From the Astrologer’s Notebook: a simple tale of power

Much of astrology has come to be discussions of long term trends and when to propose that business deal or  who’s going to win that election…there's such a big emphasis placed on that stuff that sometimes the simple (if utterly satisfying) uses for astrology don't get enough play.

So today we play. You sit, and I tell you a little story…

Back on March 30th, there was that Mercury-on-station moment with Mercury at 24 Aries. Remember that? I'm sure you do...just as you like as not remember how I’m always telling you that ….if a planetary station aspects your chart with any directness, this moment has your name all over it!

Well, considering how that Mercury station was right on top of my natal Ascendant, I knew this station was going to mean something in my world. My 'number was up,’ so to speak!

Considering how I’m still dealing with physical therapy and all the insurance hassles after a car accident last September (I was stopped at a red light and got turned into the meat in an automotive sandwich)….I wasn't feeling all hinky-dinky about going out. After all,  Mercury rules Gemini, sign of – among other things – transportation and ‘transporting’ things from here to there...and Aries is the sign of the physical body.

Not to mention that the Ascendant is the premier place we look to when we think in terms of illnesses and accidents.

So me? Go out? Oh no...call me chicken (she said, flapping her feathery wings)!

Fine...I stay home. And I’m sitting at my computer (working on a blog as it happens) and the power goes out.

That the Moon was in Aquarius at the time…yeah, that would sort of add the ‘power’ quality to the transit. Energy, companies/corporations, systems…they’re all Aquarian. But I’m thinking I can be forgiven for thinking more in terms of the insurance beast which has haunted my steps now for month (yes, it has been something of a horror movie).

In any case, I immediately got incredibly frustrated. Can we say “Aries”? Her path was blocked and so she began to fume like a dragon competing with a small volcano. 

Since I live in an apartment building, I did what one does…I went outside to see if everyone else was in the same pickle. And once assured that my misery had good company I joined one of my neighbors in going out onto the street to see if local traffic lights could give us any clue as to how wide the blackout was.

Answer: it covered a couple of blocks, including a major intersection nearby.

What did that get me? Well, I began to think that this meant this event would have hit the city grid with some sort of blinking light. Sure they would know and hop to fixing things, right?

Evidently not.

Over the next almost two hours, several people from my building called the power department. From the wide variance in stories it became plain to me that there was something goofy going on.

Then…suddenly…on came the astrological nodule in my brain. A very long time ago (we’re talking almost thirty years now) the guy who taught me astrology had been treated to the day when I decided to “avoid” a major transit by (again) staying at home.

(Getting the theme here? Home is not always my safe zone, obviously! But people are people…we do what we are comfy with…)

In that case, while I was sitting typing (with headphones on, as I recall), my car was being stolen from the carport immediately under my feet.

(Yes, I do spend a lot of my life at the keyboard – thanks for noticing!)

When I discovered the car was missing, after all the being agog and upset and doing the police report and talking to the insurance company (same company, same policy as I have today…) I called my friend, blithering unhappily.

His advice: never try to avoid a transit. 

This advice was formalized into elegant form years later by astrologer Robert Hand, who eloquently (not to mention cheerfully) got out there to say ‘use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.’ 

Thanks, Rob. So true, so true…and yet like everyone else, there are just those days when I…

(oh, never mind!)

Anyway, so my astrology-teaching friend listens to my tearful babble, then tells me to hold on. Of course there's nothing like being left on the phone when you've just finished a particularly fine fit of sobbing, but what was I do to?

A minute or two later he comes back on the line and with aplomb and confidence informs me of when my car will be found.

Me: How do you...(sniff!)...know? 

Him: Mercury opposes your Pluto. Mercury/Pluto connections are good for finding things. Considering its an opposition, the car may not be in great shape but it will be found. 

Two days later, right on cue the phone rang. It was the police. My car had been found when they busted a chop-shop ring which had stolen it for parts. The car was pretty much stripped, but since this was still the days when insurance companies wrote policies which would guarantee rebuilds, parts got ordered in from Germany and my car got rebuilt.

(Maybe now you know why I’ve kept that same policy?)

In case you're wondering, yes I do recognize the dotted line between then and now in terms of car being stolen then (and I didn't mention it, but I was recovering from a workplace accident) and the car accident which I am recovering from in current day. These things do go in cycles...and there is a cycle which is repeating now in different form which back then had the two items separate (the workplace accident against car theft which has now become car accident involving physical therapy).

But let's be real - when in the moment, all we want to really know is when is this moment going to end?

So saying, back to modern day. Ah yes – Pluto! Pluto is the signature of things changing. If you’ve lost something, it’ll get found or you’ll replace it. If you don’t know, you’ll come to know. If you have, you may lose or give away. Where there is nothing, something ‘becomes.’ Pluto is about things changing. 

So! Being someone not so married to my computer as to not have an ephemeris of planetary positions on hand (never be without a friendly ephemeris!)…I flipped to the right page and began the calculation. When would this Aquarius Moon oppose my Pluto? 

From there it was all just simple math. And once I had the answer, I knew what time the power would go back on.

You think I’m kidding? No. I sat outside chatting with neighbors, wearing my watch and when someone yelled ‘Hey! The power just came back on!’ I glanced down at my wrist.

Yup...right on schedule!

Do I know exactly how all things function as they do? Not totally. I understand the concept of things moving through space and how planetary positions are what they are but also give us a ‘clock’ by which we know when affects reach Earth, and from what quadrant (i.e., at what angle).

But most of all…when I’m trying to write a blog, I just want to know when the power is going to come back on. Once I knew that, all the stress went away.

It’s a more than decent reason to learn astrology. And I obviously realized that much the first time around, because from the very day that said fellow arrived at my house announcing he was going to teach me astrology (to which I benignly answered what? Astrology is bunk!!) I really have never looked back.

On that first day he regarded my fluffleness with complete calm...which seems fitting, considering I was lying there with a broken pelvis. What was I going to do, don my stilettos and go stalking out into the night, flinging my scarf over one shoulder?

Not likely.

Patient as the pain in my (very low) back was long, he thought about my somewhat feisty dismissal and made me a deal: if I could prove astrology didn't work, he'd admit I had proved the whole think was bunk.

Obviously I wasn't able to prove it was bunk. In fact, it taught me a lot about life in general and a huge amount about people, our ponderings, our puzzles, our patterns and those many alleged strengths which don't turn out so well and those vulnerable spots which turn out to be our glories.

Like I said...a more than decent reason to learn astrology.