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 . . .

Stories In Your Birth Chart...

Still staying rather basic for awhile on the blog; but, I feel I have to step up the level just a bit today...

Most anyone who's looked beyond Sun Signs knows that a Planet in a Sign and in a certain House (and, that Houses need an accurate birth time), those Planet/Sign/House combinations can be considered "sentences" in a chart.

If you're brand new you may want to review a couple pages on our Information Site (red link in the right panel): Creating A Chart, if you don't have one yet; B.I.D.E. Interpretive System ~ Planets/Signs/Houses; and, for the last part of this post, Example of Using the Aspect Phrases.

Of course, I'll try to write the rest of the post so you can just keep reading and go back to those links later ;-)

So...

I'll interpret my Sun in Aries in the 9th House using the B.I.D.E. System (Here's my chart); but, realize, I'm doing this right now for how I feel about myself right now. There are 64 different interpretations available for every Planet/Sign/House combo in the Basic B.I.D.E. System. The links above will give you all you need to do what I'll do next: choose a phrase for the Sun, then for Aries, then for the 9th House; then, put them in the right order:

Sun in Aries in the 9th House

Vitalizing Personal Initiative in order to Bring the Situation to its Highest Expression.

Of course, that Symbolic Sentence means a lot to me because I'm working extra hard right now to promote my Nutrition Business while maintaining this blog and my other blog. So that Symbolic Sentence up there is a statement of my "Central Purpose" right now...

There's also the Way I use that Central Purpose—my Moon in Libra in the 3rd House—my current "Style".

Moon in Libra in the 3rd House

Adapting Considerations of Sharing in order to Make Connections.

But, so far, I've only got two Symbolic Sentences. I want to link those Sentences in the right way so they'll tell a short Symbolic Story...

This is where the "Aspect" or distance between the Planets becomes important. There are a total of three pages on Aspects on the Information Site right now with more to come.

For now, take my word for the fact that my Moon is 172.6° from my Sun and that's called a Waxing QuadNovile aspect.

So, I take the Sun Sentence and link it to the Moon Sentence by choosing one of the phrases for the aspect-distance between them:

Sun in Aries in the 9th House
Waxing QuadNovile
Moon in Libra in the 3rd House

Vitalizing Personal Initiative in order to Bring the Situation to its Highest Expression
Induces a Sense of Worthiness of Goals by
Adapting Considerations of Sharing in order to Make Connections.

So...

That's not just a huge sentence, it's a short Symbolic Story about where I'm at right now...

If you had done the same process for your Sun and Moon, you'd have a short Symbolic Story about Your current Central Purpose and the Stylistic Way to make it work.

Mining For Gold...

This will be a short post with a homework assignment ;-)

Since there are still mostly new visitors to this blog, I'm focusing on basics for awhile. When I began my efforts here, I launched into some depths that you can wade into by checking out the archives (lower down, in the right panel...).

For now, I want to urge new and returning, beginning and seasoned, visitors to go to the Information Site for this blog (Red link in the right panel).

Get to know what's there. It's the basic information needed for getting the most out of this blog.

That Info will also give you a chance to actually use the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System for yourself and, hopefully, share you thoughts and feelings in the Comments...

Can You Believe It?

Even if you know very little about astrology, it's a good bet you know not to trust the reports in the newspaper.

But what about astrology books?

What about popular or even famous astrologers?

Since taking what's printed about astrology, rather than discovering your own meanings, can be dangerous, I want to compare some readily available meanings with what can be found with the B.I.D.E. Interpretive System.

You won't need any previous experience with astrology to understand what I want you to learn.

Let's try searching for meanings for one of my own birth chart placements, Saturn in Cancer, on Google. I'll give excerpts from the first seven entries:

"Cancer is all loving and compassionate; Saturn is harsh, unforgiving, and judging. There is a schizoid quality to this combination..."

"Inhibitions, hypersensitivity and early emotional instability will have to be overcome, and much effort will be required in order to fully understand your emotional, feeling nature..."

"An emotional wound experienced as a child may cause you to be fearful and rigid in your feelings, or to be frozen at an earlier stage of development or experience."

"In familial Cancer, Saturn comes across as a hard-hearted autocrat or limited older person."

"You fear being hurt, and are extremely sensitive. It takes courage to open up and be vulnerable."

"Saturn, traditionally a toughie, can be insensitive to Cancer's feelings. Emotions are blocked, denied or distorted. Cancer's flow can be dammed up with obstinacy and insensitivity to core issues and needs."

So...

There seems to be a thread of difficulty here, eh? Seems I just can't deal with emotions properly, right? Problems with early home life, etc....

Since I've been an astrologer for over 40 years, I can say with confidence that many folks who didn't have Saturn in Cancer have had a much rougher time than I did with mom/dad issues and come out of it much more emotionally wounded and unable to let feeling flow healthily.

Some astrobuffs might offer the insight that I probably had other planets' placements that eased my Saturn in Cancer.

Well...

Never mind the jargon if your new, but I have the Sun and Moon Squared to Saturn. According to those astrobuffs reasoning, I should have killed myself over emotional problems a long time ago.

Let's try the meanings for this particular placement from the B.I.D.E. System {You can find these on the Information Site: red link in the right panel}

Here are the options for Saturn:

Defining
Clarifying
Structuring
Organizing

And, those for Cancer:

Emotional Security
Character Development
Active Feelings
Nurturing Abilities

In the B.I.D.E. System, the Planet meaning is followed by the Sign meaning, so I could have 16 different meanings for Saturn in Cancer. But, let's just work with the first choice in each set:

Defining Emotional Security

If you look back to those meanings from Google links, you probably see the resonance between what they're talking about and "Defining Emotional Security"...

The only problem is that, if you trusted what those people said and you were young and had Saturn in Cancer, you'd have your "task" of defining emotional security given a negative twist that it would have to struggle against.

The meanings you find in printed astrological sources have most often come from distorted previous sources and are used by far too many practicing astrologers as the gospel truth.

Certainly, someone born with Saturn in Cancer and having a great need to define emotional security might have more richness in their emotional interactions than another person; but, it can just as well be true that the other person had a much rougher emotional life.

Bottom-line:

The B.I.D.E. Interpretive System was devised to eliminate the problems that most traditional astrological practice has insidiously insinuated into an accepted canon—a book of rules—that is downright dangerous.

In the example I cited from my own chart, the B.I.D.E. meanings give me a chance to find positive and helpful resolutions for my particular emotional journey. Sure, the B.I.D.E. System needs your own input and creativity to reveal its full potential but it's a lot safer than taking for granted what others might say...

For a different perspective on this issue of what to believe about what you read about astrology, see Astrology Predicts Meanings, Not Events on the Information Site...

Back To Basics...

Still have more new than returning folks here so let's review some basics.

We'll use these charts as examples: Fidel Castro, Leonardo da Vinci, and Madonna.

For the following, if you're experiencing your first visit, the Information Site (red link in the right panel) has a page called Creating A Chart that will give you the basic astrological "language" so you can find things in the charts we'll use...

Most people only know about Sun Signs so we'll start with that.

Fidel has his Sun in Leo, Leonardo's is in Taurus, and Madonna's is Leo.

Now, go to the Informations Site's page called, B.I.D.E. Interpretive System ~ Planets/Signs/Houses and look at the four choices for the Sun and also Leo and Taurus (Of course, you can avoid this for now and just read the post first...). I'll make my choices for our examples and, hopefully, you'll make yours and share them in the Comments... Some of you may also want to check out the Information Site's page, Detailed Example of Using the System ~ Planets/Signs/Houses...

Here are my choices for our examples' Sun Signs:

Fidel Castro
Sun in Leo
Focusing Energetic Influence

Leonardo da Vinci
Sun in Taurus
Integrating Personal Resources

Madonna
Sun in Leo
Vitalizing Creative Response

But, much more can be revealed when the House a person's Sun is in is known. For Fidel it's the 3rd House {because it's within 7° of that cusp}, For Leonardo it's the 6th, and Madonna's is the 12th.

From the Information Site, we know that the words "in order to" are placed between the Sign and House, so, here are my picks for our examples (Sure do hope you show yours in the Comments!}:

Fidel
Focusing Energetic Influence in order to Make Connections.

Leonardo
Integrating Personal Resources in order to Improve Himself.

Madonna
Vitalizing Creative Response in order to Utilize the Resources of Her Unconscious Mind.

Make sense to you?

Of course, these statements of these people's Sun placement (their Central Life Purpose {and, Central Life Purpose isn't necessarily what a person shows us upfront...}) is just the bare beginning of the Meaning astrology can reveal...

Questions?

Comments??