The Unexpected Benefits of Shame

In his highly readable book, A Blissful Journey,  Geshe Kelsand Gyatos suggests that instead of being a punishment, shame  restrains us from doing that which the person that we wish (or ought to wish) ourselves to be ought not to do.

In this context shame is not a painful conclusion, but a joyous opportunity.

For Buddhists, shame is the frontline defence against inappropriate actions.  Such actions not only produce negative karma (locking you into the painful cycle of rebirth) but also lead to difficult rebirths.

But even non-Buddhists find inappropriate actions to be trouble.  Folks tend to get annoyed when one steals, murders, and cheats.   Likewise, they shy away from those who frequently lose their temper and fail to honour their commitments.  Indeed, during the course of a single day, you are confronted with a whole host of activities that someone considers inappropriate. If you wished to comply with all of them, you might as well just stay home.

The reality of life is that we cannot always abide by an external set of rules when deciding what we should or should not do.

Yet assuming that you want to be ethical, what standard might you use?

I suggest using your own ‘sense of shame’.

Assume that you wished to use your mobile phone in a place where it was prohibited.  You might be tempted to do it anyway – especially if you were (1) in a hurry, (2) pretty sure it wouldn’t harm anyone , and (3) fairly certain you wouldn’t be caught.  If – prior to giving way to temptation – you considered how you’d feel if you were caught, you’d have your answer.

If you’d feel embarrassed or guilty, then deep down you know that you ought not do it.  This is regardless of the logical arguments you might make to the contrary.

However, if you truly wouldn’t be fussed, then you might as well give it a try.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Saturn & Jupiter in Existential Balance

Astrologically, we equate responsibility with Saturn.  With Saturn, we undertake our duties and obligations seriously and in this way, we achieve.

When things go wrong however, we’re more reluctant to take responsibility. Thus the downside of Saturn is fault and blame.

In On the Genealogy of Morals (3:15), Nietzsche has suggested that fault and blame are the bitter fruits of ‘responsibility’.  This is because in our society, responsibility is not understood in terms of our ‘ability to respond’ but instead in terms of the spirit of revenge.

In existentialist terms, the spirit of revenge is a powerful narcotic that numbs the inevitable pain and misery of existence.  ’Shit happens’.  It happens despite the ‘best laid plans of mice and men’.

When we respect misfortune as an inevitable part of living, we can utilise our innate ability to respond to life  (Nietzsche).

But whilst embraced by the spirit of revenge, no man can respect true misfortune.  He can have no understanding of the context in which misfortune manifests.  Focused on channelling his passions into vengefulness and spite, such a man can never respect, let alone love,  anybody or anything.

Only a foolish man believes that each misfortune which befalls him, was intentionally directed at him.   Yet many of us do just that.

A more productive approach might be to take ourselves less seriously.   This might be achieved through the more positive aspects of irresponsibility – i.e. having lightheaded fun.  Not only does  light-heartedness promote health, but it also helps us to learn – and accept – basic realities about life.

The natural antidote of Saturn is Jupiter.  When Jupiter  functions properly,  we are optimistic, take chances and have good luck.  Too much Jupiter however leads to extravagance and frivolity – hence the bad associations with irresponsibility.

In my book, balance is the key to health and happiness.  It would seem Nietzsche might agree.  According to him (in a theme developed by Kundera in his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being), the heaviest burden (responsibility) is also boundless freedom (irresponsibility).

In this regard, taking responsibility for your own life allows you to accept it for what it is – a game of chance in which sometimes you win… and sometimes you lose.

Blaming yourself or others achieves nothing but more pain.

The Dangers of Individuality – The Sabian Symbol for Today

With the Sun moving towards 24 Leo, the Sabian Symbol for today is an ‘untidy, unkempt man’.

Usually with Leonine energy, we think of proud playfulness, openhearted generosity, and confident charm.   But sometimes, it can all go wrong.

The ruler of Leo is the Sun, which can be equated with the Ego – that part of your personality that maintains the balance between impulses (‘id’) and conscience (‘superego’).   When balance is achieved, you have the unruffled self-assurance so often associated with Leo.  Actually, you’d expect nothing else.   Leo is ‘fixed fire’.  The Leonine ego must come to terms with itself by turning not to the world outside, but instead to within.

Yet after such intense soul-searching, it’s imperative to share your hard-won wisdom with your fellow man.  Most spiritual traditions emphasis this final leg of the Self’s journey as the most important.  This makes perfect sense as Leo’s balancing energy is to be found in its opposite -Aquarius -the epitome of social responsibility and the egalitarian ideal.

But when the ego fails to find balance, the result is complete self-obsession and an unattractive insensitivity to the wider world.

Today’s Sabian less is not just for Leo, but also for everyone.  Individuality is key to human happiness.  But without balance, the exact opposite is attained.  Hence we find the image of this Sabian Symbol – a negative, perverse satisfaction in the neglect of self.

The Hungry Hole in Group Dynamics – It’s Waiting for You

According to social psychology, a group is defined by the ‘glue’ that holds it together.  This could range from simply sharing a common fate (like passengers on a high-jacked airliner) to those joining together for a common goal based on a group ideal.

Since your self-worth and personal identity is intimately bound up with group membership, it isn’t surprising that you function better within groups where you consciously identity with group goals and ideals.  Of course the group imposes norms or standards (allowing for predictability and order) with which you are expected to conform.   You can’t always be yourself in a group.  There’s much evidence that groups have ‘minds’ of their own.

There’s also the suggestion that predominantly unconscious patterns underlie the functionality of a group.  Group dynamics put you in touch with the unconscious bits of yourself.  Whether or not you like it, you play the role of energy you bring into the pattern.  In other words, you ‘plug in’ to the group energy in a way that suggests that more than interpersonal synergy is at work.

How one measures this is up for grabs.  There’s a suggestion that harmonic patterns formed by groups gives insight as to which planetary energies it ‘pulls’ from any given group member.  This can be quite different depending on the particular harmonic involved (there can be several for a group).   If you’re not in touch with a particular energy in your chart, it could come out in the group – with a bang.

Groups form important vessels allowing you to learn more about yourself.  After all, you can only see yourself through the mirror of others.  What better mirror could you find than a group of like-minded ‘selves’?

According to Bernadette Brady, life is more about ‘patterns’ than ‘aspects’.  So if you want to look beyond traditional synergy aspects between individuals, then group dynamics is for you.  Remember that it’s the empty or unfinished point in the group pattern that’s key – it’s hungry and looking for someone to fill it.

If you’re that someone, then pay attention.  The way you interact within that group tells you much more about ‘you’ than it does about ‘them’.

For more information click here.

Faces Within Faces – Revealing the Secrets of Your 5th House

Conflict exists between the face you believe that you present to the world and that which you actually do.  If you don’t wish to take yourself at ‘face value’, then dig deeper.

Astrology offers a way to do just that.   Like artists, astrologers seek to capture the essence of their subject – that unique signature style that sets one apart in the sea of humanity.

The best place to start is with the 5^th house.  It’s here that you find your potentiality for self-expression.  Keep in mind however, that you could choose to use this energy to camouflage your real Self.

The 5^th house is a place of enormous complexity.  It symbolises not only that in which you take pleasure (Venus ‘delights’ here), but also it’s home to your heart chakra.  The 5^th house channels your life’s vital energy.   It also symbolises your ability to give and receive without strings.

If your 5^th house energy is inhibited or blocked, you’re unable to fulfil your promise.  In this case, the ruler of your 5^th house (and any planets residing there) provides clues.  Societal attitudes toward self-expression are also synthesized in the 5^th house.

I have Scorpio on my 5^th house cusp.  This makes Pluto (in my 2^nd house in Leo) and Mars (in Virgo conjunct Venus in the 3^rd) the co-rulers of the face I present to others.  As Scorpio is renouned for being guarded and suspicious, it’s little surprise that, for my own protection, I hide myself away.  Perhaps early on I learned that expression of the ‘real me’ was dangerous?  I realise that under my easy Libran smile, my teeth are always clenched.  Clearly something intense is going on under the surface.  Maybe it’s the ever-present survival concerns (Pluto in Leo in 2^nd house) especially in regard to financial security?  Or maybe I’m mistrustful of life in general?

People have told me that I have a piercing gaze.  I hold eye contact with them longer than is comfortable.  What am I looking for?  My Mars in Virgo squares my Moon.  This suggests my playful Gemini Moon is seeking a way to relax and let ‘go’.

Can others see this in my face?  Can I?

The Astro-Art of Wisdom

Regardless of what the dictionary says, I believe that ‘wisdom’ requires more than knowledge and understanding.  Wisdom requires using your imagination to literally push knowledge and understanding beyond itself into the realm of experience.

This can be accomplished through looking at life through the eyes of an artist.  Artists communicate through symbols.  Artists evoke moods and emotions using pictures and words.  Artists connect us with’something’ that breathes fresh air into otherwise stale lives.

Neptune may very well represent that ‘something’.  Neptune is the astrological symbol of the deep unity with all things into which artists tap.  It’s rumoured that great sculptors connect with the imprisoned energy of a stone.  With their tools and skills, they free that energy for all to enjoy.

The artist’s tools and skills are represented by the Saturn function as that symbolises one’s ability to plan and achieve.

Thus Neptune and Saturn might well be the two most important astrological signposts toward your attainment of wisdom.   By putting Saturn and Neptune together you can make manifest something that jumpstarts your innermost Self to life.

If, like me, you have close Saturn/Neptune contacts, you can work with them through the energies they represent.  For example, I have a Mercury/Saturn/Neptune conjunction in Libra.  Libran outlets through which I might gain wisdom are relationships (all types), law (I am a lawyer), social connections, and artistic endeavours (I’m pursuing a degree in creative writing at Oxford University).

Even if you have no Saturn/Neptune contacts in your natal chart, at some point they’ll come by transit.   Prepare for this golden opportunity by learning how to best exploit what you already have.

Buildings burn & economies crumble – the Pluto/Uranus Square

Buildings burn across Britain.  In the Middle East, dictatorships crumble . The Euro-zone is in meltdown and the political system in America brings the world’s largest economy to the brink of default.

What gives?

The current Pluto Capricorn/ Uranus in Aries Square symbolising that which we’re going to experience for the next six years.  Hold on to your hats, ladies and gents.  It’s going to be a rough ride.

It all started in 1965 and 1966 when Uranus and Pluto were three times conjunct in Virgo (wholeness/integrity).  During that time, the revolt of students in Berkeley ignited a series of similar events all over the world – remember the Negro riots in Watts?  I do.  It wasn’t a pretty sight.

The divide between the haves and the have not’s had been widening and the ‘powers’ that be weren’t doing enough.  We’re now living through the opening square of that 1965-66 conjunction.  This brings a significant manifestation regarding unfinished business.  The issues represented by that 1965-66 conjunction are erupting yet again – but this time on a broader and more dangerous scale.

The Uranus/Pluto cycle has to do with radical restructuring and destructuring.  The vision is of a freer and more meaningful life.  Our unquestioned acceptance of authority is broken.  We’re fed up with petty materialism and mindless obedience.  The systems of our society aren’t working.  This is what the youth are trying to tell us.   Yet because the Uranus/Pluto cycle takes 127 years to completion, don’t expect an all-encompassing solution soon.

Astro-dynamics of My Knight in Shining Armour

In yet another characterisation exercise for my new memoir, I’m digging into the astro-personality of my husband, JWM.  He plays the knight in shining armour who rescues me from the Wicked Witch of A ‘dam.  

Although he won’t admit it, JWM’s father is a huge influence in his life.  This makes the nature of the bond between them even more important because it operates unconsciously.

The key astrological configurations in  father/son relationships are (1) Saturn (discipline and control), (2) the Sun (validation of Self) and (3) Mars (survival instinct).  The concepts here are clash, struggle, opposition, fear, defeat, and betrayal.

In myth, Saturn and Mars are mortal enemies.  Yet they absolutely need each other.  It’s interesting that Saturn functions not only as the father figure in a young man’s life but also as the unavoidable aging process that eventually brings the young buck to his knees.

But back to the Wicked Witch of A ‘dam.  JWM was a young man then.   He had not yet undergone his Saturn return during which he would gain his sense of perspective.

JWM’s Saturn (structure/perfection) in Aries (sense of omnipotence) sits on his father’s Sun/Uranus  (break w/ tradition) in Aries; JWM never stops judging his father.  His father doesn’t know how to react.  Their interactions take on a decidedly defensive tone.   The young ram must butt against something if he’s to make any progress at all.

A young man’s sense of direction must come from his notion  of the ‘father figure’.  Because his Sun is in Aquarius, JWM needs his father to be a visionary who accomplishes nothing less than transforming the free world.  Whether his father achieved this isn’t the point.  The point is that with JWM’s Sun square Mars/Neptune conjunction (dissociation from action), he needs to see his father that way.

So not surprisingly, when I first met JWM in A ‘dam he was an unfocused drifter.    His father had failed to unleash JWM’s Mars energy  (there’s no synastry there).   But I did.*

According to Liz Greene, the energy of Neptune/Mars often manifests through romantic heroism.   That’s just what it did.  Enter my knight in shining armour whose Neptune/Mars in Scorpio formed a perfect trine with the Mars (Cancer) of Alieke, the Wicked Witch of A ‘dam.

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* My Uranus (liberation) in Cancer (nurturing) trines JWM’s Neptune/Mars in Scorpio (passion).

Disreputable behaviour is nothing new …. or is it?

I’m amazed at the way everyone’s carrying on about the phone hacking scandal and such.  Are they really so naïve as not to realise that disreputable behaviour is nothing new?

But then while digging deeper into the characters for my new memoir (Astro-Sex and Lies), my own naivety was painfully highlighted.

Cor was a great friend of mine – even if – sadly – we have now lost touch.  Actually, he was much more than that.  He was the counsellor and ‘trainer’ who taught me the ‘white-magic’ ways to self-empowerment.   Over the years, I’ve spent many hours working with him.

I always knew about his black magic past.  He’d been upfront.   Cor had been born into a group of real-life wizards in the wilds of the Belgian Ardennes.  They did things to people that would make Harry Potter’s toes curl.  But Cor had ‘reformed’ after waking up in the woods with 3^rd degree burns over most of his body.  Apparently, his wizard opponents had left him for dead.  He sent out an anguished cry for help on the astral plane and got it – in the form of a lovely woman, Nelly, who was a nurse.  She helped him get back on his feet in more ways than one.

But the last time I saw him, there’d been developments.  Cor was no longer a young man and health issues had put an end to his counselling practice.  Not having saved enough for retirement, he was now ‘pyramid-selling’ natural health products.  I couldn’t help thinking that he’d returned to his ‘old ways’.  Looking at his natal chart again, I realised for the first time (if you can believe it), that he shared many ‘power’ aspects with Alistair Crowley.

I was forced to face the ‘concerns’ I’d always had about Cor.  While calling him a great friend, I’d secretly suspected he was a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’.  While on one level I was quite prepared to believe that he was a thoroughly honourable man (he was very kind to me when my chips were down), on another level my survival instinct had warned me to keep my distance.   For example, I never spent time with him unless Nelly was around.

Now who’s the naïve one who refuses to realise disreputable behaviour is nothing new?  At least it isn’t when it’s in your own back yard.

Wicked Witch of A’dam – Astro Poetry

Wicked Witch of Amsterdam

7 May 1944

Persevering, dependable, relaxed, and calm;

Patient and steady,

Stuck in a rut.

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Prizes wit and cunning and trickery;

Clever with finances.

Adores reading.

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Silver-tongued scattered thoughts

The mind of a thief.

Knows everyone, gets around.

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There’s no place like home.

Nostalgic and sentimental,

Overly protective parent.

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Flirtatious; hopeless romantic.

A true performer,

Drama for drama’s sake.

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Warm and generous with employees,

Shines through daily work.

Adores rich food, has back problems.

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Equal relationships,

Requires tactful, diplomatic partner.

Avoids divorce at all costs.

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Tempts fate; deep interactions.

Sex is transformational,

Intense passion, transgender.

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Known as frank, outspoken, as well as blunt.

Adventurous; ambitious.

Vocal on career issues.

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Projects authority, grooms professional image.

Craves achievement,

Reputation is paramount.

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Ambitious networking,

Weird, intellectual friends.

Supports causes and ideas, won’t follow through.

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Dreams of being a poet or musician,

Imaginative inner life.

Dwells on past sorrows.

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