UAC 2012: THE MOST TIRING CONFERENCE YOU’LL EVER LOVE

LIFE IN THE BIG EASY…...Post-Katrina New Orleans on Frenchman Street in Marigny...

For anyone who may be thinking of doing UAC in the future, the first thing to realize is how exhausting this week can be. There are so many tracks, with 15 different workshops running simultaneously in every time slot. Most days run four time slots back to back (with some breaks in between for lunch, and such) from 9:00 am to 5:45 pm.

And for the eager and energetic, there is a whole separate selection of yummy workshops offered during lunch – the “Brown Bag Lunch” workshops offered by young, up-and-coming astrologers which an attendee does not find out about until they arrive (they were not available in advance on the website). Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to attend a single one – too tired. I was wiped out by allergies before I got here, and I have been coughing a lot here.

Prior to UAC, I signed up for an 11 hour commitment on the hospitality desk. I’m glad I took the opportunity to volunteer because this desk is a central hub – a lot of information about the conference flows at you while you are on the desk, and a lot of speakers come over to say hello and chat a bit, and the whole experience made me feel far more “connected” than I would have ever felt if I hadn’t volunteered. Plus, I got the opportunity to work with some wonderful people, and when I needed to switch rooms and find a new roommate for the last night of the conference, I found her among my peers on the hospitality desk, of course.

A lot of the fatigue has to do with the fact that New Orleans is such an amazing city, and it’s a real juggling act to decide how much time to allocate to the conference, and how much time to spend goofing off in the French Quarter or in Marigny.

Should one split for a tour, or take a leisurely stroll down to Café du Monde for breakfast beignets, or take a trolley out to the Garden District, or soak up some sun by the pool, or get drunk on old-fashioned cocktails, or actually go and attend the workshops?

This is an expensive conference – most people didn’t come to simply hang out in New Orleans. However, I will say that New Orleans competes for our time and attention the way Denver never did (Denver was where UAC 2008 was held, and is a very boring city by comparison).

Bourbon Street on a weeknight...where every night is Mardi Gras, and the lead-up to the Memorial Day weekend is kind of crazy.

But there are other fatigue factors. The high heat and humidity is one of them. Unless you’re actually coming from the lower South, there is nowhere else in the United States this hot and humid in May. As soon as I arrived, I started feeling the need for “siesta” – there’s a reason why it’s such a central part of life in tropical places like New Orleans (NO).



Mermaid looking for a siesta...

NOTE TO THE WISE: In tropical places, siesta doesn’t often get used for siesta. Only children really get a siesta. In siesta cultures, adults in relationships are often using siesta for something else. And conference attendees almost never get a real siesta, even if they aren’t busy at hanky-panky. Bring Vitamin C or B 12 sublingual for additional energy throughout the day.

UAC DRAWBACKS

As my roommate noted, there’s a huge number of women over 50 here. Not a lot of cute, straight guys. Not a lot of men, period. And not as many young people as one would hope – even with the scholarship program, a lot of young people under 35 find it too expensive to attend UAC.

Whitney Houston, our favorite older lady, on the altar at the witch shop, Hex, on Decatur Street.



This isn’t a specific UAC drawback, but I was surprised how many attendees I spoke with who do not read astrology books, or who own a lot of astrology books and admit to having never read them. People who have hang-ups about doing a lot of reading are the ones who tend to come to conferences – these are audio learners, or folks who need a teacher who will guide them through excerpts and worksheets because they aren’t the type to sit down and read books on their own.

Most of the speakers present new material at conferences at UAC, so being well-read isn’t essential to getting a lot from the conference. Still, as someone who is self-taught, and who not only reads but also takes notes on most of the astrology books that I own, this attitude leaves me a bit cold.

UAC HIGHLIGHTS SO FAR…

ROCK-N-BOWL

The conference organized shuttle buses to take us out to Mid-City for a NO institution – Friday night bowling with a dance floor and live music. UAC attendees only had the place to ourselves for a couple of hours – 7:30 – 9:30 pm, before it was opened to the public. But there was plenty of free wine & beer, and a New Orleans style buffet, and the lanes were all full. I can’t bowl to save my life, but a fellow hospitality volunteer, N., added me to her team, and, let’s just say they all took pity on me.

GOOD CONVERSATION

N. and I went out to a well-known hole-in-the-wall called Green Goddess before we caught the shuttle for Rock n Bowl. Located a few blocks behind our hotel, the place has outdoor seating, and some wonderfully strong, old-fashioned cocktails (plus a reputation for an excellent cheese plate). Like a lot of places in the French Quarter, it features ladies in a greater state of undress than one would ever see them at home. Many of these are black or mixed-race (NO has a very long history of non-white courtesans shaping the culture).

QUIK FASHION NOTE: I’m seeing a lot of women wearing thin, translucent lace in New Orleans – a great way to beat the heat and look feminine. I love this look. Don’t see much of it in DC.

QUIK PRALINE TIP: Evans Candy Factory in the French Market on Decatur Street makes a wicked creamy rum praline.

So N. and I sat around and talked a bit. We talked about our horoscopes – this is something that ladies at astrology conferences do a lot. N. had a very strong horoscope, with Regulus and Spica tightly conjunct two of her planets, in addition to a few other goodies. I have a very weak horoscope. So I talked about my sense that astrology stops one from playing the blame game – some of us draw a good horoscope with our first breath, and some of us don’t – but the native needs to make choices and move forward with what they get. Afterwards I reflected that the people with crappy horoscopes sometimes get far more interesting lives.

Street musicians playing in the heat on Chartres Street in the French Quarter.

Meanwhile, N. told me about her sense that New Orleans is like a giant purgatory. Couldn’t argue that – NO is definitely a Sin City, more so than Las Vegas. It isn’t just the voodoo and the prostitution and the wild drunkenness on Bourbon St every night that spills over the rest of the French Quarter like a wave. Nor is it just the shadows from the past, those of Marie Laveau, or the rumor that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment for all the black magic practiced in this city. The energy here IS edgy.

That edginess is what draws people. I would love to live here for a winter, but I wonder if I could make it through the monsoon season and the long, hot summer.

Sign on Decatur Street "Voodoo Blues: May the curse be with you."


UAC 2012 LECTURES – WHAT SHOULD YOU BUY?

Attendees spend a considerable amount of time trading tips on the lectures and presenters they liked, because folks find that the lectures they most wanted to attend occur in the same time slot as one or two others that were also on their bucket list. So everyone wants tips on what recordings are worth the price at the end of the conference, as well as which ones might be worth skipping.

Here’s what I’ve liked so far:

GARY CATON – Rahu & Ketu: Transformation via the Cosmic Dragon

He’s a good speaker and a creative, thorough thinker. I know quite a bit about Rahu and Ketu, but Gary thought of some things that never occurred to me. Interesting material on the role Rahu & Ketu play in an eclipse. The recording should be worth buying.

Unfortunately, I did not get to see his, "Cycles of Mercury: Transformation & The Trickster," but I know that Gary was planning on staying two steps ahead of his audience by playing the trickster himself. He was going to give attendees the option of immediate gratification on door prizes vs. delayed gratification that could lead to prizes of greater or lesser value than those offered to the folks who chose instant gratification. Bet this would have been fun to watch!

SHIRLEY SOFFER – Mars & His Children

Soffer is an amazing speaker – her presentation is crystal clear, and she is very aware that she speaks to be recorded. She did a comprehensive, run-down of the myths associated with Mars – he wasn’t just a vicious warrior, but also a lover who tended to be more loyal than Zeus, and a passionate defender of his children. She also showed how his children with Venus all represent some aspect of the experience of passionate love.

MICHAEL ERLEWINE – Tibetan Astrology

Don’t bother buying it if you weren’t there. Erlewine forgot his notes, so he decided to sit there and tell stories of his life for an hour. Since he’s had a fascinating life, this was not at all boring for attendees, but I doubt it will make a great recording.

Erlewine is 1960’s aristocracy. He is a musician who hitchhiked with Bob Dylan, counted Iggy Pop as his drummer, and who opened for bands like Cream. He was able to show off some amazing photos – like one of him as a young man interviewing Muddy Waters.

After the wild and crazy musician years, Erlewine founded Matrix software in 1977, one of the oldest software companies in the US. He did well financially with Matrix, and plowed a lot of that money into a compound in Big Rapids, MI known as The Heart Center. At its heart is an 8 bedroom house where many of the famous "greats" of 20th century astrology have spent time on extended retreat, including Dane Rudhyar , Rob Hand, Michel Gauquelin, and Charles Harvey. Rob Schmidt is now a scholar-in-residence there, while he heads up the exhaustive translation endeavor, Project Hindsight.

The multi-talented Erlewine also does photography at a near-professional level. His photos and those of others made this presentation exceptional.

DARBY COSTELLO – From Saturn in Libra to Scorpio: After the Work of Love, What Next?

The first part of her lecture was very strong. She is a dynamic speaker who can be powerful at the podium. The main point of her lecture on Saturn’s upcoming transit into Scorpio is that there will be a “frozen” quality to the experience of the house with Scorpio in the natal chart, and the challenge is up to the native to use the experience beneficially. The example she used is Medusa turning people to stone. No kidding!

Costello went off on tangents when it came time to look at horoscopes, however. She also used charts from her client files rather than focusing on well-known public figures. This presentation strategy is not my favorite, and her lecture was far less focused after this.

TO BE CONT’D.

Marilyn Monroe: A Lilith For Modern Times (Part 3)

The final article in this three-part series reveals the shadowy myth of Lilith, a dark figure of whom little is known other than that she was said to a killer of babies in the crib or in the womb, and was also believed by ancient Jews to have seductive qualities.

Marilyn in Korea in 1954.


NO ONE DID LILITH BETTER THAN MARILYN MONROE DID

As much as Monroe’s life makes the myth of Venus manifest in our world, it seems pretty incredible that she also conveys so much of the secretive, hidden myth of Lilith. On the surface, these two don’t appear to have much in common. There are no complete myths remaining for Lilith – she merits a mere scrap at the beginning of Genesis. But a closer look at Monroe’s life reveals that Lilith gets almost as much play as Venus did.

Marilyn had BM Lilith in the 1st House at 29 Leo, conjunct Regulus (not shown in this horoscope), and we have already noted that her first house planet and asteroids exerted strong influence over her life. Still, it is something of a mystery that she expressed Lilith as powerfully as she did. For most women born in 1926 with Lilith conjunct Regulus, there was little effect.

AT THE HEAD OF ARMIES

Anyone with experience of S. Korea is familiar with the frigid cold that descends from Siberia during the winter. Marilyn Monroe performed in front of warmly dressed American troops in February, 1954 wearing this skimpy, shimmery dress. Like the soldiers she performed for, she covered her own suffering with a smile.

As an ancient demon-goddess, Lilith was also said to be at the head of armies. Marilyn was a favorite pin-up girl among US soldiers, and she also devoted time to performing for US troops stationed overseas. Other actresses of her era did the same, so this fact in itself is unremarkable. Still, a beautiful and seductive woman who entertained troops seems like Lilith to me.

WAS LILITH A SHAPE-SHIFTER?

It may be my imagination, but Marilyn's expression is so similar to that of Jackie Kennedy in this photo. I did a double-take the first time I saw it.

I began the research for this series by typing a simple question into Google, “Was Lilith a shape-shifter?” After going through images of Monroe, I noticed the expression on her face in one famous photo which I felt had a striking likeness to Jackie Kennedy. It was almost as if Monroe was unconsciously “channeling” Jackie, or at least it seemed this way to me. So this was my starting point. The question turned out to be a gateway, because other mythic associations of Lilith started matching up with Marilyn’s life or with her natal horoscope.

According to Jewish tradition, Lilith could shape-shift like an angel and become a “beautiful woman” or a fowl of the air. I couldn’t help but note Monroe’s shallow conversion to Judaism upon her marriage to Arthur Miller – it was almost as if she had some fate to fulfill that would link her to the myth of Lilith even more.

The Greeks feared a creature called Lamia, one of the lesser known lovers of Zeus who was victimized by Hera and made to devour her own children. Lamia acted out her agony by doing the same to human children. Significantly, Lamia was thought to have the upper body of a beautiful woman, and the lower body of a snake. Monroe’s Vedic Ascendant is in Ashlesha, the nakshatra of the snake.

One of the most devastating aspects of Marilyn’s adult life was that she had one miscarriage after another, with no live births. It didn’t help that well-known author Norman Mailer tried to trash her reputation by writing that she had undergone 12 abortions. There is no way to know if Monroe had any abortions, since they were illegal and therefore unrecorded, but the effects of 12 abortions would have been evident upon autopsy. Yet the autopsy was unremarkable regarding this physical aspect.

Many shamanic cultures note infertility among those who interact heavily with the unseen world. Jesus had no children. Mohammed had four daughters with his first wife, but no children at all after his interaction with the angel Gabriel, despite the fact that he had taken a total of nine wives, several of whom were young and fertile.

Ancient Greek myths believed that the children of a mortal-divine union were blessed with super-human gifts, but the mortal parent of such a child always paid the price and died young. Voodoo priestesses must be celibate during the years of important initiation because of a very strong taboo against conceiving children that could be “tainted” by the gods of the Vodoun pantheon. Among the ancient Norse, certain shamanic roles were restricted to women past childbearing age.

My own feeling is that Marilyn Monroe unknowingly participated in this dynamic, which must have been incredibly painful, since she would not have realized what was happening or why.

The frightening thing about embodying the goddesses so strongly is that one’s life becomes a sacrifice – there seems to be a terrible price paid for the incredible gifts granted. Aside from the shenanigans of J.Edgar Hoover, did Marilyn Monroe end up dead at 36 because Venus and Lilith possessed so much of her life’s energy? This is a very difficult question for me to answer…

"Not very smart," she would say of herself in her most famous film, "Some Like It Hot", touching her temple using the same gesture seen here. But I think she had a lot more "smarts" than she was ever given credit for...

SOURCES
More information on Scheat. The 2010 Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction with Scheat
Facts about her life. http://marilynmonroepages.com/facts.html>

Marilyn Monroe: A Lilith For Modern Times (Part 2)

Young Norma Jean was barely out of her teens when this photo was taken.

It doesn’t matter how long it takes. It matters whose taking you.
– My favorite line of Marilyn’s from her 1959 film “Some Like It Hot”.


This article on Marilyn Monroe is my way of commemorating the upcoming Venus Occultation of the Sun on June 6, 2012. When Venus shows her hidden, or occult side, we see more than a little of the mysterious Lilith uncovered…but we also see Venus in all of her glory.



FIXED STARS ALL OVER THE MAP…

The striking fixed-star features of Marilyn’s natal chart jumped out at me – she had four planets conjunct fixed stars within a one degree orb, and Black Moon Lilith partile conjunct the royal star Regulus. Her Sun was conjunct another royal but unfortunate star, Aldebaran.

With the exception of her Sun, her other four star conjunctions were all generational, and would have affected everyone born in the months or even years on either side of her birth. What comes to mind is Robert Hand’s remark that the fixed stars can raise one to a great height, and then just as suddenly drop one from that height. It occurred to me that a huge number of young men born in 1926 would have died during WWII, and many young women as well, and I can’t help but wonder if those fixed stars positions might not have somehow influenced that outcome.

Marilyn's measurements have always been a subject of intense speculation. She had a true fertility-goddess figure - a bust that was likely a 36D or a 38D in old-fashioned bra sizes and a waist that was likely size 6 or size 8, with voluptuous hips. Many of her film-set dresses were skin tight and molded onto her body.



QUICK RECAP OF THE MEANING OF THOSE FIXED STARS

SIRIUS (14 Cancer 05 – Tightly conjunct Marilyn’s Pluto – 13 Cancer 23) - Aspiration, self-importance, celebrity, leadership, emotional.

ALPHA SERPENTIS (22 Scorpio 04 – Tightly conjunct Marilyn’s Saturn – 21 Scorpio 26) - Achievements marred by difficulty, emotional instability, difficulties with relationships.

SCHEAT (29 Pisces 22 – Tightly conjunct Marilyn’s Uranus – 28 Pisces 59) – I call this the “shit” star. It is prone to melancholy, and gives connections to crime. Endless enthusiasm for the matters connected to the star, but no ultimate fulfillment.

REGULUS (29 Leo 53 – Partile conjunct Marilyn’s Lilith) – Ambitious, dignified, gracious, but possible downfall. Connected to matters of high status and leadership.

ALDEBARAN (9 Gem 47 – Tightly conjunct Marilyn’s Sun – 10 Gemini 26) – Success and popularity, but also suggests danger, violence, and an intemperate spirit.

Supposedly, Marilyn wasn't all that proud of doing naked pictures early in her career, but they remain the favorites of a younger generation of fans.

SATURN WAS THE FOCAL POINT OF HER HOROSCOPE…

So we would expect the qualities of Alpha Serpentis to show up strongly, and they do. The movie, “My Week With Marilyn” did a great job of showing Marilyn’s emotional instability. Despite an adoring public, she did have trouble with so many of her personal relationships – her mother, her absent or unknown father, her three husbands and numerous lovers, and her demanding co-stars. “My Week With Marilyn” made it clear that her co-star Lawrence Olivier wanted more from her than he was ever willing to give in return.

The film also did a good job of showing how learning lines was excruciatingly painful for her. Marilyn had strong intuitive intelligence but a lot of contemporaries remarked that she wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box, although she did know how to “make do” with what she did have. “Achievements marred by difficulty” seems an apt summation, and her natal Mercury was combust, which couldn’t have made things any easier.

SCHEAT, THE “SHIT” STAR

Uranus was tightly conjunct Scheat during the entire summer of 1926. This was particularly hard on little girls born this summer, because Uranus represents masculine energy and the men in a young girl’s life. Monroe suffered one or more sexual assaults in childhood, and she was connected to the Mafia as she grew older. Other little girls would have been born to families with fathers, uncles, and brothers involved in bootlegging during the Prohibition years.

Ebertin mentions the following:

“(Scheat) Tied up with ‘malefics’, this could lead the native to lose his life in catastrophes, such as floods, shipwreck, mining accidents, airplane accidents, or maybe suicide.”

Scheat is said to give endless enthusiasm for a certain subject even though success is never at hand. Marilyn had it conjunct her 8th House Uranus, and a number of her films show her going after a man for his money. In real life, Monroe didn’t need to do this once she got past adolescence, and projected the energy in a humorous way in her films instead.

WHAT A DIVA!

Monroe was known for having a temper and for “losing it” hysterically, on a bad day. Her husband Arthur Miller recalled an argument when she became so angry that she dumped him by the side of the road in an empty desert. People who worked for her frequently decided it wasn’t worth the humiliation…usually after she had already fired them.

That said, Monroe was on the record against red-baiting and for black equality – her ideals were directed toward large groups on an impersonal level – a textbook description of natal Moon and Jupiter in Aquarius.

THE GENIUS AND THE GODDESS

Marilyn and Arthur Miller, her gentle "Hottie" with glasses

This is the title of a book by Jeffery Meyer about Marilyn’s third marriage to Arthur Miller. The reviewer, Mark Gould, talked about their strong ‘chemistry’ and how each wanted to enter the other’s world – he wanted to write film scripts; she wanted to act on stage. He notes that Monroe was drawn by Miller’s gentleness, and because she believed he could teach and protect her (Chiron on her MC). Also, Miller never hit her, and her second husband Joe DiMaggio did. Although in her own words, “Joe never beat me without good reason.” (Talk about Chiron on the MC…!)

Gould also notes that “The Genius and the Goddess” is a familiar archetype for other famous couples - Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham come to mind. A poignant description of Miller and Monroe’s marriage is available online as an extract from Christopher Bigsby’s biography below:

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller's Marriage

Before Miller, there was Joe DiMaggio. It was an iconic marriage in its own right – biographers of DiMaggio like to insist that Marilyn was not in love with DiMaggio when she married him, but that she fell in love with him after divorcing him, and was not only looking back on her marriage to him fondly at the end of her life, but that they would have gotten back together had she lived.

Their "chemistry" is the first thing you notice in this photo.

It is certainly true that DiMaggio and Monroe had more in common than Miller and Monroe did – they were both 10th grade high school drop-outs and enormous idols living inside the “hero machine” – he was a folk hero and living legend, and she was the most publicized, swiftly rising movie star in history.

A sensitive portrait of Monroe and DiMaggio’s marriage which also includes some fascinating material on why J. Edgar Hoover may have hated her as much as he did John Kennedy, and how he may have successfully twisted public opinion to blame Kennedy for Monroe’s death is found below:

Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio's Marriage

Before Joe DiMaggio, there was her four year long teen-age marriage, with its echoes of the marriage between Venus and Hephaestus. Jim Dougherty finally has his say below:

Jim Dougherty remembers Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn's fleshy, natural beauty is such a refreshing contrast from the skinny Hollywood starlets of today, with their gym-buffed arms and giraffe necks.

Marilyn Monroe: A Lilith For Modern Times (Part 1)

Meaning of the Upcoming Venus Occultation

This rare transit – described as Venus passing across the Sun as in a minor eclipse – will occur on June 6, 2012 (my father’s 80th birthday). These rare transits occur in pairs that are 8 years apart, separated by a long interval of 121 years. For the past 2000 years, they have only occurred in Gemini and Sagittarius.

WHAT DOES A VENUS OCCULTATION REALLY MEAN?

The following represents my best guess. Venus strongest associations are love and money. She is normally associated with pastel colors – light pink, pale blue, faint peach. Her colors are said to become vivid during occulation – very hot pink, vivid tangerine-orange , shocking purples, etc…

Sure enough, the fashion industry has followed suit, and my local Target is full of neon tangerine and electric pink clothes. None of this stuff is going to sell very well, I feel, and a lot of it will be deeply discounted before the actual date of the occultation. There is something overdone or extreme about the energy of Venus during an occultation, and the consumer senses this.

Venus will be retrograde between mid-May and June 23, 2012 as well. This means consumers will get a good deal on goods that others don’t recognize the value of – it’s a great time to hit the yard sales. But this isn’t the time to shop for new products. My guess is retailers will be seeing a lot of returns.

The Venus occultation highlights the myth of Venus, so stories related to her may play out in the lives of those around us or in the national news. Women may leave deficient men the way Venus left Hephaestus, or handsome young men may end up dying under sacrificial circumstances, recalling the love of Venus for her beloved Adonis, who she tried to protect but ultimately could not. (The ancient Greeks held an annual sacred ritual called the Adonai to commemorate adolescent and young adult males who died prematurely.)

Not all of these men will necessarily be young. A few days ago, Micah True, the 58-year-old extreme-distance runner who was featured in the book, “Born To Run”, set out for a routine 12 mile run in a remote area of New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness and disappeared.

My favorite photo of Micah True is on the right.

As I write these words, his cause of death is still undetermined. But two things stand out in my mind: True was stunningly gorgeous as a young man, and many people remarked on the purity of his facial expression as an older man. As a long-distance runner, he was a seeker who was constantly motivated by an inner quest or search. Adonai was a young hunter who adored the hunt and was killed by a wild boar that he failed to kill first.

PEOPLE WHO COME BACK INTO OUR CONSCIOUSNESS FROM THE PAST

Since this is the last Venus Occultation for more than 100 years, people who lived out the myth of Venus on a wide scale may return to our attention even though they have passed away. For some reason, Marilyn Monroe has been on my mind a lot lately, ever since I saw the incredible portrait of her by Michelle Williams in the Oscar-nominated “My Week With Marilyn”.

Michelle Williams somehow taps the myth of Venus and Adonis herself – recall her love of the doomed Heath Ledger, and also the beautiful tangerine-orange dress she wore to the Oscars which looked stunning on her but would have looked awful on nearly everyone else.

Michelle Williams amazed us with her ability to "channel" Marilyn Monroe. She was said to be the only actress director Simon Curtis wanted to cast for the role. This author can't help but notice her birthplace in Kalispell, MT (spell of Kali).

As I said, I can’t seem to get away from Marilyn Monroe. I’ve rented her movie, “Some Like It Hot”, even though I’ve never wanted to watch it before, and I haven’t watched her other films either. I did a little research in preparation for an article, but keep putting it off because I don’t have time to read a good biography. I know Marilyn Monroe had a tight Venus-Chiron conjunction, and that her Sun was closely joined to an intimidating fixed star, as was her Saturn – the focal point of her natal horoscope. Yet what keeps coming up over and over in my mind is not Venus but Lilith.

Lilith was said to be a beautiful woman and a shape-shifter who was associated with the death of babies and was also said to be at the head of armies – and Marilyn Monroe fulfilled each of these associations in her own life. Since I hadn’t been paying attention, I went back and re-checked the asteroids in her natal horoscope. Sure enough, she had Black Moon Lilith partile conjunct the royal fixed star Regulus.

It occurs to me that I really ought to try to write about Marilyn in time for UAC 2012, which will start just two weeks before the Venus occultation. Perhaps Lilith should be explored as a darker version of Venus, and maybe her myth comes to the fore during a Venus occultation as well. These are only my speculations, but we will see…

UPDATE ON MICAH TRUE

The New York Times published a eulogy for him on Sunday, May 20, 2012. It is titled, "Caballo Blanco's Last Run: The Micah True Story". It is well worth reading.

The AP reports that he died of heart disease, more specifically an enlarged heart. This symptom is associated with very thin long-distance runners of both sexes.

Thoughts on Pluto in Capricorn (and Aquarius)

I’D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS, READERS. PLEASE LEAVE SOME COMMENTS.

BTW, THIS BLOG NEEDS SOME MORE "FRIENDS". PLEASE FRIEND ME WHILE YOU'RE AT IT.

Pluto has been in Capricorn for three years now, and we’ve all seen what it has to offer.
It’s entry into Capricorn inaugurated the largest economic meltdown in the United States since the Great Depression, and I think most American adults will remember how their financial picture changed in September, 2008 for the rest of our lives.

If any metal out of the earth passed Pluto’s smell test, it has to be gold, which climbed from roughly $400.00 an ounce in 2005 to more than $1300.00 an ounce today. Pluto should be fascinating every astrologer right about now.






Buffalo Gold Coin






This article takes a closer look at what Pluto in Capricorn actually means for many Americans, and how its trends will drive the future events of Pluto in Aquarius. As the Sun moves into Aquarius this year, I took a day off work because I felt like I HAD TO WRITE this article.

SATURN

Capricorn is all about Saturn. Saturn interacts synergistically with Pluto, and Pluto manifests more strongly with Capricorn. A lot of smart thinkers have pointed out different facets of this idea. Raven Kaldera (see the blog entry) observed that Pluto delivers us into Saturn’s hands. Pluto in Capricorn values the treasures of the earth, anything from minerals to buried treasure to the Periodic Table of the Elements in chemistry. Someone on another blog pointed out that lead is the only metal used to contain deadly plutonium, and lead is one of the metals associated with Saturn. Astrologer Maurice Fernandez also observed that Pluto in Capricorn is “sixteen years of Lent”.

THE MYTH OF PLUTO AND PERSEPHONE IN OUR DAILY LIVES


Jeff Bridges as Pluto/Odin in "True Grit", a movie made by the Coen brothers in 2010. Odin is depicted as wearing an eye patch over his bad eye.




Pluto in Capricorn determines the nature of the stories that you see in your daily newspaper - everything from the porn explosion, older men marrying or having sex with very young women, the emphasis on the Hollywood careers of very young movie starlets who are still children, the sexuality of pre-teen girls(with almost no attention being paid to pre-teen boys),
14 year old Hailee Steinfield as Persephone in the film, "True Grit"







the unearthing of long-forgotten buried treasure, the high price of food in the developing world, and the revealing (or “unearthing”) of wide-scale military, diplomatic and corporate corruption by Julian Assange and his organization, Wikileaks. Nearly every one of these topics is associated in some way with the myth of Pluto and Persephone.


A sharp-talking Persephone gets her Pluto in the Coen brothers' movie, "True Grit". It's a clean movie. Pluto doesn't take advantage of her.


By energizing Capricorn, Pluto has an effect on the way all other planets manifest in Capricorn. Saturn is strong in Capricorn, and we have already seen how industries involving conservation and farming have more than their fair share of the media’s attention at the moment. Less attention has been paid to industries associated with Jupiter. Jupiter is fallen in Capricorn, so professions associated with Jupiter are really going to be in trouble for the next decade (more on that later).

DEMETER IS PART OF THE MYTH, TOO

Demeter doesn't get a good rap in the myth of Pluto and Persephone. She is depicted as having an extraordinarily close relationship with her daughter but she also smothers her. How well does this turn out for Persephone? She ends up married to the Underworld CEO. (There's also that little matter of rape or ravishment, depending on your take on it.)



"Helicopter" moms are Demeter's modern manifestation. Bitch mother Amy Chua just made the cover of the Jan 22, 2011 issue of Time Magazine, I see.

My Note: Ivy League dominatrix Amy Chua makes the case for Demeter in no uncertain terms. Her memoir has caused a splash, because it implies that China and its children will soon rule the world because of their competitive mothers who demand the best.


Little attention is being paid to boys at the moment, which may be a good thing, because it will allow them to grow up without having to participate in an archtypal energy pattern. At least one boy who is effeminate enough to be able to tap the Persephone myth has managed to make a fortune, however. Justin Bieber will represent Best Buy during the Superbowl - companies are eager to cash in on the drawing power of young girls (or those who appear to be girls).



Justin or Justine?

My friend's daughter posted this photo of herself dressed as Justin Bieber on Facebook. The Persephone archetype seems fairly obvious.






CAPRICORN IS ALL ABOUT THE OLD-FASHIONED

Everything old-fashioned has come back around. Folks are making their own jam, distilling their own fruit-flavored brandy (shhhhhhhhh), crocheting their own shawls, or keeping chickens again and making a big deal out of selling truly fresh eggs. Small farmers are finally making money again, although most find that selling at the farmers’ markets is more lucrative and less aggravating than participating in community supported agriculture (CSA’s). Most Americans are tapping this energy in some way. I started knitting in 2009, and I love it. Knitting is wonderfully portable, and it helps me fill all the “dead time” in my day that annoyed me to no end because it went to waste and I felt I had nothing to show for it.

On Friday night, a knitting circle gets together at Border Books in Frederick, MD, and from week to week we see as many as fifteen women show up – this never would have happened just a few years ago when Pluto was in Sagittarius, because the same people were probably too busy renovating their houses, and also because just a few years ago, knitting wasn’t “cool”.
Toronto soccer-mom Stephanie Pearl McPhee, a yarn goddess who started a blog called “The Yarn Harlot”, was still “under the radar” during Pluto in Sagittarius. Now she’s a best-selling author who can shut down traffic in a small city when the word gets out that she is doing a workshop at a wool convention.

The motivation behind all this has to do with a revolt against the computer. Americans love our technology, and we delight in our I Pods and our Blackberries and our Mac Book Pros, but on some level, we are also sick of these things. There’s a real yen for handmade things that are imperfect and made in small batches because, well…., those things are the exact opposite of the computer I work on every day.

PLUTO AND THE POOR

An odd thing is happening in America, and it’s a difficult thing to see. Pluto isn’t kind to the poor or the unemployed, and the gulf between rich and poor is an abyss gaping wider by the day. While the official unemployment rate is stuck at 9.6%, the unofficial rate of the unemployed, those working part-time jobs while they look for full-time jobs, and those who have stopped looking and are no longer being counted is conservatively estimated at 17%. None of these people have enough money to make ends meet, let along enjoy what life has to offer. Capricorn is an ambitious, ladder-climbing sign, so the poor don’t get our attention at the moment – they’ll muddle through somehow, I suppose!

PLUTO IS WHERE THE MONEY’S AT…

The wealth at the top has become rather obvious to everyone. What’s left of Wall St. is doing better than ever before. 500 or so partners at Goldman Sachs have become extraordinarily wealthy in the last two years, despite the fact that few if any actually drew a salary. These Plutos (87% of current partners are men because few gals are promoted) cashed out more than $20 billion in Goldman shares in the past 12 years, according to results of a recent study. The Chief Pluto and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, cashed out $93.8 million since 1999, and remains sitting on a tidy pile of some $355 million – not bad for a boss of a company that doesn’t actually make a tangible product.

PLUTO IS ALL ABOUT HIDDEN WEALTH AND OUR CHILDREN (SOCIOLOGY 101 FOR OUR TIMES)


Pluto for planet-hood, or Pluto for parenthood? You decide.


Wealthy Americans are having more children than an earlier generation of wealthy folks did. When I was young, yuppie women wanted a career outside the home as well as a family, and all the upper-middle class parents in the community where I attended high school had two kids, or maybe three. Solidly middle-class adults who came from working-class backgrounds like my parents, on the other hand, had lots of children. I was the oldest of five, and households with seven or eight children in my childhood neighborhood were not uncommon.

Now the wealthy are having three and four children, or even five and six, because wealthy women are no longer as concerned about having an identity outside the home – most of them worked until some point in their late twenties or early-to-mid thirties, and then happily quit for good, while some of them manage to have it all with lucrative, non-traditional careers that can be managed out of the house.

It’s the middle class where a revolution is occurring, one that doesn’t get much attention. The middle class now is afraid to have kids. One child is the new norm. Middle class parents are afraid for the future, even if their jobs are stable. They know that their kids are going to have to compete against the children of the better-connected wealthy for jobs, and that four years of college at a public university now costs $100,000. Middle class parents with a sharp-as-a-tack first born child are eyeballing the price tag on an Ivy League University – currently $260,000 for four years with limited financial aid. By the time the kid grows up, a four year education at a public university education could cost $200,000, and an Ivy League education will top out around $500,000 – that’s right, $125,000 a year!

If the child is graduating during the next decade of Pluto in Capricorn, they will be lucky to get a starting salary of $35,000 a year, if they find a job at all. Middle class parents aren’t stupid – they’ve done the math. College is no longer worth the money, but society’s view on the necessity of a college degree hasn’t changed yet. So one child is all they can afford.

The only children of the middle class are poised to inherit quite a bit of money, however. There’s quite a bit of hidden wealth in the current middle class that will only become apparent as these only children grow up. If these only children marry each other and combine resources, they may enjoy a wealthy lifestyle even if their earnings remain middle-class. In terms of inherited money, the next generation of families will benefit even if only one parent is an only child.

In Vedic astrology, Jupiter is a karaka, or indicator, for children. Jupiter is fallen in Capricorn, but is said to do well in Aquarius. Surfing the web for this article led me to read Lynn Koiner's astrological research, and a respondent who goes by the name of “Raz” supplied the missing piece of astrological data for the trend regarding children noted above.

Raz writes,

“Rearding Pluto cycle and the USA: while transiting Pluto will enter Aquarius in 2025, progressed Jupiter, in the US chart, will turn direct after more than a hundred years, (US progressed Jupiter is retrograde since 1906). These are just my own thoughts: since Jupiter is the lord of the US chart this is important. Progressed Jupiter is wondering around in Cancerbetween the eighth and seventh house….

JUPITER IS FALLEN IN CAPRICORN, AND SO ARE ITS PROFESSIONS!

Jupiter does not do well in Saturn’s sign of Capricorn, and the two professions most associated with Jupiter are education and the law. Teachers are under siege at the moment, particularly if they teach in under-performing, inner-city schools, where they are blamed immediately if a child fails to learn – the current belief is that student failure must be due to shitty teaching instead of student laziness or unwillingness to do the difficult work of learning, because the teacher is a scapegoat (Capricorn is the sign of the scapegoat).

The other profession under assault is the law. Newly graduated law students are defaulting on student loans of up to $300,000 because there are so few entry-level jobs available in law. Many of them are bitter because they will never be able to repair their credit or obtain a home mortgage to buy a home (Capricorn is associated with the past, one’s roots, and the home). It isn’t just law students, although they are the most vocal about their plight. A lot of young people have gotten totally screwed by education lenders.

Unless we change the law to permit students who have defaulted on education debt to discharge this debt in a bankruptcy, a whole new group of young people will never be able to rebuild from the catastrophic effects of this recession. For as long as these young people remain in the U.S., their wages will be garnished and their tax refunds will be seized. These students have had their entire careers destroyed before they ever had a chance to begin them, all because bankers and money-lenders (represented by Saturn) are so busy making money off of poorly regulated education lending. Allowing students who default the same legal protection available to homeowners who lose their homes would kill the education-lending cash cow for good, so the Plutos of Saturn are fighting it tooth-and-nail.

MORE PROBLEMS WITH THE KIDS…

A Capricorn era magnifies the power of beautiful young girls, represented by Persephone, but other children are being hurt before they are even born in ways that are still “under the radar”.

ADD, ADHD, and autism are all topics that engage our awareness, but nobody is talking about the sheer number of children with learning disabilities that are clogging the American public school system. Some of these special education students, known derogatorily as “SPED” kids, have clearly defined disabilities, but others have a combination of learning problems that don’t even fit a precise category of disability. Many of these children are being born to parents who had mild learning disabilities that did not prevent them from becoming functioning adults with jobs; the same cannot be said for their children who are experiencing more severe, lifelong disabilities.

Why is this happening to our kids? High levels of carcinogens in the parental diet may affect sex cells and the developing fetus, and chronic exposure to chemicals in drinking water probably play a role as well. Another cause is the utter failure of public health authorities to convey the message that having twins is not “low-risk”. Any child born prematurely has a much higher likelihood of learning disabilities, and twins born to mothers over 35, many of whom underwent IVF, are particularly likely to arrive prematurely. Overall in the United States, when conceived naturally, 11 pregnancies in 1000 produce twins. Principally as a result of fertility treatments, 32 pregnancies out of 1000 now result in twins, and 60% of these children are born prematurely. Why do so many kids have learning disabilities? Do the math.

Should the birth of these children continue unabated, we may be forced to consider genetic manipulation as early as the mid-21st century, although it seems unthinkable now. This may possibly prove to be the dark side of Pluto in Pisces (2043 – 2067). Pisces is normally depicted as intertwining fish immersed in fluid - very symbolic of our DNA – and Pluto has a transforming quality to it.

WHO LET THE OLD GODS OUT? PLUTO-IN-CAPRICORN BRINGS BACK THE ANCIENT BEINGS…

The strangest thing I’ve noticed about the last three years is that angels and demons seem to be more palpable. This past Christmas, candy-cane demon horns were available at my local CVS – I bought a pair, and quickly noticed that everybody on my Facebook page had found some excuse for getting a pair, too. I went to Borders Books, and books with demons on the cover (or angels that looked a little like demons) popped out at me. One was a book on dinosaurs, and another was a new translation of Milton’s Paradise Lost. A magazine with Lady Gaga on the front of it caught my eye – I opened it to find an article featuring her with demonic looking back-up dancers, and fans she calls “Little Monsters”.

The most recent issue of The Mountain Astrologer Magazine came in the mail. It had a beautiful poem by Alice O Howell titled, “Pluto: My Descent”. The poem was originally published in a collection that came out in, you guessed it, 2010. In it, she recounts a dream-journey descent into Hades, and an encounter with Pluto (it is up to each individual reader to decide whether this dream actually happened to the author, or whether the poem is merely a poem). The most powerful part of the poem is when she makes love to Pluto, although she deliberately leaves this part out, making us even more aware of the poem’s invisible climax.

The demonic world is full of misshapen, ugly, powerful beings that frighten us. In fact, I’m not sure that their greater access to us during Pluto in Capricorn is a good thing.

O Howell writes, “The cavern walls are streaming
with tears and flashing with slime
and the usual assortment
of creeping red-eyed monsters are
mewling about, obviously not housebroken.

Yet sex with one of the old gods was said to be incredible – this was the one way in which they connected with humans in a way that delighted us and did not frighten us.
Old tales of witches who confessed to having sex with demons flitted through my mind as I read this poem.

In Lynn Koiner’s article on Pluto in Capricorn, a respondent who goes by the name of “Sai Grafio” must have perceived something similar, for he also noted the following:

The Bible tells us of pre-Antediluvian patriarchs who lived to almost a thousand years and some were giants. The legends say there were men of renown but the knowledge only led to wickedness. Titans ruled and along with the fallen angels, Nephilim and the like, they were condemned to Tartarsus.

The old gods are making their presence felt, and a lot of them feel suspiciously like demons. The angels don’t seem to be as active in this era of Capricorn, or maybe it is just that I don’t perceive them as easily – I don’t doubt their existence – something has to hold the demons in check!

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS 2024 – 2043

Quick – what do you associate with Pluto in Aquarius? Here’s a quick summary of what’s circulating out there among the futurists:

An era of technological revolution.

We finally get our Constitution back.
(This means different things to different folks.)

The collective is more important than the individual or the family
or the corporation. A return to communal living that isn’t just for
aging hippies anymore.

Computer terrorists – hackers run amok!

Babies born from a scheduled C-section are delivered between 8am and
noon, placing their personal planets in the 10th, 11th, and 12th houses
(the collective houses) of the horoscope. These children will become
adults as Pluto enters Aquarius.

The last one on children born from scheduled C-sections sparked my interest. Carrie Cooperman wrote an article on this topic in the Aug/Sept issue of The Mountain Astrologer. We don’t know what percentage these are of U.S. births, but the author mentions that these children may possibly be more cooperative and collaborative, and more likely to be oriented toward the local and global community. For my part, I would love to know whether women who only plan on having one child are more likely to schedule a C-section, but we don’t have this data available either.

My niece was born from a scheduled C-section in the final year of Pluto in Sagittarius (2007). She is a bright and cheerful four year old, with all of her personal planets except Mars in the 11th and 12th natal houses. Her loving aunt isn’t much inclined to worry, but the thought has occurred to her that these kids will have a strong technological bent, but may also be too swayed by their friends, and too focused on doing anything to be popular, particularly if they are only children.

The other thought that went through my mind is that girls with all of their personal planets in the 10th House tend to marry the CEO – and their own achievements usually pale by comparison. Fortunately, my niece was born a little too early in the morning for this configuration.

Here’s what I think will happen during Pluto in Aquarius:

College educations will finally become so expensive that both
corporations and the middle class will finally change their minds about
the necessity of a college degree.

The coin of the realm will shift from gold to electricty.
Expect the price of electricity to spike sharply and remain high as Pluto
enters Aquarius. Companies that make back-up generators will also do
very well.

Pallas Athene is associated with Pluto in Aquarius, and her myth will
replace the myth of Pluto and Persephone in our consciousness.

HERE IS WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN IN PLUTO IN AQUARIUS (2024-2043)

Education is how the collective shapes the individual, and education as we know it will be totally transformed by Pluto’s transit through Aquarius. Young people coming of age after 2024, or possibly toward the end of the period in 2043, may attend college courses that interest them, but they will no longer have to get a college degree in order to get a good job. Obtaining a specific technological expertise will get these kids a job, and you don’t need a college degree for that.

Ivy League schools will still be around, because interacting with an elite collective in one location is what gets you a job if you attend one of these schools. Medical schools will still train students on cadavers in one location. Law schools might even stage a comeback, as Jupiter gains strength in Aquarius. In general, though, students will have more options. Four consecutive years of training before accepting a job will hopefully no longer be a rigid requirement for these kids.

Online education currently has a number of drawbacks, but the demand for online education is going to reward colleges and universities that eliminate the drawbacks. The rest will simply go out of business. Look for a lot more flexibilty and detachment related to the high school and college experience once Pluto enters Aquarius.

The powerful generation from Pluto in Leo calls themselves "The Greatest Generation", a byword for elitism. Pluto in Aquarius will be an extremely anti-elitest era. Expect the largest cultural shifts to occur in education, where elitism is bred to begin with.

ONE FINAL WORD ON PALLAS ATHENE…

The Greek goddess Pallas Athene was a warrior, and an unmarried woman who maintained her independence from men. The city-state of Athens was dedicated to her.

As her energy replaces Pluto’s during Pluto in Aquarius, women will likely be allowed combat positions in the military. A woman with a strong combat record may become the first female President of the United States. At the very least, the first female President is likely to have a military background of some sort. Her election may inaugurate the Pluto-in-Aquarius era, much as Obama's landmark election occured just as Pluto entered Capricorn.


Temple of Pallas Athene at Delphi.


Women will still marry. Pallas Athene was not a feminist in our sense of the word, and the fact that she remained unmarried does not mean that women won’t marry during Pluto in Aquarius. But single motherhood may tick back up, because the Sun represents fatherhood, and it is fallen in Aquarius.


Pallas Athene, Venus, and Juno by Hans von Aachen



Pallas Athene was known for leadership and detachment from men. Women who aren't married, widows, divorced women, and wives who are perceived as independent of their spouses are going to dominate the consciousness once Pluto-in-Capricorn is over. This is a very different dynamic from the current focus on demanding mothers, powerful old men, and pre-pubescent and adolescent girls.

A lot of barriers to female achievement and advancement will finally fall once Pallas Athene's energy predominates, in what will otherwise be a fairly conservative era. Yet the irony is that feminists won't be able to take credit for the upsurge in female achievement, just as traditional black leaders were not able to take credit for Obama's election.



SOURCES

For a source on Wall St. wealth:

Craig, Suzanne and Dash, Eric.
“Study Points to a Windfall for Goldman Partners”, New York Times, Jan 18 2011.

Source of quotes by “Raz” and “Sai Grafio”:

Lynn Koiner's Astrological Research

For a source on severe financial hardship experienced by young lawyers:

Segal, David. “Is Law School a Losing Game?”, New York Times, Jan 8, 2001.

For a source of statistics on twin births:

Thiernstrom, Melanie.“Meet the Twiblings”, New York Times Magazine, December 29, 2010.

For a source on the poem, “Pluto: My Descent”:

O Howell, Alice. From the Archives of the Heart, Lindisfarne Books, Great Barrington, MA, 2010. Republished in The Mountain Astrologer Magazine, Issue #155, Feb/March, 2011.

For a source on the astrology of babies born from scheduled C-sections:

Cooperman, Carrie. “Changing a Baby’s Birthday”, The Mountain Astrologer Magazine, Issue #152, Aug/Sept, 2010.

Jupiter in Aries...will you look at that dress?

We're going to be drowning in red this year, now that Jupiter is in Aries. Take a look at the gown Michelle wore while visiting China with her husband recently. Oh, I was in love with a dress...



If you've been itching to wear scarlet and crimson, this is the year to do it. You won't stick out like a sore thumb this year, because all around you, folks will be picking up on Jupiter's color energy in Aries, and doing the same thing.

Jupiter shifted from Pisces to Aries right around December, 2010. Did anyone notice those deep, rich blues that bordered on purple? That was Pisces blue morphing into Aries red. It lasted about a month.

When Jupiter shifts out of Aries at the end of 2010, we may see darker reds and even some true purples, as the color wheel swings over to robin's egg blue of Jupiter in Taurus. Once again, it will only last about a month.

One other thing: I was wondering if the color pink would tap the energy of Aries along with all these vivid reds. But I haven't seen much of this.