2007 February : Big Sky AstroBlog

Feb

23

No more Thursday Thirteen, apparently, since the meme hub has been closed. Well, it was a fun ride – though it was a challenge coming up with those 13s each week. Thanks, ladies.

We continue to settle into a new routine around here, and it’s going pretty smoothly so far. The spouse has been having a lively time of it at work, though, since Mercury turned retrograde the day after he started and his first task was to buy a computer for himself and a server for his department. Needless to say, there have been… challenges, getting these items hooked up and ready to go. On the other hand, I’m sure there would have been anyway, retrograde or no retrograde. Computers, much as I love them, are rascals.

I’ve enjoyed a string of particularly delightful wedding electional clients over the past couple of weeks, a good number of whom have required a second round of dates after the fates rendered the first ones unusable. This *has* been a very retrogradey retrograde, but – I don’t know, maybe it’s the Pisces factor, but the people I’m dealing with seem to be rolling with the punches really well. It’s been a lot of fun, actually.

And hey – my progressed Moon moved into Aquarius last week! (When I announced this to my husband, he thought I said “obsessed Moon.” Which, of course, is what happens to your p. Moon when it moves into Scorpio.) I had a very good time with my last p. Moon in Aquarius, back in the early 80s. What I remember about that era was that it was one of the few times in my life when I really felt… socially at ease, I guess, is the way I would describe it. It was p. Moon in Pisces that kicked my ass. Well, I’ll enjoy this feeling of well-being while I can – about two and a half years, I suppose.

So, the end of another p. Moon in Capricorn epoch, and looking back it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I worked very hard and was worried about money a lot of the time. I was even crankier than usual. But I finished some good sized projects, including a book, and feel at the end of it all that I moved my game to the next level. Now, it’s time to play for awhile.

February 23, 2007 | 5 Comments

Feb

15

thursday thirteen

Painting by my brilliant pal Claudia.

Hi! Long time no blog. Every now and then you just have to curl into a fetal position and let the world pass you by for awhile, yes?
Took a few days off last week and zipped up to L.A. for a couple of days to hang out in our old stomping grounds.
The little town where we met and got to know each other is thriving, with a new metro stop in the heart of town and various new cafes and hangouts. Nice to see it doing so well.
The spouse started a new job on Monday. So far, he loves it.
But it’s tricky for both of us to get back into the swing of that particular daily routine. For instance, 6:00 a.m. is an inhumane hour to wake up. And this from an alleged “morning person.”
Looks like the book is going ahead. It’s being reviewed by editorial and design peeps, and I should have comments back in a couple of weeks. Eeek!
It’s (at least tentatively, and with apologies to Linda Goodman) called “Marriage Signs,” and it’s a rumination on marriages’ sun signs. As in, the spouse and I married on May 30, hence, we’re in a Gemini marriage. That sort of thing.
I’ve got an article up over at AOL Horoscopes about compatibility between opposite signs.
Obama announced his candidacy on a void-of-course Moon with the Sun approaching an opposition to Saturn. Doesn’t sound that good, does it?
Yikes. Am I the last person to hear that Robert Blaschke has cancer? Send good thoughts, folks.
So, is anyone going to The Blast? Looks like I’ll only be there for the weekend, unfortunately, but I’m looking forward to it. Especially since…
… Can you believe I’ve never been to Sedona? Isn’t it, like, Mecca for the metaphysically inclined?
I have absolutely nothing new and/or interesting to say on the topic of Mercury retrograde. Wait ’til summer, though, when Venus turns around… I’ll give you an earful.

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February 15, 2007 | 5 Comments

Feb

5

I enjoyed Lynn’s post today about “trusting the voice within” and doing typed readings instead of working over the phone. I started taking almost exactly the same approach that Lynn describes after reading Jan Spiller’s “Astrology for the Soul.” It was something Spiller wrote about the Nodal placements in my chart – South Node in the 3rd, North Node in the 9th – that inspired me to take the leap of faith. Trusting one’s own instincts and knowledge seemed to be the gist of it, and it really spoke to the problems I’d always had with phone readings – that something about the interaction with the other person tends to throw me off. Perhaps it’s just my well-documented terror of the telephone.

But then again, a good percentage of astrology clients are a bit emotionally fragile by the time they book an appointment; and in a phone conversation (more so than face-to-face, in my experience) it’s easy for me to get lost in a client’s anxiety, scattered energy, or denial, and lose track of the astrology altogether. I sometimes think, too, that sensitive subjects must almost certainly be easier for a client to process while sitting alone in a room alone listening to a CD, rather than having to save face in the astrologer’s presence.

In any event, I always feel more satisfied with the typed/recorded readings that I send to people, and the feedback has been very positive. But it is an exhausting process to write out 80 minutes worth of text – about 23 double-spaced pages – then record it, burn it to CD, and package it all up. That’s why I’m currently taking another sabbatical from doing personal readings; I can only seem to do them for a couple of years or so before I burn out.

I probably shouldn’t fuss so much (Virgo Midheaven!). But speaking as a client of astrology readings as well as a purveyor, while I’ve had some readings that have really helped put things into focus for me, I’ve also had a few that seemed kind of random and stream of consciousness and not particularly helpful. And while I always appreciated the effort and good intentions that went into those readings, I haven’t always been inspired by the result. That’s why I want to give every reading my very best effort.

But I know there’s something deeply flawed in my approach, because giving these things my all takes way too much time and energy to make sense from a business point of view. I would either need to give myself a huge raise or let myself work in a looser, more improvisational way, and neither feels right to me. So I’ll take an intermission for a few months and work on some other projections, and plan my next move.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your comments. Have you been generally happy with astrology readings you’ve received? And if you give readings, what kind of preparation and experience does it take for you to walk away with the feeling that it’s been a good experience for both you and your client?

February 5, 2007 | 11 Comments

Feb

1

thursday thirteen

13 Books Piled in a Precarious Heap
on My Bedside Table

I don’t have a lot of time for reading this days, but as you might expect from someone with the Moon in Gemini I can’t get to sleep at night without knocking back a page or two of some light, diverting read. We’re not talking about Literature here; typically it’s a chapter of something acerbic from the Joe Queenan (pictured above) collection, but Sandra Tsing Loh, Laurie Notaro, or David Sedaris also make regular appearances in the lineup.

Here is a taste of what’s currently littering my rickety, overburdened nightstand:

The World of Jeeves (P.G. Wodehouse)
If You’re Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble (Queenan)
Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon (Queenan)
Queenan Country (Queenan)
Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler (Queenan)
Holidays on Ice (David Sedaris)
A Year in Van Nuys (Sandra Tsing Loh)
Astrology for the Soul (Jan Spiller)
Giant (Edna Ferber)
Start Where You Are (Pema Chodron)
I Love Everybody, and Other Atrocious Lies (Laurie Notaro)
The Grim Grotto: A Series of Unfortunate Events #11 (Lemony Snicket)
Talk to the Hand (Lynne Truss)

What are you reading? Or at least using as a coaster on your nightstand?

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February 1, 2007 | 4 Comments

Sign of Pisces

Moon conjuncts Sun at
2:02 pm on Mar.15, 2010

Moon conjuncts Uranus at
4:39 pm on Mar.15, 2010

Moon conjuncts Mercury at
5:01 pm on Mar.15, 2010

Moon goes void of course at
5:01 pm on Mar.15, 2010

Moon enters Aries at
11:32 pm on Mar.15, 2010

Moon trines Mars at
12:29 am on Mar.16, 2010

Moon opposes Saturn at
2:56 am on Mar.16, 2010

Times given are for PST

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