Gryphon Astrology Blog

On January 28, 2007, Mercury in Aquarius will oppose Saturn in Leo at 22°

It’s no secret to anyone who reads this blog at all regularly that I do not love Saturn’s current passage through Leo. Saturn is always difficult, but when he is going through the sign of his detriment, he is in a really nasty mood.

In January and February, we are going to see some interesting planetary interactions with Saturn, because the inner planets will have all opposed Saturn. Venus was the first, followed by Mercury, and finally by the Sun. When planets oppose Saturn, especially when he is cranky, they are considered to be afflicted by his influence. This is more the case because all of the planets opposing Saturn will be in his sign of Aquarius, so they are doubly under his influence.

Mercury and Saturn are more alike than one might first suspect; they’re both cold and dry, for starters. As a result, they’re both associated with the melancholy humor, which is the earthy, cold and dry temperament. Still, this does not negate the unpleasant facts of the opposition, and may in fact exacerbate it, if your chart does not have a lot of cold and dry elements. If Mercury rules anything important in your horoscope, such as your 10th house of career, this would not be the best day to start looking for a job. Better to wait a day or two until the two planets are safely pass in opposition, and you’ll be fine.

If this opposition hits anything important in your horoscope, such as one of the planets conjoining your Sun, you might experience some events of that nature. Mercury would bring messages, of course, but maybe he rules your second house of money, in which case you would see him more as money coming in (or going out, depending on his natal condition). Saturn, of course, puts the kibosh on anything Mercury may bring. This is why I recommend waiting until this opposition passes (a day or so), and then go forth and do what you want.

— If you’re interested in finding the right time to do something, such as getting married or conceiving, you can learn more about the art of electional astrology, which helps you find just the right moment based on your horoscope.

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Horary Question:

I want to know if and when I get married to the right person and whether our relationship will work out or not. I am very depressed because of some past experiences, and feel continuously rejected because of my face. I am in my early twenties, and had skin problems for years, which makes me very ugly. I am worried that no one will marry me.

—G.

Nina Gryphon:

Dear G.,

I am very sorry to hear about your problem, and sympathize because life is not always fair. In a perfect world, we would all be beautiful and perfect and have our choice of marriage partners. In reality, this is not so, and looks are unfortunately often important in how others value us.

I set a horoscope for the time that I understood your question, a technique known as horary astrology, wherein it once at the chart for the time the question is understood, and the answer is contained in the horoscope. The horary chart for your question is below:

You significator is Venus, ruler of the first house of self. Venus is not in terrible shape, it is Peregrine in the sign of Aquarius. So we can see that while you may not win beauty pageants because of your skin problems, you’re far from ugly. Venus is directly opposite Saturn, which is always a malefic planet, but especially now, because it is in the sign of detriment, Leo, and retrograde. Since Saturn rules the skin, we see that your skin is in a bad state and it is afflicting you.

You are also shown by the Moon, which is your co-significator, and it primarily shows your emotional state. The Moon is in the 12th house of self undoing and imprisonment, and it is very commonly seen in horary charts where the person is depressed or has given up all hope. The indication here is that you are in a prison largely of your own making, and have developed a complex. This is completely unnecessary, but you’re the only one who can decide that this disease is not going to run your life.

I believe you can get married; the situation is nowhere near as hopeless as you think it is. The Moon is in a fertile sign, which is a strong testimony for marriage. Venus is not very interested in the Sun or Mars, your future husband’s significators, which makes me think you’re not putting very much effort into trying to meet people or putting yourself out there as marriageable. This goes back to that Moon in the 12th house of self undoing - unless you make an effort, your results are going to be bad.

Your potential husband is shown by the ruler of the seventh house of partners, Mars, and his co-significator, the Sun. We can see when and if these significators will meet yours to see when will be the best opportunities for marriage. Our best bet is likely the Moon moving into Aries and squaring Mars. This will happen in 14° or so, so I would be inclined to look at this as months. Hopefully, this is not years, but I trust that the opportunity will come in just over a year.

You are also concerned that you might not be able to get the kind of husband you want, but I think you’ll be pretty pleased. I don’t expect him to be full of manly vim and vigor, but he is going to be a solid guy, and may in fact be from a higher social position or financial status than yourself. This is because Mars is exalted, though the Sun, representing his masculine side, is in its detriment in Aquarius.

—Readers who wish to get a reading may contact Nina Gryphon through her astrology readings webpage.

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Venus will transit Pisces on January 28, 2007 through February 20, 2007

Watery, fertile Pisces is perhaps the loveliest placement for Venus, the planet of love. While Venus is exalted in Pisces, it is not the strongest place for Venus – that honor must go to Taurus and Libra, which are the signs ruled by Venus. However, Venus delights in the water domicile of benevolent Jupiter the most, perhaps because Jupiter, ruler of fertile Pisces, delivers fertility and blessings in abundance. In this way, Venus (the Lesser Benefic) can temporarily experience the greater goodness of Jupiter (the Greater Benefic).

This is especially good news for Valentine’s Day, on which you would hope to have the planet of love in a strong position. Of course, the placement of Venus is a good day on which to do all things love- and sex-related. Here is more information about the astrological weather for Valentine’s Day, in case you have (or want to have) major plans for 2/14.

If you were born with Venus in Pisces, this is an excellent placement for Venus – the more prominent its placement is in your horoscope, the more strongly you will feel its harmonious influence. You are also about to have a Venus return, which is not an earth-shaking event, but will likely give you a day or two of harmony and good luck (provided your natal Venus is not horribly afflicted by a trine from Saturn in Cancer or something).

If Venus rules an important house in your horoscope, her passage through Pisces is a good time to start activities associated with those houses. Of course, you would want Venus strongly placed in the chart, which would require additional fiddling with the exact time and date, but just having Venus in the right sign would put you ahead of the competition.

Note that after passing through Pisces, Venus will enter Aries, which is unfavorable for the goddess of love. Venus in armor? I should think not! So if you have any Venusian things to do, do them before Venus leaves Pisces.

—If you wish to find the right time to start an important project (marry, conceive, start writing that novel), you can learn more through my page on electional astrology.

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Recently, I have been exploring and learning more about astrometeorology, or the art and science of predicting the weather using astrology. When I read about hurricane Kyrill, which hit northwestern Europe a day or so ago, I cast a special seasonal wind chart to see whether any indications of the violence and extent of the storm could be found. I was shocked at the extreme intensity shown in the horoscope.

The horoscope for Kyrill is set for Frankfurt, Germany, one of the many areas hit strongly by Kyrill. The chart immediately preceding Kyrill’s development into a hurricane is set for Mercury’s ingress into Aquarius, since Mercury rules the winds.

Mercury is a key planet of our interest in this horoscope, but it is not doing a whole lot, sitting in a cadent albeit malefic house, and having just entered an air sign, which might give some increased wind. Mercury also rules the all-important fourth house cusp, so we might have an inkling of some wind during Mercury’s transit through Aquarius, but it’s certainly not very strong just from this testimony.

This is one chart where close aspects by the outer planets seem to act very much like fixed stars (1° or so); I suspect that this is a very good use of the outer planets, treating them like fixed stars: when they are conjunct something important, we pay attention, otherwise we can ignore them. Uranus is near the ascendant, but it’s probably too far to make a big difference at this location. Note that if the chart gets moved south of Frankfurt, Uranus will be much closer to the ascendant and hence more influential. Uranus is supposed to bring a northern wind, one that is violent and destructive. More interestingly, we see the tight Mars-Pluto conjunction right on the midheaven. Planets that are on the midheaven will often show newsworthy weather. Mars conjunct Pluto is an extremely violent and volatile combination, bringing Western wind that is quite intense and deadly.

I’m always interested in the influences of the proper fixed stars, and this chart has some very unpleasant Mars-type stars on important points. The violent star Al Hecka is conjunct the fourth house cusp, and it gives violence and the danger of accidents. Mars in the 10th house, the same one that is conjunct Pluto, is conjunct the fixed star Acumen, a star in the sting of the Scorpius constellation, which is violent and unpredictable.

For a complete prediction, and to have been able to predict this hurricane beforehand, we will have wanted to look at multiple charts for the season, but because this is a blog, we have to be a little bit more abbreviated. Even so, you can see the intense and dramatic testimonies for a gale force wind in the horoscope for Mercury’s ingress into Aquarius.

Special thanks for showing me the techniques of astrometeorology go to a top authority on the subject, Carolyn Egan of Rhode Island.

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Horary Question:

Will I ever have a long term relationship? I’ve been getting natal astrological readings from both Western and Eastern astrologers who have told me that I will definitely be getting married. Then they give me a time prediction and it NEVER happens. Ever. I don’t even meet anyone. This has been going on ever since I can remember, for years. I’m 29 this year. Have all these astrologers been jerking my chain or what? Every “relationship” I’ve ever had ends abruptly, after only a couple of months. The guy just ups and leaves. Will I ever meet anyone that will stick around? I feel like I’ve been chasing a carrot on a stick my entire life. Will I ever meet “the one” or what?

—A.

Nina Gryphon:

Dear A.,

Ah, the fine art and science of timing our predictions. While I have no idea what your natal chart looks like, I expect that those astrologers were not jerking your chain. Timing a prediction is difficult, whether you’re working with horary astrology or natal astrology, because unless you’re very thorough and understand the chart very well, you will get it wrong. Of course, maybe the astrologers were just plain wrong. But either way, I don’t think they were intentionally leading you on, so much as wanting to please.

Let’s take a look at the horary chart for your question. Horary charts are horoscopes drawn for the moment the astrologer understands your question, and the idea is that the answer for the question is in the horoscope for the moment of the question. The horary chart for your question is below:

The chart shows pretty clearly that yes, you will have a long-term relationship at some point in your life. Scout’s honor, I am not yanking your chain. Because of your age, we will tend to look at testimonies pretty positively — it takes a whole lot less effort to get married at 29 than it does at say 89. And the chart will reflect that. We see that the ruler of your first house of self, Saturn, is in the seventh house of marriage. This is excellent, because it shows that you really do want a partnership and therefore will make an effort in that direction; you would be surprised how many people claim they want relationships, but they really do not.

Your co-significators, the Moon and Venus, your emotions, and your female urge to mate, respectively, are both in Aquarius, the sign of Saturn. So they are very much on board with the plan to find a long-term relationship, which is also helpful, because it shows that you don’t have some kind of inner conflict preventing you from finding a relationship and staying in it. The last positive testimony is that the Moon is in the same sign as Venus, which is a general indication that your feelings and your hormones are on the same page. So all these testimonies show that you are marriageable, and with a little effort, should not have serious problems finding a guy.

Now, let us see when your long term relationship will happen. Note, by the way, that this relationship may not actually last forever, but it will last sufficiently long to qualify as long-term. Since we have already established that such a relationship will happen, we know the timing is somewhere in the chart. Most likely, it is shown by the Sun’s opposition to Saturn. Normally, we wouldn’t take planets into the next sign or through prohibiting aspects, but these long-term questions are a pretty reliable exception. The Sun will oppose Saturn at 21.5° Aquarius, so it will travel about 22.5° to make the opposition happen. Given that the Sun is in a Cardinal sign and a cadent house, this will give us a timeline of 22 weeks, which translates to about five to six months. Hopefully the 22° refers to weeks not months, but if it refers to months, then we are looking at about two years. But, given how motivated this chart shows that you are, I would be more inclined to plump for the shorter timeframe.

Now, I do not know if this is the relationship to end all relationships, because it is happening thanks to the opposition, which tends to bring people together but with regret, or only to break them up later. But, you didn’t ask whether it would last forever and ever, you just wanted to know whether would be long-term. Of course, getting out there and meeting people is the number one way to, you know, meet people and increase your chances of being in a long-term relationship.

— Readers who are interested in a horary reading may contact Nina Gryphon through the astrology readings page.

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Horary Question:

When will I get pregnant?  My husband and I are both 28 years old.  My husband works away 2 weeks and then he is home 2 weeks.  I am 60 lbs overweight and am trying to get the weight off by eating right and exercising.  I am slow at this and am working up to cardio exercising.  We are asking for a child because we have been married for 4 1/2 years and have been trying since February 2006.  I was on birth control and now I am not ovulating, according to the doctors.  We have been actively trying for 11 months and we are having fun, but it is getting frustrating.  I have not been having a regular period, either, a direct result of not ovulating.

—L.

Nina Gryphon:

Dear L.,

I certainly can sympathize with your situation; I never realized just how many women so badly want children until I started writing this column.  I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t get an e-mail from a woman who wants a child but is having trouble conceiving.  The good news for you, of course, is that you are young, as is your husband, so your odds are substantially higher than they would be otherwise.

In any question about pregnancy, we must first determine whether a person will conceive, and only then can we get to the timing.  I cast a horary chart for the time and understood your question.  The drawing of the horary is below:

We notice that the rulers of your and your husband’s houses (the first and the seventh, ruled by Mars and Venus) are both in neutrally fertile signs, Capricorn and Aquarius, which for people your age is okay.  We also have to look at the fifth house of children for each of you, and we see that the ruler of your fifth house is the Sun in Capricorn, another neutral sign.  Your husband’s fifth house is ruled by Saturn which is in Leo, a barren sign.  I am concerned about this, because that nasty Saturn falls right in your fifth house of fertility.  Moreover, Saturn also aspects your ascendant, further indicating that his lack of fertility may be harming you. There could be a possibility that your husband is not as fertile as you may think.  Fortunately, you can have him tested.

I also do not love the fact that the Moon is in its detriment in Capricorn, though Capricorn is neutral in terms of fertility.  The Moon squares the ascendant, again showing that your fertility difficulties are harming you.  Finally, we see Mercury in your husband’s fifth house, peregrine, afflicting your fifth house cusp.  Mercury rules your second house of food, as well as your sixth house of illness, showing that one or both of these could be afflicting your fertility.  Of course Mercury rules houses in your husband’s chart as well, specifically the 12th house of self undoing; to the extent your husband has negative personal habits, such as smoking, this may exacerbate the problem.

So the first order of business would be to get your and your husband’s health checked out, and also eliminate any counterproductive habits or behavior.  It is great that you are working on weight loss, since I am sure that alone will help you quite a bit in increasing your fertility.

One ray of light here is that the Moon will conjoin the Sun in 5°, in the 10th house.  Since the fifth house rules the baby and the Moon rules you, this shows one possibility of the two of you conceiving.  The 5° most likely show five weeks or five months, so you may want to wait to see if you conceive at that time.  Given the other difficulties in the chart, the conception is not exactly a slam dunk, but you also may not want to run to the doctor until you have tried a little bit longer. 

—Readers who are interested in a horary reading may contact Nina Gryphon via the astrology readings request page.

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Comet McNaught is the brightest comet to be seen from the Earth in about 30 years.  It is not a surprise, then, that all astrologers and astronomers are excited by its appearance.

Traditionally, comets were considered evil and disruptive portents, indicating upheaval and violence.  Ptolemy said comets were of the nature of Mercury and Mars, “exciting wars, heated and turbulent dispositions in the atmosphere, and in the constitutions of men, with all their evil consequences.”

The part of the zodiac where the comet is when it is first sighted (presumably with the naked eye or binoculars), indicates the countries and parts of creation that will be most affected by the comet.  When the comet was discovered on August 7, 2006, it was spotted as a very dim object by a space observatory in Australia, in the constellation Hercules.  The constellation spans Scorpio and Sagittarius, and the comet appeared toward the end of Sagittarius.

Sagittarius rules the following cities and countries: Spain, Hungary, Slavonia, Moravia, Dalmatia, Buda in Hungary (as in Budapest), Toledo (Spain), Narbon (SE France), Cullen (Ireland), Stergard (Stargard, Germany).  We would expect some dramatic events in the above regions and cities.  More generally, Sagittarius will often affect four-footed animals, particularly cattle and horses.

The medieval astrologer Bonatti wrote that comets that are movable (versus ones that merely hover in one place) denote foreign wars, and one nation invading another, and when comets appear in fire signs (such as Sagittarius), they indicate terrible wars and slaughters.  Given today’s political situation, this prognostication makes me more nervous than usual.

Bonatti also wrote that people born after a comet, who had the Sun or Moon in the place of the comet, and/or the comet rising, setting or culminating, would be famous or great in some way.

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Horary Question:

Will I be published in 2007? I have been writing since I was nine but ten years ago, I began to take workshops for fiction and then I went to grad school for non-fiction writing. I graduated in January 06. I haven’t been published but then again, I haven’t really made enough of an effort in putting my stuff out there. I enjoy writing fiction more but I have found that people respond better to my non-fiction autobiographical essays. However, writing about my life makes me feel EXTREMELY exposed plus I really don’t feel that it’s my best writing.

Anyway, I am 37 and I feel that it’s time to really put my writing out there. I would love to support myself through my  writing someday, and I wanted to know if this year I can at least make a start.

—M.

Nina Gryphon:

Dear M.,

I am always excited to get questions from writers, as I love literature and the whole literary world. And I can relate, at least vicariously, to the struggles of trying to get published. What’s good about your question, astrologically, is that it is a straight yes or no question, so we can see very quickly whether you will get published this year or not. There are not a whole lot of shades of gray in this scenario.

I cast a horary chart for the time that I understood your question. Horary astrology answers almost any question, with the horoscope being based on the moment that the astrologer understood the question. The horary chart for your question is below:

First, we will want to see whether you will sell your manuscript. To do this, we would want some kind of aspect between you and the publisher or agent, who is shown by the seventh house of partners or “any old people.” You are shown by the ruler of the first house, Mars in Capricorn in the ninth house. The ninth house is a cadent house, showing that you do not have a ton of control in the situation, because of course the final decision is left up to the other party. The agent or publisher is shown by Venus in Aquarius in the 11th house, which is considerably better positioned to control the situation than Mars.

Mars and Venus are not coming to an aspect, nor are we seeing translation or collection of light, whereby other planets can help make the aspect happen. We are also not seeing the Moon (your co-significator) about to meet Venus, which would give us some hope. So it is unlikely that you’ll sell your manuscript in 2007.

It may be helpful to see why the manuscript will not sell this year. There are two main reasons as shown in this horary chart: one, Venus is in the detriment of the Sun, because of Venus’s placement in Aquarius. The Sun rules are fifth house of creations, so we can see that the agent or publisher will not love your manuscript. The good news, of course, is that this is something you can remedy by rewriting or changing your work. Second, we see that your work is afflicted because of a very debilitated Saturn in your fifth house of creative work. Saturn rules your 10th house of career, or your mom, and also the 11th house of money from your career. So it may be that you are simply too busy working and making money to spend as much time on your work as is necessary.

Of course, none of this precludes your selling the manuscript in 2008 or at some other time. The best advice for 2007 would be for you to spend the time that you need working on the manuscript and making it as good as you possibly can.

—Readers who wish to get a horary reading may do so via the astrology reading form on the Gryphon astrology website. If you are seeking a free astrology reading, please be advised that space for free horary readings is extremely limited.

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January 30 and 31st (and the tail end of January 29, if you live on the West Coast of the US) are unusually positive days, when all but two of the seven planets are in strong essential dignity.  Venus will be in its exaltation in Pisces, Mercury will be in its triplicity (by night) in Aquarius, the Moon will be in its sign of Cancer, Jupiter will be in its sign in Sagittarius, and Mars will be exalted in Capricorn. 

This means that if any of these planets rule important houses in your horoscope, or somehow represent an activity that you want to start, I would highly recommend that you choose January 30 or 31st to start that project.  By the way, the art and science of choosing an appropriate date for your actions is called electional astrology (if you click on the link, it will take you to an explanatory article that I wrote for my website).

However, all of this wonderful news comes with an important caveat.  The Sun will be in its detriment in Aquarius, and Saturn is still in its detriment in Leo, and retrograde to boot.  As a result, if the Sun or Saturn rule anything you’re about to do, you might want to wait a while, until the appropriate planet is in a happier place.  If it’s the Sun you’re concerned about, wait until it is in Aries in its exaltation (March-April timeframe).  If you’re doing something having to do with Saturn, such as you’ll just have to wait until it enters Virgo in September.

The nice thing about having so many planets in auspicious signs is that if you have to make more than one house strong in your astrological election, you’re more likely to succeed since five out of seven planets will be in a good place.

—If you are interested in finding a personalized astrological moment to do something important, such as getting married, applying for a job, or opening your business, you may wish to get an electional astrology reading.

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Not all Valentine’s days are created equal; some are more favorable for love than others, from an astrological point of view. Here is what you can do to prepare for the planetary weather this February 14:

The mood will be right for love and sex — Venus and Mars will each be in the sign of their exaltation, Pisces and Capricorn, respectively. It will be a good day (and evening) to appear more glamorous and attractive than you really are. The flip side of these planetary placements is that the other person will seem the same way, but they may not look so fabulous the following day. However, with Venus and Mars so strong, you might do a convincing reenactment of the ancient Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, on which Valentine’s Day is supposedly based.

Jupiter, too, will do his part. He will be in Sagittarius, where he will stay until September 2007. Because Jupiter rules the sign of Sagittarius, he is very strong there, giving benevolence, good luck, and generosity to all involved.

Now for the bad news. The Sun will be in Aquarius, the sign of its detriment, having just separated from an opposition of Saturn in Leo, where it is in its own detriment. Yuck! As a result, if the Sun or Saturn rule any relevant house in your chart, such as the seventh house of partners or the fifth house of sex and pleasure, this Valentine’s Day may not be quite as fabulous as you might wish. Since Saturn rules teeth, and the Sun rules gold, it is within the realm of possibility that your main squeeze chomps down on the ring cunningly concealed in the Chocolate Decadence, seriously detrimenting both her teeth and the ring.

Be careful, too, of Mercury in Pisces, where it is in its detriment and fall, and it turns retrograde on the 14th as well. If Mercury rules or is connected with your fifth or seventh houses (or your first house, and you’re planning to propose on Valentine’s Day) do have a plan B in place. Don’t worry too much about Mercury otherwise - somehow, the world manages to keep on spinning even when Mercury is retrograde, despite what some people say.

Finally, we are going to have the Moon in Capricorn, the sign of its detriment, so the same warning applies as above. If this is an especially important Valentine’s Day (and you have some crafty plan in place), be sure that none of the bad planets are important in your natal chart or that of the other person.

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

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