Astrologically Speaking

Bad Trans(its) extra Edition...

Bad Transits - is anyone safe?

A lunar node cycle has come to pass since the Love Bug and we now have badtrans(its). Is it astrologically significant? Links to protecting your computer at the bottom of the page.

The Love Bug was the biggest instant event related to the much-aggrandized Taurus stampede in May of 2000. Most of us focused on the stellium in Taurus – yet it appeared that maverick Uranus got the last laugh? Back then I spent hours on virus protecting a network of computers. The alignment took place from May 2, 2000 at 9:54 PM PDT through May 3 at 12:01 PM PDT astrologically or May 5 at 4:03 AM PDT astronomically. The former featured Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in the constellation of Taurus. The latter was 7 conjunctions between the 10 planets and another 8 parallels and contra-parallels with all planets aligning within 26° of the planetary belt. The grand finale headlined Jupiter and Saturn. The grand conjunction that is said to kill off US presidents when in an earth sign took place on the 28th of May, 8 days after the Jupiter - Uranus square.

A stampede like that - well, imagine what would happen to your lawn if a group of people all decided to walk up to your cherry tree, time and time again for a month or a eight as was the case? They would naturally beat a path to your cherry tree. Once they stopped walking along that path, the grass would slowly grow back and the path would vanish. That might take a season or a full year depending on how deep-set the path was. It is the same with seven of the ten planets making their imprints on a short stretch of the cosmic belt; the images will remain until the passage of time repairs the imprints. Apply that to your life (or chart); can you stay off that path you were pushed onto? Avoiding walking along this new path would be harder that actually accepting the forceful guidance of the Cosmos.

A lunar node cycle has come to pass since that grand event. We no longer worry about the love bug - we now have bad transits. Currently we are dealing with the Saturn/Pluto opposition with the inner planets transiting with Pluto. In addition Pluto forms a quincunx to Jupiter, who held almost steady at 15° Cancer for days on end; in addition the Mars/Uranus duo just formed an oops aspect (sesquiquadrate for the technical folk - i.e. 135°) to Jupiter. Any planet in Taurus would form the missing leg of a yod to Pluto, who is not alone. Could it be that Taurus line up in 2000 is still active? The Moon will get to Taurus once a month as well to refresh our memories. There's more - but let's just think this is bad enough.

Sesquiquadrates are aspects that are prevalent for surgeries, for example, and the reason I like to call is "oops" because it covers territory such as oops (or an expletive of your choice) I didn't mean to do that. It is the aspect that catches you unaware because we are focused on the major aspects…

While these aspects were in force our e-mail boxes were hit by a worm virus called w32.badtrans.b@mm - bad transits, eh? I was receiving copies of this worm from astrologers before it got the name bad transits. On December 3 when the name was assigned I had another three hits, followed by two more, remember that all of my copies of these bad transits came from astrologers. They haven't stopped yet...

Once again I have spent three solids days so far working with upgrading the network virus protection and firewalls. I have lost the network at home, need to bring an expert in. Cannot update at work until the home network is in order. Cute huh? Incidentally if you didn't have protection the tool to remove it is at Symantec - Norton site and the new version of Norton Antivirus scans both the incoming and outgoing e-mail and eliminates these worms and Trojans without interruptions. Is the projection to the computer network a way to eliminate the more personal assault transits can cause? Here's to hoping, and wishing…

Is this synchronicity? A wake-up call about the ever-present viruses? Preach of our security or just a timely pun? Transits astrologically speaking happen continuously, and when a spot, configuration and to a lesser potency an area of the chart receive three hits, things start happening. I have found that with the first two you can make things happen, choose to give action a miss you are now at the mercy of the Universe. For me personally this transit configuration activated a prominent action configuration in my chart - and I have been a busy bee, and it ain't over yet. Sometimes we, particularly astrologers, are so focused on the big transits that the little ones (are they?) catch us unaware. We are so busy focusing on what the Saturn/Pluto aspect might bring that we ignore the oops-aspect to Jupiter, which can throw our daily lives into a spiral. With Jupiter there is always the risk of making a grand OOPS. And we tend to think of the past configurations in the past tense, and they really are not. On the computer we have the OOPS correction key (ctrl Z undoes your last move), with a Virus we can install protection and walls, with life, however, we have none of those quick fixes.

I obviously projected this onto my computer (did you read Marelon's column last month about projection – find it on the Guild site) - but had I not it would have happened on another level and I might have had a car accident, fallen off a metal ladder, been struck by lightning. I have had my house hit by lightning in the same spot twice about 12 years ago - I remember Uranus was involved. - that was one of my better projections.

What could we garner from this to increase our astrological arsenal? Years ago I used to watch the "well being" of an area in my life by looking at each house in terms of someone or something that belonged to that house. First house would be the home base for a grand parent, I look at the 10th as the mother as I have a diurnal chart (born during the day, i.e. Sun above the horizon (the 1st-7th axis), therefore the first would be my mother's father or my paternal grandmother, my bosses home, my acquaintance's assets, etc. The 2nd house other than being my money, liquid assets and self-worth, is also my husband's resources, my aunt's car, my co-worker's travels, post secondary education or dealings with law, etc. Computers are communication tools that we like to think are Uranus ruled, I have always thought of them like a pen and paper, thus they belong in the third house. Is my third house a mess? I am communicating in writing rather than talking at the moment and my connection to others is limited to the standard daily connections with family and co-workers. I may need to look at that to avoid another sneak attack on my third house?

I always had so much fun working my way around the zodiac looking for bizarre connections to come up with solutions to dilemmas. Let your astrological mind wonder around your chart in terms of the transits - and maybe with a copy of a reference book, such as Rex Bills Rulership Book, you can find some interesting connections.

If we project a sesquiquadrate onto a flat chart we are looking at the relationship between 0°Aries and 15°Virgo. Those of you who look at solstice points might note that these are each other's solstice points. A planet's solstice point or antiscia is the distance from either 0° Cancer or Capricorn carried to the opposite side of the zodiac. Let's take 5° Aries, which would be 25°Virgo. The pairings are Cancer/Gemini, Leo/Taurus, Virgo/Aries, Libra/Pisces, Scorpio/Aquarius, and Sagittarius/Capricorn. Antiscia sign pairs have the same declination (daylight is equal when the Sun is positioned at antiscia degrees). Looking for an on-line astrological dictionary - here is the link http://www.astro.com/h/adict.htm.

Ivy Goldstein-Jacobsen explained that the antiscia point deals with the soul purpose and origins of the energies represented by the planet. I have an old article by the late Buz Meyers [born November 9, 1941, at 6:38 PM EST, at Painesville, OH, 81W15; 41N43, (http://www.buzmyers.com)] in which he writes that: "the natal Sun indicates the chosen aspirations of the individual. Its solstice point shows what this individual has achieved previously, and what qualities he can use to help himself. This is the point where he contacts his higher self, his teacher or pure spirit. Before we veer off on tangent here - and you will also notice that the Fixed signs have their solstice points in fixed signs, 11°Scorpio and 19°Aquarius - still a square aspect. Cancer and Capricorn have their solstice points in adjacent signs - 12° Cancer and 18° Gemini for example, which is a totally different aspect not an oops at all. It is only the Equinox signs who have their solstice pairings in a close to an "oops" - but not really as it is actually 170°.

To clarify how to find the solstice point of any planet:
1. Take the degree of the planet in question, deduct that from 30° - the resultant degree is the solstice degree
2. Note the sign your natal planet is in
3. Assign the solstice point to the sign given in the pairings above.

The question to ask with solstice points is where is it coming from? With a sesquiquadrate we often end up asking where did it come from - did you see it? When these configurations occur with the outer planets and these activate your chart – what could they be telling you? In the December issue of Astrologically Speaking I addressed the issue of what your epitaph should read in light of the death of George Harrison. When the bad transits arrived a few short days later, it was a reminder for me to look at what is going on from a different angle. Regardless of how enlightened we become, we still have to live our lives and stuff (or an expletive of your choice) happens.

I stumbled across the quote by Oscar Hammerstein II. ""I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn't write anything without hope in it." It reflects how I always feel about writing down my thoughts on astrology, transits or analysis of the chart. Beauty would go unnoticed if we did not have ugliness. With the current transits not only did we get the virus stuff, but in British Columbia the government announced plans to make severe cuts to the services available to people. The so-called complementary medicine – massage therapy, physiotherapy, chiropractic care, certain medications, etc. will no longer be covered under provincial health care. Chiron (asteroid, planetoid, or comet) is at the last degree of Sagittarius, ready to leave the sign where we have the collection of potent aspects. Capricorn is Saturn’s sign and Chiron of alternative, complementary medicine will have to pave a new path and find new support structures.

In the news there was also an item about the cancellation of Tarot classes for Teens because it is witchcraft! The reasoning by the one opponent was that the school/education system should not fund this religious activity because other religions cannot be taught either. The headlines in the papers always tell the story of the transits. The other headline was that the last Taliban stronghold is surrendering. The terrorist network led by Bin Laden is, however, still fighting on.

These here and now events or transits astrologically speaking can distract us very easily and we may start focusing on the ugly, unfair, unpalatable, unbearable, i.e. the negative. Maybe we could look at the beauty by focusing on the "soulstice" of our planetary energies. What is beautiful about your solstice Sun, where the Sun is standing still (the literal meaning of solstice)? This isn’t to say that there isn't inherent beauty in your Sun position as is, the solstice point might offer a different view, allow you to go in through the back door of your being to look at where you are coming from. Maybe that’s part of the bad transits worm’s message it too enters through the back door under the disguise of something else. ©Anne Massey 2001

If you actually ended up with virus problems - perhaps get Norton 2002 Virus program - it checks both incoming and outgoing e-mail. Note it retails cheaper in Canada than the price through the web. I put up a firewall as I am constantly connected. I tested the ZoneAlarm fire wall at the Norton site - look for security check - this one takes a while, and at http://grc.com - quick - Shields Up is the test you need. ZoneAlarm came up aces!! - and better yet it is free for non-commercial use.

As you may have noted we don't advertise anything on this site - this is an outstanding product - and timely. Click on the icon and find the free download. Comes down quick - and then just install it.

Astrologically Speaking

Bad Trans(its) extra Edition...

Bad Transits - is anyone safe?

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