Category Archives: Uncategorized (35 articles)

How do you get the best out of your Saturn/Pluto aspects?

Posted on July 17, 2015 | 19 comments

This was the challenging question I was asked earlier today by a fellow blogger –  let us call her Eliza – so I dashed off a quick answer. Here it is – all you folk out there with Saturn/Pluto conjunctions (me!), oppositions, squares, trines, sextiles, inconjuncts, how do you manage those  testing, difficult planetary combinations about which no-one seems keen to write about, very often? (I wonder why?!) And how do you manage friends or loved ones or work colleagues who have them? I would be most interested to hear what you have to say…

Here’s what I replied, off the top of my head and without too much thought. 

SaturnPluto - never give up!

SaturnPluto – never give up!

Ok, Eliza, here goes…

Work very hard to face up to the shadow sides of your own nature – power and control issues being paramount with Saturn/Pluto – usually presented via the difficulties you run into with other people. Try over time increasingly to do this without self-punishment but with growing self-acceptance.

This brings a certain amount of freedom:  both to exercise restraint over the harsher facets of the Saturn/Pluto combination – for example the tyrannical, control freak streak –  and to draw on its best aspects, eg the ability to persevere, even in the face of enormous odds, the ability to honour commitments made, however difficult and testing, the ability to apply forensic analysis to sorting out seemingly intractable problems (I have a Mercury/Saturn/Pluto combo) eg in astrological research of which I am very fond.

And – avoid taking the easy way out in situations where you just want to walk in the opposite direction, but know it would be the wrong thing to do.  Saturn/Pluto people never usually get away with taking the easy way out of anything.

Also – lighten up! My Mercury/Saturn/Pluto is squared by a Third House Jupiter; I have quite the gallows sense of humour at times – and a well-developed ability to laugh at my own stupidities. However, be very cautious with a marked tendency to respond to what you perceive as other people’s stupidities in the same vein. I have learned the hard way that this kind of humour is not always appreciated.

Furthermore, I find that a useful life skill to cultivate and practise is that of being forensically honest with myself (especially regarding my own motives at times) whilst realising that other people –  mostly – cannot or do not wish to have that level of honesty applied to them. So – it is very important to develop the ability to know when just to back off and shut up…

There you are, Eliza – I didn’t intend to warble on so much! I do hope some of it at least is of value to you…..

Zodiac

Zodiac

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450 words copyright Anne Whitaker  2015

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Mercury stations – enter domestic mayhem!

Posted on June 11, 2015 | 20 comments

At this moment, with Mercury preparing to resume direct motion at 11.35pm BST on Thursday 11th June, I am sitting writing in my Glasgow office – wondering whether we will be spending the night here…. No matter how long one has been studying and practising astrology, there are times when its accuracy in describing the prevailing energy field of a given time period is simply breathtaking. So – sit back, fasten your seatbelts, and let me present you a case in point!

This is what I wrote on this blog’s Facebook Page on the evening of Tuesday 9th June : “Well, is everyone looking forward to Mercury resuming direct motion, at 11.35pm BST on Thursday 11th June? Or are you now – like me – too spaced out to care much? Tomorrow and Thursday sees our local Electricity Board replacing an electrical cable in our building, then linking it to the supply of each of our community’s ten flats.

I can barely contain my enthusiasm about this…how many bets that the whole job will go smoothly? No, I thought there wouldn’t be many! We are due to have our supply cut off from 830 am to 430 pm tomorrow (10th) and Thursday (11th) so that essential work as described above can be completed. Somehow, I don’t get the feeling that the Electricity Board knows anything at all about Mercury Retrograde…. Watch this space!…”

I just KNEW there would be complications, with the current planetary pattern linking Mercury with the prevailing Saturn/Neptune square…I just didn’t realise how bad it would get…

Mercury Direct Glasgow UK

Mercury Direct Glasgow UK

Day One went ok, apart from the Electricity Board’s workers discovering that “the wrong kind of scaffolding” had been erected on our third floor landing ( the building has four floors). This means that the job cannot be completed in the two days stated. So the whole rigmarole of alerting and informing all of us in writing, with accompanying instructions, arbitrary date and attendant inconvenience will have to be gone through all over again at some hitherto unknown date.

Day Two...well…picture the scene. Our podiatrist Lydia visited us this morning, weaving her way up through the building site that is our close in order to get to us. She had done Ian’s feet, and was half way through doing mine, when Ian burst into the room. “We all have to vacate the building, NOW!” he shouted. “There’s a gas scare!”. The strong odour of gas accompanied us as we hastily grabbed a few essentials for the day, Lydia hastily packing up her podiatry equipment as she ran.

Gas was pouring from the wall outside our second floor neighbour’s door. On the street, surrounded by neighbours, curious passers-by and stunned-looking Electricity Board workers, we discovered that they had accidentally sliced through a gas pipe which they had not expected would be embedded in the wall.

The emergency gas services had been alerted and half an hour later were allegedly on their way. There was absolutely nothing we could do, apart from pray that a random spark – the electricity supply apparently could not be turned off since it was too risky – would not result in our building being blown up.

I am not a person who panics in an emergency, or gives up easily (thanks, Mercury/Saturn/Pluto!). I turned to Lydia, who was standing beside her car on the pavement opposite our house. “Shall we finish the job?” She is not a giver-upper either. So I sat on the driver’s seat, feet resting on Lydia’s knees as she balanced herself on the pavement and coolly carried on beautifying my feet – quite a task at the best of times, it has to be said!!

We attracted quite a bit of  passer-by attention – I’m a Leo, no problem there! – and a very kind, chatty lady from the next street offered us coffee and a seat in her garden for the rest of the day, if we were going to remain homeless. So kind! Emergencies do indeed bring out the best in some people. In the course of our conversation I did such a good PR job for Lydia and her podiatry skills that the lady went away happily with one of her cards, promising to book a session for her son, a sufferer from bad feet.

The neighbours, who know me well enough to expect occasional bouts of left-field entertainment, were most diverted by all this from our collective worry that the building might blow up. It still might…but it hadn’t done so by the time the emergency services at last arrived, and Lydia, Ian and me went on our respective ways.

Being an astrologer, of course, absolutely everything no matter how dire is a potential astro-learning experience. You could scarcely make this one up: stationary Mercury square Neptune and Saturn: sliced-through gas pipe and interrupted podiatry session. Moon in Aries applying to the Uranus/Pluto square from Aries to Capricorn – threat of gas explosion in building.

Well,  I do hope you have found this dramatic tale interesting! I’d love to hear how any of my Readers have fared during these few days. Do let us all know! And I will post an update on this blog’s Facebook Page. Will we have a home to go to tonight? Watch this space…

 

Gorgeous Mercury

Gorgeous Mercury

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900 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2015

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Posted in Mercury: Retro and Direct + Mercurial Tales (6 articles), Uncategorized (35 articles)

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Mercury Retrograde status report: the pain – and the gain!

Posted on May 26, 2015 | 14 comments

Well, this so far is the most tricksterish, troublesome Mercury Retrograde I’ve had for many a long year –a little post asking for feedback on my Astrology: Questions and Answers Facebook Page has validated this impression.

Mercury’s fellow travellers Mars and the Sun also in Gemini – opposing Saturn  square Neptune – do, I feel, explain this amplification. Such a complex, contradictory energy pattern also accounts for the accompanying confusion, lassitude, lethargy and feelings of being oppressed by tasks with which which one can’t quite come to grips… 

Gorgeous Mercury

Gorgeous Mercury

Mercury rules my horoscope, and aspects every planet, so I knew things might be a little tricky…the torture started on Tuesday morning, mere hours after Mercury went retrograde, with my losing my office keys.There followed frantic searching – husband helpfully went through all my handbags and coat/jacket pockets in my absence and could not believe how many pairs of gloves, lipsalves, emergency cash, pencils, notebooks, tissues etc etc inhabited those arcane corners of my life.

The keys turned up, eventually – in the cafe in the park across from my office where I’d been with a friend last week. Then, two days later, I had walked half way to work when I discovered I had left my office keys behind and had to trudge all the way back home ….there’s more, there’s more! 

In the last week, I have had to conduct a skype astrology reading over mobile phone because something happened my end and skype did not work. My client seemed much less phased by this than me, and wants to book another half hour very soon. Thank goodness I only do half hour sessions at present –I think I might have passed out if I’d had to do a whole reading between here and the USA over a mobile!

I have also got crossed wires with friends re timing of meet-ups, and offered people appointments which I later had to retract because of double booking. ( I am normally very well organised). And – how used I was to this feature of Mercury Retrograde in the days before my long 2001-8 sabbatical – my client/student cancellations and re-schedulings began just as Mercury stationed, prior to turning retrograde.

Today’s arrangements with two friends – I have given myself a writing day with no clients or students, worn out with the nervous strain of trying to keep my practice on an even keel – have been so interrupted and disrupted I cannot face describing what has happened. I haven’t even mentioned Web and computer glitchiness of which there was plenty. Advice: do not attempt to link your PayPal account to your bank account at these Retro times…

However, lest you readers out there imagine that Mercury Retrograde is all bad news, let me stress a fundamental principle of working creatively with planetary energies, whatever they may be. To quote Liz Greene in one of her 1990s Centre for Psychological Astrology Seminars:

“You have to give the god what the god wants. If it’s Mars, don’t offer a bunch of flowers!”

Capricious Mercury

Capricious Mercury

I have never forgotten this witty, sage advice. So – what should we offer Mercury in his retrograde phase? First of all, philosophical acceptance that, the more Mercurial one is, the more day to day screw-ups on the communication and travel front one is likely to have. Just allow more time to do everything, and don’t expect too much to flow smoothly if it is anything to do with communication or manual dexterity.

And of course, paying attention to the Retro part gives you a clue that going back over matters to do with communication/writing is a constructive use of this time.

I am now beginning seriously to contemplate getting to grips with my next book. So I used last Friday to dig out some material I had put together off and on over the last three years – and discovered that I have actually drafted an outline of my core idea, as well as having already conducted and recorded one of the case study interviews. I spent a happy couple of hours re-reading, refreshing my memory, and re-inspiring myself for the task ahead.

Also, on Monday I got down to completing one of my least favourite chores in the whole world: preparing my previous year’s accounts to send to my accountant. This involves going through receipts in excruciating detail, etc etc too boring even to list. My husband swears he simply has to utter the phrase “Tax Return” to me and steam immediately starts pouring from my ears…BUT…I did it!

So – how have you Mercurial folk out there been getting on this first week? Do let us all know – assuming you can get the Comments box to work!

Zodiac

Zodiac

******

800 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2015

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The Moon’s Nodes with Uranus and Pluto: disruption, mayhem and a new order emerging…

Posted on May 16, 2015 | 1 comment

To read the first post in this tw0-hander, click 

Has the Uranus/Pluto wave peaked? The UK General election may have said “Yes”…

Uranus:Pluto Seventh Exact Square

Uranus:Pluto Seventh Exact Square

click to enlarge

My in-depth research study of The Moon’s Nodes in Action is due to be  published very soon – as a free download from this site – just as  events in our wider collective life appear yet again to be validating the overall conclusion at which I arrived some years ago, after examining the Moon’s Nodes and attendant eclipses from several different perspectives in both famous and “ordinary’ people’s lives, and in life-changing events.

The conclusion is this:

 times of most profound and radical change come in collective and individual life when the combination of the Nodal Axis and Pluto is triggered.

e-publication by co-occurrence

e-publication by co-occurrence

Four years ago, as the North Node crossed Pluto and its applying square to Uranus in Aries, approaching the final stage of the August 2009 – July 2011 season of eclipses in Capricorn (North Node point) and Cancer (South Node point),  Colonel Gaddafi lost his grip on Libya amidst scenes of bloodshed and mayhem as a wave of  protest – mainly from the young – swept the Middle East in what came to be known as the “Arab Spring” of 2011 onwards.

The iron grip of dictatorial rulers was snapped across the Middle East in a domino chain of nations rising in revolt, the world community watching with fascination, horror and a certain excited anticipation of possible positive change in the wake of all this upheaval.

In February 2014, the North Node returned to cardinal mode again as it entered the sign of Libra, regressing in its eighteen-month journey  through that sign, pulling eclipses with it, once again moving toward the turbulent, explosive energy of the Uranus/Pluto square which is currently scouring our world from its first coming into orb in 2009 until it separates in 2017.

In the summer/autumn of 2014, as the North Node drew closer to Uranus/Pluto, we watched with horror the shockingly unexpected, brutal rise of ISIS/ISIL, a fanatical death cult whose depradations across the Middle East have cost thousands of lives and created mayhem ever since.

Focusing in on our small country, the United Kingdom, one can also see in the charts of both the UK and Scotland the powerful emphasis on 5 – 15 degrees of the cardinal signs. This emphasis is shared also in the horoscopes of the UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, as well as the former First Minister Alex Salmond, who resigned after his Scottish National Party’s 45%/55% defeat in the September 2014 Referendum on whether Scotland should become an independent country.

The radical nature of the changes which are taking place in our small corner of the globe are vividly described symbolically through the Nodes/Pluto/Uranus combination: the UK has lurched to the Right by electing a majority Conservative government. The Labour party has been crushed in the UK and virtually annihilated in Scotland. The Scottish National party has won almost every Scottish seat, turning our small country into virtually a one-party state, never a healthy situation in a democracy. And the UK is set to vote shortly whether to remain within or without the European Union. The old order is dead.

Turning to personal life, those of you who read my Moon’s Nodes research will see the Nodes/Pluto combination occurring natally and bringing with it a life with more challenges of a profound and radical nature, than when that combination is not in evidence. Its impact is radical, profound and life-changing especially when natal, progressed and transiting aspects combine : c/f my long in-depth study of Mary Shelley and  her authorship of Frankenstein.

mary-shelley

mary-shelley

There seems to have been disruption and upheaval ‘right across the map’ of the world:  politically, socially and in terms of the fabric of the Earth itself – witness the recent horrific earthquakes and attendant loss of life in Nepal – in the last year especially. Let us hope that as the Nodal axis moves on, with the seven exact Uranus/Pluto squares completed,  all the turmoil gradually settles down into something more manageable as we survey our world and are perhaps more able to spot what positives have emerged from all the chaos…

So – what are your thoughts on such potent and powerful planetary symbolism both on collective and personal life? Can you report experiences of profound and radical changes when the Nodes combined with Pluto in your life? I’d be most interested to hear!

Zodiac

Zodiac

700 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2015

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Steven Forrest writes on the Uranus/Pluto square

Posted on April 10, 2015 | 3 comments

Here is master astrologer Steven Forrest’s in-depth ‘take’ on the Uranus/Pluto squares: on March 16, 2015 Uranus and Pluto formed a square aspect in the signs Aries and Capricorn.”…  the final exact square in the long series of seven, which began on June 24, 2012…”

http://www.forrestastrology.com/newsletters/470-march-2015-newsletter

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Posted in Guest Posts 2015/6 (6 articles), Uncategorized (35 articles), Uranus/Pluto (5 articles)

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Moving forward today: Jupiter in Leo, master of creative excess!

Posted on April 8, 2015 | 6 comments

Jupiter has now gone direct in Leo. I hope to write a longer post about this ere long, but personally the last couple of days have been typical of the power of a planetary station, in this case prior to the planet in question turning direct. 

e-publication by co-occurrence

e-publication by co-occurrence

Jupiter natally falls in my Third house; events have clearly expressed this Mercury/Jupiter vibe! I’ve had book proofs (for The Moon’s Nodes in Action) and a 12500 word politics essay land on my desk for me to read through, complete with short deadlines. On the same day I had a computer meltdown around the issue of accessing wifi and 3G connectivity in my new office. Today, there was  a very creative meeting with a new colleague who I hope will be a research subject in my next book project…..I suspect he has Jupiter strongly marked in his horoscope!

Jupiter is always the planet of excess both positive and negative. I feel oppressed by literary demands! But I’m optimistically sure it will all turn out just fine…

Now, tell me, how was it for you folks out there?

(NOTE: I will let my readers know when the download of  ‘The Moon’s Nodes in Action’, elegantly rendered as an e-book by co-occurrence, is available…likely by the end of April 2015… if you want to pre-order a copy, just send your email address to me, at info@anne-whitaker.com)

Zodiac

Zodiac

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250 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2015

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“Contemplating the Twelfth House – an optimist’s take on self undoing”

Posted on March 2, 2015 | 6 comments

I’m delighted to say that my long essay “Contemplating the Twelfth House – an optimist’s take on self undoing” is featured this month on Astrodienst, one of the world’s most respected astrology sites. So, here it is for those of you who have been asking for some time for a copy….

NOTE: First published in: The Mountain Astrologer, Aug/Sep 2014

Republished in: The Astrological Journal, Mar/Apr 2015

Zodiac

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Posted in Houses and House Systems (3 articles), The Twelfth House ( 3 articles ), Uncategorized (35 articles)

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Mars through Pisces…how was it for you?

Posted on February 15, 2015 | 1 comment

The planet Mars entered the sign of Pisces on 12th January 2015. It is due to exit on 20th February 2015, entering its own sign of Aries. Boy, will I be glad! It has been a very mixed, pretty tough month and I would be most interested to hear how any of my readers/Followers have fared.

Mars enters Pisces

Mars enters Pisces

It should be obvious to anyone with some knowledge of astrology that Mars, the planet of energy and direct action, is not best placed in watery, subtle, diffuse, imaginative, dreamy and artistic Pisces.

Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, has been slowly traversing that sign, which it first entered in April 2011. It is currently at 6 degrees of Pisces. Saturn changed signs on 23rd December 2014, entering Sagittarius, beginning a long dance in square aspect to Neptune which will not separate until the end of December 2016. It is currently occupying 4 degrees of Sagittarius. Chiron, the planetoid signifying healing and wounding, is half way through Pisces, sitting currently at 15 Pisces.

Mars enters Aries

Mars enters Aries

So – as Mars began his watery journey, he made an exact square to Saturn on 16th January, a conjunction to Neptune on 19th January, crossed the Neptune/Chiron midpoint on 24/5  January, and Chiron on 1st/2nd February.

Anne W's Horoscope

Anne W’s Horoscope

In my horoscope, Mars was transiting the 6th House of work and health, crossed my Pisces Descendant, and is currently travelling through the Seventh House of relationships. I never cease to be amazed and moved at how the currents of shifting energy in our solar system, plotted and explicated by the planets, flow like tides, bearing our lives along with them, bringing us delights and challenges, pains and pleasures with every breaking wave.

Here in brief is how I have been faring. I hope some of you will share your experiences, thoughts, and insights too.

Mars entered Pisces and I began a bout of intermittent insomnia which lasted until Mars crossed and passed Chiron early in February. On the day Mars entered Pisces, I had the great pleasure of moving – with my seafaring brother’s help! – into a lovely new office which is now my Twelfth House retreat in which I hope to write my next book.

With Mars applying in square to Saturn, I was foolish enough to attempt to buy a digital overhead projector for my new office (from which I will also be teaching.) This produced a long series of thwartings of byzantine proportions, during which I failed to acquire the projector from one place, easily located it in another, bought it, then had to return it as unsuitable on the very day that the Mars /Saturn square was exact. Moral of this story? You are an astrologer! Don’t you ever look at your Ephemeris?

I usually get very angry with something/someone when Mars crosses my Pisces Descendant. This occurred on Saturday 24th of January, when we went to see an opera by a well-known composer, which I hated so much I left half way through and went home early. Note in my diary:” hatred, fear, and loathing of women still alive and well in the psyche of 21st century Western male composer…”

I then contracted a bacterial infection which took two lots of  reluctantly consumed) antibiotics to shift and gave me headaches every other day, causing me to feel low in energy and pretty dispirited for a few days.

And – with Mars in the 7th House, I re-connected with an old friend I hadn’t seen for several years, who came to visit in the new office. Also, I arranged with a friend I have known over 20 years, to sublet a day a week from me at a much reduced day rate, thereby aiding her in setting up her therapy practice and helping to cover part of my rent.

Apart from all that, it was a very quiet month…!!

Zodiac

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Astrology: Questions and Answers: top posts of 2014…

Posted on December 31, 2014 | 2 comments

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As Neptune turns direct, some thoughts on interconnectedness…

Posted on November 15, 2014 | 15 comments

One of the many intriguing things I have found about astrology is this: even when you are not being particularly attentive to exactly what is going on with the planets, you are still living out the energy patterns they describe in symbolic terms.

During my long 2001-8 retreat, when I simply did not have the physical energy to engage with astrology’s power ( does this sound strange? That’s exactly what it felt like ) I did not practice as an astrologer and rarely looked at an Ephemeris, although I maintained an interest in the subject in which I had been immersed for the preceding twenty years.

Nevertheless, there were certain days when I would feel energies which I could only express in planetary terms, would check the Ephemeris, and sure enough my felt sense of eg Mars crossing my Descendant (stay out of my way today, friends and partner!), or the Moon triggering my Saturn/Pluto conjunction (ouch!) would prove to be correct. This used to make me smile wryly and say to myself : ‘Well, you may take the girl out of Astrology, but taking Astrology out of the girl is another matter altogether!’

Today I have had a similar experience. It has felt right in the last couple of days to begin to move forward in promoting my memoir and analysis of thirty years’ paranormal experiences, ‘Wisps from the Dazzling Darkness’; I have begun asking Friends and colleagues as well as astrology students past and current, for some help in PR which I am not best at doing.

I wondered why this felt like the right time to be embarking on the task of promoting this piece of work: I wrote the book from my conviction that it is important for all of us who know we live in a multi-levelled, interconnected Universe to speak out against the stance Scientism, and its offshoot Skepticism takes, ie that anything which cannot be explained in reductionist terms not only does not exist, but cannot exist.

“I wonder when Neptune turns direct?” I thought this morning. “It feels like that kind of energy right now.” Neptune has been transiting my Sixth house of work, health and service for a very long time and is due to cross into the upper hemisphere of my horoscope over the next couple of years. So I checked the Ephemeris: Neptune moves so slowly that I don’t check its daily position very often.

Sure enough, Neptune turns direct tomorrow…..and Neptune as we all know is the planet which connects us to the mysterious, ineffable, spiritual and symbolic dimensions of our existence.

Have any of my readers had similar experiences which they would like to share? I would be most interested to hear from you!

Zodiac

Zodiac

********

400 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2014

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