How astrology charts should be done
Ilya Shambat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Was that a breeze, or did I just feel the hand of God on my
shoulder?"
<Birth data deleted>. Boy do I know treasure when I see
treasure.
The short diagnosis is: You are exquisite.
The long version is a bit more involved.My experience in applied
astrology is not extensive; but allow me to start this out by saying
that your chart describes such beauty as to qualify as otherworldly
but
that still manages to live and inspire those here toward greater
heights. You are a dark lake of charmed water in fir-studded
mountains,
you are an interlocking bracelet of precious jewelry adorning the
swinging arm of God's warrior, you are a delicate breeze redolent of
spring flowers, you are a sea cavern filled with delicate and
delicious
creations of nature and human art. Wafting through your consciousness
is
akin to paying a visit to a secret world rich with azaleas, jewels and
finest paintings, as emanations of nectar fill dewdrop air and ears
bathe in the glorious music of the stars. You play with those who
might
come to you, leaving subtle hints and encouraging them to alter their
perceptions. By the time they have found their way through your hints
and your structures, they are changed, evolved, improved, and in
burning and gasping ecstasy. At which point a fantastic world opens up
before them and they fall, their lips chafed with thirst and their
muscles bulging with striving, into your open arms.
Your mind, in its infinite delicate paradigm-shattering intricacy, is
akin to the scenery described in Coolidge's Kubla Khan, or perhaps in
John Keats' Ode to Grecian Urn. You are a living embodiment of the
latter's inscription that "beauty is truth, truth beauty." In your
beauty - inner beauty, outer beauty, beauty of heart, beauty of mind,
beauty of action - is contained a galactic wisdom of the
hyperdimensional dialectical synthesis; and it is this beauty that
inspires, directs and exalts people toward self-betterment and
transformation.
It could be the gorgeous trine between saturn in leo and neptune in
sagittarius, the infinite reservoirs of beauty and empathy combined
with
awareness of the mortality; a beautiful artistic conception of
heartbreaking ecstasy and agony of existence; a wellspring of love and
light in a desolate landscape.
It could be pluto conjunct mercury in libra, the penetrating verbal
insight, the profound understanding of human relations with an ability
to express it in word, combining the perspective of saturn and neptune
into a shooting arrow of intricate and transformative comprehension.
It could be the conjunction of sun, mars and uranus in libra and
scorpio
square saturn in leo: a structural upheaval, a will to rebel through
enlightenment, artistic splendor with potent implementation, a flash
of
glorious charged inspiration that topples towers and inflames minds.
But the individual that comes to my eyes is a beautiful, sensitive,
delicate, gentle, compassionate, wise, and noble human being who
combines keen insight into the heart of the universe, with
self-demanding striving toward quality and refinement, with
unshakeable
strength and honesty, with proficiency at artistic and verbal
expression, with an unshakeable sense of balance and dignity and a
mind
that is fierce, catalytic, inventive and lightning-like.
Your chart is contained in three very simple, but very powerful,
configurations.
Neptune in Sagittarius trine Saturn in Leo with a mutual sextile to
Pluto-Mercury conjunction in Libra;
Jupiter in Taurus trine Moon in Virgo opposing Venus in Sagittarius;
Sun in Libra conjunct Node, Mars and Uranus in Scorpio square Saturn
in
Leo.
Lest I go off into more effusiveness (and I could talk all night)
allow
me to take these aspects one by one.
Neptune in Sagittarius, trine Saturn in Leo, mutually sextile
Pluto-Mercury conjunction in Libra.
This is quite simply the most incredible single aspect I've ever seen.
You see the universe through the eyes of a physicist, a conceptual
artist, a lover-poet, a social analyst, a depth psychologist, a
meticulous analyst, and a traveler-philosopher at the same time. Your
expansive visionary outlook combines with studious understanding of
social reality and a keen insight into interpersonal motives to create
a
mindspace that takes the elements of the scientific, the fantastic,
the
erotic and the psychological and integrates them into a unique and
magnificent vision that neither of these elements would be able to
comprehend by itself. You see the universe though the eyes of Einstein
at the same time as you see it through the eyes of a queen; you blend
the two perspectives into a single quantum haze in which you formulate
patterns that can be useful for formulating social contexts. The
addition of Pluto and Mercury in the same configuration gives you a
unique ability to precisely express and consciously control the
resulting perspective, in a way that balances, unites and merges an
energy that is in itself maddening and incongruous into a cogent and
balanced view.
Pluto conjunct Mercury gives penetrating insight and passionate
awareness into the essence of human relationships. You are a healer
and
a spokesperson; you see consciously what others accept for granted and
you reshape the social interactions through your words. You change and
transform culture. You change and transform relations. You do this by
tapping into the cosmic universal knowledge of Neptune and combining
it
with ever-present awareness of the obstructions that stand in the way
of
selfhood and the edifices that form when people creatively overcome
these obstructions.
The Saturn-Neptune configuration is the significator for angst; for
melancholy, for sadness, for heartbreaking vulnerability at the sight
of
a heaven that you see - to which you relate - but which no earthly
being
can for a long time inhabit, and with whose ephemeral, etheric,
unownable nature you are loathe at any time to part. Due to the trine
this energy can be integrated with your reality-concept into a single
and beautiful edifice that sees both the etheric and the materic, and
nourishes and transforms them both into an entity that combines the
best
of both. The sextile to Pluto and Mercury allows you to consciously
integrate the etherial and the materic and to express it;
transforming,
refining, improving and glorifying the world with your words.
The constant meeting between the awareness of the sublime and the
knowledge of the human relations creates a cognitive overload; you see
many possibilities and you don't know which one to pick. This may have
a
paralyzing effect; an effect that is turned beautiful and constructive
when you either possess the courage and the circumstantial freedom to
own your artistic will and transformative intellect, or can
crystallize
around a person who has mastered this principle in his own life. You
tap
into infinite lakes of beauty and empathy and manifest them as art -
as
insight - as delicate and refined forms of love that take you and your
lover into the heartbreakingly beautiful reaches and leave you bathing
together in the reflected stars.
You play with people. You practice a gentle and playful seduction that
hangs candles and roses at various places within your castle and asks
the lover to craftily examine their precise direction before they can
find their way to your heart. You demand the lover's intelligence and
attentiveness; you demand insight, sensitivity and gentle approach.
You
lead people into your world as if by a ball of fine thread and test
their beauty, their discretion, their sensitivity. Your relationships
are
caves filled with finest treasures that must remain secret to survive.
You tend to communicate in formulas and extended metaphors, hiding
meticulously from crude eyes and crude feet what is sublime and
delectable. Your words bathe and dissolve, penetrate and nourish,
expose
and heal. You heal people by going into the hidden reaches of
consciousness and gently, wisely, sinuously bathing all that dwells
there with holy waters of love, empathy and awareness.
Breakup is hard and is synonymous to a world imploding. Impressions of
beauty that you have cultivated together remain but are incommunicable
to anyone else. Each relationship is a world, indeed a masterpiece of
a
world, and each leaves a gaping hole as it goes. Sadness seeps in; you
often feel like you're drowning. The relationship acts as a blueprint
for other structures to build on, even as you recognize each
individual
for their unique selfhood and cultivate a relationship with them in a
precisely unique and delicate way.
You have great reservoirs of compassion and wisdom. You are demanding
of
yourself and your ability to offer this compassion and wisdom in a way
that makes for the excellence and the healing of all. You demand
quality
and self-awareness and you dissolve that which is inferior and
obstructive to self-awareness. Ideally this creates the most
magnificent
aspect imaginable: The gentle presence that makes the world beautiful
by
being its beautiful self - and nurtures refined, compassionate,
glorious
and delectable forms of life. Your pristine beauty and refinement are
a
sentinel and an avatar, bringing forth the highest and most
magnificent
in the human soul.
The danger is that your infinite reservoirs of compassion be placed in
service of things that are inferior and self-serving; that lack your
compassion and lack your striving for excellence, and that play on
your
compassion and your self-demanding nature to serve that which
possesses
no concept of either these things. Know your gifts and your worth.
They
are a jewel in the crown of the universe.
Sun in Libra conjunct Node, Mars and Uranus in Scorpio, square Saturn
in
Leo.
Your nature is that of the rebel, the artist, the innovator, and the
peaceful warrior. You have powerful convictions and great strength to
stand by these convictions; who places the dedication, the will and
the
personal courage normally associated with battlefields in service of
peace, art, insight and beauty. Your unique worldview and finely
cultivated perspective beams through you like a tesla coil generator,
providing glimpses of a world that is as beautiful as it is unique.
Your
constant grating against the conventional outlook has given you a
patience, a temperance and a self-effacing humility that works to
refine
your perceptions through synthesis with other, usually not-so-crafted,
perspectives, until they become fine polished diamonds sprinkled amid
a
world of coals.
You have a keen sense of justice and a keen sense of beauty. You walk
with courage, with balance, with pride. You are recognized for your
genius and your personal dignity. You are also attacked for it by
social
authority. You have an ongoing conflict between your fierce
independent
volitional nature and your sense of reality. This may result in
compromised development of a will; it may also result in the energy
struggling up like a flower from under a rock, secretly and
innovatively, creatively and inexorably, with overt shyness concealing
a
potency and a purpose that is not visible to an observer but holds
more
verve and more power, forged through refinement and patience, than
does
the overt violence of Niagara Falls.
Your creations are fragile and beautiful and require gentle handling.
You fiercely defend them and radiate them through a lens of genius and
personal strength. You are angry, and justly and often effectively so,
at the imposing authoritative self-justified blindness that does not
see
the refinements and delicacy of such creations and attacks them for
not
practicing some overblown social value or not fitting into some
standard
worldview. With passionate insight you carry this indignation across
the
written or cultural medium, providing to others a glimpse of the
beauty
and delicacy that the regular social discourse does not have the
attention span to begin to comprehend. THIS IS A RARE GIFT, one most
useful and necessary; and you should cultivate it as something of
great
value to thought, and of great value also to others who see what you
see
and feel what you feel but lack the means to communicate it and thus
go
"insane" or fall into despair.
You detest all forms of authority, and much of your life is a struggle
against authority: particularly against overbearing and pompous
authority that does not have a perspective beyond its own. You are
guided in this struggle by a direct and piercing awareness of the
delicate and the sublime and a righteous indignation at the crudeness
and ignorance of anything that might dare to call itself an authority
without recognizing this delicacy. If you go with your heart and your
destiny you will at all times be battling authoritarianism and
convention; an impulse that you could direct to the help of many and
to
great progress. If you go with your superego or with conventional
thought-patterns you will not be well off; for it is counter (square)
to
almost everything that contains your selfhood, and living within its
scope would be nothing less than a living death. Another manifestation
-
in my mind the highest manifestation - is this: A disciplined,
meticulous and consistent application of will and self-cognizance
toward
nurturing gifts of genius and implementing them in the world. As a
writer, a philosopher, a crusader for the unique and the beautiful,
the
refinement that is magnificent to behold. The world will not accept
you
immediately, it will essentially have to be fought into submission.
Your
chart allows possibility to do so in a direct, self-confident and
lightning-like manner once you become set in your convictions. It also
allows it to be done in a way that is more your typical style:
Sinuously, painstaikingly, delicately like a stream of spring water
eating its way through hard rock and jumping occasionally, with finely
honed skill and brilliant maneuvers, through openings that nobody else
but you can notice.
You are attracted to forceful, brilliant and unusual men. You offer
them
purpose and validation. The force of your union may lead to authority
struggles. Your gift of diplomacy and the beauty of your world
motivates
men to refine themselves and make themselves presentable to you; it
also
places demands on you to stay consistent to your own strength and your
gifts.
You are likely to experience marriage as smothering, violent and
oppressive; far more so than it is anyway. It is in fact inadvisable
to
marry until you have ensured that your genius and your creative will
are
protected, appreciated and given a way to thrive. Even then you would
experience a constant pull between the brutish demands of marriage and
your fiercely independent, delicate nature; a challenge that will be
either redressed through creative solutions such as art, education and
personal growth and excellence, or will inevitably lead to
soul-killing
arrangements that, due to the strength of your will, would cost hugely
to the imposers as much as they cost to you.
You succeed not by joining established structures but by fighting
them:
Specifically by applying your vision, your insight and your personal
strength from a unique external perspective toward noticing the
injurious aspects within the structure - and deconstructing or
evolving
them through magic, through writing, through argumentation, through
art.
You succeed by applying a vision contained in your destiny to altering
and reshaping the structural elements wherever you go. You can do so
in
a bombastic, passionate way; or you can do so sinuously, delicately,
craftily, with gentility, ingenuity and polite refinement.
Jupiter in Taurus trine Moon in Virgo and opposing Venus in
Sagittarius.
The jupiter-moon-venus configuration is good for prosperity,
particularly easy prosperity through luck or inheritance. It is also
good for the following things: philosophy, spirituality, art,
education
and travel.
Your romantic nature is expansive, adventurous, magnanimous, and
free-spirited; you demand beautiful treatment and you offer it in
return. You look for exotic, interesting people who expand your
outlook.
This comes in conflict with your stability-seeking, discriminating,
meticulous domestic nature that might either be a part of your
conscious
makeup or could come at you through familial and social circumstance.
At
the same time as you seek adventure and philosophical insight, you
require honor, virtue and excellence. You are protective of your space
and highly discerning in long-term relationships. You demand respect
and
sincerity. The adventurous, exotic nature of your romantic desires may
by nature conflict with this guardedness; with work they create a
synthesis that make the best of both attributes, attracting
interesting
and fascinating lovers who, delighted at the rare quality of your
gifts
and your fundamental virtue and honesty, desire to nurture and expand
your habitat and make it an outpost of exotic beauty. Your lovers may
feel that you are disciplining them, cutting them down to size or
making
them grow up; you might also find petty conventional attitudes
interfering with your glorious schemes of romance. The situation is
not,
however, without solution; for the basic honor of Jupiter in Taurus
creates a common theme with the discernment of the moon in Virgo even
as
it raises the strength of Venus, and with sufficient inner strength
and
personal virtue financial or personal resources it becomes possible
for
you to have long-lasting relationships that meet your craving for
exoticism and adventure - and keep the security needs fulfilled.
You have an instinctive affinity for nature and animals; they are
necessary for your health and stability, and you should have them
around
you as much as you can. They will help your sense of groundedness and
serenity, and they will keep you in tune with the flow of life. They
are
necessary to keep you balanced, and their presence draws other
people's
love toward you.
There is authoritarianism and violence in your family background. Your
mother was a dutiful and responsible individual who shouldered most
responsibility for raising a family; your father was overconfident,
overbearing and likely oppressive and blind to your needs. Your
childhood has most likely featured a great struggle against a pompous,
ignorant and overbearing authority; a struggle that has caused great
difficulty on all sides, and that has likely caused you much doubt and
emotional fragmentation. It is essential to you that men possess
honor,
self-awareness and sensitivity. It is likewise essential that you be
respected. You require virtue, reserve, discretion, and honor of your
potential long-term partners, necessary to nurture, to grow and to
preserve your world.
Aquarius ascendant. Chiron in third house.
Your image is that of a peacemaker, a scientist, a diplomat and a
seminal figure around whom things crystallize into new form. You are
the
key in the door, the magickal catalyst who precipitates needed
changes.
Your analytical and objective perspective comes to situations that
sorely lack these qualities and saves the day while transforming the
situation into a form that is best suited. Every place that you come
to
is changed dramatically and structurally as a result of your presence.
You tend to attract people who, on the good side, are brave, dramatic,
magnanimous and glorious; and, on the bad side, domineering, imposing
and egotistical with no perspective beside their own. This situation
is
permanent and will not go away no matter how old you get. Your choice
is
how to play the cards that have been dealt to you, specifically how to
select for the right qualities. One suggestion would be to ally
yourself
with the good qualities and demand of your partners that they work to
embody its manifestations.
You should proceed vigorously with higher education. It is a setting
in
which you will gain the knowledge and the self-confidence necessary to
do your work.
Your vocation is likely to center around art, medicine, counseling,
relationships, or dealing with people's emotions. Far from being a
source of instability or mental illness, your imagination is a
glorious
boon that makes you uniquely qualified to produce works meticulous,
brilliant and exhilarating in their fantastic expanse. Your writing
and
self-expression attract bullying criticism, but your art receives
praise
as does your psychological insight. You would make a fantastic artist
or
a brilliant therapist and would do well to pursue either option as a
career.
With all the psychic potency contained in this chart, there is a
danger
for cognitive fragmentation. The sheer disinctness of your perspective
is likely to grate against the social reality; the beauty and empathy
contained in your mind is delicate and heart-rending, indeed
otherworldly. You must take good care to guard your gifts, and be
around
people who understand and would nurture them. It is essential that you
write, do art and either meditate or participate in spiritual
practice.
It is also essential that you find a constructive pursuit through
which
to direct your genius.
TRANSITS.
Currently you are undergoing two major long-term transits that have
been
going on for over a year and are going to last for at least this long.
Uranus is opposing your Saturn and squaring your Sun-Node-Mars-Uranus
configuration. There is instability, charge, transformation,
realignment
of personal priorities. You are being challenged by perspectives and
elements to which you have not been exposed. Your values, mental
structures, your will, the basis of your strength and self-image, your
self-imposed or other-imposed constraints and fears and concepts of
what
is possible - all these are undergoing challenge from things to which
you have not been exposed; specifically coming from the realms of the
mind. You are advised to see this as an opportunity to incorporate
new,
mind-opening, paradigm-shattering perspectives into your structure and
make them palpable to your life. It is a perfect time to go to higher
education, write a thesis, travel around the world, or learn esoteric
humanitarian knowledge such as astrology or humanistic psychology.
Neptune square Sun-Node-Mars-Uranus configuration. This leads to more
instability but of a different quality; instability that is more kin
to
being in the middle of the ocean than to being in a lighting
generator.
Cosmic consciousness, "oceanic" mentality, moods that come and go
without explanation, unanticipated storms and likewise unanticipated
calms -all these are continuous and corrosive, eroding your ability to
have structure, flooding your mind, washing away or assailing your
will.
It is a time that is great for art and spirituality; indeed it is a
time
when either or both of these are essential for mental survival. With
continuous intellectual, spiritual and artistic development you will
sail through this and become the goddess that you are truly. And
people
stop and stare at the sight of someone who has not only, like the hero
of Coolidge, fed on honeydew and drunk the milk of paradise, but in
fact
breathes and lives and radiates both essences for those who have the
discernment and the appreciativeness to notice.
John Griffin
"Ilya Shambat" <isha...@aol.com> wrote
> Wrote this for a friend of mine in 2000.
I think there are computer programs that could have done lots better -- even
if you take the other hand out of your shorts and use both for typing.
Stick to public self abuse; develop your real talent.
> Lest I go off into more effusiveness (and I could talk all night
without uttering one coherent statement)