Solar Maximum

Scientists expect the South Pole of the sun to flip within the next 3 to 4 months.  The Sun's North Pole flipped last year.  That's weird.  I don't understand this at all.  This solar maximum cycle occurs about every 11 years.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/sun-s-magnetic-field--is-about-to-flip---warns-nasa-131005894.html

At What Age Are You Happiest? At What Age Are You Wealthiest?

A study from out of the u.k. Says that people are happiest at age 33. The Sun in your Solar Return chart is said to begin a new cycle at this age because it returns to the same house it was in when you were born. So, perhaps this is the year when you are reborn? Kind of an interesting thought Christianity wise. Jesus was 33 when he was killed, and risen. However you say it. I'm appreciating Christianity more these days. It seems to have taken some of the best of Greek thought and tried to bring it to the people. Sometimes works, sometimes not.

Here's the article. On iPad so can't figure the links.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/thirty-three-happiest-age-says-study-193446415.html

Also.

Financial disaster prophet, Henry S. Dent, supplies a bunch of different statistics about ones age. He says that most people are the wealthiest they will ever be at age 48. This is at or right after a person's 4th Jupiter Return.

9/11 Birthdays

Today is the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This is still so painful to watch. I found an interesting story in USAToday about a woman named Dahlia Gruen of Boston, Massachusetts whose Birthday happens to be September 11. She was 10 years old when the tragedy happened and turned 20 this year. Dahlia and the other Virgos mentioned in the article spent years stuggling to celebrate their Birthdays because it is so associated with grief. Dahlia decided to do something about this. She's a Virgo afterall with Sun trining Uranus-Neptune in Capricorn. That would bestow great maturity and management abilities. So she created a website with her Father for these people to contact each other and celebrate with each other on such a complicated day.

The name of the website is birthdayspirit.org.

The name of the article is "Were you born on Sept. 11? Join the deeply conflicted club. Website helps 9/11 birthday folks commiserate -- and celebrate." by Maureen Linke.

It starts out with Dahlia describing her 10th Birthday:

"'I got home and saw my parents on the steps and I was excited, thinking they were home for my birthday,' say Gruen, now 19, of Boston. 'They sat me down and explained what had happened, and I began to realize my birthday wouldn't ever be the same.'"

I took a very quick look at the charts of the people mentioned in the article. They are all women but of different ages. The connections between their charts is really amazing. I concentrated on placements of Venus and the Sun as those are the planets which would be most connected with celebration. The Sun rules the sign of Leo which rules Celebrations. The Solar Return literally is a person's annual Birthday. Venus rules Love and enjoyment. Since all people born on this date with have the same placement of the Sun, looking at Venus's placement also gives a little more information.

For one, it just wasn't a good day for a celebration as the Sun at 19 Virgo was squaring a really difficult opposition between Saturn 15 Gemini and Pluto 13 Sagittarius-Chiron 24 Sagittarius. As far as Solar Returns go, this was the Solar Return from Hell. Saturn and Pluto are often considered the "Heavies" of the horoscope. When working together in difficult ways such as this they bring loss and grief. People who have these planets in combination in their charts are often very strong people because they have this knowledge "built into their spirits."

It turns out that all 4 women mentioned in the article have very strong Venus/Pluto connections. Pluto rules the sign of Scorpio which is connected with deep dark mysteries of life, like huge crises. (It also rules Sex and you know so it has it's good points). The whole reason Pluto exists is to give people richness and depth of spirit. Often he makes things complicated through crises. An old Tarot card teacher of mine said that usually Scorpios, people whose Sun is ruled by Pluto, never have to have dull lives because things just get thrown into their paths.

Two of the women, Dahlia and Barbara Lazar were very close to having their Venus Returns in Leo that year. Leo is ruled by the Sun which rules celebrations. Venus in Leos love to have their parties. They in particular would have been in the mood to enjoy their birthdays.

It's interesting also to see Venus Rx by progression in some of the charts. Dahlia was born with Venus Rx in Leo and it stationed direct about a year after she was born. Jennifer Sumner's Venus went Rx around 2004. These show some sort of in depth lessons on being and giving love in one's life.

Here are the birth dates along with a couple of notes. Hope I've calculated the years correctly. I'm feeling a little woozy so hope I've got everyone's name correct. There is a lot more to study here but for today I think we need to just pay attention to the planets associated with having a party. Hope everybody on the website has blown out all the candles on their cakes this year and will see all their wishes fulfilled this year.

Dahlia Gruen
b. Sept. 11, 1991 (Boston MA?)

Sun 18 Virgo; Venus 22 Leo Rx

Venus squares n. Pluto 19 Scorpio

At Age 10 would have been going through her first Nodal Axis opposition, an aspect associated with the life path and feeling that one's world is turned upside down. This year she has just completed her Nodal Return which is a time of finding one's life path.

Jennifer Sumner
b. Sept. 11, 1962 (Montgomery, Alabama?)

Sun 19 Virgo; Venus 5 Scorpio conjunct Neptune 12 Scorpio squaring NN 7 Leo Rx and Saturn 6 Aquarius.

Venus is not in aspect with Pluto but is in his sign in the challenging t-square listed above.

Jennifer was 39 in 2001. Her natal chart has a strong opposition between Uranus and Pluto in Virgo which opposes Jupiter-Chiron in Pisces. This shows a lot of outer planet transit activity as it hooks into the big transits that day. Outer planets show activities that are felt by many people. Most people born in the mid 60s would have been hooked into this shift of having a huge world order shift.

Brenda Warwood
b. Sept. 11, 1958 Brentwood, Tennessee

Sun 19 Virgo; Venus 3 Virgo.

Brenda's Venus is conjunct Pluto 3 Virgo and Mercury 1 Virgo.

At Age 42 Brenda had just completed the 2 big outer planet transits of that age, the Uranus opposition and the Neptune square.

On an even bigger scale, she has a natal Sun-Saturn square (Sun square Saturn 20 Sagittarius) which was getting hit by the Sun-Saturn-Pluto-chiron transit of the day.

Barbara Lazer
b. Sept. 11, 1953 Pittsburgh, PA

Sun 19 Virgo; Venus 15 Leo

Barbara's Venus is conjunct Pluto 22 Leo and Mars 29 Leo.

At Age 48 Barbara would have just completed her 4th Jupiter Return. Wouldn't you know? Her natal Jupiter is at 25 Gemini. It squares her natal Sun-Mercury and trines a natal Saturn-Neptune conjunction 24-25 Libra which is possibly in conjunction with her Moon.

Posture and Depression

I was flipping through one of those encyclopedic books that covers all kinds of information about health conditions in statistics and bullet points. I think this particular one was put out by Reader's Digest and I don't have the title. Sorry.

One interesting point spoke about a connection between Depression and Posture. I can't remember if the Chapter was about Mental Health, Back Pain, or the Aging Process. The comment, I think it was in an off-set box to the side of the rest of the text, said that usually people assume that a person will express depression through bad posture. The point here was that a person with Bad Posture might also become depressed as a result of not holding himself up correctly.

This is interesting to look at from Astrological Keyword Point of View. Nobody really can pinpoint one indicator for Depression. Capricorn? Cancer? Pisces? Scorpio? Mercury?

Old Age is ruled by Saturn. Saturn also rules the bones.

The Back is ruled by the Sun. That's what I think is interesting. I suspect that the Sun is a key indicator of really bad depression. The reason why I think this is because when I took the Homeopathy for Idiots class we learned that you give the Homeopathic form of Gold to a person who is Suicidal. They suffer from a loss of light, vitality, and glow. Homeopathic remedies seem to follow all kinds of what seems to be illogical connections so anyone who is interested will probably be confused if reading about Aurum. I can't go into it any deeper than that, because, as I said, it was a class for dabblers in Homeopathy, not for anyone who knows much of anything about anything.

There can be all kinds of reasons why posture could be strongly connected with Depression. If you are slumped over your inner organs don't work right. You can't get air into your lungs. You probably can't digest correctly so you might have heartburn and constipation. Mobility is more difficult. You will have bad circulation to your hands and feet. Your head might roll right off your body (haha, not really, but you might wish it would).

A Solar Obsessed World

Went to the Panda Express for lunch yesterday. The line was really long and a lady behind me said that often it will lead out the doorway. I'm struggling with the Big D, was feeling some spikes, and was waffling with the idea of eating food that is fried in cornstarch. So, in my confusion I sort of forgot to keep it pleasant. I reminded the woman that the food there sucked and I wished I knew the neighborhood better so that I could get some healthy Chinese food. Maybe it's the Gemini Rising. Maybe it was my Capricorn Moon that took over? Conversations seem to end pretty quickly when that thing gets hold of what's wrong with a situation.

Anyway, we are talking about food here, aren't we? And we are talking about the business of selling food. People will eat just about anything in America, as long as you can find a way to market it to them. And what better way to sell food than to fry it in sugar, a double Heroin style of preparation for those of us who are vulnerable, and, then, to sell it really quickly so that the glucose-addicted customer doesn't have to wait for it. I knew I was going to eat there only after I drove past the sign.

And so, I stood in line. I ate everything on the plate.

And this is what my Fortune Cookie said:

"To Shine is better than to reflect."

The Sun shines. The Moon reflects. The Capricorn Moon? Well, that's another story.

The "Night Shining"

Another great article in New Scientist Magazine, April 10, 2010: "Mysterious 'night shinig clouds have a solar controller." p. 14.

Clouds that are placed very high up in the atmosphere. They glow at night. And they may be linked to the Sun's rotation on its axis. Both follow a 27 day cycle.

Researcher is Charles Robert of the University of Bremen, Germany.

Stanford Solar Center

The Stanford Solar Center has an interesting blog about discoveries Science is making about Solar sciences. A recent blog shows the first photos and videos of the Feb. 9, 2009 Eclipse as seen from a Japanese satellite in outer space, not from earth. It could only happen during an Eclipse in Aquarius.

10 or 12: A Solar Society

My Father used a phrase that used to drive me nuts when I was a kid. When you asked him to tell you "how many" of something there were, he would usually answer by saying "Ten or Twelve" in order to indicate that there were "more than a few."This is what happens when you have a Father who doesn't have a crumb of Virgo in his chart. Everything's a poetic phrase that trips off the tongue and plays with the head. He was a genius but his vagueness when speaking was really bad for helping with math homework. He literally reduced me to tears explaining Sin and Cosine.

Anyways, I just found some interesting coincidences between using the number 11 in Astrology. And like my Father's brain, 11 doesn't always mean 11. It often means around 11, or, in my Father's terms, "10 or 12." It's also very accurate as humans literally struggle to blend these two numbers in society. 10 is sort of the number of the real world. We have 10 fingers to work with and build things. Our money is based on 10. The number of 12 is considered Holy as it combines 3 with 4. The Astrological Wheel is 360 degrees, a multiple of 12. Twelve is used for counting. In some methods of numerology, 11 and 22 are considered the most powerful numbers.

I'm first going to point out the association between the number 11 (or "10 or 12") is associated with the Sun. It pops up a lot in this regard in Modern "Human" society. You can't build societies of such massive scale without a good strong Ego. (I know nothing about Science and I'm getting information from Wikipedia and I'm pretty good at jumping to conclusions so if there's inaccuracy here please let me know.)

First, there's supposedly a multiple of 33 in the Solar Return Chart Cycles. I tried to test this out and it didn't work for me, but supposedly the Sun in the Solar Return Chart returns to its natal house position at Age 33. This would indicate a new phase of self expression in life that sort of builds on the old phase. 33 is a multiple of 11. Dante wrote his Divine Comedy when he was 33 so I always want this cycle to work.

Next, there are 22 chromosomes in the human body, plus the X and Y chromosomes which determine Sex. That's how the Scientists spell it out, if I've got it right. 22 + 2. They sort of talk in that "10 or 12" lingo.

22 years are a Sunspot Cycle (of repeating geomagnetic and solar wind activity). The Sun's magnetic field reverses or rebegins a new pattern that repeats and looks like Butterfly's wings on a graph. Explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle. Scientists agree there is a real influence of the Sun spot cycle that plays out on Earth. I wonder why Astrologers don't. The Sun Spot Cycles of the last century have been occurring every 10.5 years rather than every 11 years so they don't follow a rigid 11 year cycle (don't know where I read that).

Does this show that Human existence, at least Modern Western Society, is more hooked in naturally in some way to the Sun's influence? Should Astrologers be paying more attention to these cycles? It certainly explains our need to express ourselves and to build Empires and to let men dominate even though they keep screwing up.

In ancient mythology there is usually a trend that one finds that the Sun Gods slowly arise in prominence as the most significant God in the culture. From this a Humanistic sort of attitude develops in the people who eventually lose a strong sense of the Divine presence because they have so much confidence in the Will of Man.

Out of all the constellations that were observed in the night sky, Apollo was the Greek Sun God who represented the Light. His presence eventually gave way to Christianity's Jesus. Guess this kind of makes sense. You can't build during the night when there's no light. It's interesting how the spirituality that usually comes with night time eventually worked its way into the Gods who represent Daytime or "Light." Did the Chinese do this, relate Buddha to a planet????? I don't know.

Then I looked up the Elements in Chemistry. As of 2007 there were 118.

The Classical elements are what Astrology uses. 4 Elements: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water. Astrology combines these with the 3 Qualities: Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable. This multiplies out into a straight 12. That makes for easy math but also seems a bit rigid for interpretation purposes. Astrologers also haven't changed with the times either.

The History of Chemistry shows how these basic philosophical ways of categorizing the World are constantly evolving as new discoveries are made. Funny, just a Monotheism becomes acceptable, it is found that the Universe is composed of more and more "Rulers". (They are rulers because they are pure substances and can't be broken down into smaller pieces.)

The Elements are rooted in the thinking of more ancient cultures from Egypt, India and Asia, but Wikipedia takes them back to Plato. In the Timaeus (360 BCE), Plato says that everything in the world is either Organic or Inorganic and is composed of 4 basic shapes that coincide with the 4 Elements:

Tetrahedron (Fire)
Octahedron (Air)
Icosahedron (Water)
Cube (Earth

Aristotle added a 5th element "Quintessence" which is supposed to represent the Heavens.

So then there was an Arabian Chemist, Geber (real name: Jabir ibn-Hayyan), who reduced everything metals down to two elements, sulphur and mercury. From this 3 basic principles were derived. It's interesting how they correspond to the Astrological Qualities of Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable. They are:

Sulphur - Flammability/Combustion (Cardinal?)
Mercury - Volatility (Mutable?)
Salt - Stability (Fixed?)

Later, Europeans began to play with these combinations. Paracelcus (b. 1493, Switzerland). Paracelcus combined the two 4 elements with the 3 qualities. This introduces the idea that everything has an inner and an outer existence.

Johann Becker (b. 1635, Germany) used Air, Water, 3 types of earth which are kind of interesting:

1) Mercurial element (fluidity/volatility)
2) terra lapida - Solidifying element (fusibility/binding quality)
3) terra pinguis fatty element (oily & combusitble properties)

In 1661, Robert Boyle (b. 1627, Ireland/Englad) said that there were more than just 4 Classical Elements.

The 1st Modern List of Chemical Elements made by Antoine Lavoissier (b. 1743, France) contained 33 elements. That's a multiple of 11. It's also the number of the Solar Return Repeat Cycle.

More people added to that number. In 1818, Jons Jakob Berzelius listed 49 Elements.

In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev list 66 elements. Another multiple of 11 and also of 33.

As of 2007 there are 118 Elements in the Periodic Table.

Baby's First Synodic Years

All these current inner planet Retrogrades I guess have led me down a strange little path. I've found that there's more to the Retrogrades than just a slowing down movement. I've never understood the interpretations for Retrogrades so this is sort of exciting. During my study of Cycles research I came across the Synodic Years Cycles. I'm sort of wondering if a Baby is strongly affected by the Planetary Synodic Years during his first years. So I'm also looking at that idea briefly. Mercury is retrograde right now and Mars feels like it will never be out of retrograde ever again so this is sort of a mish mash I guess.

"Synodic" comes from the Greek word for Assembly or Meeting. Synodic can show a line up of any two or more planets. The Synodic Year as I'm using it here is the transit at which the Sun lines up with the Earth and the Sun.

The Tie-In to Retrogrades is that the Planet is always in the middle of its Retrograde Session when this happens. The cycle that this creates is called a Synodic Year by the astronomers. This shows up clearly in the planets whose orbits are outside of the Earth's orbit, Mars to Pluto. With Mercury and Venus there are Inferior and Superior Conjunctions. Inferior means that the planet lines up with the Earth in front of the Sun and the Superior Conjunction means that the Planet is farthest away from the Earth and is blocked from view by the Sun.

The astrological chart doesn't show the Earth so one must read these transits as oppositions between the Sun and the Planet.

I'm studying it as a way of trying to understand development in a Baby's first couple of years. The Sun, after all, shows the development of the Baby's Will, Ego and Creative Expression. Very important factors in understanding how his life will turn out. Interesting to check to see if these land on natal points as they will be significant to him. I'm thinking that these first Synodic Years are sort of the Baby's first viewing of how Ego relates to the energy of whatever planet is retrograding. The energy is enhanced because Retrogrades extend the time that the Planet will stay in one spot. Will have to research this as somebody has probably already written about it.

The slower moving planets actually experience slightly quicker Synodic Years than the faster transiting planets.

An interesting unfolding through time is involved as the slower moving planets actually have more Synodic Years than the quicker ones (except for inner planets Mercury and Venus). So the Neptunian Synodic Year happens sooner than the Uranian Synodic Year. Pluto's transit is so uneven that some generations will experience a lot more Plutonian Synodic Years than other generations.

I think these might be important to study for a baby just as he is developing his Ego (Sun) during the first couple of years. During these Retrogrades/Oppositions he is seeing how Ego works to balance out and relate to the energy of the planet in the real world. Of course, the most important Oppositions will be the ones that directly land on a natal planet.

The animation feature on Solar Fire is awesome for looking these up. The way my chart is set up there were no "Outer planet" Synodic Year transits (Mars - Pluto) until I was more than 6 months old. Then the Sun opposed Uranus Rx on my natal Mercury (and Uranus, since I have those two in conjunction natally). "The Shock of the New" was pretty much the theme of my childhood. This would have affected my whole expression as Gemini Rules my Ascendant and Uranus rules my Midheaven and I have them both in conjunction in my chart. I know that my one of my first words was "Don't do that!" just because my Mother had an abnormal fear of electricity. She said that she was constantly afraid that my brother and I would stick our fingers in the electrical sockets. What can I say? Some Mother's worry that their kids will poke their eyes out, others worry that strangers will abduct their kids. Mine panicked that the appliances would attack her kids.

I don't remember my life from that point, of course, but I do know that my Father's career as a modernistic, innovative architect was experiencing a meteoric rise. Uranus in my natal chart rules my Midheaven. Also, my Health suffered as I suffered from Bronchial Asthma attacks. This is indicated by my Cancer Sun and Gemini Rising overall (Chest, lungs, bronchials). But I also have a Yod that involves apex Moon to 3d house Uranus-Gemini Rising. Erratic breathing due to emotional shocks was definitely a major part of my existence at that point. As much as I'd like to blame the asthma on my parents 3 pack a day habits, my first attack came the first time they left me with a babysitter, a stranger I had never met. Kind of Uranian. So, I'm not saying there is anything to this, but this might be an interesting way to help a person try to remember that momentous first year. Most people, I'm sure couldn't care less.

Here's a list of how long Each Planet's Synodic Year happens. (from climate.qi.alaska.edu/Curtis/astrol.html).

Moon: Synodic Month: 29.53059 days (I'm listing this for the hell of it, Sun and Moon don't retrograde.

Mercury: Synodic Year: 105-129 days (is Rx for 22 days)

Venus Synodic Year: 1 yr. 6 month + 5-41 days (584 days, inferior conjunction) (is Rx for 40 days)

Mars Synodic Year: 2 years. + 1 - 2.5 months (779.7 days)

Jupiter's Synodic Year: 398.88 days (is Rx for 121 days)

Saturn's Synodic Year: 378 days (1 yr. 12-14 days) (is Rx for 138 days)

Uranus' Synodic Year: 369.7 days (1 yr. 4.5 days) (is Rx 5 mo's.)

Neptune's Synodic Year: 367 days (1 yr. 1.8 days) (is Rx 5 mo's)

Pluto: ????