People of Goodwill: Satish Kumar

Satish Kumar is Editor of Resurgence magazine, founder of the Schumacher Society and the Small School project in Hartland, Devon, and is a peace activist and ecological campaigner. He became a Jain monk at the age of 9, and leaving his family he followed the strict regime of the Jains until he was 18. He was involved in the campaign to gain land for the landless poor in India when he worked with Vinoba Bhave, a disciple of Gandhi. In 1962 as his Age Point entered Sagittarius, he walked from India to America with no money and en route delivered symbolic packets of "peace tea" to leaders of the four nuclear powers. He lives in England, and broadcasts regularly, sometimes presenting his "Thought for the Day" on BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme. He has also been a guest on the long-running radio show "Desert Island Discs". I've met Satish several times and he gave permission for me to use his chart. His data - 9.8.1936, 04.00, Sri Dungargarth, India - appears in the opening pages of his autobiography "No Destination".

His chart contains the striking image of a large, strong pyramid. This four-sided figure gives a Fixed motivation, and the aspects are predominantly blue (Fixed motivation again). For aspect patterns he has a Large Talent triangle and two Small Learning triangles, suggesting a life motivation of putting his inherent skills and abilities to use, but always learning more at every turn of life's path. The lower half of the chart is emphasised, with 7 planets present. Satish's life has been one of connection with the earth and the community from his early childhood days in India: learning from his mother how to farm the land, his later work to help reclaim land for the poor and his strong involvement in ecological issues now.

The 2nd House of the chart is emphasised. His Sun is strongly placed on the 2nd cusp and the theme of "possessions" ( which is related to 2nd House) is a significant feature of his life. He had few when he was a wandering Jain monk as personal possessions and money were forbidden. His unaspected Saturn is not only symbolic of the beloved mother he gave up when he became a monk, but also of his ability to learn how to find security in whatever situation he found himself. Walking from India to America without money is a graphic example of this.

With Moon conjunct Uranus, and riding high in the chart, Satish is never likely to "conform", and he is dedicated to bringing insight and inspiration to others aspiring to live more consciously. At 18, Satish came into contact with the ideas and teaching of Gandhi and started to question leading a spiritual existence without practically grounding and expressing this spirituality in the real world around him. His Age Point was quincunx Uranus when he rebelled and escaped from the Jains. He shares his wisdom and experiences in the inspiring talks he gives, and founded "Resurgence" magazine to disseminate these ideas. The magazine now has world-wide readership.

Satish recently appeared on a 2-part TV documentary presented by scientist Richard Dawkins, who labels Satish and others like him (including astrologers) as "Enemies of Reason". Are we deluded and superstitious? Is Satish really an enemy of reason? Only to Dawkins, I guess, who had better watch out, as I'll be looking at his chart next!

Bringing the Planets to Life

The planets, in astrological psychology, represent our psychological drives. In the line up above, Jupiter on the left hand side is shown as a rather large person, reflecting the expansive principle and the need to expand our horizons. I wrote in detail about Jupiter, sight and perception (qualities associated with this planet) in my 19th April post.

Venus, who comes next, is associated with the psychological drive to form relationships, as well as to have taste, quality, discrimination and express the feminine principle. Saturn, beside her, is the drive to protect and preserve, be careful and cautious. Although maybe not sounding a bundle of fun, Saturnian qualities are essential in everyday life.

Next comes Mars, the masculine principle - a hot headed, energetic "quick on the draw" energy and drive, which we draw upon when in danger and need to take flight or turn and fight. The Moon is about emotional needs, feelings, empathy and sensitivity to others, whereas the drive we associate with Mercury is the swiftness and speed of mind, ideas and words and how we learn and pick up ideas from others. The internet and blogs themselves are a good example of this!

I shall be featuring individual planets from time to time in future posts, so this is just by way of a short introduction. Below is something written by a student I taught at one of my astrology evening classes. She was complete newcomer to the subject, but she embraced it with enthusiasm and wrote the following:

THOUGHTS ON THE PLANETS by Irene Swarbrick

"Before I started my astrology class, I thought I was a true-to-type Sagittarian - extrovert with an urge to travel, and loving new experiences so always trying to do something different, much to my family's amusement or irritation. The only thing which didn't quite add up was the emphasis on sport. As one of my teachers said long, long ago "Really, Irene, with those long legs I don t Know why you can't run".

The Sun and the Moon were delights in the sky, providing warmth and brightness by day and shining white mystery by night. Now I understand they give me personal power and take care of my emotional needs.

Venus is not only an armless statue or the goddess of Love, but gives me femininity and balance, while Mars that erstwhile God of war actually gives me masculine power and energy.

Quicksilver Mercury, the stuff of science and thermometers, helps me to learn from others, while Jupiter trains me to learn from experience.

If I thought of Saturn at all, it was to remember it had rings around it, or to use the derivative "saturnine" to describe some brooding dark hero. Lo and behold, this planet shows me how to be practical, know my limitations and search for a way to overcome them.

I can't say I ever thought of Uranus at all, but this one is really one after my own heart for it signifies change and should encourage my inventiveness.

Neptune recalled sea-green oceans, ever changing, moody and magnificent, or calm and peaceful, which fits in well with this new concept of being in tune with creation.

As for Pluto, no - not the Disney dog, but the Greek God of the Underworld - this is the planet which will make me conscious of my highest ambitions.

If I roll these strange revelations into a golden circle around me, my new awareness must make me stronger and willing to develop and extend my capabilities and potential."

Clint Eastwood

I've been a fan of Clint for a long time, and wanted to take a look at his chart. His time of birth is not available and the chart is set for noon (31.5.1930, San Francisco) so what I'll do is focus on the inner motivation as shown in his chart, and on one of the aspect patterns.

Clint's chart has a colour balance of 3 red: 3 green: 3 blue aspects. This might sound very nicely balanced because all three colours of aspects are the same, but it's not! Red "doing" energy vies with green "thinking" energy for equal place and this suggests a lot of jumpy, sensitive, maybe tetchy reactions. Blue "being" energy hardly gets a look in; Clint would need more blue aspects, which confer the ability to rest, relax and enjoy, to make this a more comfortable balance. Clint has been starring in and directing films for many years. He seems tireless in his work and now I can understand why, taking his colour balance and motivation into consideration.

Bearing in mind the red/green aspect emphasis in his chart and life motivation, it's interesting to see that his chart contains a complete red/green aspect pattern - the Irritation triangle. These are touchy, tetchy figures and are seen in the charts of people who are flexible, hard working, and sensitively aware. These people can often take on more than their fair share of work, but sometimes they take on too much, reach breaking point and explode. Those around them take cover until the storm passes, and then things calm down quickly as the person returns to what they were doing, feeling a whole let better having worked their angst and irritation out of their system with the outburst.

Taken together, Clint's emphasised red/green colour balance, and the red/green Irritation triangle start to offer a theme which could be followed up in a full exploration of his chart and motivation.

Although there's no time of birth, it's still possible to use Age Point and LifeClock to see where a few of the significant events in his life fit in. His first starring film role was in 1958, in what is described on his website as "a very poor movie". His Age Point was on the Low Point of the 5th House. In 1959 he starred in the TV series "Rawhide", as the character Rowdy Yates. This was his big break. He was 29, on the Saturn return with Age Point coming up to the stress zone before the 6th House cusp. In 1986 he became Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea in California, with Age Point appropriately on the 10th House Balance Point and at the top of the chart for all the world to see.

Looking at Clint's films and achievements listed on his web site it's impressive to see just how much he's done over the years. A look again at his chart shows that Saturn, one of the pinning planets in the Irritation triangle is pretty much out on a limb in his chart, on it's own and leading the way. Saturn is in Capricorn, the Sign it rules, so will be at home with grounding and making things manifest. It only has red and green aspects, too, making it active, sensitive and very aware.

Addendum 2014 Since writing this post I've written about Eastwood's chart in depth, using the correct time. The write up appears in my book Using Age Progression available from the APA Book Shop, also see "Books" tab at top of page, and in a published article in the Astrological Association Journal, March/April 2013.

The Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope

Over the next few days, Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire is celebrating 50 years of the Lovell Radio Telescope. It’s creator, Sir Bernard Lovell, now in his 90’s, will be giving a public talk at the Observatory as part of the celebrations.

When I learned that the famous radio dish received its first space signals from the Andromeda Galaxy, on 2nd August 1957, I thought I’d set up the chart (time as noon, location Goostrey) just to see what it looked like.

Wow! Just look at that chart alongside the photo of the telescope! It’s oriented this way because of the time I set it up for, but with a different time the whole chart structure would move around - just as the telescope does when it’s tracking signals from space. The chart image bears an uncanny resemblance to the telescope itself.

There are two interesting and relevant aspect patterns too. The blue/green Ear/Eye Information triangle is one of them. This figure picks up and stores information and messages of all kinds. The other is the Shield, a quadrangular figure. The Hubers say in Aspect Pattern Astrology that this figure is relatively rare and has high absorption power; appropriate then for the chart of the first signals received from space by the telescope.

The radio telescope itself is an impressive sight, and can be glimpsed unexpectedly from different parts of the surrounding countryside. It was used to dramatic effect in an episode of “Dr. Who” when there was a nail-biting showdown between the Doctor and the Master who were battling it out high above the ground on the structure of the telescope.

Cats are Solar, Dogs are Lunar

If you’re a cat lover, you’ll know that they can be fascinating, snooty and independent, all over you one minute and ignoring you the next. Any relationship will be largely on their terms; they can take us or leave us, living quite happily without our company for a lot of the time, yet we cat lovers always come back for more!

Cats live in a solar way with life revolving around them like it does with the Sun. They bask in it. They love its warmth and display “big pussycat” behaviour when relaxed and at ease. They’re a bit like people with the Sun in Leo, who like to be in the spotlight, have lots of friends (because they have warm and generous hearts), but because Leo is one of the Fixed Zodiac Signs, they are equally capable of digging their heels in and doing their own thing, regardless of what anyone wants. Leo is ruled by the Sun, which represents our sense of self, creativity, individuality, the mind, the ability to choose and make decisions, and the use of the will.

Photos of Cats and Worn Lions by Maylis Curie
Dogs, on the other hand, are lunar. With qualities such as feelings and emotions associated with the Moon, dogs need contact and don’t do well if left alone. They are pack animals and offer faithful friendship, and (probably without realising it) provide emotional support just by being there for their owners. Whereas cats don’t often splurge their feelings about very much, (although one of my cats used to growl menacingly and lash her tail when the dustbin lorry was in the vicinity), dogs will leave us in little doubt about how they feel: “Bark yap yap woof ” + wag = “yes I do want a walk”!

The Sun is the ruling planet of Leo. We can develop solar qualities of self-consciousness for ourselves, regardless of what Sign our Sun is in. Louise Huber says in her book Reflections and Meditations on the Signs of the Zodiac that “real self-consciousness shows itself when a person becomes conscious of his/her inner power, of his own creative potential…..”

Let’s aim high and go for the higher levels of how you might go about this: you can do it by developing your heart centre, and by consciously developing the sensitivity of your heart which will open it up to expressing real love.

The seed thought for Leo, which you could also meditate on, is

“I am That and That am I”.

Leo rules the heart and the heart is about love, acknowledgement and true acceptance of the other and of all humankind.

The world needs this - let your Sun shine!