Miscellaneous Astrological Musings - December 2017

The Mercury Retrograde:

In case you missed it, we are in a Mercury retrograde period. Mercury stationed retrograde very late on December 2 (on the Pacific coast). That was on Saturday, and this astrologer was out and about enjoying holidays festivities. I lost my cell phone somewhere along the way and have not recovered it. Mercury is retrograding through my third house of communications. Astrologers are not immune from or to Mercury retrograde effects. Nevertheless, this is working out fine for me because I’ve need to invest in a new cell phone anyway. Mercury stations direct on December 22.

The United States Congress is trying to get quite a bit done during this period. They are trying to pass bills to keep the government open into next year. And, they are also trying to pass a major tax bill (which is highly unpopular among the populous). While GOP leaders in Congress insist that they have the votes, it is unclear whether or not the tax bill will pass on schedule - they are supposed to vote on it next Tuesday, the 19th. However, two Republican senators are out due to illness - Senator John McCain and Senator Thad Cochran. At any rate, any major legislation passed during this Mercury retrograde period is unlikely to work out as planned. They will at least need to make corrections, and might have to redo the whole thing.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee:

I was saddened to learn of the sudden and unexpected death of San Francisco’s mayor, Ed Lee, on December 12, 2017. Mayor Ed Lee was only 65.

When someone dies suddenly and unexpectedly, they usually have quite a bit of stress showing in their charts. I don’t have Mayor Lee’s exact time of birth, so I cannot do a comprehensive and complete analysis, but I can see some of the planetary stresses in his chart - and, particularly his progressed chart. Mayor Ed Lee was born on May 5, 1952 in Seattle, Washington.

Mayor Ed Lee had a heart attack, so his Sun (the Sun rules the heart) would be a major indicator. His natal chart shows a potential to have heart issues - natal Pluto (in Leo) squares his natal Sun (in Taurus), and natal Mars (in Scorpio) opposes his natal Sun. The only transit at the time of his death was transiting Jupiter in a fairly wide opposition to his natal Sun. That would not normally indicate a heart attack, however it might indicate that he was a bit overconfident and tried to do too much during this period of time (which might add some stress).

In Mayor Lee’s progressed chart, his Sun had progressed to 18 Cancer. His progressed Neptune (at 18 Libra) is in a square aspect to his progressed Sun. Mayor Lee’s natal Mercury is at 18 Aries and squares his progressed Sun. And, transiting Pluto is at 18 Capricorn. That’s a great deal of stress. As the Moon squared his progressed Uranus (14 Cancer) from Libra very early in the morning on the 12th, Mayor Lee had the sudden and unexpected heart attack. He was later pronounced dead at San Francisco General. My sincerest condolences to Mayor Lee’s family and friends.

Lasting Love Relationships:

I’ve just read Rose Murray’s book, “When Planets Promise Love.” It’s a good book, and in that book she mentions something very interesting regarding her research of numerous couples. This is in the chapter about Sun/Moon midpoints. She writes:

I’ve found that no matter how compatible two horoscopes seem to be, two people seldom marry or sustain a serious relationship unless one of the following indications is seen between the two charts:

1 The Sun/Moon midpoint of one partner is in hard aspect to the Sun or Moon of the other. (a hard aspect includes the conjunction, square, opposition, semisquare, and sesquisquare.)

2 The composite Sun/Moon midpoint is in hard aspect to the Sun or Moon of one or both of the partners.

I had never heard of this rule before, so I wanted to check it with some couples in my own database. Now, it’s clear from the language in this book that the author is focusing primarily (perhaps entirely) on straight couples. So, i wanted to look at some couples comprised of gay and/or bisexual persons. And, at least so far, this rule actually does work in the way that the author indicates.