I think boredom comes from three things: lack of mental interests, too much passivity in terms of amusement, and not enough work. Let me explain.

When I see a home with few or no pieces of reading material, books, magazines and games, I see boredom down the road. One of my kids came home in shock a few years ago when she was old enough to baby sit because the home where she went didn't even have a newspaper. She couldn't believe it. As a footnote, all the kids in that family married too young and barely got through high school. (Hey, if there isn't anything else to play with, there is always sex.)

The mental interests come from active 3 and 9 houses and Mercury in the birth pattern. If Mercury gets any stimulus, and there is no affliction to 3, reading can introduce interest in many things.

Passive entertainment is another problem and I think it is one of the plagues of our era. TV can be a deadly babysitter if allowed to to be and the kids that don't do anything else can get bored very quickly. It leads to an adulthood in which one waits for "someone else" to provide amusement. These people don't do sports either, as a rule and the result is too little action in the life. Mars is a tip-off. If Mars is active enough, the person will be active and it's hard to be bored when you're active.

Look at house 5 for pleasures and amusements. Hobbies are also house 5 and they provide a lot of active amusement and mental stimulus.

The PC and the net strike me as both active entertainment and stimulating to mental interests. My grandchildren have a "computer room" with tons of games to play on the PC (hey, just cause my own childhood was monopoly and chess doesn't mean I discount Doom and Magic) and my two year old grandson plays on it happily. He is so eager to read you wouldn't believe it because he knows everybody else can read the instructions and he can't. This is also the kid who cries when his mom makes him leave the library.

The third thing is work. Brace yourselves folks, granny is gonna be old-fashioned here.

When leisure time is at a premium, boredom is non-existent. One treasures every scrap of private time as a luxury, and even "hanging out" is seen as pleasurable. Some people have so reduced their labor requirements that they have what may be FOR THEM too much leisure. You see this particularly in young people who have no work they HAVE to do no need they have to fill.

At the other end of life, this also happens to a lot of old people. They retire, suddenly have a lot of time, enough money to live on and few if any mental interests. Wham. They die of boredom.

A key component of this, of course, is money. People who have stress on house 2 need money and find work young. This is also true if there is any Venus/Saturn pressure in the chart. If there is TOO MUCH stress and the result is poverty, boredom comes from lack of enrichment. I read a book years ago by a woman who lived in a cardboard shack until she worked her way out of poverty and she said that poverty was terribly boring because you couldn't do anything except survive. There was no money to allow any extra interests in your life.

 If the individual has plenty of money, plenty of time and no mental or physical activity, boredom is just as much a possibility. Add a life expectancy of passive entertainment and you have a real slug.

The other danger to this is a much darker response to boredom: Getting into trouble. Somebody once quoted a study to me years ago that said Gemini was the most over-represented sign in prisons. I don't know how true that is but I can believe it. Why? Not because Gemini is a bad sign but because Gemini is a mentally active sign and if it doesn't develop education, interests and work habits young, it will find SOMETHING ELSE interesting to do. A lot of crime is committed out of boredom.

I was reading messages too fast and forgot who said too many trines lead to boredom but I have to agree in a way--you need a few squares to get off your duff and get busy in life.

A healthy childhood is good anti-boredom training and a life with a good balance of work, pleasurable interests and leisure is a good antidote to later boredom.

Your post prompted me to to think about a really really REALLY weird idea I stumbled across a few years ago and I would like to toss out here for folks to think about.

Things are obviously speeding up in our world. We travel faster. We live and function at a higher, nearly frantic pace. We communicate at lightning speed. Take anything you want to think about: Making a garment (very quickly on fully automatic machinery) or a meal (fast food) etc. etc. and it is being done at a fantastic rate of speed compared to anything in the last couple of thousand years.

What if our solar system (you all do know the whole bloomin' thing is moving around a greater center, don't you?) is moving through some area of space that speeds things up and this is a temporary phenomenon? How temporary I don't know, but what if?

A century ago people were a lot smaller than they are today. We talk about better nutrition and all, but what if we are moving through a portion of space that produces some kind of energy that causes us to grow faster and bigger? There are old legends about giants on the earth and some of those legends go back thousands of years. What if we rotated through the same area of the heavens before?

There are also very ancient legends of other high-tech civilizations before ours (Atlantis is a good example) and what if there really were some and they were caused by the same kind of thing? And they ended abruptly? Does that mean we will crash and burn so to speak?

We as astrologers all keep our eyes out for new possibilities and this one has always intrigued me. Is there some new, temporary celestial phenomenon at work? Perhaps it isn't our movement; maybe there is another moving body out there affecting us.

I have no answers, only questions. It's a dark, drippy Sunday morning and I am full of curiosity again about why the universe works the way it does.

I think of Adams, George and Leo as "last century" types, however.

Rudhyar was a fine philosopher and in the abstract areas he did urge us into a great deal of rethinking of our approach to theory, but if his stuff were not on my bookshelves and if I had never read his works, I would still be a good astrologer. Other authors, however, were far more formative and I see their legacies everywhere in more recent writers and thinkers. If I had missed the works of any of the ones above I would not be as competent today, in my opinion.

Ivy is simply immortal and one of the most practical of all authors. Every one of her books is a keeper for as long as you are an astrologer. I do not know a single astrologer who has ever sold their copies of her work. Maybe my horizons are just limited, but if there is such an astrologer out there, please give me first refusal.

Every one of her techniques is usable and reliable. You can't say that about a lot of astrologers. That makes her unique, in my opinion.

The work of Lewi was groundbreaking in some ways. First, he popularized SERIOUS astrology (that was not sun sign stuff) and made a surprisingly accurate analysis accessible for the first time to the average reader.

Second, he gave practicing astrologers what I consider the finest possible grounding in aspects and a new understanding of how they actually worked. Before he wrote, everybody said the moon square Saturn gave a man problems with women. Lewi added that it gave a man the power of concentrated effort and ambition. He took the traditional to a new level, and one more suited to the modern working astrologer.

Third, he was the lead man for what is the "modern" era of astrology, away from the older doom and gloom guys.

Fourth, his work holds up, decades after his death, and is still selling.

It is my firm belief--sorry KtB--that Rudhyar is highly over-rated. I'll take Ivy or Grant Lewi any day. In fact, they should share the honor.

Pat replies,
Here's an interesting one if you haven't read it: When your progressed ascendant crosses your second house cusp you enter the "second" phase of your life. The third phase begins with cusp three, of course. You "start over" when your progressed ascendant hits the IC. I did not originate this idea, by the way.

It seems to have something to do with the traditional "three ages of man" idea. You know youth, maturity and old age.

I know that it works quite well calculated on a symbolic level. (One degree per year of life.) It sometimes just amazes me how well the universe is put together.

Pat replies,

First get your friend's chart. The advice differs depending on which sun sign type she is--cardinal, fixed or mutable.

I once knew a woman who lost 30 pounds one year (Virgo) by eliminating one piece of bread and two pats of butter daily. Drove me wild. Only a Virgo would think of doing it that way and STICK TO IT!

Then look at the 6th house--will give you some ideas about the best moon position for that person. Ordinarily a Taurus moon is not a good idea since Taurus is such a hedonist, but if the person has a Taurus 6th, the interest in ''looking good'' may help. Leos diet all the time or almost never so if a Leo asks, they're serious.

Always start a diet in the waning phase of the moon. If possible, use a fixed sign so the individual will have some help sticking to the diet. Cardinal types want fast results and may want a cardinal moon but they may not have a lot of staying-on-the-diet power.

Avoid any time when transiting Mars (appetite) is near the sun, moon or angles of the chart. Do not place the moon in aspect to Mars on the day the diet begins.

If the individual is a mutable type, small changes (like the Virgo's I mentioned above) may work.

Fire signs are best at heavy exercise programs to go along with diet. Earth signs groan about it but will see the necessity for SOME activity. Water signs (except Scorpio) just want to forget the whole thing until it goes away but you can usually coax them into a pool, or a boat or doing some seashell collecting in walks on a beach. You have to get creative with water people. Air signs are the ones who love those mall walking things and water-walk classes and aerobics classes. Anything social.

Strangely enough, Sag will usually stick to an exercise plan (especially if it involves biking, or hiking, or the like) better than it will a diet. Avoid those "heavy protein" diets for Libras--too hard on the kidneys. Leos mostly like diets with plenty of meat. Virgos need cooked veggies. Aries just wants to eat anything handy when hungry so they need to do a lot of preparation like keeping raw veggies in the fridge for impulse time. Mostly they don't diet anyway. Ditto Aquarians.

Keep cold stuff for Capricorn, tepid stuff for Cancer and don't let Scorpio convince you that one meal a day is healthy. Except for them. Pisces better check with its doctor and Capricorn has to be watched--they're the ones who believe that garbage about no one being too thin or too rich.

A lot of this applies to rising signs, you will notice. But diet and exercise are health matters and come under house 6, which is why you need to look at that. Anyone may actually have a sun sign, rising sign and 6th house that conflict. Use 6th house as much as possible.

Hope this helps.

Pat replies,

Your Saturn and Jupiter transits through 1st house are so typical they are textbook.

But transiting Mars coming to your Neptune should not be a problem. Mars coming to your sun, moon or angles is the problem when you want to START a diet.

Weight problems are endemic for those of us with calm dispositions, lots of water planets and sit-down jobs and hobbies. Speaking as one of those people, I know. The only thing that helps is finding some sort of exercise program that is what you really like doing. For me, that's a swimming pool. Pool membership is a luxury I wallow in and try to use 4 or 5 times a week. It hasn't made me slim yet, but there's a long way to go. If you like dance, I say go for it.

Chub club member,

When I held my first seminar on astrology in 1970, one of the old time astrologers who came (bless his heart, he's long dead now) was horrified that I was giving out all that good information and telling students the truth and answering all questions freely.

 His approach to astrology (some of you may have heard this story--sorry about that) was to teach only enough to whet the student's appetite and to actually give wrong information on many occasions. If the student was smart enough to question it, he/she got the right answer. Otherwise, the student was too dumb for astrology. It was his way of keeping astrology "esoteric" or hidden. He was doing his best to protect what he considered a noble study that you had to earn the right to share.

I was horrified by his approach because when I was a kid, my folks felt that if I were smart enough to ask the question I was smart enough to get the answer. Straight.

For instance: In many times and places, the actual motion of the planets, the cycles of eclipses (the Saros cycle is a prime example) and other "ordinary" information was considered too important to give out. And an ephemeris anyone could just go and buy? Be real!

Some of this was ignorance, of course. Nobody wanted everybody else to realize how little they were sure of, but much of it was an actual attitude about the sacred science of the stars, as it was known.

Today we live in the information age and all information is freely available. We think that if you seek, you should find. We see information as the building blocks of the world. Part of this is our scientific approach--facts simply are, and what's such a big deal about that?

Part of this is the waning of the days when religious or political groups could outlaw information that they found uncomfortable, or that threatened their domains in some way. The biggest thing destroying it (it all started with Gutenberg and the advent of the printing press, you know) is the arrival of the telephone and computer technology which has made possible the Internet.

Now, almost all of what we know is exoteric--open, available to all for the asking.

Is there still an esoteric?

Some people think that psychic perceptions and so-called "channeled" information is esoteric. It isn't. It is merely another type of exoteric astrology, freely available. You can buy the books. You can read the material. You can hire a psychic. You can write books about it. (Sabian Symbols, here we are.)

What then, is the esoteric astrology? Our friend Gonzo, who posts here from time to time, is convinced that a hidden mathematical configuration will explain to him why people win lotteries. Another man thinks a mathematical principle called Phi is behind the secret of planetary movement. Is this esoteric? It is today. Tomorrow it may be exoteric.

Anytime research "reveals" a truth unknown up to that time, esoteric becomes transformed into exoteric.

I repeat the question--is there an esoteric? My answer is yes, there is. It is all around us, in every chart we study. It is the magic of reality. They mystery at the heart of existence. The hidden hand of the Creator. The esoteric needs no defense. Those who might misuse it, can't see it anyway. You can lay it right out in front of them, and they go whipporwilling off after some pipedream.

The secret is this: The esoteric is "Why Things Happen." The longer I am in astrology, the more I see the ultimate answers go glimmering off into the distance and we who want to know are still in the hunt. It looks like it will go on a long time.

Pat replies,
One of the problems in learning astrology is to make sure we always understand exactly what the terms mean.

I find your explanation interesting and very creative, but it is not the technically correct one, which actually comes from the "mansions of the moon" idea used by the Arabic astrologers of old. Each mansion had a particular interpretation, which applied to planets that fell within its borders. The limits are the so-called critical degrees, and they are measured around the zodiac in 13-degree chunks. They start at 0 Aries and go to 13 and then 26 degrees, before moving to 9 and 21 of the fixed signs, and 4 and 17 of the mutables, before returning to 0 cardinal again.

In using what is called the 7th harmonic (dividing the 360-degree circle by 7) you have an authentic division of the zodiac but it does not refer to the "critical degrees" which astrologers have used for centuries.

The "critical degree" term in this case is more like "cusp," showing the borders between the mansions.

Someone sent in a post a while back asking for an explanation of harmonics--it is simply dividing the 360 degrees by some factor. The 2nd harmonic is 180 degrees (the opposition); the 3rd harmonic divides by 120 degrees (trine) and so on. You used the "sacred number" 7, which is, as I said, a very valid way to divide the zodiac. But "critical degrees" represent a different division.

Pat replies,

I posted an explanation of this a day or so ago, so you may want to read that definition. However, the actual USE of the critical degrees is really almost in the horary domain, following many of those rules. In practice, I think the critical degree business accentuates the energy of whatever planet is there. Sort of like adding color to your interpretations, or exclamation points!!!!!! A planet in these areas seems to have more latitude to act than otherwise.

>>2.When we are talking about rulership, aren't we simply making the connection between what is going on in the sky and what we observed in our own lives, or in that of another entity, country, animal and so forth? >>

Now here, I think moderns miss the point. We do not have a vote on rulerships. They aren't really changeable by public opinion. They are OLD. Ptolemy, Mr. BC himself, wrote of them. They have been used and verified by millennia of astrologers, some of whom would leave us all in the dust.

Sure, pay attention to what you observe. Listen to what people say. But remember there was an era where the whole world knew the world was flat and their opinions, although widespread, were wrong. A simple verification effort blew that away. They found out that Yes, it was possible to go a long way in one direction and end up back where you started.

Same thing doesn't work in astrology. This stuff has been tested already a long, long time. It never pays to get too Neptunian with astrology. You have to keep old Saturn's concrete traditions under your feet if you want to be accurate. Astrology is old knowledge, not old opinion.

Pat replies,

Sorry, but I think this is revisionist astrology. From ancient times the exaltation of Mercury has been in Virgo. This is the ONLY case in which a planet is exalted in one of its own signs.

I think Mercury in Aquarius is lovely. It gives a fine, inventive mind, and is sociable, too, as all the air Mercurys are. But modern opinions don't change history, and it is incorrect to try to do so, I think.

This is one of those things that gets passed around so much people begin to believe it, but when you start chasing it down, you realize it is based on nothing at all.

Pat replies,

Yes, the planets can be helpful. Use good aspects to Saturn for root vegetables--particularly if you want good keeping qualities.

Use Venus for sweetness in berries and peas and melons. It is also a good planet for improving general flavor. Mercury is helpful with ornamentals (like those colorful cabbages) and when you plant things you want to cross-fertilize, use Mars, it also gives tang (but as I told you, makes hot peppers hotter). Want a BIIIG pumpkin? Plant with aspect to Jupiter. Don't put your zucchinis in then unless you like a lot of surplus. Jupiter gives abundance. I don't think the outer planets are super important, but I am open to argument on that. Neptune might add juiciness.

Don't do any work under the full moon--it kills transplants and isn't helpful to seeds. Wait a day.

The various signs and phases of the moon are the most important. Waxing phase for aboveground growth, waning phase for root development. Use waxing for annuals, waning for perennials.

Your Mama was right--but void of course does not affect routine jobs that are done over and over. It's something to watch out for when you are doing the INITIAL launch of a project.

For weeding success, just try to use one of the barren moon signs and don't worry about the aspects. You'd spend more time on the astrology of the thing than on the weeding and there would just be more weeds the next day. And besides, sometimes the only time we have to weed is when the moon is in Cancer or Pisces or Taurus. Well, like a lot of things in life, just do it. So, they come back...you knew they would....

Pat replies,
Astrologers are not physicians. We can analyze the health pattern of an individual, and tell if you are currently a little sick, pretty sick or desperately ill, and even perhaps where the problem areas might be found. But true medical help, diagnosis and treatment belongs in a doctor's office.

People who have a fear of doctors, for whatever reason, sometimes want help from alternate sources first. And yes, we can tell if you have allergies, or lactose intolerance or migraine tendencies. But let me tell you a story about a client of mine.

She came with a friend and had said she just wanted a general reading. But I nearly had a cow when I was preparing her work because of the life-threatening aspects I saw. I flat out told her I didn't want to waste her time and mine with "stuff" when what she really needed was to go see a doctor NOW.

She was, to say the least, startled when I wouldn't read for her. I spent her entire visit insisting that she not look to me for her answers but go see a doctor. Before the two women left, the friend told me she thought the woman was ill and had been trying in vain to get her to ask for medical help. My urging finally got her off the dime.

Some weeks later I learned she had been desperately ill, as I surmised, and her doctor was able to operate on a tumor and get her blood sugar under control (diabetes as well) and she got well. She called me to say thanks for saving her life.

Astrologers have limitations. Yes, we can do some things. But if you think you have a serious medical problem, see a doctor.

One of the problems with being an astrologer without a wide background in other fields is that we may see the astrology of a subject very well but make some really dumb mistakes.

To illustrate: One may know a great deal about the chart of the NYSE, but if you don't know some basic economic and financial principles, you are apt to give very bad investment advice.

Bear with me a few minutes.

Some years back I wanted to bet on the Kentucky Derby. A number of co-workers were sending bets to the track with a man who was going there for the race. I did a horary chart after I had given the man a few dollars and was dumbfounded by what I saw. It seemed to say I would win, but the horse wouldn't. I was so confused I took back the money. What happened was a lesson to me. The horse lost, but had I bet on him, I would have won because his stable mate came in and they were run as a package. Because I didn't know about betting, I lost, even though the astrology was dead-on.

When we as astrologers launch into the political or economic arenas--to name a couple of convenient ones--without a good background in those areas, mistakes happen because of our lack of sufficient knowledge IN THAT FIELD, not because we are dumb or bad astrologers. LaRouche is a case in point.

LaRouche can call himself a candidate if he wants. So can I. LaRouche is a perennial also-ran in the American political scene, and his radical, conservative views have been dismissed by many intelligent people for years. He was well known for his intolerance, biases, and clumsy activities 20 years ago when I first heard of some of his followers trying to pass out political flyers at the U.S. Post Office in our town. (For those who are foreign, this is a huge no-no in American law.) Any half way intelligent politician knows better. Any politician with real aspirations in this country educates himself or herself about political laws.

He is now an old man, and perhaps mellowing, and no one has ALL bad ideas, so perhaps he sounds more plausible than he once did. I am not criticizing anyone here. We are all free to make our choices in the belief arena.

But I ran up his solar chart and this is an extremist with a disjointed, ineffective package, regardless of birth time. As an astrologer, I can see it. Before I embrace anyone's ideas, I try to find out who this is that is saying something.

Someone on Festival posted a URL for a "news" organization. I looked at it. I was dumbfounded because no where on the web site did I see any one's NAME or organization--merely tons of allegedly "true" diatribes of various sorts and appeals to gullibility. I haven't a clue as to who is behind it. But I sure as heck get suspicious when A) People don't tell me who they are and B) They have a lousy track record.

LaRouche comes under B. He's been around a long time and hasn't done anything to help society that I know of. He has never held public office at any level (and Americans elect the damnedest fools you ever saw to local jobs) and never been appointed to anything and never volunteered to do anything.

Whether you like a man like Jimmy Carter, for instance, or his views is immaterial: Carter has been off helping build houses for the poor for years. He got Habitat for Humanity off the ground and has done his best to accomplish something in his old age. In my book, LaRouche is no winner.

Pat replies,

I used relocation charts for a while but have always ended up going back to the natal for forecasting work. The only exception was when birth occurred in the other hemisphere. In that case, events "promised" by the natal don't always occur, and the life takes on the pattern indicated in the relocation chart.

Other astrologers may have other opinions. I have never had a huge quantity of clients with births overseas (say in Europe or Asia) to give me a broad enough basis on which to judge with much confidence.

However, I am a firm believer in the astrocartography methods pioneered so well by the late Jim Lewis.

Every planet in the chart refers to many things in each specific instance, both things it rules in itself, things it deals with by virtue of its sign and things it deals with by virtue of its house.

All the people of our lives are there as well.

The sun refers to men in general in everybody's chart. It refers to the career and the health particularly for men. For women who are trained and practicing in a specific field--as opposed to a job anyone can do--it also deals with the career. In a broad sense the sun shows how much power the individual has to affect or modify his/her environment. It is the characteristics we grow into and express more fully as we age because there is a core self which identifies with them.

For children of both sexes, the sun is one of the indicators of the father. The other indicator of "father" is Saturn, which also deals with older men and old age generally.

The moon refers to all women in everybody's chart. It particularly has rulership over the mother, as well as the female members of the family and the health of women. It deals with the family patterns, the habits and emotional conditioning of childhood. The younger the child the stronger the lunar expression is.

Inherited health conditions are ruled by the sun, functional problems by the moon. The sun is more likely to show the health of men as the moon is more likely to indicate the health of the woman. There is a great deal of overlap. If a serious health condition is indicated by moon stress in a man's chart it may point to organs ruled by the moon (stomach, breasts). The reverse is true for women--solar afflictions can point to back or heart or circulatory difficulties.

In a woman's chart, the sun can also refer to the spouse. In a man's chart the moon can also refer to the spouse. These are IN ADDITION to the planets which rule the 7th house of the individual pattern in question.

Every house in the chart rules somebody in your life. The 4/10 polarity is mom and dad. The 3rd house is siblings, the 9th in-laws. The 6th is people who work for you or care for you or whom you hire for "jobs" like lawn care, or gardening, or plumbing and the like.

Planets have wide portfolios of function. Mercury rules all young people generally and some types of people--such as sales clerks, stenographers and cab drivers--specifically. In YOUR chart it could also rule any house and the people of that house SPECIFICALLY as well.

Jupiter is the professional person of all kinds--Saturn is the authority figure--Uranus is the artsy weirdoes you keep attracting into your life, and Neptune can be the losers. But Jupiter can also deal with fat friends, Saturn can be poor relatives, Uranus can be the family's wealthy eccentric and Neptune the fiddle player for the harmonic orchestra. A lot of this depends on the specific chart.

Yes, the sun DOES mean the man in a woman's life. It also means a lot of other things.

Yes, the moon DOES mean the woman in a man's life. It also means a lot of other things.

We have to realize that nothing in astrology operates alone. Rule No. 1 is : Everything modifies everything else. We give simplistic rules and then start piling on the exceptions and the expansions and the modifiers and addendums until you feel like screaming.

The rule sounds simple, but I know that when you are learning astrology it gets frustrating.

But that's just the way it works.

Pat replies,

A couple things on migraines: First off, any planet or rising sign in Aries is vulnerable. Ditto anyone with any planet rising (in the first house).

One Aries rising woman I know has to go to the hospital emergency room when she gets hers because nothing short of an opiate will help her. Luckily they don't come very often. A man with a rising Venus has suffered from them for years.

I have had a number of charts over the years to look at with migraine problems and there are dietary links (afflicted moons or the moon square the ascendants, etc.) and stress on the rising degree or rising planet. Some problems are tied to outright allergies.

One of my clients was helped about 60 percent by some of the suggestions I made on her diet but of course needed more help from a medical source and found a headache clinic that was a godsend to her. Aries sun.

You mentioned all the Uranus/Mercury aspects. The charts I am familiar with also can have Uranus tied to the moon or Mars, and or/Mercury links to the rising planet or degree.

Smoking is a Mars thing and those with migraines who stop smoking find relief. The tie to Uranus and the moon shows the hormonal imbalances which affect women who get migraines. Three of the charts I can think of offhand are women who have no children.

I have a daughter with the problem who has found what she calls the new "miracle drug" for migraine sufferers. She gets every symptom you mentioned and a few more. Anyway, every migraine sufferer she has met who knew about the drug also calls it a miracle. Ask your doctor about it. It is Imitrix, a nasal spray, which comes in two dosages, the 5 milligram and the 20 milligram. Don't know who makes it or if it is available in Europe, but if you want more information on it, I can find out.

Some of the women I know with migraines also experienced hormonal problems but I forgot to tell you that some of them also were lactose intolerant. Both of these conditions are signified by the moon. I suspect lactose intolerance is behind the relief experienced by omitting dairy products.

I often find lactose intolerance in fire moons and the moon in Cap, as well. Not always in Scorpio moons.

Pat replies,

One of the interesting things when Neptune was in Capricorn was the struggle of women for the ranks of upper management and the so-called "glass ceiling" they ran into. Capricorn, of course, deals with the upper ranks of management and Neptune is glass. We saw a lot of social change involving women with the activity in the feminine signs Capricorn and Neptune.

Now the big planetary action is in masculine signs, Sag and Aquarius and the only feminine sign involved in big stuff is Taurus and it gets Saturn. We hear much less about "women's jobs" and more about "people's jobs" and the need for "workers" (notice the lack of sexual context--we've all become workers together lately) to find fulfillment. Nowadays we don't hold Martha Stewart up as an example to the rest of us, we buy stock in her company.

I think Neptune is responsible for the enormous shift in worldwide social consciousness that we are beginning to see in the Internet. The explosion of AOL alone, which is adding hundreds of thousands of subscribers every month, is evidence of that to my mind. That particular indicator may be in the U.S., but there are tons of voices from Canada, Australia, Europe and Asia just on Festival alone. And the number is growing exponentially.

I know a lot of literalists will point out that there was internet activity before Neptune got into Aquarius, but it is going to come to full flower under this transit, I believe.

We are finding peer groups in new ways and the driving career focus of the Capricorn transit is beginning to fade as people wake up and ask themselves "is that all there is?"

There is a deplorable trend to tattooing, which I believe is Neptunian , with dye being applied in "artistic" ways to the skin, which is ruled by Saturn. And Saturn is the primary old ruler of Aquarius, with Uranus really a junior partner, as far as I'm concerned.

This is the first generation to grow up with smoking as a diminishing interest. Unfortunately, hard liquor interest is climbing again. Both are Neptunian.

Weird body piercings and peculiar sports are "in"--see the multiplication of earrings and WWF wrestling, that incredibly unreal and hokey TV amusement. We buy stock in them, too.

There's lots more I know, but this is all that occurs to me at the moment.

Pat replies,

What I do sounds simple and it is, but is one of those useful things we rarely do and overlook its value.

At the beginning of every year, I sit down with a 3 x 5 index card and the ephemeris for the year and make a list of each planet's stations, both retrograde and direct, the degree at which each occurs and the dates.

My card will look something like this:

Mercury: SR Feb. 22, 4 Pisces SD March 15, 20 Aquarius. Venus: SR etc. Jupiter SD, etc.

Then you also make a list of the eclipses for the year: The sun, total, 17 Taurus, and the date, the moon, partial, 5 Scorpio and the date, and so on.

You stick that little card in your ephemeris and you keep it there all year. Every time you do a chart, you take it out and check the things that hit it.

After you do this a few years you will notice something very interesting. A lot of degrees that are in for action during the year will have stations of more than one planet as well as eclipses and new or full moons at the same degree or nearly so. For instance, Mercury will station at 22 Aries and you notice that there is a Saturn station at 22 Libra and a solar eclipse at 21 Cancer. There is also a lunar eclipse at say 19 Cap. And both the Aries and Libra new moons are in the late teens.

Now, it doesn't require a lot of fancy math to realize that ANY CHART with placements in the 19-22 degree cardinal range is going to be affected in a pronounced way.

When it comes to planetary transits, the stations are powerful indicators. Every year there is some major planetary activity that dominates. One year it may be a triple conjunction of Uranus and Pluto as they go retrograde and direct, passing and repassing each other. Another year Jupiter and Saturn repeat a series of squares, etc. Notice the degrees at which the direction changes. Those degrees should be listed on your card. They are important for that year.

Next year, do this again. Watch how the degrees of the stations are echoed by the new moons and full moons close to or on those activated areas as the year goes by.

Sometimes they are all in cardinal or fixed. Occasionally they may be all in fire, or water. Watch these linkages shape up. If any chart has these areas of the zodiac occupied by planets, that chart will be in for the action. If the degrees getting emphasis are on the angles, major activity is scheduled.

I hope this is clear. The solar system is like a game of tag, and sometimes the one who is "It" changes, bouncing from person to person. If you are still confused, ask me some more questions and I will try to gives some examples.

Pat replies,

My deepest sympathies to you - I know how tough these times are. It's hard to watch somebody lose physical abilities or die, but I sometimes think it worse to watch them slip away little by little with Alzheimer's (or dementia, as some folks call it.).

One of the things I notice in old people is the Uranus return at 84. If Uranus has any tough aspects, people don't seem to survive it. My dad had the conjunction out of sign and died a few days after his 84th birthday. I expected it.

Many of the older texts say that trines of Uranus and/or Saturn to the sun give long life. Saturn in my experience seems to improve the pleasure of old age, but I don't know how many years it adds. Uranus I will agree with.

I did a lecture a while back on the 3rd Saturn return which I think introduces us to the creative, liberating years of old age. I am convinced that the more one lives a steady, duty-oriented life, the greater is the freedom in old age: hence, the reason so many sun-sign Capricorns have golden years.

Many people first discover their creativity in the leisure years of retirement and thrive on it.

Today we are seeing a genuine eruption of senior citizens having fun, going back to school or taking courses (big Elderhostel movement, which I participate in and have traveled with), travel and explore volunteerism and new social life. I recall taking a day trip to Amish country--I live in Ohio, big on the Amish--and seeing busload after busload of seniors at restaurants, shopping meccas and the like.

Go to the opera, or the ballet in the afternoon. Try the matinee performance of your favorite orchestra. Crammed with seniors. I am offering an astrology course this fall at the local community college as part of the senior program. A lot of seniors develop new mental interests when they aren't burdened by the "musts" of life.

The seniors today are all part of the WWII or post-WWII-Korean War generation, of course. Most worked hard for at most one or two employers and many were limited in their opportunities by the world they lived in at the time. Many of the women were limited in educational and recreational chances because they were married in the pre-pill era and had babies to raise. Later in life they went back to work at jobs they really hadn't prepared for or hadn't done for decades.

Now that they are retired, they are going at the goodies with a vengeance and loving every bit of it. Most of them are so energetic they leave this chubby old Cancer in the dust, but I'm getting my own fun out of these truly "wonder years."

I think Neptune is responsible for the creativity as it makes late aspects. A lot of seniors learn to play music or study music or the arts. I have a friend who paints and who is always taking some art course or other. Perhaps we are doing some pre-planning for the next lifetime, for all I know.

It seems to me there is also the spiritual aspect of life to consider. We are creatures of more than flesh and bone, and Neptune, the soul, and Uranus, the divine self, speak to us all. Some of us are lucky enough to hear those voices while we are younger, but I suspect we all hear them somehow, even if it takes the senior years to improve our inner hearing, even as some of the outer hearing goes.

Obviously for some of us, Neptune brings ill health and Uranus bring disruption to our comfortable lives. Maybe these are the ways the Universe helps us to break our psychological ties to the body and our habits of behavior so we are free to move on at a later point.

Whatever, I think the senior years have some very interesting developments and I think those of us 65 and over have plenty of feedback to share.

Pat replies,

I have found a number of your declination usages fascinating and particularly the OOB work. I always like to read what you have to say, since we have some of the same ideas but you see things from a different angle than I do. (Couldn't be because you're a Libra and I'm Cancer, could it?)

I have always used and taught the use of declinations but I disagree, for instance, with the common contentions that they always act like conjunctions when two planets share the same declination. I don't think so. This is not a notion I've seen you talk about, so I don't know if you share my thoughts on this.

I find that declinations "echo" whatever aspect is already present in longitude and make it more powerful. An example is a semi square reinforced by the parallel, which sits up and roars in the birth pattern. Or a wide conjunction where the parallel exists that makes the conjunction seem a lot closer and more powerful.

Conversely, conjunctions that don't have a parallel operating don't have the traditional conjunction punch, I think.

This is my rule: When two planets are in parallel of declination, it reinforces whatever longitudinal aspect they have and makes it more powerful. ( If square by longitude, they do not act like they are conjunct, but like they are a more powerful square.)

When two planets are parallel but in NO longitudinal aspect, the parallel brings them together like a weak conjunction.

Anyway, there is something on how I use the parallel. I find it very important in progressed aspects. A progressed moon parallel Neptune, for instance, will mark a hospitalization when there is no other aspect to explain it.

Pat replies,

A lot of what the old-timers wrote was NOT SOLELY intended for literal personality analysis but some of it certainly was.

For instance, the comment that Aquarians "hate" their families is very nearly so, in my experience. Most Aquarians decide exactly which members of their families they like and are sympathetic to and ignore the rest. To all intents and purposes, they give themselves the liberty to "divorce" the ones they consider idiots and fools.

They can also be remarkably callous and undiscerning about the needs of people in their families, to the point of causing pain, and in the old days I suppose that seemed like hate.

They like working in hard things--a lot of invention involves machinery, kapeesh?

I have found Aquarians the most personally private (read "deceitful") of all the signs--far more so than Scorpio, which will be quite blunt about itself when it trusts you.

Impious? Certainly by the old standards--most Aquarians I know will only trust a religion that is reasonably logical. That didn't exactly wash in the old days when you were supposed to believe blindly or be socially excluded or considered heretical. Aquarians love to poke pins in things and ideas they consider inflated.

It is definitely a barren sign and one of the best for pulling weeds when the moon is there.

It is also "wet" and cold in the weather sense.

I think there are many reasons for some of the descriptions given in these old texts, and it is necessary to sort them out.

I also think that we spend much too much time giving all the signs sweet little New Age credit for nothing but good. There are a lot of bad eggs out there--and they are bad in the ways of their own signs. If you don't know what those are, you can really miss the boat.

Hitler, for instance, was not just a dear little flower-smelling Taurus.

But that's another story.

Pat replies,
You put your finger on a concept which I believe is greatly overlooked in discussions of power.

The concept is responsibility. There is a saying I like very much: To whom much is given, much will be required.

Knowledge does not exist in a vacuum. Nor does wealth or talent or beauty. In fact, we all have many talents and abilities. Those of us who use them --or try to, anyway --to aid and help others, see that as part of our mission in life. We feel we have a responsiblity to share the good stuff.

Anything can create power. The more there is of any quality, the more powerful it is and the more powerful its possessor thereby becomes.

Where people fall off the boat, in my opinion, is the concept that having power automatically means misuse. Not so.

I give you two ladies with immense "power"--Mother Teresa and Princess Diana. Their approval or disapproval could move millions to act. Did they misuse their power to serve selfish needs? Nope. And nobody can convince me they did.

Did Michaelangelo or DaVinci or Mozart or Rodin misuse the power of their talent? I don't think so. They left the results to all of us in a heritage of great beauty.

How about Schwarzennegger and his muscle? Chuck Norris? Do they misuse their muscle power and hurt people gratuitously? I don't think so. But they have both spawned movements intended to improve the body. And both do a lot of quiet good behind the scenes.

Is every rich person a bad person? How many of us use libraries built by Carnegie? How much private money endows schools and scholarships? Sure there is power in deciding who gets what, but is that power automatically bad?

How about the people who manage the companies that keep us all employed? They have power in their outstanding management skills. Do they ALL misuse that power? I don't buy that, either.

We can't call it harmful just because it exists. There are many kinds of power and many levels of use, misuse and misunderstanding about it, I think.

Responsibility--gee, a Saturn concept--goes along with great talent of any kind. And when things are misused? Karma. Saturn repays.

If you've got it, flaunt it, enjoy it, spread it around with great glee. That doesn't mean you don't have responsibility for wise use. But joy and pleasure can be included.

And if I happen to enjoy reading a chart and thereby assist a fellow human being doing so, we have both had benefit out of my "power."

Wow--that's enough soapbox for me, today.

Pat replies,

Yours is one of the more classic patterns I have ever seen for trouble with doctors and medicine. If my memory serves me right, you also have some problems with Neptune aggravating the medicine difficulty.

It's a good thing you learned to watch out for this stuff young or it probably would have killed you by now and we would have all missed a friend.

The words Via Combust are Latin for "road of fire," or Fiery Pathway and refer to the fact that a number of important fixed star positions fall between 15 degrees of Libra and 15 degrees of Scorpio. That area of the zodiac is called the Via Combust and is particularly significant in horary work.

The term "cazimi" refers to a planet within 8 minutes of arc from exact conjunction to the sun. Mercury for instance at 10 Taurus 15 minutes is cazimi when the sun is 10 Taurus 12 minutes.

This gives Mercury far MORE power than it otherwise would in conjunction with the sun. Usually a conjunction to the sun overwhelms the planet, but when it is cazimi it becomes dominant.

This is an aspect that also has special relevance to horary work.

C.E.O. Carter wrote a book called, "Symbolic Directions," which is solid gold, in my opinion. He suggested using a simple one-degree measure --the mean or average motion-- instead of the actual solar arc and I use it constantly and with every chart I do to get a bird's eye view of the activities of the year.

I have come to see that for those whose suns move slowly--Gemini, Cancer and Leo--the one-degree click in late--a year or so. For those suns move fast--Sag, Cap and Aquarius, the measurement works early. All the other signs have it work on the dime. But of course, the sun is moving at pretty close to exactly one degree when it is in them.

So, of course, solar arc works. The one-degree method is an approximation, that absolutely verifies the solar arc, IMO.

During the old days, secondary progressions were not used, but astrologers could quickly estimate the age at which various events would occur by using simple solar arcs or one-degree measurements. It is a great way to confirm birth times and establish rectification parameters.

There is nothing so worrisome for the astrologer as sitting down to a client who supposedly has Leo rising and taking one look and KNOWING this is no Leo rising type. Then what? Obviously, a few questions on timing are in order. If the body is top heavy and the face round, I would start working back toward Cancer. If the body is neat and the feet small and the hair curly, I'd look to Virgo. The one-degree method of confirming years in which events occurred is a Godsend to the busy astrologer.

If any of you don't have this book and see it, buy it. You'll never regret it.

It seems to me that all astrologers around the world should pay special attention to the feast of the Epiphany --or the Three Kings, as someone mentioned that it is called in other parts of the world..

The tale of the Magi who came to see the child whose birth they had predicted is not only the most famous story of an astrological forecast, but the only one I know of from ancient times. Some may know of others, but this one is familiar everywhere the New Testament is read.

You don't have to be a Christian to appreciate it.

I for one plan to pay a lot more attention Jan. 6 to the notion that my astrological forebears went on a long journey on camels across the desert thousands of years ago just to see how their forecast turned out. I'm not sure I want to drive to Toledo in my well-heated car for that! (Toledo isn't far from me--couple hours by turnpike. Piece of cake.)

Anyway, this year I plan to light my own little candle to remember those guys who validated our profession so well. Dang, don't you wish you'd been there? Smelly camels aside, think of the adventure of it. Tents in the desert. The sound of wolves. The wind blowing. Dates in your pocket for a snack while the camel rocks away the miles. The chilly stars at night. A whole sky full of them that we barely see in our smog and light-filled modern world. Servants brewing that hot glue they call coffee in the dawn--the sky streaky red and gold, and off across the dim horizon a child they think will change the world.

Wow. Such pictures I get.

I have seen several postings on eclipses and almost everyone seems to think all eclipses are always bad. Not so.

I have seen (happy) marriages occur shortly after an eclipse on one's Venus. Prominence, awards, and promotions can come from eclipses on a 10th house Jupiter. The best job opportunity of a lifetime can come for a man after a hit on an unafflicted sun.

Even eclipses on Saturn can bring benefit if Saturn is well aspected at birth. The benefit seems to follow a problem which has to be solved first--or even a seeming catastrophe. It's sort of like an "all's well that ends better."

I'll give you a personal example since some of you may recall my mentioning that a tree fell on my house last September. It followed an eclipse opposing my Saturn by one degree. The Feb. eclipse was exactly on my Saturn , and it took nearly that long for me to finish putting my library back in order. My Saturn is trine my moon and sits on its solstice point. The moon, of course, is on Saturn's solstice point.

The tree that came down was at least 200 years old--probably a lot more--(very Saturn) but had been rotting out in the trunk for a long time before the huge storm. It came down while I was in bed about 6:30 a.m. and when I heard the crack I knew what it was. Next sounded like somebody threw a couple cars at the house. I ran down stairs and flipped on the lights over the patio to see this monster laying there like a tired Godzilla. Did I mention the oak was about 28-30 feet around?

One of the big branches had struck the roof, going into the ceiling of my computer/library room and going through the roof of my garage. The claims adjuster later told me that if my walls had not been brick the tree would have torn the back of the house off because only brick was strong enough to take all that weight. The main part of the tree missed the house by about --oh, 6 feet. That would have wiped me out and the house, too.

Anyway, to make a very long, involved story short: The repairs ended up getting me an entirely new roof on house and garage, all new gutters, which fixed a big drainage problem I had had for some years, repairs of three windows which I couldn't open before (Old crank mechanisms were jammed too badly) can now be opened and I got a room completely redecorated, new ceilings, walls repaired, ceiling painted, new wallpaper etc. It forced me to do the agonizing work of actually reducing my library by about a third by getting rid of books I really didn't like anyway. This was not my astrological library, you understand. Just my SF/Fantasy stuff. I have the room lined in bookshelves, floor to ceiling, pretty much all the way around. I know, I know--I am a nut. My family has been telling me this for years.

My daughter helped me with the redecorating and it is absolutely wonderful. I get a flush of pleasure every time I walk in to get on the computer. We found the perfect area rug to match the wall paper and some wonderful moiré fabric to drape elegantly over the sheers which brings the wallpaper and rug alive. On a trip to Washington I found a matching strip rug which fits exactly in front of the wall with closets.

It was a mess for a while, of course, but luckily occurred under a cardinal moon. I shudder to think how long it would have been under a fixed moon. It would still be going on and I would be in a padded room.

My insurance company was wonderful. The amount of damage was very little compared to what it could have been. I always knew that tree liked me and wouldn't hurt me, and it didn't. It tucked my gardenia plant (unharmed) into its arm pit when it fell and didn't even take out the power. A forked branch fell on either side of the power tower.

So there you are, the tale of two eclipses both within one degree of Saturn, which brought good things in the wake of the problem. Want to hear more good stuff? The stump ground down into smashingly wonderful mulch. My patio has sunshine and things in the yard are growing like you wouldn't believe. The old oak had really smothered everything with too much shade.

A carver has some of the logs, turning them into memorial bowls for my children. It took two commercial grinder trucks, two dump trucks, two flat bed trailers and 13 pickup trucks to cart away all the wood. Most of the wood went to people who needed it for heating their homes. I filled up my wood racks with about a cord and gave the rest away. I was the "wood fairy" of the neighborhood for a while there.

Anyway, that's my long tale. So unless you have a really afflicted position getting hit within a degree or two, you can probably relax--catastrophe will pass you by.

Pat replies,

Be my guest. It takes time to get the knack of putting a chart together concisely, and sometimes I fail after all the years of doing it. We all have off days even when we know better.

When that happens and I sit down to look at a chart and draw a complete blank, I go back to the basics of 1, 2, 3 and it steadies me on the way.

If you have the 1,2,3 always tucked in your back pocket, it's like money in the bank, something for the rainy days and Mondays.

Pat replies,

Back in the very early 70s I was helping to run a drop-in center for young drug abusers and because I was an astrologer, a lot of them would talk to me about their troubles. I didn't charge them, of course.

I told one young man that he was in imminent danger of being busted as a dealer unless he cleaned up his act. I liked him a lot--he had a chart formed around a beautiful grand trine--and was worried about him.

(For those who ask, too soft a chart is usually worrisome because these are people who take the easy way out when times get tough. His was a VERY soft chart.)

He took my advice and had divested himself of all his drugs when he was stopped and searched. After that, however, it wasn't long before he went back to dealing when he needed a few bucks. Soon, it was a bigger business than ever.

A couple of years later he was busted by a federal agent in a cocaine sting and went to federal prison.

He later asked me to read for him and I told him that if I did, I would charge him a whole lot of money so he would pay attention to what I told him. Oddly enough, he never came for his reading. The last I heard of him he was working as a janitor in a discount store. That was at least 15 years ago, so my knowledge is very old. He could be back in prison, for all I know.

But I wonder if he would consider paying $10,000 better than those 5 years in a federal prison?

An old astrologer told me once never to do readings for free because it was like casting pearls before swine. People only appreciate what they pay for and their appreciation is sometimes in direct proportion to what it cost them.

I had been working with a student for some years, letting her come to my house, use my books, etc., and not charged her. She later went to a large city in the east and began to attend expensive seminars by an astrologer to whom she paid slavish attention and great praise.

The old astrologer in question told me that the young woman did not value all the knowledge I had given her free and in fact, was rather dismissive of me as her "tutor" in contrast to the astrologer who charged her a lot. I was chagrined, to say the least.

I never forgot the lesson and I must say there are times when I want to raise my fees to $10,000 so people will pay attention. Sigh. I don't, but sometimes I think we charge too little for what has cost us years of time and money to learn.

Pat replies,

Of all the major transits, I think Neptune can be the most annoying--and can bring in the most annoying people.

One of the things big transits bring is NEW PEOPLE into the life. When the aspect you have natally is a good one--say Neptune trine your sun--and you get a transiting square, it can bring people who are highly creative into your circle. You meet artists, or musicians, or photographers. Sometimes they are poets or bring a gentle romanticism into your life--maybe they watch birds and bring you feathers, or want to teach you to tie them into trout fishing flies or make them into fashion statements or art objects for your fireplace or some damn thing.

But the bad aspects are dillies. If you have a hard aspect between sun and Neptune at birth or NO aspect, and then you get the transiting square, what you get are the losers, the drinkers, the druggies and people who want to con you out of money. This is when you had better keep your pocketbook zipped, get two estimates on everything and three if the doctor wants to yank four organs at once or the dentist is quite sure ALL your teeth need to go. Ignore all get-rich-quick schemes and don't let your sympathies run away with you or the "poor thing" with a sad tale will move in and mooch.

In addition to the kind of people this aspect brings into your life, it also brings this stuff OUT in the people you know. The sun in a woman's chart always refers to the men in her life: father, husband, boss and her own career if she has one as opposed to a job. In a man's chart it is his own career, the men in his life and his health. It can also refer to men generally for both sexes--the brother-in-law, the guy who does your taxes, the plumber, etc. They may HAVE or BE Neptunian problems.

This is the fog business, the confusion, deception, disillusion, dismay, depression. Yours or theirs.

Neptune stress can incline one to try recreational drugs, do more drinking at parties or in private, or develop health problems for which the treatment may be prescription drugs. With a hard aspect natally, watch this carefully--make sure you get what you are supposed to and take it only when you are supposed to. Be particularly careful with sleeping drugs and ALL painkillers.

Use care in all situations where one is dealing with authority. Misjudgments can be severe.

This aspect can (in combination with other stuff of course) indicate ill health, loss of job or status, divorce or a case of major deception brought about by your own fault. All con artists appeal to one of two things: ego or greed. The sun deals with ego, and when a Neptunian square is involved, it can get you into plenty trouble because you thought you were above it all and that stuff didn't touch you, or you could handle the liquor etc., etc.

Whenever Neptune makes a powerful aspect to a power point in one's chart, the rule for survival is this: Hang on to what you know is right and good, rely on the tried and true, and wait it out. This, too, shall pass.

Oh, and a little prayer doesn't hurt. If you happen to believe the Universe didn't create itself.

Pat replies,

Raising a child with a Pisces moon is a fearful responsibility. They are soooooo sensitive and loving, and will do their living best to please, that any lack of positive response is devastating to them.

My youngest has a Pisces moon--loaded with aspects--and if she accidentally got a cross word when she was little it was good for an hour's weeping, I kid you not. A frown from me was a big deal. It meant she had failed somehow. Her youngest also has a Pisces moon and is an absolutely wonderful, happy child (now 2) who adores his mom and will do anything she asks of him and learns so fast it is scary.

It makes me sick when I think of little boys and girls without such a wonderful upbringing who also have that walloping sensitivity. They absorb the negative and the sad and the frightening just as fast.

Case in point: Last week I read the "unauthorized" biography of the singer Michael Jackson, who also has a Pisces moon. Here was the brightest, liveliest and most talented and loving child in a family of talented youngsters subjected to the most god-awful abuse and sexual mis-training imaginable. But he learned everything he was taught very well. He grew up with skewed sexual attitudes and has stayed so immature that the only non-threatening individuals he could apparently find as sexual partners seem to be 10 year-old boys. His whole value system is based on money and self-gratification , just like his father. His mother copped out on every moral decision that would have defended a helpless child and so does he. It was the saddest story I have ever read. It was published before the outcome of the child molestation case, so does not follow any of his later life, but it is the worst example I can imagine of mishandling a kid with a Pisces moon.

And when you tell me you don't "feel" any of the lighter, happier, joyous emotions, I grieve. It means --to me, at least-- that somewhere along the line you learned not to have them. It means you learned lonely, sad emotions, instead. Pisces moon picks up on EVERYTHING--adding Neptune rising is doubling the sensitivity.

Over the years I think the one unalterable fact I have learned in astrology is that all the problems people have stem from not getting enough love and not learning how to love others. Out of that single source comes more grief and pain than anything else I know.

Why don't people give their children all the love their arms can hold? I don't know. I wish I could change the world, but all I can change is me. Frankly, me is a big enough challenge and I am nowhere near succeeding with that one, yet. Sigh.

Pat replies,

A "smog? " The creator of the butterfly, the moonbeam and soft baby skin? Good grief. You HAVE been given a rotten view of Reality. Somebody should be made to stand in the corner for spoiling life for you.

However, I protest the notion that this is a bad time for a wee wave at whoever is in charge of the universe.

I am not recommending you join a church, launch into mysticism, or drown yourself in anybody's piety. That just feeds into Neptune's particularly skewed view of the way things are.

ALL I said was, a bit of prayer wouldn't hurt. In my book, that constitutes the equivalent of a small wave, or perhaps "Good Day," to a neighbor who wishes you well.

And on that note, I will end my recommendations for Neptune. But I do appreciate your kind words on my post.

We have: A cyclone in India this week kills 10,000 (couple days early) Rocket attack on U.S. embassy in Pakistan--bin Laden believed behind it Russian attacks on Chechnya escalate 17 dead and hundreds hurt in earthquake a couple hours ago in Turkey. A food flight to Pristina, Yugoslavia, crashes in fog--24 dead. These events are all in the eclipse shadow. Just thought I'd keep us up to date.

Some years back a number of astrologers wanted a different, more active kind of organization to benefit astrologers directly, not merely to provide books or research. Many of them envisioned it as partly a networking group, to link us together, and partly a sort of union of astrologers to protect each other.

 It became the Association for Astrological Networking.

Today it is a common thing to be willing to call oneself an astrologer. In the old days, before AFAN, no astrological organization published the names of members or how to get in touch with them. It was all kept a big secret. AFAN members wanted to change that.

AFAN has gone to bat in several courts on several levels when astrologers around the country have been arrested for doing their work. We have won test cases everywhere using the principles of the constitution. We have quite a portfolio of "wins."

It used to be that astrology was generally ridiculed or treated tongue-in-cheek routinely by the media. Our AFAN media watch constantly monitors and responds to such things. As taxpayers and citizens we have a right to speak and practice and be treated with respect. Today, NOBODY can treat astrology the way they used to--because AFAN fights for astrologers and astrology.

It is really the only single organization that does that. Every other group has a different agenda, and all are necessary, of course.

The International Astrology Day movement is another idea of AFAN's. Every Spring groups hold public forums of various kinds for public information and to help counteract ignorance about what we do and who we are.

I believe in AFAN. I think the work we do is important. And if you are or ever want to be a professional astrologer, AFAN is for you. If you are a student of astrology, AFAN is for you. We are all in this together.

Pat replies.... I loved the name you gave your post. Wonderful.

Anyway, you can tell a client absolutely anything if you do it right. If personal relationships look nowhere for a while, look to see what IS in the focus. People mostly know instinctively anyway and I don't think I have ever told anyone anything that they didn't know, somewhere deep down in their soul.

Always hunt for the positive alternative in your readings. I should say that twice.

Sometimes I see the focus will be on career for the next couple years. If you tell someone that yes, you know a relationships would be nice and comforting, but that their focus is going to be in the career area for a while they will accept putting love on the back burner for now. Most people know you can't give your "all" to more than one thing at a time.

Or, you may tell someone that right now the only kind of person you can see that they would attract would be a real loser and that the universe seems to be protecting them from that, it is comforting, rather than the reverse.

Sometimes people are coming out of a bad marriage and they think they want somebody to replace the "partner" role in their lives immediately. When you help them understand that this is a rebuilding time for their inner strength and a time to prepare for the better aspects down the road, they understand. Nobody wants to meet a possible mate when the aspects that just ended their rotten marriage will only bring in another loser.

It takes time for the wheel to turn, right?

If they ask about a bad health problem, they already are worried or they already fear they won't get better. If that's what you see, refer them to competent medical sources but don't lie. You can agree, "Yes, I can see this is a very serious medical problem and will need a lot of treatment." and you can admit you haven't all the answers about their health.

It is NOT A SIN for an astrologer to say, "I don't know."

Besides, if I fear the worst, I fall back on my absolutely last resource. I tell them a) I am not medically trained and b) I am not God and can be dead wrong about what I see and c) I don't want to mislead with either false hope or excessive pessimism. And then I shut up.

If I see good aspects coming, I may tell them treatments improve things at that time. If I see bad aspects, I may say there will be difficulties then. I try not to do what I said in "c" above.

Hopefully you won't run into problems that you can't assist with in some way.

The worst problem I ever had with a client came from a young woman who left my house in tears because I wouldn't tell her the married man she wanted would return her affections. I tried to be gentle but she was not about to accept any version of the truth but her own and I would not give her a false answer. She battered away at me for 45 minutes and all I would tell her was that she was barking up the wrong tree, basically.

Twenty five years later she told me the reason she still came for readings was because she knew that I would always tell her the truth, even if she didn't like it. I can't tell you how much that meant.

It all boils down to "do your best, don't lie, but look for a happier alternative if you can find one."

Pat replies,

You had me chuckling over this paragraph. There are two signs of the Zodiac that are always on a mission to fix the rest of us: Virgo and Aquarius.

Virgo wants to fix us one by one and Aquarius wants to fix us in bunches (using politics or social change or e-mail newsletters or whatever).

It always amuses me when people stand up and holler like their signs. But then, I must be getting old, because more things amuse me than ever. I can hardly get through a day without a good bellylaugh, or a guffaw, and sometimes a knee slapper that I hadn't planned on.

Today I had a Capricorn client who, as I was closing her reading said, "Now, Pat, I want to know all the rest of the bad stuff you haven't told me." I almost slid under the table laughing. She's a longtime client and student, so she appreciated the joke after she realized what she said. Man, talk about pessimistic!

No wonder so many Capricorns become comedians. It's in the genes.

Anybody wanna move to the sun so they can use heliocentric exclusively? Hmmm?

Granted, helio has value. But hey, back in the old days before modern instruments, nobody even thought about helio as a valid point of view.

They didn't know anybody who lived on the sun.

For years I struggled in vain to use the solar return to my satisfaction. One of my students--a long-time student of another astrologer as well--however, was able to give me accurate information from a solar return that I didn't see how she got. Then she told me about Volguine.

I bought the book as fast as I could haul out the bucks.

His premise is simple: each solar return house is read as if it fell into a natal house, partaking both of the natal influences and the solar return influences. Sample: The SR 2nd is in the natal 7th. This means that this year's income will depend heavily on partners, or strangers, or public relations, perhaps, but that in any case, the actions of others will strongly determine how much money you make (or spend).

Perhaps the natal house is ruled by Jupiter but the solar return house is ruled by Saturn. Perhaps this year's (Saturn) spending obligations will be frustrated (or aided) by the generosity (Jupiter) or big-spending (Jupiter) partner or spouse.

The house into which the SR ascendant and MC fall are key. So are the contacts of planets in the SR to the natal.

I don't want to try writing all the details of his book by e-mail but I hope that gives you a sample.

Pat replies,

I think this scenario haunts a lot of us who look down the road at some of those aspects ahead.

I'm not sure if it's because we are picking up (psychically, perhaps) on alternate futures or if we are simply trying to cover the possibilities. But JIC--Just In Case--it doesn't hurt to learn to make soap. It's always a good amusing hobby.

Some of my JIC favorites: spinning yarn off the beast (any beast with fur will do), knitting or weaving it into clothing, socks, mittens, hats, misc., stockpiling books on herbal remedies, edible wild plants and how to make yurts, the best way to make compost, etc. etc. And keep a fireplace that works for wood. I've used mine when the power went out during a winter storm.

Oh, yes, and it also doesn't hurt to keep books on hand calculation of charts handy, along with algorithm sheets, tables of houses, etc.

One good magnetic storm from a nearby nuke could wipe your computer of everything you know, even if you and your civilization survived. It pays to carry the stuff in your own head.

But relying on canned interpretations? Jeeeeeez, no. If the canned stuff goes, so does your astrology.

Pat replies,
You have the same package as one of my daughters who can swat crises like other people swat flies and talk a blue streak at the same time. She has a sun/mars conjunction in Virgo (along with the Aries ascendant) and boy can
she be the original top sergeant.

I'll never forget one day we were sightseeing in Spain and had just left a castle and were walking around the square when some gypsies ran up to her to sell her something and one of them, a pickpocket, slipped her billfold out of her purse. Quick as a wink she turned around and stormed at them to "Give it back!" Those women took one look at that tall, angry American, dropped the billfold and split. God only knows what she would have done, but certainly picked up a few of them and shaken them at the least.

And yes, she is a nitpicker too. But only in things that are important.

Of course her important and mine are two different things. She turns up her nose at anything except some fancy gourmet hand roasted and lovingly ground coffee made in a $zillion dollar espresso machine. Me? Heck, just give me instant.

But I sure am glad if she's around when there's a crisis.

You have the strong Scorpio (mars sign) emphasis that I mentioned --and if you ask me you probably did live in a war zone.

Heck, you probably WERE the war zone.

It is no coincidence that Virgo ends up in the medical field where a crisis-an-hour can happen.

Mars in Gemini thrives on pressure and can deal with a sudden, over whelming need for speed to get out of trouble (you see this one in a lot of race drivers and air traffic controllers for that reason). Mars in Virgo folks
rarely lose their head when the going is tough and often apply logic to get out of trouble when other people are too stunned to think.

Mars works so well because it sees any type of crisis as "threat, attack, danger" and responds instantly. Folks with angular Mars positions or rulership (Scorpio or Aries rising) are really, really handy.

People with a lot of water (except Scorpio) and no real Mars power usually go into shock during a crisis and are absolutely useless. Sometimes they collapse and become secondary crises.

I still remember talking to a Gemini photographer about some nasty situations he'd been in taking pictures. (for those of you who don't know, I retired from a newspapering career.) He told me how he dealt with one guy in a rock concert (his assignment was to take a picture for the paper) who went bonkers who knows why--drugs, maybe) and tried to grab his camera and punch him.

The photographer only had one hand free and he sure wasn't going to let go of that camera, so he stuck his forefinger up the guy's nose, practically lifted him off his feet and moved away as soon as the guy let go. The guy collapsed like a wet balloon. A finger up your nose is painful as hell.

The ultimate Gemini defense--a finger-- loved that story.

Pat replies,

I have always used the 8th house for sleep and sleep-related disorders.

Many teens in puberty or shortly after seem to crave sleep and I think it is connected to the hormones and endocrine system.

While I have no medical training, I notice stress to the rulers of 8 or planets there often show up. You should also look at Mars and Pluto, Aries/Scorpio rulers. When you can't get out of bed, there is something wrong with the energy system and that is controlled to a large extent by the endocrine glands, which are--in turn--under Venus/Neptune. And Neptune appears to be in charge of the dreaming process.

Neptune is also involved when drugs, allergies, sensitivities of all sorts are causing problems. Tocsins can come from the very air for people with hypersensitivities.

I remember reading about a case of a woman who suffered extreme fatigue who turned out to be allergic to just about everything in her environment and it required her to find a place where she was practically living in a bubble to begin healing. Sleep was her body's way of trying to heal itself.

As a personal note--when I was a teen I went through about two years of extreme fatigue and it took some hormonal shots to readjust the system, so that experience provided me with some clues for my thinking.

Maybe a good internist should be consulted here. Any allergy history might also be re-examined.

Pat replies,

This flabbergasts me. It is one of those obvious things so simple we miss seeing it for years.

It explains tons of stuff about Nostradamus, who apparently seems to have used the constellations/fixed stars to refer to nations and the timing of events.

Several years ago I got interested in comet discovery points and could never find much that satisfied me. Old book pointed out that they had specific forecasts depending on where they were first sighted and it seems to be
connected to the fixed stars.

I think astrology desperately needs the research you are doing for us all. Loud applause from this corner.

Pat replies:

I must applaud your balanced thinking. I agree that we are different from the ancients in some ways and very alike in others. There is wisdom to be found both then and now.

Anyone who puts down Barbara Watters or Ivy has rocks in their head, in my opinion. By the same token, I find decumbiture techniques, which go waaaaaaay back, useful.

At the UAC conference in Atlanta last year I watched in stunned awe as Bernadette Brady showed the validity of a statistical study on modern people using ancient techniques. From her I could learn ancient astrology. That does not mean I consider my more modern astrological knowledge of no value. Merely that I think she has also found knowledge of value. I would like to add it to my own, not subtract my own from it.

It behooves us all to use practical yardsticks in astrology. It would be wonderful if astrology were so cut and dried that a plus b always equaled c. But ours is an art based on a mathematical foundation and has elements of both worlds. And sometimes a plus b is affected by d in such a way that it can't possibly equal c.

We are astrologers--and we must keep on hunting for the wisdom wherever we find it and try to pass it on.

Thanks for your thoughtful post.

Pat replies,

I think the best psychic I ever met was a Leo. Fire people are often intuitive, I would agree.

I collected several charts of psychics as one period and some were Taurus or Virgo, one had heavy Aquarius, and there was a Sag. One of the "signatures" I noticed was the house of the moon. A 4, 8 or 12th house moon, in any sign, forming any aspect to Neptune or Pluto was psychic.

Not all these people were professionals. One Virgo is spot on but you'll never get her to admit she can do it. A Libra with a zillion air planets was dynamite with Tarot and the Leo I mentioned (a professional) was remarkable. A Gemini palmist blew me away.

But WHEN I could get the charts and IF I got times, I found the moon business operative more often than not. Occasionally an angular moon did not inhabit a water house.

Too few for a good research project, I'm sure, but it pointed me clearly to the water houses if not signs.

Pat replies,

One kind of lying is lying to oneself. It's called rationalization, telling yourself that a situation is the way you want it to be no matter what it really is, or that you did something for a good and noble reason when either the reason was selfish or bad and you just don't want to admit it.

For rationalization, look to Mercury square Neptune.

Another kind of lie is done out of fear, usually of getting in trouble if you tell the truth. Here you should look to Mercury square Saturn and with a tie to the moon--any aspect, as long as it links to the Mercury/Saturn affliction. If one of them is in 12 or two are in the 3/9 axis, it may be practically a way of life.

A third kind of lie is the one which comes out of too casual an approach to the truth--sort of like the people who never let the facts get in the way of a good story. For them, it's a Mercury/Jupiter square. Sometimes they are just excessively hopeful that all will turn out well, so they exaggerate the truth with the Mercury/Jupiter square.

Bias or prejudice, is usually fear and rigidity--Mercury in a fixed sign, such as Taurus, for instance, and squared to Saturn or Neptune.

Not everyone who has these aspects will lie. The same aspects make for imagination and the charts of fiction writers may contain them. Mercury/Saturn squares are common in depression, for instance, as well as math and communication skills. Mercury/Neptune aspects add to musical ability.

However, people who get depressed or lie to themselves don't want to accept the truth about something and people who live in pretend worlds don't want to live in the real one.

It's never a good idea to kid yourself or others. The same stresses that lead to lies can produce ill health as a result. Life is the fine art of taking our lemons and making lemonade--and that means the truth, no matter how sour in the beginning, can be a very good thing after all. Especially when the going gets hot.

continuing...
< Thank you for the very informative post, Pat. I notice you mentioned only >the square aspects--what about conjunctions and oppositions? (such as >Mercury conjunct Neptune, or Neptune opp. Saturn, Mercury conjunct Jupiter, etc...) >>

The tendencies show up most clearly in the squares, but the conjunctions and oppositions and semi-squares will have them, too.

But I hope my caveat was clear that I was asked about TENDENCIES. I have a tendency to fall asleep in my chair in the afternoon if nobody is around and it's been a hectic morning, but I sure wouldn't do it if someone was visiting.

As always, you have to look at the whole pattern, and if you are reading for someone who is telling you about a problem, you'd better know about it. It may warn you that you need to ask some probing questions to make sure you get the whole truth about the situation.

Don't resist! Comment! The Mercury/Mars square is right and I'm tickled you added it to the discussion.

There are many Neptunian types who are not liars, and many Mars/Mercury squares who tell the truth. But--and it is a big but--when you see these aspects you know there is a tendency. You need to consider the entire chart for clear judgement.

No single aspect is responsible for all the choices we make as human beings--whether it's lying or any other unpleasant option. WE are responsible for our choices. People with Neptune rising often just suffer confusion between what they wish were true and what is.

There are many aspects that can counterbalance any harsh indicator, but unless we know what the indications are, we will never be able to reach the point of being able to make sense of any chart. Too many textbooks go all lofty and psychological when what you really need to know is will this person rip you off or can you trust what they say.