in declination.

I use Evangeline Adams’ Gemini rising U.S. chart, which has Neptune square the Ascendant. Saturn is also closely contra-parallel Neptune in many U.S. charts. To me this reflects Americans’ preoccupation with image, the proliferation of celebrities, glamour, advertising and marketing, and the conflict between illusion and reality. And so the transiting Neptune in 1938 reiterates and accentuates these themes.

Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915 at 7:00 AM in Kenosha, WI according to his birth certificate (see the Astrodatabank entry). With Gemini rising himself, he had an immediate resonance with America. His Jupiter in Pisces in the 10th made him a teller of tall tales, especially as it squared his and the U.S. Ascendants.

Welles’ powerful Jupiter in the 10th was also closely parallel a perhaps even stronger Mars in Aries in his 11th house, both in their ruling signs. And transiting Neptune activated these, nearly exactly contra-parallel Welles’ Jupiter and parallel his Jupiter at the time, bringing up the Neptunian ideas of deception, misunderstanding and image vs. reality. Welles gained great notoriety as a result of the broadcast, and become seduced by Hollywood. His first film Citizen Kane came out in 1941.

Some of the exaggerated response from the public to The War of the Worlds in 1938 was probably due to the disturbing events in Europe that would soon lead to WWII. Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin were already in control and Jews were actively persecuted in Germany. But that is a much larger Neptunian story.

Uranus square Pluto

Uranus square Pluto can define a generation, since both planets move slowly and the aspect lasts a long time, being highlighted particularly from mid-2012 to early 2015.  These two planets stir things up and break down existing conditions.  Their long-term transit is associated with sudden and unusual events and large scale changes in circumstances.   Uranus and Pluto previously combined in the mid-60s, ushering in a notable period of change in society.

 Pluto relates to transformation, recycling and renewal.  It works gradually and can rid us of what’s not working while capitalizing on what is.  Uranus often operates quickly, and may bring surprising developments.  It has the effect of shaking things up and at times may act unexpectedly.  What these two planets have in common is breaking away from the past and making way for the new. 

 Many authors have linked Uranus square Pluto to government and financial upheavals, the use or abuse of power and technology, increased activism, and notable climatic events.  In some places change might be radical or revolutionary, with transformation possible even on a global scale.  We’ve already seem Uranus square Pluto at work in Arab Spring and other rebellions against authority, the leaking of government documents, extreme weather conditions and some city and even state financial crises. 

If this planetary combination is hitting any of your personal planets, you could find some ups and downs.  This is a transitionary period of time.  The unexpected may happen and you might need to adjust.  However Uranus and Pluto both suggest that you continue moving ahead toward the future.  

Swami Vivekenanda on Universal Truth

This quote from Swami Vivekenanda seems very fresh today, over 100 years after he stated it. It’s a good example of how the opposition aspect works constructively in astrology:

Any attempt to bring all humanity to one method of thinking in spiritual things has been a failure and always will be a failure. You cannot make all conform to the same ideas. If you and I were to think exactly the same thoughts, there would be no thoughts for us to think. We know that two or more forces must come into collision in order to produce motion. It is the clash of thought, the differentiation of thought, that awakens thought. Whirls and eddies occur only in a rushing, living stream. There are no whirlpools in stagnant, dead water.

Every religion has a soul behind it, and that soul may differ from the soul of another religion; but are they contradictory? Do they contradict or supplement each other?

I took up this question when I was quite a boy, and have been studying it all my life. I believe that they are not contradictory; they are supplementary. Each religion takes up one part of the great universal truth and spreads its whole force in embodying and typifying that part of the great truth. It is therefore addition, not exclusion. System after system arises, each one embodying a great ideal; ideals must be added to ideals. And this is how humanity marches on.

– from a lecture at the Universalist Church, Pasadena, California, January 28, 1900