Category: wellness

Mars/Saturn Opposition

On By Arrow In FlightIn Astrology, Metaphysics, Occultism, wellness1 Comment

Astro-Happenings: it’s May 24, 2017, and a Mars/Saturn opposition is taking shape…

Oppositions are Aspects that involve a Planet lining up precisely across the circle of the chart from another Planet. These relationships are believed to carry a certain amount of inherent tension. They’re very powerful connections, but the energies symbolized by the Planets often don’t want to play well together. They may even seem to set up circumstances in which they each demand attention simultaneously, but they turn out to be mutually exclusive propositions, so good luck with that.

SeesawWithKids_wbThink, for example, of that mainstay of schoolyard playgrounds, the seesaw. Only one end can be up at a given time, and when one end rises, the other one falls. This is essentially the whole point of the seesaw. Oppositions in Astrology can function along similar lines.

And as it so happens, Mars and Saturn are now moving toward that kind of perfect opposition. The moment of exact, 180-degree separation between the two won’t land until May 29, but the Aspect should be starting to make itself felt right around now, and will intensify for the next few days before it hits that crescendo next Monday.

So what can you expect from this celestial development…? First of all, as always, I seriously recommend that you hold this opposition up against your own birth-chart to see if you have any Planets or Points that will be directly contacted by our oppositional friends out there.

IMG_6545I’m providing a picture of my own chart so as to provide a strong example of what I mean by this. As I’ve indicated in the photo, transiting Mars and transiting Saturn (the real ones out there in space) will be lining up to create multiple squares with no less than four of my own natal Planets (the ones in my birth-chart). That may sound like gobbledygook when written out in English, but the accompanying image should make it pretty clear what’s happening. Squares can be every bit as tension-heavy as oppositions, and Mars and Saturn are not exactly warm and cuddly forces to begin with, so I’m bracing myself for a possibly intense week or two ahead.

But even if your situation is different from mine, and you have nothing coming specifically under fire in your own chart as these two so-called “malefic” Planets oppose each other, you might still experience some of the general feel of this occurrence. Sometimes big transits out there can symbolize something that’s so large and transpersonal that it leaks into even the charts of people who don’t have direct, Aspect-style receivers set up for it. So if that were to happen for you, what might that look like…?

Think about the two specific Planets involved here. Mars is hot and fiery, while Saturn is cold and dispassionate. Mars acts on impulse, while Saturn plans and calculates. When these two energies oppose each other, you may find yourself inclined to choose one of these Planets’s energies, and to set the other one’s aside.

Do you want to be assertive and adventurous and impulsive…or do you want to be cool and practical and patient? Do you want to crash full-tilt into things that are standing in your path…or do you want to build things up carefully from out of nothing? Do you want to be governed by your anger and lust…or do you want to be diligent and responsible?

As with any seesaw situation, you can make a conscious effort to try alternating between the two ends of the opposition: embrace your urges and your lusts for a set period, then fall back into allowing your serious, structured self to take the reins…lather, rinse, repeat…

And be especially aware that when these two Planets face off like this, one of the main recurring themes can be that of fear versus bravery. We all know that it’s possible to become overwhelmed by too much fear. Every human is undone by panic at some point in life, failing to do what needs to be done because the rising fear wins out over the sense of duty. It’s also just as possible to feel too little fear: the annual Darwin Awards are an ongoing catalog of people who aren’t nearly nervous enough when contemplating absurdly risky actions.

This Mars/Saturn oppositional period may well be inclined to throw multiple tests of courage your way. If this happens, try to remember to take a deep breath, and to look at the situation from both sides of the fear spectrum. It may be tempting to commit totally to one end or the other, but pure fearlessness probably won’t serve you any better than pure fear will.

Take an honest look at your own responses to the circumstances at hand, and assess whether those responses are in line with the amount of fear that the situation truly demands. If you’re veering too far toward the Saturnian end of things, you may be feeling more fear than the scenario warrants…but if you’re being too Martial, you may not be feeling enough of the valuable kind of apprehension that keeps us from picking up our own dubious Darwin Award. Discretion/valor ratio analysis is highly recommended as a coping tactic here – for the next week and change, go out of your way to pick your battles very, very well…

RIP Chris Cornell – Hygiea Happenings

On By Arrow In FlightIn Astrology, Metaphysics, Occultism, wellness2 Comments

 

 

1024px-Chris_Cornell_Montreux_Jazz_Festival_2005
Rest in Peace, Chris Cornell…

It’s about 95F here in Providence today. My windows are up as I write this, so I keep hearing cars rolling by along the busy street outside, and many of them have various Soundgarden tunes blasting from out of their own open windows. This seems fitting enough, as the band’s frontman and primary songwriter, Chris Cornell, passed away last night of causes as yet unknown. I didn’t care much for Soundgarden in their early days, but I became a fan as they evolved, and I saw them live in concert twice in the ’90s, so this event saddens me…

While awaiting further details of Cornell’s passing, I found myself compelled to look at his chart to see how the transiting Planets out there in the system had lined up against his natal versions of them just as his current Earth-walk was drawing to a close.

A word of caution: Cornell’s birth-time isn’t known, so I used noon in order to generate a chart for him. However, while this method is generally solid in terms of determining which Planets were in which Signs for a person at their time of birth, it negates any reliability with respect to the Houses…

astro_24gw_196_chris_cornell_2017518.65119.26799With that said, though, because I was investigating health concerns, I included the Asteroid called Hygiea. I’m not usually a huge proponent of using the Asteroids – we have plenty to work with as it is, just using the major Planets – but I’ve found over time that Hygiea definitely seems to spawn many unlikely synchronicities whenever I work her into the mix, whether that be in my own chart or in the charts of friends, family members, and clients. I was curious here to see if Cornell’s natal Hygiea was on the receiving end of any noteworthy Planetary energies at the time of his demise.

Here’s what I found:

Transiting Uranus was making an extremely tight sextile with Cornell’s natal Hygiea – so tight, in fact, that it was only a scant few minutes off from an exact 60-degree difference. Uranus can often symbolize sudden and unexpected developments.

Transiting Chiron – another health-related symbol – was about 1.5 degrees away from forming a perfect square with Cornell’s Hygiea. Squares can be friction-filled relationships, so when two health-centric bodies square up, the outcome could easily spell gloomy results for a person’s overall wellness.

The Moon’s South Node was less than three degrees off of an exact trine with Cornell’s Hygiea (which means that by definition, the North Node was the same distance away from a perfect sextile). When the Nodes get busy, karmic energy can come home to roost.

Finally, transiting Saturn was lined up in almost perfect opposition to Cornell’s Hygiea. Like squares, oppositions speak of tense dynamics, and Saturn symbolizes a rather demanding force that serves to test and temper whatever it touches. In this case, one possible interpretation is that it was Cornell’s wellbeing that Saturn was focusing on.

That’s quite a heavy burden of precise and pitiless Aspects! When you factor in Uranus, Chiron, the Nodes, and Saturn, you do not get a recipe for a good time. This mix speaks instead of shock, health concerns, and karmic bills coming due. And this does all feel like a handful of concepts that may well be on point with respect to the sad and early demise of Chris Cornell.

I’ll be watching for more details of his death, as I remain a fan, impressed with the man’s words, and with the voice that delivered them to the rest of us. And in the meantime, I, too, will be blasting Superunknown from my open windows.

RIP, Chris Cornell…

 

“Healing through Art” Event

On By Arrow In FlightIn Metaphysics, wellnessLeave a comment

18011022_1067850573359289_3828490227491402207_nIf you’ll be in the Providence, RI area tomorrow (Thurs., May 18), consider treating yourself to a dose of art therapy with the Thrive Tribe. The theme for this burst of creativity will be “Serenity”…and who among us has too much of that available…??

Details can be found HERE.

Astrology and Your Health

On By Arrow In FlightIn Astrology, Metaphysics, Occultism, wellnessLeave a comment

Medical_Zodiac-Man_(detail)If you’ll be in the Providence, RI area tomorrow, and you’ll have your lunch hour free, you might consider stopping by The Empowerment Factory in Pawtucket. I’ll be giving a FREE one-hour lesson on how to go about discovering what Astrology says about your own health profile.

I’ll be discussing which symbols in Astrology have the strongest ties to notions of health, and how to connect some of this up with your own unique birth-chart. I’ll also be touching on the sub-field of study known as Medical Astrology.

More information about the session can be found HERE.

Full Moon in Scorpio

On By Arrow In FlightIn Astrology, Metaphysics, Occultism, Shamanism, wellness2 Comments

IMG_6515This is the chart for tonight’s Full Moon. This one is happening in the intense and sometimes scary territory of Scorpio. The chart points out a few interesting facts about this event.

For one thing, Pluto – the Planet that we humans named after the mythological Lord of the Underworld – will just happen to be located near the very bottom of the chart at the exact moment of the Full Moon. This seems like a fitting place for an Underworld God to be. Pluto is said to “rule” Scorpio, and anything in it, which would include the Moon during this passage, so Underworld vibes may be abundant this evening (and for a day or two on either side of the Full Moon). Pluto is also making a very agreeable sextile connection with the Moon, suggesting that the energies represented by these two symbols will be ready, willing, and able to work together in agreeable and potentially exciting ways.

With the Ascendant in Libra and a packed Seventh House, themes of partnership are also being pinged with some real enthusiasm during this Full Moon. Libra – the seventh Sign – and the Seventh House both have much to do with important one-on-one relationships. It could be that the grounding presence of the right partner may be exactly what you need to inspire you to not only descend into your own personal Underworld, but also to then find the strength within yourself to make the wearying climb back up into the light.

Uranus and Mercury are teaming up in the bold Sign of Aries to lend us courage if we embrace these strong partnerships. Honest communication will be key, and that Uranian input may result in oddity: odd partners, odd interactions, oddness welling up from within ourselves. If things get strange around this Full Moon, you can maybe take that as a Sign that you’re especially plugged into this one, and that you’re right where you need to be.

With the Lord of the Underworld himself encouraging a visit, and the light of the Full Moon to guide you and keep you safe, you have a fantastic opportunity for descending into the depths, retrieving something you stashed away down there in the dark a long time ago, and carrying it back up top so you can reclaim it and integrate it into your psyche. Your partner can’t travel down to the nether-regions with you – these are journeys we have to make by ourselves – but take comfort in the fact that the right partner will always be standing by, ready to help you in any way possible. Have faith in your partners…and have faith in yourself.

Happy Full Moon in Scorpio!

Full Moon on May 10th

On By Arrow In FlightIn Astrology, Metaphysics, Occultism, Shamanism, wellness2 Comments

Full Moon 5-10-17This coming Wednesday, the Moon waxes full in the rather intense realm of Scorpio. That means a lot of light shining into a lot of darkness, as Scorpio is the province of such weighty concepts as sex, death, secrets, power dynamics, psychology, and transformation.

If you’re in the Providence, RI area, please feel invited to drop in on the meditation/healing session I’ll be running at the headquarters space of the phenomenal Thrive Tribe! Several Reiki practitioners will be on hand for the event, so infusing the proceedings with positive, healing vibes is part of the central concept. We’ll also be focusing specifically on the idea that this Full Moon will be illuminating that shadowy Scorpio terrain.

And if you won’t be in the area, you can still do something in your neck of the woods to mark the event. An opportunity to carry some light down into the depths of Scorpion-territory is not to be missed!

May 5, 2017: Grand Earth Trine

On By Arrow In FlightIn Astrology, Metaphysics, Occultism, wellness2 Comments

IMG_6496Astro-Happenings: May 5, 2017.

Blink hard, and you may miss this one…but for part of today, the Sun, the Moon, and far-distant Pluto will line up in a configuration known as a Grand Earth Trine. Trines are usually thought of as pleasant relationships that form between Planets as they go careening about the sky. When three of them step up so as to form an actual triangle in this Grand Trine fashion, then the effects can ramp up considerably. It can feel like three distinct sets of capable, cosmic hands are all working in unison toward some excellent goal. Grand Trines are believed to bring harmony and apparent good luck with them when they manifest, so most Astro-minded people tend to welcome them.

This one involves the three Earth Signs: Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. Do you have any important placements in these Signs in your own birth-chart? And if so, are these placements in the 15-20-degree range of those Signs? If you can accurately answer “yes” to both of those questions, then this fleeting but powerful development may really make itself felt in your corner of the world today.

And even if you have no Earth Sign placements in that vicinity, you may still feel some of this energy. The Moon moves fast, and it will break ranks from this formation by the close of biz today, thereby dissolving the Grand Trine, but while it holds, be aware of any new happenings in your own Earth-centric affairs: career, money, health, family, home, and possessions are all possible hosts for this Grand Trine activity.

Despite the quickness factor, this could be large-scale action, too, as it involves both the Sun and the Moon, which are two of the grandest and most primal symbols in all of Astrology. They’re also joined by Pluto, an exceedingly intense energy with ties to such heavily loaded concepts as sex, death, the occult, great riches, transformation, rebirth, and extreme power dynamics. So some very big lights will shine briefly on some very dark subject matter today, but in ways that work well for all of the energies involved…and hopefully for all of us, too, down here where those energies will be touching down.

What do you want to transform in your life today? How do you want to transform yourself? What Earth-business of yours would benefit from some Phoenix-style rebirthing? Put some effort into making these changes today, and the Universe may throw its weight behind yours. It may not be easy, and it may be frightening, but you have a lot of light at your disposal at the moment to help show you the way…