Munchies for Astro-Thought: Jupiter Transits – How Does “Lady Luck” Work for You?

Munchies © 2016 by Joyce Mason

Here’s a little background on the Munchie posts.

Most of us anticipate Jupiter transits with the excitement of a zealot. We envision a cosmic cornucopia, overflowing with goodies like winning the Lotto or finding our soulmate. If you’re a certain age, you may remember the old program, The Millionaire, where John Beresford Tipton, an eccentric rich benefactor, liked to drop a cool mill on people he selected while remaining completely anonymous. Afterwards, he’d track them to see how their lives changed because of their windfall. Often when I come home exhausted at the end of a day of aerobic errands, I’ll joke, “Did John Beresford Tipton drop off our check while I was gone?” (I have a strong natal Jupiter.)

Jupiter transits give us hope. They allow us to dream big with a smidge to a likely possibility that some of those blown-up dreams will come true. After all, this is Jupiter which inflates and super-sizes everything, including our fantasies.

But what about the reality? Wouldn’t it be fun to see how Jupiter has worked for you, personally, so far? Some people may prefer to stay in the dream. Being a Virgo, I like to give wild rein to my imagination, followed by reeling it in toward more practical expectations. Before my brain explodes for being so puffed up with luscious ideas.

Your mission for this munchie, if you choose to accept it, is to track your major transits of Jupiter for at least two cycles (24 years) and make notes about what happened. This will give you a snapshot of how Jupiter has worked for you, so far. What do you learn?

(If you’re younger than 25, track up to your current age. There’s no outer limit on how many cycles you track, if you’ve been on the planet for many decades. Do as many as you’ve got the time or inclination to do. You’ll get the pattern in 2-3 cycles.) Most astrological software programs give you a transit analysis option, so you can isolate your transits quickly and easily. Consider starting with your Jupiter Returns/conjunctions to itself at 12, 24, 36, etc. This will give you the skeletal structure of your Jupiter transit material. Next, I’d track the “friendly” aspects, as we’re mining for what good might come—conjunctions, trines and sextiles to other planets, especially the personals: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. With transiting Jupiter is currently in retrograde, it's the perfect time to reflect and reconsider how this planet plays out in your life.

What got me onto this idea was a recent windfall my husband received. He has Sun at 18 Virgo and Venus at 21 Virgo. When transiting Jupiter was exactly conjunct his Venus, he received an unexpected, additional disbursement from a class action law suit. What a pleasant surprise.

Bear in mind that your blessings and opportunities will be colored by the signature of your natal Jupiter configuration. Any transit of Jupiter will light up the network Jupiter is a part of in your chart, so it’s good to jot down these relationships first, before you embark on what happens when they’re activated by transit. (In Tim’s case, they are natal Jupiter square Moon, sextile Sun/Venus, opposite North Node, conjunct South Node and trine Mars.)

Personally, I plan to use my analysis of Lady Luck to help me anticipate my upcoming transit in September when Jupiter conjuncts my Sun, early in the month and Venus, a few weeks later.

If you munch with us, let us know what you find in the Comments. Have fun! After all, we’re talking Jupiter!

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Photo Credit: © pathdoc – Fotolia.com

Munchies for Astro-Thought: Your Closest Aspect – What Does It Mean?

© 2016 by Joyce Mason

Here’s a little background on the Munchie posts.

Mother-Daughter Reunion--a portrait of Moon trine Ceres.

The importance of precision in astrology is endlessly debated among the star-speaking public. Take how many degrees of arc count to consider an aspect truly a square, opposition, trine, etc. And let’s not get started with the “minor” aspects! (I’ll buy 4-degrees for a quincunx which many would say is overly generous.) I know highly credible astrologers who consider many of these quibbles unimportant. They say if a planet is in the same sign, they’re conjunct, particularly when mining their symbolic meaning.

While you’d think The Radical Virgo would love this kind of nitpicking, the adjective radical modifies my thinking. I’m not going to debate the subject, but I do admit: your closest aspect must count for something. It’s almost like having that particular relationship between two planets zipped into your skin.

Today’s munchie: Go to your astrology software or to Astro.com for a free chart and pinpoint your closest aspect. Introduce or reacquaint yourself with it. Reflect on your life so far and ponder what it might mean.

My personal example(s) are a double header, as I have two aspects at the same degree of relationship and the tightest one you can get—0^o 01’. They are Moon trine Ceres (applying) and Uranus quincunx South Node (separating). Many would consider the applying aspect stronger, so let’s start there.

I admit, while I’ve looked at this in the past, I’ve never really done much more than say to myself “interesting.” Digging a little deeper, I have a huge relationship with Moon/Ceres in general. Half my chart squares the Moon. Chiron (my Astro-specialty) sextiles Moon and opposes Ceres. Both these aspects are less than a degree. Looking at how the same pair of planets involved in your closest aspect interacts in your chart and what aspects they have with other planets provides context.

How Ceres has played out in my life is indeed mythical. Ceres is the Roman equivalent of the Greek figure Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest. The myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone tell us much about the issues of life’s seasons—and love and loss. Ceres/Demeter lost her daughter to Hades/Pluto who abducted her to the underground to be his Queen. In her angst and anger at the loss of her daughter, Ceres allowed the crops to die and finally cut a deal with Pluto to return her daughter for half of each year. The return of Persephone heralds spring.

I was Persephone lost to my birth mother for most of the first four decades of my life. In 1986 I found her living 90 miles away from me in San Francisco. Pluto returned me to her from the underworld where I was hidden for all those years. For both of us, the flowers again bloomed and all was well in the world in ways we never knew possible until our reunion. I can see how natal Moon (mother, nurture) trine Ceres (abandonment, grief, growth) at such an amazing degree of exactitude played into this happy ending.

For those wondering about transits at the time of my mother-find, they were intense and indicative of a life-changing event involving my mother. Among them: T-Ceres trine N-Ceres, T-Moon conjunct N-Uranus, T-Neptune conjunct N-Moon (repeating the natal pairing), and T-Pluto conjunct N-Chiron.

As to Uranus inconjunct South Node, a whole “past” I never knew existed suddenly greeted me in my return  from the underground.  What a surprise and adjustment! When I started my birth family search, I wanted to know more about myself and my roots. I was realistic, knowing that I could encounter anything from complete rejection—she might have had another family and wanted to continue to keep me secret—to total acceptance. I figured the truth would lie somewhere in the middle. Frankly, I not prepared for total acceptance to the max.

Despite adoring my adoptive family and never once wishing my life had turned out differently, the built-in abandonment issues of being given up by my original family constitutes my Chironic wound. It was a pain I never understood till my late 30s. The theme of my life revolves around healing a sense of separation and sharing with others how to do the same. I certainly learned that my Chiron opposite Ceres natal construct coupled with my most exact aspect of Moon trine Ceres had their story to tell about two different chapters in my life.

I don’t know what you’ll find, but this experiment proved to me that my closest aspects are definitely a big header in the playbill of my personal drama.

As always, if you discover anything interesting, thanks for sharing in the Comments.

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Photo: Taken at my Miraculous Motherfind Open House in November 1986 where I introduced my newfound original mom to my friends.

Munchies for Astro-Thought: Are You Sunny or Looney?

Munchies © 2016 by Joyce Mason

Here’s a little background on the Munchie posts.

Tropical astrology, as most of us practice it in the West, is solar based. You “are” your Sun sign. It’s the part of our chart we use as a quick identifier. (I’m a Virgo, many of my friends are Aries, my Dad was a Leo, etc.) Sidereal astrology, practiced primarily in India and the East but growing in popularity in the West, is lunar based. Your Moon sign is considered the central light and operating point in your chart in a zodiac system that shifts everything approximately 24 degrees. In this Vedic astrology, my Moon shifts to Sagittarius—quite a different energy from my Tropical Capricorn Moon.

This is a reminder that while the Earth revolves around the Sun, the Sun in our charts may or may not be our primary Light. Good to know there are astrology systems built on a different premise. So are some individuals.

How do you know if you’re sunny/solar or lunar (looney for fun)? Why does it matter?

Determine your primary Light as a shortcut to knowing yourself and others.

Knowing Your Light. Knowing whether Sun or Moon is “bigger” in your chart doesn’t negate the importance of the lesser emphasized Light, but it certainly is a heads-up on which one is usually more influential and directive. For instance, if you go around basing your preliminary astrological take on a potential new love interest based on your Sun sign compatibility (more so if you have other planets in your Sun’s sign), you may be in for a rude awakening if his or her planets clash with your focal Moon. Knowing this helps not only with synastry but with “knowing thyself.”

For instance, while the name of this blog celebrates my Virgo Sun sign, I am a complete lunatic (Moon focal)! My Cap Moon squares nearly half of my chart. While I have as many Sun aspects, they are mostly “milder” (conjunction, trines). You might say I’m a lot more comfortable owning my Virgo Sun than I am at ease with having a Cap Moon. It took me many years to relate to my Moon in Capricorn, yet I finally came to the conclusion that if I didn’t; I would feel even worse from the fears and tension those squares sometimes reflect. My solution was to learn to find the positive in my Moon, warts (squares) and all. Since one of the squares is to Neptune, extreme sensitivity has been my blessing/curse. One of my favorite observations is that were it not for my Moon’s reserved Capricorn sign, I’d probably be out on street corners emoting and making a public nuisance of myself. Knowing about my lunar orientation also helps me realize that while I have more logic than stars in the sky as a Virgo Sun, I need to feel my way through life as my first line of navigation. Hypothesis is my GPS. I get a hunch, a visceral feel of what is true or what direction I should head—and then I analyze the situation to see if the logic matches. If it doesn’t and the hunch is strong, I’ll probably still go with it.

Subtleties.  The Sun and Moon are headlights that help us navigate life. Even if one shines brighter than the other to light the way, we need them both to be safe on the road. Nor should we toss friends, relatives or lovers who challenge our primary Light. Growth comes from those differences, but knowing whether you’re Sun-handed or Moon-handed can help you know where to find a breather and when to realize there are probably potholes in the road (primary Light incompatibility).

Look at your primary Light from more than just sign and aspect compatibility. For instance, my Cap Moon is not compatible with my husband’s Leo Moon by sign, but he has Saturn closely conjunct his Moon. This gives his Moon a strong Saturn influence, and my Moon in Capricorn is ruled by Saturn. I don’t think we could be any more comfortable together in our home life, habits and routine.

And sometimes it’s the difference of viewpoint between your primary Light and others’ that forms irresistible attractions, especially among friends. Out of my six closest friends, five have Moons that connect with mine by either square, opposition or sextile. We also have a commonality in Cardinality, making us go-getters and problem solvers. We truly enjoy figuring out life’s puzzles together.

Context.  Of course, we’re only talking about part of your chart and anyone else’s, but it’s a part that stands out and it’s a good starting point for understanding yourself and others. I’d invite you to determine and study deeper your primary Light.

What do you learn about how you operate, relate to others and how you “light up,” whether we’re talking humor or enthusiasm? Look at images and objects you favor and whether they have a solar tinge (bright yellow or gold) or lunar (silver and shiny). Where are you more comfortable? In full sunlight or at night by the light of the silvery Moon?

Enjoy the sunlight or moonlight, and please share any new and interesting discoveries in the Comments.

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Photo Credit: © zsooofija – Fotolia.com

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Epiphany: The Coming of the Three Astrologers

© 2016 by Joyce Mason

I love Epiphany, the culmination of the 12 Days of Christmas and the Coming of the Three Astrologers. I'd like to share my article Epiphanies from one of my other blogs, Hot Flashbacks/ Cool Insights. Written in 2008, I think you'll find it timeless and thought-provoking.

Whether or not you're Christian, the symbolism of a teacher who would come to save us by love crosses all belief systems. Nearly every one of them has a figure with similar qualities. It is an archetype deeply imbedded in the human psyche. Humans have always looked Up for guidance, as did the Magi who followed a star to find the newborn King. The part astrologers played in the Christmas story is one of great honor. In addition to being in the close circle witnessing Jesus's earliest days, the Magi were attuned to omens and turning points that would change the course of human events. I was lucky enough to attend a Catholic church in the past that said the Magi were astrologers, and they said it out loud, right in the liturgy, in front of God and Everyone!

I hope you enjoy this homage to Epiphany and all its symbolism that can take you places you've never been before. Just follow your Star.

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 Photo Credit: © Bertold Werkmann | Dreamstime.com