Michael Jackson

While talking with another astrologer about my efforts to convey the importance of personal interpretation of the Symbolic Sentences generated by the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System [see the red link in the right panel for more Info...], the idea of featuring Michael Jackson's chart came up. We looked at various versions of his chart and quickly determined there's no solid information on his birth time...

With that knowledge and the persistent desire to do something with his chart, I decided to focus on the closest applying aspect—considered to be the most "pressing issue" or "critical talent" a person possesses.

{ even if we had a good birth time with his exact Moon position and that Moon made a closer applying aspect, the aspect we'll consider would still be a very strong critical talent... }

In Jackson's case this applying aspect is Saturn in Sagittarius waning BiSeptile Sun in Virgo (within 26' of a degree).

Most astrologers would treat the phase relationship between his Saturn and Sun as an applying BiSeptile and leave it at that. However, it's a Waning BiSeptile which introduces the idea that a cycle is an organic whole and the aspects from 0-180° are different in quality from those between 180-0°.

I'll go further with the idea of a full-cycle, organic approach to aspects:

Each aspect in a full-cycle [check-out B.I.D.E.'s Full Cycle] begins at the degree-separation derived by geometry—conjunction at 0°, square at 90°, etc. But, in an organic use of the full cycle of aspects, the aspect continues to hold sway until the next aspect in the series begins.

In Michael's case, since the aspect is 26' of a degree before the waning BiSeptile, it's actually a waning TriDecile, yet, certainly, "yearning" strongly toward the BiSeptile state.

Many in astrology don't deal with the Septiles and Deciles so I'll list B.I.D.E.'s meanings of the waning TriDecile:

Increases Awareness of the Implications of Past Actions by

Impells the Need to Realize Inadequate Responses and the Will to Rectify the Situation by

Integrates Personal Performance with the Needs of the Whole by

Rejuvenates Participation in the Social Realm by

{This waning TriDecile is the "Issue" in Michael's life that consistently urged him toward the applying BiSeptile, the meanings of which are:

Incorporates Creative Ideals into the Social Situation by

Instills the Desire for Creative Integration into a Larger Whole by

Aids the Conscious Assumption of a Critical Social Role by

Creates Awareness of the Need for Individualized Acceptance of Necessary Social Values by}

They all end with the word "by" because they're part of a System of constructing Symbolic Sentences from the chart factors and you'll soon see the importance of that little word "by"...

Now, let's look at the other available factors from Jackson's chart so we can construct a Symbolic Sentence for this important "critical talent".

The available meanings from the B.I.D.E. System for Saturn are:

Defining
Clarifying
Structuring
Organizing

And, those for the Sun are:

Vitalizing
Centering
Focusing
Integrating

Those for Sagittarius are:

a Broad Viewpoint
Philosophical Appraisal
a Top-Down View
an Idealistic Awareness

And, Virgo:

Discrimination
Systems and Techniques
Careful Considerations
a Service Attitude

Now, we have the necessary components to construct a Symbolic Sentence for Michael Jackson's Saturn in Sagittarius waning TriDecile Sun in Virgo. All that's necessary is to choose a Planet/Sign combination for Saturn in Sagittarius and Sun in Virgo then link them with a choice from the options for waning TriDecile. Now, we have a Symbolic Sentence for

» Michael's Critical Talent «

Saturn in Sagittarius waning TriDecile Sun in Virgo
Structuring an Idealistic Awareness
Integrates Personal Performance with the Needs of the Whole by
Vitalizing Systems and Techniques.

As far as personal interpretation of that Symbolic Sentence, I want to make minimal comments, hoping You will add your Comments of it's meaning and, possibly, your selection of different choices for the components of the Sentence.

Personally, I feel that the "Idealistic Awareness" is very clearly evident and the Structuring of it by Saturn is easy to see...

Integrating his Personal Performance with the Needs of the Whole may be a bit harder to pin down but his phenomenal success surely speaks to answering Some Need of the Larger Whole that was his audience...

Doing that Integration of Personal Performance with the Needs of his audience by Vitalizing Systems and Techniques is, to me, adequately explained in this quote from an allmusic biography (bold words particularly applying):

"In his prime, Jackson was an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility, and loads of sheer star power."

Naturally, if we had a good birth time we could see much more detail in the interpretation by adding the phrases for the Houses...

Please Do Comment...

Barack Obama

An Experiment...

Apart from showing you another example of my interpretive system in action, this post has two experimental qualities:

1) Unlike the posts for Elvis and Janice Joplin, I'm going to cover more than just the Sun/Moon Combination. True, the post about Hitler covered more, but in a tentative way... So, even though I'm trying to go slow for now, to ease into how to use this unique system, Obama's chart just demands I cover more than Sun/Moon.

2) I'm also experimenting by using a living person who is in the forefront of much of the News and has an extremely active and thick aura of media-meaning engulfing his real character. Many astrologers will settle for the media-man and try to fit the chart to that electronic ghost... I choose to start with the man's chart and see him from the inside, out...

So, if you haven't been here before, I recommend you download (Free) my book or, at least, the short version of how to use the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System. You can follow along with my examples and, hopefully, come up with a few of your own interpretations; and, share those in the Comments!

Mr. Obama's chart (which will open in a separate window) 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 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...

See you in the Comments.........

"Playing" with Astrology

Elvis' chart, considered in our last post, certainly merits more evaluation than just his Sun/Moon combination and I will be coming back to him and other famous folk, as time goes forward, but for now I'm keeping things simple so the basics of using the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System can be explored. There are free downloads of my book, Astrological Repair Manual, and a short version of the system that explains how to use it.

Last post saw me beginning to Play with the system and this post will show another astrologer taking the Play a bit further. My system of interpretation is intended to be played with, seriously; it was created to be a stimulus to your own creative interpretation—a Guide that let's you lead...

~~~~~~~~~

The quotes below are from a comment to our last post:

"I am not certain where to begin my soulful playing with so many rich and diverse symbols at my disposal except to turn my gaze first upon myself and Clarify (Saturn) Seeing Things From Other's Perspectives (Libra) in order to Be Who I am In The World (10th house).

"Feeling rambunctious in spirit and charmed by your open invitation to play with your system I will manifest the highest intention of my Saturn by taking the liberty to re-invent a phrase or two describing my Central Life Purpose in the immediate present,

"Vitalize (Sun) Creative Play (Leo) in order to Merge With Others (8th house)."

{ I found this looking at herself first, using her own phrase ("creative play"), a beneficial use of the system—to be aware of what in yourself is doing the interpretation of another's life... }

"After reading the wiki biography of Elvis the phrase that resonated most for me was of your creating,

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

and I would like to spontaneously add to Capricorn the phrase

a traditional discipline

Integrating (Sun) a traditional discipline (Capricorn) in order to Focus on My Resources (2nd house).......in honor of Elvis mixing and matching musical styles."

{ This adding of her own phrase again is something I encourage everyone to do. Certainly, we should add meanings that stay within the bounds of each category (Aries is Aries and not Capricorn, Sun is not Moon); extending the system, letting it grow... }

"moving along to the Moon.... I was struck by the lunar presence of emotional comfort, safety, and security when Elvis said, 'Since I was two years old, all I knew was gospel music. That music became such a part of my life it was as natural as dancing. A way to escape from the problems. And my way of release.'

Enfolding (Moon) Visionary Initiative (Pisces) in order to Be Aware of My Immediate Environment (3rd house),

spoke to me of creatively adapting to childhood vulnerability (the Moon)......"

"the possibilities unbound, the spirit of play glorious, I await another time, another chart."

~~~~~~~~~

Next time, we'll look at Janis Joplin's chart...

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...

Plasma Love

image credit
Well, we've finally gotten to the Sun in the journey from my Free-To-Download book, Astrological Repair Manual.

After the next post (the last chapter in the book), I'll be free-forming it in this blog—going where most astrologer's fear to go—exploring a new form of astrology that puts You in the driver's seat. I'm hoping for many more comments and feedback. This blog is about you telling me what you think so I can incorporate those perspectives in the expansion of the existing single volume into 10 modular volumes that can make anyone their own astrologer...

I'll let the book speak now:

"The Sun. Our Star.

"Source of Light and Life.

"Mystery to this day!

"Scientists are having a horrible time making sense of how the Sun works. Astrologers miss many of the most important aspects of the cycle of this Function.

"Many people feel that this function is the only part of astrology. (Except, of course, for those twelve Signs of the Zodiac that are popularly given costumes and asked to play parts they’ve never read the script for...)

"You might think that, this being the next to the last chapter of the book, I’d want to calmly summarize and draw all the other chapters’ information to some grand conclusion. The thing is, I don’t intend to actually 'conclude' this book. I want you to enter The Instructions (in the Free-To-Download book) with Wings! I want you to soar through the Realms of Astrological Meaning!! I want you to Really Live!!!

“'Calm down, Alex. These people may not realize what treasure lies at their feet. They may still think this astrology-thingie is a fancy parlor game that makes for witty conversation. They may not understand it when you throw out concepts that aren’t accepted by most reasonable people.'

"Hmmm...

"Well...

"All I can say is that this very close Star, this fantastically beautiful beacon of Purpose has me all fired up! So...

"Start to get used to the idea that our solar system is not what you may have heard it was in high school. The planets may not have always been where they are right now...

"The Sun and its orbiting progeny may not be floating in some lonely backwater of the galaxy, like many astronomers would like you to believe...

"The Sun has been said to hold the planets in orbit with its gravity. This is not capable of being true, which is born out by the latest interdisciplinary scientific studies...

"There are many aspects of the planets, individually and collectively, that want to tell a very different story.

"For instance, the ancients talked about a 'sun' but its characteristics don’t match the one that gives us a tan. They do match the planet Saturn. Also, Venus was thought to have been much closer to Earth in the past and so was Mars. As a matter of fact, there was a time when people saw Venus in front of Saturn, Mars in front of Venus, Jupiter hidden behind Saturn and the whole party steadily revolving at our north pole. There was also a time when this configuration broke up, and there were shudderingly graphic 'wars of the gods' in the heavens which rained debris, electromagnetic bolts, and terror on our ancestors.

“'Oh, my! Poor Alex has gone off the deep end and doesn’t even have a
spaceship’s lifeboat to crawl into. He’s Sun-drunk and his little brain is melted.'

"Hmmm...

"I’m putting some information in the references at the end of this book that will help you find sources that confirm everything I just said. At this point, I’m going to say that this magnificent Star, our Sun, is the Center of our solar system, and it’s also the Center, the Focus of any interpretation you dare make with astrology.

"Focusing, Centering, Life-Giving, Light-Bringing, Purpose-Revealing Sun.

"One extremely important fact of astronomy that every person using it should know is that ninety-nine percent of the universe is plasma. You surely remember your solids, liquids, and gases, right? Plasma is the next state of matter, the most rarified form of substance, yet capable of organizing, moving, and creating new organizations of the other three forms of matter.

"Our Sun is floating in a Sea of Plasma, electrified Plasma, powerful Plasma...

"If you’ve seen neon signs or arc-welders, you’ve seen small versions of the process that lights our Sun and every other of the billions upon billions of stars. The regularity of the orbits of our planetary system (as well as the previous orderings and the transitioning chaotic states) are maintained by the streams of plasma and the power contained in this almost 'spiritual' form of matter. Even the weather on our Earth (as well as the weather on the other planets) is influenced and driven by the power of this all-pervasive Plasma.

"It's much more the case that the planets are ordered by a form of Cosmic Love—a force that transcends mere gravity and material forces—a power and vitality that centers all our concerns...

"If 'Love' holds it all together, it certainly must be a Plasma Love...

"And, if love is the power that binds it all together, we could say that:

Pluto is the Regeneration of Love.

Neptune is the Vision of Love.

Uranus is the Transformative Power of Love.

Saturn is the Clarity of Love.

Jupiter is the Expansiveness of Love.

Mars is the Externalizing of Love.

Venus is the Valuing of Love.

Mercury is the Perceptiveness of Love.

And, our ol’ familiar Moon is the Style of Love’s expression.

The Sun is the Center of it All...

"To make sure this chapter goes out with a sense of the ineffable—the truth that defies rigid expression—here’s a poem by Emily Dickinson:

Love reckons by itself — alone —
"As large as I" — relate the Sun
To One who never felt it blaze —
Itself is all the like it has —

Hello World!

This is the first post in an exciting adventure!

I'm doing the research to revise and expand a book about astrology that I wrote three years ago. It was the result of 40 years of study, counseling, and teaching but it was only a beginning...

You can download the book for free from Lulu.com.

This blog's purpose is to create a space to explore the concepts in the book and stimulate discussion that will feed into my personal efforts to make my statement about astrology as helpful and productive as possible.

I'm actively seeking your thoughts, feelings, opinions, knowledge, and experience!

I'm extremely open to accepting your comments!!