On Tuesday — the day before the equinox, during Mercury retrograde, and almost exactly between two eclipses — baseball Hall of Famer Lawrence “Yogi” Berra, at least as famous for what he said as how he played — died at the age of 90 in West Caldwell, New Jersey.

I’m going to leave the fantastic details of Berra’s life to The New York Times; but when someone so beloved for his quirky communication passes away with so much significant astrology going on, it’s worth considering his natal chart for a moment.

After all, the chart for Saturday’s Aries Full Moon and total lunar eclipse (exact at 10:50 pm EDT / 2:50 UTC Sunday) is quite focused on your communication within your relationships, and how it makes you feel about yourself. Berra (or his chart) might just have something useful to say about that.

Born May 12, 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri, at 2:00 am CST, Berra had a Taurus Sun, a Capricorn Moon and Pisces rising. (View his full chart here.) That Taurus Sun speaks to his physicality; former Yankees manager Casey Stengel reportedly once said of him, “He looks cumbersome but he’s quick as a cat.”

Yet without getting too technical, that Taurus Sun’s placement also suggests a gifted mind — contrary to what journalists decades ago tended to write about him, and contrary to the larger-than-life ‘character’ that he became in many people’s minds. Berra was sometimes derided for his humor or for being a non-intellectual. But even from a young age, he was shrewd about his contracts with teams; and pitchers praised his ability as a catcher to call pitches.

Known and loved for such backwards sayings as, “Ninety percent of the game is half mental,” and “It’s déjà vu all over again,” Berra’s death fits the theme as a Mercury retrograde event — even if he did not actually say all the things attributed to him.

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Dear Madame,

I was wondering if you could help me understand Mars in the 12th house.

I have been dating a wonderful man for one month, and he’s studied Vedic astrology for 10 years. I am an academic who has been dabbling in Western astrology for about two years now. On my birthday yesterday, he gave me a carnelian to help aid my Mars in the 12th house, which he seems concerned about. According to Vedic astrology, my Mars is in Cancer (Virgo Sun with Leo rising in Vedic astrology).

According to my Western chart, my Sun and ascendant are in Virgo, my Moon in Taurus, and Mars and my North Node are in Leo. I’ve tried to find explanations for both Mars and the North Node in the 12th house, but I’m still confused. Do I have reason to be ‘concerned’?

Thank you,

The Vedic Virgin

Dear Virginia,

Good question. I am not greatly familiar with many Vedic practices, so my Western self will attempt an ecumenical answer for you.

You say your Leo Mars becomes a Cancer Mars in the Vedic system. How does that sit with you? These are two very different creatures, literally, who live in totally separate zones of the zoo.

Mars is your motivation. A Leo Mars is a lover of life and not shy of stepping into a fight (or a show) if it promises the glow of glory or good times.

Mars in Cancer is anything but a limelight hogger. Traditionally, Mars in Cancer is in its in “fall” in this sign. This means Mars doesn’t get to act in normal martial type behavior, which is preferably straightforward and on target.

Instead, the Cancerian Mars gets to its goals by fits and starts, like a crustacean traversing a vast beach, scrambling sideways from rock to rock for safety. Its primary motivation is self-preservation, or the protection of others (usually family). Rushing from the ‘safety zone’ for anything less than a four-alarm fire (complete with an imperiled school bus full of children) is just not on the menu.

Which Mars sounds more like you? Parties or preservation?

Now for the matter of Mars in the 12th house. If the 1st house is the ‘shop front’ of your natal chart, the 12th house is the ‘back alley’. Lots of stuff happens in the back alleyway of a building. We don’t think about alleys much, but they are essential. We take our trash there to big bins; we accept big deliveries from UPS or the Sysco truck there, too. Some of us sneak back there for a quick smoke or a snog. Sometimes crazy stuff happens in alleys late at night that no one discovers until the next day.

So how does that apply to the human personality?

Like back alleys, what’s back in the 12th tends to stay hidden, doing its business without our conscious understanding of just what’s compelling us forward. Planets in the 12th seem to be acting without a clear director or a script. Sometimes (depending on the configuration) fighting to get out — or alternatively, fleeing exposure. It really depends on the personal chart. In ye olden day, folks would see Mars in the 12th, and warn you to “watch your back” in dark places or around men in “compromising circumstances” — literally avoid alleys and other venues of possible entrapment.

These days, we emphasize our personal thoughts and actions. If we’re not conscious of our 12th motivations, we tend to harm our own self-interests with those 12th house planets. Unaware, we self-sabotage. The trouble is, often we don’t see there’s any trouble because the 12th house asks us to take life on faith. Sometimes that helps; sometimes that harms.

Your North Node in the 12th asks you to take more of life on faith and engage your intuition. Do you trust your intuition, or do you find yourself working against it, demanding proof after proof?

Shyness is another common 12th house theme. As is lethargy. (Do you experience this?) They frequently work together to keep us from opportunities that might otherwise help us. Mars motivates us, but a 12th house Mars tends to de-motivate people. I knew a woman with an Aries Mars (super strong), but in a 12th house placement. She explained it this way: “If I could spend the rest of my life sitting in this chair, smoking my cigarettes and reading a book, I’d die a happy woman.”

This is not to say you can’t get anything accomplished with a 12th house Mars, but it would need some encouragement from time to time. Transits help! When Uranus entered Aries back in 2010, that lethargic woman’s life turned upside down. Today she’s a martial artist with arms like whipcords. Farewell, easy chair.

Transits are one type of ‘remediation’, but a Uranus transit is a once-in-a-lifetime big deal. Which is why we depend on other helpers.

Westerners usually turn to therapy or similar support, but Vedic astrology relies heavily on other ways to remediate planetary placements or configurations that may need support. Gemstones (precious or semi-precious) are the go-to for most remediation. If your new beau offered you a stone for what ails ya, he’s doing the natural thing according to his tradition. Carnelian is a heart stone — soothing, warming, encouraging. It promotes optimism and supports the sacral center, creativity, imagination and reproduction — a blend of Leo and Cancer themes.

Do you find yourself unsure of how to move forward? How to assert yourself? Need a creative boost, or more courage to get down and have fun? Unsure of becoming a mother? Does any of this sound like you? And if so, what are your thoughts?

The most important question, however, is this: how do you feel about the gift? I can give you ten reasons why he offered it, but that’s quite academic, actually. How happy are you to be remediated only one month into this courtship? Are you being ‘fixed’ or ‘helped’? And to what end?

As I’ve said a squillion times, no one likes to be another person’s project. Astrology aside, how do you really feel about the gift? And about the giver?

Warmly,

Madame Z

Among the many photographs received since the New Horizons spacecraft sped by Pluto on July 14 is one as remarkable for its caption as for its image. Take a look by clicking on this sentence. The image includes “majestic mountains and icy plains” along with the hazy hints of atmosphere backlit by the distant Sun.

Every bit as notable as the image itself, was the description (“written by a professional astronomer”), which noted that Pluto’s terrain had “a strangely familiar appearance.” Indeed.

Or perhaps, it is better to say “in word as in deed.” One might even go so far as to omit the word “strangely” and simply say “familiar” — finally admitting that we might have known as much, or should have, long ago.

For after half a century of space exploration, our astronauts and robotic probes continue to encounter the familiar. Water, mountains, even complex organic molecules — which are an intrinsic part of your body — keep appearing on planets, moons, asteroids, even comets.

Patterns and processes once thought to distinguish Earth are turning out to be what Earth has in common with many of its celestial neighbors. Indeed, literally in deed, anything truly alien to your consciousness is turning out to be the exception rather the rule in our explorations of our celestial neighborhood thus far. In fact, it would seem increasingly reasonable to say that your inner space and what we call outer space could very well be one with each other in fact rather than in fantasy.

The same quality of speculation becoming inference is proving true for the very small as well as the very large, as recently developed imaging techniques for molecules has shown.

That inner space and outer space might well be one and the same is not a new or revolutionary idea. Motion picture artists such as Stanley Kubrick (in “2001”) and Tim Burton (in “Beetlejuice”) have proceeded from that theme as a given. Long before motion pictures, Galileo observed the moons of Jupiter in January of 1610 and inferred a heliocentric solar system. And long before Galileo, astrologers accepted and continued to demonstrate how all things could be correlated by the principle of “as above, so below.”

Yet, many still stubbornly adhere to Plato’s unspoken assumption (propagated to this day by many priests, politicians and philosophers) that you are separate and alienated from creation. This pernicious assumption has long been the basis upon which a brutal established order can take away and keep your power with impunity.

Which is how artists come to be marginalized in the world as “artisans.” Which explains the real reason Galileo was persecuted. Which underlies the summary and unsubstantiated dismissal and disrespect astrologers must endure from all but an enlightened few.

Even when the manipulative doctrine of alienation is revealed as an absurdity by those who offer to cure your pain of separation in exchange for money (money!), its perversity persists as a widely accepted norm through systemic intimidation.

Yet, you know. You know better. In spite of all the painful conditioning designed to break you like a horse, you can see yourself for yourself no matter where you look. Fortunately, the cosmos itself cannot be reached by those who continually reinforce their pernicious conditioning upon you. Positioned precisely between the largest and smallest things (as you are), you can look to the universe to verify that the knowledge you were born with is a truth from which you can never be broken.

Whether you look within, or out as far as Pluto, you know the truth. And tomorrow, shortly after 4:20 am EDT (08:20:29 UTC), the truth will be demonstrated again in an equinox unprecedented in your lifetime.

You will be able to see it in the astrology, when the Sun enters Libra to conjoin the Kuiper Belt object 58534 Logos. Literally translated, Logos means “word” — or even better, “THE word.” The word which, in more than one creation mythology, was not only present at the beginning, it was the beginning. Logos, which has not met the equinox Sun in the first degree of Libra for over three centuries, will be symbolically partnering with the Sun (which, perhaps foremost among its many interpretations, represents consciousness) to affirm what you know.

You will be able to see it in the physical, empirical world. No scientist or other priest of Plato will be able to hide it from you. At the moment the symbolic Sun enters Libra, the tangible Sun will appear directly over Earth’s equator. Not because it’s a coincidence, but because that’s the way it is.

Tomorrow, on the same day the Sun appears directly over the equator, it will rise in the precise direction of East and set in the precise direction of West no matter who you are, or where you are on Earth. You will also have the same amount of daylight as anybody, anywhere in the world. For one day the inalienable cosmos will demonstrate what you and everybody knows for all to see: that you are created equal.

Yet, as with all things in astrology and in your life, you must do your part. You can disregard and deny what you know. You can let the day of this year’s Libra equinox go by and heed not the word, which all things have in common. You can choose to be separate, the stranger, the alien. You can elect (and elect representatives who will tell you) that you are not created equal.

Or you can choose, as people have since long before history was written, to recognize tomorrow for what it is. You can acknowledge yourself for what you are. You are, if you choose to do your part, one with and equal to all things.

True aliens are not born, they are made. On the occasion of this equinox, and for your own sake, if nothing else, consider what you know and make of yourself as the blessing of your innate knowledge would have you do. Spread the word.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

By Sarah Taylor

Three weeks ago, on Sunday, Aug. 30, two of the cards in this week’s reading appeared in the same order, but shifted up a position. Those were The Magus and the Ace of Wands in the second and third card positions respectively. Now, they are here again, but in the first and second card positions.

Time has moved on. You and your life have moved on. What was present is now fading into a foundational energy; what was to come is now here.

The Magus, Ace of Wands, The Star from The Röhrig Tarot deck, created by Carl-W. Röhrig. Click on the image for a larger version.

It’s an interesting reading for another reason, and one that I also referred to on Aug. 30. When we have a major arcana and an Ace, we are very much in the realm of archetype. Their influence is one we have to feel into, to sense their revelation between the cracks of normal perception, and — in the case of the Ace — to reach for and to work with actively.

The one grounding presence in the Aug. 30 reading was the Prince of Disks: The Magus and the Ace would be revealed through an aspect of your personality that was coming to the fore. Today, there are no court cards, and no pip cards (Twos through Tens). The themes are significant; the influence and flow created by the three cards are nothing less than phenomenal. And yet, even more so this time, they are asking for your awareness and for your action based on an intuitive sense of their presence rather than one that is external and/or more readily available to you.

You will feel The Magus and The Star as an inner knowing or a shift in how you have started (The Magus) and how you are about to start (The Star) to relate to yourself, or to feel as a force inside you.

The Magus in the past card position equips you perfectly for the imminent arrival of the Ace of Wands into your life. His active, Mercurial presence as an aspect of you enables you to work with a quality that is constantly on the move, and which asks for your agility and grace — your sense of timing and finesse — to make full use of it.

The Star is the connection to a higher presence that is available to you once you have picked up your “magic Wand” and started to use it. It connects you more deeply into your intuitive knowing; it is the restoration of a current whose trickle you may have been following with some faith and hope for some time now. It may have, at times, had you wondering if there was anything at the end of this particular rainbow at all.

A hunch was all you had; a promise of something that remained just that — a promise, a glimmering sensation at the edge of awareness that drew you forward. A part of you has always known that it held something for you; the risk has always been that your journey towards it has come with no solid guarantees. No “If you do this, you’ll get that.”

You might have felt like you were often freefalling in “a wing and a prayer” territory. Even now, it will not feel entirely tangible. However, it is there, if these cards are anything to go by. The Ace of Wands stands right in front of you, as present as it will ever be. That same faith that kept you going might be the thing you use to reach for it to see what happens when you do.

Because you will know the presence of the Ace as a burning fire in your belly that you need to harness if you want to use it.

Like a wild stallion, if you want to use it rather than simply look at it, it is you who needs to approach it with confidence, hold its mane, and engage with it — knowing only that you are dealing with something both powerful and living at the edge of predictability. Commune with it, and you are communing with something that is living, breathing fire. Your skill and your surrender to that fire will determine your experience.

Connection to creativity, to Eros, can never happen on your terms alone. You know this already, given you’ve been moving forward in an act of faith for some time now. Jump on a stallion, and there will invariably be an element of uncertainty about how he is going to behave, and what is going to happen next. That never goes away. What can remain present are the skills and abilities you bring to your meeting with him, and your surrender to his instinct — which is really your own. He knows better; and you know better than to second-guess him.

There is a part of you that believes fully in your ability and right to dance in the flames. If you find yourself trying too hard, engaging your thoughts and your will too strongly, moving against what intuitively makes sense to you, you can move back, check in, and re-establish a more give-and-take-and-surrender relationship with what’s moving through you.

You have everything you need. You are everything you need.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: The Magus (Mercury), Ace of Wands (the pure, limitless potential of fire), The Star (Aquarius)

If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread.

By Amanda Moreno

Sometimes writing a column about ‘spirituality’ is strange. Such a watered down, all-encompassing, over-used, misunderstood term. The first line in Wikipedia’s description of the topic reads: “Spirituality may refer to almost any kind of meaningful activity.”

Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day

Ok, then. That sounds about right.

The freedom to write about anything meaningful is quite lovely for the most part. This week, however, all I’ve wanted to do during times set aside for writing is sit in a bathtub with candles going and let out some final Saturn-in-Scorpio sobs mixed with utterings of gratitude for all of the people, places, guides, animals, essential oils and stones that have supported my personal passage through this initiation. I got some of that out of my system the night before writing this.

Now I’m sitting here letting the world wash over me, finding little connection to any writing topics. And oh, how my Mercury-Pisces word-making function needs that connection to the flow.

What do I see while the world washes over me? Well, a refugee crisis. Not so sure this is a new thing, but the phrase has been popping up everywhere, so at least it’s getting coverage now. And at least it’s getting coverage in a way that shows how absolutely unacceptable America’s response has been.

What a particularly apt Saturn in Sagittarius theme — a refugee crisis. The shadow of belief is deep and dark and the fundamentalist tendencies in all of us are now up for review. To think that anyone could justify mass murder and rape because of their beliefs is pretty appalling. Experience says, however, that fundamentalist tendencies will likely become more pronounced before they release. Understanding the millions upon millions of humans being massacred still, with additional millions fleeing their homes and being left to die in squalor, makes a conversation about spirituality seem somehow trite and privileged and yet totally necessary, all at the same time.

Do you know what else seems trite? American politics and the media’s — and therefore collective American culture’s — fixation on Donald Trump in the face of genocide and refugee crises. It’s hard to find the balance there. I’m told it’s my duty as a citizen to pay attention to the presidential race, but in all honesty I don’t see the point right now. It’s just a circus and spectacle.

Whether or not it is specifically geared to serve as opiate, distracting the population from ecocide, genocide and all of the other drastically more grave evils being perpetrated, I can only speculate. That is, however, what it seems to do. As far as I’m concerned, the best choice for me is to try to avoid the circus and tune in just before primary season so I can make an informed choice at that time, and then again a few weeks before the election.

I’m grateful to those who pay attention the entire way through. I, myself, am choosing to put my attention elsewhere, digging into those consciousness-raising efforts I’m so passionate about. I cannot say with certainty that I will even be voting this time around. I had to go with an independent candidate during the last presidential election. The thought of voting for Obama made me sick to my stomach, and I am lucky enough to live in a state in which taking my vote away from the incumbent didn’t make a difference, and so I voted my conscience.

A horrendous attitude to have, I’ve been told, but at this point even the most hopeful parts of me are increasingly coming to terms with the fact that no part of this system is salvageable. I don’t mean that fatalistically, just realistically. Participating in any part of the system is becoming increasingly difficult — a moral and spiritual conundrum.

I have been escaping lately into some personal flights of fancy. I thank/blame all that delicious Venus-and-Mars-in-Leo energy. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and love what I see. I want to play and have fun and dance and celebrate, and am doing so to some extent. But underneath all of that there is a constant knowing, and a constant connection with the belief that spirituality is in fact going to be what gets us out of this incredible mess we are in; that it has to infuse every part of my life and who I am. I hate using the term and the word makes me cringe, but if we don’t find a way to connect back with meaning and purpose I don’t know that we stand a chance.

There is, of course, the problem of defining what meaning is the right one. Youch! There we get into the muddy waters. Finding meaning in flat screens, Mountain Dew and green paper clearly isn’t getting us anywhere. But who am I to tell someone else that their meaning-making mechanisms are fucked up? Who am I to say that I know the One True Way? Who am I to dictate what compromises can and cannot be made when I know damn well that every once in a while I’m going to opt for a flight to the other side of the country, blowing my fossil fuel consumption for the year. There lies the rub. It is so hard not to live in contradiction.

For example, I will never be able to understand how someone can justify membership in a church that has institutionalized and approved child rape, especially when there are many institutions that have essentially similar beliefs without the heads of the church taking advantage of children. I cannot make sense of it. But who am I to dictate someone else’s path? Then again, when and where do we get to have the conversations that bring these contradictions to the table, and how do we learn to do that in a way that meets people where they’re at?

This spirituality stuff can just lead us in circles and divide and conquer just as much as it unites, calms and connects. It’s somewhat maddening, really. Even still, perhaps a robust and fluid understanding can be found, one that allows for individual truth and understanding within an enchanted cosmos.