Galactic Fragment is moving

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To Pleasantville Astrology

When I started Galactic Fragment I was still bouncing around the place being an actor. All that activity has slowed down and I’m more in one spot than another these days. (I still do the odd gig).

In fact I’ve opened a physical office here in Pleasantville, Westchester and if you’re ever in the neighborhood, please drop in and say hello.

Meanwhile, if you like the look of PleasantvilleAstrology and would like to see how it develops please scroll down on the homepage and sign up for the Newsletter.

Oh, and if you’d like a tune-up reading – I’m offering a February special – hit the contact page and fill out the form for details.

Take a look at the welcome video here

With very best wishes,

Colin

“…The new Direction of Time…”

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Solstice News December 2020

  1. Where are we now?
  2. Talking with Faye Blake
  3. Book Review
  4. Looking at a Chart
  5. A solstice gift

Where are we Now?

If you follow any astrology at all, you will know that today, the 21st December 2020 is a big deal. Jupiter and Saturn conjoin at zero degrees Aquarius.

Every 20 years or so these two mighty planets which astrology tells us govern social trends, appear to be in the same place in the sky from our point of view here on earth.

For about 200 years (usually with one exception) they meet up in a sign of the same element. So for the past 200 years beginning in 1801 this conjunction cycled backwards through the zodiac starting in Virgo, then Taurus, then Capricorn and repeating that sequence with one exception in 1980 when they met in Libra (air sign, preview of the coming 200 year cycle).

And for the next 200 years these social planets will meet starting today (December 21st 2020) in Aquarius, then Libra (2040), then Gemini (2060), and repeating the sequence in that order.

What might this mean?

I think D H Lawrence had something when he wrote Song of a Man Who Has Come Through, here are the first two lines:

Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.

And here is a recording of me reading it.

The Wind reference is appropriate because Aquarius is an AIR sign. For the past 200 years  Jupiter and Saturn have been meeting in EARTH. … which according to some astrological thinking may explain our species-wide rapacity and exploitation of earth resources.

Consider the element of AIR. It pervades. Aquarius carries social connectivity, and along with the other AIR signs is to do with the mental realm. New thinking anyone?

Talking With Faye Blake

If the internet is anything to go by, interest in astrology is going galactic. Astrologers of all kinds abound. The splendid Astrology Podcast gives long form discussions with accomplished practitioners. But if you haven’t got the spare 2 hours or so to listen regularly, I’m starting a short-form series.

The idea here is a 5 to 7 minute excerpt from a conversation. If the material interests you, there are links where you can discover more…

I’m delighted to welcome Faye Blake as my first guest in this series. A thoroughly accomplised astrologer, she has an extensive website with all kinds of content and featuring her “Monthly Planet” newsletter which is excellent reading. Faye has several specialities. Among them is expert knowledge of the heavenly body, Ceres. From an astrological point of view Ceres is hugely relevant to us now given the environmental crisis of our times.

Here are a few references from the talk which may be useful:

Rupert Sheldrake: very well worth looking at his material if you don’t know him already, easy to find on YouTube and other places. A holistic scientist.

Demetra George: wrote The Asteroid Goddesses, pioneering work.

Ken Wilbur: a spiritual psychologist, wrote No Boundary

Nick Campion: astrological historian and academic

And here is Faye’s post on the Great Conjunction mentioned above.

Another area of Faye’s expertise is career counseling. She is well versed in all the usual ways to explore vocation but with the added deep personal insight offered by the astrology. If you are looking to re-invent your work life in these challenging times or just for general interest you might like to check out her book.

Faye’s website again: www.fayeblake.nl

Book Review

With a Gemini Moon in the 9th it’s not surprising that I am reading too many books at one time. At the moment my bedside astro-reading stack includes:

Evolutionary Astrology by Jeffrey Wolf Green, The Hades Moon by Judy Hall, Understanding Karmic Complexes by Patricia L. Walsh, The Astrology of Love and Sex by Annabel Gat, Vocational Astrology by Faye Blake

I review Faye’s book here

 

Looking at a Chart

This is the natal chart of D H Lawrence, the guy who wrote the poem that I recite above.

And here are are few things that one notices immediately.

First off: Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, source of many things, but among them, personal power, in Mercury-ruled Gemini in the 8th House of the hidden, the deep, the intense – read some more of Lawrence’s poetry and tell me if you agree that that seems to fit?!

And talking of Mercury, the writers’ God, he is elevated in the 10th House of career in his dignity in Virgo, and from there Mercury also rules the Sun/Jupiter conjunction in the very visible 11th House, and the Sun is widely conjunct the north node of destiny, which is itself widely conjunct the planet of originality, Uranus.

Mars is the chart ruler, placed in the 9th. Learning about sexuality perhaps? But not without difficulty because Saturn is there too. And it’s Mars in Cancer – a noted feature of that placement is a tendency to fight for causes.

 

But it’s the 12th House that grabs me. Before we get to that, notice that everything is in the Southern Hemisphere in the chart. Would there have been a what-you-see-is what-I’ve-got quality to the man? But all of that behind the watery smokescreen of a Scorpio ascendant, so if you knew him personally you might not really have had any idea what was going on with him.

So here was a man, as we know, a powerful writer – so frightening to the authorities that they banned one of his books, Lady Chatterly’s Lover for about four decades. But if ever a man was in search of the divine feminine, I nominate D H Lawrence. Consider a few of his titles to start with: Women in Love, The Virgin and the Gypsy, Sons and Lovers, 

The Moon in the 12th, in touch with the secrets of the deep subconscious, rules Mars as stated above. But notice please the relationship between Moon and Venus, with Venus conjunct the ascendant from the 12th, and now notice Ceres conjunct the ascendant from the 1st – here is Maiden, Mother, Crone – as referenced in my talk with Faye above. I like that. I had not mentioned Lawrence to Faye, I chose his poem because of the “…fine wind…” and the Great Conjunction, and I did not know that Ceres in Lawrence’s chart sits conjunct his rising sign until I asked the software to add her in to the mix. One of those minor synchronicities that I enjoy!

A Solstice Gift

So I’ve slightly revamped this site (ongoing). You might like to take a look at the new Resources Page. This newsletter will now offered on a quarterly basis. If you’re new here and you find the content interesting by all means enter your email for a low-impact way to stay in touch.

And … if I have already read for you I will be contacting you early in the New Year.

Meanwhile, If you would like a reading, if you make a booking with me by the end of the year, to be taken anytime between now and the spring (northern hemisphere) equinox on 20th March 2021, I offer it on a donation basis with a $1 dollar minimum.

It takes me between 2 and 3 hours to prepare to read for someone, so this is not something I can afford to do all the time! But if you’d like to take up this offer then:

  1. Email me at Colin@galacticfragment.com with Solstice in the subject line before December 31st 2020.
  2. Include your birth stats: Date, time (if you know it), location
  3. Your preferred appointment date – anytime (subject to availability) between now and  March 20th 2021. If I am booked that day I will get back to you with alternatives.

Happy Solstice!

Shakespeare and Astrology

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I’m delighted to let you know that I will be guest speaker on Tuesday June 30th 2:30 pm Eastern USA/7:30 pm UK at:

Aquarius Rising: West of Scotland Astrological Association

My topic is:

Shakespeare was an astrologer

(or if he wasn’t he knew people who were)

Here is the blurb:

This talk is an astrological exploration looking at the chart of the Bard and his work. For example, it’s well known that the seven ages of man speech in As You Like It takes us from the Moon through to Saturn in order of orbital period. But did you know that there is a Jupiter signature in The Tempest, or a Saturn one in Romeo and Juliet, or that Sonnet 15 echoes the Duke’s speech at the top of act 3 in Measure for Measure? Mars figures in all the history plays, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream is as lunar as it gets. Shakespeare was at home in the solar system and he wrote the plays to prove it!

If you’d like to attend as a guest (no need to join the group although you are welcome if astrology is an interest), here is the zoom link and the date again is, June 30th 2:30 pm Eastern USA/7:30 pm UK https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82665096141

They do ask for a donation of five quid!

Please pay here https://paypal.me/aquariusrisinggla?locale.x=en_GB

See you there!

Comedy can be “rummy”

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Even the most reclusive of us must be aware that there really is nothing funny about what is going on at large in the world at the moment. However medical authorities from The Mayo Clinic onwards recommend giggling, sniggering and laughing as a great tonic, so whether appropriate or not at this time of trouble, here goes…

The novelist P G Wodehouse’s first names were Pelham Granville. He chose to be known as Plum to his friends – and who can blame him? Take a look at his natal chart.

P G Wodehouse natal

As you see there are no fewer than five planets including Chiron, Saturn at 10 degrees, conjunct Neptune at 15, conjunct Chiron at 21, conjunct Jupiter at 24, conjunct Pluto at 28 degrees, all in Taurus all in the 12th House.

For one of the funniest wordsmiths of all time with decade succeeding decade of universal popularity and very high earning, well from an astrological point of view that’s whacky, don’t you agree? I mean 12th House? House of secrets, hidden enemies, self-undoing – really?!?

In other words, if, on the 15th of October 1881 (Plum’s birthday) you had been in Guildford, England, and looked due East at 7:00pm you might have seen Saturn and Jupiter as twinkling lights, the other planets in the stellium were too far away to see, but no less influential.

Presumably Plum, for all his wealth and success, had his share of ups and downs, but it’s my view that the greatest self-undoing came to him inadvertently (and who undoes themselves in any other way) just the once, about a year after the Germans interned him when they invaded northern France in June of 1940.

Over the following year Plum was imprisoned in various locations, he kept a diary and read  excerpts to his fellow internees to keep their spirits up. It was at that point, as Plum once wrote, that, “… fate was quietly slipping the lead into the boxing glove.” The chart of the moment 6th August 1941, the day his last of five broadcasts made from Berlin under the authority of the Gestapo, seems to bear out the constellation of a difficult time with consequences.

Those consequences were devastating. Plum could never return to his beloved England, for some years he was reviled as a traitor, and when the war ended he was investigated by the secret services. He was finally given a royal endorsement in the Queen’s New Year’s Honor’s List in 1975. It was the last year of his life. He died six weeks later on the 14th of February. He was too frail to travel although he was working up to the very end.

Meanwhile, Plum’s natal chart indicates a man driven hard, to the point of compulsion and for a long time (at least 47 years) to work as a writer; here’s why. Mercury (the writer’s planet) went retrograde when Plum was 13 in 1894 and by progression remained so in his chart until 1914. The retrograde period meant that by progression Plum’s Mercury stayed in Scorpio, opposing his 12th House stellium including compulsive Pluto, in his 6th House of work and service until 1935, and then continued in his 6th House in Sagittarius until 1941. By  which time the habit of a constant, intense working routine would have been sufficiently established to last the next 46 years until his death.

Here are some more astro-notes on his chart:

Mercury is the chart ruler as Plum’s ascendant was in verbal Gemini, with Mercury also ruling his 5th House of creativity. The 5th House cusp (creativity) is in Virgo – sign of meticulousness.

The 12th House (Connection with collective unconscious, the ancestors, depth psychology) stellium ruled by Venus (planet of balance, harmony, aesthetics, pleasure) gives us:

Mastery of form (Saturn in Taurus)

Wedded to a dreamy imagination expressing the pleasures of comfort, looking to become tangible (Neptune in Taurus)

A propensity for getting into scrapes and out of them (Chiron in Taurus)

All the above given energetic optimism (Jupiter in Taurus) and a propensity for happy resolutions.

Transforming upheaval (Pluto in Taurus)

All with a lot of staying power (Taurus, fixed Earth) and Jupiterian expansion.

All the above intermingled and compounded (through conjunction) challenging Mercury (by opposition) to get it written.

The 5th House (of creativity) has a Virgo (mutable, improvisational, responsive Earth) conjunction (blending) of Uranus (planet of thinking outside the box) and Venus (relationships, social pleasure). This conjunction closely trines (flows to and from) the 12th House stellium, and closely sextiles Mercury in the 6th.

There are quincunxes from Mars in Cancer (fighting on behalf of others – just think of Bertie Wooster), and Saturn (the southern end of the 12th House stellium, looking for procedural solutions – Jeeves anyone?) to the north node (personal destiny). This combination although not technically a yod (the nodes are not planets), give what Plum might have a called a fair imitation of one, and indicates potential for extraordinary achievement.

Finally, as everyone who reads Wodehouse knows, his metier is England, albeit his own version of  England, kept alive as Isaac Asimov observed through a special alchemy known only to himself. Consider that the UK natal Sun is at 10 degrees Capricorn (both in the 1066 chart and the 1801. It exactly trines Plum’s Saturn, and therefore the stellium through conjunction in the 12th, and his Uranus/Venus in the 5th.

As with any chart the planets and their placements describe archetypal energies, exactly what use any individual will make of them or what mode of expression they will follow is anybody’s guess.

With Plum all this is expressed in P G Wodehouse’s mastery of intricate plotting(any of the Jeeves and Bertie novels), his mastery of syntax (“… she looked at me with the surprise of one, who while picking daisies on the down line, has caught the 4:15 in the small of the back.”), his appreciation of shape-shifting trickery (for one example among many Bertie personates the female novelist Rosie M Banks), his pervasive optimism and good humor (he never wrote a tragedy and all his protagonists end up ok), his awe-fear-respect-appreciation of the divine feminine, (Aunt Agatha, Aunt Dahlia, Bobbie Wickham, Steffie Byng, Honoria Glossop, Sally to name only a few…)

On the 1st January 1975 when he was honored with a knighthood, Plum’s progressed Sun was in Capricorn close to the UK natal Venus and his progressed Venus was close to the UK Mercury – warm fuzzy feelings all round.

There’s more on Plum at my actorblog if you like…

What is Happening?!?

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It’s been a while since I posted here. The truth is, I’ve been busy with my day job as an actor, working almost continually for the past couple of years, quite a bit of it on Broadway which is where I was when they closed us down about two weeks ago.

Acting aside, a few people have asked me about the astrology of the pandemic. So here at this renamed site, are some thoughts.

Way back in the 1980s I came across a slim volume called Future Tense, it’s out of print now but it was a compilation of predictions and projections from all kinds of future-gazers: from out-and-out psychics, thru astrologers, to industrial psychologists and more…

Quite a bit of what was predicted has come to pass. Striking then was the consensus that America would move a very long way to the right. There was also a commercial-market-industrial crisis of some kind somewhere in the 2008 – 2010 range predicted, and it was said more than once that if the prevailing culture as a whole did not take the opportunity to learn what adjustments were needed (and it was unlikely that it would), then there would be an even more severe crisis at some time after 2016.

My view (but then my politics are green-of-centre) is that the crisis is an environmental one. The way we live has become ever-increasingly more toxic. It’s said that if you drink tap water in Florida (a place I have frequently visited for work) you are likely ingesting your neighbor’s medications.

Certain kinds of plastic leech estrogen-mimic hormones into water and the environment generally. We are poisoning the earth, the water, the air. All of us know it and most of us are powerless to stop it.

Concerned people, from Sir David Attenborough in his nineties to Greta Thunberg in her teens, have been trying to get meaningful government action. Often met with indifference, and when as in Greta’s case there is notice, awards, media attention; the fury, the scorn and the aggression of the ignorant follows.

In science fiction writings authors as diverse as Arthur C. Clarke and Doris Lessing have written stories that support the Gaia hypothesis as proposed by scientist Sir James Lovelock, the idea that the planet itself is a living organism with its own mighty intelligence.

Is it possible then, however heretical it may be to orthodox science, to imagine the solar system as an organized whole, operating in time scales of unimaginable vastness, but  a living being among whose parts each depends upon the others?

If it were so what would it mean when the only place in the entire system which appears to support sentient life were to become toxic?

We are living in the culmination of several astronomical/astrological cycles from the 20 year Jupiter/Saturn one to the two and half century one of Pluto’s orbit, and other larger cycles too.

There is a powerful conjunction of planets up there, and if planetary influence is falling to the Earth as astrology says it is, then the line-up of Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars should easily be powerful enough to re-arrange things here on the planet where we live.

Although a global pandemic has been frequently predicted by journalists, scientists, environmentalists and movies, few astrologers (none that I’m aware of) made a specific prediction about this virus. Many astrologers did foresee massive change and disruption, possibly also enormous opportunity, approaching since 2008, apexing in the year 2020, probably continuing for some years.

So here are some of the astrological elements at play here:

The recent and ongoing line up of planets in Capricorn is worth looking at.

On January 12th 2020 Saturn made and exact conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn, this 35 year cycle had not happened in the Earth sign of Capricorn since the year 1518.

Take a look at the chart here: Aspect with Asteroids

Other planets adding their potency in the same sign at that time were: The Sun, Mercury, Jupiter. The planetoid Ceres (the one with the glyph that looks like a question mark) is also conjunct Saturn/Pluto within a few minutes of arc. This celestial pattern persisted for five days until the 17th January when Mercury left Capricorn and entered Aquarius. But then, a month later, Mars completed its transit of Sagittarius and entered Capricorn also.

Capricorn: sign of structure, achievement, responsibility. Manifesting at a collective level as  governance, institution, tradition.

Pluto: Lord of the Underworld, death, rebirth, transformation, trauma, volcanic upheaval.

Saturn: restriction, contraction, fear.

Mercury: messenger of the Gods, the mind, communication.

Jupiter: expansion of everything it touches.

Ceres: Goddess of the harvest, the fierce mother, environmental awareness.

Mars: energy, desire, anger.

That small selection of keywords scarcely begins to define each planet’s potential effects, but you can see that Saturn/Pluto is a formidable combination of powers. While in recent years there have been frequent and ongoing disclosures of secret wrongdoing (a Pluto effect) in government, in institutions and by individuals with status and profile (Saturnine characteristics); at the same time governments (Capricorn) have tried relentlessly to control more and more areas of common life (Saturn).

And currently, expansive Jupiter is enlarging this combination and for the past six weeks Mars (the God of War) has been adding his energy as he has touched each of the more distant planets in the mix.

There’s more.

Taurus, Earth sign of comfort, security, pleasure, is now hosting Uranus about which we know only that we can expect the unexpected.

Taurus trines (a flowing aspect ) Capricorn by sign and in the next few years Uranus will come within five degrees of an exact trine with Pluto.

Pisces, Water sign of the mystic, the empathetic, the intangible, is hosting Neptune to whom we look for illumination, inspiration and transcendence, frequently to find distortion, disillusion and addiction.

Pisces sextiles (an aspect with elements of both ease and challenge) Capricorn by sign and Neptune and Pluto have been traveling in sextile since the early 20th century following their once in five hundred years conjunction in the 1890s. The sextile relationship in this cycle will continue until 2050.

And if you want to consider another one of the one of the myriad smaller solar systemic bodies that have come to human notice within the past several decades, there’s Eris in Aries closely squaring (challenging) the action in Capricorn.

It looks potently disruptive. Perhaps transformative is a more hopeful word.

And then in December this year Jupiter and Saturn will meet in Aquarius – that could be the beginning of something new.

There’s a lot more, of course – there always is!

If you want to discuss or would like to re-visit your chart with me. If you’ve read this far; for the moment I am offering pay-what-you-wish readings. Email me for details. Colin@galacticfragment.com

The Australian Crisis

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The fires in Australia are a matter of urgency and concern for all of us.

This is the chart of Australian Federation. You notice the emphasis on earth and fire. This is heavily underscored by current transits.
There is a global call to a 3 minute prayer/visualization for Australian rain at 2pm NYC time, that is 7pm UK. This is today January 3rd 2020.
Please join whatever your faith. Thank you.

What is the collective noun…

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… for a group of astrologers? A conjunction perhaps, a stellium?

I’ve lately returned from a week long course in northern Spain, run by Sue Tompkins. Sue’s splendid books, The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook and Aspects in Astrology, should be on any aspiring astrologer’s reading list. They are what inspired me to go.

The course was held at Torre de Dalt (latorrededalt.com) an old style villa about an hour and a half north of Barcelona, near the city of Girona, complete with pool, views, and a wide terrace with a long table at which the company took meals.

The first part of the week was loosely focussed on medical astrology with classes on sign and planetary rulership of body parts and organs, followed by chart analysis of case studies. In the second part of the week we looked more at general chart analysis and met with a client from the locale to whom we gave a reading.

The course and its content was fascinating and interestingly presented, but a lovely feature of the week was the very relaxed atmosphere. We were a range of types, a mix of professional and domestic backgrounds as you might expect in a gathering of a dozen and a half people, but united by serious interest in astrology. Wine and conversation flowed after the evening meal (delicious vegan cuisine supplied by Kim Farley, also an experienced exponent of the art astro). Over the week stories and personalities emerged easily. Everyone seemed available.

Maybe when a group unites temporarily in receptive study there can be a raising of the collective vibration? I don’t know. But to me the week was a graceful experience, notable in troubled times, of how human beings can be with each other.

Oh, and as my wife pointed out, I was the only guy on the course.

“Really?” I said, “I hadn’t noticed.”

Suetompkins.com for mailing list and details of further events.

Rupert Murdoch & INK

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At the moment I am pursuing my day job (I’m an actor, actually mostly at night. For more see my actor blog at mcphillamy.com). I’m in a play called INK on Broadway. INK tells the story of Rupert Murdoch’s activities in London in the late 1960’s. Briefly; he purchased a failing broadsheet newspaper and turned it into the most popular tabloid in history. I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the astrology.

Here is a link to Rupert Murdoch’s natal chart. Below are the astrological footnotes with a keyword italicized and emboldened:

Rupert Murdoch

The chart indicates a person whose personal presentation is formal, traditional and responsible. Behind this formality lurks a visionary. This is someone with a vision which while original and unexpected in its manifestation, verges on the mythic, and it is a vision which will most probably change frequently in its details and locations. He has very good placements for finance. He has an unusual amount of power and charisma when it comes to relationships — not only in his intimate, personal ones, but also in business dealings, and certainly in situations of commercial challenge. Relationships are likely to be transformative, i.e. no-one is unchanged after close contact with him, and the chart indicates someone capable of a depth of feeling, caring and nurture in his dealings with other people, but also large potential for passive-aggressive manipulation, utter ruthlessness, deep suspicion, sudden withdrawals.

Rupert Murdoch is a born communicator. Mercury, Planet of communication, also ruling information exchange of all kinds, as well as trade, commerce and trickery, was in Pisces when he was born and conjunct his Sun. It is a noted feature that Mercury in Pisces, a mutable water sign — tends to have a fluid, movable, adaptable attitude to facts. There can be a shape-shifting relationship to truth.

Almost all of the other planets in the solar system connect very directly in geometric relationship with this Mercury/Sun conjunction at the base of Rupert Murdoch’s chart, giving him multiple and complex, sophisticated avenues of expression as the changing energies of the constantly moving planets in turn, activate, energize, enhance and stimulate his Mercury.

From an astrological point of view it is not a surprise to know that Rupert Murdoch inherited a media conglomerate from his father. It’s likely that his father’s death would have been especially significant and powerfully affecting to him, not only because of his inheritance, but because the moment of his father’s passing would have connected him in a very powerful way with his own sense of destiny.

On the day of publication of Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper, the 19th November 1969 (see link below), no fewer than five progressed planets straddling the signs of Aries (self-expression) and Taurus (tangible results) are present in his 5th house of creativity. At the same time, the 4th quadrant of his chart (the world at large) is stacked with seven planets by transit. Notably Pluto ruling disclosure and taboo, sits in the middle of Rupert’s 10th House of career. The transiting Sun and Mercury (communication) are conjunct with Neptune (glamour, illusion, story-telling) and Pluto aspects the Sun closely, as does Rupert’s natal Mars (drive, energy, anger), all of which connects with Rupert’s aforementioned communication destiny.

Rupert Murdoch tri-wheel

To say it without the astrological gobbledygook: the time was especially ripe for a taboo-breaking development in media, and Rupert was the man for the job.

This is the man who gave the world opinio-tainment calling it “news”.

And the world ate it up.

  • Responsible: Capricorn rising, Saturn in dignity in the 1st
  • Visionary: Sun in Pisces
  • Mythic: Uranus conjunct north node in Aries (a promethean hero’s journey)
  • Locations: Neptune in Virgo in the 9th
  • Finance: Venus in the 2nd, Mars in the 8th
  • Relationships/challenge/withdrawals: Jupiter conjunct Pulto in the 7th, widely conjunct Mars in the 8th, all in Cancer
  • Truth: Mercury in Pisces
  • Stimulate: The Mercury/Sun conjunction sextiles Saturn and Chiron, squares the Moon, squares Jupiter, trines the Pluto/Mars conjunction and is widely opposite Neptune.
  • Destiny: At his father’s death, the Sun by transit was conjunct Rupert’s south node, and transiting Mars conjunct his Moon.

Drama By Transit

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“Life is never fair… and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.” Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

This week-end (today is Sunday February 3rd 2019) sees the Celtic festival of Imbolc, the beginning of the year. I’ve always enjoyed the fact that as a neo-pagan you get a second chance at all those resolutions.

Here is a new project which I’m calling Drama by Transit. Each month for the next year I’m taking a look at a significant piece of the astrology of the life and times of a prominent theatrical figure. I have chosen as a starting point the twice-in-a-millenium conjunction of Pluto and Neptune which sounds a cultural base note every time it happens. This mighty lineup of the Lord of the Underworld and the Lord of Illusion last occurred in the 1890s and, (would you agree?), ever since, there has been an ongoing explosive expansion in communication in all its forms; from use of language itself to all the many mediums of expression which have never been as widely available as they are today.

Below is the natal chart of Oscar Wilde. Take a look and see if you agree with my observations below… I have emboldened and italicized the astrology so you can skip it if you prefer.


Virgo ascends at 15 degrees, and Saturn in Gemini in the 10th is almost exactly square, within 12 minutes of arc. Mercury is the chart ruler. It’s no surprise then, to know of Oscar Wilde’s use of language. The witticisms of his plays exactly express Saturn in Gemini, the humor is frequently sardonic, and the verbal jousting his characters engage in is full of contradistinctions and fanciful analytics.

Mercury in Scorpio in the 3rd suggests an intensity and early facility with learning, the South node is here too, also in Scorpio, suggesting someone at home in the mental realm and with native talent for deeper understanding. Mars in Sagittarius in the 3rd lends vigor and playful expansiveness to an intellectual quest and Uranus in Taurus in the 9th opposite Mercury, while carrying a love of surprises and challenges made manifest on the physical plane, stimulates original expression.

Venus un-aspected in her dignity in Libra in the 2nd which she rules, also rules the 9th while Mars her erotic counterpart rules the 3rd, one can imagine this is someone who gained sensual pleasure from intellectual pursuit.

Straddling the 5th house cusp at 16 and 19 degrees respectively we find Chiron and Jupiter conjunct in Capricorn. This conjunction is the apex of a yod with Saturn in the 10th sextile the Moon in the 11th. That Oscar Wilde’s point of greatest sensitivity should land almost exactly on his 5th house cusp indicates that his romantic activities would render him extremely vulnerable. The same Chiron/Jupiter conjunction is trine Uranus and forms a mini grand trine with Neptune in Pisces conjunct the descendant. We see here a flair for the unconventional, the extraordinarily sensitive and probably highly romanticized attitude to relationship, with a strong tendency to play either victim or redeemer. The Mercury Uranus opposition is the base line of a T-Square to the Moon in Leo in the 11th. This is someone who needs to be seen as a maverick, who needs to entertain, and must find a way to do it in a public forum.

I mention all this because: on 14th February (Valentime’s Day) 1895, the opening night of the original London production of The Importance of Being Earnest, the aforementioned conjunction of Pluto and Neptune was connecting significantly with Oscar Wilde’s personal chart. Pluto was at 9′ 48″ Gemini and Neptune at 13 ‘ 01″ These points are within a little over 1 degree, and just over 2 and a half degrees of his Midheaven and his Saturn respectively.

So on the opening night of The Importance – surely Oscar’s greatest masterpiece – Pluto, the great transformer was close to his point of highest aspiration, and Neptune who bestows glamour was sprinkling frivolous glitter on the Lord of Form (Saturn) in the arena of language (Gemini) precisely in Oscar Wilde’s 10th house of career and reputation.His success as a playwright (he’d already had three plays in the West End), was enormously enhanced and he was, for a brief time, the most celebrated dramatist of the English language.

What a difference a few months can make, and how a seemingly beneficent influence can turn. When Oscar Wilde’s trial for Gross indecency began in early May of that same year 1895, Pluto (ruling taboo and disclosure) was exactly conjunct his midheaven, and when sentence was passed a few weeks later Neptune (ruling illusion and disillusion) was then exactly conjunct his Saturn, both conjunctions to within less than one degree of arc.

Oscar Wilde’s fall from Grace finds echoes today. Homosexual orientation and practice is no longer forbidden in England or the English-speaking world, but at the time of writing Pluto (ruling upheaval and the rising to the light of hidden things) is at work in Capricorn (which  rules institutions generally: government, churches, banks …), and Neptune is in Pisces, where we find myth, storytelling and entertainment – consider the sudden fall of many celebrities and/or politicians who are suddenly made into burnt toast through accusation and disclosure.

Fast forward now 122 years (almost exactly half the orbital period of Pluto, and almost exactly one quarter of the Pluto/Neptune cycle…)

Below is a bi-wheel with Oscar’s chart as the inner circle, the outer circle shows the transits on January 31st 2017 when the British parliament singed into law a pardon for 50,000 homosexual men, among them Oscar Wilde.

The really significant transits are:

  1. The Pluto/Mercury conjunction sitting closely over Oscar’s Chiron/Jupiter and straddling the 5th House cusp.
  2. Neptune by transit has almost completed exactly one orbit of the Sun since Oscar’s birth year and is now closely conjunct his Descendant.

Thus:

  1. Pluto the great transformer, Lord of death and rebirth, re-visits Oscar Wilde’s most sensitive, most wounded place, and through Mercury (who alone of the Gods may go to the underworld and return to the light) communicates his new status.
  2. The sacrificial adventure, which required Oscar to give his life, is completed. The orbit of Neptune closes the circle and Oscar’s relationship to the rest of us is restored as a master of language. One that challenged convention, but tasted life’s bitterest trials.

All of the above is a long way to wonder if Oscar Wilde, one of the greatest dramatic wordsmiths of all time, performed a singular service in his destiny. From our present perspective his treatment at law seems primitive at best, barbaric at worst, and highlights the long awaited restitution in law of generations of injustice.

Meanwhile, the mighty outer planets beam their influence to the Earth in ways unacknowledged by science. The same dramas occur in different guises and they lose no power to surprise us.

The astrology seems exact.

 

Solstice Greetings

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Hello! It’s been a while…

Would you agree that 2018 has been something of an interior year? Well, with nearly all planets retrograde at one time or another in the past trek around the Sun, what would you expect?

Have you been drawn to introspection? Have you put projects on hold? Have plans you thought were a sure thing gone pear-shaped? Yes? Me too. Well to some extent. I have been busy with my day job as an actor (see my actor blog).

Eventually what has emerged for me is new project to work on over the next year, which brings my two jobs (actor and astrologer) together. I call it Drama by Transit and I will resume a monthly post on this theme as it relates to the transit described below.

Pluto

In the last decade of the 19th century there was a celestial conjunction that occurs once every 493 years. Pluto and Neptune were in exactly the same place in the sky as viewed from the Earth. These two outer planets and their energies were exactly conjunct at 8 degrees, 37 minutes Gemini on August 2nd of 1891.

Neptune

This large cycle of almost 500 years, which will repeat in Gemini until the 3800s, sounds, I believe, a base note in world culture.

Fast forward to 2017, 126 years later.

For every two orbits Pluto makes around the Sun (at 248 years a time), Neptune makes three (at 168 year per), and thus they hook up, so to speak, about every half millennium. Meanwhile let us notice that 126 year is about half (within 4 years) of the orbital period of Pluto.

Er yes, well re-reading all that, it does seem a bit heavy on the jargon. Not to worry all you have to know for now is that Pluto and Neptune were conjunct in Gemini in 1891 – among many other things this caused (I reckon) an explosion in language.

So 1891 to 2017. These are the two bookend dates for this project. And I hope all will become clear as we go forward.

More anon.

Meanwhile, Happy Solstice!