“Tom and myself rode down this hill in a ropey old 1950′s Leyland bus, typical of the Maltese bus fleet, but driven by the stunt driver for the bus scenes in ‘Speed’ where the bomb would go off if they slowed to less than [...]]]> The photographer’s description of this image is as striking as the picture itself:

“Tom and myself rode down this hill in a ropey old 1950′s Leyland bus, typical of the Maltese bus fleet, but driven by the stunt driver for the bus scenes in ‘Speed’ where the bomb would go off if they slowed to less than 40mph! We were on high seats opposite the exit door and had to grip on whilst centripetal force took us and the bus closer to the outside wall. Tyres squealed on the hot tarmac and we were saved by some old dear in black who didn’t seem to need to hang on and dinged the bell as calmly as you like for the driver to stop and let her off.” (Source)

Life feels like this, sometimes, for each of us. Yet some people are more prone than others to careening through the days, whipped back and forth by forces they feel they can’t control. They complain of other people’s actions and influences on their lives: “He made me feel bad,” “She won’t let me go,” “They really have me tied down.”

In traditional psychology, this innate sense of where control lies in one’s life is referred to as the locus of control. In astrology — namely in Huber astrology — we can determine where a chart native’s locus of control lies in different areas of life by examining the dynamic calculations: a series of negative and positive numbers whose values reflect the strength of various mode and element combinations within the chart, based on planet, sign and house placements.

For example, someone with dynamic calculations of +33 mutable and +14 earth will end up with a “build-up” of +47 in Virgo energy (Virgo being the mutable earth sign). This means, in a nutshell, that the person tends to assume that Virgo-type control over life exists externally, out in the world, not within her own domain. So though she may have several planets in Virgo, she may feel their obligation, responsibility and critical analysis being imposed on her from others rather than from within herself.

Similarly, someone with dynamic calculations of -18 fixed and +10 water will end up with a “cut-down” of -8 in Scorpio (fixed water) energy. The person’s sense of emotional depth, intensity and control will lie more within himself than without; he is more likely to acknowledge that his strong feelings are generated internally rather than to blame someone else, or some external circumstance, for them.

This basic knowledge of dynamic calculations, alongside the psychological concept of locus of control, can be enormously helpful for clients who feel they are careening down a mountainside in a runaway bus with a crazy driver and a bomb on board. The astrologer may be the wise woman in black, calmly ringing the bell, telling the client it’s okay to get off, to see what it’s like to descend calmly and quietly on his own two feet.

Image: Harry Willis

In ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the frog [...]]]> Ask a friend to name an animal commonly depicted in literature, myth and culture, and the answer isn’t likely to be “frog.” But from the ancient Egyptian goddess Heket to The Frog Prince to Michigan J. Frog, the croaking amphibians have populated the cultural imagination for thousands of years.

In ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the frog was associated with fertility, probably in part because the animals appeared in droves following the annual flooding of the Nile, whose silt deposits fertilized the Egyptian soil. In Asia, frogs are harbingers of fortune and luck, as they are in Scotland: “Households often keep stone frogs in their gardens and they are often given as house warming presents.” (Source) And in the Celtic Druidic tradition:

[The frog] unites the elements of water and earth, bringing joy, delight and healing in its singing and hopping … The frog possesses an extremely sensitive skin, considered magical by shamans. A companion of the rain spirits, the frog can help you develop sensitivity to others, to healing and to sound through your skin and your whole body and aura. (Source)

This symbolic sensitivity actually shows up on a scientific level as frogs are a documented sentinel, or indicator, species. In recent years, deformities in frogs have been noted as an early indicator of chemical farm pollution impacting local ecosystems. (Source) As well, in nature, frogs occupy the space between water and land, much as Heket represents the final stages of childbirth, when the baby emerges from the amniotic fluid to come live on the drier earth.

The composition of the photo above (wittingly? unwittingly?) reveals this sensitive in-the-margins space that frogs occupy both in the scientific research and in the cultural imagination: The stone sculpture of the frog sits at the shoreline between foliage and bark, and its skin is painted both red and blue, as if it could flux back and forth between two innate ways of being. (In Huber astrology, different colors represent different energies: red squares and oppositions are active; blue sextiles and trines are restful.)

The astrological archetype that first jumps to mind when I think about these characteristics of the frog is Mercury: it is light, flexible, sensitive, magical; it traverses the margins between defined worlds. But Mercury is a bit “drier” than a frog, airier and more detached than water and earth would suggest. So I want to say the frog, perhaps, is Mercury in a water sign (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) or, under the right conditions, in an earth sign (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn). Or perhaps it is Mercury coupled with Virgo or the Moon or maybe even Jupiter: a planet that brings it a waterier, earthier sensibility, that deepens its sensitivity in an intuitive and sensual way.

There is one more element in the photo above that deserves comment: the paint is peeling. The frog is obviously old and may be neglected or forgotten (or, on the other hand, intentionally left to the weather). Whatever the case, there is a whisper of Saturn here, of the slow decay that comes with time. In our culture, we tend to turn away from such things.

But the photo instead shows how, over time, the bravely sensitive — and patient — person exposes what is underneath, makes raw and available what is inside, perhaps to help others, perhaps to move closer authenticity, perhaps to become more fertile with the deepening of each passing year.

Photo: lisa_eglinton

I look at it and see the Taurus-Scorpio axis.

Can anyone tell me why?

Hint: Hover over the picture for a [...]]]> I’m behind on my blogging this week but wanted to get this picture up while I have a minute.

I look at it and see the Taurus-Scorpio axis.

Can anyone tell me why?

Hint: Hover over the picture for a clue.

Photo: wiskinator

She looked lovely, of course, her hair, makeup and clothes tasteful and appealing. She spoke with a quiet, comfortable sort [...]]]> Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was Jon Stewart’s guest on The Daily Show last night and, befitting of the nation’s first female Supreme Court Justice, she did an exemplary job of demonstrating the Libra-Venus archetype.

She looked lovely, of course, her hair, makeup and clothes tasteful and appealing. She spoke with a quiet, comfortable sort of humor and an affability that moved in consort with Stewart’s traditional teasing and deadpan jokes. Unlike some guests, she did not try to match Stewart’s humorous style or skill but, instead, met his personality with a light and grace all her own. That is, she didn’t spar with him but allowed him to make the joke and then responded in a similar vein, mirroring him but not trying to become him.

This ability to move with another person is uniquely Venusian, and it finds its most familiar home in the sign of Libra. Whereas a Mars/Aries person might wear louder clothes, spar more competitively with Stewart and try to make a big splash, O’Connor seemed happy to share the limelight and make an impression with her mere presence. The way she matched Stewart’s style with her own calm self-possession — and a twinkle in her eye — made me think what a pleasure it would be to have lunch with her.

But the gracious manner and lovely appearance of strong Libra-Venus types are only the most outwardly-obvious signs of what underlies the personality. There were a couple moments in the interview that belied the archetype even more deeply than O’Connor’s visible style.

The first sign was early on (at about the 11:50 mark in the video). Stewart asked O’Connor about her latest project, the website www.ourcourts.org. She said she got the idea as a response to the growing criticism, over the last several years, of “activist judges,” adding that she had read, in a study by the Annenberg Foundation, that only one-third of Americans can name the three branches of government (while 75% can name at least one American Idol judge!). The implication was that something seemed amiss in her environment — she was feeling criticized, something Libra-Venus types don’t take lightly — and she had to do something to fix the situation to her satisfaction, to bring it back into harmony with her own experience.

The other telling moment came at about the 18:40 mark on the video, after Stewart noted that, “The Supreme Court is famous for its collegiate atmosphere,” and asked how the justices are able to maintain that cordiality with each other over so many years of making tough, sometimes controversial decisions together. O’Connor’s response was simple, profound and quintessentially Libra-Venus.

She said, “One of the things you have to start learning in law school is how to disagree agreeably. Because when you’re on a court like that, a collegial court with an odd number of people — which they all are — you have to learn to disagree agreeably. Because you’re going to be there together a long time.”

It is not that Libra-Venus types are always agreeable — not by a long shot. But both relationship and harmony are of paramount importance to them. It is uncomfortable for strong Librans to not be in relationship. Yet whenever two people are engaged together, differences will arise and have to be resolved. An undeveloped Libra-Venus type might lash out, get jealous or feel slighted — and definitely regret it later because the all-important relationship has been damaged or lost.

But the developed type finds a way to get along with people, even people with whom she disagrees. She learns to “disagree agreeably” so the relationship can survive, flourish and bring good things in the long-term — because she knows that disagreement does not have to mean dissolution.

Not all the gifts on our Scorpio page will ring true to [...]]]> Quiet though they might be, a Scorpio can seethe at being forgotten on his or her birthday! It’s not that Scorpios want to be the center of attention so much (leave that to Leo) as that they want to know they’re remembered, treasured and understood.

Not all the gifts on our Scorpio page will ring true to the Scorpio in your life, since everyone has different tastes in music, movies and books. But at the very least it, paired with the Scorpio department of our online shop, should oil your gift-giving wheels. Keep in mind that Scorpios tend not to collect lots of things but rather a few pieces of fine quality they can sink their teeth into and love forever. Think intensity of design, luxury of texture and long, looong longevity of shelf-life.

That kind of purchase can be tough in this economy, but if it’s an option, you could pool resources with a few friends to go in on something unique and lasting like caiman-skin boots, a leather jacket, a velvet dress or a set of crystal goblets (Psst…as of this writing, some of these products are deeply discounted on Amazon — just click any of the links above).

If you’re still stuck, read further down the Scorpio page for a full description of the Scorpio archetype — that is, how the deeper churnings of the Scorpio psyche really work. You’ll see (in case you didn’t already know) that you’re dealing with a very deep, intense and perhaps even psychic person — someone who’s intrigued by mystery, intrigue and all things hidden, veiled or shrouded.

If you’re going for gifts of books, that could mean anything from detective tales (e.g., The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax or the highly acclaimed The Death of the Detective) to thriller novels (Classics like Cujo, The Shining or pretty much any Stephen King come to mind). For the less-escapist/more analytical minds among your Scorpio friends, it could mean books that track deep, dark changes in human history — for example The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s by Piers Brendan or Journey into the Whirlwind, a personal memoir of the Soviet Union under Stalinist rule, by Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg.

A final set of suggestions, for those Scorpios fascinated by the occult, are magical pieces like crystal balls and Tarot cards, a gift certificate for a horoscope reading, or a beautiful framed horoscope chart they can hang on their wall. The beauty and mystery of the symbols will intrigue them!

This week, after much ado in my mind, I launched the Zodiac Signs section of my website, with the addition of four complete sign pages. The other eight signs will roll out over the next few weeks.

These pages go beyond the usual textbook descriptions of each zodiac [...]]]> If it’s Aries, Taurus, Libra or Scorpio, you’re in luck!

This week, after much ado in my mind, I launched the Zodiac Signs section of my website, with the addition of four complete sign pages. The other eight signs will roll out over the next few weeks.

These pages go beyond the usual textbook descriptions of each zodiac sign, digging deeper into each archetype to get at the psychological dynamics underlying each common trait and behavior. So even if you think you’re all read out on your Sun sign, check it out — you might get new insight after all.

The pages also include some shopping links so you can explore birthday or holiday gifts sign by sign. Currently there are shopping links for all four signs listed above, plus Gemini and Sagittarius. Enjoy!

“yesterday was an angry day for me and i had felt it bubbling up for a few days. after a fight with the SO, snapping at the Dictator, slamming the door (4 times, i kept forgetting things) i FINALLY made it out the door to school – late, beaten, angry, down. i didn’t start [...]]]> Reader Andromeda writes:

“yesterday was an angry day for me and i had felt it bubbling up for a few days. after a fight with the SO, snapping at the Dictator, slamming the door (4 times, i kept forgetting things) i FINALLY made it out the door to school – late, beaten, angry, down. i didn’t start to feel better until i spent about 5 hours in the darkroom.

“things are starting to make sense now. i suppose it would be a good time to channel all this energy into writing 2 term papers, an artist statement, do artist research, rewrite the art history essay that i completely failed, read 2 books for history, and study for 2 upcoming midterms. any planets coming into play soon that will help me from feeling completely over-whelmed?”

This certainly does sound like anger and overwhelm not just running amok, but smashing right into each other! Andromeda has external forces (her husband, her child, her school work) making lots of demands on her. At the same time, she’s getting down on herself for not managing it all perfectly. The result is anger and resentment. There are a few horoscope elements coming into play that reflect this development in Andromeda’s life.

First, her natal horoscope chart shows someone who values stability and reflection — and who needs sufficient “down time” to recharge before she has to motivate to action again. If she doesn’t get that down time, she likely starts to feel frantic and overwhelmed. This is not a natural state of being for her: Though she is by no means a slacker, she simply doesn’t thrive on constant Type A activity. It’s counterproductive.

Second, with her Age Point early in the 6th house of her natal chart, Andromeda has recently been thrust from more pleasurable life pursuits into facing the demands and realities of the world — and, at the same time, learning to cope with them. The Age Point in Aries adds a more demanding dimension to the life of someone who prefers to think and reflect before acting: The world is asking her, now, to just do it: Move, produce, create, react with little respite or reflection. That can create a sense of helpless resentment for someone who’s not used to this level of demand. Andromeda would do well to be a little selfish in this area right now: Set some boundaries and schedule some time when she need only focus on her own health and well-being. Otherwise she runs a serious risk of burnout.

Third, Andromeda’s progressed chart (which progresses the natal chart forward to show how her internal life has developed over time) shows a continued need for stability but confirms the greater level of activity she’s involved with now. It also shows that she’s putting a lot of energy into higher education and processing her experience on a deeper level — making what she learns an integral part of herself. This effort is also connected to a restlessness that is striving, but not yet finding, a strong outlet for expression.

It’s as if the productivity she’s engaging on one level wants to blossom into individuality, but the time is not yet at hand. And that can be frustrating. She should start feeling more directed with this energy after the new year — definitely by February — and its direction should become more and more clear with each coming year.

Finally, at the time of Andromeda’s question to me, Mars was (and remains) conjunct her natal Uranus, which is strong by house placement. This transit can indicate sudden intrusions, rash responses and resentfulness, not unlike those described by Andromeda in her message to me. It can also indicate an urge to unique self-expression and intense desire to go your own way — to buck authority, break the rules and forge out on your own. (It can also be an accident-prone period if a person is not aware of herself — so a time to be cautious as well.)

So I would warn Andromeda to slow down, pay attention to her surroundings and be absolutely sure that any rash decisions she makes now are either easily reversible or truly good for the long-term. This influence remains for Andromeda* until next Sunday or Monday (October 26-27), so until then she should be especially aware, and more careful than usual, of how she expresses her individuality, anger or impatience.

She could actually make use of a longer-term Jupiter transit, square her natal Pluto, to carve out time for emotional self-reflection and growth. If she is disciplined enough, she could do this on her own (that darkroom she describes could be the perfect place, if she sees it as a place for deepening instead of a place for escape); or she could seek out a wise person to be her guide. In any case, this kind of daily practice in self-reflection could be a steadying, long-term, maturing force in her life.

–
*Please note: This interpretation is specific to Andromeda’s chart only. Please e-mail me if you have a question about your own chart that you’d like me to answer in my blog. Include your birth date, birth time and birth place in your message.

In my astrologer’s [...]]]> This morning, as we do roughly every Monday or Tuesday, a friend and I got on the phone to discuss one dream each that we’d had over the weekend. Though this morning our respective dreams were quite different, they both had the same apocalyptic feeling that seems to be pervading the whole world lately.

In my astrologer’s mind, it was the feeling of Pluto moving into Capricorn:

• In my dream, I was with a group of friends in an outdoor mall where only one store was open and operating.  We heard, and then saw, a huge, heavy military plane fly very low overhead. It looked like a stealth bomber. We watched as it slowly got lower and lower, skimming treetops and power lines, then finally crashed into the ground nearby.
• In my friend’s dream, she was with her teenage daughter on a hilltop in Los Angeles. The hill slowly gave way under their feet and came sliding down to the ground below. They were okay in the end, but the entire hill was just gone from underneath them.

Astrologers are fond of pointing out that, around the time Pluto was discovered in 1930, atomic bombs were developed and fascism and Nazism reared their heads — frightening metaphors for the kind of cataclysmic and totalitarian destruction that can be wrought by Plutonian power. Pluto breaks things down into their unseen parts, forces us to look at them and remixes them into new, unfamiliar and sometimes terrifying structures. Pluto is the life-death-rebirth cycle in all its imaginable forms.

A less truly frightening Plutonian metaphor of 1930 was the debut that year of the U.S. radio drama The Shadow – with actor Frank Readick, Jr. intoning the iconic introduction:

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh! The Shadow knows…”

In Jungian terms, the shadow is psychological material that gains its power from the very fact that it is repressed. It’s usually repressed because it’s something we don’t want to admit about ourselves. The more we repress it, the bigger and more powerful it grows, creating projection situations where we can see it only outside of ourselves.

For example, did you ever despise someone for, say, her arrogance, only to be forced to admit that you’ve got a certain self-righteousness about you as well? Or have you ever been the President of a superpower who systematically shut down the freedoms of its own population while embarking on an international campaign for freedom in other countries? The larger and stronger the shadow grows, the greater power it has over you — precisely because you haven’t dared to look at it, to admit it exists, to confront it head-on. And the more you ignore it, the bigger ass-kicking is required to make you pay attention to it.

In the horoscope, any planet can contain shadow material, not just Pluto. But Pluto’s dynamic tends to be the archetypal shadow dynamic — the force of change through exposure of hidden powers — and its expression is generally large-scale and often scary. Yes, Pluto exists in each of our individual horoscope charts, but unless it’s touching a more personal planet in our chart, its effects tend to be wider-spread, more impersonal: across a generation, across a culture.

So we get situations like market “corrections” or terrorist attacks that force us (or should force us) to look at ourselves: Are we, as a culture, a bit too self-righteousness, say, or greedy, or giddy about imposing “freedom” on others without examining our own freedom complex? Are we really as free as we brag about being? As generous? As right?

When Pluto pulls the veil off our eyes, for example when it changes zodiac signs and highlights a different area of life anew, it can feel frightening in the extreme. The last 13 years of Pluto in Sagittarius have been marked by ubiquitous consumption, accelerating depletion of natural resources and idealism-cum-tyranny — the latter starting, I would argue, with the Taliban’s 1996 march across Afghanistan and reaching its climax with the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The weaknesses in the structures that have supported these trends are now emerging from the shadows. We are experiencing the breakdowns associated with dictating our ideals in foreign lands, getting drunk on oil fields and building castles on flimsy credit.

Pluto’s movement into Capricorn highlights the reality that the old code is slowly disintegrating. What might be more frightening than that — after all, many of us would like to see regime change here in the U.S. at least — is that we don’t yet know what will come to take its place. This not-knowing can whip up an atmosphere of crisis.

The word crisis comes from the Greek krinein, meaning “to separate.” Also derived from that root are the words criminal, decree, discern, discriminate, excrement and secret: All Plutonian words in that they imply shadowy, secret or hidden elements that need to be separated, sorted and reconnected in new ways — a process that almost always implies crisis of some kind. Separation of a relationship, a limb or an atom requires careful handling in order to reconnect it or remake it or recreate it productively instead of destructively. When separation and reconnection occur, there is always the possibility of something going horribly wrong.

Like powerful military jets crashing in a calm sky and sturdy green hillsides collapsing underfoot, it is hard to imagine such apparently solid structures as markets and governments and capitalism and democracy separating into component parts and being remade in a different form. It might even be frightening to think about this happening: What crisis would ensue if we were separated from our money? If familiar government agencies and commercial storefronts disintegrate and reassemble in some other form? If oil-based energy disappears completely?

But confronting the possibility of change, and admitting where we’ve gone wrong, and remaking those institutions in the spirit of integrity and solidity may bring us together in a way that only true crisis can. Frightening as it may seem to live in this in-between period, we may someday look back at this time and think, “How did we live through that?” and then, “I’m so glad we did!”

Comment below: Have you had dreams about cataclysmic destruction lately?

Photo credits: Stealth bomber, Rose shadow