It sees, knows and allows all. It is not threatened by disbelief, nor has any need to impose Itself. It just is.
As you develop an inner security, you too will not require a defence system, but an awareness of all that is happening so you can choose the best ways for you from clear-sightedness. This confidence in self is when the spiritual nature shines through in the world and you have owned your own god-like nature. By these means, you find freedom. The need to manipulate and control falls away, and cooperation is sorted in the creation of the New Earth.
We speak here of the ideal. It will take many generations to reach that point of inner peace when there is a critical mass, but each journey starts with the first steps when the light workers begin to reclaim their true nature. The movement is quiet and gentle, but the effects will be noticeable and will begin to be felt in your lifetime. Watch the young people, many of them are here to continue the work you start. You may not understand their priorities, but the future is their work and you can trust them. Their priorities are different to your own: theirs is a new horizon.
When your time comes to leave, you can go in peace.
In my dreams, I’m never exactly sure why I get the sequences I do: last night, for example, I saw billowing black smoke coming out from a roof cavity in a building that housed a large department store.
The smoke was acrid (yes, I could smell and taste it, which makes this a lucid dream) and finding the source of the smoke was a matter of airing out the premises without fully igniting the fire. I was able to track the vestiges of the smoke back to a ventilating shaft. But I woke from my dream before I was able to put out the fire.
So, here’s the thing: the last time I smelled smoke like that was the day (July 31, 2018) when our Ford Fiesta caught fire. It’s a smell you never forget.
But, my instinct says that this dream sequence has more to do with the Omicron variant, recently in the news. In other words, it’s a smoke screen. Maybe there isn’t a fire, after all.
Honestly, you would have thought that I’d done Leonardo’s death chart before now, but it turns out that I hadn’t. This oversight correction was prompted by a YouTube video I watched today:
So, what can his death chart show us?
We don’t know his exact time of death, so I’ve set the clock for 12 noon, to see what the energies were for that fatal day. The Neptune opposition Ascendant probably speaks volumes on its own, but the inconjuncts might serve us better. (The descriptions will be as if they were for his life, but think of them as for his continued existence.)
Mercury Inconjunct Jupiter
You like to think big, and you have great ambitions, but you don’t always make sure that your thinking is clear or careful. When you make any kind of plan, be careful. Don’t try to take on more than you can handle and make sure not to overlook details, for that could hurt what you are trying to do. Careful planning will help you develop disciplined habits in other areas as well. This aspect can mean that you are sloppy in your personal appearance and in your work habits.
Mercury Conjunct Uranus
You tend to move so fast that your energies get scattered and you never really get anything done. Be careful not to start a lot of projects and then drop them when the thrill of a new experience has worn off. At times your tempo of activity gets so high that you simply exhaust yourself. During such times you will become extremely nervous and irritable, which is the signal to slow down.
Venus Inconjunct Neptune
This aspect means that your attitudes about love and affection are very idealistic, as will become clearer later in life. Also it can be a sign of creative artistic ability if there are other indications of creativity in your chart. And, of course, you must begin the appropriate training while you are young.
When you are older, you may have severe problems in love relationships, because you feel that you are only good enough for society’s losers, people who badly need help or have severe emotional problems. Or you may find someone who seems to be perfect, who will help you out of your problems, but later turns out to be a disappointment. You must learn to take a clear, objective view of the people you are attracted to, and to realize that you deserve a positive love relationship as much as the other person does, for you are as worthwhile as anyone.
Jupiter Inconjunct Uranus
You will always need freedom, but you will also discover that what you do with your life will have meaning only if it means something to others. This is not an artificial rule but a truth that you will discover within yourself. When you do, you may become heavily involved in some social movement that advocates unusual ideas or ways of thinking.
(On second thought, this may have been how he was feeling on his ‘exit’ day, no doubt…)
While feeling separated from Source during a life in matter, the connection appears to be non-existent. The sheer density of matter overwhelms the subtlety of the divine source. It has to be your endeavour to crawl through all the potential that is offered by the physical world that the soul is able to learn from the challenges and this strengthens the creativity that is inherent in all beings.
The chakras are confronted one by one with the raising of energy. The flow increases in availability with each life, and the objective is to refine the vibration. There is a purpose to it all, and the way to realize it is by giving yourself those quiet times by going in on yourself and be still. That is the easiest way to feel reconnected to the Source. Working in the physical plane is the current purpose, to channel the high frequency energies into matter and this will increase the vibration of the planet towards the evolution of the human race and matter in tandem.
We mentioned before that there is a musical note with rises and falls through the chakras, so the clearer those chakras are the higher the frequency becomes, and this energy emanates from you.
For the crime of Grand Larceny of the story lines of other adventure films.
We watched this film last night on Netflix, as most television channels were featuring either college football or Hallmark Christmas movies. Yes, it was diverting, and yes, because of Ryan Reynolds motormouth delivery of dialogue, it was funny. But it was also derivative of films from the past.
There is a sequence when the two men were walking down the stairs to a mine that was hiding Nazi treasures when Reynold’s character starting humming the theme to “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” I knew that was a given, so the acknowledgement redeemed the film, slightly, in my eyes.
(Because I had just finished Len Deighton’s XPD last week, the premise of hidden Nazi treasure in a mine was still on my mind.)
Even the race through the mine’s lanes on a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K was reminiscent of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”
Maybe I’m jaded. Maybe I’m old. It’s just that my memory is too long to ignore obvious homages to our past. Does that make this film bad? Not really. But the crime of ‘borrowing’ from so many old films is nothing new, is it? No one seems to have an ‘original’ thought these days.
And there were touches of James Bond, too. I guess we were supposed to Notice the Red connections.
The Start of the “Spanish” Flu (H1N1-A) (March 4, 1918)
Did you even imagine that we’d still be dealing with COVID-19, two years later? If history is anything to go by, that would be par for the course. I thought it might be informative to look at the ‘birth’ chart of the “Spanish” flu, as generally accepted.
Spanish flu, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or the 1918 influenza pandemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was March 1918 in Kansas, United States, with further cases recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in April. Two years later, nearly a third of the global population, or an estimated 500 million people, had been infected in four successive waves. Estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.
The timing is totally speculative, of course, but in my mind’s eye, I see the cook at Camp Funston waiting until after breakfast to seek medical help for what was ailing him. There are two inconjuncts.
Mercury Inconjunct Saturn
A particularly serious problem [with this aspect] can be feeling suspicious of others, which later in life will turn into a cynical attitude about people’s behavior. True, it is good to be aware of the realities of life and not [be] over-idealistic. But you shouldn’t look at life in the worst possible light. You need to be surrounded by positive and optimistic people, and your parents should try not to be too negative around you and to make sure that you experience the best and most cheerful aspects of life. You will learn soon enough what to expect of the world without having your nose rubbed in its less desirable features.
Mercury Inconjunct Neptune
The challenge of this aspect is to make your thinking and communication with others more clear. Your rational mind is strongly influenced by your sensitivity, imagination and ideals, although you aren’t always sure how this happens. You tend to spend too much time in your own imaginary world that no one else can share, and this confuses your dealings with others. You will have to learn to face reality, so that you can at least communicate with people. Otherwise you will have a very lonely life.
Saturn Conjunct Neptune
Wherever this aspect affects the chart, it brings about a feeling of insecurity, as if reality itself were not quite dependable. You are fearful and tend toward depression. However, if you master its energies, you can learn to live with very little. This aspect does not necessarily mean that you won’t have physical resources, it merely means that they are less essential to you than to others. Many persons with this aspect choose to be unencumbered by material possessions, preferring to live ascetically, with few comforts. And the psychological effect is similar, in that you may have a very great capacity to sacrifice yourself for others or for your beliefs.
Basically you must learn to trust, not only other people, but the universe as well. You must believe that circumstances in your life will work out in your favor, because life should be no harder for you than for anyone else. However, if you succumb to the fear that can accompany this aspect, you will be subject to sudden losses of confidence, fits of anxiety and possibly fear of others.
(Like the newspaper clipping from 1918 says: To prevent influenza, ‘avoid worry, fear and fatigue.’)
Comparison of the Spanish Flu and COVID-19
Now doesn’t that beat all?! Venus is conjunct Venus in the charts @ 13° Aquarius (give or take 26 minutes or so). Now I know why I called COVID-19 “The Love Bug”. The other direct conjunction is between the Spanish Flu’s Moon and COVID-19’s Mars @ 27° Scorpio. Perhaps the armed forces were involved this time…
Notice how there are three interactive Yods connecting these charts. Hmm. Cosmic, maybe?
Saint Nicholas (March 15, 220 AD – December 6, 343 AD)
I knew I would probably look at this ‘original’ Santa Claus, after posting the birth chart of the modern one. The birth and death dates are the traditional ones for Saint Nicholas.
The timing is randomized, so it surprised me to see Mars @ 1° Capricorn conjunct the Descendant @ 4° Capricorn and the Moon @ 28° Sagittarius. Is this suggestive of a connection to the modern Santa Claus? (And, truly, can it even be suggested?) There is one inconjunct.
Moon Inconjunct Pluto
This aspect means that your emotions are very intense and not always easy to deal with. Often your feelings make you want to do or say something without knowing why. Also you may have very intense moods in which you withdraw from those around you into a world of your own. This should not be a very serious problem unless you have been brought up to have all sorts of fears and worries. In that case your actions will be driven by your fears, and you may behave quite strangely. If you do not feel accepted and emotionally supported at home, you may constantly feel guilty for what you think you have done to others, or jealous that people aren’t paying enough attention to you, or generally possessive of those around you.
You probably enjoy exploring the mysterious and probing hidden secrets. Even while you are young, you will understand human nature better than most people, but to use this ability positively, you must be reasonably calm about your feelings.
Comparing the Original with the Modern
I know it’s a nonsense, but I can’t help feeling that the connection between the past and the present is ‘real’. Jupiter in Saint Nicholas’ birth chart is conjunct Santa’s natal Pluto; Santa’s natal Jupiter is conjunct Nicholas’ natal Ascendant. Santa’s Moon is (almost) exactly conjunct Nicholas’ ‘fatal’ Jupiter. Do you see what I mean?
Sinterklaas is the missing link
Sinterklaas is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus. It is often claimed that during the American War of Independence, the inhabitants of New York City, a former Dutch colonial town (New Amsterdam), reinvented their Sinterklaas tradition, as Saint Nicholas was a symbol of the city’s non-English past. In the 1770s the New York Gazetteer noted that the feast day of “St. a Claus” was celebrated “by the descendants of the ancient Dutch families, with their usual festivities.” In a study of the “children’s books, periodicals and journals” of New Amsterdam, the scholar Charles Jones did not find references to Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas. Not all scholars agree with Jones’ findings, which he reiterated in a book in 1978. Howard G. Hageman, of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, maintains that the tradition of celebrating Sinterklaas in New York existed in the early settlement of the Hudson Valley. He agrees that “there can be no question that by the time the revival of St. Nicholas came with Washington Irving, the traditional New Netherlands observance had completely disappeared.” However, Irving’s stories prominently featured legends of the early Dutch settlers, so while the traditional practice may have died out, Irving’s St. Nicholas may have been a revival of that dormant Dutch strand of folklore. In his 1812 revisions to A History of New York, Irving inserted a dream sequence featuring St. Nicholas soaring over treetops in a flying wagon – a creation others would later dress up as Santa Claus.
Who says you can’t create the birth chart of a legendary figure? I, for one, think you can.
In 1821, the book A New-year’s present, to the little ones from five to twelve was published in New York. It contained Old Santeclaus with Much Delight, an anonymous poem describing Santeclaus on a reindeer sleigh, bringing rewards to children. Some modern ideas of Santa Claus seemingly became canon after the anonymous publication of the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (better known today as “The Night Before Christmas”) in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on 23 December 1823; Clement Clarke Moore later claimed authorship, though some scholars argue that Henry Livingston, Jr. (who died nine years before Moore’s claim) was the author. St. Nick is described as being “chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf” with “a little round belly”, that “shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly”, in spite of which the “miniature sleigh” and “tiny reindeer” still indicate that he is physically diminutive. The reindeer were also named: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem (Dunder and Blixem came from the old Dutch words for thunder and lightning, which were later changed to the more German sounding Donner and Blitzen).
I chose one second past midnight of the publication date for A Visit from St. Nicholas, since it would have been ready overnight. The resulting chart is spectacular, to say the least. Only two of the aspects are benign: Moon sextile Venus and Moon trine Saturn. The rest of the chart is made up of a multi-layered Cosmic Cross, with only an opposition between Venus and Saturn cutting through diagonally.
Any astrologer worth their salt would recognize the power of Mars (conjunct Ascendant) in opposition to Pluto @ 0° Aries. It is probably why Santa Claus is such a polarizing figure.
Mars Opposition Pluto
You sometimes find it difficult to get along with others. You may feel picked on, as if people were working against you for no particular reason. However, that is not usually true. But without being aware of it, you may be doing things that set others against you. You are very intense about yourself, and you may give the impression unknowingly that you will do whatever you want, and that nothing and no one will stand in your way. This can scare people, even when you have no intention of doing so.
Oh, the hidden depths of this man. Julian Fellowes first came to my attention as an actor during the BBC TV series “Monarch of the Glen” (2000-2005). I didn’t know he was a writer, too, until Gosford Park, for which he won an Oscar in 2001 for writing the original screenplay. After that, there was no stopping him.
I had originally randomized Fellowes’ birth time, as no one knows exactly when he was born, including himself, I would imagine. But then I read the following in Wikipedia:
On 28 April 1990, Fellowes married Emma Joy Kitchener (born 1963), daughter of The Hon. Charles Kitchener (1920–1982) and a lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent. She is also a great-great-niece of Herbert, 1st Earl Kitchener. He proposed to her only 20 minutes after meeting her at a party, “having spent 19 minutes getting up the nerve”. On 15 October 1998 the Fellowes family changed its surname from Fellowes to Kitchener-Fellowes.
Two things came from that quote: he was 40 years old when he married (Venus in Virgo) and he has inside information about how the aristocracy works in Great Britain (Mercury conjunct Saturn in Virgo).
Sun Inconjunct Jupiter
This can be an extremely useful aspect, if you learn to have more self-control in what you do. Jupiter is always high-spirited, wanting to do and encounter everything and enjoy life thoroughly. Yet in some combinations, it means that you are unwilling to work for what you want. You may feel that you are such a fine person that you deserve to have everything done for you. Certainly you are worthwhile in your own way, but that doesn’t give you a right to be taken care of without contributing your share. As with all Sun-Jupiter energies, if you learn to support others, to make them feel good and happy in your presence, you will get their support as well. Then there will always be someone to help you when you need it. But if you act arrogant[ly] toward others, they may not stay around to support you.
Venus Inconjunct Ascendant
You often feel that you haven’t any right to ask much of those whom you love. You feel that you must do favors for them instead of asking for their help. For you, love is an act of service, not self-gratification. Also, through relationships with others, you try to learn more about your own and other people’s inner workings. For this reason your relationships are more deep and profound than most people’s. But they are somewhat difficult, too. Your close friends and loved ones discover that you are quite different in a close relationship than you appear at first. It is not that you are dishonest, but that you show a side of yourself to your friends that you usually keep hidden, often because you are not entirely confident in that role. You may feel unsure that others will like you or accept your affection. This is one reason why you express your love by doing nice things for people. You are trying to win them over.
He is Both “Upstairs and Downstairs”
Fellowes publicly expressed his dissatisfaction that the proposals to change the rules of royal succession were not extended to hereditary peerages, which had they been would have allowed his wife to succeed her uncle as Countess Kitchener in her own right. He said: “I find it ridiculous that, in 2011, a perfectly sentient adult woman has no rights of inheritance whatsoever when it comes to a hereditary title.” Instead, the title became extinct on her uncle’s death because there were no male heirs.
On 9 May 2012, the Queen issued a Royal Warrant of Precedence granting Lady Fellowes the same rank and style as the daughter of an Earl, as would have been due to her if her late father had survived his brother and therefore succeeded to the earldom.
Wikipedia
I always wondered why Fellowes made such a big deal about Lady Mary Crawley not inheriting her father’s estate in the first couple of seasons of “Downton Abbey”. But now it’s clear, at least to me.
I suppose Tom Branson (the chauffeur who married Lady Sybil and joined the Crawley family business) is a stand-in for Fellowes in the story line. He must know what it’s like to marry into the aristocracy. It’s fascinating that Fellowes became a Life Peer himself, more than 20 years later. He’s seen both sides of the divide, for sure. By the time the next Downton Abbey film is released in 2022, Tom may marry an heiress from within the Crawley extended family. (Talk about fiction following reality, eh?)
Oh, did I mention that we watched the first Downton Abbey film, last night?
Selfishness and the desire for personal power lead to all kinds of negative behaviour through the desire to dominate any situation. As with all things, like attracts like, and it becomes a battle, between working with higher consciousness and cooperation, with the need to be unique.
For society to run smoothly requires all parties to work together for the betterment, support and growth of all, but, if the ego is unwilling to play a team part to support, as well as lead, the balance is not achieved. In the lower nature the motivation is personal survival in material form and learning to work with others for mutual benefit, but this generally does not extend to those outside the group. Covetousness can lead to jealousy, disputes to violence. These emotions can present themselves in both the physical and emotional nature. The basis of this is insecurity, thinking to achieve some dominance will bring security, and this can be the very subtle draining of energy. Emotional manipulation is always based on selfishness and can take many forms of neediness, bullying, to violence, and placing personal wants first.
Learning to feel secure in yourself is the spiritual journey: to accept help when it’s appropriate but not becoming reliant, as this undermines your inner being as a creator within this reality and denies “who you are”. There is an interplay of give and take, as each individual gives and receives, building knowledge and wisdom, with the growth of the soul through the medium of matter.
