Your Valentine ~ The Sun is the Heart

The Sun is the Heart

Tim Rubald

           

Here is a light look at how the Sun expresses vitality, warmth, and energy through each of the twelve Signs in terms of romance, love and desire.  The Sun is only one of several horoscope factors that contribute to how an individual will express these things.

The idea that Sun Signs (there are twelve, each approximately thirty days long in a year) may be useful for analysis and prediction comes out of an astrological understanding of the Sun.  In astrology and astronomy (the straight laced child of astrology) the Sun is the center of our solar system.  By means of a system of correspondences, astrology recognizes the Sun in the horoscope as representing a person’s center (in several senses of the word).  In terms of the body the Sun is representative of the heart, the life sustaining core of a person.

The division of the ecliptic into twelve Signs has the Sun expressing through each Sign as through a lens or filter.  The lens qualifies how the “heart energy” of the Sun expresses.  Other factors further color the expression of passion and romance.  The Sign’s influence on the Sun is only one of several important factors.

ARIES

The Aries heart is like the old Adidas “Just Do It” advertisement.  There is action and impatience.  Don’t make the Aries heart wait and don’t slow it down in order to fulfill some notion of what love is about.  Appreciate Aries for its fearless and courageous march.  Give it reason to march your way and it may just do it.

TAURUS

The Taurus heart is like the steady, heady pulse of springtime.  It is bursting with beauty, sensuality, and a lust for touch, taste and luxury.  Don’t rush the Taurus heart.  Its love of life epitomizes the word savor.  Sample with it what the Taurus heart relishes and you become part of what that heart desires.  Appreciate its appreciation of the sense world and become a part of its world.

GEMINI

The Gemini heart is curious.  It wants to explore, not so much with some specific goal in mind but just to find out.  It's a mental kind of heart that fancies variety and experiment.  It is sensitive to nuance and subtlety.  Appeal to its love of variety with unpredictable gestures:  cards, letters, clippings, magazines, books, e-mail, aps, and URLs for the Gemini heart to explore.

CANCER

The Cancer heart is a blend of sensitivity and power.  It has the nurturing and protective force of a mother bear.  Romance, sentimentality, and emotion touch this heart.  Mementos, things from the past to cherish and protect, invite the Cancer heart’s participation.  Praise (even flattery) feeds this heart.  Criticism damages it.  While the Gemini heart offers mental variety there’s never a dull emotional moment with the heart of Cancer.

LEO

The heart of the lion is loyal, generous, and idealistic.  It loves to offer its protection and loyalty in exchange for admiration.  It is the true peacock heart, extravagant, ostentatious, and lordly.  It is inspiring and lively essentially within its own world.  Make the Leo heart your world and it returns great faith in you. 

VIRGO

The shy, Virgo heart is dutiful, affectionate and faithful.  It appreciates (loves?) order and method.  The Virgo heart likes “the real thing,” what is practical, what is felt and touched, held and compared.  It is discriminating to the degree that its appreciation is honor in itself.  Rather than compromise the Virgo heart may become self-sufficient.  If you are in doubt as to what it requires, this passionate treasure of a heart gives directions.

LIBRA

 The Libra heart is a companion.  It lives for sympathy and understanding.  It is so idealistic that it is hard to satisfy this heart in love.  It is not a hard heart though; it is surprisingly mental, ever imagining the pleasantest of worlds.  Win this heart with beauty and avoid “reality therapy.”  Flattery is not wasted on the Libra heart.  It craves appreciation.  Avoid what are ugly and unpleasant and nurture this heart with any kind of beauty.

SCORPIO

Thanks to stereotyping clichés, the Scorpio heart supposedly responds only to sex.  Sex isn’t the whole picture though.  The Scorpio heart is a proud heart.  It can be as comfortable with what to many might be excess in physical love as it is with continence and self control.  The love of this heart can be deep and lasting.  It lives in a world of emotion, the depth of emotion from which all “active” emotions arise.  The Scorpio heart lives in extremes of emotion, not in any middle ground.  It is the real thing. Don’t play here unless you understand.

 

Ummm, New Mexico chile

SAGITTARIUS

The Sagittarius heart blossoms in nature, in the out of doors, in freedom.  Put it behind walls or in a cage and it will wither.  It is so friendly, and its actions are so human and attractive, that its flirtations might appear to be more than they are.  For this heart, flirtation is just an exercise of friendliness, of play.  This is the heart that aphorism seems written for, "If you love something, set it free.  If it comes back to you, it is yours."  The Sag heart feeds on the broadest possible range of experience, beyond any limits of thought or imagination.  Win this heart with playful kindness. 

CAPRICORN

The Capricorn heart is ambitious, has goals, and appreciates material advantage.  There is a sense of calculation with the Capricorn heart.  Once the “externals” are understood, the heart of the Sea Goat is as passionate and sexual as Scorpio; as sensual and physical as any Bull (Taurus) in a meadow at the bursting climax of Spring.  Care for this heart and it will take care of business, be dutiful, and take care of everything that needs managing.

AQUARIUS

The Aquarius heart is mental and humanitarian.  It is nothing if not fair.  It is not that it is uncomfortable with emotion; it is just that for Aquarius, emotion seems to happen in the mind where it becomes rational.  The Aquarius heart can seem scientific that way.  Its greatest gift is one of friendship.  Even though it can be oriented in a democratic way and have an intimate sense of the future, don’t expect wildness (craziness and unpredictability yes) as the Water Bearer’s heart may hold and apply rigid moral convictions.  It is the water of Spirit and focused ideal that is carried, not that of syrupy emotion.  Allow the Aquarius heart in by allowing it to be helpful; praise and compliment and it’s yours.

PISCES

For the sweetest of sloppy emotion take the Pisces heart.  It is more than simple charity, more than plain sympathy, more than hospitality, kindness and generosity.  Take this heart as far as you can imagine and it goes farther.  The Pisces heart is so intuitive, receptive, and mediumistic that you can break it before you do.  Walk gently with this heart please, however impractical, inefficient, swayed, and tempted by emotion it may be.  This heart swims in a sea of emotional excitement; dive in, only if you are a strong swimmer.

© 2000-2014 Tim Rubald

startalker@aol.com

Helping conscious people to understand their life cycles and to optimize their timing for success.

New Moon Sep 5 2013

Considering the intensity of the times (that isn't going away), the New Moon, September 5, at 11:36:08 GMT, 7:36 EDT, shows some areas of hope and promise (geeze, Sarah Palin ear worm strikes).

The stress that I've been writing about for a decade with our current deep, global, revolution, is the big not going away part. The shorter term challenge of the generations, or freedom vs. control is with us for this lunar period.

Productivity and optimism may show their furry little heads, and American values and a real sort of patriotism, not the lip-service, flag-waving, my country right or wrong, kind, but the real thing, the patriotism that acknowledges that we are all in this together. Rich or poor, black, brown, red, or white, straight or gay, even red haired, we are all Americans. We can get some work done about shoring our values up, about recognizing the better nature in one another.

Might I even suggest some progress regarding financial matters, the economy? Shifts are slow in that department but some profound changes are in the works. Oh, my, jingoistic Conservatives may not like the sound of it, but regulation that serves to curb the excesses and prosecute the crimes resulting from something like what Ross Perot called a giant sucking sound; dollars and jobs leaving America and American control.

Mars in the fiery Sun's Leo is having some stress with Big Daddy Saturn, who sometimes just might scowl a bit. In this case, there may be some attention to finance, business, and investment, at whatever level that affects you in life. Those words might have you thinking, "Not me," but those are astrological words, symbolic and metaphorical; as the song goes, "Isn't that the way; Everybody's got the dues in life to pay." It's also what I referred to as a clash between the generations. Would Clinton and Biden's kids be off to a new war? I don't think so. That sort of privilege is a facet of the clash.

This theme hits a bit of a crescendo when the Moon gets to Saturn (September 9). When she does, Mars is about exactly square (challenge for change, bringing creativity to fashion and to form new solutions for the future); it is a time when consciousness itself is part of the development most seek.

Here's the astro-babble of the layout: Saturn is in Mars' Sign, Scorpio, and Mars is raging in the heat of Leo. That's a big clash between Fire and Water; between Fire and Earth. Impulse vs. practicality. Action vs. planning.

September 9, Mars is perfectly balanced against Saturn, the strength and vitality of youth, versus the wisdom and power of age. This is a clash of the gods. Mars tries to force Saturn to dream a new structure into being. We think we understand practical limitations and we know that survival requires new approaches.

The Moon ties it all together on the morning of the 9th.  The Moon comes along at the same time that Mars aspects Saturn, and first joins Saturn, and eleven minutes later, forms an action angle with Mars (maybe the most powerful of ways that planets relate to one another).

The Moon reflects a different, and much more ephemeral, impulse than the Mars to Saturn aspect. The Mars to Saturn is about a profound, creative need to change orientation. It's like bulldozers working in the realm of consciousness to build a new world. It's deep and comes with a long-term view. The rapidly cycling Moon comes along for feeling attention to future-focus, and asks "Let's do this!" She's pushing for action from fiery Martian creativity. At the same time, she asks of Saturn that he father a new child (these are gods; they can make children in a minute if they want). A child needed for immediate deep work, shorter term, but seeding larger plans of two, and of thirty years. In 2040 or so, ideas and actions birthed now will manifest. Sue me if I'm wrong (but I'm not wrong).

In a short few days there can be a need to envision future use of consciousness, in both two and in thirty years. The periods are connected by the theme. Like the building of the Great Barrier Reef, it's a process, a heightened period of attention to a humanitarian construction in some way, shape, or form. There is an advantage to having the elders sit us down to talk. Fire and impatience are not enough. Actions, efforts, thoughts, emotions, love, and anger all influence the formation suggested in this simple arrangement; Fire and Water, Inspiration and Spirit, War and Peace. What shall we make of them? How will it be in thirty years? Time travel is a daily occurrence for astrologers who have the inclination. Those who remember history see the ripples; see the flow of the river without banks. Impulse, inspiration, wisdom, patience, raw energy, harnessed with no harness but love. Think of the pony tamed with kindness rather than the one roped and "broke." The overall process may be about sharing or hoarding resources. Do you see it play out now in workers asking for living wages, nations working to free themselves from oppressive rule, from ordinary farmers demanding access to their own seed? The specifics differ from person to person. The core issues remain the same.


Copyright © Tim Rubald 2013

STARTALK Beltane 2019

The Sun at 15° 00’ Taurus marks the cross-quarter day.

There is a distinction between the calendar accident of May Day, May 1, and Beltane,  a seasonally dated holy day. It occurs this year at the Spring/Summer midpoint at 8:43 AM UT/GMT May 5, 9:43 AM BST, 4:43 AM EDT, 3:43 AM CDT, 2:43 MDT, 1:43 AM PDT, all May 5; and May 4 in Hawai’i at10:43 PM HST.

Back in the day, all the hearth fires would be extinguished on Beltane eve. A new fire would be lighted made of four sacred woods. The fire would be started with oak wood, by friction. The Druid would then hand torches lighted in the sacred fire that were carried back down the hill (the fire would be lighted at the highest place) to restart the village hearth fires. A happy party would carry on all night at the sacred fire. The Druid would make sure this happened when it was supposed to, at the true cross-quarter. He'd scoff at a calendar determined date. "What is this calendar that is so inaccurate that a day must be added every four years? What? Do you think that Beltane is Thanksgiving or something?"

This time in the year has been celebrated for thousands of years with holidays, holy days, and festivals. I can remember in my toddler-hood walking around the Maypole holding a ribbon and not having a clue about what was going on, but enjoying the color and chaos.  May Day in this country became associated with workers rights and labor unions until, in the Fifties armies, tanks, and rockets, with red stars, came this way on TV, and in Life and Look magazines to show the Soviet “hijacking” of May Day.  May Day festivities fell off in the U.S.A. lest we be affiliated with the godless communists.

Doc Rowe writes in his MayDay: The Coming of Spring:  “Today, Mayday for many is associated with Anti-capitalist demonstrations; however, Mayday originated as a pagan festive holy day celebrating the first spring planting. The Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane, which means the day of fire (Bel was the Celtic god of the sun). [No, May 1st is a result of the calendar change; the true Beltane date is astronomically based. The 1st has become the popular date; it is not true to the season cycle roots of tradition.]

“Celebrations began on the eve of Mayday with feasts marking the end of winter and the return of the sun. These celebrations continued in Britain until the 1700's when they were outlawed by the church.”

For the ancient Gaelic holiday, Beltane, the astronomical day is usually May 5. On the night of May 4, the sacred fire of four holy woods is put together to be lit with a friction fire started with oak. The bonfire is assembled at the highest point in the area, and all hearth fires are extinguished. All fires are snuffed out. The people assemble and the Druid (priest) lights the fire. From the sacred fire torches are lit and the new fire is carried back to the homes. In some areas fires might be lighted and livestock walked between the fires to purify them that they bear healthy young. Then, there’s a bit of carrying on, dancing, partying and ... well, see the end of the quotation from the grumpy puritan, Philip Stubbes, that follows.

To Philip Stubbes in his Anatomie of Abuses (1583), holidays such as Beltane licensed immoral behavior. His is a puritan’s nightmare of revelry and debauchery.

“Against May, Whitsunday or other time, all the young men and maids, old men and wives run gadding overnight to the woods, groves, hills and mountains, where they spend all the night in pleasant pastimes, and in the morning they return, bringing with them birch and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withal, and no marvel, for there is a great Lord present amongst them, as superintendent and Lord over their pastimes and sports, namely Satan prince of hell. But the chiefest jewel they bring from thence is their Maypole, which they bring home with great veneration, as thus: They have twenty of forty yoke of Oxen, every Ox having a sweet nosegay of flowers placed on the tip of his horns, and these

Oxen draw home this Maypole (this stinking Idol rather) which is covered all over with flowers, and herbs bound ’round about with strings from the top to the bottom, and sometime painted with variable colours, with two or three hundred men, women, and children following it with great devotion. And thus being reared up, with handkerchiefs and flags hovering on the top, they straw the ground ’round about, bind green boughs about it, set up summer halls, bowers and arbors hard by it. And then fall they to dance about it like as the heathen people did at the dedication of the Idols, whereof this is a perfect pattern, or rather the thing itself. I have heard it credibly reported . . . that of forty, threescore, or a hundred maids going to the wood overnight, there have scarcely the third part of them returned home again undefiled.”

 

A more friendly appreciation of the ancient rite was offered by the great Rudyard Kipling. This from his poem, A Tree Song.

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
  Or he would call it a sin;
But--we have been out in the woods all night,
  A-conjuring Summer in!
And we bring you news by word of mouth-
  Good news for cattle and corn--
Now is the Sun come up from the South,
  With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Today the Sun is in the center or the Fixed Earth Sign, Taurus.  In his book, The Pulse of Life, Dane Rudhyar writes:  “‘Production’ is a key-word with Taurus.  Everything which Taurus touches should be productive if it is at all to be considered as significant.  But production depends upon the control of the basic energies of human or earthly nature.  . . . Taurus insists on making energy productive. . . . Productive energy—energy which is controlled and formed—is power.  Thus Taurus is a power-Sign of the Zodiac. It is one of the four great moments of the year-cycle when life operates definitely and creatively in terms of power and purpose. [Taurus is one of the] gates through which power and purpose are released and experienced.”

Enjoy our path to Summer, friends. Remember, Tim is available for personal appointments. Just drop an email to STARTALKER@aol.com. Mahalo.

WHEEL OF THE YEAR

Copyright © 2006-2013 Tim Rubald. All rights reserved.

The Sun is the Heart (Your Valentine)

The Sun is the Heart

Something for St. Valentine's Day 

by astrologer Tim Rubald

         

Here is a light look at how the Sun expresses vitality, warmth, and energy through each of the twelve Signs in terms of romance, love and desire.  The Sun is only one of several horoscope factors that contribute to how an individual will express these things.

The idea that Sun Signs (there are twelve, each approximately thirty days long in a year) may be useful for analysis and prediction comes out of an astrological understanding of the Sun.  In astrology and astronomy (the straight laced child of astrology) the Sun is the center of our solar system.  By means of a system of correspondences, astrology recognizes the Sun in the horoscope as representing a person’s center (in several senses of the word).  In terms of the body the Sun is representative of the heart, the life sustaining core of a person.

The division of the ecliptic into twelve Signs has the Sun expressing through each Sign as through a lens or filter.  The lens qualifies how the “heart energy” of the Sun expresses.  Other factors further color the expression of passion and romance.  The Sign’s influence on the Sun is only one of several important factors.

ARIES

The Aries heart is like the old Adidas “Just Do It” advertisement.  There is action and impatience.  Don’t make the Aries heart wait and don’t slow it down in order to fulfill some notion of what love is about.  Appreciate Aries for its fearless and courageous march.  Give it reason to march your way and it may just do it.

TAURUS

The Taurus heart is like the steady, heady pulse of springtime.  It is bursting with beauty, sensuality, and a lust for touch, taste and luxury.  Don’t rush the Taurus heart.  Its love of life epitomizes the word savor.  Sample with it what the Taurus heart relishes and you become part of what that heart desires.  Appreciate its appreciation of the sense world and become a part of its world.

GEMINI

The Gemini heart is curious.  It wants to explore, not so much with some specific goal in mind but just to find out.  It's a mental kind of heart that fancies variety and experiment.  It is sensitive to nuance and subtlety.  Appeal to its love of variety with unpredictable gestures:  cards, letters, clippings, magazines, books, e-mail, aps, and URLs for the Gemini heart to explore.

CANCER

The Cancer heart is a blend of sensitivity and power.  It has the nurturing and protective force of a mother bear.  Romance, sentimentality, and emotion touch this heart.  Mementos, things from the past to cherish and protect, invite the Cancer heart’s participation.  Praise (even flattery) feeds this heart.  Criticism damages it.  While the Gemini heart offers mental variety there’s never a dull emotional moment with the heart of Cancer.

LEO

The heart of the lion is loyal, generous, and idealistic.  It loves to offer its protection and loyalty in exchange for admiration.  It is the true peacock heart, extravagant, ostentatious, and lordly.  It is inspiring and lively essentially within its own world.  Make the Leo heart your world and it returns great faith in you. 

VIRGO

The shy, Virgo heart is dutiful, affectionate and faithful.  It appreciates (loves?) order and method.  The Virgo heart likes “the real thing,” what is practical, what is felt and touched, held and compared.  It is discriminating to the degree that its appreciation is honor in itself.  Rather than compromise the Virgo heart may become self-sufficient.  If you are in doubt as to what it requires, this passionate treasure of a heart gives directions.

LIBRA

 The Libra heart is a companion.  It lives for sympathy and understanding.  It is so idealistic that it is hard to satisfy this heart in love.  It is not a hard heart though; it is surprisingly mental, ever imagining the pleasantest of worlds.  Win this heart with beauty and avoid “reality therapy.”  Flattery is not wasted on the Libra heart.  It craves appreciation.  Avoid what are ugly and unpleasant and nurture this heart with any kind of beauty.

SCORPIO

Thanks to stereotyping clichés, the Scorpio heart supposedly responds only to sex.  Sex isn’t the whole picture though.  The Scorpio heart is a proud heart.  It can be as comfortable with what to many might be excess in physical love as it is with continence and self control.  The love of this heart can be deep and lasting.  It lives in a world of emotion, the depth of emotion from which all “active” emotions arise.  The Scorpio heart lives in extremes of emotion, not in any middle ground.  It is the real thing. Don’t play here unless you understand.

SAGITTARIUS

The Sagittarius heart blossoms in nature, in the out of doors, in freedom.  Put it behind walls or in a cage and it will wither.  It is so friendly, and its actions are so human and attractive, that its flirtations might appear to be more than they are.  For this heart, flirtation is just an exercise of friendliness, of play.  This is the heart that aphorism seems written for, "If you love something, set it free.  If it comes back to you, it is yours."  The Sag heart feeds on the broadest possible range of experience, beyond any limits of thought or imagination.  Win this heart with playful kindness. 

CAPRICORN

The Capricorn heart is ambitious, has goals, and appreciates material advantage.  There is a sense of calculation with the Capricorn heart.  Once the “externals” are understood, the heart of the Sea Goat is as passionate and sexual as Scorpio; as sensual and physical as any Bull (Taurus) in a meadow at the bursting climax of Spring.  Care for this heart and it will take care of business, be dutiful, and take care of everything that needs managing.

AQUARIUS

The Aquarius heart is mental, and humanitarian.  It is nothing if not fair.  It is not that it is uncomfortable with emotion; it is just that for Aquarius, emotion seems to happen in the mind where it becomes rational.  The Aquarius heart can seem scientific that way.  Its greatest gift is one of friendship.  Even though it can be oriented in a democratic way and have an intimate sense of the future, don’t expect wildness (craziness and unpredictability yes) as the Water Bearer’s heart may hold and apply rigid moral convictions.  It is the water of Spirit and focused ideal that is carried, not that of syrupy emotion.  Allow the Aquarius heart in by allowing it to be helpful; praise and compliment and it’s yours.

PISCES

For the sweetest of sloppy emotion take the Pisces heart.  It is more than simple charity, more than plain sympathy, more than hospitality, kindness and generosity.  Take this heart as far as you can imagine and it goes farther.  The Pisces heart is so intuitive, receptive, and mediumistic that you can break it before you do.  Walk gently with this heart please, however impractical, inefficient, swayed, and tempted by emotion it may be.  This heart swims in a sea of emotional excitement; dive in, only if you are a strong swimmer.

© 2000-2012 Tim Rubald

startalker@aol.com

Helping conscious people in transition or crisis to understand their life cycles and optimize their timing for success.

NEPTUNE STILL on November 9, 2011

NEPTUNE STILL on November 9, 2011
 

Neptune stations today (the still point where we look out to the solar system toward that planet and due mostly to our orbital motion about the Sun Neptune changes from backward to forward against the measuring dial of the Tropical Zodiac) which means, it resumes forward motion. For a few days though Neptune has pretty much not been moving and that will be the case for a few more days to come.

Neptune (discovered 9/23/1846 in Berlin) is a slow mover anyway, taking about 164.79 years to orbit the Sun, 14 years in a Sign, moving about two degrees a year, and due to how we view and track Neptune's motion through the Zodiac it appears to spend about 5 months of every 12 in backward, retrograde, motion. That slowness and infrequency is one of the factors that make a Neptune station (change of direction) special.

I saw a fellow on the beach the other day burning a drawing into a piece of flat driftwood. He used a hand magnifier to focus the sun's rays to burn in a design. When the alignment is right and steady the focal energy is powerful enough to burn the wood. Similarly, when a planet reaches a station point it is as though it is in a similar state of high focus. That's what we have now with Neptune.

Neptune is the planet of the Great Dream, of emotional absolutes like Truth, Love, Beauty, and of the higher realms of music and art. What first came to mind as I allowed the Neptunian flow today (after bravely resisting an impulse to meditate - which by the way is an excellent idea when Neptune is emphasized) was the Lovin' Spoonful song that I've been a fan of since it first hit the airwaves in 1966, "What a day for a daydream,"  begins the tune, Daydream.
 

I just wanted to point out Neptune's station today and suggest that on the one hand it's okay and appropriate to give time to your dream, and, on the other hand, that a bit more concentration is in order if you have a job in something that requires critical exactitude (like an air-traffic controller) or even in, as drug labels may say, driving or operating machinery. That applies any time Neptune is in emphasis.

While I'm not a big fan of degree symbols, I will point out that the most popular symbols, The Sabian Symbols give this for the degree of Neptune's station today:  28-29 deg Aquarius - A Butterfly Emerging From A Chrysalis.  Isn't that special?