"...the dream afraid of waking..."

The title of this post is the beginning of a lyric sung by Bette Midler in the film The Rose, based loosely on the life of Janis Joplin.

"It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance..."

Yet Janis took every chance she could lay her heart on and became a rocking, waking dream...

But there was a piece of her heart that resisted becoming fully awake; the place that had been shunned and ridiculed because of her uniqueness. She took that uniqueness into the rarified atmosphere of the 60s Rock-scene, became a superstar, and died of a drug overdose at the age of 27...

We'll look at her Sun and Moon combination in this post and look more deeply into her chart in later posts.

For those of you not familiar with her music or life, read this biography, listen to this song, or watch this interview...

Janis' chart (which opens in a new window so you can switch back and forth) shows her Sun in Capricorm in the 12th House and her Moon in Cancer in the 5th House.

In our last two posts, we played a bit with the interpretive system I introduced in my free-to-download book, Astrological Repair Manual. You can read about how to use the system in the book or this abbreviated Word .doc. I recommend you at least download the Word .doc so you can easily follow along as well as stimulating your own intrepretations of the chart factors we explore.

Now, let's do some Serious Play with Janis' Sun/Moon combination...

I'm going to use the words and phrases from the system that I feel best express her Spirit, yet you may find other combinations that work better for you (and, if you do, please share them in the Comments!).

Sun in Capricorn in the 12th House:

Vitalizing (Sun) Structural Innovations (Capricorn) in order to Explore the Value of Transcendence of Self (12th House).

Janis was extremely Vital, she Innovated constantly with the Structures of Blues and Rock, and it seems her whole short life was a journey to go Beyond her Self...

We could (by consulting a synonym dictionary) replace Vitalizing with Invigorating, Structural with Performance, Innovations with Creations, Value with Pricelessness, Transcendence with Going Above and Beyond, and Self with Consciousness.

Playing with the meanings that way produces this Symbolic Sentence:

Invigorating Performance Creations in order to Explore the Pricelessness of Going Above and Beyond Consciousness.

Ever thought of Sun in Capricorn in the 12th House that way? If you've come close to thinking that way, please let me know in the Comments since we're more than likely Mind Mates!

For all these decades, while reading more books then I can remember, during all the consultations I've shared in, I've had one constantly swelling Dream—Stop Giving People Fish and Teach Them How To Fish For Themselves...

Each Planet/Sign/House combination has 64 possible Symbolic Sentences in my system, without going looking for synonyms. The whole point of the system is to show you how to fish for unique, creative meanings; unless, of course, you're the type that wants to keep handing out the same old smelly fish you got handed...

Let's look at Janis' Moon in Cancer in the 5th House:

Enfolding Emotional Security in order to Dramatize her Concerns.

I'll soon be sharing the basic meanings for aspects from the system (from Book Three) but for now consider this for the Quadnovile (Book Nine) that separates Janis' Sun and Moon: striving toward a moment of truth.

Now let's combine the first sentence I constructed for the Sun and the one for the Moon with their aspect phrase:

Vitalizing Structural Innovations in order to Explore the Value of Transcendence of Self

Strives Toward A Moment of Truth by

Enfolding Emotional Security in order to Dramatize her Concerns.

To make meaningful interpretations of a chart, you have to "know" the person, usually by sharing an open, honest consultation. I didn't get to meet Janis Joplin but that last interpretation of her Sun/Moon resonates with me. If it means nothing to you, get to know her through those links at the top of the post to Biography, Song, and Interview...

Messenger of the Gods

We just left Venus and were nearing Mercury in the voyage from the Free-to-Download book, Astrological Repair Manual. This is Chapter 12 and includes just a bit about retrogradation...

"It’s getting pretty warm now, so close to the Sun. Things are heating up as far as cycles go, too. We’re at Mercury, dealing with a function that may seem very cut-and- dried, but certainly is not.

"Mercury: Intelligence, Concrete Thought, Perception, Communication. All these things can seem so normal that they hardly need comment. But comment I must since they’re all ripe for illusion and disarray!

"As I’ve affirmed before, none of these astrological functions stands alone; they all work together. If we use our free will to hide, subvert or bury any of them, we open the floodgates to problematic living. That being true, our intelligence and our different ways of communicating certainly shouldn’t operate in a vacuum. The first function that will help Mercury's functioning is the planet we just left—Venus. Feelings and values are the perfect complement for intelligence and communication.

"Wonder why they seem to be at odds so often? Check your culture; look closely at the social environment these functions develop within. From where I’m sitting in the United States, I must admit that this country’s culture has been very unkind to a smooth marriage of these two functions for far too many years. I’m sure that the situation is similar in most cultures around the world. It hasn't always been this way. I know that there were times and social situations when it was different, families and groups within which it is different, and I predict that the whole world will get it right eventually. Since the two planets are physically close, and since their cycles are similar in duration, one could wonder deeply at the rank perversions heaped upon using them together.

"To cut our feeling from our thinking is a crime. Yet one of the most valuable uses for astrology is to hold our various functions and their proper relationships up to us in a symbolic mirror. We can See what should be and, most often, find the best way to iron out persistently irritating wrinkles—those warps of function induced by family, culture and the press of living in a world changing faster than it ever has before.

"I mentioned the phenomenon of 'retrogradation' before—the apparent backwards flow of a planet’s function. I pointed out that I hate that word 'retrograde', but I haven’t come up with a suitable alternative yet... I also pointed out that, when a planet is doing 'that', it’s a time to focus on the function's meaning in an internal way, to ponder the depth of the function in our lives, to let the function dive into our unconscious. Then we can return with fresh energy for the journey.

"Mercury does this internal journeying about every three months; it lasts for about three weeks. This Mercury Retrograde period has gotten some of the worst astrological coverage! What’s been said has had a quality of 'negative truth'—an inappropriate reporting of only the undesirable aspects. The real problem is that this 'negative truth' is touted as the Whole truth. Just because many people suffer from erratic thinking during these periods, just because they are forgetful or can’t concentrate on what they think is important—these things are no reason to blame the planet Mercury or to make a baldfaced assumption that Mercury Retrograde is somehow automatically a bad time, to be merely suffered through.

"Think about this: People are told that they have an opportunity, every three months, to use their perceptive qualities to find fresh and highly individualistic solutions to things that may have been causing some bafflement in their lives. These people believe what they're told, at least enough to give it a try. So, they schedule time during this period, time apart, to reconsider a few things, to look at things from other angles, to Let some new thinking happen.

"I can hear someone saying, 'Naw... I really don’t have the time to slow down and rethink anything. My spouse and my boss wouldn’t understand. Do you have any idea how hard it is already, just trying to keep up?'

"Actually, I do understand. I pity this person’s inability to understand that continuing to barge ahead when their natural cycles demand internal action might be the cause of the problem.

"I just love to talk to the people I’ve met who have Mercury Retrograde in their birth charts. They usually have a lifelong ability to do this 'backward' thinking. And they just happen to be some of the most creative, original people I know!

"Being this close to the Sun is starting to get to me. Its' ferociously brilliant splendor is acting like a plasma magnet. I’m being pulled toward its' awesomely prodigious, life-giving waves of light...

"Come on! You don’t want to miss the fun, do you?"

Till the next post.........

Acid Love

We're moving on to Chapter 11 in my Free-To-Download book, Astrological Repair Manual, and a discussion of Values plus a peek at Venus in the Houses:

"It’s been said by some astrologers that the Moon we just left behind has much to do with feelings. If it does, it’s only in the sense of being the style of expression of the feelings. The Feelings themselves and the Values behind them belong to Venus.

"We're approaching the planet that’s been called Earth’s sister, mostly because it’s near enough to have a somewhat similar cycle around the Sun and it’s just about the same size. If Earth and Venus are sisters, Venus is the 'nasty' one. If the atmospheric pressure doesn’t collapse your lungs, the acid in the air will eat your skin away, and the insufferable heat will fry your brains. If you somehow protect yourself from those dangers, you still have to contend with an extremely long day—243 Earth-days—and the disorienting way the Sun has of rising in the West! Yes, Venus rotates the other direction from Earth, and it takes a long time to do it. Also, this is the planet whose cycle has been associated with Love...

"Notwithstanding its mythology, I wouldn't necessarily call Venus the planet of love. If there were ever proof that the physical characteristics of the planets don't give them the meanings we should use in astrology, Venus is it. Certainly, there can be nasty things within the bounds of what we call a love-relationship. However, those less than nice things are not love.

"Venus’ cycle relates to how we Evaluate our experience. Whether we love something or not comes from the way we invest it with our values. We can’t have love without values, but we can have values without love. Love itself is an expression of at least four of the planets’ functions operating together—Venus, Moon, Sun and Mercury. Venus is the value, the Moon is the style of expressing it, the Sun is the purpose or reason for the evaluation, and Mercury is the rational side of the situation (if that’s being used in the equation...).

"Many of our 'higher' functions, like love, are expressions of more than one planet’s cycle. Motherhood, for instance, isn’t just the provenance of the Moon. Thinking isn’t just the job of Mercury. Action isn’t done only by Mars. What you can learn from the system of interpretation in The Instructions (in the Free-To-Download book) is what you might call the basic vocabulary and grammar of astrology. Being able to converse fluently will take more than this book. It will take much time and effort. Still, if you were in France (actually, you might be...) and had to go to the bathroom, being able to utter a simple, basic phrase is just fine! Much meaning can be transmitted with simple, basic words. So, using the system at the end of this book (while referring back, every so often, to these more lyric chapters on the basic perceptions we need) will get you far, yet there’s always more. Some folks don’t like unending potential; I love it!

"Our Values and Feelings give our lives much of its meaning. Meaning is what astrology can predict, and it's a basic indicator of the Venus cycle—about 225 Earth-days long. Notice how close the Venus day and year are? In fact, the day is longer than the year. This durational quality of Venus (just imagine waking up, going through a day, and realizing a year’s also slipped by) is central to the kind of meaning I mean. Oh, the tricks words play... I just checked Google and it actually has an entry for 'the meaning of meaning'!

"To clear the air just a bit: Astrology defines many meanings, many functions of life. Venus is what we use, as a specific function, to give value to all those meanings. Hang in there, o.k.? Once you’ve done a little checking with the interpretive system in The Instructions, you’ll begin to separate these meanings with ease. In fact, astrology’s ability to contain and reveal so much meaning is its chief value...

"Another important part of why Venus helps us see our values and the important meanings in our lives is that it is the first of the 'Inner' planets. When we were way out with Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus, we were talking about deep unconscious functions shared by everyone and useful in gauging large social trends. Saturn and Jupiter cycles were also fairly social in their functions but due to the cyclic lengths involved—30 and 12 years—they’re more personal-social functions—we have more personal control over how we use them. Mars is the first planet outside the Earth’s orbit but is relatively near. It came to symbolize our personal reaching out to the social realm. Then there is the Moon and Earth—the Place we live.

"Now, we enter the very personal realm of functions, those which we 'own' sooner and more fully. With the first of these inner functions, I want to introduce you to one way of seeing a Planet’s Function operating in the various Houses' Fields of Activity. We’ll start at the traditional beginning, the First House and see what having Venus in each of them could mean.

Venus operating in the First House:
With this placement, a person has their evaluating function operating through activities that focus on their own individual perception of reality. Their frame-of-reference for life will include a strong dose of personal values. They’ll use their feelings about situations as their first line of approach.

Venus operating in the Second House:
Having the function of valuing in the activity of finding your personal resources makes for a rather focused placement. These people put their feelings to work finding what they most value in themselves and their personal history.

Venus operating in the Third House:
Values applied toward communicating with the 'local' environment. Evaluation as the primary tool for learning. Evaluation used primarily for connecting with others.

Venus operating in the Fourth House:
This person’s feelings are grounded in what can anchor them. Evaluations are used to make situations more stable.

Venus operating in the Fifth House:
Feelings become projected, and evaluation is used to gauge the effect of personal choices on others.

Venus operating in the Sixth House:
Here is where values and feelings are put to the task of improving things and people. Self-evaluation could be the strongest suit.

"Those were all extremely personal uses for this inner function. Now we’ll look at this personal function working itself out in the social realm.

Venus operating in the Seventh House:
Here is a placement of evaluation right at the spot where a person is most aware of others. Feeling is used as the primary function for bonding with people.

Venus operating in the Eighth House:
This is where Venus’ function of valuing is taken deeper to bring relationships to a stable state based on mutual feelings.

Venus operating in the Ninth House:
This area of activity gives Venus’ function of evaluation a lot of room to soar. Feelings broaden out and encompass more 'territory'.

Venus operating in the Tenth House:
Here is where evaluation becomes the prime determinant in the affairs of society. Feelings are used in career and business environments.

Venus operating in the Eleventh House:
Values operating in this activity field are used to bring bonding to social groups. Appreciations grow toward consensus.

Venus operating in the Twelfth House:
Evaluation blends with contemplation. Values are used to plumb the depths of all matters.

So, there’s a brief look at Venus in the Houses. The Instructions will give you a chance to add the Sign to an interpretation. This is certainly nowhere near what could be said about Venus. But I think you’ve noticed by now:

"I’m giving you just a taste of what the Functions of the Planets’ cycles can mean, along with other basic astrological information. This is all aiming toward the end of the book where you’ll receive a method that will let you be your own astrologer—distill your own Meanings from your own chart (or, others...).

"I don’t think we should get too attached to hanging out around Venus ;-) so, let’s get much closer to the Sun and go visit Mercury."

See ya next post