When royal astrologer John Dee consulted with Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century, he almost certainly gave her good advice about matters of state. He certainly chose an auspicious day for the coronation (note 1) as Elizabeth had a long a successful reign that spanned 44 years. But there are some things her probably did not do. He probably did not dwell on the fact that her father, Henry VIII, had declared her a bastard and disinherited her. He probably did not dwell on the psychological consequences of her father having her mother beheaded for supposed adultery. He probably did not reflect on Elizabeth’s ability to have a rewarding love life after her quasi-incestuous relationship in her mid-teens with Thomas Seymour, the 2nd husband of her stepmother and guardian Catherine Parr. (Note 2)
In other words Dee did not dwell on the psychology of his queen or any other of his powerful clients, which might also explain why he survived to the ripe old age of 82. The last thing these people wanted to know was what kind of responsibility they or their upbringing had for the events that befell them. Prior to the 20th century the job of an astrologer was to map out the range of possibilities that lay ahead for their clients, and in this way offer them guidance about their future. And the astrological body of learning at this time was finely attuned to give the best results in this area. Techniques were many and rules innumerable, but the keen student could apply these skills and answer concrete questions about what fate had in store. That they also were accurate is attested to by a study of renaissance masters like William Lilly, Nostradamus, Marcilio Ficino, Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus, to name but a few. Their clients wanted to know what would happen, and they did their best to tell them.
Which is in quite strong contrast to the spiritual and psychological approach that has characterized astrology in the last century. Rejecting fatalistic and deterministic views, giants like Alan Leo, Grant Lewi, Dane Rudhyar and Liz Greene have been major figures in a slow evolution to a predominantly psychological interpretation style, where the role of prediction became smaller and smaller and more and more incompatible. This integration of esotericism and psychology is probably connected with the post-Renaissance discovery of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – planets which open up areas of the psyche that were previously considered fated.
In a sense this evolution reflects the evolution of different models of viewing the universe. Prior to Newton (born 1642) the world view in the West was dominated by Christian philosophy and religion. Newtonian thinking mapped out a universe of action and reaction, which subsequently led to explanations of astrology in terms of cause and effect. Einstein mapped out relativity, leading to and understanding of astrology in energetic and psychological terms. Recent theories about the quantum universe can be used to explain astrology in terms of acausal synchronicity. None of these theories are true, and none are false… they are just relevant within the context of history. Civilization will always reinvent ways of redefining experience as human consciousness evolves. Over the past 2000 years individual consciousness has evolved from being subsumed by the collective through religion, to the development of the individual ego, to which psychological astrology is addressed.
In the last 25 years of the 20th century, psychological astrology really took off – not least because of works by Jungian-trained Liz Greene, of which “Saturn – a new look at an old devil” is perhaps the best known. Astrology went from being merely descriptive to explaining the psychological roots of behavior and thereby providing the client – at least theoretically – with the ability to become conscious of what previously had been unconscious and unexplained. A boom in astrological literature at this time brought heightened awareness of transits, leading to an understanding of the horoscope in terms of personal development and psychological growth.
In the very same period I visited an astrological colleague who had obtained a first edition of William Lilly’s “Christian Astrology” – ink blots and all, who spent painstaking months removing stains and blots, finally publishing the first 20th century edition of this classic work. (Note 3) The startling accuracy of these techniques led to a growing number of horary astrologers and horary astrology schools. Enthusiasts embraced horary skills with the zeal of new converts, and they have fought – often amongst themselves – to preserve the orthodoxy of the teachings. With the incredibly work that has subsequently been done by Project Hindsight (Note 4) practicing astrologers today have access to a original texts dating back to the very origins of the subject covering all forms of astrology and all forms of predictive techniques. So along with psychological astrology, traditional astrology has also flowered and expanded.
When I was editor of the Astrological Association Journal at the end of the 1990’s the split between those astrologers who practiced predominantly psychological astrology and those who practiced horary astrology was pronounced. And this split is still pronounced. In its extreme form horary practitioners reject psychological considerations and simply concentrate on the factual answer to the matter at hand. On the other hand psychological astrologers are at a loss as to how to integrate therapy with prediction. And when predictions do come into the picture, primarily with the interpretation of transits, then they are couched in terms that lack specificity.
The nitty-gritty is that when the psychological astrologer is asked by the client about outcomes, he or she cannot – and will not – supply them. To work therapeutically with a client, and then to pronounce an outcome in advance seems counterproductive. Conversely the horary practitioner happily provides the outcome, if it is clear, but is unable to give the client any tools to deal with it.
But this split between the psychological and the predictive is unnecessary and unhelpful. It is illusory to see traditional astrology as separate from a “modern” psychological astrology – it is all the same body of work in constant evolution. But right now there are many clients having an incomplete experience of the potential of astrology because of the lack of integration between prediction and therapy. The kind of client who in the eighties or nineties was satisfied with a psychological profile is dead and gone. People also want practical guidance about how to lead their lives, and this practical guidance can provided by what was once called Horary Astrology. In Europe the same study is called “The Astrology of the Moment” – in other words it is about what is happening here and now.
All things happen at the intersection between subjective consciousness and objective experience. The experiences that arise to greet our consciousness are dependant on innumerable factors related to previous actions. The way we deal with these experiences is dependant on our character, and the horoscope is a map of our character. It is a map of past actions and potential future actions – in the sense that a map of the London Underground is a map of London. The horoscope needs to be populated by the attention of the astrologer and client, just as the traveler, map in hand, sets out to explore London. The horoscope maps the past and present, but you get to co-create the future through your actions here and now.
The horoscope for any given moment is a map of the intersection of personal consciousness with time. It reflects exactly what is relevant about that moment for the individual. That is horary astrology. The horoscope for any moment deemed significant by the individual will inevitably reflect the essence of that individual’s interaction with the world – it could not be any other way. The planetary positions will exactly reflect not only the dynamics of the moment, but also the events leading up to it (previous aspects) and the events that are to come (aspects about to be formed). Even the timing will be provided by the movement of the planets and the sweep of the angles.
The astrology of the moment is no more than the same transits used by all astrologers, including those who work exclusively psychologically – just with added detail. Instead of looking at the headlines, the small print becomes visible. The added ingredient is the significance of the moment and the horoscope for the moment, which can be interpreted as a full chart, house rulers and all. Instead of explaining, for example, a Jupiter transit as a general theme, it is then seen in a specific context. Seeing such a theme in context is a huge advantage when working therapeutically.
This is best illustrated with an example. (Note 5)
Consultation 2: Aug 13th 1991 16.00 Copenhagen (AS 2.36 SG)
Two visits from a client, with a year and a month in between, replicated her natal Sun-Jupiter conjunction straddling the 9th house. Each time she came, the consultation chart picked up the theme of seeking happiness with lovers abroad, probably indicated by Jupiter ruling the natal 5th house. It related to the fact that her father used to take her on holidays – traditionally they visited a popular island resort (Pisces) as a “special treat”– but the holidays were an excuse for the father to get away from the mother and conduct a secret affair with another woman, in what was a yearly ritual.
The daughter, with Mercury in Pisces in the 8th, opposite Pluto-Uranus, kept this deadly secret throughout her childhood, but not without exacting a material quid pro quo from her father over the years. Obviously deeply impressed by this recipe for happiness, the daughter kept replicating it ever since. In each of her visits to me she was involved with a married man in another country, who she hoped would leave his wife for her. After all, with Saturn in her natal 7th house cusp, where was the appeal in being married?
It is easy to see that armed with the horoscope for the moment, the start of the consultation, the astrologer can see how a life theme – the Sun-Jupiter conjunction partially in the 8th and partially in the 9th house – is reflected in circumstances here and now. Instead of a general interpretation of the Sun-Jupiter theme, it is now possible to be specific. The potent energies of the present despair connected with the dream of a hoped-for partner, who is in fact already married and a thousand miles away, can be mobilized in the therapeutic process. It is comparatively easy to show how the client’s choices are unconsciously programmed by past experiences. And once this awareness dawns, the client cannot wait to change. This person did drop a history of love affairs shortly after the second consultation, married and had children. The fact that she had to come twice, and both consultation charts showed Sun-Jupiter in the 8th-9th houses shows that I did not do the job properly first time, but got a second chance.
It is tempting to think that this correlation between the birth chart and the consultation chart has been cherry-picked. It is a good example, but in fact this kind of correlation is the rule. I have had clients come with aspect patterns that could only have happened astronomically twice – once at birth and once at the consultation. At the very least clients will come with powerful natal aspects repeated with modifications at the time of the consultation. Planets are often at the exact same degree; the same combination of Sun, Moon, Mercury and Venus will be found in the same signs; the Ascendant and houses are the same… there are many variations, but almost invariably the consultation chart will be a neon sign, pointing to exactly those themes in the birth chart that are relevant for the client today.
What a tool this is to the psychological astrologer! And at no cost. No new techniques need to be learned, no new skills acquired. Yet this method is the traditional method. William Lilly used the consultation chart as a rule, rather than the birth chart. Astrologers in India are adept at this – even dispensing with the horoscope altogether. Placing their staff in the ground and observing the time through the shadow it casts, and being cognizant of the position of the Sun, Moon and planets, the consultation chart is already there, with its message of past actions and future results. This is the astrology of the moment, pregnant with meaning.
In traditional horary some practitioners maintain that there are circumstances in which a chart cannot be interpreted. The word “strictures” has been coined to signify astrological configurations which prevent interpretation. These do not apply in the consultation chart. If the client turns up with the Ascendant in the last degrees or the first degrees of a sign, for example, it merely reflects something important about their situation. (That is: whether something is being wound up, or a new situation is about to develop). The same applies to whether the Moon is void of course, whether Saturn is in the first or seventh house, and all the other considerations which might traditionally be thought to prevent judgment. There are no circumstances in which the consultation chart for the client’s arrival can not be interpreted. Otherwise interpretation rules are as we know them: the client is represented by the Ascendant ruler, his partner by the Descendant ruler, his boss by the 10th house ruler, his home by the 4th house ruler etc.
When the astrologer adds the chart for the moment to the consultation process, it is like someone discovering for the first time that they have needed to wear glasses. The sudden clarity opens up many new perspectives. Not only is there a tool for precision therapy, it also becomes possible to answer quite detailed questions. What practicing astrologer has not had a client pose questions that are extremely difficult to answer if you are only relying on transits and progressions? Should my mother go into a nursing home, or stay in her house? My boyfriend wants to move in – is this a good idea? I have a potential business partner – is it someone I can trust? These are the kind of questions clients expect astrologers to have answers to… and with the consultation chart you do.
The astrological consultation can be a life-changing experience for the client – a time when the raw energy in the client’s psyche is exposed, and being exposed, ready for change. The snapshot of time afforded by the consultation chart reflects clearly the events leading up to the meeting and the current situation. If you identify the actors in play – the people and things the planets represent – then this chart also maps out the future. Prediction is suddenly brought back into the psychological equation. How are you going to handle it?
What can’t be done is to work on the client with, say, a Moon-Uranus square, showing how emotional shock and separation has created an unreal and glassy barrier between the client and his loved one, and then say: “You’ll separate in 5½ months”. Experience shows that even good astrologers get predictions wrong quite a lot of the time. Concrete predictions without the involvement of the client are quite unhelpful. Clients tend to ignore them; they don’t sink in. On the other hand, when clients are invited into the prediction process they get enthusiastically involved, and there is a likelihood that the predictions will be correct.
Specific predictions about the future can be made if the details of a client’s life have been explained by the client. The fewer the details the more difficult it is to be specific – at least that is my personal experience. There are literally millions of permutations in a person’s future, if you have no idea of the framework. Looking at an Underground map it is possible show someone the way, but it is impossible to imagine what it will be like emerging into the hectic crowds at Piccadilly Circus or Times Square, if you have never been there. Only the client knows what it is like to be the client; without the client’s involvement prediction will fall flat.
Prediction in this context is the co-creation of a desirable scenario by the client with the guidance of the astrologer. Events do not come out of the blue – or at least it is very rare. The car is not going to crash; the plane is not going to be hijacked; the client will not win the lottery. Normally events unfold exactly according to the wishes and drives of the client. What a client builds up in life is a combination of hope and experience – Jupiter and Saturn. The mind is in a constant state of wishing for a desired scenario, whilst taking account of the current limitations. The transits of the outer planets represent more subtle forces that can seem outside the client’s control. Thus transit Pluto might show an existential battle that is draining a client of energy, Neptune an inner sense of meaninglessness that undermines the life nerve, Uranus a restlessness and desire for freedom… and these feelings may be more or less unconscious. The astrologer can help define the goals, refine the hopes, and explain the evolutionary processes of the outer planet transits.
When the client comes to the astrologer, there is often tremendous lack of clarity about the future. Clients are not at first so interested in what psychological patterns make them tick, but they are very interested in what to do. They feel perhaps that they have a variety of choices. You feel that you have a good idea via transits and the consultation chart, which way things will go, though you may be wrong. Prediction is now the art of aligning the genuine desires and needs of the client with the indications you see in the horoscope.
In the following example the client came 6 minutes earlier than the planned time of 10 a.m.:
Consultation chart: March 14th 2008. 9.54 am Copenhagen. (AS 27.59 GE)
Birth Chart: May 16th 1963. 17.20 Copenhagen (AS 27.24 LI)
The birth chart showed a tight T-square with Saturn at 22.51 Aquarius conjunct the Moon and opposite Mars at 21.40 Leo, with a Sun-Mercury conjunction in Taurus in 8th House. The consultation chart (transiting) Neptune is within 3 minutes of arc of that Saturn. Her Mars-Saturn opposition is echoed in the consultation chart by the exact sextile that takes place between these planets that day showing her enormous drive for professional success. The current Venus-Mars trine reflects the very same trine in her birth chart. The Sun-Moon square in the consultation chart with an orb of one degree reflects the Sun-Moon square with the same orb in the birth chart. Both the birth chat and consultation chart Ascendants are at 27 degrees.
This is a good example of the client’s expressed wishes for the future being out of harmony with the astrological indications. The client launched into a description of her plan to sell a new health project to the corporate world and wanted to know about her chances. But the consultation chart shows the main players in transition – the Ascendant will soon change sign, and there is imminent change for Ascendant ruler Mercury, where it will enter the opposite sign from its rulership (and will therefore be out on a limb), and furthermore oppose Saturn, which hardly bodes well for success. And clearly with transit Neptune activating the Mars/Saturn opposition in 2008 and the Sun/Moon square in 2009, the realization of ambitions and attainment of material security is simply not on the agenda. Further probing revealed that the client was had been off sick with stress for four months, which is clearly indicated in the consultation chart by the separation of the Moon in the 12th house in square to Uranus by four degrees (reflecting her natal Moon/Uranus opposition). So basically the client was in no state to fight the battles that she had in mind amongst the big players in the health industry.
The psychological astrologer could focus on many things, but obviously the Moon/Saturn conjunction in the 4th opposite Mars indicates a relentless and dominating mother, who managed to maintain a glassy distance to her child, and punished her physically when she was out of line. With transiting Neptune going over this pattern and squaring the Sun and Mercury in Taurus from 2008 to 2010 it was highly unlikely that she would have career success, and highly unlikely that she would attain the economic security that the Sun in Taurus in the 8th longs for. But the T-square also shows a stubborn determination, so, despite being off work with stress, she was still driving herself hard.
With the consultation chart ruler in the 10th going into Pisces to oppose Saturn, quite clearly she was not going to realize her plans. My first job was therefore to disavow her of her belief in the possibility of career success in competition with large and successful health care firms. Really this idea is reflected by Mercury in Aquarius conjoining Neptune and the North Node, and Mercury would be moving out of Aquarius within the day. The Sun’s conjunction with Uranus and sextile to Jupiter in the 8th showed the big players.
Psychologically speaking the meaning of Neptune’s transit over the T-square is to soften up the ambitious and oppositional approach which she has to life. Generally this softening up occurs because initiatives run into the sand, the ocean undermines the cliff. Failure is the engine of change, bringing surrender, and with surrender come acceptance, spiritual depth, nuance and insight. My client’s “stress” was a trick of the psyche to stop her in her tracks until she had redefined her views about what was important about living.
What was not conducive to happiness was to continue a pattern of behavior that required her to battle against the odds. That is what she did in childhood. She was beaten into submission but survived by switching off the emotional signals (Moon-Saturn in Aquarius) and putting up a stubborn fight. Punishment was met by defiance; when pushed, she dug her heels in.
To get the client to realign to a more empowering view of the future requires working with past and future in parallel. Holding the future scenario in mind – she had to drop her doomed enterprise – the strategy is to get her to reconnect with the emotions connected with her difficult childhood, and evoke an awareness of certain decisions she made at the time to hold out, no matter what. With the dawning of realization it is then possible to turn the attention to the future once again.
Her main concern was for security – she must battle it out and win… it was a matter of economic survival. But that’s tough, because her economy will be undermined in the future with the Neptune transit to her Taurus sun. It would be foolish to imagine economic security in the short term. So what are the bright points?
The bright points are: she his married, her husband has a good job, so he can support her (as indeed he is doing while she is off work with stress). The ruler of the 7th house (partner) in the consultation chart is Jupiter, in partner’s 2nd house, where it will retrograde to trine Saturn during 2008 and also sextile Uranus… he is earning more money all the time. She owns her home and there is plenty of equity in the property. And with current house prices, that is a lot of money. So what is the problem? She has enough to tide her over during the next 2 years. And she agrees.
Now she is already feeling better because the prospect of struggling for success is in reality overwhelming for her, and the idea of letting things flow whilst her husband provides the security is having growing appeal. But what should she do with her time? What she should do is what Mercury will do… enter Pisces, oppose Saturn, conjoin Venus, ultimately activating the Jupiter/Uranus sextile, though that is some time into the future. Mercury has actually been retrograde in Aquarius and had conjoined Venus earlier, and then Venus had gone ahead. Now Mercury, gathering speed, was about to conjoin Venus again, but this time a Venus exalted in Pisces. What story is that?
The story is that she has written a book for her child (Venus and Mercury rule the 5th house in the consultation chart). Whilst she had been off sick, that was what she did. She liked doing it. She did not like struggling to find clients for her health business, but when she sat down to write that book, time went by and she felt happy. Should she try to get the book published? Well, if she does it will be rejected – Mercury opposes Saturn – the book is not good enough, yet. What will happen is that as Mercury reconnects with Venus and then travel together through Pisces until activating the Jupiter/Uranus sextile, she will continue creative writing. This may also be good in the long-term for success in the health industry, but probably because of some innovation or alternative approach.
The client liked this scenario and left with a feeling that she could survive a couple of years of financial insecurity with the resources offered by her husband and property, and that she could advantageously use her time being creative. At the same time she had a psychological understanding of the inner dynamics that made her stick at something that was not going to bear fruit. In this way the consultation satisfactorily integrated quite a detailed scenario for the future, with some psychological realization and change.
A good astrological consultation interweaves past, present and future into an integrated whole. Rediscovering the past is not enough in itself; the insights of the past have to be integrated in a plan for the future, and the plan for the future is waiting to be discovered in the consultation chart and expanded upon with the combined resources of client and astrologer in an empowering act of co-creation.
Note 1: Coronation of Elizabeth I: January 15, 1559 12.00 LMT
Note 2: The consequences for Seymour were not so good. Catherine Parr had him arrested for treason and beheaded.
Note 3: Catriona Mundle who helped restore this first edition is still practicing as a consultant in England.
Note 4: Project Hindsight was founded in 1993 astrological scholars Robert Hand, Robert Zoller and Robert Schmidt and is dedicated to translating original astrological texts.
Note 5. This example comes from my book: “Astrology: Transformation and Empoerment” Red Wheel-Weiser 2002. (Page 220)
In April 1994, when Pluto and Jupiter conjoined the North Node in Scorpio the worst genocide of the 1990’s took place when extremist Hutu militias murdered an estimated 800,0000 to 1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda. It seems that the continent of Africa is so often subject to huge upheavals with so much loss of life, whether through Aids and curable diseases, through famine, or through civil war. Since 1994 Pluto has moved from Scorpio, through Sagittarius – religious terror – and here in the beginning of 2008 it is in Capricorn, so the astrological observer is inclined to a degree of nervousness about what new areas of human experience will undergo painful transformations. When Kenyan elections on December 27th 2007 took place and were followed by riots killing up to 1000 people, the question arises whether one of Africa’s most prosperous and stable countries is about to descend into chaos.
In that election the opposition coalition led by Odinga was forecast to win over the current government leader Kibaki. Vote counting on the 28th gave Odinga a strong lead, but as more results were announced the gap closed. Kibaka declared himself the winner with 232,000 votes and he was sworn in for a second term amidst violent protests from the opposition. International observers pointed to corruption, noting that in one constituency the turnout rate appeared to be 115%. (Note 1)
Odinga is associated with the ethnic group Luo, whilst Kibaki represents the interests of the dominant Kikuyu, who have basically been running Kenya since independence from the British in 1963. The deadly rioting since the election has resulted in an ethnic polarization that has forced millions of people to flee from their homes and relocate to tribal areas where they feel safe. Even in Nairobi many slum areas have polarized in this way. Police are escorting people back to their “ancestral lands” which is creating a complete split in the country between North/East and South/West.
The election took place just after Jupiter entered Capricorn. This was the time when Mars was retrograde in Cancer and in exact opposition to Jupiter, obviously a recipe for ideological conflict along ethnic lines. A retrograde Mars in Cancer always remembers tribal affiliations and is willing to fight for home and family with a primeval emotional motivation. The fact that Mars was retrograde suggests that there is unfinished business, and we can expect a new battle around April 24 when Mars catches up once more with Jupiter, which is about to turn retrograde, at 22 Cancer/Capricorn.
HOROSCOPE: Kenya – 12th December 1963. 0.00 Nairobi.
As the independence chart for Kenya has Mars at 4.56 Capricorn and the Sun on election morning was exactly on this Mars, there seemed destined to be a fight for leadership. The threat of internal revolution is shown by the current Uranus transit in square to the Sun which is exact on March 16th, October 28th and December 27th. This transit shows continued instability throughout 2008. It shows too the magnet that Kenya has now become to foreign dignitaries who in February 2008 are doing their utmost to prevent the situation from worsening. Whilst Kibaki clings to power and hopes that time itself will work in his favor as institutions accept the status quo, the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan is trying to mediate, joined at the time of writing by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
Perhaps Uranus transiting the sun also shows that other famous Kenyan, Barak Obama, whose father (of the same name) had been an economic advisor for the Kenyan government, before being sacked. The father died in 1982, a disappointed man who made little headway with his proposals for a more democratic economic redistribution of resources. Obama visited Kenya in 1997 when he tried to unravel some of the unknowns connected with his father (relating to his own Sun in Leo square Neptune). Obama is, in Kenya, admired throughout the whole country; perhaps people find in him what they have not been able to get from their own leaders. Recently Obama gave a rather courageous speech about corruption in Kenya aimed at the sitting president Kibaki, when he was on a visit there. (Note 2) Perhaps one should not underestimate the fact that Obama’s roots are with the Luo ethnic grouping and he has cemented quite strong bonds with Odinga, as this could have a strong effect on Kenya’s future, if Obama becomes president.
Looking at Kenya’s independence chart, the sun is strong in Sagittarius, and its position in the 4th house may indicate the wide-open spaces and safari associations we have with the country, as well as the international dimension it has always had with tourists, expatriates and Indians. The wide trine to Jupiter in Aries supports this outdoor and optimistic picture. The loose square to the Uranus/Pluto conjunction suggests rather an explosive cocktail with dictatorial tendencies in the leadership that must control a wide mix of peoples. With Saturn now transiting the Ascendant and the Uranus/Pluto conjunction, the weakness of the myriad of ethnic divisions in the land is highlighted.
The strongest aspect to the Sun is its sextile to a dignified Saturn in Aquarius, which in itself contains the roots for a powerful democracy. It is worth remembering that the country is still very young. It has evolved from a single party state to a multiparty state (in 1991 when Uranus went over the Capricorn stellium), and now there are over 20 separate political parties, though power is still concentrated in the hands of the Kikuyu.
The current Uranus transit may shake things up and internationalize the internal strife, but it is unlikely in itself to create a revolution or civil war… just continued disturbances. With Ascendant ruler Mercury conjoining an exalted Mars in Capricorn, there are indications of strong if rather autocratic governance, with an efficient business community. A tight hold is kept on the reins, and the close sextile of Mars to a Moon in fall in Scorpio indicates that the people are subject to strong policing and a lot of rules and regulations.
The current strife is also reflected by Kenya’s progressed Moon in Gemini which has been exactly square Uranus in January. As the moon goes on to square Pluto in April there is still danger ahead as this is a strong signature for ethnic cleansing. Furthermore progressed Venus is now at 9.42 Pisces and during the course of the year it will conjoin the Descendant, simultaneously activating the Uranus/Chiron opposition. Venus progressed opposed progressed Uranus last year and opposes radix Uranus in June this year… there will therefore be more upheaval in the population where the differences between people and groups will be more emphasized than the similarities.
Apart from wounding the population, this development is going to create havoc with Kenya’s economy. Venus in Capricorn is ruler of the 9th and in the fifth, indicating the huge revenues generate from tourism. These revenues will dwindle and plunge Kenya into an economic crisis which will be at its peak from 2011 to 2012 when Venus opposes Pluto. This is also the time when Pluto finally conjoins Mars and sextiles the Moon in Scorpio, which suggests the iron hand of dictatorship in sorting out self-destructive tendencies in the population.
As things stand right now the decisive influence is transiting Saturn on Kenya’s Ascendant awakening the need to tighten controls and the establishment of order. With Saturn making trines to both Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn, the indications are that a heavy military presence and authoritarian government will maintain a degree of order, whilst there will be a controlled chaos amongst the population with continued reorganization along ethnic lines.
International pressure is geared to creating a power-sharing agreement between Kibaki and Odinga to prevent further violence and polarization of the population. The Saturn trine to Pluto indicates that this pressure is enormous and unrelenting up to May, whilst the trine to Jupiter is exceptionally strong from September to November. If there is to be power sharing, only international bullying will effectuate it, and this could happen at the end of April. It is possible that the progressed Moon in Gemini will see the people represented by two leaders, and the Uranus square to the Sun may indicate a double-leadership. Ultimately the solution will be a transformation of existing government practices and a campaign against corruption, and this is likely to happen with the coming Pluto transit over the stellium in Capricorn. In the meantime increased instability and economic difficulties lie ahead.
Tests have shown that if astrologers are presented with horoscopes for people they do not know, they do much worse than they expect to, when trying to describe who they are and what they do. For example, it has been shown that astrologers do no better than chance when trying to match horoscopes to professions. In actual fact people are so incredibly different, and there are so many of them, that it is impossible in reality to consistently predict what people are like, and what they do. With about 5 billion people in the world, and every one of them different, astrology is still a fantastic instrument, because it can assign a unique and complex signature to each individual, which can subsequently be interpreted according to a set of rule.
It’s the interpretation that is the challenge. My own interpretations only come to life when a living person comes into the room. Until that moment it is as if the horoscope is like a subway map – things only become meaningful when I am actually in the train and hurtling towards the destination. Likewise, it is only when the client begins to explain some of the life structure that I feel I can apply the horoscope map and give guidance. But once the client’s life is mapped on to the chart, it is a different matter. Suddenly it is possible to give detailed descriptions and accurate predictions – especially if there is mastery of the consultation chart, the horary chart timed for the client’s arrival.
But it can still be difficult to answer quite simple questions that are crucial for the client – not least the Big Question: when will I find my partner? The consultation chart would show if a meeting was on the cards in the immediate future, but if it did not, then it would be nice to be able to give some indication about the love life in the more distant future. Transits can show relationships, but in the evolution of the soul and the meeting of a mate the key influence is secondary progressions. (Note 1)
Interpreting secondary progressions is however no easy matter. Just as in horary, planets rule and are representatives for the energy of the 12 houses, so Venus may bring love, but if it is ruler of the 10th it may also bring career success. Or, if Venus rules the 7th and progresses to square 9th house ruler Jupiter, there is a strong likelihood that a legal judgment will go against the partner, or that he or she will fail and exam. Squares and oppositions in progressions can be quite unforgiving, because progressions show the slow unfoldment of the karmic propensities – when Venus comes to square Jupiter it is the result of a process that has been in the pipeline for a long time.
The following interpretations apply best for conjunction aspects. Allowances need to be made for progressed sextiles and trines, which will almost certainly bring happy events, and progressed squares and oppositions, which will bring challenging circumstances in connection with the aspect. Generally when progressed Venus aspects another planet, a person will come into your life who reflects that planet. It is also extremely likely that the person in question will actually have the Venus-planet combination in their own chart. Progressions show encounters, and the subsequent integration and absorption of talents and qualities that are destined from birth. People you meet with Venus progressions have a good chance of sticking around for many years as you learn about the qualities connected with the progression.
Progressed Venus to Ascendant: Arrival of Love
In this period love comes into your life. This is either in the form of a warm-hearted and devoted person who wants to be in your company, or simply because you find new ways of expressing your own romantic and loving nature. Whatever – this is a fortunate time both romantically and economically. You want to establish balance in your life, and you do this by asserting your personal taste, making aesthetic choices and generally adopting a personal lifestyle that reflects an appreciation for beauty and quality. Your heart is opened and love flows – and some lucky person is the object of your affection.
Progressed Venus to MC: Career blessings
There is a very favorable career development at this time, which simply makes work more pleasurable and rewarding. This can be because of the arrival of a kind and generous boss, a woman perhaps, or because of a radical improvement of the environment. This is the time for you to deal with people rather than systems or organization, or if you deal with objects, then aesthetics and beauty will play a role. The funds are there to launch projects and the right people are there to support you in your professional path. This is also an excellent time for happy developments with the home and family… for example a time to renovate the attic.
Progressed Venus to Descendant: A loved one arrives
This is a time when an important relationship can start. If you do not have a partner, then a truly loving person comes into your life to bless you. If you do not have a child, then this is a time when what you have waited for comes to you, or when a child marries for example. Balance and harmony comes in to your life now in a way you have never experienced before, and you develop an appreciation for the good things in life and the pleasures a relationship can bring. This is an excellent time for personal and business partnership, when people from the outside bring something that sweetens your life. These developments can also bring favorable moves or relocation.
Progressed Venus to IC: Love moves in
You can expect a happy development in your domestic life with this influence. This is the time when love comes into your life through a child, a daughter perhaps, or when you can invest in property, or when you find the funds to really do some home improvement that makes your house and garden a pleasure to be in. Whatever: your environment is blessed by love and things of beauty, and this is clearly a family blessing. Someone moves in who has a graceful aura – there may be a certain vanity or self-indulgence, but overall it is a pleasure to enjoy the company. If you can afford property now – and the indications are that you can – it will be lovely.
Progressed Venus to Sun: Blaze of glory
It is at this time of your life that your natural talent and charm comes out into the open and you are able to make a powerful impression on the world. Your aesthetic skills and tastes are somehow central to your whole being, and this creates a charismatic aura that brings success, prosperity and recognition. This is a peak period for your love life, because your powers of attraction have never been more radiant. You can fall head over heels for an influential person in a prominent position. This is a time when love can absorb you totally – even blind you. Yet it is also a time when your own loving nature is expressed fully and completely authentically. You can push for prominence, promotion, more money, and generally get what you put your mind to. But don’t let it go to your head.
Progressed Venus to Moon: Loving and caring
You are entering a period when attachments have never been stronger. There is an overwhelming bond of love – the kind of love a mother feels for a child perhaps – and this creates great intimacy, and also dependence. Finding the balance between loving and needing is a challenge, but there is no doubt that this is a time when your loving and caring sides converge, and totally absorb the object of your affections. Giving yourself completely to the welfare of a child is likely. But this is also a time for romantic love. You meet an emotional and rather dependant person, and there is mutual care and support. With love comes the need to build a home – a place where the family can be nurtured and thrive. There are powerful family developments at this time which open up your heart and increase your vulnerability.
Progressed Venus to Venus: A milestone in love
There is a milestone in relationships around this time, where you reconnect with an essential need or drive to express your values and tastes, and reflect these values in your choice of partner, and perhaps your choice of economic path. You’ve seen it all before, so now you ask the question: What do I truly value? Your choices are up for review, and you search within to find out what you really like and are attracted to; what are your authentic needs, not least in your love life. You draw energy from within, and there you find an endless source of love that you need to share. You just need to make the right choices about how to express your love and who with, and how you want to reflect your self in the things you own and value.
Progressed Venus to Mars: Eve and Adam
A crucial development takes place in relationships around this time, as your inner need for love encounters the ultimate object of its desire. Classically this is irresistible attraction between a man and a woman, the magnetic inevitability of seduction, the creating of a child. If you are single at this time, you can expect powerful sexual experiences – as good as it gets – and this may well be a time when you meet your natural mate, and someone with whom children come as a matter of biological necessity. This is the time to go for what you want. Yet the passions that are aroused can also be overwhelming, and in their wake there can be rage and jealousy… it is after all your animal side that is awakened now. Rational considerations have little effect when love and desire run rampant. This is a good time for dynamic business partnerships.
Progressed Venus to Jupiter: Happiness in abundance
There may be no other time in your life when the horn of plenty is so full. In love you can expect fortunate events like marriage or falling in love, and this will be with someone wise and generous – perhaps from a foreign culture, or at least with a cosmopolitan view. A person who is interested in the music and arts, or with a fine intellectual capacity… for this is the time for you too to do everything you can to expand your cultural credentials. This is an excellent time for intellectual honors, and for being invited into a prestigious social group. Prosperity will also come your way – and without too much effort. Faith in the future and simple good luck bring influential people into your life who influence your career in a beneficial way. Now is the time to make hay whilst the sun shines – for the sun will certainly not shine for ever.
Progressed Venus to Saturn: The welding of bonds
It is at this time of your life that you get involved in a relationship or social circumstance that has great significance for the way you relate for years into the future. There is a heavy commitment, and the hand of karma weighs strongly on your shoulders. You could forge an unbreakable bond with someone or some group, but the responsibilities this entails can be very challenging. There is a sense of inevitability – you cannot escape. You must now commit in the long term and accept the challenges ahead. You gain strength of character. You develop moral fiber. You build economic, romantic or social foundations for the future. There may be times when the pressure makes you feel unhappy or depressed. You may suffer from a sense of being unloved or unpopular. All this must be taken on board – you will come out of this period of relationship challenge with a strong, self-sufficient character.
Progressed Venus to Uranus: Breaking social barriers
Around this time you find yourself being drawn to a completely different type of relationship that inspires you in your personal development. Rather than commitment to a single individual as in traditional marriage, you feel the need to become part of a group of eclectic people who are on the fringe of society in some way and driven by ideals that run counter to convention. This may well place strains on existing relationships – especially as changes can come as a complete surprise – but it is crucial for you to experiment and explore on the social front. If you are unattached you will meet a person who takes you for a walk on the wild side – a person with an electric personality totally different culturally from what you are used to. It is as if you have to explore the extremes in yourself to find out what your true values are. Professionally this is a time to join with international teams and promote values that represent a distinct alternative to what has been previously expected.
Progressed Venus to Neptune: The higher purpose of love
Your values in relationships go through a subtle though powerful shift culminating around this time, perhaps because of events that remind you that nothing in life lasts for ever. Sickness or death is inevitable the older people get, so the crucial attitude is to show your love and appreciation for the people you love – here and now. Or, this period can bring a sense of confusion and dissolution in relationships because you feel that you cannot control the choices of others. And you can’t You need to embrace an attitude of surrender or acceptance. It is precisely at this time that spiritual breakthroughs can provide answers where none could previously be found. By meeting with other spiritual seekers, you can find the blessings of divine and unconditional love, and develop the power of compassion in your life.
Progressed Venus to Pluto: Love and the underworld
Events in your love life around this time awaken such powerful emotions that you can expect a transformation in how you express your love and sexuality and how you bond with others generally. You are drawn to the taboo like a moth to the flame, even if such an attraction threatens to destroy the very foundations you stand on. If you have been living a superficial relationship, then a crisis will force you to confront the demons that have been locked away in the deep. This is the time when you confront jealousy, power and control and are over manned. The release of psychic material transforms your values for ever, initiating a psychological process that brings authenticity, intensity and erotic power. Relationships that develop at this time draw you ever deeper into circumstances beyond your control. On the material front this is also a time to let go of those things that no longer serve any useful purpose, even if this means financial loss. The phoenix will arise from the ashes.
Progressed Venus to Chiron: The love and the wound
Extraordinary experiences can take place in your love life around this time, when you encounter events in relationships that confront you with a weakness or vulnerability that can seem like an unhealed wound. This relates to childhood experiences of hurt through emphatic rejection; experiences that nudged you into detaching from your body and rationalizing your feelings. People you meet and love at this time may be wounded themselves, or you may inadvertently hurt them, and perhaps the same can happen for you too. But there is an important learning experience here, because you also discover the healing power of love within yourself. Giving your heart to another may be painful, but it is also rewarding.
Progressed Venus to North Node: Love and destiny
You find yourself getting drawn into a social group that is an important part of the collective and that can play a crucial role in your personal development for years into the future. This can also be a time when you meet a particular individual with whom you can feel there is an inexplicable bond –a karmic bond – that draws you together across the sands of time. It is a magical world of dragons and fairy tales. Whilst some might say you lose your head, it can feel as if you are at a crossroads, and that your relationship choices at this time will decide the direction your spiritual future takes. Old relationships to groups and individuals fall away now and are replaced by new.
Progressed Venus to South Node: Re-connecting with an old bond
You may find yourself getting deeply involved with someone with whom you feel you have a very strong connection from the past. Some might say this is a karmic bond, at any rate there is a sense of knowing this person intimately… of having some kind of history with this person. By reconnecting at this time, you may restart a relationship that never truly finished, or finish a relationship that was unable to start. This can feel like meeting a soul mate. This can also be a time when you round off a relationship that has run its course. At the same time you can get drawn into a group or social scene which has great significance for you.
The aspects of progressed Venus in themselves are not decisive in regard to love and marriage, but they do show the evolution and integration of qualities that will make your love life richer. If you are in an existing relationship, and progressed Venus conjoins Pluto, then this is not an indication of the end of the relationship, just that it must go through a process of transformation to be healthy. Or, if Venus rules the 7th house, for example, it could show the partner getting interested in therapy, or totally changing appearance or life style. In making judgments about what will happen, house ruler-ship is crucial, and the effect of the progression can be very specific. For example if Venus aspects 8th house ruler Saturn, then your bank may demand repayment of a debt. Your partner may feel blocked sexually because of self-worth issues. You may visit and older female therapist.
Discovering when a long-term partner comes into the picture is a complex process. The best indicator is when the Ascendant ruler aspects the Descendant ruler, or when the progressed Ascendant aspects a planet. (But in the latter case the birth time must be accurate). But Venus will always show matters of the heart, and meetings with people who bring new areas of the heart to flower.
Adrian Ross Duncan 14.01.2008
1. Secondary progressions are a technique where each day after birth is equivalent to a year of the life. The progressed chart for age 30 is calculated by making a horoscope for 30 days after birth – same birth time and birth place. This correlates each revolution of the Earth on its axis (a day) with a revolution of the Earth around the sun (a year). Calculate your progressed chart on line at http://www.astro.com/
