A Shock to the City of Chicago - Saturn opposite Uranus

Chicago has just been eliminated from contention as the Olympic City of 2016 in the first round of voting in Copenhagen, Denmark. Given all the speculation that it would come down to a tight race between Chicago and Rio de Janeiro, it's shocking news. Watching the TV and reading the Chicago Tribune online, I'm hearing the words "shocked" and "stunned."

I haven't studied Chicago's chart in an attempt to predict how this would come out. However, I couldn't resist a quick look now that this unexpected development has occurred. No one, from what I've heard or read, expected Chicago to be eliminated in the first round, and commentators are reeling.

For the City of Chicago, I use March 4, 1837, 12:45 pm, Chicago, Illinois. I received this from Kaye Shinker of Astrological Investing via email a couple of years ago. March 4, 1837 is the incorporation of the city; the time was rectified.

This is not a detailed analysis. That would involve not only transits, but a look at the summer's eclipses, one of which was conjunct the city's ascendant at 14 Cancer, mundane ingress charts, secondary progressions, and solar arc directions. All three of the summer's eclipses did, in fact, contact Chicago's chart. But for purposes of this post I'm looking at the transits of the two most predominant planetary configurations of the year.

The triple conjunction of transiting Jupiter, Chiron, and Neptune has been conjunct Chicago's natal triple conjunction in Aquarius, Mercury, Venus, and the Moon, ruler of the city's Cancer Ascendant, and Chicago has been dreaming big about this Olympic bid. Optimism has been huge, and apparently overblown, highlighting one of the dangers of Jupiter-Neptune, big dreams not necessarily grounded in reality.

At the same time, the Saturn-Uranus opposition has been hovering around Chicago's Midheaven at 22:59 Pisces. Transiting Mercury, news, information, communication, at 22:16 Virgo, almost exactly opposite the Chicago Midheaven at the time of the announcement, is triggering the Saturn-Uranus opposition on Chicago's MC-IC axis. Mercury opposite Uranus, stunning news. Transiting Saturn in Virgo in the 4th house is disappointment and sadness at home. I just heard the word devastated coming from people being interviewed at Daley Plaza.

Public support for the Olympics in Chicago has not been high, perhaps a factor in the voting. and shown by transiting Saturn in the 4th house, negativity at home.But right now, we're hearing from the enthusiastic supporters and the people who've worked hard to make this happen, and they're crushed, not just to have been eliminated, but eliminated so abruptly in the first round.

Transiting Mercury conjunct transiting Saturn opposite Uranus: shocking, stunning news bringing disappointment, a classic delineation. Additionally, that same Mercury and Saturn are quincunx (or inconjunct) the transiting Neptune, separation from dreams and illusions.

A look ahead: I just heard an interviewee say that Chicago is a fighting city and we'll keep on fighting. Yes, Chicago is a feisty city with Mars conjunct Jupiter in Leo, both retrograde. Now isn't that interesting? Mars will be in Leo from October to June including a retrograde period from late December to early March covering that conjunction three times for the duration. Something is going to challenge and perhaps ultimately revive that fighting spirit.

This is all I have time to say about this right now, and I apologize for having been so brief, but I sure hope I have time to look into the astrology of Chicago in greater depth in the weeks and months ahead.

Peace to you--Doreen

The Sun in Virgo: Labor Day, a day of play to honor work

Let's face it, for most of us in the United States Labor Day marks the end of summer and is the last holiday fling before pools close, the kids go back to school, and summer activities wind down, a day of play that we vaguely acknowledge is meant to honor workers. Originally, when it began in the 1880's it was intended to honor organized labor and hard fought for worker's rights, including the elimination of child labor. Now I think we relate it to everyone who labors at those things we call jobs.

As an astrologer, I've always been intrigued by the fact that falling on the first Monday in September, it always occurs when the Sun is in Virgo because Virgo, being one of the earth signs (along with Taurus and Capricorn) is a sign closely associated with the concepts of work, duty, service, and skills, and those things we call jobs.

For the last two years, we've been blessed--or cursed, depending on your point of view--with the transit of Saturn through the sign of Virgo. Regardless of perspective, I think we're all a little Saturn in Virgo weary right now, and with Saturn poised to enter Libra on October 29, it's tempting to focus on the latter especially considering the cardinal t-square that's forming with Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto. But Saturn in Virgo isn't done yet and what's more Mercury is, as I write, about to retrograde at 06 Libra and will re-enter Virgo on September 17, station direct at 22 Virgo on September 29, and conjoin Saturn at 28 Virgo on October 8. In other words, astrology jargon aside, we're not done taking a hard (Saturn word) look at Saturn in Virgo, and Mercury retrograde, first in early Libra (Sep 7 - 17) and then in late Virgo (Sep 17-29) provides a natural review time.

Saturn transits often show us where we need to clean up our act. If we've done well in the areas it's highlighting, it rewards us, an oft-unappreciated side of Saturn, and if not, we face consequences. Since we're talking work and jobs here, Saturn transits are performance review time, which can bring raises and promotions, or disciplinary action, all (ideally) based on what you have earned and deserve.

Since I'm not much of a parade person and usually don't find myself at a Labor Day barbecue or party, I usually find that I mark Labor Day by coming across and reflecting upon a newspaper column that reminds me it's not just the end of summer. This year Mary Schmich, a Chicago Tribune columnist listed 30 things she's learned about work during her years of work since age 16. I wish I could cut and paste the entire list here but that would be a copyright violation, so here's a link which unfortunately will expire in time.

What I particularly like about this list about work is how Saturn in Virgo it is. Saturn: lessons; Virgo: work. Lessons about work.

Reminder: these numbered items were written by Mary Schmich in the Chicago Tribune on September 6, 2009.

Let's take #3: Deadlines are the enemy of perfection. They're also your best friend.

This is true of all things Saturnian. Saturn sure can seem like the mean planet, our enemy wherever it turns up, like that mean parent that's always saying no. Traditional astrology does after all designate it as one of the malefics. But sometimes no is a good thing, like no, don't play in the street. Virgo strives for perfection, and strives, and strives. Virgo can be so determined to be perfect that under its influence one might never actually finish anything, and at work we are expected to get things done. So yes, deadlines are a good thing. They force the perfectionist to give it up and be done. Be done with it already is a Saturn concept.

#8: Your job is harder than other people think, but not as hard as self-pity tells you.

Before I proceed, an item of self-disclosure. I am a Virgo rising and I have Saturn in Virgo natally, so this is personal, I live it. My life has been one long lesson about work, in one form or another, including its absence, both by choice and not.

Back to #8. One of the fascinating things about Saturn is that its placement in our chart often indicates where we have a tendency to over-protect ourselves, and where can this lead us? Self-pity. It can also be where we don't get a lot of sympathy. I'm reminded of the boss who having inherited my job after I left, told me a few weeks later that if she'd realized how hard my job was she wouldn't have let me go. I'd been struggling to tell her for the past two years and was relieved to be free of it. Thus, I was in a way relieved, hearing that, that she'd never completely understood. But was it as hard as I thought it was? Or were some of my fears related to the responsibilities making it harder than it had to be? Our Saturnian fears can trip us up. Facing them can make us better. Saturn is where we start out weak but can end up strong if we work hard enough to compensate. Did I take the easy way out bailing out of that job? I'll never know but I wonder.

#12: As a business-school professor once told me: Power doesn't corrupt; power reveals. That knowledge won't change your workplace, but it might change your perceptions.


Sometimes when people are promoted to positions of power, they seem to change, i.e., to be corrupted by power. No, amazingly, they were always that way, we just didn't see it because they didn't have the opportunity to reveal it. Saturn rules reality and is a revealer. Thus, acquiring a position of authority and power, becoming a boss, ruled by Saturn, gives you an opportunity to reveal things about yourself that were previously hidden. Saturn shatters illusions.

We will be learning more about power, the abuse of power, and what power reveals as Saturn squares Pluto in the coming months.

#22: Find work you love. If you can't, find things to love about your work. If that fails, remind yourself that there's always, always someone with a worse job.

I would add that if you cannot love your job, at least learn to respect it. Respect is another Saturn word. Remember "do what you love, the money will follow?" If you don't love your job and cannot find your way any time soon to one you do love, try respecting your job, and you might be surprised that love will follow. Maybe that's one reason Saturn is considered exalted (astrology term for in a really good place) in Libra, the value of respect in relationships and love.

What I wish for you on this Labor Day--when you're done playing of course--is work that you love and respect.

Peace to you--Doreen

The Pluto Station and My Scorpio Moon

Pluto in the 4th house...about as literal as it gets.

Been a long time since I've posted on this blog, over two months. I have been writing and even blogging, but it's been on private blogs. I have a private Reiki blog with another Reiki Master with whom I practice a couple of times a month and we share our insights about our work there. I also have a private family history blog that I share with my children and selected others. I enjoy the freedom of the private blogs. I can share my writing but with selected individuals., and I can pretty much just let it all out. It's more spontaneous than what I do here. I've been journaling a lot as well, so I've been writing, writing, writing, but privately. I have written nothing public all summer.

Cancer Sun, Virgo Ascendant, Scorpio Moon...those are all introverted signs. Cancer and Scorpio especially like their privacy, and put Scorpio and the Moon together, that can be out and out secrecy, whether for good or ill.

So why do I have a public blog at all? I have Mercury conjunct Mars in Gemini in my 10th house conjunct my Midheaven, indicating outspokenness, good for public speaking via a blog or in person. I know I need to write more here. I have no end of blog posts in my head, but the Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio trio don't like the spotlight, and Sun, Moon, and Ascendant describe a big chunk of a person's basic personality.

Additionally, I also have Scorpio on the cusp of my 3rd house, and my Scorpio Moon is conjunct that cusp, either in the 2nd or 3rd depending on house system, square Pluto in Leo in the 11th house. How that works with respect to communication is that I am often silent, more of an observer than a partaker, and I am also often, in one way or another, silenced or blocked.

Sometimes I silence myself, sometimes for good reasons and at other times for all the wrong ones, and sometimes I allow myself, all too easily, to be silenced by others. And that, is almost always for the wrong reasons. I have many more regrets about things that I did not say that I should have said than vice versa, and that's saying a lot for Mercury-Mars in Gemini!

The third house is like another Mercury in some respects and is another description of our communication and decision-making style. So, on the one hand, I have a candid blurt-it-all-out style with Mercury-Mars in Gemini conjunct the Midheaven. Mercury-Mars: a sharp tongue, a word warrior. And on the other hand, I have this Scorpio Moon-Pluto square all connected to the 3rd house style which is silent, reticent and secretive, more interested in accumulating and acquiring information than disseminating it. It's great for research and detective work, not so good for sharing and communicating what I've learned. To get it out, I've got to use the Mercury in Gemini, and transferring stuff from the Scorpio part of my brain to the Gemini part of my brain does not always go smoothly. True to form, the Scorpio part does not always like to let go of what it has acquired.

Now a Moon-Pluto square, like everything else in astrology, has many levels of meaning and we're hearing about a lot of them because astrologers have been talking about the Moon-Pluto square in Barack Obama's chart. I'm particularly interested in that discussion because, like Obama, I have both a Moon-Pluto square and a Sun-Neptune square. More about that some other time...maybe...if I can transfer it to the Gemini part of my brain.

Anyway, for the past several months and some to come transiting Pluto has been semi-square my natal Moon at 14 Scorpio. A semi-square, 45 degrees, is like a square although in most cases the effect seems to be milder. For the effects of a wrenching Pluto to natal Moon transit, you need go no further than Elsa's blog who has courageously shared loss, grief, and trauma to a depth that I am simply not capable of in so public a forum. Thank you Elsa. Hugs to you. You are an inspiration.

As she has pointed out, transiting Pluto is currently stationing direct at 29:30 Sagittarius, and thus is intensely highlighting anything that it is focusing on in a natal chart at the moment, and in my chart it's been shining its big old flashlight right on my Moon-Pluto square while it has been hanging out in my 4th house. What I have experienced during this transit is that it is mostly about the past. Pluto transits in a house last for such a long time that we usually don't say something like, "Pluto is transiting in your 4th house and this is what it means..." It blends into the background, more easily discerned in hindsight. However, since transiting Pluto has been in my 4th house--childhood, home, family, history, habits acquired from early childhood, subconscious mind--I feel like there's been a backhoe digging up the backyard of my memories. It's been going on since about 2000, but since it's been semi-square my natal Moon, it's been very focused and intense.

It's been less about events in the present than about reviewing past "Pluto events," how I handled them and the consequences. One exception is the death of my mother back in January. That, of course, was a real, present-day event, but when one's 95-year-old mother dies, part of the bereavement process is a re-processing of the entire relationship. And, of course, what with a Scorpio Moon squared by Pluto, the 3rd house ruler, my mother had a huge influence on my communication style and challenges.

When I was in my mid-20's I made a major life-altering decision that virtually no one in my life approved of. For all appearances, I was being selfish and self-indulgent in a situation in which I should have been more responsible. However, I was making that decision because another person's behavior was becoming increasingly dangerous although there was simply no way I could prove it because he was extremely clever and cunning at covering his tracks. Furthermore, I had done things that hadn't exactly helped my case. But I really was making my decision to legitimately protect myself and others. I have my regrets and second thoughts about a lot of things, but I have never for one moment doubted the rightness of this decision.

During that time, I had a conversation with someone who by all rights should have been in my court and on my side. As we say now, she should've had my back. She expressed some doubts with what I was doing which was fair. But I started to explain, in general terms, what this person had done. I intended to go on and express my fears for the future. But she interrupted and said, "But how can I know I can believe you?" I do not remember what I said next, or how the conversation continued, or how and when it ended. Everything stood still in a very black space. I do remember vividly, however, exactly what I thought next. I was thinking that if she was not going to believe me, if she was going to accuse me of making it up, of lying, of exaggerating, or any variation of any of that, I was not going to divulge one shred of the whole painful, humiliating mess. And I never did. I never brought it up again, and neither did she. I never even hinted at any of it. Pluto in hard aspect (conjunction, square, opposition) to Sun, Moon, and Mercury can be absolute, total silence, secrets taken to the grave. Part of me has always raged inwardly for vindication, but I never spoke of it again to her and very little to anyone. To not be believed is almost as great an indignity as the original experiences. (Here we could have a discussion about Chiron in Sag in the 3rd house.) To be fair, the people who counted most, ultimately appreciated my decision, and I have no regrets.

All said and done, right?

Today, courtesy of Pluto the backhoe, I had a stunning realization. Something that had never before occurred to me, obvious though it is. By my silence I made her right. I believe she knew it was the truth and simply didn't want to hear it. But, she could always tell herself--and anyone else--that I must have been lying because I shut up when she doubted me.

So...while raging inwardly for vindication, by my silence, I had failed to vindicate myself.

I understand now what people mean when they say they want to set the record straight.

And that, folks, is today's story of Pluto's transit (semi-square) to my natal Scorpio Moon.

Peace to you--Doreen

The Mercury Retrograde Blues

A long time ago--um, two years--when this blog was young, I wrote Why I Like Mercury Retrograde. Well, I still do, but right now transiting Mercury in Gemini is inching towards its direct station on Thursday at 9:31 A.M. Central Daylight Time, and I am very, very, very tired of it. Presently, normally speedy Mercury whose average daily motion is about 1 1/4 degrees per day, is barely moving...in normally speedy Gemini. As I write it is at 13:06 Gemini and when it stations direct on Thursday, its position will be 12:59 Gemini, that's a mere 7 minutes of arc in 2 days. And yes, this is an optical illusion; the planets do not really slow down and come to a halt, change direction, and then speed up again. That's a discussion for a technical article on direct and retrograde motion. From a geocentric point of view though, Mercury is barely moving, and I, who am Mercury ruled, having a Virgo Ascendant, feel like I and the world are barely moving. That Saturn, the planet that rules S L O W, that's SLOOOOOOOOW, is in Virgo, to repeat, a Mercury ruled sign, probably isn't helping, but often this is the point during Mercury retrograde when I've had enough.

A friend called me this afternoon to tell me that her car--cars and transportation are ruled by Mercury and Gemini--got STUCK in PARK this morning! Talk about not moving. She is also a Virgo rising. She thought maybe it was the Full Moon. No, no, that's another story. This one is Mercury retrograde...yup, I'm sure of that one. Not that I'm blaming it. Nope we don't blame the planets. As above, so below.

Oh, and my friend? She's not moving either. Remember, she's a Virgo rising too. Her secondary progressed (a technical concept used in astrological forecasting) Mercury is in Pisces and she's presently laid up with an injured foot (ruled by Pisces).

This morning a bird--small birds are ruled by Mercury and Gemini according to Rex Bills--got stuck in my fireplace. Not being eager to have a bird flying around in my living room, I contemplated somehow getting it into a box or spare cage and releasing it on my deck. But the bird was having none of that. While I was thinking it over, it managed to force the glass fireplace doors open and promptly proceeded to fly into the patio door, twice. Now this is a longer story than it should have been and I'm not going to tell you about the part when I hid--briefly, briefly--in the bedroom--with the cat--but in the end it was a simple matter to open the patio door and let the bird fly out. My Quaker Parakeet, Gawain, a loquacious fellow (although not a Gemini unless he's a Gemini rising...I don't know his hatch time) said, "Birdie, that's a birdie." Thanks for clarifying that, little buddy.

I have a history with birds trapped in my house, although it's been years and not where I'm living now. I won't go into the history, but this was definitely a RE-visiting that whole thing kind of an event, so I have no problem seeing it as a Mercury retrograde experience. There were two lessons in it: (1) things aren't always as difficult or as complicated as I think they are; (2) all I need to do is to open a door and let something go free that has been trapped.

I have adult onset asthma. The lungs are ruled by Gemini and the onset coincided with transiting Pluto opposite my natal Mercury at 23 Gemini a few years ago. Pluto opposite Mercury: pressure on the lungs. I have an air (Gemini) purifier in my bedroom to give me relief from pet dander, dust, and pollen while I sleep. Yesterday morning when I woke up the air purifier was off and I wondered if the power had gone off overnight. Upon investigation I discovered that my 18-year-old Siamese must have stepped on the on/off switch of the power strip the air purifier was plugged into. Hmmm. My cat is, as they say, getting "up there," and recently I've been wondering when it's going to be time to help her with her, um, transition. She's been getting a bit wobbly lately. Was this her way of telling me what she thinks of that idea? Her way of saying, "We'll see who gets put to sleep here?" (Note to self: tell the family not to let her in the room if I'm ever on a respirator.)

Mercury rules my Midheaven, and I've spent this Mercury retrograde period doing a lot of serious thinking about career and what to do with my life in general. I've had some ideas, some of which involve writing, ruled by Mercury, and I'm eager to get started on some projects I've thought about and am now waiting for Mercury to go direct to begin them.

Curious though, I decided to review and revisit the Vaughn case with transiting Mercury retrograde at 13 Gemini conjunct the Moon in the event chart of the 911 call. That wasn't a conscious timing decision. I just started thinking about it and pulled out a paper I wrote about it shortly after it happened and decided to post a few excerpts on the blog. I wonder if the full Moon falling within 5 degrees of the Ascendant-Descendant of the 911 call chart will shed any light on the case or bring it back into public awareness. As I mentioned in the post, the Ascendant-Sun of the event chart are tightly conjunct my own natal Mercury in Gemini, and I have followed the case closely although there's been very little news about it for months.

So that's my Mercury retrograde report. If you, like me, have the Mercury Retrograde Blues--or blahs--it's almost over.

Peace to you--Doreen