Blog
by Steven Forrest
Chiron makes a Station on the Fourth of July, turning retrograde at about 2.5 degrees of Aries. Meanwhile, Saturn is already retrograde at about 5.5 degrees of Capricorn. So they are making a square aspect within about a three-degree orb right as those Chironic energies come to a peak.
Here’s where it gets strange. Since both bodies are retrograde after the 4th, Chiron is already “ahead” of Saturn in the backwards race – and Saturn is too slow to catch up. Chiron escapes into Pisces on September 26th. Saturn, already seeing the futility of the chase, gives up on September 6th, turning around at about 2.5 degrees of Capricorn and heading direct again.
Chiron doesn’t venture back into Aries again until mid-February 2019. By then Saturn is too deep into Capricorn for the square to form. The next perfect – or “partile” – aspect that the two bodies make does not happen until 2021 when they are sextile for a few months. By then Saturn is out of Capricorn and into Aquarius, while Chiron is still in Aries.
Uranus is famous for providing surprises and it sure worked for me a couple of days ago! I was speaking at the United Astrology Conference in Chicago. On Monday night, transiting Uranus was just 0°28' from conjuncting my natal north node of the Moon. “Expect the unexpected” is the classic advice. And it sure worked! I won the Regulus Award for Astrological Education.
I don’t mean to sound disingenuously modest here. I know my work is popular and that I have a high profile in the world of astrology. It seems that winning an award should not come as a total shock. But it did. Some of my surprise derived from simple experience. I had often been nominated, and never won. I had no reason to think this time would be any different.
by Steven Forrest
Call me old-fashioned, but in this age of digital relationships, I like to ring the bells for the magic of good old face-to-face, eye-to-eye human contact. That is especially true when I am teaching astrology. Something special happens between my students and myself in my classes, something beyond what is available in any other way. My favorite way to say it is that, unlike the digital world, life is composed of more than audio and video tracks.
I think of a treasure: my friendship with Robert A. Johnson, the great Jungian writer and thinker. I had read all his work avidly. It had sunk into my own thinking and had made a real impact on the way I practiced astrology. But when the fates brought us together as neighbors a few years ago, I felt that I understood his work in a much more multidimensional way. It had already entered my mind; but after getting to know him, it sunk into my heart.
There are many challenges connected with being a professional astrologer, but blessedly getting older is not one of them. Unlike runway models, athletes, and rock stars, a few “credibility lines” on the face only enhance our plausibility in the role....
Mars, currently in Sagittarius, enters Capricorn on March 17th, joining Saturn and Pluto there. Interestingly, around the same time, it also goes “out of bounds,” crossing south of the Sun’s most southerly possible declination. Mars remains in that strange, volatile “OOB” condition until early April. On April 1, it forms its conjunction with Saturn. Finally, back within bounds, it catches up with Pluto on April 26th.
It promises to be a colorful few weeks.
Before I attempt to unravel all this moving symbolism, first let’s have a quick word about what it means when a planet goes out of bounds just so we are all up to speed. It’s an easy concept – imagine Earth’s equator projected onto the heavens. Planets are usually above it or below it, just like New York is north of Buenos Aires and they lie on either side of the equator. In the sky, what we call “latitude” here on Earth is called “declination.”
