The 2014 Mutable Grand Cross and April Eclipses

Have you been hearing about the astrological grand cross that will occur in its strongest manifestation in the third week of April? This same configuration manifested in January 2014, when it was not exact but was within close range. It slowly starts again now in late March as Mars is within a 10-degree orb of aspect and the new Moon in Pisces joins Uranus on March 30.

The grand cross will continue getting stronger through April and then slowly start to dissipate through the first few weeks of May. You could say this pattern helps define certain dynamics that we are experiencing in the first half of the civil year and especially starting now. Western astrologers who use the tropical (seasonal) zodiac view the grand cross in cardinal signs, but sidereal astrologers who follow the starry sky (like me) are tracking it in mutable signs.

In mid-April and most intensely in the third week of April, retrograde Mars will move into position in sidereal Virgo to form the grand cross with Pluto in Sagittarius, Jupiter in Gemini and Uranus in Pisces. These are tension squares (90-degree aspects) and also t-squares between all four of these planets forming a grand square — Mars and Jupiter, Jupiter and Uranus, Uranus and Pluto and Pluto and Mars. In addition, Mars opposes Uranus and Jupiter opposes Pluto, thus completing the grand cross.

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Astrology, Karma and the Spiritual Life

When I consult with clients, I always try to remind them first and foremost that they are “divine beings having a human experience.” Yes, the astrological birth chart reveals karmas, the results of our actions in this lifetime and past lifetimes, but our divine potential is much greater than mere karmas. I advise my clients according to the sage instruction of one of the greatest yoga masters of all time, Paramahansa Yogananda, who said that one should “refuse to be bound by karma; it is an old superstition of the ignorant to believe you cannot change your destiny.”

Another way of looking at the natal horoscope is that it is a blueprint of the light body or human energetic system. In fact, Vedic astrology is called Jyotisha, the Science of Light! Studying a variety of astrological charts for each individual, I can usually tune-in and see where the sublime energetic system is blocked and how it can be cleared, balanced and realigned for improved health and overall well-being. I do this energy clearing and balancing work for each client from a distance as I prepare the astrological reading in advance of our actual phone or Skype session, and I often additionally perform subtle energetic adjustments during my phone or Skype sessions with my clients.

Along with performing distance healing for my clients, I also focus on illuminating some of their karmas, i.e., learning experiences, or what I call the various aspects of one’s “growing edge.” These matters are revealed through my analysis and synthesis of the natal and dynamic (progressed and transit) charts. In each session, I also offer prognostications about the future and suggestions for karmic remedies (upayas) which can help to mitigate difficulties and enhance more grace and ease.

The most important karmic remedy I can suggest for anyone is to live a spiritual life. Paramahansa Yogananda said that astrology was designed to assist us on our soul’s journey by helping us become more conscious of the interrelationships between the objective universe and our inner nature. An astrological session can be of great aid in this process, as it can reveal something about the life path and pitfalls unique to each individual.

Yogananda taught that there is a subtle relationship between the celestial bodies and our own physical bodies and minds, which is correlated through the six main chakras or subtle centers in the spine. These six chakras become twelve by polarity, thus mirroring the twelve signs of the zodiac.

According to Yogananda, “Millions of volts of electrical current are lodged in these spinal centers. If your body and your mind are very strong, you will be impervious to the evil vibrations from the stars when they begin to shed their rays upon you. By communing with God, you will reinforce the power of the twelve spinal centers, which will then act in cooperation with the twelve signs of the zodiac. The deeper your communion with God, the more you will automatically harmonize the influences of all planetary forces and transcend the evil effects of the powerful, but distant, planets. In these ways, you can spiritualize astrology. Through all such actions, you are changing your body and mind and how they are affecting the twelve centers in your spine. As a result of these changes, the stars will begin to smile upon you.”

The wheel of samsara is ever turning as the stars and planets move along their orbits, constantly shifting into new patterns that echo change and upheaval in our lives and in the world. Yet, we are not meant to use astrology as an excuse for life’s vicissitudes. The stars and planets simply provide a symbolic picture of our karma, what we all have created and what we continue to create by thought and deed. Yogananda said, “Instead of accepting fatalistically the decrees of karma, follow the inner way to freedom. Meditate daily. Commune deeply with God…Ultimately, by ever deeper meditation, you will reach a point where you receive your influences from God alone.” We cannot alter the outer astrological influences but we can do the inner work to change how we are affected by these influences. That is the greatest remedy.

Missing Maxie: The Heart of Grief

I don’t typically reveal who my clients are, and I hold their private information in the strictest confidence. However, in certain rare cases, a client will have an important story to share which I believe can be helpful to many others. Such is the case with Abby Leviss who has written a heart-warming account about her experience with my astrological services. Abby posts a daily blog about her son, Maxie, who tragically passed away at nine and a half months suddenly and without warning while at daycare. In her posts, Abby shares stories about beautiful Maxie, the challenges of life without him, and about life with Maxie’s little brother Mo, who was born a year and two days after Max’s death. Thank you for sharing this, Abby. Here’s to Maxie!

Monday, September 24, 2012

My Astrological Forecast

What if you could know your own future? Would you even want to know what was in store for you? What if you could know whether you would find the love of your life? Or whether that love would last? Have you ever been curious about whether you are following the right career path or if you will have financial success in the future? These days I have a one track mind about my future – and it all revolves around the loss of our Maxie. I need to know that Mo and our future children will live. I need to know that Teddy will live to a ripe old age as well. I need to know that there will be a time when life won’t feel so oppressive and overwhelming. I need to know that we will be with Max again.

Several months ago, another bereaved mother reached out to me. She has been on this road without her daughter for ten years now. Her daughter was two when she passed away. This mother is one of the most healed bereaved parents I have interacted with. She found my blog after I attended the afterlife conference in Phoenix. I have emailed back and forth with her many times about what therapies and experiences helped her the most. For her, it was doing an out of box therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder called EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), having a personal reading with the famous medium John Holland (which is how she found my blog – he posted a link to my post about the conference experience on his Facebook page), and having her astrological chart done by a Vedic astrologer. I had never heard of Vedic astrology before so I asked her a bunch of questions about how it could have possibly helped. I have never been into Western astrology, other than to read my horoscope in a magazine from time to time and forget it seconds later. What she told me about this ancient Indian practice of astrology was very interesting.

In India, Vedic astrology is considered a science. You can actually study it at the university level and major in it. It is so much a part of the accepted belief system in fact that Indians will not get married or start a new business without first consulting the astrological charts. India’s independence was not declared until the stars aligned just so. My bereaved mother friend explained to me that having charts done for her and her deceased daughter convinced her that there is a bigger picture to life that we cannot understand…that much of her life as she knew it had been predetermined. That isn’t to say that there is no belief in free will. In fact, followers can often find out about health, financial and relationship issues from looking at their charts and astrologers will prescribe remedies to cope with the issues that might come up. None of it is set in stone.

I felt sufficiently intrigued to set up a personal reading with Juliana Swanson, the same astrologer who did my friend’s chart ten years ago. And now you really think I’ve lost it.  I’ll admit, the whole thing sounded incredibly far out but I am in an experimental phase. I am seeking out unconventional practices to help me explain to myself this most unbelievable loss of mine. What I can tell you is that my experience with Juliana was way beyond my wildest expectations. She spent hours preparing charts for me, Maxie and Mo based on our dates, times, and locations of our births. Juliana talked about the cycles of my life, correctly designating several distinct phases I have gone through: one leading up to my parents split when I was eight or nine, one beginning at the age of 35 with my marriage to Ted and then a couple in between. She spoke with me about my strengths and weaknesses both personally and professionally and she was right on.

I took lots of notes and read them back to Ted afterwards who kept saying, “She KNOWS you!”. She suggested that I should pursue a career in either non profit work or therapy if I was not already on either of those paths. She believed I would focus my attention in the areas of disaster relief, death and dying, women and children issues and refugee issues (which happen to be the issues that I am most interested in). My chart indicated that there was a strong likelihood of my losing a child and Maxie’s chart indicated a strong likelihood for a short lifespan. Mo’s chart, on the other hand, had many combinations for longevity. She told me that she saw a need for me to get acupuncture for my liver quarterly and that I need to be vigilant about doing breast exams. She suggested that I read “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda (the founder of the Self Realization Center at Lake Shrine) as part of her prescription. She also saw another birth coming up for us.  Likely a girl, she said, but perhaps even twins.  

I honestly still don’t know what to make of it all but I believe that I will be coming back to this experience many times in my life. Most importantly, my take away was something that she kept telling me repeatedly about Mo – that his biggest challenge would be the legacy of Maxie. She told me over and over that it is important that we make sure he knows how loved he is and that his brother’s death has nothing to do with him….that he is just as important to us and that we love all of our children equally. That broke my heart and renewed my awareness to concentrate so much love on Mo and his life. There is nothing that I can do to bring back my Maxie. But there is so much I can do to ensure that my Mo is a happy and loved boy.

In the meantime, I am not going to say that the reading answered all of my questions and wrapped the case up for me in any kind of an explainable way, but I am humbled enough by Maxie’s death to say that I am open to the fact that there is much in this life that doesn’t make sense and that I don’t understand. I am open to learning about all of the various ways that people make sense of this world and this life. I am open to the idea that perhaps we are all part of a bigger plan of sorts. All I can honestly say is that I really don’t know but am finding the journey to be enlightening.

Republished with permission from Missie Maxie Blogspot.


 

2012 Shift

A Mayan great cycle culminates on December 21, 2012. There has been a lot of hype about this being the end of the world, which I do not believe. On this date that marks the end of one particular Mayan calendar, the Sun will also move into direct alignment with the equator of our Milky Way Galaxy, an alignment that occurs only once in every 26,000 years. To be more accurate, because the Sun’s disk as seen from Earth covers about a half a degree in width, the Sun’s disk at winter solstice makes this contact with the galactic center over a 36-year period from 1980 to 2016. Since the 1980s, the world has already gone through a deep transformation as the pace of life continues to speed up; the world population keeps on growing exponentially; and humanity has become increasingly connected through instantaneous worldwide communication, economic and social globalization, and ecological crisis. Perhaps 2012 is simply the peak of this massive wave of change, as many authors have speculated.

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