Just how stubborn is Taurus? Astrology Questions and Answers 2
This new blog is very much about interaction with those of you out there with an open-minded interest in astrology. So – do keep dropping by, whether as a regular follower or a new visitor, and leave me questions to tackle. I shall do my best to answer them!
QUESTION FROM “ANNE” :
I was born on the 11th May and am therefore a Taurus, I was also born in 1973 which is the year of the bull in the Chinese horoscopes (which is also of interest as I lived in HongKong for a while).
How do both areas of astrology combine?And am I really as stubborn as a ‘double bull’ would indicate?
Hello Anne
since you have kindly provided your date and year of birth, I have taken a peek into that favourite reference book of astrologers, The American Ephemeris for the 20th Century. It lists the midnight positions of all the planets for a hundred years and I’d definitely not be without it on a desert island (yes, ok, I’m mad!) This is where we astrologers begin the process of calculating horoscopes, although the TIME of birth is needed to reveal the whole picture.
The Ephemeris tells me that on 11 May 1973, in common with everyone else born on that day, the Sun was indeed to be seen occupying that 30 degree sector of the sky called Taurus. However, Mercury and Venus were also there on that day! So – having three of the ten key characters on your life’s stage in the same sector or sign emphasises the characteristics of that sign very strongly. The answer to your second question, therefore, is an emphatic YES based on Western astrology alone. However, there are other things in your horoscope which both modify and contradict this strong stubborn streak. A full horoscope reading would put all the key characters on the stage, enabling you to get a better ‘handle’ on what drives you….
As far as the combination of Chinese and Western astrology is concerned, I am still after 30 years getting to grips with the Western tradition (!) so have only a very superficial knowledge of Eastern astrologies. However, I turned to our ever-present friend (??) google – which, incidentally, told me that the Chinese year for your date of birth is the year of the Ox. If you go to this page on the highly respected and reputable astrology site Astrodienst you will find links to some sites which explore both astrologies.
Many thanks for your question, Anne. Your feedback would be welcome. And – ask me another any time !
As can be seen from the comments on the first post in this series, I have collected three most interesting questions from Frances, Carole and Caroline, each of which deserves a full answer in its own right. So – this being a new blog and a work in progress, I have decided to deal with each of these questions over the next few posts as my Featured Question of the week. I’ll answer any questions which come in via comments (preferred) or emails immediately at the time. But I will go on with a mix of answering questions ‘on the spot’ as it were, and choosing some as my Featured Question for a particular week.
I anticipate a mix of questions: both from open minded and interested members of the public who know very little about astrology and wish to find out more, and from other visitors who may know anything from a little to a lot about astrology. I hope I can pitch my answers in a way which offers something to the whole range!
Also, if there is a topic about which you’d like me to write which you think might be of general interest, please do suggest it.
Visitors may have seen from the first post that there was a question which I considered too personal and private to answer on a public forum, so I asked the questioner to contact me privately. I hope always to get the balance right between general interest and private sensitivity. And if there are issues you would like to discuss in more detail than is appropriate on this blog, you can contact me for a private reading. Details HERE.
To enjoy more Astrology: Questions and Answers click HERE
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700 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2013
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see “Writing from the Twelfth House”.
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Hi Anne,
I’m loving your new blog. It is unlike any other astrology column I have come across. I like the way you demonstrate a deeper (other) side to the discipline, which is not always apparent from standard astrology columns.
I’m already looking forward to the next blogs, and to see how Frances, Carol and Caroline’s questions are answered.
Emily
Emily
Hi Emily
thanks so much for dropping by and for your encouraging observations! My aim is to produce something rather different from the usual, and it’s good to know you think I have succeeded.
Hi anne, what impact do you think the eclipses that have taken place recently have on an individual and global basis?
thanks
frances
Hi Frances
many thanks for this topical question. I’ll reply to it tomorrow when the ageing braincell is a bit fresher.It’s currently being destroyed by the Eurovision song contest!!
Hi Frances
I think my braincell has just about recovered from its 10 agonising minutes of the Eurovision on Saturday evening!
Many thanks for dropping by again. I’ll be addressing your first question in my Featured Question slot shortly. Here, you have raised another topic which needs a whole long post to do justice to it!
Since I am responding via a comment, and am aware that many of our readers know very little (yet! keep following and you soon will!) about astrology, this reply contains a few links through which those readers can gain an introduction to what the the Nodal Axis is, and what its attendant twice-yearly season of eclipses means. For readers who need to be brought up to speed regarding those basics, check out Wikipedia on The Lunar Nodes for the astronomy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_node, and Cafe Astrology for a typical explanation of the Nodes’ symbolic meanings http://www.cafeastrology.com/nodesofthemoon.html.
Three eclipses take place this spring 2013: a lunar eclipse on April 25 (6° Taurus/Scorpio), a solar eclipse on May 9 (20° Taurus), and a second lunar eclipse on May 24 (5° Gemini/Sag).
An aim of this new blog is also to introduce readers of varying levels of astrological knowledge to leading writers in the field. So, here is the view of an interesting writer whose site I have just come across:
Peter Sher at Sher Astrology writes of The Spring Eclipses 2013. “My view of eclipses is that they change the momentum of things and demand a change be made in some area of our life, whether we like it or not. In other words, they change the inertia of our lives. When there are three back-to-back eclipses, the cycle of changes lasts much longer and the shifts that occur can be deeper and more extensive. This becomes especially true if the location of these eclipses affects our personal chart.”
To read more, go to http://www.sherastrology.com/2013/05/the-spring-eclipses-2013/
The North Node regresses through the horoscope, taking 18-19 years to complete the full cycle, remaining in each sign – and house, depending on the house system used – for eighteen months. As it moves, pulling the eclipses along with it, the overall territory up for change is identified via the houses occupied.vMy conclusion (from my research study “The Moon’s Nodes in Action”) is that the transiting eclipses function as“battery chargers”, gradually building up the energies of the person’s life in preparation to receive major change.
An image comes to mind here from the female menstrual cycle, of the egg gradually being primed and prepared until it is at its maximum point of readiness to receive the male sperm, conceive and begin new life. I think the eclipses begin their work of charging-up as soon as the relevant eclipse season begins, which may be as long as eighteen months before the turning point in the person’s life appears.
An appropriate individual example: when the North Node was moving through my 5th house(children) then Fourth house (family, home, roots), I very unexpectedly became a grandmother…..
And a collective example? In the autumn of 2014 when the Scottish Independence referendum takes place, the North Node and eclipses will be moving through Scotland’s 10th house(direction of the nation), triggering Scotland’s 10th house Sun in Aries as they do so.
Further writing which puts flesh on the bones of the bare detail I have given here, can be found at
http://anne-whitaker.com/2011/02/24/the-moons-nodes-in-action-part-one/
http://mountainastrologer.com/tma/tma-this-week#ideas-from-eclipse-season
http://anne-whitaker.com/2009/03/28/scotlands-horoscope/
Early on in the 21st century I was told there was a pattern in the heavens that hadn’t been present since the birth of Christ. Can you advise me what that could have been and would it have explained the star that the wise men saw?
I have puzzled over this for many years now and have tried to write to various experts to seek their response but so far no answers so I am counting on you. No pressure then!!!
Oh no, no pressure whatsoever! Away to put my thinking cap on, look up a few cobwebby books, and put a cold compress on my head…..get back to you shortly and thanks for dropping that one on my head…..
Hello Sheilagh
well, the pattern which you were told about would have been the Jupiter Saturn conjunction of 28th May 2000, exact at 23 degrees Taurus, which was preceded by a line-up of no less than six planets in Taurus at the beginning of May that year. Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions occur every 20 years, but this was a special Great Conjunction, known as a ‘mutation’ conjunction, being the last Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in the element of Earth over a period of around 200 years.
The Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions take roughly 800 years to complete their journey through all four elements of fire, air, earth and water. Thus the approximately 200-year ‘mutation’ conjunctions from one element to another are seen as indicative of changing epochs in human history.
Perhaps this combination of unusual factors around the 2000 conjunction was what caused all the excitement at the time (I remember being very excited about what was going on in the sky in May 2000, to the great amusement of my astrology students!). I seem to recall a connection being made between those planets and the supposed date of the birth of Christ. But I have to be honest and say that it all seemed pretty fanciful and conjectural to me.
I’ve been asking our friend google about this, and have found a most interesting, erudite and exhaustive reflection on just that topic by one Joe Rao. He ‘….serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York…..’
Here is how he begins his exposition, and I have followed it by the link to his article which you will find absorbing – and should keep you (and any other readers) out of mischief for a while!
“As a young boy, one of my highlights of the Christmas season was visiting New York’s Hayden Planetarium where they would stage their traditional sky show in which astronomers pondered the age-old question of the possible origin of the Star of Bethlehem.
Between 1935 and 1959, Hayden’s very first Zeiss projector (three others have been installed since) was run back some 2,000 years in an attempt to reproduce the positions of the planets around the time of the birth of Christ. The entire procedure would take four hours with the planets engaged in an incredible fast-moving dance while the moon flipped around the sky a hundred times a minute!
Ultimately, the projector was brought to a halt on Feb. 25 in the year 6 BC with the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars forming a triangle low in the western sky…….” NOW READ ON…
http://www.space.com/14036-christmas-star-bethlehem-comet-planet-theories.html
Enjoy – and do let me know what you make of it!
Evening anne, sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you to thank you for your answer to my question. I have been reading and digesting your answer and the link you provided and that’s what has taken me the time!! Being a well schooled student of a fantastic astrology teacher (that would be you!) I have been studying the various options for the Bethlehem star and wonder if I am coming down on the side of the last option, as suggested by Joe Rao.
Your idea to run this question and answer forum is an excellent one (just look at the questions you have attracted already) and to have somebody of your calibre, astrologically, answering the queries is phenomenal. As I said, this question is one I have tried to get answered for years and I am truly grateful for your time and effort to provide me with a solution.
Kind regards, sheilagh
Hello Sheila
many many thanks for your kind words, and for your encouragement and support for this new venture. Phew! I am relieved ( not that there was any pressure….!!) that your terrier-like persistence in stalking this question has been at last assuaged, thanks largely to the very erudite Joe Rao. But it is a fascinating question upon which to ruminate.
More questions from you are welcome as long as the next one is easy as pie. And please do not ask about Ophiuchus – anyone!( how to provoke your audience….)
So who the heck is ophiuchus?
Audience duly provoked, it would appear! I’m surprised you’ve never heard of the constellation of Ophiuchus, Sheilagh. Ever since I’ve been an astrologer, every few years when they have nothing better to do, the media decide to indulge in a bit of Sun Sign astrology-bashing.They announce that astrology has been totally discredited by the existence of a thirteenth sign, ie Ophiuchus. Here is a fairly mild offering: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/13/ophiuchus-what-all-saggitarius-and-capricorns-need-to-know-about-their-new-zodiac/
Now, here are some astronomical facts:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiuchus
Ophiuchus is one of thirteen constellations that cross the ecliptic. It has therefore been called the ’13th sign of the zodiac’. However, this confuses sign with constellation. The signs of the zodiac are a twelve-fold division of the ecliptic,ie the 360 degree great circle in the heavens against which the planets are plotted in their orbital paths.Each sign spans 30° of that great circle, approximately the distance the Sun travels in a month, and (in the Western tradition) are aligned with the seasons so that the March equinox falls on the boundary between Aries and Pisces. Constellations, on the other hand, are unequal in size and are based on the positions of the stars. The constellations of the zodiac have only a loose association with the signs of the zodiac, and do not in general coincide with them. In Western astrology the constellation of Aquarius, for example, largely corresponds to the sign of Pisces. Similarly, the constellation of Ophiuchus occupies most of the sign of Sagittarius.
So now you know!
Well you did mention him first!!! I’ve obviously misspent my youth – never heard of him but that doesn’t mean he’s not a nice person!! You’re never too old to learn and I have really enjoyed this little tutorial : now if it comes up in a pub quiz I’ll be right in there with the most accurate answer possible! As I read your answers I realise how little I know and how much there is to learn, really enjoying your Q and A blog.
So glad to know my efforts will be contributing to pub quiz culture of the future. I can now rest in peace, knowing I’ve arrived!
Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and support for this new project, Sheilagh. It means a lot.
Oh yes anne, you have most definitely arrived!!
I was interested in the answer you gave to Frances regarding the north nodes. Do you think Alec Salmond consulted the ephemeris for a suitable time to go for the referendum? Or is it written in the heavens that the energy of the nodes will require something to happen down here to use up this energy of change. Now isn’t that a conundrum?!
It is indeed…..it’s well known by astrologers, but not admitted by their politician clients, that some politicians do indeed consult astrologers. Whether Mr Salmond does or not I have no idea. However, both the Scottish and the UK horoscopes are remarkably “plugged in” to the tempestuous and disruptive energies of the current UranusPluto combination – activated by a series of eclipses in 2014/5 – whose last powerful meeting was for several years during the 1960s. And we all know what that decade was like for political and social turbulence and radical change.
Maybe I’ll write in this in more detail before too long…..
Wow, what a lively and diverse Q&A forum, I love it and will now have to go home and look at all that fascinating stuff in detail this evening with a bottle of wine, if it was good enough for Dionysus it’s good enough for me. As a possible Ophician (is that a new word) I am sure I am up for the task. Fascinating debates and much astro food for thought – more more more 😉
Interesting that our double Taurus is an Ox in Chinese astrology although not sure if the traits associated with an Ox are similar to the Bull. I do think that all roads lead to the top of the mountain ergo one would expect the traits to tie up in any case.
Carole
Hi Carole
Thanks so much for your support and glad you are enjoying the astro-food for thought which is certainly giving my astro-braincell a good workout! Trust you to decide you’re an Ophiucan despite the fact there’s no such creature….
Look forward to your musings on Caroline’s Q & A and hope to go all Mercurial in response to your question, in the next post.
Dear Anne,
I am new to your blogs, so I hope I am asking this in the proper place.
Could you talk a little bit about cusps? How much does a person with their sun at 29.5 degrees take on the next sign? Or is it black and white. I think it be a fade-out/ fade-in, but I’ve never found anything written about this.
Thank you.
Hi Rian
thank you for this very good question which opens up a very popular topic, ie “I was born on the cusp – what sign am I?”
To find my answer, go through to
http://astrologyquestionsandanswers.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/rians-question-born-on-the-cusp-which-sign-am-i/
All good wishes
Anne
ps Followers who are interested in finding out more about astrology in depth, do call by and Follow http://astrologyquestionsandanswers.wordpress.com – regular posts there from now on.