ST JEROME AND I

 ST JEROME AND I

It has been occurring to me that in writing my book The Medicine Wheel, I took the spirit, the essence of a tradition and reinvented it for our culture. Not only did I reinvent it, I added to the tradition. The Medicine Wheel is now something we can claim as our own, and not because of my book alone.

The book is easy to read and understand, yet addresses the underlying themes in their complexity and profundity. It is a book to be lived, as the Medicine Wheel itself always has been. The ideas are fully embedded in western culture in a way that only someone from this culture could achieve.

Gosh, this is a bit of a paean to myself, very un-English of me, and I hope you'll forgive me 🤣 There is worse to come!

In writing the book, the archetype of the translator was breathing through me. Not literal translation of one language to another, but the translation of the spirit of a tradition into a form that can be readily appreciated in another culture, so that it does not seem foreign. It is a weighty responsibility.

I began writing under a New Moon conjunct Pluto in Capricorn in the 10th, which has that kind of gravitas in the world. But I didn't start in a pre-planned way: one morning, I thought dammit, just start writing a book and see what happens. Very Mars Rising conjunct Aries Asc. At the same time, I had 15 years blogging behind me, books and books worth, which had served (unconsciously) as an apprenticeship. So the Capricorn emphasis could have reassured me that I knew what I was doing, I had earned the right to write a book!

St Jerome is the archetype of the translator in our culture. He translated the Bible from the original Hebrew into Latin. Up until then, translations from Greek into Latin had been used. OK, he didn't reinvent a whole tradition, but even in translating words you need a poet's mind, you need to grasp the spirit of what is being said and find an equivalent. Which cannot be literally exact, and adds new meaning, as well as losing some of the old.

So in this sense St Jerome was reinventing a tradition. Moreover, he undertook his translation next to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built on the spot where Jesus was said to have been born. Shamanically, you could say, the original essence of Jesus was flowing through and informing him as he did his work.

For me, there has also been a strange synchronicity. St Jerome had come to mind recently in relation to my work. The Medicine Wheel was published on 30 Sept 2022, which is the Feast Day of St Jerome. I couldn't believe it when I found that out. Yes, I am being told, we are both translators of something deep. And my book was published 23 years after attending my first course on the Wheel, and having been with it, one way or another, ever since. This was exactly the amount of time Jerome took to complete his translation.

I am not boasting when I write all the above. I have a reluctance, but there is a particular gravitas and significance to The Medicine Wheel that needs to be articulated. It enables us to claim this shamanic thing for our own, without the endless deferring to indigenous people that we often engage in, when it can be like the Pope has walked into the room. We can stand on equal terms, and that is something we need to do for our shamanism to reach maturity.

There are various depictions of St Jerome. I chose the one with the lion, that references the popular belief that he tamed a lion by healing its paw. The union of animal and human, as well as healing, are central to the Shamanic endeavour.

NB If you buy my book and leave a (genuine) rating on Amazon, I will give you a free astrology (or tarot) reading😊 The same goes for my astrology book Surfing the Galactic Highways. I think that book has a similar spirit, of taking the astrological tradition and re-inventing it from my own grasp of it, again with 15 years blogging behind it. Writing my astrology blog from 2006 onwards shaped me more than any other single activity has.

 

 

THE ASTROLOGICAL UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

As astrologers, we can see shapes in the mist coming people's way, and that knowledge can help them orientate themselves. But what astrology also teaches us, ironically, is just how unpredictable the future is in terms of specific events. Otherwise, where is the openness and mystery that allows room for the spirit to do its work?

Humans are always trying to create certainties, for reasons of their own limited sense of existential security. We see this in public discourse, in the various crises that we always imagine ourselves to be in. They are based on ostensibly certain, or near-certain, outcomes of which we are terrified. Our job as astrologers is to shout from the rooftops, using the hard-won knowledge of all our wrong predictions, that the future is very undefined, and we certainly can't fix it, so just get on with your day-to-day lives and stay open to the callings from that Other place.

The bigger issues are in the hands of the outer planets. It is human hubris to think we can control the bigger picture: our vain attempts have some gods laughing, and some crying.

 

 

NET-ZERO and THE COMING URANUS-NEPTUNE-PLUTO ERA

The UK PM's move away from net-zero targets is culturally very significant. The UK will be the first country openly to do so. People vote with their pockets, and it will be the poor across the world who suffer most from net-zero policies. Rishi Sunak's move is the first sign of an emerging new climate zeitgeist, as Uranus moves into Gemini, Pluto into Aquarius and Neptune into Aries, turbocharged by a conjunction with Saturn, in the next 2 to 3 years. A whole new era.

This post is NOT about being pro or anti net-zero, it is just an attempt to describe what is happening, which is what astrology is about.

 

 

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE THAT HAS SHAPED YOU?

I have been writing an astrology blog, on and off, since 2006. Its early period was probably the single most formative thing I have ever done. The blog re-invented me, gave me something I could be good at. It taught me how to think originally; to write simply and engagingly; and was the means by which I forged my own understanding of astrology. All under the aegis of tr Neptune conjoining my Sun.

I never went on courses or read books: instead I wrote, and did readings, and learnt astrology that way. Which was as it should be for 5th House Mercury in Aquarius opp Uranus. Where is your Mercury, and how do you learn best?

I have kept about 500 of my blogs, and I think there are many interesting pickings to be had if you scroll through on a Sunday afternoon. Here is the link to my trove.

 

 

PLUTO AND NEPTUNE AT THE EDGE

What is it that qualifies us to be an astrologer or a healer or anything of that nature? I propose it is that we have been taken to the edge where our life and its conventional values no longer works. And there we are faced with something from beyond; we hear the whisperings from another world. And when we have looked and listened, we can no longer be the same. We have that look in our eye, much like the Ancient Mariner, and we will tell whoever can listen.

When people come for an astrology reading, it may be because they are at that edge, which is where major Pluto and Neptune transits often take us. They are initiators. There is new life to be seen and claimed and lived, but the old has to go to make way for it. Our job is to hold their hand and tell them they are not going nuts, and that it would be a good idea to take that step forward, which is always solitary. We can offer perspective and faith, on behalf of the universe. If we have been there.

Here is a poem by Mary Oliver that describes this edge. Or should I say seeming precipice :)

THE JOURNEY

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice -

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life !”

each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But, little by little,

as you left the voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do -

determined to save

the only life you could save.

By Mary Oliver

THE US PLUTO RETURN

THE US PLUTO RETURN

The US Pluto is in the 2nd House of the US Sibly Chart. Pluto is where we find our power, and where we can feel our survival is at stake. The 2nd House is resources, and America, of course, has been the world’s wealthiest, and most powerful, country for over a century.

The hard aspects from Pluto to its natal position are interesting to trace. The opening square, in 1850, occurred during the longest continuous period of economic expansion in US history. The opposition, in the late 1930s, occurred as the US was about to embark on 2 major wars, booming economically and reshaping the world as it did so. The closing square, in the early 80s, saw the final stages of the Cold War, out of which America would emerge triumphant as the world’s only superpower.

So there has been a pattern of a re-empowerment of the US in the years following these Pluto-Pluto dynamic hard aspects. Maybe that will allow us to peer into the future, as the US completes its first Pluto Return – Pluto conjunct natal Pluto. The exact crossings are done, but I won’t consider the transit over until Pluto is out of sign, in Aquarius in Nov 2024.

The Return marks the start of a new cycle. The old leaping from strength to strength will be complete, and the US will need to begin to find a new relationship with its sense of power and survival. Capricorn – the sign of natal Pluto – climbs to the top of the mountain, like the goat it is. The US shows no sign of losing its wealth and of continuing to augment it. But nonetheless, she will soon be no longer number one, as China surpasses the US economically.

So who will America be if she is no longer number one? America is a society of winners and losers. If you are not a winner, you are nobody. America will no longer be the winner. This will require a profound shift in collective identity. The collective has uneasily seen this coming for some years now – these transits are like trends, they are operative for many years before and after – and this perception contributes to the hostility and fear of China. There are good reasons to be wary of China, but America adds its usual edge of paranoia and demonisation, which also seems to be part of her character. The US needs someone to demonise. The heavily tenanted 7th – particularly with polarising Gemini Mars there, in square to Neptune – provides the astrological description of this tendency to project evil onto other peoples and countries.

It won’t be as simple with China as it was with the USSR. China is the US' main trading partner and cannot, for this reason, be completely ‘Othered’. And there is the wretched business of China becoming wealthier, and holding more cards. Having in many ways to be deferred to.

From the outside, things may seem to carry on as before. But I think the new Pluto cycle that is starting will drag America psychologically inwards, for there will be nowhere else to go. It can’t carry on beating its chest at the top of the world, and putting evil handily out there somewhere. America, in other words, will be growing up.

Donald Trump, who doesn’t have the empowering transits to be re-elected as President, could be seen as the last, brash shout of an old America, attempting to make her ‘great’ again. She already is a great nation, there is no doubt about that. Maybe, by being forced into this reckoning with who she is, she will come to see that, instead of having always to assert it.

Interestingly, by some metrics, the US will, for demographic reasons, surpass China again economically later this century.

 

 

PLUTO'S BALEFUL EYE

Pluto is within 3 minutes of his stationing point. That baleful eye is homing in, and you will soon be caught in his direct stare. Pluto's reality check. He is only menacing, however, if you are hanging on to how you used to be. If you can go with life and its irrestistible unfoldment, there is joy and new depth to be found. 

 

Pluto is the instinctual life that rules us, but which as 'civilised' humans we deny. We 'Other' it in alien reptile form. Pluto is the call to live from the viscera, from the body, to let life live us.

 

 

THE LIBRAN SHIFT TO SELF-AWARENESS

The Sun is now in Libra. The first 6 signs of the Zodiac represent self-development. In Virgo we harvest, we reap the bounty. And then in Libra we step back, or we step outside ourselves. Libra gives the objectivity of Air, not just to know others, but to know ourselves also. We appreciate the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' within. The paradigm has shifted into a new dimension, into self-awareness. Pay attention to dreams at this time, for they tell us who we are.

Month by month during the year, we are given a different lens through which to see our natal Sun; it is a kind of cooking in which the wholeness that is uniquely our own can gradually emerge.

 

 

HITLER, SAINT or CHICKEN?

The most important things are not in the astrological chart. Is this the chart of Hitler, or a Saint, or a chicken? You can't tell the moral choices someone will make: how honest they are with themselves, how they treat others. Their existential intelligence: are they happy with the rules society gives them, with what appears to be 'the real world', or is there something other calling? The chart describes the pipework around their beating heart, but no more. It is the astrologer's experience and intuition that is able to connect the two.

 

 

SUN, RAIN, SOIL and WIND

Fire, Water, Earth and Air are the 4 elements that make up the universe, both for Europeans and Native Americans. It is an ancient way of understanding the world that we share. Isn't that wonderful? Old ways like this live in our viscera, even though we may have forgotten them. It just takes a bit of smudge and honouring of the Elements for that ancient thing to awaken in us.

I like the Elements because they are concrete, they are close to experience. They are not the abstractions that we have got used to. You want to understand the universe? Here are the equations, but you won't understand them. And even if you do, your senses will not be invited in to share in the knowing.

But even Fire, Water, Earth and Air are, to a degree, abstractions. Abstraction has its place, for it can reveal underlying principles. All the same, I prefer to say Sun, Rain, Soil and Wind. You can feel them, taste them, smell them, even as you are reading this.

As astrologers, I think we tend towards the abstract, and even the cerebral. In a reading, the Elements are more fundamental than the signs. If we are close to them, then they speak through us. Note to self: before my next reading, I will go outside and say hello and thank you to each element in turn.

Everything is to be found in allowing ourselves to be drawn, with gratitude, into that sensory experience of the world. You don't need books or teachers or spirit guides. That is all this thing is, that some of us call shamanism: allowing the spirit to incarnate through its delight in the natural world. And you can do it in a city.

 

 

ASTROLOGY, the UNIVERSE and the TRICKSTER

The rational mind is a tool for navigating the sublunary dream which, for now, we inhabit. The universe is infinite, human consciousness is tiny, with a tiny amount it can understand. When we reach the limits of what we can know rationally, the universe helps us know that by sending in a trickster. Astrophysicists probing the vastness of the universe suddenly find that 95% of it is missing. That is the trickster at work. They give it a name: dark energy/matter, as though naming means they know something about it. They still don't get it.

It is the same at the other extreme: the quantum world, where there are no definite objects, merely probability waves where cause and effect can be reversed, there is action at a distance, and the observer's intention influences the course of events. Again, it is the trickster at work, showing the limits of rational understanding.

As astrologers, the trickster comes in almost as soon as we try to demonstrate in a repeatable way the accepted truths of astrology. Jung found this when he tried to correlate Sun-Moon synastry with successful relationships: the correlation broke down. It was Jung who proposed the idea of a trickster in this context.

It seems to be only at the extreme ends of its quest for truth that science discovers the limits of rationality, and even then does not necessarily recognise it. I think we astrologers have a better ongoing understanding of that limitation, firstly because we are gaining knowledge through a non-rational faculty, the intuition; and secondly, because when we do try and pin our knowledge down, it quickly melts away.

 

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An astrology chart carries the appearance of objectivity - hence the attempts to validate it scientifically - but really there are any number of things an astrologer can say. Our skill lies in saying the things that are true (which enchants the universe: how could he have known that?) and helpful. The chart reaches out and tells us what the client needs to hear about right now, whatever their presenting issues.

That said, it is still wondrous when the symbolism in the chart finds literal expression on this earthly plane. There is a trickster in our craft that goads us with the appearance of scientific objectivity, and then flits into the shadows, laughing, when we try to prove it. She is a teacher: keep the mind soft, don't try to pin things down, and wisdom can flow through you.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUN - PART 2

 CANCER You need to find a way of bringing your soft centre into the world. Cancer is a Cardinal sign. It means you have initiative, you like to take charge, whether at home or at work. Schematically, Cancers need to move from the home to the world, in due course. But you are sensitive, and the world is an unforgiving place. It does not care about you, it cares about results. Elon Musk is a Cancerian. He sometimes takes criticism personally and lashes out.

Cancers have shells to protect their soft centres. When you go into the world, take care of the people around you, and take nothing personally. Cancerians can bear grudges when they feel hard done by. Drop them, it is just the world and how it works. And hang onto your sense of home in yourself, so that you do not create a substitute home – another shell – through your position and achievements: they can be taken away from you. Your home in yourself never can be. Elon has sold all his homes, and wants to create one for humanity on Mars. Maybe that is a sublimation of the Cancerian homing instinct. And maybe it is also a lack of home in himself.

 

CAPRICORN Your sign is ruled by Saturn, the worldly taskmaster. You measure yourself by your standing in the world. Able and ambitious, you won’t be satisfied short of a having good reputation that has been earned. But Saturn easily values only that which is observable and measurable. You can scoop yourself out, you can become a dry husk, if you only listen to that voice. Cancer calls you. It may take a mid-life crisis, when bestriding the world no longer carries the same meaning for you.

Secretly you hunger for love and connection and belonging. And to comfort those inner voices of failure and self-doubt and rage, of which you are ashamed. It is in listening to those voices that you will find your soul. Identify your real emotional needs and take care of them in a simple way. And learn to see others in that way too. It will make you stronger rather than weaker. And less sensitive about your reputation.

LEO  Hostess: “Are you enjoying yourself, Mr. Wilde?” “Enormously, Madam, there’s nothing else to enjoy.” Only a Leo could have said this, and it turns out that Oscar Wilde had Moon in Leo. Just as Taurus has the infectious gift of enjoying the things in the world, so does Leo have the infectious gift of being at ease with who they are. This is why Leo is the life and soul of the party, because at parties we can drop, for a while, the rules of who we ‘should’ be.

 

Leo, at its worst, is complacent, self-absorbed and entitled. The opposite sign of Aquarius, ruled by Uranus, represents a call to creativity from the outer planets. The Sun, which rules your sign, nourishes the creative seed, once it has been born. But it originates with the ruler of the opposite sign. Creativity is not the re-assembling of pre-existing ingredients, but the bringing into existence of something entirely new and unthought of. It was Uranus that ignited the Big Bang, having had the brilliant idea of creating a universe. When you create, you are also re-creating yourself. These seeds of something new present themselves to you regularly. Can you be bothered to run with them? If you don’t, you will gradually become cranky, and you will smell bad as you begin to rot. Surely, as a proud Leo, you don’t hide behind self-doubt? You are here to bring new life, continuously, for the benefit of humanity. Let your Leo radiance be the light of compassion.

 

AQUARIUS The Sun is in its fall in Aquarius – the sign opposite to that which it rules – so we Aquarians are often not at ease with who we are. So we try to change the world instead. As Nietzsche warned, "Your neighbour-love is your bad love of yourselves.” Aquarians are, of course, genuinely humanitarian. But always on the edge of groups. Partly because we find it hard to belong, because we are not at ease with ourselves. And also because people like to keep things as they are, whereas Aquarians always seek change and improvement. So people can be ambivalent about us.

Aquarius is a sign of the Mind. We need to come out of the Mind and into the Heart, which is Leo. To do that we need to learn to live with ourselves and listen to ourselves. And admit that we know nothing, because our heart is a mystery. It is the water Aquarius pours, which flows into the unfathomable ocean. Try being normal, do what everyone else does, and you will find you don’t lose your magic, which you fear. Once you are part of society, you will have the right and the wisdom to change it. But not until then. At which point you will be able to bring people together in a good way, which you love doing. Meaning without the usual unspoken rules and beliefs and hierarchies. But on a basis of people being more themselves, rather than an edited version, emanating from your own hard-won ease with who you are.

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 I offer astrology readings on a donation basis. Contact BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk. My offer also remains open indefinitely, that if you buy and rate at Amazon my astrology book Surfing the Galactic Highways, I will give you a free reading.

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VIRGO The tendency to plan and be orderly and rational is both your strength and your downfall. Emotionally you are pulled towards Pisces by your sense of service and compassion. And if you are being of service to people, you have to roll with their chaos and unpredictability if you are to be of real help. You hate that, but being a mutable sign, you are able to do it.

That is your first Pisces lesson in surrender. It needs, however, to move on to a metaphysical level: it is the whole universe you need to surrender to, and that is the work of a lifetime. And then the Pisces wisdom can flow through you: you will not know why you are saying what you are saying half the time, you just know that it needs saying, and it turns out to be exactly what that other person needs to hear.

At mid-life, as a Virgo, you may find yourself weeping uncharacteristically – and perhaps embarrassingly for you – as the Spirit calls you inwards to a much bigger journey, an infinite one.

Virgoan rationality is on the one hand well-grounded in reality, it is practical. But by the same token, it can seem to you to be what is real, because it is so grounded. Get yourself into the natural world – Virgo is, after all, a nature goddess – and talk to the trees, leave offerings for the fairies, and allow yourself to dwell in the simple appreciation of what is around you. Allow your ordered and ordering mind to be in awe of the grander, flowing order of the natural world.

PISCES You can come out with some awesome stuff when you are grounded in yourself, but there’s the rub. As the final sign of the Zodiac, Pisces essentially dwells outside of the illusory self that is needed to negotiate the world, which is ultimately a dream anyway, so why bother engaging with it?

Pisces needs to incarnate, to show up. This so-called dream IS reality, it is not a compromise of any sort to enter it fully. And earthy, ordered yet mutable Virgo provides the perfect vessel to do that. If you do not show up, if you feel outside and above it all, you will find yourself in a swamp where nothing ever happens; you may experience a suicidal lack of meaning.

Pisces suffers – and feels compassion - more than any other sign, your feelings run as wide and deep as existence. It can be more than a human frame can stand, unless you have a self from which to orientate, and to protect you. The crucifix may well speak to you, as a symbol of the spirit incarnating in matter, of just how excruciating that process can be for you.

Humankind cannot bear very much reality, as TS Eliot said, and you may regularly find yourself exposed to the full white light. It is your gift and your undoing.

As with Virgos, the natural world can restore your sanity and balance. You are a shapeshifter, your empathy is such that you can dwell in other beings. For you, rocks are beings: you know this, you commune with them. What better way to incarnate than to become a rock once in a while? Or take exercise. Pay close attention, like a good Virgo, to your physical health. Do ordinary things. You are here to make a contribution from the universe to this collective dream that, for a short while, we partake of. But you will only be able to do so to the degree you have done the work to incarnate. Which, like Virgo in the opposite direction, is a lifetime’s work.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUN (Part 1)

The Sun is the single most significant planet in the chart, because it is by far the most imposing body in the sky. If you face the Sun, and you listen, you will feel the particular shaping flavour of the stars behind it. At your back, what you cannot see, are the opposite set of stars, the 'darkstory' of the Sun. That which you will need to unearth, in the case of your own sign, to become a balanced human being. If you don't, then as Jesus said in the heretical Gospel of St Thomas, it will destroy you. You will be possessed by it, and may not recognise your own destruction. What may appear as your demons may be your unlived strengths.

So what follows in this 2 part post will be something on each sign by shadow. I will do them in opposite pairs, because that is the way they work. What I will be saying is today's version, because there are many ways of putting it. A chart reading is also like that: I will tell you slightly different stories each time you come to me.

ARIES: Your strength is your freshness and certainty of vision. It is excellent for decisive action. But life isn't usually that simple. You need to learn to listen to others. To do that well, you need to learn to listen to yourself first, otherwise you will only think you are listening to others. You will find you are a more complex being than you imagined. When your complexity interests you - when you can turn from astronaut into psychonaut - then other people's complexity will also interest you, and it will be natural, rather than a practice, to incorporate their world view. The journey into your own complexity takes many years, and probably some rude awakenings along the way. But once you have learnt to relate to it, you can bring a powerful integrity to the process.

LIBRA: Your shadow lies in your naivety about other people. An unwillingness to look realistically at the dark motivations of others, which have been delightfully summed up in recent years in the form of the Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism and sadism. You are idealistic about people and about your relationships. This means you can bring harmony. It is your gift. You see the best in others, but with it comes an unwillingness to look clearly and truthfully. Your lack of judging is also a strength, but you can be very judging of others if they speak critically of people. So there is a hidden hypocrisy. Get over the feeling that it is wrong to acknowledge elements of the dark tetrad in others. Get over your need to please others, and learn to live with your guilt when you say something that is uncomfortable for them. Become the feathered arrow that flies straight to the mark with grace and beauty.

 

 

TAURUS: Your gift is your infectious love of life – food, beautiful things, art, sex, the natural world. But it can also be your shield against deeper realities. You can be too attached to the things of this world. However much you have, it will never be enough, because you are looking in the wrong place. If Taurus is Life, then Scorpio is Death. You need to live close to the veil between the worlds for the perspective it gives you. Loss in some form may be the awakening gift from Spirit you need at some point. It may dismember you, leave you feeling destroyed, taken down: but that can be exactly what is needed to leave room for new life to emerge. It is usually a slow, deep process. Cultivate emotional depth: it cannot be taken away from you. How do you do that? Be completely honest with yourself at all times. No feelings are shameful or a judgement on you. They just are what they are.

SCORPIO: I feel for you: you are seen as the bad guy of the zodiac, you carry the shadow. But that is because you are true to yourself, and that unsettles other people. You are friends with your demons, you do not judge them, and that can make you whole. But you can get stuck in the dark, inward place, like a frog in a well. And judging others accordingly, so that they feel boxed and unable to escape, because you have emotional power, like Medusa.

Your gift lies in the power and reality of the instincts, the animal, that humans think they are above, but are ruled by regardless, and you know this. Your salvation – your route out of the well – lies in the joy of the instinctual life. Be animal, shapeshift, delight in your senses, be absorbed in this world. Lighten up. That is not a superficial thing. You need an anchor in nature and its simple joys so that the deep alchemy which is central to your nature has a vessel, an orientation.                       

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I offer astrology readings on a donation basis. Contact BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk. My offer also remains open indefinitely, that if you buy and rate at Amazon my astrology book Surfing the Galactic Highways, I will give you a free reading.

 

             

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GEMINI You have a dual nature, the light and the dark twins. It is your ongoing experience that there is something uncomfortable to be lived, lurking outside the colourful mind-bubble that you magic into being wherever you go. Your glittering, capable, likeable self is your refuge from the deeper realities. You move rapidly from one interest to the next, you have 6 different threads going in any one conversation, you are restless, pursued by that haunting Sagittarian voice that asks you what does it all mean?

You need to stop and ask yourself that question several times a day. Meaning is a feeling. You are the Air sign that takes ideas least literally. They slip like sand through your dextrous fingers. You know that words are not realities. You know that the real place is outside your everyday mind. Dare you go there? What you fear in that unknown place is not monsters but boredom. Observe and enjoy your mind from a detached place in your heart. And from there let yourself be pulled towards that which calls to you, that which gives meaning. Keep your life in that place, don’t slide too readily into the 100 other things that beckon. Then you will find joy instead of mere stimulation. The joy of the marriage of light and dark.

 

SAGITTARIUS Spiritual bypass. That is the name of your game. Living for God as a way of avoiding mere earthly life. You love the deep, abstract ideas that point towards ineffable Reality itself. You protect yourself with your beliefs, which you view as so profound, but which your Gemini opposite dances around, tweaking their toes while you’re not looking.

Gemini is facts and information, by which you can test the validity of your beliefs. This is probably the most difficult challenge in the entire zodiac. “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.” Sagittarius is big on ethics, and it is a matter of personal integrity that you can stand to one side of your beliefs in the interests of discovering what is true. Very few people can do this to any extent. For mosr people, their beliefs are realities, and argument consists in finding evidence that supports those beliefs. Can you be honest about your political bias, and give the other side credit where credit is due? Once you understand that your beliefs are emotionally rather than rationally held – that you believe what you WANT to believe about nearly everything – then and only then do you understand humanity, and you can be the teacher that is the destiny of your sign. There are very few real teachers in this sense.