To Heck With The Vase of Bondage by Deirdre Tanton

I started painting again. I go in and out of phases of being more like a graphic designer, more like an illustrator and in the last few years sometimes the most like an astrologer. But when I was in the U.S. this time I got really inspired to paint which I hadn't done since the early spring when I abandoned a still life.

I kind of remember the problem being a lack of turquoise, my all time ever favorite color. So last Saturday I stocked up. I thought, if it was the turquoise that stopped me, let that never happen again. As I was spreading out everything to paint I found the abandoned still life about 50% done. My first thought was eek, get this out of my site and then, feeling empowered and confident from the turquoise I decided to reclaim the still-life, gussy it up and color it in. I knew full well, I would not be painting this now, if I hadn't started it in the spring and if I had drawn a new composition this weekend, it surely would have been different, but what?

The original composition was so much about the cut flowers being dutifully crammed in a vase. In the end, I thought, man, to heck with the Vase of Bondage! What I like about the composition is the made-up flower forms with curving stems against a solid graphic background, and so I have found my take-off point for my next series.

If you are wondering about the astrology, I stocked up on the turquoise during the Pisces full moon, which was Friday. During the Aries moon on Saturday and Sunday, I acted on my impulse and painted fast. Mercury stationed to a retrograde on Sunday, which takes messages and turns them inside-out or wet-side-dry or stem-side-up, or something. A Mercury retrograde, from now until October 14, is a great time for finding something unfinished, taking it up again and discovering something about it we didn't know before.

Astrology for my Friends

On my summer vacation, I stopped in spontaneously to see a couple friends of mine as I was passing through Connecticut. I have known them for a long time and although we have always talked about astrology together, I was thrown off guard when, as we sat down to drinking coffee, I was asked what is going on in the stars. I am not sure if it was because it was a mix of people, only the minority of whom were into astrology, or if I was thrown off guard because I am more used to the privacy of blogging or the intimacy of a doing a reading over the phone or in person one-on-one.

I thought about the grand square in the sky, and I just didn't want to get into it so early on a pretty Saturday morning after not having seen these friends in 20 years. "Well, the Sun has just moved from Leo to Virgo," I said trying to condense all of the stars into a simple, humble moment, starting with just the Sun, so hopefully it wouldn't seem too freaky. My friends quietly waited for more. "So I guess it's time to start bringing in the harvest," I summarized, hoping our astrology talk would end there. I noticed my mind had started to click into astrology, but I hoped I wouldn't keep talking. I think I mentioned something vaguely about how we are coming upon a "period of unrest" and how the astrology from the mid to late 60's is currently activated, and then I left it at that.

Since then, I have spoken with another friend, who reminded me that while reading what I write about astrology may be interesting to read, the subject's technicalities are removed from her everyday life, and it is like reading about car engines, and I could definitely understand.

What brought me originally into astrology, was the sense of compassion I learned and felt when looking at another person's birth chart. I noticed in charts of people who had a lot of planets in Virgo that they were very aware of their bodies and health. I remember in college one friend on my floor was particularly sensitive to her body. She knew when she had a migraine or a cyst on her ovary and she felt it acutely. This was my first awareness to people who are very sensitive to their bodies. As I began to do charts and more charts, and I saw peoples charts with lots of Virgo or planets lined up right around where 4 o'clock (the 6th house) lands in a chart. I noticed that those people were very busy in their days and very sensitive to their bodies. I don't mean that they are any sicker or weller than anyone else, just more aware. I also noticed how Virgos who wanted to learn astrology learned it 10 times faster than I.

I was so fascinated that looking at a chart is a way of seeing someone as an individual with their own reality, and this kept me going for years in my study. A few years on I found The Theosophical Society in Boston who at that time met in the back room of a creaky book store in Back Bay. I was in my Saturn return, about 29 years old, and I found myself in a room with old people. Saturn is the planet of wisdom which comes from age. There were astronomers from MIT who were interested in practicing mundane astrology (the astrology of world politics and casting charts for countries) with applied asteroids, which was at that time for me like looking at car engines. It was 1989 - 1990, the beginning of the post-Cold War era; the Berlin Wall had just fallen and soon the states of the former USSR would be over thrown and the Soviet Union would collapse. As the astronomers from the Theosophical Society were putting the charts of the U.S, Germany and the USSR on the overhead projector, I felt an advent of new thinking and a sense of importance being part of the world.

My point is that astrology has taken me from the personal, to the relational dynamic, to the political, and back, inspiring me with the secure feeling of infinite knowledge. I write as a way of harvesting while personal and political opinions heat to a melt. I hope to explain things simpler, to involve a greater audience and to always keep learning myself.

Photos: Virgo as Urania's Muse, one of the cards in the Urania's Mirror deck, drawn by an "unknown lady", 1825; The Fall of the Berlin Wall photographer unknown, both photos courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

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Contact me: Deirdre at Cosmicguidelines dot com to schedule a reading.

Full Moon in Pisces: The Goddess and the Unicorn by Deirdre Tanton

As I looked at the chart of the full moon for September 4, 2009, I was struck by a sense of melting and collapsing (Pisces) into an aesthetic world (Ceres and Mercury in Libra sextiling Venus in Leo), like a romantic dream (full moon disposited by the triple conjunction) woven (a Saturn in Virgo structure) in shimmering light. This feeling brought me into the world of tapestries and as I began to look at images from the Hunt of the Unicorn series, I noticed the theme of a woman in gentle embrace with a unicorn.







My sense is that the unicorn symbolizes Pisces imaginary healing energy and the woman symbolizes Virgo as channeler of good health. I thought about the guys in the tapestries freaking out over unicorns because their healing powers were a hot commodity.






"The unicorn is the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears.” writes Marianna Mayer, author of The Unicorn and the Lake. She continues, “In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful. He could be captured only by unfair means, and his single horn was said to neutralize poison."






This full moon in Pisces is at the tip of a yod centered over a sextile from Venus in Leo to Ceres in Libra which says to me Aesthetics, like a beautiful fashion show, flowing, swishing, flashy, pretty and tailored, while backstage and in the tension all around, the grand square tense by contrast to fashion's illusionary beauty. Mercury is barely moving, about to go retrograde on Monday, September 7, which is Labor Day in the U.S. when we pause and honor the Virgo in us all.

In the full moon chart, Sun is conjunct Pallas in Virgo. Pallas Athena was born in full armor and had a spear. She was born with a job which was to protect and bring luck in warfare and for the next couple of weeks this will be our job too.

The symbol I associate with this moon is a goddess embracing and protecting the powers and vulnerability of the unicorn. For the next two weeks in preparation for the new moon in Virgo, while Mercury turns retrograde in Libra, we can re-think how we embrace our own inner beast so sought after in the shadows of the hunt in our lives.

Tapestries courtesy Wikipedia Commons

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Email me at deirdre@cosmicguidelines.com for a reading.

Fun in the Sun

New Moon in Leo Thursday, here to remind us to appreciate fun, kids, our own inner kid, recreation and so... have fun.

The Memory of Everything

The keywords that come up in my mind for today's astrology are:

1. Sun sextile Mars: Activity, motion, and low body fat. 24°
2. Mercury conjunct Saturn: The sober memory of everything. 21°
3. Sun opposed Neptune: An offer which could dissappear. 25°
4. Mars trine Neptune: Uncharacteristically, a double feature. 25°

When Mercury conjuncts Saturn, there is something to learn as in you can take the words and put them in your head. I have noticed in charts where people are born with Mercury conjunct Saturn, that they have extremely good memories. They archive.

With Sun in Leo and Moon in Cancer, this means the Moon is one sign behind and so hidden from the Sun, a 12th house aspect. Sun opposing Neptune is imagination at best. but I would say use the video function on your phone or get out your camcorder and make a movie of the day, its a way to document the illusion to turn it into "The Sober Memory of Everything"