Dear Friend and Reader,

Today marks the end of the Bush era as President Obama begins his first term. The Sun has made its ingress into Aquarius and the Moon will enter Sagittarius at 12:30 pm EST. We are also six days away from the solar eclipse in Aquarius. This particular eclipse is going to occur in a packed Aquarius, something we haven’t seen the likes of since 1962. Mercury retrograde is makes its interior conjunction with this new Sun today, which is a little like the Sun itself turning into Mercury. If you observe these days of the interior conjunction for a while (three each year), you will notice that they are indeed unusual news days — and this is no exception.

Photo by Sean Hayes.

The interior conjunction to the Sun (that is, Mercury coming between the Earth and the Sun, as it is doing now) is the exact midpoint of the retrograde; it’s half over today. This particular interior conjunction is interesting because just as the Sun enters Aquarius, Mercury is about to re-enter Capricorn. So the two planets pull apart and begin a cycle through the signs that the other occupied.

It’s interesting that this is happening on one of the great turning point days of our era, the day that the Bush administration ends and that Barack Obama takes office. While this is not astrology that you would associate with the turning of an era, it is peculiar enough, and strongly indicative of change, to feel appropriate for this day. Of course there are many other images of change in the chart: Saturn and Uranus at opposition; Pluto on the edge of Capricorn; and the gradually warming-up square between Uranus and Pluto — that’s the one that indicates the biggest changes, and it’s not exact until 2012.

Let’s consider Mercury for a moment, though. When a planet goes retrograde, what it means is based on our movement in the solar system, the other planet appears to go backwards. Retrograde energy has a way of bringing up the past, or facilitating retreating (as we saw with the Israeli-Hamas cease fire Sunday). It can also bring up the more ephemeral qualities in a project or relationship. For example, it is always advised that one should avoid signing documents or buying big machines like cars or computers while Mercury is in retrograde.

While an easy route to interpretation would suggest that Mercury in retrograde means bad stuff will happen to your DVD player, another way to look at it could be that patterns from the past can be accessed in a deliberate, mindful way. Perhaps it’s not so much about the DVD player breaking as it is about the temperment broken appliances produce.

So what can we expect with Mercury retrograde in effect during the Inauguration? Maybe a bit of extra feedback in the microphones? Just kidding. But seriously, with Mercury conjoined with the Sun at this time, my input is that a lot of nuances from the past will be worked into Obama’s speeches tonight. We have already seen that in the train ride to Washington being a sort of homage to Abraham Lincoln.

Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader:

AT THE LIBRA New Moon early Monday morning (in USA time zones), the overall emphasis of the sky remains in the sign of balance and justice, as the world seems to need these things more than ever. While Venus has changed signs and moved into Scorpio, it’s forming an exact semisextile aspect (30 degrees) to the lunation in Libra. Mercury and Mars are still in Libra with the Sun and Moon. Mercury is now retrograde (through Oct. 15). The newest member of the dwarf planet category, Haumea, is in Libra, too. Haumea is in wide conjunction with the New Moon.

2003 EL 61, now known as Haumea.

Venus and Mars are in mutual reception, each occupying one another’s signs. Traditional astrology cautions that both are weakly placed in their signs; Venus is in its detriment in Scorpio, and Mars is in its detriment in Libra. The two planets are bound in an energy cycle that currently seems difficult to break free from. This is a fitting image of the locked-in pessimism associated with the global economic crisis currently unfolding.

The Libra New Moon is six degrees opposite the Aries Point, which you may already be familiar with. This is a degree of the zodiac that merges the personal and political spheres of life. Indeed, there can seem to be no difference as the world crashes into the living room or into your iPhone screen.

On Sept. 17, 2008, a trans-Neptunian minor planet previously known as 2003 EL61 was classified as the fifth dwarf planet in our solar system and named Haumea, after the goddess of childbirth and fertility in Hawaiian mythology. It’s interesting that we have Venus and Mars, the original planets of sex, in difficult positions, as we commemorate a New Moon conjunct a planet associated with reproduction.

In ancient times and for many today, Venus and Mars are also associated with commerce and prosperity, ruling the signs Taurus and Scorpio. Libra (the second home of Venus) fits into the picture because of its association with partnership, upon which commerce is built.

The New Moon always corresponds to a Full Moon two weeks later, and the Full Moon that’s coming arrives with enormous impact. It’s on the eve of Mercury stationing direct in Libra, but more to the point, it’s closely conjunct Eris, a planet named for the goddess of discord. The next two weeks build to some extremely unusual developments, and I say that knowing that the past few weeks have been very strange, leaving many people with an enormous feeling of uncertainty and instability. We will see the first real results of the $700 billion bailout package currently being negotiated (and allegedly finalized) at the time of the New Moon.

Sound astrological advice would be to take a wait and see approach. Conserve resources and avoid making important decisions till the many, many facts destined to emerge Oct. 14-15 make themselves known.

In this article, we’ve mentioned the dwarf planets. Here is some background information on the ongoing process of defining and naming them.

Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader,

IN THE MIDST of all the intrigue the past week or three, I forgot to mention that Mercury is about to be retrograde. Blame Mercury retrograde for me neglecting to mention it, but we are now in what some call the Mercury storm phase of the extravaganza, which are the five or so days that surround Mercury changing directions relative to the Earth.

What makes matters more interesting is that the Libra equinox happens today, Sept. 22, in the midst of the storm. That’s at 11:44 am EDT, with the Moon in early Cancer. Equinox is one of the ‘quarter days’, when the Sun enters a Cardinal sign and a new season begins (autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and spring for our friends who have endured a long winter in the Southern Hemisphere). The change of seasons is always palpable. After this week, night is longer than day in the Northern Hemisphere, and we approach the next two major points in the Great Wheel, six weeks till Sahwen (Halloween) and six more weeks till Capricorn solstice. Here is a little diagram that shows the solstice and equinox to confuse you a bit more.

When we pile on the big events, we get a kind of ripple effect. Things seem of greater magnitude, or they actually are. Lots of Libra is square lots of Jupiter in Capricorn.

For those new to the discussion of Mercury retrograde or those appropriately confused by it, I will offer one paragraph of technicality. Mercury takes 84 days to orbit the Sun. The Earth takes about 365. So three times a year, Mercury passes by the Earth, and that is how we get the retrograde. Because Mercury is passing us, there is an effect where its position seems to go backwards, which is disorienting, like looking at a moving train out of the window of another moving train. (There are days when I can visualize how this works and days when I cannot. If you feel like hunting around the network for an animation, I will post it.)

The sprawling Caloris basin on Mercury. Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ. APL, Arizona State U., CIW

Now, Mercury is famous for bungling up contracts and things electronic. It is also famous for things seeming to be wrong but not really being wrong. The caveat “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” would seem wise, but things darned may well seem broke and they seem like they need fixing. Hold off. I could tell you a lot of stories, some of which ended well. Avoid doing what you don’t have to do. Avoid spending money you don’t have to spend and signing things you don’t have to sign. If MGM offers you a movie deal and you want to know when to sign, hire me on to do the electional chart and I’ll find you a window (that was not an ad, it was a public service message).

As for the dates, the retrograde actually begins on Sept. 24 at 3:19 am EDT. It goes through 4:05 in the afternoon of Oct. 15, thankfully missing the election by about three weeks. But it does not miss the peak of the campaign; some of the debates; and it doesn’t miss the $700 billion to $1 trillion Big Business bailout package. Oh, I envy these people, trying to hash this thing out just during the Mercury storm. The reason I envy them is because it’s gonna be just so gosh darned easy to skim a hundred billion here and a hundred billion there, you would think it was eating lemon sorbet. Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader:

Eyes on Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin’s reported birth time: 4:40 pm, Sandpoint, Idaho, Feb. 11, 1964. The source is the Starlight News, and I’m in the process of tracking down the pedigree. I trust the data because the chart works. To sum up: What we are witnessing right now is the Neptune Effect, one reality melting away and becoming another. Looked at another way, it’s the astrological equivalent of a hurricane semi-canceling the Republican National Convention (fortunately for them, Gustav and the holiday weekend served as a distraction from the spattering of Sarah Palin stories).

[News quiz: what was the interesting thing happening in the days before Hurricane Katrina? Answer: back when the Iraq war was still considered news, Iraq was spiraling into a new level of chaos, we had reached the 2,000 soldier death mark, and Republicans were accused of waging a witch hunt against climate change scientists. From this, it does not seem so impressive, particularly given how what happened to New Orleans overshadowed anything that developing right before -- but that last week of August 2005 was quite a week.]

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin signs one of the three budget bills into law in Anchorage, Alaska, Friday, June 29, 2007. Photo by Al Grillo, AP.

First a reply to everyone who is saying that Sarah Palin does not matter; that only John McCain matters because he’s the real candidate.

Not so fast. The VP is the stand-in for the president. McCain has cancer, and in any other slightly less surreal time in history that would disqualify him from even being considered for commander in chief.

He would also be 72 when he assumes office, the oldest man in history to be sworn in (he beats Reagan by three years). This makes the vice president more important in this particular election. Note that Republican administrations have a history of the vice president being de facto prez.

For example, George H. W. serving “under” an ailing Reagan; and Dick Cheney “under” a brutally incompetent George W. She would not necessarily be McCain’s boss; McCain’s boss would be her boss.

In a matter of hours from her nomination, Palin was a liability. Aside from the fact that McCain had met her once before selecting her, nobody else besides Alaskans and Laura Bush had heard of her and the barrage has been nonstop. Note, this is what public involvement in the political process feels like. This is the rhubarb; the hue and cry; the public rumbling. Love it or watch CNN.

She is being trashed on the values that she supposedly espouses the most dearly — the sanctity of the family; sexual abstinence; honesty and integrity. We have a candidate who has characteristically run on a program of social piety revealed as someone whose family is no different than, well, dang — she’s just like us. Only I don’t throw my own kid under a bus for political purposes, and I don’t get to tell you when you can and can’t go to what doctor. I don’t legislate what your kids can and cannot know about their own bodies; that’s Sarah’s presumed job. She is living proof of how poorly abstinence only sex indoctrination works and she is thus a religious huckster. Only human of course…

Looking at her natal chart, we get Leo rising (our gorgeous beaming beauty queen, hotter at 44 than she was at 18) and that puts Aquarius on the 7th house. Aquarius is the sign with the most progressive feel, irrespective of what may be going on inside (as usual & with all the signs, there are a lot of possibilities). The 7th is the house that you could call the zone of projection (“we don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are”) or it’s the house of taking the public and putting it on like a mask. Either way, you project your 7th house. It is not the “real you” — that’s the job of the ascendant and its ruler. It’s specifically what you project outward.

This is the house of that pseudo-populist Aquarius Sun, Mars and Saturn. The Sun IS her ascendant ruler and this tells me she has boundary issues with the public; like any good performer, she blurs the distinction between she and us. Square her natal Neptune, mega ditto that, but the phenomenon involves what she tells herself. Who knows, this chart could be the chart of someone with impeccable integrity. Unfortunately that does not check out.

In the Big Sky; as we sit here, the Sun is now moving into an exact lineup with Saturn, in Virgo (this is an astrological event, happening Monday through Wednesday, and which happens once a year affecting all of us). Normally this is the kind of thing that would be “good for the government” and the discussion that is happening certainly seems to qualify. I am appreciating how detailed it is; Virgo is indeed about those annoying little bits of data that sometimes do add up to something. Sun-Saturn is about setting limits. That is another theme of the week, a limit on bullshit.

Palin herself is in a Moment of Astrology. Neptune, a very slow planet, is retrograding exactly over her Sun. Exactly as in her Sun is at 22 Aquarius 20 and Neptune is currently retrograde at 22 Aquarius 23. That is to say, Neptune is applying into a to-the-arc-minute conjunction to her Sun and it will be aligned most precisely on Thursday (though in retrospect it’s so powerful we would say it had full impact all year,not just this week). This is a transit so closely aligned and so rare that it’s the kind that astrologers use to backtrack and figure out the time a person is born; so this gleaming little event helps establish the accuracy of the chart.

I personally don’t think that she’s gonna actually get nominated, but this would suggest that one way or the other she is pretty washed up. We shall see what comes out in that wash, however — it’s been an interesting load already.

Steve Bergstein has posted a new entry to his Planet Waves blog, Psychsound. It’s called Picking Up the Pieces, and looks at how hard it is to run for president during a war. Also this edition of Talking Points Memo focusing on Ms. Palin is a short, spicy read.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Mike Brown is the guy who led the team that discovered Eris, Quaoar, Sedna, Makemake and lots of other cool bits at the edge of the solar system that you read about on Planet Waves. He’s one of the preeminent astrophysicists of our day, and he says he loves astrologers.

He was there when the International Astronomical Union decided that Pluto “wasn’t really a planet.” He has written a follow-up to that event, and we’re happy to post it here at Planet Waves.

His website is called Mike Brown’s Planets. We are doing in astrology in a time when you really need to know some astronomy to fully appreciate it. It’s an amazing time to peek into that world, because astronomy is truly in a golden age. The discoveries are amazing, the personalities are interesting, and it is feeding astrology in the style of a banquet.

Today is one of my busier days of the week, finishing Planet Waves and working with a number of astrology clients. So I probably won’t check in, but if I do it will be late.

Friday’s Planet Waves kicks off the Virgo season with an astrological biography of Dr. Betty Dodson, who I introduced in this space earlier in the week. You’ll get an in-depth look at the four major asteroids and Chiron — this chart is exemplary for those five points, and it’s quite a study in Virgo, too. Most of all, it’s a fun, sexy story about the woman who — after 250 years of slander and lies — got masturbation legalized.

You can subscribe at this link and enjoy many, many benefits of being a subscribing member of Planet Waves. Info is at left.

Enjoy this latest missive from Prof. Mike Brown of Caltech.

===

The Great Planet Debate Wasn’t

By Mike Brown

LAST WEEK in Baltimore, at the conclusion of a conference about planets and definitions, two astronomers faced off in what was termed the Great Planet Debate.

I missed the conference, and thus missed the debate, but, nonetheless, courtesy of a press release supplied by one of the participants, I can already declare a winner by default.

As I have said earlier, there is important science in classification, and that science is really not much of a subject of debate. Everyone can agree which objects in the solar system are dynamically dominant. Everyone can agree which are round. Everyone can agree which are rock or gas or ice.

The only debate is about which of the many different important classification schemes should get to use that magical word “planet” to describe its members. And that debate is merely aesthetic, not scientific. So the “Great Planet Debate” is merely a debate about aesthetics, which I guess is OK, but, in my opinion, unlikely to be terribly Great.

But, according to the press release, the astronomer who was arguing against the current 8-planet definition wants, instead, to use a definition that says that anything round is a planet, and thus there should be 13 planets.

STOP!

Suddenly there could be a scientific debate here, and this astronomer should be crushed. Everything round is a planet and there are thirteen round things? Where did that come from?

The planets would be the familiar Mercury through Pluto, for nine. Ceres, the largest asteroid, makes ten. Charon’s moon makes eleven, and my two discoveries, Eris and Makemake, make 12 and 13.

Regardless of your opinion of whether or not this is a fitting definition of the world planet, this is bad classification, and thus bad science.

So how many round things are there?

We don’t actually know the answer to that, since most of the objects in the Kuiper belt are so far away that we can’t see their shapes. Pluto and Charon have been measured to be round, so they count. Eris is assumed to be round because it is more massive than Pluto. Makemake has a poorly-measured size and no known mass (it has no moon, which is the only way to measure a mass), but it is big, so probably massive, so probably round.

So what about other objects in the Kuiper belt? We can’t see them well enough to determine whether they are round or not, but we can estimate how big an object has to be before it becomes round and therefore how many objects in the Kuiper belt are likely round. In the asteroid belt Ceres, with a diameter of 900 km, is the only object large enough to be round, so somewhere around 900 km is a good cutoff for rocky bodies like asteroids.

Kuiper belt objects have a lot of ice in their interiors, though. Ice is not as hard as rock, so it less easily withstands the force of gravity, and it takes less force to make an ice ball round. The best estimate for how big an icy body needs to be to become round comes from looking at icy satellites of the giant planets.

The smallest body that is generally round is Saturn’s satellite Mimas, which has a diameter of about 400 km. Several satellites which have diameters around 200 km are not round. So somewhere between 200 and 400 km an icy body becomes round. Objects with more ice will become round at smaller sizes while those with less rock might be bigger. We will take 400 km as a reasonable lower limit and assume that anything larger than 400 km in the Kuiper belt is round.

How many objects larger than 400 km are there in the Kuiper belt? We can’t answer this question precisely, because we don’t know the sizes of more than a handful of Kuiper belt objects, but, again, we can make a reasonable guess.

If we assume that the typical small Kuiper belt object reflects 10% of the sunlight that hits its surface we know how bright a 400 km object would be in the Kuiper belt. Currently there are about 60 objects this size or larger in the Kuiper belt (including, of course, Eris and Pluto and Makemake), and one (Sedna) in the region beyond the Kuiper belt.

We have not yet completed our survey of the Kuiper belt. Our best estimate is that a complete survey of the Kuiper belt would double this number. For now, the number of known objects in the solar system which are likely to be round is about 70, with the number increasing as the survey of the Kuiper belt is completed.

Beyond the Kuiper belt there may be even more dwarf planets than in the Kuiper belt. Our best guess is that the region where Sedna resides could contain another ~2000 round objects.

So the victory in the Great Planet Debate goes, by default, to the 8 planet side. Whether or not you like the aesthetics of the 8 planet side, you have to disqualify the everything-round-is-a-planet side for thoroughly mangling the science of their own classification scheme. This is not to say that an 8 dynamically-dominant planet definition is better than a ~70 round planet definition, but there can be no debate that an 8-planet definition is vastly superior to a 13-planet definition based on bad scientific classification.

How can this fundamental mistake have been made? Surely if you believe in the utmost importance of things being round, you would at least try to understand what was round and what was not, right?

My speculation (some would say “paranoid speculation”) is that this was done on purpose. There is no doubt that the astronomer arguing the everything-round definition knows that there are many other round things. So why would he pretend there were not? Because, I suspect, he knows that arguing for 13 planets sounds more palatable than arguing for 70 planets. Arguing for 13 planets makes it seem like stingy astronomers are just being mean to the 4 being excluded. Arguing for 70 makes you seem a bit of an extremist.

There are good aesthetic arguments that can be made for the 70 planet everything-round definition. Make them! Argue them! Have a lively aesthetic debate! But don’t start by getting the science wrong. Particularly if it is being done on purpose.

Dear All,

It was with great interest that I read Eric’s recent article ‘What are we doing when we do astrology?’ and as I already have a copy of my birthchart I followed up his advice to getting an ephemeris with enthusiasm.

However when I followed this up, it wasn’t the simple process I imagined, and I seemed to have far more questions than answers. Which are as follows:

Do I get a ephemeris that covers my year of birth or the current date? Does where you were born and live (the UK in my case) affect which ephemeris one purchases? And why do you need an ephemeris in the first place? And what exactly is an ephemeris? I would be delighted if you could answer one or more of my queries. With thanks,

Cynthia (a Capricorn if you hadn’t already guessed!)

==

Dear Cynthia,

I KNOW THAT I have at least one story about everything except milking a pig, but I do have a funny ephemeris story.

Apparently I wanted to be an astrologer before I knew quite what an astrologer (or an ephemeris) was. Here is how I know. I was in my old attic one day rummaging through stuff, it must have been around 1996, and I unearthed a letter from the first astrologer I ever knew, Flo Higgins.

Apparently I had written to her and said that I was an astrologer or wanted to be an astrologer, and she wrote back and asked me if I had an ephemeris. And I said, “What’s an ephemeris?”

Well, she wrote back to me incredulous, and that was the letter I found. “What do you mean you don’t know what an ephemeris is? How can you be an astrologer if you don’t know what an ephemeris is?” She went on for a while, in this approximate tone.

I’m sure you can imagine, I blushed a bit; I was more capable of embarrassment in those days. At least by that point I was well accepted as an astrologer and solidly devoted to it, with a couple of ephemerides of my own. I wish I had that letter; I would frame it.

The ephemeris is the basic astrological tool. It is literally a schedule of the planets and their movement, with various other bits of information thrown in based on the publisher’s or author’s fetishes. It does not include your place on the planet; that is the job of an atlas. The ephemeris gives the positions of the planets in space and the atlas helps you morph that data with your local coordinates and from the two you get a horoscope chart.

The world Long. in the ephemeris table on the right (which comes from Raphael’s Ephemeris) means longitude, which is the east-west coordinate used to determine a planet’s position relative to the Earth; that is, the position in space. You can see the glyphs for the planet across the top; the days go down the left side; you recognize the signs Cancer (for Mercury and Venus) and Aries (for Mars) which are the positions on that particular day. At the top, that month’s Full Moon day, time and position are listed. They are listed several other places as well.

As you will read in Wiki, the word ephemeris means daily. Note also that it is an astronomical tool; it is not specifically made for astrologers. But since there are more of us than there are astronomers, we have helped keep them alive during times when they might otherwise have disappeared entirely (notably, plenty of times before the advent of science, which would have sort of delayed the invention of astronomy).

It tells you what planet is in what degree of the zodiac what day; whether it is retrograde, stationary or direct; and most tell you the declination, or height above the celestial equator. Another section of the page is the aspectarian, which tells you what a planet is doing in terms of its aspects to other planets.

The thing about an ephemeris is that you can do anything with it. If you have a good one, you can write a daily horoscope with it. A one-year ephemeris is about 3mm thick, so that is a lot of data in a small place. Prior to computers, they were the only thing an astrologer used to cast a chart, of course, with the exception of math. There is a third part of the ephemeris called the Table of Houses, which is the thing used to calculate the house cusp divisions in the chart. Now, computers do all of this and people are slowly losing the art of casting charts by hand — something that I never learned to do.

The information you get is the same as in a chart, but the chart is a snapshot of time for a single moment, while an ephemeris gives you all the data you need to cast charts for any time for an entire year.

I’ve given a sample of a few lines from an ephemeris in the graphic above, and a sample of a lunar aspectarian in the graphic below. These are from Raphael’s Ephemeris.

They all used to come in the form of a book, usually a thick one. This book is arranged in columns, and down the side is the date and across the top is the planet and you look up the position of a planet like a train schedule, only it’s less confusing. There are not certain planets available only on Wednesday night but not on Sunday morning.

I recommend that you get a book, even if you can get the same data online. An online ephemeris can provide much more data (for example, it can list a hundred planets, which a book just cannot do) and do calculations, but it is, I think, vital to both keep tradition intact and also to have at least limited data in a portable format, such as a book. Books also make for easier scanning, but here is an example of a printable monthly ephemeris for just one planet, Chiron, that covers a couple of hundred years.

I recommend a full century one, if you want to study astrology. Because we’re near a turn of a century, with most brands of ephemeris this means you need two books, one for the 20th (when most of us were born) and one for the 21st (where most of us are headed, even deeper than we are now). The better ephemerides (pronounced e-femme-a-rides, which is plural for ephemeris) cover periods like 1930 to 2030.

The reason you want a book ephemeris is for ease of research; and so you don’t have to be on both a computer and the Internet to do astrology.

There are other book-formats that are single year. The most famous is Raphael’s Ephemeris. It is the universally accepted bible of the British astrology world, and it’s a good publication. I think they plan to list Chiron in the 2050 edition and Eris in the 2100 edition, but if you can stand having a thing that lists only nine planets, and a lot of other cool stuff, this is something to get. You can obtain them in the United States from the Astrology Center of America. (You can get most other ones there, too, with one notable exception, which I will get to). Here is the ephemeris page from that website. On this page, if you look around, you’ll find samples pages from different publications. They also have their own ephemeris.

Raphael’s is the only truly notable annual. Eventually you will start collecting. If you ever see them in a used bookstore, buy them all; if you don’t know what to do with them, I’ll buy them from you.

My favorite of them all is the Aureas Ephemeris. It is published in Paris, around the corner from where I used to live (that is another ephemeris story, I’ll save it for another time — it’s getting late). You can’t get this one in the United States. It’s expensive; you can only get it from France or maybe England (try The Astrology Shop in Covent Garden), and if you want to be an astrologer or a serious student, it’s worth the approximately $100 it will cost you to have one. The website is extremely cheesy. It’s no reflection on the book, which is amazing, which lists new planets, as well as the intensity of eclipses, the Dark Moon and other cool stuff. It’s the one I use every single day.

The Rosicrucian Ephemeris is okay, but the printing has become sloppy, and the Rosicrucians believe that astrology should only be done for free. So if you’re planning a professional career, I would suggest skipping this one except maybe for your collection. They do list Chiron and I think they have got around to Ceres.

The American Ephemeris is a good one, and it’s a landmark — the first to be calculated by computer, by one of the saints of astrology called Neil Michelson. It was the first to list Chiron, way back in the day; and I think the New American Ephemeris (a major revision of the original, by Rique Pottinger) has some asteroids. However, the problem with this publication is that it’s split along the turn of the century, so you need two volumes; not a big deal, and I would rate it as second best after Aureas.

Once you have the thing, then what do you do with it? I’ll save that question for next week.

Yours & truly,

Note to readers, we are still running a limited time special offer discount for subscribing to Planet Waves. As you may have noticed, we do astrology differently than the rest of the Internet. We don’t talk about “romance,” we talk about sex and relationships. We don’t make “predictions,” we speak in a psychological and spiritual language designed to help you map out your life, and make decisions. We don’t ignore the news because it’s too controversial; we cover it with insight and depth. And we believe in art. We would love to have you as a member of our community, or have you back. You can subscribe at 25% off with the link above, and to find out more about who we are and what we do, check the links at the left side of this page.

Dear Eric,

I would like to submit a question about some serious problems in my sex life for your weekly astrology Q&A. For the purposes of answering my question, here is my chart information.

Tom from Book of Blue. Photo by Eric Francis.

Saturday night, I brought a guy over to sleep with. We messed around for a bit, a friend called him on his phone, and I showed him out the door. I awoke late Sunday morning to find my wallet missing. Gone were my driver’s license, my credit and debit cards, my health insurance card, my metro card and everything else I keep in my wallet. I’ve spent most of the last few days trying to rebuild my life, a process that is no doubt going to take the next several weeks to complete.

Luckily, no fraudulent purchases were made on any of my cards, so the only material loss was about $100 cash that was in my wallet. Right now, that’s not much comfort. And this is not the first time something has gone terribly wrong with a sexual encounter.

In the past 18 months, I have twice contracted STDs from sex partners, both of which were treatable. In both cases, I used condoms, but caught the kinds of STDs that even safe sex can’t prevent. And at least two encounters have involved major subsequent interpersonal drama, far exceeding what one would ordinarily expect from a casual hook-up or one night stand.

All of my gay friends and acquaintances are EXTREMELY promiscuous, and I am happy for them and that they have such varied and fulfilling sex lives, though surprised that none of them seem to have the same kinds of problems I’m having. Compared to most of my friends, even compared to most gay guys I know, I have probably about five percent the number of sexual encounters as they do…perhaps sleeping with a guy maybe once every two or three months or so…while some of my friends have been known to have multiple encounters in the same day.

I just don’t sleep around that much, partly out of having high standards for the kind of person I want to sleep with, partly out of fear of rejection, partly because of body image issues and I’m sure there are other issues packed in there as well.

I wish I could enjoy the same kind of sex life that most of my friends have, not necessarily sleeping around with people multiple times a day, but at least being able to get what I want more than I do now without it constantly blowing up in my face. And I am deeply worried that worse encounters await me down the road.

My friends and house mates are trying to console me and tell me that I’ve just been the victim of bad luck. But I can’t help but wonder if there is a pattern here that astrology could shed some light upon. I took a look at my chart, and I noticed that I have Nessus transiting my 1st house Sun for the next decade. While I don’t have an intuitive grasp of the asteroids, I know that Nessus deals with themes of sexual abuse. Lately I feel like I’m destined to be stuck with a disastrous (or worse, non-existent) sex life for the forseeable future in spite of whatever precautions I make take to protect myself.

I already have a pretty limited sex life as it is. I don’t want to retreat further behind walls or make getting what I want any more difficult than it already is for me. I also don’t want to play the role of the victim in my own life, but I need help figuring out what I can do about all of this. I would appreciate any suggestions you might have for coping with these difficulties and for figuring out how to have a happy, healthy sex life that doesn’t involve getting taken advantage of or abused by sex partners.

Thank you!
- D.R.

===

Dear D.R.

Excellent that you bring this up. The shadow side of sex is usually just that — left in the shadows. Your willingness to take this into light is precisely what’s going to get you to a new place; you and anyone who is willing to go there.

Tom from Book of Blue. Photo by Eric Francis.

Good call on Nessus. I’ll come back to that planet, the third in the Centaur group. What I hear in your letter, without looking at the chart just yet, are Neptune and the 8th house. Neptune deals with things being foggy or permeable and the 8th is about exchanges. You currently have Neptune (which is in Aquarius) hanging around your Sun and your ascendant, which is the essence of needing to both define and explore boundaries. You can’t really do one without the other, and you seem to be doing both.

Before I launch into your chart, I want to remind you and our readers that there’s no way I can really do this question justice in writing. I will do my best, but there are many dimensions to this set of circumstances, many of them go back to the past or the distant past, and to unravel them I need you present and working in an alive and dynamic way. However, we can point to a few obvious things astrologically and I can share some of my thoughts on stabilizing your erotic life.

Here is the chart. It will open in a new window. I’m leaving out your data to protect your privacy, but for our readers, D.R. was born in 1981 and he’s a natal Aquarius with an Aries Moon and Aquarius rising.

Okay, looking at this nativity, you have the Sun in the 12th house. That’s the yellow circle with the dot in the middle, and that tells me you are on one long quest to get to know yourself. I would rate the 12th house as the most difficult position for the Sun (or very close to it) because the Sun is seeking something definite — expression — and the 12th house is anything but definite. Having Neptune transiting your Sun and being very close to your rising degree is not helping matters, except that it’s pushing the issues, as you can see. At least you’re getting the message that you have to wise up. Always good news.

Transiting Nessus (that is, current position not shown) is pretty important right now. We will need to imagine where he is — right about aligned with the little orange upside-down horseshoe (the South Node). The alignment is pretty close, you’ve been facing this transit for about a year, and it’s a marker that this story has its roots in deep old history; old as in past life or lives, since that is one thing that the South Node indicates the most vividly.

My sense is that you are attempting to release some very old patterns, and you’re doing it by repeating them until you see them; then you can start making decisions, which you obviously are. Nessus can indicate sexually transmitted diseases and what I call “potentially inappropriate sexual contact.” That is a polite way to say questionable activities, intentions, motives and so on — but we don’t want to ascribe blame right away; rather, Nessus is a pointer to investigate your situation, and it will present various clues and evidence.

Whoever came over to your apartment the other night committed a crime, and he would probably be cured of that conduct by a night or two in jail. His mother might even agree. He probably came into your apartment specifically with the plan to do what he did. However, I suggest that you consider him an actor in the drama of your life, and suss out what he’s doing there. His story fits in with the tales of your STD incidents, which are essentially the same thing — episodes of taking where there really needs to be an honest exchange.

And you are the one who must now enforce that. And I do mean enforce, in the spirit of the Nevada City Border Patrol (this funny campaign from the 1990s in Nevada City, CA). The button (featuring a little guy with a crystal head) said, “Patrol your own borders. Police your own mind.” Neptune coming across your Sun/ascendant is reminding you that your borders and boundaries are foggy, spongy and permeable. So you need to do things like make sure you have good, working locks, and good working judgment.

Remember, you have the power to shift this situation. The way you shift it is with a conscious process of raising awareness. I understand you say you’re picky about who you have sex with, but I’m not there — so I don’t really know what that means on the inside. I don’t know your actual criteria, or your process for getting to know people, or what you’re looking for. It does not sound like you knew the guy from last weekend so well, so that’s why I bring it up.

You can make a basic checklist that will help you. Discussions of STDs and sexual history are essential at this point in world history and your history. I don’t think you need to be in a love affair with everyone you have sex with, but you do need to give them a polite grilling about who they are and what they have done in the past. You may think this will kill the sexual vibe, but I have not found that to be true; I think it’s partly a matter of finesse and also a matter of the truth being erotic. Think of it as a kind of sex-readiness test.

And if it does squish the vibe, count this as a benefit. The people who are not clear and straightforward are precisely the ones you want to be avoiding, and that’s how you avoid them: or it’s one way, anyway. Anyone who respects you is likely to think it’s a great idea that you’re asking questions, because they are protected in the process as well.

Tom from Book of Blue. Photo by Eric Francis.

Especially with foggy Mr. Neptune so present (and Nessus, which can have a Neptune vibe) you can’t have these discussions under the influence of alcohol or any substance and have them be meaningful — your subtle judgment will be impaired and you won’t trust your own decisions. Since most spontaneous sex happens under the influence of something, you’ll need to work out the calculus of this, i.e., how many dates till the guy comes over, etc. Also, you need to trust yourself enough overall to have a sense of when someone is being honest with you, but it’s not so hard as most people think. You do things like listen to what someone says and watch their face while they say it, and see if the two data streams have any correspondence.

Remember — you have a 12th house Sun, and that is about learning discernment; it’s about learning to sense yourself well enough to sense others.

Here are three clues about this. First, you have Mercury and Mars in the 1st house — close to your (very interesting) last degree of Aquarius ascendant. This tells me you have a strong desire nature and (consistent with a heck of a 12th) you have an erotic life that is driven by fantasy. This could lead you to project your images of others onto them and not really see them for who they are. Your desire nature may be so strong that you’re in conflict over it. The conflict clouds your awareness, and it serves as setup for potentially negative situations.

Next, you have Saturn and Jupiter on the 8th house cusp in Libra. You really do expect others to be honorable. This is better than cynicism. But you need to be realistic. Those planets are retrograde, and that means you have to take extra time to work the territory.

Clue three, you have Pluto in the 8th house. You want equality with people but you are also very, very subject to their power — a fact you may either not want to admit, or that turns you on, or both. The ideal erotic partner for you would have a strong dominant streak, but you need to be submissive in a way that works for you, i.e., by agreement, not by being taken advantage of.

This being said, you mention STDs. This is a real problem, and one that people who want to experiment sexually need to confront directly. Unfortunately, most people do not. The solution I have developed is to take time to get to know people sexually by sharing masturbation. It is really the only “safe sex” and fortunately it’s really hot. It also has a way of flushing out the sexual truth, and the rest of the truth, about who someone is. It’s a way to explore the erotic and psychic boundary between you and others, and to get to know them — but the exchange of karma is a lot lighter than with contact sex, the (physical) risk is basically nonexistent, but it’s very sexually intimate; in many ways more intimate than plain old sex. If you are having difficulty figuring out who people are, this may help. And if you pay attention, you will very likely find others who are willing to take this same approach to eroticism.

Along the way, I strongly suggest that you find a few play partners who you get to know well, without necessarily getting married or becoming boyfriends. This is not a concept that most people are familiar with — the usual choices are disposable one-night stand or permanent partner. There is plenty of territory of in between, and it can be a fun place to explore, with a greater chance of safer and saner encounters. And who knows, maybe you’ll find some friends you relate to sexually and otherwise who share your values and your increasing self-value — which seems to be the whole key.

I hope this helps a bit.

Yours & truly,

Readers may send their questions to questions -at- planetwaves.net with the word QUESTION in the subject header. Not all questions will be answered. Please keep them short, concise and most of all, relevant to our readers. Please include your full birth data written out, for example, Feb. 30, 1801, rather than 2/30/01. Also include your time of birth! This feature is sponsored by your subscriptions to Planet Waves Astrology News, so please sign up and if you’re already a subscriber, please sign up a friend.

AMY WINEHOUSE is an original, and she’s not an idiot. She went to the hospital two days ago and is now out — and nobody will confirm why. If you’re trying to figure out what mental disorder the crack-puffing young jazz sensation is going through, it’s called being born with Mercury retrograde conjunct the Sun — this gives her the feeling of burning very, very bright and doing things her very, very own way.

A natal Virgo, she’s one of those people whose mind can turn on itself. And she’s been going through a transit since around 2006 that all people in their young 20s must endure — Pluto conjunct their natal Neptune, which has been taking place in late Sagittarius. Imagine that everyone born in her era has a psychic and spiritual vulnerability that can function either as a source of inspiration or a place where the darkness can seep in (this is how Neptune works). Then along comes Pluto and strives to clean the clock. Some people wake up and discover their mission; some go to India seeking enlightenment and end up with typhoid; most of us go through a spell of disillusionment and the dread feeling of childhood’s end.

Winehouse has been propelled to global fame (Neptune is about music, too), but not without the kinds of trouble that can come with heavy Neptune transits — among them drugs, delusional thinking and various states of excess. She also has the Moon conjunct Neptune and the whole thing is aligned with the Galactic Core. She is seeking enlightenment and God through self indulgence — not exactly original for a rock (ok, jazz) star.

Pluto has been going over this Moon/Neptune/Galactic Core arrangement for nearly as long as we’ve known about her, pushing her into a profound spiritual crisis. It is like a confrontation with her soul essence through confronting deep isolation and death. It is nothing you would want to go through.

She has an asteroid mixed into this configuration, also in Sagittarius: Lachesis. According to Martha Lang Wescott, Lachesis “interrupts” an evolving sequence from going as one would have expected (from the way it began or is underway).

The Pluto transit is nearly over, but now she is entering a long series of transits from a more disruptive, challenging and at times inspiring planet, Uranus. In plain talk, it’s gonna pound her…and were she stronger, she could become a true creative force through her 20s and beyond, but the truth is that it’s more likely to engender instability, confusion and chaos. Anything is possible. Who knows – she might decide it’s time to really wake up. Yet the world seems to be on a death vigil. Her father has predicted she will die slowly. I propose that, barring some serious Lachesis-styled intervention, she will go through a series of shocking changes that she just cannot handle in her current weakened state.

Saturn is about to make conjunctions to her Sun and Mercury. This will compel her to confront herself and mature, and the truth is that people who are in this much spiritual crisis often don’t want to mature. Contrary to her father’s lovely prediction of a long, slow death from emphysema (of which she is reportedly showing the early signs) she has a good chance of joining the 27 club. And what is that? It’s that elite group of world-class musicians who died at age 27 (Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Cobain) under the combined influence of outer planet transits and something called the progressed lunar return (a progression that signals the start of the Saturn return between 28 and 30). This is the exact situation she finds herself in, and it’s prudent (rather than ominous) of astrology to send up a warning. We have seen the results of this kind of setup many times before.

Amy Winehouse needs to get a grip and keep it, but whether she wants to is another question.

Dear Friend and Reader:

Today I have a small collection of some of my past writing on eclipses. I think I’ve covered about 50 different eclipses in my astrology career, more of them than meetings of the SUNY Board of Trustees, the American Medical Association and toxins disasters combined.

These articles manage to be pretty philosophical. The first is an article on the most recent solar eclipse, in Aquarius, back from Feb. 7, 2008. It is the kind of superior quality propaganda you expect in a subscriber edition. It’s called Notes from the Technosphere.

Let’s skitz back in time to June 2002. This article is proof that I was blogging before there was a blogosphere, and it’s a fun article which conveys the feeling of an eclipse. It has some fun stuff about Chiron as well.

Here is one from the Astrology Secrets Revealed archive. It’s simply called Solar Eclipse.

Here is a piece about a total lunar eclipse that had a name, called the Harmonic Concordance. This is a second article on the topic, called A Book About Women.

Finally, here is my favorite article that relates to an eclipse. It’s called Flashpoints: The Continuation of Burning Man. It is a snapshot of the summer of the Aug. 11, 1999 umbra over Europe – a memoir of the late 20th century. A background article in the same series is posted here.

Catch you with an extra update tonight, Thursday.

Bye for now,

Today’s Oracle takes us to May 06, 2005 – Cancer – Weekly

The past few weeks have presented quite a few challenges where dealing with others is concerned. Clashes in ideology sorting out fact from fiction and dealing with people who have some strong viewpoints have all been part of the game of life. That’s about to change. It’s as if you’ve passed a test to see whether you could withstand high energy and people who test your patience. If you can keep your cool for the next few days you may find that the territory of your life opens up and that you are experiencing the benefits of true self-confidence.

Thursday 31 July 2008

Mercury (9+ Leo) septile M87 (1+ Libra)
Atlantis (21+ Libra) quincunx Sedna (21+ Taurus)
Apollo (26+ Leo) trine Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Sun (8+ Leo) square Asbolus (8+ Taurus)
Mercury (10+ Leo) quintile Pallas (28+ Taurus)
Venus (23+ Leo) opposite Neptune (23+ Aquarius Rx)
Ceres (21+ Cancer) square Eris (21+ Aries Rx)
Mercury (11+ Leo) square Pandora (11+ Scorpio)
Eros (16+ Leo) semisquare M87 (1+ Libra)

PS, for those of you new to Planet Waves, I did a lot of astrology blogging between 2004 and 2006. Here is a complete archive of my older stuff.

Dear Planet Waves,

This red-chalk drawing (circa 1512-1515) is broadly believed to be a self-portrait by da Vinci.

I am a recent college grad with what I am told by professors and professionals is an unusual and highly precocious artistic talent. I have been writing and drawing for as long as I could hold a pen, and some very gifted astrologers have told me in no uncertain terms that I ought to have an extremely lucrative and very public career ahead of me — should I seize the right opportunities, of course.

However, I tend to have an adverse reaction to this suggestion. I often have a very strong feeling that I’d be better off in a position deeply retreated from society at large — in a convent, say, or in a subsistence farming situation.

Friends and advisers want to write this off as the result of ingrained fear of failure or some other sinister type of chronic insecurity.

I don’t know what to make of it myself; am I really just suffering from depressive agoraphobia, or am I allowing the well-meaning words of career-driven urbanites distract me from something that would ultimately be a greater boon to me? Is there some way of splitting the difference that I have not yet discerned?

This condition has persisted for many years and still I have a hard time “following my heart” on this one. At this point I find myself almost totally stalled out.

Regardless of whether this note makes it to virtual print, I am compelled to thank the entire PW team for their stalwart and compassionate work over the years.

Thank you, Eric, for this important project. I wish it long life.

Best,
C.

==

Dear C:

I am not sure who your astrologers were, but I would not have made any such promises. It is a good thing that most of what astrologers say in no uncertain terms does not actually come to pass. I’m not saying you lack talent or potential. It’s just there’s a long way to go from drawing or painting well to having an extremely lucrative and very public career. It may be the longest distance between any two points on Earth. And people do cross that distance, though you don’t often hear about how many pairs of shoes they went through along the way.

It is a little early to be worried about how rich and famous you’re going to be.

Here is a question for you. Why do you have this talent? I don’t know your spiritual orientation, that is, who or what you believe in, but let’s presume there is a reason. Or at the least, a use for your talents to someone besides yourself. You did not mention having a career that would express an idea, spread a message, or propagate beauty for its own sake. You don’t mention what you want to do with your abilities. You mention two options: being catapulted to some sort of public stature and well-endowed bank account, or being cloistered away.

Let’s take a look at your chart. There is something really interesting about it: the main focus is on the 3rd and 4th houses, which represent an interior space. The signs involved are Aries and Taurus, which represent a focus on oneself, ones inner mind, home and sense of security. With all due respect, your chart and your letter suggest that you are somewhat self absorbed. I think you’re bright, you seem to possess a measure of alertness, and you crave innovation — but you’re going to need to reach escape velocity to get free of your interior orientation.

You do have quite a few massive planets in the public sector of your chart, but they are all retrograde. The retrograde suggests that you pull back into yourself when you need (in my view) to be expressing yourself. To me that is the point of artistic talent. Usually it has a purpose, which is to help the person who has it process their reality and along the way, keep their sanity, grow and with any luck have the products of their efforts help people on our benighted world.

Here is something you should know. Around 2001, Pluto began its transition into your 12th house, which is a transit that pulls you deep into yourself. It’s not that your chart lacks this emphasis — it’s painted in bright colors just about everywhere. But Pluto through the 12th can pull you down under the depths of your psyche to the point where you really can feel like you’re the only person in the world.

Now, nearly eight years later, Pluto is about to cross your ascendant. It will do this beginning later this year and through all of 2009, when it will be in your 1st house. This will help you break out of your spell of being cloistered. But it will also push your sense of a special destiny through the roof. I suggest you wear that sense of destiny as humbly as you can, and make an effort to see that you can have a positive impact on the world. It may be in a large way or it may be in a small way. And it may not be a positive contribution at all, unless you guide it that way. But you will have an impact and you need to be aware of what you want it to be. If you equate having artistic talent with fame and fortune, you’re likely to miss the boat on living a constructive life just like so many of the people we read about in People.

You’re a young person with a wide horizon, and you seem convinced that you have an artistic gift. I suggest you focus on what you want to do with that gift rather than what is going to happen to you personally as a result of having it. You don’t need to worry about whether you want or need to be cloistered or not. Anyone who develops their talent tends to spend a lot of time alone mastering their craft and moreover the mind that is trying to apply it meaningfully to existence.

And anyone who takes the sincere path of a creative career is indeed fortunate to be supported by their work.

Yours & truly,

===

Dear Eric (and friends),

I am currently going through a change in my life which I’m having a hard time dealing with. I recently spent five months living in another country and rekindled a relationship there. We are in love and I want to move there for a few years but actualizing that feels like a huge struggle, internally and externally. I’m trying to be independent and create the life that I want because (in true Virgo fashion) I have been pleasing other people for so long. I love to be of service but I feel like an emotional paramedic and I’m exhausted. I’m a writer, performer and facilitator and I want to expand and be my most fabulous self, but I need some guidance on how to pursue my dreams without alienating people I love.

I was born on August 24th, 1976 at 4:35 pm.

Peace & Many thanks
Akimbo

===

Dear Akimbo:

Why are you so worried about alienating anyone? Well, okay — I see you live with a pretty extreme polarity — a deep need for security or injured sense of safety (Chiron in the 4th house) and a powerful calling to make your innovative mark on the world (Uranus in the 10th house). However, I would propose that you need to go a little deeper than this discussion in order to find out why you specifically equate living your life, on the one hand, with being cast off, on the other.

Anyway, for all those who really want to do something with their lives, be it go on the road to visit a lover or play for the Yankees, be prepared to let go of friends who don’t get it, or who don’t actually support your choices. It could be said that you specifically need to alienate people in order to live your life, and in the process, discover the people who are going to be your true family of choice; your actual tribe.

From what you say, I am not sure you love them so much as you feel a need to take care of them. And if you can manage to alienate yourself from this lot, perhaps they will either learn to take care of themselves or find someone else to do so. But this would leave you without your old job, and a perfect opportunity to be your most fabulous self.

Yours & truly,

===

Dear Eric,

I was born on September 25th, 1955 at 8:06 pm in Wichita, Kansas.

As an early Cardinal Sun sign I am very interested to see your input on the significant changes that I will see with the upcoming cardinal grand cross and outer planet transits 2008-2012.

I have a strong interest in new career endeavors as well as new personal relationships but I have felt uninspired for a few years.

Regards,
Gary

===

Dear Gary:

You are about to experience a once in a lifetime transit known as Pluto square the Sun. It is one of those transits that will basically get you off your ass. Then Saturn will make a conjunction to your Sun in late 2009, which is a nice way of saying that you come to terms with yourself.

Then you will experience Uranus opposite the Sun, which will get you moving even faster. You are going to experience these transits one at a time, so I suggest you analyze them one at a time.

However, there are plenty of people who would experience these transits as disruptive or difficult; the difference comes down to what you want from life, and what you’re willing to do in order to have it. By this, I mainly mean undergo a deep process of transformation (a Pluto transit), followed by a maturing process (Saturn) and then being subjected to what I can only call wild inspiration (Uranus).

I don’t think you will be bored. But I suggest you do your best to find ways to express yourself and therefore keep a very good attitude.

Yours & truly,

===

Hello Eric,

I’ve been following the eclipse cycles and now they’re in the Aquarius/Leo pairs. As you can see, the last eclipse fell a day short of my birthday.

My husband and I have been together for 19 years, and I understand very well how to keep a long term committed and loving relationship. We do not wish to divorce because we share a deep friendship and responsibility for a young child. However, the last eclipse gave me the the impetus to move myself beyond my traditional marriage, and I have been very fortunate in finding a new companion to explore polyamorous relationships with.

But now I’ve been feeling “antsy” in regards to my new friend, and rather surprised to find myself wanting to slip back into the comfortable pattern of a one/one classic partnership. My question I would like to know is how best to handle this energy? My understanding is that eclipses propel you into the future, not let you slide back into old patterns like a pair of comfy old slippers. I thought I was making progress, but now I’m confused!

Thank you,
Amy

===

Dear Amy,

First, congratulations on your efforts at monogamy reform. While I think it’s natural and necessary that people be committed to one another in the long run, I also think that we need to make room for one another to explore life outside of long term committed partnerships, if that is what we want — and most people seem to.

I wish I had more to go on than antsy, however, regarding how you feel about your newish friend. I looked it up and the dictionary and found out that it means nervous, impatient and restless. Are you feeling confined by the relationship? Are you balking at a sense of disloyalty? Or are is the new relationship energy wearing off, with something lacking beneath that level?

I suggest you have a radical honesty clearing session with everyone. Get to the heart of how everyone feels, and don’t keep anything to yourself. I suggest you first talk to both of your partners individually, and give them the space to state exactly what they are feeling; then you do the same. And then I suggest you get all three of you in the same room and have one more conversation.

There are honest alternatives to monogamy, and they all come at the price of honesty. I think you have this capability. But you need to watch a tendency to be able to compartmentalize. By this I mean you can relate to someone in one way and then someone else in another way, and keep the two separate. I see this in both your Capricorn Venus and your Gemini Moon.

The Moon, for its part, suggests that you really do need some diversity in your life. That Capricorn Venus suggests that you have some unusual ways of processing your emotions, but you feel passionately and crave experimentation: but I don’t suggest that you fold your clothes before you make love.

Anyway, write back to me about the antsy part and let me know what happens after you have your radical honesty sessions.

Yours & truly,

===

Readers may send their questions to questions -at- planetwaves.net with the word QUESTION in the subject header. Not all questions will be answered. Please keep them short, concise and most of all, relevant to our readers. Please include your full birth data written out, for example, Feb. 30, 1801, rather than 2/30/01. Please include your time of birth! This feature is sponsored by your subscriptions to Planet Waves Astrology News! So please sign up and if you’re already a subscriber, please sign up a friend!

Today’s Oracle takes us to Apr 01, 2006 – Taurus – Monthly

You know that your ambitions are delicate, and the fact that certain individuals have found it within their rights to play dice with their loyalty or play politics instead of carrying water has been disconcerting. Yet if you can let the petty things remain small and keep your heart and soul focused on the vision for a better world that you’ve been nursing, you’ll find that all the games in the world cannot sway your steps. It has been said that there’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. You are currently in possession of such an idea, however humble or personal it may seem. Let the waves you seem to be making serve as a testament to your influence. It would seem that the greatest gift you have to offer is giving people an opportunity to cooperate, and setting an example for how they may take that too-often insurmountable evolutionary step.

Wednesday 30 July 2008

Arachne (12+ Libra) trine Nessus (12+ Aquarius Rx)
Sun (7+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Uranus (22+ Pisces Rx)
Mercury (7+ Leo) quintile Admetos (25+ Taurus)
Venus (21+ Leo) square Sedna (21+ Taurus)
Atlantis (21+ Libra) square Ceres (21+ Cancer)
Sisyphus (14+ Libra) square Jupiter (14+ Capricorn Rx)
Sun (7+ Leo) quintile Admetos (25+ Taurus)
Amor (4+ Gemini) semisquare Varuna (19+ Cancer)
Venus (21+ Leo) septile Arachne (12+ Libra)
Pallas (28+ Taurus) septile Varuna (19+ Cancer)
Sisyphus (14+ Libra) quintile Galactic Center (26+ Sagittarius)
Venus (21+ Leo) trine Eris (21+ Aries Rx)
Vesta (9+ Taurus) quintile Ceres (21+ Cancer)
Mercury (8+ Leo) square Asbolus (8+ Taurus)
Ceres (21+ Cancer) sesquiquadrate Pholus (6+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (14+ Leo) quincunx Jupiter (14+ Capricorn Rx)
Hylonome (2+ Sagittarius Rx) quintile Logos (20+ Virgo)
Atlantis (21+ Libra) septile Ixion (12+ Sagittarius Rx)
Eros (15 Leo) sesquiquadrate Aries Point (0 Aries)
Atlantis (21+ Libra) semisquare Pholus (6+ Sagittarius Rx)
Ceres (21+ Cancer) sextile Sedna (21+ Taurus)
Venus (22+ Leo) quincunx Uranus (22+ Pisces Rx)
Eros (15+ Leo) sextile Sisyphus (15+ Libra)
Mercury (9+ Leo) quintile Atlantis (21+ Libra)
Mercury (9+ Leo) square Vesta (9+ Taurus)