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Transcript of Tom Lescher Answers About Placidus vs. Porphyry€¦ · It’s like taking the belt of the zodiac...
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Tom Lescher – New Paradigm Astrology, Learn Astrology Webinar 2, September 8th, 2012
Aloha, this is Tom Lescher Welcome to webinar #2. This week will continue going through the
12 major archetypes, the 12 signs. Last week we successfully navigated through the waters of
Pisces, the fire of Aries, and the earth of Taurus. This week, we’re going to go on with Gemini.
Answers About Placidus vs. Porphyry
But before doing that, I need to answer a couple of questions for people about the different house
systems, because I sent out that email about me using the Porphyry House and I got some
questions back. I’m going to deal with this briefly today, because there is a whole class
dedicated to the houses coming up later on. There are at least 50 different ways of dividing the
horoscope into houses. Regiomontanus, Porphyry, Placidus, Campanus, whole-sign house
systems, etc. For New Paradigm Astrology, I am going to leave you free to use whatever house
system you want. Some astrologers in some schools are far more strict as far as what house
system they want you to use. You need to use their house system or you’re not part of their
school.
I’m not that way. If you want to use Placidus, fine. I just put it out there that I use Porphyry, and
I encourage you to research different house systems. This is something that has gone on for
many years. Astrologers don’t all agree. Obviously, there are many different ways of taking
space and dividing it. There is general agreement that the horizon, the Ascendant, starts the 1st
house, and that the midheaven starts the 10th
house, and the 4th
house. So, the cross that starts the
1st, 4
th, 7
th and 10
th house… these are the same in practically all the house systems. But then you
have to divide the space between what’s at the zenith directly overhead, and what’s at the
Ascendant. Particularly, as you go into Northern latitudes, what happens is that space becomes
squeezed. It’s like taking the belt of the zodiac around a large stomach, and then you take it off
the stomach, and you try to squeeze it around this smaller, smaller circle. The space squeezes.
So there are many different ways of dividing that space between the zenith and the horizon. And
the Porphyry system is what Jeffrey Wolf Green uses, the founder of the School of Evolutionary
Astrology that I studied under. He’s my teacher. He turned me on to it. It is based upon the law
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of three, the trinity. That you take that space and you divide it equally by three. Boom, boom,
boom. So, 10th
house, 11th
house, 12th
house you will find all the same size, and below the
horizon, 1st, 2
nd, 3
rd house are all exactly the same number of degrees.
That’s the Porphyry house system. It takes that space and divides it equally by three. Now you
get into Placidus, which is the most popular these days. It is the most popular because there was
a monk, Placidus de Tito, in the 17th
century, that used his calculations, and he took the time it
took for a planet to rise from the horizon to the midheaven. He calculated the time and trisected
it. The reason that it’s most popular now is because there were the most number of the tables of
houses available in print. Before computers, they had books with tables of houses, and those
Placidus tables of houses were published through the 20th
century all over the place. They were
the most available. So that is the most popular and it’s just stuck and held.
The Koch house system is the newest house system. Just developed in 1971, this is another
means of dividing the space between the Midheaven and the Ascendant. So we have all these
different house systems. I encourage you to look at these different house systems. Use different
house systems. I used Koch for a long time, and I started out with Placidus. I went over to Koch
because Robert Hand uses Koch, and I was really into Robert Hand for a while. And then I used
the whole-sign house system because that’s what the Shamanic School of Astrology uses with
Daniel Giamario. And then I used Porphyry for a while with the Evolutionary School and Jeffrey
Green, and then I went back to Koch. So I have bounced around a little bit myself, and I have
landed and settled on Porphyry. I have been using it for a number of years now. Most often the
change is minimal, and the planets stay in the same houses. Every once in a while, a planet or
two changes from one house to another, and that’s where you really want to pay attention to the
differences.
Gemini
Ok so let’s jump on into Gemini. We’ve got Jupiter in Gemini as of July of this year. I think it
was July 3rd
or July 4th
. It’s going to stay there for a year, until July of 2013. So Jupiter is
expansion, opportunity. You know, what I want to say is if you’ve got these charts in front of
you, one of these good things that I’m going to say, and I’m going to deal with this a lot more
when we get to the planets, but very simply, very simply when I’m talking about these signs, like
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I’m going to talk about Gemini. Ok, if you’ve got the Moon in Gemini, you have a PhD in
Gemini. You’re coming from Gemini. You’ve done Gemini in your past lives. If you’re a
Gemini Ascendant, it means that you are moving toward Gemini or learning Gemini in this
lifetime. Your Ascendant sign is the school that you are in. So there is your Moon and
Ascendant. And of course your Sun is the fuel that powers the whole chart. So if your Sun is in
Gemini, you’ll want to be ‘doing’ Gemini. And it’s going to enliven everything in your chart,
everything about you.
The Importance of Moon and Ascendant Signs
So there’s your Sun, Moon and Ascendant. So when you look at these 5 or 10 different charts in
front of you as I go through the archetypes, don’t just look at Sun signs. Be looking for the
Moon signs. The Moon is very, very powerful and critical. Next, look at the Ascendant sign, the
sign that is over to the far left of the horizontal line, the horizon. Since the chart is a 24-hour
clock, that is the sign that was rising at the time you were born. The sign over on the right was
setting and is called the Descendant. So, instead of just looking at Sun signs, look at the Moon
sign and Ascendant (Or Rising) sign. We’re going to gradually expand the bubble here and keep
it going. So let’s get into Gemini.
Moving into Gemini
Gemini is the archetype of the Joker, or the Trickster. The mystery school of Gemini emerges out
of Taurus. We talked about Taurus. Let’s just review here a little bit. Pisces is the infinite
potential. That infinite potential bursts out like the seed bursts out of the soil through the sign of
Aries. Aries is the new impulse; the desire to get going. After Aries comes Taurus, the sign of
earth, substance, manifestation. So the Aries impulse takes form (Taurus), and then that form
needs to relate to its environment. Steven Forrest gave a wonderful analogy of this. It’s the
story of the airplane flying. The airplane crashes in the jungle. That’s Aries, CRASH. The first
thing you do is what? You see if you’re alive or not, you check your Taurus body. And then if
you’re ok, and your body is ok, you’re still breathing, you’re still alive, then you come into
Gemini. You get out of the plane, you open the door, you crack a window and you see your
environment. You see what’s around you. You see what you need to connect with, what you
need to expand into, and you gather information about that environment. This is Gemini.
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It is the student. It is learning. It is looking into everything that it is in the immediate here and
now; in the neighborhood, right in front of your nose, right in front of your face. In our story you
break out of that airplane, and ask, “Are there cannibals in this jungle? Is there food in this
jungle? Where is the nearest water?” So we have that impulse to be. That’s Aries. We come into
a physical body through Taurus, and we need to relate to our environment through Gemini.
So Gemini is all about gathering information. It is about learning. It is about exploring, curiously
checking out all the different aspects of what is available. It has to do with thinking. It’s an air
sign. We talked about fire, earth, air, and water. We talked about Fixed and Mutable. This is
Mutable air. Mutable has to do with mutating, with changing, and if you know a Gemini, they
change! (*Laughing)
Air is the mind. Mutable is change. So Gemini changes their mind. Because what? They’re
always gathering new information. “Ok, there’s new information. I didn’t know that yesterday. I
didn’t have that little piece of information. I didn’t have that airline ticket. I hadn’t read that
book. I hadn’t…” So I am constantly impacted by the new information that I am learning, and
then I expand and I change and I grow out of that. This is necessary for us to integrate into the
external environment. We talked about how Aries and Taurus is this kind of the unconscious
seed. Very narcissistic, very self-oriented. Taurus is very self-sufficient. Well, you build up your
self-sufficiency, your capacity, your talents, your treasure, and then you need to be able to
integrate into relationships and deal with other people.
Gemini is About Networking
So Gemini is about networking. Gemini is about friends. Our first immediate environment is our
brothers and sisters. So Gemini, which is ruled by Mercury, and it’s associated with the 3rd
house; this whole archetype has a lot to do with siblings; brothers and sisters. It’s your
immediate environment, your neighborhood. Nowadays, it also has a lot to do with technology.
The pressure on Gemini is the pressure to stay current.
You must keep up with what is happening right here and now. Don’t fall behind. Don’t lose track
or you will not be connected. You will not be integrated. You will not have any effect in the
outside world. So there’s a pressure to always be learning more, to always be getting the latest
and the greatest. Gemini likes to go shopping to keep up with the latest fashions. There’s a new
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gadget. There’s a new device. There’s a new water filter out there. There’s a new health aide.
There’s a new book. There’s always something new, and Gemini feels like, “I have to know
this. I need to know this. I need to stay up with the times.”
Gemini is About Gathering
Now the other thing about the air is that it can be, at times, superficial. At times, Gemini is just
buying new things. They are the gadget man or the gadget woman, and they’ve got all the latest
toys, all the latest gadgets. They may not know how to use all of them, they’re kinda stacked up
in their closet, but they are always getting them. And they can get very wrapped up in the
moment, in the variety, in everything that’s going on, in the here and now, depending on the
planet that’s involved with this now. The energy of Gemini is to gather all the variety, all the
information, all the technology, all the means of communication, and this is the left brain;
logical, rational, looking at the world through the dualistic, polarized reality. It’s either yes or no,
here or there. It’s navigating. I need this information. I need Mapquest or Google Maps to get me
from point A to point B.
Gemini is GPS. It’s giving us direction in the moment. So part of the challenge with Gemini,
let’s look at the polarity to Sagittarius. Gemini can be all about here and now, this immediate
conversation, this immediate party that I’m attending, this immediate group of friends that I’m
in… this spouse or partner that I’m going out with tonight. I’m looking at what’s going on right
now, right here, right in front of me. And what’s going to get me to the next corner, to the next
place. I just want to get to the next… it’s like a line of stones going across a river, where you
need to jump, jump, jump. I just want to get to the next stone, so I’m going to say what I need to
say, I’m going to do what I need to do, to get to the next stone. It’s very immediate. It’s kind of
looking a little bit at the tip of your nose. It’s nearsighted! Gemini can be nearsighted.
The Truth Changes for Gemini
Sagittarius is far-sighted. Sagittarius is the right brain, intuition. It’s the truth. THE TRUTH.
We’ll get to what THE TRUTH is when we get to Sagittarius, but every Sag figures they have a
handle on it. (*Laughing) Whereas for Gemini, the truth is a little more changeable. The truth is
a little more relative. The truth is a little more subjective. Just want to get from point A to point
B. I want to get to this next rock, then I’ll worry about the rock after that, and the rock after that,
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and the rock after that. Sagittarius has looked across all the rocks, across the stream, into the
forest and they’re looking at the little house or cabin that’s about a mile away through the forest.
So these two polarities are very complimentary, and you can get lost in either one by not being in
balance. Gemini can be too nearsighted. And this is where so many people have a challenge with
Gemini. It’s this changing of the mind, changing of the tune. Some people call it lying!
(*Laughing)
When you say one thing one day, in fact Sagittarius will call it lying! When you say one thing
one day, in order to just get through the day. “I just wanna get through the day. I wanna get
through this argument. I wanna get through this party. I wanna get through this job. I wanna just
get to the airport on time. I’ll just do whatever I have to do. dah dah dah.” And then the next day,
“I made it. I’m on the next stone. Things look different, and I need to modify and change to get
to the next stone.” You do this. It’s very helpful in the case of an emergency. Gemini is very
quick. They can think on their feet. They can think on their knees. They can think on their
stomachs. They can think on their backs. (*Laughing)
The Downside of Gemini
If anything, they think too much, and they drive some of these other signs absolutely nuts
because they’re just like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, how do you keep up with the juggler? The joker?
The trickster? “ And of course, the down side of that is mental masturbation. It’s the rat in the
cage that is just going around in circles and, “I don’t know where I’m going. I’m just going to
get thru here and here and here, and I don’t have a goal, don’t have a long-term vision. I don’t
really have a personal truth. There’s no meaning to it all. I’m lost in the immediate. Whoever’s
got the most toys wins.” It’s that kind of a mentality. Forget the life after death thing, and the
deeper philosophical underpinnings of what’s going on. “I just wanna get a bunch of money in
the bank, a car in the garage, and get things covered and have enough money to buy the latest
fashions.” So this is where Gemini can get a little ….. We don’t need to be judgmental but we
could say shallow or superficial.
The Upside of Gemini
The plus side of Gemini is it’s really good to have a Gemini around when your computer breaks
down, when your car breaks down, when you need a joke, or you need to laugh at something,
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and you need to just kind of lighten up a little bit. It is the joker. It is the trickster. So these air
signs give us the ability to detach from the situation a little bit, which also gives us the ability to
communicate. For water and earth signs, the feminine, introverted, can get lost in their feelings,
or their physical body. You also want to look at that when you’re looking at all these charts.
Look at how many planets they have in each one of the elements. Fire, earth, air and water. It’s
nice to have some planets in each, but an excess or a lack of an element says a lot about the
person. But there are also houses. I have a lot of planets in the 12th
house. It’s a water house. So
you can’t just go by planets, but do look at elemental balances or imbalances. A chart with very
little air can be a person who has a difficult time communicating.
Gemini is Speaking Out
So Gemini, Mercury, and the 3rd
house is about communication and interaction with the
environment, which is very important! It’s not only gathering info, it’s also speaking. When we
get to the houses, the 3rd
house has to do with your lower education, and how smart they said you
were at school. How able you were to check the little boxes and repeat back what the teacher
said like a good little robot. (*laughing*) Gemini is this ability to also speak, share and talk, and
to give and receive our ideas. This left-brain is the ability to take our feelings, the water, or to
take our fire, our intuition, our imagination and put them into logical, reasonable, rational forms
of language.
Gemini is the study of languages. It’s multiculturalism. It’s being able to cross boundaries and
cross barriers and gather information from other cultures, other societies, other languages.
Rudolph Steiner said that language was the structure of the ego. It’s like the more languages you
can speak, the more versatile, the more open, the more diverse, the more fluid or flexible your
ego is. You can be structured in different ways. So this is this Gemini capacity to mutate, and to
be Mutable, and to interact with the environment. Very, very, very critical now during these
times of change.
Challenges for Gemini
I’m thinking of something that Jeffrey Green said about one of the challenges of Gemini. It is
that we gather information. We read this book. We read that book. We read the other magazine
article. We get the blogs. We get all this information. We get information overload. Too much
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information can overload the circuits, and make it very difficult to make a decision. I have too
many options, too many possibilities. Again, I need to be balanced by Sagittarius. That I have an
aim, a goal, a truth that I’m shooting for. Otherwise, there can be mental instability, and Gemini
can lose it. It is the schizophrenic. It’s the twins. Well, I want this over here. No, I think I want
this over here. No, I think I want this over here. (*laughing)
Two talking heads. It’s quite the archetype. I forget the fairy tale of the double headed fellow, ya
know, the one going around with the heads talking to each other. But it’s not funny when you are
mentally overwhelmed, and you can have a mental or a nervous breakdown. Gemini and
Mercury do have to do with the mentality, the nervous system. And Gemini can get really wired
out. Slow down on the caffeine!
The Humor of Gemini
Let’s remember, the joker played a special role in the court of the king. He was the only one who
could go up and whisper in the King’s ear that he was wrong, bad, made a mistake, or a fool out
of himself without having the King chop his head off or give him a hard time. And this is where
humor … humor can be a godsend because humor can help point out things we don’t want to
see, things we don’t want to look at, things we’re ashamed of, feelings that we don’t know how
to deal with or integrate. Humor can bring these things up so that we can look at them, laugh at
it, but at least acknowledge its existence.
Diplomatic License Plates
Gemini can also have, at times, this sense of , I forget who said it, diplomatic license plates. If
you have diplomatic license plates, you can park wherever you want without getting a ticket. So
Gemini can have this joker mentality that it is a little bit above. “I am a diplomat. I will not get a
ticket. I can do things that other people cannot do. And I will not get screwed.” Yeah? So it is
this idea that I can talk my way out of a ticket. I can talk circles around anybody. I can sell
refrigerators to Eskimos. I can work my way around and use my mental agility to get my way, no
matter what. There can also be this sense or feeling that I am just a little bit above, or a little bit
better, or a little bit smarter than anybody else. Therefore, I don’t need to necessarily deal with
this little pee-on issue of where to park.
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Gemini Rules the Tubes of the Body
We could talk about Gemini more and more. Obviously Gemini likes to talk more and more. I
think you get the general idea of that archetype, of what planets in Gemini are saying. If you’ve
got the Moon in Gemini you’re coming from past lives of being a gypsy. You’re coming from
past lives of traveling. Oh let’s also bring in singing. Ok Gemini and Mercury… Gemini rules
the tubes of the body. It rules the limbs, the arms, especially the hands and the fingers, as well as
the nervous system. So Gemini is also crafts, and musicians working with their fingers, playing
the piano, playing the trumpet, people making jewelry. Jewelry is perfect, and singers. It’s your
throat. It’s communication. If you have issues, if you have problems like Saturn aspecting
Mercury, or Mercury in the 12th
house or something, Sing! Learn how. Open that chakra, open
that Mercury, open that Gemini.
Question: What about a massage therapist?
Answer: Massage is associated more with Taurus. Taurus is the physical body, touch, and
sensation. Cutting hair is a perfect Gemini activity, most definitely.
Cancer
Let’s move on to Cancer and look at that archetype for a little bit here. Fire, earth, air, water.
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer. These are the first four signs, the first Triplicity. And what we
can look at with that is the plane crashes – Aries. Taurus checks the body, whew, I’m ok. Gemini
opens the door, we’re in the middle of a jungle. “I’ll go find water, I’ll go find food. I’ll go see
who’s out there, who our neighbors are.” And Cancer comes out and says, “Let’s build some
shelter. Where is there a cave? We want something to protect us. It could rain. There could be a
fire. There could be any kind of danger. The airplane we’re in could blow up at any minute. Let’s
build a shelter. Gather some trees, wood, leaves, whatever.”
Water and Emotions
This is the crab. You know, the crab crawls sideways underneath the rock. Cancer is Cardinal
water. Cardinal water is Brahma water. It initiates action through water, through the feelings,
through the emotions, through the needs. The sign of Cancer is ruled by the Moon, and it’s
associated with the 4th
house. So we’re looking at the Moon also, and the 4th
house. If you’ve
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got a lot of planets in the 4th
house, if your Moon is strong, maybe Moon is in the sign of Cancer.
If you’ve got a lot of planets in the sign of Cancer, you want to be looking at this.
People with the Moon in Cancer are coming from being emotional, being the mother, really
intuitive, really in touch with their inner world. They are very much about their own personal
feelings, their personal, emotional reality. Water always deals with our feelings and most often
our unconscious. So our unconscious is always emerging into our consciousness. This is just part
of the evolutionary process. We’ll talk about it more and more, but Cancer is this point of the
personal unconscious. Pisces is the collective unconscious, and we talked about the collective
unconscious. We talked about the feeling of overwhelm. Neptune/Pisces/12th
house, this feeling
of, “whoa, I feel your feelings and your feelings, and the environment is overtaking me.” Cancer
is the personal unconscious, and, “I have my feelings. It just comes out of nowhere. You know, 2
hours ago I was fine. I was flying high. I was having a good time, and then somebody said
something that triggered this memory of when I was 4 years old and what my father did to me”,
and whoop, something comes up, something from the past, a memory. This can be also be
something from past lives.
Emotional Changes and the Inner Child
This can be something that is unconscious, or something that I didn’t process or work through, or
that I didn’t feel all of the feelings when it first arose within me. And it comes back into my
current reality, and there is a change in my emotional state. There’s a change in my feelings.
There’s a change in who I personally am, and who I’m identifying myself as right now. And it
takes me time to integrate the upsurge of these feelings into my ego, into my conscious identity,
and that time is usually well spent alone, in solitude. Cancer needs space. They need time alone
to process, to integrate. They go into their room and shut the door. “Leave me alone!” They are
processing. They are feeling something and those feelings are important. There are extremely
sensitive people, and we all have Cancer somewhere. We are all extremely sensitive somewhere.
We all have a Moon. We all have a 4th
house.
This is the inner child. We all have an inner child. The opposite is Capricorn/Saturn/10th
house.
That’s the elder, the adult, the objective, duty, responsibility, get the job done. Our society, our
jobs, our bosses, external authorities demanding… We all have to find this balance between the
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Moon and Saturn, between Cancer and Capricorn, between the 4th
house and the 10th
house,
between the inner child and the adult, critical authority.
I do this thing called Astro-Drama where I have masks and costumes for each one of the planets,
and we all stand there around the person, and we are the person’s chart, and the chart speaks to
you. (*Laughing) And the person sits in the middle and goes, “Oh My God!” And this is very
real. These planets are like all the voices in your head. We all have this going on. (I hope it’s not
just me! *Laughing)
We all have an inner child. We all have our father in there. We’ve all got the mother in there.
We’ve all got these different voices, the boss, the brother, the sister, the dead grandmother,
whoever. The victim, we’ve all got this martyr voice, ya know, poor me. And then we’ve got the,
“C’mon now, get your shit together and do it!” And then we’ve all got the, “You dumb idiot.”
We’ve all got these voices going on. These are the planets. These are the different aspects of our
psyche.
So Cancer, the Moon, and the 4th
house, is the little child that says, “Hey, I want some ice cream.
Screw those guys. Stay home from work. Who cares. C’mon. I don’t feel good today. Oh me, oh
my. (*Blows raspberries) forget you!” The introverted, little child within us and we’ve all got it.
And if anything, I would say our Western civilization ignores it, diminishes it, degrades it and
yet, by taking care of our inner child, listening to our inner child, we become emotionally stable,
emotionally balanced, emotionally integrated adults, and we feel comfortable with ourselves.
Acceptance
So Cancer is also about self-acceptance. I accept my feelings. People with a lot of Cancer, a lot
of 4th
house can say, “This is what I am. This is who I am. This is how I’m feeling, so there.”
That’s it. That’s just the way it is. The nice part about that is also that Cancer can be very
accepting of other people having their feelings, having their needs. “Oh that’s just the way John
is. Oh Sally always acts like that. That’s just Sally.” There is this beautiful capacity… and it’s
also then the capacity of the mother. Now this is the interesting thing about Cancer. It’s both the
child and the mother. It’s the need to be nurtured to honor our feelings, to feel ourselves, to
accept ourselves, our feelings, our emotions, and how they’re always changing, but that also
leads to an understanding of other people, and a compassionate open heart.
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Cancer Archetype
So I think of Amma, the hugging saint, or Mother Teresa. I think of some of these other
archetypes. Mother Mary, yeah? These archetypes have to do with this ability to feel what other
people need, and to nurture other people, and to care for other people, even though we may not
understand them. Gemini says, “Gimme a reason. What’s this about? Where does it hurt? I’ll get
the doctor. I’ll call 911. We’ll fix this.” Cancer says, “I’m feeling these feelings, and they’re not
logical. They’re not rational. They don’t make any sense, whatsoever. They can’t be fixed. They
just exist. They just are. Be quiet. (*Laughing)
So the mother is able also then, instinctively, intuitively, not with logic, not with rationale or
reasons, but Mother Mary is the beautiful mother of Jesus, who takes in everything. It’s the Great
Mother that just loves us unconditionally. There’s no reason. Mothers love their children, and
their children can be mass murderers. But a mother loves her children on some level. (Let’s not
go overboard.)
Downside of Cancer
With Cancer there is also the non-conforming nature. It’s the opposite of Capricorn, the opposite
of doing what the external authority says to do. It can be very self-absorbed, very narcissistic,
take things very personally, the world is centered around me. The downside of Cancer is being
overly subjective, overly personal, overly self-absorbed in their own little myopic world that is
inside of themselves and get stuck in their feelings. When this is the case they are not nurturing
other people, not putting themselves in other people’s shoes, not caring what other people are
feeling or hearing or seeing, or how other people are hurting because they are lost in their own
issues and their own processes. So again, there is this need to not become overly self-absorbed or
narcissistic, but to balance that with the Capricorn/Saturn/10th
house polarity of maturity,
objectivity, and discipline. So if you are a Cancer Ascendant, you are moving toward Cancer,
and if you have the Moon in Cancer you are coming out of Cancer.
Cancer Ascendant
If you are a Cancer Ascendant, right above that is the 12th
house, and in one way you’re coming
out of the 12th
house. That is the way of your past, and you’re learning this Ascendant. So you’re
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coming out of Gemini, and you’re learning Cancer, moving toward Leo (12th
, 1st, and 2
nd
houses). But you want to get Cancer down first. So if you’re a Cancer Ascendant, you may have
had past lives where you were not in touch with your feelings, where you were not in touch with
your personal needs, where you were not in touch with your emotions, or your inner child, and so
this lifetime you give yourself a Cancer rising (Ascendant). You are thinking, analyzing, fixing.
You’re a real smart person. You’re coming from Gemini on the 12th
and you’re now coming out
of your head and into your heart. You’re coming out of your thoughts and your thinking left
brain into Cancer, into feeling, into honoring other aspects of your being. You’re learning Cancer
with Cancer Rising.
Moon Addiction
If you have the Moon in Cancer, you got Cancer down. We’ll talk here a little bit about what we
can call, the “Moon addiction.” A Moon addiction is when you’re so comfortable there, and you
know it so well, that you don’t leave it. So if you’ve got the Moon in Cancer, that’s wonderful.
You are very emotional. You are very intuitive. You are very feeling. You can be very
compassionate and understanding of other people, AND you need to get out of the house!
(*Laughing)
You need to come out of yourself a little bit. You need to put all of that toward something; do
something with it. Balance with that 10th
house Capricorn. So the Moon is our past, and we don’t
want to stay in our past. We want to move toward the future. We want to use the Moon as a
springboard into our future self. We’ll discuss chart indications regarding the future soul path
and the whole evolutionary process in the last two classes of the seminar, and also when we work
with the planets and Moon’s Nodes.
Emerging From Cancer
So we’ll look at how we interpret a chart to see the soul intention of where they have been to
where they are going, but right now we are going to continue on to Leo.
The second fire sign. We’ve made it through the first fire, earth, air and water; Aries, Taurus,
Gemini and Cancer. And now we come into the 2nd
fire sign. Fixed fire. Aries is Cardinal fire.
We talked about Aries; unconscious, the bull in the china shop, the ram, the start, the pioneer,
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who cares. It’s kind of unconscious. Well Leo is a little more conscious. It’s gone through the 4
signs. It’s coming out of the womb of Cancer. It’s gotten in touch with its personal needs, with
its inner processes, with its emotions. So Leo comes out of Cancer, it’s not coming out of the
primordial bliss of Pisces, from chaos and infinity. No. Leo is emerging out of Cancer; the
womb, the cave, my own personal needs.
Leo
There is a certain self-consciousness to the fire of Leo, and that self-consciousness is fixed fire
and is like an engine. Think of a steam engine…those old trains that ran on coal. You add the
wood, and it’s chug, chug, chug. Think of a car engine, a piston. It’s contained explosions. And
those contained explosions basically can propel something in a particular direction. So here we
have the leader, the King, the Queen. The lion, the lioness is the King or Queen of the jungle.
It’s the only sign that is a carnivore which depicts the powerful firey nature of it’s desire that is
consciously directed, or aimed, toward a specific result…..in this case, hunting it’s food.
Leo is Adolescence
This is a powerful sign of desire. It takes those desires of Aries and becomes more conscious of
them. I always kind of look at Leo as the adolescent because Cancer is the child, and Leo is born
out of that, and you know teenagers! They are very willful. They are full of themselves, full of
their feelings and their point of view, and their truth. And the adults just don’t know what’s
going on, man. “I’m sorry, but you’re out of touch. You’re the old generation. You guys are
history. We got it here. We are the future. We are the next generation. Step aside please. I would
like to tear up all those parking lots, and tear down all those office buildings. Who needs banks.
Who needs money. Forget it!” (*Laughing)
I love it. I love teenagers. I love kids. But there is this myopic, rather, my world and welcome to
it. Wayne’s World was a movie that came out along with The World According to Garp. This is
the King or the Queen. Ideally this is balanced by the polarity, Aquarius and the 11th
house. So
let’s say you have a bunch of planets in Leo, or planets in the 5th
house. Leo is ruled by the Sun.
You have a powerful Sun, that is the Sun is on Ascendant or the Sun up at the mid-heaven.
Different places in the chart are powerful, particularly what they call the angles, the horizontal
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and vertical lines of the chart that define the Ascendant/Descendant axis and the
Midheaven/Immun Coeli.
Leo is “The Agent of Life”
The Sun gives light generously, unconditionally, shines its light on everyone. So Leo wants to
be seen by everyone. Leo wants to give to everyone. Leo wants to create, express. I like it,
Maurice Fernandez calls it ‘The Agent of Life.’ Leo is an agent of life. I give life with everything
that I do, everything that I say, every act that I perform. I am giving life to something. When I
play the violin, I am giving life to classical music. When I do astrology, I am giving life to
astrology, or it would die and go away. So we are agents of life through what we do. We give
ourselves, our energy, our fire, our power to what we want to create. We give our heart. Leo
rules the heart. We give our heartspace. So when you follow your heart, act on your bliss, when
you go forward and you give and you follow your excitement and you follow your heart, you are
being an agent of life, and you are doing your 5th
house. You are doing your Sun. You are doing
your Leo. So it is the sign of self-expression.
I formed myself in Cancer. Now I want to shine it out. I want to ray it out. I want to be seen. So
Leo is about drama. Leo is about being on the stage. Leo is about being on the top of the
mountain, the top of the pyramid, being seen from all over by everyone. It’s Tom Cruise. Let me
think of some Leo actors. Robert Redford I think is a Leo. Bette Midler is a Scorpio, but she had
a stellium (3 or more planets together) in the 5th
house. Now the thing about being on stage is
what? You have an audience! You take Leo without an audience, and you’ve got one sad puppy.
Leo’s Fire Needs Fuel
The thing about fire is it needs fuel. Whether it’s coal, wood, money, clapping, applause, smiles.
Leo wants to be seen, wants to be approved of, wants our applause, wants laughter. When they
open the door to a party, they want heads to turn. “Oh my God, Sally’s here!” And then Sally is
like, “Oh yes…” You know that feeling, roll out the red carpet. So Leo needs that. The challenge
obviously with that is the fear of rejection. It’s the bottom line, and it’s probably the biggest fear
of Leo. “Oh my God, what if they don’t like my dress? I’m not gonna wear that. What if they
don’t like this earing. I’m not gonna wear that. I’m going to hide myself …Go back to Cancer.
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I’m not ready yet. I’m not ready for the stage. Don’t open that curtain! I don’t wanna be seen.
Aaaaaah!”
Leo Ascendant
“I need more school. I need more letters under my name. I need to be older. I need to be more
successful. I need more money. Wait, wait, wait, wait!” If you’re Leo Ascendant, you’re learning
how to just show up. You’re coming out of Cancer on the 12th
house. “I’m not ready yet. I’m not
secure. Oh my God, I don’t have everything ready.” Lalalala. And you’re learning how to do
Leo. Ready or not here I am! It’s the song I Did It My Way. I forget the rest of the words, but it’s
a good song to describe Leo.
So this is Leo, and like I say, all the fire signs… It’s interesting because Leo can come across as
being the lion or lioness. “Roar. I’m big. I’m strong. Look out for me. Roar.” But fire can be
blown out like candle. Wherever fire goes, there is always fear. Like I say, fire needs fuel. I think
I said that with Aries right? You put water on fire, it goes out. You put earth on fire, it goes out.
You can blow fire out like you blow out a candle with too much air. Fire is very tenuous. Leo is
very tenuous. It is Fixed fire. So it is very powerful in that sense. It is where we want give
generously and create. Let’s look at the act of creation. This act of creation involves becoming
mini gods and goddesses. Like I said many times, creation is something new, never been done
before, never been seen before, never been heard before. There are no instructions. There are no
recipes. There is no path to follow. It’s new. N E W.
Creating Something Brand New
If you’re following a pattern, if you’re copying a dress that somebody else made, this is more
Virgo. This is a technician. Even the pianist playing the piano, they are technicians. They’re
playing somebody else’s music. Bach, Mozart, whatever. It’s different playing an instrument
than writing music. Composing is different than performing. So when Leo comes on, it is about
creating something brand new that has never been before, and it is a trick. It’s not easy. This is
the challenge of Leo. A lot of times people look at Leos and they say they are egotistical, self-
centered, narcissistic, they need all the attention, especially kids. You get these little Leo kids,
and it’s like, “Mommy, Daddy, look at me! Watch this. Look at this. I just learned a new trick.”
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Mom and dad can just go, “Oh my god, this kid sure needs a lot of attention! Little sweetheart.”
(*laughing)
Leo is Personal Power
Leos can be a little demanding, a little expecting, they do need a lot of attention. But when you
have some planets in Leo, the idea is actually that it’s good. It is OK to need that. You need to
be that way. And in some ways, Leo can teach everyone. Let’s look at this other thing because
Leo is personal power. It is the King or the Queen of the jungle. It’s the top of the food chain.
It’s the top of the pyramid. And our society, whether you call it the illuminati, whether you call it
the government, whether you call it the church or your parents or your family or your teachers…
there is a certain desire here to smother that autonomous sovereign, personal power.
We’re taught through religion and cultural conditioning, don’t be selfish, don’t be too big for
your britches, don’t expect too much, or, “Who do you think you are?” And particularly religion,
“You have to be saved. What authority told you that? What scientist or what priest or what
messiah said that was right or wrong or good or bad or ok or not ok. Who do you think you are?”
There’s a lot of this going on now, at the turning of the ages, at the birth of the new paradigm,
breaking down the hierarchy. This is part of what this Age of Aquarius is about. We’re on the
cusp of the Leo/Aquarius axis now. We need to be balancing - the good of the group, which is
Aquarius…the whole, with Leo… which is the individual. And we have to be careful. We know
that through the age of Pisces, Virgo, the virgin; the woman, became the shadow, and was
suppressed and denied and ignored and degraded. Nature, the feminine. Now we’re moving into
Aquarius: globalization, world government, global banking system, community, the good of the
group, the good of the whole. We need to be very careful that Leo does not become the shadow,
degraded, suppressed, judged, and dumped on. We have to guarantee the rights of the individual
within the group, and we’re in very strong danger of losing Leo with all of our numbers and
charge cards and our, well, one potential future is that we all become a number, and, of course,
that would be the end of Leo!
Creation From Recreation (Re-Creation)
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Next, Leo creation, RE-creation. Oh yeah. How do we create? We recreate, we play, right? How
do you come up with something that you’ve never come up with before? You take everything as
it is. Just watch the kids in the sandbox. Watch the kids with pen and paper. They play.
Recreation and play leads to putting things together in new ways and different ways. So Leo/5th
house/Sun needs to play. It needs to shine. Not only does it need fuel and applause and approval,
but it just needs to get out and do things differently and goof around without the stress of
producing results, the pressure of Capricorn or Saturn or Cancer, the mother\ father. Kids need to
open up and play. And that also, then of course deals with the 5th
house, which has to do with
gambling, speculation, risk taking, expanding the boundaries of the known, of the familiar, of the
secure, and doing something that has not been done before. This is the lioness.
Hallelujah! Unconditional Self-Love
So that is the lion. Hallelujah! That’s what I do with my astro-yoga. And I’m going to try to get
that up on my website. It’s the astrology of yoga, and it does movement and music to the 12
signs, and gets it more into a feeling, active, physical body level, and we do the Hallelujah
Chorus for Leo. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The King is here. The Queen is here.” It’s
the fullness of being . We all have a Sun. We all have a Leo somewhere. And if you get to the
place of unconditional self- love, boom, you’re in a good place, and you don’t need to do the
shadow of Leo. The shadow of Leo is, “I don’t unconditionally love myself. Because if I
unconditionally loved myself, I wouldn’t overcompensate and grandstand in order to stick out
and get attention at the expense of making other people feel small.” This is the true Leo. The true
Leo is loyal. They are authentic. They are honest. They are transparent. They’re not holding any
secrets. They aren’t holding anything back. They are the Sun. What you see is what you get.
Honest and open and truthful.
The Shadow of Leo
The shadow of Leo is, “I don’t unconditionally love myself. I don’t feel secure. I don’t feel like
the Sun. I don’t feel ready, so I’m going to pretend.” The shadow of Leo is fake it ‘til you make
it. It’s wearing a mask. It’s playing the role. It’s acting a role that you are not. It’s not authentic,
it’s not honest. It’s not open. You are pretending. You’re faking it. For a certain period of time
this may be necessary to build up some courage. For example, we can just look at stage fright.
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When the curtain first opens you will this moment of hesitation that has to be overcome with
“Well, I’m just going to go out there, let go, give it my best, and fake it in a certain way.” But
the more you have done your homework, ie. Memorized your part and know your lines, the less
faking\ad lib you have to do!
The more you unconditionally love yourself, the more you unconditionally accept yourself in a
true way, you won’t be trying to meet other’s expectations, to get approval, to get applause, out
of a fear of rejection. You’ll be doing it out of your authentic original self. So the shadow of Leo
is one who is egotistical. They are in their ego. The ego is that limited small self. Did I explain
and talk about my definition of ego to you guys before? I think I did that in the last one. The ego
is the control tower of the physical body. We are infinite spiritual beings having an earthly
experience, and when we are born, we give ourselves an ego. It’s the control tower.
I love the movie Men In Black where they expose that alien. They open the guy’s head up, and
there’s a tiny little alien sitting at a little desk with all the controls (*laughing) running this body.
To me that’s the perfect picture of ego. So you have to go see Men In Black. We just don’t want
to confuse the ego with our ultimate infinite spiritual self. So the thing about Leo, the shadow of
Leo is getting lost in the little self; in the ego needs to be propped up from outside itself….not
the picture of the Sun we have been describing. “I need a lot of validation because I don’t
unconditionally love myself. I need a lot of applause, a lot of approval. If anybody rejects me,
my feelings are really hurt. I go into a big dramatic display.” This is the downside of Leo, getting
lost in the ego. But when you move into your infinite spiritual self, and do your unconditional
self-love, then you can move into the authentic expression of Leo in your chart.
The Old Day of Astrology
Ok Virgo. Leo leads to Virgo, the second earth sign. Mutable earth rules the 6th
house, and is
ruled by the planet Mercury. So if you look at…in the old days, Leo was ruled by the Sun,
Cancer, the Moon. You go out from there; Gemini and Virgo were ruled by Mercury. Go out
from there; Taurus and Libra ruled by Venus. In the old days, Aries and Scorpio both were ruled
by Mars, Pisces and Sagittarius ruled by Jupiter, and Saturn ruled Capricorn and Aquarius. These
rulerships went out from the Sun, Moon, Cancer and Leo. Cancer and Leo are the two most
personal signs. They take everything personally. And I like that book The Four Agreements,
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remember one of those agreements is - don’t take anything personally. So Leo and Cancer need
to read about that agreement and everybody will be looking good.
Virgo
Anyway, getting back to Virgo/Mercury/6th
house. After Leo, the top of the pyramid. I create. I
am. I’m at the top of the mountain. I’m full of myself. I am the Sun. I am authentic. I am
generous, and now I come to Virgo. I need to contribute. I need to give something. I need to
prepare myself, my light, to shine on planet Earth in the social realm, outside myself. My
purpose, as I see it now, needs to be applied to something outside, something bigger, something
greater than just myself. So Virgo is about contribution. Virgo is about giving, and it’s also about
integrating myself into something more, something bigger. It prepares us for Libra. I look at
Pisces and Virgo as the signs of initiation. Virgo is the initiation of Leo into Libra; the self of
Leo into relationship and partnership; Libra.
Virgo is this transition. It’s Mutable earth. I’m going to change, to mutate. I’m going to integrate
myself and my purpose into something more collective, into something that people need. Virgo
is about perfection. Virgo is about really getting things straight, square, together. Get it together
so that it is ready, so that it is relevant. I always like that term relevant. I think President Reagan
used it for the United Nations. “Is it still relevant?” Are you relevant? Is your purpose needed? Is
what you think is important in Leo important to the world? I have an idea. I think everybody
needs a paper airplane. And my purpose on planet Earth is to make sure that everybody gets a
paper airplane. So you get that purpose, and you get that identity, and you get all wrapped up in
it. It’s your creative thing, and then you go into Virgo, and you start making paper airplanes. You
build up your business, and you bust your butt, and you make 7 billion paper airplanes, and then
you try to sell them to everyone. You start with Libra which is the next sign, the 7th
house. It’s
other people. It’s relationships and partnerships. “Do they want a paper airplane? Do they need a
paper airplane ? Is a paper airplane really going to help them?” Virgo is the place where you do
the market analysis (hopefully) before spending all your solar power from Leo on a fantasy.
Finding What’s Missing
Virgo is in-between the “Self” of Leo and the world, other people…and as such they can be very
self-critical. This is the place of being critical, of analyzing, of thinking it through, of figuring it
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out. “Is this right? Is this perfect? Is this ready? Is this important. I’m going to analyze. I’m
going to do my market research. I’m going to figure this out. And I’m going to criticize. I’m
going to find what’s missing, the missing link, the weak link in the argument. Virgo is about
really getting into the details of things. It’s about learning discrimination. What is really going to
make it work? “Oh these paper airplanes, if they had little rubber bands with propellers, and then
wheels to land and take off, THEN everybody would want them. It’s not that it’s a bad idea, but
we could improve it. We could add something more, so gimme some rubber bands!” Virgo gets
out there, gets the rubber bands, gets the propellers, gets the wheels and modifies\improves the
creations of Leo.
Balancing Virgo with Pisces
So this is about taking that Leo, taking that fire and putting it to work in the world\earth. Aries
goes into Taurus. The impulse has to manifest some money, some resources, develop talent and
capacities in Taurus. Well Leo comes into Virgo, and says, “I need to put forth effort.” The
polarity is Pisces. We talked about Pisces. “I sit and watch the river flow. Everything is good.
Everything happens. God takes care of everything. All I have to do is my mantras, my
affirmations, my dreams, and everything is going to be fine.” That needs to be balanced with
Virgo, which is effort. Pisces is the pacifist, the draft-dodger. “I’m not going to war! I’m not
going to fight or kill anybody! That’s disgusting!” Well, that needs to be balanced by Virgo.
They are going to get up and make a sign that says, “STOP WAR!” They are going to walk down
the street and get on a blog and write letters to the President. They are going to do something
about it.
So Virgo is about work. Virgo is about contributing. Virgo is about integrating. Virgo is about
serving a bigger …taking myself in Leo and getting ready for the show. I always look at Virgo,
and particularly the 6th
house, particularly transits and progressions that go through the 6th
house.
Right now, the Sun and Mercury are both in Virgo. This is a time where we are collectively
going through… I use the analogy of the bride or the bridegroom preparing for the wedding:
“Oh, my goodness! Is my hair done right? Is my tuxedo on? Does my dress look good?”
The Downside of Virgo
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In Virgo we want to get it straight. It’s a time where the curtain is going to open at the
descendant, the last sign\house below the horizon. Aries through Virgo is the subjective inner
reality. Libra through Pisces is the objective, social, transpersonal reality. We can call this
Virgo/Pisces axis the initiation axis. When planets come up to hit that descendant, in transit,
Jupiter, Saturn especially, progressed Moon, and they go over that descendant, it is like the full
Moon. We’re coming out. It’s that time of, “Ok, the curtain is going to open. People are going to
see me. Do I know all my lines for the play? Is the set perfect? Is the cameraman ready? Is the
lighting correct? Is the sound setup right? This is where Virgo can have problems. Stress,
anxiety, control freaks, needing to control it. “Is everything right? Is everything ready? Oh my
God, I’m gonna pull all my hair out! Aaaah! I’m so discriminating. I’m so analytical. I’m so
critical. It’s got to be perfect. It’s got to be right. If I don’t do it, nobody’s going to do it.”
This is Virgo without Pisces, right? Pisces is Spirit/God/Faith/Trust/Belief. It’s, “Ok, my son, my
daughter, everything will be ok. Trust. Believe in life.” Virgos unbalanced say, “Are you friggin
kidding me? Get out of town. The last time I did that, everything didn’t go the way I wanted it,
and it wasn’t perfect, and came out wrong and people laughed. The show did not go on…
Hello!? My computer crashed. I’m not going to have that happen again! I’m going to get the
strongest anti-virus software and hunker down, and I’m going to figure this out and protect
myself and analyze it and da da da da.” Too much Virgo without Pisces can over analyze and
figure in order to cover every base. There’s no faith. There’s no trust. It’s like, “I want control!
It’s micro-management. So negatively, Virgo can micro-manage people, places, the work
environment, etc. which can lead to OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).
Moon in Virgo
So if you’ve got the Moon in Virgo, you’re coming from Virgo. You’ve got Virgo down. You’re
very analytical, very clear, very precise. You’re a good worker. You’re very conscientious. Virgo
is very conscientious. They want do it right. They want to get it perfect. Beautiful. And you need
to balance all of that with faith, trust, surrender, and love.
Virgos and Health
On a physical level, Virgo is the supermodel. They’ve got the perfect body. Let’s look at Virgo
with health. It’s a 6th
house; the house of health. But Virgos also may have health issues. Why do
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they have health issues? A lot of it is connected to the hypochondriacs because the thinking and
the stress of what’s missing, what’s wrong, what could go wrong, what might happen can lead to
obviously... Stress is the leading cause of heart attacks, heart problems, lung issues, digestive
problems. Look at asthma! So many kids have asthma, it’s practically epidemic proportions in
the grade schools. You struggle to take a deep breath because life is overwhelming. Life is too
much. “I can’t breathe.” So Virgo can get into these places of, “It’s too much. It’s overwhelm. I
can’t breathe. I can’t handle it. I can’t control it. I can’t manage it.” So Virgo is about integrating
myself into the world. It’s not only myself into the world, but it’s also my vision, my purpose,
my Leo, my greatness into my physical body. It’s integrating spirit into matter. It’s where my
identity and my soul, my essence comes into my physical body, and it either burns it out or heals
it, works with it. Virgo has a lot to do with integration on all levels, it’s more the 6th house that
has to do with your health and your physical body.
The Upside of Virgo
The plus side of Virgo is that it works, puts forth effort, and is very practical, very analytical,
very intelligent, gets the job done, is trustworthy, conscientious, and practices discernment. You
don’t pull anything over on a Virgo. Virgo and Scorpio have that in common. You don’t get
away with anything with a Virgo. They got an eye for details. That’s the upside. Downside is
they may have to have too much control, be overly critical including overly self-critical. Moon in
Virgo is, “I don’t feel good about myself. I’m always judging myself. I’m not good enough. My
picture was the worst one in the class. I can’t write a song. I can’t write music, are you kidding?
You’ve got to be really talented in order to do that.” There can just be this overly self-critical
nature that really stifles and suppresses leading to a lack of life-force, energy, and joy!
Pisces/Virgo/Taurus can live in simplicity. Virgo can handle being alone. Virgo can handle
simplicity. If we remember the ‘60s, we had a Uranus/Pluto conjunction in Virgo. It was the
birth of the organic food movement. It was the birth of all kinds of save the environment. This
Virgo, this earth sign, is also about purifying the earth. We want to drink clean water. We want
to breathe clean air. This is Virgo on a collective level, it’s not just a personal thing of wanting to
purify and purge and integrate. It’s also that about our whole planet, our whole environment. It
was the birth of the environmental movement. Greenpeace. Earth first. You find all these Virgo
people out there working for health and healing.
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Pisces is the Reiki master that doesn’t touch you, and is just dealing with the subtle energies, and
it’s the magician that’s just moving around and intuiting. It’s the medical intuitive. “I kinda sense
that you need a liver detox.” (*laughing) Virgo is, “Alright! I’m going to get in there. You’re
going to change your diet. I’m going to be your personal trainer. You need to jog two miles per
day, and eat this food, and stop eating that food.” It’s the dietician. It’s the nutrition. It’s the
health and healing on a very physical, tangible, real level. It’s the nurse practitioner who’s going
to change your bedpan, really do the service. Both Pisces and Virgo have to do with humility in
that way. And being able to serve sometimes involves doing some dirty work.
I don’t know if I talked about Pisces. Pisces is also, “I work at the dump. I work on sewers. I
work on the sewer system of New York City. I have a lot of Pisces.” Pisces is almost like it
doesn’t phase them, dealing with yuck. Virgo, on the other hand, is very clean, very precise, very
clear, getting everything in order. So these are the two aspects here that want to be balanced. It’s
not either/or, it’s both and more! That’s a new paradigm motto. (*Laughing) And they don’t like
chaos. Pisces is chaos and Virgo is order and structure.
Libra
Let’s look at Libra! Cardinal air. We move from Virgo into Libra which is opposite Aries and
is ruled by Venus. This archetype will be strong for you it you have a lot of planets in the 7th
house or lots of planets in Libra. Libra’s about partnership and relationship. It is “the other.”
Aries is the self. Libra is the other. The symbol is one of the scales, of coming into balance.
Coming Into Balance
Libra is the sign that has to deal with coming in to balance. The scales are about justice, about
peace, about harmony, equality, equal giving and taking, learning how to speak and put it out
there, and learning how to receive and listen and take it in. So this sign of Libra, of partnership,
of the other, is an air sign. I initiate; I am Brahma. I start out talking; walking, talking, shopping,
discussing things. Libra is the counselor. It’s the mediator. It’s working with communication,
with partnership and equality. Of course, that deals not only with communication but also
cooperation, compromise, being able to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. The air is
objective, so Libra is tapped into what the other person needs, what the other person wants. It is
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able to really please and really listen and be there for the other person. It’s about partnership and
relationship, and let’s look at the distinction between the two.
Libra and Relationships
There’s all kinds of relationships: mother/daughter, teacher/student, parent/child, but there’s only
one kind of partnership. When we talk about Libra, we talk about coming into partnership, and
that is equality. That is 50/50. It’s when we are both on the same level. It’s not teacher/student.
It’s not parent/child. We are equal here. It’s about balancing these scales of power, of control, of
creative input. As we’ll see, Libra is the sign of extremes. If you have the Moon in Libra;
you’re coming from Libra and are wanting to balance the extremes.
The Downside of Libra
The downside of Libra is codependency. The downside of Libra is, “I’m here for you. It’s all
about you.” Moon in Libra, Pluto in Libra, South node of the Moon in Libra; these are the three
symbols of the past. You’re coming from building a sense of identity, building a sense of who
you are, a sense of purpose in life through your partner, through other people, through what other
people wanted. So it’s the other. Codependency. “I'm here for you. It’s all about you. I don’t
exist. What do you need? Can I change your slippers? Do you need your paper?”
The flip side of that is, “I am on top of you, and I’m controlling you, and I’m controlling this
relationship. And I need you to make me to feel good, and I need you to get my slippers, and I
need you to …. Clap for me and change my whatever.” But if you’re coming from these issues in
the past, you have been extremely either too much or too little. You’ve either given yourself
away, or you’ve overly dominated and overly controlled and overly extended yourself into other
people’s business. You are coming into the balance of the two.
Libra is Powerful
So Libra is ruled by Venus, along with the asteriods Pallas Athena and Juno. I like the asteroid
connection with Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom and also the goddess of war. She had a
helmet, armor and a spear. (*Laughing)
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Libra is a Cardinal sign. It’s very powerful and very strong. Libras are very intelligent. It rules
law. Think of lawyers arguing their cause in the courtroom, trying to bring justice and fairness
into the world. They go through a lot of school, a lot of learning. very intellectual, a lot of
thinking going on with Libra.
Libra Ascendant
So this is this Cardinal sign of Libra. If you’re learning Libra, if you’re a Libra Ascendant, it’s
about learning how to do partnership. It’s about learning how to be with other people. Maybe
you were a hermit. Maybe you were a nun or a priest or somebody. Maybe you were a movie star
who didn’t have intimate partnerships or relationships in your past lives, they were superficial.
Again these air signs; Gemini, Libra, Aquarius, are the wind blowing over the surface. Libra can
be superficial. “It looks good. I want the best looking partner. Nah, we don’t get along. We are
having a terrible time, but when we dress up and we go out, we are looking good.” (*Laughing)
On another level we can all appreciate the incredible lightness of being that Libra has. Life
doesn’t have to be all heavy, gloom and doom. Libra is the peace maker, the ambassador
bringing countries together, helping people get together, lighten up live in peace and harmony!
Upside of Libra
Libra can live a lot and make a lot of decisions based on surface appearances of beauty. On the
other hand, the upside of that is they are very artistic, and they bring beauty, they bring in the
Feng Shui. They bring a lot of interior decorating and fashion design and jewelry. There are so
many things. I mean thank God. You have this Libra/Venus that does adorn itself. It’s the whole
cosmetic industry. This is all about looking good. Libra is about looking good, and it has an
effect. There is a connection between truth and beauty. We strive for it. We work for beauty.
If you’re a Libra Ascendant, you’re learning how to do Libra. Coming into balance. It is the
initiation of relationship that leads into Scorpio. We’re going to start with Scorpio next week,
and Scorpio is Fixed water. That’s the consummation of the relationship, the sex. Libra wants a
partner. They want somebody to window shop with. They want somebody to travel with,
somebody to talk to, somebody to watch the movie with, so they’re not alone. Partnership and
companionship, but it doesn’t necessarily mean ‘til death do us part. They often have more
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divorces and have gone through more relationships than many others.” They learn something
new from every partnership that they are in and become masters of partnership.
Next Week
I hope that everyone is getting the picture here, getting the idea. And we will return next week to
do Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius, and we will have done all of the signs in the
three classes, like I said. At this point we can chat and answer questions…
Q&A
Question: What if your Ascendant and Moon sign are the same.
Answer: Yes, that’s a very good question. The Moon has to do with your past. Ascendant sign
has to do with what you’re learning. You have a PhD in your Moon, and your Ascendant sign is
the school that you’re in, and if they’re the same, OMG there’s a linkage between the past and
the future! You are on a mission that involves more than one lifetime. You started something,
and you’re here to do more of it. So whatever that Moon Ascendant sign is…and here’s where
we get into spirals rather than circles. We evolve in a spiral. So we come back to the same point,
but we’re not at the same level. We’re not at the same vibration. Let’s say you’ve got the Moon
in Gemini. You did Gemini at one level, and now you’re coming back to do more Gemini, but at
a different level. So there is this link between the past and the future, and there’s also this soul
intention of doing more of the same thing, but also refining it, learning more about it, cultivating
it.
Question: How can the polarities help balance out a different sign? Example a loaded 6th
Virgo
with Pisces to help? Give example of how to use the energy to balance.
Answer: Ok, this is a loaded Virgo, this desire to get it right, to get it perfect. The perfect
example is the centipede. Jeffrey Green gave me this one. The centipede has a hundred legs, and
the centipede stops to look at leg 49, gets lost in the details and loses the big picture, gets lost in
the one leg when its’ got 99 other legs. There comes a point where that loaded Virgo/loaded 6th
house has to let go. Take a chill pill. So how do you do it? How do you do Pisces? You want to
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balance it with Pisces? Meditate. You want to balance it with Pisces? Learn a musical
instrument. You want to balance it with Pisces? Go dancing. Do the tango. Be a belly dancer.
You want to balance it with Pisces? Color. Paint. Do some watercolors. Get out of your head. Let
go of your schedule. Let go of your control. Stop worrying about things. Some people will even
say go to church. Start praying. Do your mantras. That’s how you balance a loaded Virgo, which
is worried and wants to get it right and may not trust or have faith that Life/God/Source/Creator
is there and going to manage it and take care of it. That’s part of the issue. You can also look at
your belief system, and then you balance that Virgo with your Pisces.
Conclusion
Thank you very much for attending this webinar, and again feel free to email me. We’re going to
finish up the signs next week. Go to astro.com. I sent out an email to everybody with books that
you can read, especially Stephen Forrest – The Inner Sky. Get that Fed Ex’d to you overnight
from Amazon.com if you don’t have it. I think he starts out going through the signs. So if you
read these signs before I get to them you’re that much more ahead of the game. You’re doing
your Virgo. It takes effort to learn. (*Laughing) Do your Gemini/Virgo/Mercury stuff and you’ll
become an amazing, awesome astrologer!
Aloha, Namaste, So much love.