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 . . .

"No, Really; How Do You Do It?"

If you've been following this blog for some time, there are a number of things you know about me:

I do not believe astrology predicts events...

I do believe astrology predicts meanings...

I've created the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System to aid anyone to engage in honest, positive, creative astrological interpretation...

I have a growing list of documents on the Information Site (red link in the right panel) to help everyone use the B.I.D.E. System...

I Crave Comments and Feedback!

Since the B.I.D.E. System is so unique, so set apart from traditional astrological practice, it may seem that the "rules" for how to practice astrology with it are radically different, too.

Well, yes and no...

Using the B.I.D.E. System does demand some thinking—you can't just read a book and repeat what it says to a client.

And, the System does give you more creative control over what you predict for your (or, another's) future...

But, from the perspective of the responsibility to practice astrology ethically, the B.I.D.E. System is no different from any other method of interpretation.

I'll leave you with a quote from Dane Rudhyar, from his book, The Practice of Astrology:

"[The astrologer] gives information, as he sees it in the charts. More information, as the client returns. Always more data, more knowledge. It may be real knowledge; the facts are there and he reads them correctly. One problem, however, may not enter his mind as he goes through the scheduled time allotted for the interview: What use will the client make of the information? The client has been given a 12-cylinder car; but perhaps he has only a 4-cylinder mind to handle it. The information was correct. Was the imparting of it wise?"

Let's Play ! Seriously . . .

Dedicated to
Lauren Lesko

This post is an examination of certain particulars of Elvis Presley's chart and also an exploration of the necessity to Play with the interpretive system I've created. This system is introduced in my free-to-download book, Astrological Repair Manual. You can also have a free download of a special edition of the interpretive system all by itself. I strongly suggest you download at least one of these so you can follow along with the interpretation of people's charts and, hopefully, offer your comments and suggestions for other interpretations in the comments!

Last post, I introduced an analogy to help you understand the approach I offer with my system. I used the words: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth to designate levels of interpretive perception. Last night I received a lesson of extremely helpful critique about the use of those particular words and the confusion they may cause for people already familiar with the elements as commonly used in astrology.

So...

I'll re-introduce that analogy and give you words that won't cause any stress in philosophic understanding.

My approach to astrological interpretation is based on the ancient aphorism, "As Above, So Below". In the four decades of my study and practice, I've come to the firm conclusion that the most honest and valuable approach to astrology is to start Above and work your way down to Below. Reversing the direction is one of the most serious mistakes an astrological aspirant can make...

The highest level of interpretive perception is the Spiritual, followed by the Social, Personal, and Practical levels. Each level enfolds or encompasses the level below...

My system was designed to enable you to begin at the highest level and Play your way down through the others to find the most appropriate interpretation for any concern or issue in your life.

Now, some examples of Playing with the system while we consider Elvis' chart (that link will open another window so you can easily reference the chart while we go through the interpretation {Check out Wikipedia if you want to read a fascinating biography).

I'm only going to cover two of Elvis' ten planets—the Sun or Central Life Purpose and the Mooon or Style of Doing the Life Purpose. This analysis isn't intended to be complete but it is intended to show you how to find a few indications of the Man behind the Media and the Soul behind the Music...

We'll start with his Sun in Capricorn in the Second House. Since my system provides 64 interpretations for each placement, I'll simplify things a bit by giving you three that seem to me to express Elvis' Central Life Purpose:

Focusing Structural Innovations in order to Realize his Heritage.

Integrating Constructive Initiatives in order to Ground his Plans.

Vitalizing a Desire for Enduring Patterns in order to Be Aware of his Worth.

Yes, those are very abstract interpretations yet they give us the Space necessary to consider much more than what the entertainment press ever offered about Elvis' reasons for being who he was. And, yes, those sentences demand that you spend some time thinking about deeper issues than just his gyrating body or hypnotic voice...

Now, I want to Play a bit...

I'm going to take part of one of those sentences and mate it with part of another:

Vitalizing a Desire for Enduring Patterns in order to Realize his Heritage.

Just a hint from his biography: He was early on a lover of Gospel and it seems to me he immortalized a soaring spiritual presentation of whatever he sang...

Now, the Moon—the Style of doing his Central Life Purpose.

Considering the last symbolic sentence from the system for Elvis' Sun, here's what I came up with for his Moon placement (in Pisces in the Third House):

Nourishing Universal Feeling in order to Make Connections.

Connections? How about connections between his Heritage (Gospel) and his Audience (the Universal Audience he attracted...)...

Soon, I'll be introducing the phrases for my system that permit interpretation of aspects between various factors in the chart. For now, consider that Elvis' had a Sun/Moon relationship expressed through the waxing Semisquare. Now, consider those two symbolic sentences I constructed for Elvis' Central Life Purpose and Style of Doing that Purpose with the meaning of their relationship included:

Vitalizing a Desire for Enduring Patterns in order to Realize his Heritage

finds intense expression through

Nourishing Universal Feeling in order to Make Connections.

And, connections he did, emphatically, make. People who love Elvis, who have no other social connection, find soul-mates when they encounter another Elvis lover. Music created from the depths of human suffering—Gospel and Soul—now have a connection to people who have never suffered the depravities that gave that music birth...

No matter the way he died, I feel he more than accomplished his Style of Doing his Central Life Purpose...

~~~~~~~~~

Now, it's your turn: Download my system and Play with all the possible interpretations of Elvis' Sun and Moon, Play with the act of discovering more than the media could ever tell you about a Musical Icon. And, hopefully, share your experience in the Comments...

Transpersonal Awareness

Were up to Chapter 5 (for the first time since I'm sure we'll be jumping back to discuss previous chapters quite a bit) in my freely downloadable book, Astrological Repair Manual. This chapter is the book's first pause to consider what's gone before—Xena and her Horde of deeply unconscious astrological functions, Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus. We're headed toward Saturn but that journey demands a huge transition in consciousness. I'm including most of Chapter 5 in this post and do hope it spawns a discussion in the comments!

"Our world has been and is full of some very oppressive and negative people and institutions. Our world has also been evolving toward being, slowly and steadily, a freer and more creative place. If you doubt that last statement, I urge you to look further than you have and to take a small but important piece of advice: what may look bad on the surface or at the beginning can be the most powerful indication of something good. One example that may be close to home for some of you: A child at two years old is always getting into trouble. They’re almost totally unruly by ten and their teen years are full of crime and filth. Then, they hit their personal brick wall, they come up short on luck, and end up behind bars. True, many people like this stay bad and end their lives still in jail or dead in the street. For most of humanity’s existence this has been the general rule. 'Lately', though, there have been more and more examples of folks starting out headed down, coming to a radical turning point, and being given some help at that point that turns their lives around and permits them to grow to become exemplary citizens.

"Why is this happening more now than ever before? What could be happening that has such power to turn lives around?

"I feel it’s the steady growth in society of the awareness that we are not just passive cogs in the wheel or just a bunch of angry individuals. We are both individuals and social beings and we have a need to nurture both sides of our being.

"This is where a knowledge of the cycles of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, and their symbolic meanings, can be of immense aid in speeding the development of a safe and sane society. It's important to consider the lengthy durations of these cycles that apply to the slow yet steady transformation, elevation, and regeneration of our world.

"It’s only been a little over 300 years since Uranus was discovered and humanity had a conscious symbol for a method of getting at the ultimate truths with more to show for it than a collection of fables and myths. And, the conscious awareness of ways and means to raise the level of our dreams and visions (Neptune) and to find the proper ways to purge and regenerate society (Pluto) have been available for even shorter times. Let’s give ourselves a break and stop being pessimistic about the future. If you look closely enough at recent history and compare it with the eons of time humans have been struggling on this earth, you’ll come away totally amazed at the glorious potential we hold in common! I used the word 'Transpersonal' in the title of this chapter for very conscious reasons. '-Personal' because humanity’s growth ultimately depends on more and more individuals getting it right. 'Trans-' because it means to go beyond or through or across. If our personal awareness of life can go beyond the personal while not letting our individual views disappear; if we can see through the merely personal to what lies beyond and is so important for a full life; if we can get across the bridge of the personal and see that it leads to wonderful vistas of creativity and freedom; if each of us does these things, we will be bringing what many see as the dark forces of the unconscious into the bright light of day and using them, very consciously, to accelerate human evolution beyond the hatreds and terrors that are still too much with us. The Instructions [in my freely downloadable book] have suggestions for where to go to get your own birth chart as well as a method for beginning to interpret your chart factors. If you feel adventurous, go there now and find the house and sign for your Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Realize that this first step in using the knowledge from this Repair Manual is only that, a first step, even though it may be one of the most important first steps you’ve ever taken!

"As you ponder the meanings of these factors in your life, don’t forget to look at them as a three-step process of Transpersonal Awareness and also consider them as a sequence from Pluto to Uranus and also from Uranus to Pluto—the first direction is the one that brings large-scale social factors into your personal life and the other direction is you injecting yourself into the flux of society's largest concerns.

"If you do this exercise and end up totally confused, you can count on the fact that your unconscious mind is very happy with your ego. In fact, without you knowing it, your unconscious can arrange to give you dreams that help you understand, or 'mysteriously' lead you to find another individual that helps you understand. Or, you may be the type of person who just stands there and charges against the wall till it falls down and lets you build a bridge. Whatever happens, we still have a ways to go till we reach the Earth and find out what this astrology stuff is all about...

"I'll let you in on a secret here: what you’ve read so far and what you can gain from trying to interpret you own Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto is far and away more knowledge of True Astrology than many practicing astrologers have! Believe it..."

The Leap from Uranus to Saturn...

We've been considering Uranus recently and we'll soon be moving in toward Saturn on this trip to the center of our astrological solar system (just like the reader in my freely downloadable book, Astrological Repair Manual {which I'm currently working to revise and expand while using this blog to solicit your thoughts and feelings...}).

We've already considered, briefly, the realms just beyond Pluto, Pluto itself, Neptune, and Uranus. If you've just arrived here, I recommend going back through the last nine posts (this is a new and tender blog and the posts are bite-sized...) and seeing where we've already been...

It is significant that I'm taking a pause from posting about the book right after I related some of the material from the chapter about Uranus and just before we move on to Saturn. The reason is that we all are in the middle of a Saturn/Uranus opposition—the time when those planets are looking critically at each other (please understand that the "looking" is totally metaphorical...) and revealing "messages" from our unconscious minds to our very small ego-minds—messages that resonate with Change and Transformation that we can bring to the sometimes overly organized realm of day-to-day material considerations...

I've been spending time recently in a few astrological forums, AstrologyWeekly (which has sadly been experiencing server problems the last few days), Astro.com, and Skyscript and the discussions about the Saturn/Uranus opposition are becoming extremely interesting!!

I'll put the dates for the current Saturn/Uranus opposition and the previous Saturn/Uranus conjunction below but be aware, the conjunction was the beginning of a cycle of the transformation of organized processes and procedures and the current opposition is a time of reaping the fruit of the conjunction (even if you weren't even born yet when the conjunction happened. {this is a good place to remind my readers that I cherish comments in this blog from people that have no idea what I'm talking about...}).

We had the beginning of a Saturn/Uranus cycle on these dates:

12 Feb 1988 at 30 Sagittarius
26 Jun 1988 at 29 Sagittarius
18 Oct 1988 at 28 Sagittarius

We're in the middle of the culmination (opposition) of this cycle. Here are the dates:

4 Nov 2008 at 19 Pisces/Virgo
5 Feb 2009 at 21 Pisces/Virgo
15 Sep 2009 at 25 Pisces/Virgo
26 Apr 2010 at 29 Pisces/Virgo
26 Jul 2010 at 1 Libra/Aries

I hope I get a multitude of comments about this post...

Even if I don't, the next post will cover the chapter in the book about Saturn—one of the most misunderstood planets in astrology...

Go ahead, leave a comment. I dare you! Remember, the only stupid question is the one we don't ask...

The Shattering Truth...

In our continuing voyage into the solar system from far within our unconscious minds (just like the readers of my book, Astrological Repair Manual, a free download) we come to a point where we must face the Utter Truth...

What's your reaction when you know the truth you've glimpsed will bring major change to your life, change that may mean letting some treasured things be left behind?

I'll let part of chapter four in the book, about Uranus and its 84-year cycle, speak for me:

"When we look at the half and quarter cycles of this function, some very interesting meanings emerge. The half-cycle is 42 years—smack in the middle of middle age. The quarter-cycle first occurs at 21—an age at which many of us have an insatiable urge to irrevocably separate from parental dictates, even if we’ve already made a physical separation...

"But separation isn’t an absolutely necessary part of Uranus’ function. It does accompany many folks’ experience of this unconscious power but, if we’re prepared for
the action of transformation and are fully ready to face the truth of a situation, we can navigate the changes and keep our treasured possessions—mental, emotional or physical.

"If we contemplate one twelfth of a Uranus cycle, we see some of the reason for what people have called the '7-year-itch'.

"Since one of the purposes of Uranus’ cycle is facing and incorporating the rock-bottom, radical truth, I want to say a few words about 'Good & Bad', 'Positive & Negative', and 'Abstract & Concrete'.

"We’ve been dealing with some big abstract concepts so far: Regeneration [Pluto], Idealism [Neptune], Transformation [Uranus]; and, as we travel in closer to the Sun, we’ll be dealing with concepts that will feel a lot more concrete. Truth is, there’s an abstract and concrete side to most everything. The events we live through as we regenerate [Pluto], idealize [Neptune], and transform [Uranus] are quite concrete. Similarly, when we get to the functions that appear mostly concrete, we’ll still have the abstract psychological powers lurking behind them.

"As far as the polarities of 'Good/Bad' and 'Positive/Negative' are concerned, the truth of the matter is that the old maxims about focusing on the positive bringing good and focusing on the negative bringing bad are fascinatingly true. The catch is that you have to absolutely focus on the positive and, before you can do that, you have to absolutely know what the most positive view is.

"And, when it comes to astrology in general, it's very important to remain rigorously positive. Even if some of the books on astrology detail various negative qualities and, even if you find your expression of those factors as negative, you still need to focus on the positive. How else can you change negative to positive?

"Plus, there's a harmful practice that's too prevalent in astrology, where people use the negative interpretations of astrological factors to excuse their negative behavior—'Sure I do that. It's because I'm a (fill in the blank).'.

"One of Uranus’ functions is to bring us the shattering truth when we’ve been either purposefully or unknowingly clinging to half- or partial-truths. This can be painful or shocking but, when we get to the other side of any crisis, we can usually see the wisdom of the 'unnecessary' strife. And, even if we still can’t make sense of what’s happened, there are the functions of Neptune and Pluto out there (in here) to help us dissolve the clinging falsehoods and bring them to a state of regenerative wholeness.

"Yes, I’m a hopeless optimist! But my experience of life has included a great quantity of shock and pain and dissolution and, thank God, necessary regeneration. What I’m left with after all this inner work is the ineradicable conviction that life has many tests and trials, we all must face some of them, and we all have the sacred duty to maintain our faith and hopefulness that we will see the truth, we will find the dream, and we will experience rebirth into ever-higher understanding and meaningfulness.

"If not... there’s hell to pay!"

Please do respond in the comments! New to astrology? Great!! As my instructors used to say, "There's no stupid question except the one you don't ask..."

Melting with Neptune

Still slowly entering the solar system from interstellar journeys—just like the reader in my astrology book (Astrological Repair Manual), which is a free download.

We've visited the outer realms with Xena and the Hordes, stopped to let Pluto influence us, and are nearing Neptune's playground...

Neptune is not just illusion or delusion. These are just misuses of Neptune's cyclic power.

From the book:

"One of the more misunderstood aspects of Neptune’s meanings is the process of dissolving associated with its symbolic action—the dissolution or evaporation of the solid ground of past beliefs or dreams. It’s important to always remember that astrology deals with cycles and with cycles-within-cycles. A planet’s functional and symbolic meaning happens by giving birth to energies and forces appropriate to its cycle, building them to a full state, then letting them decay and die into a rebirth.

"And, within any given cycle there are sub-cycles of birth, growth, decay and rebirth. Neptune’s ability to dissolve the old (and this will be, hopefully, the last time I remind you that it’s not the actual physical planet doing these things but the psychological powers within us), this power of dissolution, prepares the way for Pluto’s regenerations. We’ll see this with each planet we come to—its function is necessary for the one further out (or, deeper within...). We can also look at the interrelationship of these life functions the other way around, the way we’re doing it in this book, from the deepest/farthest to the most conscious/nearest. This way, we see Pluto’s deaths and purgings as necessary for the dissolving actions of Neptune’s dreams and visions to take place.

"When we get to Uranus, we’ll have a triple of functions that most people on this Earth never bring to conscious awareness."

I really do want to learn from you! Please leave your thoughts and feelings in the comments...

More About Pluto...

I'm still moving forward, slowly, with this blog's posting since I want to let people catch up with where we're at. Right now, we're still in the second chapter of my astrology book (Astrological Repair Manual {it's a free download}), the book that I'm in the process of revising and expanding.

Hopefully, you'll just jump right in and respond to the first few posts (backing up can be fun in a blog) by adding Your thoughts and feelings to help an astrologer with 40 years experience learn something New!!

Here's part of what I wrote about Pluto in chapter two:

"...since we’re into space that's been paid attention to by humans since 1930, we can get down to some real work in the realm of astrological understanding. Understanding death, to be precise, and how it’s a river that wends its way through every part of our lives. There are many deaths in a life—many times when one phase of our existence gives way to another. Even orgasm as been called 'the little death' and sleep can be viewed as a nightly death of our conscious awareness. Pluto/Charon's orbital period is about 248 years and the symbolic significance of that length of time is perfect for gaining meaning about long-term social, political, and economic cycles. In fact, thinking back to what our society was like that long ago can be like looking back to a time that's certainly died, gone forever. Yet, there can be influences felt from those times, just like your parents' behavior on Earth has an influence long after they've left their physical bodies.

"In astrology, the period of 248 years is symbolic of completely new circumstances, a total regeneration of what's being considered, a thorough purging of the past. And, even though none of us can live that long, we can still gain meaning from the symbolism of this cycle. One reason we can use it personally is that the halves and quarters of cycles are very important in gaining meaning from a chart and, if we look at the quarter cycle here, we have 62 years—an amount of anyone's life that shows the qualities of death-of-the-past, or regeneration of basic life factors, or purging of one heck of a lot!"

Your Turn...
Add your thoughts and feelings in the comments...

The River of Death...

Not many comments here yet but I'll begin to forge ahead, slowly, more deeply, into our solar system—my book, Astrological Repair Manual (which is a free download), is structured as a flight back into the solar system from the depths of space...

To gain the most from this and the next few posts, I recommend you backtrack and read the posts about Xena and the Hordes...

Pluto, discovered in 1930 (near the beginning of the Great Depression), with a spacecraft due to arrive in 2015, has been a great challenge for the understanding of astrologers.

From the second chapter of the book:

"Did Pluto cause the Great Depression? How loud can I holler, "NO!"?

"Right here, we're at one of the most crucial Repairs of Perception I hope to offer. The planets and their cycles do not cause events. The best that can be said is that humans are born into the solar system and all of its interlocking cycles and, because whatever is included within something else participates in the rhythms of the larger structure, we have cycles in our lives that mirror the cycles of the planets. It's as simple as that. No horrible fates, no in-bred bad traits, no mumbo-jumbo."

And, further:

"...while we're still out here where the meanings are so deep, the important thing to remember is that we all have these nearly-unfathomable meanings in our lives and it can take most of a lifetime to gain even a small amount of understanding. Still and all, knowing about them can often be enough to help us weather the changes they can induce in our lives. And, again, I'm not saying the planets are causing these changes. It's the synchronistic and mirroring cycles in our deeper minds that bring these ponderable changes."

From deeper in the book, here are some basic, positive meanings for the Plutonian cycle:

Getting to the Depths of
Transcending
Purging
Regenerating

Now it's your turn! Comment to your heart's content...

Astrology and the Unconscious

This may be the last post about the first chapter in my book Astrological Repair Manual ( Free Download ).

I'll probably be soon moving into the chapters on Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus—unless folks start to post comments that tell me otherwise...

Let me just say, from that first chapter:

"What I do want to stress...is the fact that humans do have this unconscious realm and that the more we pay attention to it, or 'woo' it, the healthier and happier we'll become. Sure, it takes effort and can lead to some fantastic struggles but life without struggle is death...

"It may have entered your mind to wonder, 'Why is Alex starting way out in the unknown to help me change my perception about astrology?' Well... I could have started on Earth and I could have gone even further toward an earthly approach by saying things like, 'Saturn is the planet of limitation and grief.', or, 'Venus is the planet of love.' But, this jamming of large concepts and energies into narrow boxes is very unhealthy. I'd rather start out here with Xena and make her my friend 'cause she could change into Hercules or Pan, she could give me some secret knowledge, she could help me even when I'm not paying attention to her. Better have her on my side than ignoring her and having her blast into my consciousness and wreak havoc!"

What are your thoughts and feelings?

Xena and the Hordes

Many astrologers have been far too ready to accept whatever scientists say. The recent demotion of Pluto from it's planet status is a good example. Some astrologers worry that they now have to not use Pluto in their readings.

In the first place, there are plenty of astronomers who still think Pluto is a planet; and, in the second place, astrologers are not astronomers, in most cases...

The first chapter in my book, Astrological Repair Manual (which is a free download and which this blog was created for—to get a larger amount of feedback on the book's ideas as I revise and expand it), takes a look at the solar system body called Xena. The astronomers first gave her the designation, 2003 UB313, and she's now called Eris, but the discoverers called her Xena and I'm going to keep calling her that.

Xena travels around the Sun in a 560-year cycle on the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt, a region of space well beyond Pluto that's considered to hold thousands of, dare I say, planets. In the first chapter, I say, (to the reader who I've put in a spacecraft coming back from the depths of space), "You’ve seen some of the Horde—the thousands of other 'planets' that orbit the Sun, so far out that the Sun itself is just another bright star." And further, "With the discovery of Xena (and her moon, Gabrielle), humanity is repeating, on a vaster scale, what it went through around 1781, 1846, and 1930 (the times when Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered). Each of those discoveries signaled a coming-to-conscious-potential of aspects of the unconscious that humanity had 'earned' the right to use more objectively. Of course, earning the right to use and using are two different things. Xena and her Hordes present the symbol of a HUGE potential for the human race—an entering into the powers of the unconscious like no time in the past—a chance to use energies (multiple and deep ) that have been, so far, little understood." I also say, "Basically, since we know so little about any of the planets beyond Pluto, about all we can hope to do with them in astrology is think of a sheath or aura around us, a non-localized group of potentials and energies that each individual can tap into IF they can manage to begin using the other planetary functions consciously."

Whew! What a mouth-full, or mind-full...

The point of this post is to hint at the concept of groups of bodies (like the ol' asteroid belt) that astrologers have yet to deal with properly...

To take a handful out of thousands of solar system bodies that share similar cycles and try to attribute specific, individual meanings to that mere handful is totally unfair, to the structure of the solar system's cycles and to the minds of the astrologer and their clients.

What are Your thoughts and feelings?

Way Out There . . . and, Way In Here...

We're staying out here in the realm of Xena for a while. If you don't know what I mean by Xena, please download my free astrology book.

This blog is dedicated to exploring the ideas in the book and, hopefully, learning from all of you the "flavor" and "style" of the revised and expanded version I'm working on. I could very well learn a lot more than just "flavor and style" from my readers here... We shall see...

So, in Chapter One of the book, Xena and the Hordes, I say, "...the meaning of Xena's full cycle could only be useful in understanding things like the rise and fall of civilizations." Of course, with that said, I must add (for those who have yet to read the first edition of my book) that Xena (officially known as Eris) takes about 560 years to make a full cycle around the Sun, putting it about 97 times farther from the Sun than we are. I go on to say, "...we’re in the space [since, in the book, the reader is in a spacecraft coming back into our System] that symbolizes the deeper unconscious mind—the part of our minds that sends us dreams and answers questions we haven’t thought of yet—a mind we all share and which underlies the shaping of humanity's largest social structures, deepest concepts, and most spiritual forces."

Chapters Two, Three, and Four deal with Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus (also cycles of the unconscious) but, like I said, we'll linger out here in the deepest space of our unconscious for a few posts.

The last post talked briefly about "boundaries" and I hope you caught my ironic attitude toward them. Thousands of years ago, Saturn was considered the boundary of the solar system; then the traditional Transcendentals: Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Now Xena is the most distant known object. But is she a boundary? I'd rather call her the latest portal to an endless journey into the deepest and highest aspects of our human spirit!

To quote Carl Jung again:

"'All that is outside, also is inside', we could say with Goethe. But this 'inside', which modern rationalism is so eager to derive from 'outside', has an a priori structure of its own that antedates all conscious experience. It is quite impossible to conceive how 'experience' in the widest sense, or, for that matter, anything psychic, could originate exclusively in the outside world. The psyche is part of the inmost mystery of life, and it has its own peculiar structure and form like every other organism. Whether this psychic structure and its elements, the archetypes, ever 'originated' at all is a metaphysical question and therefore unanswerable. The structure is something given, the precondition that is found to be present in every case. And this is the mother, the matrix—the form into which all experience is poured."

To tie this into astrological practice, I would only add that this unconscious Matrix (the outermost portal of which is Xena) mirrors the outside conditions of the solar system. We humans have a 560-year cycle, as well as many more a bit longer and a bit shorter. In 2015, humans will witness the passage of the New Horizons spacecraft through the environs of Pluto. Then it will head into the zone that Xena inhabits. I contend that this passage of a human artifact through that arena of space will coincide with a few eager and open individuals becoming more deeply aware of human potential but, definitely, not through some physical sensing of the spacecraft; rather through the synchronicity between the spacecraft's passage and the growth of human awareness. I also contend that humanity will mirror some of the meanings that cycles of the 500 year and longer variety reveal...

What do you think?

Setting The Boundaries

Just barely into this venture and here I am setting boundaries...

Not to worry though because the most important boundary in astrology is the Universe.

Next would come our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

Then, our solar system. Sadly, far too many people think the boundaries of astrology end here.

In my book, which I hope you'll download and read (free), I begin by putting the reader in a spaceship coming back from "somewhere" and dealing with one of the outer "boundaries" of our solar system.

In that first chapter, Xena and the Hordes, I mention this idea:

"This is where astrology begins. Further out, between the stars, is the space that symbolizes 'contact' with 'other souls' that inhabit a purely spiritual dimension. Once inside the atmosphere of the Sun, we’re dealing with aspects of ourselves that relate to life on a very solid earth, even though Xena and the Hordes are aspects of our minds that we rarely think about."

In that chapter, I'm dealing with what are called "archetypes"—psychological energies that we all have to deal with, sometimes creatively but most often (due only to lack of experience) in a manner that causes us grief and unnecessary pain.

One person I respect in regard to explaining the "deeper" parts of ourselves is Carl Jung. And, since any valuable practice of astrology needs a solid psychology behind it, I'll give Carl a chance to say something about this realm:

"Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart through the world. There, in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, Socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with real knowledge of the human soul."

Your feelings and thoughts?