Midlife Transits

This week’s podcast contains a live, off-the-cuff chart reading for an individual whose chart I had never seen before. She got a free reading in exchange for allowing it to be recorded for the show. Listening to a consultation is a great way for people who have never had one to get a feel for what it’s like (it’s not fortune-telling!). It’s also a great way for students and enthusiasts to get more information about how a chart operates in real life as opposed to the abstractions presented in cookbooks.

In many cases, I have time to prepare by meditating on the chart before the reading, but in this case it was spontaneous and is presented warts and all. It was edited slightly for time and to delete some personally identifying details. There are always things that could have been done differently or followed up on more thoroughly, but time is always a factor and at 1 hour we couldn’t go into everything in detail. I’ve never given a consultation yet that I thought was perfect!

With that said, below are some of the things we touched on. If the astrospeak at first goes over your head, scroll down a bit for some interesting manifestations explained in plain English.

Her main concern in the natal chart at the moment was a cardinal T-square between Pluto in Libra, Mars in Aries, and Moon in Cancer. All 3 placements fell within the Gauquelin sectors, so this is quite a planetary tussle within her natal chart. Her ‘phase of life’ is Mars in Aries. (For an explanation of phase of life and how to calculate it, refer to the podcast and the previous one on Vedic astrology.) Her Mars in Aries placement is conjunct the Descendant on the 6th house side. In her life it seems to correlate, as expected, with work, health, and relationship matters. Her natal Mars is activated by solar arc direction but not by transit or secondary progression. She spontaneously mentioned a number of Mars issues, including concerns about her health, her relationships, her tendency to initiate and not follow through, as well as feelings of excessive heat.

There are a lot of approaches we could have taken to her Mars concerns, but we focused on the dynamics of the conversation between Pluto, Mars and the Moon.

We also talked about her natal Neptune in Sagittarius in the 3rd house (Placidus houses), which is in a trine to her natal Mars. We briefly mentioned Chiron conjunct her sun in Taurus in the 7th house, her Jupiter in Leo in the 10th house, and her Saturn in Virgo in the 11th house.

Interesting manifestations of the planets: (some of these are mentioned in the podcast, some came out in later conversation).

Neptune in Sagittarius in the 3rd house: Neptune is often related to music or artistic leanings in a chart, and that seems to be the case for the client. A cookbook interpretation of Neptune in Sagittarius in the 3rd might be something like overseas relatives or artistic siblings. This client is the first I’ve come across, however, to use Neptune in the 3rd to make up an imaginary (Neptune) language (3rd house). She also prefers to sing (Neptune) in a foreign (Sagittarius) language (third house).

Mars in Aries in the 6th house: Particular forms of exercise (6th house) make her feel militant (Mars, Aries). She specifically relates this to her father, who was trained as a military (Mars) physician (6th house).

Moon in Cancer in the 9th house conjunct MC: The client expressed an attraction to jobs that involve serving food (Cancer), nurturing people (Moon), and serving them within a certain philosophy (9th house). She is going to school (9th house) to study Ayurvedic nutrition (Cancer). She finds it difficult to finish (Mars square Moon). Her mother (Moon) was an educational (9th house) prodigy (graduated medical school at an early age) known for her cooking (Cancer). Her mother can be extremely critical at times (Moon square Mars and Pluto). Her mother’s accomplishments act as a shadow looming over her (moon conjunct MC). She is taking steps toward public visibility (moon conjunct MC) but has many hesitations (moon squared by Mars and Pluto).

These are the kinds of specific manifestations of the symbolic language of astrology that cookbooks with their limited space cannot really address. This is why it is good to study real chart and look at how resourceful charts can be in expressing their energies in a given environment.

In this particular case, we could follow up by focusing more specifically on relationships and how to negotiate the charts dual drives for independence via Mars and Aries and relationship via sun in the 7th and Pluto in Libra conjunct the Ascendant. We could also delve more deeply and more practically in terms of exercises to deal with the blocking action her Mars feels from the Pluto influence and that her moon feels from both Mars and Pluto. During our initial session, she already began to identify some of the real life circumstances and thoughts that her Pluto represents. As with anyone, Pluto can be an asset or a real problem.

As with all people, the astrology of her chart simply provides a language for expressing, clarifying and analyzing what’s really going on in her life and what she experiences on a daily basis. These circumstances, feelings, and experiences could also be expressed and analyzed using other types of terminology. The value of astrology is partly that by externalizing the competing desires and feelings as planetary symbols a person can look at them objectively and start to figure out how to make choices about how tot handle them. Astrology also offers something few other disciplines do: information about timing. It can a guide a person as to when the ‘right’ time to deal with certain inner conflicts or impulses might be and when it’s okay to just wait for things to unfold. At the moment, the time is ripe for this individual to develop tools to deal with all 3 elements of the t-square.

Here is a link to an article I  wrote almost 4 years ago on the 8th house and credit card debt: http://www.thirdage.com/today/horoscopes/astrology-credit-card-debt.

This article is featured in Pluto Problems Got You Perplexed? Here’s What Helps! published by Skywriter as Part of the 2010 International Astrology Day Blogathon. The purpose of this web-based event is to create a permanent library of articles about how to deal with the stresses of the Cardinal T-Square of Pluto, Saturn and Uranus. The main page for the Blogathon collections is at The Cardinal T-Square of 2010: Saturn, Uranus, Pluto.

The article is part of the ThirdAge.com website that I used to write for. Now you can read my articles on various astrological matters here at Midlife Transits.  You can also contact me for a personal consultation or find me in Culver City, California (Los Angeles area) at the Raksa Wellness Center.

Here are some links to other articles that deal with issues relating to Pluto, the cardinal T-square, or other relevant matters:

Inside the Mind of the Cardinal T-Square

Got Natal Saturn  in Libra?

Dealing with Difficult Pluto Transits

Saturn in Libra Horoscopes for the signs, Aries through Virgo & Libra through Pisces

A lot of people know that there’s an outer planet cardinal T-square coming up this summer. What that means is that Pluto will be in early degrees of Capricorn, Uranus in early Aries, and Saturn in early Libra. These energies clash with each other, creating a lot of stress. What not as many people know is that the stress from clashes between outer planets often manifests when there’s a considerable distance between the outer planets, often around 8-10 degrees from a square or opposition.

Right now, Pluto and Uranus are about 10 degrees from a square. Uranus is in late Pisces and Pluto is in early Capricorn, creating in effect what is a wide out of sign square. Saturn and Pluto are much closer to squaring each other, less than a degree apart.

Today, a man in Austin, Texas apparently deliberately flew a small plane into an office building that housed IRS workers. This link shows what was in his mind just before he did that.

You can see how his mind was banging around multiple points of conflict and couldn’t seem to find a resolution. Here are some of the planetary themes in his rant:

Laws and justice:  Saturn in Libra.

Government and taxation: Pluto in Capricorn.

Freedom: Uranus.

Greedy, powerful corporations: Pluto in Capricorn.

Healthcare, the drug companies, unions, and the American medical system: Uranus in Pisces with a little of bit Saturn in Virgo energy thrown in.

Accusations of totalitarianism: Pluto in Capricorn.

The corruption of big religious entities: Pluto in Sagittarius and Uranus in Pisces.

Grudges from the past: Pluto.

The system is based on lies: Saturn and Pluto.

The futility of trying to be independent: Uranus in Aries vs. Pluto in Capricorn.

Engineering: Uranus.

Anger over work and career issues: Pluto in Capricorn.

Time to revolt: Uranus in Aries.

Violence as an answer: Uranus in Aries.

Note that with an out of sign square, two signs are represented for each planet. In other words, if Uranus is at 24 degrees Pisces and Capricorn is at 4 degrees Capricorn, the square behaves as if it is both Uranus in Pisces and Pluto in Sagittarius, and Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

Note also that the man refers to patriotism, a concept associated with the remaining cardinal sign Cancer. Cancer is the release point of the cardinal T-square, the point at which a person can find some relief from the ‘storm’ of planets in his head. In this case, the concept of patriotism didn’t offer any relief. In fact, it only seemed to make things worse.

Obviously, most people are not going to do something as terrible as fly a plane into a government building as the pressure of the outer planets mounts. But people are going to be under pressure, and some vulnerable people will feel that there is a storm in their heads. It will feel to some people like there is no way out.

It is important to remember that these squares do not last forever. It is not a good idea to reinterpret your entire past in the light of current bitter or despairing feelings.

Yes, there will be problems in our collective and in our personal lives. We do need to address them. And we can’t do that if we let the storms override our basic sanity.