A Flock of Black Swans - Uranus Ingressing

If the entry of Uranus into Aries is any indication of things to come, then we can expect a flock of Black Swan events to fly through the world over the next seven years while the energy point travels through the Cardinal Fire sign.

Regress, Progress, and Ingress

In my previous entry I talked about some big decisions coming up in the US this week, possible Black Swans. The NFL labor contract was set to expire last night at midnight and the US Federal Government was set to shut down two days ago. Both situations reached the "11th" hour because two opposing groups could not agree. So what has been decided; in both instances the groups have agreed to allow themselves more time to disagree in the hopes that one side will eventually give up or give in and the other side will get what it wants. In the meantime nothing actually changes. Welcome to the "not" results of energy points ingressing. An energy point is in a state of ingress when it moves from one sign to the next. Pluto completed its ingress in Capricorn at the beginning of 2009. Neptune and Uranus are set to ingress this year into Pisces and Aries respectively. This blog entry is about the behavior we are likely to experience during these transitions.

Below is the US Chart for 3/4/2011, which is the chart I was looking at while recording this entry. Click on the chart to open it in a new tab or window and see it enlarged.

Saturn Return in the US Chart; Potential Black Swans

Hello all,

I know, I know, its been a while.  I hate to say it, but I think my process will be, at best, intermittent.  Hopefully those of you who find your way here and back will find my sporadic musings worth your time and effort.  I am still enamored of the audio recording process and have again recorded this entry.  Below is the chart I used for this entry, the United States Sibly chart for March 3, 2011.  The first week in March is rather a big deal, as two potential Black Swan events are looming.  If you are not familiar with Black Swan theory, then check out my previous blog (link opens a new tab) on the Black Swan, a book by Nassim Taleb (click on Taleb's name link to go to Alibris.com to purchase the book).

The US chart for 3/3/2011 (click on the image to enlarge and open in another tab); below the image is the audio link for this blog entry:

 

How Astrology Works (Audio Recording)

Hello once again.  I am definitely finding the audio recording process very much to my liking, so here is a new recording for my latest blog entry.

A little background for this recording should be helpful.  I do have a Facebook account and through that account I found an Astrology Bloggers group.  This group is an excellent resource for professional astrologers who want a "teacher's lounge" and for serious students of Astrology.  Novice visitors would likely find the discussions difficult to follow without a very solid foundation in Astrology jargon and theory.  A member of the group, actually the founder, Jeffrey Kishner, recently posed this question: What do you think is "behind" astrology?

My written answer to the group was: Astrology, for me, is a very useful explanatory model, depending, of course, on which model you take up (Tropical, Sidereal, Cosmobiological, and so on). What's "behind it" ... all of the above and anything that is added next? I see the actual practice as a comparison of narratives. Clients come to me filled with narratives and ask me to read their chart, which is another narrative. We compare the narratives and see where that "takes" the client. How does the narrative of the chart reading fit against/with the narrative of the client (especially around common narratives like romance, work, health, and spirituality). Does the reading reinforce/support the existing narrative and leave the client feeling, "I'm on the right track" or does it challenge the client, "wow, I've got a bit more work to do, don't I?" Astrology trumps psychology for me because the language is, honestly, more beautiful, romantic, engaging, heroic, humanistic, juicy, and any other adjectives that describe, or are used, to describe/write a great story. Intuitively, I believe people are drawn to Astrology because its all about the outlier and the individual, its all about them and not statistical groupings.

My much longer answer is recorded on this digital mp3 file.  Enjoy! 

Astrology and Black Swans

Hello all,

I have decided to try a new process.  I am finding I cannot type fast enough for my thinking, so I want to begin recording my blog entries.  This morning I decided to talk about a recent book purchase, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and how it relates to Astrology in general and my practice in particular.

Enjoy the recording!

Book Recommendation - Soul Sick Nation by Jessica Murray

It is rather easy to find a essential books for Astrologers to read, such as Horoscope Symbols by Robert Hand or Astrology and the Four Elements by Stephen Arroyo.  It is much harder to find essential books for both Astrologers and non-Astrologers to read, and so far, I have only found two.  Perhaps readers of this blog will have some other suggestions; if so, I hope you will share them.  Up until two weeks ago, I had only one book on this rarefied list, Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas.  Today, I want to add Soul Sick Nation by Jessica Murray.

Why should you ... no, no, why MUST you read this book?  Ms. Murray eloquently captures the true State of the Union for America and why it matters to the rest of the world.  Like it or not, as she says, so goes America, so goes the World.  And America is rotting from the inside and spreading that rot out to the rest of the world.  Condemn us though they may, most people and most countries would like to have America's level of overindulgence.  The problem, as Ms. Murray so astutely points out, is America's arrested spiritual development.  We are a nation that has devolved into a country run by adolescent behavior.  Spiritually speaking 13 year olds are at the helm of the ship, driving the car, and piloting the plane.  And she gets at the root of the problem with Astrological incisiveness; America is living the shadow of its Pluto in the 2nd House, where "getting mine" is taken to a dark level in the pursuit of control of resources.

From a Super Size Me philosophy to a Wag the Dog war, America has pushed self-interest to darkly divine status, where "Greed is Good" and acting immaturely is revered.  Murray chooses the Sibley Astrological chart for the Birth of the Nation and shows both America's potential and how the shadow side has erupted into the behavior of the common way.  The Bush presidency is the purest, unadulterated expression of America's dark side, where all the world is either "with us or against us."  No attempt was made to hide the fact that the rich have completely dismantled the safeguards that created a better country than had existed world wide, on the whole, for the benefits of its citizens.  And from an Astrological perspective, we need more blatant disregard to wake up the world.  I often joke that no one will really believe in Global Warming until the subways of New York are filled with ocean water and even then a large number of people in America will still believe it is a terrorist plot.  People in this country, generally, have embraced an i"gnorance is best" policy that is shamefully astounding.

If you want to see the deep power of Astrology, not only to point out how and why things are F'ed up, but also the answer that is the way out, then go buy Ms. Murray's book RIGHT NOW!  Really, no kidding, ALL CAPS.  And if you do and you do read it, I want to talk with you about it.  She has her pulse on a America and it's pretty erratic and headed towards cardiac arrest (can we say "implosion" of entitlement programs - Social Security and Medicare).  But she also has a very fundamental solution that calls of us to action at a level we can all manage if we choose to take up the call.  I am trying and I hope you will too.

Ophiuchus Addressed

I'll admit, I'm going to cheat a little bit since other Astrologers have already responded quite eloquently to the issue of the "13th" Sign/Constellation.  I will provide links to their articles at the end of this blog entry.  But first, let me try to get at the core issue. Ophiuchus is not the core issue, but it does provide, to the non-Astrologer, an opportunity for Astrologers to reveal the core issue of Astrology, and it is this:

Astrology is the interpretation of data and an approximation of information into a meaningful narrative.  Essentially, it is a game.  And like a game it moves beyond the data and information to make a meaningful experience.  Ophiuchus is data that has been consciously ignored and the real question before us is this: 

Is the ignoring of Ophiuchus a deal breaker?  Is it the Holy Grail of Atheism for Astrology?  Is it the arrival of intelligent life from outer space completely obliterating humanity's belief that we alone have consciousness?  Not really.  But it clearly makes for good press!  And here's why ... the Sun moves through/in front of none of the signs/constellations for exactly 30 days.  In ALL cases the Sun moves in front of the constellations for differing amounts of time and the shortest of those times is through Scorpius (just 7 days), followed by Ophiuchus (at 18 days).  Basically, Scorpius and Ophiuchus got mashed together to fit the 12 month Gregorian Calendar.

Equally important is the fact the Western Astrology uses Seasons, another approximation, to mark the beginning of the signs.  So even though the constellations have shifted, we still keep the start of Spring marked at March 22.  Here's what Ophiuchus really reveals about Astrology and, honestly, all "mystery"/spiritual systems.  They vary.  Even within Tropical Astrology you have multiple ways to cast a chart based on different House Systems (over 10).  In Astrology generally, you have a two competing systems - Sidereal and Tropical.  You have systems that cast out the Houses (cosmobiology, as promoted by Rheinhart Ebertin) and ones that cast out the Signs (Fixed Star Astrology as promoted by Jamie and Marina Darkstar, one of the linked authors below).  Maybe Astrology is not your best guide; you can choose palmistry, Runes, Tarot, psychology, or science.  Or mix it all up.

In Sidereal Astrology I end up with a Pisces Sun sign and when I look at the fully cast chart, I learn something useful about myself.  I bet if I decided to run a chart with Ophiuchus and all the signs/constellations with exactly their time for the Sun to cross the path, I would learn something useful that way as well.  The universe is big enough to teach us something using this constellation or ignoring it.  What it does not do is throw Astrology into the trash bin; it really helps bring illumination on a subject that, I think, moving into the future, we are going to need more and more help from.

As promised, here's what others have to say:

• Jamie Darkstar (1st Piece)
• Jamie Darkstar (2nd Piece)
• Eric Francis

Philip Young, PhD