NEW E-BOOK! Astrology 101 Primer: How to Interpret Your Chart

A Beginner's Primer, A Continuing Student’s Handy Reference Notes

© 2012 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

If you’re new to astrology, do you ever wish you had a shortcut to “getting” those pizza look-alikes called astrology charts? (My pepperoni is trine bell peppers! Sausage opposes artichokes conjunct bacon!)

If you’re a continuing student of the stars, did you ever wish you had a handy reference tool with key words and shortcut reminders for those times you feel on information overload for all that you see “in the round?”

Better yet, did you ever wish you had an easy way to ‘splain it all, as Ricky used to say to The Redhead on the old TV show, I Love Lucy? We all have a husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend or cousin we’d just love to introduce to astrology. They won’t care unless we can’t give them some idea of how it works and colors our world. 

Learn the ABCs of astrologese.

Make charts make sense.

In any of these cases, I have a new e-book for you. Astrology 101 Primer: How to Interpret Your Chart was written with newcomers to astrology in mind. It takes the complex and often overwhelming visual of a horoscope and gives you the key words, symbol translations and concepts you need to begin deciphering its messages. Everything you need is tightly woven into this 16-page reference. If you eliminate the introductory and bonus material, you only need to print out six pages to have your own condensed chart interpretation guidebook.

There are pages with symbols and keywords for Planets, Signs, Houses and Aspects.

Here’s an excerpt from the intro:

Astrology is a language, a symbolic shortcut for understanding yourself and others. Like most languages, it involves putting astrological “words” down on a page (in your astrology chart) for reading, sharing, or analysis. It’s good to remember from the start that the zodiac pie is a two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional happenings in the sky. It’s “not to scale” or dimension. Eventually, your brain will make that switch, as you learn more, going from photos of the sky or stargazing to the flattened Zodiac Pizza, as I like to think of it.

Astrological language is made up of:

•  Planets - in your natal or birth chart, the position they held when you were born

• Signs - the area of the zodiac where the planet was located at birth

•  Houses - the area of life in which the planets primarily express themselves), and

•  Aspects - the geometric angle between the planets in the sky at your birth. The aspects represent how parts of your personality get along—or not.

Astrological “sentences” are made by putting together these language bits. We speak of the meaning of a planet (Mercury) in a sign (Virgo) and house where it resides (the 7th)—and, finally, its aspects to other planets (square Moon, conjunct Venus). If the information in parentheses was from an individual’s chart in the foregoing sentence, I can tell that this person is quite communicative in relationship yet has difficulty expressing his or her deepest feelings.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the initial appearance of complexity. Astrology is both simple and complex. You gain its many gifts by learning the simple things well, which build up to understanding additional, layered messages. Think of how a child first learns to talk and grows fluent in language. If he likes talking, he may go onto become a public speaker, politician, or preacher—or she may choose any other profession where words are an important medium like acting or teaching. It all starts with the same ABC’s!

The planets and signs each have an archetypal meaning. I like this definition of archetype ...

The Astrology 101 Chart Interpretation Primer is a way in, if you’re new to astrology and a way out of those times of overwhelm, even if you’re an old hand at it. This chart interpretation primer gives references for getting free charts online and provides enough key words to help you begin to unlock the meaning of any horoscope.

You can purchase this new tool for $4.95 in the sidebar. Let me know how it works for you!

Which Planet Rules Creativity?

© 2012 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

You may have been told, like I was, that the Sun rules Leo and the 5^th House  of children and creativity.  This isn’t hard to buy. After all, the Sun represents our unique Self, and we shine through our creations.

After six decades of expressing creativity from crayons to blogs, books and beyond, I think there’s a lot more to it than being ourselves in our most inimitable way—or replicating ourselves in a biological way. I think creativity is both personal and interpersonal—and very outerplanetary. Creativity taps into One Mind and everything that’s not new, as in that old adage, “There’s nothing new under the Sun.”

While nothing’s new as far as the basic materials of creativity are concerned, the way we recombine them is often highly original. While we’d be hard put to find an idea that hasn’t been thought of before, we surely will find many new ways those ideas have been pieced together to fulfill a need, solve a problem, bring us joy, give us a laugh, or touch us with beauty.

An example from the more ridiculous end of the sublime/ ridiculous continuum is the Chia Pet. Who’d a thunk it? Chia Pets make people laugh or groan or at least ask what the … ??? You just can’t be neutral about them. First sold in 1977, unbelievably, Chia Pets were still selling over a half million a year as of 2007. Enjoy this original Chia Pet commercial. Aries and Tauri, take note. They come in rams and bulls! (Or at least they did back then.) You even can buy a Chia of President Obama on Amazon or eBay. Could anyone dispute this is possibly the world’s most creative combination of pottery, plants, and the human desire for pet companions? (I’ve never wanted a pet President, though. Have you?)

Creativity comes from a swirling kaleidoscope of ethereal ideas, everyone’s space junk and genius, floating in the dimension of our connected minds. Some astrologers assign creativity to Mercury, others to Uranus. To me, it’s obvious that creativity has no one planetary ruler.  

I completely understand why those advocating Mercury as creativity’s ruler came to that conclusion, though, because creativity, above all, requires an open mind. That’s how we tap into the Big Think Tank in the Sky.

I live to create. If I’m not being creative, I’m dying. Since I retired from my government job almost seven years ago, I’ve had the good fortune to be able to live my creativity nearly 24/7. (I’m also counting my active dream life, where my subconscious goes hog wild mixing experiences and feelings to produce some night movies that are even stranger than Chia Pets.)

The longer I live in the center of my whirlwind imagination, the less I feel that I create on my own. I have heard the concept of co-creation with God or the universe for the last 35 years, since I officially “got metaphysical.” Yet, I never really understood in such a visceral way what it means till now. In fact, I’m not sure I create at all. Creations come through me. I birth new creations by tapping into the Cosmic Altogether. It feels very Lunar and Neptunian. And Uranian. Plutonian, and considering my bent toward that savvy centaur, Chironic.

Creativity is too big a concept to fit into a single planetary ruler. It’s universal energy, bigger than the sky.

I’ve written before about a sense that I have Manicotti Mind. You know, one of those big tubular pasta shells. It’s like this tube sits in the middle of my head, and it’s the base of a funnel through which I get information. Surely, I’ve got Uranus sending some signals, maybe through my dental fillings. And if you aren’t Plutonian, you can’t deal with the death-birth-and rebirth that all creativity demands of us. Example: The typical scene in the movie of the frustrated writer, back in the olden days of typewriters. He or she just can’t get it right, rips the paper out of the carriage, balls it up and throws it in the trash. If she’s really at wits end, she stomps on it or kicks the garbage can.

This may be hard to believe, but I never recall suffering from writer’s block—ever. (If anything, I need help turning off the faucet.) The expression itself, writer’s block, tells what needs to be healed—a blockage. (Time for Chiron!) While I know that actual manicotti is best served stuffed with delicious ricotta cheese and drowned in marinara or meat sauce (I was raised by an Italian mama, after all), the metaphorical tube in Manicotti Mind must remain completely open.

The belief that you have to fill the empty page solely from content that you draw out of yourself is the cause of writer’s block.

When you open to let to the entire cosmos whisper in your ear and stuff ideas into the noodle in your noodle—or even send wires over your dental work, anything is possible! Even these last few paragraphs.

Creativity requires a lot of Jupiter, too. You’ve got to be willing to make a fool of yourself—and to laugh at yourself. Some of the best things you’ll ever write, paint, sing, dance—name your medium—will come from being crazy, wacky, and telling Saturn to take a powder. Saturn can come back when he’s done playing fuddy-duddy and is ready to help you where he counts most—in bringing your creations into usable form.

Chiron remains a Saturn-to-Uranus bridge in this case, too. Chiron can help you translate some of the farthest-out ideas into something that the middle of the bell curve can understand, if that’s your audience. And if your audience is on the other extremes, he’ll show you how to simplify or leave the material uncut for people on the cutting edge.

The best writing exercises I’ve ever done are called Brain Warmers. Brain Warmers are a kind of morning coffee to wake up the creative juices and get them flowing. They can be adapted to any medium of self-expression. Brain Warmers more than let Pandora out of my creativity box; they blew up the box.

Brain Warmers

1. Take any book, newspaper, magazine or printed material. At random, open any page and point at a word. This is your first word. Write it down. Omit articles, prepositions, conjunctions and all “little” words. Stick to nouns, adjectives, and verbs—but primarily nouns. You’ll need at least one noun, and you may choose to do only nouns. Another option: use a Random Word Generator.
   
   
2. Repeat process until you have written three words.
   
   
3. You will be writing a paragraph that includes these three words. The first word must be in the first sentence. You can modify the form of the word to fit your context. Example: I drew preservation from my Sabian Symbols book. If preservation doesn’t work right, preserving or a variation of form is OK, but stick as much as possible to the original.
   
   
4. Set a timer for 1.5 minutes. Write fast and without worry about who will see it or how it comes out. Just let ideas flow. Edit nothing.
   
   
5. When the alarm goes off, STOP. You can finish your thought after you reread your paragraph, if there’s a sentence that’s not yet completed.

Undressed and Unrehabilitated

To give you a real example of one of these, I drew the following words from the Random Word Generator: undress, rehabilitated, and intimation. Here’s what I got in my minute and a half:

The mannequins were in various states of undress. I don’t know why it bothered me. I guess it’s because I’m a rehabilitated nudist. I just can’t bare seeing others romp in the all together, even if they’re just big, inanimate dolls. I guess I’m tired of the intimation, even to myself, that I might be a little “preverted,” as my friend Nancy used to say. Still, I have to admit, I’m happy I’ve decided to go back to clothes. I like fashion. We’re back to the mannequins, aren’t we?

Given I’m a Virgo, the chances of my actually ever being—or having been—a nudist are nil. That’s what makes brain warmers so much fun. They can be total fantasy, silly—and no one ever has to look at them but you. They open the channel for creativity, and the carryover is contagious to your writing.

You could do the same thing as an artist: find three words and include them in a sketch concept, or write a story first and draw or paint that scene. As a dancer, dance the three words or a story you derive from them. A singer can work their story into lyrics. An instrument musician can use the words to stir up a song or choose three random notes and work them into a theme. What this exercise does is show you how to remix those fragments from One Mind and make something new from them.

I’ve already talked about Sun, Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, and Pluto. I can’t leave out Venus and Mars. Creativity is an expression of love (Venus) and many say Venus rules creativity. She certainly inspires us. Also from Venus’s realm: to touch and relate to others is a large part of why most of us create. Mars gives us the passion and desire to deliver our creativity and the juice to run that sky-to-earth interface creation requires. Creativity can take a lot of energy, and managing creative energy without burnout is a constant challenge for me—and a whole other article.

Creativity is a dialogue between your uniqueness and the unlimited potential of the universe.

Finally, all this dancing with idea fragments must come through you. You’re the other end of the funnel, the end of synthesis. You will express your creativity in a way no one but you can do. It’s a dialogue between uniqueness—yours—and the unlimited potential of the universe. Creativity, in my experience, includes all the planets, given back through your shining Sun and all the unique astrological Mandala of You.

Anyone can be creative. As with any other skill, creativity takes practice to do it well. It takes a willingness to give Saturn the boot when he interferes, and any of the other planets when they’re ornery, and a commitment to embrace them, quirks and all, as part of the process.

Creativity is simply the cosmic life force, brought down to Earth, through you.

~~~

Photo Credits: Drawing the Sun © Rozum | Dreamstime.com;

Mannequins  © marcoguidi - Fotolia.com

Trines: Terrific or Tricky?

  

© 2012 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

When I was a young and eager astrology student, I used to view every trine in a chart as a kiss by Lady Luck. It was like getting one of those Community Service or Chance cards in Monopoly. “Bank error in your favor. Collect $200.” Trines seemed like marks of grace on a nativity. Back in the days of hand-calculated charts, my fabulous first teacher, fellow Radical Virgo, Gavin Carruthers, taught us to use color codes for all the aspect lines: red for squares and oppositions, black for quincunxes, green for sextiles and blue for trines. When I drew a lot of blue in a chart, I saw smooth sailing on the seas of life.

Now I’m not so sure there aren’t some other kind of blues involved. Lately, I’ve been struggling with my Jupiter trine Mars and the issue of over-doing just about everything. I guess there’s no accident in my imagery in the last paragraph, because my trine is in the Water element.

I have two friends with Grand Water Trines, and they will both tell you that they are far from a walk in the park or a joyride on a sailboat. One calls it her Grand Whine. As you can imagine, with the planets Mars, Uranus and Venus involved, she can get on a roll, throwing herself a pity party. For the other, it can be the Grand Waterworks, a Niagara Falls of Tears, given her watery triangle includes Saturn, a conjunction of Moon, Uranus and Jupiter, and finally, Mercury.

A trine does little or nothing to change the quality of the planets involved. It just allows them to interact easily, perhaps too easily—no stopping them.

Trines can amount to, in reality, anything from the sublime to the ridiculous. Example: If Moon trines your Jupiter, how easy would it be to overeat constantly? Those two together can actually be like close friends who are a bad influence on each other.

That’s the thing with trines. All they do is make the flow of energy between two planets easy and effortless to keep going. Is this always a blessing, say, with Mars/Pluto? Venus/Uranus? Neptune/Moon?

Just to muse on the few examples above, Mars trine Pluto might have a terrific sex life but become a sex addict—or have a temper beyond belief, because once ignited, it just keeps going—and blowing. Venus trine Uranus may enjoy a bevy of unusual lovers, but what about the flow of instability? And unreliability? Is this always fun for him or her? Lastly, Neptune trine Moon might be psychic, poetic, musical and mystical, but can s/he ever find a real relationship?  One that’s not riddled with illusions and projections? You get my drift.

I always recommend living on the upside of the zodiac as much as possible, but trines can sometimes be those Astrological Blind Spots we’ve covered in another article. Trines can keep us stuck in a rut. Sometimes, we dig a hole so deep; we just have fun there, oblivious to the larger impact the trine is having on our lives. With my Mars/Jupiter trine, I’ve always related to the title of the book, Women Who Do Too Much It’s only in the past few years that I’ve “gotten” how Jupiter trine Mars contributes to this chronic condition, which actually threatens my health and well-being. Why is it so hard to “cure?” Because I have a multiplicity of interests, I want to do it all. With Mars trine Jupiter, it’s easy to think I can actually pull it off. Plus, I’m having fun. (Help me before I “do” again!)

Famous People’s Trines. I thought it might be interesting to look at a few people in the public eye and their trines, to demonstrate how this aspect can be a mixed blessing:

John Edwards. With a four planets in Gemini, we shouldn’t be surprised that this born charmer has a Twin that’s a trickster. (He actually has several.) Edwards also has Saturn conjunct Neptune trine Sun. Reality always travels with the illusions he creates and vice-versa. The trine aspect allowed him to get away with figurative murder until his deceptions about his mistress and illegitimate child caught up with him. His final admission of the situation coincided with transiting Uranus approaching his Midheaven while transiting Saturn squared his natal Mercury in the 12^th.

The ex-Senator might have turned his life around and caused a lot less pain to others, were that aspect a more “instructive” square. Edwards also enjoys a close North Node in Aquarius in the 7^th House trine to Moon and Jupiter in Gemini in the 11th. Schmoozing’s his game, and the game is easy for him. Even if he “got off” during his recent trial for illegal use of campaign funds, John Edwards has been found wanting in the court of public opinion, trines and all. He says all he wants to do is start over. I suspect that people will forgive him his trespasses and that the schmooze trine will ultimately make it easy for him to begin anew. Question is, will he ever learn?

Nicole Kidman. This gorgeous Australian actress, probably best known off-camera for her 10-year marriage to Tom Cruise and people’s perception of the pair as a power couple, boasts a Grand Fire Trine between Moon, Saturn and Venus. She also has Mercury trine Neptune. She and Cruise adopted two children together. Six years after their divorce, Nicole married musician Keith Urban and had two biological children with him, one by surrogate. Her career seemed to flourish after her separation from Cruise, which is probably not coincidental.(It seems an even more unlikely coincidence after reading the effects of marriage to Cruise on his subsequent wife that came out during his recent divorce from Katie Holmes.)

The same Moon/Saturn/Venus trine which rewards Nicole for her hard work projecting her lunar and Venusian qualities—and surely makes it easy for her to do—may also be the fiery energy flow that enabled her to go the course for a decade with Cruise. This was amidst recurring rumors that Cruise may be secretly gay and that they had a tight marriage contract that “required” her to stick with him for at least that long. Surely, Saturn in flow with her feeling and relationship planets would help her keep up her end of the bargain, if this is true. Mercury trine Neptune would make it easy to keep up appearances—and help her make it in the illusory medium of film.

There is so much we’ll never know and so much back story and that leaves you wondering, if not mystified, available on any search engine. The blessing of Nicole’s trine is that she appears to be genuinely “settled down” in the most positive, Saturnian sense, with her current spouse and expanded family. It wasn’t easy at first with Keith Urban’s substance abuse issues. He credits his devotion to Nicole as his catalyst to seek and succeed in treatment.  Maybe she flowed with her trines until she finally found the happy ending.

Jackie Chan. Martial artist and physical comedian Jackie Chan can probably attribute his grace, flowing movements, passion for physicality and nonstop wit to a trio of trines in his chart: Mercury trine Uranus, Mars trine Pluto, and Jupiter trine Neptune. His movies like Rush Hour are always upbeat, hilarious, and full of intrigue as well as a lot of fancy kicks and footwork. He has incurred countless injuries, doing his own stunts (Mars trine Pluto overdo). My husband and I were musing, watching one of his early films (Who Am I?) about who has broken more bones, Jackie or the late Evel Knievel. (Knievel’s trines, by the way, include Mercury conjunct Sun trine Jupiter and Mars conjunct Neptune trine Uranus.)

Jackie Chan movies have trademark scenes where he’s forced to undergo torture or other physical punishment in martial arts matches. Like my own Mars trine Jupiter, it appears Jackie’s Mars trine Pluto is almost too much fun for him—at a big price to his body. He’s willing to endure physical risk and pain, including a literal hole in his head, incurred during a stunt accident. With Jupiter trine Neptune, he likes to make BIG movies and take BIG risks in them. Great for us, but I’m not so sure about him.

Get Reacquainted with Your Trines

I’m not trine to put a damper on something you always thought was one of the big boons in your chart. Indeed, trines can be just that, especially in a chart with a lot of squares, oppositions and other tensions. Your trines, in that case, can work like the valve on an old-fashioned pressure cooker, letting off steam. They can be the way out of constant demands and offer a welcome relief and release to what feels like endless inner work. The trap is not seeing their downside and whether the easy flow between two planets also creates unwanted—often unrealized—grief for you.

Take an objective look at your planets in trine, warts and all. See what you triangulate out of the exercise—and please share in the Comments any new insights!

~~~

Photo Credit: © swillklitch - Fotolia.com

Your Prevailing Planet: The Medium Has a Message

An Astro-Games or Exercises Post

© 2012 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

This new category of posts is designed to highlight fun ways to explore astrology. Since the arts as healing are a big component of Chiron in Pisces, it might be fun with value added!

A friend recently turned me onto Pinterest, which has become my newest social networking adventure. Pinterest’s own definition: Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and “follow” collections created by people with great taste. Some of the boards I have created have been very revealing to me from an astrological perspective: TV Shows I Still Miss, Movies I Can’t Forget, and TV Shows I Watch.

I used IMDB, the Internet Movie Data Base, to pin images to each of my boards. As I looked up each fave, I noticed the descriptions of the TV show or movie. In the process, I discovered planetary themes—and I believe which planet most colors my worldview. If you have a chart with multiple influences by several different planets, it might be a revealing exercise to list your 5-10 favorite movies and TV shows of all time. Visit IMDB and look at the adjectives that describe the shows.  I’d love to hear if you find your dominant planet, as I think I did mine, by taking a closer look at your taste in TV shows or movies. The TV medium had a message for me!

Here are some examples from my board, TV Shows I Still Miss:

• Nash Bridges (probably my favorite show of all time) – Nash is described as a “smart alecky San Francisco cop,” definitely a rebel and a rule breaker.

• Northern Exposure -  All about the characters in an “eccentric Alaskan town.”

• Twin Peaks – no doubt, there’s Pluto involved in this one, but first, there’s another planet you might recognize in this description: “An idiosyncratic FBI Agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks.”

I’m sure I don’t need to go on for you to recognize Uranus as a key character in the TV shows that have been most memorable to me. There’s plenty of Pluto in many of them, too, but it’s the unique, rebellious, eccentric and idiosyncratic characteristics of these shows that draw me in.

As I’ve written many times, I’m an outerplanetary person and PUNC prominent (Plutonian, Uranian, Neptunian and Chironic). My media of choice are film and TV (Neptune) and my faves have a lot of Pluto along with Uranus, suggesting no one of my PUNCs works solo. (PUNC Solo. Wasn’t he a character in Star Wars?) However, if I were to grade prominence strictly by closest relationship of these planets to a personal planet or angle, the order for me would be: (1) Pluto, (2) Chiron, (3) Neptune, and (4) Uranus. In my historical TV choices, Uranus is at the front of the line, not third runner up. Along with the fact that most people who don’t know my chart think I’m an Aquarius after spending time with me, I have to question whether the outer planets, in actual practice, don’t ignore our assumption that the tightest orb equals the most influence.

You can do this exercise with movies, music, art on your walls, books on your shelves, or any other entertainment or aesthetic medium you enjoy. Just a little astrological game to play when you have a few spare minutes. Would love to hear about your discoveries in the Comments!

~~~

Photo Credit: © eugeneharnam - Fotolia.com

Quotes for the Planets #2: Rumi Has It

© 2012 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

While looking for the next Quotes for the Planets, I stumbled on a Rumi quotation site, and I didn’t have to go further to find a quote for every planet.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī lived 30-September 1207 to 17 December 1273. [1] He was a Persian poet, theologian, and Sufi mystic. [2] Here’s a place to sample some of his Love and Ecstasy Poems with beautiful visuals to match. There are Rumi sites all over the Internet (just jump on any search engine), and even though he is long gone, he has his own Facebook page. Last I heard, he’s the best selling poet in the United States. Here are some of the things he said in his lifetime that strike me as profoundly planetary. [3]

Sun - “Shine like the whole universe is yours.” ~ Rumi

Moon - “Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon; How much it can fill your room depends on its windows.” ~ Rumi, Essential Rumi
 

Mercury - “There is a way between voice and presence, where information flows. In disciplined silence it opens; with wandering talk it closes.” ~ Rumi

Venus – “You think because you understand 'one' you must also understand 'two', because one and one make two. But you must also understand 'and'.” ~ Rumi

Mars – “Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.” ~ Rumi
 

Jupiter – “You are the Truth from foot to brow. Now, what else would you like to know?”  ~ Rumi

Saturn – “Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are.” ~ Rumi

Chiron – “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~ Rumi

Uranus – “Speak a new language
so that the world
will be a new world.” ~ Rumi

Neptune – “I, you, he, she, we
In the garden of mystic lovers,
these are not true distinctions.” ~ Rumi

Pluto - “...the way you make love is the way God will be with you.” ~ Rumi

~~~

Photo Credit: © Emirsimsek | Dreamstime.com

Notes:

1. Rumi’s Chart. According to AstroDataBank, Rumi’s birth date is in question, but the emphasis of a Neptunized Sun/Moon in Libra and the placement of Venus/Mars in Scorpio makes sense to me. So does Chiron in Gemini trine Venus (out of sign); Rumi’s words so heal the heart.

2. Wikipedia, Rumi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

3. Even though these are all Rumi quotes, I've kept the attribution at the end of each one to make it easy to identify the source when copying specific quotes.

Need some Mercury Retrograde inspiration? Fortification? Revisit these posts:

A Blessing for Mercury Retrograde

Ten Ways to Celebrate Mercury Retrograde

Gear Down and Jest Humor Mercury Retrograde

Down with Mercury Wrecko! Up with Mercury Respecto!

Retrograde Wisdom: Waiting Is Fullness

      

Flower Remedy for Mercury Retro - Until it came up in dowsing for my own recent essence blend, I had never realized how perfect Cosmos is for Mercury Retrograde. It is for integrating ideas and speech, coherent thinking, and mercurial expression. It's an antidote for being tongue-tied, mentally muddled and other tricks of the Trickster traveling in reverse!

Uranus Square Pluto: Seven Exact Aspects, Seven Chakra Realignments

© 2012 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

We are currently in dire need of evolutionary advancement

and don’t have the time for a slow, gradual evolution.

~ Bruce Lipton, PhD, Spontaneous Evolution:
Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here

co-authored with Steve Bhaerman

One of my colleagues says her most important take-away from the recent United Astrology Conference (UAC) was from a talk by Serbian astrologer Aleksandar Imsiragic. Aleksandar said that the seven exact hits of Uranus square Pluto, the first on June 24, correspond to realignment of our seven chakras. I deeply resonate to this idea, and it seems too important a concept not to share.

From what I hear, since I did not attend this particular presentation, Aleksandar’s remarks on this topic in his lecture on the Political and Mundane Track on Crucial Fixed Stars Influence, 2012 to 2015. (Reminder that CDs from the conference are available: http://www.uacastrology.com/).

The chakra realignments idea makes so much sense. Pluto forces us to let go or implode by clinging to what no longer serves us and has become toxic. Its focus in Capricorn is on structures. Our physical body has a skeletal structure and an energetic one; the latter anchored into the body in our seven invisible energy wheels or chakras. Electricity is ruled by Uranus. The two are intertwined. They support each other and our very being.  I believe we now have the opportunity to let go of our limitations on handling higher energy frequencies. What could be faster and higher vibrating than Uranus in Aries? And where else could such a change take place than in our own, personal energy centers? I believe the chakras are where we interface with the energy of the cosmos. This is why I so resonate to the “password” affirmation I learned in SpringForest Qigong:

I am in the universe. The universe is in my body. The universe and I are combined together.

Many astrologers are metaphysically inclined, and we’ve heard about energy frequency shifts since the Harmonic Convergence in 1987. We are being rewired to handle a bigger energy load. This will give us the juice to become quick-change artists—to evolve not at a snail’s pace but rapidly to meet the growth spurt whose brink we’re sitting on. Most of us sit there in some degree of discomfort. That’s only because our circuitry awaits this Uranus square Pluto awakening and rebirth. Since we sit on our first chakra, my choice of words (unconscious until I reread them) makes sense. The cosmos also has a great sense of humor. To fly by the seat of our pants—to respond and react from instinct in the highest way that these new energetics will allow us—we need to start our realignment in the chakras from the bottom up, starting with first two where we sit. And, indeed, sitting in meditation is how we make it happen.

Let’s look at each exact alignment of Uranus square Pluto [1] and its associated chakra. Below is a review of the features of each one and a suggested short meditation or affirmations for focus during the months that specific chakra realignment is being activated.

First (Root) Chakra

Uranus square Pluto June 24 2012 – 8 degrees

Color – Red, Element - Earth. The first chakra is our grounding cord, our interface with the Earth on which we walk. To run high frequency energy, grounding is essential or we’ll blow our circuits. This energy center is related to issues of security and safety. A stable first chakra, indeed, is the “root” that allows other changes to grow from it.

First/Root Chakra Meditation: I am safe, secure and grounded. I expand my ability to manifest and bring into practical application my spiritual ideals—my beliefs, goals and desires—and to meet my material needs. I embrace the element Earth, where I walk on sacred ground.

Second (Sacral) Chakra

Uranus square Pluto September 19 2012 – 6 degrees

Color – Orange. Element – Water. Associated with creativity and sexuality.

Second Chakra Meditation: I create from the river of life and send my creations back to the Ocean of All. I express myself with passion, gratitude, joy and generosity. I open to limitless creativity and passion and the happiness that comes with them.

Third (Solar Plexus) Chakra

Uranus square Pluto May 21 2013 – 11 degrees

Color – Yellow. Element – Fire. Associated with personal power, accomplishments and instinctual knowing or “gut instincts.”

Third Chakra Meditation: I trust my feelings. They are my power. My body responds to all questions and provides answers. The universe is in my body. I open to interpreting and following my instincts.

Fourth (Heart) Chakra

Uranus square Pluto November 1 2013 – 9 degrees

Color – Green. Element – Water. Associated with acceptance, surrender, love, empathy and compassion and “humanity.”

Fourth Chakra Meditation: I send tender thanks to my heart for pumping life through my body and being. I protect my heart in the glow of universal love, as I gently open it wide to forgive, forget and expand my ability to love and be loved. I open to becoming more human.

Fifth (Throat) Chakra

Uranus square Pluto April 21 2014 – 13 degrees

Color – Blue. Element – Air. Associated with communication.

Fifth (Throat) Chakra Meditation: I communicate with crystal clarity the truth and power of All I Am. My words heal, join, and send love into the world. I open to quickened, clear communication.

Sixth (Third Eye) Chakra
Uranus square Pluto December 15 2014 – 12 degrees

Color – Indigo. Elements – Air and Water. Associated with intuition, clear-seeing or clairvoyance.

 

Sixth (Third Eye) Chakra Meditation: I see life with the inner eye of universal love and knowing. I open to visions, cosmic wisdom and seeing the vast possibilities of my own potential and the evolution of all humanity.

Seventh Chakra
Uranus square Pluto March 17 2015 – 15 degrees

Color – Violet or Brilliant Light. Element – Ethers. Associated with God realization or cosmic consciousness, self-knowledge and self-awareness.

Seventh (Crown) Chakra Meditation: I am that I Am. I let cosmic information and inspiration flow into my crown. The universe and I are combined together. I expand this energy funnel to know without limits.

Planetary Associations with the Chakras

I’ve encountered differences of opinion in my research about which planets are associated with each chakra. I resonate most to those in Ray Grasse’s Astrology and the Chakras:

7^th – Sun

6^th – Moon

5^th – Mercury

4^th – Venus

3^rd – Mars

2^nd – Jupiter

1^st - Saturn

Some of these associations are no-brainers—Venus with the heart chakra and Mercury with the 5^th/throat chakra, for instance. Mars fits the 3^rd/solar plexus because this is where people can “cord” and manipulate us, seizing control of our personal power. It’s also where we feel negativity or psychic attack when it’s thrown at us, as well as where we receive friendly lobs of good vibes that enable us to trust someone immediately. 

I also understand the reason for limiting the chakras to the seven classical planets before the discovery of Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Chiron. The chakras are a Vedic concept and these are the planets used in Vedic astrology. They also correspond to our idea of “personal” planets. I had a little trouble with Jupiter being associated with the 2^nd chakra, until I thought of how creativity and sexuality are so expansive and bring joy and laughter. (The Inuit or Eskimo word for sex translates to laughing together in bed.)

I do think that the outer planets have a place just outside, if not within the chakra scheme. Ray Grasse doesn’t state a planetary association with an additional 8^th chakra that rules transcendence and inspiration. Letting the outer planets into the act, I’d assign that to Neptune. All great ideas are in the cosmic soup. We transcend and are inspired—we access these ideas—by tapping into the One Mind.

Uranus awakens power in the chakra system. Chiron acts as a transformer. It amps energy down, as needed, to help bring highly resonating Uranian information to the chakras at a speed they can absorb as they adapt to the new message on the cusp of amplification. I believe this because Saturn rules form, Uranus rules electricity and electro-magnetic fields. Chiron orbits between these two planets and acts as their intermediary.  I believe Chiron acts as a bridge between Saturn and Uranus in the chakra scheme, too. In Chiron’s famed role as a healer, wellness often comes from shifting energy flow (chi or qi), stimulated by tools such as acupuncture needles or qigong exercises. Healing is closely connected to energy shifts.

Pluto, the bringer of birth-death-rebirth and end/beginnings handles the cord of this energy system. Pluto either yanks the cord out or plugs it in and is quite adept at both. We are born. We live and die a million small deaths during one lifetime on Earth, and after each demi-death, we are we are reborn again. (Plug in, plug out.) For those who join me in believing in reincarnation, this is also true in the larger sense after our one actual death in this lifetime. Unplug and replug into a new birth and incarnation.

Smile and Say “Ease:” Hints from Aura Photography

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Thelma Moss speak, a pioneer researcher in parapsychological experiments at UCLA in the 1970s. Her work involved Kirlian or aura photography. I was wowed when she shared that researchers could detect, in pictures of an individual’s energy field, a disease such as cancer six months before physical symptoms showed up in the body. In other words, we create dis-ease—and conversely, ease—from our energy fields inward to our bodies. What we change at the level of energy, usually starting with our thoughts, changes us first and fundamentally. As Robin Williams used to say in his act of the same name, “Reality—what a concept!”

This reality still rocks my world and is my personal reason for wanting to be in conscious coordination and harmony with the current and upcoming opportunities to rewire each of my chakras. I suspect that people who do so will have a much easier Uranus square Pluto than those who don’t—and I hope to hear back from readers on your experiences.

More Meditation Suggestions

There is plenty of time over the next three years to focus on each chakra whose “expansion” is on tap. Here’s something to try during your regular meditations. Focus feeling the energy of the particular chakra that’s being touched by Uranus and Pluto. Envision the chakra wheel enlarging or spinning faster. Tune into the changes and how you’re doing with the issues represented by each chakra.

You might consider opening your meditation with the affirmations for each chakra, envisioning the colors and element of each one, enhancing your overall energy flow by this acknowledgment. Spend more time on the Now Chakra, the one being aligned by the current close Uranus-Pluto square. If you have Cardinal planets being activated by the Uranus-Pluto Square, meditate on the issues they represent, too. When focusing on the chakra that’s up for realignment now, be sure to clear your mind and just “run energy” so that this chakra can talk back to you. My first spiritual teacher used to say praying is talking to God; meditation is listening to him. During meditation, it’s important to quit talking—even our affirmations or mantras—long enough to let All That Is get a word in edgewise.

If you explore the sites on chakras in the Notes, you’ll find many other tools for working with chakra alignments. Some include resonant gems, homeopathic remedies or flower essences. Be sure to work with the physical at some level, especially during this First Root Chakra Alignment. Garden, dig in dirt, have bodywork. (You’ll need it after the gardening.) Count your money. Count your blessings for every material gift—aloud, even if only to yourself. Involving the physical continues to anchor every change. 

These years of major transformation are a great time to keep a journal, written or audio, on how your body-mind-spirit is absorbing this Cardinal realignment. You’ll be growing so fast, you might want to go back and look how you got there—and be able to share tips for accelerated evolution with your friends, loved ones—maybe even the world.

Cardinal Vote

Here’s one last metaphor to contemplate. In the Catholic Church, the College of Cardinals—the assembly of priests who have risen to the highest rank of Cardinal—determines the next Pope, the leader of them all and head of the Church. The Cardinals hold the ultimate power, because they choose which one among them will represent God on Earth. Ironically, it’s only during the conclave to elect a new Pope that the college has any ruling power. [3]

While Catholicism may not be your spiritual reality, our two astrological Cardinals—Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn—indeed have assembled us. They’re offering us an opportunity to determine who will rule our world and our energy fields. Remember the collective impact of billions of votes among people like you. Check your choice of who rules:

•  You As-Is, perhaps scared of what’s to come, or
• You Expanded to meet rapid evolution.

As the Hopi and many others have foretold, we are the Ones that we have been waiting for. If a simple but profound chakra tune-up helps us rise to that occasion, let’s sit in stillness as often as possible during this critical rite of passage and let the brighter, new cosmic light flood through our bodes, minds and spirits. 

For those of us born into these turning-point times, I think it’s our job. After all, to quote the wisdom of a great prophet, “You are the light of the world.” [4]

~~~

Photo Credits: 7 Chakras Color Wheel with Mandalas © Artellia - Dreamstime; Chakras Meditating © twentyfree - Fotolia.com

New Resource! 

I was thrilled, after writing this article, to discover The Grounding Touch. This site has everything you need to focus on retuning each of your chakras, including concise info about each one, yoga poses, mantras and aromatherapy. Enjoy!

NOTES

1. Source of alignment dates: Elsa Elsa/ The Astrology Blog

2. Sources consulted on the chakras:

Angel’s Love/Chakras” http://www.angelslove.net/chakras.htm

Inner Self/Chakras: http://innerself.com/content/self-help/personal-growth/astrology/psychological/4410-astrology-a-the-chakras.html

Marsya, Integrating Yoga, Art and Life/ Chakra Properties: http://www.marsya.com/Chakra_Properties.html

A Reconnecting of Body, Mind, Spirit/ The 7^th Chakra http://www.areconnecting.com/crown-chakra.html

Weejee’s Magick/Auras: http://www.wejees.net/aura.html

Erin Pavlina, Spiritual Wisdom for Conscious People/The Difference Between Auras and Chakras
http://www.erinpavlina.com/blog/2010/05/the-difference-between-auras-and-chakras/

3. Wikipedia/College of Cardinals:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Cardinals

4. King James Bible, Matthew 5:14.

Poem: Embrace Uranus-Pluto

 

© 2012 by Joyce Mason

All Rights Reserved

Personal Power taut with Inspiration

Transforms every part of me the two touch

house, sign

lighting bolts to my planets

strung together aspects

electric network

jolted with the juice

to change in sudden ways

charged with insights

startled by things

that are no longer acceptable

The pain is only a moment

in the process as a whole.

I shake off shock and “come to.”

This kind of power surge is rare.

Ride it for all it’s worth!

Grab the brass ring

even when the metal is “hot.”

Jolt yourself off your usual merry-go-round.

Pick yourself up.

Dust yourself off.

See life from a new perspective,

sense knocked into you.

Change mind and heart

in a power surge

exploding into manifestation

things you’ve never been able

to do before

during a time that is so on your side

to become all you are:

you see your own future

in fast forward photography.

~~~

Photo Credit: © Fenton - Fotolia.com