AQUARIUS SEVERN, ISRAEL, CRAZY ASTROLOGERS and MORE

Here is a link to me talking with the Aquarius Severn Astrology group earlier this month. I had a good time, I always do when I talk Astrology. 

 

ISRAEL and MARS IN SCORPIO

 

Mars in Libra is responsive rather than offensive, and it was in Libra in Israel's 1st House when Hamas attacked last week. With natal Libra Rising, this militarily responsive position generally characterises Israel. Though when it does respond, it has a mighty Mars in Leo trine Jupiter in Sag with which to do so. 

 

Mars has since moved into Scorpio, the other sign, along with Aries, that this planet rules. In Aries, Mars is offensive, in Scorpio defensive. Israel is now involved in an operation to secure its borders. Scorpio isn't always pretty. An animal or a human defending itself is at its most savage, for its survival is being threatened. I am not justifying what Israel might or might not do in Gaza: I am just trying to give an astrological picture of her motivations. 'RealAstrology'.

 

 

CRAZY ASTROLOGERS and THE MADNESS OF CROWDS

Who am I to criticise anyone's crazy beliefs, when I'm an astrologer, for heaven's sake? But I think astrology does for that reason teach us to hang loose to all beliefs, especially those rigid ones that ironically stop our vast collectives from going completely insane. It used to be religious beliefs, nowadays scientific and political beliefs are used in the same rigid way.

 

We don't really know anything about the important stuff, like where the universe came from, who we are and why we're here, how life started..... we console ourselves with the idea that science will one day tell us, or maybe God is the one who has the answers.

 

Embracing the uncertainty is the way to go. But that isn't an intellectual position. It's about spending years doing the spade work so that you can tolerate yourself. Then there becomes no need to cling convulsively to those collective beliefs and the massive sense of authority behind them. It becomes natural to be open and fluid. And here's a thing: it means you can afford to think honestly and logically, because you no longer have anything to lose by doing so.

 

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Pluto is now moving forward. If you are having a transit from him, anything you have begun recently that has not died is likely to have a long life, for it has deep roots that go all the way down to the underworld source of new life.

 

BAD GUY SCORPIO

Why have astrologers designated Scorpio to be the bad guy of the zodiac? I think it is because we are afraid of visceral engagement, of those demons that the medieval Church said astrologers summoned. We keep our craft safely cerebral, to which it readily lends itself. Scorpios are the scapegoats. If it wasn't Scorpio, we would find some other sign to carry the shadow for us, because we are fallible human beings. Virgo gets a bit of a bad press too, we project our coldness onto them. Below is Holman Hunt's painting The Scapegoat.

 

There is no place for moral judgements in astrology based on the chart alone. It does not contain that sort of information. It is our job as astrologers to cultivate sufficient self-awareness that we can withdraw these projections, because the collective at large isn't about to. That is why people come to us: because we offer them something outside their usual prejudices. Of course, some come just to have them confirmed, and you can probably make more money as that sort of astrologer.

 

Maybe traditional astrologers need to be held to account on this score, for perpetuating the myth of good and bad placements. It is psychologically primitive.

 

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How much of the Venus journey involves finding that your soul partner isn't that after all?

 

 

APOCALYPTIC THINKING and THE YOUNGER GENERATION

 

'Grim' Greta Thunberg, the pony girl of the apocalypse, has been arrested again at a protest. We don't hear so much of her nowadays, but she is still protesting about climate and fossil fuels. We do not know her time of birth, but Pluto is currently conjoining her Mercury - her mind - at 27-28 Capricorn. And how does her mind work? She has Aspergers, which lends itself to literal-mindedness. You can see how Capricorn, which is practical and serious, could describe Aspergers. The adults told her the world was in danger from a human-made climate apocalypse, she believed them and chose to try to stop it. Religious leaders fawned over her, and world leaders talked respectfully of her, but ignored what she told them they must do. Bad adults. Her thinking, like that of a child, is black and white. And has got stuck there.

 

She first began campaigning as a way out of the depression caused by what the adults had told her. (My son told me very early on not to talk to him about global warming. It was scary, and too much. I still feel sorry I did that.) So Pluto on her Mercury is changing how Greta thinks. Will she become obsessional? Probably. Will she have some kind of breakdown and stop campaigning? With any luck yes, if only for her own long-term mental health. When Greta began her campaigning by skipping school on 20 August 2018, Pluto was somewhere in the vicinity of her Moon, and the Moon was conjoining her Pluto that day. A double Moon-Pluto message. The signs were Sagittarius (religious belief, righteousness) and Capricorn (a heavy weight on young shoulders). And a betrayal (Pluto) of her childhood (Moon.)

 

I think an honest position on climate has to include a degree of agnosticism. It is such a complex field with, inevitably, so many different arguments. The one thing I will confidently assert, is that if I am told there is a 97% consensus about anything, anywhere, I will not believe it: it is not how humans work. It only happens when dictators run 'democratic' elections: the 3% is for a show of credibility.

I have a sneaking suspicion that global warming might turn out to be overall a good thing. But I won't insist on it: even saying it sometimes provokes a big negative reaction. 

 

What Greta shows us, I think, is that we need to be careful not to give messages of despair to the younger generation. It is the opposite of our adult responsibility to children, our duty of care.

RECENT DEBRIS

 SUB SPECIE AETERNITATIS

When you're an astrologer, you get your stories from Mount Olympus. They are different to the stories that collective humanity tells itself. We need to be able to stand apart from these stories, all of them, especially the ones that come with the authority of our modern state religion: science. Political parties and their stories too, that division into good guys and bad guys that so many mistake for reality. Otherwise we won't be able to listen to these ancient guys who, for whatever reason, have chosen us as messengers.

We are in the world but not of the world. It's a big ask, and I'm sure the gods don't expect us to be perfect. And I'm sure sometimes they roll their eyes at the way we treat modern stories as reality. I say this especially around the sense of crisis that seems perennial to humanity. Our job is to stand outside of all that, it is largely illusion, and it is not how the gods live.

 

PRESIDENT RAMASWAMY?

 

 

Donald Trump doesn't have the empowering transits to win another election. He will have Uranus on his Mars and Angles next year, which makes his trajectory highly unpredictable and unstable. Vivek Ramaswamy, on the other hand, is at the start of a long series of empowering transits: Pluto squaring his Pluto-MC, then Neptune squaring his Venus and Asc, carrying him through 2 terms as President. He was reportedly the clear winner at the recent debate between Republican candidates.

 

 

 

 

THE SUN, THE ASCENDANT and THE ANGLES

The Ascendant is the point on the horizon where the Sun rises and brings new light. The Ascendant is therefore intimately connected with the Sun. It is the doorway through which we find alignment with our deepest self, with who we always were: the Sun, which is both universal, yet unique to us. As an Aquarian, I find my Sun through the service and inner joy of my Virgo Asc. 

 

 

Not only that, but the other 3 Angles - Home, Relationship and Vocation (IC, Desc, MC) - naturally unfold when the ASC is balanced, when it is listening to the Sun. In other words, we incarnate, our spirit makes the often difficult journey into matter, which is what we are here to keep doing.

 

 

BLOWING MY OWN TRUMPET

"I couldn’t put this book down! Astrology has always been a bit of a mystery to me but in the reading of the book I want to learn about astrology now! Thought provoking and intense, yet explains astrology in a way that makes you want more! Barry tells it how it is, pulls no punches yet is gentle in its teaching. You can’t help but know more at the end of the book yet long for even more!"

 

One of the many 5 star reviews of my astrology book on Amazon. And here's the deal: you buy it and leave a genuine rating on Amazon, and I will give you a free astrology reading!

 

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The astrological chart is your Fate, a Gift from the Moirai. It cannot be changed: it is writ. The chart tells you who you are, and the trajectory

of your life. It has a pulse, it lives and breathes.

 

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I don't always pay attention to transits to outer planets, as their sign is generational. But the House is personal. Saturn is backing into an opposition with my 12th House Pluto, and I am having significant dreams. One was particularly about power: a nurse was trying to anaesthetise me to perform an unnecessary operation on my big toe (a symbol of the masculine). But I couldn't be anaesthetised. The Wolf in me, who has loomed large lately, is here for good.

 

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Conventional reality is the matrix. It always has been. It is a shifting set of stories that the collective needs for psychological stability. Neptune can be the blue pill that subsumes us in the collective stories. Or he can be the red pill that wakes us from the dream. Which one you take is an ongoing choice. All strongly held collective beliefs are blue pill territory.

 

 

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Very few people know how to think. What passes for thought is usually just the finding of arguments to support what it is they prefer to believe. Political astrologers beware!

 

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Jupiter, Chiron, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto will all be retrograde until early October. We have an exceptional period of inner alchemy upon us. Pay attention to dreams and the sense of new patterns being laid down within.

 

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Astrology is founded on cycles. It is not going anywhere. It simply advises us on how to live well, in accordance with the planetary gods. This is the ancient, indigenous perspective. It relieves us of the modern pressure to be going somewhere: the Protestant Work Ethic, our imbalanced Saturn.

 

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For the astrology chart to speak through us, we need a felt relationship with the 4 elements: Sun, Rain, Soil and Wind, which are more fundamental than the zodiac signs. We need in this sense to be indigenous, as the first astrologers were. It's something you can do in your back garden.

 

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CHIRON'S 'WOUND' 

 

Chiron is the bridge to the outer planets. The area of life he highlights will often not work in a normal way: it may as a result appear 'wounded'. There is calling, vocation to be lived in order for that area to function well. In this sense Chiron is 'the crack where the light gets in'. He is the crack in conventional reality through which pour the creativity, imagination and renewal of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto respectively.

 

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Mercury is the messenger of the gods. Until 15th Sept he will be off on one of his thrice yearly consultations with them. If you think through carefully (Virgo) anything you want to begin, you might be able to overhear what is being said, and get it right. Otherwise, Mercury is liable to turn up in his trickster form. Which for him is great fun.

 

 

THE DARK GODDESS SEDNA

 

 

Sedna, Inuit goddess of the ocean underworld. Discovered in Taurus in 2003. The outermost (dwarf) planet. Glaciers calve (Taurus) icebergs, 90% of which are below the surface in the ocean underworld. Does Sedna rule glaciers and icebergs?

In 2024 she moves into Gemini. In the Inuit myth, she had her fingers chopped off by her father. The fingers became seals. Fingers are Gemini. She is an ambivalent figure. In one version, her father threw her out to sea because she attacked her parents. She is both the power of woman and the shadow of that power. Like Gemini, the light and the dark twins. She is the Underworld, which is beyond light and dark, good and evil, it just is.

There is so much in this coming astrology. Astrology is the translation of mythology into human affairs. The astrologer has the gift of glimpsing the shapes behind the veil, the larger designs, while honouring the context of mystery, of unknowability. Sedna had her fingers cut off by her father. What a powerful story. It makes me think of the horrors of transgender surgery on teenagers. And the need for the masculine to listen to the feminine, in her dark as well as light aspects. It speaks to me of both sexes allowing the other to be dark as well as light, and not lashing out, as Sedna's father did.

Sedna in Taurus (since 1965) has been a time of huge economic growth (Taurus), in which billions of people have come out of poverty. But which has had consequences for the natural world, also Taurus. Gemini, as an air sign, gives the ability to reflect on that. At present, we are very polarised about it, with many people only seeing the bad. We can't collectively move forward with wisdom unless we can take both sides into account. Gemini has that potential.

 

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Transgender surgery on teenagers is a Pluto in Aquarius theme: using science to do something inhuman, in the name of helping people.

 

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Astrology is the translation of mythology into human affairs. The astrologer has the gift of glimpsing the shapes behind the veil, the larger designs, while honouring the context of mystery, of unknowability.

 

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Jordan Peterson's Mars, on the face of it, doesn't look promising at all: in its fall in Taurus, hidden away in the 12th, opposite Neptune and square to Saturn. Yet he is one of the most combative people you'll find. He never makes it personal, except when it comes to certain public individuals who he finds reprehensible. He fights the battle of ideas consistently and practically (fixed earth) on behalf of the collective (12th and opposite Neptune) with tremendous focus and control (square to Saturn). His ideas have power for many people (trine to Pluto). 

 

So you never know. It demonstrates to me that there is no such thing as good or bad placements. What the chart does show is how to use the placements. What it doesn't show is the moral character of the individual and the choices they will make. That is why you never know. The chart, if you like, shows the type of car we are driving, but not the driver, who remains a complete mystery. Which doesn't mean we won't have intuitions about them that go beyond what the chart says. In fact, that needs to happen if we are to be a good astrologer.