ASTROLOGY ARTICLES BY JON

LEARNING ABOUT THE PLANETARY ENERGIES

I'm still naïve enough and early enough in my astrology studies that I just want to shout from the rooftops every amazing thing that I discover to prove that astrology works. Luckily I have this forum to do just that, but I have to try to contain my excitement. It's also has been very humbling because I realize it's just my window on the world and everybody else in the world has their own unique perspective and I have to be respectful of that. "Different strokes for different folks" as the saying goes.

I was reading an article by Judy Vitale in which she interviews the famous astrologer Robert Hand and in the interview he says, "I do recommend transits as the best way to get in touch with planetary energies. You do feel the moods and everything changing".

I agree with this 100%. You have to be able to feel the planetary energies in order to really start to get a grasp of astrology. The best way to do that is to follow the transits of the planets to your natal chart every day. Robert Hand wrote a great book called Planets in Transit in which he gives a cookbook definition of all the major aspect transits for each planet. This will help you to associate a distinct feeling for each planet.

You will be able to distinguish, say transiting Venus trine natal Jupiter from transiting Venus opposite natal Uranus. When transiting Venus is trine natal Jupiter you'll probably be feeling all warm and fuzzy, you'll love everybody and everybody will seem to love you and you may want to eat a whole pint of ice cream. When transiting Venus opposes natal Uranus, stimulation (Uranus) in relationships (Venus) is the theme of the day. You may want to take a walk on the wild side; and this could be literally or figuratively depending on how Uranus is wired into your natal chart. Of course usually you will have other more powerful transits in the background to consider, but the point is to be able to distinguish the feeling that each planet gives.

The other great way to learn about the planets is through your different relationships and synastry. If you ever wondered why you relate differently to different people, astrology can definitely help you to understand this phenomenon. I often think if schools only knew about astrology then they could start understanding each kid's unique needs, but that's a topic for another time.

Let's say you just started a new job and a few of the guys at the office offer to take you out to the local watering hole for a drink after work. Let's say the guy's names are Bob, Jim and Fred. When you are sitting at the table with them you might be thinking this Bob guy is really serious and he's being a bit critical of me, but I'm having a whole lot of fun with Jim (maybe too much?) and I don't really connect with Fred at all. Then you get home and look at Bob's chart and see that he's a Capricorn and his mighty Saturn (authority) sits right on your Ascendant square your Venus. Then you look at Jim's chart and see that he's a fun-loving Sagittarius with a 5th house Jupiter-Venus conjunction sitting right on your Sun-Mercury conjunction. Even though Jim is fun to party with (Jupiter-Venus) right now, Bob may wind up being much more important to you in the long run (Saturn). Then there's that other guy Fred whose existence you barely acknowledged, his planets make no major aspects to yours.

After a while of experimenting with this, you will be able to feel how another person's planets affect you and distinguish between the different energies. For example, the other day I was reading through Noel Tyl's forum and — lo and behold — one of the posts (by this very nice lady Lura) actually mentioned me and my article on Stevie and Lindsey. So I replied immediately and we wound up in a discussion about how Stevie's Saturn conjoins Lindsey's Ascendant-Pluto-Mars conjunction at 17 Leo. 17 Leo happens to be Lura's Vertex, and my Venus-Mercury conjunction is at 17 Aquarius exactly opposite.

Guess where transiting Mercury was when we were discussing all this stuff? It was exactly at 17 Aquarius (the sign that rules computers and astrology) activating the super strong synastry point (17 Leo/Aquarius) that ties Lindsey, Stevie, Lura and I together and prompting us to discuss this precisely at that moment in time.