Giz A Job! Using Astrology to Make Career Choices

We are what we do and If you do a job that you love, you'll never work a day in your life, are just a couple of cliches we hear all the time, but like many a cliche there is some truth in these little catchphrases.

We spend so many hours at our work and we are so closely defined by what we do for a living, that our job becomes about much more than how we make our money, it becomes an issue of self esteem and self fulfilment. Therefore, it's very important to get it right. For many of us, this is difficult. All through our lives we are asked to make vocational decisions, but very often these are uninformed, perhaps because we're not sure what we're naturally good at or don't have the nerve to go for what we want, instead basing our choices on what our parents, teachers, peers, bosses, society etc. implicitly and explicitly tell us is the right thing to do.

This is where astrology can really help, where knowledge can really give us power to make informed decisions that are in our own best interests.

The birth chart is a fantastic tool, a personal journey map for our lives. We shouldn't see our birth chart as our fate, but rather as a wonderful resource for showing us the higher path and for making free will choices based on knowledge and insight.

So what can your birth chart tell you about what you should be doing for a living? Well, this article cannot give every reader the specific answer, as this is very personal work, but it can point you in the right direction, with some resources that can help you discover and unravel the mysteries of your birth chart, in terms of your vocational direction.

Here are a few ideas:

Consult a professional astrologer for a personal reading

Most astrologers will include vocational profiling as part of a regular consultation, but to be sure, ask your chosen astrologer in advance.

1. A good place to start your search is findanastrologer.com an ever-growing directory of professional astrologers with many who cite career as one of their specialities.


2. Check out the websites of the major astrological schools, as most list graduates who are working professionally. For example, The Faculty of Astrological Studies


3. Which astrologers do you enjoy reading? Most astrologers who write books and publish articles are very easy to find online these days and many offer personal consultations.


4. If you have friends who have consulted an astrologer before, ask them for recommendations.

Order an astrological report that focuses on careers

Usually a cheaper option than consulting an astrologer one-on-one, these reports are based on your personal birth data, tend to be computer generated and are usually delivered instantly to your inbox. There are thousands of reports out there to order online, some bad, some good, some indifferent. They are limited in that they don't 'bring everything together' in the way that a live astrology reading does, but a 'good' report is still going to be better than a 'bad' astrologer! Make sure you order from a website that offers a sample report, so you can get an idea of what you will get for your money.

1. Matrix offers a report called Opportunities which looks at the personal characteristics, talents and inclinations in your birth chart which can clue you in to what career path you might be best suited to. You can read a full sample report here> and order your own report here> for just under $15.


2. Website Cafe Astrology offers a Career Report here> for only $7. You can read a sample report here>


3. This article does not wish to endorse any particular product, so do a quick Google search Astrology Report + Career to explore more options.

Do It Yourself

If you are an astrology student you may wish to take it as a learning opportunity and work it out for yourself. There are many books that can help you and many astrology schools and conferences have modules, workshops and lectures around the vocational astrology theme. If you can't get to a class, many schools and teachers offer downloadable MP3s.

1. Vocations by Noel Tyl is a workbook that takes a methodical approach to working out the vocational route suggested in the birth chart. It requires a good basic knowledge of astrology, but Noel offers exercises on his forum, which he personally appraises, so you can polish your skills.


2. How to Use Vocational Astrology for Success in the Workplace This book is out of print, but is available to buy second hand via Amazon. Contributions from 7 expert astrologers.


3. In Search of a Fulfilling Career by astrologer Joanne Wickenberg promises a wealth of information on using the birth chart as a tool for vocational guidance.


4. If you are based in the UK, the Astrology Student Conference 2010, 24th-25th April in London, focuses this year on life path and career and brings together some top European astrologers.

Wishing you luck and love on your journey towards a fulfilling life path.

Mandi

http://www.mandilockley.com/

NB: 'Giz a Job' is a phrase popularised by the early eighties TV drama Boys from the Blackstuff, which followed the ups and downs of a bunch of unemployed men from the north of England during recession.

Virgo Full Moon - How Can I Help?

If you ask one question this Full Moon, it should be How can I help?

It doesn’t matter if you’re asking yourself, another person or the universe and it doesn’t matter if you’re not sure what you’re asking. Under the Full Moon, things tend to come to light easily, so just ask the question with positive intent and see what occurs to you.

Why this question? Why now? Well, because this Full Moon puts the spotlight on the signs of Virgo and Pisces and as an opposing pair they address the issue of service.

There are lots of ways to serve, to help. There is practical service, literally doing something; spiritual service such as prayer, meditation and contemplation; service to yourself, including rest, recuperation and a bit of self-TLC and service to other individuals or groups such as lending a helping hand, listening, or just simply showing that you care.

The Full Moon is helped by Jupiter in Pisces conjunct the Sun. Jupiter is very happy in Pisces, like an honoured guest, where he can easily bring out the most positive expression of the Virgo and Pisces combination - helpfulness, kindness, compassion and empathy. Jupiter in this placement also reminds us that we are all connected and in asking the simple question, how can I help, we learn that when we help others, if we do so sincerely, we also help ourselves and vice versa.

This is also a wonderful Full Moon energy for creative and humanitarian work, carrying as it does a Venus-Uranus conjunction in Pisces and a Mercury-Neptune conjunction in Aquarius.

I hope you enjoy the Full Moon in Virgo, let me know if I can help.

Mandi
mandi@mandilockley.com

Notes

The Virgo Full Moon occurs on 28th February 2010 16.37 GMT / 11.37 EST / 08.37 PST.

This Full Moon will resonate most strongly with you if you are a Pisces, Virgo, Gemini or Sagittarius, particularly if you were born late February, late August, late May or late November, or if you have other planets or points at 7-11 degrees of the mutable signs.

If you do not know your chart and want to see if this Full Moon will affect you, you can quickly and easily download a free birth chart from http://www.alabe.com/ which also includes a basic interpretation.

A Mid-Life Crisis for the Mid-Life Crisis

Born in the mid-sixties, I belong to that forty-something group who have collectively been going through the mid-life crisis, those middle years when we become acutely aware that our youth is beyind us for good and we have but old age to look forward to.

It's all too easy to lampoon the mid-life crisis - images immediately spring to mind of greying men lowering themselves into red sports cars or onto the back of Harleys and of forty-something women squeezing their rears into tight clothes more appropriate for their daughters and hitting the town's nightspots.

But if you want to do that in your forties does it really matter anymore? I mean, yes, we do have a culture with an unhealthy obsession with eternal youth, but hasn't my generation also managed to hold onto the good things of their youth as well? For me, I can still listen to cool music, wear my hair long, choose fashionable clothes, yes, even short skirts and go out with younger friends without feeling silly. And it's more fun because I don't need to get drunk, or pull, or impress anyone, I can just relax and enjoy the company. Phew, what a relief! Perhaps you're reading this and thinking, oh, yes, that sounds like mid-life crisis talk to me, but hey, what do I care!

I was surprised to learn that the phrase mid-life crisis was coined in the year of my birth, 1965, so it seems that the mid-life crisis is going through a mid-life crisis of its own! If it is, then my generation must be the way-showers for the generations to come. Yes, it's been tough at times, I could bore you with a few stories, but ultimately, we have the opportunity to teach by example that this profound time of life can be about taking forward the best things from our youth and seasoning them with the wisdom of age, that it can be more about breakthroughs than breakdowns and that it ultimately brings the gift of freedom of choice rather than the loss of options. What do you think?

Astrologically speaking, the midlife crisis is defined by a number of planet to planet transits including Neptune square Neptune, Uranus opposition Uranus and Saturn opposition Saturn. To read about what these transits mean see my article Rites of Passage - Age Defining Transits.

Mandi

As so often happens, this blog post started out as a very different idea. I was going to write about how my generation has been going through a collective healing crisis...this post coming soon...including why I think the healing crisis is coming to an end and what I think comes next...

Pisceans - In Their Own Words

As the Sun moves into Pisces, instead of describing what Pisceans are supposed to be like, I thought I’d let them speak for themselves, so here are some true-life quotes from six wonderful Piscean people who have passed through my life.

I’ve never had much money, but what I have had, I just give it away. I always find that when I need money it comes to me.

That’s not enough wine to get us through the evening! [putting another four bottles into the supermarket trolley]

I’ve sent you a link to a jobs website to send to him. We all have to stick together when times are hard like this [the link was for a friend of mine who she’d never even met]

I’m growing this super-skunk, I’m going to make my fortune!

I’m calling you to find out if you’re OK. Are you OK? Are you sure? Firing you was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do!

I met this guy on a train, he’d just got out of prison and had all his things in a black bin liner. I gave him my number because I felt sorry for him and now he won’t stop calling me…

Enjoy the Sun in Pisces.

With affection,

Mandi

Astroair Astrology is proud to be working with Donna Cunningham and C.J. Wright on the Cardinal T Square Blog-A-Thon, 19-21 March. To find out more about this very exciting event, click here>

Also check out: 12 Things to Do When the Sun Transits Pisces from C.J. Wright's Auntie Moon Blog

A Valentine’s Day New Moon Meditation

This year’s Aquarius New Moon falls on Valentine’s Day and all in all, it’s set to be a friendly and dreamy day. With the Sun and Moon falling on the idealistic conjunction of Neptune and Chiron and with Venus in Pisces cosying up to Jupiter, it’s a great day for romantic interludes, social interactions and chilling out in general, especially as it also falls on a Sunday!

I always think that meditation is a really nice complement to the New Moon energies and what better for this particular New Moon than the classic Buddhist Meditation on Loving Kindness, which is used to evoke the four qualities of love: Friendliness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha).

Here’s a how-to link from Buddhanet:
http://www.buddhanet.net/metta.htm

Enjoy!

Mandi

Blog-A-Thon Coming Soon!

The upcoming alignment of Uranus, Saturn, and Pluto, the cardinal t-square, has many of you puzzled and worried, especially as astrologers everywhere are talking about its effects on the world at large—everything from the economy, to politics, to climate change.

But how will this alignment be reflected in your personal lives and what can it offer to help you cope with the change and uncertainty it heralds? A special web-based event, March 19-21, is aimed at helping you sort out what this t-square means for you personally, with a selection of helpful, interesting and thoughtful articles and multi-media presentations by some of the best on-line astrology professionals. The materials being brought together for this exciting event promise fresh perspectives and valuable insights, along with healing tools and practical solutions.

It’s one of many astrological gatherings around the globe to celebrate International Astrology Day, but for this one, you don’t even have to leave your house—it’s all happening on the internet! It’s called a Blog-A-Thon which is an event where several blogs publish articles on a particular theme at the very same time. This one involves the blogs of several dozen professional astrologers. Each one will address a problem you may be facing under transits from Pluto, Saturn, or Uranus.

Friday March 19: Donna Cunninghams’s Skywriter blog presents:

Pluto Problems Got You Perplexed? Here’s What to Do!!

Blog-A-Thon Announcement on Skywriter

Saturday March 20: Astroair Astrology, is very proud to host:

Look After Saturn and Saturn Will Look After You

Blog-A-Thon Announcement on Astroair Astrology

Sunday March 21: CJ Wright’s Auntie Moon blog will host:

Uranus in Aries: Claiming a Self-Reliant Future

Blog-A-Thon Announcement on Auntie Moon

In addition, there will be many more exciting extra events throughout the weekend, including:

• Sasstrology's Tips on Overcoming Relationship Challenges
• A Gallery Opening of Cosmic Art by Jude Cowell
• Astrology and Flower Essences Article Collection
• The Astrologers’ Memorial Collection of Sound Bytes
• Multi-Media Takes on the T-Square

Astroair Astrology is particularly interested in hearing from astrology writers who would like to contribute to the Saturn collection of articles.

Writers, please note that your articles should focus on the personal challenges that accompany the transits on Saturn and offer practical solutions. For all articles included, there will be a link and description on the host blog, but the body of your article will remain on the writer’s own blog/website, so readers will be able to explore what else they have to offer. For more information, please contact me on mandi@mandilockley.com

For further information or to submit articles and ideas for consideration on Pluto and Uranus related topics, please contact Donna Cunningham at Skywriter moonmave@spiritone.com or C.J. Wright at Auntie Moon auntiemoonmail@yahoo.com

Your Transits Are Not Just About You!

When we first learn astrology and get to know our own natal charts, it’s fascinating to follow our transits and see how they are reflected in our lives. This is how we learn, not just about astrology, but about ourselves and about the bigger picture of our life’s journey.

However, even when we’re more experienced at reading the symbols, it’s sometimes easy to forget that whatever we are going through affects, on some level, everyone else around us. No man (or woman) is an island, after all.

There are a number of ways to see how your ‘stuff’ affects someone else. For example, you could do a chart comparison to see how your transits fit into their chart and vice versa, or you could do run a composite chart and look at the transits to that.

However, there is another method borrowed from traditional astrology called turning the chart which is a very simple technique which only requires you to look at your own chart.

The first step is to work out which house in your chart represents the person in question. Any good book on the houses in astrology will give you this information and you will probably be able to pull up a decent list from a Google search. To get you started, here are the most obvious ones: your significant other falls in your 7th house; your boss in your 10th; your co-workers in your 6th; your kids in the 5th; parents in the 4th and the 10th and your social buddies in the 11th.

Then, to turn the chart, you count the house in your chart that belongs to the other person as their first house. Next, you count around the houses from there (counter-clockwise), until you get to the house where your transiting planet or transited planet sits. Once you’ve got there, you can apply the art of interpretation and bingo, you have a simple way of seeing how your transit affects them! If that doesn’t make much sense, don’t worry, this is a technique that is easier to do than it is to explain, so here are a few examples of how it works.

Vikki has transiting Saturn conjunct her 8th house Sun. Her partner Tom is out of work so they are paying the mortgage and all the bills out of her salary alone. They are managing to make ends meet, but Vikki is stressed and anxious, worried that if this situation goes on much longer she’s going to have to dip into her savings to pay the bills. But how is this situation affecting Tom? Obviously they are talking about it between them and working out ways to save costs, but underneath, how is Tom feeling?

In Vikki’s chart Tom falls in her 7th house, so we count her 7th house as Tom’s 1st house. The 8th house, the scene of Vikki’s Saturn transit, is therefore Tom’s derived 2nd house. The second house is where you get your money from and currently, with Saturn moving through Tom’s derived 2nd house, money is in short supply and he’s being supported by Vikki. So far so good, this is a very literal and accurate interpretation of the situation. But we can go further with this and give Vikki more insight into the situation by looking at the psychological meaning of the 2nd house. At this level, his derived 2nd house speaks of his self esteem and how he values himself. A proud man, his confidence and ego has taken a knock by losing his job and having to be supported. Understanding this has helped Vikki to support Tom emotionally as well as financially, avoiding the blame game and actually helping them to grow closer during these difficult times.

Cherie is a well educated young woman in her mid-twenties who feels ready to take the next step in her career. She feels that she is not getting the respect she needs from her boss and that despite her efforts to prove she is ready to move up, she is being blocked. With transiting Saturn on her 10th house cusp (the house of bosses), this makes the 10th the derived 1st house for her boss.

With the 1st house representing the image we present to the world, perhaps this is part of the problem for Cherie? Therefore, we discussed how she could work on improving her image in the eyes of the boss, to prove that she was ready for promotion. While she was adamant that the quality of her work was more than good enough, she did accept that she could work on behaving in a more professional manner in client meetings and in the way she presented her work and ideas to her boss. Because the higher level of job she wants involves gaining the respect of important clients, she could also see how the boss might be wary of putting his own reputation on the line if Cherie was promoted before she was ready. She also accepted that she might need to be patient and persistent in her efforts, because due to the circumstances of the company, if a promotion is on the cards, it might not happen quickly.

Jack has transiting Neptune moving through his 7th house, opposing his first house Moon. He has recently developed strong feelings for a female friend, Natalie, and would like their friendship to develop into something more intimate. However, when he mentioned his feelings to her, she said that while she is starting to feel the same way about him, she felt that this wasn’t the right time for her to start a new relationship. Naturally, Jack was confused by these mixed messages.

As a friend, Natalie falls in Jack’s 11th house, so the 11th becomes Natalie’s derived 1st house. The two houses affected by the Neptune transit in Jack’s chart are the 1st and 7th house, the relationship axis. By turning the chart, we find that Jack’s 1st house is Natalie’s derived 3rd house and Jack’s 7th house is Natalie’s derived 9th house.

The 3rd-9th is the axis of study, learning, travel and communication and with Neptune affecting these houses it’s clear that communication between them is confusing him. For Neptune transits, something is always other than it seems and this is true here because Natalie later revealed that she is thinking of moving abroad to study for a few months. Neptune’s message here for Jack is that Natalie is probably not clear in her mind about what it is she wants right now. While she is trying to broaden her horizons by maybe studying abroad, it’s difficult for to make a rational decision and she must rely on her intuition to decide what to do. Added to that, she may even be over-impressionable at this time. Knowing this, Jack decided not to pressure her to make a decision and tell her that if she did go abroad, he would like to stay in touch and then see how they both feel once she gets home again and once the emotional fogginess of the Neptune transit has passed.

I think the general conclusion here is that it’s always useful to try and see things from someone else’s perspective. This is how good relationships of mutual trust, sharing, compassion and respect take seed.

[Please note that names and particulars of circumstance have been changed in all the above examples]

Mandi
www.mandilockley.com

Void of Course Moon Times for February

Welcome to February!

Well, we all got through January, which always seems like the longest month in the year (and the darkest, if you're in the Northern hemisphere).

A busy one astrologically it was too: Saturn went Retrograde, Mars stayed Retrograde and Mercury went direct. Jupiter moved into Pisces, the Sun and Venus went into Aquarius and there was a Solar Eclipse in Capricorn. Finally, but not leastly, Saturn and Pluto made the latest in their current series of Squares.

The Void of Course Moon times for February are up (click here>) and check back in with Astroair Astrology soon for more new blogs, including a classic meditation for the Aquarius New Moon and a special called Your Transits are Not Just About You!

In the meantime, click here to find out about something that's making me feel very excited: International Astrology Day Blog-a-thon in March!

Mandi