Changes...

Where you can find me Now:-)

This blog has 78 posts…

I mention that because this blog will live as long as the Internet exists; and, the way things are looking, that will be for a very long time…

I also mention the number of posts because I’ve worked very hard to make each of those posts worth reading for as long as the Internet exists—each, even if about a particular topical event, has astrological principles expressed which never die…

I won’t be writing any more posts on this blog but it’s usefulness won’t cease…

There’s a search box in the right panel…

Put some words of interest to you in the box and read the posts that come up…

Also, notice the red link in the right panel that says, Information Site.

What you'll find there are all the tools you'll need to interpret a chart in an honest and creative way. Not a recipe book of what folks have done but a method that will give you the chance to Choose what you want to do...

Astrological Software

Very short post today...

Actually, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, look at our last post; probably the best way to introduce yourself to the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System!

Now, I want to direct you to a page on our Information Site, Special Offer.

You'll be able to download (Free!) the best astrological software I've ever used in my 40 years of experience (it's only for Windows...). Also on that page, I offer anyone who downloads it a set of five files that make it easy to find the 36 aspects of the B.I.D.E. Full-Cycle Aspects...

Take This Challenge !

I want to pose a challenge to all my readers...

Even if this is the first time you've been to this blog, if you take the challenge, you'll either end up knowing more about yourself or you'll confirm more deeply important aspects of your character...

First: Download the original edition of Astrological Repair Manual--it's free--and look near the end of the book--page 63--where I've provided pages for each of the Planets, Signs, and Houses in a format that lets you print them out, cut them up, and have small cards you can move around on a desktop...

Second: Go to our Information Site and download the information from B.I.D.E. Interpretive System ~ Planets/Signs/Houses and Detailed Example of Using the System ~ Planets/Signs/Houses...

Third: Get your chart out. If you don't have one yet, check out Creating A Chart, where you can follow two different links to get a free chart and also have the basic Key to translate those weird astrological symbols in the chart into words that you can plug into Steps One and Two...

Fourth: Take the small cards you cut up in Step One. Pick out the ones for the Sun and Moon (four for each) and the ones for the Sign your particular Sun and Moon are in (four for each, unless the Sun and Moon are in the same Sign). Then, pick out the ones for the Houses your Sun and Moon are in...

Fifth: Choose one card for the Sun and one for the Moon, then one for the Sun's Sign and one for the Moon's Sign, then one for the Sun's House and the Moon's House...

Lay them out on the desk, in the order that was indicated in the download in Step Two, and Say The Words Out Loud (not forgetting the words "in order to" between the Sign and House...

Sixth: Change one or more of the cards--Sun/Moon, Sign, or House. Say that Symbolic Sentence Out Loud...

Seventh: Keep changing cards till you have a Sun/Sign/House and Moon/Sign/House Sentence that makes total sense to you...

Eighth: Repeat at least once a month...

Ninth: At some point in this process, tell us about your experience in the Comments...

If you're really adventurous, check out the post, The "Verbs" of Astrology, and explore how to link the Symbolic Sentences you have for your Sun and Moon into one awesome statement about why you're on this Earth...

General Astrology Techniques...

Since the most recent tabulation of our survey about what You want to see on this blog shows the categories of "General Astrology Techniques" and "Famous Birth Charts" as ranking higher than other topics, I'm going to devote this post to an examination of Barack Obama's chart, from the stand point of how one first begins to approach an honest and holistic appraisal of any chart...

First, let me quote the previous post on this blog about Obama:

Mr. Obama's chart shows an archetypical "Bucket" pattern (most planets within half the circle) yet has a uniqueness due to having two "handles" for the bucket (even though the two handles have more than 3 degrees between them, which the link I just gave you says is the limit; though, in Obama's case, one of the handle-planets is the ruler of the other's Sign, "pulling-in" the conjunction).

So, we'll look at Obama's Sun (of course), his Moon and Neptune (the "rim" or defining functions of the Bucket), and Saturn and Jupiter, the Handles or Focus of the whole chart.

I hope you have the basic materials of the system at hand [ if not, do check out our Information Site for all the basics for using the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System...] as I use my intuition to select words and phrases to construct the five Symbolic Sentences that go very far in sketching-out the major soul-components of Mr. Obama's character.

His Central Life Purpose

Sun in Leo in the 9th House:
Vitalizing Creative Response in order to See the Broader Perspective.
~~~~~~~~~
The Defining Functions for His Primary Talents

Neptune in Scorpio in the 12th House:
Being Idealistic about an Analytical Attitude in order to Utilize the Resources of His Unconscious Mind.

Moon in Gemini in the 7th House:
Nurturing Conceptual Versatility in order to Initiate Sharing.
~~~~~~~~~
The Focal Release of His Talents

Saturn in Capricorn in the 3rd House:
Clarifying a Desire for Enduring Patterns in order to Make Connections.
closely linked with
Jupiter in Aquarius in the 3rd House:
Being Optimistic about Humanitarian Considerations in order to Be Aware of His Immediate Environment.
~~~~~~~~~

I can hear more than one person saying something like, "Whew! It's all so abstract!!".

My answer: Would you rather use a bunch of bits of concrete "indications", usually borrowed from others, to form an interpretation that limits and constrains your understanding of a living human being?

Certainly, as I've mentioned in past posts, these Symbolic Sentences, or Affirmations, are not intended to give quick and easy "answers"; they, just like the Symbols of the chart, need interpretation. And, here comes yet another experimental aspect of this post: I'm not going to show alternative Sentences for Obama (each Planet/Sign/House combination has 64 possible Sentences in the system...) and I'm not going to (in this particular post) start the process of giving more concrete shape to those Symbolic Sentences. I'm going to leave that up to you...

So that's what I said in the previous post about Obama and it does give some very large hints about the initial approach to analyzing a chart...

Soon, I'll be adding information about overall chart patterns to the Information Site and will certainly be doing other posts like this about other famous people...

BTW, who's chart would you want to see analyzed here...?

What You Want To See On this Blog...

Back on July 25th, I had a poll post...

There've been a number of folks who let me know what they'd like to see on this blog and it's time to report on the latest findings.

Here are the categories and their highest percentages:

Famous Birth Charts - 50% want it as a regular feature.

General Astrology Techniques - 46% want to almost always see this.

Transits - Split vote here; 33% for both a regular feature and almost always.

Progressions - Another split vote; 33% for both a little bit and almost always.

Special B.I.D.E. Techniques - 38% want it as a regular feature.

You can still make your wishes known; just go to the original post and click on the survey link...

The "Verbs" of Astrology...

The Aspects of astrology are the distances between Planets (in the cycle, or circle, of the chart)—the Relationship between Functions.

If you've never calculated an aspect in a chart, check out this page on the Information Site...

The remainder of this post is a reprint from our Information Site:

Before using the Aspect Phrases of the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System it's important to understand the concepts of a Full-Cycle approach.

Most astrology concerns itself with a partial set of aspects and includes the idea of an aspect's "orb"—how far from exact an aspect can be and still be "valid".

When one realizes that aspects are actually phases of a full cycle of relationship, the allowable orb of an aspect becomes much less important. For example, in a full-cycle approach, the Waxing Trine aspect begins at 120° and ends at 135° (where the Waxing TriOctile begins). If one were to incorporate orbs into their interpretation, and two planets were 115° apart, thinking of that relationship as an "applying Trine" could be considered as long as it was admitted that the Trine has yet to happen and the full-cycle approach sees the separation as a Waxing TriDecile soon-to-become-a-Trine...

Another very important consideration is the difference between Waxing and Waning aspects. Waxing aspects (from 0° to 180°) are all more personal in their operation, building individualized qualities and values. The Waning aspects (from 180° to 0°) are all oriented toward sharing the personal skills and talents built-up in the waxing phases—dedicated to group and collective goals and values.

Now for an example of using the B.I.D.E. Full Aspect Cycle phrases (If you haven't yet explored the Planet/Sign/House pages please backtrack to B.I.D.E. Interpretive System ~ Planets/Signs/Houses and Detailed Example of Using the System ~ Planets/Signs/Houses...).

I'll interpret my own Sun and Moon placements from the standpoint of the evolution of the Information Site and this blog:

Sun in Aries in the 9th House
Vitalizing Fresh Approaches in order to Bring the Situation to its Highest Expression.

Moon in Libra in the 3rd House
Nurturing Awareness of Others in order to Make Connections.

Now, to link those two Symbolic Sentences with an aspect phrase. My Sun and Moon are separated by 172.6° (what some would call an applying Opposition). This is the Waxing QuadNovile aspect. {You can find the Full-Aspect Cycle on this page of the Information Site}

So, after choosing one of those phrases, I have the full interpretation of Sun/Moon (in terms of my work to develop the Information Site and this blog) as:

Vitalizing Fresh Approaches in order to Bring the Situation to its Highest Expression
Helps Perfect the Cultivation of Plans by
Nurturing Awareness of Others in order to Make Connections.

{You might be interested in comparing the above interpretation of my Sun/Moon pair with the one I did in the post, Stories In Your Birthchart, to see how adaptable the B.I.D.E. System is...}

Once last note:

Since each Planet/Sign/House combination has 64 possible interpretations in this System, every planetary pair has 512 possible interpretations. And, since there are 45 possible planetary pairs, every chart, in the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System, has 23,040 possible interpretations {talk about finding Your Particular Interpretation!!!}. And, that's not even counting relationships of Planets to House cusps, Midpoints, and Parts...

How It All Happened...

This post is a reprint from our Information Site...

My relationship with astrology began like many relationships do—just minding my own business when she came along, knocked me out, and dragged me off to her lair.

I was studying graphic art at San Francisco City College and the instructor had the audacity to show us some Japanese paintings, while extolling the way they showed so much with just a few strokes of the brush. I was impressed and went and bought a book called The Way of Chinese Painting, figuring that Chinese painting couldn’t be all that different from Japanese (my artistic perceptions were rather immature back then...). I quickly found out that “The Way” in the title meant Tao, the closest they seemed to get to what I called God. What I thought was only a book of technique turned out to also be a book about the world-view that informed the technique.

Tao led me to a book called the I Ching—a world-view expressed through a seemingly simplistic, graphical representation of life.

The I Ching led to Tarot cards which made me study astrology. Within about six months, I’d gone from meaningful brush strokes on paper to meaningful glyphs in the sky. It would take years—like many relationships—to discover the underlying reason I’d gotten involved in the first place—to realize that oriental art, the I Ching, Tarot, and astrology all used symbols to help humans decipher meaning in their lives. And to also learn that none of them were much good at portraying (or, predicting) actual events, no matter how much folks thought they did.

Now, all these years and tears later, it's time for me to repair some perceptions people have.

The B.I.D.E. Interpretive System is what I wish I could have discovered before I got all caught up in the usual approach to learning and using astrology. If I’d known then what I know now, I could have saved myself years of misunderstanding and pain. Truth be told, I began my studies of astrology like most folks do, reading the books I found (and, being who I am, I found a lot of books...)—books that all claimed to be the right way to learn and use astrology. The problem was, most of them cast astrology as a predictor of events, which it isn't (please see this page about that issue...). Even the books that didn't treat astrology as if it were a crystal ball usually had an "attitude" about life, a way of sorting the astrological factors into "good/bad" or "beneficial/detrimental".

After 20 years of learning and struggle, my goal became giving people the most important Perceptions—the underlying positive assumptions that are needed to thrive and prosper in the truly amazing Realm of Astrology {It took me another 20 years to develop, test, and publish the B.I.D.E. System}. It's one thing to have a practical way to interpret an astrological chart. It's quite another to have the perceptions and understanding to interpret a chart in a way that assures positive and productive results.

Remember learning about the three states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas? Some of you might also have learned about a fourth state—plasma. Scientifically speaking, plasma surrounds and energizes the other three states of matter. You could also consider plasma as energizing gas, gas energizing liquid, and liquid energizing solid...

The B.I.D.E. Interpretive System is a way of perceiving the factors in a chart from the "plasma" or Spiritual level—a realm of perception that surrounds, envelops, and energizes the other three. But just like all other spiritual perceptions, even though they're the most valuable way of looking at things, they need further interpretation to be used in less elevated, yet related and important, realms of life. We need the discipline of spiritual meditation to stay balanced and proactive in the social, personal, and practical fields of life. My experience has taught me that an astrologer needs a way to begin interpretation of a chart from the spiritual level; then, bring it down to the other levels.

The Symbolic Sentences you create in the B.I.D.E. system are WordSymbols—one step removed from the abstract glyphs of the traditional chart. Being symbolic themselves, they need further interpretation to be used in the "gas" or Social realm of perception; yet further interpretation to be used in the "liquid" or Personal realm; even further interpretation for use in the "solid" or Practical realm. Over time, an astrologer can learn to look at a chart, see the spiritual significance, and, nearly immediately, glide right down through the other levels of perception—a process made infinitely easier when involved in the reciprocal relationship of a living, breathing consultation with the native of the chart.

This blog is one step in the process of learning how to navigate through the levels of astrological perception. There will be other steps and tools as the system evolves into the remaining ten volumes of my gift to my faithful mistress—Astrology . . .