Gryphon Astrology Blog

Horary Question:

My professional life is a mess. I feel very frustrated at the moment because I hate my work, I would like to do something that could give me some kind of motivation. The working conditions at my company are simply ridiculous, I have actually answered several job offers but so far I’ve had no results. I’m feeling very unhappy and this is affecting me. What lies ahead for my career?

—P.

Nina Gryphon:

Dear P.,

I sympathize with your situation, as it seems there are far more terrible workplaces than good ones. I am not sure why, apart from the fact that many people bring their reptilian brain to work (instead of their frontal lobe), and they interact with others on the same level. Let’s look at the situation using horary astrology to see whether things will improve. The horary chart for your question is below:

You are shown by Venus, ruler of the first house of self. Your co-significator is the Moon. Venus has recently moved into Aries, whereas before it was in Pisces, in the sign of its exaltation. In Aries, Venus is in the sign of its detriment, so we have a very dramatic loss of comfort, enjoyment, or status. It may be that very recently, something happened at your job to make it totally unbearable, which is what prompted this question.

Your co-significator, the Moon, is exiting Aries and will enter Taurus in about a degree. This tells me that you’re probably going to leave your job. I like that in entering Taurus, the Moon enters the sign of its exaltation, so we get a sense that you be moving to a better place. Because this is going to happen in 1°, I would give this a month or maybe even a year, depending on how long these things normally take where you are. We also note that the Arabian Part of Resignation and Dismissal is at 5° Gemini, which your significator, Venus, will sextile in about 4 1/2 degrees. This would indicate that we are looking at about four weeks = one month before you leave the place. Two aspects show the same event in this chart.

We see that the Moon very recently squared Mars in Capricorn, which is in the sign of the Moon’s detriment. Mars rules the seventh house of coworkers, as well as the 12th house of hidden enemies. So either of these people, perhaps they are one and the same, may have done something recently that would really be the last straw for you.

Incidentally, yes, your job really does stink. It is represented by the 10th house of career, ruled by Saturn in detriment retrograde. There are few things worse than this. But cheer up, you’re not going to be there much longer.

—Readers interested in a reading with Nina Gryphon (free or paid) may contact her via her reading requests page.

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Horary Question:

Will we get back together? I’ve been looking for some answers since my ex-boyfriend and I broke up. It happened in early February, because he felt that he needed to be alone, to do everything he always did before being with me (party almost every day with his friends, no control). We began our relationship on in February 2007, we were about to have two years this month. He says our relationship was going way too seriously, and he just can’t live with it, he doesn’t want it anymore.

We were best friends for six years, and before, when we were sixteen years old, we were together for a month and he broke up with me. I feel we should stay together. I would like to know if it’s going to stay only as a desire or if it’s going to happen, so I can feel calm and remain close to him. If not, I wil have to let go forever.

—U.

Nina Gryphon:

Dear U.,

One of the challenges that you face has to do with the fact that you just don’t know how committed your boyfriend is to this relationship. And I think this is what is making you confused; he cared for you enough that he would resume your relationship after your brief fling as teenagers, but he cannot maintain a “serious” relationship. It sounds as though he does not really know what he wants, so how can you be expected to know what he wants?

This is where horary astrology can be so helpful, because it helps us understand people’s motivations far better than even they themselves can understand. I cast a horary chart for the time that I understood your question, and the horoscope for your question is below:

In the horoscope, you’re represented by Mars, ruler of the first house of self, and your co-significator is the Moon, which shows your emotions. Your boyfriend is ruled by the seventh house of partners, and its ruler, Venus in Aries. His co-significator, showing his physical/hormonal side, is the Sun. When we look at these four planets, there is a lot of dynamic stuff going on, with every planet either leaving their current sign shortly, or having just arrived in a new sign recently. This tells us that both of you are reevaluating how you feel about the other person, and reprioritizing. No wonder you feel so confused!

Mars, representing you, is currently in its exaltation in Capricorn, so you feel pretty sure of yourself and you know what you want regarding this relationship. However, Mars is about to move into Aquarius, or where it loses much of the strength it had in Capricorn. In Aquarius, Mars is going to be in the detriment of the Sun. So there is a sense that you’re going to dislike or harm the physical side of your boyfriend. What is going on with the Sun itself? The Sun was recently in its detriment in Aquarius, but it has moved into the exaltation of Venus. Venus represents your boyfriend, so there is the sense that in the relationship, he wasn’t getting his hormonal/physical needs satisfied, or thought he wasn’t, which is why he left the relationship. We noticed that the Sun and Mercury are applying to a conjunction. This can mean that there is another person on the scene vis-à-vis your boyfriend, though I would not expect that particular entanglement to last, as neither the Sun or Mercury are very interested in each other. But there may be some kind of playing around.

However, because the Sun is now in the exaltation of Venus, we see that your boyfriend’s “pants” are listening to his head much more. And what is his rational mind want? We see that Venus has recently entered the sign of Mars, which represents you. So he realizes he is in love with you after all, and you are the one for him.

So how do you feel about this whole thing? We see that the Moon is in the last degrees of Aries, which is ruled by Mars, and we see that you are recently very concerned with yourself and how you felt about the whole situation. However, the Moon is about to enter its exaltation and the sign of Venus. Shortly after it does this, the Moon will sextile the Sun, which makes me think there will be a potential for reconciliation in five somethings, I would assume days, but we could be looking at something as much as weeks or months. In any case, I do think the two of you will reconcile, because this breakup has helped both of you see how important the other person is.

— Readers who are interested in a reading with Nina Gryphon (free or paid), may contact her via her readings requests page.

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St. Patrick is an interesting and important Saint, as he is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. This is symbolized in the well-known story of him driving serpents out of Ireland after one of his sermons. Since there are no snakes native to Ireland, the story must be taken metaphorically.

Serpents are considered the manifestations of pagan beliefs and wisdom, like the well-known ourobouros, the serpent eating its tail. Another famous pre-Christian snake symbol is the two snakes entwining the caduceus, or the staff of Hermes. Even today, that symbol is taken as synonymous with the art of medicine. In that particular image, the staff shows the axis connecting the worlds of heaven, earth, and hell. The snakes show the energy lines connecting these three worlds, with each of the snakes representing the ascending and descending energy lines. The Saint Patrick story shows the abolition of using the energy lines to move between the worlds, a practice connected to pagan shamanism, replacing the personal experience of the unseen with the Christian faith.

Astrologically, there is some interesting symbolism in the choice of March 17 For St. Patrick’s Day (March 17 is supposedly the day that Saint Patrick died, though it’s unclear how accurately that was translated from the old style Gregorian calendar to the new style Julian calendar). On March 17, regardless of the year, the Sun would be in the last few degrees of Pisces, about to move into its exaltation in Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. So there is a sense that an old cycle is dying, and a new way of being is taking its place. This is very appropriate to what we know about Saint Patrick’s efforts to usher in Christianity.

On this particular St. Patrick’s Day, we also see Venus and Mercury in the last degree of Aries and Aquarius, respectively. Venus is moving into its own sign of Taurus, so it is moving from being very weak in Aries to great strength in Taurus. Conversely, Mercury is moving from the relatively good sign of Aquarius into its detriment/fall in Pisces. [This would be a very good day to do that Mercurial style project you might be starting, before Mercury passes through such a weak state in Pisces.] Given the combination of Venus in Aries and Mercury in Aquarius on St. Patrick’s Day, one would think that logistical planning (Mercury in Aquarius) will go without major glitches, but the festivities might get rather out of hand (Venus in Aries).

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Mercury turns direct on March 8, 2007

Mercury has been retrograde since February 14, backing out of Pisces into the late degrees of Aquarius. When it turns direct, it will soon reenter Pisces, the sign of Mercury’s detriment and fall. When a planet turns direct after being retrograde, this stage is known as second station. First station occurs when a planet goes from direct motion to retrograde motion. This is because when we look at the planets in the sky, stationing planets seem to grind to a halt until they slowly gain speed in the opposite direction.

William Lilly wrote that a planet in the first station (turning retrograde) is like a sick person taking to his bed. You are going along full speed, when you get a slight tickle in your throat, it gets worse and worse, until you have a full-blown flu, you station and go to bed.

A planet in second station (going direct after a period of being retrograde) is like a sick person leaving his bed for the first time. He is still shaky and feeling kind of yucky, but things are improving and he will soon be back to his normal self.

These metaphorical ways of looking at the motion of a planet can be very helpful in horaries having to do with health or medical conditions. They can give us a sense of whether someone is improving or getting worse. We can also see, especially when the retrogradation spans two signs, as it did with Mercury, whether one person will be returning to some kind of earlier state. We can see that in today’s free horary reading about the feelings of someone who appears to be going back to an earlier relationship.

If you are afraid of the effects of Mercury retrograde, this will be a fine time for you to leave your house. You are free to roam about until June 16, when Mercury turns retrograde yet again.

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February 17-23, 2007

It looks like a pretty wet week. Venus in Pisces will make sure we have at least a good layer of fog/clouds, and will likely bring some rain. However, by itself, Venus is pretty moderate, so we wouldn’t expect extreme rain. Note that Venus is conjunct the Ascendant and squares the 4th house cusp, which makes it that much more certain rain will come. I am somewhat concerned by Pluto exactly conjunct the Midheaven, however, which may make any weather that much nastier. I am still trying to understand exactly when the outer planets become relevant in weather charts. We’ll see if a tight conjunction to the MC by Pluto will do something.

Mercury (ruler of the 4th house) is in Pisces, which would give a somewhat wetter prognosis, but tucked away in the cadent 12th house, it might not do a whole lot with regard to bringing moisture.

As far as wind goes, the previous week’s prognosis still applies here: breezes and moderate westerly winds (Mars gives the western wind, but here it is moderated by a partile sextile from Venus…whew!).

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Horary Question:

There was a guy I got to know rather well through an online dating site. He invited me to London (I live in Australia) for a week’s worth of activities…It was all fine planning until an ex-girlfriend called him and wanted to be ‘friends’…she wanted to visit him in London. He pondered her request, asked my opinion (I advised against the idea as diplomatically as I could), and then he decided in the end he would request her to visit him.

It was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I just couldn’t visit him under these conditions–I had a panic attack almost and wrote an email that I had to cancel. A crisis in conscience–you could say. My reasons were simple, it was too contrived on my part to visit him–I had to create a pretext for parents to accept my round the world trip with such short notice, secondly I come from a strict background and being in the company of a total male stranger is contrary to my upbringing and morality in spite of how hard I would have tried not to cross lines and keep it platonic. I felt a great deal of attraction to him…and this concerned me.

After my email to him where I poured out my heart saying I can’t, because you have too much going on in your life I never heard back from him, nor did he respond to a text message I subsequently sent.

Did he actually care at all for me or was this entirely one sided (i.e. I wanted something more than him)? Will he contact me again?

—A.

Nina Gryphon:

Dear A.,

Your situation sounds fairly challenging, and I can understand how you feel that this would not have worked given the contortions you would have had to do. On the other hand, I can see how he might feel deceived or disappointed, since you no doubt had the reservations that you listed from the very beginning. Perhaps he felt like you weren’t being entirely straightforward with him, and canceled when it got a little too real. That said, it is hard to say whether he was really toying with you or was serious, and we can use astrology to see how he felt and whether he is likely to contact you.

I cast a chart for the moment I understood your question, a technique known as horary astrology. This is a very old method that first came into use when many people did not know their dates or times of birth, several thousand years ago. It is the best method for understanding a situation, and getting a snapshot of the circumstances from an objective perspective. The horary chart for your question is below:

You are shown by Jupiter, ruler of the first house of self, your emotions are shown by the Moon, and Venus is your physical/hormonal need to find a mate. The man is shown by Mercury, ruler of your seventh house of partners, and his need-to-find-a-mate side is shown by the Sun.

Since we are most curious about how he feels, let us start with his planets. Mercury is retrograde in Pisces, and will soon reenter Aquarius. So we see that his mind about you has changed; he is still interested in you, but soon, Mercury will leave Pisces, the sign of Sagittarius, and he will no longer be interested in you. The Sun, on the other hand, has recently left Aquarius and entered Pisces. So we see that on a physical attraction level, he is much more interested in you that he was previously.

What is going on? I suspect that the ex-girlfriend is shown by Saturn, which rules the sign of Aquarius. Saturn is in the sign of the Sun, so she is very interested in his physical male side. Until recently, he was probably most interested in her physically, as she seemed quite available. This is shown by the Sun being in Aquarius until very recently, and perhaps their breakup was shown by the recent Sun-Saturn opposition. However, mentally, he was primarily interested in you, and still is, but he will soon be more interested in the ex-girlfriend. This is shown by Mercury, which shows his rational mind, leaving Pisces for Aquarius. Further, the fact that Mercury is retrograde, indicates that he is returning to something in the past.

Because both of his significators are at the moment still in the sign of Jupiter, we might consider that there is a chance he will get in touch. To do so, we would need to see in aspect between one of his planets (Sun or Mercury) and one of your planets (Moon, Venus, or Jupiter). We do not see this happening, so we can conclude that he will not be in touch, and instead will focus on reviving his relationship with his more available ex-girlfriend.

— Readers who are interested in a reading with Nina Gryphon (free or paid) may contact her via her readings requests page.

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Mars will enter Aquarius on February 26, 2007

Mars is leaving its exaltation in Capricorn, and will soon enter the sign of Aquarius, where it has little strength. Mars passes through each sign about every two years, since it takes two years for Mars to go around the zodiac. Therefore, if you wish to do anything Mars related, you would be well advised to do so before Mars leaves the sign of Capricorn. Mars in Aquarius is an okay time to do Mars related things, or things ruled by house is governed by Mars in your natal chart. It is certainly not optimal. If you can wait, it is far better to wait for Mars to enter its triplicity in Pisces. Or, if you can wait even longer, let Mars enter its own sign of Aries, which would be even better.

Mars is not very strong in Aquarius, as the airy, hot and moist nature of Aquarius is not entirely congenial to fiery Mars. Mars seems to do best when it has some amount of structure (Mars exalted in Capricorn) or at least raw energy (Mars ruling Aries and Scorpio) to work with. Aquarius provides neither, as its energy is just too diffuse for Mars to use as fuel.

Mars in Aquarius natally is not a remarkable placement, either for its strength or its weakness. Most likely, Mars in Aquarius is going to be Peregrine in the chart, which means that aspects, receptions and other influences upon Mars will determine to a large extent whether it will be used positively or negatively. For example, if Mars in Aquarius is trine Venus in its own sign in Libra, this would be a positive influence upon Mars.

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Horary Question:

I’m a woman with a married lover. We’ve been lovers since Labor Day weekend 2006 and he keeps telling me he’s leaving his wife. Will he leave her? Will he marry me? An astrologer told me we are soulmates because we both have our Sun and Moon in the same signs, except she said that that is also our biggest problem or challenge.

—B.

Nina Gryphon:

Dear B.,

You’re certainly stuck in a difficult situation, and based on the e-mails I get, it is by no means uncommon. The frustrating thing is that there is no one blanket answer. Sometimes the married partner does leave their spouse and a truly incompatible marriage for a positive new start; sometimes, they are just leading you on and have no intention of leaving anyone. This is where astrology can be so helpful, because we can see the true motivations of the parties involved.

I cast a horary chart for the time that I understood your question, a method known as horary astrology, which uses a chart for the time and place of the question. This is different from a natal chart, which uses your own birth time to cast your natal horoscope. The horary chart for your question is below:

You are signified by Mars, ruler of the first house of self, and your emotions are shown by the Moon. Your partner is shown by Venus, ruler of the seenth house of partners, and his male “I need to find a mate” side is shown by the Sun. We will also need to look around the chart for the wife, so that we can see how attached your lover is to her and whether he is likely to leave her.

Mars is in the sign of Capricorn, where it is in the sign of Saturn, the triplicity of Venus, and the detriment of the Moon. Since we know that your lover is shown by Venus, we see that you have positive and friendly feelings toward him, though right now, Saturn and whatever it represents is the foremost thing on your mind. I wonder if Saturn could be the wife? We also see that Mars is in the detriment of the Moon, which symbolizes your emotions. So whatever the Saturn thing is that weighs so heavily on you is also making you unhappy and frustrated. It’s looking more and more as though Saturn could be the wife, based on your description of the situation.

The Moon, your emotions, is also in a sign ruled by Saturn, Aquarius. It is in the detriment of the Sun, representing your lover’s mate-finding side, so we see some emotional resentment here. If we look at the Sun, we see that it is in its own detriment and it is in Saturn’s sign. So at least for the moment, your lover is firmly under his wife’s thumb and is not headed anywhere. But look at this: the Sun is about to move out of Aquarius into Pisces, where it will no longer be ruled by Saturn. Instead, it will be in the sign of Jupiter. Whatever Jupiter represents is important in this chart, as we see that your lover’s significator, Venus is already in the sign of Jupiter. If we cast the Arabian part of divorce for this chart, as we should whenever divorce is a real possibility, it is at 17° Sagittarius. So its ruler, Jupiter, represents divorce. With the Sun moving from Aquarius into Pisces, we would expect that your lover will indeed divorce his wife.

Further confirmation of this is shown by the Moon translating the light between Jupiter (divorce) and Saturn (the wife). In other words, you will be bringing divorce to the wife, albeit indirectly. In the Arabian Part of Marriage is at 16° Libra, so we see that since Venus (and soon the Sun) exalts Venus, the ruler of the Part of Marriage, we would assume that your lover will wish to marry you. Venus and Mars have recently separated from a sextile aspect, which, given the situation, may show that the marriage is going to happen. Alternatively, it can show that the two of you have gotten is close to marriage as you’re ever going to get. However, I would assume that since he is getting divorced, the marriage will happen.

— Readers who wish to get a horary reading (free or paid) may contact Nina Gryphon through her readings requests page.

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George Washington’s birthday is a relatively neglected holiday, except maybe for the glue-stick-and-colored-construction-paper set at your local elementary school. However, George Washington was a fascinating character, not the least because he was one of the country’s earliest millionaires, and had a very long and distinguished military career to boot. How many people like that do we know today? I cast Washington’s horoscope to see whether we could locate his military career and his wealth, as well as his ascent to the presidency.

Washington’s birth time is given as 10 a.m. LAT, which reportedly translates to about 10:14 a.m. LMT (local mean time).

We see predominately a phlegmatic, watery temperament, which is not something one typically associates with soldiers. However, Washington’s Taurus ascendant is earthy, which probably made him very physically and mentally resilient, as well as more grounded and down to earth than a typical phlegmatic. We see someone who sought structure, order, and controlled growth most of all, because of the importance of Saturn to both of the “mental” planets, Mercury and the Moon.

Given that Saturn rules the 10th house of glory and success, we would expect that Washington was a rather ambitious individual, working slowly and methodically to achieve his goals. There is something in Saturn that loves the structure of the military, so given other indications in his horoscope, it is not a surprise that Washington chose the military life, and that he did so for as long and as successfully as he did.

Mars is in Scorpio in the seventh house of open enemies, a placement very well-suited for a soldier. Mars is in a Mars sign, so we get a soldierly kind of soldier — the man who really is out there on the battlefield strategizing and fighting alongside the men, rather than hanging out in the situation room smoking cigars.

Washington’s second career as a politician is shown by Mercury in the 10th house, trine to Jupiter. The combination of Mercury and Jupiter would give us a lawgiving politician, not just someone who likes to press the flesh, but someone who thinks about the way society is structured and tries to dispense justice. We also notice that Mercury is sextile the Part of Fortune, which is highly auspicious for worldly success in the kinds of things that Mercury represents – politics.

Mercury also rules the second house of wealth, so everything we just said about Washington’s success as a politician applies to his financial state throughout his life. We would assume that Washington came from a well off family, since the financial picture in this chart is good, but not amazing. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a huge leap to go from well-off to wealthy, whereas the leap from poor to wealthy would be far greater and would require a more dramatically positive chart moneywise.

The adjusted birth time seems to make sense. If we advance the midheaven by a degree per year, as we would do with secondary progressions, Washington would have been elected president at the time when his midheaven conjoined his very strong Venus in Pisces. Venus rules his first house of self, so this would give us a very clear picture of Washington ascending to the height of prestige and power.

— Readers who are interested in a natal analysis of their own charts for indications of success and wealth may contact Nina Gryphon via her astrology readings request page.

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While some folks in the astrological world are freaking out about Mercury being retrograde, you, gentle blog reader, do not have to fret. This is because even though Mercury is retrograde, there will be a very short period during its retrogradation when Mercury will be extremely strong. If you have to start something Mercurial during Mercury’s retrogradation, you can take advantage of this time, and trust that things will turn out very well.

When a planet is “in the heart of the Sun,” or within 17.5 minutes of conjunction with the Sun, it is cazimi. During this time, the planet is “wondrous strong,” as William Lilly put it. It is like being in the bosom of the King, or the King’s favorite. You can do no wrong, and you will get what you desire. Mercury will conjoin the Sun, and therefore will go through a brief time of being cazimi on February 23. This time is between 1:34 a.m. and 7:56 a.m. GMT. If you’re someone who is terrified of Mercury retrograde, this is a great time to send out all the packages, letters, and e-mails you have been hoarding.

Cazimi Planets in Your Natal Horoscope

If you are one of the lucky few who have a planet cazimi in your natal chart, you probably already have experienced the positive effects of such a planet in your life. It means that this planet will bail you out of trouble and give you good luck and sustenance throughout your life. If either the planet or the Sun are in good essential dignity, then so much the better, because then both planets are strong enough to really do you some good. The way I see it, a planet that is cazimi but isn’t very strong essentially, will make you lucky, but may not necessarily help you do good to yourself and the world, unless other parts of your chart are so inclined. However, if the planet is cazimi and is essentially strong, it makes you lucky and good in whatever area the planet and its house, aspects, and so on represent.

If you have any planets cazimi in your natal chart, I would love to see your comments on your experiences. It is a fairly rare thing, since typically it is a very brief time window during which cazimi is in effect, so statistically, not that many people have cazimi planets.

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