More Astroblogging

Two of my favorite astrobloggers, Diane "Neith" Lang and Pat Paquette, are collaborating with a new web page, RealAstrologers. Congratulations go to them for launching this new platform! In fact, with the Sun in Aries and the new moon from this weekend occurring also in Aries there are many new beginnings in process. My last post focused on the many female astrologers I've encountered, so I'd like to also mention the male astrologers who've pointed me in as many good directions.

Mikel Poulsen is the first astrologer I hired. I met Mikel through Gay City's Gay University event which has successfully brought together the community annually for consciousness and spirit raising. Mikel's accessible and friendly astrology overview at Gay University helped me focus my own interest in the subject.

A few months later I met with him to see if astrology could point me in a better direction than I was headed. Our session was far too short, but it was packed with valuable information that I've continued to refer back to time and again for guidance. While it was impossible to answer all my questions about astrology at that time, Mikel did a really good job showing me how the planets in my natal chart interact with each other and signify the traits that are my personality. I can thank Mikel for giving me the confidence to investigate astrology further and not be too quick to settle on one interpretation of my planets over another.

A year or so later I moved to Vashon, Washington and continuing with my astrology studies I met the next astrologer who would expand my understanding of the symbology of astrology, Mark Borax. Mark conducted a series of classes on astrology drawing from the mystery school tradition of Ellias Lonsdale. This "soul-level" astrology is highly symbolic and speaks of spiritual evolution rather than the psychological methods of Western astrology. These classes taught me to understand further the role of astrology within the context of a person's life.

Mark has written a book, 2012: Crossing the Bridge to the Future, elaborating his own experience learning astrology, which is due to publish this month from North Atlantic Books. I have yet to peruse the manuscript, but the excerpt he shared with me some time ago promises to be a personal memoir with unique metaphysical insights into our civilization's future.

Astroblogging

I have not set any goals or timelines for this Blog. But I'm not really posting to announce my intentions for it or to apologize for my lack of activity here. I'd like to point you to fellow astroblogger, Pat Paquette, who has posted an excellent essay regarding the Nodes and the book which I mentioned in my following post of last October.

I have to take a moment to compliment her on her ability to put ideas into words. With her essay she has brought together ideas that I admit were also percolating in my brain last fall, but because of one thing or another I could not express myself. In very clear and specific language she has set forth her own understanding of these complex ideas.

I must mention other people who blog regularly and I've gained great insight into astrology from reading their words. I've included them in the list of links to the side, but I'd like to mention their writing on astrology is very insightful. JM of Raging Universe has posted several essays on nodes in the past that have revolutionized how I think about them. She regularly posts about transits and what they mean on a national level.

Neith and I have had very friendly correspondence about our natal charts and I have to say her writing on Synastry is changing my own understanding of how charts work together. She also collaborates with Elizabeth Spring at North Node Astrology, who I might add has a think piece printed in the recent April/May issue of The Mountain Astrologer.

Tseka is a regular commentator on many of these blogs as well and in my mind is a very accomplished watercolor artist and poet.

Quantum Mechanics and Despair

Recently I was forwarded a link that has been circulating among various astrology bloggers for a book explaining aspects of quantum theory. The excerpts from Everything Forever by Gevin Giorbran are excellent and lay out progressively many ideas I've encountered before in my own studies. That site also includes a link to Imagining the Tenth Dimension, a book by Rob Bryanton which follows an understanding of dimensional thinking related to quantum mechanics. It got me thinking deeply about spiritual knowledge and a recent conversation on another blog inspired me to write the following:

I often struggle with the elusive qualities of spiritual thought, but recently I've begun to contemplate the notion that spiritual knowledge is part of a larger dimension of empirical knowledge, persistent and constant with the physical dimensions we experience. Like Time, which we only notice by its progressive effect, all knowledge is experienced through the mind but affects our physical world when we learn to apply it. Emotion is another form of knowledge, but requires a more intuitive application. We can posit these two forms of knowledge as different extremes: one structured the other chaotic.

As I have learned by studying the Tao, the only way we can effectively apply both extremes is by centering ourselves between them so that they swirl around and away from us. If we attempt to follow only one or the other, we will move away from our authentic self; but if we follow both structure and chaos at once, say by following a spiritual discipline such as cultivating a balanced understanding of astrology; we can expand our consciousness outward from one of self-consciousness to one of universal consciousness.

Despair is an emotional reaction to confusion. It moves one away from centeredness exposing the underbelly of society and revealing the inauthentic in life. It develops from loosing perspective on the universal by leaving individual responsibility out of the equation; only when self-responsibility is maintained and spiritual knowledge applied can one move away from emotional responses of confusion toward a more authentic and balanced way of being.

Mercury prepares for Retrograde

I like to follow the Mercury retrograde phases and have read a bit about dealing with the difficulties inherent to the period. Today Mercury is entering the first part of this period and will be stationing retrograde on October 11th. To help a friend understand the effects of Mercury during this time I wrote the following:

September 21 Mercury first enters the degrees of the retrograde phase.

This period begins when Mercury first enters the area of the sky where the retrograde will happen. While Mercury is moving forward over these degrees, we on Earth can anticipate this event and prepare by establishing schedules, placing requests and generally taking care of the mercurial tasks that become problematic during the retrograde period. This is the "asking" phase of the retrograde period and requires that we act proactively to ensure a smooth retrograde experience.

October 11 Mercury stations retrograde.

Earth's orbit around the Sun begins to catches up to Mercury's orbit and the retrograde period begins with Mercury first appearing to slow down in its orbit. For the next three weeks, Mercury appears to move back along its orbital path in the sky, indicating a time for rethinking, rechecking and revaluing everything mercurial. This involves schedules, shipping and planning, which are all things that are likely to go awry while Mercury remains in this phase. Also, problems from previous retrograde periods may arise. If you have planned ahead and become aware of its movement, this period can go smoothly and should not be a cause for alarm. This is the "belief" phase of the retrograde period and requires we rely on our belief systems to effectively experience this phase.

November 1 Mercury stations direct.

Once the Earth has moved past Mercury, it will again appear to slow and then reverse direction to move forward over the same area of the sky it just retrograded. Unless Mercury has made difficult aspects to other planets during the retrograde phase, this is the most likely period to discover that things established during the retrograde phase have gone awry and correct them. Otherwise, there is a chance that problems won't become apparent until the next retrograde period several months later. This is the "receiving" phase of the retrograde period where what we've planned for can have the most effectiveness.

November 17 Mercury leaves the final degrees of the retrograde phase.

We are now given a slight reprieve from disruption until the next retrograde period, but life lessons learned during the full retrograde period will have long lasting effects throughout the following year. With awareness and planning these lessons can effectively improve life for all on this planet Earth, easing fear and conflict with improved communication and planning.

Ancient Knowledge Initiation

Although I will be including earlier posts from my LiveJournal account I wanted to mark when I began this blog with a post. This morning was the Sturgeon Moon eclipse in Pisces which has been discussed at length on many astrological blogs. I woke early, not really intending to, but my sleep schedule has been disrupted this month so it seemed something reasonable to do. I went out to view this beautiful event, catching the beginning of its waxing phase around 4:45am. The morning light of the Sun, just under the eastern horizon, shone off a thin sliver of the Moon, while the shadow of the earth obscured its face with a dusky grey reminding me of the murky depths of a polished obsidian mirror.

Since I've been studying the Maya Tzolk'in I am regularly astonished at how celestial phenomena can correspond with appropriate symbols in the sequence. For example, today is "Ca Lahun Etz' nab" or "Twelve Flint" (which could have specific meanings as a knife or a mirror). I have previously interpreted this as a day for self-reflection or self-understanding. As this eclipse falls in the beginning degrees of Pisces, interpretations of some astrologers I read online have focused on this same quality of self-reflection. I'm not sure what to make of this myself as I come to these realizations out of a pure associative imagination, so I don't always know what is real or even what I believe. Do I believe what I see in the mirror or what I already know is true?

Rather than going to bed again after viewing the eclipse, I stayed up reading a book by John Townley on astrological life cycles which presented a method for constructing biorhythm-type charts for the longer planetary cycles, based on house dynamics. I have read that biorhythms follow cycles for the Sun, Moon and Mercury, corresponding with the physical, emotional and intellectual cycles respectively.

Very interestingly, a chart based on my second house cycle (resources) showed me various transits to Jupiter's cycle that seem to correspond with relationships I have begun in the recent past. In my natal chart, Jupiter, the planet of expansion and luck, appears in my seventh house of relationships suggesting my ability to form fortunate connections with the people who engage me intimately. As an example of the transits I was discovering with this "resources biorhythm", when Jupiter's cycle crosses Uranus's cycle (this could have been a near transit, I'll have to look closer at the exact information) I met astrologer Mark Borax, who taught me sound but definitively Uranian aspects of astrology.

Midnight in the Eternal Soul Garden

 

Knowing the Tao,

The being and the non-being,

The water and wind,

The yin, the yong;

This is everything and

Nothing at all.

 

When I close my eyes to meditate I can go to my calm place,

Only that is being…

 

Once I am there, I easily slip into non-being

Where I cease to be,

Where time does not pass

And interruption is only the next moment

When I am being again…

Like a bit of bark on the surface of a vast pond

I bob and dip between

Being and non-being,

Spanning consciousness and sub-consciousness

Experiencing each in a similar way

I dip and bob through successively

Higher and lower levels of consciousness.

 

As I rise, I meet the ego

On the threshold of self;

As I submerge, I seek antithesis

Encountering my deepest attachments…

Too often getting tangled in the strings.

Fourteen degrees Taurus—an old lady selling bunches of violets on a street corner

I've felt old most of my life,
The time spent figuring out
What I've always known:
That the older I get the less I know;
That the more I become comfortable in my own skin,
The stranger and more grotesque the World appears.

How strange to find myself at a crossroads
And barely able to satisfy
To always be comfortable is a skill,
A blessing… 

But then who wants to be comfortable in a storm
or a swirling vortex?

Title quoted from "Degree Analyses Part II: Chandra Symbols In the Horoscope" by John Sandbach