Dana's Blog » Celebr-astrology

Bang Your Special Drum

Dana — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:36:03 +0000

Earlier this year, the people-who-have-nothing-better-to-do raised a ruckus about 4-year-old Shiloh Jolie-Pitt dressing like a boy. Apparently she likes short hair, boys’ neckties, jackets and hats. Mon dieu! In a Vanity Fair article, mom Angelina Jolie admitted yes, her kid “dresses like a little dude,” and later elaborated for Reuters: “I think she (Shiloh) is fascinating, the choices she is making. And I would never be the kind of parent to force somebody to be something they are not. I think that is just bad parenting.” Jolie added that “Shiloh’s hysterically funny, one of the goofiest, most playful people you’ll ever meet.”

A peak at Shiloh’s chart might make all of us wish we had a mom as perceptive as Jolie. Shiloh has Sun, Moon and Mercury in Gemini, the sign of the clown. And her girlie planet Venus is in masculine Aries: why not dress like a little dude?!

I bring this up now because the Aquarius Full Moon is a perfect time to take another look at your own chart and celebrate its special oddities. Be Angelina Jolie to your own little Shiloh and affirm what’s special about you. Especially since Mars will soon be marching into the territory of the Cardinal Cross–from July 30 through August 3–and the Moon will activate the Cross on August 6/7. These are good days to love yourself. No matter what the tabloids are saying about you.

Loose lips and Mercury retrograde

Dana — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:09:21 +0000

Mid-April 2010: The planes were grounded, liquor was flowing, and Mercury was retrograde during the weeks that journalist Michael Hastings traveled with General McChrystal and dutifully recorded the comments that eventually got the General fired. Mercury retrograde is the sleeptime of the mental cycle, when travel plans are derailed (what was supposed to be a two-day meeting between the General and the Journalist was stretched out for weeks), and the rational mind goes on vacation. As the pundits wonder at the General’s lapse of judgment, we know it was trickster Mercury who egged him on, and sister fate who broke the news during the week of the lunar eclipse.

These are accelerated times. Those of us who work with subtle energies have been noticing in recent weeks an acceleration of gifts: “My meditation has been getting deeper,” “My intuition feels stronger lately,” “I’m reaching new levels in my practice.” Those who are working with less subtle gifts, with arrogance, aggression, and power, may find their energies accelerating too. Only it may not take them where they want to go.

The Wrath of the Feminine

Dana — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:14:40 +0000

The Moon rules women–mothers, daughters, wives; also one’s own emotional seas and tides. It rules the public too, whose affections can storm, ebb, and flow with the passion of Mother Nature. Tiger Woods knows this intimately now, as Uranus, strengthened by its direct station, recently squared his Moon, liberating sordid images of the feminine from his underworld and splashing his public persona with embarrassment and shame.

At the same time, a celestial event went largely unnoticed by astrologers: Venus disappeared from the sky just as Tiger’s wife smashed his SUV with a golf club. Or rather Venus slipped behind the blazing presence of the Sun, a condition marked by astrologers as being “under the Sun’s beams” which means to lose power. I’ve often wondered about the truth of this judgment, having met a few individuals with Sun/Venus conjunctions who visibly shine with feminine grace. Certainly this year it’s clear that Venus does not go quietly into the underworld. She’s taken a powerful man (the Sun) down with her. And with less fanfare, she’s given us other images to ponder. During the week that Venus disappeared, Oprah (that media priestess of the divine feminine) brought us an incredible love story about a powerful man who actually served and honored his mate! Edward Kennedy’s courtship of Vicki is a fine counterpoint to Tiger’s more disposable view of the feminine. Oprah also showcased one of this season’s most important books: Half the Sky, with its unblinking, heartwrenching portrait of contemporary gender inequality.

Venus will be out of our view for about six weeks, as she transitions from Morning Star to Evening Star. It is a significant turning point in her cycle. May it bring a new turning point in our culture’s regard for the feminine. When Venus emerges as the Evening Star (at the end of February), she’s considered to be more mature, more harmonious and wise. May we all be so as well. As for Tiger, Uranus is approaching the cusp of his partnership house, about to oppose his Ascendant. Life will not be easy, but he will change; how is up to him.

Newsflash: A Gemini Can’t Shut Up

Dana — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:27:38 +0000

It’s ironic that the 24-hour-news pundits think Gov. Mark Sanford talks too much, as I’ve had the same thought about them many times. I’m not nearly as interested in politicians’ love lives as the news outlets think I am. Even so, I find it refreshing that Sanford–a chatty Gemini Sun with an emotional Cancer Moon–keeps talking about his feelings, how he’s met his soulmate, that he’s crossed the line before, that he hopes to fall back in love again with his wife. Sanford also has Mercury and Venus in Gemini. He reminds me of a few Venus-in-Geminis I know. Each has confessed with endearing honesty how difficult it is to settle their fluttering hearts on just one partner. This is a Venus who loves to love. She’s curious, flirtatious, and drawn to shiny new experiences. Why trap her in the cage everyone else lives in? Why insist that a Mercury in Gemini shut up and be dishonest like the rest of the politicians? Oh to live in a world that delighted in the varied flavors of the zodiac instead of condemning them!

Michael’s new journey begins

Dana — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:48:01 +0000

Gifted astrologer Lois Rodden taught that Jupiter–planet of abundance and good fortune–is often involved in death charts, because from the soul’s point of view, death is a liberation, a passport to a new journey. Michael Jackson died just as the sky’s current Jupiter/Neptune conjunction moved into a beneficial trine with Jackson’s natal Jupiter. Jackson was born under a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction, which, according to Reinhold Ebertin, can incline one to be a dreamer, a visionary, someone who’s artistically talented, generous, loving, and interested in moulding and shaping things. This combination can also make one idealistic to the point of being unrealistic, easily seduced, someone vulnerable to scandals, or constantly misunderstood by others. I’ve heard Jackson described in all of these ways. But the one thing nobody misunderstood was just how gifted he was–and how blessed we all were to be in a world where Michael danced and sang.

Uranus made him do it!

Dana — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:59:03 +0000

As a counseling astrologer, I’m no fan of celebr-astrology. The celebrities don’t seek my counsel. I know little of their inner natures. Still, when a scandal makes the news, I like to stalk the archetypes–that is, discover the god behind the story. So when David Letterman got into trouble this week and had to apologize for his Sarah Palin jokes, I checked Letterman’s chart. Uranus–god of genius and controversy–is conjoining his Pisces Mercury this year. Uranus is quick and can remove the constraints of decency; with Uranus transits, we’re always warned to slow down and avoid getting carried away with our genius. We may spark a revolution or simply raise the dust, as Letterman did when he joked about Palin in NY, going to Bloomingdale’s to buy slutty flight attendant garb, and Bristol getting knocked up by A-Rod. Poor taste? Sure, but in a media world where Bill O’Reilly can declare that Dr. George Tiller deserves his murder, where a Washington Times Op-Ed accuses Obama of a bait-and-switch akin to Adolf Hitler, and where Rush Limbaugh’s outrages are daily reported, Letterman’s poor taste hardly seems worth talking about.