by Michelle Lea McCann
The Rising Sign or Ascendant in a person’s chart represents the most eastern sign rising on the horizon where you were born. The exact geography, day and time (within fifteen minutes) is the doorman to the first and twelfth houses in a natal chart. It falls right between the first house, which represents the most powerful aspect, your sun sign, and the sense of self. The twelfth house represents death and rebirth, sorrow, secrets and self-undoing. It affords a first impression as well as having to do with the masks we wear, consciously and unconsciously.
When a person is described as a hard-ass, a softy or a little dangerous, such footnotes are usually provided by someone who has known the person well, right? That‘s what the ascendant is like. It’s what people may suspect when they first meet you–it just may be the essence of you.
Someone with an Aries ascendant may often be the first to say, “Let’s do it!” Aries is the pioneering one, impatient and independent enough to say, “I’ll go on ahead; seeya when you get there.” Aries’ direct opposite, Libra, as an ascendant seeks balance, wants to please people, sometimes painstakingly weighing everything to the point of indecision. (Did I mention I have a Libra ascendant?)
Then there’s Taurus the Obvious. Here’s a boss on your hands, a formidable opponent in any endeavour–all in good humour yet a bit domineering. The bull’s opposite is Scorpio. As an ascendant, this energy will most likely manifest in a passionate, clever, private, secretive possessive style. Gemini ascendant lends a person great style and flair; usually this one’s the life of the party and is sometimes fickle. (Both Scorpio and Gemini are more carnally inclined, so to speak.)
Sagittarius ascendant has an authoritative gentleness and the innate ability to intuit foods that are right for oneself and loved ones. These archers are great photographers. Read more »
This 18th century Icelandic manuscript drawing shows the twelve astrological houses with signs for the locations of the planets, the Sun, and the Moon.
By Michelle Lea McCann
Last issue, we explored key appointments to each sign in astrology: the masculine and feminine polarities, the elemental aspects of each sign, and each sign’s specific quality. This issue addresses the twelve houses and the significance of cusps.
As the zodiacal wheel goes around the earth in one year, the date the sun enters each sign may vary a little to allow for the north and southern hemispheres. You may have noticed these discrepancies listed in periodicals. To know exactly what date the suns enters a sign, one should consult an ephemeris, which is an astrologer’s almanac listing the exact planetary positions for each day of that year.
For 2008, the sun enters Aries, March 20; Taurus, April 19; Gemini, May 20; Cancer, June 20; Leo, July 22; Virgo, August 22; Libra, Sept 22; Scorpio, October 22; Sagittarius, November 22; Capricorn, December 21; Aquarius, January 20; and Pisces, February 19.
A cusper may embody characteristics of the sign prior to the cusp (Latin for point) or after, by about five days. A cusper may feel strongly influenced one way or the other and, depending on the position of the moon and other planets, behave as one or the other sign. For example, I was born January 26th; so I am a wild and crazy Aquarius-with the sobriety of a Capricorn! In other words, I may feel guilty for my Aquarian antics but my Virgo-cusp-Libra moon has me feeling either way…half of the time…maybe. It’s all so very simple, it’s complicated! Some astrologers say a cusp can be up to ten days either way, a big slice of the thirty degrees in each sign, or house. Read more »
by Michelle Lea McCann
The earth’s revolution around the sun means that the astrological signs run backwards from our vantage point. The Piscean Age is slipping away and it is crucial as we enter the Aquarian Age that the “old world” energy dissolve—be it through cleansing, purging, confusion or chaos. Each Age is about 26,000 years; so there is a cusp, or overlap, when we look at it from the perspective of linear time.
It is important to look at the differences in the times of the signs. In the Piscean Era we have all of human history, so far as we know, for 26,000 years. To name a few examples of the Piscean era’s major moments: Jesus, music, painting, art, poetry, wars—and mass self-deception. Illusions abounded and history is peppered with instances of OOPS! it seemed like a good idea at the time! instances. The thing about Pisces is, the energy is quite dramatic, fantastical and not always realistic. Its symbol is the two fish swimming in opposing directions going in endless circles. If we look at history the cyclical nature of dreams, dramas and destruction is apparent: there have been many “spiritual” yet self-satisfying power struggles.
The sign Aquarius is said to be the sign of astrology itself. The quantum paradigm shift that we have made in the last thirty years has been evidence of the influence. The fact is, the Planet Uranus means business in a crazy, magical, playful way. This is the big time—the Revolution of Evolution. It’s like Quantum to the Sciences; it’s the PSI research to the esoteric; it’s the myth to the mystical; it is metaphor to the inane. This Aquarian spirit will help to bring the love and intellectual balance Beauty, truth, empowerment, humanitarianism will rise again within us all. The genius, the magician, and the mad scientist are all part of the New Earth Energy. Read more »
by Michelle Lea McCann
Love–a word thrown around like a broken doll for so many years—a cliché?
Not anymore. The masses—that’s us—have shifted; hearts have broken open in the last months. The Great Mother and Father have reunited and we are all One. Love has taken on a whole new meaning, as One-ness is Love.
One can be in love, Love being an embracing noun in that way, the middle way. Buddha said that Yin and Yang, Positive and Negative, Dark and Light—these pairs are but two sides of the same coin, cancelling out the polarised thinking that is now what we call the past.
The Earth Chakra of the planet is in the Philippines, where the famous Tsunami signalled its return to power. At that point some individuals made the contract to “go home” in the name of Love, and they are written up with highest honors in the Akashik records1. A sneaky little character in all of us sometimes grabs such opportunity, but most of the time it yammers, “No, you can’t do that!” and you think, Maybe they don’t like me; I don’t deserve…I’m so late! Aagh! I need, I want, I wish…blah blah…. It goes on and on.
Here is the thing, though: As for every force there is an equal and opposite reaction, the energy manifests itself physically like this: the extent to which a person has power and gifts to serve as a lightworker2 equals the size of the ego. So, there you go: you fear, or feel guilty, but really you unwittingly undermine yourself. Self-sabotoge is not of Love; it is of Ego.
Love is the antidote to this pesky antiquated creature. As we start to become aware of this, all becomes clear. You are empowered and able to manifest only that which brings you—and therefore others—joy. This is LOVE! True love for oneself and compassion for oneself, even self-forgiveness, is what the ancient Buddhists called metta, and it will ultimately give us the reward that has always been there for us. Read more »
by Michelle McCann
Maybe you recall hearing that March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a Lamb? 2008 being the Eastern Astrological equivalent to Aquarius in the Chinese zodiac (the Rat), in March the Great Month, otherwise known as the Age of Aquarius, gets underway.
An Age or Great Month lasts approximately 2,150 years. So this March is more in like a Lamb and out like a Lion.
Our view of existence now becomes one with a greater breadth of vision, broad enough to incorporate once irreconcilable polarities. Belief systems that created a sense of the old dualistic, bi-polar way of seeing things fade away. Instead of that old-type thinking, at this stage multidimensional astrology creates a sense of unity and an urge to justness for all.
This is but one part of the evidence that a quantum change, or shift, has occurred in our thinking. No matter what day and month one individual is born, the virtue of unity is now realised by holding in balance the striking contrast of once deemed opposites. There’s no good or bad, not in this emerging paradigm. Now there is…simply all that IS.
In light of this, let’s consider first the basic backdrop for the differences that will slowly–and have already begun to–come together into a rich humanitarian mosaic.
In equal-house Western astrology each astrological sign has one of four elements, enjoys a polarity of six signs each, and is divided by three distinctions referred to as a quality. For example, qualities of the fixed signs Aquarius, an air sign, and Leo’s element of fire are polar opposites but both referred to as masculine. Scorpio, a water sign, is feminine; so is Taurus, an earth sign, although these two are direct polar opposites.
by Michelle Lea McCann
We all know what that statement conjures up. Get ready: the year of the Earth Rat begins February 7, lasting until Feb 25/09. If you were born in the years 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, or 2020—you’re a Rat!
Don’t be offended! Mythology relates that King Buddha decreed that whichever animal first made it back to China would be the first animal on that Zodiacal wheel. Ratty won first place.
In Western astrology there are twelve signs, six representing masculine energy and six the feminine, with one’s sun sign influenced by the moon and planets. By contrast, Chinese astrology cycles five elements, Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Wood, with its twelve animal signs. The sense of Yin represents the feminine and positive; Yang the masculine and negative.
This historically proven astrological system of lunar rather than solar cycles seems more complicated because it is based on eons of observation of the cycles of the moon rather than the arbitrary, linear, straight-arrow line called Greenwich Mean Time. To me, this is an example of how the West tends to complicate the natural and simplify the complicated. Chinese ways are often thought of by misguided westerners to be superstitious as opposed to scientific double-blind studies in MIT basements, seeking to prove over and over that something is not “the” truth.
The yearly cycles of the Chinese system’s twelve animals, multiplied by the five elements, takes 60 years to complete, ending with the Metal Boar. It starts over with the same animal, King Buddha’s little Earth Rat.