Best wishes,
E.T.

Dear E.T.
You sound like you're on the path, and like you don't miss much yourself. As one who is working with others, you mainly need to keep a higher-than-normal level of self-awareness and I'm pretty sure you're doing a good job there.

You are correct: being paid raises the level of commitment for everyone. But it's not mandatory; you are free to waive your fees for anyone you want. And that does not lower the level of commitment for anyone.

You mention language -- it helps to learn the language of as many people as possible, so you can understand what they are saying whether they come to you from the traditional Yoga path, are talking about Atlantis, or just need your loving attention.

The people come to you for assistance, but there is not one who will not teach you some core skill about what you are doing. When people offer themselves sincerely to the assistances of others, this tends to happen with such precision that it's a beautiful thing to behold.

If indeed you are going to live outside society's boundaries and limitations, you need to be very well prepared, take care of your own stuff, be willing to work as much as you need, and be pretty gosh darned disciplined. As Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young say, you must have a code that you can live by. And as Dylan said, to live outside the law you must be honest. But you can't jump out of the universe.

Please keep me posted as to what you learn. These are certainly interesting and necessary times to be embarking on your adventure.

Eric H,

Dear Eric

I recognize we live in a world where the President of the United States can say in the State of the Union Address that we are a stronger nation because our children are taught abstinence (a program which does not actually succeed at any of its goals, only at creating chaos in young people).

The fact remains, sex is a natural experience, desire is natural, reproduction is natural. It is guilt and repression that are artificial. But part of the crisis of sexuality in our culture involves the fact that these two sets of facts are very often reversed: it is guilt that is called natural and sexuality that is described as an abomination.

The effect of this is to divide people against themselves, and then they are subject to easy conquering. The first step in reversing these divide-and-conquer tactics is to reverse these two interpretations and begin to get ourselves back into a natural state of being. It seems more than likely that your grandfather was never able to do this. Repression has an instrument, and that instrument is almost always guilt.

We actually began discussion of your question last week, in the third question I took, from a mother who felt that her daughter was in some way living out her life. That was an introduction to the ways in which it would appear possible for the material of a parent or other ancestor to be passed onto a person. There are many -- but the culture of a family and family dynamics must be counted as tops among them.

Astrology can help reveal this, and we will take a look at what may be in the picture.

The distance from a grandfather to a grandson is nearly no distance at all. This is because to a great extent, in addition to lots of DNA, you share an environment: you have your parent involved as a common factor, as well as their siblings, and the grandmother. All the attitudes, values, beliefs and feelings exist like a culture growing in a jar.

It may also be true that the same things from earlier in your family's past influenced both you and him in the same ways. In other words, you may share the influences of another ancestor with whom you have something in common. It is possible, indeed, I would say very likely, that an event lost to history influenced you both.

What is important in all of this is how you consider and handle the present -- how you conceptualize the past will be instrumental in how you do this. In ascribing an influence or feeling to "your grandfather," you are describing a concept of the past, as you experience it now. It is actually your experience, but in your reality map, you say okay this feels like his territory, or something that has his feeling on it. This is another way of saying it's shared territory, because it's actually your life, your consciousness, and your perception.

Here is where astrology may be handy, at least as a point of beginning. It is a map to the past, the present and the future that is 100% applicable in the present.

I would like to point out a few basic things about your chart. Let's start with the 8th house: the house of sex, death, power trips, jealousy -- and legacies like the one you describe.

Cancer is on the cusp of the 8th house. The North Node of the Moon is also in this house. That combination makes it an extremely compelling house for you to experience; we can often feel like we are riveted to the themes of the lunar nodes, and the North Node puts strong emphasis on the 8th. The presence of the sign Cancer suggests that there is something in the family emotional environment, and ideas about nurturing and nourishment, that is involved.

This is to say, the ideas of sex and nourishment are linked in your chart. They SHOULD be linked -- sex is an important source of nourishment, one that is often denied as an idea and which people deny to one another.

But looking through the minor planets, you have one of them located on the North Node, in the last degree of Cancer. That would be Nessus -- a planet that addresses abuse legacies. Sexual abuse takes many forms, and one of them is repression. It does not need to be a perpetrated sexual act; it can be of course, but it can be a psychological climate that instills pain, struggle, guilt and any other form of psychic difficulty. And this planet is a factor in all the affairs of that house however you interpret your North Node.

One of the most interesting facts about Nessus is that it deals with questions of potentially inappropriate sexuality. In other words, with Nessus and its sexual themes, there can and often is a gray area. And that is the territory that you are exploring. In effect, the buck stops with you, as you take this up consciously. You are the one who needs to determine where you stand, and to make up your mind about what is right and wrong for you, remembering that you are dealing with some kind of legacy burden. And that legacy could go back many generations.

The Moon is the ruler of the North Node in Cancer and the 8th house. So to find out more, we can look to this point. The Moon is in the 25th degree of Pisces.

Note its rather intense aspecting: it makes exact quincunxes (150 degrees) to Mars and Pluto. It is under constant tension, pressure, and a kind of overdrive alertness. I think this is the clearest image of the constant push or pull of these feelings that you describe.

To top this off, you now have Pluto squaring your Moon, so you could say it's all coming up now. I strongly suggest you look at Chiron's transits to your Moon: check when Chiron was at 25 degrees of any mutable sign.

Last point for today: Quaoar. This is a newly discovered planet (2000). In an earlier article, I proposed: "Named for a Native American creation deity of the Tongva people from what is now Southern California, Quaoar’s placement gives an intimate portrait of the dance of the family’s emotional process and its impact on us. Quaoar speaks to the rhythms and choreography into which we were born, as these manifest within the family pattern going back generations. It points to how we dance to the music of our own creation more or less unconsciously, and suggests that we have a conscious relationship with our personal creation mythology. It is very helpful in doing family-of-origin work."

Here is the one thing that I notice about this planet's placement at 14 degrees Scorpio in your chart. It is conjunct Juno, a planet that addresses the theme of marriage. I would propose that the legacy of which we're speaking here is contained, at least in part, in ideas about marriage.

This may be the biggest clue of all, and it may require the most detective work. But I think you need to go through every history of every marriage and every idea about marriage in your family that you can possibly find -- and you will find the seed of this pattern. Start with your own ideas; then your parents, then your grandfather and grandmother; and take it slowly from there.

Please keep me posted.

lovelovelove
Kat

Dear Kat

First a few comments about relocations. You are in a great position to judge whether relocation horoscopes work for you, mainly by casting charts for several places you've lived and seeing the ways in which the chart matched up with reality. In order to be a good locational astrologer, I feel it's necessary to have lived a number of places and you do qualify.

This will give you the basis for assessing whether you can trust your Ireland relocation chart. But mainly trust your heart.

Living overseas has its challenges; we don't realize how pervasive culture is, until we change cultures! But it's really an amazing and life-changing experience, and I would recommend it to anyone who is able to do it, and if possible, to do it when you're young.

Peace
Patricia

Dear Patricia

Arwynne responds...

I took a look at their charts... and there are obviously a lot of similarities that would seem to indicate shared perspectives on life and contribute to enjoying each other's company a lot. However, I have no idea what their chances are in the "long term," -- and, after studying the astrology of every relationship of mine and my family/friends over the years, my conclusion is like Deckard's at the end of Blade Runner (you know, NOT the Director's Cut), "Who does?"

So, I guess my advice, using whatever expertise I've got, would be to listen to your own intuition about the relationship; you know, the opposite of that voice that warns you when you're in danger (or maybe that same voice). If you can't stop thinking about a person, and you enjoy their company so much that you can think of nothing negative to say about them, I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to be with them...especially if you feel you have something to offer them from your shared experience of the same "life" issues.

But, of course, if there IS a voice telling you it's not right -- and, now that you're alone and it's been a month, you regret listening to that "picky," judgmental voice…? Then, you need to be honest with yourself and let it go. You don't spend five years "coming into yourself" only to ignore your own intuition, right?

Warmest regards
Leah the Leo
Melbourne, Australia

Dear Leah

There is nothing pseudo about the Saturn transits you're having now. As you mention in your question, you have many planets in Leo, and Saturn is now making a conjunction to them. Here is your chart.

As a result, when the Sun gets a major transit, usually two or more other planets are in the neighborhood. This is quite the case with you; you have a nice clustering in Leo.

And it's certainly a potent, optimistic, influential grouping of planets, and I would hazard more than a guess that Saturn is there to help you turn that Jupiter potential into some solid and lasting reality. Saturn and Jupiter are great friends this way, with Saturn bringing lasting value to the visions, dreams, aspirations and pleasure-seeking tendencies of Jupiter.

While you have an exceptionally strong Jupiter chart, you are no stranger to Saturn, because you have Saturn in your ascendant. That tells us that Saturn is a strong element of your identity; in Virgo, that you're not just relying on your luck, charm and charisma, but also that you're a solid person, a deep thinker and one who takes responsibility quite seriously. You are one heck of a worker, good gods.

The association of Saturn with your North Node suggests not so much karma being a factor where Saturn is concerned, but something else called 'dharma' -- acting as if to hold the world together; right action; a serious approach to life that you must live out and act out every day.

Dharma is a sense of mission. You are truly having something of an early Saturn return, and it's one that will last for a long time. It will focus you on your mission earlier than a young person ordinarily might be, and ensure that you get whatever you need to make your own way in the world. And I think that Saturn will help ensure that you have protection from all the distraction of the world that would prevent you from doing so.

If you're curious about where your minor planets are, check this link. It's set up for your chart, presented in order off the signs beginning with Aries.

Awrynne has looked up the past postings on Saturn and Saturn returns.
ericfrancis/july30.html
ericfrancis/aug27.html

And a couple specific to Saturn returns in Leo which might be helpful:
ericfrancis/july8.html
ericfrancis/jun17.html

Thanks for writing in.

To everyone -- see you in two weeks, or daily at PlanetWaves.net.

---

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.