(My dear readers, this post was supposed to go out on June 4, but I just didn’t have what it took to get it out on time. Obviously I was feeling the transit as I was writing about it! So please mentally transport yourself back to June 4 as you read this. . .)

“Wake up!” says Chiron.  “Are you feeling wounded?  Recently I brought you a difficult experience.  It was also a reminder, an echo of a difficult experience from your past.  I have a special message for you about how to heal it once and for all.”

Today (June 4) Is A Pivotal Day
When a planet turns retrograde it makes a pivot in the sky and also creates a metaphorically “pivotal” experience for human beings.  Today, that planet is Chiron.  It’s as if Chiron is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding this change forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Chiron is touching a planet in your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what planet that is.  That planet, and the part of you it represents, is being sent on a healing journey.  It’s time for old, wounded places to surface so that real, deep healing can happen.  Today is the peak of Chiron’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading To An Inner Journey
Sometime between February and now, Chiron showed us an area of life in which we are due for a change.  What he delivered was an initiation and it was our first chance to catch a clue about the healing journey to come.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown a way to heal something deep.  And the road to that healing may be pretty rocky.

The clue was delivered, but did we notice?  It’s human to go into denial.  During the spring we may have said to ourselves, “Maybe I don’t have to do anything about this.  Maybe it was just a one-time thing.  Maybe I can just move on.  Maybe I can get away without paying attention to this.”

Or maybe not.  Today Chiron turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That deep healing you’re going through?” he says, “You’d better get with the program.”  Today, Chiron’s retrograde journey begins and with it begins our healing journey.  Chiron will continue moving retrograde (i.e. backwards) until the day it turns direct, which is November 5, 2010.

Every Healing Journey Begins With Pain
Have you ever had a medical condition that had to get worse before it could get better?  Perhaps you had a broken bone that set wrongly and had to be re-broken and set properly before it could really heal.  Perhaps you had a dislocated shoulder that had to be pulled out and dropped back into place.  Perhaps you had an abscess that a doctor needed to dig into and clean out before it could finish healing and seal over.  All these experiences reflect the fact that real, enduring healing often requires the opening of an old wound.  Chiron, the Wounded Healer, is in charge of this process.

Chiron’s process is connected to the homeopathic “doctrine of similars,” which is a principle that a very small dose of exactly the same thing that harmed you will assist your body to heal itself.  This principle is also the theory behind vaccination.  Similarly, you can have a life experience that delivers a small amount of emotional pain in the present, but that also brings up a whole mass of previously unexamined feelings from the past.  This brings us to Chiron’s “healing crisis.”

A “healing crisis” is a moment in which we feel worse, but we’re actually getting better.    This is a powerful moment and the way we respond to it determines how things unfold:  do we get caught up in the symptoms and mistake them for the reality of the situation, allowing them to propel us into a more difficult future?  Or do we recognize the symptoms as an opportunity to heal more than the surface discomfort?  It is normal and human to get caught up in the pain of the moment and it usually doesn’t occur to us to question its deeper roots.  But amazing things can happen if instead we stop and ask ourselves, “What does this remind me of?  What does this connect to in my past?  And is there something ancient there which, if healed, would liberate me?”

Is This Story Your Story?
If this feels true for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Chiron may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Chiron is covering the space between 26 degrees of Aquarius and 0 degrees of Pisces.  If there is anything in your chart in 26, 27, 28 or 29 degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio, or additionally in 0 degrees of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius, you will feel this.  And knowing it can help a lot if you’ve been feeling smacked down by the universe and you don’t know why.  If Chiron has sensitized you this year, this could be the year when you finally let go of all the old baggage and gain access to more of yourself than you’ve ever had before.

What Area Of Your Life Is Being Affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet in your chart that’s being triggered by Chiron.  If Chiron is affecting your Venus, you may find yourself in a painful situation in a present relationship that brings a larger relationship pattern into focus.  Now is your chance to heal this so as to stop unawarely bringing the past into the present.  If Chiron is affecting your Mars, you may find yourself feeling wounded about how you express anger or hold boundaries—this is an opportunity to heal this deeply in a new way.  And if you are turning 50 this year, then you are having your Chiron return, which is an enormous life passage loaded with healing themes and opportunities to clear the past and create a more powerful future.

Chiron’s Gift
A wonderful thing happens when we choose to examine a present pain more deeply.  Chiron links the past with the present such that, if we heal the new wound in the present, the healing echoes into our past.  Similarly, if we delve into our past and heal the ancient root of the problem, then the present wound can disappear as if by magic.  And the very best part is that whatever part of us was caught up or locked into that old wound gets released and we find that Chiron’s healing journey has left us more whole.  The part that’s released may be some part of us we haven’t had access to for a long time—we may even have given up on it long ago.  It’s funny how it ends up feeling like finding buried treasure, right in your own backyard.

Want to know more about how this Chiron transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

Art by Darren Mahuron

Jupiter and Uranus are up to something really different this month—the two of them are not only coming into conjunction, but they’re also both moving into Aries.  Here’s what it might be like.

Uranus and Jupiter are in a tidepool at the edge of the ocean, sloshing around.  Uranus is wearing a hat with lightning bolts coming off it.  Jupiter is a big guy with a large trailing cloak.

Jupiter:  This has been fun, being in Pisces, sign of the ocean and dreams.  I like Pisces—spiritual expansion is natural to me and I’ve been having fun with the dreamlife of humanity since January this year.
Uranus:  Speak for yourself.  It’s been a little confusing for me, being in Pisces—and I’ve been here for six years, so you bet I’m almost done with it.  It’s not exactly my natural territory.  I think I’ve been too gentle on humanity.
Jupiter:  Sometimes gentle is good.
Uranus:  Yeah, but I really like being a force for change.  I really like turning people’s heads around.  I really like shocking and startling people with paradigm-shifting, new ideas.  It’s hard to do that when I have to be gentle and subtle, because I’m in Pisces.
The lightning bolts on his hat keep being attracted to the water’s surface and fizzling.  He looks annoyed at this.
Jupiter:  You’re going to like Aries a lot.
Uranus:  I expect to foment some real action while I’m there.
Jupiter:  It will be a relief to be in a fire sign again.  Fire signs are my favorite.  Let’s get loud.  He punches Uranus’ shoulder playfully.
Uranus:  Absolutely—let’s really knock them on their ear!
Jupiter:  That would be easier if stupid Saturn wasn’t opposing us.
Uranus:  Don’t worry about Saturn—I carry more weight than he does.  He can’t stop me for long.  I’ll be questioning his authority and de-structuring his structures in no time.
Jupiter:  Hey, look!  He points.
Near to them, beyond the pool they are in, the landscape catches fire.
Uranus:  It’s about time!
Together they sweep out of the water and into the flames.
Jupiter:  Now this is more like it!  He waves his arms and the flames flare up, hotter and higher.
Uranus:  Oh this will definitely be fun!  The lightning bolts on his hat begin to crackle.  Soon his head is a mass of sparks and he’s grinning from ear to ear.
Jupiter:  Watch out, humanity!  Change is on the way!

And indeed we’d better watch out.  These two are a powerful combination and they’ll be together in the sky until January of 2011.  Calling all superheroes:  be sure to use your powers for good!

Why are Gemini types so smart?  How do they hold all those facts in their head?  How is it that they slide through school without even appearing to try?  Sometimes it looks like magic, the way a Gemini type can finesse those multiple questions tests and even the essay tests and dazzle teachers with their knowledge.  Here, in a smashing celebration of Gemini goodness, is how they do it . . .

Dabble. Be the dilettante you are, Gemini, for you are good at many things.  You’re an excellent mimic.  You develop your own style by trying on the style of others.  You are a Renaissance woman—embrace it.  Enjoy it.  Gemini has a short attention span, but is this really a problem in the modern world?  More of a necessity, I’m thinking, because those who can’t think fast get left behind.  That very distractibility can be used to your advantage—keep it fresh, keep it light, keep your mind moving.

Love information. It’s true that Gemini types are naturally drawn to facts, data and information.  I’m speaking now to Geminis everywhere.  You are most likely, of all the signs, to win at Trivial Pursuit and then to modestly proclaim that your knowledge is useless.  But you seek it anyway.  You can be enthralled—and persuaded—by statistics.  Let’s face it:  ferreting out, ingesting, remembering and ultimately sharing information is beyond a hobby with you.  It’s a way of life.

Engage other minds in conversation. Practice your ability to get ideas across to other minds (with other mental styles) and to hear their ideas.  Ask questions that put the attention on the other person.  Genuinely want to know the answers.  It’s a paradox that half of looking smart is in making others look smart.  Don’t pay too much attention to whether you look smart because you probably do without trying.

Don’t linger too long or dig too deeply. Grasp the surface concept quickly and then move on to the next idea. Sure, there’s more there—there always is.  But you don’t need to get caught up in it.  The Gemini intelligence knows that the main idea is enough—if you can grasp it, remember it, and produce it when you are asked, you can build a wealth of facts that are useful in an everyday way.  And you can pass tests.

Be endlessly curious. Dwell in wonder.  To be Gemini is like having an eternal child-mind:  “What’s that?  And what’s that?” and the big one:  “Why??”  Gemini wants to eat up life-experience with the brain.  For Gemini, life is a road made of questions.  When a Gemini thinks she has the answers, some part of her deeply curious, extremely mobile brain shuts off.  And that’s a shame, because this sign’s sense of wonder is immense and it’s a great gift to have and to share with others.

So the next time you stop to absorb an interesting idea, instead of just filing it away, ask yourself a question about it.  Enjoy the mystery, even as you are penetrating it with your understanding.  Thanks, Gemini, for eating up information and then offering it to the rest of us in bite-sized pieces.

Geminis, how about a special birthday present?
Your birthday is your own personal New Year’s Day.
Having an astrology reading at this time can help you find inner peace
and enjoy your life to the fullest in the coming year.
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology to schedule a reading
or put one on your wishlist this year.

“Wake up!” says Neptune.  “Recently I showed you that there is more to your life than what can be experienced with the physical senses.  I demanded that you look deeper.  Now I’m telling you again:  it’s time to re-dream your life.”

Today Is A Pivotal Day
When a planet turns retrograde it makes a pivot in the sky and also creates a metaphorically “pivotal” experience for human beings.  Today, that planet is Neptune.  It’s as if Neptune is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding this change forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Neptune is touching a planet in your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what planet that is.  That planet, and the part of you it represents, is receiving a vision of what is possible; during this time you’ll be asked to re-dream that part of you.  Today is the peak of Neptune’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading To An Inner Journey
Sometime between now and the beginning of last November Neptune showed us an area of life in which we are due for a change.  What she delivered was an initiation and it was our first chance to catch a clue about the spiritual reorientation to come.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown a way to become much bigger and much more like our ideal.  And we may have to push through some uncomfortable delusions to do it.

The clue was delivered, but did we notice?  It’s human to go into denial.  During the winter we may have said to ourselves, “Maybe I don’t have to do anything about this.  Maybe it was just a one-time thing.  Maybe I can just move on.  Maybe I can get away without paying attention to this.”

Or maybe not.  Today Neptune turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That redreaming you’re going through?” she says, “You’d better get with the program.”  Today, Neptune’s retrograde journey begins and with it begins our journey into our personal land of dreams (and nightmares).  Neptune’s retrograde journey lasts until the day it turns direct, which is November 6, 2010.

Journey Into the Imaginative Realms
The veil between physical and nonphysical realities is thin right now.  If you close your eyes you can reach right through it.  You can enter that place between the worlds where nothing is actual and everything is possible, that magical, in-between place where imagination is rich and you can dream up your future to be whatever you want it to be.  Neptune is the stuff fantasy books are made of.

But Neptune is also the planet of illusions and delusions.  While Neptune is retrograde (until November 6) you will be pulled into circumstances that bring your delusions into sharper focus.  Examine your life carefully—are there places where you are pretending things are different than they are?  Are there places where you are living a fantasy because it’s nicer than the reality you face?  Sometimes a fantasy is a form of healthy escape that helps us cope with a painful but necessary reality, but at other times escaping from reality keeps us from coping and from courageously changing our reality to better match our ideal.

This transit can be great for those who live by their imaginations:  writers, artists, filmmakers and creative people of all stripes.  It can also be great for those who know themselves to be psychically sensitive.  Neptune’s action is gentle and so subtle that it can be hard to notice unless you are already the kind of person who pays attention to your imagination.  This is a great time to attend a dream-group or keep a dream-journal or to do Morning Pages.*

Is This Story Your Story?
If this feels true for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Neptune may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Neptune is covering the space between 25 and 28 degrees of Aquarius.  If there is anything in your chart in 25, 26, 27 or 28 degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio, you will feel this.  And knowing it can help a lot if you’ve been feeling sucked into other worlds and you don’t know why.  Neptune has you in a walking dream this year, because she has an important message for you.  Your ideal life is calling and if you listen to her siren song, this could be the year you make a subtle shift in direction that leads to a whole new future.

What Area Of Your Life Is Being Affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet in your chart that’s being triggered by Neptune.  If Neptune is affecting your Mercury, you may find yourself a little mentally fuzzy and more prone to daydreaming than usual.  What’s happening is an awakening of your intuition, so make room for that.  If Neptune is affecting your Venus or Juno, you may become aware of illusions you’ve had in your relationships.  You’ll want to clear those away.  If Neptune is affecting your Moon you may have a psychic opening or a very active dreamlife this year.  Pay attention to your dreams—they will contain wisdom for you.

But whatever planet Neptune is affecting, you can bet that the dreamworld is catching hold of you now.  You may find yourself more distractible, more prone to daydreaming.  You may even want to sleep more.  It’s as if there’s another you, who dwells in your dreams.  That other you is activated right now and when s/he is awake, you must sleep.  This is normal for a Neptune transit.  Get the rest you need.  Pay respect to Neptune and in return, she’ll make your dreams come true.

Want to know more about how this Neptune transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

*Morning Pages are a creativity-priming technique devised by Julia Cameron and described in her book The Artist’s Way which I recommend highly.

Art by InertiaK

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Saturn transit this year, today is likely to be pivotal for you.  Sometime around January 13, when Saturn turned retrograde, you were cast on an inner journey to discover what your unavoidable responsibility is.  By now you should have done a lot of soul-searching and reached some conclusions about what’s in front of you.  You’re work is cut out for you and now it’s time to hunker down and, in a serious push lasting several months, complete all those tasks leading to a tremendous accomplishment.

“What is a Saturn transit like . . .”
When Saturn is affecting your chart it tends to feel heavy. You feel the weight of life more than usual. You feel serious, and the pressure to take a more professional approach is enormous.  You are more aware of your limitations than usual and you feel you must take steps to improve your situation.  A Saturn transit is never comfortable, but it calls out the best in us and demands that we perform to, or even beyond, our standards.

“. . . and how do I know when I’m having one?”
First of all, you know by feel.  If what I’ve described resonates for you, it’s likely you’re having a Saturn transit.  (If it resonates, but only a little, you may be having a transit, but by a planet other than Saturn.)  That sensation of heaviness and duty that’s peculiar to a Saturn transit is because there’s hard work to be done in some area of your life and Saturn is making you aware of it.

You can find out whether you’re having a Saturn transit by peeking at your chart.  This year Saturn is covering the space from 27 degrees of Virgo to 4 degrees of Libra.  It will affect you if you have any planet in the space from 27 to 29 degrees of any of the four Mutable signs (Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius).  It will also affect you if you have any planet in the space from 0 to 4 degrees of any of the four Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn).

If you don’t have your chart, or don’t know how to read your chart, you might want to order your own personal Astrology Chart Decoder.  This is a special tool I’ve invented that puts your chart’s details into English, instead of astrology symbols.  Your Decoder tells you where every planet in your chart is located:  the sign it’s in, the house it’s in and the exact degree it occupies.  When you’ve got your Decoder in front of you, check to see if you have anything at all in 27, 28 or 29 degrees of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius.  Also check to see if you have anything at all in 0, 1,2, 3 or 4 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn.  If you do, you are definitely having a Saturn transit this year.  And knowing that gives you a chance to understand the change you’re involved in and to make use of the pressure, instead of feeling overwhelmed by it.

“How long does it last?”
A Saturn transit will typically last for about 9 months.  This year’s Saturn transit will be over in September of 2010.  Today is just one part of it, a pivotal day in its flow.  If this transits is affecting you, the timing of it will be unique to you.  It takes an astrologer to look it up—it’s not something I can just tell you in a blogpost.  In an astrology reading you can find out the timing of it and how to move through it consciously, instead of spending this valuable time agitated and disturbed.  You can also find out which part of you (i.e. planet in your chart) is feeling the pressure to take responsibility.  Is it Relationships (Venus)?  Career (Saturn)?  Home (Moon)?  Or it could be something more subtle.

“What do I do now?”
People generally respond to a Saturn transit one of two ways: either they roll up their sleeves and get to work on the area of life where the pressure is or they run away and stick their head in the sand.  Are you using the pressure as a motivation to accomplish things you’ve been wanting to accomplish for a long time or are you avoiding the responsibility you know darned well is right in front of you?  The good news is that the moment you decide to be responsible and you take action towards that responsibility, the feeling of heaviness lifts.  Saturn has been propitiated and he eases off.

Saturn’s Gift
The principle behind Saturn’s pressure is extraordinarily simple:  do the work and you’ll get the reward.  That’s all.  It’s a simple input/output machine and there’s nothing complicated about it.

Face the hard work.  Approach it in a practical way.  Break down what there is to do into small tasks and do them.  Awaken your ambition to build something great out of what you have, and let it take over.  Paradoxically, practice, when done properly, does lead to flow, that elusive state where time melts away and you are one with your practice.  Ultimately your effort will pay off—that’s Saturn’s promise and believe me, his word is good.

When it’s over, it’s over
Every transit only lasts so long and this one will only last a few months longer.  I’m a big fan of taking advantage of transits while they are happening, instead of spending the precious time resisting or waiting for them to be over.  A transit is the most powerful while you are in the thick of it.  That may be the hardest time to change but it’s also time when the most pressure to change is brought to bear.  You cannot afford to be lazy during a Saturn transit because it feels so much worse than laziness usually does.  If you decide that Saturn’s pressure is your friend, you can get him on your side.  And with Saturn beside you, you can climb—and move—mountains.

Want to know more about how this Saturn transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

Art by disjointdheart

This month, Jupiter and Saturn come into opposition in the sky.  Since Jupiter is all about expansion, getting bigger and having confidence in ourselves and Saturn is all about contraction, being emotionally reserved and working hard to earn what we gain in life, you can see that they have a lot of places to disagree.

Imagine Jupiter and Saturn on Mount Olympus arguing about how you should spend your time.  Jupiter is a large, round, jolly guy with a benevolent glow around him.  Saturn is thin and ascetic-looking, with a kind of hooked nose and a miserly air.  Their conversation might sound something like this . . .

Jupiter:  I’m all about making things bigger.
Saturn:  Blowing them out of proportion, you mean.
Jupiter:  Why do you always have to be such a wet blanket?
Saturn:  Because I value substance over surface.  There’s no limit to what can be accomplished by someone who’s willing to work hard and create value.
Jupiter:  Actually, there is a limit to that.  If a person works hard but never takes a break, they will come to feel that their life is just drudgery—“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” you know?
Saturn:  If the work is done, it’s ok to go play.
Jupiter:  Is it really, Saturn?  Do you ever really let up?
Saturn:  I can let up after something really solid has been accomplished.  But I like to push until it actually happens.  You, on the other hand, are usually full of hot air.  All enthusiasm and no substance.
Jupiter:  How can people progress and build anything meaningful if they have no hope?
Saturn:  I’m perfectly ready to deliver the reward after the work is done.
Jupiter:  Your approach is harsh and judgmental.
Saturn:  And you’re too relaxed.  Promises are important and a person who cannot stand behind their own word is worthless.  Wait a minute, who’s that?
A human being has joined the gods on Mount Olympus and stands there struggling for breath in the rarified atmosphere.
Human Being:  I’m only mortal, but I climbed up here because I want to talk to you both.
Jupiter:  I’m impressed.
Saturn:  So am I.  For once we agree.  So, little Human Being, what do you want?
Human Being:  Your argument is confusing me.  Sometimes I want to be in touch with my ability to hope and to grow and to expand, and then I listen to you, Jupiter—
Jupiter:  Fantastic idea.  Good on you.
Human Being:  —and then other times I just need a solid kick in the pants, so I listen to the never-ending stream of self-judgment that you put in my head, Saturn.
Saturn:  Glad you’re listening.  That will take you far.
Human Being:  But right now I don’t know what to do.  You’re pulling me in two different directions.  I don’t know whether I should expand or contract.  Should I grow my business or prune and consolidate it?  Should I make promises before I know I can keep them and then scramble to fulfill or should I work hard behind the scenes until I have something solid to offer and then promote it wildly?
Jupiter and Saturn look at each other.  Both shrug.
Saturn:  It doesn’t really matter which you do first, as long as you honor us both.
Jupiter:  Couldn’t have said it better myself.  Just make us both happy, in whatever order you like, and you’ll find our argument is over.
Jupiter and Saturn pat each other on the back and stroll away into the beautiful Olympian twilight.

I just got an interesting question from a Twitter follower.  On Twitter, she writes:

foxyladye @pandoraastro why is water and earth always IN CHARGE! and fire(me-leo) & air except Libra! always gotta follow along

It’s an interesting question, @foxyladye, and since I couldn’t squeeze the answer into a tweet or two, I thought I’d move the question over here, where I can spread out a little.

My first thought is that I’m surprised, because Water and Earth often feel that Fire is overwhelming, overbearing and pushy.  And there’s some truth to that.  Yet, from Fire’s point of view (and yes, Leo is Fire), Fire is just being itself.  To Fire, Earth looks slow, dull, boring and painfully cynical, while Fire people are exciting and uplifting to be around.  It’s hard for Fire types to handle Earthy negativity.  From Earth’s point of view, Fire is all hot air and has no concept of the bottom line.  You see how these two are challenged to get along?

Water has problems with Fire too.  Water can be very sensitive and can feel that Fire comes blustering in with no clue about how they are affecting others.  Water often feels overrun and disrespected by Fire.  From Fire’s point of view, Water is too sensitive and should just get over it.  Fire doesn’t want to have to “hide their light under a bushel” just because water is being a “wet blanket.” (Those common phrases are no accident.)

My suggestion is to be the best Leo/Fire sign you can:  shine your light fully, be big, creative and expressive, but don’t be overbearing.  When your friends push back, it’s possible that you were being pushy first, but just didn’t realize it.  If you let your ego get in the way, you’re living your worst Leo side and it will push you away from your friends.  To be the royalty that you are, foxyladye, you’ve got to be gracious.  Because what use is it being queen if you have no citizens to follow your leadership?

Before I end this, I do want to add that a person’s “sign” is not all they are.  It’s quite possible, in fact it’s extremely likely, that those people you think of as Earth actually have some Fire, Air and Water in them.  Almost no one is all Fire.  And you yourself are a blend of the four elements.  Fire may be your strongest element, but maybe not.  It might be worth getting a reading to find out.    If you want that, click on Astrology In Person, in the main page’s right sidebar.

Have a great day,

Jamie

How does Taurus do it?  Stay grounded in the midst of chaos, find order in the midst of sanity and be the calm at the center of the storm?  And why do Taurus types have such a lock on inner peace?  In today’s article, discover 5 ways Taurus stays sane—and how you can too.

Enjoy Simple Pleasures. Taurus is endlessly entertained by the small, immediate yummies of life.  The Taurus type loves things—expensive things, shiny things, lots of things, quality things but definitely things.  Taurus loves well-crafted objects, fabric with a good drape, food with subtle flavors and lovely smells.  Even earthy smells—such as a freshly plowed field—can bring secret nostalgic delight to a Taurean (“ahh, the farms where I grew up. . .”).  Taureans are earthy creatures and this world is full of sensory delights for them to enjoy.  Where’s the nearest flower?

Be Still. Taurus is not only capable of stillness, Taurus revels in it.  This ability to be the eye in the storm, the rock everyone can cling to, the still point of the ultimate balance is the envy of all the other signs (especially Librans).  How does Taurus do it?  The secret is that Taurus loves to stop moving and simply be still.  Your friendly neighborhood Taurean type resembles Newton’s Laws of Motion:  Taurus is static, unmoved except by an outside force; they tend to go in the direction they’re moved until stopped or slowed by (again) an outside force; and every action causes an equal and opposite reaction.  Ponder that next time you ask a Taurus to do something for you.

Practice Yoga. The practice of gentle stretching is good for the Taurean soul as well as the body.  Not-for-Taurus are those high-impact, high-energy workouts that bring sweat and require uncomfortable bras.  The sheer slowness of yoga is soothing.  And if that wasn’t enough, doing yoga means engaging in a practice that brings flexibility to this sometimes very stubborn Fixed sign.

Cultivate Body Awareness. A Taurus who is living the best of this sign is really in touch with her body.  She loves her body and her body gives her good messages.  It’s not easy to cultivate real body awareness in this modern world, with its continual barrage of sexual images, but the Taurus side of us can do it, needs to do it.  A woman who’s really in her body knows when something feels wrong.  And when something is wrong she has to set it right or she’s just not comfortable in her skin.  The enlightened Taurus is not distracted by bling or pulled off center by men’s offers to “take care of her.”  Instead she checks with her abdominal compass and holds her own dignified center.

Have a Low Tolerance for Drama. And here we get to the heart of it.  The Taurus part of us is very much a practical person.  Unnecessary shouting (and to Taurus, all shouting is unnecessary) is met with raised eyebrows.  Willful pushing and manipulations are useless, because Taurus has grappled with some of the finest manipulators ever (perhaps they are attracted to the challenge).  And when you get out the really big guns and throw a screaming hissy fit in front of a crowd of people, hoping to embarrass a Taurus into capitulation, you can almost see those heels dig in.  And once that happens, forget it.  To Taurus, you just look crazy.  To Taurus, drama is ridiculous.  Gentleness and reason will always work far more effectively with a Taurus of any age.  And this keeps life simple—exactly the way Taurus likes it.

Got a favorite Taurus you’d like to celebrate this year?
How about a birthday astrology reading?
Contact Jamie to find out how.

Art by Melora. Here’s her page on deviantart.com.

This is a repost of an article I wrote for the San Francisco Bay Area Women’s Journal.  You can find the original here.

I just had the pleasure of answering a question that comes up a lot and thought I would share it with you.  I found this question here on Facebook.

Q:  “Why is it that the moment of birth is so important in terms of astrology? Why not the moment of conception, the end of the first trimester, or the onset of puberty?”

Your question is a natural one.  The answer is simpler than you’d think.  What astrologers use is not exactly the moment of birth per se, it is actually the moment of first breath.  Physically what happens at the first breath is that the baby is, for the first time, an entity of its own.  Up until first breath the baby is, for all practical purposes, a part of its mother’s body, running all its functions through her.  But at first breath the umbilical cord is cut and the baby now breathes for itself, and must learn to eat, poop and run all its biological functions outside the mother’s systems.  After birth, the baby becomes a person.  Before modern technology, parents did not even know their child’s sex before birth and could not choose a name.

I believe there is a spiritual thing happening at the birth moment that parallels these physical symptoms of autonomy.  When that first breath delivers oxygen into the brain, each and every cell in the baby’s body is imprinted with the quality of the moment along with that initial hit of oxygen.  The baby then becomes an agent of that moment, linked to it by its very life, and the baby’s job is to be the finest expression of that moment possible.  A moment is a temporally holographic picture which can be read from any number of divinatory angles—casting of runes, divining entrails, tarot cards, etc, including the precise positions of planets in the sky at that moment.  What I like about using astrology as the divination method is that it is more detailed and precise—more granular, if you will—than any other personality system out there (compare Myers-Briggs, enneagram, etc.) and thus eloquently suited to reflect our complex human nature back to us.

Hinduism has spoken for millennia about prana, the breath of life or universal energy.  With that first breath we take in prana and we become a person.  And when we die, our breath, our anima/animus, our indwelling spirit, leaves our body for the last time.  Goodbye, prana.  And while prana may not be measurable, we sure do know when it’s there—and when it’s gone.

As to what hospitals and midwives record, that could be anything: the moment of crowning, the moment the baby emerges, the moment of first breath.  Fortunately, those all tend to happen pretty close together.  But a smart, technically knowledgeable and experienced astrologer will usually question a birth time, knowing as we do that nurses often record births later in the day and are approximate in their notations.  Whenever I see a birth time that’s exactly on the hour or half hour, I suspect that a little tweaking of that birth time may well lead to a more accurate chart.

All this brings up the question of caesarian births and of induced births.  Some people come to me with their birth time, “but,” they say, “I was induced” or “I was caesarian.  I wasn’t born when I should have been.”  That may be so, but the first breath is still your birth moment, even if it was on a hospital’s schedule, not yours.  Any many astrologers and spiritual guides believe that even the random factors of life fit into a great design, such that an individual could choose a birth moment that included the eventuality of interference. 

There was a study done (I forget by who, sorry—it might have been Carl Jung) that showed that astrological family patterns, such as the frequent appearance of a particular Sun or Moon sign, tend to be disrupted by births that are induced or caesarian, giving a greater likelihood (with the increase of these birthing techniques) of modern people feeling a sense of not belonging to their families of origin.  Interesting idea, isn’t it?

Mars retrograde may be over, but it isn’t really finished until Mars has exited the “retrograde patch,” that span of 0-to-19 degrees of Fixed signs he’s been in for the last 2 months.  So themes of anger management, self-assertion and the need to be a hero will pervade the atmosphere through May 17 and I’m continuing my thread about the virtues of a hero as told through classical Greek and Roman mythology.  Today’s heroic virtue is devotion—the capacity to place one’s talents and abilities in the service of a greater power, to be a worthy instrument in the hand of God.  Orpheus, legendary musician and charmer of beast, men and gods, was such an instrument.

Legends of Orpheus: Music, Charm and Devotion
Orpheus was a legendary musician of extraordinary talent and ability.  He played the lyre so beautifully that he made rocks dance and stirred the hearts of even the most hardened individuals.  While playing, he created a trance so beautiful that no listener wanted it to end and using his lyre he could tame wild animals.  Nothing could withstand the charm of his music; it was like a superpower for him.  Once, during the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, he even appeased a storm with the power of song.

But Orpheus’ greatest accomplishment was to bring back his wife from the dead.  Here’s how it happened.  He had just won the woman of his dreams, lovely Eurydice, and had married her, when, just a few short weeks after their union, she was bitten by a snake and died.  He mourned and played a dirge for her that stirred not only men, but gods also.  He would not stop his grieving until he had made his way to the underworld, where he sang and played for those cold deities Pluto and Proserpine.  And there he bent the will of the Lord of Death himself, and obtained a reprieve for Eurydice.  But there was a catch—he was not allowed to look at her, but had to trust that she was following him, until he got her aboveground again.  At the very last minute, because her footsteps were so quiet he could not hear them, he turned to look back at her, and she was carried away back to the underworld, with no recourse to try a second time.

Heroic Virtue #6:  Devotion
Orpheus had a tremendous power to charm and could probably have made any woman fall in love with him.  But his love for Eurydice was greater than his love for himself.  She was, for him, an inspiration, a muse and the meaning behind everything beautiful in his life.  So although his gift was great, his ability to be inspired by love was even greater.

Love does not have to take human form to serve as an inspiration to bring out a person’s heroic greatness.  What is needed is to be devoted to something greater than yourself, something that endures beyond physical death, something divine.

Upon his own death, Orpheus went to the netherworld and was restored to the arms of his loving wife, who had been waiting for him there with a devotion equal to his own.  It is said they wander the Elysian Fields together, hand in hand, and that Orpheus’ lyre now dwells in the sky as the constellation Lyra.

What Mars is Asking of You
Do you have a gift that you want, or even need, to give to the world?
What is your cause, your mission, the flag that rallies you?
What is the beautiful purpose that guides everything you do?
When you know that, you have transformed from a warrior, who lives for war, to a hero, who lives for a truly higher purpose.

Articles in this thread:
Mars Retrograde: The Hero’s Journey
Hercules, Hero of Strength
Achilles, Hero of Courage
Resourceful, Clever Odysseus
There’s Still Time To Be A Hero
Castor & Pollux:  Brotherhood in the Trenches
Alexander the Great & the Gordian Knot
Orpheus:  Going The Distance For Love