2007 April : Big Sky AstroBlog

Apr

24

surf's up The time I’d normally spend blogging has lately been diverted into (1) working on a major redesign of my website (which I’m very excited about - wait’ll you see, wait’ll you see!) and (2) laying the groundwork for podcasting, which means auditioning new web hosts with much larger disk storage and bandwidth allowances. But mostly, I’ve been surfing the waves of a tsunami of brides, all needing good wedding dates for 2008.

Of which dates there are woefully few - at least, few really strong ones. There are usually a handful in any given year that are quite terrific (though invariably flawed), hitting most of the highlights I look for while avoiding the lion’s share of pitfalls; but 2007 and 2008 are proving to be a real challenge. Of course, many, many couples will marry during these years and the usual number - roughly half - will do just fine, astrology or no astrology. But doesn’t it seem curious that the universe is presenting so few bang-up opportunities for tying the knot? So few moments when the skies open up and the planets belt out “Goin’ to the Chapel” in clear, unambiguous language?

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In other news, I had all kinds of things to say about NBC’s dubious decision to air the VT killer’s “manifesto” tape and started to draft a post about it; but then we had a dinner party and I held forth on the subject for several minutes (in what was probably a pretty tedious fashion, to be honest) and got it all out of my system. Bottom line: I think NBC’s decision was a mistake at best, and cynical at worst.

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Speaking of that dinner party… I thought last weekend would have been a contentious social wash, what with Venus squaring Mars; doesn’t that sound like a contentious social wash? And yet my weekend was divine - convivial and fun. Hope you’ve all been having a good time too!

April 24, 2007 | 5 Comments

Apr

13

Are you throwing down with me over this Imus thing, Jeff? Are you? Because you may be from Brooklyn, baby, but I’m a middle-aged housewife from the mean streets of San Diego and I am fueled by the twin rages of hormones and dieting… and I am telling you to bring it on!

Jeff poses the musical question: Are astrology writers going too far in profiling celebrities? Does probing the psyches of these troubled individuals do them an ethical disservice? As you may know, I recently wrote a post about flawed media icon Don Imus that not only vented my feminist spleen but also suggested a particular disposition of mind at the time he made certain damning remarks that resulted in his firing. Creatively inspired by noting Imus’ Venus in Gemini, I probed his mind - guilty as charged! Careful readers will note, however, that I framed my statements with helpful phrases like “I think”, to alert readers to the facts that 1) astrology does not offer me clairvoyance into the workings of Mr. Imus’ mind; and 2) I’m not reporting facts, but opinion. But in a world in which Fox “News” is considered journalism, I suppose one can’t be too careful about clearly stating one’s bias.

With all due respect to ISAR, of which I’m a member - whose ethical guidelines insist that astrological analyses concerning public figures stick to what’s in the public domain - what else could astrologers possibly write about a celebrity or public figure other than what is in the public domain? Unless we know the celebrity personally, anything else is obviously speculation. Astrology cannot be used to x-ray people’s minds. I have never - not once, in 17 years - looked at a client’s chart in advance and formed a mental picture that was remotely in the same zip code as their reality. Yes, I know the themes that are operating, but the map is not the territory. I do not know that person.

If presented with Don Imus’ chart and not told a thing about him - had I never seen or heard a minute of his program - I would never have assumed his Venus in Gemini was misbehaving in such spectacular fashion. I’d have given him the benefit of the doubt. As his astrologer, I would automatically place myself in the role of his champion. But in light of his very public actions, I interpreted that Venus in Gemini differently.

Now if a blogger starts speculating about a celebrity, or extrapolating a bit too enthusiastically and then claims it as astrological canon, that’s when I’ll cry foul. That’s not what I see people doing in astrology blogs, though. Mostly I see them scratching their heads and saying, “Unh?”, just like the rest of the baffled public. WTF, Mel Gibson? Britney, get ahold of yourself!

Astrology is a way of making sense of things that make no sense, and so is entertainment. Sometimes celebrities are a symbolic prompt to help us untangle larger issues. I think celebrities are sort of like modern day Gods that act out our projected mythology. I would argue that when we speculate about the inner lives of celebrities, it’s not even about them. How can it be, when we don’t know them at all? Don Imus means little or nothing in my life, but I thought his situation said something interesting about Gemini, so I pretended to crawl inside his ugly head for a minute and played with what I imagined was lying around. And then took a nice, long shower. By next week I’ll have completely forgotten about Don Imus, but I’ll still remember just how ugly Gemini can be when it gets contaminated. Thus, Don has served his Celebrity Deity purpose in my life.

It’s always worth discussing the ethics of our profession. We should never claim more on astrology’s behalf than it can deliver, nor use it to cause harm. But I’m sorry - the ethics of an astrologer who speculates, based on astrology (and the in-studio chortling between Don and his staff), that Don Imus might actually have enjoyed saying the lousy thing he said, are a lot less interesting to me than the ethics of a person who accuses complete strangers - scholars and athletes - of sexual promiscuity, based strictly on gender and race.

So in conclusion, I don’t much care if Mr. Imus or anybody else wants to take exception to my probing his psyche. It’s not like I read his diary or petitioned a registrar for his birth records (his bloody birth date is all over the web). He’s the one who sold his public personna as a commodity and made reams of dough cracking wise at the expense of others. These are not the acts of a private person. As far as I’m concerned, such a person is fair game for a certain degree of creative musing and speculation - just as long as I don’t claim that my astrological musings are astrological facts.

April 13, 2007 | 14 Comments

Apr

12

arrrrr Just when I’m ready to throw Don Imus a bone for at least admitting his comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team were offensive, he keeps coming out with the kind of tone-deaf comments that only make the situation worse. Basically, his message seems to boil down to this: “I know my comments were inappropriate - but they shouldn’t be considered inappropriate. I should be free to say exactly what I want about whomever I want, as is my sovereign right as a white, heterosexual man, and the objects of my so-called ‘humor’ should just suck it up.”

Grrr. And, sigh. Because there was a time I enjoyed Don Imus and his shtick. His Sun/Pluto conjunction is just about in line with my natal Mercury, and I liked his way with words; I rarely agreed with anything he said, but something about his delivery cracked me up - I’m a sucker for cranky old men. And I thought his philanthropic efforts on behalf of kids with cancer were laudable. But being kind to kids with cancer does not give you a blank check to be a jerk to everyone else. The problem is, Imus seems to believe that it should.

Those of us with planets in Gemini - Don has Venus there, currently being pounded by transiting Pluto; the guy is going to take a huge hit, financially, from all this - have to be careful about using language indiscriminantly. With the Moon in Gemini and square Pluto in Virgo, I have to be constantly vigilant against my own tendency to go for the cheap joke, to toss out a cruel bon mot just because the language is so irresistably clever. So without excusing the content of his language in the least - my opinion is, “Don’t let the studio door hit your ass on the way out, Don” - I kind of know where Imus was coming from. Don’s michief-loving Venus in Gemini has spent too many years slumming around in bad neighborhoods with people who didn’t call him on his jerkitude, and it’s gotten as out of control as a monkey on crack. It’s become an addled little Gemini gremlin that really enjoyed that nasty “nappy-headed hos” remark; I think something about the meter of it, the crisp symmetry of the consonants, just delighted him. It’s too bad that in Imus’ case, Gemini’s natural love of language is too often employed in the service of casual racism and misogyny.

The downfall of Don Imus is a cautionary Gemini tale, one that comes just at the end of Pluto’s sojourn through Gemini’s opposite sign, Sagittarius. It’s a tale worth contemplating with transiting Venus having just entered Gemini yesterday. This particular transit of Venus won’t have an easy time of it. Before leaving Gemini, Venus will square off with Mars and Uranus in Pisces and oppose Jupiter and Pluto in Sagittarius. Casual language and cheap jokes won’t find an indulgent audience - particularly not language that denigrates minorities or that is shocking for the sake of being shocking.

Interestingly, just this morning a radio program on my local NPR station was discussing a proposed “Blogger’s Code of Conduct” to address craven, obscene, and threatening comments posted to blogs. Personally, I don’t think there’s a need for anything quite as formal as that; it’s not that hard to moderate the comments on a blog and to maintain the kind of online environment you want for your readers. But Imus’ problems, and the outcry about threats against blogger Kathy Sierra, are a promising sign to those of us who decry the ugliness and violence that too often pass for public discourse.

April 12, 2007 | 9 Comments

Apr

6

Two great friends of ours just made a huge move from San Diego to London. For months, they downsized in preparation for the move; they must have had three or four yard sales, and everytime they visited us they left boxes and bags of household items. They spent weeks scraping and patching and painting the 1913 bungalow they’d called home for more than a decade, getting it ready to sell. It sold quickly in a soft market; and last week they packed up the remainder of their belongings, gave away their car and relinquished their elderly cat to a doting new home, and flew away to the U.K.

Can I just say here how much I miss them - but also, how very, very jealous I am?

I’ve been feeling very stuck, very much in a rut these past few weeks. My days have been as flat as a soda that’s been sitting around with its cap off. To put it bluntly, I’m tired of who I am, what I have, and how I spend my time. And my life is by no means bad! Neat husband, swell house, good friends, modest success in my chosen profession. So what gives?

This morning, looking at my chart, I was struck by several things. First is that Uranus/natal IC-MC transit, which is kind of old news at this point. I’ve been feeling itchy for awhile, restless for a dramatic move or even a change in my career. And while my back was turned transiting Saturn turned retrograde and is once again perilously close (5 degrees) to my natal Sun. It sucks to simultaneously feel as though you want to make a change and at the same time to feel as though you’re pinned under something heavy.

But today I also noticed that transiting Pluto has inched into my second house (the house of possessions, for those of you keeping track at home), and that furthermore it’s getting mighty close to opposing my natal Venus. And that really nailed it for me - the tremendous urge to jettison cargo, you know, to empty out the closets and get rid of old junk, to sell the house and rent for awhile, to go on a fast and dump a bunch of weight. I feel the need for a new relationship with stuff, and with the shape and structure of my days.

From experience, though, I realize that often, when you feel stuck, modest changes in routine can be almost as refreshing - and certainly a lot less traumatic! - than large ones. Paint a room, cut your hair, take a weekend trip - or even, as my mother once told me, “Just clean out one drawer, anything to get you moving.”

So tell me: What do you do to get out of a rut?

April 6, 2007 | 12 Comments

Sign of Leo

Moon sextiles Mercury at
4:20 pm on Jul.5, 2008

Moon opposes Neptune at
5:22 pm on Jul.5, 2008

Moon trines Pluto at
3:05 am on Jul.6, 2008

Moon goes void of course at
3:05 am on Jul.6, 2008

Moon enters Virgo at
4:04 am on Jul.6, 2008

Moon conjuncts Mars at
9:19 am on Jul.6, 2008