Uranus, a planet that could also be called Prometheus because it's so forward thinking, is going to send, or for that matter is already sending, a big message to the world. What's interesting about Pisces is that it's a slow-acting sign. And more interesting still is that nobody really understands Pisces, as it seems to defy so many earthly laws and has a logic all its own. So we have a fast-acting planet doing its work in the most mysterious region of space. And Pisces is slippery. You can never really define it, much as people try to from the outside; it's always like a film projected on the mists. While everyone is watching the film, the mists are doing their work.

I don't think there's going to be a long delay in this process, however. This is the New Moon just before a total solar eclipse on the Aries Point. It is the one-month marker. A lot, that is to day, a WHOLE LOT of energy is about to move. For those who have been reading this column for a while, you've heard the Aries Point come up a few times. Here is a link to a compilation of my writing on these pages that covers the Aries Point. The article is called "The Personal is Political."

So we are in this moment when deep causes will have big effects. I have been saying, and maintain, that this is THE tipping point for the Cheney-Bush administration and indeed for the fear-politics movement, and this will be apparent with stunning clarity by late March. The steam is running out and progressive forces that have been developing for the past year are beginning to show their strength. It is strength from within, however; the strength of awareness; of resolve; and of subtle determination to guide life in a positive direction.

How any individual responds to their own awareness is THE spiritual crisis or opportunity of our day. It is the essence of growth in the times we are alive. Our society is based on burying your head in the sand and pretending that nothing affects you, while you keep on rowing the boat and try to eke out a little happiness here and there. There is far more to life than this.

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces

On March 2, about one week from today, Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces. Mercury does so in an exact square or 90-degree angle to Pluto and the Galactic Core. We live through the Mercury retrograde in the weeks leading up to the Equinox (it is upon us, believe it or not). So the end of March is quite a performance, with the Equinox, then Mercury stationing direct, followed by what I am calling the 3/19 cluster: the Aries Point total solar eclipse; the Cheney/Bush Inauguration chart going off (the fuse has been lit); and Pluto stationing on the Galactic Core. Watch Planet Waves for daily updates!

Natal Chart of Pisces Paul Tibbets

Enola gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday
Aha words can't describe the feeling and the way you lied

-- O.M.D.

This week's news chart is the natal horoscope of Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay -- the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber which delivered the first atomic weapon ever used in combat. Tibbets was born Feb. 23, 1915 with five planets in Pisces. He is still alive today; Thursday is his 91st birthday. I became interested in him after getting a couple of CDs by OMD -- Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, that band that did a song back in the 1980s called "Enola Gay." I then followed Wikipedia links till I came out at his birth data, which turned out to be this week. I have rectified the time, which was not listed.

Tibbets, then a colonel, formally named the B-29 after his mother. The ship's code name was Mother and the bomb's code name was Little Boy.

Over the years, I've done a lot of the nuclear charts, but never that of Tibbets. There is an astonishing connection between his chart and the Hiroshima chart. To see the connection, you first need to find Chiron in Tibbets' chart, which is at 17 degrees of Pisces and 34 minutes. It is in the cluster in the upper left side of the chart, shaped like a little red key.

Now open the Hiroshima chart. Take a look at the horizontal line -- that is the the ascendant/descendant axis. Notice the degree number on the right-hand side, the descendent or 7th house cusp. This is one of the most sensitive points in any chart, representing the relationship to the other. At the exact moment that the bomb was released over Hiroshima, the degree of Tibbets' natal Chiron was exactly in the descendent.

This connection helps understand why it is so important not only to look at the sign that is rising and the opposite sign setting, but also the degree. This is not observed by math, but rather matching up numbers; simple observation of the chart. What does the Chiron/Pisces and descendent contact say about the event, and Tibbets' involvement in it?

Note that the position of his Pisces, and the horizon for Hiroshima at that time, squares what is called the Nuclear Axis.

What exactly is the implication of that Chiron connection? I am curious to hear back from you about that. And here is one more chart, the progressions to the Hiroshima chart. Take a look and see if you notice a truly outstanding development in this chart coming up soon -- it's in the sign Libra.

Here are two additional resources for these charts: the minor planets of Paul Tibbbets, and the minor planets of the Hiroshima chart.

Here are a few of your questions for the week. Remember that this column is sponsored by Planet Waves Weekly, the premium service of Planet Waves. Blog and photos continue daily, so see you over there.

Twinkles
Pod

Dear Pod,
Well, this counts for an interesting question. Straight away, it's a reminder that astrologers need to be open-minded and ready to hear a little of everything; and we must be ready to grant the benefit of the doubt in matters were we have no personal experience. It's important, in the first instance, to take someone's account of their life at face value; and then, as the work progresses, see what emerges.

To restate your situation in other words in case anyone is not quite putting it together, what you seem to be saying is that at a certain point, a different soul has come to inhabit your physical body than the one you were born with. You have the data for when this 'transfer' occurred and you would like to know about the astrological implications.

First let me address the question of double birth data and a walk-in, which is similar to any situation where there is double data. Then, if you like, next we can take a look at the charts. I'll address this response to you, but also to people who are studying astrology and who may encounter such a situation.

All natal charts are events. You are asking whether the walk-in event counts as a birth; I would say remember that your initial birth counts for an event, as do all births. After listening to your account of events, I would do a few things, one of which is to start with the original natal chart and check your progressions at the time of the walk-in event.

People new to astrology can get confused between transits and progressions; they are two different things. Progressions are a way of advancing the natal chart in slowed-down time, one day per year. Hence, if an event happens on your 33rd year of life, we would check the horoscope of your 33rd day, and vice versa. There are actually strong scientific reasons why this method works, but experience simply teaches that it does.

Progressions give a picture of internal development that is highly individualized for person involved. While many people can have the same transits at the same time, progressions are entirely unique for each individual and have no connection to transits that affect masses of people.

Second, I would check the event chart as transits to your birth chart. That is, the positions of the 'real planets' at the time of the walk-in event in contrast to your natal chart. The transits speak to a combination of internal and external circumstances.

Last, I would bring all charts up to date and see what's going on at the time of the reading. This would give a fairly complete picture, astrologically.

But what I would be most interested in is how you feel about the whole thing, and how this contrasts with the astrology I am seeing. My feeling is that significant as it is, the astrology gives less than half the story. It is true that you need more than half of the story to have a functional understanding of something, but the ethics of client-centered astrology say let the client speak for their chart. Then, in the second instance, the astrologer can become the voice of the chart for the client, and there can be an interesting dialog. But the order you do things in is important.

One (not the only) thing I do with walk-ins, while giving the benefit of the doubt, is that I try to use the experience as a metaphor as well as literal reality. This has to do with taking some responsibility for working with the shadow side of the trauma that almost inevitably shows up at the same time, or an old trauma that was triggered by a transit.

Most of the walk-ins I've talked to (and there have not been a lot - just a few, but enough to give me a feeling) try to take it super duper literally, oh hi, I'm this new person and none of that old stuff about me applies, thank you; and when they do concede that there is some, well, psychology going on [too], it is helpful. Usually there is some very heavy childhood trauma and a dissociation from it. Essentially, the whole game (if you will) that I play is to shift from one track thinking to two track thinking; from mono to stereo. Then, both realities can be handled in a meaningful way.

I will work with this method any time there is a situation involving the statement, 'I am not me'. Generally, there will be plenty of metaphors in the original natal chart to help give clues as to what this is about; and plenty to go on from the biographical material alone.

One of my old spiritual teachers gave me her new 'rebirth' data and we always worked with her original natal chart, which seemed to be just fine. In theory, the original natal chart should contain the coding of all the events that follow. Why not, right?

So, if you like, we can take a look at your astrology and see what we learn. At the end of the day, if the charts work, and if the charts talk, then they are the right charts; let's see what they say.

Thanks for an interesting question.

Thank you,
Shelley
1966, Libra/Sag Moon

Dear Shelley,
Congratulations on surviving.

In looking at any critical life event, it's often possible to see all kinds of alignments, be they symbolic or literal. In looking at the numerology and seeing the correspondences that you are, you're experiencing this directly.

The more you look, the more you will find. For example, in your natal chart, Mercury, ruler of Gemini (lungs) is exactly on your South Node conjunct Kassandra (for which one of Martha's keywords is Wasted Breath). This is in the sign Scorpio, a predominantly emotional energy. The lungs are a place where we exchange life force with the cosmos and where we tend to hold grief. There would seem to be a question of in control / out of control on an emotional level in your life, and that you often wrestle with an out of control feeling.

If you are provoked, and it would appear that there was some antagonistic energy in your environment at the time, that can send you into overload. To be sure, and as you know, this was a serious asthma attack. In induced coma is indeed a near-death experience.

Based on the hospital admission data you provided, I can see that the Moon-Mars occultation you are describing indeed preceded a Full Moon, and this occurred also on a sensitive angle of your chart -- once again, close to your lunar node, emphasizing provocation and the issue of control. So the event was 'personalized' for you, and there was a lot of Mars (aggressive, fiery, contentious or creative) energy involved. It sounds like this was some part of what you experienced as a trigger.

I would be curious to know exactly what was going on in your life for the 48 hours prior to this experience.

I have cast your astrology, and would like to present a different version than we normally do in Astrology Secrets Revealed, which is to use the progressed horoscope. As I explained in the previous question, progressions advance time one day for every year of life that we live. Thus, if you are 12 years old, the positions of the planets for the 12th day become your chart for your 12th year; this carries on through life.

Here is your progressed horoscope for the day you were hospitalized. Progressions provide a window into the synchronicity pattern in a similar way that numerology does. There is nothing objective in the 'outside world' that we could say is causing a situation, no more than we can say a bunch of numbers are doing so. However, they exist and we can read them.

To read a progressed chart, there is nothing that special that you do, except you do imagine the planets are in motion. With natal charts, though it's a bad habit astrology teaches, we tend to regard the planets as static. They never really are. They are moving (even when they are stationing retrograde or direct) but with the progressed chart, we include the movement as part of the concept. And thus we look for events that the movement implies.

A lot is going on in this chart, visible predominantly because so many planets have come into aspect with the angles -- the ascendant and the descendent.

Once again, two factors come up: a definite sense of being emotionally stifled (involving Chiron and Saturn in Pisces showing up in the ascendant); as well as a rather violent energy involving an even more precise alignment of Mars and also Uranus.

Yes, it looks like something came on fast and furious, and pretty much knocked you down. Could we have foreseen this? Hmm, well, maybe -- if you had a chance to describe your life in the presence of someone who understood your chart. In any event, all of the energetic properties do add up to something that feels a lot like asthma, which any energy healer will tell you is involved with grief and emotions.

How is your recovery coming? I know from my own bouts of asthma years ago that it can take a while to catch your breath. Please do take care of yourself.

PS, I asked what happened in the 48 hours prior and this is the response that Shelley sent back:

"Well I can tell you approx. 3 days before this happened, I had asked the Universe to send me a doctor for my asthma... one I could trade services with, because I have no insurance.

"I had also come to the realization that I couldn't keep doing web work, as it was not inline with my spirit... it was zapping the life out of me, sitting in this chair 10-12 hours per day, helping to build businesses that were not contributing to the higher good.

"So I had also just contacted by email, someone I was considering turning my work over too... and was declaring it was my intention to pursue the spiritual counseling I do with the tarot, etc. -- the things I love that make a real difference in other people's lives. It was all about getting over the FEAR (one more time) of survival, and just having faith that as long as I followed my heart, everything would be ok... so it was a major transition for me... the whole experience felt like a confirmation that it was time for a new life."

PPS, I sent your question to Christine DeLorey, a numerologist we know and love. Here is her interpretation, which she has written without having seen my response to you:

Dear Shelley:

In 2005, you were in the 7 personal year, the energy of which tends to slow you down (physically) to the very degree that will enable you to comprehend your life, and life itself, more clearly. 7 is the number of the mind, the spirit, the intellect, learning. It is masculine energy, which is seeking the perfection of true balance - which can only be achieved through the acceptance of feminine energy.

On the journey of a 7 year, there is often an unforeseen dip in the road which causes us to trip and fall. For some, this can mean getting tripped up by one's own actions which leads to a fall from grace into some kind of scandal. Others literally lose focus, fall down, and injure their physical bodies in some way. When the lungs fall, you can be sure that a massive buildup of grief is behind it.

Some people believe that grief is simply the pain of not having a person who is gone, but it is much more than that. In fact, such simplistic explanations leave millions of people holding grief that they don't know they have. Grief is the heaviest of all the emotions. It is the most heightened sense of sadness we can feel, and it occurs for many reasons other than the death of a loved one.

Being an avid reader of Eric's, you are obviously aware of what is happening in our world and, frankly, how could you not be feeling grief at this precarious point in humanity's journey. There's nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, it shows that you are alive, aware, and still able to feel something.

However, grief is also a giant trigger for all the other emotions; but, if we always try to look on the 'bright side' and deny how we really feel inside, we eventually become overwhelmed to the point that we cannot breathe (asthma). We can also become 'choked' by guilt, which tells us that it is wrong or weak to let our true feelings express themselves. And yet it is fear (the fear of feeling something that could be perceived as 'unloving') which provides the fuel for guilt.

As far as the number 13 is concerned, and while transformation is part of its essence, the emphasis is on the number 4, which is derived from adding 1 (the number of independence and originality) and 3 (the number of appearances and expression) together. This is an important number in your life. 4 is your Destiny or Life Path number - derived from adding all the numbers in your date of birth.

1+0+1+7+1+9+6+6 = 31. 3+1= 4.

It does not tell you what your destiny 'is' but, rather, explains the energy, which will enable you most easily to achieve the destiny of YOUR choice. Numerology is about Free Will, not pre-destination. Here is a bit on the number 4.

1966 also adds up to 4 (1+9+6+6 = 22. 2 + 2 = 4), which can tell us a lot about the energy into which you were born and, consequently, what motivates you in this lifetime. On your day of birth, the 4 energy was intensified - for the purpose of helping you to notice how the chaos around you seems less frustrating when you accept the facts for what they are and deal with them in your own way and at your own pace. Recognize how certain things that have bothered you for a long time, simply don't matter any more. By expressing your feelings openly and honestly (instead of burying or hiding them within), you will become acutely aware of what really matters so that you can untangle yourself from what does not. This disentanglement may be the work of a lifetime - and it is a deeply emotional process which can sometimes leave you breathless.

One of the principles of the number 4 is that of priority. What happened to you in 2005 is urging you to make a change of priority, which, in turn, will produce a life-enhancing change of direction.

Your year of birth is important for other reasons too, especially the fact that it adds up to the 'master' number 22. The number 2 is becoming more and more significant as humanity travels further into the new millennial cycle which is based on the feminine number 2 - the number of emotion, Free Will, intuition, connection, fairness and balance.

Much of what is happening in the world today can be linked to the transition between the masculine 1000s and the feminine 2000s (excerpt linked below).

With so much 4 energy in your personal numerology urging you to keep everything unemotional and 'practical', it took your not being able to breathe to loosen the ties to that old programming.

This is not a matter of 'blaming' the victim but, rather, of congratulating you on having evolved past the old programming, even if it was a painful and frightening experience. If you can feel, you know you are alive, and if you can understand that what happened to you was a form of healing from disease rather than disease itself, you will also realize that it has strengthened (not weakened) you.

Understanding what happened to you is important. Now, in 2006, you are in the 8 personal year which not only emphasizes correct information but, just as importantly, correct understanding of that information. This ties in to your day of birth - the 17th (1+7= 8) which has been strongly influencing your life since you were 24 years old. In 2007 this cycle of 8 energy comes to an end. In fact, an entire 27-year era of your life will come to an end in 2007 (your 9 personal year).

What happened to you, Shelley, and what is happening now, is preparing you to get stronger - not by cutting off from your feelings, but by being able to feel them fully - WANTING to feel them fully - wanting nothing but total honesty with yourself. THAT is true intelligence.

Denial of reality has caused most of today's problems, both personal and global. Positive change cannot occur without acceptance of reality. Being able to feel how reality makes us feel is both the first and the last steps of acceptance. This is when we go 'full circle'. It is when the ever repeating cycles of numerology transform into spirals and lift us to the next stage of our evolving journey.

As a numerologist, I can plainly see the significance of what happened to you as part of your evolution into spiritual wholeness (masculine/feminine balance), but in order to describe it as I would like to, I have yet to discover the 'language' with which to do so. There is obviously so much more to you and your numbers than I could possibly describe in the course of this e-mail. However, for now, I hope that it provides a helpful numerological sketch.

With love,
Christine You can read more about this on my website where there is a detailed excerpt from my book LIFE CYCLES - Your Emotional Journey To Freedom And Happiness.

Hi again Eric:
I have now read your response several times and I have to say it is all very fascinating and very accurate. (It's sort of creepy it's so accurate). And yes, I see a connection with it all when you mention looking at those different time periods. I never would have thought to look back that far, but there is for sure a link.

Eric, something did happen to one of my children: my newborn son died. He died because of human error; he died because I trusted other people more than I trusted myself and my own instincts.

A serious error in judgment was made by a medical professional, and I did not question it, even when I had doubts. When we went to the hospital he was born by c-section and immediately put on a ventilator and taken to the NICU [Neonatal Intensive Care Unit]. Within 36 hours, he was flown to a better hospital in Los Angeles. It was there that we were told it was best to take him off the ventilator and let him go as he had severe brain damage due to lack of oxygen (this happened on the inside). He had no chance of any sort of a good life. I would never even be able to make him smile along with a host of other medical issues that the brain damage would cause. So my son Freddie was born on May 11th and died on the 16th.

I understand your point about choices that we make, having something/someplace on the map and knowing we can go there, but not being told we must. I am being reminded of the movie, What the Bleep Do We Know? right now, and how that specifically deals with the science in it all, and how we are ultimately in control of our own destiny. I believe this fully, but in the same breath, I still ask myself: if I did make different choices regarding my pregnancy and birth would my baby have died anyway? I guess this is and always will be a mystery for me.

I do know that my son has taught me so many lessons in life. He has made me a better person, and for that I am grateful.

There is so much I could say to you regarding all of this, but I will spare you, as I don't want to turn you into my therapist. ;) So I will leave it at that for now. You are awesome Eric, really.

Kindest regards,
Robin

P.S. So how do you answer the question that C posed when you see bereavement in a chart or some other ill fate? Do you just tell it like it is? Or do you soften it a little or just flat out lie, to prevent someone from checking out in fear of the future? H

Dear Robin,
I am truly sorry to hear of this. In my experience as an astrologer, loss of a child is one of the deepest losses possible in the world, if not the worst. Clients that I served on Vashon Island in Washington State have created a resource specifically to address those in your situation, called Kota Press. Please feel free to contact them -- they are friendly and helpful.

The question you ask is nearly impossible to answer; that is; had you done things differently, would things have gone differently. And, the more complicated question, was this 'fated'? Even in attempting to respond, we are getting into "having the answers" territory -- which is somewhat dangerous.

And given the possibilities that we are now aware of, such as what you reference in the Ramtha film What the Bleep do We Know?, there seem to be many roads we can take. I think to say we are "in control" of our destiny may be overstating the case. But we do have a relationship to it.

Here is how I handle the question you are describing. In hindsight, there seem to be many ways to put together the pieces of a complex situation. That is, the past is subject to interpretation. It is possible to look at a set of facts and circumstances and see them point clearly to one thing. Then, that one thing can change; certain memories that we forget can come to the surface; we can put together two things that never seemed related before.

As for the future, in making my own choices, I try to be as aware of the many levels of a situation as I can. As an astrologer, I am often in the midst of the decision making process with my clients, and in the time I have with them, I work for context and awareness. I see nothing in the chart as an inevitability. This is because everything is open to choice on some level, particularly if you know you are making the choices.

I also know that the meeting of an astrologer and a client is a creative situation; that is, we have a LOT of power to create life, using the map and energy tool of astrology. Therefore, I see nothing -- nothing -- as an inevitability.

When I see a transit coming, such as in your situation, a highly sensitive Chiron transit, I will take the client through the process I outlined with you, as far as checking dates going back in the past. In doing this I am attempting to get a feel for how they respond when their chart is under that form of energy.

I am looking for a key in this process; I am listening for the message they are giving themselves, so they don't need to hear it again in a more difficult way. I don't know in what percentage of instances this succeeds in mitigating difficult transits, but I am inclined to think that it has some real effect, by initiating the processes of awareness, conscious choice, and whatever may intervene.

It is my belief -- and this is a religious belief, not an astrological one -- that karma may be mitigated; that it is subject to grace; that if we are conscious, we may choose another way. I am also aware that we make mistakes, and that these mistakes have effects. You are not the first person who has said, "I wish I had listened to my intuition."

Whatever decisions you may have made in the past, you still have the power of decision today. This being said, it is possible and often very helpful to look at the situation and see the ways in which it somehow makes sense. Yet this does not really mitigate your loss. You have gone through, and are going through, one of the most difficult crises of grief that a person may face in this world. Healing will take time, and it will take support. Reaching out to this column shows that you are willing to seek the support you need. Please keep it up -- and please keep listening to yourself.

---

Planet Waves Weekly is the only place online to get the weekly horoscope of Eric Francis, both emailed and posted to the Web on a subscriber homepage each Friday. Eric is now writing Parallel Worlds, the 2006 annual edition of Planet Waves with the year-ahead forecasts, available to all subscribers. As a subscriber, you can keep up with Eric's essays on astrological developments, chart reading techniques, Tarot cards, and world affairs. Experience Eric's unique perspective as an astrologer-investigative reporter. Read more than three years of archives of essays and horoscopes. We invite you to look around and become one of many satisfied readers of Eric's daring and innovative astrology journal.