Auntie Joyce’s Astro-Aphorisms #3

© 2010 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

Originals by Auntie Joyce, except as noted.

Aries: “The quicker the faster.” ~ Sr. Stella, slap happy 1950s nun and knuckle rapper. Speciality? The Ruler. (And Auntie Joyce does not mean “chart ruler.”)

Taurus: Too many cookies spoil the broth.

Gemini: Put up! I can’t shut up.

Cancer: Necessity is a mother.

Leo: The cure for the common old.

Virgo: Out of right, out of mind.

Cultural Dictionary

aphorism [(af-uh-riz-uhm)]

A concise and often witty statement of wisdom or opinion, such as “Children should be seen and not heard,” or “People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.”

Libra: “Be careful or they’ll find you in attempt of court.” ~ Mary Mason, my malaproppin’ mama

Scorpio: The expression is birds of a feather flock together.

Sagittarius: Don't exSaggerate.

Capricorn: Boss is another name for the Goat-to person.

Aquarius: There’s no place like Om.

Pisces: Give a man a fish and he eats for one night. Tell a man he’s a Fish and he drinks like one for life.

~~~

Photo Credit: FUNNY NUN © Creatista Dreamstime.com

Want more Auntie's Aphorisms?  Read #1 and  #2.

Summer Solstice - “Let the Sunshine In”

© 2009 by Joyce Mason

For over twenty years, I’ve done rituals to celebrate the change of seasons with a spirited group of women known as the Solsisters. We’ll celebrate the Sun’s entry into Cancer and the Summer Solstice by the river on June 19 in a diverse homemade ceremony, as usual. A close friend is my co-facilitator—the other “regular” at creating these rituals--though over time, it has become more of a shared creation of the participants. For the definition of solstice and the reasons we celebrate, read about our last Winter Solstice gathering.

Maybe it was because I was just coming off updating Your Solar Return and Solar Return Meditation, but I got an earworm—one of those songs or jingles that won’t leave your mind till you do something with it. The song was the Siamese twin of “The Age of Aquarius” from Hair, “Let the Sunshine In.” The words struck me as being so appropriate for this time of year.

Let the Sun Shine
Summer is primarily a celebration of the signs Cancer and Leo. American schools may get out in Gemini and go back in Virgo (so appropriate as the Mercury-ruled mental signs), but most vacations and the bulk of summer occur when the Sun is in Mom and Dad.

That’s right! Mom and Dad. Cancer, ruled by the Moon, is most associated with mother, love, and nurturing—a feminine water sign. Leo is dad, creativity, birth, playfulness—a masculine fire sign. Together, the Sun and the Moon are called the Lights. Summer kicks off with light at maximum—the longest day of the year. We are drenched in light. Cancer and Leo symbolism abounds. We play by the water in the bright light of the Sun and relish our ability to have fun and nurture ourselves with more leisure than usual.

Finally, as a Chiron aficionado, I have to note the large role the Lights play in the Chiron myth. The great healer Chiron, an abandoned being, was parented and educated by Apollo and Artemis in the guise of the Sun and the Moon. The Lights were the teacher and mentor of arguably one of the greatest teachers and mentors known to humanity. Chiron’s age-old story and archetype has returned to Earth in these turning-point times as a planet discovered in 1977, named in his honor. His nurturing and educational lineage is no small cosmic hint about where to go for answers. (Look Up.)

The Sun in Astrology
What is the meaning of the Sun in astrology?

The Sun is you when you’re “on,” acting totally
from instinct combined with character and personality. It’s you on stage playing yourself to the hilt, winning a Tony Award. Some people call it being in the zone, being in the groove, or getting your mojo. The Sun is pure You—no edits, no strings, stripped of outer influences.

Rarely do we act in this completely solar way. When we do, it’s magical. It’s a plain, 47-year-old Susan Boyle knocking ‘em dead with a voice like an angel on Britain’s Got Talent. We can do anything, because we are being the essence of who we were designed to be. This blog is dedicated to the evolution of this kind of solar power.

And speaking of the Radical Virgo, summer culminates in the sign of the Virgin. In the US, we tend to think of the time the Sun is in Virgo as “fall,” mostly due to advertising and back-to-school rituals that keep us a beat ahead of the planetary music. This is especially true for those of us born toward the autumn equinox end of the sign. With my Sun in the last degree of Virgo, it was an epiphany the day I realized I was actually born during the last breath of summer.

It doesn’t take more than reading your first astrology book or attending your first class to understand that the Sun is only a fraction of the unique fingerprint that is you. There’s your Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn—and so on. However, when you consider the role of the Sun in your true essence, it’s not difficult to understand why Sun sign astrology has always been—and remains—so popular. On first blush, it’s easy to believe that Solar You is “it.” All the other planetary influences are back-story. They are written in the script notes or character sketch but often are not immediately visible. You are an actor interpreting the role, doing Aries, Gemini, Leo—whatever your Sun sign. Think of all the actors who have played James Bond, yet every one played him in his own inimitable way.

While the Sun in astrology isn’t everything, it’s your vehicle of self-expression. What an energy to celebrate. Every time you do, it’s a rebirthday.

Let Your Sun Shine In
Why not learn more about your Sun at a deeper level during the season that nearly overwhelms us with sunshine? Where I live near Sacramento, CA the summer sun is relentless. Multiple days of triple-digit heat are common. What a wonderful time to make an astrology book your beach or chaise longue reading material. When it’s too hot, take it indoors in the air-conditioning and do the bits that are more conducive to inside play. Here are some ideas for becoming more deeply acquainted with your twelfth of the zodiac:

Learn Your Myth. Google “myth + name of your sign.” You’ll find a goldmine of mythical material to ponder. You’ll wonder how these metaphors fit into making you You. For example, Jason and the Argonauts as well as Robin Hood epitomize Aries. Or you can get two lines on each of the twelve at Signs of the Zodiac: Myths and Legends. Not to leave out the namesake sign of this blog, the identity of the virgin in the constellation Virgo is uncertain; throughout history, she has been associated with nearly every prominent goddess. A mystery to solve! Or at least formulate a theory about.

Revisit Classic Sun Sign Literature. My interest in astrology started young, but I still resonate to Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs (1984) as containing some of the best descriptions of the dazzling dozen ever put on paper. Sun Signs is also posted on englishwiz.com. Another classic is Kathleen Burt’s Archetypes of the Zodiac (1988). Bill Tierney’s All Around the Zodiac (2001) gets a big thumbs-up in reader reviews—and if you have another favorite to add to the list, please Comment and share it with us.

Do Some Personal, Experiential Astrology. If you’re an Earth sign (your Sun is in Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn) play in dirt. Garden. Tend your house plants. Work with clay. Get into your body through exercise, sensuality, or sex. How does this element figure into your make-up? Air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius): Sit in front of a fan, hang out in a breeze—especially near a wind chime—blow on a pinwheel. Drop leaves from a balcony. Blow on milkweed. How does wind affect you? Water (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces): Swim, bathe, spa. Play in water. Play in the sprinklers. Go down to the river and watch water flow. How are you the water element? Fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius): Feel the sun on your face and body. Light a small fire, even in the middle of summer. Light a candle and watch it flicker. Watch summer wildfire coverage. How is your make-up on fire?

Let Your Moon Reflect on Your Growing Season
My first spiritual teacher emphasized summer as our personal growing season. On days when you simply have to retreat to the air conditioning, you can use your Moon like your “inside voice” to reflect quietly on what you’ve learned playing in the Sun—literally or figuratively. Muse on how your Moon treats this Sun knowledge, since Sun and Moon work hand in glove as your Lights that guide you to enlightenment. For example, Aries Moon might want to “get ‘er done.” She wants to get this personal growth stuff over with so she can go back out and play. Pisces Moon may want to put it to music, strum his guitar, or meditate on the rays of new Sun info gleaned. Libra Moon may want to share her insights with another.

These explorations deepen our appreciation of the twelve archetypes of the zodiac, the alphabet on which the language of astrology is built, complemented by the planets that rule each sign and their aspects to each other. To understand astrology and to make astrology work for us, we have to go back to the basic twelve and learn ever-deepening layers of meaning.

This reminds me of an experience I once had about “the basics,” only it involved tarot rather than astrology. Someone came to me for a reading at a psychic fair. We got into a conversation about the book, Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism (translated from French, 1985 edition). He swore if he could only have one book stranded on a desert island for the rest of his life, this would be “it.” Its author is anonymous. Similar to my suggestion that we delve deeply into the basic twelve zodiac symbols, “Meditations on the Tarot” mines the depths of the 22 Major Arcana cards. My mother gave it to me for my 40th birthday. Two decades later, I’m still delving. Starting with your own Sun sign, learning the twelve signs of the zodiac is a “layers of the onion” process—well worth the occasional tears shed in self-discovery.

It won’t be long before you’ll understand why so many cultures have worshipped the Sun.

May your summer burst with light and fun.

~~~

Photo credit: Abstact by Natou98

Summer Solstice: June 20, 10:45p PDT. Adjust for your time zone in the US or World.

More on Sun Signs, the Moon and More: Read the monthly SkyHints Sidebar on Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights, Joyce’s other blog for spirited living.

Your Solar Return and Solar Return Meditation

Toolbox Rituals

© 1995 - 2009 by Joyce Mason

Once a year, the transiting Sun returns to the exact same position it held in the sky at the moment of your birth. This happens at a different moment each year, within a day or two of your birthday. This fun-omenon is known as your Solar Return, and it is a powerful time to put out to the universe what you want to manifest during your birthday-to-birthday (solar) year.

Why Meditatate?
Along with many other astrologers, I highly recommend that you meditate during this powerful time. Not only is it an excellent time to send your desires to the universe for fulfillment, but it is also an outstanding time to receive information. From his studies of the Mayan culture, Jose Arguelles, Father of the Harmonic Convergence, tells us that the Sun focuses information through the cosmos to us. If this is true, the Solar Return can almost be likened to the once a year you can count on a good connection for a two-way telephone conversation with God/Goddess/All That Is.

The value of knowing your exact Solar Return time is so that you can schedule your meditation to "peak" during the Solar Return moment. Some years, you'll be lucky. Your Solar Return will happen at a convenient time of the day or one that is not too disruptive to your normal routine. Other years, you'll have to set an alarm and get up in the middle of the night--or as one of my friends had to do once, you may find yourself taking a meditation break in the stall of a restroom at work, between meetings!

However you have to do it, don't lose this once-a-year day, and this golden (sunshine!) opportunity to transmit your most heartfelt desires to the core of Collective Spirit, from which all things materialize. Just as importantly, you don't want to miss receiving valuable information from the "heart of space."

I suggest that you open your meditation with the Sun Conjunct Sun prayer from Alda Marian Jangl's, The Astrological Prayer Book. This book is an excellent way to get to know your chart and to work with it. (Some people may find the terminology too Christian, if not of that faith. Remember, you can simply substitute whatever invocations of spirit you prefer.) If you like your Sun Sign prayer, I suggest you consider purchasing The Astrological Prayer Book for continued work. It also contains prayers for the various aspects between planets in your natal chart and for aspects formed by transiting planets (where the planets are today compared to their positions when you were born). Alternatively, you might enjoy this Solar Return Prayer:

Solar Return Prayer

Sun, Source of life and
warmth:

You are my vitality.
You are the spark of me.
You assisted my birth
from the Sky.

Your special spot
in the heavens
is my hint of how
to be myself.
We are called human
beings, not human doings.
I will:
Be!
Shine!
It’s birthday
time.

--Joyce Mason

You are a shining star,
No matter who you are,
Shining bright to see
What you can truly be.

--Earth,
Wind & Fire

How the Solar Return Meditation Works
For starters, you, an astrologer, or an astrological chart service needs to run a chart of your Solar Return. (Purchase information to the right in the sidebar.) This map is based on your date, time, and place of birth as well as the place you intend to be during those days around your birthday.

For example, if my Solar Return time were 3:23 AM on September 21st this year, I would set my alarm to be up by 2:45 and awake by 3:00, when I would begin meditating. I'd devote at least a half-hour to this special meditation time, with the exact moment of 3:23 AM landing somewhere in the middle of the meditation. (We must also account for the possibility of your birth time being slightly off. Few astrologers assist at deliveries or have coached birth attendants about the importance of accurate recording of the birth moment, during a time when a lot of other concerns have their attention.) By meditating with the "presumed time" in the middle, if your birth time is slightly off, you'll also hit the "real time" during this interval. You’ve padded your bets.

One important note. The Solar Return is so powerful, ask and you will receive. Often, in our eagerness to grow, we request things we're not quite ready for. Since we tend to be the least objective about ourselves, I suggest you use what I affectionately call "the cosmic escape clause" when asking for things from the universe or whatever you call Source: "This or something better."

By using this affirmation at the end of my wish list of things I want to happen during the upcoming year, I have always gotten everything I'm ready for during the 12 months from birthday to birthday. Whatever I didn't manifest, I still made some sort of progress toward eventually having it--preliminary steps or a change in attitude or growth that would build the foundation necessary to have those wishes fulfilled later on. Alternatively, I have sometimes been gently guided to realize that what I thought I wanted was hardly in my best interests. (Thank God for "this or something better," or I would have been stuck with it!) Pleasantly, I also discover the "something better.")

The Solar Return chart, cast for the exact moment of the transiting and natal Sun conjunction, is another way of looking at the themes and nature of your birthday year. Often, it echoes issues evident by progression and transit, giving a general preview of the nature of your learning during the next year of life.

As mentioned, Solar Returns are affected by where you are on the map at the moment of your Solar Birthday; therefore, where you are at that time can have an influence on the upcoming year. Astrologers vary in their views on this. I think the Solar Return location is the primary influence, but if your magic moment happens away from home, the place where you live will determine your “secondary chart,” where you spend most of your time. An analogy: Your birth chart is always your birth chart, but wherever you live, your secondary chart is your relocated chart, cast for the same time as your birth, but at your new locale. Yes, I consider going away for every birthday! Sometimes that has yielded spectacular Solar Returns.

One of my favorites was my 1993 birthday in Questa, New Mexico--chosen because I felt strongly drawn there and my Solar Return chart “looked good.” A friend, a professional psychic, was my hostess in the gorgeous, Sangre de Christo Mountains, in an adobe house by a babbling brook, whose beauty alone was one of the best birthday gifts I had ever received. My Solar Return time was close to 10:30 p.m. My best laid plans to meditate to the babble of the brook went down the drain as a storm came up. (Even on a quest in Questa, I had enough sense to come out of the rain.)

My friend suggested I relocate to the protection of the porch, where the mist blew gently in my face, the music of the wind chimes played, and the lightning made fireworks on the backs of my closed eyelids. As the clock ticked toward My Moment, I got this overwhelming urge to open my eyes. Before me, in the sky, was a rainbow of moonlight. Later, I learned that lunar rainbows are rare. Nothing will ever convince me I should have been anywhere but in Questa, New Mexico for my birthday that year. It was a good omen of healing from past storms, and it did indeed, presage a wonderful year to come.

Meanwhile, if it’s close to the anniversary of your incarnation, Happy Birthday, and Many Happy (Solar) Returns!

~~~

Photo Credit: SUN © Anchesdd Dreamstime.com

Learn your Solar Return time for your meditation this year - Send $5 US via PayPal. (See purchase button in sidebar below Blog Catalog/My Communities.) Joyce will determine your time and send you a PDF chart of your Solar Return moment. No chart interpretation. (Joyce is not doing readings at this time, but referrals are available, just e-mail her for referrals or questions.)

Want to celebrate your birthday, not just once a year on your Solar Return, but 12 times, once a month? Read Do Something Different Day on my other blog Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights.

Humor: How the Signs Tweet

If I say Twitter, do you think I’m giggling at you like a goofy schoolgirl—or do you start talking in a bunch of birdie buzz words like tweet, tweeps, or twoosh?

For those of you not already a part of this Internet communication craze, here’s the Wiki, straight from the source (Wikipedia, of course!):

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them
(known as followers).

Unlike some of the other social networking formats like Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn, on Twitter less is more. As a Wordgo, at first I found the tiny word count more than a bit restrictive. However, before long, I not just improved my writing to a degree of conciseness never before imagined; I found myself a twitterholic in no time. See my

six-word memoir on the subject, if you don’t believe me. (I never thought I could say hello in 140 characters, much less write memoirs in six words.)

Late last night, I decided to send a series of six tweets where I described how the signs do this Twitter thing. (That’s what you do when you can’t fit it all into one tweet. You hog the stream with a tidal wave of sequential tweets, something I personally detest but occasionally do.) I figured The Radical Virgo readers might get a bang out of this birdie business, especially if you already tweet. And if you don’t, maybe it’ll be enough to make trying it irresistable. Terms decoded for newbies:

Tweet Signatures

Aries - Short, rapid fire, outta there.

Taurus – Slowly betwn snacks.

Gemini – All day, night, in sleep.

Cancer – Can’t nurture tweeps enuf (friends/followers) in 140 chars.

Leo – Big, bold, look-at-me tweets, backgrounds.

Virgo – Precise, planned in advance, hates to shorten words.

Libra – RTs (return tweets or forwards) lots of others’ tweets, own are nice ‘n’ sweet.

Scorpio – Watches tweet stream intensely in silence, then tweets alone late at night with mysterious phrasing.

Sag – Jokes, fun, big statements in spurts then off on adventures.

Capricorn – Biz-related and biz-building.

Aquarius – The odder the better. Loves e-communities.

Pisces – Merges, becomes one w/tweet stream. Often goes missing.


How to Take/Tweet it From Here

Sign up for Twitter.

Follow me on Twitter. Or once you've got your account, go to the Find People tab and enter my screen name, JoyceMason (no space--grounded!).

See my tweets anytime by clicking this link of my RSS feed.

To learn more Twitter terms, consult the twictionary.

Want more Twitter humor? Read Humor: The 10 (Actually, 11) Commandments of Twitter on Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights.

~~~

Photo credit: ASTROLOGER BIRD ©

Thefinalmi...

Dreamstime.com

Photo description: A parrot perches on some wires with the moon in clear blue skies in its backdrop. A parrot is normally used by fortunetellers in India to tell the fate of a person and the moon is definitely an influencing factor in astrology. Both of these elements in the image make it very much related to the concept of future.