How can astrology save you instead of, say, Jesus? Or Barack Obama? Or your mother or father? Your husband or wife?

Well, they’re part of your problem: supporting the idea that someone on the ‘outside’ is going to make things right for you. God (remember, She helps those who help themselves). The government (honey, let go of that hope pronto) or your family (they have their own problems, plus — sorry to break it to you — they really don’t care about you as much as you imagine.) No one or thing is going to pull it all together in the way you hope for. That’s really a child’s dream of the world. But amidst the crazy way our culture is collapsing today, well, that requires an adult to maneuver and take advantage of. To get what you really want you need to grow up.

More disappointing news: Even an excellent astrologer can’t help you. In fact, as I tell my students, the only astrologer qualified to interpret your horoscope is you. It’s really no one’s business but yours. Why would you want interpretations placed in your head from someone who does not understand your history — your disappointments and dreams. All of which are symbolized in your horoscope. Yes, an astrologer can acquaint you with the concepts, but you have to build those ideas into an insight that speaks directly to your heart and soul. And that’s a very private, secret matter — something between you and the universe.

So, you’ll need to invest some time to become familiar with the essence of astrology. Which is very different from the kind of spoon-fed astrology most of you are familiar with. Essential astrology is comprised of impressions, intimations, poems and koans that inspire you towards your calling. And my book can help you with this. So, in the end, you’ll be the one doing the ‘work’, the effort to put the puzzle pieces together — which actually is a fun process that facilitates breakthroughs. And breakthroughs can lead to insights, which is a fabulous place to arrive. In the end it is you, always you, who will transform what is stuck, release what is blocked, lighten what is leaden in your life. It is you, and you alone, who will save your life through astrology.

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Filed Under: Alchemy andAstrology

Human beings give undo importance to the the question: What do you do? Americans, especially, seem fixated on the question. As a Cancer-ruled nation (the zodiac sign, not the disease), how we make money, consume and survive fascinates everyone. Nothing wrong with fascination, except for how mechanical the question eventually becomes.

The inquisitiveness with ‘what you do?’ is amplified in a bustling gathering like a party, where there might be lots of unfamiliar folks milling about the watering hole. The animal in us wants to feel secure, so an answer to the vocation question telegraphs relief, helps us orient and relax. “I’m a clerk. Oh, and you’re a nurse. Cool.” Our cards are on the table. As if our job comprises the entirety of what we’re about as a person. In the early 70s, counterculture party peeps, still high on the dawning Aquarian Age, devised a much more interesting question: “What sign are you?” I miss that question, and I’m all for restoring the quirkiness of that social strategy.

I attended a party last night where the notion of small talk wasn’t appealing — I mean, if I’d a choice between banal dialogue and watching The Real Househusbands of Hoboken, I’d probably have stayed home and downloaded the torrent. What can I say? I’ve a Moon in Scorpio with Pluto on the ascendant, sometimes my intensity and aversion to the low-grade shrill of chitchat gets the best of me. During a party I can usually toggle over to Venus and let her Gemini-informed esprit take over, but last night Pluto’s Darkman archetype set the conversational tone. Too, a couple of gin and tonics had lubricated things up enough that I became daring and announced to everyone I met, right out of the gate, that I was an astrologer. Usually I don’t.

Revealing that I’m an astrologer violates each factor of my grandmother’s firmest axiom: “With strangers it’s best not to discuss sex, religion or politics.” I’m sure a lot of you grew up with a similar rule.

There’s a mysterious, occult association with astrology which mirrors, in some ways, the powerful buzz of sexuality. Too, there’s a New Age assumption about stargazers. It’s similar to announcing to someone that I’m, say, a Presbyterian, or (worse) that I collect quartz crystals and Enya CDs. And then finally, a political moment is evoked too, because immediately the person I am talking to must analyze the situation and take a quick vote on how she is going to react and spend the next five or ten minutes. Similar to when someone tells you she’s a Born Again Christian — you figure if you stay put past that disclosure you’re doomed. Some people don’t ‘believe’ in astrology’ and find the subject doltish. But, to be honest, they’re the exception.

Here’s the thing — the big thing — for people and the subject of astrology: Astrology and astrologers evoke the archetype of the Oracle. Astrologers are connected, through lineage, to an eons-old experience that touches the heart and soul of each of us. That’s what archetypes are: Universal experiences that form the bedrock of our psyche, our human being-ness. You have a mother. I have a mother. We both partake of the Mother archetype. You wonder about existence, how your life is situated and where it is heading. I wonder about my life in the same way. That wonder, that curiosity about one’s essence and the future, can easily conjure the archetype of the Seer or Oracle. So imagine you’re at a gathering, eating shrimp cocktail and suddenly an oracle is standing next to you, holding a gin and tonic. It can liven things up. Read more

Filed Under: Astrology

A regular reader of Astroinquiry wrote to me the other day. Ann asked:

Hi Frederick:

Was wondering if all is well with you as you haven’t posted a new article for a bit. It’s always a pleasure to receive your insights & musings

I responded:

Hello Ann

My book’s title is: Save Yourself With Astrology: How to Prosper, Thrive and Transform During the Pluto in Capricorn Revolution. I think you will enjoy it.

If you’re interested in updates on the book, I suggest you follow me on Facebook where I’ll make announcements regarding progress, pre-orders — breakthroughs and breakdowns associated with the writing process. Always a fun trainwreck to track. Or you can read more about the book here.

The good news is that with the advent of electronic books the project will move from desktop, to editor, to Amazon in a few heartbeats (yeah, right).

Anyway, wish me well. And may you too discover a way to prosper during the most electrifying End Days ever witnessed in human history (well, next to The Black Death).

Cheers,

Frederick

Filed Under: Astrology

I often hear from friends and clients: “I can relate to the other signs, but I don’t understand Virgo at all.”

My response: “Well, you’re really not supposed to, that’s part of Virgo’s mystique.”

The Virgin’s smile is minxian and Sphinixan — a sexy cryptogram. Rams, lions, goats, bulls — what’s to question? But virgins? How exactly do they fit within a circle comprised mostly of critters? The months ahead offer several opportunities (and tests) to solve this oddity; starting with tomorrow’s lunation — which is very Virgo. In other words very human. It’s time to begin a shift from the instinctual to the intellectual. Bestial to hominal. To pause, assimilate and follow the guidance of a higher wisdom, a more inclusive approach.

A Sun Moon conjunction (a New Moon) is similar to an insemination, and that’s a big deal for a virgin. Myth decrees what follows: An avatar. So the time range following a Virgo New Moon is important to track. Viewed alchemically, we could say that what’s cultivated tomorrow brings forth a golden result nine months from now.

In keeping with this tantric theme, Venus via conjunction, colors the Solar Lunar nuptials, adding an element of passion and longing to the nexus. True, Venus is in her fall in Virgo — but tomorrow her trine to Jupiter in Taurus (the sign she rules) denotes an earthy libidinal theme. Dane Rudhyar notes that symbolically this particular degree of the Zodiac is “sexual in its implications” and reveals how the life force “provides us with the opportunity of demonstrating some type of skill and mastery.” So this involves a passion for aptitude, navigation and planning ahead. (Winter’s coming!)

Venus in Virgo people understand the concept that the brain is the body’s largest erogenous zone. Whoever wrote that book Think and Grow Rich must have had Venus in Virgo (actually he didn’t, but Napoleon Hill‘s Moon was there, close enough). They miraculously ponder and plan things into existence — with a zeal for problem solving. The more complex and hidden the solution, the brighter Venus in Virgo shines. And we’ll need this kind of Mercurial edge to deal with the remainder of the year — which promises to be a motherfucker. Read more

Filed Under: Astrology andNew Moon Watch

Buddha sat under a tree and explained the truth of impermanence. Alchemical artists drew, etched, carved or painted vivid images to represent that truth.

Eastern philosophy evokes nature to reveal the cycles of change — living life in accordance with flow. But the alchemists of old were crazier and wilder. They knew human beings were complex creatures and depicted our psychic atmosphere in phantasmagorical allegory. Breeze-caressed willow sprigs and geese flying south for the winter didn’t match the nitty-gritty human condition.

People are complicated creatures — a mix of animal instinct and human desire. The alchemists understood this. And so the psychological world was depicted with a tumult of clashing chemistries — trials of burning, freezing, steaming, dissolving and splitting depict the psychic clash or merging of antithetical forces.

The alchemical gold, the reward at the end of the opus — the art or work — is not just a reconnection with one’s harmonized, essential nature (that goose flying to Florida), it is a certain wisdom that only a self-reflecting consciousness comes to understand and embrace. A wisdom that transcends the limitations of duality, of time and space. The result is hard-won, but clear: When we align with the law of impermanence we discover the security of our center. We abide in the present — the ‘one moment’. And that is a golden condition. The natural condition.

It’s good to bring up gold because tomorrow’s New Moon in Leo is all about the soft, precious metal. Interestingly enough, gold is very much what Pluto’s continued grind through Capricorn unearths. You dig into the earth to free the stuff. And nothing digs quite as hard as Pluto, and no sign is earthier. Read more

Filed Under: Astrology andNew Moon Watch