Some astrology questions and answers….
January 7, 2012
Here are some interesting questions I was asked not long ago. If you would like to ask me any more, to keep the middle aged braincell from teetering into the abyss (all help gratefully received!) , please leave them in a comment and I will reply – provided they are genuine of course!
Astrologer at Work - Mediaeval Style!
What transit always shows up for you in surprising ways?
They all do, especially the long-lasting ones. The deep challenges that force our growth lurk in the realms of the unconscious, just waiting to hitch a ride on the nearest really tough transit. For example, I didn’t think that ten years of Neptune transits was going to involve an enforced descent into the Underworld for most of that period! However, the good news is that I have now emerged, much improved (unless you ask my husband….!) with enough notes to keep me writing for a further ten years.
What is your funniest transit or retrograde experience?
There are several, not all of which can be aired publicly! The one which comes immediately to mind is the occasion, in March 1985, when Saturn turned retrograde on my 28 Scorpio IC. In the middle of lunch with an old friend who at that time was a bank manager, without warning, I passed out. Just then, a friend of his, who was also a bank manager, was passing by the restaurant window. I came round and insisted on going home – very groggily, with a bank manager holding me up by each arm. Very Saturn in Scorpio, don’t you think?!
Would you rather be ruled by Uranus or Jupiter? Why?
What a question! Both those planets are strong in my horoscope, Uranus in the tenth house leading an eastern bowl shape, with Jupiter in the third closing the bowl, and the two in bi-quintile aspect. My Ascendant is also on the Jupiter/Uranus midpoint. However, if forced to choose I would go for Jupiter, provided the aspects weren’t too difficult. My reasons are probably dictated by the stage I’ve got to in life: that disruptive, eccentric, unpredictable, stubborn individualism characteristic of a Uranus-ruled life feels too tiring to contemplate now!
Jupiter’s boundless energy and optimism, ability to inspire others and be inspired by the more positive dimensions of life, and willingness to be open to a sense of meaningful connectedness to that which is greater than oneself, are especially attractive to me at this point.
What advice would you give to someone learning how to read their own chart?
One, there are dozens of ways of evading personal responsibility – resolve at the outset never to do so by blaming your horoscope or your transits for your difficulties in life.
Two, realise that objectivity is something to be aspired to, which can never be achieved by mere human beings. This being the case, try to recognise that you can be most objective and therefore most helpful by reading the horoscopes of strangers, provided you have appropriate training and supervision. When approaching your own horoscope, or those of your loved ones, you will inevitably colour the planetary picture before you with your own hopes and fears.
Three, the illuminating light which is gradually cast as your understanding of the symbols in your chart grows, will be wonderfully helpful in shedding light on your gifts, pains, motivations and aspirations. But bear in mind that possessing astrological knowledge has a shadow side – for example, I have never known anyone including myself who didn’t look at upcoming transits, especially of Saturn and Pluto, without a certain amount of fear. To help my astrology students with this, I used to point out that 99.9% of the human race from the beginning of time has managed to stagger through life without the aid of astrology! So – enjoy the fascination of deciphering the astrological map of your life. But don’t get too precious about it – and be aware that this wonderful knowledge has a double edge….
What astrology books do you re-read or use the most?
The two astrologers who have most inspired and educated me have been Liz Greene and the late Charles Harvey, with both of whom I was fortunate to study – unofficially from the mid-1980s and formally between 1995 and 1998. As reference books for my interest in mundane astrology, my three favourites are: The outer planets and their Cycles by Liz Greene, Anima Mundi – the astrology of the individual and the collective by Charles Harvey, and Mundane Astrology by Michael Baigent, Nicholas Campion and Charles Harvey.
My copy of Stephen Arroyo’s Astrology, Karma and Transformation , that wonderful in-depth companion on the ‘stormy journey of the soul’ is now so well-thumbed that it is starting to fall to bits – and when I feel like some outrageous, light-hearted, funny, but deadly accurate astrological analysis I turn to Debbi Kempton-Smith’s Secrets from a stargazer’s notebook.
And….this Christmas 2011, I was given the brilliant present of “A History of Western Astrology” Volumes 1 & 2, by well-known and respected astrologer and historian Dr Nicholas Campion. I am really looking forward to reading them!
Biog:
Anne Whitaker has been an astrologer since the 1983 Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Sagittarius. She also has a long background in adult education, social work, counselling and supervision. Anne holds the Diploma from the Centre for Psychological Astrology where she studied with Liz Greene and Charles Harvey (1995-98 London, UK), an MA degree, and postgraduate diplomas in education and social work. Based in Glasgow in Scotland, she is now studying part-time at Edinburgh University on an MSc programme, and planning to set up a small astrology practice again this year after a ten-year gap spent reading, writing, blogging, and regaining her energy.
(thanks to The Know It All Astrologer who originally asked the questions)
900 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
Evoking the Twelfth House
December 9, 2011
A tiny frog, barely half an inch long, flopped, dead, on the tip of a teaspoon as I gently lowered it toward the plug hole of the kitchen sink. Soon, I’d turn on the tap and its fragile little body, already liquefying, would be washed down the drain.
Just holding on....
http://www.sarasites.com/css_images/frog.jpg
Yesterday, it had been leaping around, full of life, inside the plastic refrigerator box in which I had created a little aquarium with water, moss and stones. The tadpoles which I had brought home a few weeks previously had all survived. Satisfaction and pleasure at having achieved this, however, was tempered with the growing knowledge that these delightful new pets would soon have to be returned to their original habitat.
But this little fellow would never go home.
This small incident, which occurred well over thirty years ago, offered such a poignant illustration of the transient fragility of life that it has never left my memory.
There are times when something apparently tiny and fleeting can illustrate much larger truths.
The constant dance between order and chaos, form and formlessness, being and non-being, seems to occur in all epochs and at all levels. Humans have created a range of paradigms and metaphors, from ancient myths through the world’s great religions to modern cosmology, within which to explore this dialectic.
Cosmologist Brian Swimme in his inspirational invocation of ‘The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos’ speaks of “each instant protons and anti protons…… flashing out of, and …… absorbed back into, all-nourishing abyss……” The abyss is his term for “a power that gives birth and that absorbs existence at a thing’s annihilation.”
Astrology has its own name for this inchoate territory where everything, tiny or vast, which has ever had form dissolves back into the primal waters of the Source. It is called the Twelfth House.
In my horoscope the Sun, Moon,Venus, Saturn, Pluto, and Mercury the planet of communication and writing are all to be found in the Twelfth House. I have been preoccupied with the mystery of whence we arise and where we return since I opened my eyes to the world. Thus it doesn’t require much of a leap of imagination to work out why this blog is called ‘Writing from the Twelfth House’……
400 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
It’s that backwards time of year again!
November 25, 2011
In astrological symbolism, Mercury represents the principle of communication in all its facets.
Mercury, quicksilver Greek god of communication and travel - isn’t he gorgeous?!
******
In the spring, summer and autumn/winter of each year, the planet Mercury does something strange. It appears to slow down in its orbital pace, stop, then start to move backwards. This is known as retrograde motion. It is of course an illusion. Otherwise, we’d have fallen off the solar system aeons ago.
However, the effects down here on Earth when Mercury is in its 2-3 week retrograde phases are anything but illusory. For years, I studied this phenomenon in my own life, the lives of family, friends, and astrology students. In sum, communications of all types become strangely awkward and hard to manage during those times.
I learned to look forward to having some rest during Mercury Retrograde, since my referral rate dropped. Normally clients always turned up for appointments, MR periods being the exception. Cancellation rates increased. Once, a client called to cancel because her house had just caught fire (yes, she called the Fire Brigade first!).Two clients often turned up at the same time. Cheques invariably got lost in the post, or clients forgot to bring cash. One summer I moved office during MR, becoming involved in a dispute of byzantine complexity with the telephone company which took almost a nervous breakdown to sort out.
As MR periods approached, I used to entertain my students by looking at their individual horoscopes, which enabled me to be more specific regarding possible MR effects. I told one student, a lawyer, that a female helper in his workplace was likely to have communication problems which would impact on him. His feedback? His secretary sprained her wrist, and was unable to type during the entire MR period.
Mercurial people, eg writers, are those most affected by Mercury’s retrograde phase.
What can we writers do to maximise advantage and minimise disruption when Mercury is retrograde? As a general principle for all of us, writers or not, Mercury Retrograde is a positive time for going back over all matters to do with communication, and cleaning up.
Some examples: if you’ve been putting off a purge of your filing system, do it now. If your accountant has asked you nine times for your last year’s papers, use this 2-3 weeks to update them. Dig out and finish some of those half-worked articles. Use MR times for reminder letters to editors. If you’ve been writing furiously and the brain/wrist is seizing up, have a break. Catch up with some reading. As we know, fallow time is creative.
The don’ts? If it is not feasible as a working writer to avoid or delay taking new initiatives or completing existing processes, eg sending out new proposals and submissions or signing contracts, leases, etc, try to accept complications or thwartings philosophically. Also – be prepared for delays, eg when travelling, especially long distance. Don’t sit under the mailbox waiting for cheques. And please, don’t arrange for a phone installation!
“Come on then !” I can hear you shouting as you search for my phone number or email. “Tell us WHEN !”
Mysterious Mercury
The Mercury Retrograde period for 2011 is :
Retro 24/11/11, Direct 14/12/ 2011.
Let me know how you get on !
AND
Bonus Extra –
2012 Mercury Retrograde Dates:
Mar 12 – Direct Apr 4
Jul 15 – Direct Aug 8
Nov 6 – Direct Nov 26
******
600 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
Like this:
Astrology – beyond the sun signs
November 15, 2011
Always being keen to demonstrate that the great and ancient art and science of astrology has much more to offer than its popular face in the sun sign columns would suggest, I thought I’d re-publish the following article which appears on this site on the “Not the Astrology Column” page, but which a number of new readers may not have come across. It is written for the general public with no formal knowledge, but an open-minded interest in astrology.
Check it out, and let me know what you think!
11th Century Horoscope
My career as an astrologer began in a launderette in Bath, England, in the 1970s – although I didn’t realise that at the time ! Befriending a little girl who came to chat whilst I did my washing, I met her parents, Gloria and Seamus; they were astrologers, they said, and would I care to come back to their place for a cup of tea? They’d like to draw up my horoscope, to thank me for entertaining their child. Well, I remember thinking, nothing better to do for the next hour…….at that stage I was scornful and dismissive of astrology, basing my judgement on the Sun Sign material in the media which struck me as general, banal and trivial. I did not know then that there was a subject of great depth and power beyond the Sun Signs.
I was puzzled by my new friends’ dismissal of the Sun Sign columns – wasn’t that what astrology was all about ?. “We’re proper astrologers” they said firmly. “ Your Star Sign (Leo, in my case) only puts one character on the stage of your life. It’s impossible to describe who you are from only one factor.” They wrote down my date, place, and apparently vital TIME of birth, produced various reference books and did complex-looking calculations. Then they drew up my Birth Chart or Horoscope : this was a map of the heavens for the precise time I was born. It was apparently an unusual chart – lots of planets in the twelfth house, whatever that meant, and strong Pluto, Saturn and Uranus influences. So what, I thought.
Anne W's Horoscope
Then came their interpretation into character analysis of the planetary symbols in my Birth Chart, in considerable depth and with a high level of accuracy. The experience shocked me to the core. How could they be so accurate about my career aspirations? How could they know what my deepest fears were ?How COULD they manage to describe my parents’ core characteristics and some of the key effects they’d had on me ? How could they describe so vividly the restless spirit which drove me ? I had met them less than an hour ago. They knew nothing of my personal history or life experience.
Worse was to come. “You tell me you’re a total sceptic,” Seamus chuckled . “But your Horoscope shows that you have a deeply sensitive, spiritual side to your nature which you’re currently refusing to acknowledge, preferring to identify with the intellectual and the rationalist in yourself. But I can see from your Chart, and where the planets will be in a few years, that in your early thirties the spiritual dimension will come calling. You are very likely to end up doing something like this yourself.”
What nonsense, I thought. But I had no acceptable way of explaining in rational terms what had happened. Uneasily, I filed the experience away in the pigeonhole reserved for the many incidents occurring in my twenties which did not fit my existentialist world view.
For my birthday that August, a friend gave me an odd present considering my scepticism – an astrology book. It was intelligently and sensitively written; I found myself compelled. My feelings were an uncomfortable mixture of attraction, rejection, fascination and embarrassment. What COULD I say to my friends and family?
Saying nothing, I carried on reading. After a year, astrology still fascinated me. By this time – and by a series of odd coincidences – I had found out about the Faculty of Astrological Studies, based in London. It offered a year-long correspondence course with some lengthy exams at the end of it, leading to a Certificate of the Faculty.
I embarked on my studies in an empirical spirit. If astrology WAS indeed merely superstitious nonsense of little value, at least I would have arrived at a conclusion based on knowledge and practice, rather than ignorance and prejudice. I had moved on sufficiently from intellectual arrogance to the awareness that it was very unscientific, and highly irrational, to dismiss a whole body of knowledge without ever having studied it. I obtained my Certificate in 1983, by which time my studies had demonstrated to me that the astrological model had worthwhile insights to offer.
(I was to further my studies much later on, at the Centre for Psychological Astrology, by commuting by plane from Glasgow to London from 1995-1998 to complete a three-year Diploma in Psychological Astrology with renowned teacher, writer and astrologer Dr Liz Greene.)
The teaching and practice of astrology became a major strand in my self-employed career from 1985 until 2001 when, following a long health crisis, I gave up all work (except writing!) for several years.
This wonderful universe
Working with the symbolic descriptions of collective and personal life provided by astrology was, and continues to be, a source of much insight. It offers a route towards integration of the rational dimensions with the intuitive, symbolic and spiritual. Time and time again my clients used to tell me that their Readings helped them to see and to accept who they were more clearly - and to make better use of the gifts they had been given.
Good astrological practice encourages people to take responsibility for their own lives, and supports their courage to be themselves.
We have not yet found anything which provides the ultimate answer to the puzzle of our existence on this earth. Astrology is no exception – although it is a fine way of asking intelligent questions about what life may mean. It is NOT a religion. The insights it offers do not interfere with whatever religious beliefs individuals may hold. But its perspective offers two very important things.
Firstly, a picture of an holistic universe in which our movement through space and time is not random, but meaningful. Astrology’s great insight is that the shaping forces or archetypes which govern all of life including human experience, are symbolically connected with the planets and their movements in the heavens as time unfolds. This is enormously comforting to those of us who cannot bear the idea that the turmoils and struggles of this life are capricious and pointless.
Secondly, from the horoscope drawn up for the date, place and exact time of birth, astrology can give individuals very useful insights into the characters who are enacting the drama of their individual life story. But it cannot tell who the director is, what the exact details of the plot are, or what the outcome of the play will be. Astrology, like quantum physics, can only deal with ranges of probability. The rest is as it will probably remain – a mystery known only to the Divine.
*********************
Note : this is an updated and slightly altered version of an article first published in Scotland’s Glasgow “Herald” as “Future beyond the Sun Signs” on 20.8.96. Copyright remains with the author.
*********************
1300 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011 Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
*********************
Mary Shelley: modern myth-maker
March 10, 2011
Not many people can be said to have single-handedly created an enduring myth. Mary Shelley did, by writing “Frankenstein”. Full title “Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus”,this famous book was conceived in a ghastly waking dream in the early hours of June 22, 1816, two months before her 19th birthday, and published to great acclaim in 1818.
Mary Shelley offered us a warning of what the consequences of humankind stepping over moral limits in the pursuit of scientific discovery might be. This warning has resonated down the centuries; it is more relevant than ever as we engage with a new millennium, and the pace of technology-led progress leads us fast into dangerously uncharted physical, emotional, ethical and spiritual territory.
Mary Shelley’s horoscope fascinated me for years. Here is my analysis of it, with an emphasis on the significance of her Nodal Axis.
Mary Shelley
source: her father, present at her birth
The North Node falls in Gemini, the South in Sagittarius. This denotes a life path centred round the conceptualising and disseminating of information and ideas. Sagittarius on the South Node shows philosophy, education and learning, and the developing of an ethical base for life as well as a desire to proselytise from that base, as a fundament to Mary’s life.
Love of learning, a restless, questing, travel-oriented spirit, and an appreciation of the perspective which comes from exposure to different languages, cultures, and a broad knowledge base, all characterised her inherited gifts – and the cultured context from which her journey through life began.
It also suggests, taking the wide conjunction to the Moon to back this up, a longing from the beginning for a “grand”, adventurous life – for a life infused with vision and the possessing of a big canvas upon which to paint a vivid picture. Her political and artistic context was the aftermath of the French and American revolutions and the impact they would have on the fabric of her time – along with the Romantic movement in art and literature into which her nature fitted so well.
Also indicated in this linking of South Node and Moon is a distaste for the restrictions of the ordinary and mundane, and the potential for arrogance through conviction of one’s own rightness. Blake’s famous line “ the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom” (i) also comes to mind.
Playing Big Momma Benefactress to a bunch of gifted but feckless, frequently penurious fellow writers seemed to take up an extraordinary amount of her time and resources throughout her life – one can see her penchant for this role in the South Node in Sagittarius conjunct the Moon in the 6th House !
The North Node in Gemini conjures up the image of a thrust towards taking the gifts she was given and putting the inspiration provided therefrom into words – getting her ideas out into the world. It also denotes frequent changes of environment whilst attending to this core task – and sibling issues playing an important part in the whole scenario. Indeed they did, with her step-sister Jane/Clare/Claire Clairmont (who liked changing her name!) dogging Mary’s footsteps for much of her life.
Restless movement and frequent change were very much part of Mary’s and her poet husband Percy Shelley’s being – perhaps the North Node in Gemini demanded this as a way of shaking free her ideas.
When contemplating the location of the North Node, in the 12th house in one of the Gauquelin plus zones (ii), the image of the Big Picture comes in again, from a different perspective. Here is someone the thrust of whose life path demands an offering of her ideas in such a way as to reflect the hidden, unconscious currents running beneath the surface of her time – perhaps a sending out of images which would be borne on those currents to provide insights to generations as yet unborn.
The location of the South Node and Moon in Sagittarius in the 6th House,opposite the North Node in Gemini in the 12th, conjures up a picture of the visionary writer, in touch with the currents of the collective unconscious of her time through the 12th house Node, having to struggle to extract her vision from the mire of the mundane which was forever besetting her. The contradictory 6th house location of the glamorous South Node conjunct Moon in Sagittarius shows this all too clearly.
The nuts and bolts of ordinariness – of the body, of routines, of maintenance tasks which keep the main thrust of life running smoothly, strike me as a major provenance of the 6th House. Mary had trouble with ordinariness all her days – until he died Shelley protected her from the sharpest edges of their constant financial troubles.
She regularily moved her goods and chattels, relatives, friends and children around. Her health was always delicate, childbirth drained her, and the deaths of three of her children made it impossible for periods of time to dredge up any inspiration to offer through the 12th house North Node.
Looking at the planets aspecting the Nodal axis offers further sharp images of the nature of her life’s path and her struggle to actualise it. Mary had a strong masculine side which her horoscope clearly portrays.
Jupiter is retrograde in Aries in the 11th House, exactly trine the South Node, sextile the North Node. A quote from E.W. Sunstein sums this up :
“Aspiration, enthusiasm, challenge, active mind and spirit, and optimism were among her cardinal qualities………. it was her incapacity for resignation to cold reality that eventually wore her down.” (iii)
The location of Jupiter, ruler of the Moon and South Node, in Aries in 11th shows how group associations, frequently involving famous men, usually encountered at home, shaped her life’s path. Jupiter’s falling on the southern side of the Nodal axis, trining/sextiling the Nodes, indicates gifts from the past which could be used productively by Mary in actualising her full potential – as indeed they were.
There was her father the renowned social philosopher Godwin and his salon, which brought Mary in contact in her youth with eg Coleridge. Hearing him reading from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” had a profound impact on her which came out much later in some of the imagery in “Frankenstein” (iv).
She met her husband Shelley through Godwin when Shelley was a young acolyte. She met the famous – and notorious! – poet Byron through Shelley. It was in the company of Byron and others that she was challenged to write the ghost story which became “Frankenstein”.
Perhaps Jupiter in Aries – retrograde – shows an early leap to fame (with transitting Jupiter conjunct her Moon when “Frankenstein” was published) which was never to be replicated, although she remained in the public eye as a writer, editor and critic. I think it also shows the arrogant and unrealistic side of her optimism. For example, by eloping with the still-married Shelley in her teens in the early 19th century, and having an illegitimate child, she flouted the conventions of that time to such a shocking degree that she was never ever accepted back into the mainstream of society, despite her expectation that this would eventually happen. This social ostracism caused her great pain all her life although she eventually learned to live with it.
Uranus (ruling MC and dispositing Pluto) in the fourth house in Virgo, squaring the Nodal axis, is the most vivid significator for her unorthodox inheritance, her own defiance of convention, her connection with Shelley, and her authorship of “Frankenstein” which assured her place in literary history.
The significator is strengthened if we extend it to include the Uranus /Mercury midpoint, Sun/Venus midpoint, and Mercury/Sun midpoint – all square the Nodes between 18 and 20 degrees of Virgo. This major T-square is powerfully linked with key individuals in her life who challenged her to grow, and with events critical to the unfolding of her destiny.
“Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus” is the full title of Mary Shelley’s first and most famous book. In the myth of Prometheus lie core images of Mary’s own origins; the times in which she lived; the essential nature of Percy Bysshe Shelley born like her with Sun conjunct Uranus; the way in which she defied convention; the price she paid – and, most of all, in the central theme of her masterpiece.
In essence, Prometheus in Greek mythology was a Titan who stole some of the fire of knowledge from the gods and gave it to humanity to help them in their development. For this hubristic act the gods punished Prometheus savagely. He was chained to a rock, and during the day an eagle came and pecked out his liver, which grew again during the night so that he could be subjected to the same pain the next day, ad infinitum.
The myth of Prometheus speaks most vividly, dynamically and poignantly of the human condition. We seem driven by an unceasing restless quest to push back the frontiers of knowledge, thereby defying our limits as mortal human beings chained to the programmed lifespan of the body and the inexorable cycle of birth, growth, flowering, decline and death which governs everything in existence.
It remains extraordinary that Mary Shelley, at such a young age, should have become through her writing the vehicle for a modern re-framing of the myth of Prometheus which endures and is relevant to this very day.
References and Notes:
(i) from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” by William Blake. ‘Proverbs of Hell’ – Plate 7, from Collins Dictionary of Quotations, editors N.Jeffares & M. Gray, HarperCollins 1995.
(ii) Gauquelin Plus zones re the 12th house – c/f Written in the Stars by Michel Gauquelin, Aquarian Press 1988 p120.
(iii) Emily W. Sunstein MARY SHELLEY Romance and Reality p 402.
(iv) Muriel Spark Mary Shelley, p159.
NOTE: My long essay ‘Mary Shelley: Frankenstein’s Creator‘ which offers a vivid and detailed case study of Mary’s authorship of Frankenstein, including all the charts of key people eg her mother Mary Wollstonecraft who died 10 days after Mary’s birth, appears in Volume X1X 3 (August -October 2004) of “Considerations” Magazine 1983-2006, now archived on the Web and a wonderful resource of articles by a wide range of accomplished astrologers.
****************
1600 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
****************
“And finally….” : The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 5
March 7, 2011
This is the last part of a five-part series presenting the conclusions I drew from my 50,000 word original research study of The Moon’s Nodes in Action. To read the first four posts, scroll down to the end of this one.
4. The Nodes in relation to other chart factors
I started out with certain questions. Do the Nodes say something specific, or do they act as a reinforcer for information which can be derived from other chart factors ? I think I have demonstrated quite clearly that the Nodes and their attendant planetary/Angular links can be used on their own to sketch out a clear picture of the basic structure of a person’s life path and the archetypal energies which need to be responded to and brought into the journey, for that person to be all they can be.
It seems that strong outer planet links, especially Pluto’s conjunctions or squares to the natal Nodal axis, and strong prevailing major patterns eg Uranus conjunct Pluto opposite Saturn conjunct Chiron linked to the Nodes, bring some people a more challenging life than others. Mary Shelley’s chart is a very good example of this, with Uranus, dispositor of Pluto conjunct MC, conjunct her Sun and square her Nodal axis.
Mary Shelley
I have distinguished between minor and major Nodal activity in transits and progressions, and demonstrated that the major effect is what appears to be present when turning points occur. This would suggest that in contemplating the unfolding picture of a person’s life, the combination of Nodal activity with the foreground presence of outer planets, especially Pluto, points out that something really special is going on and should be carefully noted.
I also asked whether astrologers are missing something important by not paying attention to the Nodes, natally and as life unfolds. I think the answer to this is yes, with particular reference to the transitting Nodal cycle and the eclipse seasons which accompany them. The pair of houses highlighted by the transitting Nodal axis and eclipses should be carefully observed, especially if the pre-natal eclipse degrees crop up in the form of a returning eclipse, or a current eclipse is triggering natal patterns linked in to either of the pre-natal eclipses.
I appreciate that we all need to earn our living and there are a multiplicity of interpretive factors available which would take all day to prepare if they were to be included in every reading. We have to be selective.
But having done the research for this thesis, I think that, in preparing a reading, if the clustering effect I have been discussing is in evidence, it is important to pay particular attention to that person’s natal Nodal pattern and the current Nodal/eclipse picture. The client is then likely to be bringing matters of a life-changing nature to us for discussion, which offers us roles both as observers and midwives; human agents in the here-and-now of those mysterious ‘watchers by the threshold’ whose numinous presence in our lives is symbolically represented by the Moon’s Nodes in Action.
-
Nodal Axis
Thanks to the many readers of this series for your interesting emails in response to those conclusions regarding the significance of the Nodes. Any other responses continue to be welcome. I have archived the series (see Categories on Home Page) for easy future reference. I will also at some point be publishing, over several installments - may even give it its own blog - my long case study on Mary Shelley’s authorship of “Frankenstein”, bringing in charts of all the significant figures influencing her writing of what has become a modern myth at the very young age of 19 – and her first Nodal Return.
Previous Posts in this series:
The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part One
Major and minor chords: The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 2
This ground is holy: The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 3
“In my end is my beginning….” The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 4
plus….
Mary Shelley: modern myth-maker
****************
600 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
****************
3. “In my end is my beginning….” (1)
The Nodes have also struck me as having strong connections, in the clustering effect I talked about, with conception, beginnings and endings, of either a literal or more often a symbolic kind.
I found it intriguing, for example, that in the two of Marc’s Turning Points which concerned the beginning of the two key relationships with women which would most powerfully affect his life, the charts for the conception points of the relationships were more powerful than those for the actual start of Marc going out with Beatrice (first wife) and then Caitlin (his long-term partner).
In Mary Shelley’s case, the chart for the waking dream in which she could have been said to have conceived the idea which led to ‘Frankenstein’, was very powerful.
All of the key moments in all the case material concern conception, beginnings and endings: in the case of Princess Diana, her physical death. Andrew’s Nodal moment concerned the dramatic end of a relationship, but also of certain pathological ties to his family past, leading to the beginning of an altogether more positive stage of his life.
Anna’s Nodal moment represented the beginning of a whole new cycle of her life; the date of the interview whose successful outcome would see her re-locate to another continent, 11 October, was also the anniversary of both her mother’s and her sister’s death. John Glenn’s Nodal moment concerned his rebirth as an astronaut in October 1998 at the age of 76 – the second Nodal Return from his original space voyage in February 1962. He returned to Earth safely, complete with his record of being the oldest person to venture into space.
Marc’s first Turning Point represented the end of his youthful image of himself as an intellectual achiever, and a very painful initiation into experiencing the more brutal aspects of life as a necessary part of his life path. The election of Margaret Thatcher as UK Conservative Prime Minister in 1979 , when he was 33, represented another major Turning Point: the end of his political hopes for Scottish Independence at that time – he had been a Scottish Nationalist all his adult life. The whole period since then for him has been a long struggle, for a man who needs the inspiration of belief to guide and focus his considerable energies and gifts.
In my own case, as described in the preface to the research, critical endings on the first and second Nodal returns bracketed a long journey from spiritual alienation to deeper connection with a sense of meaning and purpose. I had needed to find this spiritual connectedness in order to become all I could be in the next stage of my vocational life .
My research confirmed both the traditional view of the Nodes’ connection with with conception, beginnings and endings and my own impressions gained over many years’ practice.
- Nodal Axis
References and Notes
(1) Headline quotation is from East Coker, No. 2 of ‘Four Quartets’ by T.S.Eliot
TO BE CONTINUED
Previous Posts in this series:
The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part One
Major and minor chords: The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 2
This ground is holy: The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 3
and next!….
“And finally….” : The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 5
****************
500 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
****************
This ground is holy: The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 3
February 28, 2011
2. The Nodes and the numinous
In allowing some images to rise which might help me pull the the threads of the thesis together, the one which most persistently presented itself was that ghostly picture of a man’s head and shoulders which must be the world’s most famous photographic negative – the one which appeared when the photograph taken of the marks on the shroud of Turin was developed.
For many people throughout the world, this is a sacred image of the crucified body of Christ, and a central symbol representing the Christian era. Regardless of one’s religious stance, it is not hard to see how this single awe-inspiring one-dimensional image conveys the symbolic essence of what Christianity means.
It functions as a kind of spiritual hologram; in itself it is a one-dimensional holographic plate.(ii) But when the light of faith is shone on it, a three dimensional picture – physical, emotional, and spiritual, of what Christianity means, arises for the observer.
Turin Shroud
http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/File:Shroud-of-turin.jpg
In contemplating the outcome of the research into the lives of both Mary Shelley and Marc, the idea of the natal Nodal pattern representing a symbolic holographic plate has taken shape.
The true turning points in life seem to leap into three dimensions – emotional, physical, spiritual – from the holographic plate on which the basic pattern of the person’s destiny is etched. That pattern is most appropriately carried in the Nodal structure. It holds images of the light of the quest for meaning through the Sun; reflection and containment of that light through the Moon; and grounding in Life’s unfolding process through their orbits’ particular relationship with the Earth’s plane.
In every synastry in Mary Shelley’s case; in every key event in both Mary’s and Marc’s lives, running backwards and forwards in time and in the symbolism of all the birth charts, one can see, shimmering through the really critical turning points, the ghostly, but quite distinct holographic plate of both Mary’s and Marc’s natal Nodal patterns.
The four Nodal Moments, though sketchier because of their being only one section cut through each subjects’ unfolding life pattern, nevertheless also carry within them the basic shape of the natal Nodal blueprint. Robin Heath’s comment is apposite:(iii)
“……….astrology appears more and more to behave like a hologram. You can perform almost any technique with the data, turn the chart inside out or slice it up, and still the symbolic pictures remain.”
Perhaps that powerful spiritual image of the sacred Shroud arose for me because in reflecting on the meaning of what I had seen at the core of all the different ‘takes’ on the Nodes at work in a range of people’s lives, I felt myself to be in the presence of the numinous, the sacred.
I find it impossible to describe adequately my feelings when I realised that in Mary Shelley and Marc’s lives, with each synastry and every major event and turning point, the natal Nodes and their attendant patterns had been painted, not faintly or casually, but in bold primary colours that could not be missed. I had a powerful sense of being in the presence of something ‘Other’ , something which was not circumscribed by the mortality of one individual in one lifetime.
The resonances over long periods of time which were so evident in linking Mary Shelley’s Nodal pattern with the contemporary controversy over how far we humans should overstep our limits in altering the very building blocks of life, focused by the appearance of Dolly the Sheep – and the links I found with my own horoscope, hers, and the time I had chosen to write about her – really struck me.(iv)
I did not expect my research into ‘The Moon’s Nodes in Action’ to present me with such a strong suggestion that we all have our destiny, that certain potent times in life present events and turning points which are initiations into the furtherance of that destiny – or that outwith our lives there may be some intelligent ‘Other’ observing and/or guiding that movement. But that is the feeling which persists in me as a result of this work.
I have always reacted with a degree of impatience to the theorising, usually with little empirical evidence to support it, which takes place about the Nodes – now I’m rather more respectful! But it feels good to have done a fairly substantial piece of practical exploratory work demonstrating the theory in action.
As the Indian astrologers have been telling us for centuries, the Moon’s Nodes really do seem to be connected to the workings of Fate in the shaping of personal destiny.
- Nodal Axis
References and Notes
(i) The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Micropaedia, Vol 12, p 55
(ii) a hologram is “an image produced on photographic film in such a way that under suitable illumination a three-dimensional representation of an object is seen”. Oxford Paperback Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 4th Edition, 1994
(iii) The Mountain Astrologer, Issue 78, April/May 1998, Letters p 11
TO BE CONTINUED
Previous Posts in this series:
The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part One
Major and minor chords: The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 2
and next….
“In my end is my beginning….” The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 4
****************
800 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
****************
Major and minor chords: The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 2
February 26, 2011
In this series of posts, I am confining myself to presenting conclusions based on my original research study as described in The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part One.
I am thus assuming at least a beginner’s familiarity with the astronomical and symbolic significance of the Moon’s Nodal axis, and its 18.6 year retrograde cycle through the Zodiac with the accompanying twice-yearly eclipse seasons.
For readers who need to be brought up to speed regarding the basics, check out Wikipedia on The Lunar Nodes for the astronomy, and Cafe Astrology for a typical explanation of the Nodes’ symbolic meanings.
Before setting out my conclusions, it might be useful in context-setting to offer a brief description of the content of the 50,000 word research study upon which these findings are based:
1) Preface, in which I outlined my personal reasons for becoming fascinated by the Nodal axis and bringing it increasingly into my teaching. 2) Introduction, in which I set out my reasons for embarking on the research. 3) Chapter One: Astronomy and Symbolism of the Nodes. 4) Chapter Two: Case Study One: Mary Shelley, ‘Frankenstein’ and a sheep called Dolly. 5) Chapter Three: Case Study Two: ‘Marc’ (age 51) : a life through the Nodal Lens. 6) Chapter Four: Case Study Three: Four “Nodal Moments” - key turning points analysed in the lives of two men and two women, two famous (Princess Diana and astronaut John Glenn) and two unknown, Anna (age 44) and Andrew (age 34). 7) Conclusions. Finally…. Bibliography, References and Notes, Charts used and their provenance.
Nodal Axis
http://www.astro.com/mtp/mtpt5_e.htm
My main research questions were these: How significant is the Nodal axis? Are astrologers missing something really important by not delineating it in their readings, both natally and in terms of its transiting cycle? Does it say something specific? Or does it act as a reinforcer for information about a person’s life pattern which can be derived from other chart factors?
*************
The Conclusions
*************
1. ‘ Major’ and ‘ minor ‘ Nodal activity
Transits and progressions weave in and out of life – there may be years for example which are dominated by Pluto, others by Neptune, or very heavily Saturnian years. There are the few occasions eg where a planet changes sign by progression, or the MC progresses over Uranus, or the Moon.
But there is Nodal activity of some kind going on all the time, as the Nodal axis regresses through the horoscope, transits come to the Natal or progressed Nodes, and progressions touch off the natal Nodal pattern. The Nodes appear to me to function both as witnesses (the Sun) and midwives (the Moon), symbolic translators of the archetypal energies of the planets into the medium of Life as it is lived in the Sun/Moon/Earth system.
Where, then, does this leave the contention that Nodal times have a particularily powerful, fateful “charge” to them? That can’t be true of every year in life, surely? If it were, the intensity of it would pretty quickly reduce people to cinders! What, therefore, distinguishes those special moments or turning points in life where either at the time, or later, we realise we have crossed an important threshold?
From the research done on Marc’s life in particular, I have concluded that there are two kinds of Nodal activity : major and minor, as it were. As already discussed, there is always some “minor” Nodal activity going on.
The really powerful “major” times on the other hand, which are few in any lifetime, are characterised by not just one or two, but a cluster of transits and/or progressions involving the natal, and/or progressed, and/or transitting Nodes. The outer planets, especially Pluto with its strong “fated” feel, stand out. This was an impression I had already formed after 15 years of chart reading – but I’d never tested it out in formal research before.
Pre-natal eclipses are very much part of the weave, as can be seen from the case study material. The most striking example is seen in Mary Shelley’s horoscope where the pre-natal solar and lunar eclipse degrees appear as the actual Ascendant and South Node degrees in her horoscope, and the charts of all the key people and events in her life with reference to her authorship of ‘Frankenstein’. (Mary will be getting a post all to herself, complete with horoscope, as part of this series! Maybe my obsession isn’t quite burnt out, after all these years….)
I’m quite clear now, as the Nodal axis regresses through the chart, identifying via the highlighted houses the overall territory up for change, that the transiting eclipses function as “battery chargers”, gradually building up the energies of the person’s life in preparation to receive major change.
An image comes to mind here from the female menstrual cycle, of the egg gradually being primed and prepared until it is at its maximum point of readiness to receive the male sperm, conceive and begin new life. I think the eclipses begin their work of charging-up as soon as the relevant eclipse season begins, which may be as long as eighteen months before the turning point in the person’s life appears. (i)
References and Notes
(i) A very clear example comes to mind from my own life, linked to the Virgo/Pisces eclipse season of Spring 1997-Autumn 1998. In the Spring of 1997 I decided to hire an office out of my home to create space, mainly to write this thesis. My Asc/Desc axis is 9 degrees Virgo/Pisces.
The Virgo/Pisces eclipse season started on 9 March 1997 with a total solar eclipse at 18.5 Pisces, opposite the asteroid Urania at 19 Pisces in my First House, clsely linking in Mary Shelley’s and Marc’s North Nodes at 19 and 21 Gemini respectively. It was at this time that I chose Marc as a main case study subject along with Mary Shelley.
On Friday 7 March I saw the office I decided on 10 March to rent, paying for it for a year from an insurance policy I had taken out 18 years previously. At that time, I had a feeling I might need money for a future adventure of some kind – long before I knew anything about either astrology or the 18- year Nodal cycle. My bank manager, of course, thought I was mad….
The middle period of that eclipse season saw me well settled into the writing as the 9 Virgo eclipse fell exactly on my Ascendant in the Autumn of 1997. The following year, the day before the total solar eclipse (7 deg 55 min Pisces) of February 26 1998 fell on the Sixth House side of my Descendant, I had a call from my landlords saying they needed to know by the next day whether I was going to renew my lease, which ran out on 9 May 1998, since the building was being sold. I decided to renew for 6 months and sent my rent cheque off just before the lunar eclipse on 13 March 1998 at 22 Virgo.
The lease ran out on 7 November 1998: the day I graduated with my Diploma from the Centre for Psychological Astrology!
Follow the series by reading
This ground is holy: The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part 3
- Nodal Axis
TO BE CONTINUED
****************
1100 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
****************
The Moon’s Nodes in Action: Part One
February 24, 2011
For many years I had a Moon’s Nodes obsession: perhaps not unconnected with the North Node exactly conjunct my Midheaven at 29 degrees Taurus, square a Twelfth House Sun/Moon conjunction……I read somewhere in my very early years of studying astrology that the South Node conjunct a Scorpio IC indicated having been burned as a witch in a previous life. This piece of conjecture gave my MC/IC axis a kind of dark, scary glamour.
However, I burned out that obsession during 1997-8 whilst completing the third and final year of my Diploma in Psychological Astrology at the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London, where I had the good fortune to study with Dr Liz Greene and the late, great mundane astrologer, Charles Harvey. How did I do this? By writing a 50,000 word research study called “The Moon’s Nodes in Action”. After that, I’d had enough of the Moon’s Nodes.
A big part of my obsession that year concerned the links I found between the horoscopes of Mary Shelley, author of ‘Frankenstein’, and that of Dolly the Sheep, the first cloned mammal, created in their research laboratory by Dr Ian Wilmut and his team in the Roslyn Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland and announced to the world in February 1997.
I take strange pride in being probably the first person to have written a detailed synastry between a dead human and a live sheep! Never a class went by for that whole year without Dolly and Mary Shelley being mentioned. By the end of the year, and the completion of the research study, my students had taken either to giving me presents of pens, etc, with pictures of sheep on them, or to crossing the street when they saw me approaching! ( I exaggerate, but only slightly….)
Spring 2011 - Natural Zodiac
That was twelve years ago and I moved on to other things. However, in the last week, like everyone else with any interest in world affairs, I have been watching with fascination, horror and a certain excited anticipation of possible positive change as a wave of protest – mainly from the young – has swept the Middle East. The iron grip of dictatorial rulers has been snapping in a domino chain of nations rising in revolt.
As the Nodal axis crosses Pluto, approaching the final stage of the August 2009 - July 2011 season of eclipses in Capricorn(North Node point) and Cancer (South Node point) and Colonel Gaddafi loses his grip on Libya amidst scenes of bloodshed and mayhem, I have been prompted to dig that almost-forgotten research study out of its dusty drawer.
Why?
Because I remembered my overall research finding:
times of most profound and radical change come in collective and individual life when the combination of the Nodal Axis and Pluto is triggered.
Having re-read that 1997/8 study, I have decided to publish the final chapter here as a series of posts over the next week or so. I know that many astrologers share my fascination with the Moon’s Nodes: I hope what I have to say will be both interesting and illuminating in its own right. It may also be supportive of what many other astrologers have concluded from their own practice.
(note: I have illustrated this post with a chart for the time of the Aries Ingress of 2011, set on the Natural Zodiac which refers to our whole world community. The high focus of Pluto, and the Moon’s Nodes, by then having just slipped into Sagittarius/Gemini but with one more solar eclipse in Cancer due to occur in July 2011, shows clearly in this chart.)
TO BE CONTINUED
To read Part Two, click HERE
To read Part Three, click HERE
To read Part Four, click HERE
To read Part Five, click HERE
PLUS
Mary Shelley, Modern Myth-Maker
(a study of her Nodes in relation to her authorship of ‘Frankenstein’)
****************
600 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2011
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
****************
