posted March 01, 2010 03:45 AM            

There is a psychic who had a TV show named Jonathan Edwards. His show was called "Crossing Over". I got the idea from him. He always said that he had "agreed upon" symbols between him and the spirit world. The example he always used was "a bouquet of pink roses" and when they showed him that as a symbol he knew that they were saying "I love you." Because he always felt love when he received or saw pink roses. So I thought to myself why don't I do something like that. When I think of Barry White I think of "Pure Yang Energy" and that's what it reads on my Barry White card.

When I think of the singer Sade, I think of love/hate relationships because I have a love/hate relationship with her singing and her music. Now that I've been listening to her for over 20 years, I accept my love/hate feelings for her and I love her more than ever. But when that card comes up in a reading it is symbolic of love/hate relationships.

That's how I did it. Now, some people might be angry at the way that I treat some of the jazz musicians in the deck but for me personally, I have a stigma attached to jazz because I studied it because it was a "cultural expectation" and I never loved the music so I have a psychological complex around it and the definitions I have for some of the musicians are kind of harsh, but those are the true feelings that come up for me when those cards come up and I'm able to translate that to a client.

One example is the Wynton Marsalis card. He is equivalent to the planet Saturn in my deck. He almost always says, "NO!" He's strict and rigid about how things "should" be, but he also suggests strong discipline and rock solid skills. He's the teacher with the ruler and he dresses very conservatively.

Oh boy, I have to go to bed. But I just want to say that I highly recommend doing something like this. Just get some blank index cards and think of a subject that hits hime with you. It could be modern day actors and actresses or book authors or cartoon characters.

I've also done a deck that is completely "Beatle-centric" and of course each Beatle represents a suit in the deck. The girlfriends and wives are represented, close friends and other musicians who worked with them, managers, producers, former band members, parents, characters from the songs like "The Walrus", "Eleanor Rigby" "Sargeant Pepper" "Mean Mr. Mustard" "Prudence" "Polythene Pam" "Martha My Dear" "Astrid" the woman who photographed them in Hamburg, Germany. Can you guess what card she is? And remember, this deck is an authentic Tarot deck with all the real Tarot symbolism. I haven't physically created the deck yet, but I have written down all of the meanings.

I couldn't decide who should be the Death Card and the Tower Card between Yoko Ono and Pete Best.

posted March 01, 2010 04:10 AM            

I have heard of Edwards, and yeah. It's funny, years ago I was doing a meditation with guides and they told me a very similar thing - that they would make their presence known with symbols and would use those as a means to convey messages. The meanings tend to stick, so we can make associations!
I think this how archetypes and mythology has an impact on us, only archetypes are more universal first, and then I feel if they resonate with us more then they form into more intimate symbols ...I think it's pretty neat stuff

posted March 02, 2010 12:51 AM            

Thanks for the artwork offer but I'm not going to create a commercialized version of my cards. For one thing, I'm keeping them intimate for myself and 2nd, I'm not the first person to use musicians for the Tarot. About 9 years ago I found some legitimat rock musician Tarot cards with the pictures on them, but I can understand that the legal issues surrounding people who control own their likeness and wanting to be paid for it could get really serious.

About your boyfriend and his Mercury-Saturn conjunction, the best I can tell you is to respect that he has a separate reality to his life that's very different from yours. It doesn't make either one of you "right or wrong" it just makes you different.

Realizing that my Mercury-Saturn conjunction suggested this type of thinking as opposed to a more fluid method of thinking or speaking helped me to love myself more or really to stop beating myself up about it. I have different gifts and different ways of communicating. It also helped me to stop judging people who had those skills. I stopped assuming that they were not clear thinkers or that poetry was just mumbo jumbo.

Here's an interesting twist on it. I have a Jupiter-Neptune trine with the Jupiter in the 3rd House. So I can actually understand poetry and think in the same inspirational way because the 3rd House is cerebral. The only problem is, I can't yet control when I'm using my Mercury-Saturn conjunction or the Jupiter-Neptune trine.

So far I've realized that I have great skills when it comes to writing out music theory and understanding the rules of how it works but when I have to sit down and sight read music, it doesn't happen fast enough, even with tons of practice. I'm a good pianist but I can't sit and play with an orchestra and play the music that's right in front of me the first time through because there is a disconnect between reading the notes and having my hands translate it instantly.

I can read a book the first time you put it in front of me and I feel like it should be the same with music. If I can read out loud the first time I see a bunch of words, why can't I play out loud the first time I see a bunch of notes? I guess it's because it's just different.

With Mercury-Saturn conjunction, I have an excellent memory. I have memories where I have described events to my parents that happened when I was 1 year old. I described people that I haven't seen since then and described our residence at the time. People with Mercury-Saturn aspects tend to be that way. You know last year there was a story about a woman who remembers every day of her life and every event that happened. There are a few other people who have that ability as well. They all have hard Mercury-Saturn aspect. The interesting part of it and the mystery of it is that the woman they reported on last year has clinical depression which can also be suggested by hard Mercury-Saturn aspects, but there was another man who was born very close to her birthdate and he had the same Mercury-Saturn square but he did NOT suffer from depression.

I have been known to suffer from depression from time to time in my life but learning astrology has also taught me that depression is a form of earning wisdom in later life. I'm at mid-life now and I'm learning how to recognize when depression wants to knock on my door and I consciously tell it that only wisdom is allowed in now. Depression is sooooo yesterday, dude!

posted March 02, 2010 01:27 AM            

Also, I'm not certain that you're supposed to be able to just sit down and start playing a piece of written music. I think that even the best pianists have to do a study beforehand to know the dynamics of a song unless it's super simple. Reading a book only takes two eyes. Reading and playing music requires two eyes reading multiple lines of communication at the same time whilst also coordinating your hands (and a foot). Much more difficult.

I also have trouble with communication in music. I write bits of poetry, but it's always little stuff. It's concise like Saturn would make it. I have difficulty trying to sustain it into a full song or something.

posted March 02, 2010 01:50 AM            

The funny thing is, with a lot of my writing, I've heard many people mention that it seems very uncensored and raw ...little do they know.

posted March 02, 2010 01:53 AM            

I know my Ceres and Juno conjunct it exactly, but that's about it.

posted March 02, 2010 02:57 PM            

quote:

---

Reading music when I was learning was not what I was excited about. I have Mercury opposite Saturn. It would be great to be able to read music fluently like you're talking about, but it takes the creativity out of it. Pieces I'd learn to read, I'd just commit to memory so I could play them the way they felt.

---

Oh how I wish that were true. I went to one of the best music schools in the world and majored in Jazz/Commercial/Piano and you it can be done and it's done all the time. This school took all of the skill building as seriously as if they were teaching you to become brain surgeons. I suppose I should say that if you want a career in "Commercial" music such as playing in orchestras when The Grammy producers or the Oscar producers call, or any commercial band, ensemble, whatever, you need to be able to sit down and read fairly well upon first sitting. All the other pianists I studied with there were able to do it with a modicum of ease. And now I see them on TV and even in The White House, all over the world all the time, playing with my favorite bands.

Unfortunately I was suspended for a year because I was going too slowly with this process and it was a shame because I was just beginning to crack that Saturnian stone with one of the best jazz orchestration professors at my school. Instead, I got all traumatized and fell into a depression about being suspended/dismissed. Real life kicked in that year and I could no longer afford to go to school.

But one good thing came out of me leaving the school. I realized that I never loved Jazz and that I'm a pop songwriter and that's what truly brings me happiness. The time I spent at that school gave me enough skills to do exactly what I wanted to do with songwriting and it goes to show you that the universe does things for a reason. I was miserable at that school and I never would have taken time off on my own or given myself permission to leave, so the universe pulled me out.

For MVM and AG,

It's great to hear about other people who have hard Mercury-Saturn aspects. This is the first time I really talked about it with other Mercury-Saturn hard aspect owners. I've read about the aspect for years and heard master astrologers talk about how it's a "writers aspect" and the wisdom it affords and the so-called math skills we should have and all that, but I had to discover on my own that when the astrological winds blow in certain directions it can seriously slow down my thoughts or my speech and even my movement. I blame it for the fact that I don't drive a car, but I aim to fix that when transiting Uranus conjuncts my Mercury next year.

posted March 02, 2010 03:17 PM            

The Galactic Center is the actual center of our galaxy. We are in The Milky Way Galaxy and it is shaped like a spiral with spider like arms of stars and gases and planets...and stuff. It's not just an astrological invention. It is located at 26*52' Sagittarius. It is not stationary, for example, when Napolean was born it was at 23* Sagittarius so when calculating charts for earlier times in the last millenium, don't always assume that it's at 26 degrees.

Scientists have discovered that the Galactic Center is a black hole and that it emits infra-red energy. In astrology, many astrologers believe that it is responsible for the fact that the Moon can never be VOID-OF-COURSE when it travels through the last 4 degrees of Sagittarius.

As for what occurs when a planet or point is aligned with the Galactic Center, I guess you'd have to ask each individual. I saved a really good article about the GC Center and I sometimes check it whenever I see that degree or the last 4 degrees of Sagittarius activated in a chart. I'll paste it here but here are some people I remember who were born with their Sun's actually conjunct the GC Center:

Steven Spielberg
Brad Pitt
Katy Holmes

And a very special, sweet person who does psychic readings on the website from time to time, but I won't reveal her name. The 26th degree of Sagittarius pretty much coincides with the date December 18th every year, give or take a day in either direction.

You know what, I'll post the article right under this post.

posted March 02, 2010 03:18 PM            

Copyright © 1996 JustUs & Associates,Paul O. Hewit

The Center of our Milky Way Galaxy is proving to be a fascinating and practical addition to my clients' charts. Having studied it for 12 years now, my observations would indicate that it is probably the second strongest spot in any astrology chart, following the Sun. It is a stunning source of energy, motivation, and aspiration. The Galactic Center is the Sun of our Sun. It is the source of most of the gravitational energy present in our galaxy, and probably the source of most of the energy in any chart, transformed through our own Sun.

In 1932, Karl Jansky, a Bell Telephone Laboratories engineer, was searching for the source of static affecting overseas telephone lines. To find the source he built the first 95 foot movable radio- telescope to detect it. Part of the static turned out to be created by the center of our Galaxy at 26 degrees of Sagittarius. Astronomers paid little attention to the discovery, but to the astrology of consciousness, this discovery should rank right up there with the discovery of Pluto in 1930.

In the late 1960's, astronomers finally honed in on the GC (Galactic Center) with radio and infrared instruments. They were astounded by the immense energies to be found there. A huge Black Hole is thought to be at the center, about the size of a large star, but containing the mass of four million suns. The staggering amount of material being drawn into the black hole radiates energy at many frequencies.

According to "Astrophysical Directions" by Michael and Margaret Erlewine, energy emerges from the GC over 2 entire degrees of longitude near the last degrees of Sagittarius. Perhaps it is even more than that.

Some interesting observations have come to light about the late degrees of Sagittarius. Horary astrologer William Lilly is the source of our observations on the Void-of-Course Moon. He observed that the Moon is not really Void-of-Course in late Sagittarius. Prior to the discovery of the Galactic Center, no astrologer would have known why.

A good measurement of the GC is 26sa10 (26 degrees, 10 minutes of Sagittarius) in 1950. According to standard rates of precession, that would have been 25sa28 in 1900, and will be 26sa52 in the year 2000.

Facts about the Milky Way Galaxy:

* Age: 13-15 Billion years

* Number of Stars: 100 billion

* Diameter: 100,000 light years

* Diameter of the central bulge: 25,000 light years

* Distance of our sun from the GC: 27,000 light years

* Orbital velocity of our Sun around the GC: 135 miles per second

* Time for the Sun to orbit around the GC: 250 million years

The GC is so active that astrologers could think of it in planetary terms, since that is what astrologers seem most comfortable with. I look at the GC by house position in every chart, and the Sagittarian theme works well. Solar arcs and transits to this spot in every chart bring up travel, educational, spiritual and philosophical themes in client discussions. One of the most devastating times for a client has been Solar Arc Pluto square the natal GC. A profound crises of faith and belief occurs almost every time.

Another very curious impact of personal planets in aspect to the GC is the "other worldly" psychological impact these aspects seem to create. Some clients with aspects to the GC speak of not feeling 100 percent human, or not feeling they have had human ancestory. Their inner dynamic is centered around feeling as if they have come to this planet from some other place. They describe thinking like a galactic ambassador, and feeling as if they are here representing energies, knowledge and civilizations that are extraterrestrial in origin. One client with 26 degrees Sag rising, related nightly dreams in many different alien bodies.

As a career counselor, I am always looking for the most energized planets in a chart. Planets in aspect to the Galactic Center are certainly energized, and can be among the strongest planets in the chart. A search of the Galactic Center is built into my Career Report.

To illustrate planetary aspects with the GC, here are a few example charts, drawn from my files:

* Alfred Adler, psychologist and psychiatrist, who in his analysis of individual development, stressed the sense of inferiority rather than sexual drives, as the motivating force in human life. He named this psychological feeling an "inferiority complex". His Saturn (the planet of inferiority) is 25 Sagittarius, while his Mars is 25 Aquarius.

* Napoleon Bonaparte (Emperor of France, born Aug 15th, 1769) with his helio Mars at 23 Virgo, and Sun at 22 Leo. The GC in the late 1700's was 23 Sagittarius.

* President George Bush, with conservative Saturn at 25 Libra, Node at 26 Leo, and his Mars at 25 Aquarius.

* Prince Charles of England with his 29 Sagittarius Jupiter (the royal aristocratic planet) conjunct the GC. Mars is at 20 Sagittarius.

* President Bill Clinton, with his Sun at 26 Leo, Jupiter at 23 Libra and Athena (the lawyer, social policy expert) at 27 Sagittarius.

* Hillary Clinton with innovative, break-the-mold Uranus at 25 Gemini, Moon at 29 Pisces, and Juno (wife of) at 29 Sagittarius.

* Princess Diana with Moon at 25 Aquarius, Athena at 25 Pisces, Juno at 26 Pisces, Uranus at 23 Leo and the mean Node at 28 Leo.

* Bob Dylan with Mercury (great lyrics) at 27 Gemini, and Neptune at 24 Virgo.

* Queen Elizabeth II of England with her Jupiter at 22 Aquarius, Uranus at 27 Pisces, and Neptune at 22 Leo.

As these few examples illustrate, the psychology, personality and sometimes the career choice of an individual, can be indicated by planets in aspect to the Galactic Center.

In late December of 1995 Jupiter conjuncted the Galactic Center once again. Perhaps with this new cycle, it is time for most astrologers to begin adding the Galactic Center to their clients' charts. Collectively we can then all expand our horizons beyond the solar system, and begin to study the Sun of our Sun.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

posted March 02, 2010 04:00 PM            

Regarding writing:
I have such a weird relationship with writing. I think I'm far superior with the written word than the spoken word, though I am involved with improvisational acting to try to help me get over my overly concise speech. I'm always seemingly a charismatic force in online situations, and that's totally tributable to my writing ability. However, I find it so difficult to write songs. I can hear that people write nonsense in a good deal of songs, but I've always felt like I couldn't dream of being a mediocre songwriter. I couldn't dare say nothing of consequence. Now I kind of feel like...if I'm going to write a song I should just do it, and not be too judgmental about it. If parts of it suck, I'm sure my mind will sort it out to ensure the final version is ok. The only thing is, I've gotten so accustomed to not trying to write songs I'm seldom in the mood. Most of my musical ambition of late has morphed into an idea for an improv band, and I don't mean that in the jazz sense. (Just like we have audience participation games/skits in improvisational acting, I want to do the same but have the audience influence what's going on with the music.)

posted May 12, 2010 06:25 PM            

There was a photograph of Michael Jackson that I was trying to save from someone's professional account at Photobucket. It wouldn't allow me to right click and "save as" because it's a protected account. But I highlighted the whole page and then copied it to an MS Word document. It worked, but then as I was deleting all the other flotsom from the page, it was messing up my Word software. The sneaky thing probably knew I was stealing. Anyway, I finally figured out that I have to save some of the page filler in order to have the photos.

I've been studying a particular time period of Michael's life. The time is 1977 to 1979 when he lived in New York City. It is a photo of Michael and LaToya in their apartment on Sutton Place on the East Side of Manhattan. I've been mostly interested in photos of him or LaToya inside of the apartment. I know that the address is #1 Sutton Place.