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Jun 28

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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

Jun 11

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Free Natal Chart Reading: June’s Winner

This month’s winner for my online natal chart reading is for Sara, a Twitter follower in Australia who’s also celebrating her 29th birthday. Her natal data is June 12, 1981, 10:57 am, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. [Click here for larger chart] Congratulations and happy birthday, Sara!

When I look at people’s charts, I have the habit of skipping ahead and looking at the outer planets in transit. It automatically gives me a reference point to where they are in the drama of life. But knowing that someone is about to hit their 29th birthday, I don’t need to look further than the planet Saturn because he or she is on the threshold of a major life event.

For those who don’t know, 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

May 12

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Meeting the Cardinal Grand Cross

A year and a half ago I was in a pretty bad car accident. As a passenger, I remember the moment before the crash when I registered a pair of headlights swerve into our lane — that split second when you realize what’s going to happen and that there is nothing you can do.

It was in that moment that I heard a voice say, “You’ll be okay. Just go with it.”

A feeling of calm assurance washed over me, my body relaxing into the force of metal colliding and glass shattering at 50 mph. Were my angels instructing me? I don’t know. I remember a floating sensation like I was caught in the roll of a wave and not the trauma of a near head on collision. Perhaps the many airbags, my seat belt, and the safety of the car I was riding in helped, but I firmly believe that it was my relaxed state that allowed my body to absorb the impact without serious damage. In fact I walked away from that crash with only bruises and minor cuts. Read more

May 5

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The Jupiter/Uranus Conjunction of 2010

What great leap in consciousness did you make 13 years ago? What radical new concept infused into your life? What jolt did you receive to your philosophy or beliefs? Think back to the first few months of 1997. Anything?

The reason I point out this specific period in our lives is to highlight the last time larger-than-life Jupiter and revolutionary Uranus came together. The conjunction in astrology signals both an ending and beginning of something, a blending of two energies in a very powerful way. While Jupiter is the planet of good fortune and abundance, it expands the energies of any planet it touches. Uranus is the planet of sudden changes, innovation, and breakthroughs, thus its meeting with super sized Jupiter in June 2010 is nothing short of a big deal — a big deal made bigger by the fact that they will be conjuncting at 0 degrees of Aries. Read more

Apr 13

Saturn in Libra: Caught in a Bad Romance?

When a slow moving outer planet such as Saturn switches zodiac signs, recently entering Libra before retrograding back into Virgo last week, there is a subtle shift in focus from one area of our life to another. Our preview of Saturn in Libra asked us many questions: Do we have harmony in our lives? Are we existing in a state of homeostasis or are we juggling more than we can handle? Do our relationships bring us balance or are we, in the immortal words of Lady Gaga, “caught in a bad romance”?

Saturn in the sign of Libra led me towards examining the most important relationship in my life — my relationship with myself. Peeling back the layers, Saturn revealed that a dysfunctional relationships with myself can be just as destructive as a bad romance. It was a light bulb moment so fundamental that I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t thought of it sooner. Libra and its planetary ruler, Venus, reminds us that relationships are merely reflections of ourselves, for better or for worse. In order to experience the best of partnerships, we need to be our best selves. Read more

Mar 26

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Personal Growth and the Cardinal Climax

Previously, I’ve written about the rough and tumble energies that are present in the Saturn-Pluto square and the earthquakes — both personal and physical — that have been disrupting our lives. However that energy is going to take on a new tenor when the planets Uranus and Jupiter join the party in late May 2010, commencing what astrologers have been calling the Cardinal Climax.

Pluto, Saturn, and soon Uranus too, are all in the early degrees of the cardinal signs of the zodiac. The cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn) are all about initiation and mark a change in the seasons. With this t-square shape of energy, the new forces coming in are aligned in such a way that they’re demanding change. Call it a celestial mosh pit if you will, but the bigger forces at work are all pushing us towards some very deep transformation and healing. It can be very uncomfortable to face our shadow selves — the part of us at our core that represents our earliest woundings — but the Universe is giving us a rare gift. And how many of us are going to step up to the challenge? Read more

Mar 8

What is “Empowering Astrology”?

“A birthchart is a rich, living statement, full of insights, guidelines, and warnings. It describes not a static fate but a flowing life pattern, full of options and risks.” — Steven Forrest, The Inner Sky

* * *

I discovered astrologer Steven Forrest and his books about the same time I realized that astrology was much more than a party trick, something to entertain friends with while passing the time over drinks. Fending off questions about their sun signs, I grew frustrated with the concept that our birthcharts were one dimensional reflections of our lives, good or bad, or a fate carved in stone. Oh you have Mars square Pluto natally? Good luck with that, buddy. You’ll probably die a violent death.

That’s not the astrology I wanted anything to do with. Read more

Mar 3

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Where Are We Ceding Our Personal Power?

If there was a Weather Channel for astrology, it’s easy to imagine what the forecast would be — dark and stormy. The rumbles of thunder began back in early 2008 when Pluto entered the sign of Capricorn and we all know how that year shaped up. But now Saturn is in the sign of Libra making a discordant clash to Pluto and the ground is literally shifting beneath our feet. Earthquakes in Haiti and Chile are only one manifestation of potent energy at work, but can we harness this on the personal level for some life changing, empowering transformation? Absolutely.

One of the key concepts behind the Saturn-Pluto square unfolding this year is power struggles. Let’s look at our own lives. Where are the battlefields? Is there anything we’re at war with? Where are we ceding our personal power?

It’s so important to identify where we giving over control of our lives and to whom. This not only takes a toll on our relationships by fostering a psychologically unhealthy power balance, but it has a physical effect on our bodies as unexpressed resentment builds in the body, depletes our vitality, and makes us sick.

During the Saturn-Pluto square, let’s harness this energy for soul change and to create the intention towards restoring balance in our relationships (Saturn in Libra) by not giving away our personal power. The things we can do during 2010 are:

  • clearing out relationships that have outlived their usefulness or do not serve our highest need
  • boost the third chakra — the solar plexus and our power center — by bringing more yellow into our lives (yellow clothing, objects, jewelry)
  • loving ourselves more

This last bit is the most important.  For when we love ourselves more, we have more self worth, and if we have more self worth, we no longer put ourselves in the situations where we give away our power because we think we’re not worthy. That, in its essence, is the real lesson of Saturn in Libra.

Feb 19

Your Natal Chart is a Recipe for Transformation

Imagine a kitchen stocked with the highest quality ingredients from proteins to spices to the freshest fruits and vegetables. What would you make with those ingredients?  A nourishing meal or a burnt mess?

Now imagine a kitchen stocked with the abundant energies of the Universe at your disposal. With a dash of Neptune, a pound of Pluto, and a whisk of Uranus, there is no end to the things you can make when you take the time cultivate a good meal. Too often people settle for the burnt mess, train-wreck of a life because they secretly think they deserve it. But what if I said you are worth it and you can create anything you want in your cosmic kitchen? The stars in the sky on the day you were born are the recipe for positive transformation.

It’s my goal to show you how to take control of your life using astrology as a guide.  Every planet is an ingredient towards nourishment on a soul level. So repeat after me, “I am worth all the love and abundance in the Universe.”

Let the transformation begin.

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