Mary O'Gara

Posts Tagged ‘astrology’

Whether you study the ancient seven planets, the seven invisible energy centers known as chakras, or the seven groups of Bach flower remedies, there’s a clear message:  

Whether you study the ancient seven planets, the seven invisible energy centers known as chakras, or the seven groups of Bach flower remedies, there’s a clear message:

Seven is the ancient number of human completion along ancient spiritual paths.   Each of those seven steps along the path is rich with character strengths and flaws.

Complex stories arise when characters come into conflict because they are:

• Facing the same external issue while facing separate internal issues.  If the issue is a missing child, for example, one could be coming from fear (root chakra) and another investigator could be committed to solving the case only because of personal power issues (navel chakra).   Even as allies, they won’t feel connected until each grows through the issues of the chakra or emotion.
• Or they may be facing the same core problem, but with important differences.  Bach’s fear group, for example, includes fear of loss of control and four other kinds of fear.   In a thriller, people experiencing different fears would have similar lessons and still find it hard to relate to each other until each learned his or her particular lesson.

Seven is a good base number, just as Bach’s full 38 is a full, complete list of character types.   Astrology, numerology and tarot contribute their own lists, as does the Hebrew alphabet.  

What every author needs is a reminder list that stirs memories and rouses the ghost of Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple within your soul–a system that makes you say, with Miss Marple, oh that reminds me of so-and-so from my village (my life or the gossip I’ve heard) and the way that went is…

What do astrology and coaching have in common?   At one time, I’d have defined them as wildly different myself.   But consider this:

1.  Both coaching and astrology focus on moving from the present into the future.   Astrology is a tool for looking at the present and future symbolically and making responsible and responsive choices.   Coaching looks at our dreams and visions and develops strategies for resolving internal and external conflicts and building moment.   So they share a future-oriented perspective (as opposed to therapy, for example, which focuses on the past and its impact on the present moment.)

2.  In the hands of an experienced astrologer, astrology opens a conversation that expands rather than restricts a person’s options.   Coaching and astrology both look at present resources, risk factors, and commitment as factors in planning a successful future.

3.  Coaching raises questions–and while you’d think of astrology as answering questions more often than it asks them, astrology actually excels in asking questions, too.   The symbols of astrology are open-ended enough to expose multiple possibilities for each event.   And I often think good coaching begins with asking enough questions to help people find a goal and develop at least three potential ways to reach that goal.

So it’s not surprising that I sometimes reach for a coaching client’s astrology chart when we work on timing questions or shift gears with an astrology client and raise the kinds of questions that coaches ask.   What once seemed like an either/or choice now seems to me to be the best of both.

Saturn’s dipping back into Virgo, so the time is right to restructure your plans and goals, revise your manuscripts, and revision your future.   If it needs adjusting, Saturn retrograde in Virgo is the time for easy adjustments.

Saturn is not only structure, but also accountability, so checking each and every plan and plot you have is a good thing right now.   Look for acocuntability–and make changes or eliminate goals and projects for which you’re no longer willing to be accountable.   Revise plots with structure in mine; sure you can keep those crazy characters, but you have to decide when the reader will know what they’re doing.

As for revisioning your future–just weed out those goals you wouldn’t be willing to have manifest right this second.   And take at least one step toward the ones you keep even if that’s a minor step like a phone call, a blog, or a note in your day planner.

Saturn’s retrograde until the end of May.  It hangs around its station degree and minute from May 27 to June 2nd, so get your work done before then.

You won’t be done, of course.   After Saturn goes direct, you can still polish that structure and shine up the dream, reworking them happily until Saturn goes into Libra again on July 23rd.

You goals for Saturn in Libra:  Be ready to recognized great critique partners and other team players to help you reach your goals.   Sadly, you may also need more distance from some of your present colleagues.

When clients meet with an astrologer for a reading, what the client usually wants (or thinks she wants) are answers.  While there’s a science to astrology that lets astrologers predict accurately the hours the Moon will be void or the duration of Saturn in Libra, answers are only the tip of the iceberg of the art of astrology.

Astrology is also a language and a powerful mnemonic device, a way of categorizing and reducing everything in the human’s universe to symbols that can be manipulated and discussed.   The questions astrological patterns raise are truly more significant than the answers.

Here are questions worth asking about significant relationships (both personal and professional) now:

1.  Is this relationship vital and fulfilling for both of parties?

2.  What’s right about the relationship?

3.  What would make it even better?

4.  And, after asking the first questions, sometimes it is important to ask, Would we both be better if we put this relationship on hold, either temporarily or permanently?

Use the questions and your journal for a little serious study.   Ask the question more than once and check out the answer with your personal experience, with people who observe the relationship and with the other party.   Dig deeply and make changes carefully.  Remember Saturn brings concentration and focus as well as boundaries and endings.

The Fall Equinox astrology chart set for Washington, D.C., is a strong warning about a dearth of viable leadership in the United States for the last quarter of the year.   Around the world, in fact, leadership crops up in places like Alaska, Hawaii and India, but is generally missing.

There may be men and women of vision–but leadership is based on vision and the ability to follow through.  Promises made this fall will be hard to keep.  That applies to my local mayoral election and to both political parties.   There’s just no fire in the charts–and it’s fire that gives us leadership with both vision and commitment, leaders with the will and the motivation to follow through.

The absence of strong leadership is often an opportunity for personal creativity.  Individuals and small businesses, internet bloggers and poets–the people who wouldn’t ordinarily be heard–can have an impact now.

What works now?

• Personal creativity.  Neptune and Uranus are in the first house of the Fall Equinox chart.
• Mastermind and support groups, shown by Mercury, Venus and Saturn all in the house of partnerships.
• Noticing what’s missing (Pluto in the 11th house) and taking initiative on your own creative projects (Mars in the 5th house).

I’m supporting creativity by teaching an online workshop based on Julia Cameron’s the Artist’s Way from October through December.  The equinox chart suggests that retails sales will be slow and the economic recovery will be proceeding at turtle pace, so I’m offering the three-month workshop at the price of my usual one-month workshops.

Every month the Moon’s in Taurus for about 2.5 days–and today’s the first day of Moon in Taurus for July.

Think of something wonderful you’d do for yourself if you had a little extra money. Or a lot of extra money. You have all those other priorities–and you have a dream that’s languishing on the financial sidelines.

So take a few moments to feel how much fun it would be to have that special dream come true. Say “yes” to your dream. It’s okay to be a little uncomfortable when you say yes–growth and challenge make us whole, but they don’t necessarily make us comfortable.

Get the dream on paper. And now, while the Moon is in Taurus, start a savings account for your dream. Promise yourself you’ll add to the fund every month when the Moon returns to Taurus, even if you can only add a penny.

If the amount you can contribute today is small, start a savings envelope. Decorate it with pictures and stars and whatever makes your heart sing. Deocrations do not have to be done while the Moon is in Taurus; like extra savings, they can be added anytime.

When the fund grows, open a savings account. Keep the deposit slips in the special envelope you created at the beginning of the fund and keep adding small amounts of change or bonus income whenever you can.

Savings that begins with Moon in Taurus seems to take root and grow more rapidly than accounts started at other times.

Notice you’ll “find” extra money, maybe pennies on the ground or savings at the store. My favorite way to supplement special savings is to write short articles like the prayer True Confessions published and paid me for. Those short articles take so little time to write and the money that comes back from them always seems like a surprise gift when it arrives.