Showing posts with label Grand Cross. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grand Cross. Show all posts

March 26, 2019

WiIl the Business Succeed? Feedback

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The letter below was written by the same person who asked the question, "Will the Business Succeed?" She had some technical difficulties, so with her permission, I'm copying her letter below, but with personal information redacted. She previously gave her son's birth data, so I see no need to remove it here, and maybe some of you want to follow along and share any advice you might have for her. When I break into her letter to comment, that text will look like this.





The Horary Question "Will the Business Succeed?"



Hi Lesia,

So sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. I wrote to you on your website re my son starting a business, and you asked what kind of business “Astrology” and no it is not. I think I am technically challenged I cannot find a place to reply back to you under your response back to me so please forgive me using your email. 

No worries. Glad to hear from you. I'm sorry to say that I'm a bit technically challenged in this matter, myself. This chart is one of my biggest failures. To put it honestly, I am now seeing I made a huge blunder, and I'm wondering what the hell I was thinking? Was it during  one of my manic up-all-night marathons? Was my temperature over 104? I didn't notice any strictures in judgment, and yet I feel like this question was doomed (for me) from the get-go.

The obvious chart to use to answer this question is a horary. I mean, duh. And I completely overlooked it. When I said there were two ways to answer your question, those ways should have been electional or horary. Checking the natal is a prerequisite to everything else. Maybe that's what I was doing. I would have had several charts pulled up on the computer and ended up reading the natal as if it were the horary chart. Or something. Maybe it's a consequence of Mercury retrograde, that I am just now seeing my mistake. 

One of the reasons I decided to answer this question was that a horary chart would be the simplest way of going about it. I know you understand that it's time-consuming for me to look into the natal chart and do a full-on reading. I try to pay it forward when I can, but sometimes I simply can't. I didn't find you in my bookkeeping, but if I owe you a refund, let me know and I'll take care of you.

My son has been looking into buying an existing  “garbage” business he is meeting with the bank today at 2:00 pm to see if he can get a rather large bank loan around 2 M… He is also looking at purchasing a piece of property in the country for the business to park trucks on, as they are now on rented property. This business in the country is about 45 minutes from Winnipeg in the town of Stonewall Manitoba, he lives in Balmoral Manitoba about 15 minutes from Stonewall. 

I am scared to death going into so much debt with this business (the owner wants to retire). He had a business detailing semi trucks, school buses and some vehicles a few years ago, he did well until the economy tanked out and he folded in I think 2007.


Your son is a grown man, 39 years old. Ethically, I shouldn't read his chart for you without his permission. I wouldn't have if I had realized I was reading the wrong chart.

However, you said you are scared to death of getting into so much debt, so is it you who would be going into debt? If that's the case,  get a lawyer, get it done right (not while Mercury or any other significant planet is Rx), and make sure there's no way for you to end up "Elder Abused." I don't know how old you are now, but time flies when you're alive. 




He was to meet yesterday at the bank and it was cancelled until today, makes me nervous with it being a Super Moon tonight. I know you said the moon is the most important  planet I presume you are talking about the progressed moon? Mercury is Rx until the 29th, not sure 


Don't confuse apples with oranges. Or natals with horaries, like I did. 😒 I know, it's not funny. 

  • When I say the moon is the most important planet, it depends on the type of chart. In a horary, or elective, absolutely. The last aspect the moon makes (and when) before going void of course is very important. The other planet or point in the aspect should be analyzed for strength or debility. 

  • The moon in a secondary progressed chart is also highly important as it works like a timer. 

I don't know what you mean by Mercury being Rx. I think you mean the current Mercury Rx cycle. But then come more questions about shadow periods and so on and I'm not casting charts anymore. Mercury Rx, as a general rule of thumb, wouldn't be a favorable time to make deals, especially if there are documents to sign, and you know when you get a loan there are tons of documents. It also wouldn't be out of the ordinary for there to be errors, changes in schedules, or postponements. If an agreement is tentative, and it comes through just as or slightly after Mercury goes direct, then he should probably take that. 

I will say that the current transiting Saturn, Pluto and the moon's South Node are in trine to your son's natal Saturn at 22 Virgo (sign of service). It would be a good time for him to begin this business, in my opinion. And quickly, while he still has this advantage. But he should also be aware that eventually the transits will move on, and he may have difficulties later.  I couldn't find the latitude and longitude for Balmoral on astro.com. Highly unusual, that. So I used Stonewall as a base for a solar return, seeing as how your son's birthday is in a few days. The Return Chart has Uranus on the midheaven, so there will be a change in his path, work, life direction, career, reputation, status, and/or "brand" this year. It may be sudden or unexpected. The problem with Uranus is that whatever we think it will do, it will be something else. That's part of why he feels the need to break out and take his show on the road, so to speak. 


But also in that Solar Return, Saturn, Pluto and the South Node are in the 6th house. The first thing we need to point out is that his health does need to be closely monitored this year. His Return takes place on his birthday, and I have a suggestion to make based on lots of experience and research. Insist that he use that day entirely selfishly, doing whatever will make him ecstatically happy. Whatever he can afford that speaks to his heart is how he should spend it, but it should be entirely his choice, with no pressures of any kind. Let him spend it as if it were his last day on earth. I know that sounds a bit macabre, but it will act as an antidote to any negative energy around that day which will be brought forward later. This is very important because eventually, the issues of the 6th house in the Return are going to come to the ascendant. You want any negative energy to be minimized and transmuted by the stored positive energy that arrives with it. It's kind of like going into the past to improve the future. Stressor days throughout the year are usually those when the transiting sun squares or opposes its natal place. 


Now it may not be all bad. Saturn and Pluto, the two planets which rule over the "garbage" business, along with the south node, are, as pointed out, in the 6th house, which is the house of service. Don't assume the South Node is a negative, because that's not always true. This is the house of worker bees, blue collar workers, middle management, healthcare workers, those who wear uniforms, including police, fire, emts, nurses, even trash collectors. This is the house of the daily grind and our daily bread. It's a house of necessity, duty and obligation. We must take care of the ill and the animals. We must wash our bodies and eat nutritious food. We must serve our country or at least act in socially conscious ways. The 6th house represents the jobs we work at because we have to pay the bills. We have to put food on our tables. These aren't necessarily jobs we want to do because they're our vocations, not our avocations. They may not be tied to our life path, career path, life goals or brand, but the grace with which we do them becomes entwined in our destiny, reputation, and epitaph. So Saturn, Pluto and the South Node in the 6th may be showing your son's employment in the "garbage" business this year. 



if this is a good time to be seeing the bank either. He does not have the Sun, Moon, Venus, above the horizon in his progressed chart. I am using Matrix software, Porphyry house system, tropical.


There seems to be more confusion here. Horary is the act of finding the answer in the time of the question. Elective is the art of finding the best time to do something, to give it an auspicious birth. If you cast an elective for a wedding, a Grand Opening, a vacation, or whatever, it's advantageous to get those four planets above the horizon and angular if possible. Every chart is different, of course, but it's not very common for individuals to have all four in the natal, progression, directions or tertiary. And if they do, they're living a good life. 




My son had a heart attack February 26, 2015  but seems to be doing better now.

Sorry to hear the first, and happy to hear the latter. Please say he doesn't smoke.

He is so gung-ho to buy this business……and I am on the fence. He has been on stress leave for almost a year, he was installing telephones, internet, and TV here in Winnipeg and does not want to go back there, think he hates working for other people, and the company is not the same it was bought out by BELL.

I have no idea what rules the garbage business???

Pluto rules garbage, landfills, recycling, scrap yards,  mining, plumbing, taxidermy, tattoo artists, detectives, butchers, surgeons, oncologists, proctologists and stagnant swampy water. Pluto is well acquainted with the underbelly of life. Your son has that planet's sign (Scorpio) on his midheaven, with Pluto elevated, so it's a good career fit for him. 

Saturn, your son's ascendant, is Capricorn. They are generally born executives, bosses and managers. They're also construction workers, farmers, landowners and leaders. With Saturn and Pluto working toward a conjunction with each other in the sky overhead right now, it seems reasonable that these two energies would attempt to merge in his life as well. But you must remember that Saturn closely squares Neptune in the natal, which is the ruler of the intercepted 2nd house of money, so financial backing will be hard to find.

Natal Mars Rx square natal Uranus, shows he's a risk-taker. Uranus rules the 2nd house of money. Mars forms a Grand Cross by squaring Venus (in opposition to Uranus), and incorporating the moon's nodes. 







The moon's nodes trigger milestones and turning points in life. They, too, are tied to money by being located at the cusps of the 2nd and 8th houses. Fixed Grand Crosses are notoriously hard to live under. I have a post here on that subject under this link.

It is important to look into Venus in Taurus in the 4th and see who or what it represents. Venus in Taurus might be lazy and self-indulgent (but oh, so attractive), pampered and spoiled. In the 4th house it might indicate living in the lap of luxury, or having a spouse who does. Venus in Taurus indicates a home with a mortgage that represents valuable collateral, and probably having equity in it. It could be a banker because both Venus and Taurus are associated with banks. It could even mean that you, his mother (4th house), could possibly bankroll his business. The 7th of partnerships is in Cancer, ruled by the moon in undecided-always-sitting-on-the-  fence-Libra. His natal moon opposes his natal sun, so he lives in full-moon mode, and Venus squares Mars. a sign of mostly not getting what you want in life. But this isn't a horary or election chart, so it isn't read the same way. 

Just in general, Venus opposed to Uranus and squared by Mars is a classic configuration for someone who "needs space." Mars square the ruler of the 2nd house (Uranus) shows impulsiveness and sudden bouts of anger.


There's so much to see, but I'm off the clock. 


If you have an interest in astrology, think about taking some classes, There are many available online, or you might try a local community college, or simply an astrologer in your area. Insist on at least ten years of verifiable experience, or it will be the blind leading the blind. 



You apologized for your president and I accept your apology LOL. Our Prime Minister Trudeau is in hot water here over a scandal so not much better.



Trump Trudeau May Merkel Putin 





Take care and thanks for your great knowledge in astrology and your time it is much appreciated.

Sincerely,
MG

You're welcome. Thanks for the feedback. I'm sorry it turned out the way it did. I wish you and your son much good fortune. ~Lesia





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March 7, 2014

Ted Turner Mars in Libra

Ted Turner was rushed to the hospital today with appendicitis.

November 19, 1938

8:50 AM EST
Cincinnati, OH

Tropical Zodiac

Porphyry Houses





Ted Turner, Natal Chart
Turner has a very strong Pluto in his chart. Pluto is the planet of wealth, thus, plutocrats. It's in mutual reception with his natal sun in Scorpio, and the two are in trine to each other, feeding each other in mutual cooperation. Pluto is the ruler of his 12th house of hospitals, where his sun (life force, individuality) is located, and the sun is the ruler of the 9th house of foreign countries and long distances, where he and the hospital are currently located. 

His natal chart holds a yod between his natal 

  • Mars in Libra (under fire with the upcoming cardinal Grand Cross of April) (diplomacy, passive-aggressiveness, partnerships, marriage and equality)
  • Mercury (communication) in Sagittarius (reaching far and hitting the mark) in a wide conjunction with the ascendant
  • Uranus in Taurus at the apex. Uranus is the planet of  technology and telecommunications, placed in Taurus, the money sign. 
We're going to be seeing more people who have their natal Mars in Libra in the news as the Grand Cross takes shape in mid April. Take note that transiting Mars just turned stationary retrograde a few days ago, and its conjunction to Turner's natal moon was the trigger of this event.



Ted Turner, appendicitis transits
There are quite a few aspects to the natal here from today's transits, but those that describe the event are transiting Mars (pain, wounding, cutting, sharp objects) conjunct his natal moon (ruler of the 8th house of surgery) in the 11th house of sudden events. Transiting Saturn (suffering, loss, worry, restriction) in Scorpio (surgery) conjuncts his natal sun (life, identity) in the 12th house of hospitals, ruler of the 9th house of foreign countries and long-distances. The transiting moon in the 6th house of illness. His natal Saturn / Mars opposition (slow burn, stop go stop go stop go) in angular houses is being challenged by the T-Square that's forming a Grand Cross, and can be affected repeatedly almost all the way through July 2014.

Below is Turner's age harmonic chart for today. 
75.29798



There is a Grand Trine between Mercury, Neptune and the moon, but that's not the dominating feature here. Mercury (health) in Aquarius (unexpected) in the 12th house (hospitals) is tied to the 8th house (surgery). Mercury also represents messengers and the media, Aquarius also represents friends, and the 12th house also represents solitude and privacy. It trines Neptune (anesthesia, hospitals) in Gemini (communication, media) in the 4th house of the end of the matter. Both Mercury and Neptune are trined by the moon, ruler of the 6th house of health and illness in the 8th house of surgery. The moon is conjunct the north node, a beneficent aspect, and both are in Libra, the sign associated with the midsection of the body (usually, but not necessarily limited to the kidneys and intestines.) But that's still not the significant part of this age harmonic chart.


The significant part is that all of the following planets and indicators fall into the 8th house of surgery:

  • The sun--The vitality and life force is opposed by Mars, planet of cutting and blood.
  • Uranus--Ruler of the ascendant, the chart ruler, and representative of sudden, unexpected events
  • The north node of the moon--a turning point in life, a matter of great significance.
  • The moon--the "other" light. The sun, moon and ruler of the ascendant are three most vital parts of any chart. This one squares Jupiter--in and ruling--the 11th house of sudden events and twists of fate.
Saturn--planet of suffering, loss and restriction is conjunct the 8th house cusp. All house cusps are particularly sensitive in harmonic charts. Saturn is the ruler of the 12 house of confinement, seclusion and institutions. It is squared by a retrograde Venus on the cusp of the 11th house of sudden events and twists of fate. Venus rules the 4th house of home +  the end of matters, as well as the 9th house of long-distances and foreign countries.

Mars is opposed to the sun, but also inconjuncts the natal Pluto - the other ruler of surgery.

 

February 2, 2014

The Death of Philip Seymour Hoffman

I'm truly sad that Philip Seymour Hoffman has left us. I didn't see all of his films, but I loved him as Dusty in Twister and as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous. He was a great character actor, and I cheered him on because he wasn't the typical Hollywood Pretty Boy; he was a real actor. I missed Capote and The Master, and now I'll have to catch up.

We don't have a time of birth for Hoffman, and I have been trying to rectify it for the past couple of hours, but I'm not getting far enough fast enough, so I'll have to put it aside for now, and just use a solar chart. Ordinarily, I use a sunrise chart for this purpose, but in this instance, a noon chart works extremely well.



July 23, 1967
12 PM EDT
Fairport, NY

Whether or not that time is correct, most of the aspects I'm pointing out in this "death  axis" chart would hold true nevertheless simply because the outer planets move so slowly. They might be in different houses, but the energies involved would remain the same.




Hoffman's solar chart is on the inside, the transits for the time the police received the call from his apartment 
February 2, 2014
11:15 AM EST
NY, NY

are on the outside. The sun was changing signs on the date of his birth, so we don't know for sure if it was in Cancer or Leo. This is simply where the sun ends up when the chart is cast for noon. A good case can be made for both. Leo is the sign of acting and entertainment.


As you can see, there are aspects to every angle, as well as transits to the cusps of the 2nd and 8th houses. But, if this time is incorrect, then all those things could go away. One interesting thing is seeing Jupiter transiting the midheaven here which generally brings public recognition. It has been transiting back and forth since last November. It first made contact to Hoffman's Mercury in August 2013, when director Vincent Cassel replaced him in the film Child 44. No reason for his dismissal was given, but now we can imagine.


This was the second sweep by Jupiter which is retrograde. That leaves me with the impression that maybe the midheaven should be in Capricorn rather than Cancer, but based on the date of his Oscar win on March 5, 2008, I can't make it work. The harmonics for various dates also don't line up that way, so I'm going to dismiss that theory for now. I also tried giving him a Capricorn ascendant, so that Jupiter would square the midheaven, but no luck there, either.


In this chart, the transiting vertex (a date with destiny, a matter beyond our control) is conjunct Hoffman's natal ascendant which represents both the physical body and a timing indicator meaning "You. Here. Now." Transiting Uranus, the planet of the sudden, unexpected and accidental opposed that combination. It conjuncts his descendant which can represent where the sun sets on life. With Libra on the ascendant, Taurus is on the cusp of the 8th house of death. Both are Venus ruled, and transiting Venus just turned stationary direct, which is highly significant if it aspects the natal chart, which it does.


All of the aforementioned, Jupiter, the vertex and Uranus form hard aspects with transiting Pluto, the destroyer, which is transiting the 4th cusp of endings. Pluto is conjunct the transiting stationary direct Venus. Notice that Venus and Pluto are the rulers of the so-called "death axis" and are meeting at the 4th cusp "end of the matter." The entire crew form a Grand Cross and afflict his natal Saturn on the descendant, which is the ruler of the 4th house of endings. I've said it a million times; there are three planets I never like to see facing off with each other - Mars, Saturn and Pluto. This is treacherous, insidious energy, and here we have two of the worst in square. Transiting Pluto (irresistible force) squares natal Saturn (immovable object), and are further afflicted by Uranus and Jupiter.


Transiting Saturn was conjunct his natal Neptune, a depressing transit known as the dark night of the soul. There's a great deal written about it in Neptune Over Saturn: Nasty Little Transits, if you want to know more. This is one of the few conjunctions where it doesn't matter which is transiting which, they mean basically the same thing and they both suck. If the noon birth time is correct, then the natal Neptune would rule Hoffman's 6th house of health.

Finally, the nodes of the moon are opposite their natal place in the chart, with the transiting south node being conjunct the natal north node, and vice-versa. This is a major turning point and time of crisis in life. And that remains true whatever time he was born.


Note that the transiting ascendant was conjunct the natal vertex at the time of the emergency call.


December 22, 2013

The Grand Cross and Fate vs. Free Will


I own first editions of Astrology for Everyone and Your Place Among the Stars by Evangeline Adams (whose birth date I share), but alas, I don’t own a single copy of The Bowl of Heaven, where she describes the experience of breaking her leg as a child. I borrowed the book from a library right after I left Los Angeles and not long before my Great Dane went to the Rainbow Bridge, so it must have been 1989. And I would swear that Adams gave an accounting of the incident that involved exchanging a mule for her horse because she already knew of the likelihood of an accident and possible broken bones on that day. I can find no such anecdote online. The way I recall it, she studied astrology from a young age with a local physician. She had seen a Mars / Saturn affliction in her own chart, and so to reduce the likelihood of an injury, instead of riding her horse to school that day, she took the slower, less frisky mule. Something spooked the mule; she fell off, and the result was a broken leg.


Maybe I am crazy. Maybe I am combining two different anecdotes that I read close to each other in a short period of time. If anyone else owns an old edition of the book, rather than a newer one where it may have been edited out, I’d love to know.

Valentin Naboth (a/k/a Valentine Naibod, Valentinus Naiboda or Nabod) was also an Aquarian (Feb 13, 1523 – Mar 3, 1593). A German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, he was extolled for calculating the mean annual motion of the sun. His work inspired Tycho Brahe, Paul Wittich, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, and his method of progressing the angles of a chart are still used to this day. Naibod, as he is known in astrological circles, saw in his own chart that he was "about to enter a period of personal danger, so he stockpiled an adequate supply of food and drink, closed his blinds, and locked his doors and windows, intending to stay in hiding until the period of danger had passed. Unfortunately, some robbers, seeing the house closed and the blinds drawn, decided that the resident was absent. They therefore broke into what they thought was an empty house, and finding Naibod there, murdered him to conceal their identities. Thus he did not escape the fate predicted by his own astrological calculations."


The question here is:


Are some things fated

or do we always have free will?



My natal chart contains a fixed Grand Cross and as far as I am concerned, they may as well have called it a Grand Curse. It indicates an entire lifetime of stress and an endless series of challenges and obstacles. One thing you will never hear a person with a fixed Cross say is, "That was easy." Imagine a nightmare where you are playing baseball and must continuously run the bases over and over without stopping, without resting, without ever reaching home plate, and the futility of it never ending in your entire lifetime.



With a cross to bear, there are four or more planets involved in two oppositions that square each other. Each planet involved in the cross represents an obstacle in the way of reaching your goals. Each one is a drama queen that forces you to focus your effort and attention on her rather than the goal you would like to reach. And you no sooner get one soothed than one of the others – or all of them at once! – begin to act up. You run from crisis to crisis to crisis and it gets damned tiring. You can never get even one situation resolved completely before you have to go and handle the next catastrophe. Life is onerous and in a constant state of commotion from which you are continually disrupted. There is no peace. Your identity is that of having great intensity just beneath the surface waiting to be released. In other words, you’re a volcano that just might explode.


When you have a Grand Cross in your chart, chances are that your planets are in a splash pattern, which means there’s really no one place to focus your resolve or ambition. You tend to be a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. You wear many hats and have many irons in the fire.
 
Things are not so bad if the Grand Cross is in cardinal signs, such as in the natal chart of Steve Jobs, because cardinal signs are initiating, entrepreneurial and constructive. That cross works in fits and starts, but it can achieve goals. It’s as if those people are in a race to reach the goal, but at some point they get to hand off the baton to someone else to complete while they move on the next thing that interests them. Those with cardinal crosses direct their effort to the outside world.

Crosses in mutable signs are directed to healing and reasoning. They are more flexible and adaptable and therefore able to juggle many balls relatively easily, as far as Crosses go. Memphis-born actress Kathy Bates has a mutable Grand Cross that involves a whopping seven planets and all four angles of the chart, incorporating her sun, Mercury and Venus in cardinal Cancer. The saving grace here is that Jupiter, involved in the cross, makes a trine to her natal Saturn and Pluto in the fortunate 11th house, a house that among other things is about finding footing in ever-changing circumstances, plot twists, and lucky breaks, perfect for someone who must constantly switch between roles, characters and plots. They are the rulers of her 3rd house of communication and 5th house of creativity and entertainment. The Jupiter trine funnels all that power right to Saturn and Pluto. Not every bearer of a Grand Cross is so lucky.


"My life is triage."
                                       ~ writer Viki Noe

Fixed Grand Crosses are oriented in the inner world. These are people who are cerebral, satirical, discriminating and have a rich inner life. It greatly affects the self-worth, causing either a profound sense of self-doubt, or an inherent feeling of distinctiveness.

Astrologers that we would now describe as ancient, didn't give those with fixed crosses much to look forward to. This is the cross filled with the most stress and crises. It was singled out and named "the cross of crises" or "the cross of Christ" (as in suffering, not humility). Relentless effort must be made to overcome the constant obstacles that prevent achievement, contentment or peace. There is a deep sense of frustration from the continuous challenges, and only very limited options in solving them. At every turn and with every effort you feel blocked, as if surrounded by invisible and insurmountable walls.

It is said that fixed crosses do not readily change from the status quo, and they resist movement; their tendency is to impede outside pressures for revision or adjustments. Resistance, staying the course and digging in is their natural mode of energy. They are the opposite of ADHD. The thing is, it’s not so much that those with fixed crosses don’t want to change; the greatest hurdle here is when no opportunities for change exist.

These crosses tend to reinforce Newton’s First Law of Motion: objects in motion tend to stay in motion, while objects at rest tend to stay at rest. It is hard to get them going, but once they do, they are nearly impossible to stop, maybe because of a great fear that they may not get going again. Fixed squares are the hardest to live with because they symbolize the will, which is far harder to surrender or to change than thought (mutable) or action (cardinal). A fixed cross symbolizes the necessity of humility.


Bill Maher, who has a fixed cross, is known as sharp, cerebral, opinionated, outspoken and scathing, as well as a perfectionist with an intense personality. Two of his biggest peeves are the sorry state of American education and the indifference of the United States to world affairs. Oddly enough, those happen to be two of mine, as well.


Geena Davis, whose birth date is the day after Maher’s, also has a fixed Grand Cross, and is known for an IQ as high as she is tall. She won an Oscar for her performance in The Accidental Tourist, will never be forgotten for her role in Thelma and Louise, proved that women can be winning athletes in A League of Their Own, and titillated many a man as a swashbuckling pirate in Cutthroat Island,  but she has many interests outside of acting. She has her own institute for gender equality in the media, owns a production company, is a competitive archer who tried out for the Olympics, a member of Mensa, an accomplished musician who plays piano, flute and drums, and also creates cartoon strips. True to the splash arrangement of her chart, she has many irons in the fire. Her fixed cross has several outlets (trines and sextiles) to other planets that enable her to redirect energy for easier advancement. She is able to avoid the Grand Cross trap of having to sink into a painful status quo in order to survive in the world.

I have no such outlet. My Grand Cross is a closed system. I have one simple trine, but it’s not connected to the cross at all. And this is where I return to the question of fate vs. free will.

A new friend of mine, a warm, kind, highly successful woman blessed with a chart that exudes success, is an enthusiastic advocate of giving back. She spreads good karma everywhere she goes in a quiet, humble way. She is generous of heart, mind and spirit and I cherish her friendship. But the other day I ended a phone call with her in tears because even though her mother is a life-long astrologer, my friend clearly doesn’t understand that when someone is in a down cycle, they can row their boat until their arms fall off and they are not going to reach shore. The best they can do is to keep rowing just to stay afloat and even that seems to take every ounce of energy they can muster. I have a need and desire to push a certain business venture forward, but my hands are tied at every turn and it’s hard as hell to row that way. It feels as though my friend believes that I am just not rowing hard enough. When she asked when my chart indicates my next good day and I told her at the end of April, I don’t think she believed it could take that long. Those who have never experienced the energy of a fixed cross have no idea how desperate and painful it feels. She doesn’t realize I would change it if I could, but this is my fate.

Another case in point is a recent client whose chart has a hundred times the business and money acumen of my friend’s. Both of their charts indicate they have lived many past lives as highly successful businessmen (or women) at the expense of family ties and emotional development. This man is in an enviable income bracket, one whose prosperity I would normally relate to greed, and for whom I could muster very little sympathy, if any at all. But the truth is, after speaking with him and finding him to be a humble individual whose thoughts and worries are not for himself, but for those he loves, and seeing the inconceivable, unimaginable pounding his life is taking from the current alignment of the planets, I have nothing but the deepest, most heartfelt sympathy for him. I have never before seen a chart that looks as crushing, and truly wish I could reach up and rearrange the orbits of the planets for him. He understands astrology and knows what is happening, how long it will last, and what the repercussions will be, but he hoped that maybe, just maybe, his will could win out over his fate.