Astrology - I repent

This year, since January, I have been keeping a careful note of my personal chart and all the transits that have occurred.   We are now six months into the experiment - and on the whole I feel as though there has been very little correlation between events and transits.   .

The only things I have noticed are that New and Full Moons do seem to have a certain pattern to them.  However, initiating stuff at the New Moon rather depends one one believing in it and doing it....

Aquarius... but does it mean anything?

 Well - that's the sun sign, and everyone knows this means nothing - so you have to read the forecasts for your rising sign too - but of course if you read that and it says Jupiter is going into your 10th house and everything will be fab you know it won't for a bit - because your 10th house cusp is half way through that sign... so you'll have to wait for all that until the end of September or early October, by which time Mercury will have gone retrograde again - so that will rather diminish the effect.   Oh dear.

I think the reason I have been allowing myself to listen to the siren voice of Susan Miller again is because I do have a number of Jupiter aspects this month that did look rather promising.   A few posts ago I allowed myself a few predictions for this month.  It turns out that the negative predictions were more correct: my mother in law's house sale fell through - so we have not been able to "relax" financially.  We have had a couple of bits of work in the pipeline which is great - so we are not totally down at the bottom again, which is good since Ned doesn't want us to borrow any more money.   However, income prospects are not looking good - but the devastating events of this month are not written in the stars (I don't know which house represents the death of friends - friends are 11 so it would be the 8th house from that, counting inclusively, it will be 6th house - normally work and health - not much happening there at the moment....  but I would expect their deaths to be seen in their own charts not mine - probably a big something or other in the 12th house - as my long dead friend Jane Davies had - which I misread, because I couldn't bear to think of the darker implications of it.

Anyway, I am meant to be in the midst of a period of emotional and financial security - and I feel like a stunned mullet... the last few days I have felt as if my mind has gone awol - some of it is because of the shock of Marion's death, and a low feeling because of Strat's death throes - which is one of those family intuitive things.  The financial security ship hasn't quite made it into the harbour although Mark is finally beginning to get a steady trickle of work - lots of small jobs around £1,000 but enough of those would keep us very happy.  Having 3 or 4 small jobs in the pipeline and a couple of tenders out too is encouraging.  I will still have to go back to teaching at CA in the autumn though - which I am not looking forward to.  I will enjoy it, but it has been wonderful to be able to get up in the morning and write - and I have been making progress.

Anyway - I decided to look at my transits starting in January - and the first one, Uranus passing over the pars fortunae was actually spot on - that was the w/e I got the work from Ruth - and heard about house sales in the offing... so maybe I should give it a bit longer before I give up.  Or just make sure I notice what's going on around the PF - does it work for other aspects - or only conjunctions?   So having started this post thinking I really must give up astrology I end it concluding that in fact there are far more correlations than I realised - it's just that the events aren't usually earth-shattering or life changing.... when Susan Miller says "You are going to be plucked out and given a major career change" that doesn't mean anything more than "you will get some freelance tuition work"  and when she says "I foresee a great deal of travelling for you this month" it means a 19 mile commute to Canterbury every day....and for several months afterwards too.

Semele? asking Jupiter for a favour?  Can't remember - but this could be me, trying to placate the powers above, and asking for a shorter working week, an improvement in my living conditions, and a bit more income.  

In fact, I do not repent of astrology at all, but I have noticed that certain transits are more significant than others.   Firstly Mercury transits seem to have no effect at all.  Venus are mildly pleasant, Mars sometimes brings a burst of energy - depends where it is. The Moon - apart from when Full (and perhaps when new) seems to bring nothing whatsoever.  Jupiter - well, I don't really find it does a lot for me - on the other hand it's been in Cancer for the last year - where I have only the Moon, right at the end, practically in Leo - and it hasn't touched many other planets in the last few months... so I am happy to be astonished.   Saturn I am assured is the thing you have to spend all your life struggling with - and sometimes I feel that's true, but a lot of Saturn transits don't seem very full of impact.  I am looking forward to my 2nd Saturn return next year with some excitement... and Uranus - really, this is the only planet I can say with any confidence has a real impact on me.  Neptune tends to bring fog - which is a pity since I have it on the Ascendant - but of course it also brings creativity and beauty and lurve and spiritual awareness (Om!).  Pluto - well, of course, all the astrologers say this is too slow moving for words - but I think it does have an impact - like tectonic plates slowly grinding away in one's life.  I had it sextile the Ascendant a while back, and in some ways I emerged a different person... perhaps it's like those fish who nibble at the dead skin on your feet...small, slow but effective.

Jupiter in 10th house
Having Jupiter in 10th house sounds marvellous - the last time it happened we moved from London to Ramsgate, on the previous occasion, 1990-1ish it whisked though the house very fast, but in the run up I went freelance, bought a flat and met Mark - so another year connected with moving house (opposite 4th house I suppose).  The previous year was 1979 when I left university, moved in with Ronnie et al, got my horrible job at the Berlitz and began writing a useless attempt at a novel - and then towards the end moved in with James.    None of these are exactly associated with me covering myself with glory in the public sphere - but maybe I wasn't trying then.  So perhaps there is something in this - although all 3 of these years seem to be associated with moving house in a significant way.

Astro-bollocks, but persuasive

Obviously it is the deep uncertainty of life that has driven me to astrology... but I do read the Bible as well... and the other day I suddenly remembered that there is a point in the birthchart called the Pars Fortunae or the Part of Fortune - in my case it is located in my 5th house - at 8 degrees 55 Aries... perhaps it is simply a coincidence that this is the point around which Uranus has been reversing for the last week or so.   It might well give one the "human pinball" feeling - as one bounced from one unwelcome surprise to another.  I never took much notice of it before - although I have always been pleased that it is located in the house of creativity, children and lurve... and perhaps the so-called Arabian parts should not be taken much notice of, but it is an interesting coincidence.

The bad news is that it will continue this messing about until mid-February - when it will travel away, at the same time it has been trine Venus... so perhaps this very long transit, which will finally be ending, will restore some sort of solid continuity.   Can I cope with another 2 months of this?  Well yes, probably....as long as it really does stop then.

Wondering whether I should re-dedicate this blog to astrology?  Perhaps I would get more readers.... advertising even.... money even.  A blog called Astro-bollocks? Might be of interest.

A note from March 2014.
Well - things are fiscally and generally better - although the rollercoaster hasn't stopped, I can see there maybe a day coming when things will clear up a bit.   Pity Uranus didn't give me some nicer surprises, but it's beetling off now and will soon be linking up with Saturn - which could be a bit more positive (I hope!).

Astrology - a denunciation

I have always been interested in astrology - but it was something I renounced not long after Ned was born - I was persuaded by the more ardently Christian members of the family that it was the "devil's work" - and I ought to have faith in God.  So I obeyed this - sold my expensive astrology books to second hand bookshops - I made about £60 from this - nearly 20 years ago, and actually disposed of one of them in a bin in Burgess Park (or did I just dream that?)

The fateful events of 2009 drove me back to astrology in a big way - and I felt my choice was vindicated as I consulted ephemeris charts, found that Uranus was heavily implicated in the turns of events that year.  I thought that much of my "madness/love/delusion/creativity" that year was due to Neptune - things seemed to fit.  Unfortunately it was not enough to be aware, I came to lean on it - and expect things from it.  After my mother's death there was a crisis - partly because I had "predicted" her death that autumn - and I extricated myself a little - took a more objective view.

Then I became a follower of the dreaded Susan Miller.  Having previously dealt with my own chart and transits - and found them helpful, if not particularly exciting, I was suddenly dragged into a wildly optimistic monthly outlook - which usually, around this stage in the month began to look increasingly ludicrous.  This coincided with a point at which everything seemed to be coming up nettles - so I became fairly desperate for something to lighten the atmosphere.  The lure was that she made everything sound as if this was going to be the time when the tide turned.

A few nights ago I decided I would give it up.  (Until the September horoscope comes out).  I felt it was feeding expectations and adding to depression (see blog passim.).  It seemed to me that very few of the transits that were meant to be helpful were any help at all - Jupiter could do what it liked, nothing it did seemed to benefit me.  I watched our domestic/financial situation go from bad to worse, while the skies beamed upon me and told me I was living through a fortunate phase... God save me from the predictions of disaster.

And yet... underlying the perky chat from S Miller, there was a sense that some things were allied with the stars - the need for hard work and resilience - the underlying gloom engendered by Pluto-Uranus square, (my 3rd and 5th houses at odds might explain why communication, creativity and family matters are not going well).  And now, waking at 4 am and feeling the need to write this - while the Full Moon shines down.  Some sort of ending, some sort of crisis.  Having said all this, what difference will it make?  Well, I have deleted a number of files - but I can't help hoping that the  Jupiter sextile Mars  transit will have a positive effect.

Am I an idiot?
Well, yes, in scientific rationalist terms I am an idiot - I don't mind being a fool for Christ - but being a fool for a transit of Saturn is ludicrous. On the other hand, I would have to be in complete denial if I didn't notice that there had been certain correlations at significant times in my life with planetary activity.  Yes, I know... there isn't a direct "effect" - it's simply that the positions seem to reflect what's happening - not cause it.  And if you see a particular pattern coming up - you can anticipate certain conditions.  But the problem is not in our stars, but that we follow them, or believe in them too much.   I would still love to believe in the Jupiter/Mars transit - but I am fed up with disappointments.  And because of that, I will be reading my September horoscopes as usual, and wondering whether new moons will bring opportunities etc. and trying very hard to bury my hopes under several buckets of salty realism.