Astrology Institute Newsletter: December 2008 By Joseph Crane
Services
Solstice Chart
Article on Astrology: Personal Initiative and Responsibility
Profile: Carolyn Kennedy
Merry solstice and allied holidays and happy new calendar year!
Services
The economy is rather squishy these days. People have been thinking more about the long term or the decisive, and astrology can be very helpful with this. Increasingly my work has been over the telephone and has included more locational astrology. What is locational astrology? Here we look not at times to begin specific actions (that’s “electional astrology”) but where to relocate. It’s useful for people making decisions about travel, career change, or retirement.
There is also the matter of one’s purposes in life – previously we may have compromised ourselves in the pursuit of financial abundance; nowadays we can become lost in pursuit of financial security or staving off anxiety. If you are interested in talking over these things and getting an astrological perspective, you can contact me at (401) 527-2035.
For more information about astrological services or to look at back newsletters, consult www.astrologyinstitute.com
Solstice Chart
The solstice is literally the Sun’s “ingress” – entering – into the sign Capricorn, and the solstice chart is like a birth chart but for the time at which the Sun reaches exactly 0° Capricorn at a particular location. This chart would have an Ascendant and houses, planets and aspects. If you are in the Eastern Standard time zone, you know that this will happen on Sunday just after 7 in the morning. One can note the moment when it happens. Mundane astrologers – who look at political or cultural events – will use such a chart to predict things for the winter, at least up to the Spring Equinox 2009.
This chart does not differ significantly from a chart located at Washington DC and we could use it for national mundane purposes.
This does not seem like such a happy chart. Sun is conjunct Pluto– some of us know this only too well. This makes for intensity and struggle but it becomes impossible to be satisfied with half-truths and our usual tendencies to cover up reality. (I think we already know this.)
Mars is rising and Saturn is in the tenth sign from the Ascendant. These two malefics at strong angular houses do not give me a great feeling about the next few months. I also find it disturbing that Uranus, the planet of unpredictability, opposes Saturn and is in the fourth house.
(Of course if you use a quadrant system things are improved, since the Moon would be near the Midheaven degree in the eleventh sign (Libra) from the Ascendant sign Sagittarius.)
Coming back to whole sign houses, we see that Sun, Pluto, Mercury and Jupiter are all in the second house of finance. Moon at 24° Libra applies to Jupiter at 26° Capricorn, in its fall. Since Jupiter is also lord of the first and Mercury is lord of the tenth, this signifies a strong preoccupation with matters of money and finance. Again, this should not come as a surprise to anybody.
Feature Article: Astrology and Personal Initiative
A couple of days ago I read an op-ed column by David Brooks, who’s mostly of the New York Times. He tends to write about social issues and his reputation is as a conservative who liberals like me find acceptable.
In a piece entitled “Lost in the Crowd” (12/16/08) Brooks discusses the interesting work of Malcolm Gladwell, whose book Outliers presents an argument for social and environmental causes for human achievement.
Brooks, while acknowledging Gladwell’s many contributions, takes exception: there is a place, he argues, where social factors end and individual factors take over:
Brooks writes, “Most successful people begin with two beliefs: the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so. They were often showered by good fortune, but relied at crucial moments upon achievements of individual will. Most successful people also have a phenomenal ability to consciously focus their attention.” Brooks goes on to discuss virtues of concentration, self-control, and personal resilience sometimes in the face of adversity and opposition from others.
I found this article interesting and sent it to a friend of mine. She wrote me back:
“Interesting article- what would you as an astrologer have to say? Have been reading your book here and there and so far most intrigued with the "lots." This is totally new to me. Do they support the - it's mostly up to the individual and their legacy- theory?”
How does astrology handle questions of social conditioning and individual responsibility? Are the lots relevant?
The first question goes to heart of what astrologers do. I am tempted to present her query to some well-known astrologers of different stripes and see how they handle it.
How does one account for initiative, focused attention, self-control, and resilience? Or are they innate or due to such early development that the die is already cast?
Sometimes people ask me about different times in which I’ve that shown some of these qualities and tell me how “disciplined” they think I was. I usually disagree, saying that I have the best focus and ability to plan when I truly value and love what I am doing. Being disciplined means simply doing what we truly want.
I also think of Joseph Campbell’s line that people are not looking for meaning of life but an experience of being alive.
And how can we find out what a person truly loves? Through astrology, of course! The modern astrologer in me tends to be focused on a person’s purpose; the traditional astrologer in me looks at obstacles and conditions. They’re equally important.
It seems that knowledge of both potential and condition is necessary. Often people come to me determine where their vocation – literally “calling” – lies; or they are unable to focus or persevere. Astrology can give answers in a symbolic and therefore nonjudgmental and adaptable way.
My friend mentioned the lots that she had been reading about from my book. The dynamic between condition and initiative is specifically the difference between the Lots of Fortune (like the wheel of fortune, or the “Lot of the Moon”.) and the Lot of Spirit (the “Lot of the Sun”.) The Greek word for “spirit” here is daimon, which also denoted a personal deity or guide and had a wide range of applications in the ancient world. (Dorian Greenbaum, who’s writing her dissertation on this, is much more the expert on the matter than me.) One may also find a complementarity between the Lots of Necessity and Eros along the same lines.
I’ll give Dante the last word. (Welcome to my current writing project.)
In Canto 8 of Paradiso, Dante and Beatrice are in the sphere of Venus, where Dante finds a political mentor of his named Charles Martel (not to be confused with the early medieval Frank). Martel and his retinue had once stopped by Florence in the mid 1290’s and Martel may have influenced Dante to pursue a career in politics.
There are no angels with harps in Dante’s paradise but there is a lot of conversation. Here the subject of the differences between family members comes up: how is it that there are bad sons of good fathers, or that brothers can differ so greatly from one another?
Martel replies using astrology, saying that “circling nature” endows different people with different temperaments and therefore they are suited to different tasks. He also says that when people are asked to do work contrary to their nature – as fixed in the stars – trouble results.
Here’s the end of Canto 8:
‘Always, if nature meets a fate
unsuited to it, like any kind of seed
out of its native soil, it comes to a bad end,
‘and is the world below paid more attention
to the foundation nature lays
and built on that, it would be peopled well.
‘But no, you force into religion one born
to wear the sword, and make a king
of one more fit for sermons,
so that your path departs from the true way’
(Hollander translation, 2007)
The best support for helping personal initiative is for a person to be doing his own work. Astrology is uniquely suited to help discover and communicate what kind of work that is.
Another interesting reference is a book by James Hillman (not an astrologer but a wonderful renegade Jungian) entitled The Souls’s Code. If this topic interests you, it might be worthwhile to read about half of Hillman’s book.
I would be interested if anybody has further responses to these questions, for they are provocative in the best way.
Now what about astrology and individual responsibility? That’s for January when everybody makes resolutions and few of them last. The timing will be perfect. (Hint: read Dante’s Purgatorio 16.)
Profile: Carolyn Kennedy
I was going to take a month off from the charts of politicians, yet on Monday I read that Ms. Kennedy began a very public appeal for Governor Patterson of New York to appoint her US Senator, replacing Hillary Clinton. It may strike you as odd that one would launch a public campaign to influence one person’s choice.
This is interesting news for many reasons – New York’s love of “celebrity” candidates including Ms. Clinton herself, Ms. Kennedy’s recently raised public profile, and the long-term illness of Ted Kennedy and that she may keep a family legacy going after the Massachusetts Senator leaves the scene.
Previously Carolyn Kennedy authored or co-authored two childrens’ books and two books on civil liberties. Her professional training is as a lawyer. She has performed well as a fund-raiser (notably for the NYC public school system) and most recently has campaigned for Obama and chaired his group to select a running mate.
Like her mother Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Carolyn Kennedy has valued her privacy and tried to keep out of the limelight while increasingly becoming involved in more public causes. According to Kennedy turning 50 last year was a turning point for her to have a more public profile.
As of Friday December 19 there is no word that she will actually be appointed Senator and for astrological reasons I am having some doubts. Here is her natal chart:
Using whole sign houses, Kennedy has a crowded first house inhabited by Sun, Mercury, and Saturn. Mercury, as lord of the tenth, also gives career indications of being a lawyer, book writer, and politician. (The ruler of the tenth being in the first emphasizes independence and even self-invention when it comes to career) Saturn however gives some reserve and even inhibition and it is also Carolyn Kennedy’s nature – not just her mother’s – that she would avoid the limelight for so long.
The planets in the first are also in a sextile relationship with Jupiter that is strongly placed in the eleventh (house of the good daemon or “hopes and wishes”), is in sect and is oriental – for a little Hellenistic slant. Jupiter is also in the degree of Spica, the second-most positive fixed star in the heavens. (Bill Clinton, by the way, also has Jupiter at 23° Libra.) Jupiter is also the dispositor of her Lot of Fortune and is the same sign as the Lot of Spirit. If astrology were baseball, I would call her Jupiter placement “all-star.”
Moon is at 15° Aquarius. Moon has an interesting application: it sextiles Mercury and trines Jupiter simultaneously, since both planets are of the same degree.
Maybe you’ve read the op-ed columns and know today’s controversy: Carolyn Kennedy has little governmental experience that might qualify her to be a US Senator and perhaps her being appointed would be a “legacy” appointment, which strikes many as rather un-American. However, the remaining Senate term is short and she could run on her own in 2010 and have a large fund-raising potential to do that successfully. And the voters of New York will be the ultimate judges, as they were eight years ago when Hillary Clinton ran. In this way her appointment could have a certain practicality.
That’s my punditry – what about the astrology?
Didn’t think you’d ask – here’s her triple wheel.
Many things are interesting here.
One is the timing: notice that Kennedy began her campaign of persuasion when transiting Mars (in the outer wheel) was crossing her natal Mars, Ascendant, and Mercury. It’s good timing for bold moves but also may indicate impulsive or excitable activity.
The Ascendant and Mercury continue to be highlighted – notice that transiting Uranus in Pisces and Saturn in Virgo are within their range by square aspect. Saturn’s is more important because it’s in the tenth house of career. It may also relate to that her bid has not met with universal acclaim.
Her secondary progressions – the middle wheel – give a decidedly mixed message. You might note that progressed Venus is very close to a conjunction with progressed Ascendant (using Naibod locations). This is very positive for any “charm offensive” she may wish to conduct.
However, Moon is about to enter Capricorn and her progressed Moon is severely waning in its phase with the progressed Sun. This has a bite of grim reality to it. It may also mean that Kennedy’s political career is just beginning and she will be around for a long time building slowly, since her progressed new moon, indicating new beginnings, is two and a half years away – exact on April 11 2011.
During most of 2008 Sun and other planets in Sagittarius profected – advanced – three signs to Aquarius and to Moon. This could indicate her increased visibility but nothing momentous. However, they all profect to Pisces and Jupiter becomes the governing planet for this year. Jupiter itself profects from Libra to Capricorn, wherein lies Venus. Charm, not clout or arm-twisting, stand as a better chance for her.
I close with some Hellenistic planetary period systems, about which you can read from chapter thirteen of my book. Decennials, which I tend to favor, give her Saturn as a specific planetary lord for this time, which, in addition to transiting Saturn in the tenth, would indicate that she would not get the job; however, other systems tend to feature Jupiter of Sagittarius that would be in its favor, based on the wonderful condition of Kennedy’s natal Jupiter.
My prediction is that her campaign to influence one person (Gov. Patterson) will not succeed, based on the majority of indications given here but that this will raise her to lasting prominence. Here’s an alternative prediction – Governor Patterson does give her the job and she lives to regret it. The astrological indications go from very promising to very discouraging for the success of her ambitions. Like so many other things in life, good news is sometimes bad news and vice versa.
Enough astrological punditry for now, until January. Next month features a canonical final suitable-for-framing natal chart of Barak Obama and the transits to the chart of the United States. We will also discuss the constellations Orion and Gemini, prominent in the sky during the winter months. I’ll also discuss the old questions of astrology and personal responsibility.