Blog

by Steven Forrest

We are a little late on this one, but don’t worry – we haven’t missed the show! On April 28, 2017, the axis of the mean lunar nodes changed signs. The south node left Pisces, where it had been since October 9, 2015, and simultaneously entered Aquarius. (Remember that the mean nodes are always retrograde). That of course tells us that the other end of the axis – the north node – also changed signs. It left Virgo and crossed into Leo.

As usual, the nodes will remain in their new signs for about a year and a half. On November 15, 2018, they will cross over into Capricorn/Cancer.

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by Tony Howard

This month the declination of Mars gets so high that it is beyond the limit set by the Sun, so we say that Mars is "out of bounds." During this time, Mars will have more freedom than usual to accomplish Marsy types of endeavors. On the high end, this could be a great time for groundbreaking work, pushing forward an innovative agenda at work or in your creative endeavors.

At the low end, when a planet is out of bounds in a natal chart, it can relate to the person being seemingly unable or unwilling to question their own desires. Mars is the planet of "I want." So when transiting Mars is out of bounds, it might be that we are less likely to question what we want, and to take actions we might regret later, when Mars comes back into "normal" range.

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This month we have a special treat. In the video linked above, Steven talks about the Jupiter-Uranus opposition, one of the major transits of 2017. He also shares a few thoughts about Neptune in Pisces. We hope you enjoy the video.

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by Steven Forrest

Everyone seems to know the myth of Persephone where Pluto drags her down to the Underworld “to be his bride.” Her mother, Demeter, expresses her grief at her daughter’s abduction by putting the world into the deep freeze of an endless winter. In the end, the Olympian gods and goddesses broker a deal, both to keep humanity from starving and also to keep the worshipful observances coming. From then on, Persephone spends six months of the year with her mother. The other six months of the year, she is ensconced with Pluto in the Underworld. Demeter is bereft during the months spent without her daughter, and so winter and cold reign over the planet until the two are reunited.

And thus does Spring return every year.

It amazes me how literally astrology expresses itself sometimes.  For the past three years or so, Pluto has been transiting through a conjunction with my natal Sun. I’ve lived the myth.

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New Introduction to The Night Speaks

This is an excerpt of the new introduction for the 2016 reprint edition of The Night Speaks

Which one of your kids do you love the most? Anyone who actually answers that question obviously has no future in politics. In a similar way, authors, down the road in their careers, are often asked which of their books is their favorite. The stakes are lower, but the dilemma is the same. Books are like your kids.

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by Steven Forrest

At the big International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR) conference in California this past October, a panel of astrologers predicted who would win the U.S. presidential election. None picked Donald Trump. Their calculations suggested a Clinton victory, just as the majority of pollsters had predicted.

As they say, “the rest is history.” The astrologers on the panel, along with the majority of pollsters, got it wrong.

This was not a glorious day for our craft. One vitriolic internet article trumpeted, “Astrologers Were Wrong About the 2016 Election, Casting Serious Doubt on Their Predictive Abilities.” The piece opened with the lines, “Astrology is bullshit. But for some reason, many Americans still believe that astrologists have the ability to predict the future.”

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For my teaching programs, 2017 brings a “new year” of a different sort too. This month, on January 10, the Apprenticeship Program completes exactly one cycle of the lunar nodes. On that day, the Moon’s north node returns to 5° 35' Virgo – exactly where it was when the whole thing got started.

Reasonable people would give me blank looks and cross the street if I stood on a corner shouting, “A nodal return, a nodal return!” But for anyone who has studied the basic methodology of evolutionary astrology, we understand that the lunar nodes are about as central to the system as your third lumbar vertebra is to your back. We could not do evolutionary astrology without them.

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by Steven Forrest

I keep seeing damaging, stupid, evilly-intended misinformation all over the internet about how astrology is wrong, with the idea that "you were not born under the sign you think you were" because there is a "13th sign." Astrology is sacred and this kind of fake news can cut people off from the help astrology offers. That's why I feel so strongly about this.

The story is bogus. It gets circulated every year or so too, even though many Western astrologers have refuted it. It’s based on a total misunderstanding of the basis of astrology, and the authors never both to fact-check their "information" with professional astrologers.

So here's what they're missing. You hear "Aries" and of course think of the CONSTELLATION Aries in the sky. But when Western astrologers tell you that you were born under the sign Aries, that is not what they mean. Instead, Aries begins exactly where the Sun is on the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. The confusion today stems from the fact that a few thousand years ago, that point WAS in the constellation Aries. Not anymore! There is a slow 26,000 year shift in the position of the Equinox and enough time has gone by that the constellation Aries no longer aligns with the season Aries.

In a nutshell, Western astrology is based on the seasons, not the constellations. And because of that, the constellations can continue to shift, and there will never be a 13th sign - in Western astrology anyway! So don't worry, you're not an Ophiucus. But if you want to hear some interesting thoughts about why Ophiucus is "in the news," check out Demetra George's lecture "Ophiucus and the Galactic Center."

Santa Claus is being good to me this year. I am getting a gift that I have wanted for a very long time – my fourth book, The Night Speaks, which has been unavailable for many years, is coming out again in a revised, updated edition.  I am delighted to see it in print again.

Much of my writing over the years has been aimed at people who wanted to learn astrology. The Night Speaks serves that community, but even more, it is a book about why to do astrology – and, perhaps at an even deeper level, why to believe in it. It is, in other words, a book for anyone with an open mind and a mild interest in astrological possibilities. I think it also would make a fine, if somewhat subversive, gift for anyone who loves an astrologer, but who has not the foggiest idea what he or she thinks or does.

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Which one of your kids do you love the most? Anyone who actually answers that question obviously has no future in politics. In a similar way, authors, down the road in their careers, are often asked which of their books is their favorite. The stakes are lower, but the dilemma is the same. Books are like your kids.

Any book, at least any book worth writing, comes straight out of the marrow of your bones. If it gets a “good report card” from the critics, you glow—and you are tempted to show that review around like endless baby pictures.  One bad review, and you metamorphose into mama bear facing down the bully who stole your kid’s lunch box—even if the critics are right.

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