The Century View - the Astroalphanumerotical Arc of a Life

 Tarot ArkLetter - http://www.tarotarkletters.com
By Christine Payne-Towler
ArkLetter 100, July 8, 2013

Hello one and all! This is our 100-issue celebration, and we have decided to use this opportunity to showcase an approach to practical esotericism that will have special relevance to a mature person. Towards this end, we will be examining time from an angle that can be called The Century View.

What does this Century View" comprise? First of all, it's a view of the flow of time that examines human history from the point of view of the longest, slowest cycles in the Solar System. Expressed in shortest form, we are examining the human ripening process with the help of the outer planets plus Mars, Saturn and Jupiter.

Some readers might be familiar with the book Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas, which exemplifies the same sort of approach, though in Tarnas' case he's taking on the giant cycles of mass human events. For purposes of this ArkLetter, we will only be verging into that realm to a microcosmic degree, since we are going to use a personal birth chart as our centerpiece.

Humans measure time in several ways;

• First, the rotation of the Earth around its axis gives us our days and nights.
• Second, the Moon's rotation around the Earth, including the waxing and waning of her reflected light, gives us our concept of 'months'. 
• Third, the Earth's rotation around the Sun gives us our four-season year.

The Perfect Clock of the Zodiac by Jacob Boehme

But for astrologers, there are other "years", in the sense that every planet in the Solar System has its own cycle around the Sun, some quite short (Mercury circles the Sun three times for every Earth year) and some quite long (Neptune takes a little more than 80 earth years to circle the Earth a single time).

Our Solar System is easily likened to a giant timepiece where the Zodiac names the "hours" and the Planets are the 'hands' that keep planetary time around the Sun. Jacob Boehme, the Silesian mystic whose esoteric synthesis is embedded in the Tarot of the Holy Light, demonstrates his version of "The perfect clock of the Zodiac" in many of his signature artworks. 

The Century View we are taking in this ArkLetter also connects with and parallels my overview of the Tarot. In my estimation, it is only by rising up out of our local circumstances and cultural conditioning, that we can correctly look at the intellectual wave that fostered Tarot in its larger manifestation. Tarot is best appreciated by a century to century investigation of its development, rather than by shrinking one's view down to one deck versus another. The significance of Tarot's great conservatism and stability over the centuries only becomes clear when we acquire the perspective gained from the fly-over view.

Coincidentally with this ArkLetter, a dear friend and professional ally just happens to be tunneling into her second half-century on the planet right now, and she finds herself looking backwards and forwards with an eye for balance. She's asking ,"Where have I come from and where am I going? No longer young, but not yet old, what is the epicenter of meaning for this time of life?" We agreed to make her chart the proxy for my NewMoon analysis this month, because she's a Cancer and is also personally very involved with some of the new technologies emerging during this troubled but seminal time on the planet. Since so many of my clients and students are cultural visionaries who are coming into their mature years, we hope that others will benefit from our review of the archetypal themes playing out in this Solar Return analysis. Plus, since I'm homing in on a personal chart for a change, readers will learn a little more about how the Tarot of the Holy Light can be used to translate their personal astrology in the light of cosmic movements playing out overhead.

Astrologers have a very good tool for this type of analysis, because the various orbital periods of the planets provide the timing by which our lessons are disbursed. When we are young we are more attuned to the faster-moving, inner planets. But as we get older, our charts ripen. We learn to look beyond ourselves, coming to focus first on the issues of the interpersonal and social planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Then, if we live long enough and/or start to become truly wise, our attention is finally caught by the extremely slow invisible outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. As I mature within my private practice, it is increasingly obvious that the issues of later stages of life are tied to long-wave themes and issues that require years, decades, even centuries to explore.

Carrying this astrological insight over into the alchemical philosophy of Jacob Boehme, we begin to see a specific significance in this division of the planets. In Boehme's philosophy, the three visible planets beyond the Earth's orbit were seen to embody the Wrathful aspect stirred up by Spirit's attempt to integrate with matter. In other words, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (the so-called social or collective planets) are considered to be instigators of resistance to transformation, causing the inevitable friction, heat and pain. None of these planets operate with a motive to cause pain, but the energies they constellate apply force and pressure to the individual in the internal personal sphere, requiring some kind of adaptation.

One could liken the action of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn to the effect of environmental forces, just the way weather and insects challenge our food crops. These social planets stress and challenge us in order to strengthen our psychological tissues and force us to grow a healthy emotional immune system. The fulminations and disturbances that we see in the history of human society are all testaments to the upheavals and adjustments that collective society presses upon the inner life of the individual. Boehme specifically proposes the energies of the Lights and Inner Planets (the Sun, Moon, Mercury and Venus) as providers of remedies to balance the fractious, stressful wrath-inducing collective planets. The Moon is the remedy for Saturn, Mercury is the remedy for Jupiter, and Venus is the remedy for Mars. And, as we can see from the Kabbalah Tree, the Sun stands at the center and harmonizes all three planetary pairs around the heart.

We will make a special effort to take these planetary pairs into consideration when we look at our case study below. As we do this, we will interpret their influences with this subtle understanding as a first premise -- the inner life, the sphere of the heart and its closest companions, is the theater wherein outer influences are interpreted, digested, and responded to. Outer energies simply are what they are, but those energies that are generated by our own inner processes of consciousness are magical, sublimely creative, infinitely adaptable and transformative. By understanding where the individual's point of power actually resides, we grant ourselves the signal advantage that characterizes the human species across all of time.

Looking Again at the Ladder of Lights

            To enrich our examination of the Century View in relation to current events, it is also necessary to continue integrating the outermost, invisible Planets into the ancient Ladder of Lights. The Ladder is a near-timeless astrological paradigm that gives meaning to the continuously moving relations between the planets and the signs. Through at least six precessional cycles, since at least back in the Age of Leo, this Ladder and its implicates have been set and  immovable for astrologers of every culture.  The already-ancient astrological rulebook delineated by the Alexandrian scholar Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD provided the foundation of Arabic astrology, and ultimately that of all the Christian nations. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrabiblos) By following out the natural conclusions inherent in this ancient astro-alpha-numeric model (upon which Tarot is built), we can fold the Outer Planets into the pre-existing pattern, thereby enhancing the ancient paradigm with our modern, updated view on the Solar System.

            My main goal as I'm doing this is to transmit some measure of the  Astrological mythos in a way that is relevant to a person who is trying to work out their destiny here on the surface of our paradoxical planet. The Ladder of Lights is the skeletal structure of the planetary and zodiacal meaning-map, representing the original 'rules of the astrological road' through which the activities of any given heavenly body are to be investigated. One can practice astrology without having overtly memorized this system, because it is the actual footprint within which all astrological praxis stands, and therefore operates unquestioned below the threshold of the uninformed astrologer's awareness. But to understand the workings of esoteric astrology, the astrology of the magi, the Kabbalists, the alchemists and the Pythagoreans, one has to have conscious access to operations of the Ladder of Lights, along with familiarity with the Hebrew Kabbala and Pythagorean numerology. The proper synthesis of these Arts unlocks the ancient alchemical paradigm of the four seasons/elements/temperaments, multiplied by the three Alchemical Elements. 

I am absolutely speaking literally here, not being mythopoetic or metaphorical at all!  I hope these ArkLetters and my upcoming book will succeed in making these seemingly obscure terms spring to life again, and pulse with their original meanings.  It would do the entire esoteric and occult world a positive turn if a few more veils can be lifted from these topics!

All that being said, we'll be using the Tarot of the Holy Light worldview and correspondences to cast my friend's astrological information into a Tarot context. Then we'll examine the web of associations that this examination brings to the surface of consciousness. Readers can get a chance to watch how these (astrological) values are carried off the face of the chart, through a Kabbalistic and Alchemical analysis, to be finally solidified by the Tarot cards as suggestions for "astral medicines". The goal is for my friend and my readers to come to an evolutionary understanding of the soul's position in space and time. By bringing my readers along, it is hoped that we can move among the Archetypes and petition them to grant us a new look at our same old circumstances and thought-forms.

NewMoon Cycles, the Tree and the Ladder of Lights

After our auspicious alchemical NewMoon last month, the attention now shifts from Mercury's spring sign Gemini to the Moon's natural home in Cancer.  Modern zodiacal convention presents our Zodiac on a chart that rotates counterclockwise and has Capricorn at the top.  But those who looked closely at the lovely illustration I shared last month <<< HERE>>>>  can see that the Zodiac arcing through the sky is flipped. Here we see the signs proceeding in a clockwise order, with the signs of Gemini and Cancer are at the top in the culminating degrees.  We could call this the "alchemical Zodiac", because this stretch of signs, ruled by Mercury, Moon and Sun  (Gemini to Virgo) are considered the peak months for achieving the Alchemical Work. (When Jacob Boehme shows the Zodiac in his artworks, he also uses this Arabic-style clockwise approach, though he often puts the Spring Solstice sign of Aries at the top of the circle.)

The NewMoon in Cancer raises again to consciousness the Saturn/Moon relationship that commenced last Aquarius and is now culminating here at the Summer Solstice. Readers might remember that I have regularly pointed out that the entire sweep of signs from Aquarius to Cancer are collectively termed "The Wet Way", signifying the soul's involution from the boundless, energetic state into matter's bounded and solidified state.  This corresponds to the downward motion of the Mother Pillar on the Kabbala Tree. Oppositely, the arc of the Zodiac running from Leo to Capricorn represents "The Dry Way", signifying the path of detachment and renunciation, as we one by one release the qualities and karmas that we assumed from the Planets on our way into incarnation. During its entire time in the body, and for every year lived on the Wheel of Time, the soul pulses between these two orientations. Occult philosophy teaches that the wise individual uses each half of the cycle for its best and most helpful qualities.

In terms of our NewMoon progression, this month's NewMoon in Cancer represents the fulfillment of seeds that were sown back in January and February. In the intervening months I have written about how each NewMoon  has carried the focus down the ladder of Lights step by step. I will use bold type here to emphasize the subtle shifts of planetary intensity from one NewMoon to the next: 

1. from the Saturn/Moon pair (with NewMoon in Aquarius),
2. to the Jupiter/Mercury pair (NewMoon in Pisces), and then
3. to the Mars-Venus pair in Aries, to Mars/Venus in Taurus, then on
4. to Jupiter/Mercury in Gemini.

Now we are at the completing step of that cycle with the NewMoon in Cancer, whose partner at the bottom of the Ladder of Lights is the Sun in Leo. As we've watched the monthly Sun/Moon conjunction crossing the orbits of each of the planetary pairs along the Wet Way (at least from our point of perspective here on the Earth), we have reached the stage of full commitment, involvement, complication and responsibility. We are now living out what was only a fantasy five months ago, at NewMoon in Aquarius.

The paradox of time is here illustrated in its full and most challenging extreme: The sign of Cancer points to the month when we have finally put the maximum distance between ourselves and the death realm (represented by the entry into the realm of Saturn, last winter Solstice). We have just achieved the longest days of the year, at least in the northern hemisphere. Yet this accomplishment immediately tosses us on the ramp that leads to shorter days, longer nights, and eventually the cold and dark of winter. It seems that every peak leads to a valley, every pinnacle demands a trough. As the cycle unfolds from next month forward, we will see the NewMoons climb the Ladder, again engaging the planets in opposite order as the focus shifts from materialization to spiritualization across the coming half of the year.

It therefore behooves us at this moment to stop and reflect. The dehydrated seeds of our ideas that were first proposed for manifestation during the Sun's Aquarius transit are now vigorously growing in Cancer's garden (or wilting in summer's sun, if we guessed incorrectly). Just from the astrological perspective alone, we are receiving a hand-off this very month from the thinking, visualizing, fantasizing and Imagineering we did in the dark months before spring. What goals and activities can you connect with from late winter that are now manifesting in your life? 

And now that we are entering the magical summer of Sun and Moon, what parts of our last half-year of accomplishments are we willing to sacrifice and leave behind as we begin  traveling along the Dry Way of Detachment the next six months?  Now that we have reached this peak, we must be willing to surrender it in a timely fashion to move on to the next challenges. Even in our moment of ascendency, the descent inexorably begins, and it will extract its progressive tax.  How shall we lighten our load and give back as we plunge forward into the next cycle that is queuing up to shape the future?  Each one of us must answer this question for ourselves.

Moving on from pure astrology, let's also remember that the Zodiac is also used to define essential portions of the Kabbalistic Tree, which offers esotericism a Western chakra model.  We can see in the image on the left that the signs Gemini and Cancer occupy the two diagonal Paths that descend from the outer points on the Supernal Triangle to the Heart center at Tiferet.  Those two outer points on the Supernal Triangle represent the left and right eyes, so we can legitimately say that  these two signs engage with Creation through the eyes of the Heart.

Researchers have found a huge amount of mystical speculation around the idea of cross-insemination through the pregnant glance, including the field of "infection by the image", a huge preoccupation in magic.  These ideas became especially developed in the field of Moslem Optics, which had a powerful impact on magical theory when it finally reached Europe after the Crusades.  (see my articles Eros Magic and the Magical Image and The Psychocosm of the Renaissance  for some resources on how this topic impinges on Eros Magic and the western theory of magical imagery.)  The short-form reminder we can take from this powerful esoteric hint is that we must investigate our life and its manifestations with the eyes and mind of Spirit. The world of manifestation doesn't show its true face on its surface; only the Eyes of Spirit can correctly interpret the phenomena that the material world presents to our views.

The Seed, Death, Transformation and Rebirth in the Sign of Cancer

Here's where things get symbolically complicated, but also very, very interesting!  We know that a literalist reading of the Biblical myth posits a Tree of Life at the center of Eden, which is simultaneously the Tree of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Knowledge.  These myths in their simplest, cartoon form suggest than an early ancestor was "tempted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge" by a talking snake up in the Tree, and this talking snake got her in trouble with the keeper of the Tree.  At this level, the myth seems to forbid humanity from partaking in the fruit of this Tree.

However, a more sophisticated reading of this legend of origins, derived from a scientific compilation of the myths and testimonies of all the aboriginal peoples of Earth grants us an entirely different insight into the very same story and symbols, with radical implications for all the life forms on the planet today. I won't try to encapsulate the entire insight here, but those who are up for a fascinating exposure to mysticism's support of modern astrophysics can treat themselves to a long ponder with Susan Joy Rennison's excellent paper called " The Greatest Transition in the History of Mankind; The Return of Paradise", which is found here <<http://www.susanrennison.com/Joyfire_Greatest_Transition.php>>

At the scale of a single human going about their business, the symbol of the Tree of Life  &  Knowledge has yet another significance beyond providing an archetypal form through which to envision one's astral or astrological body. From this point of view, the Tree is not theoretical at all,  but is our own electrical nervous system!  Medical diagrams of the "wiring" of the nervous system demonstrate an arrangement that is eerily similar to the roots, trunk and branches of the World Tree, weaving in and out of the brain and spinal column. 

So, when we superimpose the Kabbala Tree over the idealized Tree of Life, what we see happening is that the Zodiac that defines the Sun's cycle through the year is also a process by which the energies of Eternity trickle down the spine (and down through the Sephira of the individual) in a top-down fashion. Ultimately, with the Signs filling the diagonal paths that zigzag down each side of the Middle Pillar, the Signs are the pathways by which the considerations of the Soul (on the Middle Pillar) are transmitted out  into the time/space world through the Mother and Father Pillars, the two Pillars that represent the entangling action of the descending Wet Way and the corresponding ascent and detachment fostered by the Dry Way.

And let us not forget the ancient legend that states that being born into human form represents a death to the immortal soul, and vice versus. The sign of Cancer has been known since antiquity as the womb and tomb, the vessel both of birth into humanity and of rebirth back to eternity.  As the soul climbs down this Tree along the Wet Way (Aquarius to Cancer), it loses its precious prerogative of freedom to live outside of time and space. Nevertheless, what is gained in the experience of "good and evil" in manifested form is truly knowledge worth making the ultimate sacrifice for. This descent is spiritually perilous, since the soul takes the risk of falling asleep in the body. Were that to happen, the soul might forget its origin in the Empyrean, remaining suspended in the mud-dimension for an aeon (until the Judgment card brings the final reckoning and liberates all the souls that are part of that aeon).

All of these ideas from philosophy, mythology and psychology stand behind the sign of Cancer. Hence when the passage of time draws us into the full Light of Summer, the symbolism focuses us on the situation of a soul that has succeed in gaining control over a time/space body (whether to its betterment or detriment remaining to be seen). What brings us to the "heart of the Tree" in the Hebrew Kabbala simultaneously locates the soul in the dangerous Womb and Tomb of the flesh, embedded in the time/space matrix spun by the Solar System.  From this point the soul resides on the Wheel of Fortune --  which I call the "great washing-machine of life" due to its constant churning and tumbling of everything identified with it. In this situation one is unable to detach from the Wheel until the soul rediscovers how to use the Tree and/or Tetractys to become liberated again.

The situation of the soul in Cancer and Leo, stated in astrological terms,  grants the spunky individual another chance to storm heaven. This is done by climbing the Ladder of Lights up the Dry Way using the momentum of the summer and fall signs as the "wind beneath our wings".  Hence is revealed the significance of the Alchemical koan "one falls in order to ascend", also stated "one rises in order to descend".  From the point of view of that longstanding and pregnant symbol the Wheel of Time and Fortune,  this gnomic paradox points to those shamanic souls who passionately embrace their  incarnation (incarceration!) in time/space for the express purpose of clearing their karmas and perfecting their detachment.  One submits to incarnation (one "falls") in order to get better at subduing the human ego and ordering one's psyche.

This allows for another attempt to clear one's debts and graduate out of the need for further incarnation (in other words, to ascend). The soul strives to get better at calling forth a suitable body, a suitable time and culture, suitable family and suitable circumstances favorable to spiritual growth.  The fast-wave goal would be to gain broader experience in the theater of incarnation, but the slow-wave goal would be to wean the soul from further attachment to incarnation, to ego, to gender, to "making a mark in the world"  or "saving the world"  or in fact any motive whatsoever towards the world. If there is anything we are being "scrubbed clean" of when we are in the great washing machine of life, it's the desire to take future incarnations!  This, at least, would be the perspective of the philosophers who were interested in re-asserting the immortal portion of their natures.

In essence, we come into time and space to learn certain things, and once we have internalized the lessons and are able to demonstrate them in action, we are free to go. This worldview particularly applies to people who have consciousness of their eternal natures. Those, on the other hand, who identify their "selfhood" as a phenomenon of their local time/space conditions, will of course have other interests, as is perfectly natural. These mystical and esoteric speculations have always been for the few, rather than the many. People who have misunderstood the esoteric paradigm consider initiatory preoccupations to be a form of "elitism", keeping out the many and admitting only the few. But in fact, esotericism welcomes any who can apprehend and appreciate the invisible objects of its focus. Esotericism's objects of interest are astral, or archetypal, or ineffable, or energetic; these are "things" which we can only know about through indirect means like symbols, inner vision and ancestral myths. Such objects  have no single physical manifestation, but yet their presence and emanations shape everything that takes material form.  I refer here to the architectonic interior world of traditional astrology, which interweaves itself with all of the Mysteries and informs the outline of Tarot.

A Reading Is A Ritual

I am not the first one to say this, nor will I be the last. However, this needs to be better appreciated: It is in the step-by-step unfolding of a Tarot spread that the "magic" (such as it is) manifests. This is the exact corollary in micro-scale of the earth's yearly cycle through the Zodiac. Events don't happen all at once, but instead they unfold according to a series of orderly stages, each one of which is interpreted through the imitate body/mind of the person(s) participating.

This principle holds true whether one is using a one-card spread or a complicated pattern, whether for a client, a stranger, or oneself. The most immediate and profound results come from the doing of it, not the "meaning" of it. Yes, there will be an effort spent to decode the cards, and yes, the mind can come out of these sessions with greater "knowing" in one sense of another. But the actual catalytic, transformative, stimulating content of the reading is not vested in the words that were said (or written) in response to the cards, nor in the thoughts or mental images one has about those concepts.  That whole therapeutic exchange that moderns expect between the reader and the client, or between the reader and the cards, lies on the surface level of the experience.

Said another way:  The Magic of Tarot is in the nanosecond conversation that happens between the nervous system and its 'first take' on the card as it comes out of the pack. Everything that the mind thinks of to babble on about is merely the exhaust trail that is left after this initial exchange is consummated.  This is why I am so adamant about the importance of the "bones" of the cards, their essential numbers, titles, and working correspondences. The more the Tarot maker can figure forth the bull's eye of the concept into each flash-card, the better the archetypal part of the brain can understand and respond immediately, before the egoist mind can get in there and pollute the conversation. 

I am not unaware of the paradox inhering in these words. The fact that I have to express all this in words represents a distancing mechanism between the soul and its knowledge. I can only report on the aftereffects my brain can rehash of things that exist eternally in the energy world. These words I write are a veil just as much as they are a clarification!  The challenge is to arrange the words so that they make the most accurate rendering of what is essentially ineffable, trans-temporal, and archetypal. I am hoping that people are appreciative of the tightrope that I walk in trying to represent the Western esoteric tradition to Tarot, and Tarot to the world of esoteric traditionalists.

Before Etteilla, popular Tarot was associated with divination and prognostication,  essentially a form of predicting future developments based on subtle inferences drawn from the cards in the spread.  Then Etteilla stormed the Tarot salons, turning the tables on his clients and the other readers with what has become the modern psychological reading. With Etteilla's deck, a reading would always include a fierce Masonic "moral inventory" as part of the session. From the evidence  assembled by Papus, readings done with Etteilla's cards basically admonish the client for having stumbled in this way or that. The cards were configured to scold the querant rather sternly about how to come to grips with their inner lives if they want to do a better job with their outer lives.  

After Etteilla, the focus leads away from the idea of declaring fixed results from past causes, and instead lays the emphasis on motivations, ideals, principles and goals. In the post-Etteilla style of reading, one is encouraged to look at life for the opportunities it offers for self-cultivation, reinterpreting the possibilities rather than meekly accepting whatever pronouncements the reader sees fit to make about outcomes, good or bad.  (And right here let me insert the reminder that the period between Etteilla and Papus represents the century wherein the occultism of the Lodges and Orders leaked out into popular currency,  decking Tarot in its modern occult trappings, which are anachronistically attributed to Levi.)

With all this in mind, we can appreciate that both magical and psychological aspects of a reading are going on simultaneously in every case. Even though the ego is invested in the psychological and situational aspects of the reading, that doesn't obviate the projective and directive quality that emerges from the very act and fact of shuffling, laying cards out in a particular order, assimilating the imagery, the titles, the numbers and other correspondences, and then deriving one or more "meanings" for that lay of the cards.  The whole time the participants spend "processing the meaning" of the cards with their minds, the subconscious spends following the unspoken instructions that the gestalt of the cards is making in front of its eyes.

This means that, while the mind is spinning words and the ego is wrapped up in its "story of the self", the cards are silently telegraphing to the body a set of signals that totally bypasses the brain. Let's see if I can describe this non-describable thing clearly:  The cards lay out a trail of crumbs that draws the mind and the ego along through an interpretive grid of some kind.  This line of thought unfolds through the period of time that is dedicated to the reading. Each moment unfurls sequentially, just like the cards in a spread come off the deck one at a time. It might take an hour to fully interpret twelve cards, for example. In the experience of the Querant, the revelations about the cards will unfold one by one, not all at once but gradually over the course of the interpretation.

But in fact (and an experienced reader must take this into account) the picture the cards make in the spread is from the very first instant communicating another level of meaning entirely, a gestalt that coheres into a whole that is bigger than its parts.  Maybe a better word for this effect is to say the spread makes a "hologram", something akin to the Cube of Space in the Kabbala Tree.  To an experienced reader, the spread represents a magical, teachable moment when a new paradigm or worldview can come through from the invisible world to make an imprint on time/space and matter.  The time encompassed by the reading serves as a "vehicle" of sorts that the participants are using to travel through the "world" the cards are presenting.  That territory or landscape has unique features, bumps and hollows, thick spots and thin spots that give the region its special qualities. 

These qualities are telegraphed into consciousness through the intuition, not the mind, the heart or the body. The spoken and interpreted reading puts effort into helping the brain comprehend the cognitive content being shown in the cards. But in the moment when the cards are first laid out and viewed, the internal, intuitive wheels of everybody involved begin turning immediately. A whole world of associations, parallels and psychic echoes start to prime the participant's shared unconscious with responses to the unspoken signals that the cards infer through their titles, numbers,  images, colors,  geometry, and a host of other associations that the subconscious notices which the ego can only dimly comprehend.

This is why I have always loved, and I mean LOVED the process of illustrating astrology charts with Tarot cards, including using Horoscope charts as the framework for Tarot readings. When Tarot is brought into the astrological paradigm,  one instantly experiences the flat, two-dimensional, dehydrated and super-concentrated astrology graph taking on depth, texture, flow and character. Not only do the cards help me translate the astrology in the sense of giving me more words and concepts to work with, but the cards also bring the whole castle community and all the cycles of the natural world into the realm of the psyche.

We get an elemental and cyclical breakdown of the forces in process, forces which we might choose to affiliate with and/or adjust for our own purposes as they pass through the landscape. In fact, the cards "spell out" the cosmic situation as expressed by the momentary synchronicity, but they also illustrate the "spell" that will move the action along in the direction of enlightenment and resolution.  In very literal terms (once one begins to look with this level in mind), the cards when backed up by the astrology of the moment can give us both a faithful mirror on the personal manifestation of collective events, and also an esoteric key to unlocking the higher potential of the circumstance. 

What a magnificent tool! I hope to do it justice with the suggestions made in this article.

The Praxis of the Century View

Many people are in possession of psychic antennae, and some smaller subset of that number has self-consciousness of their antennae.  But how many people consciously take the next steps to actually tune their antennae and upgrade them into fully-fledged tools of self-evolution?  Individual self-realized people (symbolized by The Magus, keyed to Air and Uranus) become thought-cells in the Higher Mind by forming little pockets of forward thinking salted through humanity.  As such souls ripen, a more comprehensive approach to BEING becomes the aspiration of all those who strive to achieve "best of class" in the art of individuation.  Such souls routinely transcend gender and age to embody the Spirit of their times.

Thus we will examine the chart before us in the light of archetypal influences that cross disciplinary lines between Astrology, hermetic number theory, Kaballa, and Alchemy. We will use the Tarot cards to illustrate these influences and make sense of the interdisciplinary information we can derive. This approach is grounded in the back-story of Western Esotericism. I don't claim to know exactly how my ancestors in this "elite scientific priesthood" finally arrived at their conclusions, although certain things become obvious from the trail of thoughts they have left behind. Both Paracelsus and Pierre Cardin provide signal examples for esoteric astrologers and Astro-alpha-numeric savants to investigate for clues to techniques.

To make up for this gap of time and access, I've made considerable effort to become acquainted with our esoteric ancestors' base premises.  It was the 4 Elements times the 3 Modes that gave meaning to the Zodiac. This construct would be superimposed upon the human body to define a diagnostic grid through which to read current events, whether these are astrological transits or biological health issues. The Doctrine of Essential Dignities (calculated upon the Ladder of Lights) would then be employed to translate the action of the 7 visible Planets to the wheel of the Signs. This paradigm would also be employed to determine which astral or physical remedies would assist the patient/client in re-balancing their energies in a way that would respond better to the current and upcoming mix of astral and literal influences.

In the old days, the calculations for a workup such as this  would take days, perhaps weeks. The practitioner would have a huge amount of time to think about every stage of the process while laboriously chipping away through the ephemeris, calculating the locations of all seven Planetary Governors, the angles and the Moon's Nodes for each chart that was under examination. In the case of an ongoing event like a protracted illness, the growth of a business, or the prosecution of a war, numerous charts would have to be erected and constantly updated to keep track of all the vectors impinging on the primary players.

A series of "hot spots" around any given chart would eventually be identified, based on demonstrable reactivity when impacted by the transits of  the Planets, or by events on the ground. Nothing ever holds still in Astrology, the Planets are always moving and changing their relationships.  The psyche of the patient or "native" (whose Natal chart provides the basis for the workup) is seen to be just as plastic and transformative as the motions of the Planets.  The hope of the practitioner is that by tracking the trends in the light of the unique bio-psychic climate of the native, the practitioner can help the native focus their lifestyle and their attention on the energies, activities, and identifications that show the most promise in balancing their interior "climate" with the exterior world.

In addition to the INDIVIDUAL CENTURY VIEW, focusing completely on the single soul's presenting path, here are a few other ways a person can prepare their chart for a Century View workup (and you can use one or all, simultaneously, as you like):

            a) FAMILY CENTURY VIEW -- Gather in the birthdates of all significant family members. Take a blank 360º astrological wheel and an ephemeris, and superimpose  the positions of everybody's Sun, Moon and Planets around the circle of signs.  If you don't have an ephemeris, you can go to astro.com and make charts for everybody using a noon birth time and whatever location you have for that person. (The houses won't be relevant, but the planetary pattern will still be visible.) Then you can see where the planets clump up. Almost always, there will be sections of the Zodiac where almost everybody has a planet intersecting. These represent "family hot spots" that move down through the generations and impact everybody, old or young, whether natural-born, adopted or in-law. Just this exercise alone can be mind-blowing, as we come to visualize the interior dialogue that constantly goes on between the native and this roster of internalized markers, engraved into his or her psyche via lifetime contact with these people. This part of the workup doesn't require birth times and full calculations to be meaningful. Simply noting down the birthday positions of each person's planets (whether at Noon or Midnight) is plenty illustrative on its own!

            b) WORKPLACE CENTURY VIEW -- The workplace can be thought of as another whole family the native has to deal with.

            c) EVENT CENTURY VIEW -- the individual steps of a series of events can be treated like birth charts, and the constellation of each of those can be superimposed over the chart of the native. In the case of a business, you will be using the incorporation chart as the natal reference point, and the stages of its growth and challenges will be set around that wheel. In the case of a disease process, the major turning points will be investigated in light of the birth chart of the ill person.  A couple can use the chart of their marriage/handfasting/domestic partnership filing, or their composite chart, in the same way. 

Once you've made your choice about the context of the Querent - Individual, Family, Workplace, Event - (or all, if a Full Life Reading is taking place) and, in doing so,  identified the 'native' and the timeline of events, we can begin to make sense of current transits and their presenting symptoms.  In the case of the chart I'm going to work up (through the Individual View lens) we'll be using the birthchart and this year's solar return chart to represent the span of time under investigation.  Because this is the chart of a Cancer native who is moving through her 50's, we will be focusing on the longer slower cycles of the outermost visible Planets and the invisible, trans-Saturnian planets.

The steps are: 

• The natus is placed on the Icon and examined for its interior structure
• The Solar Return is overlaid as a uniquely informative set of transits
• The two charts' interactive dynamics are investigated, especially  the cycles of the slower-moving ones (from Mars to Pluto)
• The cards that represent the strongest influences are highlighted
• A mytho-poetic interpretation is supplied that elicits the significance of current events in Tarot terms.

The Natus in Astrological Terms

We see before us a 10th house (high noon) Cancer Sun with an Aries Moon and the very last degree of Virgo rising. A few hours before birth, the Moon made a wide T-square with the Sun and Jupiter. Our Native chose to forego that aspect and be born after the moon had moved beyond the closing square with the Sun. The remaining opposition between Moon/Mars and Jupiter is still very powerful, embodying the coincidentia oppositorum of the Zodiac signs being flipped within the House structure (Libra in the 1st house, Aries in the 7th).

I read this combination of factors to say that our native finds her way through life by attracting excellence. She's constantly magnetizing her professional peers to strive and vision on a larger scale. She looks for business associates, friends and partners who can care as passionately and constructively as she does, and who have as much intelligence and courage to bring to their life as she brings. Because of this combination of personal (Moon and Nodes) and social (Mars and Jupiter) influences, our Native finds herself working with friends, finding business partners through social interactions, and even mixing money and ambition into her familial and personal relationships. Through continuous self-recreation, she keeps "falling up" into ever more interesting opportunities.

Notable phenomena of this birth chart are:
*Having Mars and Jupiter as well as the Moon and Nodes involved in this fateful opposition, brings this seesaw into our attention in the strongest of terms. Part of the attraction of being a businesswoman for our native is the chance to meet similarly ambitious, high-achieving, destiny-driven individuals like herself. She is seeking for her spiritual tribe through first-house and seventh-house means. The 10th house Cancer Sun makes it clear that the Native is here to save the world in one way or another, with a strong maternal instinct to mitigate the ongoing environmental and social crises "for the sake of the children", or the inner child within all of us. Whatever she does, she makes a mark, and the wake she leaves floats many boats. We can watch for transits happening in the late degrees of the Cardinal signs that might complete this opposition into a T-square or a Grand square, supplying energy but also exacerbating challenges.

*Another powerful opposition, though too wide for my computer settings to show in the birth chart, lies between Saturn in Sagittarius and Venus in Gemini. Since Saturn is retrograde and Venus is a fast mover, they were actually headed for exactitude at the time of this birth. This creates the feeling of a foregone conclusion for our native, because she can be virtually guaranteed that as soon as her Venus defines a goal, her Saturn will step up to tell her all the ways her goal is impossible to achieve! This does not stop her, but simply informs her about the obstacles others have allowed themselves to be stopped by. But because Saturn retrograde is involved, blows that come to her through the mutable signs of Pisces and/or Virgo can temporarily take the wind out of her sails.

*In terms of the Signs (rather than the more exacting aspects), there is the equivalent of a Grand Trine in the Fire signs that incorporates the Moon/Mars in Aries, the Mercury/Uranus in Leo and the Saturn in Sagittarius. Fully half of the chart expresses through the Fire element. Add in the prominence of Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, and the Sun, ruler of Leo, and this shows itself to be one stimulating, catalytic and incendiary chart!

*The wide Air trine between Jupiter in Libra and Venus in Gemini is notable. Jupiter and Venus are known as the "benefics" in astrology, suggesting that where they lead, the other planets will be rewarded if they follow. Jupiter and Venus impart a strong moral and philosophical streak in our Native that makes it extremely difficult for her to settle for half-assed responses to real problems. The degrees that they highlight between them guarantee that there will be a "hot spot" of the same dimensions over in Aquarius, the third Air sign. We should stay sensitive to this fact when investigating transits.

*A background pattern that appears when the Angles and the asteroid Chiron are included is called a Grand Sextile, which this chart shows as two halves (like clam shells) divided at the Aries/Libra opposition. In fact, they come together with a slight opening on the Aries side and slight overlap on the Libra side. One half is based on the opposition between the Nodes; it unfolds sunwise from South Node, to Midheaven, Pluto, and North Node. The other half emerges from the Jupiter/Mars opposition in this order: Jupiter, Saturn (retrograde), Chiron, and Mars. A perfect Grand Sextile is made up of two interlaced Grand Trines, which combine to form the ancient Star of David. This particular appearance lacks the symmetry that would obtain if all six points were on the exact same degrees of their signs. As it is, the sextiles, trines and oppositions that make them up, along with the embracing shape they assume, together imply the ability to attract and take advantage of synchronicities, serendipitous blessings, natural magnetism, instant karma, and other intuitive phenomena that just happen naturally and don't require a lot of training to employ. People with this type of figure in their chart have excellent concentration and comprehension -- they seem to possess a steady mind that's adept at deep, penetrating study. Natives with this signature comprise a high number of mystics and philosophers.

*Another shadowy aspect pattern (which is brought into crisper focus through the contribution of the Solar Return chart) is a slightly wide 3-4-5 Triangle between the Sun, Saturn and the Mars/Moon pair. I'll talk about this one more in the summary section of the article, since it requires the addition of the Solar Return ascendant to complete it.

The situations of the individual Planets are as follows:
*Mercury in Leo (with Uranus), 11th house -- She's a futurist, crisply smart, endlessly creative, and tends to embody the cutting edge of her field. Also self-aware enough to realize how magic works, and use it.

*Venus in Gemini, 9th house -- She investigates incoming signals from many angles at once, ready to co-create new approaches that can be customized for each situation's unique needs. She can bring a playful and joyous energy to the work of solving challenging problems.

*Mars with the Moon and South Node in Aries, 7th house -- She's ambitious to "be the change she wants to see", and leave the future safer for intelligent and sensitive souls like herself.

*Jupiter with North Node in Libra, 1st house -- she's "lucky", magnetic, expansive, infectiously optimistic, and nearly uncrushable. The Universe uses her to move society along to its next higher manifestations.

*Saturn retrograde in Sagittarius, 3rd house -- she brings a tremendous bullshit-monitor to whatever she is doing. No new-age twinkle here! She challenges her peers and playmates to get realistic and take our capabilities seriously.

*Neptune retrograde in early Scorpio, 2nd house -- Her very smart and intuitive body is working on the problem of voluntary ignorance, the ego's unwillingness to know what the body is continuously immersed in. She is constantly confronted with examples of humanity's entrancement with "the life of the lie", meaning the deadening overlay from culture that we all need to recover from. Our native has excellent instincts regarding how to move events forward, even in the face of our mass-mind denial and resistance to "going there".

*Pluto in the first degree of Virgo, 12th house -- Pluto is placed just two degrees within the 12th House, with the entire sign of Virgo filling the House right to the ascendant. The presence of Pluto signals change rising up from the pristine heart of Mother Earth, the Virgin of the World (to use a Medieval term). This is the Native's only Earth sign, and it's in the house of endings. Therefore, she is preternaturally attuned to the drumbeat of Nature in the act of recycling herself, molting and morphing in response to current conditions. It is fair to say that our native has a karmic commitment to planetary cleanup for the sake of generations yet unborn. As such she leads a vanguard of souls who willingly enter "the shadow of the valley of death" in order to redeem the value being lost through our fears and phobias.

As to the planetary pairs, their relations with the centering Sun, and their Invisible allies, these are the archetypal themes that I see in this birth chart:

*Moon in Aries (with Mars) is just a few degrees past exact trine with Saturn retrograde in Sagittarius. At the native's birth, the Sun (the central term that balances the extremes of each planetary pair on the Kabbalah Tree) is suggesting a loose 3-4-5 triangle with the Moon/Saturn. A 3-4-5 Triangle is made up of a square side, a trine side and an inconjunct side, meaning it embodies the three terms "problem, reaction, solution". The Moon defines the "problem" by pressing through the square to the sun. The "reaction" step runs from the Sun down to Saturn along the intensifying inconjunct they are heading into. This stirs up a degree of friction and heat, which colors the conversation between the Aries Moon and retrograde Saturn in Sagittarius. This allows the two of them to manifest a mutually agreeable "solution" that becomes the material legacy of the adventure. With Saturn retrograde, there's a commitment to looking back over past accomplishments to revamp those older patterns if they can be improved upon. There is a real dedication to learning from past experience here; like a scientist, our native strives to get every bit of understanding and wisdom out of every experiment as possible. Meanwhile, Uranus (The Magus) holds forth from Aries and guarantees a wealth of new identifications to those who can creatively reframe their self-definitions. Our native experiences constant reinforcements for the idea that she is here to undergo and also role model the challenging process of cultural change. Though she is not a parent in this life, her world-parenting instincts are strong and evolutionary.

*Mercury in Leo (with Uranus) is diving towards a creative quintile with the Jupiter/North Node in Libra. This is a futurist who is always poised to take advantage of the growing tip of the wave. Intelligence abounds in this chart, not only from the Mercury/Uranus conjunction, but also from Venus, Jupiter and North Node in Air signs. The coincidence of seeing the Sun, Venus and Mercury in the signs of Alchemical Summer, all elevated in the "heavens" of the chart, together push her to step into the spotlight and become a figurehead for important causes. She also puts her money where her mouth is, being willing to bet her fortune and her reputation on her unique ideas. This approach may not always pay her back immediately, but it fully demonstrates her integrity and commitment to finding a higher path rather than compromising with mediocrity. When we bring in Neptune, who is the Invisible planet that harmonizes most constructively with this teacher/student pair, we see that Mercury has just finished pressing a square to Neptune, while Jupiter is sliding up into conjunction with Neptune and the North Node too (which stands between them in Libra). I'd say that Jupiter would be the favored planet of the pair in this circumstance, while Mercury will be tested to see if he has any ego-attachment to being right, being first, being smartest, or any other distraction from humbly getting his karmic work accomplished. If Mercury can let go of the "I, me, mine" script, he'll be in a perfect position to benefit from Jupiter's upcoming conjunction with their mutual patron.

*Venus in Gemini is pulling away from the just-past septile challenge with Mars in Aries (with Moon). Venus is two signs past Mars, actively resisting any sense he might have of possessive entitlement. Venus in Gemini needs room to experiment, to define her reality for herself. She needs this space around her not for reasons of sexual promiscuity (Gemini is the sign of the child, prior to puberty), but for the sake of creative cross-pollination, to make room for magic to happen. In terms of her relationships with potential romantic partners (which is the Mars/Venus theme after all), our native seems to always be a bit ahead of the men she attracts. Her own inner Mars needs to set the agenda. Hence our native's lunar side often serves as a proxy, showing the feminine reflection of Mars' will and self-discipline in pursuit of 'his' goals. We can translate this into more psychological terms by saying that my friend's 'strong right hand of control and direction' (a classic description for the Mars Sephirot on the Kabbalah Tree) isn't seeking outside assistance, as she's fully possessed of a mandate of her own! Internally, this Mars/Moon conjunction strikes a balance she can easily keep. But in terms of the external world, it always seems to come down to an either-or choice. If she's with a man who wants to dominate the Mars frequency, our native finds that her vision of herself and what she brings to the union simply can't be folded down into that too-small sidekick-Moon cliché. Yet the situation of putting the shoe on the other foot, attracting a lunar man while our native fulfills her Mars inclinations, hasn’t played out ideally either. My friend could use some rest from being a one-man band! So how might a relationship be structured when her personality is so well endowed in the fire signs, and with four planets in Cardinal signs to boot? Where does she go to take refuge from her own frontrunner status?

A short aside for relationship advice: In terms of mediating the Mars/Venus impasse in her chart, our native's goal is to get them in a partnership where they can function just like her own left and right hands, each supporting and completing the other. This is the best path for anybody who wants to manage their psyche without constantly crashing back and forth between the opposite sides of a polarized brain! Once a person has come to fully own both sides of this pair, then he or she has the necessary self-knowledge and equilibrium to judge about things like friendships, romantic relationships and business partnerships. The work has to be done internally first, in order to create the best conditions for outer relationships.

Our native has a pretty good tolerance for highly individuated persons, because that's what she and all her friends are as well. But because of her dynamic, energetic, high-achieving Mars/Moon conjunction, her innate brilliance might put the average male-dominant ego off, or cause him to have an unconscious competitive reaction. He might unconsciously (totally by accident) polarize with this female Mars, either to compete with her, or to go limp and be rescued by her (the lunar option). Fully competent femininity is still a conundrum for too many in this world. A suitor might at first project that she needs his 'help', meaning his control and direction. But eventually he'll have to admit that she has plenty of her own Mars energy; that isn't what she needs from the man in her life! As in so many other ways, our native is a fractal reflection of the lopsidedness of society's development. Only a similarly evolved man will be able to integrate with a chart like this, enjoy his part in the process and not feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the 24/7 presence of her androgynous genius.

It might be time for our native to start looking out and away from her 7th House for a different relationship archetype to take forward with her into her maturity. I'd like to see her follow that opposition over to her 1st House, and be a little selfish for once. If we just look at the symmetry of her chart, she might come to prefer a Jupiter type of partner, who brings his own "empire" with him (his own ways and means), so he doesn't need to either project himself into her Venus/Mars (Moon) complex, or put himself in competition with it. Such a person would offer an attractive compliment to her self-sufficiency in Aries, bringing resources from the other side of the Zodiac into the circle. Instead of basing the bond on a shared cause or worthy endeavor, she might enjoy the idea of having somebody around whose true motive is just to support her in whatever she wants to do. Alternately, she can look for people with an Aries Moon or Ascendant, or those who have a strong cluster of planets in Fire signs, to provide a point of noncompetitive commonality. All of these ideas could become part of her “prescription”, from the point of view of the blended astro-alchemical kabbalism that marks our Century View of the chart at hand.

We might also remember that the Star of David figure found the background of the archetypal Mars/Moon opposition with Jupiter is activated by the simple addition of Chiron to her chart. Once the healing element in Aquarius is acknowledged, the whole Libra-to-Aries bowl lights up and comes into harmony, putting a brand new light on the Aries/Libra seesaw. Let this be a reminder to us all that our charts are not set in stone, dooming us to one and only one outcome! At any time, new influences can come in and light up new facets of our consciousness, revealing potentials that we weren't aware of before. The transiting planets do this for us, the charts of our family, friends and colleagues do this for us, and sometimes, collective cultural developments can do this as well. The important thing is to understand our chart's "hot spots" (both positive and negative) so that when those energies are suddenly stimulated, we can put them into context, capture the useful aspects of them and learn from the challenges.

To get back to the chart at hand, the Sun doesn't have defined aspects with either Venus or Mars, so methinks these two are harmonious enough to work out their differences between themselves. We need to also notice that Pluto, the member of the Invisibles who supports the Mars/Venus function, lacks precise aspects with his charges as well. What I take from this is that, in my friend's chart, the Mars/Venus pair isn't bothering with antiquated girl/boy conventions, but is instead demonstrating new applications for the energies that are usually spent on sex, procreation, family and nesting. This is not a person one would bond with if they were fantasizing about the antique gender roles, that's for sure! But this IS a person with whom a truly human, evolutionary, progressive and fertile union can be formed, one that opens the way for all parties to fulfill their highest potential.

In Summary:

The approach we have just used is to analyze the chart via its primary geometric features. By this I mean the conjunctions, oppositions, trines and squares. This simple overview, with only minor amounts of mathematical fine-tuning, reveals the chart's automatic energy-loops and planetary entrainments, and showcases any dynamics that affect the Elemental and/or Modal relations. As regards the esoteric planetary families, I have featured the particular aspects obtaining between the focal planetary pairs, as well as their relationship with their Invisible Planet allies. I have also noted the pairs’ relationship to the Sun, which is in each case the coincidentia oppositorum where all polarities converge (namely, Tiferet in the Kabbala Tree, the Holy Fool in the Tarot). All of these remarks address the native's birth condition, without concern for current events or social trends.


The Natus in Tarot Terms

 Here's what we get when we convert the birth chart onto the Tarot of the Holy Light icon:

Don't be fooled by the fact that the Zodiac flips when we look at it on the Icon. Every person's birth chart puts a different degree of a different sign on the Ascendant, since the Earth spins through all 360º every 24 hours. Our Icon is in the ideal alignment for viewing the planetary placements through the lens of the Ladder of Lights for the Tarot of the Holy Light. So just relax and realize that you are looking at the "archetypal" Zodiac in our Icon, very similar to the way we see it in Astrology texts, starting with Aries on the left and the Zodiac unfolding counterclockwise. Our native is a Cancer, so we'll see her Sun at the bottom of the Ladder of Lights on the left-hand side, providing the 'foot' for the arc of descent called the Wet Way in astro-alchemy.

Here are the Planet/Sign placements translated into Trumps, Royals and Pips. By knowing how the natal chart plays into one's cards, we are empowered to take the advice of certain cards especially into consideration. When those cards come up in our readings, they deserve special attention because they are just as likely to be referring to the client's chart and transits as they are to the person's immediate circumstances. We'll keep these cards in mind when we make our overview and summary:

The Fool (astrological Sun) in the realm of Justice (Cancer). The figurehead for Cancer among the Royals is the Queen of Cups. The decanate occupied by the Fool is 11-20 Cancer, the Two of Cups. This set of cards implies that our native is a perennial seeker for the eternal Measure, Rule or Laws, which exists above and beyond the deceiving legalities of culture. Our native seeks Mother Nature's Justice, exemplified by the Queen of Cups as Melusine, keeper of the headwaters. She is willing to share with all those who come in peace, but the Sword of Truth will quickly winnow out abusers.

The Priestess (Moon) and Strength (Mars) in the realm of the Hierophant (Aries). The figurehead for Aries among the Royals is the Queen of Wands. The decanate occupied by the Moon and Mars is 21- 30 Aries, the 3 of Wands. We see here the figure of Wisdom herself (Priestess) marshaling her irresistible will power (Strength) to innovate and direct human civilization towards more elegant and sustainable practices. Our native exerts an evolutionary pressure upon her surroundings, one that unconsciously but inexorably shapes the developments that emerge from her will.

The Star (Mercury) and The Magus (Air/Uranus) in the realm of the Hermit (Leo). The figurehead for Leo among the Royals is the King of Wands. The decanate occupied by the Star is 1-10 Leo, 9 of Wands. The decanate the Magus occupies is 11 - 20 Leo, the 7 of Wands. (In astrology, fractions of a degree are rounded up to the next whole degree. Therefore the position of Uranus, at 10º 23' of Aries, would count as 11º.) This complex of cards tells me that an old soul with a very clear and wide-ranging mental field has come into form primarily to catalyze rapid transformation. Wherever she stands seems to become a hot spot for seismic shifts. In particular, this is not a person that one can say 'No' to with any degree of success! She is a courageous overcomer and is not shy to ask why the rest of us are so timid.

Remembering that Uranus moves slowly enough to mark out whole generations, we can understand our native as a proxy for the Uranus in Leo generation (August 1955 -- August 1962). Somebody has to be courageous enough to break the spell and move beyond the script, if there is ever going to be progress made on the pressing issues of the day. Our native is a natural-born leader, whose real challenge is to find causes that are worthy of her prodigal energy and intelligence. (I hope that others in my readership with this same signature are asking themselves right now, "How am I doing a similar thing in my own life?")

The Empress (Venus) in the realm of the Chariot (Gemini). The figurehead for Gemini among the Royals is the Knight of Swords. The decanate occupied by The Empress is 11-20 Gemini, 7 of Swords. Clearly our native’s Empress (Venus) is a road warrior, taking on the challenges of a Knight and traveling in the Chariot throughout her land. She's obliged to be canny and shape-shifty, even push her limits sometimes, doing whatever it takes nudge situations towards their necessary next steps. She often finds herself juggling multiple agendas while living between several locations. Like a troubadour, she carries a whole world in her "saddlebags", whether that euphemism refers to her vehicle, her computer, or her booth at the trade show.

The Emperor (Jupiter) with North Node in the realm of the Hanged Man (Libra). The figurehead for Libra among the Royals is the Queen of Swords. The decanate occupied by The Emperor is 21-30 Libra, the 3 of Swords. This assemblage makes it clear that our native has had to learn to deconstruct the doublespeak of a culture that euphemizes everything in order to avoid telling or facing the truth. Wherever our native points her prodigious intelligence, she discovers piles of bafflegab that have to be decoded and recontextualized in order to make sense of the situation. This has trained her mind to register subtext, beam in on meta-agenda, and x-ray the bones of denial holding up most people's self-presentation. Her gift at re-formatting people's faulty thinking has both won her admirers in high places, and made her unpopular with vested interests.

Jupiter's rate of motion is about one sign per year, so about 1/12 of our readers will have a similar placement. The question is, how to use this prodigious insight into the denial-based communication style of our culture, to somehow enlighten people about their own double-bound thinking, without polarizing the reflex to 'shoot the messenger'? This is a diplomatic challenge of great subtly and delicacy, utterly worthy of the Emperor in the realm of the Hanged Man! 

Judgment (Saturn retrograde) in the realm of The Devil (Sagittarius). The figurehead for Sagittarius among the Royals is the Knight of Wands. The decanate occupied by Judgment is 21-30 Sagittarius, the 8 of Wands. A particular karmic gift that our native possesses is her protean ability to invent the magnet that will pull the needle out of the haystack, or highlight the one weak link in the logic-chain. Because of this special skill to immediately penetrate the Achilles' heel of the current enterprise, she finds herself easily popping people's fantasy-bubbles and knocking over their castles built on sand. Both opportunities and problems will show themselves to her with great clarity, even if surface features and personal agendas distract everybody around her. The flip side of this same gift shows her engaged in magnificent, outsized left-field projects, which nobody else would dare to undertake, but which somehow blossom once she has set her mind to the task. Whole economies grow up in her wake once she has conquered the dragons that others were intimidated by. She doesn't often enough get more than transitory benefits from her heroic labors, however, because like all Knights, she is quickly called on to other missions.
Saturn is in the same sign for approximately three years, so there will be significant percentage of readers who identify with this placement. (October 1956 - January 1959 or November 1985 -- February 1988.) It is the burden of the person who can see the future (Sagittarius) to be constantly ahead of the herd. People with this configuration in their chart often find themselves in the position of the ignored voice of caution, preaching sense to an insensible mob. The phrase "no good deed goes unpunished" is applicable here. People with this configuration can't help but arrive at the obvious foregone conclusions before everybody else even notices there is an issue. How each one handles this insight proves to be a key to how well they can integrate with their era.

Death (Neptune retrograde) in the realm of Temperance (Scorpio). The figurehead for Scorpio among the Royals is the King of Cups. The decanate occupied by Death is 1-10 Scorpio, the 6 of Cups. This combination of cards puts me in mind of Paracelsus, who taught that the difference between a medicine and a poison is the dose. Paracelsus is the father of both homeopathy and chemotherapy. This might seem contradictory until one realizes that it is this issue of concentration that gives each approach its characteristic efficacy. Our native has the innate sensitivity as well as the scientific acuity to directly apprehend the near-fatal imbalance that both human-caused degradation and the newly discovered space weather are inflicting on the global environment. One could even say that her whole generation of Neptune in Scorpio souls is present in order to address this issue directly. (December 1955 -- November 1970) Now that the industrial necromancers and cultural deconstructionists have made mincemeat out of our globe's once-pristine ecosystems, what kind of ancient or futuristic alchemy has to be enacted to bring our planet back into a healthy balance for all the lives that still remain?

The World (Pluto) in the realm of The Wheel of Fortune (Virgo). The figurehead for Virgo among the Royals is the Knight of Disks. The decanate occupied by The World is 1-10 Virgo, 9 of Disks. Our native seems to have a fortunate and abundant relationship with the laws of manifestation. Over and over she spins straw into gold, using careful attunement and exquisite timing to pull new combinations from the realm of probabilities. She is not alone in this, of course. This pass of The World through The Wheel's realm ran from October 1956 -- August 1972. For this whole astral generation, the assignment is to exploit the "virgin" potentials of matter yet untapped, in order to solve the complex eco-metabolic problems that arise due to a lack of organismal thinking among our political and economic leaders. Somehow these souls are challenged to "make something up" that can address the extreme level of toxicity that is the chemical signature of modern society. Pluto has so far been connected with nuclear power, which like oil and natural gas have awesome potentials for good, but also for global devastation, as we are currently seeing. How can we deal with these and other such genies, now that modern technology has let them out of the bottle? Those with the psychic equipment to fathom Gaia's evolutionary model will be able to exploit the natural resources inherent in matter and find a positive response to our precarious situation.

The Century View in Astrology

Notice the wide span of years wherein Neptune and Pluto each remain in the same sign. I'm pointing out the orbital speed of these outermost planets in order to help the reader understand how they become the main markers for the Century View we were talking about at the beginning of the article. The birth year of our native falls into a very creative and fateful period in our nation's history, making it well worth just a minute's examination to see how these three Outer Planets carry the collective action:

• First, Uranus kicked off this powerful triple-transition period by entering Leo just before Neptune crossed sign lines into Scorpio and Pluto rolled over into Virgo. This marks out Phase 1 of the Neptune/Pluto run, from late 1955 until Uranus passed into Virgo in late summer of 1962. 
• Phase 2 would be Uranus' and Pluto's long intermittent conjunction, as Uranus slowly caught up with Pluto and then passed him up while they both crawled across the sign of Virgo (from July 1963 through June 1969). 
• Phase 3 would represent the time of Uranus in Libra, a stage that was slightly past halfway over when, first Neptune rolled into Sagittarius, then Pluto moved to Libra. 
• One could even consider the period of Uranus finishing his tour through Libra as part of the aftereffect of the Pluto/Uranus conjunction (Uranus' period in Libra was done and over by October 1975).

Whether you, dear reader, were born before or during these cycles, or whether you entered the world with these cycles behind us already, these events of the last century provided the footstool and entry-ramp for all the developments that have happened since. I won't recite for you the particular psychological turning points that mark our native's personal history across this territory of time, but suffice it to say that our native has been a witness and participant in the huge and pivotal social experiment that has blossomed through western civilization since the onset of the second half of the 20th century. The Magus/Star/Hermit confluence (Mercury conjunct Uranus in Leo) in her birth chart has affected her every decision, opportunity, and setback, in particular because Uranus traces the history of computers and the Internet. It is safe to say that the entire time these three Invisibles were moving through the late summer and fall signs together, our native, and many of our readers, were being forged in that multidimensional media web that has been emerging from the collective mind.

There is a tremendous amount of reading one could do by surfing through astrology sites to encounter how different theorists deal with these long-wave dynamics. In Cosmos and Psyche, Tarnas makes it exquisitely clear that history is "round", in the sense that it is bounded by repeating themes that pulse and twine around each other as these long slow cycles unfold. The "wheels within wheels" nature of these longer time cycles makes it easy to see connections between the outer planetary movements and different events in collective history. For those who want to watch an awesome video about of how the Planets interrelate inside the gravity-body of the Sun, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4V-ooITrws&feature=youtu.be.

A huge realization about the interpenetrating nature of the esoteric arts awaits the seeker who finally learns to ground all their other studies and practices in astrology. Astrology is the literal, living "matter" upon which all the esoteric tools and techniques are trained. Without being straightened and trued by exposure to the actual facts of planetary cycles, the various Arts and operations of esotericism are just a curio cabinet filled with enigmatically named, one-off prodigies that can't be decoded or activated by modern investigators. This is literally true, I kid you not! Researchers into occultism, metaphysics, esoterica, magic or archetypal consciousness (or whatever-all else one wishes to call this field), will never be able to make sense of the whole "doctrine of correspondences" until they internalize the fact that what all those motley correspondences REFER TO is the situation overhead, described by the planet's day-to-day movements through the signs. There just is no other way to stack these blocks.

Translating astrology's Century View (based on the cycles of the Invisible Planets) into Tarot Trumps highlights the extreme stability of these sign/planet associations, which show up in so many of our own, our friend's and our client's charts. Just by having a little sensitivity to the presence of the Invisibles in their generational stations, one might be able to help a friend or client separate out their individual issues (linked to the 7 Planetary Governors, the visible planets and Lights) from the Collective Unconscious that is always tugging on us from the Dreamtime. The generational tone that colors one's astrological chart is something that readers study to become sensitive to. Tarot readers could also benefit from taking this macro-view of collective human development into their body of techniques. With older clients especially, this insight goes a long way towards understanding the wide range of individual responses we see in the outworking of these cycles here "on the ground".

Of course, we have to acknowledge that although the originators of the Tarot were in full possession of the astro-alpha-numeric alphabet with its Zodiacal and planetary correspondences, they didn't yet know about the Invisibles. What they did have was the idea of three astral Elements, pre-existing any earthly substance, which transmit the will of Heaven down the chain of beings to the world of man. Many have analogized these Elements to the so-called Elements of alchemy -- Mercury, Sulphur and Salt. Be that as it may, the three Elements of the Hebrew Alphabet are cosmic Air, cosmic Water and cosmic Fire, associated with the letters Aleph, Mem and Shin. This Hebrew convention of "pre-manifestational Elements" provides the rationale for linking the three Invisible planets to those letters, and to the trumps that bear them. Hence, from the Continental point of view, meaning "in a manner consistent with the bedrock of European esoteric practice", here’s how the cards describe the Outer Planet placements of people born across the 20th century:

• Uranus in Aries = The Magus and The Hierophant
• Uranus in Taurus = The Magus and The Lovers
• Uranus in Gemini = The Magus and The Chariot
• Uranus in Cancer = The Magus and Justice
• Uranus in Leo = The Magus and The Hermit. 
• Uranus in Virgo = The Magus and the Wheel of Fortune. 
• Uranus in Libra = The Magus and The Hanged Man. 
• Uranus in Scorpio = The Magus and Temperance
• Uranus in Sagittarius = The Magus and The Devil
• Uranus in Capricorn = The Magus and The Tower
• Uranus in Aquarius = The Magus and The Moon
• Uranus in Pisces = The Magus and The Sun

• Neptune in Cancer = Death and Justice
• Neptune in Leo = Death and The Hermit 
• Neptune in Virgo = Death and the Wheel of Fortune
• Neptune in Libra = Death and the Hanged Man
• Neptune in Scorpio = Death and Temperance
• Neptune in Sagittarius = Death and The Devil
• Neptune in Capricorn = Death and The Tower
• Neptune in Aquarius = Death and The Moon

• Pluto in Gemini = The World and The Chariot
• Pluto in Cancer = The World and Justice
• Pluto in Leo = The World and The Hermit
• Pluto in Virgo = The World and The Wheel of Fortune
• Pluto in Libra = The World and the Hanged Man
• Pluto in Scorpio = The World and Temperance
• Pluto in Sagittarius = The World and The Devil

The Solar Return for 2013, Alone and Projected on the Natus

Displayed in its own house framework, this year's birthday looks to be all about relationship, since it's centered in a 5-planet 7th-house conjunction between Mars at 27º Gemini and the Moon at 26 degrees of Cancer. But remembering what we have said about encouraging our native to look away from pure 7th house considerations (the place where her convention-challenging Mars/Moon conjunction sits in her birth chart), let's see what happens when we project this year's birthday into the houses of her Natal chart.

Instantly we see that this swath of Planets and Lights currently passing over her Sun spreads like an umbrella from her 9th to her 11th house. This suggests that issues which start out with a 7th house cast end up coloring her whole 'firmament' of professional achievement and legacy fulfillment. The trend we noticed in the birth chart, of mixing business with community, family, and close relationships, continues to bear fruit this coming year! With so many energies showing up to support that Fool in the realm of Justice -- including Strength, the Emperor, the Star and the Priestess, if not also the Empress -- the incoming year looks like it will be expansive, creative, exciting, fulfilling and abundant. It also looks busy and complicated, to say the least. Note that in the days just before the birthday itself, Venus was crossing over the natal Mercury/Uranus conjunction. This makes me expect astonishing synchronicities that somehow nudge our native into a cabal of allies and compatriots that were completely unexpected. In a nod to William Irwin Thompson, let's remember that "everything that rises must converge".

Main points of contact between the Natus (NA) and the Solar Return (SR)

• SR midheaven in the natal 1st House, making the natal Jupiter prominent all year. A very "lucky" sign! Jupiter is the facilitator of good connections, prosperity, abundance and recognition.
• SR Saturn touched back in with NA Neptune one last time. He's now corrected course and moved away for good. Certain illusions have been exploded but the improved grounding in reality is a relief, very helpful for the long run.
• SR Ascendant on NA Saturn. This is the year for our native to be taken seriously as a world-class expert with her finger of the pulse of Nature and a keen insight into future developments.
• SR Pluto approaching opposition with NA Sun for the next few years. This is a powerful and revealing aspect for anybody. Under the x-ray light of Pluto, we discover our true motives and hidden agendas.
• SR Neptune retrograde opposed NA Pluto: The birthday Neptune is traveling with Chiron through the native's 6th house, opposing that 12th house Pluto from the natal chart. This serves as a reminder from the cosmos that our native is authorized to 'judge between the quick and the dead". I'm thinking that this means leaving behind outmoded technologies, and making informed choices about which incoming replacements to adopt. It's time to question whether past practices have really taken us where we wanted to go. That allows us free up our thinking and study into those course-corrections that will allow for a truly different outcome.
• SR Uranus in birth chart 7th house, slowly approaching NA Mars/Moon (due to conjunct in May 2016). There is some time yet before this conjunction becomes exact, so now is the time to get ready for the inner Magus to meet Strength and The Priestess in the realm of the Hierophant. This temporary opposition between SR Uranus and SR Midheaven acts like a kind of amplifier of the birth chart opposition between Jupiter and Mars. Again, this is all going on between the natal 1st House in Libra and 7th House in Aries. Issues of self and other will meet and merge in new associations, which are tinged with both ambition and bonding.
• SR Mars/Jupiter conjunct NA Midheaven -- very good for attracting the attention of allies (Mars in Gemini) and patrons (Jupiter in Cancer)
• SR Sun, Moon, Mercury and Jupiter in NA 10th House. This is a big boost for visibility in her field, leading to a higher profile, and a broader range of influence. Emperor, Fool, Star and Priestess! This is as auspicious as can be.
• SR Venus close to NA Mercury/Uranus. On the day of the birthday transiting Venus has just passed over Uranus and Mercury, so she's charged with electricity and charisma while transiting the glorious sign of Leo. This is a great year to 'see and be seen', especially in philanthropic and future-technology sectors (our native's 11th House).

The Century View and Summary for the Upcoming Year

The biggest story playing out in the sky right now is the separating square between Pluto and Uranus. This has been coming in and out of focus since last fall and won't be done until April of 2016. In Tarot terms, it's the World in the realm of the Lightning-struck Tower, which is squaring The Magus in the realm of The Hierophant.

This is a highly energized cardinal square, and it's symbolic of the way current culture is pitting the world created by transnational institutions against the awakened and inspired individual. We can each feel the tangibility of this situation, no matter what stage Uranus and Pluto were in at the time of one's birth. The giant overarching theme of the moment's events is a challenge to humanity to come awake to our individual power of agency.

No matter what the industrial/military complex has scripted for us, no matter what the giant international banks or governments might be trying to enforce, the creative individual remains sovereign, at least in their inner life. The tools of the Hierophant, which include but are not limited to astrology, numerology, Tarot, and the astro-alpha-numeric paradigm of our ancestors, are all available to guide and cultivate the higher mind, as a means of aligning the personal destiny with the greater whole.

It turns out that every person who is alive on the planet right now has been "born in interesting times". But no two individuals will respond to the same stimuli alike, and therein we discover the mystery of the future! We have all recently had Neptune enter into Pisces (Death in the realm of The Sun), which I described last month as the narcoleptic dream of the Summerland (Trump # 19, The Sun). This diverting fantasy easily drains away one's sense of responsibility towards our compromised material world with all of its warts and divots. Instead it entrances us with imaginary distractions that have more of the quality of illusion than reality. Death is the entropic response to a life that isn't valued, that isn't vested with significance by the one who is living it. People who want their futures to be different than their pasts need to snap out of the culturally mandated somnambulistic trance and take control of their individual destinies again!

These, then, are the Big Themes of the Day: Pluto represents the interlinked corporations that are collecting data on every aspect of our lives; Uranus represents the unpredictable and inviolable creativity of the individual; and Neptune represents the distraction of fantasy, entertainment, and virtual reality. These same Invisible Outer Planets provide the esoteric power (the astral Fire, Air and Water) to energize and fuel the pairs of visible planets that form the vertical bars on the Ladder of Lights. These vertical bars demonstrate the rhythm of the Wet and Dry Ways which Jacob Boehme envisioned as the two chambers of the Zodiacal heart, causing the lub-dub of its yearly pulse. Pluto energizes the Mars/Venus pair, Neptune energizes the Jupiter/Mercury pair, and Uranus energizes the Saturn/Moon Pair.

These same ideas about the Wet (descending) and Dry (ascending) paths are portrayed on the Mother and Father Pillars of the Kabbalah Tree, and they are also shown as the rising and falling gremlins on the two sides of the Wheel of Fortune in Tarot. The heart center Tiferet, meanwhile, is occupied by the Sun (the astrological Sun, not Trump # 19), which holds all these planetary pairs inside the gravity-body of the Kabbalah Tree. The heart, whether envisioned literally or symbolically, embraces the full mystery of the coincidentia oppositorum by which all the opposites converge into the One and diverge out of the One.

Also, remember again that the two signs Gemini and Cancer carry the results of spiritual vision (Chakhmah and Binah) down into the heart for guidance and orientation. Such is the esoteric Flower of Life, which harnesses the Astral Elements to pour forth through the three Pairs to create the Hologram we call life. Humanity lives at the center of this Mystery, embodying this great dilemma and its longed-for healing, while all of Creation is continuously merging and then differentiating again to flesh out this paradoxical world of ours.

Let me say, just to get us all off the hook a little bit, that we are not here to "solve" the world. We are individually much too small and the world is much too big. We will exhaust ourselves and use up all our psychological capital if we give ourselves that task. What we are here to do is "clean up the area around us", if that makes any sense.If we are capable, we can work out the physical and psychological issues that undermine our individual happiness and wellbeing. If our worldview is larger, we can get to work on the local situation, volunteering or opening a business or perhaps sitting on a board that helps make decisions for your region. Someone with a truly huge worldview might attempt to stick their foot in the historical stream and make a difference for future generations as well as current ones. Each person can find their scale and start their campaign here and now. There is no need to wait for a special sign or catalyzing event to give you permission! 

Anybody who is pointing their antennae towards the incoming future can see a plethora of areas where a helping hand would make a huge difference. We need to seek a path of action in some concrete way or another, rather than hanging back and keeping the energy contained in one's head. From there we can start to chip away, one step at a time, at the blocks that have prevented corrective change before this minute. Perhaps those who came before us couldn't see their way clear to create an alternative route. Luckily, nobody who is on the planet right now needs to hold themselves back anymore just because of that! The fabric of "how it used to be" is ripping and shredding all around us, so we will have to become ad-hoc inventors, creating, re-purposing and re-conceptualizing as we go. As we see in many portrayals of The Fool, who is the figurehead of the astrological Sun in the Tarot of the Holy Light, we must open our imaginations to Spirit's leadings and then act in concert with Divine Will, because the very ground upon which we stand is mutating underfoot!

And how does our native make out with her Solar Return so close to the NewMoon this year? Here are the highlights:

As mentioned above, transits in the last degrees of the Cardinal signs set off the Aries/Libra axis. The SR Moon at 25+º of Cancer re-emphasizes the contribution of the Nodes to that chart-bisecting opposition. Certain stages of fate and destiny cannot be willed, they can only be "opened to". With the Moon (High Priestess) as the mistress of the intuition, this placement adds to the emphasis on psychic sensitivity and spiritual cultivation (which is natural for our Cancer native anyway). This emphasis on the inner life provides a balancing influence for the amount of hustling and ego-dominated behavior required to succeed in a civilization like ours. I'm thinking that my friend will find an oasis of calm appearing somewhere in her psychic life this year, which can act like a pool of cool refreshment in her hot, fired-up, self-stimulating chart. Her brilliant mind and powerful ambition have dominated most of her adult life, but this year the stars are adding in the lunar wellspring to increase her personal comfort and nurturance.

I also noted that squares from Pisces or Virgo could tend to destabilize her Saturn/Venus opposition. Luckily we aren't having any of that impinging on her chart this year! The thing that is happening relative to her Saturn/Venus opposition is that her Solar Return ascendant is falling very close to that natal Saturn. This puts this year's Ascendant at the very bottom of her Natal chart and opposes it to her natal Venus. What would be the significance of this, one might wonder? In my estimation, this year our native will probably find herself performing or role modeling a long-established, past-perfected pattern, one that has worked for her countless times in the past (Saturn, The World). What will be different this time is that the audience will be fresh and open, made up of people who are fully engaged and enthusiastic, committed to making the best use of her canny insight and futuristic vision (3rd House placement, opposition to Venus in the 9th). I'm fantasizing that a group of really good students will engage her guidance to improve standards in their field. At the moment she is writing coursework and creating examinations for graduate-level degrees in one of the new appropriate technologies that's coming into focus for the 21st century. Whatever she does next, I expect it to be equally precedent setting, equally service-oriented, and equally ecologically principled.

Another thing I pointed out before was to watch for a hot spot in the sign of Aquarius that engages both sides of the trine between her natal Venus and Jupiter. We found a natal asteroid that happens to be sitting in that exact spot, namely Chiron, the wounded healer. Not only does Chiron complete a Grand Trine with Venus and Jupiter in the Air signs, but he also adds the necessary 6th corner to her near-perfect six-pointed star, or Star of David. This general type of figure brings harmony and ease to a chart, allowing for a mellowness and confidence that keeps anxiety at bay and smoothes one's path. An additional, internal feature of every Star of David is called a Mystic Rectangle, which we also see on our native’s Icon. The rectangle is assembled from trines, sextiles and crossed oppositions. If you let your eye follow the orange X of her oppositions, and include the two long bars of blue across the Fire and Air signs, you'll see that three out of four sides of this Mystic Rectangle are mathematically very close to perfect. These two inter-nested figures grant our native her amazing poise and serenity, which seems to flow along with her wherever she goes.

My friend definitely has this gift of feminine grace and charm, but she is by no means enslaved to it, so perhaps that is the significance of that slight irregularity within the Star of David. Our native possesses the gracious gift of Southern charm, which makes difficult transitions considerably easier for the people who have need of her services. There is an occasional dyed-in-the-wool dunderhead who will be so uncooperative as to force her to up the ante and add a little "oomph" to her presentation. But anyone with any sense will respond positively to the former before they force her to uncork the latter!

The most sophisticated figure in our native's chart is the 3-4-5 Triangle with Sun, Mars and Saturn retrograde. A 3-4-5 Triangle has one side that is a square (3/12), the next side a trine (4/12) and the final side an inconjunct (5/12). This is a somewhat approximate figure, in that my usual tight orbs have to be loosened in order for me to even see it. But since the Solar Return Ascendant falls close to the natal Saturn, the new temporary Ascendant pulls the Sagittarius corner back by two degrees, drawing that Sun/Saturn inconjunct out of the ethers and into focus for us to analyze.

As for the square side: Some people wouldn't think a 5º orb on a square is too much of a stretch, especially if one includes Jupiter over in Libra, and calls it a T-square to the Sun. This shows that this mismatched triangle has the potential to lock up into a rigid knot if one were to choose the path of friction and resistance. We could characterize this as the “instant karma” portion of the figure.

The trine side is, on the other hand, a close harmony, in that the two ends of the trine are within 2º of exactitude in what is a naturally harmonious relationship between these planets in Fire signs. I would say this trine provides the incredible amount of energy and stamina that our native clearly possesses in abundance.

The inconjunct side is the real mystery here, because it is evoked by circumstances that are overlaid into her natus by this year's chart, rather than being straightforwardly anchored in her birth chart. This means she can choose to overlook it or refrain from prioritizing it if more demanding considerations steal the limelight. This is a free choice for our native to take, not a karmic bondage or a forced march. She can duck out on this challenge if she wants to, but it looks to be a very fascinating and fertile conundrum that might be well worth the hassle of getting involved. I think it has to do with her academic and publishing responsibilities (Saturn in Sagittarius) and whether those expectations can interface with the amazing proliferation of attention that is starting to be directed upon our native's Sun in Cancer this year. My friend characteristically has multiple irons in the fire, so there's a good chance that one or another of her side-projects is ready to be brought into the forefront of attention. She will need to trim her sails differently, perhaps recalculate her priorities if she wants to maintain her recent alignments and yet go forward into new fields of endeavor this coming year. Knowing her, she'll make a brilliant strategic accommodation that will incorporate a spectrum of old and new activities in a creative combination that allows the whole to be more than the sum of the parts.

blessings,

 

Christine

 

 

Christine Payne-Towler

Christine Payne-Towler

ArkLetter 100, July 8, 2013
copyright christine payne-towler 2005-2013, all rights reserved

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