STELLA!

OK so I am wasting time on a Sunday afternoon, flip on the tube and find "A Streetcar Named Desire", the original 1951 version. (Is there any other?) I am hooked instantly. At one point Blanche asks Stanley about his astrological sign. (She may have been a little nutty but the girl was enlightened, no?) She says, correctly in my humble opinion, that he was to be Aries the Ram because of the way he bounds around the house so. However, his wife responds that he was born 2 days after Christmas which would make him a Capricorn. Capricorn? Stanley? Mr. Williams you were a magnificent writer but rotten astrologer.

I will give you that he might have been a Capricorn Sun but he had to have Aries rising. The rising sign or ascendant is our projected personality. Aries rising people are prone to rages, they want what they want when they want it and being the "enfant terrible" of the zodiac they find a way of making everyone uncomfortable until they get it. Now, I am talking about the shadow aspect of Aries of course but didn't Stanly exhibit the shadow aspects of life?

So if Stanley was Aries rising, what was Blanche? Let's see, she lived in a dream world, couldn't stand the harshness of the Earth, escaped into the bottle and lived in her childhood fantasies. Can you say Pisces? Again, we are talking shadow here so don't start getting your scales in a tizzy you Fish!

Stella was strongly Virgo. She gave up the trappings of her ancestral home and became the long suffering wife of Stanley. Virgo's in shadow have a thing for being victims. In the movie they made her leave Stanley because of the ethics of the day in the play she stayed with him even though she was fairly certain he did rape her sister. That is a total Virgo action. However, and some people may disagree with me on this, I am going to give her a Scorpio Sun. Yes, Scorpio is known to be dynamic and strong but what drew her to Stanley? His passion - these two were great in the sack. He was forbidden, the other side of the tracks kind of guy with great passion, all things that spark Scorpio interest.

I take that back Mr. Williams perhaps you were a great astrologer and understood that rising signs are much more powerful indicators of who we are then Sun signs. The Sun signs give us our inner energy but the persona is all ascendant.

Ironically, in her other great incarnation the great Vivien Leigh embodied the ultimate depiction of an Aries woman. I am speaking of Scarlett O’Hara. Fiery, impulsive, courageous yet very childlike in some of her thinking, Scarlett was all Ram.

What makes these great characters is that they embody the extremes of each sign.

Why did Rhett and Scarlett hit it off? He was the perfect Leo man - fire attracts fire. Brash, arrogant, hot tempered and seeking the spot light always, Rhett was the archetypal Leo rising although I am sure his Sun was Aquarius. He was detached for such a handsome man and slapped society in the face with his war views and his taking up with "painted women."

Melanie Wilkes, Scarlett's demure but intelligent, sweet, nurturing but tough as nails sister-in-law was Cancerian through and through with a touch of Scorpio. Her first reaction was to forgive and mother and she called on her Cancerian sense of patriotism to get through the years she was separated from Ashley. (Who by the way was all Pisces.)

Most great fictional characters are archetypes for the various signs. Hmmm what sign do you think was Miss Havisham?

Alice

I just finished reading Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker by Stacy A. Cordery - a very interesting take on a woman who led a fascinating life. I was going to say a fascinating woman who led and amazing life but Alice was a hard person to like. She was terribly cruel to her cousins Eleanor and Franklin, was spiteful and capricious. This is what makes the book more interesting - it has a protagonist with major faults and yet kept my interest.


Well you just know I ran to my computer and whipped up her birth chart as soon as I finished the book!

February 12, 1884, 8:30 PM in New York City. The first thing that grabbed my eye was her Aries South Node. Remember that is our karmic identity - the memory of who we were in our past lives. Aries is the ruler, the sign that demands everyone to follow. Aries, ruled by Mars the god of war, wants its way NOW and if you don't listen to me I will let you know about it. Let's flesh this out more. Her South Node is in conjunction with Pallas Athena, the androgynous warrior goddess and in the 10th house - the house of government and societal structures. Do you think that before she came into life as the rambunctious daughter of the President of the United States, Alice lived lives as the leader of society - a woman but one who led her society with force with power and with an iron fist? She was used to being the undisputed power source and wouldn't allow anyone to usurp her power.

Now let's look at the ruler of her South Node. The planet that rules our South Nodes indicate where our strongest karmic identity exists - where it is hardest for us shake our karmic past. Alice's Mars (the ruler of Aries) is in her first house in the fire sign of Leo, in retrograde for goodness sakes! Our first house is the ascendant, where we project ourselves to the world. She carried that Aries ruler identity into her current personality. It is no wonder she had a love hate relationship with her father. She wanted to be the President!

With her Mars in retrograde - a pause for karma - this is an indication that she overstepped her bounds in the past and has to learn a new way to express her power. So she was born female in a society that wouldn't allow them to advance. She was born next to power - married power but never found satisfaction because the males in her life held all the cards. (Her husband was a known womanizer and alcoholic.)

With her Leo ascendant giving her a regal, domineering bearing - she was fire personified.

The "trick" to her life would have been to move from the Aries dominance to a Libran existence - one in which she became more involved with "the other." Did she do it? Well, that is something each person can only know for themselves. Judging from the book I would kind of doubt it.

The confusion of Libra

It is no wonder why my astrology teacher pounded into my head that I should try to forget at least 70 percent of what I learned of "boxy Western astrology."  Keep the basics but leave the silly interpretations behind, he would say. It took me a while to figure out what he was saying but it became very clear when we dealt with a sign near and dear to my heart.....Libra. And happy birthday Libra Sun people!

I have Libra rising. Remember, your rising sign or ascendant is the sign on the Eastern horizon at birth and it really dictates our outward persona - how we express ourselves to the world. Every analysis I read when I started out insisted that a Libra rising person likes to bring order and balance and is a born diplomat and is all about being the epitome of balance and harmony. Huh? Me? It drove me loopy until the universe sent me into the wonderful world of evolutionary astrology.

Libra is about trying to FIND balance not being balance. Libra rising and to a lesser extent Libra Sun people go to extremes in their quest to seek balance. We often have co-dependence issues because we are so attuned to "the other." Many Libra risings spend a good chunk of time running around saying in essence, do you like me now, well, if I do that will you like me then?   Yes, the answer to your question is yes. Sally Field is a Libra rising person. ("You like me. You really like me.)

Venus Libra people use their romantic entanglements to search for self as well. They literally learn who they are through the other person. Well, so and so liked it better when I responded this -so that must be right. However, I got a negative reaction from so and so, therefore, maybe I need to work on it more. It is all through the eyes of other with Libra. We have a really hard time coming from a point of ME.

Libra rules the 7th house - the house of close personal relationships with other people.

The shadow comes into play when we continue to seek approval -- and never feel satisfied with our own views and beliefs. Be careful Libras! At some point we have to stop with worrying about everyone else. It is one thing to learn from others it is another to spend life without any self awareness.

the 2010 Elections

OK I admit it freely I am a coward. Several people have asked me to look at the 2010 Midterm elections and I have just not wanted to go there. In truth, the only accurate way to do this is to look at each candidate in every single race and compare their charts. In lieu of doing that I decided to look at President Obama's chart to see what will be cooking for him on election night.

The President was born with Ceres and Vesta and the Moon all conjunct in the 7th house. Ceres is the mini planet that vibrates to the energy of a Mother Earth, Vesta is the burning heart’s desire and the Moon is our emotional barometer. This not only makes him a devoted family man it is what makes him connect emotionally to people. He thrives on nurturing and serving others. On election night his combination will be opposite transiting Mars and Pallas Athena, the warrior goddess. Both of these will be in the fire sign of Sagittarius. In short, what all this means is he is going to be a fighting mood. He will be able to see the big picture and will come out swinging. His masculine energy will far outweigh his feminine.

Will he be fighting mad because he lost the House or Senate and will now bring back the fire of his own campaign or will he be rejuvenated and vindicated and come out renewed and energized to fight for his goals? Yup, the million dollar question!

He will have transiting Juno, our loyalty marker, in Virgo transiting his Pluto in the 10th house. Juno in the 10th is a wedding to career and with Pluto playing there it gives a deep transformative urge. Juno in Virgo brings a desire to get down to the nitty gritty and plan action.

Transiting Sun and Vesta will be in his 12th house and conjunct his natal Neptune. The 12th house is always an indicator of pulling in. This is actually a sign of a spiritual rejuvenation - of going inside self and finding a spiritual calling.

Because I am an optimist I see a night that will not be as bad as the talking heads predict for the President and that he will find a new energy and a new fight. Of course he could also get his political butt kicked and go inside himself and come out fighting to regain control. It won't be pretty and we might lose one of the two houses of Congress but I just don't see the tidal wave they are babbling about.

There is one astrological source for my optimism other than my hope that Americans can't fall for GOP crap again can they???? is that his Part of Fortune - that little karmic blessing is on the cusp of his 10th house. The 10th deals with society and government structures... Hey every little bit helps.