Category Archives: Aspects and Transits

The Shift Hits the Fan

Posted on by

Solar systemThe Uranus Pluto squares of 2012-2015

Uranus and Pluto have been playing hide and seek with one another for months. They have been within 4 degrees of orb of a square since May 11, 2011 (one year ago today), without ever reaching an exact square. The square between Uranus and Pluto with its accompanying turmoil and social shift hits the fan becomes exact June 24, 2012. This is the kick off point of a series of seven recurring exact squares between these two outer planets that complete in March 2015.

This first square might be particularly overwhelming since the transiting Sun will form a T-Square with these two planets just a few days later on June 29. Additionally, Pallas, the little asteroid that packs a big punch with logic, will be conjunct Uranus and part of the T-Square, so we will have yet one more planetary body at the party.

Continue reading →

Parting Shots from a Wall Street Muppet Master

Posted on by

“For the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10)

When Greg Smith publicly resigned from Goldman Sachs with a letter in the NY Times on March 14, 2012 he mentioned how callous and money-hungry the company has become. He added new words to our lexicon as he detailed how company executives called clients ”Muppets” and were told to “hunt elephants.”

After twelve years with the company Greg Smith, a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa left with his own elephant guns blazing, stating that the company had become selfish and no longer cared for the best interests of the clients.

He said, “It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are.”

Even in my own small way, working with my own clients, I can testify to the truth of this statement. As well as what he said below.

He said, “Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People who care only about making money will not sustain this firm — or the trust of its clients — for very much longer.”

The negative publicity and the accusations of “selfishness” in senior management coincide with the transit of Saturn square natal Sun of the Goldman Sachs incorporation chart. A transit of Saturn square the natal Sun of a company chart may point to criticism to those in authority, which Greg Smith certainly offered.

 

Goldman Sachs astrological chart

Click on chart to enlarge.

But, as pointed out last April in an article posted right here  when Goldman Sachs was sued, the progressed chart has a long term Saturn square to the Earth/Moon that makes ambition for material gain to the exclusion of all else the focal point of the company. Without principles a company cannot succeed and no matter how much money employees make, they will eventually bite the hand that feeds them if that company is unscrupulous and callous to the needs of the clients.

Greg Smith may have burned his bridges on Wall Street, (one comment from another executive said that Greg Smith may need to enter the witness protection program) but he brought home exactly what astrology tells us.

Good Transits Don’t Cancel Out Bad Transits

Posted on by

Having very good transits doesn’t mean the difficult transits aren’t still effective.

Here is the chart of a young man who had been slugged for no reason, by someone he didn’t know as he left a bar and went to his car in a  parking lot late at night. He wasn’t seriously injured, but ended up with  bruises. This wasn’t a theft or mugging; this was an unprovoked personal attack.

This fledgling astrologer wondered how this could happen while he had a transit from Mars creating a Grand Trine that included Chiron in his heliocentric chart.

The challenge is always to show that astrology really works and it is possible that this person wondered if this was a situation that  “disproved” astrology.

At the time of the incident, transiting Mars was trine to both this young man’s natal Earth/Moon complex and natal Chiron in the heliocentric chart. A Grand Trine is one of the best transits to have and when  Chiron is involved you can be, in some ways, a “Cinderella” that everyone sees in a better light. Mars is the ruler of warfare, disputes, and trouble, so a transiting trine usually shows success in these matters.

Black planets shown on the chart are natal planets and red  planets are transits.

However, transiting Mars was also opposite this person’s natal Juno AND at the very same time transiting Juno was square his natal Mars:

Juno represents illusion, delusion, and fraud and, in this case, perhaps represented a case of mistaken identity. A square represent turbulent conditions and an opposition usually sets up an exchange between two  people. The difficult, turbulent transits between Juno and Mars show that someone may have acted (Mars) from misinformation (Juno). Someone who had too much to drink (Mars) mistakenly thought (Juno) that our subject was someone else that he was angry with (Mars) for one reason or another.

The subject had a transiting Grand Trine, but that Grand Trine was challenged as shown below. It could be that the Grand Trine protected him from serious damage. Then again, because he had that Grand Trine he may have been fearless about walking in dark parking lots late at night and put himself in danger.

Do not be afraid to leave the house if transiting Juno squares your natal Mars or when Mars makes a turbulent aspect to your natal Juno. There were other factors in the person’s geocentric chart that helped lead to this incident.

However, it might be wise to steer clear of places where trouble could erupt when you have turbulent transits involving Mars, even if you have wonderful transits otherwise.

The lesson here is that even the very best transits do not “cancel out” other transits.

May the stars be with you,

Magi Bette

Astrology Isn’t Supposed to Terrify Anyone!

Posted on by

Nothing in this world is fated to happen. Astrology is a tool you can use to pick and choose how you face the world. An inspiring call the other day brought the Sun out to light up my world and proved that by using  the principles of astrology pro-actively someone could greatly improve their situation.

Here is what happened: Someone I had advised some time back called to thank me for turning her life around.

When she spoke with me initially she was terrified because transiting  Pluto was about to create a Grand Cross with her natal planets.

She was worried about going bankrupt, was struggling to make ends meet as it was, was burdened by a great deal of debt, and was afraid that when the Pluto transit was within orb of her planets that her entire world would be shattered. She recalled that when Neptune had triggered her T Square many years before that she experienced great financial hardship and was almost beside herself with worry about the upcoming Pluto transit.

This woman has a very turbulent T-Square in her birth chart that includes several financial planets; Chiron, Neptune, and Venus.

She knew that slow moving Pluto would create the planetary picture below in 2009:

The advice she received was to batten down her hatches and get prepared. If transiting Pluto could wipe out her finances (this was her  fear) by creating enormous pressures (Pluto) on her finances (Chiron, Venus, Neptune) then it was suggested that she use that very same power of Pluto to take charge of her finances, turning the tables on Pluto so to speak, and wipe out her debt load and become as financially secure as possible before the Grand Cross pattern became exact.

This woman not only started making much more money because she focused on her finances, but entirely paid off a huge amount of debt,  became completely debt free, and began saving money so she had something to fall back on in the event of hardship (financial advisor Dave Ramsay would be very proud of her!) She even found less expensive housing that she liked much better.

When I spoke with her the first time she was depressed, worried, and fearful of the future. When I spoke with her the second time, in the midst of the Pluto transit to her T-square, she was happy, secure, confident, and ready to tackle anything the universe threw at her.

Bad transits do not mean that anyone is fated to suffer or go bankrupt. When you look ahead and see difficult conditions ahead it is wise to slow down and get prepared.

You won’t drown if you are wearing a life jacket.

Astrology should not be predictive—it should be PRO-ACTIVE.

It was wonderful to hear from someone who benefited so greatly from pro-active astrological counsel!

My the stars be with you,

Magi Bette