The Jupiter/Neptune Conjunction and Celebrity Deaths

I haven’t been tending my blog quite as well as I should be, but I wanted to put up a quick post about how today’s celebrity deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson are triggering a period of national mourning of sorts, fueled by the Internet and social networking.

Depending on what time you use for the U.S. chart, the current Jupiter/Neptune conjunction is either conjunct or quite close to the U.S. Moon, which signifies the people of the nation.

Today, the Moon is in Leo, which often coincides with accidents and surprises, and this is opposing the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in the collectively-oriented sign of Aquarius. We’re getting upsetting news about celebrities (Leo), who are the closest thing the U.S. has to royalty.

I’d be happy for any other astrological-based comments on the situation.

Have Yourself a Funky Little Christmas

Need a soulful soundtrack for tonight’s festivities? Put away your iPod. You can’t do much better than WWOZ, out of New Orleans. Christmas music never sounded so good or so sexy!

To quote the song they’re playing now, “When’s Aretha gonna show?”

David vs. David, Part II

Remember earlier this year how David Cook and David Archuleta were vying to be the next American Idol?

I wasn’t as lucky in calling that contest as I was in picking the Philadelphia Phillies over the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series. I thought Archuleta would win by a hair. But my friend and commenter Chris got it right by looking at the asteroid Juno.

Now, the two Davids are duking it out on the airwaves with their rival debut albums, according to the New York Post.

Back on May 16, when I wrote about the two singers, they both had their progressed Suns close to 24 degrees of Capricorn, even though Cook is a Sagittarius and Archuleta is a Capricorn and they were born eight years apart.

Of course, a few months later their Suns are still moving in synch. Here’s Archuleta’s chart, courtesy of Astrodienst, with transits and progressions as of Nov. 2. And here’s Cook’s horoscope, with the same parameters.

As transiting Jupiter closes in on their respective progressed Suns, both Davids should be topping the charts through the end of the year. One might say their continued “rivalry” will help them both.

Go, Phillies!

I’m getting jiggy with it! This is my first embed of a You Tube video. I’ve linked to it before, but never in this way. Now, it’s easier than ever to watch Elton John singing Philadelphia Freedom on Soul Train, circa 1975!

When I signed off last night, the Phillies were leading the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1. Evidently the game was suspended because of heavy rain when the score was 2-2. As a friend of mine pointed out, the Saturn/Uranus opposition in the sky is resulting in a lot of interruptions.

So, once more with feeling: The Phils are just one game away from winning the World Series.

I wonder how many Phillies fans know that the team’s manager, Charlie Manuel, is a Capricorn Sun/Mercury conjunction who’s getting the benefits of Jupiter in Cap?

Pete Seeger: Alive and Kickin’ at 89

Imagine the scene. You’ve just taken a leisurely jog down a trail that hugs the Hudson River. You’re nearing the dock where a farmer’s market is in progress, and you hear the familiar tune She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountains.

She’ll be driving six white horses when she comes
She’ll be driving six white horses when she comes
She’ll be driving six white horses, she’ll be driving six white horses,
She’ll be driving six white horses when she comes

Getting closer, you see a bearded, rangy man of indeterminate age in blue jeans strumming a banjo. No, you’re not hallucinating. At 89, Pete Seeger is playing for farmers’ market shoppers outside his Sloop House in Beacon, N.Y.

How many singers out there can pepper their performances with asides like “This is a song that Woody Guthrie taught me”? Say what?

I did a little research on Seeger, the legendary folk singer who has been a driving force behind the revitalization of this gritty mill town. Among my generation, he’s best known for writing the Byrds hit Turn Turn Turn and the folk classics If I Had a Hammer (co-written with Lee Hays) and Where Have All the Flowers Gone? recorded by Peter Paul & Mary and others. My mother knows him for Goodnight Irene.

Guess what? Today, Sept. 30, he’s released a new CD called, of all things, At 89.

Here’s Seeger’s chart, courtesy of Astrodienst. He’s got a Sun/Mars conjunction in artsy Taurus. He was briefly a painter before becoming a singer and musician. His popular folk band was called The Weavers, which has a very Taurean feel to it. The chart is set for noon because I don’t know the time of birth.

Mars is very active and it’s with the life force of the Sun in a Venusian sign. Think about that Mars when you hear:

If I had a hammer
I’d hammer in the morning
I’d hammer in the evening
All over this land
I’d hammer out danger
I’d hammer out a warning
I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

Seeger is a crusader. And look at his longevity: He’s basically a marathoner among folk singers. There is tremendous physical endurance in this chart.

The Taurus conjunction is sextiled by a strong stellium in Cancer, including a Jupiter that is quite close to the U.S. Sun and is very tightly aspected to his own Sun. Along with Guthrie, Seeger is the prototypical American troubadour.

Although he did not write it, Seeger adapted and helped popularize We Shall Overcome before it became the anthem of the civil rights movement. (To musicologists and African-Americans reading this: Don’t worry, I’m not trying to give him credit for the Negro spiritual. It was a black thang long before Seeger arrived; he merely helped spread the gospel, so to speak.)

Back to Seeger’s Jupiter in Cancer, which rules spirituality. As he did for his rendition of We Shall Overcome, Seeger drew on historical material for Turn Turn Turn: The Bible, no less. Those familiar with the Byrds classic will recognize the words of Ecclesiastes 3:2: There is “a time to be born, a time to die, a time to sow, a time to reap.”

Bruce Springsteen gave a new generation an introduction to Seeger with his folkie album and tour We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, in 2006. It was the first album recorded by Springsteen that didn’t showcase his own material, and was not a commercial success in the U.S. However, it was critically acclaimed overseas, where they generally appreciate “classics” more than Americans do.

Get this: Seeger has an out-of-sign opposition of Saturn in Leo and Uranus in Pisces. Sound familiar? The aspect between restriction and rebellion in his chart is similar to the one between Saturn and Uranus that’s going to be exact on Election Day, though Saturn is currently in Virgo, not Leo, as it is in Seeger’s chart.

At 89, Seeger is back in tune with the times. Some would say he was never out of tune; we just weren’t listening. Let’s just say he’s striking a chord once again.

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Seeger’s not afraid of another Depression. He had the time of his life criss-crossing the country with Guthrie in the late Thirties, holding concerts in support of striking workers, a journey that gave rise to Guthrie’s standard This Land is Your Land.

You know, they never taught me the last two verses in school. Do you know them?

As I was walkin’ – I saw a sign there
And that sign said – no tress passin’
But on the other side …. it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city – In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office – I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.

They’re Playing Our (Campaign) Song

Huffington Post is reporting that the band Heart has asked the McCain camp to stop playing Barracuda as Sarah Palin takes the stage on the campaign trail. Evidently, John McCain isn’t listening.

Even though Barracuda is about your typical heartbreaker dude (reminds me of a Pisces with a seventh house Sun and Pluto rising who slipped off my hook), the song is ostensibly supposed to remind voters of Palin’s old high school basketball nickname “Sarah Barracuda.”

You lying so low in the weeds
I bet you gonna ambush me
Youd have me down down down down on my knees
Now wouldn’t you, barracuda?

Not exactly what you want in a vice-president.

Still, a barracuda is a good representation of transiting Neptune to Palin’s Sun/Mars/Saturn triple conjunction in Aquarius.

While I do some work at my day job, check out this Canadian article about the American tradition of the campaign song.

It was written while Hillary Clinton was still in the Presidential race, so it’s a bit outdated, but there’s great historical background, from Ross Perot’s Crazy by Patsy Cline to Bill Clinton’s Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow) by Fleetwood Mac.

Talking about the right song for the right moment: Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely as the Obama daughters came out to hug their mom after she delivered her triumphant speech at the Democratic National Convention.

I linked to this way back when, but this song by Katrina survivor Tina Marie of Arlington, Tex., really is moving.

When you get to Tina Marie’s MySpace page, make sure you click on Mr. Obama. For some reason, the site now opens to Are You Old Enough to Vote, another song by the artist. After a few seconds, you get to pick the song you want to hear: Mr. Obama.

Pluto in Capricorn or the Artist Formerly Known as Prince?

Astrologer Michael Lutin has created a glyph for Pluto in Capricorn that I presume is a combination of the symbols for Pluto and Capricorn. It’s reminding me a little of the symbol that the musician Prince used when the Gemini was calling himself “the artist formerly known as Prince” during a dispute with his record company.

Check out Michael Lutin’s site here. Scroll down to read his riff on Pluto in Capricorn. It’s underneath the pictures of the guy wearing a baseball cap with the red glyph above. Personally I think the glyph should be black since Capricorn and Pluto are pretty heavy energies. Given Michael’s predictions about Pluto in Capricorn, I guess it’s a little late to party like it’s 1999.

Go ahead, click on that 1999. You know you want to!

Pluto Direct in Sagittarius: Yanking the Yakkers

O.K., let me say up front that I get nearly all of my news from mainstream media Web sites and independent blogs. I disconnected my cable TV about a week ago because there’s so much streaming video on the Net.

But I’m shocked that MSNBC has yanked talking heads Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann as political news anchors. Some of my friends who supported Hillary Clinton’s Presidential bid won’t be unhappy about this decision, that’s for sure.

There’s speculation that comments about Palin led to the team’s demotion. But why was it O.K. for them to put Hillary through the wringer?

As an astrological commentator, I’m going to note that this muzzling of the media is occurring as Pluto turning direct in Sagittarius for its final pass. For those who say that Matthews and Olbermann weren’t impartial, I ask: Who is?

I’m going to leave you with these words from John Mayer:

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
And when you trust your television
What you get is what you got
Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want

That’s why we’re waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Rickrolled in Minneapolis

It’s too bad that Liverpool singer Rick Astley doesn’t get a royalty everytime Never Gonna Give You Up gets played on the Internet.

The latest incarnation of the Rickroll, the Barack Roll, has been magically transported to the screen at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. I love it when John McCain raises his eyebrows and shrugs.

This comes to Astrology Mundo courtesy of Gastriques, as do most of my political links. After getting pelted with 4 inches of rain yesterday (I know, I shouldn’t be complaining because at least I’ve got power, unlike many in Louisiana) and waking up to find the financial system back in meltdown mode, I was temporarily distracted from my funk by this latest version of the Rickroll.

Is Sarah Palin the next politician to get Rickrolled? Definitely, like Rick Astley, she’s an Aquarius and is getting Neptune on her Sun/Mars/Saturn triple conjunction right now.

Carla Bruni: France’s Femme Fatale First Lady

Yesterday I did something I haven’t done in months: I bought a magazine. I get all my news on the Web these days, but I couldn’t resist the glossy pages of the September Vanity Fair with Carla Bruni on the cover.

The VF stylists have Bruni, a former model, dressed in riding clothes for the cover photo by Annie Leibovitz. I’ve never owned a horse, nor am I to the manor born, but with all my Sagittarian planets, I love the horsey look.

The cover headline also sold me: “Carla Bruni: The New Jackie O?” Like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Bruni knows how to dress for the occasion. One of my favorite shots in the VF photo spread shows Bruni dressed in a prim tweed suit fit for a dowager and wearing flats as she chats amiably with Queen Elizabeth of England. No doubt the 5-feet, 9-inch former model didn’t want to make the Queen uncomfortable by wearing high heels.

A lot has been written about Bruni, a former muse to rock stars like Mick Jagger and a best-selling chanteuse in her own right, since she and French President Nicolas Sarkozy got married on Feb. 2 after a whirlwind romance.

Bruni’s colorful past has some French citizens questioning whether she is fit to be First Lady. From where I sit, she is the perfect First Lady for France. Her background (fashion and the arts) plays to France’s strengths on the global scene. Oh, and did I mention that she’s beautiful?

Claire Courts, the Frenchwoman who writes AstroRevolution, did an excellent post on Bruni, a Capricorn born Dec. 23, 1967 at 6:10 p.m. in Turin, Italy, and Sarkozy, born Jan. 28, 1955 at 10 p.m. in Paris, the day after their wedding. (Now that’s fast work!) You can read it here.

Courts has done a formidable job of analyzing both the charts of Bruni, who is Sarkozy’s third wife; the mercurial French President; and the composite that combines both their charts. Just so I don’t look like an astrological hitchhiker by linking to AstroRevolution, I’m going to weigh in with a few observations of my own.

VF says that when Bruni was 28 (ah, the old Saturn return!), Italian industrialist Alberto Bruni-Tedeschi told her that he was not her “genetic father.” Bruni learned that her biological father is Maurizio Remmert, a classical guitarist. So her success as a musician is due not just to nurture, but to nature. As astrologers, we might chalk it up to her Venus/Neptune conjunction in Scorpio.

Getting a sudden shock about one’s family reflects Bruni’s Virgo Moon conjunct revolutionary Uranus/Pluto. Interestingly, this Virgo stellium opposes Chiron in Pisces. Since Chiron is called the “Wounded Healer,” this aspect suggests a psychic injury concerning Bruni’s home or background.

Those who follow sun sign astrology might notice that Bruni is a Capricorn, an earth sign, while Sarkozy is an Aquarian, an air sign. These signs are next to, or adjacent, to each other. This position is usually dismissed by the cookie-cutter astrology books, which favor combos between signs of the same element (earth, water, air, or fire) or 60 degrees away (fire with air, earth with water).

Here’s a little secret that my longtime astrology teacher Eileen McCabe taught me: “Adjacents” frequently hook up because the two signs have much to teach each other. The staid Capricorn can give the revolutionary Aquarius some oft-needed discipline, while the Water Bearer can get the stiff-necked Goat to loosen up a little.

Now, you ask, what’s staid about Bruni? Well, she was to the manor born and was raised in a wealthy Italian family that is part of the Establishment. In contrast, Sarkozy is an outsider. He’s the son of immigrants who had to start over after leaving Hungary in 1947 and he did not attend any of the top schools that turn out France’s political leaders. In politics, he’s pursued a maverick style typical of an Aquarian.

Given McCabe’s theory about adjacent signs, it’s interesting to read in Maureen Orth’s VF article how Bruni has reined in Sarkozy’s flashy way of dressing, which had earned him the nickname “le President Bling-Bling.”

A footnote about the Bruni profile in VF: An editor’s note says author Orth turned in the piece a few days before her husband Tim Russert died.

While we’re on the topic of Vanity Fair, I wish the magazine would bring back astrologer Michael Lutin. The magazine isn’t the same without his Planetarium. Yes, I can read Lutin’s horoscopes elsewhere, but as an astrologer, I couldn’t wait to see how he was going to distill complex aspects and transits into a cocktail that the masses could imbibe.