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Free Natal Chart Reading: January’s Winner

This month’s winner for my online natal chart reading is Melissa. Her birth data is August 28, 1984 at 7:48 pm, Amsterdam, New York, USA. Congratulations, Melissa! [Click here for larger chart]

Overview

My eye immediately went to Melissa’s Sun/Mercury conjunction in its home sign of Virgo in the 6th house, a powerful concentration of mental acumen and analytical skills. Sun/Mercury square Mars in the 9th? Melissa is forceful and vocal advocate of her ideas. Add Uranus into the mix and there’s an element of upsetting the status quo with her beliefs. The Sun/Mercury conjunction is the focal point of a t-square. Chiron on the other end of that interplay tells me that her beliefs — her rhetoric — is karmic. Read more

Free Natal Chart Reading: November’s Winner

This month’s winner for my online natal chart reading is Katie. Her birth data is August 20, 1979 at 9:28 am, Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Congratulations, Katie! [Click here for larger chart]

Overview

Katie has both her Sun and Moon in Leo with Libra rising. She is personable, social, friendly, creative, and expressive (Leo Sun in 11th house). People are attracted to her warmth, generosity, and charm (Venus conjunct Sun/Jupiter in the 11th in Leo; Libra ascendant). Katie is naturally oriented towards having lots of friends and being involved in group activities, but groups where she can be the leader or center of attention (Sun in the 11th). Read more

Illuminating the 12th House: An Interview with Marguerite Manning, Karmic Astrologer

The 12th house in astrology isn’t known for being particularly transparent. It is, after all, traditionally the house of secret sorrows and self undoings. That can’t be good, my teen-aged self once thought, especially as I looked nervously to my Mercury, Neptune, and Mars conjunction hovering above my ascendant. Secret sorrows?? How does someone, especially an astrological novice, begin to wrap their minds around something so nebulous and frankly a little bit scary?

Marguerite Manning, karmic astrologer, author, and radio show host, has turned the lights on in the 12th house to reveal the truth behind its dubious reputation. She recently connected with Empowering Astrology to discuss the origins of her work and how the 12th house actually speaks of our previous life, not some tortured future. Read more

Chiron in the Natal Chart: Transmuting Suffering Into Healing, Wisdom

We’ve all experienced synchronicity at one time or another. You know, a series of coincidences that defy logical explanation. Like you’re thinking about taking a trip to Paris and then you later receive an email from a website announcing travel deals to Paris. Yeah, that kind of synchronicity.

Personally, I’m having synchronicity of an astrological variety. For the last week, Chiron has been popping up everywhere. Clients charts. Podcasts. Articles. Perplexed by the synchronicity, I suddenly realized that my own Chiron was getting triggered by a Venus transit. The Universe was giving me a not so subtle message to explore the Chiron archetype and how it can show us where we need to devote some energy towards healing ourselves. Read more

Free Natal Chart Reading: September’s Winner

This month’s winner for my online natal chart reading is Bunny. Her birth data is March 28, 1983 at 6:52 pm, Houston, Texas, USA. Congratulations, Bunny! [Click here for larger chart]

Overview

Bunny, by her nature, is in tune with the darker elements of life with a strong Saturn/Pluto flavor in her outward personality. The 1st house of the natal chart is like the clothes we wear and having this duo of outer planets is like donning a heavy metal suit of armor. But with a fashion conscious Libra ascendant, the armor is at least going to have a little Venusian twist. And her ascendant ruler is in the 8th house in earthy Taurus. Can we say goth girl? Or wiccan potion master?

I’m not sure if Bunny is her real name or a screen name, but I think it’s funny that she has the Moon conjunct her ascendant as the moon is associated with fertility. That’s what Easter is at its pagan core — a fertility celebration with bunny rabbits and eggs. Is Bunny a little bit of a goth moon goddess? And with Cancer on the cusp of her 10th house, her highest ambition is to nurture, to be in touch with the sacred feminine/mother. I think this softens that Saturn/Pluto conjunction that she leads with. Make no mistake, Bunny is tough, but she’s more the powerful witch tending to others through holistic herbal remedies than anything else. Read more

Free Natal Chart Reading: August’s Winner

This month’s winner for my online natal chart reading is Shannon. Her birth data is April 10, 1980, 11:09 am, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Congratulations, Shannon! [Click here for larger chart]

I’ve been talking recently about the Cardinal Climax and how many of us are feeling the pressure to transform. Those who are feeling this energy the most have been people with planets and angles in the early cardinal degrees. And just to recap, the cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. The first degree of each of those signs is associated with the change of seasons, therefore when the outer planets transit these degrees, we can experience quite a bit of change, like we are turning a corner from one season to the next.

Shannon has surely been feeling this shift, most notably along the personal versus public, home versus career axis. If you look at her chart, her MC/IC — one of the two major axes in the chart — is at 29 degrees 33 minutes of Pisces. That’s just a hair shy of being at 0 degrees Aries, which is close enough that if her birth time is off by a couple of minutes, she could have a Aries MC, and one that points to spending a career in the public eye. Regardless, this puts a big spotlight on work right now in Shannon’s life. Caught in the angles of the Cardinal Climax, the question, Shannon, is how do you want to transform your career? And, is your career serving your soul’s highest good? Read more

The Missing Cardinal Leg: Reconnecting to Our Cancer Roots

During this time of great cardinal initiation, as we build up to peak energies, I’ve noticed a theme subtly running though the last few weeks. While all of us have been distracted by planets in the signs of Aries, Libra, and Capricorn, we’ve been missing quiet Cancer poking and prodding at our deeper core.

Personally, the issues coming up since the peak of the Cardinal Climax are root related. Cancer, after all, is the missing cardinal element. It’s as if the t-square is pointing towards Cancer as an area of intense yet subtle focus, demanding we tend to our families, our ancestors, and what really nurtures our souls. Take a tip from Saturn in Libra: the key to the Cardinal Climax is isn’t the power struggles of Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus. No, it’s all about balancing out these astral heavyweights and getting in touch with our past. Read more

Saturn in Libra and the Mirror

For all its niceties and focus on beauty, it would be a little unfair of us to paint the sign of Libra with such superficial strokes. After all, this girl has some real depth beyond a bad reputation for vanity. And Saturn transiting Libra over the next two years reminds us that while she rules over committed partnerships, she also represents what we attract into our lives.

Imagine a full length mirror in front of you. Do you like what you see? Or are you squirming at the thought? Your reflection is a direct indication of what you’re bringing into your life. Powerful people, for example, attract other powerful people. Victims attract other people who reinforce their victimization. So Saturn in Libra’s question for you is this: What are you attracting? Read more

Free Natal Chart Reading: July’s Winner

This month’s winner for my online natal chart reading is Lyn. Her natal data is November 14, 1982, 12:46 am, Tacoma, Washington, USA. Congratulations, Lyn! [Click here for larger chart]

There are no such things as coincidences and it is no coincidence that this month’s randomly selected winner is on the cusp of major life changes much like last month’s winner. Like energy attracts like after all. One of the similarities is that Lyn too is in the run up to her Saturn Return taking place in Libra in the 2nd house.

To quote myself, “the 29th birthday roughly corresponds with the Saturn Return, which gets its name from the time it takes the planet Saturn to make one orbit around the sun and return to the natal degree. In plain English, Saturn comes back in the same ol’ spot it was in the heavens when you were born — same zodiac sign and degree — and it’s a right of passage 30 years in the making. Astrologers view this time as the start of adulthood and major milestones happen around the 29th/30th birthday.” Read more

The Cardinal Climax: A “Karmic Quickening”?

Ladies and gentlemen, we’re in the Cardinal Climax. You don’t have to be hip to astrology or a total wonk to know that something is going on with our world. Earthquakes. Unparalleled man made disasters. Awakenings. Major shifts for which there is no return. The show has only started and the headliner — August’s cardinal grand cross — is about to take stage. Are you ready?

For the past decade, if not longer, astrologers have been speculating about this summer’s Cardinal Climax because it is and truly will be a once in a lifetime event. Financial astrologer Ray Merriman first coined this term back in 1999, recognizing that the outer planets aligning in the early cardinal degrees would signal some sort of upheaval and not just for the markets. While we astrologers might nerd out on aspects and modalities, trading theories about what this time might mean for the world, it’s one thing to write about it and another to experience it.

So now that we’re here, what does the Cardinal Climax feel like? Read more