Algol --The Dark Star

As we all know we had the full moon in Scorpio on the 17th and it was not without its bumps. I indicated that the beef with Neptune would certainly put pressure on getting the murk out, some delusion, depression disillusion and then collapsing.
Gawd knows I certainly felt my words later as the week unraveled. But even in that climate there was still something else going on. I could feel it. I know many astrologers follow closely aspects with some of the other stars besides our little ol' Sun. Asteroids and stars are important in astrology and admittedly I don't always give them as much respect here on my blog as I should. And this week more than ever I should have been more on the ball.

Many astrologers pointed out that this Full Moon, the Sun conjunct Algol and I gotta say, given the events, they were smart to get all over it. Algol is one hell of a fixed star. It is associated with beheaded Medusa in the hands of Perseus. The ancient and not so ancient astrologers consider Algol the most evil star. The visual of Medusa's head certainly evokes evil. But of course, once a year the Sun hits Algol and the world does not go crazy. However, this was a full moon and deserved some attention.

I decided to go see who said what and I gotta say Darkstar Astrology was all over this. On May 12th was this posting:

I think there could be the removal of a head of state or even a religious leader with Jupiter involved. Maybe it might be as simple as the removal of some religious dogma or law. For us personally this could weeding our own beliefs, and dead-heading those superfluous rites and rituals that we adhere to.


"Put this energy with the Moon and we get a real determination to wear the crown at all costs. The archetype of the Sun, the proud lion and the monarch is up for this Moon, but so is the ambition to behead anyone that gets in the way. The important thing these two weeks will be to own your own sovereignty. The fantasy element is high though and we wonder if we are building castles in the air. But at the end of it, the bird eye view of Jupiter will be able to show us just how realistic we have been in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes the bigger picture can show that what seemed like pipe dreams at the time, were actually quite small and reasonable within the landscape."

Arnold? Strauss-Kahn? Yep, that is some smart, insightful and prescient writing.

And I promise you, I will bring more attention to fixed stars in the future. It is fun to mix it up anyway.

Schwarznegger & Strauss-Kahn : Astrology of Maids?

When I first posted about the Arnold business I didn't know that the woman who fathered his child was a maid. The news at that time indicated she was a 'staffer'.

On Sunday however when the whole thing went down (perhaps wrong phrase to use) with Dominque Strauss Kahn we did know that the woman assaulted was a maid.

Saturn rules Maids and servants. Of course, Saturn right now is in Libra the sign of relationships and is retrograde. As it continues to move backwards it tightens the square tension with Pluto, the planet of power. And yes, technically they will not be an exact square (like last year) but they are still tight enough to be in effect and has me wondering if it is causing a bit of the spotlight to fall on maids. I will be interested to see what else is spun out between now and mid June when Saturn turns direct.

Strauss: Perhaps next time you should just take the mint on the pillow

Yes, yes, yes...we who live in the US know a person is innocent before proven guilty. But I did have to take a peek at Dominque Strauss Kahn's chart.

I'm sure Dominique Strauss Kahn will have the best legal representation money can buy. Why not, this is the guy in charge of the international money fund. And those are the guys who loan money to countries when they are about to go belly up. Perhaps the IMF can loan Dominque the dough for his legal defense. However, I'm guessing he has got cash in deposits boxes all over Geneva. Especially given he is a Taurus. I double checked astro data bank for his birth information. They usually have good sources for there data so I'll go with it, which lists him as April 25 1949 11:10am (outside Paris).

With that information: Dominque has Sun in Taurus, great with money; bad with control issues. He has Moon in Aries, great with leadership; bad with anger issues and he has Leo Rising; great with *star* appeal, bad with Ego. Additionally, he has Venus in Taurus right on his Sun which probably has him loaded with some charm (although it might be lost on a lot of us) and that is another perk to his money making abilities. Or at the very least part of the reason why he is all about banks.

Now where things are interesting is when you look at the transiting planets. Currently Uranus is in conjunction to his moon (or at least close enough to count) and he is finding his world upside down. For the record, not everyone who gets these kind of charges when Uranus bumps up to their moon but seeing photos of him hauled out of a first class seat on Air France at JFK certainly speaks of the disruptive nature of Uranus. Curiously, Pluto finished squaring his moon last year and now is making a positive trine to his Venus. And Pluto is about to do another round of trines with his Sun. I gotta say, I am scratching my head on this. These are positive aspects and yet these charges are pretty formidable. I'm wondering if he has something in his pocket that is going to make this go away. Not the thing that got him in trouble but another thing in his pocket that will make all his troubles disappear. Pluto is fairly deft.

What else is going on this week?

Besides today's full moon (see other post) what else is going on this week?

5/20: Mars Trine Pluto: Getting out and doing the work that will truly reform your place in the world and your life. Normally, Mars is a fast moving planet and will zip around the zodiac so quickly that each year we get a couple of pluto trines. However between December 2009 and May 2010 Mars was retrograde in Leo and since that time we are playing catch up. The last time we had a Mars in Taurus Trine Pluto in Capricorn was June of 2009. See if stuff comes up this week that reminds you of that period. In the meantime, dig in and make a real change that brings concrete results in your life. Remember the drill bit (Pluto in Cap) is there to work with us.

5/20:Mercury/Pluto: Mentally we are “there” to make transformations that improve our life. Even if at first blush if there is a sting we know the bigger picture is worth the stinger. Tongues will be sharp, thoughts will be strong and perhaps a bit stormy. But the storm is good.


5/20: Mercury/Mars: Our inner warrior is on deck. We say what we mean and we walk our talk. We do not have time for inauthenticity. Fake people put on notice you may not like what you hear or see today.

5/21: Sun enters Gemini: Happy birthday, get them an itunes card so they can download a book or app or something that connects them.

Arnold & Maria

Maria Shriver has been on my radar since childhood. She is a handful of years older than me and in the 1960's and 70's when we were young, her family at least the Kennedy portion, was THE family of note in America. I remember when I heard she was dating Arnold Schwarzenegger I thought, "Huh?" Then of course I took a look at their charts and thought, "Oh, yeah, Leo & Scorpio, that is all about fighting and make up sex." Criminey, look at Bill and Hilary. Well, wait a minute it is best if make up sex is with your wife.

Anyway, Lynn Hayes has more on the former First couple of California. Go to the link for the whole thoughtful post.


Maria Shriver’s chart shows a Scorpio Sun in the sixth house of service and work; in fact, she has five planets in the sixth house revealing her deep commitment to helping others. With Taurus rising she avoids change wherever possible and prefers stability and financial security to a more transitory life. When Schwarzenegger was governor she rarely spent time in Sacramento with him but instead stayed in their home in Los Angeles.

Shriver’s Moon is in Leo, so there is a part of her that also needs the attention that Schwarzenegger seeks so easily. Her Moon conjoins his Pluto which generally shows an intense and powerful connection, although the Pluto person (in this case Schwarzenegger) often overpowers the Moon person who can feel left behind. His Saturn also conjoins her Moon which can feel confining but also protective. This is an important significator for marriage and commitment. The linkages between their charts is less powerful for him than for her which has likely made it easier for him to minimize the marriage if in fact that is what occurred.

Shriver’s progressed Midheaven is preparing to move into Aries – the beginning of a new 30-year cycle that will inspire a powerful motivation to find her own way in the world and develop a career in which she can play a leading role. Last year’s Chiron/Neptune conjunction transited her ascendant between May of 2009 and November of 2010 – a cycle which likely caused her to re-examine who she is and how she wanted to express her life


Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/astrologicalmusings/#ixzz1MR62lbYn

Scorpio Full Moon

May 17 7:08am

The full moon in Scorpio means the accent is on releasing emotions. We are halfway through the earthy Taurus lunar cycle, if we have been feeling stuck in the mud or lazy, the force of the watery Scorpio moon will push out the muck and mire so we can get moving. Pipes need to be flushed, intestines need to cleared and tears need to flow.

This moon compels us to push ourselves and then…we collapse. The Sun in Taurus wants to be practical and hold on but Scorpio knows it is better to let go and evolve. This particular full moon has a beautiful (out of sign) trine with Uranus in Aries which puts the accent on unusual breakthroughs. The emotions that come up on full moon help us access changes we need to make, changes we instinctively feel but perhaps have no idea how to manifest. However, Neptune in Pisces is square (out of sign) to both Moon and Sun which means the changes may come out of a bump. And with Neptune there can be the three ‘Ds:’ disillusionment, delusion and depression. That would be the bump. Neptune also rules oceans, films, petroleum and gas. Technically, full moons pull on all tides including rivers, I can only imagine what this full moon will do to the already swollen Mississippi. Sigh.

The Astrology of Quantative Easing (QE2) Ending

For those people who rely on money to get through their life, you may want to take note of something happening this summer. On June 30th, QE2 will end. Wait a minute, the Queen Elizabeth is going into dry dock? No, silly, not THAT QE2, I'm talking about Quantative Easing 2. It will be wrapping up at the end of June and the big question is---what is that going to do to us?

A small primer course on QE2.
After the stock market crashed in 2008 (and more importantly to us, Pluto turned direct heading for Capricorn) The Federal Reserve knew that we were in a total shit storm and about to become shitstorm x 2. In order to make it only a hideous headache and not a mega hideous headache, The Federal Reserve said, "Hey, we'll buy our debt so that our economy won't completely crash." Of course, buying our debt means printing money. That sort of kept us upright but then a year later we were still weak and in 2010, The Fed said that we needed to buy even more debt.

Well, on June 30th, QE2 ends and that means our debt will be ready for the world to purchase. Will China, Japan, Europe be racing to our shores to buy our debt? Will other countries say, "Hey give me those American T bills, I've got a rumpus room that needs wall papering". Based on the chart of Cancer New Moon on July 1, I believe that the end of QE2 is going to be one Super World of Hurt. Mega, Super Hurt.

The New Moon has Pluto opposite both the sun and the moon and all three of them are squaring Uranus in Aries and square Saturn in Libra. This is basically a recall of last summer's cardinal climax. The only difference is that Uranus is not going back to Pisces to find redemption like he did last summer. He is digging in and fighting for changes. Pluto in Capricorn is all about reform of business and money and the Sun and Moon in Cancer is our homes and the things we keep close to us, like food and shelter.

I gotta say we all know that there need to be changes throughout our economic system. But this could be one painful process. I know the concern everyone has is runaway inflation. But my own concern is deflation.

The Cancer lunar phase (all July) will be painful. But before we get to it, we will have the eclipses in June which will certainly inform us of issues that we need to address. No one should feel blindsided. And if you do, then you are being deliberately obtuse.