Ask Real Astrologers: Flopped at Sales, What Else Can I Do?

This week’s question comes from Jamil in the United Arab Emirates:

I just finished my MBA degree and completed four years in a sales executive career. I was not that successful during it, but because I have built my experience in sales (chemical materials), I am forced to continue in this business. In fact, I am finding that I do not have the sales personality … I want to know what type of career would suit my personality and that I would be creative in.

Jamil, the problem may be in what you are selling and for whom.

Now, before I explain further, I need to mention that your birth time is important in career counseling, and you don’t know yours for sure. The range you provided me makes you either a late Rising Leo or a Rising Virgo. I cast a chart using the average, but it would be better for you to try to get an exact birth time and an in-depth career reading to get the best answer to your question. If your birth time is not available anywhere, you can get what’s called a chart rectification. Using significant events in your life, an astrologer can do an analysis to come up with the likeliest birth time, and then you can test it over time.

For the time being, we’ll assume you have Virgo Rising. Your Sun is in Gemini, and your Moon is in Pisces. Mercury ruled Gemini is a natural salesperson, and with Mercury as your chart ruler, you are heavily influenced by the planet of commerce and business negotiations. In addition, your Pisces Moon allows you to read people intuitively. You know what they want and how to convince them that they want it from you!

However, unless you’re a Rising Leo, you probably don’t want to be an executive but would rather be out on the road, dealing directly with customers. Or, you might consider the marketing angle of sales, which requires Gemini’s great communications skills. Marketing can be a highly creative career.

We also want to look at the sign and house position of your chart ruler, Mercury, which was in Taurus at the time you were born. Instead of chemicals, perhaps you’d enjoy selling organic fertilizers or chemical ingredients for brewing beer (just a thought!).

In any case, with Moon in Pisces, you need to believe in what you’re selling. I would suggest doing some research (something you’re very good at) to find products and services that you believe in and that you believe will help humanity. Virgo tends to be very health-conscious, so if the chemicals you’ve been selling are harmful either to the environment or to human health, you will naturally not feel good about what you’re doing. You might even have sabotaged your career by deliberately not being good at it.

The purpose of this column is to provide quick answers, and that’s what this is. I hope it helps at least a little, but I also strongly recommend that you get a complete workup with a professional astrologer to help you sort out your career dilemma before it goes any further.

Thank you so much for writing, Jamil, and I wish you all the best for finding just the right career match for you.

Pat

Got a quick question? Click here to contact Ask Real Astrologers. You must use this form to contact me, or I won’t get your question. I do read all of your questions, although I am sorry that I can’t answer them all. If you need immediate guidance or in-depth advice, please contact me for a private consultation. THANKS!

Locational Astrology

In today’s post, Helene Schnitzer introduces us to locational astrology. Wherever you are, I hope you enjoy it! ~Pat

Usually, when reading a horoscope with a view to prediction, the question we ask is when things are going to happen. In addition, Locational Astrology is asking where they are going to take place.

[headline h=”5″]Early Techniques[/headline]

Locational Astrology is really a very old branch of our art. Ptolemy, who lived ca. 150 AD, established the first list of correspondences between certain places and astrological signs. These lists were expanded and refined during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Still, they would not go much further than, for example, “Italy is a Leo country, so being an Aries, you should have a lot of fun there,” or “London is a Gemini city, so as a writer or merchant, you should be doing well.”

Horary Astrology also makes use of the locational descriptions attached to the signs. However, this also doesn’t go much further than, “The planet signifying your lost cat is in Scorpio. It’s probably stuck in a murky swamp nearby.”

Eventually, the directions of the wind were attached to the various signs as well. For example, Taurus would be connected to the South, Scorpio to the North, and so forth. But there was no consensus; one astrologer might tell you to look for your lost cat in the North, whereas another would send you in a completely different direction.

[headline h=”5″]Local Space [/headline]

This lack of consensus was remedied with the development of so-called Local Space. This technique works with the astronomical reality behind the horoscope. For example, the Midheaven in the chart indicates the highest point in the sky, which the Sun reaches at noon. Therefore, the Midheaven is always pointing to the South. The Ascendant in the horoscope signifies the point on the horizon where the Sun would rise, i.e. the East. If a planet was situated in the eleventh house of the chart, i.e. between Ascendant and Midheaven, it would consequently be pointing towards the South-East. On the basis of this simple reasoning one can erect a Local Space map that shows in which directions the planets were pointing at the time of someone’s birth.

The theory, having been proven correct many times over, is that one evokes a planet’s energy by going into its original direction. For example, buying your groceries under your personal Moon line will likely give you exactly the nutrition you want (unless the Moon was strongly afflicted at birth). If you do the same under your Saturn line, you may find that your “fresh” vegetables are wilting and your bread is stale or sold out altogether when you arrive at the bakery.

A Local Space map is very useful within your home and local community. You can also take it with you when traveling, to help orientate yourself in a foreign city. However, your map loses its potency after about fifty miles from where you are at the time, due to the curved surface of our planet.

[headline h=”5″]AstroCartoGraphy
[/headline]

In the 1970s, Locational Astrology was revolutionized when American astrologer Jim Lewis developed AstroCartoGraphy. His genial realization was that, had you been born at the same date and time but in a different place, certain planets would have been positioned on one of the four angles of your horoscope.

The so-called angles are the Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant and Immum Coeli (lowest point of the horoscope, bottom of the chart). They are “incidental,” which means they depend on time and location, due to the rotation and tilted axis of the Earth. Any planet situated on one of these points has prominence and tends to strongly express itself in the life of an individual.

Lewis’s theory was that a person could emphasize a planet’s effect by relocating to a place where this planet would have been on an angle at birth. Calculating where this would be, he found that each planet/angle combination forms a line circling the whole planet more or less vertically. At some points, these lines cross each other, forming a so-called paran, a line where two or more angular planets are at work and which circles the Earth horizontally.

Since Jim Lewis developed this technique and called it AstroCartoGraphy, it has helped many thousands of people to find the right location for their specific purpose – be it a career move or simply a relaxing holiday. However, should you consult an astrocartographer, please do not expect miracles. Remember, if it’s not in the natal chart, it won’t happen!

Helene

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Helene Schnitzer is an astrologer living in Glastonbury, England. Her specialities include Traditional, Horary and Hellenistic Astrology, and Astro*Carto*Graphy. Click HERE to read her full bio.

Weekly Forecast December 6:Mars Enters Capricorn, Mercury Retrograde

If you haven’t finished your holiday shopping and especially if you haven’t mailed packages yet, don’t read this post.

Stop reading right now, get out of your chair and get busy. Or, if you like ordering online, just do it! Same goes for handmade gifts. If you don’t have all of your supplies, don’t waste another minute. Stock up, and then you can relax and finish reading about what’s happening this week. Even if you’re giving homemade goodies, get everything now, or you may find an empty spot on the supermarket shelf where you expected your key ingredient to be.

You probably know already why I’m writing this. That’s right, Mercury turns retrograde this week, and he already has started creating a little mischief. I’ve had several miscommunications, a Facebook snafu, and a billing error. Important e-mail is ending up in my spam folder. These are small problems and easily rectified. But it’s going to get a lot worse in the next few weeks – right up until New Year’s Eve.

Now, I know that holiday shopping may be the last thing on your mind as the week begins. We’re all hellaciously busy and preoccupied. The New Moon on Sunday is still unfolding, and Uranus is now direct. Although he’s not moving much yet, he’s no longer holding up the show. What’s more, all the planets will be direct until Mercury turns retrograde on Friday. These are very short windows when we can sail with a strong tailwind, so make the most of it!

As I mentioned in last week’s forecast, we’re feeling rumblings of the cardinal T-square again this week, thanks to activation of the early degrees of Capricorn by Mercury, Mars, the Moon, and the lunar North Node.

The Moon is in Cap on Tuesday and Wednesday. Her first order of business is a sextile to Venus in Scorpio, followed shortly by an intense conjunction with Pluto. On Wednesday, Venus and Pluto make direct contact. Hidden things continue to come to the surface, whether we’re talking about explosive revelations by WikiLeaks or implosive revelations from the individual subconscious. There’s an old song from the Broadway musical, The King and I, called “Getting to Know You.” Sing it to your shadow side.

Also on Tuesday, the Sun sextiles Saturn, and Mars enters Capricorn, sign of his exaltation. I wrote about the Sun-Saturn contact in my post on the New Moon. It’s very positive and provides good energy for manifesting your thoughts into reality – provided that what you’re trying to manifest conforms to your highest truth.

Mars, meanwhile, is very powerful in Capricorn, and as he crosses the T-square degrees over the next couple of weeks, springs will be sproinging all over. Mercury retrograde actually may help in this regard, as we’re going to be revisiting issues that came up in July and August but that didn’t seem to have a resolution back then. In other words, we may have another chance to go back and do things right. Or, we simply may have a chance this time, when before we couldn’t get a break to save our lives.

There’s no doubt, though, that things are going to get very messy, and all of the pieces likely won’t fall into place until next spring and summer, when Jupiter and Uranus re-enter Aries. For many of us, the seed we planted during the cardinal T-square is sprouting one tiny little shoot at a time, and the new growth has yet to poke its head above ground. Just have faith that once it does, it will grow like a veritable weed!

On Wednesday, the Moon makes aspects with Ceres, Jupiter, and Uranus, all of which were major players at the height of the T-square. Ceres seems to have made her presence felt mostly through environmental issues. I just read that BP is in the news again as it tries to downplay the amount of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico. The difference could translate to billions of dollars in fines.

Mercury turns retrograde on Friday at 4:04 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Aside from the usual Mercury retrograde shenanigans, we’ll almost certainly be going back over old ground. Chances are, you already know what it’s going to involve, although the outcome could be a big surprise.

The Moon will be in Pisces on Saturday and Sunday. I recommend that you spend the weekend inside, sleeping or watching your favorite film on Blu-ray (my all-time favorite film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, just came out on Blu-ray; I’ll have a review soon). Hopefully, you’ll get your DVD player to work without any problem.

Wishing you all much love and joy in this holiday season,
Pat

Aquarius-Leo: Why Your Ego Matters in the New Age (II)

As promised, here is the second installment of Ruth’s excellent article on Soul Astrology. ~Pat

In part one, we discussed Nietzches’ three stages of consciousness: the Camel, the Lion and the Child.

If we look around at our world today there may be a significant number of individuals who are indeed waking up and walking their own individualised spiritual path, but there are an even greater number of “Camels,” who still follow the herd, follow the group, want to belong, be in a gang, go along with the family, “toe the Corporate line,” want to “fit in,” not “make waves,” follow the latest fashion, drop out and use drugs, alcohol, TV and many forms of Piscean-type escapism.

The polarity of Aquarius’ opposite sign, Leo, is needed, for Leo brings with it the path of Self-Realization. It takes a Lion’s heart and courage to begin our inner journey to Self-realization. If we polarize too far to the Aquarian extreme, we run the risk of making “humanity” – a utopian ideal of the collective – more important than the individuals within it. This is when ecological idealism becomes imposed on people rather than structures which support individuals in developing their self-awareness. Indeed this is where communism went wrong.

Our present-day experience of Communism is an example of when the ideal Aquarian group utopia is implemented before people are ready. Camels cannot do it, and the result is a faceless collective in which individualism is suppressed. Individuality is squashed and people are not allowed to make waves. This is where our lovely Leo will stand up and roar: What about ME? There is a real Self and a false Self, and it is Leo’s job to figure out which is which, by exploring the Self.

The Aquarian Age is the “new age” that we are entering. We are on the cusp of that age now as we leave the Piscean age that began in AD 1. Each age lasts approximately 2,160 years*. Esoteric Astrology tells us that during this new age we will each experience our own Soul. This will be a gradual process and not a sudden, blinding revelation. It is important to note that we are not in the Aquarian Age yet; we are still in the Piscean Age, but on the cusp. So our minds are still fogged by the illusion, fear, and confusion of lower Piscean consciousness.

Every individual matters. Every Lion who has the courage to stand up and choose an individualised path, who breaks free from the old patterns of “tribal thinking,” will make a difference – especially when those individuals have begun to walk the path of their own inner truth. Look at some of the most “radical” people of our age: Nelson Mandela, and most recently Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi. People who stood alone and stood out were persecuted for it, and yet on a personal level radiate such warmth, love and peace. It is through such heart-centred and courageous individuals that the Aquarian dream of equality and humanitarianism will be realized in the Aquarian Age.

Our collective spiritual awakening will be a gradual process that will take place over the next 2,200 years. The Age of Aquarius will bring “mystic revelations and the mind’s true liberation” (just as the song said!). But we aren’t there yet. We need a bridge, and Soul Astrology can be just such a bridge for those who resonate with it.

Soul Astrology is the Astrology of our inner journey. It supports individuals in waking up and embarking upon their own unique spiritual path. It is a bridge between the old world and the new age. It allows us to read a natal chart from a conventional perspective and from a spiritual perspective. It is a vehicle which can ferry us across the river on our journey to higher consciousness.

Ruth

* The earth makes a 25,625-year orbit through the 12 constellations of the Zodiac – the precession of the equinoxes. This is known as a “Great Year.” During this time it spends about 2,160 years in each sign. In addition, the Great Year can also be divided into five “World Ages,” which last approx 5,125 years. These are the World Ages of the Mayan calendar; however sometimes a World Age is referred to as the 2,160-year period. There are also other systems which refer to World Ages, such as the Yugas in Hindu cosmology. Although this seems potentially confusing, all becomes relevant in terms of Soul Astrology. While the dates vary, the conditions they describe do not. So if we are speaking less in terms of a physical tangible time period and more in terms of a “developmental stage in consciousness,” they become meaningful and make more sense.

[hr]

This article is an extract from “Evolving Consciousness, Soul Astrology and the Aquarian Age,” an ongoing series in the “Living Soul Astrology” section of Life Coaching Magazine.

(You can read more about Ruth on my new Associates page. ~pq)

To get your personal Soul Sign/Life Purpose Report (FREE with a consultation), contact Ruth via her website. You can also request a FREE mp3 download, “The Energetics of Soul Astrology.”

Ask Real Astrologers: Dreading Saturn Transit, Help!

This week’s question comes from Janeta in Australia:

I have my Saturn in the twelfth house and the last time I had that, between 2002 and 2004, I separated from my husband and lost my mother. I am dreading this period, as I am also involved in a challenging relationship and was just wondering if I am repeating some lessons.

Janeta, there’s no reason to dread a Saturn transit through the twelfth house. It’s actually one of the milder transits of Saturn.

The Saturn transit you experienced from 2002 to 2004 wasn’t in your twelfth house but your eighth house. Saturn’s tour through the eighth house is decidedly much tougher and sometimes corresponds to the loss of an important person in our lives (emphasis added). In your case, it was much harder. Not only was Saturn opposed to transiting Pluto during that time – a very intense aspect in and of itself – but the eclipses were in the same signs and therefore also in your eighth house. It really was a Saturn transit from hell, and not just for you.

Saturn takes about 29 years to go around the chart and won’t be in your eighth house again until 2030.

Saturn enters your twelfth house on December 11 and will stay until he crosses your Ascendant in September 2013. That transit will be far more significant, and I strongly recommend that you get a complete astrological reading at that time, as many things in a person’s life do tend to change when Saturn crosses the Ascendant. But that’s almost three years away, so you don’t need to worry about it right now.

For the time being, while Saturn is in your twelfth house, you have a chance to tie up loose ends, clear your plate, and get rid of anything that isn’t working for you. That could well include relationships with people who drag you down and take more than they give back to you. And the choice likely will be yours to make – unless you cling to a relationship long past the time when it should be over. In that case, life has a tendency to hand us situations that force us to let go of what isn’t serving us.

In my observation, the worst thing that tends to happen while Saturn is in the twelfth house is that we feel ineffectual and isolated. Dealing with people can seem hard, and we might give up even trying. It can be somewhat depressing, although it doesn’t have to be. “To everything, there is a season.”

This is no guarantee that people you love won’t die or go away. That’s always a possibility in life, and astrology can’t take away that fear or uncertainty, nor should it be used that way. But I can say with relative certainty that this Saturn transit will not be as difficult as the one you experienced before. You can relax, Janeta, to the extent possible in our troubled times.

I hope that helps, and thank you for a very pertinent question that I’m sure many others will identify with.

Pat

New Moon in Sagittarius, December 5

We don’t see the awakening of a seed. When it bursts open and its life violently pours forth, it is still deep within the earth, out of sight. And yet, it is growing.

Several clients and friends over the past week have lamented that nothing seems to be happening in their lives. Despite the activity of the cardinal T-square over the summer, they see no movement. Their friends have gone through enormous changes, mostly for the better, so why not them?

For many people, the cardinal T-square planted a seed in their psyche. The seed is still underground, and just because we can’t see the first shoots poking out yet, it doesn’t mean the seed hasn’t sprouted. That may change as of Sunday’s New Moon in Sagittarius.

Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, from the Sistine Chapel in Rome, 1508-1512.

At 13°28′ Sagittarius, the New Moon itself has no relation to the T-square, which took place in the early degrees of cardinal signs Aries, Libra, and Capricorn. However, there is a very big connection between this New Moon and the planets on the main axis of the T-square, and that’s why I believe we’ll see major developments that are directly related to it.

Even before the T-square peaked in the early cardinal signs over the summer, Saturn and Uranus had been opposed in the late degrees of Virgo and Pisces since November 2008. At the height of the T-square, they were in early Libra and Aries. Jupiter, meanwhile, has also been moving in and out of opposition with Saturn and conjunction with Uranus. Jupiter and Uranus now are in late Pisces but will advance back into Aries soon. And here’s where things get really interesting.

Jupiter, as planetary ruler of Sagittarius, rules this New Moon. Jupiter just went direct on November 18 and is picking up some speed. We’re back in growth and expansion mode, following a period of dormancy and contraction.

Uranus, meanwhile, is stationed at a dead stop, ready to return direct a little over eight hours after the New Moon. This is a very powerful moment in time, and the breakthroughs won’t be far behind. Watch that fertile ground for signs of growth popping out.

Jupiter and Uranus are both planets of awakening – Jupiter, because he represents higher consciousness and Uranus because he represents the electrical spark, the genius that inspires us to innovate and think out of the box. I chose as the image for this post Michelangelo’s famous painting on the Sistine Chapel in Rome depicting God’s creation of Man. I also might have used the “consciousness” scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which primate consciousness evolved through contact with aliens; or the birth of Athena, in which the goddess of wisdom was born fully formed out of the head of Zeus – the father god and Roman Jupiter.

The symbolism is all the same, and it’s where we’re at as of this New Moon.

The only aspect made by this New Moon is a close sextile to Saturn at 15 degrees Libra, sign of its exaltation. Saturn is known as the Lord of Time, and this is why he represents physical manifestation in the material world. As we now know from scientific research, there is no separation between energy and matter (or, if you will, “spirit” and matter). Matter – what you “see” with your human eyes and brain – is simply energy frozen in time.

The evolution in consciousness that many of us are experiencing carries with it an ability to manifest thoughts into physical reality. It’s not just about “creative visualization.” Although that’s a good start, it’s a bit like a preschooler trying to paint the Sistine Chapel with Crayolas. Real manifestation ability takes long years of training and practice. And since we don’t understand the mechanisms 100 percent, it has taken a lot of experimentation – the provenance of Uranus.

One thing we do know – or at least heavily suspect – is that to transform our lives into a more enriching, creative existence, we have to dump outmoded beliefs and behaviors. That, too, is the provenance of Uranus, depicted most vividly by The Tower in the Tarot deck. If we don’t drop them willingly, they can get blasted out by circumstances that force us to see the errors in our thinking.

In a stunning example of synchronicity, this New Moon is conjunct the Great Attractor, a mass of something we don’t understand, located some 250 million light-years away, at roughly 14 degrees Sagittarius. We’re not entirely sure what it is, but it appears to have the mass of at least 10 of our Milky Way galaxies, and it’s sucking in surrounding galaxies at an alarming rate.

By contrast, half a sign away, toward the final degrees of Sagittarius, is the Galactic Center, a giant mass we also don’t entirely understand but which appears to be a birth channel. One destroys, the other creates. Is there a connection? As it also so happens, the next Full Moon – the culmination of the energies released at the New Moon – will be closely conjunct the GC.

As I pointed out in my last lunation report, the conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus, both direct, provides a pathway for sudden breakthroughs.

[callout]The potential for advances in spirituality is of galactic proportions. And remember, my definition of “spirituality” has to do with our ability to sense the invisible energies that course through the universe and to use those energies to our advantage and the advantage of our fellow humans. Part of that vision is seeing through the illusion of time.[/callout]

The period between the New Moon and Full Moon won’t be without its complications. Mercury is about to turn retrograde (more about that in my next weekly forecast), and it’s going to be a turbulent one, with Mercury going out of phase in conjunction with Mars and Pluto. I strongly urge you to finish your holiday shopping this weekend. If you haven’t mailed your packages, get them en route ASAP!

The Sabian Symbol** for the Sun and Moon at 13°28′ Sagittarius is the Pyramids and the Sphinx, with the keyword CERTIFICATION. What we see with our own eyes may not be the whole truth, but it’s a start, and it’s our first clue as to what is real and what isn’t. One of the wonders of the world, the Pyramids represent the best of what humanity can manifest into reality, and we still aren’t sure how they did it! As we work on our ability to manifest, we must continue to strive for the greatest good and to be willing to go through the trial and error necessary to perfect our skills.

We’ll know how well we’re doing by the results.

Pat

P.S. Don’t forget to write your abundance check!

** From The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, by Dr. Marc Edmund Jones. The author, an astrologer, channeled this work in 1925 with the help of Elsie Wheeler, a gifted psychic. There’s one symbol one for each degree of the zodiac, and we can use them to gain insight into charts.

Weekly Forecast November 29:Venus Enters Scorpio, Uranus Direct

So much for merry Sagittarius.

Some kind of chaos has been unleashed in the past week, and I’d place my bets on Mercury crossing the final degrees of Sagittarius, which he’ll visit twice more in December as he moves through a retrograde phase. At the same time, troublemaker Mars is moving through these same degrees.

The last few degrees of the mutable signs and first few degrees of the cardinal signs have been activated by the T-square over the past year, and it’s as though Mercury and Mars have been moving through a minefield as they head toward a fateful conjunction with Pluto. How many degrees should be included is anybody’s guess, but for sure, I’d say from the Galactic Center at 27 degrees Sagittarius to about 5 degrees Capricorn, where we had an intense lunar eclipse in late June.

Meanwhile, the lunar North Node is moving backward across the degrees that Pluto occupied during the height of the cardinal T-square this summer.

So what has happened in the past week? Ireland went bankrupt, United States warships are off the coast of North Korea, and WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands more confidential documents that, at the very least, will complicate international diplomacy. Protests and police crackdowns marred elections in Haiti and Egypt. Full body scanners in U.S. airports almost set off a riot among holiday travelers, emphasis on almost. It’s hard to know what would get U.S. citizens to rebel against ever-increasing encroachment on our constitutional rights.

It’s all got the fingerprints of Pluto on it. Oh … and as if all of that weren’t bad enough, Sarah Palin and Barbara Bush are insulting each other’s ancestry.

The next few weeks are going to be like this, so you might want to put up the deflector shields. Of course, that means you won’t be able to use the transporter.

This week starts out with a square from Mars to Jupiter in Pisces on Monday. You’ll recall that the T-square was in all cardinal signs for a limited time, because Jupiter, Uranus, and Saturn went back and forth between cardinal (Aries and Libra) and mutable signs (Pisces and Virgo). On Friday, Mars squares Uranus, which is stationed and about to return direct at the New Moon. Mars often acts as a trigger to set off the energies of major transits. It’s a fair bet that we’ll experience more “T-square events” in the next three weeks.

Also on Monday, Venus re-enters Scorpio. Between now and December 21, the end of her post-retrograde shadow period, we’ll be processing our experience during her retrograde, from October 8 to November 18. Expect developments in relationships and, to some extent, finances and social situations. Venus also is the planet of diplomacy, so it’s interesting that the WikiLeaks release occurred as Venus is about to return to Scorpio, the sign of secrecy and backroom power brokering.

The Moon enters Libra on Tuesday and immediately forms a square with Pluto, just as Mercury enters Capricorn. Together, these transits add to the energy activating the cardinal T-square degrees. Serious Capricorn isn’t the most fun sign for Mercury, but given other developments, some careful, critical thinking wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Mercury sextiles Venus on Wednesday. If you need to have a serious discussion with a romantic partner or a good friend, this is a good time to do it, and you can rely on any promises or commitments you get.

Mars sextiles Neptune and Chiron on Thursday and Friday. The truth can hurt, or it can set you free. On this day, it should be healing. That won’t be the case later on Friday, when Mars squares Uranus. This combination is volatile, and depending where they are in your chart, you may need to keep yourself surrounded with the deflector shields for a couple of days on either side of this transit. Mars in Sagittarius is speedy and corresponds to traffic. With Uranus about to go direct, this pent-up energy could release so fast that it manifests as a serious accident. Do be careful if you’re driving and observe the posted speed limits. Watch for deer and other wildlife, too (wild critters fall under the provenance of Sagittarius).

The week culminates in Sunday’s New Moon at 13 degrees Sagittarius. It promises to be another whopper. I’ve started my analysis and will post a complete article in a day or two, so watch this space. A few hours after the New Moon, Mercury conjoins Pluto and Uranus returns direct. “Chaos” doesn’t even begin to describe it…

I leave you with a video of our winter storm in Seattle earlier this week. Some people managed to find the silver lining.

Sliding on Kite Hill

Wishing you all much love and courage,
Pat

Ask Real Astrologers: Can a Venus Return Predict Love?

This week’s question comes from Amanda in New York City:

I was wondering what your thoughts were on the value of calculating a Venus return chart. Do you feel it can indicate or predict events on the romantic front for the coming year? Also, what happens if your Venus seems to return more than once? I have my Venus in Scorpio which was forward, then retrograded, then returned again!

Before I answer your question, Amanda, I want to briefly explain a “return” for those who may not be familiar with the term. A planet is said to “return” when it makes a complete orbit around the chart and comes back to the exact degree, minute, and second of its position in your birth chart.

The most common planetary returns astrologers interpret are the Solar Return, which happens every year around your birthday, and the Saturn Return, which occurs every 28-29 years. The Lunar Return happens once a month (rarely twice), and these, too, are fairly popular. But in theory, return charts can be cast for any of the planets that orbit the Sun in a human lifetime.

While Solar Returns are taught along with basic chart interpretation and are covered in many astrology books, there’s not a lot out there on Venus returns. So I have to start with the caveat that my experience with Venus Returns is entirely based on my own observations, and in fact it does suggest that this method of prediction can be very insightful.

That said, a lot of my observations have been in hindsight, which is always 20/20. It’s not so easy to predict what will happen and when. Of course, the same can be said for transit charts. We can see that something is in the works, but there are always many potentialities in an energy pattern, and if you know enough about astrology to be asking advanced questions like this, then you already have the power to shape the outcome.

Occasionally, a Venus Return chart is exceptional, and in that case we can predict that the period between now and the next Venus Return will be exceptional. It makes sense intuitively that a three-part Venus Return is in itself unusual, and that does suggest a potentially life-changing event. We typically use Venus in the chart as an indicator of love and romance, but she does have influence over some other areas of life as well.

To determine what area of your life will be most affected, we need to examine all three charts in depth and look for the patterns. This is a detailed study and beyond the scope of this column, but I did take a quick look at your three charts, Amanda, and there are some patterns that emerge right away.

Your Venus returns took place on September 17 and October 28 (retrograde), and the third and final one will occur on December 10. The thing that leaps out at me is the position of Mars and Venus. On the date of your first Venus Return, Venus and Mars were conjunct in your fifth house of love and romance. The conjunction was separating, which isn’t as powerful as an applying conjunction, but it’s still significant. By the last date, on December 10, Mars will have advanced to a very tight, applying sextile with Venus, and he’ll be on your Venus Return Descendant conjunct the lunar North Node. Venus is in the fifth house again.

I would interpret this as a “karmic” signature, with a very strong possibility that you will meet a soul mate before your next Venus Return, which will be in mid-October 2011. You might already have met this person, in which case you’ll become more involved in the coming months.

I hope you’ll write and let us know what happens. And thanks for a great question, Amanda!

Pat

Snowed Under

Sometimes weather is just weather, with no astrological connection.

The snow began falling here on Sunday. By Monday evening, the roads were becoming impassable, and later that evening, high winds knocked out the power lines. Thousands were without electricity for more than two days.

So it’s not Siberia, and I’m sure many of you in seriously cold climates are laughing at how everything stops here with a little snow. But we’re not equipped for it. It’s a dangerous situation when so many people are without heat in sub-freezing weather.

Other than numb fingers and toes, the worst for me was no coffee or Internet. I wrapped up in blankets, hung out with a neighbor, cooked dinner on their gas stove, and waited for a friend with a four-wheel drive to come pick me up and take me over to the city until the lights were back on. We just received word that power has been restored on most of the island. Still, it will be a few days before things are back to normal, so the next few posts will be late.

For those who are waiting for reports, I’ll be in touch soon with new estimates for delivery. And, of course, I very much appreciate your patience.

In the meantime, happy Thanksgiving to all!

Pat

Weekly Forecast November 22: Sun in Sagittarius

This week has a very different feel to it, with the Sun entering merry Sagittarius on Monday and Jupiter now direct.

It’s good timing, too, as we head into a holiday week in the United States and our biggest food party of the year. Our traditional main dish originally was a wild bird, and hunting is a very Sagittarian activity. I recall from childhood that we always had to eat early, because Thanksgiving was the first day of deer season and the menfolk were having primal urges to go out in the woods and shoot dinner.

Unfortunately, we aren’t entirely out of the heaviness of Scorpio and won’t be for awhile. Although Venus is back in Libra, she’ll re-enter Scorpio next week, and we’ll be processing her lessons until she returns to 13°13′ Scorpio, the degree at which she went retrograde on October 8. As it so happens, the day she leaves her post-retrograde shadow will be December 21, the winter solstice and start of a new series of eclipses in Gemini and Sagittarius.

We’re also still in the wake of Sunday’s powerful Full Moon in Taurus, which may continue to work its “magic” through the entire week and possibly until the New Moon on December 5. A shift has taken place, and now we need to let the dust settle to see what has manifested.

For the first two days of this week, the Moon is in Gemini. On Tuesday, she opposes Mercury and Mars, recently conjunct in Sagittarius. Some of you probably had “words” over the weekend, and I know at least one person who had an accident. If that’s your situation, this week doesn’t look good for ironing out the wrinkles until Saturday or Sunday. Next week should be better.

The Moon enters her own sign of Cancer on Wednesday and remains there through Friday. Cancer is the sign of home, mother, comfort food, and tradition, which bodes well for a warm and happy Thanksgiving (more mashed potatoes and gravy, please).

Also on Thursday, Mercury in Sagittarius squares Jupiter in Pisces. All I can say about this one is avoid discussing politics and religion at the dinner table, unless you want to go home with a terrible case of indigestion.

The day after Thanksgiving is affectionately known in the United States as “Black Friday,” the biggest shopping day of the year. Susan Miller, one of my favorite Sun sign astrologers, has dire advice and is telling everyone to forget shopping on this day due to the close square from Mercury to Uranus. She thinks that you’ll be unhappy with what you buy, and whoever you’re buying the gift for will hate it. I’m not sure I agree with her on this one, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I think there’s a risk of buying impulsively and exercising poor judgment due to overwhelm.

Susie also points out that it would be a good idea to get your holiday shopping out of the way well before Mercury turns retrograde on December 10. If electronics are on your list, definitely get them now. “Cyber Monday” is coming up, with lots of deals on your favorite items. If you’re knitting, sewing, baking, or you have other homemade projects in the works, don’t wait until the last minute to get started.

Saturday is the big communications day. Despite the Mercury-Uranus square, which may make it hard to stay on point, the sextile from Mercury to Neptune and Chiron may be just what the astrologer ordered to heal tensions from earlier in the week.

Love, courage, and cranberries to all,
Pat

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