Dear Skywatcher

Apologies for failing to remind you all of the ROE talk on the night sky in February.  I’m afraid this coincided with my daughter’s birthday and this is a no miss event in our house.

I am determined to make good, so this is early notice of the ROE talk “the Night Sky in March” to be given by Russell Eberst on Monday February 25^th.  Doors open at 7 for a 7.30 p.m. start.

First though, rush outside tonight (or tomorrow or the next night) for a chance to see Mercury low on the south western horizon.  He should be visible at about 6.30 p.m. if the sky is clear (a big if of course).  Here is a link to the Earth Sky article illustrating the beautiful conjunction of Mercury with the crescent moon that we might hope to see.

By tomorrow the Moon will have moved away from Mercury.  The Moon back tracks across the sky each night by 12°.  If I recall correctly, you can judge 12° by making a fist and holding it out at arm’s length.  That’s the distance the Moon should have moved by 6.30 p.m. tomorrow night compared with the earth sky image for tonight.

Happy skywatching

http://earthsky.org/tonight

www.midlandsschoolofastrology.co.uk

Eris at work

Who is Eris? Goddess of discord? She's also relatively new to knowledge, a distant Kuiper Belt Object that astrologers are still coming to terms with. She moves around the zodiac at a snail's pace. So how can transits of Eris be relevant to anyone? Listen up.

Issue 166 of the esteemed Mountain Astrologer (Dec/Jan 2013) carries an article by Maria Kay Simms. She argues for Ceres as the modern ruler of Virgo and Eris as the ruler for Libra. She also suggests that Eris is easier to cope with in hard aspect than in soft and gives examples.

So newly enthused I checked my chart. Wow! Transiting Eris is opposing my natal Saturn/Neptune conjunction and squaring my MC/IC line, yes ok - challenging natal T Square there, and now about to become more challenging as Eris kicks in - literally.

Now I begin to understand what was going on at work on 11th January. I reacted quietly (Sun in Scorpio) but very distinctly to the realisation that things were going awry. Eris appears to dislike being excluded. I wasn't being excluded exactly but I was encountering complete passive and charm and reason laden resistance to every suggestion. There always seemed to be a load of reasons why all my ideas could not be taken up, to a point where the work couldn't get done. Then my dear colleagues let me know that they weren't really interested, didn't really care and if I did I would have to justify why!

For more news on Eris I searched the web and found The Midland School of Astrology. There I found a nice article on Eris, helpful for future rerence. Clearly with Eris moving so slowly I will be modelling myself on Eris / Xena Warrior Princess / Lucy Lawless for some time to come.

Dimdim Event Widget

Dimdim Event Widget

Chiron in the birth chart

Chiron is not concerned with the errors of western civilisation. He invites us directly to re-connect with our own natural and non-domesticated way of being. This is not a wild or primitive world in the pejorative sense in which these words are sometimes used. Rather it is a world in which human society and the natural world thrive together.
So what are his attributes and qualities?

• For Chiron all that exists qualifies as relatives. All my relations deserve respect, appreciation and understanding whether people, plants, animals or the earth itself. A symptom of Chiron working well is a desire to be in close, appreciative and informed relationship with the natural world rather than judging it in relation to our own needs or preferences.
• Learning and teaching are vital to gaining a proper insight into the nature of all our relations in this sense. It also assumes a developmental view in which we want to support every one and everything to be most beautifully true to themselves and in balance one with another. The Chironian approach to learning and teaching depends upon noticing the stage of development and readiness of the learner and devising situations in which they can make their own experiments and discoveries. Learning is therefore owned by the student, not by any external institution.
• In order to learn we need, literally, to be prepared to change our minds. Learning alters the structure of the brain. Our state of mind is a key factor in our receptivity to learning. For instance some lessons are best learned through stimulus and excitement, others need calm and reflectivity. Chiron as the shaman is an expert in states of mind. He can generate, manage and interpret states of mind with great skill.
• the fourth attribute is healing. Chiron is a healer at every level, both personal, in human communities and in our relationship to nature. He does this by way of shifting mind states and working with the fruits of nature, herbs and ceremony. He may enter into relationship with the dis-ease to learn from it and find out whether it offers a lesson we should heed. Finally knowing no hindrance in any dimension he is not afraid of death and not unduly grasping towards life. Chiron is prepared to act as guide to the next world.

To find out more about Chiron in astrology contact me to book into my Chiron webinars.

Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change 2009

OK, here's my best guess just now for the start of the conference. Of course the build up has been happening for months but it should be coming together at this point. Notice the Jupiter, Chiron, Neptune conjunction opposing the moon. The moon gives the whole situation a strong emotional tone. Mars is closing in but turns retrograde and does not complete the opposition until May 2010; putting promises into action could take time!

Of course the start time for this conference is a guess, but how nice it is when the guess looks interesting! The ascendant sextiles the conjuntion and trines the moon. If we could but see it, it also trines Eris in Aries, the goddess of discord who is retrograde at 20 degrees Aries 58 seconds. Although the conjunction has been referred to as "the Obama effect" implying high hopes and glamour, Eris suggests intense arguments as well.

If we want to know why this is, remember that Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea and the fishes is retrograde at 21 Taurus 08. Sedna opposes Ceres in Scorpio. She speaks about the grief of seafaring and fishing people's at the potential loss of both fish stocks and their homeland. For many we are all in the last chance saloon. It may even be too late to save some countries.

Chiron conjunct Neptune February 2010

I recently made my first visit to Aquarius Rising, the Glasgow astrology group, for a lively talk by Sheila O'Hara.
Her talk was on the Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter conjunction that has been with us for some time. Here is a chart for the Chiron, Neptune conjunction in 2010.
Neptune always has a mystical feel, but I am more interested in the link to the environmental movement. Sheila spoke about the Jupiter conjunction that falls on the 2009 solstice as literally pivotal - the inconjunct aspects operating as a pivot i.e. where one door opens and another door closes. This event closely follows the Copenhagen conference on climate change (7 - 18th December). I will show you charts for the conference and conjunction in spearate blogs.