Pisces rules the feet

The Sun entered the Sign of Pisces today. According to the Ptolemaic astrological system for assigning parts of the body to the twelve Zodiac Signs, Pisces rules the feet. It is the last of the twelve Signs and its symbol is said to represent two fishes swimming in different directions, but forever joined by a so-called “silver cord”. The fishes face away from each other, symbolising the pull between the soul and the personality in the human being. Their vacillation is also reflected in the esoteric seed thought for Pisces: “I leave the Father’s Home and turning back I save”. For Pisces, a key issue in life is the tension between spiritual and physical existence.


Louise Huber says, in her book Reflections and Meditations on the Signs of the Zodiac that the seed thought sums up this double effect of Pisces “We set forth leaving the elevated place of the Soul, we incarnate in the physical body becoming its prisoner and longing all our life to return to the freedom and liberty of spiritual existence”.

Pisceans can be very sensitive people, attuned to energies that others are not aware of, and they seem able to access these and make them manifest. Some Pisceans have healing hands, others bring forth imaginative and creative works of art in the form of images, painting, music. Yet others - and you may well recognise some of these traits - can be vague, ungrounded, disorganised and indecisive. When the pull between the spiritual and the physical gets out of balance, the practicalities of everyday life can fall into disarray. But Pisceans feel for others and have a lot of compassion.

A final fishy thought on a far lighter note - how do you pronounce “Pisces”? Joe Cooper’s poem in “Astroverse” has a few suggestions!

Pronounced Piscean Embarrassment

Of all the ways
Piss Kays
Dismays
The most

Piss Keys
Is pretty thin on the ground
The souns
That is the nice eest
Is Pie Seest

The last t is out of plaice
And very fishy indeed.

John McCain

With “Super Tuesday” in the United States tomorrow, 5th February, John McCain is the Republican hoping for nomination in the US Presidential election Primaries . I would not normally take this much interest in American politics, but this Presidential election is proving to be a potentially interesting one, with the prospect of the first woman President or the first black one. We in the UK are getting our fair share of news about this, so to be fair handed and impartial, I thought I’d take a look at McCain’s chart, having already looked at the charts of the Democrat front runners.

McCain’s is an interesting chart. He was born on 29.8.1936 at 09.00 at the Coco Solo Air Base in Panama (data from Lois Rodden’s Database) Visually it reminds me of searchlights sweeping the sky. It is somewhat unusual in that it’s a completely Linear chart; none of the aspects form complete figures and consist only of lines. Such a chart indicates a Cardinal, restless motivation which will be expressed in tangential, diverse and ever-moving behaviour. This man could be highly unlikely to let the grass grow under his feet, always being interested in exploring new horizons and possibly impatient to get on towards the next goal.

The aspects in the chart have a vertical direction suggesting a strong urge towards individuality and recognition. The colour balance is an interesting one - 6R: 0G: 5B. With so much red in his chart McCain might appear tireless, always on the go and with barely enough time to recoup his energies before moving on again. Alongside this excess of red aspects, there is barely enough blue to offer him respite from the relentless state of “doing” and absolutely no green aspects at all. A lack of green aspects in a chart can indicate a lack of awareness of living in the two polarised states of “doing” (when using the red Cardinal energy) and “being” (when using the blue Fixed energy). It can also show a potential lack of “shades of grey” which the green aspects offer and which help in seeing life’s issues in a more rounded way, rather than in the “either/or” manner associated with a completely red/blue chart.

As a foil to the inherent restlessness and potentially “black/white” viewpoint, McCain does have 3 planets in Virgo - one of them the Sun - and the Moon in Capricorn, which could endow a more earthy, practical and no-nonsense approach out in the world, but the inner restlessness will always be present.

When I read up about him, I was fascinated to see that his Age Progression (1) kicks in with dramatic accuracy in 1967, when he was in Vietnam. On July 29th, he survived the fire that broke out in his plane on take off ; his Age Point was exactly conjunct Saturn and the Age Point in his Moon Node chart (2) was exactly conjunct Pluto. On 26th October, he ejected from his plane on a bombing mission, was concussed, had both arms and one leg broken, and was subsequently taken prisoner spending much of his time in solitary confinement. His Age Point was still on Saturn, but in a less tight conjunction, and in his Moon Node chart his Age Point had just edged away from Pluto - a very graphic significator of his survival of this event.

Right now, McCain’s Age Point is approaching the AC. It has gone full circle around the chart and he will be 72 in August. I can sit back and wonder “Why does he want to become President at this age?” - an age when most people would prefer to spend more time in their garden or with their grandchildren! But then one look at McCain’s energy-driven motivation, shot through and through with the restless need to be doing something, and the likelihood of no shades of grey being present in the way he lives this out, gives one reason why!

(1) LifeClock; Using Age Progression and (2) Moon Node Astrology are available from the APA Book Shop.

Scientists catch up with the Huber's Age Progression!

The Daily Mail newspaper reports that a group of researchers at Warwick University in the UK and Dartmouth College in the US have found that age 44 marks the start of the mid-life crisis. The scientists have found that happiness and depression follow a U-shaped curve, with the deepest trough of the curve occurring when we are approximately 44 , saying "the low period does not lift significantly for several years".

This is what astrological psychologists trained at the Astrological Psychology Association have known since the 1980's!

The horoscope is seen as a clock for the person's lifetime, with the Age Point indicating their age as the "time" on the clock. As the Age Point moves around the birth chart it corresponds to changing life phases. Each of these phases has its own Low Point.

When the Age Point reaches age 42, we enter a period of mid-life crisis. Here, beginning at age 43, we move through the Low Point of the whole chart and the Low Point of life. A phase of change, transformation and reorientation takes place, and continues for several years after this.

Bruno and Louise Huber, in their book LifeClock say: "Between ages 42 and 48 the phase corresponds to what we call 'mid-life crisis'".

Jason Orange of "Take That"

I have a bit of a special interest in Jason Orange as he attended one of my astrology courses in South Manchester a few years ago. On enrolment night at the College of Further Education where the 12 week course was being held, I was asked by one of the organisers to talk to "the young chap over there" who was interested in joining the course. I chatted to him about what he'd learn on the course and he decided to enrol, although at first he sounded very sceptical and suspicious about it. I had no idea who he was (not being into the UK boy bands who were hugely popular in the early 1990's) but when the class started there was a flutter of something interesting going on as the ladies present visibly preened their feathers and became rather smiley and friendly in his direction. Someone whispered to me "Is that Jason Orange?" I said yes, and asked why she wanted to know. It was then I discovered that he was one of the Take That pop group

After the initial flutter of excitement from the class, things settled down as Jason was a thoroughly nice person who joined in everything and was just like any other member of the class. And the ladies, being regular common-sense Mancunians, didn't stay distracted by his presence for long.

What of Jason's chart? (which he learned to draw up for himself). He was born on 10.7.1970 in Manchester, but didn't know his time of birth so we used noon, as is shown in the chart here. His is a very striking looking chart, and the image it conjures up for me is of high powered activity, fast movement, perhaps of someone whirling with an arm and leg outstretched - use your imagination a little here, half close your eyes and you'll maybe get the picture! It was only later that I learned that Jason got into the acting scene because of his skill as a break dancer; this is graphically reflected in the chart image.

With an inner motivation to be restless, changeable and dynamic, his chart has a high ratio of red and green aspects which will make him react and respond sometimes sensitively and be a bit touchy (well, he does have his Sun in the Sign of Cancer and Cancerians can be moody), but it also makes him very aware to what's going around him, and suggests he has a lot of nervous energy. Cancerians have an innately caring nature and love hearth and home.

His chart doesn't have any fully complete aspect patterns, because none of the aspect lines join up to form either triangles or 4-sided figures, but Jason does have an almost-complete Small Talent Triangle, made up of 3 blue aspects which don't all quite meet up at the apex where Moon, Uranus and Pluto are. A Small Talent Triangle indicates a still-developing talent, one that the person has to work on and perfect. The planets at the apex, which does not quite meet up, will have to work extra hard to develop the innate talent and get it out into the world. It has to be used and developed over a period of time, polished and made perfect. With Moon involved, it's likely that working at his talent and improving it would be something Jason would enjoy. The presence of Uranus alongside Moon gives his unique talents a quirky touch too.


At the time Jason joined my class "Take That" had disbanded. One member of the group, Robbie Williams, is now world famous, and you can read what I've written about his chart here. "Take That" re-formed in 2005 (without Robbie) and are now well established once again, touring to sell-out audiences. For me, it was especially good to see Jason and the other members of "Take That" on stage at the new Wembley Stadium in London when they performed at the memorial concert for Diana, Princess of Wales. And now they are back on the scene, I've become a firm fan of Take That this second time around! So Jason, if you happen to be reading this - good on you! And all the best for your future, now you're back on stage where you belong.

Photo from Jason Orange appreciation website

For more information on aspect patterns and astrological psychology, see www.astrologicalpsychology.org

If you liked this posting about Jason, read what I said about Robbie's chart and Robbie's wedding to Ayda Field on BBC Radio Stoke, where you can also listen to me talking about astrological psychology and Robbie's chart.

Sun in Aquarius

Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry is a medieval book of hours. There is a text for each liturgical hour of the day, with beautifully crafted and detailed pictures, each presented in glowing, jewel-like colours. The picture above is from the calendar section of the book where the 12 months of the year are depicted along with their associated Zodiac Sign and the labour or activity of the month.

The illustrations were painted for the Duke of Berry between 1412 and 1416 by the three Limbourg brothers who came from Flanders. Materials used were costly and unusual, including crushed lapis-lazuli from the Middle East to get the vibrant blues. Each of the paintings is topped by a Zodiac wheel showing the appropriate Sign of the month in question, together with the Sun moving across the sky, his chariot drawn by winged horses.

In the illustration for the Aquarius month, which we are now entering, the picture shows winter in a countryside village and farm. The land is covered in thick snow. No agricultural activities can be carried out and the stored food has to be eked out to see things through to Spring. There is little to be worked on with the land, but essential activities, such as cutting wood, must go on.

The sheep huddle together for warmth in their shelter and the inhabitants of the farm warm themselves by the fire. The sharp-eyed will notice that they do not have underwear! At the Aquarius time of year, meeting together in small groups, talking and being inventive about how to put to good use the dwindling resources laid down for the winter would have been a major activity, as thoughts of survival until Spring would have been uppermost.

The arc above the picture is detailed with dates and lunar phases. The Aquarian Water Bearer is seen on the left with the Piscean Fishes ( the next Zodiac Sign) on the right.