Ziggy Stardust - Thank You Very Much, Bye Bye, We Love You

A sad day, hearing the news of the passing of David Bowie, an otherworldly genius whose magic was that he was so relatable, so down to earth, yet so not of the earth.

It makes sense that David Bowie’s most famous alter-ego, Ziggy Stardust, was a futuristic alien on a humanitarian mission to earth.

It was January 29th 1972 when Bowie and his band took to the stage in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire for a warm up gig for the ’72-’73 Ziggy Stardust Tour. The chart for that concert* has transiting Sun exactly conjunct Bowie’s Ascendant at 9 Aquarius, symbolising recognition, praise, and the ego projecting brightly out into the world through innovative, unconventional Aquarius.

Although Bowie had not yet fully embraced the bisexual alien rock superstar with a message of hope for a dying human race - all the elements were in place. The spiky red hair, the futuristic, androgynous costumes and the ambiguious sexuality**

A Starman was born.

Most of the songs on the Ziggy Stardust album were recorded when Bowie had transiting Neptune Conjunct his natal Venus, a transit for beauty, fantasy, creativity and illusion and by the time of the tour, when the songs were made public, Neptune had moved to his MC. These transits reflect the album’s themes of salvation, soul love and the struggle to hold onto the dream.

 

Click to enlarge

However, when Neptune had finished with his MC, it was time for the illusion to end. Bowie’s natal Moon-Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Leo which straddles his Descendent, foreshadows Ziggy’s very public demise and indeed, by the time Bowie killed Ziggy off on stage in July ’73, shocking fans and bandmates alike, transiting Jupiter had crossed his ASC and was making a series of Oppositions to his natal Moon and Saturn, suggesting that keeping up the public persona of Ziggy had become frustrating, hard work and emotionally draining and explaining his need to get out of the rut and expand his horizons.

Transiting Uranus’ Squares to natal Mars and Sun were over by Autumn ‘72, but they certainly suggest that his desire to kill off his alter ego was not the spur of the moment decision it appeared to be. Transiting Jupiter had crossed his ASC in March that year and by July was making a series of Oppositions to Bowie’s natal Moon-Saturn Conjunction, suggesting that keeping up the public persona of Ziggy had become frustrating, hard work and emotionally demanding hard work and Bowie felt the need to get out of the rut and expand his horizons.

 

"Thank You Very Much, Bye Bye, We Love You"

 

But the end of Ziggy was just the end of the start for Bowie and after many years, many albums and many personas later, Bowie has earned his status as a true legend. And now the Starman’s time on earth has come to an end, we can look up to the firmament and smile through our tears, for he has gone home.

“News guy wept and told us
earth was really dying
Cried so much his face was wet
then I knew he was not lying”

*7.30pm, 29th January 1972 from original advertising poster on display at Aylesbury Friars http://www.davidbowie.com/news/aylesbury-friars-exhibition-launches-march-52891

** A married Bowie had declared himself gay in an interview with Melody Maker magazine just days  before the Aylesbury gig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Maker

David Bowie 8th January 1947, 9.15am Brixton, London. Source: Astrodatabank. Rodden rating: A

 

Astrology, Fiction and The Doctor(s)

A random black hole

Hello, it’s been a good long while so an update is long overdue.

So what have I been up to that’s been taking me away from this blog I love so much?

As well as currently holding down a very demanding ‘day job’, I have been writing a long piece of fiction. I’ve got more than 40,000 words down on paper, so I’m about half way through. I’ve committed to finish it so I’m trying to devote most of my limited free time to it. Yes, it does have an astrological angle, but not overtly so.

Why fiction? It came from a long ago germ of an idea born out of a conversation with a stranger in a pub. I did quite a bit of work developing the idea at the time and then the notes just sat in a drawer for a few years. It wouldn’t lay down and rest though, it just nagged and nagged at me until finally I gave in and started writing. I’m pleased with progress so far and really enjoying immersing myself in my story and its characters. I’m finding it a welcome release from the very long, otherwise quite difficult Neptune transit I’m currently wading through - five Squares from Neptune to my Gemini-Sag Nodes between 2012 finishing Jan 2014 and three Squares from Neptune to my Gemini ASC lasting until early 2015. Perhaps a concurrent Sextile transit from Neptune to my 8th house Capricorn Sun is helping me to be imaginative and receptive.

Needless to say, my novel in progress is a dark story, but a deeply spiritual one. I find it hard to drag myself away from that imaginary world to see to practical matters such as earning enough money to pay the mortgage and so on. Neptune, you don’t make it easy, do you? Oh and I’ve been getting health checks. All clear so far thank goodness, but a good thing to do for a strong transit to the ASC, especially as I also have Saturn transiting my 6th house.

There has been a run of astrological based fiction lately.

Many of you will know that a book based on astrology, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, won the prestigious Man Booker Prize this year. I’ve read mixed reviews, but haven’t delved in myself yet. If any of you have read it I’d love to hear your opinion from an astrological perspective as well as from a literary one.

The wonderful Joyce Mason of The Radical Virgo blog has just launched her new novel, The Crystal Ball, a mystery featuring an intriguing crime busting duo, one of whom is an astrologer and the other a gun toting ex-FBI agent. I’ve just downloaded it as I’ve been writing this and can’t wait to get stuck in. I love Joyce’s writing style and unique tone of voice so I’m definitely in for a treat.

Also on my reading list is Ecliptic by Sara Lunardi, an intriguing urban fantasy which sees a brother and sister wake up one morning miles apart with strange tattoos of the astrological constellations on their arms. This awakens them to a dangerous mission to save the planet and all its inhabitants.

Back in the world of real astrology, I’m thrilled to see that Donna Cunningham is back with her new book The Stellium Handbook, another essential for my reading list.

Two Doctors for the price of one

Now, I swing back into fantasy again (Neptune transit, remember?) to show you a chart quickly. If you didn’t know it was the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who last night, then what planet are you on?

The first ever episode was entitled An Adventure in Space and Time. The original time travelling Doctor was played by William Hartnell as an older authoritarian figure, a Time Lord. How fitting to see Saturn in Aquarius on the MC for the chart of the show’s first broadcast? It’s also a good symbol for the longevity of this much loved sci-fi show. A Sun-Mercury-Venus-Mars stellium in Sagittarius is also perfect for the galaxy trotting adventurer and his companion, perfect for broadening one’s horizons, for fostering a fascination with alien races and for seeing the (much) bigger picture. And in the 6th house, we are reminded that Doctor Who’s ultimate mission is to alleviate the suffering of mankind, to deliver hope. Venus on the DC is also great for popularity. See also the Moon in Aquarius close to the MC and Saturn? The original Doctor Who was a progressive production indeed. It was produced by Verity Lambert who at the time was the only female producer at the BBC and directed by Waris Hussein, its first Indian-born director.

Broadcast of the 1st Episode of Doctor Who (click on chart to enlarge)
 

The original TV listing

 

Now a brief admin update: I have taken down www.mandilockley.com for now. It pretty much became redundant once I started this blog and now I’m branching out into fiction I need to rethink my strategy. I’m sure there will be a shiny new website at some point, but it will be a while yet and you’ll be the first to hear. In the meantime if you want to get in touch: mandi_lockley@hotmail.com

Lots of love and hugs,

Mandi

Underwater Lakes in Neptune's Kingdom

At the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, on the sea bed, over half a mile down, there lies an underwater lake, with a lapping tide, a curving shoreline and a surface easily discernible from the surrounding sea water.

How can that be? It's underwater?

 

It turns out that the water in the 'lake' is a thick briny soup, much heavier than regular sea water and that its 'beach' is made up of a vast colony of mussels. This habitat has evolved a completely new ecosystem, full of previously undiscovered species of flora and fauna and so deep under the water that it functions without the life giving energies of the Sun. Instead it is fuelled by bacteria and methane.

 

So far we have explored just 1% of the ocean floor, so who knows what else is out there to be discovered. It feels like a metaphor for the unknowable parts of our subconscious. And mysterious impossible lakes beneath the sea? It feels like we are swimming in Neptune's kingdom.

 

When we're experiencing a Neptune transit, or dealing with challenging natal Neptune aspects activated by a transit from another planet, we can feel the drag and the weight of our own metaphorical underwater lake, the depths of our subconscious. It pulls us down towards own heavy, dark, alien, undiscovered places. Environments that we'd probably rather not explore.

 

Picture from http://maleneplouf.wordpress.com/

Do we dive right into the murky depths to find what's underneath?  Not that easy and maybe not even advisable for some of us, but we might decide after some hesitation that resistance is futile and let ourselves be dragged wherever our psyches lead us.  Or do we float on the surface of our lake, rest there a while and see where the tide takes us, trying not to go under. Maybe we hover around the shoreline, looking in but not touching? Perhaps we don't go there at all and stay near the surface of our regular ocean, our conscious emotions, where we can still see the Sun and breathe the air. Whatever choice we make, and maybe its not a conscious choice, we are driven by our instincts. Logic and reason can't help us.

 

That thick, heavy, swampy water in the underwater lake can be read as a metaphor for the deep ancient emotions that we have denied or forgotten, but ones we have carried with us nevertheless. If we stir that water, those emotions will become disturbed, eventually bubbling up to the surface, ultimately releasing and dissolving the toxins, but making us deal with the emotional pollution that is the by-product of the process.

 

Neptune demands that we put our faith in the unknown, but it is as likely to punish us for doing so (disappointment, disillusionment, delusion) as it is to reward us (spiritual awakening, cleansing of the spirit, belief, creative inspiration, the awakening of compassion).

 

But we still must take our chances, because we soon learn that to resist is to invite unnecessary suffering. Our Neptune transit (or transit to Neptune) reminds us that, like the underwater lake under the Gulf of Mexico, life is a mystery and that often we are even a mystery to ourselves.

 

And now for some Saturn news

 

It's a year to the day since Saturn moved into Scorpio and I would like extend to a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has bought my e-book Saturn in Scorpio: Your Guide Through The Dark and for the positive feedback. I hope it's been an interesting and helpful read.

 

Saturn's still got more than a year and a half to go in Scorpio, so if you want to find out more about the book, follow this link: http://mandilockley.blogspot.co.uk/p/saturn-in-scorpio-your-guide-through.html

 

With love and thanks,

Mandi

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