The Big Three for the First Three

I've had a great time (once I got over my camera-shyness) recording short pieces for the Academy of Astrology YouTube channel, along with colleagues Rod Chang, Sue Farebrother and Marcos Patchett.

Our latest series of videos run through each zodiac sign, discussing how their essence and qualities filter through the 'Big Three' - the Ascendant, Moon and Sun.

Here are the first three signs - enjoy!

The Big 3...What's up with Aries? - by Marcos Patchett

Are you a bullish Taurus? By Mandi Lockley

The 2 Faces of Gemini - By Sue Farebrother

You can explore the rest of our YouTube Channel Here 

Nodes into Sagittarius-Gemini ~ A New Perspective

After approximately 18 months travelling through the Capricorn-Cancer axis, the Moon’s Nodes move into the Sagittarius-Gemini axis on 14 February 2011*. Nodal sign changes symbolize a shift in the cosmic karmic energies, a signal for a change in the collective consciousness.

While the North Node was in Capricorn and the South in Cancer, the collective has been concerned with security - applying the usual, age old methods to secure and stabilise things materially, economically and politically. Security has been a big concern – collectively and individually – as many families have struggled to hold onto their homes and jobs. We’ve been bogged down by responsibilities and struggling to maintain the work-life balance, which has taken its toll emotionally, particularly for those who have dependents reliant upon them to ‘bring home the bacon’.

When the North Node moves into Sagittarius and the South Node into Gemini, there is a shift in energy and we are invited to view things from a new perspective.

While the Nodes in our own chart say something about our personal life purpose, the transiting nodes speak about a temporal shift in our collective purpose. The transiting South Node represents a dispersing, separating energy, something from the past we need to move away from, but something that it’s all too easy to fall back on. The North Node on the other hand represents a new influx of energy that we need to move towards.

In Sagittarius, the North Node asks us to take a step back and view our world from a wider, broader perspective. This placement is about hope and belief and learning to put faith and trust in something bigger than ourselves. It requires us to step out of our regular day to day routines and concerns so that we can see the bigger picture. This North Node shows us where we have been blocked from expanding and stretching ourselves mentally, where we have become bogged down by the constant, relentless influx of information, facts, news, messages, communications. Now is the time to sort out all the meaningless crap from the real important stuff, to focus on what things ‘mean’, rather than what things simply ‘are’.

We are asked to focus less on immediate, local concerns and look at things more from a bigger, global perspective. In our ever shrinking world, with instant access to news and information we are becoming a true global village and we need to understand that instability and inequality in far flung places really does affect us, because we are all connected, now more than ever.

We are invited to recognise that the conditions of workers in Chinese factories, the demands of pro-democracy protesters on the streets of Cairo, the poverty of subsistence farmers in Kenya and the state of the stock market in Tokyo and so on, really does affect us. This stuff really does inform the decisions of our political and business leaders. It informs the price of a bean, the cost of a tank full of gas, the value of our currency and the policies and agreements that connect our part of the world with the rest of the world. By learning to understand this, at a deep level, we can learn how to ask the right questions and move some way towards insisting our world becomes a better and fairer one for everyone in it.

Suggestions for North Node Sagittarius / South Node Gemini

~ Take a leap of faith.

~ Indulge yourself in deep study.

~ Pay less attention to gossip, rumour, and hearsay.

~ Learn to really listen to what you say and to what others say and seek the deeper meaning in conversation and communication.

~ Learn to understand how information is presented, how what is not said can be just as important as what is said. Understand how facts can be manipulated to suit a particular agenda.

~ Question the truth of what you hear.

~ Seek out opinions that are different from your own and look for the common threads in those differences.

~ Get into the habit of ignoring/deleting annoying and irrelevant emails/newsletters/junk mail etc.

~ Set some long term goals for the future.

~ Travel to some far flung places.

~ Learn about different faith systems and focus on the things that bring different faiths together rather than the things which drive them apart.

~ Spend time with people from different cultures and countries.

~ Take an active interest in the global news, rather than just your local/national news. See what the other side are saying, notice the differences in bias and seek out the common meanings.

~ Learn to embrace the abstract.

~ Listen to your intuition.

The Nodes Transiting Your Chart
If you have planets or angles in Sagittarius or Gemini, the Nodes will make direct connections to your chart sometime over the next eighteen months by conjunction or opposition. If you have planets or angles in Virgo or Pisces, the Nodes will square those planets/points. Paying attention to these transits can highlight where you need to grow on your life journey.

Remember, the Nodes are a travelling opposition and like all oppositions, they often manifest in relationships. Nodal transits therefore often bring meetings and connections with other people that can help you move on from the past (as represented by the North Node) and into your future.

However, with the North Node in expansive Sagittarius, this transit will inform not just your relationships with people, but your relationship with the world at large. While the North Node in Capricorn was about your place in the world, the North Node in Sagittarius is about what you do with yourself once you have found your place, a quest that requires faith and self belief.

Data:

The North Node moves into Sagittarius / South Node into Gemini on February 14^th 2011.

The Nodes remain in Sagittarius/Gemini until September 14^th 2012, after which they move into Scorpio/Taurus.

(dates based on GMT time).

Essential reading on the Nodes:

The Astrologer’s Node Book by Donna Van Toen

The Astrology of Self-Discovery by Tracy Marks

Astrology for the Soul by Jan Spiller

With love,

Mandi

http://www.mandilockley.com/

 

*The Mean Nodes moved signs on February 13, but if you use the True Nodes they change on March 4 (March 3 for American time zones).

Gemini New Moon - Let There Be Words!

New Moons are times of new hope and fresh ideas, the kind of newness that begins in the dark, but finds its way, gradually towards the light. This month’s New Moon, on the 12th June, is in Gemini, the sign of language, communication, ideas, connections, learning.

Gemini is ruled by Mercury and since the 9th June, Mercury has been in Gemini, firing us up with lively conversations and filling our mind with bright ideas. Now, under the Gemini New Moon, it’s time to analyse all those conversations (and emails) and sift through all those ideas, to see which ones look like they’re worth following through with. Be discriminating as you do this, so you only plant the seeds of the ideas that are most likely to blossom into something interesting, lively and healthy.

The seed is the idea. When expressed, ideas becomes words/communication, then words become deeds and before we know it we have created something. It’s up to you whether you create something new and good and special or if you just plant the same old ideas that aren’t really working for you anymore.

Remember, the past created the present but it doesn’t have to create the future.

A Book Recommendation for the Gemini New Moon:

To help us remember the versatility and variety of our beautiful language and to also remind us not to take ourselves too seriously, how about checking out this long-winded titled tome:

Watch Your F*cking Language: How to swear effectively, explained in explicit detail and enhanced by numerous examples taken from everyday life

Happy Gemini New Moon!

With love,
Mandi

Gemini Chatters

As the Sun moves into Gemini, here’s a selection of quotes from some very well known Gemini folk that also reflect their Moon placement. It’s so much fun to hear people speak their charts - Enjoy!

When I get logical, and I don't trust my instincts - that's when I get in trouble.
Angelina Jolie, actress. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Aries

Well I've written four beauty books as well.
Joan Collins, actress, Sun in Gemini/Moon in Taurus

Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.
Salman Rushdie, author. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Gemini

I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.

Bob Hope, entertainer. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Cancer

I think people who create and write, it actually does flow-just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down. It's simple.
Paul McCartney, musician. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Leo

I'm a gemini, and I get so bored so easily. I mean, I have moved six times in the last eight years and I'm not going to deny it. I'm a neat person, there's no question.
Courtney Cox, actress. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Virgo

PS: It's all gossip about the prince. I'm not in the habit of taking my girlfriends' beaux.

Wallis Simpson, wife of abdicated King Edward VIII. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Libra

I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces, as opposed to what I see it being now, which is a way for me to actually communicate, and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.

Alanis Morissette, singer/songwriter. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Scorpio

Don't follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise.

Joan Rivers, comedienne. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Sagittarius

There's a drive in me that won't allow me to do certain things that are easy.
Johnny Depp, actor. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Capricorn

Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.
William Butler Yeats, poet. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Aquarius

If you're playing somebody who is not you, then you can imagine that you are that person. You can feel like he feels, move like he moves, look like he looks - in your own mind.
Morgan Freeman, actor. Sun in Gemini/Moon in Pisces

Quotes from http://www.brainyquotes.com/

Data for the Sun’s ingress into Gemini:
BST: Sun enters Gemini 04.34 on 21st May 2010 and leaves Gemini at 12.28 on 21st June 2010.
EDT: Sun enters Gemini 23.34 on 20th May 2010 and leaves Gemini at 07.28 on 21st June 2010.
PDT: Sun enters Gemini 20.34 on 20th May 2010 and leaves Gemini at 04.28 on 21st June 2010.

http://www.mandilockley.com/

December’s Astrology (including VOC Moon times)

Welcome to December!

Here's a link to: December’s Moon sign changes and Moon of Void of Course times

November was marked by the Sun’s passage through Intense Scorpio and expansive Sagittarius. Neptune turned Direct early in the month, the last of the Jupiter-Neptune-Chiron triple conjunction to do so. This rare conjunction in Aquarius will make its last exact hit on 21st December, before Jupiter starts racing forwards to meet Pisces.

In mid November, two of the sky’s heaviest hitters, Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn met for the first of three Squares. I have posted a number of blogs on this topic and here is a link to the first one, which introduces the major themes of this planetary alignment: Saturn-Pluto themes and processes.

December starts off very busily, astrologically speaking, with Uranus turning Direct on the first of the month. To read about how Uranus Direct is reflected in current world events, click here>. To read about how Uranus Direct might affect you personally, click here>.

Uranus Direct marks the first and only time this year that all the major planets have been Direct! After what feels like months of delays, reviews and u-turns, we can expect some rapid forward movement, as well as some unexpected developments! (For an explanation of Direct and Retrograde, click here> and for planetary Retrograde dates for 2010, click here>.)

Also on the 1st December, sociable, charming Venus moves into gregarious, fun loving Sagittarius, just in time for the party season. This is closely followed by a Full Moon in Gemini on the 2nd. Social butterflies at the ready! Party time will have peaked by the time of the Sagittarius New Moon on the 16th, after which we’ll probably all feel like just flopping in front of the TV with a glass of sherry and a silly hat!

As Christmas week approaches, Mars in Leo goes Retrograde on the 20th, closely followed by the Sun’s ingress into Capricorn on the 21st, marking the Winter Solstice in the Northern hemisphere and the Summer Solstice in the Southern. Mercury manages to squeeze another Retrograde in from the 26th and finally, as if all that wasn’t enough, the year ends with a Cancer Lunar Eclipse on New Year’s Eve, an ending and a fresh start indeed!

Blogs on all of December’s astro-action to follow, but in the meantime, bring me a mince pie, I’m exhausted just thinking about it!!!

Once again, here's the link to December’s Moon sign changes and Moon of Void of Course times a very useful tool for assessing each day’s subtle energies.

Season’s Greetings to everyone, whether you celebrate Yule, Christmas, Hanukkah, something else, or nothing at all!

With love,
Mandi
http://www.mandilockley.com/