In the Cards: A Breather for Your Astrologer
|
Planetary Cycles by Eric Francis. |
Dear Fellow Traveler:
This seems like a good week to take a break from essaying and horoscope writing. It has been quite a spring and summer, though looking back it was all in the charts, I'm happy to have poured in the energy that I did and extremely grateful that BP seems to be permanently capping its runaway well. Therefore, I will probably take a break from this Friday's edition, and my esteemed colleagues Len Wallick, Judith Gayle and possibly others will fill in.
I have covered the current territory in
today's audio edition. That link takes you to our Daily Astrology & Adventure blog, where there is a link to Friday's chart. I'll tell you that's one heck of a deep chart and it's trying to seduce me out of taking a break from the weekly horoscope -- which is why I use the word 'probably'. Living one day at a time, I will decide that tomorrow.
This is an
audio edition worth listening to -- as it describes Venus and Vesta moving into the cardinal T-Square, in Libra. Then I look at the Leo New Moon that takes place Monday, Aug 9., and open the discussion of Mercury retrograde in Virgo (Aug. 20 – Sept. 12).
I've been looking at a good few natal charts lately, and in every one of them there is something significant located in the early cardinal signs, where the Aries Point T-square is taking place. What is located there in your chart is one vital focal point of this process of growth and change. Finding out what is located there would make an excellent, easy self-study project, and since you've been reading (or have access to) recent issues of Planet Waves, you have an idea what some of the implications of this may be.
If you don't have your natal chart, please get one. I suggest you do so from a charting service, such as
Astro.com. They have a free chart service, though you may not like the format of the online chart.
If that's the case, I suggest you check in with a company called
Astrolabe. They make a program called Solar Fire. I just spoke with my old friend Madalyn there, who has created a special chart format that has the main extra points that I use in my writing -- the first four asteroids (Ceres, Juno, Pallas, Vesta), the first three centaurs (Chiron, Pholus, Nessus) and Eris. Call between 10:30 am and 5:30 pm EDT. (800) 843-6682. The fee is $7 for an email format and $9 for printed. They also have a free service at
Alabe.com, though the format isn't as nice and you may not be able to get the extra points.
If you're looking for affordable chart casting software, there is finally a good, low-cost program for Macintosh, called Intrepid. It also works for PC, though Mac users have been waiting decades for a program that has good access to minor planet information, research functions and other stuff. I am experimenting with the program, and it's a lot of fun. It is native for Mac OSX and for Windows systems and costs just $150 (many chart casting programs are three times that amount, and your alternative for Mac ignores most of the minor planets). Your contact at
Intrepid is the programmer, Jeff Close, who can be reached at (978) 448-2305 (please call from 8 am to 8 pm ET, Mon. to Sat.)
Finally, a few months ago, some of you were in contact with me about a Basic Astrology Initiative -- a forthcoming sub-site on Planet Waves designed for new and intermediate astrology students. If you were among those folks, please get in touch by replying to this email.
Thank you and -- catch you soon.
Yours & truly,
