Where is Astrology Going? / Developing Your Own Voice

This post is for professional/aspiring astrologers and anyone interested in our craft, and where it might be heading:

In his monthly essay Noel Tyl muses on how astrology adapted to the evolution of modern culture (e.g. how it was influenced by the development of scientific thinking, as well as developmental psychology.) In effect he's asking the big question: where is astrology going? Where are astrologers going to be?

I'm pasting my response to it and additional thoughts on it below:

"With the advent of computer age, measurements have become 95% automatic, and reports compiling planetary positions and aspects can be assembled without any human involvement. A talented writer can then author an astrology report (darn sophisticated one at that) and sell it for $20 apiece to hundreds of people.

This means that the value of astrologer as an "astrological measuring device" has been diminished to just about zero - no one wants to come hear an astrologer describe her signs, houses and aspects - they can get all of that free or almost free.

If 20th century saw the adaptation of astrology into the power of automated computing, then in this century astrologers must add something that the generic reports cannot give - this entails studying about practical options in life, how to effectively help people become open to their inner potentials, and each of us developing our own unique voice that touches the right people in the right way. The bar has been raised."

Developing Your Own Voice
There is something magical that happens when you're with the people you're meant to help (if you're destined to help people, then you have your people - no questions about it.) Understanding who you're meant to help probably has a lot to do with identifying your own unique voice.

I'd like to meditate on this some more, but please feel free to give me your input via email or comments: What is your unique voice? How do you uniquely help others? Do you feel you're meant to help some special people, and who are they?

Cancer and the Shadow Side of Security

Your natal chart can be visualized as a map of the ocean with various currents originating from different sources (i.e. the planets): Some currents flow to the East, while some flow to the West.

There is a dynamic equilibrium in the ocean that contains all these currents and crosscurrents: and so it is in our natal chart (which is to say, our psyche.)

The current is a metaphor for the intention (conscious or unconscious) that we carry in our mind, and represents the need of the planets expressed through the 12 signs. In this post we'll pay attention to one of them: the sign Cancer.

Most of us desire success in career and relationships: we want to achieve significance, to be noticed and appreciated by many, and form meaningful relationships throughout our lives. But there can be an unconscious, conflicting intention that may be getting in our way.

Identifying Conflicting Intentions
What Cancer needs, as we've been discussing in the last couple of weeks, is security and privacy: it wants to stay hidden, even invisible, from the bright glare of social recognition.

Let us note that Cancer is at the opposite of the sign Capricorn, which represents ambition, productivity and responsibility. While the Capricorn part of us may have all the intention of pursuing success, it may create a lot of fear within the Cancerian part of us: "what would happen to my privacy if I achieve my goals and become wildly successful? I'd be so busy socializing with all these people that I may not even like. Some people may reject me...It all sounds so risky, I'd rather stay hidden and invisible - at least I know it's safe and comfortable that way."

Then what happens? Self sabotage ensues, keeping you from becoming recognized, promoted, or successful. All because of the unrecognized intention that is carried in your mind.

This is the shadow side of Cancer, and it could be experienced by any one of us when we are at a point of growth and further success. Becoming aware of this hidden intention is the first step: you honor what it's telling you, and learn to build some alone time into your schedule, thereby keeping a dynamic equilibrium within your psyche, which allows various needs within you to coexist (just not at the same time.)

Neptune Transit and Giving Up (a.k.a. Spiritual Breakthrough)

It's painful to try to control your life from a small space in the left hemisphere of your brain.

But that's what I was trying to do, for so many years. My mentor told me "You do this because
it's safer to live there - you get to disconnect from painful feelings."

And there is some power in the intellect. Enough to get the job done and be paid well. In terms of the level of joy, though, you end up very poor because you've left home.

"There is a feeling of deadness in my chest" one person told me in a consultation some time ago. He was a successful professional, but was making the same mistake.

The flight to the closed space in our head (left side) is a reaction that some of us will choose, as a result of painful experience some time in the past. We could expect it if the horoscope has heavily Scorpio/Plutonian emphasis, as well as a strong Mercury complex. It's like we begin to rely on our strength just a little too much, and try to make life work from the head, detached from the rest of us.

The result is that the ego becomes defined by intellect and control. The feeling of power that comes from living in our head overcompensates for the underlying powerlessness.

Neptune/Pisces complex is antithetical to all of this, and it requires that you give up control. I am presently going through a major transit called Neptune square Sun/Moon midpoint, and living from the head stopped working entirely in my relationships.

So one night it got so bad, and I was on my knees praying (something I haven't done in a long time), and suddenly something broke open: I felt a sense of peace and grace that I haven't experienced in years - it was like I was liberated from this tiny cage that was the left side of my brain, and there was this vast space filled with wind and light.

At the moment I was praying, basically I gave up control of my life as I seemed to be making a mess of it, and have asked the higher power (whatever you want to call it) to run my life. And everything came into place - emotionally, relationship wise, and now I think and work better.

All this is to say that I have a Scorpio Sun with Pisces rising, and a very strong Mercury. The balance was lost, and this Neptunian transit was the period when the balance was restored. Now I'm praying a lot more, and trying to let in the higher power in everything - so this seems to be one of the significant spiritual breakthroughs of my life.

If you have similar experiences under Neptunian transit, please feel free to email me or add comments below. Thanks for reading, and happy Independence Day!

Pluto in Capricorn: Challenging Cancerian Security

One of Pluto's meaning is death/destruction necessary before the rebirth.

Capricorn rules structure; Cancer security. Pluto's entrance to Capricorn suggests the destruction of the weakened economic structure (affecting businesses and governments) before the renewal. At the same time, Pluto's opposition to Cancer powerfully challenges our sense of security.

United States is a deeply Cancerian nation (the USA chart has 4 planets in Cancer) - emotional security is of a supreme value. Pluto is currently forming a transiting opposition to US Venus (money, worth, peace), and will continue on to oppose US Jupiter (sense of wealth, reward).

Along with the troubled financial system, Pluto may be destroying the false sense of security we've been holding onto, which was based on unsustainable conditions (i.e. is my sense of security based on the value of my asset, which is inevitably linked to the current struggling economy?)

As Pluto forces us out of happy denials, we'll probably end up facing our fears before finding a new foundation to stand on. The hoped-for end result will be a stronger, more sustainable sense of security, both on a personal and a national level.


(Note: this post was inspired by Raymond Merriman's piece on the June/July 2009 issue of Mountain Astrologer - if you want more details I recommend you check out the article - it's very good.)

Cancer through the Houses: Quest for Emotional Security

As the Sun enters Cancer, this could be a collective time of healing, empathy and true inner security.

Cancer represents the feeling of deep security of the womb, which we try to create in our home and family. Whether physical, emotional or financial, the feeling of security can be elusive (witness the current economic shakeup and its effect on the sense of financial security held by many.)

When a person's Moon or 4th house is under heavy tension through aspect, most likely such security wasn't available (or was disrupted) at home. This may lead such a person to seek the security in quite another way - through money, career, friends.

Here we'll look at Cancer through the 12 houses. There are at least two ways to look at the house that contains the sign on its cusp:

1) We'll try to seek emotional security through the activities represented by that house.
2) We'll behave in Cancer-like ways (e.g. private, intuitive, security conscious) with regard to the activities represented by that house.

• On Ascendant (i.e. Cancer rising), the security concern becomes a large part of the identity: you need that intimate emotional connections shared with your "family" - the word used in the widest sense - so you try to create it by showing caring and empathy wherever you go.
• On 2nd house we can naturally expect the need for financial security to be great - wanting to save in order to protect the family, retirement, etc. A great deal of money may be spent on creating and taking care of a home one lives in.
  
• On 3rd house we can expect thoughts of caring, especially for the family, to be great. There is a security oriented mindset, befitting a Taurus Ascendant (commonly expected with Cancer on the 3rd.)
  
• On 4th house, the family and one's home become the haven of emotional safety.
  
• On 5th house, emotional security may be sought through playing (creative expression), connecting with the child within (or without) - or perhaps sex and romance may become the substitute for family security.
  
• On 6th house, the work environment has to offer a family-like feeling of emotional empathy.
  
• On 7th house, the partner is expected to provide emotional security (the implication is that one has to be mature enough not to make his/her partner a substitute parent.)
• On 8th house, the emotional security may be sought through (again) sexual intimacy, or a healing encounter with others (such as nurturing the self esteem of others.)
  
• On 9th house, interestingly, emotional security might be sought through higher thoughts (spirituality, philosophy, academics) or a journey overseas, somehow pertaining to family or the feeling of security.
• On 10th house, your career might become the source of emotional security (this can include full-time mothers, of course). Another possibility is that one's vocation somehow evokes the feeling of emotional security (i.e. helping others feel cared for, fed, protected, or secure.)
• On 11th house, friends may become the source of emotional security - one exists to help and care for others (Virgo rising is commonly expected.)
  
• On 12th house, emotional security may be found only by going deeply within oneself, as in meditation.
  

In all cases, the idea to explore is how the need for security and private space plays a part in the activities represented by the Cancerian house. If you relate to the Cancer placement within your own horoscope, please feel free to share your experience via email or comment.