The Value of Past-Life Perspective:

 A chart reading is a very personal thing but one of my clients spoke of the impacts of a chart reading on her blog. Her comments and insights were wonderful because this is why I love doing this work!

Thank you Barbara.


http://www.inthenightofday-a-memoir.com/Astrology.html

Lunar Nodes: Guide to Your Past Life and Current Soul's Desires with Astrologer Joan Porte

Lunar Nodes: Guide to Your Past Life and Current Soul's Desires with Astrologer Joan Porte

This is a presentation on the karmic implications of the North and South Nodes of the Moon. the South Node is our karmic imprint - where we are coming from and where we have a past karmic identification or even addiction. the North Node is where we should be progressing toward in this lifetime. Joan will use charts of the famous and infamous to illustrate the lunar nodes.

Date:        Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Location: Cary Executive Center (aka Cary Building)

                8136 Old Keene Mill Rd

                Suite 209-A

                Springfield, VA 22152

Time:       Doors open at 6:30 pm for meet & greet

                Lecture starts at 7:15 pm to 9:00 pm

Fee:         $15.00 if you pre-register

                $20.00 at the door

 

Pre-registration is easy.

You can go to NOVA Astrology Group and register using PayPal. Or, you can send a check made out to NOVA Astrology Group to:

Misty Kuceris

PO Box 1532

Springfield, VA 22151-0532

Group Charts! Think of the possibilities

I have to tell you about the cool new project I am undertaking... group charts!
By combining the charts of several people into one new relationship chart I can tell alot about the dynamics of that group. For instance, if I combined the charts of you and your spouse and children I would get a new chart that details how you interact as a group.

I recently did this for a spiritual book club I belong to and it showed how we are feeding each other's needs provide security through knowledge. It also pointed out some human faults that we were guilty of that if not addressed could cause disharmony in the group.  It was great to look at and talk about our pluses and minuses.

These charts are often doors to discussion on issues we sometimes don't know how to approach.

So get your family chart done -  or your office chart - or book club...whatever. Awareness is the stepping stone to understanding after all!

Happy Birthday to the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is celebrating his 76th birthday today by coming to Washington, D.C. (It is a good thing he is used to warm weather.) He has such an interesting chart as you might expect.

One of the most fascinating aspects is his South Node. As a karmic astrologer I always look at the South Node first - it is one of the largest indicators of our current personality because we carry over so much from our previous lives. His South Node is in Moon Child in the 10th house - the house of society and government. Moon Child is the sign most linked to the Mother and our emotions. Therefore, he has a karmic memory of being a nurturing figure in society. He provided for people's food, housing - or even could have been a counselor.

Here is the really neat part. The ruler of his South Node, the Moon, is in the 12th house in Virgo. Virgo is the sign of duty and service and the 12th house is the house where we connect with the universe, God, the Source.

So in a nutshell he was known for caring on a deep emotional level for members of his society. This society was in service to God. Hmmm, do you think they got something right when the Buddhist leaders claimed that he was the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama? It seems he has done this before.

His North Node (a current soul desire indicator) is Capricorn in the 4th House - so this lifetime he has to be more of a father figure to people in his immediate family - his immediate neighborhood, if you will. With the Tibetan Diaspora he has had to become the center figure, the father figure, of his people.

In the past he was able to be the emotional, nurturer of his people - now he has to hold them together - be a beacon.

Part of Fortune

With all of the bad news in the world, riots, earthquakes, the GOP Presidential Debate, I decided to talk about good news - or the Part of Fortune. Besides, I promised last week this would be an easy one.


The Part of Fortune is an astrological marking shown on your chart as a circle with an X in the middle - and indicates where we get karmic reward. Can't beat that! If you happen to have a Part of Fortune in Aquarius in the seventh house then you will have karmic rewards that come from close relationships. If it appears in your first house, however, then your "luck" would come from expressing your own self assertive, independent energy. However, in the eighth house look for it to come from insurance, other people's money.

A fifth house Part of Fortune brings reward through creative energy and the 6th when you dedicate to self improvement and hard work. The second house you can be lucky with money or sudden "fortune" but the third will come through your intellect. When in the fourth house the Part shows the way when you get in touch with your emotional center - your roots.

The ninth house Part of Fortune triggers when you head out on your search for truth, but the 10th house only when you involve yourself in some endeavor that benefits society. Groups will bring the Part's effects to you if it is the 11th but the 12th house is all about meditation and solitude.

So take a look at where your Part of Fortune is located and then see if you are working to help it work its magic for you!

The Second House- Survival!

I know I have spent a ton of time of the 1st house or ascendant. It is a really important house, OK? However, there are other houses in the sky as they say. The second house is one easy to misinterpret. The traditional assignment given it is that it is the house of resources and money. Oh, have a strong second house and you will put Bill Gates in the poor house. Wrong! As is typical for much of Western Astrology that explanation is too pat, too compact, too trite.

The second house resonates to survival. More specifically it resonates to that which we need to ensure our survival...material goods upon which we rely to keep going. Yes, there is an aspect of money especially in a capitalistic society such as ours. Someone with a strong, well aspected second house is going to want more, as George Carlin would say, "stuff." A person whose second house is badly aspected may fall into squandering money or even hoarding things. However, it is not all about money.

What resides in the second house is the question, "what do I need to keep me satisfied and comfortable?"

A heavily Aquarian second house is going to make a person really not concerned at all with wall paintings and McMansions. A car will have four wheels and an engine, of sorts. Work will be done for the pleasure of work or for the social good it will do and there will be little worries about building a pension. Top off the house with a strong Capricorn influence and that person will be toiling day and night perhaps in a job they hate to have the ability to buy what they want and to save up for old age. If Taurus alights there then hours will be spent a Neiman Marcus and Dolce and Gabana.

Each one of the latter two people will argue until death that all of things around them are totally necessary for them to survive. They don't do it for the "stuff". They do it for that inner feeling of peace of survival those goods bring them. That is the key to the second house.

With my Saturn in the second house I hated being a consultant because the paychecks were sporadic and the contract could be canceled at any time. (Saturn is ruled by Capricorn.) I had to build a business - steady and reliable. Now friends tell me to give up all other sources of income and rely solely on astrology. The picture is romantic - living in a small house with few financial responsibilities surrounded by my charts. But Saturn keeps screaming at me - are you nuts, you need money coming in regularly, you need security, and you need to save for your even older age? The idea threatens me at the level of basic survival and I shudder at that thought.

That is what the second house does to us. Pretty important little guy, No?

Oh No Not You Again! How You Can Find The Karma That Binds

Do you have a family member who just drives you around the bend…someone who pushes every button, who manipulates and uses you and your emotions? Yeah, well join the club. Maybe now is the time to try to figure out the deep, karmic reasons for this person being in your life this go around. It may not stop the person from being a pain but understanding where they are coming from goes a long way in keeping your headache away. Knowing where you are destined to travel with this person during this incarnation can also help mitigate any negative karmic influences for the future.


Some of the best tools an astrologer has are the synastry chart and the Davison combined chart. A synastry chart is a grid that matches one chart against the other. If your Venus is squared the other person’s Venus any romantic relationship is going to be bumpy. If your Venus is square their Uranus – well you may have a quick love that ends suddenly. If we see Mars and Saturn together especially in romantic relationships or child/parent combinations we have to warn about potential violence. By examining each planetary aspect we can get a pretty good picture how you and the other person will interact.

We can take this one step further with a Davison Relationship Chart. This combines both charts into a single chart. So we take your chart and Pain in the Neck Relative’s chart and make a new chart that combines the two. Then the real fun begins. By coming up with a new chart just for your relationship, we can read it like a birth chart and look into your past lives together. For instance, I put the chart of a rather heinous member of my family together with mine. The placement of Pluto in Leo in the 8th house shows that in our past lives we were involved in a power game. 8th house is power and Leo is the Lion who wants the center of attention. Our combined Pluto is in conjunction with Ceres – the mini planet that was the ancient symbol of Mother Nature – as well as Mars and Venus. All of these planets are in Virgo. This is a male-female power struggle over who can organize and structure (Virgo) issues surrounding goods and money.

Our current soul desire is to – what we should be getting out of this to evolve – is indicated by Pisces in the 2nd house (the opposite of past Pluto). This means that we should be teaching each other how to connect with self and accept who they are. Well, I know that through the pain of this relationship I took a huge step in learning who I am. I hope my family member has done the same but I am not sure. It was a torturous lesson but they taught it to me that is for sure!

Our South Node in Cancer in the 7th shows that we were linked in a very personal close relationship. Ironically, our combined South Node is conjunct both Uranus – the quick change artist and the rebel and Juno, the consort asteroid which indicates where our loyalty lies. The first image I see flash before me is two people married to each other who fought and separated and played tricks and fought and separated but never left each other. It was a horrible death struggle of constant battle and tricks. Sadly, that was symbolic of our current relationship. Although not married this time – we are linked as immediate family and until I walked away and said you can’t be part of my life if you can’t treat me as a human – this was the exact relationship we had.

With our combined North Node in Capricorn in the 1st we are both destined to learn how to embody ourselves. The first house is the house of personality and Capricorn is all about putting form and structure around something. I know that I have fulfilled this North Node command. Through the Hell this relationship put me through I had to say no more. I had to go inside and learn about myself and define myself and be true to that self. Again, did the other person learn this? Only they can know. I can only hope but from what I hear I doubt it.

Through this analysis I can look back and actually be thankful for this person. It was a horrible lesson but once learned it propelled me much further on my evolutionary track. I not only defined who I am more clearly (a first house issue), I realized I had more self worth than I had thought before (a second house issue.) Even if I lost every other member of my family I had to be true to myself and stop the attacks and secret tricks. I stopped the negative karmic identity we held as the two battling cats in a sack as indicated by our South Node, I learned the lessons and moved on in my life.

If we meet again in future lives I won’t fall back into that old South Node pattern – I stopped that karma. If this person comes to me with negative energy again I will have the subconscious memory of what I did in this lifetime and will be able to walk away. If they too have learned the lessons then hopefully we can come back together in a positive fashion and help either other in a much less painful way. Here is hoping!

Neptune and Chiron- What a Pair

Have you been having odd dreams that you cannot quite understand or are you waking up with a disconcerted feeling but you don't remember dreaming? Are you thinking about things from the past -- I don't mean Christmas I mean long ago and far away before you were born? Is there a period in history that you can't stop thinking about - way back in your mind - yes, right there where you normally never go? If so, blame it on the current conjunction of Neptune and Chiron in 26 degrees Aquarius.




Neptune, the planet of illusion, the one best suited for dealing with matters spiritual and karmic instead of physical is sitting right on top of the asteroid Chiron right now - and both are 26 degrees inside the constellation Aquarius. Chiron indicates where we hold a deep physic wound, so deep and painful that we don't want to go near it but we must if we are ever to heal the wound.



These two giants now in the constellation Aquarius that is full of highly charged energy can cause quick insights into the wound patterns that we have long forgotten but are deep within our subconscious. We can suddenly remember days that we may have lived 1000 years ago or feel drawn to the history of that time. We can have odd dreams or wake up in the middle of the night frightened by something although we don't have a clue what it is. We can suddenly have fears arise from situations that we never thought twice about before.



All of these reactions are possible in people whose birth charts have a great deal of interaction with one or both of these planets. If you have many aspects to either you will be feeling these effects. While this can be a bit nerve wracking, however, just remember it is helping clear old karmic patterns to make way for new life!

Wherefore Art Thou Mercury?

"My computer is crashing and I am losing my work!"
"I can't complete a phone call - it keeps cutting out."
"Everything I say is coming out garbled - my thoughts are all loopy."

I have been hearing a lot of that lately and lay the "blame" for these little life events at the quick little feet of Mercury. It happens to be in retrograde right now - meaning that is appears to us Earthlings as we peer out into the universe to be going backwards in the sky. Of course, it isn't going backwards but sometimes - because of how planets are spinning around the Sun - they appear to be retrograding back. It is that motion - that makes the area influenced by that planet to go a bit goofy. Retrogrades make us find a new and different path for our work.

When Mercury, which influences communications and the thought process, spins backwards a bit - we find ourselves not getting our words out the way we want, or misunderstanding others, or losing our written words. Instead of getting aggravated try to find a different way to express yourself --- back up your computer and then take time to go for a walk.

Mercury will right itself on September 29 and move from airy Libra into Virgo. Libra, the sign of the Scales, adds to our mental confusion - "should I shouldn't I, will I won't I" but solid Virgo with its feet on the ground will make it all clear to us again.


http://soulsign.com/tools/practitioners/joan-porte

Me and My Shadow - Taurus

You got me JF! I was showing the shadow of my Gemini South Node -- jumping around too much. Your comment was correct - I SHOULD go to the opposite of the Scorpio North Node now - not jump to another nodal axis. Ah ha - I tossed in another word - Nodal Access. You know one thing I hate about astrology is when people try to make it totally confusing and inaccessible. The zodiac is a circle - go look at a chart - it is round - right? So, if you have a North Node on one side of the circle - the South Node has to be on the opposite site - that whole north and south thing. Therefore, that is a Nodal Axis. See? Easy.

So the opposite of Scorpio is Taurus. The last post dealt with a Scorpio South Node...so now we will like at Taurus. Taurus is the Bull, to me the ultimate Earth sign - content to laze in the pasture - feeling the wonderful Earth beneath it. They can stay in the pasture all day and look at the pretty colors of the fields. How wonderful. Well, to an extent.

If you have a Taurus South Node, some of the traits you may become too reliant on are stubbornness, materiality and just be stuck in stuff. Come on, you know someone like this - they hoard materials either actually like having a hoarding illness, or they are people stuck on collecting possessions. "See my toys - I have all of these possessions so I must be good - see what I just bought. You must think me valuable now because I have all of these valuables."

Taureans also have a hard time turning away from the table. People who eat and eat despite having to reinforce the bed, the car and the house frame - are stuck in a gluttonous past. As are people who can't change their situations no matter how miserable they feel.

Think of the bull, eating in the pasture all day, enjoying all that surrounds him -never moving - taken to extreme that is a person stuck in a Taurus past.

Remember, our South Node is comfortable to us - no matter how detrimental it is to our soul development in this lifetime. We have lived in that existence for so long that we subconsciously crave to go back there. However, the longer we reside there the more shadow aspects develop as the soul development stalls.

So all you Taurus South Node people - get out of your pasture - and into the drama of the world... embrace your Scorpio North Node passion!

Bush/Gore and the Question of Karma.

So I am sitting up nights as the battle of the hanging chads take place in Florida and wonder who will be our next president? As I often do in times of consternation, I look to the stars. Specially, I am combining the charts of George W. Bush born July 6, 1946, 7:26 AM in New Haven, Ct. and Al Gore, born March 31, 1948 at 12:53 PM in Washington, DC and matching them against a chart for Election Day 2000 in a Synastry chart. *I see that it all comes down to a question of karma.

This has not come to me easily – both men had pretty good astrological aspects on that day. Where is the difference? One has to win one has to lose. The only difference I can see is Karma and it doesn’t look good for Gore. Karma comes from the Hindu – Buddhist concept of reincarnation. The Sanskrit word Karma literally means action. For every action, there is a reaction. The quickest explanation of karma is: 'you get what you give'. In other words, whatever you do intentionally to others, a similar thing will happen to yourself in the future.

The one big difference I see in these charts is that Gores’ Pluto, a very karmic planet, is in a negative or difficult aspect with Saturn – another karmic planet. In fact, Saturn is the planet of Karma. Saturn is a strong disciplinarian and teaches us our lessons this lifetime. At times, this planet can be restricting and inhibiting – and when in a difficult aspect it demands a person balance negative karma– they must pay a debt. In short, Gore was paying for some karmic debt on Election Day – not a good harbinger for success.

Gore also has difficult karma in his 10th house the house of career. It is “intercepted” – that means that there are two astrological signs on the cusp of one house. When that happens, it always indicates a pause of karma. In this case, Gore has Taurus intercepting his 10th house. Aries is on the cusp of the 10th house – but Taurus comes and cuts it right in the middle. This is a sign of someone who could have taken control in the past but did not. He had a chance in a past life to take control and rule but he walked away from power. He could have influenced people for the better but took an easier, more selfish route.

Bush has no such karmic imbalance in his chart or on Election Day. Bush has no birth planets in retrograde. (The word retrograde applies, in astrology, to the apparent backward motion thru the ecliptic of a planet. As we from our position on Earth look at another planet, it appears as though it moving backwards on its path around the Sun. Astrologically, it is a pause for karma – another lesson to learn.)

I fear that this election will go in Bush’s favor. Politically I am opposed to his right wing evangelical believes. Astrologically I worry about a future president with a Leo ascendant. Our ascendants are how we present ourselves to the world – our persona. In ancient Sumerian days when Astrology was born, they paid little attention to the Sun. It was too bright and when out it blocked the astrologers’ view of the other planets and stars. You would not go into a bar in ancient Samaria and say, “what is your sun sign” you would say, “what is your ascendant?” It was the rising sign, the ascendant that took center stage in daily astrology.

An ascendant in Leo – the lion inclines a person to want to be more king than president. Leo expects, demands loyalty and fealty among his minions – and brooks little opposition. This is a bit frightening in a man whose only experience is being the government of a state that limits gubernatorial power and has a strong legislature. He needs to listen to advice of others and Leo is not inclined to listen.

Bush’s’ Midheaven, the 10th house cusp, the indicator of our career persona, is in Aries. Ruled by masculine Mars energy, Aries is all about ME. Aries has to be number one - has to be the leader and being the first sign, in essence the baby of zodiac, is prone to temper tantrums when not given their way.

With two fire signs, Leo and Arles, on prominent cusps Bush is going to be a leader who will want things done his way, right or wrong and prefer to have loyal yes men surrounding him.

Now I have to wonder, what karma did American incur to be in this position?

*Synastry is the study of relationships by comparing two horoscope charts.

Al Gore Happy At Last in His North Node

Being a person rabid with anger every time the Bush regime destroys another civil liberty, “spreads Democracy ” at the point of gun and sits by as the Earth comes to a boil, it is hard to step into my role as astrologer and take a dispassionate view of the Universe’s bizarre sense of irony. If nothing else, this is certainly a test of the theory that all occurrences naturally have both a positive and shadow effects – that nothing on Earth is perfectly good or perfectly horrible. (For example, in the wake of a horrible disaster – man made or natural – people will find sparks of generosity and compassion they never knew or had forgotten they had.) Ok we know the shadow or negative effects of the Bush Presidency. (Oh, boy do we!) However, where are the benefits? Well some positive karma has come to the man on the end of the Bush/Gore 2000 election debacle. After going through the black hole of disappointment and despair at having the election ripped from him by the Supreme Court, Al Gore, “the loser” is now fulfilling his soul’s desire in a way it is doubtful he could have accomplished had he became President.

Gore, born, March 31, 1948 in Washington, D.C at 12:53 PM has his North Node in Taurus in the 10th house. The North Node (that horseshoe shaped creature on the astrological chart) tells us the soul’s purpose in our current incarnation. It answers the question, why did the soul wish to come back for this particular lifetime. Nodes, by the way, are not planetary bodies; rather, they are mathematical points. The North and South nodes so instrumental to karmic astrology are the points where the Moon's orbit intersects the plane of the ecliptic, the path it takes around Earth.

The areas Taurus controls are our basic possessions and how we relate to them. Symbolized by the Bull, Taurus is a very tactile sign grounded by the Earth. Ruled by Venus, it has a creative and artistic flair. The tenth house is the career house – the house of social status and how we interact on a professional level. A person whose North Node is placed in Taurus in the 10th house – was put here to pursue a profession active in areas that utilize earth based materials in a creative fashion. By staring in a movie and writing a book teaching the world of the impending environmental crises, he is fulfilling his North Node directive.

On a more personal basis, Taurus controls our bodies – our physicality. Remembering the 2000 race when Gore changed personas, sweaters and image consultants every few months it is safe to say that this was a man not in control of his physicality. The man who was three different people at each of the three debates – has finally found comfort in his own skin.
His North Node is in a close conjunction with the asteroid Ceres. (A conjunction is a placement of planetary bodies in close proximity – normally one to 8 degrees from each other.) Ceres was the Ceres is the Roman name of Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture. She looked after the fields and crops. Ceres is part of an ancient myth that helps explain the cycles of seasonal change. Pluto -- or Hades -- the god of the underworld, kidnapped Ceres’ daughter, Proserpina (Roman counterpart to Persephone), and took her to live with him. Ceres went into the underworld to rescue her daughter and was able to make a deal with Pluto to return every year at the same time. When Ceres goes into the underworld, the crops stop growing and winter comes. In the summer, when she returns, spring arrives and it is time for planning. She was the epitome of motherly love and female fecundity – the ancient symbol of what we call Mother Nature.
People with Ceres in Taurus receive and receive nurturance through the physical substances and they feel their reward by learning how to provide physically for their family and community. Ceres is Earth Mother – Taurus the astrological sign that rules how we care for our Earthly and Earth-given possessions; what a fantastic combination crating a person who is passionate about protecting the planet. When he wrote “Earth In Balance”, in 1993, Al Gore was stirring to his soul’s desire but politics and the fear of the backlash from the radical right who see ecological preservation and environmental protection as issues to mock instead of duties Man must perform for the right to live on Earth, stymied the impact of the book. The press mocked him as a tree-hugger and not a serious politician.
Of course, one could argue that he could have done the same and more as President of the United States – leading the world in the fight of global warming but it would not have been his sole area of concern. Presidents must carry large agendas. Also, with all of the baggage and infighting that goes with politics, his message would have been diluted and attacked by Republicans who would have controlled Congress at least for his first term. Would he have made such an impact on the world community and become known as the brilliant “Goreacle” if still a politician? Doubtful. Yes, the Presidency has power – but it also demands caution. President Gore never would have been able to speak the “Inconvenient Truth” about global warming. Aides and lobbyist would have parsed and watered down his words. He might have gotten some small piece of legislation through – signed some international agreements but would never had the spoken the total truth he knew in his heart to be true. How many times did he talk about the environment in his 2000 run? Precious few. The environment does not “sell” politically.

With noting more to lose, Gore threw off his fake political cautious persona and suddenly he made the world aware that we are committing suicide.

Why, was his route so painful? Ah, that is where karma comes to play! This is not the first time negative karma has reared its ugly head in Gore’s life. (See “Bush/Gore And The Question of Karma).” His 10th house is “intercepted” – that means that there are two astrological signs on the cusp of one house. (The cusp is the entryway to each astrological house.) When that happens, it always indicates a pause of karma. In this case, Gore has Taurus intercepting his 10th house. Aries is on the cusp of the 10th house – but Taurus comes and cuts it right in the middle. This is a sign of someone who could have taken control in the past but did not. He had a chance in a past life to take rule but he walked away from power and responsibility and left his people in a state of upheaval. He could have influenced people for the better but took an easier more selfish route. This time around, his path to leadership in the area he excels in (Earth matters) would be convoluted and painful. He had to repay that debt

Gore’s South Node – where he is coming from – his past life indictor is in Scorpio in the 4th house. Scorpio is all about power. Because the 10th house is intercepted, the house on the opposite of the circle, the 4th house is intercepted as well. The karmic imbalance he had by shirking his career goals in the past – created an imbalance of power at home. It is humorous that he titled his first book “Earth in Balance” – I am sure he did not consciously know it when he or his publishers picked the title but he was already on his path to restoring his karmic balance with that book.

It is a testament to Gore that he came out of the abyss, balanced the karma and still fulfilled his North Node calling. In the face of such wrenching disappointment, he could have become bitter, vengeful and gone down into a hole of more negativity and karmic debt. He could have sowed the seeds for countless lifetimes of bitter lose, more anger – more negativity. Instead, he chose to shake off the dust and pain, follow his heart (actually his North Node) and become the world expert on climate change. He lost the rulership role he craved (or thought he did) and became an even bigger leader.