Astrology Archives - Astrology readings and writings by Lynn Hayes

Pluto: A Case Study

This article has been updated from an earlier post.

Last week I saw a client (let’s call her Sylvia) whose birthchart demonstrates the power of Pluto. Sylvia’s Sun is in the hard-working sign of Capricorn: Capricorns typically have a difficult life when they’re young but because they’re such hard workers (ruled by the Celestial Taskmaster himself, Saturn) they can be quite powerful as they age and incorporate life’s lessons. She also has a Grand Trine including Mars, Jupiter and her Moon, bestowing a sense of inner trust (Jupiter/Moon) that life has meaning as well as a dynamic will (Mars/Jupiter) for self-preservation (Mars/Moon). These are the tools that have helped her to navigate a difficult life that has been Pluto’s gift to her. Note to astrologers: to protect her privacy I will not be posting her chart.

Pluto in the astrological chart shows where we come face to face with the underworld of our emotions: fear, compulsion, obsession. Pluto often shows where we face the cold reality of death in order to come to a greater understanding of life. Astrologer Liz Greene says that Pluto represents the essential life force in nature that often must destroy in order to survive. The power of Pluto is that basic, and that intense. When we’re in the middle of a Plutonic disaster (our spouse leaves us, we lose our job, our house burns down, our cat dies) we are lost in the underworld of our fear and the pain of loss that is Pluto’s realm. But once the storm has passed we find ourselves rebuilding the wreckage of our lives with a new sense of empowerment that comes from having faced our fears and survived.

Pluto is conjunct Sylvia’s ascendant (persona and identity) within one […]

Share this article...

By Lynn Hayes|2019-06-09T14:29:23-04:00June 12th, 2019|Astrology|Comments Off

This Scorpio Full Moon is a powerful catharsis

The Full Moon on May 18, 2019 is in the passionate sign of Scorpio. The Full Moon occurs when the Sun is opposite the Moon, and brings about the need for balance and integration. Here the centerpoint occurs between the peaceful harmony and stability of Taurus and the fiery emotional depth of Scorpio. With any opposition, integration is required as the two opposite ends of the spectrum seek expression. While we penetrate deep into the realm of feeling (Scorpio), we also require a sense of balance and serenity (Taurus) in order to gain the true power of this Full Moon.

Both the Sun and Moon are in harmony with both Saturn and Pluto – Saturn helps to provide stability and encourage us to anchor into the practical realm, while the transformative power of Pluto, as the modern ruler of Scorpio, works in tandem with the Scorpio energy to unleash the raw energies of emotion.

Although six planets are in earth signs, holding our feet to the Earth and encouraging us to find state footing in the “real” world. Earth puts aside emotion and feelings, whereas the watery element of Scorpio is consumed by feelings. Supporting this focus on emotion and intuition is Mars, planet of energy and motivation, which has just entered Cancer where it stimulates us to react from our emotions rather than reason.

Intensifying this emotional reactivity is a challenging square from Mars to Chiron, planet of wounding and healing. For a few days before and after this Full Moon, you can expect just about everyone to be more touchy than usual, despite the four planets in Taurus which seek calm and stability. In addition, Venus (relating) is conjunct Uranus (radical behavior), making it less likely that the placidity of Taurus […]

Share this article...

By Lynn Hayes|2019-05-17T10:41:26-04:00May 17th, 2019|Moon|1 Comment

A journey from modern Iraq back into ancient wisdom and modern science

This article was originally posted in 2009. Astrologer Dave Mockaitis has a fascinating essay connecting the Yezidi, a Kurdish people on the border of Syria and Iraq, back to the Picatrix, a collection of Arabic texts that was widely used by mages during the Renaissance period. He then draws connections back to the Sabians of Harran, adding a layer of interest to my post on the Sabian Symbols,

He then goes back to Hermes Trismegistus, a fascinating quasi-mythological figure who appears to combine the Greek Hermes with the Egyptian Thoth, leading many (including myself) to postulate that perhaps those two were actually the same being – perhaps an Atlantean survivor who served as the messenger of ancient wisdom (Hermes and Thoth are both gods of knowledge and magic). The saying “as above, so below” is attributed to Hermes Trismegistus – the Thrice Great.

From Dave’s article:

The dictum “as above, so below” describes the connection between the core level of reality experienced by humans and the movements of the heavenly bodies. In contemporary astrology, it is generally thought that planetary phenomena cause or are reflected in events on Earth. However, the magical tradition takes this concept one step further by harnessing or cocreating with the planetary phenomena. Many hermeticists feel that these acts even comprise a spiritual practice because by working with the planets, they come closer to “the one” (Warnock “Hermetic Gnosis).

This ancient magical practice of working with the energy of the planets in an alchemical process rather than in a relationship where a dependency on one’s fate is created. Dave concludes,

Approaching the planets as forces which can be worked with and embodied, the mage is in a position of active engagement with the solar […]

Share this article...

By Lynn Hayes|2019-05-11T07:12:40-04:00May 11th, 2019|Astrology|2 Comments

Millennials and astrology – a natural fit

Deviant Art

Last year reporter for the Atlantic explored the connection between millennials and astrology:

Many people I spoke to for this piece said they had a sense that the stigma attached to astrology, while it still exists, had receded as the practice has grabbed a foothold in online culture, especially for young people.

“Over the past two years, we’ve really seen a reframing of New Age practices, very much geared toward a Millennial and young Gen X quotient,” says Lucie Greene, the worldwide director of J. Walter Thompson’s innovation group, which tracks and predicts cultural trends.

Callie Beusman, a senior editor at Broadly, says traffic for the site’s horoscopes “has grown really exponentially.” Stella Bugbee, the president and editor-in-chief of The Cut, says a typical horoscope post on the site got 150 percent more traffic in 2017 than the year before.

In some ways, astrology is perfectly suited for the internet age. There’s a low barrier to entry, and nearly endless depths to plumb if you feel like falling down a Google research hole. The availability of more in-depth information online has given this cultural wave of astrology a certain erudition—more jokes about Saturn returns, fewer “Hey baby, what’s your sign?” pickup lines.

Before the Internet, the only form of astrology available to the masses was sun sign “horoscopes” in newspapers, a very watered-down form of astrology that is more poetry and creative writing than actual astrology. I started this blog in 2005, at the very beginning of the spread of astrological wisdom over the Internet, as a way to help to spread the word about the ways in which astrology can be seen at work in the real world.

This article takes an interesting stance in […]

Share this article...

By Lynn Hayes|2019-04-15T05:54:46-04:00April 19th, 2019|Astrology, Generations|0 Comments

Sagittarius New Moon December 7th: Begin a new adventure!

This New Moon in Sagittarius brings with it an opportunity to begin a new adventure. The New Moon is a fresh new start – the heart (Moon) unites with the conscious intent (Sun) to forge a new direction, and in Sagittarius the sky is the limit. Sagittarius governs travel, whether travel of the mind and the heart, or of the body through space and time. This is a time to expand and seek a new experience that opens up our hearts and souls to greater magic and wonder than we ever dreamed possible.

Sagittarius periods feel lucky, and this one is no exception with Jupiter, the planet of luck and good fortune, tightly aligned with the New Moon, amplifying even more the potential for greater awareness and opportunities. However, all is not perfectly rosy at this New Moon. Mars, the planet of aggression and desire, is in the spiritual yet potentially confusing sign of Pisces which can be somewhat challenging to begin with, and it aligns with Neptune as well which is a doubling of the desire for transcendence and perhaps even escapism which can cause confusion. The combination of Pisces’s yearning to transcend this mundane reality with the Sagittarius pull towards greener pastures can create problems if we fail to keep our feet on the ground.

Geeky astrological detail: While Pisces and Sagittarius form a natural square and are therefore in conflict with each other, they are also linked by Jupiter which rules both signs. Using Jupiter as the figurative North Star to guide us is the key to maximizing the potential of the New Moon.

However, this Pisces/Sagittarius influence is not necessarily negative – if it is channeled into creativity or if we absorb ourselves in experiences of […]

Share this article...

By Lynn Hayes|2018-12-06T17:49:19-04:00December 5th, 2018|Moon|2 Comments