The Mountain Astrologer (2024)

After its discovery in 1846, astrologers debated the possible meanings of Neptune in horoscopes, and over time eventually settled onto a few basic qualities, which included such keywords as spiritual, nebulous, illusions, sensitivity etc. But there is one aspect of its influence that’s been too often overlooked by astrologers. What is that, exactly? In a word, obligation.

Some films entertain. Others change the world. Even people who look down on Star Wars as childish or ridden with clichés must still recognize that it struck a chord as few films ever had before. Now, almost half a century after the premiere of the first film in the series, retroactively titled A New Hope, its characters remain cultural archetypes, and the vocabulary it created has entered the collective dictionary.

Looking back at recent history, many of us can recall the last conjunction of Saturn with Neptune in Capricorn: November 1989, marking the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet empire. The next Saturn–Neptune conjunction will occur at the 0° Aries point, the first degree of the zodiac, itself marking the birth of a new era. The conjunction will be near exact in July 2025, and will perfect at 0° Aries on February 20, 2026.

In 1999, Time ranked Pokémon mascot Pikachu #2 on its annual Best People of the Year list. Yellow and mouse-like with red, supercharged cheeks, according to Pokémon lore, “When several [Pikachus] gather, their electricity could … cause lightning storms.” Pokémon indeed struck like lightning, taking the world by storm as the highest-grossing media franchise of all time.

The marriage of creative media and communication technology was the great gift of the late 20th century. But what astrologically led to this integrative lifestyle, and how did it become ubiquitous with modern living? In this article, I shall explore how the Uranus–Neptune conjunction of the early 1990s occurred under very special circ*mstances, how it influenced the media we consume today, and how it was tested under extreme conditions in 2020.

All transits invite us to grow further into ourselves, each planet in its own way. Jupiter, for example, motivates by giving us a green light forward; Mars motivates us with a boost of adrenalin. Less comfortably, Saturn motivates us by showing us what we could be, but are not yet. Saturn plays a long game: that of getting us to know ourselves better and better through the passage of time.

In late 2020, the asteroid Vesta entered tropical Virgo for an extended stay, ingressing on October 23, 2020, going retrograde at 21º 24’ on January 20, 2021, stationing direct at 6º 47’ Virgo on April 21, and finally emerging from the Virgin’s clutches and entering the Scales on July 19, 2021.Vesta called to me, and I began an extended dialogue with her through the creation of seven talismanic oils. Along the way, she taught me some potent new lessons about her work, and how to interpret her that I would like to share.

Genethlialogy, or natal astrology, is predicated on the understanding that the placement and condition of the planets at the moment of a person’s birth explain and contribute to that person’s character and fate. These influences arewhat gives rise to the notion that one’s soul — or psychē, if you prefer — is endowed with vices and virtues during its planetary descent; a concept rooted in the deepest strata of the Platonic tradition.

In this article, I will briefly describe the generational impact of the natal sign position of Pluto, including its shorter transits. But first, we need to understand the limitations of Generational Astrology. No one has ever learned astrology just by reading a textbook. In order to get real information about generational trends, we have to depend on polls and surveys and the observations of academics who make it their business to follow these trends.

One summer evening, I found myself as a guest speaker talking to a rather unlikely audience: the national sea bird rescue organisation. Many of them probably wondered why on earth the event organiser engaged an astrologer to give this month’s talk. I wondered the same, but I have found that explaining astrology to a completely lay audience is one of the most exciting lecture experiences I have.

Saturn has entered Pisces on March 7, 2023, where it will remain through February 13, 2026. Saturn has an important relationship to Pisces, bringing structure and order to the boundaryless oneness of Pisces. The interests of the whole need to be reorganized and guardrails established against extremes. Saturn’s power is being able to walk into a room and respectfully command attention, requiring that its issues be addressed. It will be very interesting to see how the organizing principles of Saturn play out in the Piscean arena of infinite possibility and compassion.

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s followed the astrological field in recent years that there’s something of a divide between those who adhere to more traditional methods and those practicing so-called “modern astrology” (also sometimes referred to as “psychological astrology”—but more on that in just a bit).

Humanity currently stands at one of the most significant transformational turning points in its long history. With climate change and the accompanying extreme temperatures and weather conditions; economies rising and falling across the globe on a dime; divisive governmental stalemates and the rise of authoritarian rule in many countries; culture seemingly eroding, with the arts and artists as we knew and experienced them being eclipsed by “content” and influencers...

The current constellation of Mars retrograde in Gemini is drawing to a close: Mars will be stationary direct on January 12, 2023. You can now read the complete article on how this constellation can be used with regard to how you can improve your way of communicating."I feel so sentenced by your words,I feel so judged and sent away,Before I go I got to know,Is that what you mean to say?..."

Not only are children the living embodiment of a moment in time, but they are also the extension from that moment into the future — both collectively for the evolution of the human race, and for individual families to carry on their legacy. Nature has it that we are immortalized through our children by passing along our genetic inheritance as well as our planetary patterns in infinitely myriad ways.

We first begin exploring birth charts with the Primal Triad, or Sun, Moon, and Ascendant. The Ascendant is named as such because it is on the eastern horizon where the Sun ascends into the sky at dawn. The Descendant, where the Sun descends under the horizon at dusk, is less commonly explored.

In the beginning, astrology was alive. Our ancestors had a relationship to the natural world, and the contemplation of the heavens was a vital, primal communion that brought meaning to life. Today in the West, we have an impoverished relationship to the heavens, weakened by a too-strict adherence to the Newtonian—Cartesian scientific worldview. Experiential astrology seeks to remedy this by putting us back into direct contact with our horoscopes.

The setting: India. The time: probably the Middle Ages. The occurrence: a rather obscure and not so obvious aspect doctrine whispered from the ethers, probably to some astrologer eccentric enough to lend an ear!

There you are, a tiny bit of space debris, endlessly circling the Sun in a predetermined orbit that can be calculated time out of mind. So far, no one has even noted your existence, but one day, just as you are rising in Chicago, Illinois, a child is born there, who would grow to become one of America’s best-loved and most talented comedic geniuses, a multiple Oscar nominee and Best Supporting Actor winner.

People have farmed in accordance with celestial rhythms for millennia. But in the last few decades, as large-scale conventional agriculture came to prominence, much of this wisdom — recorded in almanacs, calendars, mythology, and folklore — became disregarded or lost.

Launched in 1921, Chanel No. 5 continues to hold its place within the five top-selling perfumes in the world. Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel, already a highly successful couturier, decided that she ought to have a perfume to complement her famous dress designs. She scored in fashion with simple, elegant lines. Now, she scored with a simple, rectangular perfume bottle.

Whatever events and changes Uranus in Taurus might bring, many of them will have been set in motion some time ago. Uranus and Taurus are an interesting combination to attempt to fathom. Taurus — the sign that, out of the entire zodiac, is the most resistant to change — meets the planet that insists upon it. Uranus challenges the status quo and forces both the individual and society to change and, in particular, to break with the past.

In my experience, a horoscope cast for the first time two people meet/connect is more important than a wedding chart, a midpoint chart (such as the Davison or composite), or any other horoscope cast for a pivotal moment in two people’s lives together.

When Uranus and Neptune, the first outer planets, were discovered, one way of understanding these new energies was the concept of a “higher octave.” According to the theory of higher octaves, the energy of an inner planet gets expressed at a more spiritual level. Uranus was considered the higher octave of Mercury and Neptune the higher octave of Venus. After Pluto was discovered, it became known as a higher octave of Mars.

As a model and mirror of our lives, astrology has a special ability to accurately time not only the unfolding of unique personal changes in our lives, but also the milestones of life both familiar and forgotten. In this article, I will look at the meanings of the major “midlife crisis” transits and consider how best to navigate them.

When it comes to interpreting astrological charts Dennis Elwell was a virtuoso — blending a rigorous approach to technique with a creative, even playful, engagement at a symbolic level. It would not, however, do justice to his astrological analyses to treat them only as rich samples of the science/art of astrology, for in Dennis’s hands the real significance of astrological work is that it yields hints and intimations of “the activity of an all-pervading cosmic mind” and of our relationship to it.

For some, this autumn will mark the first return to face-to-face learning in more than 18 months. For all of us, the return to school now holds all of the usual questions: Will my children like their teachers? Will they have friends in their classes? Will they be OK? Plus the less usual questions: What are current infection rates? What does community transmission look like in my area? What are the school’s vaccine policies? This is Back to School 2021, so the need to be familiar with what can bring rest, relaxation, nourishment, and ease into our children’s lives (and our own!) is now felt more keenly than ever. And so, I look to the IC.

What makes someone risk his personal security for a public goal? Some people seem fated to embody the big, difficult ideas with which their collective is struggling. Edward Snowden, for example, was leading a remarkably unremarkable life that exploded into something extraordinary. This happened after he leaked classified data from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the media in June 2013. It was a move with profound ramifications for himself, his society, and the age we live in.

When Harriet Tubman was a teenager, she conjured her god to kill an evil man. The ordeal began when an overseer struck her with a metal weight, and she nearly died. For weeks afterward, Harriet lay listless in the big house without the attention of a doctor. When Edward Bodress of Maryland looked upon Harriet, he did not see an injured girl. He saw an idle laborer. Inefficiency. Dollars lost. In due time, strange men arrived. They named their price. She would be sold further south to a chain gang, guaranteeing a dismal fate for the enslaved.

Recently, in going through my archives and files while reorganizing my office, I realized that quite a few ideas and observations that I had scribbled down quickly during my extremely busy years had not been included in my various books. Since I expect that this publication will be my last on the subject of astrology, I decided to extract the most valuable ideas, guidelines, and observations from those many pages of spontaneous notes and present them in a brief, systematic fashion in this chapter.

Astrology deals with the patterns of our bodies and minds. Granted, knowing more about all these things is useful, especially for young people trying to get established, to find people they are compatible with and to find their place in the world. Astrology definitely has value and can be a wonderful tool for evolution.

Life does feel more purposeful when we are in a period of personal expansion. In such a dynamicphase of development, we enjoy an exhilarating sense of fulfillment and happiness. The force of growth is incredibly exciting and uplifting. During anenergized cycle of forward momentum, we are moved off our secure plateau of comfort, and we understand that we can have more in life.

"You're always drawn towards your weakest element," says astrologer Steve Cozzi. This mantra can be found throughout modern astrological lore. But what if it’s the other way around? What if lacking an element isn’t a weakness, but a strength? In this article, I explore another way to understand what having an elemental “void” in a chart might mean. The urgency to write about elemental voids comes from the current astrological weather, what could be called “The Fire Void of 2021.”

Like individuals, nations experience "planetary returns," too, when celestial bodies return to the zodiacal position they once occupied. But the full return cycle of Pluto takes over 240 years to complete. While individual life-spans obviously aren't long enough to experience one of these, nations and empires certainly can. Using July 4, 1776 as its birthdate, the United States is on the verge of experiencing its first Pluto return. So, what does this mean for the United States?

It is easy to be inspired by Lois Rodden and her 40-year commitment to data collection. She dedicated her career to setting professional standards by classifying data sources and demanding that astrologers take accountability for the data they presented in lectures, articles, and books. She motivated me and countless others to question and record sources, and to hunt down accurate data and share these with others.

In this article, we will explore the use of a method known as minor progressions, in which one lunar month after birth is viewed as equivalent to one year of life. While secondary progressions consider the rotation of the Earth around the Sun as primary, this method considers the orbit of the Moon as another factor that defines a cycle that can be related symbolically to the cycles of human experience. Thus, if you are 30 years of age, look (in the ephemeris) for the Moon’s 30th return to its natal position after birth to find the positions of your minor progressed planets for your 30th birthday.

For three years of my childhood, we lived far away from any cities or towns. At night it was dark. True dark. One such night, my family trudged through fresh snow across a hilltop clearing. At the peak my mother halted us, saying in hushed tones, “oh my gosh you guys, look at this.” We stood still there for a long moment, taking in the scene. There was no moon that night, just the brightness of the stars reflected on the glistening snow pack, casting soft glows upon our faces. The mountain ridges in the background, spiky with fir trees, stretched into the distance. “Aren’t we lucky?” my mother asked reverently.

The dwarf planet Pluto in astrology is often met with tremendous trepidation. Pluto’s difficult reputation is well earned, given that this Roman god is the ruler of the Underworld, the realm of the dead. Yet, it’s also curious to consider that the word itself, pluto, means “riches,” “the wealthy one,” or “the wealth-giving”.

Some of us shudder when we think of Saturn transits … or panic when Pluto inches towards a major area of our chart. Both planets have dark, fearsome reputations and this year we've seen how their conjunction in Capricorn in mid January coincided with the start of a prolonged period in many societies of personal and economic hardship (Saturn) amid an atmosphere of fear (Saturn), suspicion, and panic (Pluto). We've witnessed an enforced (Pluto) pause (Saturn) to everyday life — a lockdown (a great Saturn–Pluto word) with much of the world "temporarily closed for renovation."

In this article, we will be taking an astrological look at those individuals who have gone against the grain of established science or culture in order to develop their own unique viewpoint and, in so doing, created a new way of seeing the world around them. I am speaking most specifically of those individuals throughout the history of science who were instrumental in bringing about what is now known as a "paradigm shift" by changing the rules of the game — the pre-existing "laws" of nature.

Mars transiting through its own sign of Aries is extremely dynamic and will dominate the second half of 2020, especially during the retrograde phase from September 9 to November 13. Mars retrogrades approximately every two years, but it rarely does so in the sign of Aries. It happened last in 1988 and won't occur again until 2067. This year Mars will be much more powerful than it was in 1988, as it will form repeated squares to Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto in Capricorn.

More years ago than I care to remember, I heard a visiting astrologer make the offhand comment that Saturn's placement in the horoscope indicates where one's "key karmic challenge in this lifetime is." Having thought about that astrologer's comment quite a bit since first hearing it, I've come to believe there is indeed something unique about Saturn as representing an especially focused symbol of one's current life-challenges.

In this article, I will present two timing techniques that were used by Hellenistic astrologers to determine when certain events would occur during the course of a native’s life. First, though, I would like to expand on some philosophical positions that were adopted by astrologers in the ancient world. Many of the philosophical positions that were first defined in ancient times are still very relevant to the practice of astrology today.

For thousands of years, mystics and philosophers have proposed that our world is underlain by a matrix of fundamental principles, sometimes known as archetypes. Just as all musical compositions are based upon a limited scale of notes, and all images are variations on a spectrum of colors, so all phenomena and experiences can be broken down to a primary set of universal symbols, or cosmic principles.

Grasse introduces an important factor in understanding any chart - the highest (or most elevated) planet in the horoscope. Because of its exalted position, any planetary body located here “lords over” all the other planets in the chart and can exert a powerful influence over someone’s entire life. And this becomes even more important if that body is near or conjunct the Midheaven, or MC (Medium Coeli) — the zenith point of the horoscope.

Pluto’s recent demotion to the status of “dwarf planet” upset a lot of us. It shouldn’t. We astrologers have been calling the Sun and Moon “planets” for a long time. In other words, we have a long tradition of using the term planet more loosely than astronomers do. Experience has taught us that Pluto simply works — we know it's a planet, and we really don’t need anyone’s approval to use the term.

When you’re 19, you’re technically a teenager since there’s still a “teen” in the number. It didn’t feel that way for me. Probably doesn’t feel that way for others. Perhaps the proximity to the teen years keeps you feeling your youth. But you’re also in the waiting room of a large part of your life’s journey at this age. You’re boarding.

Our whole practice of astrology is based on this notion of the wheel, of the predictable and circular movement of the planets through the full 360 degrees of the zodiac — but what does this really mean? How does the paradigm of the wheel inform the way we live or, at the very least, the way we practice our astrology?

For many centuries, individual horoscopes have been central to astrology. As a rule, particular points in time are analyzed, whether concerning human beings, states, organizations, or mundane constellations. Currently, however, only two horoscopes can be conveniently compared to each other. Groups of three or more individuals quickly become difficult to master when conventional tools are used, and such groups therefore elude a systematic analysis.

Old myths reveal that most heroes experience a transformational encounter with a dragon at some point in their journey. While you may think that the dragon is your mother-in-law or your boss, in reality it is a metaphorical monster. The engagement with the dragon is an allegory for the times in the individuation process when we wrestle with unsavory sides of the self, parts that we deny or keep secret but that have an uncanny knack for showing up anyway.

The 2016 election has left more than one person searching for answers, including astrologers, the majority of whom picked Hillary Clinton to be the occupant of the Oval Office in 2017. Hand-wringing has continued. What was missing from the algorithms? What asteroid or aspect did we fail to take into account? More importantly, what does this say about astrological prediction in general? What does it say about astrology?