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©12-19-2010 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 Let’s start with a huge thank you to all who contributed. I love to get my teeth into a good series, but after two years of intense blogging, it felt like the well of inspiration had run dry. Your enthusiasm and great ideas have revived me!

Below, as a preview of what 2011 will be like on Skywriter, are the winning entries in 3 categories:

• Prizes you didn’t know were on the table
• Honorable mention—winners of single ebooks
• Grand Prize winner—set of 3 ebooks 

In setting up the contest, I didn’t anticipate it, but there was a category of entry that deserved a prize. Several suggestions wouldn’t work as a series, but would make a killer single feature. Each of the ones below made me itch to fire up the laptop and get to work!

Though not eligible for the ebook prizes, these inspired ideas deserved a reward. I recently created a new ebooklet with the complete collection of my 2009-2010 series on aspects in The Mountain Astrologer. It’s an addition to my correspondence course (see Email Course–Astrology) and isn’t available to the public. It seemed like a fitting prize for these single-article suggestions.    

Here are the winners in this unforeseen category:

 Berta: “How about outer planet/inner planet triple conjunctions? Everyone knows the ‘cookbook’ interpretations of outer planet conjunctions, but what about when those two outers are in tight conjunction with a personal planet? It wouldn’t be too large a topic if posed as, ‘Do you have a Saturn-Neptune conjunction with a personal planet?’ Only those with personal experience can give an indication of what that feels like natally and how it reacts to transits.” 

 Based on Berta’s suggestion, I’m inspired to write about the generation born in the late 1980s-early 1990s with Uranus conjunct Neptune and personal planets in Capricorn. They’re now young adults and starting to appear in consultation rooms and forums. Getting their feedback in the comment section will be especially valuable!

Mimi:  “The fifth house has some funny connotations. Gambling, having fun, creating, having children, playfulness, your first child. I’d like to see more details on what planets there mean.

Jay Linden submitted several ideas for articles on Pluto that weren’t quite right for me, but the suggestion I liked best was, “The dangers of Pluto projection – claiming the wounds we see in others and finding them in ourselves – how to deal with the really dark aspects that hover just out of sight in our own psyche and yet are seen so clearly in others! As Gandhi said, ‘The only devils in the world are those running in our own hearts. That is where the real battle should be fought.” 

 

Here are some appealing suggestions that may or may not become series, but that win one ebook of their choice:

Lonake:  “We all have some sort of chart affliction (well, the vast majority) where there’s something gone awry, so if there could be suggestions to get planets back on track, that would be heaven. The series would be on the order of, ‘How to Work with a Disgruntled Venus’ and have on article for each planet/luminary. It would cover how to get back in touch with them and work with them on a more constructive level.

Also, you could draw on personal examples from past consultations. You could include flower essences here, funny anecdotes, etc. The comments section would have readers responding if they’ve tried suggested remedies and if/how they’ve helped, and also contributing their own ideas through personal experience of getting a hold of energies gone awry.”

Dobromira:   “During Q&A series about the 12 houses I often wanted to ask more about the transits and transiting aspects to those houses or to natal planets in those houses. For example, the 8th house covers so many aspects from our lives that I find it difficult to imagine how a transit would show its influence. Or transiting Mars going through houses – this way Mars’s influence will be more systematically represented and we can feel its energy better in the examples.

Also, for transits forming aspects with natal planets, a single advice, similar to what you recently wrote about the Mercury-Pluto conjunction (to watch out what we are saying in such moments) is very valuable.”

Astronée  posed a list of questions for a series for professional astrologers, not realizing that a Q&A series had been started to answer that need. Nonetheless, they’re all great questions, so an ebook is in order. Some of them included how to handle:

• people who need more help than you can give (I have a list of resources, but what do you do when someone’s being pursued by evil demons or haunted by past lives?)
• clients who want you to tell them it’s okay to get pregnant when their husband doesn’t want kids, etc.
• doorknob questions (when the client keeps quiet about an important issue until you’re saying “goodbye” at the door) 

(To claim your prize, go to Moon Maven Publications to see  the selections and then write to tell me which book you’ve chosen.)

I had to award two grand prizes.  One of them, Elise would have been the top, given the original intention of one series on a single topic.

ELISE: “I’d love to read a series about the Midheaven. The Midheaven is contemplated as so significant; however, I haven’t read anything really clarifying yet about this topic.

 The series could include aspects from the Midheaven to the planets; meaning of the rulers of the Midheaven and placements of this rulers in other houses; most hard aspects and how to mend this difficulties; and/or differences between the Midheaven and the Ascendant (what’s their importance in a chart and how they work together for the good or for the bad?).”

Elise’s suggestion made me want to hit the ground running. I’ve already generated a list of 6 articles for a series on this topic, and the first of them may even be published before the new year. Congratulations, Elise—come and claim your prize of 3 ebooks!

However, the Super, Über, Grand Prize Winner, VR had several good ideas—and was the only one with a spot-on grasp of the type of writing I do. Here are the three best suggestions from that list:

#1: “I wouldn’t say no to more AstroDebates (ever since that mind-blowing debate on Venus’ ruling sign, who would, really?) And it could be combined with astro-research.

“For example, you could do a piece on Chiron’s alleged rulership of Virgo and then ask readers with a natal sun-Chiron conj. to comment on whether or not they share Virgoan traits.

“Or, you could do a piece on orbs (i.e. 8′ or 10′ for conjunctions, 3′ or 6′ for sextiles etc.), and then ask the readers if they find wider aspects to be working, encouraging them to make a case for each orb/aspect they claim.

#2: “You could do an “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About (sign/planet/aspect) and Were Afraid to Ask” series.

“Here, you would entertain the more dark/extreme/atypical manifestations of each placement, the stuff that rarely—if ever—appears in textbooks. I feel that a blog, being an ephemeral medium, is the perfect place for sth like this.

“And in the comment section, the readers could either a) agree and state what other features in their charts reinforce the placement, turning it from a mere possibility to a fact, or b) disagree and mention what other placements in their charts contradict it.

#3:  “I’d love to see a “SLAM THE SIGNS/PLANETS/ASPECTS” series. Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that you’re too polite to slam any sign but your own (poor mean aunt Bernadine!), so let me try to sell it to you:

“Say the topic is: ‘Let’s slam Virgos.’
First, you start with a disclaimer (I love Virgos; I harbor no animosity against this wonderful, modest, hardworking sign, bluh, bluh, bluh).
Then, you add links to all the positive articles on Virgos here on Skywriter.
And, then, you give us your best shot!
Finally, you ask readers to share opinions on and experiences with Virgos.
In the comment section, people could state what it is that bugs them with not only Virgo boyfriends/relatives/friends and colleagues, but also with the Virgo within them (if they happen to have Virgo placements).”

Congratulations, VR—your entries ROCK! Come and claim your prize of 3 ebooks, a special prize of the aspect booklet, and the title of Idea Person Extraordinaire!

DISAPPOINTED YOU DIDN’T WIN?   HERE’S A SPECIAL OFFER ON EBOOKS–from now through Christmas:  Buy one of my ebooks for $15, get another one free. You can either keep the free one or have me send it to a friend as a present.  Here’s how it works:  Go to Moon Maven Publications and order one of the books through the shopping cart, then write to me at moonmave@spiritone.com with directions on what to do with the 2nd book. 

Let me say, in closing, that a great many of your suggestions would make good series for some astrology blogger. Just not for me.

Astrology—like medicine—has many specialties. There are astrologers who, similar to General Practitioners in medicine, handle everything. And there are specialists who focus on one particular application of astrology and spend a lifetime developing their expertise in it—like financial astrologers, mundane astrologers, or horary practitioners.

Before I became entranced with astrology, I’d earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Columbia University, and I spent many years working in social agencies. Thus, my specialty as an astrologer has always been in understanding emotional difficulties that arise from difficult family dynamics, traumatic events, and pervasive dysfunctions in our society.

My work is and will remain focused on seeking practical, proactive solutions to alleviate these real-world problems. (Obviously, then, you won’t find me writing about esoteric topics like archetypes and myths.) Because most enduring problems don’t have simple answers, I’ve also been studying and working with healing tools like flower essences, energy work, and light since the mid-1970s.

This is why many of your series suggestions didn’t resonate with me. They’re either outside my specialty or not in accord with my mission for this blog. For some of the topics that are outside my specialty, like retrogrades, synastry, progressions, or asteroids, I’ll be inviting guest experts to do Q&A sessions during 2011.

For the areas of astrology I don’t or won’t write about, I encourage you to look for blogs that specialize in your interests. Or even whole books on that topic by experts in that branch of our diverse field. They’re out there, if only in out-of-print book venues like AstroAmerica (http://www.astroamerica.com/ ). 

It’s normal to be disappointed or even angry when someone we’re invested in fails to give us what we want or need. However, a valuable life lesson that sometimes takes a lifetime to learn is that we will never find that one person who is able or willing to meet ALL our needs and wants.

That’s true across the board—be it a mate, friend, family member, teacher, healer, or astrologer. As we mature emotionally, we learn to assess what each person in our lives is good for and what they cannot or will not do. Love them for what they do well, and find someone else to fill other vital needs.

  

If you’re enjoying this blog and don’t want to miss out on the 2011 series,  sign up for a subscription, and get a FREE EBOOKLET for Skywriter Subscribers Only: Mothers, Daughters, and the Moon, a 50-page excerpt from The Moon in your Life. Read more about it here: New: Free Booklet For Skywriter Subscribers! 

 If you’re already a subscriber and want a copy, forward the most recent email post to me at moonmave@spiritone.com . To sign up for a subscription, go to the top right hand corner of the blog and click on “Subscribe.”  Then send me an email with your subscription confirmation or an email post with a request for the booklet in the subject line.

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