A fun spin on serious cosmic stuff! Wendell C. Perry has 40 years experience studying astrology and how it impacts personalities & relationships. He's written two books & published articles in astrology magazines. He's happy to share this website so that you, too, can have fun with astrology to help you in everyday life!
The recent passing of Whitney Houston has caused many astrologers to reexamine her horoscope. Born with the Sun in Leo, conjunct Venus and trine the Moon and Jupiter, she has what many would consider a fortunate chart. These aspects describe a person born with substantial artistic gifts who will have both the self-confidence and the luck necessary to make the most of them. There is little question that Houston manifested these qualities to the maximum degree.
Of course, there are several other things going on in Houston’s chart that aren’t nearly so positive. I’m going to focus on the square between her Sun and Venus and Neptune. Aspects between Venus or the Moon and Neptune are fairly common in the horoscopes of women who become “stars” in our popular culture. (Other contemporary examples include Beyonce, Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears.) Neptune rules glamour and all its glitzy allure. People with strong Neptune aspects are often particularly susceptible to this allure and a lucky few sometimes get the chance to embody the seductive charm of Neptune for an entire generation.
Of course, with Neptune, nothing is quite what it seems. When we look closely at the trappings of Neptunian glamour we realize that it is a sham and that the “stars” that we worship are just as human we are. Since the aspect between Venus and Neptune in Houston’s chart is a hard square and since she was also born with Mercury conjunct cynical Pluto in no-nonsense Virgo, she had a keen awareness of this falsity.
For Houston, being the embodiment of Neptune was not a privilege; it was a burden. She balked at the effort required to maintain Neptune’s glamorous front. She bristled at its deceptions and unreality. For Houston, Neptune stood in the way of her being a real human being. And since Neptune was also square her Sun, her identity, her sense of self, became lost in Neptune’s seductive intricacies.
Houston was one of the lucky few granted to full benefits of Neptune’s gift of glamour but she was unable to deal with what this gift did to the rest of her life. For her, the price of Neptunian fame was too high. In my next article I will compare Houston’s horoscope with that of another pop diva from the same generation; someone who was also born with Neptune square Venus but who handled the aspect in a very different way.
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An Astrological Glance at Ryan Gosling
It seems that everywhere you look you see a picture of or a reference to or a movie starring Ryan Gosling. In the past two years alone he has had lead roles in five high profile films: Blue Valentine, All Good Things,The Ides of March, Crazy, Stupid Love and Drive. Even though Gosling has been acting since he was a child, his recent success has been meteoric.
I don’t generally attempt astrological profiles unless I have a complete horoscope but when I saw Gosling in Drive wearing a scorpion emblazoned jacket (and playing a decidedly Scorpio-like character) I decided to make an exception.
Ryan Gosling was born Nov. 12, 1980 in London, Ontario (according to Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Data Base.) He has the Sun in Scorpio and the Moon in Capricorn. With just this information I can see that he is an ambitious, extremely focused and somewhat calculating individual who is serious about everything he does. With the Sun in Scorpio, he has emotional depth and gritty determination. Add to this the famous Capricorn work ethic and you have the basic ingredients for success in any field.
Gosling’s Mars/Venus profile is, on the other hand, is not nearly so serious. He has Mars in Sagittarius with Venus in Libra making him the The Starry-Eyed Love Child. Gosling has been paired with several famous women – Sandra Bullock, Rachel McAdams and Eva Mendes, to name a few – but the relationships have not lasted. With this Mars and Venus combination he is much more adept at courtship than commitment and it may be a while before he decides it’s time to settle down.
Even without a birth time, we can see transiting Saturn at work in the progress of Gosling’s career. His first big hit movie was The Notebook. It was released in 2004, the year that transiting Saturn squared his natal Saturn. Then, in 2010, when Gosling made his successful return to making movies after a three year hiatus, Saturn was conjuncting its natal place.
Gosling will have to wait until 2018 for the next Saturn aspect to his natal Saturn but, with the Moon in Capricorn, he not likely to fritter away his time. His horoscope, at least as much as we can see of it, indicates that he is a person who puts more faith in hard work than luck and this attitude should keep him at the top of his profession for quite a while.
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Guest Post: My Better Half
Linda here. I want to give kudos to "Lobster for Leos, Cookies for Capricorns," by Sabra Ricci. Ricci is an astrologer/chef who has combined her passion & expertise in both areas and pull together a noteworthy cookbook. With over 200 pages, this cookbook has a something that will please the palate of each astrological sign. But it's more than just a cookbook. It also contains information about each Zodiac sign and how that person responds to being "on duty" in the kitchen, their favorite foods, foods that are best for them, etc.
I'm a Taurus, so I immediately turned to that section. Her descriptions for Taurus, the Taurus body, troubled body parts (thyroid --- that's me!), and favorite foods was spot on. It was as if I had written the information based on my own life and loves. Incredible. The eight recipes for Taurus included food I already love and cook with, as well as some combinations I had never really considered, but now simply must put on my shopping list!
I've already tried her Zucchini Bread with Toasted Brazil Nuts today. It is amazing! I will definitely be baking that again. Brazil nuts are said to contain lots of selenium and zinc, which have health benefits for the thyroid. The next recipe I will be trying is her Butternut Squash and Wild Rice Pilaf, which, I believe, I will match up with some baked salmon and asparagus.
If you're interested, Sabra Ricci has a Facebook page and also contributes to some astrology and tarot websites.
Heading back now for my second slice of zucchini bread ...
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Secondary Progressions and Demi Moore
Secondary progression is a predictive device used by many astrologers to determine the timing of important changes in people’s lives. In this technique we “progress” the natal horoscope one day for ever year lived. If you were born on Oct. 10, 1977 and we wanted to know something about your 20th year of life we would do a chart for Oct. 30, 1977, and so forth.
The rationale behind progression is that the natal horoscope is not static, that it changes as you grow older, that it develops as your consciousness develops. Progressions show us when potential strengths and weakness, as well as potential good and ill fortune will make themselves apparent in our life. They also force us to face changes in our consciousness and deal with the new problems those changes may present.
Demi Moore’s New Horoscope
A good example of this is the horoscope of Demi Moore. We don’t need progressions to understand Moore’s recent collapse, hospitalization and retreat in the rehab. This is explained by the fact that transiting Mars went retrograde on her Descendant and stayed close to it for weeks, an extremely debilitating aspect. But Moore’s problems obviously began before this most recent incident, probably even before her break up with Ashton Kutcher, and that’s where progressions enter the picture.
Guest Post: My Better Half
