It has been a rather sad weekend, with Oslo in the headline news for a senseless tragic terrorist attack on innocents, as members of the U.S. Congress posture and maneuver over raising the debt ceiling while keeping one eye firmly on November elections, and with Amy Winehouse’s youthful demise monopolizing the media outlets, so it is time to get inspired.

If, on the other hand, you prefer to look at the senseless death of Amy Winehouse click here for my comments.

Here is a true honest-to-goodness rags-to-riches Cinderella story.

Watching the rerun of a piece on the CBS Sunday Morning show inspired me to find out more about the subject.

Consider the story of a young man named Arnel Pineda, born in the Philippines on September 5, 1967, who lost his mother at age 13 and was unable to complete his education. On his own at an early age he scrambled to make ends meet.  He claims that for a year or more he was homeless and lived in a public park in Manila. He eventually hooked up with musicians as a singer and often performed 6 or 7 nights a week, and although he was not rich he gained certain amount of fame in Manila, especially with the band Zoo. He managed to do well enough to upload his performance of several rock ballads onto YouTube. One of the songs he covered was by the 80’s band Journey.

In 2007, the key members of Journey were looking for a new lead singer and happened upon this YouTube performance. They called and arranged an audition.

Arnel Pineda thought it was a joke or prank, but eventually made his way to the United States for the audition and was hired by the legendary band as their lead singer. Journey is the band that wrote and performed numerous 80’s hits: Faithfully, With Open Arms, and of course, Don’t Stop Believing.

Lucky for us it has been documented that Arnel met with members of Journey for the audition on August 12, 2007.

Magi Astrology always works.

Arnel Pineda had applying Cinderella transits on that fateful summer’s day and although not everyone with Cinderella transits can hope to end up with a recording contract with a top tier rock group, in this case it is obvious why the orphaned kid, who worked hard in the music world for nearly twenty years, became an “overnight success.”

Click chart to enlarge

You will notice that transiting Venus was retrograde–which means it was slower in motion than usual–and making a quincunx to Arnel Pindea’s natal Chiron. But, additionally, t. Chiron, which was ALSO retrograde, was forming a quincunx to his Sun. When these bodies move slower, they are more potent and the aspect formed is more powerful.

Here are TWO Cinderella transits that pretty much sum up the success of this very first interview. And as far as the ability to make a potful of money at the end of this personal rainbow, notice that Ceres (a very helpful business planet) and Neptune are BOTH making aspects to his natal Pluto. Pluto represents the ingredients that can add up to great wealth. We read that Arnel Pineda has set up a foundation to help children of the Philippines so that they won’t need to live in the streets or in a park.

If for some reason you are unfamilar with the songs of Journey or Arnel Pineda or just want to hear the music as you look at the chart, you can click on any of these links:

CBS interview 2008:

and

DON’T STOP BELIEVING!