©11-11-09 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. – Umberto Eco

In trying to understand and counteract the growing climate of fear in the world around us as the Pluto-Saturn square peaks, I first turn to the technique of mixing and matching keywords. Though in no way comprehensive, it’s useful as a starting place for grasping the meaning of an astrological aspect. Let’s see what pairing phrases for these two planets can teach us.

©11-10-2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

Transiting Saturn and Pluto will be forming a difficult 90° angle called a square during much of October 2009-October 2010, within a 5° range. People who follow astrology are becoming very anxious about what the aspect may mean, both personally and globally.

While I’m not denying that for some people, this will be a challenging aspect, the more anxious you become about some vague danger from huge forces you see as outside your control, the less effectively you’ll cope with it.

 I’m creating this series called A Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit to give you information and tools to handle the transit—not just to cope, but to use those energies constructively to improve long-standing conditions in your life. Here, for those of you who just joined us, is an overview of the series, with links to guide you through the process.

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

The blogosphere is a delicious, startling labyrinth of self-expression in which you encounter fabulous fables and the art of life in its vast, infinite diversity. It’s the repository of an impressive array of talent in the field of astrology—gifted practitioners who on the whole have remained undiscovered by “mainstream” astrology conferences and publications. I set out at daybreak today to discover who else out there is posting helpful or inspiring materials on the Pluto-Saturn square. Here are some that I found.

 Donna says:  The Pluto-Saturn square is just one in a series of intense astrological aspects over the past several months.  So many people have reached a crisis point—jobs lost, insurance coverage gone, mortgages in arrears. Rescue Remedy is a safe, inexpensive combination of 5 flower remedies that helps people stay calm while dealing with an emergency. (Flower remedies are also known as essences, but are not the same as aromatherapy.)

Rescue Remedy has been clinically tested in England for over 80 years and is even listed in the USDA Pharmacopeia of accepted medications.  It is widely available in most health food stores, new age bookstores, and even in one national drugstore chain. It is not a sedative, so you remain clear-headed while coping with the situation.  This article was printed in Vibration Magazine, and the author has given me permission to reprint it here. Here’s her story:

©2008-9 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

Pluto and Saturn are square in the sky now, and it’s likely to stir up long-standing issues for people born with the Pluto-Saturn conjunction, square, trine, or opposition in their charts. The angle formed by the transiting planets doesn’t have to be the same as the natal angle in order for it to have an impact. I’ve noted this phenomenon countless times with significant events in newsmakers’ lives—we’ll see it later with Britney Spears’ chart.

Over 40 years as a practicing astrologer, I also found that when strong transits like the current conjunction form in the sky, clients who have that aspect natally crowd into the consultation room. It’s given me plenty of opportunity to observe the dynamics of particular aspects in action.  It’s even true, oddly enough, when the transiting aspect isn’t touching strongly on natal positions.

©11-5-2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 I don’t know about you, but I’m a tad burnt out on the intensity of Pluto and Saturn and am ready to lighten up.  One of the items on my Google start-up page is Quotes of the Day – The Quotations Page.  I entertain myself each morning by sorting their selections according to the planet they most resemble.  In our charts, Jupiter represents:

Wisdom/Education/learning from experience 

Faith/religion/philosophy

Travel/foreign countries

Growth/Expansion/overdoing things

Optimism/Luck/gambling

 Here are some quotes that said JUPITER to me—a collection of jovial wisdom and witticisms by wise folks and wiseacres:

©2009 by guest blogger, Elly Yule, maker of GrassDancer Essences, U.K.

 Donna says:  This article was orginally published in Vibration, and is repinted here with permission of the author. It came up again in my quest for tools to help us all make the best possible use of the Pluto-Saturn square and the mental, emotional, spiritual and physical clearing we can experience during this aspect. It  discusses  concerns that we astrologers, therapists, healers, life coaches and others who work intensely with clients’ difficulties need to keep in mind, especially while this aspect is exact, because the energy around us is filled with their pain and it’s easy for us to soak it up. 

Elly  mentions her flower essences,  and though they’re not widely available in the United States, you can order them through her website. For those who aren’t familiar with essences, I’ll be constructing an FAQ page about them soon, but for now, refer to the posts on essences in the Healing Tools category on this blog.  Whatever tools you prefer to use in clearing the energy around you, her insights are valuable. Here’s what Elly has to say.

 

©11-3-09 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 A dear friend has just come home from a 6-week visit with her son, which they spent clearing the clutter from his loft. She’s brought along a stalwart pal who’s volunteered to help do the very same thing with my friend’s garage—a heroic task.

 It’s crammed to the rafters with so much stuff that she’s never once, in the decade since she bought the house, been able to park a car there. It contains not only her own unwanted belongings but her housemate’s and those of another cohort we’ve seriously considered nominating for one of those shows about hoarding.

 I was thinking this morning what terrific use she’s making of the current Pluto-Saturn square. In early Libra, she has Neptune conjunct the Moon, hence the tendency toward chaos in a residence. These Saturn and Pluto aspects to natal Neptune have given her the impetus to clear away the ever-accumulating piles of God alone knows what.

(If you were born in the early 1940s, your own Neptune is in late Virgo or in early Libra, so at some point you’ll be going through a similar transit. Oh, and in case you can’t relate to the idea of clearing out clutter—this is an article about CLOSURE, first and foremost.)

©11-1-09 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

This is the 3^rd installment in a series about meeting challenges of the transiting Pluto-Saturn square. Last time, readers created lists of best and the worst case scenarios for this aspect, depending on which houses of their astrology charts were involved. I suggested they pick one of their best case scenarios and brainstorm ways to make it happen. 

Results-oriented Saturn and its sign, Capricorn, respond most strongly to goal-setting of any chart feature, so this transit is  an important window for identifying and working toward concrete improvements in the areas of life governed by the houses where transiting Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn are located. Today we’ll look at resources to help you set realistic targets for this transit and to come up with steps that will help you achieve them.

Planet+House=the Best and Worst Possibilities of this Transit

©10-31-2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 This is part 2 of a new series designed to help you anticipate what to expect during the lengthy transiting square between Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn.

In part 1,  we went through a series of questions to determine what houses in the birth chart are affected by the transit and therefore what areas of life are likely to be most affected. (If you didn’t see that post, you might want to start there:  The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—Part 1.)

 Today, we’ll be working to understand how the transiting planets’ issues and modes of operation combine with the matters of the houses involved. This will help you brainstorm about what kinds of events and situations might develop.

Identifying the Houses–and Areas of Life–Affected by the Transit

©10-30-09 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

How many of you have emergency preparedness kits at home and in the trunk of your car? And how many of you have a first aid kit?  I couldn’t find any statistics online, but I’d venture to guess not more than one in three of you do. 

This new series isn’t about those sorts of kits–although this wouldn’t be bad timing to create one.  Instead, we’ll be talking about how to prepare for the long square that’s forming between Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn.

We’ll be learning about ways you who’ll be affected can gear up to meet any challenges that pair of transits might provide. At each stage, we’ll be taking stock of possible vulnerable areas to see exactly where your weaknesses and strengths lie. We’ll look at pitfalls that could result from the transits and how taking action in advance could help prevent the worst outcomes. And we’ll consider resources you can tap to bolster your capacity to cope with any difficulties that might arise. 

©10-29-09 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 Neeti Ray of Astrology Expressed writes that they’re having quite a party on Facebook to welcome Saturn’s ingress into Libra today. I, too, breathed a sigh of relief this ayem to realize it had left Virgo. In these last few tedious months of hypercritical Saturn in Virgo, there has been nothing but relentless bitching, nitpicking, fault-finding, and blaming in the media as well as a generalized air of dissatisfaction in which nothing but nothing seems to satisfy people.     

 I will, however, delay my own housewarming party for Saturn in Libra until it scoots past the square to Pluto in Capricorn.  At that point, I’ll throw a sedate afternoon tea, perhaps with a string quartet.  At some point, we’ll all have a bit of bubbly to celebrate the return of a more genteel, civilized code of conduct.  Saturn, after all, is supposed to be exalted (that is, at its very best) in Libra. 

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 Donna says: Astrodrama is a tool in which the players speak for the planets in an aspect or other chart feature. I seldom get a chance to use this technique anymore, but was inspired to do one about the upcoming Pluto-Saturn square. What follows is a monologue by a good old boy named Pluto who has a chance encounter with his old pal, Saturn. Just so those who don’t know me understand, I may be speaking for Pluto in this skit, but he sure as heck isn’t speaking for me. I abhor racism with every fiber of my being. I’m just playing a role—channeling a certain segment of society.

©2009 by guest blogger, Tom Volkar, of http://DelightfulWork.com

Donna says, “As Saturn makes its last stop in Virgo and quickly moves on to square Pluto in Capricorn, fears about the future of our jobs, lifework, and financial survival seem overwhelming to so many of us.  I’m nominating Tom Volkar’s site, Delightfulwork.com as my Internet Find of the Week because of his dedication to helping self-employed people reach their fullest potential. I don’t know of any full-time astrologers who aren’t self-employed, so when I ran across his site, I asked his permission to reprint this post. Though he doesn’t know much about Saturn, he surely addressed key current issues in the article below. Let’s hear what he has to say.”

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

I was just having a discussion this ayem with my Vibration Blog partner, Dr. Deborah Bier about the high-quality comments I’m getting to posts here and those on Vibration Magazine — educational journal on flower essences, our flower essence blog. I said a blog post is never done and that when really good questions stimulate me to write something more about the topic, I cut and paste an update into the original post. 

So then the very sensible Deb asked me, “What about the readers who’ve already seen the post—how do they get to read the addition? It’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop.” I shrugged, or whatever the email equivalent is. 

(Found at:  http://www.wikihow.com/Handle-Chronic-Complainers and attributed to Alex Kjerulf. ) 

Donna says:  Saturn is leaving hyper-critical Virgo at long last on October 29^th, when it enters Libra. (It returns for a few months from March to July, 2010.)  Not to complain, but I’m fed up to the gills with the constant bitching, nitpicking, fault-finding, and blaming that passes for commentating among journalists and for political wisdom among members of congress.  There’s also a generalized air of disgruntlement in the world at large in which nothing but nothing satisfies  the public.     

I’ve always had a good impression of natal Saturn in Virgo, as it so often corresponds with exceptional capability and responsible service in a worker. Alas, the current sojourn has somewhat soured me on that Saturn sign. This article in WikiHow had great suggestions for dealing with the chronically disgruntled.  Fabulous word, disgruntled—not especially aesthetically pleasing, but evocative…it hints of constipation, that frequent Virgo complaint. (Every sign has body parts associated with it, and Virgo rules the intestines.)

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

A young girl approximately 14-17 turned up outside a youth shelter in Manhattan, NY at around 12:30 AM on October 9, 2009.   She claims not to know who she is, where she came from, or how she got there. From the tone of the CNN article about her, it would appear she isn’t the typical runaway who comes to Covenant House and that authorities are taking her story seriously.  The article makes no mention of drug abuse, and in the picture given at CNN, she looks healthy and well-nourished.   You can see the full story here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/23/teen.jane.doe/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn.

 (c)2009 by Donna Cunningham

Before you begin to interpret someone’s birth chart, ask yourself the most basic question of all—how accurate is the birth time? The birth time is the key to such crucial parts as the Ascendant (also known as the Rising sign or first house cusp), the Midheaven (the career point at the top of the chart), and the signs on the cusps of all twelve houses. Rounded-off times like 7:00 or 7:30 are suspect.

Times on the quarter hour—7:15 or 7:45—are likely to be closer to true, and a time like 7:06 could be exact. You need to know, also, whether you are talking about 7:30 AM or 7:30 PM, since they are 12 hours apart and usually six Rising Signs different, and yet that part of the birth certificate may be blurry.

Hi, this month, we’ve had a wonderful surge in the number of new subscribers and first-time visitors. Here, in case you missed any of them, are readers’ favorite posts in the past month—the 10 most-visited, with #1 at the top:

1.  7 Secrets You May not Know about the 12th House
2. Mars-Neptune Aspects and the Sweatbox Deaths
3. 6 Things You May Not Know about Pluto
4. 10 Things You May not Know about Uranus
5. Venus-Saturn Aspects—Waiting for Love 
6. Purge Yourself of Pluto’s Negativity—Get Free of Bitterness
7. 12 Famous People with 12th House Suns
8. Jupiter in the 12th—When Does Good Luck Turn Bad?
9. Night and Day: Transits from the 12th House to the 1st
10. Saturn Transits—What do They Mean to your Career?

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 Do you wonder why your moods shift as often as the weather? And do you wish you could predict your emotional weather like the forecasters on tv predict the weather —only maybe a bit more accurately?  Following the Moon as it makes its monthly cycle around your astrology chart is one way to create a weather map of your daily life.

©2006, 2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

The telephone woke me early one morning recently – a woman was calling from abroad who had no idea what time it was here. She was in what has been called the Dark Night of the Soul. Like so many people who are calling lately or are writing to my “Dear Abby” type advice column in Dell Horoscope Magazine, she was in the depths of despair. Life had never seemed bleaker or more devoid of hope. Painful issues she’d struggled with throughout life without improvement now seemed too much to bear any longer.

(c)10-18-09 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

Is your budget for advertising small, and yet you need to build interest in your astrology or metaphysical practice, business, or blog?  Every time you send an email, you can advertise, and it doesn’t cost a dime.  Promote your services and activities by creating email signatures with a brief message,  adding contact information or a link.  You don’t have to be a computer whiz to do this.

©2004 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 The board of our local astrology group was on retreat at the coast, our reward for a year of hard work as well as an interval to make plans for the coming year. It was Saturday night, our one communal meal—as close to communal as could encompass preferences that spanned raw food and vegan all the way to steak. Despite the often-spirited policy debates at our monthly meetings, here we were making an effort to mellow out and socialize.

All but Annuncia. Annuncia was what she’d christened herself a few months back. Last year, when she believed she was channeling Mother Teresa, she called herself MT, and the year before, it was Cassandra, after the mythical seeress whose prophecies were always accurate but were never heeded.  Let’s just say that her highly-vocal opinions on how each committee should operate hadn’t contributed a whole lot to group harmony during her tenure. 

©10-15-2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 I’ve been thinking a lot about self-justification lately—it’s been glaringly apparent wherever I look…apparent to me, that is, and maybe to thee, but most likely not to the person who’s doing it.

 I first noticed it while watching Survivor, reality show junkie that I am. I was struck by three things: first, that the tribe members seem to have shockingly little insight into themselves and how their actions are viewed by others; second, that they immediately find a reason to justify the way they are behaving; and third, that they give every indication of believing that they’re Right, no matter how over the top their behavior is.

(c)2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

Sparked by comments and private dialogue with readers, this is an addendum to yesterday’s post on the tragic deaths of two and the serious illness of several more participants in a sweat lodge event at a New Age retreat in Sedona run by James Arthur Ray, one of the authors of the best-seller, The Secret.  (If you haven’t read that post, see Mars-Neptune Aspects and the Sweatbox Deaths.)

What about the rest of us on the spiritual path?  Will WE learn anything from this tragedy?  I believe that there is an important lesson for all of us in this cautionary tale, one related to the qualities of Mars and Neptune.  Mars represents leadership but can also represent arrogance.  Neptune represents spiritual seeking but also, in its less-evolved expressions, can show fraud, passivity, blind surrender, and the tendency to let oneself to become a victim.  

Any time you passively and unquestioningly surrender yourself to someone else’s leadership, no matter how charismatic and supposedly spiritual, if you ignore your own inner promptings about what is best for you, as the 60 people at that event did to a greater or lesser extent, you set yourself up to become a victim.

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

For years, what I call terminally-positive astrologers urged me to accept Spiritual Warrior as THE job description for people with Mars-Neptune aspects. I tried, I really tried—I even put it on my list of 10 impossible things to believe before breakfast. Alas, it never really rang true in assessing the Mars-Neptune folks I got to know, even among those on the spiritual path and in New Age vocations. I mostly kept my mouth shut about my observations, because the terminally positive are especially scathing when shaming those who don’t agree with their starry-eyed theories about the stars.

©2004, 2008 by Donna Cunningham

The Obligatory Disclaimer: This information isn’t meant as a recommendation of any particular method or individual practitioner in a given case. Alternative methods are not intended to replace formal counseling or medical care when it’s needed. Plutonians, turn on your innate BS detector before selecting a practitioner or method. If it doesn’t feel right for you, try something or someone else!

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 Why is forgiveness the final frontier? Let’s say your Moon–or the 4th house–has difficult aspects such as hard angles to Pluto or Neptune, and your relationship with your mother has been extremely difficult.  Suppose you’ve expended a lot of energy over the years in resenting and blaming her for what she did or didn’t do. Forgiving her can open the way to new adventures and explorations. If your world view has been limited by childhood experiences, you’ll discover new possibilities in both the inner and outer world–new facets of yourself. Hate binds you to the past, while forgiveness frees you to move ahead. (If you don’t have issues with your mother, choose someone else you’d have a hard time forgiving.)

  ©2009 guest blog by an anonymous Author on WikiHow

 Donna says: while people and circumstances we find hard to forgive are often related to Pluto’s position in our natal charts and by transit, the process of forgiveness seems to fall under the realm of Neptune. In observing clients and friends–and myself–under long Neptune transits, I often notice a gradual softening of a long-held grievance against some significant figure. For instance, during Neptune transits to the Moon, people may come to see their mothers more realistically rather than the larger than life, all-powerful parent they experienced as a small child. Perhaps under this transit, the mother is clearly aging, ill, and vulnerable. Under the Neptune transit, the hard feelings gradually dissolve, replaced by compassion.

 I found How to Forgive on WikiHow and reprint it here because it contains helpful insights into our recent discussions of bitterness and other difficult expressions of Pluto, although the author appears to come to forgiveness  from a traditional Christian perspective.  In dealing with WikiHow, always keep in mind that the authors may or may not be qualified mental health professionals, for anyone can contribute a how-to piece, and all their authors are anonymous. Take what’s helpful from the article that follows, but don’t consider it professional advice. Rather, as appears to be the case with this piece, it may be the work of someone who has learned from a difficult experience.

Donna says: I have decided to use this blog to warn people of new identity theft tactics.  Here’s one I just received in an email from LifeLock:

LIFELOCK SCAM ALERT Type: Jury Duty Phishing Scam Method of Delivery: Phone call from an alleged court officer Primary Region Affected: Reports from 11 states, including: Florida, New York, Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, Oregon, California, Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Hampshire; may spread nationally Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (www.fbi.gov) Scam Characteristics: A caller identifies him/herself as an officer of the court and notifies the victim that a warrant has been issued for their arrest for a failure to report for jury duty. If the victim protests they have never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks for a Social Security number and date of birth to verify the victim’s identity and cancel the arrest warrant. This fraud is spreading quickly and has been reported in 11 states so far.

See another recent alert here: Two New Spam Scams to Beware of