THE
SKY WITHIN
Report for Martha Stewart
An
Interpretation of Your Birth Chart
by
Steven
Forrest
This report was created by:
ArtCharts
151 1st Avenue #109
New York, NY 10003
917
829-6450
The
Sky Within
Martha Stewart
Aug 03, 1941
01:33:00 PM EDT +04:00
Jersey City, NJ
074W04'41" 40N43'41"
Planet |
Sign |
Position |
House |
|
House Cusps |
Sun |
Leo |
10¡Le58' |
09th |
|
01 10¡Sc15' |
Moon |
Sagittarius |
25¡Sg25' |
02nd |
|
02 09¡Sg18' |
Mercury |
Cancer |
25¡Ca25' |
09th |
|
03 12¡Cp53' |
Venus |
Virgo |
09¡Vi09' |
10th |
|
04 18¡Aq39' |
Mars |
Aries |
16¡Ar18' |
05th |
|
05 21¡Pi21' |
Jupiter |
Gemini |
14¡Ge49' |
08th |
|
06 18¡Ar20' |
Saturn |
Taurus |
27¡Ta18' |
07th |
|
07 10¡Ta15' |
Uranus |
Taurus |
29¡Ta54' |
07th |
|
08 09¡Ge18' |
Neptune |
Virgo |
25¡Vi47' |
11th |
|
09 12¡Ca53' |
Pluto |
Leo |
04¡Le07' |
09th |
|
10 18¡Le39' |
Midheaven |
Leo |
18¡Le39' |
|
|
11 21¡Vi21' |
Ascendant |
Scorpio |
10¡Sc15' |
|
|
12 18¡Li20' |
Planets within orb of 1.5 degrees of the following
house cusp are displayed and interpreted as being in
that house, except the Ascendant which uses 3 degrees.
Orb Conjunctions with Sun or Moon are 8 degrees.
All orbs are set according to Steven Forrest's methods.
© Copyright 1985-2000
Matrix Software, Inc.
407 N. State Ave., Big Rapids, MI
49307 231-796-2483
THE SKY WITHIN
by Steven Forrest
Using Your Birthchart
as a Spiritual Guide
A
woman has a baby and is blissful about it. Another one does the same, and
spends the rest of her life dreaming about how she might have been a ballerina.
The same choice: having a kid. But only one smiling woman.
Nobody
has a generic formula for happiness, at least not one that does the trick for
everyone. That's where astrology comes in.
The
birthchart, stripped to bare bones, is simply a description of the happiest,
most fulfilling life that's available to you... personally. It spells out a set
of strategies you can use to avoid boring routines, bad choices, and dead ends.
It lists your resources. And it talks about how your life looks when you're
misusing the resources and distorting the strategies -- shooting yourself in
the foot, in other words.
All
from a map of the sky?
Hard
to believe. But think for a minute...
"How
can the planets possibly affect us? They're millions of miles away."
Astrology's critics are fond of rolling out that argument. But it doesn't hold
water. Go out and gaze at the moon. What's really happening? Incomprehensible
energies are plunging across a quarter million miles of void, crashing through
your eyeballs and creating electrochemical changes in your brain. We call the
process "seeing the moon." Certainly the planets affect us. The
question is where do we draw the boundaries around those effects?
Let's
go a step further.
Open
your eyes on a starry night. What do you see? A vast, luminous space, full of
shadows and light. Now close your eyes so tight they ache. Where are you now?
What do you see? Again, a vast, luminous space, full of shadows and light.
Consciousness and cosmos are structured around the same laws, follow the same
patterns, and even feel pretty much the same to our senses.
"As
above, so below." Just as the starry night awes us with its vastness,
there's something infinitely deep inside you, a place you go when you close
your eyes, a place that's beyond being an Aries or a Gemini or even a specific
gender. At the most profound level, a birthchart is a map back to that magical
center. It describes a series of earthly experiences which, if you're brave and
open enough, will trigger certain states of consciousness in you -- states that
operate like powerful spiritual catalysts, vaulting you into higher levels of
being.
In
the pages that follow, you'll tour your personal birthchart. But don't expect
the usual "Scorpios are sexy" stuff. You are a mysterious being in a
mysterious cosmos. You're here for just a little while, a blink of God's eye.
You face a monumental task: figuring out what's going on! In that spiritual
work, astrology is your ally. How will it help?
Certainly
not by pigeon-holing you as a certain "type."
Astrology
works by reminding you who you are, by warning you about the comforting lies we
all tell ourselves, and by illuminating the experiences that trigger your most
explosive leaps in awareness.
After
that, the rest is up to you.
YOUR TEN TEACHERS
Freud
divided the human mind into three compartments: ego, id, and superego.
Astrologers do the same thing, except that our model of the mind differs from
Freud's in two fundamental ways. First, it's a lot more elaborate. Instead of
three compartments, we have ten: Sun, Moon, and the eight planets we see from
Earth. As we'll discover, each planet represents more than a
"circuit" in your psyche. It also serves as a kind of
"Teacher," guiding you into certain consciousness-triggering kinds of
experience.
The
second difference between astrology and psychology is that astrology's
mind-map, unlike Freud's, is rooted in nature itself, just as we are.
The
primary celestial teacher is the Sun. What does it teach? Selfhood. Vitality.
How to keep the life-force strong in yourself. If the Sun grew dimmer, so would
all the planets -- they shine by reflecting solar light. Similarly, if you fail
to stoke the furnaces of your own inner Sun, then you'll simply be "out of
gas." All your other planetary functions will suffer too.
How
do we learn this teacher's lessons?
Start
by realizing that when you were born the Sun was in Leo.
When
we hear "Lion," we think "fierce." But that's misleading. Go to the zoo and have a look at the
"King of the Beasts."
He's lying there, one eye open, looking regal. He knows he's the king. He doesn't need to make a fuss about it. The lion, like Leo at its best,
radiates quiet confidence. A
happy, creative, comfortable participation in the human family -- that's what
Leo the Lion is all about.
The
evolutionary method is deceptively simple: creative self-expression. As we offer evidence of our internal
processes to the world, we feel more at home, more accepted, more spontaneous
-- provided the world claps its hands for us! That's the catch.
Leo needs an appreciative audience. That audience can be a thousand people cheering or one
person saying "I love you."
Either way, it's applause, and for the Lion, that's evolutionary rocket
fuel.
Toughing
it out, not letting oneself be affected by a lack of support or understanding,
may well be an important spiritual lesson -- but not for Leo. Here the evolutionary problem comes
down to lack of real, ultimate trust in other people. The cure isn't toughness; it's building a pattern of joyful
give-and-take. So perform! And if no one claps, go somewhere else
and perform again.
With
your Sun in Leo, you are naturally creative. Your task is to express that side of your character
vigorously and confidently -- and to make sure that what you offer is
appreciated. What is the best
truth you know? What's holy and
pure in your life, worth living for?
That's your gift. Dramatize
it. Package it somehow. And perform! You may be drawn to the arts. But just as possibly, you might express your creativity in a
business, or in some public service.
Beneath
the colorful surface of your character, there is an insecurity. Hardly anyone sees it. It's the fundamental spiritual problem
you've come into this life to work out.
Your "yoga" lies in tricking the world into clapping its hands
for you. Be wary, though: even if
you win the Nobel prize, it won't mean a thing unless you win it for expressing
your SELF. Otherwise, your
deep-seated doubts and insecurities about your SELF go untouched and unhealed.
One
more thing -- if you're doing your best and nobody's clapping, remember this:
your act is fine; it's the audience that needs to be replaced.
We
can take our analysis of your natal Sun a step further. When you were born,
that solar light illuminated the Ninth house. What does that signify?
Start
by realizing that Houses represent twelve basic arenas of life. There's a House
of Marriage, for example, and a House of Career. Always, we find an element of
"fate" in our House structures; the "Hand of God"
continually presents us with existential and moral questions connected with our
emphasized Houses. How we react and what we learn -- or fail to learn -- is our
own business.
One
brief technical note: Sometimes the Sun, the Moon, or a planet lies near the
end of the House. We then say it's "conjunct the cusp" of the subsequent
House, and interpret it as though it were a little further along... in the next
House, in other words.
The
House of Long Journeys over Water -- that's one old name for this part of the
birthchart. Since you have energy
focused here a fortune-teller would say, "I see travel in your
stars." True enough, although
a deeper way of expressing the same notion is that immersing yourself in
cultures outside the one into which you were born is a pivotal spiritual
catalyst for you.
There
are other kinds of catalytic journeys.
Getting a wide education, formally or informally, is one. So is anything that breaks up the
normal routines of life and thought.
Even learning to hang-glide.
Ultimately,
in the Ninth House you weave a grand scheme of life's meaning and purpose, at
least your own version of it. This
is the House of Religion... provided we recognize that many major world
religions have no churches or temples.
Cynicism is one such religion.
Existentialism, Materialism, and Science are others, not to mention
Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and so on.
With
the Sun in the Ninth House, you have to pack the experiences of two or three
lifetimes into a single lifetime.
That means being willing to say good-bye to safe havens, to avoid the
human tendency to drift into routines.
The motif of the Quest is strong in your destiny-pattern. It manifests as travel, but also as a
search for knowledge and meaning.
Trust yourself; don't be seduced by "practicality"; above all,
recognize that we're all just pilgrims in this world, here for a moment, then
gone, carrying only what our souls have managed to digest.
The
next step in our journey through your birthchart carries us to the Moon.
As
you might expect, Luna resonates with the magical, emotional sides of your
psyche. It represents your mood, averaged over a lifetime. As the heart's
teacher, it tells you how to feel comfortable, how to meet your deepest needs.
While the Sun lets you know what kinds of experiences and relationships help
you feel sane, the Moon is concerned with another piece of the puzzle: feeling
happy.
When
you were born, the Moon was in Sagittarius.
To
the medieval astrologer, there were three kinds of Sagittarian: the gypsy, the
scholar, and the philosopher.
They're all legitimate, healthy parts of the picture. Sagittarius represents the urge to
expand our horizons, to break up the routines that imprison us. One way to do that is to escape the
bonds of the culture into which we were born -- that's the gypsy. Another is to educate ourselves, to push
our intelligence beyond its customary "position papers" -- the way of
the scholar. Finally, our intuition can stretch outward, trying
to come to terms with cosmic law, attempting to grasp the meaning and purpose
of life. That's the philosopher's
path.
To
keep your Sagittarian energies healthy, you need to feed them an endless supply
of fresh experience. Travel. Take classes. Learn to scuba dive.
Amazement feeds the Archer the same way protein feeds your physical
body. Conversely, if there's a cardinal
sin for Sagittarius, it is to consciously, willingly allow yourself to be
bored.
With
your Moon in Sagittarius, there's a plucky, open, innocent quality to your
instinctive life. You find
yourself here in this fascinating, inexplicable universe. You have X number of minutes to explore
it all--better get on with it! You
feel most comfortable when you're actively pursuing your Holy Grail, which is
Understanding. You may do that by
reading books or watching National Geographic specials. You may do it by stretching your
physical horizons. But you'll
never do it while mired in predictable routines.
Your
spirit feels good when you have people in your life who aren't strangers to amazement, people who like it when
you change their minds... and people who are capable of changing yours.
Going
farther, we see that your Moon lies in the Second house of your chart.
Traditionally,
the Second House is the House of Money.
That's true, but the issues here are much broader. This is the House of Resources, and resources
aren't always financial. If you're
lost in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, at two in the morning, you'll probably feel
pretty insecure. If you have a
thousand dollars in your pocket, that'll help; you'll feel more
legitimate. The money is a
resource, and it produces the classic Second House effect: helping you feel
more confident. But speaking fluent Serbo-Croatian would do the same; knowing
the language is a terrific resource, even though no one will give you a nickel
for it.
Your
Second House energies feel awkward, as if everyone is staring at them. Dignity and self-esteem are the issues
here. The solution isn't some
"We all God's chillin'" formula for uncritical self-love. Instead, it's a process of recognizing
your deficiencies objectively and seeking to correct them: proving yourself to
yourself, in other words.
With
the Moon in the Second House, feeling confidence in yourself does not come
automatically; you've had to work at it.
How? A lot depends on what
we just learned a few seconds ago -- the activities connected with the sign
your Moon occupies play a terrific role in helping you feel worthy of the good
things in life. Add to that
formula the classic lunar strategy: nurturing. If you find something -- a person, an animal, an institution
-- that's wounded in some way and you manage to bring it back from the brink of
disaster, you're feeding your Moon and thereby deepening your elemental
dignity. The pitfall, of course,
lies in not letting go of the thing you're healing even after it's well. Avoid that, and you'll be fine.
There's
a third critical piece in your astrological puzzle -- the Ascendant, or rising
sign. Along with the Sun and Moon, it completes the "primal triad."
What is it? What does it mean? Simple -- the Ascendant is the sign that was
coming up over the eastern horizon at the instant of your birth. It's where the
sun is at dawn, in other words. In exactly the same way, the Ascendant
represents how you "dawn" on people -- that is, how you present
yourself. It's your "style," or your "mask."
The
ascendant means more than that. It symbolizes a way you can help yourself feel
centered, at ease, comfortable with who you are. If you get its message, then
something wonderful happens: your style hooks you into the world of experience
in a way that feeds your spirit exactly the kinds of events and relationships
you need. Your soul is charged with more enthusiasm for the life you're living
-- and you feel vibrant, confident, and full of animal grace.
When
you took your first breath, Scorpio was lifting over the eastern horizon of
Jersey City, NJ. Let's begin our analysis by considering the meaning and
spiritual message of the sign of "The Detective".
The
Scorpion! A spooky image for a
spooky sign. There's a scary side
to life. People get terrible
diseases. Kids get damaged. Old people are forgotten. Everybody dies. Socially we're conditioned to avoid
mentioning those things, or to mention them only in ritual contexts -- like
jokes or political speeches. For
Scorpio, the evolutionary aim is to face those shadowy places. To make the unconscious conscious. To break taboos.
The
Scorpio part of you is deep and penetrating. It has little patience with phoniness or hypocrisy. Trouble is, a little phoniness or
hypocrisy often make life a lot easier for everyone! Be careful of becoming so "deep" that you lose
perspective. In the Scorpion part
of your life, you could slip into brooding and heaviness. So laugh a little! And find a few friends you can talk
to. Do that, and you'll keep you
balance well enough to find wisdom.
With
Scorpio rising, we find something of an astrological paradox: the sign most
concerned with penetrating the innermost reaches of the psyche is charged with
the task of creating the exterior of the character! It's not a natural combination, but what happens is that
your style tends toward intensity and probing. You make eye contact easily. A wall of energy radiates from you, carrying an unspoken
message: "There will be no phoniness between us. Either tell the truth, or take a walk." Some people will choose to take the
walk! But others will immediately
find themselves overwhelmed with a desire to "confess" something to
you. "I've never told anyone
this before, but..."
To
feel centered, you need to experience a lot of eye-to-eye intensity. There must be drama in your life; there
must be truth; and there must be passion.
What
have we learned so far? Quite a lot. Astrologers use the primal triad of Sun,
Moon, and Ascendant in much the same way people who know just a little
astrology use Sun signs. The difference is that while there are only twelve Sun
signs, there are 1728 different combinations of all three factors. So when we
say that you are a Leo with the Moon in Sagittarius and Scorpio rising, that's
a very specific statement.
Here's
a way to make those words come even more alive. Traditionally, signs are
connected with Bulls and Sea-Goats and Scorpions -- creatures we don't see
every day. But we can translate those images into more modern archetypes.
We
can say you are "The Performer", or "The Aristocrat", or
"The Clown". Those are just different ways of saying you have the Sun
in Leo.
We
can say you have the soul of "The Gypsy", or "The Scholar",
or "The Philosopher"... your Moon lies in Sagittarius, in other
words.
We
can add that you wear the mask of "The Detective", or "The Sorcerer",
or "The Hypnotist". Those images capture the spirit of your
Ascendant, which is Scorpio.
You
can combine those archetypes any way you want. And you can go further: Once you
have a feel for the three basic signs in your primal triad, you can make up
your own images to go with them. Whatever words you choose, those simple
statements are your fundamental astrological signature. It's your skeleton. Our
next step is to begin adding flesh and hair to that skeleton by considering the
planets.
Unsurprisingly,
planets can gain prominence in a birthchart through association with the Sun,
Moon, or Ascendant. These three are power brokers, and any linkage with them
boosts a planet's influence.
Your
own birthchart is complicated by the fact that, at your birth, Pluto was
aligned with the Sun... or "conjunct" the Sun, to use the proper
astrological term. Thus, the energy and spirit of that planet is fused with
your solar identity. In a sense, you are an "incarnation" of
Pluto."
What
can that mean? Start by understanding the significance of the planet.
"Life's
a bitch. Then you die." Go to any boutique from coast to coast; you'll
find those words on a coffee mug. Meaninglessness. Like most truly frightening
ideas, we make a joke of it. That's Plutonian territory: the realm of all that
terrifies us so badly we need to hide from it. Death. Disease. Our personal
shame. Sexuality, to some extent. Initially, Pluto asks us to face our own
wounds, squarely and honestly. Then, if we succeed, it offers us a way to
create an unshakable sense of meaning in our lives. How? Methods vary according
to the Signs and Houses involved, but always they have one point in common: the
high Plutonian path invariably involves accepting some trans-personal purpose
in your life.
One
more point: Pluto moves so slowly that it remains in a given Sign for many
years. As result, its Sign position in your birthchart refers not only to you
but also to your generation. The House position, however, is much more personal
in its relevance.
Pluto
was journeying slowly through the sign Leo. Thus the shadow material you are
called upon to face has to do with the dark side of the Performer archetype: an
obsession with being noticed. In what part of your life or personal history
have you chosen style over substance, glitz over moral excellence? (If your
answer is "Nowhere!" then congratulations... you're Enlightened... or
not looking hard enough.)
At
the moment of your birth, Pluto gleamed in the Ninth House... a part of the
natal chart concerned with expansive adventures, and with philosophy. It is
essential that you make contact, however brief or long term, with
"foreign" cultures. Through the act of committing yourself to such a
quest, a transformation occurs in your being -- and the capacity to fulfill
your transpersonal mission arises. What is that mission? To forcefully
encourage people to consider their lives from the viewpoint of meaning and
purpose. This is the Path of the Preacher; follow it, but be wary of the
pitfalls of self-righteousness and certainty.
While
a fairly large number of people have Pluto in that sign and house, the fact
that it lies conjunct your Sun gives it special emphasis. By pushing the
strengths it suggests toward their limits, you charge your solar vitality,
approach your destiny, and set the stage for fullfilling your spiritual
purpose.
Sometimes
a planet gains prominence in a birthchart simply by sharing a House with the
Sun. That's the case with you. Mercury is bathing in solar light, occupying the
Ninth House along with our central star.
Mercury
buzzes around the Sun in eighty-eight days, making it the fastest of the
planets. It buzzes around your head in exactly the same way: frantically. It's
the part of you that never rests -- the endless firing of your synapses as your
intelligence struggles to organize a picture of the world. Mercury represents
thinking and speaking, learning and wondering. It is the great observer, always
curious. It represents your senses themselves and all the raw, undigested data
that pours through them.
Mercury
is marinating in the depths of Cancer. That combination links your mental
functions with the dreamy creativity and compassion of the Healer archetype.
Your voice is soothing, your mind full of sensitivity and subjectivity.
Spiritually you are learning a lot about the risks -- and the absolute
necessity -- of emotional self-expression.
With
the traditional "Messenger of the Gods" occupying your Ninth House,
you have the mind of the eternal student, always learning, always eager to
stretch a little further. It's important that you blow out the mental cobwebs
periodically by taking a trip into another culture -- or by enrolling in a
stimulating class or workshop.
Your
birthchart displays another area of heightened activity: the Seventh House. The
reason for that is simple -- there's a lot of planetary activity. With Saturn
and Uranus in that area of your life, it is charged with activity, soul
lessons, and opportunities for personal development. Before we even consider
the planets separately, our first step is to explore this piece of existential
real estate in broad terms.
One
thing about love -- there's no way to learn much about it without some
help! The Seventh House,
traditionally the House of Marriage, is the part of your birthchart where you
encounter the people who'll provide your deepest insights into intimacy. But that's not a code word for
sex! For that reason,
"Marriage" is a misleading title for this House. You can have intimacy without erotic or
romantic feelings.
There
are two parts to understanding the Seventh House. The first is that whatever energies you have in this part of
your birthchart represent lessons you're learning about empathy, trust, and
commitment. The second is that
those same planetary energies describe the people who'll provide the
lessons. They may be mates or
lovers. They may be best
friends. They may be colleagues or
business associates. They may even
be "worthy opponents."
Look
at a NASA photo of Saturn. The icy elegance of the planet's rings, the pale
understatement of the cloud bands... both hint at the clarity and precision
which characterize Saturn's astrological spirit. Part of the human psyche must
be cold and calculating, cunning enough to survive in the physical world. Part
of us thrives on self-discipline, seeks excellence, pays the price of devotion.
Somewhere in our lives there's a region where nothing but the best of what we
are is enough to satisfy us. That's the high realm of Saturn. In its low realm,
we take one glance at those challenges and our hearts turn to ice. We freeze in
fear, and despair claims us.
The
earthy terrain of Taurus offers a region of profound spiritual challenge for
you, as Saturn was passing through that sign at your birth. You must learn to
steel yourself in the face of the Bull's shadow side: spirit-numbing
predictability. Will yourself toward openness! Throw a monkey wrench into your
efficient systems! This is especially healing -- and challenging -- in the
context of Saturn's House in your birthchart. Which House was that?
The
Seventh! The arena of life where we encounter our soulmates -- lovers, deep
friends, and partners -- and figure out what to do with them! With Saturn here,
you face some profound lessons in the intimacy department. To prepare for them,
focus first on self-sufficiency, both materially and emotionally. Then seek out
partners with Saturnian qualities: responsibility, sobriety, a willingness to
make -- and keep -- deep vows.
If
Uranus were the only planet in the sky, we'd all be so independent we'd still
be Neanderthals throwing rocks at each other. There would be no language, no
culture, no law. On the other hand, if Uranus did not exist, we'd all still be
hauling rocks for Pharaoh. All individuality would be suppressed. This is the
planet of individuation... the process whereby we separate out who we are from
what everybody else wants us to be. Always it indicates an area of our lives in
which, to be true to ourselves, we must "break the rules" -- that is,
overcome the forces of socialization and peer pressure. In that part of our
experience, what feeds our souls tends to annoy mom and dad... and all the
"moms" and "dads" who lay down the law of the tribe.
With
Uranus in Taurus, the process of individuation for you is tied up with the Path
of the Earth Spirit. That is to say, you strengthen and clarify your own
Uranian identity through deepening your bond with nature -- and without that
you're likely to clog up your life with unnecessary conservatism. Consciously
chosen forays into the natural world, such as hiking, gardening, or close
association with animals, purify your sense of self, purging out the spurious
"inner voices" you've swallowed sitting in front of the great
wraparound television set of late twentieth century Industrial Culture.
House
of Marriage -- that's the old name for the Seventh House, where your Uranus
lies. The issues are broader; not just marriage, but all your significant
partnerships. Uranus is your Teacher here, and the lessons can be summarized
this way: the only kinds of emotional bonds that are likely to last for you, at
least happily, are ones in which there's plenty of room for your own freedom
and self-expression. You bristle at constraint. To link with your natural
soulmates, you'll often have to break taboos... hooking up with people upon
whom your "tribe" looks down, or whom they feel are
"inappropriate" for you somehow.
In
the final analysis, all planets are important. Each one plays a unique role in
your developmental pattern, and failure to feed any one of them results in a
diminution of your life. Just because the following planets aren't "having
breakfast with the President" through association with the Sun, Moon, or
Ascendant doesn't mean we can ignore them.
You're
lying in your bed, going to sleep. Suddenly a jolt runs through your body. You
just "caught yourself falling asleep." Where were you two seconds
before the jolt? What were you? Astrologically, the answer lies with Neptune.
This is the planet of trance, of meditation, of dreams. It represents your
doorway into the "Not-Self." Based on the sign the planet occupies,
we identify a particularly critical spiritual catalyst for you... although we
need to remember that Neptune remains in a Sign for an average of a little over
thirteen years, so its Sign position actually describes not only you, but your
whole generation. Its House position, however, is more uniquely your own.
Neptune
was passing through Virgo. Thus, to trigger higher states of consciousness in
yourself and to stimulate your psychic development, you may choose to follow
the Path of the Servant... that is consciously, intentionally to seek the
perfection of those skills and virtues in yourself which benefit others.
Without exposure to the purifying, soul-bleaching effects of selfless service,
you tend to drift away from Spirit, losing yourself in the mazes of daily life
-- or in the subtle ego-traps of meditation.
Neptune,
planet of transcendence, occupies the Eleventh House of your birthchart, where
its mystical feelings are linked to the priorities which increasingly shape and
dominate your life as you mature. If you get six out of every ten existential
questions right, by the time you're old you'll be living a contemplative life,
full of the presence of God. Inevitably, down that road we would see you
surrounded by people who draw inspiration from you. The darker path, optional
unless you fail to explore the spiritual dimensions of your life now, is that by
the end of life you'll be totally dedicated to keeping yourself anesthetized.
Take
all the planets, all the meteors, moons, asteroids, and comets. Roll them up in
a big ball of cosmic mush. They still wouldn't equal the mass of the "King
of the Gods" -- Jupiter. Exactly that same bigness pervades the planet's
astrological spirit. Jupiter is the symbol of buoyancy and generosity, of
opportunity and joy. At the deepest level, it represents faith... faith in
life, that is, rather than faith in anybody's theological position papers.
Jupiter
stands in Gemini. This is an important piece of information -- maybe a pivotal
one. Being human is tough sometimes. When you need to boost your elemental
faith in life, your answer lies in following the Way of the Witness or the
Storyteller. What that means is that when you're sad, the only cure is a big
dose of amazement. Do something new. Take a chance. Learn something. Break up a
routine. Have a fascinating conversation with an intriguing stranger. Almost
invariably that will put the sparkle back in your eyes.
In
your chart, the "King of the Gods" reigns in the Eighth House --
traditionally the "House of Death," although mating and sexuality are
actually more central to the symbolism. To maintain your faith in life, you
must seek a living sexual bond, full of eye-contact and soul-contact, with an
open, enthusiastic partner. If you lack such a connection in your life, then
it's especially critical that you contact the primal forces of nature in other
ways. Walk in the wind. Meditate on a mountaintop at midnight. Stand on a dune
with your heart open to the gale-driven waves.
Pale
red Mars suggested blood to our ancestors, and they named it the War God.
That's an effective metaphor -- Mars does represent violence. But today we go
further. The red planet symbolizes the power of the Will. Assertiveness.
Courage. Without it, there'd be no fire in life. No spark. Where your Mars
lies, you are challenged to find the Spiritual Warrior inside yourself, the
part of you that's brave and clear enough to claim your own path and follow it.
Mars
blazes in Aries. This is a natural combination of fiery energies, and it turns
up the volume on your gutsiness, assertiveness, and general feistiness. There's
a price tag, though: with all that fire coursing through your veins, you need
to burst through brick walls every now and then -- or you'll slip into
argumentativeness and temper. Spiritually you're learning the purest Mars
lesson of all: bravery.
With
the War-God occupying your Fifth House, you have a strong and rather
competitive streak of playfulness. One of your greatest joys lies in finding a
"worthy opponent" -- on the tennis court, across the chess board, or
in the dramas of any passionate human interaction. Be careful of overwhelming
people; you can do it, often without knowing that's what you're doing.
Venus
is the part of your mental circuitry that's concerned with releasing tension
and maintaining harmony. Its focus is always peace, inwardly and outwardly. As
such, it represents your aesthetic functions -- your taste in colors, sounds,
and forms. Why? Because the perception of beauty soothes the human heart. Venus
is also tied to your affiliative functions -- your romantic instincts, your
sense of courtesy or diplomacy, your taste in friends. Invariably, this planet
has one goal: sustaining your serenity in the face of life's onslaughts.
Venus
was passing through Virgo. Thus, both your aesthetic sensitivity and your taste
in partners is shaped by the keen-eyed discrimination of the Virgin. In the
realm of beauty, whether natural or wrought by human hands, you have a taste
for quality, for precise execution, for technical virtuosity. The same goes for
friends and sexual partners -- you appreciate people with a no-nonsense air of
competence and realism, people who assess themselves with searing honesty, then
get on with the business of working on themselves.
With
Venus in the Tenth House, your "cosmic job description" is
Peacemaker, Counselor, or Artist. An old-fashioned astrologer would simply say
you're lucky when it comes to work and status. That's true... in a way. But be
careful: Life will dangle cushy positions before you like the worm before the
trout... and they conceal the hook of emptiness. (How to avoid it? Go back half
a hundred words and re-read your "cosmic job description"... those
Venus-sign images describe the paths of joy for you.)
Your Lunar Nodes
The soul's journey
Here's
a jolly baby. Here's a serious one. An alert one. A dull one. A wise one. Those
are common nursery room observations, but they raise a fascinating question:
How did that person get in there?
Most
of our psychological theory, either technically or in folklore, is
developmental theory... abuse a child and he'll grow up to be a child-abuser,
for example. But in the eyes of the newborn infant, there is already character.
How can that be? One might say it's heredity, and that's certainly at least
part of the answer. A large part of the world's population would call it
reincarnation -- that baby, for better or worse, represents the culmination of
centuries of soul-development in many different bodies. A Fundamentalist might
simply announce, "That's how God made the baby." Who's to say? But
all three explanations hold one point in common: They all agree that we cannot account
for what we observe in a baby's eyes without acknowledging the impact of events
occurring before the child's birth.
In
astrology, the South Node of the Moon refers to events occurring before your
birth, helping us to see what was in your eyes ten seconds after you were
born... however we imagine it got in there! The Moon's North Node, always
opposite the South Node, refers to your evolutionary future. It's a subtle
point, but arguably the most important symbol in astrology. The North Node
represents an alien state of consciousness and an unaccustomed set of
circumstances. If you open your heart and mind to them, you put maximum tension
on the deadening hold of the past.
As
we consider the Nodes of the Moon in your birthchart, we'll be using the language
of reincarnation. Whether that notion fits your own spiritual beliefs is of
course your own business. If it doesn't work for you, please translate the
ideas into ancestral hereditary terms. After all, it makes little practical
difference whether we speak of a certain farmer weeding his beans a thousand
years before the Caesars as your great, great, mega-great grandfather... or as
you yourself in a previous incarnation. Either way, he's someone who lived way
back there in history who sort of is you, sort of isn't, and lives on inside
you--influencing but not ultimately defining you.
At
your birth, the South Node of the Moon lay in Pisces, the sign of the Mystic.
Anyone looking into your eyes as you took your first breath would have observed
an eerie wisdom, as though he or she were looking into the eyes of a buddha.
For centuries, you've been exploring trance states, typically in the context of
spiritual traditions and institutions but occasionally in darker ways... like
the "trance" induced by alcohol or opium. As a result, an intuitive
grasp of altered and higher states of consciousness has arisen in you. Now,
like one who has become too heavenly to be of any earthly good, you must learn
new lessons: practical helpfulness toward others and a willingness to face
squarely the mucky details of getting free.
That
nascent ability to willingly and effectively accept the yoke of service is
symbolized by your North Node of the Moon, which lies in Virgo -- the sign of
the Craftsperson. As we saw earlier, the North Node can be seen as the most
significant point in the entire birthchart. Why? Because it represents your
evolutionary future... the ultimate reason you're alive, in other words. How
can you accomplish this Virgoan spiritual work? The "yoga" is easy to
say, harder to do: you must overcome the myth of "World
Transcendence" inside yourself, and begin polishing a set of skills with
which you can address the pain of other people, one by one.
There's
another piece to the puzzle: The Moon's South Node falls in the Fifth House of
your chart. This implies that previous to this lifetime you lived out the
notion that "the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." There
has developed in your spirit a spontaneous immediacy... creative and joyful,
but vulnerable to the life-derailing effects of whimsy and self-indulgence.
In
this lifetime, with your North Node of the Moon in the Eleventh House, you must
act to counterbalance those whimsical, self-indulgent tendencies... not so much
because they're "bad" as because you've already learned everything
you can from them. The time has come for you to take authority over the shape
of your own life, establishing your own goals and priorities, determining in
advance what kind of elderly person you'll become. Finish what you start!
And
that's your birth chart.
Trust
it; the symbols are Spirit's message to you. In the course of a lifetime,
you'll make a billion choices. Any one of them could potentially hurt you
terribly, sending you down a barren road. How can you steer a true course? The
answer is so profound that it circles around and sounds trivial: listen to your
heart, be true to your soul. Noble words and accurate ones, but tough to
follow.
The
Universe, in its primal intelligence, seems to understand that difficulty. It
supplies us with many external supports: Inspiring religions and philosophies.
Dear friends who hold the mirror of truth before us. Omens of a thousand kinds.
And, above all, the sky itself, which weaves its cryptic message above each
newborn infant.
In
these pages, you've experienced one reading of that celestial message as it
pertains to you. There are others. You may want to consider sitting with a real
astrologer ... micro-chips are fine, but a human heart can still express
nuances of meaning that no computer can grasp. You may want to order other
reports, ones that illuminate your current astrological "weather," or
that analyze important relationships. Best of all, you may choose to learn this
ancient language yourself, and begin unraveling your own message in your own
words.
Whatever
your course, we thank you for your time and attention, and wish you grace for
your journey.