Mark Zuckerberg marries just after Facebook flotation

I've just been watching BBC News report about Mark Zuckerberg's unexpected marriage just a day after his company, Facebook, was floated on the New York Stock Exchange. Interesting that the two events have come so close together. He married his long-term girlfriend Priscilla Chan, who is 27. They've been together since University. (See the BBC report  for more...)

Mark Zuckerberg's chart - caution - NO TIME - ignore house cusps - this is a noon chart.

The first thing I noticed (as a fellow Taurus Sun) was that transiting Jupiter has been busy in his chart. Jupiter conjuncted the Sun in the sky at 23° Taurus last weekend. This was slap-bang on Mark's natal Sun, a great birthday present :) Jupiter-Sun suggests an enhancement and expansion (Jupiter) of personal recognition (Sun). Also interesting is the financial aspect, with those planets in Taurus (the sign that rules money and resources) - so expansion here too! 
We don't know the exact degree of his Moon but it's definitely in Scorpio- give or take 7 degrees either side of that 17° Scorpio figure. He was born at a Full Moon - making him more sensitive to his environment. There is a lot of emphasis in the fixed signs for that Jupiter transit to trigger - Venus is also in Taurus - strong in its own sign, and Saturn and Mars in Scorpio. It's also interesting that the strong Venus is also trine to Jupiter in Capricorn - the trine in earth suggesting an innate talent with material things, practically and with money and resources. And of course, Jupiter can indicate good fortune and it expands whatever it touches! Scorpio is also a very canny, and business-minded sign, especially with harmonious and creative aspects to that Jupiter. 
In Mark's chart this fixity itself and the fact that Venus is opposite Saturn suggests commitment and taking relationships seriously. (He'd been with his girlfriend since university - for nine years I think the report says).

He's not quite hit his Saturn return yet but around this time, though we don't know the exact Moon position when he was born, it is likely to be his Secondary Progressed Lunar Return. This itself, with his natal Moon opposite Venus, highlights the relationship and the female energy in his chart. At the time of the marriage the Moon was also in Taurus, further emphasising that fixed axis.

Transits for when he got married, the day after the Stock Exchange floatation.

Interesting that this all happened within 'Eclipse Season', so emotions, positive or negative, are amped up quite a bit as it is at the moment, and that tonight's annular Solar Eclipse at 0° Gemini will be conjunct (thought slightly wide) Chiron in his chart (2° Gemini). Wish we had a time of birth! :)

Full Moon (SuperMoon) in Scorpio tonight

Today's Full Moon in Scorpio, exact at 4.36am (BST) tonight, is a 'supermoon' - the moon is full at the point when it's at (or very near) it's closest point to the earth in its orbit. It will appear bigger in the sky. This particular supermoon is the one closest to the earth in 2012.
We've had very few clear skies here in the UK recently so not sure if we'll be able to see it.
The term 'supermoon' was coined by Richard Nolle in 1979. 

1.    Richard Nolle's explanation of supermoons on his website

2.    Richard's article on supermoon, on the Mountain Astrologer website.

The Full Moon in Scorpio correlates with a tension between the identification with the peace, tranquillity, material comfort and stability of nature-loving Taurus, (where the Sun is at the moment) and the turbulent passions of the emotional watery Moon opposite, in Scorpio. The Moon is in 'fall' in Scorpio. It's not very happy there, it feels unsafe often. The Moon is much happier in the opposite sign of Taurus! There are issues of trust. It seems often on its guard in Scorpio. Emotions are intense and deeply, passionately felt here. Obviously this does not lend itself to Taurean harmony and tranquillity, but Taurus can provide a container for those passions with the practicality of Earth. Both signs are loyal, but stubborn. They are called Fixed signs for a reason. It's status quo and security (Taurus) versus transformation and intensity (Scorpio). The full moon brings the tension of opposites, the polarities of the signs to attention, into greater awareness.  


It might be a good time (if it feels safe to do so) to find a way to allow whatever is lurking in the depths of the psyche into awareness now. Hidden motives, primal urges, those unconscious patterns and drives that actually have great power over us because we push them away as 'unacceptable' or 'inappropriate', and then they churn away under the surface. Scorpio and Pluto rule the taboo. 
Meditating tonight on making space for these parts of ourselves could be beneficial. I use a technique called Focusing which allows for holding the very different 'parts' of ourselves in acceptance and locating them as a 'felt sense' in the body. Simply acknowledging their presence can create a shift in itself. (Check out the link for more details) This can be very helpful at the heightened tension and awareness of the full moon in whatever signs. 


Do you have any planets at or near 16 of fixed signs? If so, this full moon could be significant for you. Also look at the houses it falls in in your natal chart. 

R.I.P. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys.

Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys died today. 

I guess it's a morbid practice of astrologers, to look at the charts of famous people when they die.  For me, there's something about 'I wish I'd paid more attention when he was alive' I guess. I got Adam Yauch's data from Wikipedia, so I'm not sure how reliable that is. There's no time available, so ignore Ascendant and house placements. (He's not on Astrodatabank.) 

Adam Yauch - note, no time.

It does feel a little to me as though a piece of my 'rebellious' youth has suddenly gone. Not that I was hugely rebellious :) It certainly feels wrong that cancer should claim one of these guys though, and at such a young age (47).  According to the news he'd been fighting the disease for the last three years, and it was announced publicly in July 2009. 

Astrologically, the performer stands out in his Leo Sun (square to Neptune - through music) and the Mars/Venus conjunction. His natal Mercury is sandwiched between the generational Pluto-Uranus conjunction of his time. He thought (Mercury) unconventionally, rebelliously, brilliantly, unpredictably, and 'outside the box' (Uranus) and communicated in the same manner. Not to mention the offbeat comedy genius :) This was empowered and intensified by Pluto being in the mix too. Saturn, opposing this conjunction, correlates to the conventional that was being fought against, the status quo, society, authority. This seems appropriate not only as expressed through his punk and rap music, but also as the voice of protest in his work in support of Tibet. He was also a practising Buddhist, which perhaps reflects the Sun-Neptune square too.

Transit-wise, it was his Jupiter return when he died, and those natal planets in Cancer - Venus, Mars and the Moon caught my eye - they've been under pressure from Pluto for a few years now - since the year before he announced his illness publicly. and then from Uranus, as the current Pluto-Uranus square becomes more exact. It's hard to know exactly where his Moon would be, it could be up to 7 degrees either side of that 13 degree Cancer position. Neptune and Chiron have also been crossing his natal Saturn.
I'm also noting that he was born under the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s and died under the first major aspect of these two heavy-weight outer planets since then. A 'recurrence transit'. 

So, respect to Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. They made me smile and jump around. Lots. Thanks for the music... and the comedy. Here's 'Sabotage'....

More photos from BBC News here. 
BBC Obituary with part of "Fight For Your Right To Party" video :)

Musings on (my) Progressed Sun... and Focusing.

My Progressed Full Moon, 2 years ago.

My progressed Sun moved into Cancer 2 years ago, and at the same time I had a progressed Full Moon - my progressed Sun at 0° Cancer was opposite my progressed Moon at 0° Capricorn. (12th to 6th houses respectively).

I have my natal Venus at 0° Cancer and was sort of expecting some kind of relationship connection. Often progressed Sun conjunct natal Venus in itself - well, you could expect to get married perhaps, but I'd done that 3 years before! I often do this with Venus transits, expect relationship stuff, but what actually comes is issues of self-value, changes in socialising patterns or something connected to my home (Venus in Cancer rules my 4th house, the home).

Anyway, with this progressed Full Moon connecting to natal Venus in the 12th, what actually happened was that I took up a type of self-help process called Focusing, which is kind of hard to describe (easier to show). I only realised this connection yesterday during our Bernadette Brady seminar on Predictive Astrology. Interesting that this happened at the Full Moon progressed lunar phase as well - when the 'bearing fruit' is occurring. The 6th house progressed Moon does seem to indicate that I have been challenged with health issues (6th) in the process.

I was drawn to Focusing because in my counselling and hypnotherapy training, I could relate best to methods that tuned in to the body (Taurus Sun/ Moon/Mercury) and encouraged right-brain symbols and imagery (all the above opposite Neptune). Perhaps the 'fruit' of the years of therapy training I had previously have distilled into this approach which is the most appropriate for me.

In Focusing the tuning-in is described as a 'felt sense' - you'll close your eyes, connect in to your body. This can be hard for some people at first, who aren't used to 'going inside'. But just ask yourself if you are hungry. Whatever the answer, ask yourself then how you know that - you were using your 'felt sense' to check it out. How is your stomach feeling, does if feel 'hollow' or whatever word you might use... this is all Focusing. It might seem basic, but you can check out different words, stay with those sensations/feelings for a while and allow emotion, thought, memory, story and further sensation to emerge from that. It's a process, it unfolds, it develops. ...Not just your stomach, though, and not from being hungry, that was just an example :) It's about trusting your own process and your body to tell you what you need to know, and also being able to form a relationship with whatever comes up for you rather than being totally identified with that. For example, notice how different "I am sad" is from "I'm sensing something in my stomach that feels sad"... you feel emotion somewhere in your body, don't you? Your gut, your chest perhaps. I feel fear, often, as a prickling around my neck and face, for example. Anyway, I'm rambling on now, and I'm not sure how well I've described it.

What I value about it (Venus) is that it's a process which emphasises self-acceptance, non-judgment, empathy, listening, reflecting and nurturing. All these elements very much relate to water - to the water sign house (12th) and sign (Cancer), as well as my Neptune oppositions to Sun/Moon/Mercury. It's almost a directed meditation in a way. I'm still Focusing. In fact, I've just started the Practitioner Course this year, aiming to incorporate it into therapy work and to teach it to other people, but just as much as a personal development process. Once taught, it can be done by yourself, though it seems to work better with a partner to reflect back. The beauty of Focusing is that it isn't about a therapist/client relationship - it's very much an equal partnership. (I have Mars in Libra, which is disposited by that Venus in Cancer in the 12th) One person Focuses, the other reflects back, for a set time frame, then you'll swap and the other person gets to be the Focuser, with the partner reflecting back. It can't be described in words very well, it's much better experienced, which seems very Neptunian/12th house too :)

My Focusing page on Facebook is here if you want to know more about it. There doesn't seem to be any other page specifically related to Focusing on Facebook that I've found. Focusing has deepened my understanding of astrological symbols as well, since they have often arisen spontaneously in Focusing sessions and I've come to 'experience' them rather than just intellectualise them, which has been incredibly helpful.

What sparked this most for me today was Bernadette Brady yesterday talking about the Progressed Sun and the fact that it will spend an awfully long time where it is now. Mine is only at 2 Cancer now, close to the beginning of the 12th. So what developed when those shifts into sign and house occurred are not just a phase, they are a long term change of emphasis. My progressed Sun will be in Cancer and in the 12th house now for another 28 years. Focusing, for me, seems to be an important expression of that long-term shift.

New Moon in Aquarius and Mars stations retrograde.

There’s a New Moon in Aquarius this Monday, 23^rd January at 7.39am GMT.

Aquarius, the sign of the Water-Carrier, is in fact an Air sign, the sign of the inspired intellect, of knowledge from the Gods, of being struck by that ‘thunderbolt’ moment of knowledge, Eureka! Aquarius is inventive and wilful. Often associated with genius, it’s also a ‘fixed’ sign, suggesting stability and sticking to your guns. This occurs in the realm of ideas: the Aquarian will make up their own mind and go their own way regardless of others, they’ll ‘think outside the box’ and they may often be ‘ahead of their time’ – the sign is very future-oriented.

More musings on Uranus-Pluto

2nd September, in the UK, four men have been arrested in connection with the London riots. In the blog post about the riots on Monday I mentioned Rick Tarnas (and Matthew Stelzner) talked on the Correlations podcast, (From about 15 minutes in, until about the 30 minute mark) about Uranus-Pluto reflecting the empowerment of youth, but also later suggest that there are "two narratives" - the first being the "movement towards freedom and progress...towards democracy, a kind of democratising Promethean emancipation" but the other is "the narrative of chaos". He describes these as the 'two sides' (have a listen).



I've been thinking for the last few days about this, partly because of something my husband posted on Facebook during a prolonged rant: "...All those involved have now made it harder for those who want to make a difference the right way..." 

Yep, this was certainly the chaos option here in the UK. Have they made it harder? Very likely. What is the 'right' way though? Is there a right way? Uranus certainly isn't keen on sticking to the rules or the letter of the law. Quite the opposite perhaps, especially when empowered and intensified by Pluto. Uranus is more the "can't make an omelette without breaking eggs" way.

There was an interesting sequence of events recently. On 7th August  a friend of mine posted this on my Facebook page. He'd found it via Stumble Upon:

I found the imagery really interesting. Lots of 1960s images, and the extensive use of clips from the film 'V for Vendetta'. The Matrix was also featured. two of my all-time favourite films. 

As soon as I saw V for Vendetta I was very taken with the Uranus-Pluto association and went off to check how close the two planets were then. There was a 15 orb on 16 March 2006 when the film was released. That seemed far too wide to me for a correlation.  Interestingly though, Saturn was exactly at the midpoint of Uranus-Pluto in that chart. 

 

Great Astrology Books for your Kindle

My mum bought me a Kindle for Christmas, and I absolutely love it. It's very dangerous due to the instant gratification of pressing a button on Amazon and having your book turn up on your Kindle a few seconds later. The other feature that pushes all my nerdy buttons is the ability to create 'Collections' so, of course I have my 'Astrology' collection on my Kindle, and now I want to spend, damn it! 

Just to whet your appetite, if you have a Kindle, here is a mix of interesting astrology, old and new, you can access in seconds, complete with links...