 Updated 09/23/2002 |
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Intro to the Astrological Weather Report: INTRODUCING THE COSMIC WEATHERMAN 
My friend Charlie asks me why I bother with tracking the planets and their cycles. He doesn't "believe" in astrology and anyway, "What ever will be, will be." My response is, "Why do you watch the weather report each day on TV?" He ponders this a minute and answers, "That's different. The weather report gives me good practical information I can use to plan my day.""Watching the planets is my way to get a feel for the cosmic weather report," I tell him. "And it is at least as accurate," I jokingly add. If you take a little time to ponder the similarities between weather as we usually think about it and "astrological weather," I think you will find more connections than first meets the eye or ear. Both figuratively and even literally, astrology can help us get in touch with the "weather." The literal connection between astrology and changes in the weather outside our windows is fascinating and complex. Of course we all know about how the Moon's phases are related to ocean tides and how the Sun's yearly changes in the angle to the Earth's surface creates seasonal changes we call Summer, Winter Spring and Fall, but scientists are beginning to appreciate links between weather patterns and planetary movement even though there has been a long standing resistance in the scientific community to anything that even vaguely suggests astrology. (I am going to be writing more about some of the ideas brought up in this column. I am very interested in many types of information that connects to astrology, in this case the Greek mythology that may help us better understand why "scientists" do not tend to appreciate astrology.) The weatherman and the astrologer both talk about larger and smaller changes (and they are highly related). You have no doubt heard of the great ice ages that change the face of our planet Earth over many thousands of years and global weather changes like the now famous El Nino patterns that may last for many years. We all know and expect the seasonal changes, and then there are the occasional storms and dry spells, bright sunny days and gloomy overcast weather. And most folks will tell you that they are effected by the weather in one way or another. Similarly, the astrological weatherman looks towards planetary and larger cycles and how these cycles tend to effect individuals and larger groups of people. The "Astrological Weather Report" you can read here will relate the cycles of astrological change to the types of energy you may experience on a certain day or week or month. To get started, lets look at some of the larger patterns and see what "season" we are in on the grand scales. When we talk of "Great Ages" in astrology, we are referring to the 12 approximately 2100 year periods that together make one Platonic Year or about 25,800 years. Caused by what is called the precession of the equinoxes, this extremely long cycle is presently somewhere close to the edge between two signs and is at the basis of why we talk about leaving the age of Pisces and entering the age of Aquarius. We are leaving an approximately 2100 year age with a watery, mutable character and entering one with a fixed, airy character. There are many ways to recognize the changing ages and like the change between Spring and Summer, the change is gradual but eventually obvious. For example, in the last part of the 20th century, many observers started noticing changes related to the symbolic difference between Pisces, a sign which puts more store on intuition and faith, compared to Aquarius, a sign which emphasizes scientific proof. The rise of modern science and especially the forms of technology and instrumentation sometimes referred to as the "computer age" which has brought amazing transformation in recent years, is very connected symbolically to the age of Aquarius. Some astrologers suggest that we are not only at the end of one Great Age but perhaps at the end of a complete 25,800 year cycle! The ancient Central American, Maya astrology and calendar system points to the year 2012 as this ending/beginning time, putting us very close to a new season so monumental that we need call on a deep racial memory to even begin to comprehend its amazing implications. Of course, we have all just witnessed the passing of a new century and millennium, which does not always coincide with major astrological cycles, but can be counted on to be heavily laden with numerological and other forms of symbolic meaning, as we just witnessed in the Y2K phenomenon. Astrology assigns a great deal of importance to the very first instant of a cycle and so the chart for our new millennium is something of a blueprint for our next century and 1000 year period. With these very large seasons of astrological weather as a backdrop, lets return to something closer to home -- to the planets. . . Each planet has its own time it takes to circle the Sun (or in the case of the Moon, to circle the Earth) and so there are cycles or seasons related to the planets from the daily spin of the Earth to the monthly period of the Moon, the solar year of the Sun and inner planets, out to the roughly 250 year orbit of Pluto. Since we are mainly working with geocentric astrology here, we take the Earth-based perspective that views the relationship between the planets (which then includes the Sun and Earth's Moon) and the angles they make relative to the Earth. My friend Charlie would want to stop and remind me at this point that, "Placing the Earth as central is a primitive view of the solar system", but I might answer, "We are not saying that the Sun actually goes around the Earth, but that from the perspective of a person on the Earth, it is experienced this way. When you get up in the morning do you refer to it as a time of sunrise or of earth-rotating-towards-sun?" Do you have a friend like Charlie? I love him a bunch. He is a Leo and probably takes it as a personal mission to let everyone know that the Sun is the center of the universe, er . . ., I mean center of the solar system. While each planet has its cycle, the amount of time between the meetings of any two planets is also very important because it marks the beginning of a new cycle for these two energies. Alignments involving several planets are even more notable in that they emphasize one section of a person's natal chart, but also because they mark the beginning of several of these new cycles at one time. The major alignment in the month of May, 2000 is a very good example. With so many planets meeting in the sign of Taurus, we all got a workout in whatever part of our chart that Taurus falls, (see transits), and it also gives a flavor of Taurus to each of the planetary cycles involved. In the case of Jupiter and Saturn, which were major players in the May, 2000 alignment, since it takes about 20 years between their meetings or conjunctions, the next 20 years will be especially charged with Taurus' fixed, earthy energy in the realms represented by these two solar system giants. Jupiter/Saturn cycles are extremely significant to astrologers for many reasons, not the least of which, they are the two heavy-weights of our solar system and their conjunctions and oppositions are highly related to major changes in the weather, of both varieties, inner and outer. Moving from very long periods of time to shorter ones, the Sun's yearly cycles and the Moon's cycles and dramatic phases are especially relevant to astrological weather. We plan on offering a regular weather report like the one that follows. Please let me know what you think of this approach and format. Enjoy the weather! Love to all, Rico |
