The Sun/Pluto aspects - Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson

No, I'm not going to blame the tragic deaths of Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson on Pluto. This aspect may have had something to do with it, but I'll focus on the meaning of the Sun/Pluto aspects, irrespective of whether the people who have them, manage to live long lives or not. Pluto may be highly regarded in modern astrological circles, but we need to go beyond fancy words like deep passion and transformation if we want to be honest with ourselves and with Pluto.
Because Pluto has a lot to do with fear, I think. Modern textbooks stress survival when it comes to Pluto, but survival is guaranteed only by living constantly in fear. When you have the Lights strongly aspecting Pluto or Pluto is angular in your chart, you have not yet left the jungle. You live in a state of constant alertness, waiting for the next predator. But humans, as a species, have consciously decided to abandon the jungle, which may have had its' negative consequences insofar as we lost our respect for instinctual life, but still, it was our choice and we made it. Which leads me to believe that Sun/Pluto aspects are much more difficult than Moon/Pluto ones. We may think that the Moon is sensitive and, of course, by it's exaltation in Taurus, is directly opposed to Scorpio and plutonian qualities, yet, as it represents the irrational mind is closer to Pluto than we think. In fact, it's because the Moon understands and values Pluto that it strives for a Taurus-like existence. It wants to protect itself against the part of life Pluto represents. But the Sun has nothing in common with Pluto. It doesn't understand it. The Sun is the rational mind and it's because of the Sun that we made the conscious choice to abandon the jungle. We don't believe any more in the survival of the fittest, but in the survival of all. So, when you have a Moon/Pluto aspect, jungle mentality comes natural to you, which, naturally, is extremely wearisome, but you don't question it. It's just who you are. On the other hand, with Sun/Pluto aspects, you are not genetically predisposed to jungle life, but life seems to constantly throw predators at you and you feel like someone who was born in the "civilized" parts of the world, but by a mysterious twist of fate, you are forced to live in the jungle.
So, it's quite understandable that Michael Jackson was obsessed and paranoid, surrounding himself with little kids, aiming at capturing an innocence that, alas, was not meant for him. And I'm sure Farah Fawcett's Aquarius Sun in the 8th house oposing Pluto had a hard time trying desperately to live in an idealised Aquarian world, but plutonian reality constantly undermined her efforts.
I'm not a psychologist and I don't have any easy solutions for dealing successfully with these aspects. However, I think that one major step towards a solution would be to accept the inevitable. I'm not talking about surrender. It's one thing fighting against the inevitable trying to change your reality and another riding along with it but at the same time fighting for a place in it.

Psychological astrology par excellence - Richard Idemon

When you start your astrological studies with modern astrology textbooks, you feel enchanted at first. Suddenly, all the mysteries of your life seem to become clear and you don't feel alone any more. There is a reason for what is happening to you and that reason is your astrological chart coupled with pretty words like karma, transformation and so on. But after you start to share your knowledge with friends or clients, you realize that you are repeating yourself. Every other chart has a Venus - Pluto or a Moon - Uranus aspect and you get bored with saying the same vague things over and over again. What's more, you realize that other people don't share your enthusiasm with this higher knowledge and can't relate to what you are saying. They want more concrete stuff and there's nothing wrong with that. As a result, you start questioning your astrological knowledge, especially if you are very earthy or have a prominent Saturn in your chart and either you go over to traditional astrology or try to find people who know what they are talking about and are capable of passing it on to you.
One of these people was Richard Idemon. He may not have written any books himself but thanks to Gina Ceaglio and Howard Sasportas, we have some of his seminars published in two books, The Magic Thread and Through the Looking Glass. These books are full of valuable pieces of information, especially Glass which is my favourite, and they are very interesting to read. I think what sets him and Liz Greene apart from other modern astrologers is that they are not so spiritually-oriented and they like to call a spade a spade. In fact, I don't think that they are astrologers per se, but psychologists who also use astrological jargon. Richard Idemon in particular, really gets you involved in what he is saying. You cannot help but admire Liz Greene for how effortlessly she seems to produce her words of wisdom, but with Richard Idemon you get the feeling that he is not pontificating, instead he is right here suffering along with you all the way. He is passionate, funny and he likes to tell stories from his personal and professional life. I highly recommend these two books, even if you are not into psychological astrology that much.
Richard Idemon was HIV-positive and committed suicide in 1987. He was very private about his chart when he was alive, but now that he is dead, his chart is included in the Astro-data bank for everyone to see. So here it is:



At the time of death (22/02/1987), he had a progressed Sun-Saturn conjunction in Aries, progressed Ascendant opposite the progressed Mars-Uranus conjunction in Taurus and transiting Pluto exactly - to the minute - opposite his natal Uranus in the 8th house.

Horary - Federer's win at Roland Garros

I cast this horary chart on Saturday morning, after the two players for the final the following day were determined, asking who will win, Federer or Soderling. I will use the John Frawley method for interpreting this chart.



1st step: Determine which house goes to whom. Since I strongly support Federer and desperately wanted him to finally win a Roland Garros title, Federer gets the 1st house and Soderling - his enemy - the 7th.

2nd step: Determine the condition of the houses, if there are any planets afflicting or strengthening them. Federer has neither. Soderling, however, has Pluto right on the cusp, which means that Pluto controls the house and not controlled by it. For me, this is a major testimony that Soderling is going to lose and he is going to lose BIG. But let's humour Frawley and refrain from using any outer planets, even though in this case I think even he couldn't have possibly ignored Pluto.

3rd step: Determine the condition of the house rulers. Federer gets the Moon and Soderling gets Saturn. What we are looking for here, since this is a contest chart, is accidental dignity and not essential dignity. The Moon is in the sign of its' fall, but that needn't concern us. What does concern us however, is that it's less than two degrees away from the 6th house cusp and therefore it is a 6th house planet. Not good. At least it has lots of light. Saturn on the other hand is accidentally dignified by being angular. Both planets are slow. Saturn receives a square from the Sun, which is not particularly harmful, considering that they are both in Mercury-ruled signs and the Sun likes Saturn by being in his triplicity. The Moon (Federer) squares Jupiter, but Jupiter is peregrine. Not much help there. Quite the contrary.

So, if we leave it at that and ignore Pluto, we must decide that Soderling is going to win the match. But we've forgotten antiscia. Is anything there worth mentioning? Yes! The Moon (Federer) is very closely conjunct the North Node by antiscion. This is extremely powerful and could decide a match by itself, according to Frawley. So, combined with Pluto on the 7th house cusp and the fact that it has a lot of light, it's more than likely that Federer is going to win the match, even though he is not in his very best condition. And so it proved. Federer won in straight sets and Soderling admitted that he was completely overpowered by him.

Federer makes history

Mars in Taurus - The eunuch

Even though in modern astrology we don't believe that there are any debilitated placements for any planet, Mars in a Venus sign is like a fish out of the water. In Taurus, Mars falls under Venus's spell and relinquishes all its' power to the goddess of beauty. He is like an army general who, instead of planning the next battle, wastes his time making love to his mistress, to the dismay of his loyal soldiers who once looked up to him. Taurus comes after Aries in the zodiacal order of signs and signals a time for a cease-fire in order for everyone to enjoy all the little pleasures life has to offer.
But Mars isn't like that at all. Mars constantly wants to have something to conquer and once mission is accomplished, he moves on to the next target. Life needs to be full of excitement, otherwise what's the point? Only if you achieve something that you are proud of, can you honestly say that your life's been worthwhile. As a result, you can never relax, you cannot slow down, because it's highly likely you are going to miss something important, a new opportunity waiting for you to grab it.
For all of us, this is not a time to start anew. Instead, the universe is telling us to take things slowly and enjoy the fruits of the efforts we made when Mars was in Aries. Mars in Taurus has a wonderful sexual reputation and men with this placement are considered to be excellent lovers. This is because this Mars has an instinctual knowledge of a woman's body, but, after a while women tend to get bored because, unless there are other chart factors who say otherwise, men with Mars in Taurus very often lack the incentive to fight for their place in the world and they are usually passive, taking things as they come.
Scorpio ascendants, especially now that Venus has also entered Taurus, are going to feel a need to settle down in a peaceful manner. No more grand passions, no more tormented souls, no more grabbing each other's throats, no more pouring your heart out in order to feel sexually aroused and no more all that ghastliness they call love. They will probably want to find a person they can just relax and have a good time with and get a glimpse of what other people call normality. Of course, they may tire of it eventually, but isn't it nice to have a break once in a while?