Thoughts as Uranus Enters Aries, Part 2: Finally, It's OK to be Gay

On May 27, the same day Uranus entered Aries, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the ban on gays in the military. The 'don't ask, don't tell' law can be seen in several ways here.  One, it is an issue of self-expression (Aries) affecting a wider community (Aquarius/Uranus). Two, though there is much speculation over a chart signifier for homosexuality, astrologers usually land on Uranus-Venus aspects to define it. Though not exact, Venus was close to a square with Uranus around this time. Thus, as Uranus (homosexual) enters Aries (military) while aspected by Venus (love and values) and nearly conjunct Jupiter (law), we have legislation allowing gays to serve openly in our Armed Services.  Right on, Congress!

Interestingly, astrologer Neil Paris, quoted by Lynn Hayes, explored new legislation on gay issues as a possibility of a Jupiter-Uranus square in 2007:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/astrologicalmusings/2007/01/manifestations-of-jupiteruranu.html

I love that this could be a sign of things to come. I feel that it is so important to channel these potentially volatile energies in a positive way, and Congress' bold move toward equality in our military is a heartening use of this energy.

Thoughts as Uranus Enters Aries, Part 1: Diplomacy's Last Straw?

Now that Uranus has been in Aries for a few days, we've had a chance to get some idea of what the energy feels like. Amidst the North Korean mess, the talk of the US invading Pakistan, the news that Israel is refusing to attend nuclear disarmament talks,sending nuclear submarines to Iran, and has just attacked a humanitarian aid flotilla headed for Gaza, you might say we've got an international diplomatic crisis on our hands. Of course, if you follow international politics, you can easily say that there aren't many uneventful days. Knowing astrology however, might make you inclined to wonder if these incidents aren't just the straws that break the collective camel's back. Will we look back on the incidents this past week in the same way we look at the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, commonly considered the event that started WWI?

Electron Boy and the Carousel of Happiness: Delightful surprises with Uranus nearly conjunct Jupiter

I woke up this morning and resisted getting online immediately. I am trying to be more mindful and present in my actual life, and besides, waking up to bad news is not a good way to live. So imagine my delight when I finally got on facebook, and found two amazing stories!

First I saw this video article about the new Carousel of Happiness in the artsy mountain town of Nederland, Colorado. This man bought a hundred year old carousel frame and created over fifty elaborately carved and painted animals for it! Take a minute to watch the video, and revel in the creation of something so beautiful and whimsical. I can't wait to go ride it.  What a gift to bring to a community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azC_8h3jNB8

I didn't think it was possible to trump such a wonderful surprise, but the very next thing I saw was this article on Electron Boy, Seattle's newest superhero:

http://io9.com/5529877/childs-final-superheroic-wish-is-the-greatest-thing-youll-read-today/gallery/

Wow. An entire city (Seattle, of course) rallies to make this dying kid's wish come true. He wanted to be a superhero for a day, and oh my god, did they make it happen. Not in a 'here, have a light saber and fight the bad guy' kind of way. No, this kid got to save an entire city twice over, complete with a 20 policeman motorcade, shut down highways, a chance to save the city's football team from imprisonment and the whole city from an evil plot to cut the electricity, cheering crowds, and even local politicians declaring Electron Boy Day in his honor.  I mean, amidst the dismal news stories, to see something as miraculous and purely positive as this just gives one hope, you know?

I hope we milk the delightful surprises of Jupiter-Uranus for all they're worth. I hope we see more wonderful things initiated under the power of such positive energy. And while Uranus is at such a critical point having just moved into Aries, there is a lot of energy here for new ventures and self expression. Anytime Neptune stations, it is more powerful too and can really give you the inspiration to dream big. So what miracle would you like to initiate?

Memorial Day--Compassion for a Community of Soldiers

Memorial Day has got me thinking about my own feelings about our soldiers, and how we honor them. It's easy to watch a parade of firetrucks with sirens blaring. It's easy to bow respectfully to our WW2 vets, whose war so clearly had them in the right. Our Vietnam vets feel a bit less comfortable, reminding us of their own discontent with their cause. Iraq vets, well we want to be supportive, and we are...but my, doesn't that bring up a lot of politics and resentment and heartache, knowing that our support for them is so easily misconstrued as support for the policies that brought them there in the first place. I think the slogan "Support our troops, Bring them home" is the best effort I've seen to separate out the one from the other.  A lot of people would rather not think about it too much, particularly in light of what seems to many (myself included) as an unnecessary but lucrative culture of war in our country. Still, it bears some examination. What does Memorial Day mean to me?

As Uranus entered Aries yesterday, we are all wondering how this energy will play out. It's a nervous energy, potentially combining surprise and war. Another way to think about it is a community (Uranus) of individuals, or of soldiers. (Aries).  As Neptune, planet of memories, compassion, and martyrdom turns retrograde today, I find myself thinking of the soldiers I have known. Specifically, all the old and incapacitated soldiers I spent two years of my childhood visiting in a VA hospital.  Whether I'm influenced more by compassion and pity  for their suffering, their sacrifices, and their disabilities, or just that Neptune also rules places of retreat from the world like hospitals, either way, my faded memories carry a dream-like quality that holds surprising sway. Though I was visiting one soldier in particular, you spend enough time in a sad, sterile place like that and you wind up making friends with the most unlikely of people. As a child, I didn't understand that the reason some of the men were in wheelchairs was because someone had them sent far from home to get their legs blown off.

I understood at the time that these sad and friendly men had been sleeping in metal railed beds since they were young, but my childish concept of time didn't really do justice to the amount of a life lost to 30 or 40 years lived in a veterans hospital. These poor men with their tubes, wheelchairs and strange unpleasant smells, legs or arms missing, or a disfigured face, certainly knew that they scared us, but they were kind, and reached out to us when we needed to be elsewhere so our my mom could talk to the doctors. I absorbed their experiences in my child's porous way, and ached from it, ached from knowing they hurt, and that I couldn't understand why. They put up with our innocent questions because it must have been so nice to see young life in that place of sickness and flashbacks, deformity and death.

I still don't have an answer though, twenty-five years later, on this Memorial Day. "Why don't you have your legs?"

Jupiter and Uranus, opposite Saturn--Awesome jobs out of nowhere!

So last week, from the new moon in Taurus on the 13th through the next week or two, practically everyone I know had some amazing new job opportunities turn up from out of the blue. We are talking amazing jobs here. Dream jobs. Unsolicited job offers, jobs you've always wanted but had given up on, dramatic opportunities that could change the track of one's life. Even I came across a dream job posting an hour after I finally updated my resume. Needless to say, since I do some career counseling, I had a busy week. Frantic, but great.

The week was so striking in its beautiful drama that it got me thinking about how astrological forces might be contributing. Mind you, this same week was that of the Grand Cross, so BIG energy was at play here.
For an explanation of the Grand Cross, check out ElsaElsa.com:

http://www.elsaelsa.com/transit-watch-astrology-calendar/

http://www.elsaelsa.com/archives/2010/05/07/the-cardinal-grand-crosses-summer-2010/

So undoubtedly, this energy contributed to the intensity of that week. The fact the new moon was in Taurus, sign of earned income, probably contributed. I think more influential though was the Jupiter-Saturn opposition that also took place, at its strongest from May 19-23. Jupiter, planet of good luck, growth and optimism faced off with Saturn, planet of hard work and manifestation. Add Uranus into the mix, with it being quite nearly conjunct Jupiter, and you get an unexpected flash of synchronicity working in your favor as well. So when I decided within a day to redo my resume and look for another job, just as this very uncommon opportunity arose, and in the process of researching it I heard a tip for my client's dream job, I suspect synchronous little Uranus conspired with beneficient Jupiter to get us into a solid conversation with career minded Saturn. Win, win, win, all around. Out of six fantastic and sudden opportunities, so far we've had three job offers, and are waiting to hear about the rest. Wish us luck!

Oh, and for a great explanation of how the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction interacts with the Grand Cross, see Lynn Hayes' post below:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/astrologicalmusings/2010/05/jupiter-meets-uranus-and-the-c.html

My First Blind Date

I got an email the other day (actually the day after I wrote the venus-pluto post). It was a friend request from someone I didn't know. Or rather, as it turns out, someone I knew for about 5 minutes my freshman year of high school. He found our mutual friend on facebook, and recognized my name. Since I knew only two people from his town, I eventually figured out that he was the really cute, smart, rich kid my friend set me up with when I was 14! We had gone out once and then never spoken again. Needless to say this was a bit of a surprise, since I barely remembered anything about him. It is so venus-pluto for an old flame to show up out of nowhere, so it got my attention. The funny thing was, I told him what I remembered most about our (largely chaperoned!) movie date, was that I despised the coat I was wearing because I was sure it made me look poor. (I didn't tell him why I hated it, just that I was preoccupied the whole night about the fact that I did.) That tan coat...my god. To this day I gag. Anyway he thought it was hysterical that I remembered that, as only a girl would. In my mind then, the reason he didn't call me was because he knew I was embarrassingly poor. In my mind now, I can see that we were awkward 14 year olds with not much to talk about, and thoroughly bent out of shape with nerves. I mean, I am in my 30s now and blind dates are still harrowing! The thing is, it just really struck me that both today and twenty years ago, I am so preoccupied with money on dates. I am never comfortable with the power dynamics introduced by disparities in income and gender expectations around money. It drives me nuts. But to think that one of my very first dates was probably ruined because if this preoccupation...wow. Venus-pluto opposition, you take today's prize for screwing up my love life!

On the bright side, it was really nice to hear from him. It was sweet that he just told me that he had a name for me: 'the cooking girl'. He said it's because he thought I was so hot, and you know, it gets hot in the kitchen. ;) Nice to hear it had nothing to do with money after all, after 20 years!

Venus-Pluto and the power of money

Donna Cunningham writes a fascinating blog which is truly a showcase for her years of experience as a groundbreaking astrologer. Much of her work focuses on pluto, and as a result she does get quite in depth with things. Pluto often signifies power, transformation, sex, death, taxes...and other people's money.

I have a strong pluto element in my chart, and in hard aspect to my venus. (An opposition if you want to get technical, t-squaring mars, oh my!) One way this can manifest is power issues with money. This opposition lands right on the ends of my 2nd and 8th houses, and these being money houses ruled each by the other, it makes sense to me that I am pretty fascinated by our resources and the roles they play in our relationships. Usually I read about venus-pluto aspects, and all anyone can say is wow, that sucks, your love life is doomed! Donna Cunningham is one of the few people with a deeper understanding of this dynamic and its many possible manifestations. I mean, if your money is inextricably linked to your power, you would think there is a world of potential there, right? I certainly feel that way.

For a long time the flow of money in my life has felt blocked, and I am really making a big effort to understand and transform this pattern...and I just know that once I do I will have enormous financial potential. I just feel it! I am sure part of it stems from coming from a family prone to dramatic inheritance, all the while missing the boat on that bounty in any number of circumstantial ways. Often in my career I have felt thwarted by men in power controlling (and even squashing) my earning potential, either directly or in an institutionalized way. (The standard feminist rant, men are far more likely to make more money, get promoted, and much more quickly, etc.) Interestingly, my mars t-squaring these two is in cancer...which makes for an inherent battle of the sexes.

http://skywriter.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/the-unsuspected-role-of-the-8th-house-in-fiscal-fitness/

In any case, have a look at Donna Cunningham's article about the 8th house. (Ruled by pluto.) She makes an interesting comment about the similarities of trust fund babies, welfare mothers and women who marry rich, and their subsequent power struggles with their benefactors.