Hazards of Interpretive Software

 

I’ve been practicing palmistry, astrology, and tarot for over forty years.Recently, as I pondered my outer planetary trials and tribulations for 2018, I examined my three major astrological transits through the lens of the canned interpretations that came bundled with my ‘Solar Fire’ software. The most valuable lesson I’ve learned from recognizing and understanding the hazards of canned interpretations is being responsible for my choices and accountable for my actions.

 

The science and art of palmistry has been carelessly misrepresented and completely misunderstood for over 5,500 years! It’s mind boggling to me that most people still see palmistry as a gypsy fortunetelling scam! Priceless information and precious insight lays buried, silently waiting to be discovered at the ends of our arms. I wonder why the human race hasn’t recognized that hands reveal character and are essential to knowing ourselves and others.

The truth is that palmistry has been relegated to the dark ages until further notice due to a surprising lack of curiosity, important literature, credible schools, teachers, students, certification, counseling skills, public relations, marketing, and spokespeople. Palmistry books are brimming with unreliable recipes, inadequate ingredients, and inaccurate statistics cloaked in esoteric and technical jargon, passed on for millennia. Valuable content is veiled beneath poor illustrations and cluttered with disconnected details.

The paradox is that palmistry is actually a more potent tool for assessing character than astrology, and yet astrology is more credible. The reason is that more credible people have embraced, nurtured, and promoted astrology. “What’s your sun sign?” was a question no one asked until 1968 when Linda Goodman published ‘Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs’. Sun sign columns legitimized, monetized, and popularized astrology.

Astrology has endless permutations and combinations of details. Each and every detail means something, but until you’ve decided on a basic character type and context, the details are superficial. The meaning of any detail can change because of the question asked and the balance of elements, planets, signs, houses, and aspects. Adding outer planets, asteroids, and man-made points to a natal chart can make an accurate reading nearly impossible.

In my metaphysical practice, every detail must be examined within the context of the whole picture and every other detail at the same time. Comparing and contrasting combinations of details is vital for observing, examining, and analyzing behavior. One danger in interpreting isolated details out of context is in substituting one form of predeterminism for another by reducing individuality to cookbook formulas. That’s what most metaphysical authors do. It’s the main reason I don’t make predictions. I believe free-will rules. We can choose what we think and how we feel no matter what happens. Canned readings may be a good place to start, but they’re no substitute for time and experience. Other people’s generalizations should not be taken too literally or seriously.

Herein lays the problem of interpretive software. Having read Solar Fire’s forecasts for my transits, I felt happy to be a seasoned astrologer. Many novices are superstitious and suggestible. Commercial interpretations that use words like “confusion, depression, lethargy, dull, block, painful, stressed, and highly unlikely” can negatively influence an impressionable person to transmute subtle suggestions into self-fulfilling prophecies.

Transiting Jupiter in Scorpio is completing its twelve year cycle and has come home to my first house (opposite Mars in Taurus and trine Mercury in Cancer in the 9th). Jupiter powerfully influences my consciousness. At 70, my quest is for spiritual enlightenment. Nothing is more important than being healthy, whole, centered, peaceful, and loving. I’ve chosen courage, strength, grace, and wisdom as the four pillars of my sanctuary.

Note: I’ve used many different astrological software programs. Solar Fire is my favorite. I love being able to look at astrology graphically. Solar Fire satisfies those needs. I’ve got an older version and realize that the interpretations have probably been updated, but they’re still canned and should be used only as a guide to understanding and not as an official gospel of the symbolism, regardless of the credibility of its author.

I published the Solar Fire interpretation of my transits first, then my version. I’ve italicized words that weren’t helpful to me. Actually, they did raise my consciousness about recognizing, understanding, and responding to gloomy suggestions.My interpretations below have been written as though I know you, but I don’t. Being archetypal and subjective at the same time, each of us can only truly know ourselves. Everyone should create their own cookbooks.

Salvador Dali “Without Hope”

Transiting Saturn Square Radix Neptune (canned)

This is a time of confusion, lethargy and possibly depression. It is as if everything has taken on a dull sheen. If you were a writer you would call it the experience of the writer’s block. Rather than force matters, take some time to contemplate your life in a gentle, reflective light. By the end of the transit you should have a renewed sense of where you are heading, even though right now that seems highly unlikely.

Transiting Saturn Square Radix Neptune (my interpretation)

This is a time for clarifying confusion, dissolving depression, and transmuting lethargy into accomplishment. It’s as if everything is being bathed in bright Neptunian light. Now is the time to observe and examine where and what you’ve been hiding or escaping from (Neptune) and tune into being more whole, centered, and peaceful. By the end of this transit you’ll have clearer vision and a more committed direction in your life because you’ll be more structured, disciplined, focused, and have done the work (Saturn).

Transiting Uranus opposite Radix Chiron (canned)

…later in life you are also likely to be exploring new territories testing your will in the world. You may feel that others are testing your limits, even standing in your path. This could be a painful experience especially as you are determined to push ahead. You need to use your intuition and wisdom to ensure that you are striking the right balance. You need to be true to your inner self, but not so selfish that you walk all over others.

Transiting Uranus opposite Radix Chiron (my interpretation)

This transit will take place a couple of times in your life. Later in life, you’re more aware of where you have healed, still need healing, and have learned how to use your healing abilities. You may suddenly or unexpectedly find yourself in a situation where you need to use those abilities. It’s possible you could face painful early memories or challenges arising from your past. It might be a good idea to seek counseling or a mentor if you do. Perhaps you’ll be a counselor for someone else. The sign and house position of Uranus and Chiron will shed more light on the specific nature of your situation.

Transiting Pluto Opposition Radix Mercury (canned)

You feel that the world is out to stop you communicating your true self and in fact, it is likely that news from external sources is particularly disturbing during this period. Someone else may be forcing their opinions on you or an unexpected crisis may arise stretching your communication skills to the limit. Written negotiations and contracts may not run smoothly as someone puts a cog in the wheels. At times you may feel stressed, irritable and overworked. Relax as much as possible and remember that the time will pass and the reasons behind the mix-ups will become clear.

Transiting Pluto Opposition Radix Mercury (my interpretation)

This is an important time when you must carefully craft your communication skills so that your words and ideas can be most effective. You’ll become more powerful as you wield language more decisively, skillfully, and artfully. When transiting Pluto shows up, power issues also show up. Someone else’s ego trip may be your problem or maybe you fear losing control of someone or something and are acting out. There’s often an obsessive quality to Pluto. You’ll get the best results by choosing good sense, tact, and diplomacy. In Roman myth, Mercury was messenger to the underworld. Depending on the sign and house positions, it’s more or less challenging for Pluto and Mercury to work in harmony. Gemini vs Sagittarius and Scorpio vs Taurus are natural placements.

 

Pisces and Hands

You don’t need a Pisces sun, moon, planets, planetary aspects, or house placements in your natal astrology to be Piscean. Feeling types have long slender rectangular palms and long fingers. Pure Pisceans have dominant top phalanges on long slender fingers, smooth joints, conical tips, and loop prints, especially on index fingers. They have medium set mildly flexible shapely thumbs, sensitive looking fingers, a combo of round and conical fingertips, long narrow nails, and head and life lines interwoven at their beginnings. Pinkies with tiny bottom and middle phalanges and no knots symbolize having little need for physical order or material wealth. Pisceans with inwardly curving pinkie fingers avoid emotional confrontation (even more than other curved pinkie types).

In my experience, Pisces tend to have more flexible hands and fingers, more peripheral shallow lines, and less deeply etched basic heart, head, life, and fate lines than Scorpio and Cancer. Pisces is the epitome of spiritual truth. Astrologically, Neptune (Poseidon, King Triton), rules the seas, and personifies emotion, feelings, instinct, and collective unconscious. Neptune can be a calming or destructive force in nature. Neptune rules substances like prescription and recreational drugs, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine. Anything that alters consciousness, fuels visions, inspires illusions, and promotes delusions is Neptunian. Its mundane correspondence is religion. Spirituality is its esoteric foundation. Religion without spirituality is blind.

As the most sensitive, least acquisitive, and most introverted of all types, Pisces is often misunderstood because feminine intent communicates through a lens of feeling. The most practical Pisces have strong earth with a good backup of air and fire. When head and heart are balanced, deep clear basic lines, large stiff thumbs, square fingertips, developed knots, broad nails, arch, and whorl fingerprints empower Pisces spiritually.

George Washington (2/22) was Pisces. CEOs of Citigroup, IBM, Merck, DuPont, and Bank One were Pisces. One mysterious Pisces is Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Computer, world’s largest privately controlled High-Tech company. Michael prophesied, “We are at the dawn of the next industrial revolution. Our world is becoming more intelligent and more connected by the minute, and ultimately will become intertwined with a vast Internet of Things, paving the way for our customers to do incredible things. This is why we created Dell Technologies. We have the products, services, talent and global scale to be a catalyst for change and guide customers, large and small, on their digital journey.” Like Ariel, daughter of King Triton, ruler of the Seas and our unconscious, Michael imagines whatever he wants while swimming through our collective unconscious. He intuitively knows what we want and need and hones in on that. Michael must keep a watchful eye on Ursula the Octopus (conglomerate) who lusts for control of his empire.

Pisces is well suited to teaching, human resources, and helping professions. Many are at home in visual arts and music. Hand qualities vary depending on natural talents and abilities, decisions, and actions. Piscean strengths include compassion, humility, and faith. Not known for mental or emotional decisiveness, Pisces tend to be private, and spiritual. You must earn their trust and intimacy. Impressionable and easily influenced, many attempt to escape reality when their circumstances get too hard. Some become substance abusers like Johnny Cash, Jerry Lewis, and Liza Minelli.

Pisces is my most and least favorite sign. My father, brother, and daughter are my three all-time favorite Pisces. Today is dad and George Washington’s Birthday.

Dad was born 2/22/22. His Sun, Venus, Uranus, and ascendant were in Pisces. My brother, Gary (Pisces), sister, Jennifer (Taurus), and I (Gemini) were blessed with dad. Conceived on my parents wedding night, I was born nine months and one day later. If the definition of a genius is an average kid with a Jewish Mother, ours was father. My biggest fan, dad frequently embarrassed me. When I was seven, I played a Chopin Prelude on the radio. Dad distributed radios to every class in my grade school. He made sure everyone listened. Despite my mortification when I found out, I quickly became a celebrity in our little community. Though his pride in me was hard to live up to, it was more fun than I had imagined.

I never got to read dad’s hands, nor did I ever find a decent photo of them. I remember loving his warm, strong, and capable hands as a child. Dad had a firm hand shake, a grip of steel, and an energetic touch that was gentle and loving. Perhaps his Capricorn moon grounded and made him more practical on the outside. Dad died suddenly and unexpected 42 years ago of a massive heart attack at age 54. That started my interest in metaphysics and personal transformation. I miss and think of dad often, especially when I’m happiest and having a fulfilling life and lots of good times to share.

Dad was an incredible storyteller. Scarcely a night passed in early childhood that my brother, sister, and I didn’t go off on an exciting imaginary adventure at bedtime. “BoBo”, the gorilla and “Squeaky”, the mouse were our lifelong friends and magical creatures whose characters dad physically embodied to fully engage us.

Let’s face it, most home movies are incredibly boring ~ everyone waves at the camera and smiles all the time. Our family dreaded invitations to watch other people’s home movies. Every so often, we acted and created roles for ourselves in our movies. Dad created commercials and strategically placed them at transitions between scenes to make the experience more fun. I edited my favorites from our archives and made this short video. Click here to see my childhood hero in action. The quality isn’t great (8mm), but the content is terrific.

Pisces and the Collective Psyche

Collective psyche transforms as outer planets travel from one sign to another. Uranus was the only outer planet in our solar system to pass through Pisces in the 20th century (1919 – 1928). Pisces naturally embodies Neptune, god of seas, who is always logged on to our personal and collective unconscious. I’ve illustrated the similarities and differences between 1919 and 2003 using portraits I’ve parodied of unlikeable people who’ve been conning us and getting away with it. Uranus finished its eighty-four year cycle in 2003. It passed from Pisces into Aries in December of 2011.

1919 ~ Worst baseball scandal (Black Sox) in history occurred when a grand jury brought indictments against eight players from the Chicago White Sox. Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, they were eventually found not guilty.                              2003 ~ The illicit use of steroids was the biggest scandal in modern baseball.

Bottle of bonded medicinal whiskey, “For Medical Purposes Only”

1919 ~ Eighteenth amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors; which encouraged distilling, brewing, and bootlegging.               2003 ~ George W. Bush prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices. Black markets for drugs from India and Canada began to thrive. Cannabis is medicinal.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?

1921 ~ Formal investigations into the Teapot Dome oil scandals were initiated.        2003 ~ USA invaded Iraq under false pretenses to secure oil resources.

1924 ~ Worst tornado in US history obliterated 35 towns in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois.                                                                                      2005 ~ Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

1919 ~ World War I ended; consumerism, immigration, discrimination, fundamentalism, and extremism grew. Uranus in Pisces spawned a Neptunian rebellion. Four million steel workers and miners walked off the job to protest ‘too many work hours’ with “inhumane pay”.

 

 

Three Presidents (Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover) held office during Uranus’s transit through Pisces. The 30th President (born July 4th), “Silent Cal” Coolidge said, “The business of America is business”. “Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend.” (“Inferior Races” of Asia) ‘Government and business were in bed together. Their illicit affairs wielded temporary but absolute power over tightly woven webs of political, social, and cultural fabric. Plutocrats compulsively betrayed us for profit. Ironically, we call our co-dependency ‘Citizens United’ these days. The warning label should read: ‘unhealthy for 99%’.

George W Bush began the ‘Global War on Terror’ by invading Iraq and wrecking Iraqi culture and infrastructure. Halliburton was a proud sponsor. Healthcare was sacrificed on the altars of pharmaceutical and health insurance czars. Energy sources (protected by our armed forces) were given to energy barons. Security for airports and seaports was carefully placed in the hands of chosen special interest contractors. Social Security flirted with an untimely demise in the Stock Market. Loss of faith in government, business, and humanity characterized 1929!

Bush’s legacy is a case study in what not to do: out-of-control federal spending (domestic and military), government bailouts (financial and auto industries) and unfunded federal mandates (education reform). George Bush entered office with the largest $ surplus and left with the largest $ deficit in history. By the end of Bush’s Presidency in 2009, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Who’s not leaving our children behind these days?

Uranus through Pisces transformed traditional patterns of thrift and austerity into neo-consumerism and buying on credit. Two out of three average Americans had electricity, refrigerators, and washing machines. Spending on recreation tripled. Henry Ford announced new car colors ~ Green and Maroon as well as black. Mass tastes created mass markets for Rice Krispies, Lender’s Bagels, Mounds Bars, Betty Crocker, and Peter Pan Peanut Butter.

Credit and consumerism created the illusion of an easy convenient life. Movie houses, chain stores, and radio advertising proliferated. Uranus in Pisces inspired movie audiences to outperform church attendance. Consumer magazines like Modern Romance challenged moral codes. Critics felt consumerism was driving Americans into a soulless existence of materiality and conformity. Writer Sinclair Lewis highlighted humanity’s illusions and delusions, blaming mass production and consumption for “having created a bloodless, loveless, and standardized world”.

The KKK marched on Washington DC In 1925 with over 40,000 hooded members. Ku Klux Klan resurgence targeted African Americans, blacks, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. New immigration laws reduced a stream of immigrants to a trickle when congress decided to reduce the flow of immigrants based on quotas of 150,000 new immigrants yearly. Are emigrants and immigrants created equal?

Intelligent Design ~ Creationism denied modern science. With Uranus in Pisces, Science and religion clashed. Man did not descend from apes. Tennessee legislators voted it unlawful for any teacher in a state supported school “to teach any theory that denies the story of man’s creation as taught in the bible”. John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, taught the ‘theory of evolution’. Scopes lost bigly as the defendant in the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial”.

Religious culture manipulated school curriculum to deal with obscenity, censorship, race, and sexuality in literature and theater. German Bauhaus School of Architecture with its less is more design philosophy, globally influenced architecture and product design. When I became an industrial designer in 1969, ‘Intelligent Design’ was about saving materials and money for manufacturers. Waste was unproblematic, except for disposal costs. ‘Intelligent design’ is about creating useful products using sustainable resources, efficient energy production, fewer pollutants, and finally reincarnating waste back into beneficial and constructive materials and products that add to humanity’s humanity.

‘It’s not what you do, but what you get away with that matters’. Donald Trump has taught us that common sense is not good sense. Good sense is humanity not losing its sanity. The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. As we futilely try to interpret fake news and decipher the illegible and deceptive writing on our walls, the real news is that a spiritually bankrupt human with a perverse sense of reality rules over us. Donald Trump thinks he knows what’s best for us and tough love and punishment are his gifts to us. We must all learn the hard way. We joke about greed, discrimination, prejudice, hate, and the hypocrisy of fools, but it’s not funny. Good sense is everyone becoming healthier, happier, more loving, and tolerant of ourselves, each other, and our planet. We need father figures who love us and want what’s best for all of us.

Much has happened since 1919. Not much has changed. 164 years passed and Neptune is in Pisces again from April 4, 2011 ~ April 1, 2025. It’s very difficult to predict Neptune’s nebulosity because he blurs lines between vision, illusion, and delusion. Pisces can symbolize a beginning of a new age of spiritual enlightenment or it can be the dusk of an age of denial, unhealthy attitudes, and bad behavior. Must our planet die to be reborn and rid itself of Spiritual Cancer? Must we appreciate what we have by abusing what we value? History continually repeats our need to learn the hard way.

Pluto relocated to Capricorn in 2008. Uranus passed into Aries in 2011. Pluto and Uranus mutually embody a transformation of character, energy, transportation, communications, business, politics, religion, and destiny. Great wealth powers illusions of great importance. Just because you have a huge footprint, doesn’t mean you have a big heart. Power pathologizes power, fosters denial of truth, feeds hopelessness, and catalyzes a disillusion of the will of 99%. Fear, hopelessness, and apathy are poisoning the Kool-Aid and we’re guzzling it.

DONALDEMORT AND HIS DEMENTORS

Donald Trump has shed much light on the meaning of his name. Money trumps values. Health insurance companies trump healthcare. Pharmaceutical companies, HMO’s, and hospitals prioritize profits over people. Compound fractures will never be healed with Band-Aids. Prisons privatized for profit are packed with petty lawbreakers (mostly black) proffered by plutocrats and politicians who make the laws, promote their enforcement, and profit from prison populations. Religion trumps spirituality; spawning fundamentalist, fanatical, and fiercely frantic followers instead of empowering loving spiritual people. Climate denial trumps science and good sense (for now). Donaldemort’s cabinet members’ mandates are antithetical to their missions. I call that demented!

Donald Trump is certifiably insane. Ask any psychiatrist. He’s a vampire who sucks our blood and doesn’t care about us. Do we need more fear, hate, and terror? Real wars are fought by have nots who surrender their vital essences so haves can squander them as they live in luxury.

 

Most underprivileged folk appreciate small acts of thoughtfulness and kindness. Haves who truly value what they’ve earned have a spiritual obligation and ethical and moral responsibility to choose how they can create meaningful differences for the rest of us. What differences can healthy intent and loving free will make? A wealthy person can send an electric car into space, but how can we rebuild our bridges and tunnels without healing our spirits? How can we help the less fortunate without empathy? How do we nourish and protect our planet without caring and having philosophical solidarity? How can we convince the invincible that we’re lovable? Our destiny is in our hands. 

Super Blood Moon

“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” Bible Book of Joel, Chapter 3:3-4

January 31, 2018. A total lunar eclipse is launching this message at 8:27 AM EST. The last Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse was in 1866. It symbolized the Civil War and the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. We share the same blood from past blood moons. This super blood moon eclipse is an opportunity to revisit our past choices and actions. The meaning we give to this moment in time and space is crucial and the implications of our current choices and actions are epic.

In 1866, the Party of Lincoln believed in government and equality for all. Our responsibility today is to choose a healthy legacy for our future, the future of our children, and our world. We must resolve the Fourteenth Amendment and Reconstructionism once and for all. The meaning we give to this Super Blue Blood Moon is ours.

 

 

This is what was going on politically and chronologically in 1866

Fourteenth Amendment

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the states wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

“And at this very moment, a concerted, extremely well-funded crusade is underway among elements of the modern Republican Party, who now gleefully desecrate the ideas of its founders by effectively eroding and destroying the essence of Reconstruction’s greatest achievement—birthright citizenship and equality before the law.” I recommend reading this  article from The Atlantic.

2018

DONALDEMORT and his DEMENTORS

Republicans feign competence, makeup rules, and threaten non-followers or anyone who disagrees with them. They drain our personal and collective coffers to fill their swamp with our resources. Democrats feign incompetence as they wander blindly across a bleak and barren wasteland, led by sacred cows and golden calves that need to be sacrificed on the altars of truth, love, and faith. It’s time for humanity to stop expecting to be saved and become self-aware. We must fully commit to choosing good health for ourselves and our planet by making healthy decisions and taking healthy actions. It’s up to all of us to make this eclipse meaningful or we’ll still be dealing with the same old shit 150 years from now.

The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Pious philosophies, pointless partisan political paradigms, and pestilential pecuniary practices pollute higher purpose and poison our psyches. Faulty families feast frenzily on flawed feelings, vague values, and toxic thinking, copiously spiced with needless fear, desperation, and hatred. As we compartmentalize, rationalize, and analyze our insane ideologies and beliefs, we sacrifice our dignity, integrity, nobility, and virtue on the altars of nonsense.

Everyone is frantic about what’s happening in the world. Focusing on ideologies like “Armageddon” emboldens hazardous theories and encourages toxic beliefs to morph into self-fulfilling prophecies. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Fear, anger, and hatred grow exponentially. Vengeance is not a solution to violence.

 

A spiritually bankrupt society worships idols from amateur hours and applauds scripted survivors. Masses of meek minds are mesmerized by meaningless media. Captivated by TV courtroom melodramas, we become critical and judgmental of the pettiest of behaviors. Cunning narcissists, warped exhibitionists, and pious perverts perjuriously present their sleaziest selves to a desperate and depraved public. A culture of winners and losers has become a world of haves and have-nots… with less than ever.

This tiny speck in time and space we call our planet and collective psyches are immune deficient. We preach love and sympathy and practice hate and fear. Appallingly apparent apathy produces pandemic pathological paradigms. We fixate on sex, death, violence, and disease, while fear, greed, mistrustfulness, and shortsightedness rule our personal and collective unconscious.

We prostrate ourselves before self-appointed emperors on gilded brass pedestals, pray to political prostitutes, and worship tyrants. We’re fascinated by fake vampires, werewolves, and zombies, while real vampires, werewolves, and zombies suck our vital essences, grab our pussies, control our choices, and thrive on and among us. Must we lose everything we value to appreciate what we have?

 

 

 

We need to wake up and whiff the weirdness. There’s a huge difference between common sense and good sense. What good sense is consuming massive amounts of highly toxic chemicals every day in our wars with insects, rodents, weeds, dirt, stains, odors, germs, bacteria, viruses and other invisible enemies? We’re marinating in chemicals that heat and cool us; power our transportation; provide us with products; color, flavor, and preserve our foods; compel us to communicate on a grand scale, and impel us to fight senseless energy wars.

Why choose fossil fuel guzzling vehicles that deplete natural resources and pollute our planet? Why must everything be bright white, squeaky clean and lemon fresh? Why do we breathe, drink, wash, and apply risky substances to our scalps, mouths, armpits, fingers, toes, and crotches? Is it possible to be sane in an insane world?

 

 

Evil acts are symptoms, not causes. Wealth and power are conjoined twins. As we examine our thoughts objectively, we know that action comes from thinking. Why do so many people secretly believe they’re better than others? Why harm people and cultures we can be helping? Why do so few have so much? What’s their responsibility for the rest of us?

 

Bullshit trickles down. Money and resources must freely flow to feed and nourish all of humanity. Those who are lucky enough to ‘have’ must let go of their hubris and fear and give generously and freely to causes that are important and helpful to all of humanity. Our government is here to help us, not to help themselves and their patrons. Partisan politicians produce poor persecutors.

An evil emperor weaves a wardrobe of secrecy and deceit. We must shift our malignant spiritual and philosophical paradigms to enable us to survive and thrive in a healthier world. Our good health and the good health of our planet depend on our ability to share healthy thoughts and loving feelings. We must no longer substitute money for values, religion for spirituality, and collective delusion for reality. As we wander aimlessly through time and space, a Messiah wordlessly awaits us in the mirror.

More on the astronomy of the Super Blue Blood Moon from NASA

Aquarius Hands

You don’t need an Aquarius sun, moon, planets, house placements, or aspects to be Aquarian. Aquarius is a ‘thinking’ type. Pure types have square palms and long fingers, medium to low set stiff thumbs, inflexible fingers, mixed round and square fingertips, broad nails, and head and life lines closely intertwined at their starts. Analytical, technical, and scientific types have long first phalanges with prominent first knots on middle fingers.

I’ve seen successful business types with long straight pinkies, dominant first and second phalanges, and smooth knots. Many inventors and designers have long second phalanges, bulging second knots, whorl fingerprints, spatulate tipped ring fingers, and square tipped thumbs. I’ve seen lots of practical types with square looking index fingers, square fingertips, and loop fingerprints. Pure Aquarians have less peripheral shallow lines than Gemini and more deeply etched basic heart, head, life, and fate lines than Libra. Various signs have various topographical and tactile qualities of hands.

Many people think Aquarius is a water sign. They see a water bearer and a symbol that looks like waves. Air waves are geometric, sharp, and precise. Aquarians are fixed thinking types. Water embodies unconscious. The water bearer is discarding feelings in favor of thinking by pouring them from a jug.

 

Everyone has thirty degrees of Aquarius in their allegory. Aquarians can be highly sociable individuals. They can also be private, cool, and detached. Aquarians avoid intimacy by spending time in a world of their own ideas and inventions. They need to become more aware of their Leo opposition. Aquarians think they can solve problems better than others (and many can), but their egos get in the way. They value free speech, but overvalue their opinions, which may be obsessive, extreme, or obnoxious.

Uranus, ruler of Sky and Father of Titans in Greek myth was first son of Gaea and Chaos. Uranus is sudden change. Aquarians can suddenly become erratic and unpredictable. My close Sun Uranus conjunction in Gemini in my 8th house has seen a lifetime of internal and external revolution. I’m a magnet for Uranian types. Many of my personal heroes are astrologically Aquarians: Jules Verne ~ Buzz Aldrin ~ Helen Gurley Brown ~ James Dean ~ Charles Dickens ~ Michael Jordan ~ Franklin Roosevelt ~ Charles Lindbergh ~ Bill Maher ~ Mozart ~ Paul Newman.

Uranus takes 84 years to return to its place of birth. Betty Friedan completed her Uranus cycle a year before she died on her 85th birthday (2/4/06). Betty published ‘The Feminine Mystique’ in 1963. She catalyzed the women’s movement and revolutionized women’s rights. As a founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Betty planned the first International Feminist Congress in 1973. She summarized most women’s quandary when she described their situation, “It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.” Betty’s Aquarian war cry was “Make policy not coffee”.

Aquarians relish a revolution when the cause is right. They’re independent progressive thinkers who pride themselves on their originality and sometimes flaunt their eccentricities. Aquarians must learn to value their uniqueness for what it is and not for the sake of being different. They attract other unconventional, unusual, and free spirited types. In order to change an Aquarian’s mind, you must be extremely logical and make good sense. Encourage them to be innovative. They’ll be happier.

Neptune exited Aquarius in 2012. Our great delusion and deception was that public policy was getting better for old, poor, and sick people. Sadly, have-nots were desperately searching for physical and spiritual answers and finding nothing. Profits from false prophets control the masses.

Plutocrats finance political campaigns, purchase politicians, own health care, manage welfare, gamble with pensions, and jeopardize social security. Relatively few greedy capitalists control politics, energy, banking, communications, transportation, housing, food, healthcare, insurance, and religion while demoralizing billions of people who need their help. It’s mind-boggling how someone in power could choose hate over love. What sense does arrogance, selfishness, and being untruthful make?

We’re loved for loving. Hubris will never win friends and influence people.

DONALDEMORT and his DEMENTORS

Feigned competence rules!

Intimidation only works when we choose to feign incompetence

My Fearless Prediction for the Future

Pluto will pass into Aquarius in 2024. Personal and planetary inequities will transmute into an Aquarian Age of love and brotherhood. Humanity will proactively, profoundly, and proudly see, hear, and know what’s fake and what’s real. We will no longer take others, ourselves, or this tiny speck in time and space we call Earth for granted.

Our future is in our hands. Priceless information and insights about our characters, values, thinking, feelings, will power, health, relationships, creativity, philosophy, purpose, hopes, fears, and spirituality lie waiting for us at the ends of our arms.

Aquarius and the 20th Century Psyche

Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transform both personal and collective psyches when they change signs. Uranus takes roughly seven years to transit a sign and eighty-four years to orbit our sun through twelve signs. Uranus came home to Aquarius twice during the 20th Century. From 1912 to 1919, sudden and unexpected political and social upheaval challenged our spiritual ideologies, faith in humanity, and trust in ourselves.

1912 ~ The “Unsinkable” Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage, a potent lesson in hubris.

1913 ~ A series of tornadoes and floods devastated Middle America, killing 3,000 people, and costing over $100,000,000. We learned preparedness the hard way.

1914 ~ World War I began.  Hate took a heavy toll on humanity. Love defeated hate. 1915 ~ A German submarine torpedoed the Lusitania. Expect the Unexpected

The first transcontinental phone call was made by Alexander Graham Bell. Everyone communicates. A powerful idea’s time had arrived.

1916 ~ Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary, invaded the USA. President Woodrow Wilson retaliated by sending 6,000 troops into Mexico. If only he’d built a wall.

Official Gazette of London published names of 80 United States firms suspected of trading with Germany. The moral of the story is haves don’t give a shit about have nots.

1917 ~ The USA declared war on Germany. Hitler’s enemies became our allies.

The worst race riot in American history happened in Illinois. Bigotry was huge.

Congress amended laws to prohibit alcohol to make beer, wine, and liquor profitable.

1918 ~ The Spanish Flu was the worst pandemic since the bubonic plague that wiped out one quarter of Europe’s population in the 14th century. Bad Shit Happens.

Daylight Savings Time began. Don’t ever take time for granted

1919 ~ Prohibition is ratified as the 18th amendment to the constitution. Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. President Wilson opposed and unsuccessfully took his disagreement to the American people. He died on tour after having a massive stroke. Winners sometimes lose.

Uranus re-entered Aquarius in 1996. It could have catalyzed an Age of Aquarius if humanity had chosen brotherhood over fashion, convenience, and selfishness. Instead, we bombed Iraq in 1998. Male vanity and virility was popularized after Pfizer introduced Viagra. The stock market created a new form of gambling dubbed “internet day trading”. DVDs became the fastest growing consumer electronics product in history. Bribes and drugs tarnished the Olympics. We lost our innocence, civil liberties, and the illusion of private and social security and stability.

Uranus transited Aquarius in 1996. People became even more demoralized, deceived, and divided by the powers that be. President Bill Clinton’s first political act of 1996 was to sign a welfare reform bill that made life harder for poor people. Body piercing and tattoos became more popular.

 

There were four major plane crashes.

Madeline Albright became the first female Secretary of State.

Ellen DeGeneres became the first outwardly gay star of an ABC sitcom.

Taiwan had its first democratic election.

Neptune rules illusion, delusion, and confusion. Neptune entered Aquarius in 1998. The House of Representatives impeached President Clinton who gave “perjuriously false and misleading” testimony in front of a grand jury. Bill is a Leo with Leo hands.

Catholics and Protestants voted for peace in Ireland. Peace Won.

 

Our government and twenty state attorney generals charged Microsoft with anti-trust practices for dominating the Internet access market.

Bill Gates is a Scorpio with intuitive hands.

 

Neptune left Aquarius for Pisces in 2012. Our delusions and deceptions affected old, poor, sick, or anyone who couldn’t afford bad shit happening. 1% had infected billions with spiritual dis-ease. We must understand our values before we can transform our inequities.

History will reveal the 21st Century as an era of profits of false prophets consigned to con and control the 99%. Plutocrats patronize partisan politicians who deplete our natural resources, pollute our planet, ravage our psyches, choose our health care, control our welfare, gamble with our hard earned social security, and own our pension funds. Neptune in Pisces embodies billions of people seeking security, stability, and spiritual answers and finding despair, fear, and terror. The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Look and See. Listen and Hear.

Scorpio and the Collective Psyche in the 20th Century

Outer planets have a powerful influence on the personal psyche. They also symbolize massive transformations in the collective psyche as they change sign. When Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transited the sign of Scorpio in the 20th Century, our views of Sex, Violence, and Death transformed forever.

Pluto takes twenty years to change astrological sign during which time it disintegrates, destroys, and transforms collective consciousness. Pluto almost doubled its speed when it transited its own astrological home of Scorpio from 1984 to 1995.

It was a challenging time to keep secrets. Sex combined with death to expose the dark underbelly of Scorpio. HIV came into being while condoms were promoted on national TV to stop the spread of AIDS. Homosexuality came out of the closet to be the topic of everyday conversation. Religious fundamentalists and politicians had plenty to preach about. Sex scandals ousted Senator Gary Hart and televangelist Jim Bakker. Scorpio rules other people’s money and Bakker was later convicted of defrauding his followers of 158 million dollars.

Police bombed the headquarters of a black radical group called MOVE. Terrorists from the Palestine Liberation Front seized the Italian cruise ship Achille Laura. Oliver North exposed the Iran Contra scandal. He and Ronald Reagan walked away intact. Terrorists bombed Pan Am flight 103, killing 259 passengers and 11 villagers in Scotland.

 

 

Nobody wanted our famous Garbage barge which carried 3,100 tons of Garbage 6,000 miles before returning home to be burned.

“Dr. Death” (Jack Kevorkian) became a household name.

When Neptune (Pisces) transited the sign of Scorpio from 1957 to 1970, it offered an opportunity for spiritual transformation. Neptune regenerates or degenerates. It began with sit-ins and peaceful demonstrations and ended with race riots, terrorist bombings, and hijackings. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by `two of her own bodyguards’. Racial tensions rose. Bernard Goetz shot four young black men in the NYC subway system. He claimed they were robbing him. They claimed not to have provoked him. Political unrest catalyzed the assassinations of John Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. It was an era of escapism. Drugs, pornography, and indiscriminate sex became normal. Oral sex and contraceptives became popular. Thousands of men went into exile rather than serve in the Vietnam War.

When Uranus (Aquarius) transited Scorpio from 1975 to 1981, it marked the end of the Vietnam War for America and the beginning of new terror in Cambodia. A senate committee admitted that assassination was modus operandi in U.S. foreign policy.

Mass humor was irreverent as seen by the popularity of Saturday Night Live on TV.

Scorpio rules the reproductive system. In 1976, scientists at MIT created the first synthetic gene. The first test tube baby was conceived outside of the womb in 1978.

Scorpio symbolizes powerful women. The Episcopal Church ordained the first woman. Barbara Walters was the first woman national news anchor on ABC TV.

The first Death (Pluto) sentence was carried out in ten years when convicted murderer Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad.

Punk Rock was loud and nihilistic, an unconventional rebellious expression of Uranus.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show became a cult classic.

Ultrasound became an alternative to x-ray radiation.

Performance art became a new art form.

Palimony suits became popular.

Over 1,000 “No Nukes” protesters were arrested on Wall Street on the 50th anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash.

1980 saw the first professional actor in the Whitehouse following the lowest voter turnout in modern history.

Fidel Castro’s “Freedom Flotilla” embarrassed the U.S. when we discovered that Castro had unloaded his underworld criminals, mentally ill, and misfits on us.

IBM introduced the personal PC and revolutionized the computer industry forever.

Insurance is very 8th house. We’ve all heard, “The only guarantees in life are Death and Taxes”. Life is not ensured or assured like Death and Taxes, but you can purchase life insurance, which is a contractual arrangement whereby one party pays another party to guarantee them against a specified loss. Insurance implies that we have something of value (2nd house). Perhaps we can’t afford not to value something. Assuming our premiums are paid, we worry less about the costs of bad shit happening to family, health, home, car, property, or whatever we value that’s insurable.

Insurance is a form of gambling. Your agent is your bookie. Your insurer is the casino. The house is always favored financially due to statistical permutations, combinations, and probabilities. High risk means high stakes. You can check your odds by examining insurance actuarial tables and know your prospects by observing your premiums. The insured shoots craps and always loses, even when he wins.

Insuring may be confused with ensuring or assuring. Spraying crops with pesticides ensures fewer bugs and weeds. It assures we eat drink and breathe toxic chemicals. Investing Social Security in the Stock Market does not insure that the market won’t collapse. Employees of Enron believed their pensions insured a secure retirement. Drilling for oil in the wilderness does not insure that we will have enough oil. It does ensure and assure that we’ll have social, political, and environmental problems. Conserving energy ensures that we will have more energy and waste fewer natural resources. Offering vengeance as a solution to violence assures more violence.

Everyone dies. Life insurance protects the living. What are your last few months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds worth?  What’s the premium for a graceful painless final exit? I’d like to live a long and healthy life and enjoy a quick and graceful final exit. Having an abundance of Scorpio symbolism in my horoscope, I’ve created my very own “Dr. Death Do it Yourself Kit”. It’s a breathing apparatus attached to a tank of helium. When necessary, I’ll have a logical, practical, painless, and peaceful alternative to facing a future of pain, dependency, lack of awareness, no love, or abject poverty in old (hopefully) age. Read Final Exit by Derek Humphrey if you want to learn more about Dying with Dignity.

Scorpio Hands

You don’t need a Scorpio Sun, Moon, houses, aspects, planets, or planetary placements to be a Scorpion. Scorpio is a fixed feeling type with long rectangular palms and long fingers. In my experience, pure Scorpions have stiffer fingers and thumbs, denser palms, and less elastic skin than Cancer and Pisces. When head and life lines closely intertwine at their start, Scorpions procrastinate at beginnings and endings and care too much what others think (no matter what they say or how they act). With long broad nails and straight pinky fingers, they tend to be almost ruthlessly open and frank. I’ve observed a lot of Scorpions with dominant first and third phalanges, rounded and conical tips, loop prints, developed knots on second joints, and very few vertical lines within the lifeline. Scorpios with no vertical lines are untrusting and untrustworthy. Scorpio has many wonderful qualities. I’m focusing on the dark side today.

Author’s note: I’ve used Donald Trump to illustrate this post, though he has nothing in Scorpio except his I.C. If you’re curious about my symbolic take on D.T. – click here.

Hands share the same mythology as astrology and tarot. Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, lord of darkness. As the Roman god of sex, death, and transformation, Pluto is master of the sexual orgasm (little death). In ancient Greece, Hades was god of the underworld. In tarot, Death, High Priestess, and the Queen of Cups are Scorpio ruled. Voldemort, Darth Vader, The Mummy, and The Big Bad Wolf are modern versions. Religious extremism is the Devil’s playground.

Scorpio is black, controlling, compulsive, jealous, possessive, fearful, resentful, obstinate, secretive, suspicious, manipulative, and subversive. Scorpio seduces, covets, and betrays your sacred trust. Seduction turns him on, while betrayal gets him off. Pluto tantalizes terrorists, rewards rapists, and reassures religious predators. An eternity in hell excites, terrifies, and beckons them. A path of many dark secrets leads to the palace of sociopathy. From your first breath to your final exit, Pluto awaits your arrival. Executioners, coroners, undertakers, and morticians are ruled by Pluto.

Scorpions make manipulative bosses, mean spirited jailers, abusive parents, and jealous partners who hide their true feelings, especially the shadowy unstable side of their emotions. Your friendly neighbor, a model citizen, devoted husband, loving father, loyal friend, and faithful parishioner dies. His family finds hidden pornographic literature, secret love letters, sado-masochistic sexual supplies, illegal drugs, and concealed money in his possession. The truth becomes transparent in hindsight.

False tweets and fake facts create more opaqueness and distract us from real secrets about sex, money, and greed. A troll rationalizes the most bizarre behaviors, believing he will get away with them. His deepest and darkest fears and desires propel him towards mental, emotional, and spiritual bankruptcy and perversion. Like an evil Priest, he feigns love and compassion while physically and spiritually raping the innocent souls he has been entrusted to protect. Guilt, Shame, Remorse, and Fear faithfully guard his evil secrets.

Scorpio rules my unconscious. Gemini rules my sun, hands, and corresponding behavior. Scorpio rises in my natal chart conjunct the asteroid, Chiron (hand). Jupiter in Scorpio in my first house is a singleton in that hemisphere of my natal chart. Pluto in Leo is in my tenth house closely conjunct Saturn in Leo in my ninth. Sun Uranus and Venus Node conjunctions are in Gemini in my 8th house, along with Vulcanus, my Vertex, and a few asteroids.

When Saturn in Scorpio transited my ascendant in November of 2012, it also squared my Midheaven and natal Saturn and compelled me to deepen my foundation, build a stronger structure, and commit my life to less distraction and more discipline and focus. Saturn forced me to achieve realistic goals and challenged me to let go of everything and everyone that wasn’t working for me. I did. Thinking critically, listening carefully, and seeing clearly enabled me to rise like a phoenix from my ashes.

Jupiter is in and will remain in Scorpio until Nov. 2018. It’s transiting exactly conjunct my ascendant at this moment and will be transiting its natal position in my horoscope for much of 2018. Having spent the past seventy years with Jupiter in Scorpio, I want to share my take on the subject. Jupiter in Scorpio has been both a blessing and a jinx for me. My natal Jupiter is within minutes of opposing my stubborn 7th house Mars in Taurus and trine my sensitive ninth house Mercury in Cancer. Looking for shortcuts and finding easy paths to success has been my nemesis. Always coming out the shithouse smelling like a rose has been my blessing. William Blake said, “The path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”. I tend to learn the hard way.

                                   Before                                                             After

I was the hand reader at Harvey Weinstein’s wedding celebration. It was mind boggling to observe an old stale bagel and a fresh young pastry as a couple. Harvey must have spent millions creating an unforgettable extravaganza packed with famous people. I’ve read many celebrities, but none on that day. In hindsight, I wish I’d convinced the event planner to let me stroll instead of parking myself in a corner. Famous people frequently avoid me because they fear I may see what they want no one to see. Many of my favorite actors and actresses were within inches of me and yet so far away. I’m sure I’d have enchanted a few if I had been free to approach them. I sat at my station for four hours as many celebrities walked by. I mostly read the hands of their curious friends and family who lined up for miles.

Harvey Weinstein is a Pisces. Harvey’s time of birth is unknown; however, according to his day of birth (3/19/52), Mars is in Scorpio closely square Pluto in Leo. One interpretation of that combo is being a ‘sexual predator’. Harvey’s hands are Taurus with broad square palms, short plump fingers, and large fleshy pink balls of thumb revealing an acquisitive and pleasure loving nature.

 

 

I expect to see much more sexism, philandering, insider trading, evangelical hypocrisy, and partisan political power plays by November 2018.  Here is my biased Scorpio perspective on our political landscape. I’m unhappy with both political parties. Republican politicians are spiritually bankrupt sadists who only smile when they’re hurting us. Democratic leaders are poverty conscious masochists, who desperately beg for a dollar or three as you sign their petitions, fill out their surveys, and pledge loyalty to their urgent causes. I sign plenty of petitions and have given a lot of $ (for me) to my favorite causes such as the ACLU, SPLC, NRDC, Sierra Club, etc., but as the saying goes, “Money talks and bullshit walks”.

Sadly, money truly is power in our world. Plutocrats are devaluing our democracy by betting on their present and ignoring our future and the future of our planet. Our entire world, society, and culture has been corrupted by a handful of greedy moguls who own our raw materials, energy, communications, transportation, food, healthcare, finance, religion, and politics. There are over 1,500 billionaires.

Many of life’s most painful lessons are a result of choosing money over values. It’s easy to rationalize the blackest behavior when your head rules your heart. I never intended to hurt anyone. No one did anything they didn’t want to do. I may not have told the whole truth, but I didn’t lie. I’m sorry for my part. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

Libra and the Collective Psyche in the 20th Century

Outer planets have a powerful influence on the personal psyche. They also symbolize massive transformations in the collective psyche as they change sign. When Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transited the sign of Libra in the 20th Century, forces of good and evil clashed as we tried to find a balance between optimism, pessimism, tolerance, prejudice, progress, and regress. There was not much social or political stability.

While the planet Neptune (Pisces) transited the sign of Libra from 1942 to 1957, Nuclear weapons began proliferating. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  President Truman instructed the Atomic Energy Commission to produce an even bigger `Hydrogen Bomb’. The United Nations began blossoming. International cartels became firmly established. The European Common Market was recognized. The civil rights movement flourished. Group psychology became popular. The World Council of Churches was established. Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was the first American citizen canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

The art world went through dramatic changes.  Allen Ginsberg became a popular poet writing, “I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”. When Neptune left Libra in 1957, the bestselling novel was Peyton Place   focusing on sexual intrigue in a small town. People born between 1942 and 1957 tend to be overly idealistic in relationships.  They must learn to harmonize, compromise, and sacrifice.

While the planet Uranus (Aquarius) transited the sign of Libra from 1968 to 1975, the spirit of our nation shifted from optimism to pessimism. Faith in progress turned into disillusionment with national institutions and world progress. This period was marked by useless popular inventions like the “pet rock”, giant platform shoes, and shag haircuts. Punk Rock, along with primal therapy and streaking became popular. The Supreme Court legalized abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy (Roe vs. Wade). Governor Wallace, a racial bigot from Alabama, announced that he would be running for President on the newly formed American Independent Party ticket. He threatened to repeal the “so called civil rights laws”. Meanwhile, the most popular show on TV was a comic satire about a racist named Archie Bunker. Diplomat Henry Kissinger approved the financing of clandestine CIA activities in Chile aimed at preventing the election and inauguration of Salvador Allende as Marxist President. Patty Hearst was kidnapped and brainwashed by the Symbionese Liberation Army. A military junta deposed Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.

While the planet Pluto (Scorpio) transited the sign of Libra from 1971 to 1983, growers and pickers finally reached a settlement that ended a nearly ten year grape boycott (led by Cesar Chavez). Farm workers finally had bargaining power. This time marked the official beginning of the environmental movement. The Supreme Court upheld busing as a way of integrating schools.  An assassination attempt left presidential candidate George Wallace paralyzed from the waist down. Prime Minister Idi Amin slaughtered over 300,000 Ugandans and alienated his country from the rest of the world. Violence in Ireland forced Britain to seize control of Northern Ireland and suspend the Protestant controlled parliament. An arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization terrorized the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. In 1975 South Vietnam crumbled, bringing an end to the Vietnam War. Because of the Karen Ann Quinlan case, `right to die’ rulings were enacted all across the USA. The serial killer “Son of Sam” was finally put away after terrorizing the male and female population of NYC. Religious fanatic Jim Jones got his followers to commit suicide. John Lennon was murdered.

“Imagine there’s no country,

It isn’t hard to do.

Nothing to kill or die for,

And no religion, too.

Imagine all the people.

Living life in peace”

Libran Hands

You don’t need a Libra sun, moon, planets, aspects, or houses to be Libran. All Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius hands have square palms and long fingers. I’ve read many Libran hands with long deep clear gently curving unobstructed headlines that fork at the end. Librans see every side of a situation. Straight strong pinkie fingers communicate clearly, effectively, and frankly (with full broad nails). Strong index fingers are pervasive on ambitious hardworking managers and powerful leaders. Dominant bottom and middle phalanges are well suited to banking, real estate, and food businesses. Dominant top phalanges make great public speakers, lawyers, directors, journalists, educators, and religious leaders. Librans are idealistic, romantic, aesthetic, and refined. You’ll see Librans in chic designer clothing taking clients to trendy restaurants. Thinking types dominate political, PR, publishing, marketing, sales, and entertainment fields.

Wielding logic, diplomacy, and tact like Samurai swordsmen, Librans analyze, rationalize, and compartmentalize their thoughts and feelings until they fulfill their desires. A wide space between head and life lines reveals initiative and spontaneity. Wide spaces care less what others think of them. Changing a Libran’s mind is a game of mental monopoly. You must be direct and make good sense. Don’t get emotional. You’ll regret it.

Healthy Librans have sincere handshakes. Firm pink elastic skin with a long graceful heart line flowing from the pinkie to the base of the index finger symbolizes a romantic and sentimental nature. A branch at the end of the heart line that reaches down to touch the head line means the person can think their feelings to oblivion. Black and white and hard and soft are the same, only different by degree. Librans with vertical lines within their life lines are very lucky.  Anyone with long vertical lines parallel to their life lines has intimate family ties and friendships. They’re wealthy in love and spirituality.

Libra is the 7th sign of the zodiac, the 7th house of marriage in western astrology, and the autumn equinox, time for partnership, sharing, and giving. Librans strive for balance, idolize harmony, dislike discord, and despise confrontation. As negotiators, they’re very decisive when it really matters, although they’re notoriously indecisive when it doesn’t really matter like what to eat, what to wear, and where to go. Librans can be aggressive and vague at the same time. Many prefer being frank and direct, but then they can’t figure out why some people don’t like them.

Athena is a Libran archetype with Aquarius and Gemini backup. Greek for Wisdom and Justice, Athena rules the strategic thinking required in combat. Scales of justice and an owl on her shoulder symbolize balance and wisdom. Odysseus (Libra) and Achilles (Aries) worshiped Athena. Pictured as a handsome Goddess in battle armor, she holds a shield of Intuition in one hand, and a sword of Thinking in the other. Athena’s mighty sword is applied with icy detachment. She discards emotion for clarity and cuts to the quick.

 

 

We all have Libra, Venus, and 7th houses in our symbolism. We know what’s honest, true, and fair, and must set ethical and moral values and boundaries in order to know right from wrong and see truth. It’s easy to compartmentalize, rationalize, and analyze the ideas, thoughts, and actions of ourselves and others. Some Libran aphorisms are: “Laws keep honest people honest.” “Locks keep honest people out” “Contracts are as good as the people who sign them”. Laws protect us only after the reason for those laws has been severely abused. Why must we lose what we value in order not to take it for granted?

Truman Capote understood the truth behind the insanity. “Even an attorney of moderate talent can postpone doomsday year after year, for the system of appeals that pervades American jurisprudence amounts to a legalistic wheel of fortune, a game of chance, somewhat fixed in favor of the criminal, that the participants play interminably.” Legal power enables players to shirk social responsibility, manipulate others, and justify whatever personal and social behavior and actions. Librans need to balance ethics and honesty. Maybe a Libran knows something that would change everything, but fails to mention it. Did Philip Morris know cigarette smoke is unhealthy? Does Monsanto know that ‘Roundup’ causes cancer? Do Republicans know they do not care about the masses? Mountains of money have been amassed by self-appointed Emperors who have deceived, exploited, and manipulated the huddled masses. Cream rises to the top. Poor folk will forever scrape for pennies at the bottom of the barrel.

Many years ago, an Athena type of questionable ethics came for a private consultation. As a corporate strategist and master business plan writer, he seemed totally out of place in my east village tenement apartment, dressed in his expensive designer suit and power tie and me in my “Since I gave up hope, I feel much better” t-shirt and worn jeans. His friend had been to one of my palmistry talks and encouraged him to see me.

Athena rules arts and crafts, especially weaving. My client’s specialty was weaving tailored cloaks of investment opportunity for himself and his clients by threading a weft of his finest illusion through a warp of potential profit. He’d revive floundering companies by creating innovative new products and services that pointed them toward prosperity. An emperor of crystal clear vision, Athena would charge a substantial fee and generous stock options in exchange for a first class business plan and assistance in executing it. Athena would revive companies who’d been competing for pennies forever. He shifted their paradigm by changing their thinking. As Athena’s plans came to fruition, his stock would become more valuable. He guided management through the churning rapids of dramatic change within company structure. When the project could survive on its own, Athena sold large chunks of stock and invested in his next project. Although his visions sometimes failed, Athena always prospered.

Athena had been indicted in a $150,000,000+ securities fraud. Insider trading is much more common than you know and extremely discreet. Knowing something secret can be very powerful, but getting caught is bad for everyone. The IRS was a monkey on his back. He desperately needed a strategy for what to do next. He wanted to take a symbolic look at his situation. Despite our totally opposite worlds, we hit it off.  Thinking types can bounce ideas off each other for hours. Athena was Pinocchio. I was Jiminy Cricket, there to be his conscience. Brilliant, but surprisingly naïve, Athena easily rationalized being legal, unethical, and immoral at the same time. He got his nose pruned by sticking it in the wrong place at the wrong time. Athena offered me a generous retainer to be his “Jiminy Cricket”. I declined, but accepted occasional gifts and payments for my time and advice.

Athena’s hands revealed a healthy Libran type. He was charming, calming, and curious. Astrology described his behavioral patterns, life cycles, and timing. Tarot cards provided insight into business relationships, but no matter how many times we spread the cards, tact and diplomacy could not save the King of Swords from being tortured by the eight of swords, judgement, and the Tower. Athena needed to learn his lesson the hard way.

Athena’s square palms, long fingers, strong pinkies and well-balanced phalanges are great for commerce. His long unobstructed straight headline is innately practical, honest, and reliable. Ambitious strong index fingers embody a strategic hardworking nature. His strong stiff thumbs show determination and persistence. Separation between his head and life lines reveals initiative, impatience, and independence. I would never have seen his problem in foresight.

 

I had no idea how to help Athena with his problem. Blinded by desire for power and wealth, Athena had unwittingly compromised his morals and ethics. His natal chart appeared to be healthy and well balanced, but his astrological transits weren’t promising. There seemed to be no positive outcome unless it was spiritual. I knew I needed to be direct and make good sense. The horizontal lines crossing Athena’s dominant vertical lines showed he was no stranger to challenges and obstacles. He was very good at bouncing back and landing on his feet. Jiminy Cricket guided Pinocchio to find his truth and become a real boy. Athena and I never got that chance.

Athena lost everything. Too late for hindsight, there was little I could do. I appealed to his future. “Does the world really need another greasy French fry, addictive beverage, or pornographic violent video game?” Why not design and market healthy products like Paul Newman? Why not give profits to charitable causes? I suggested ‘Vita-Fries’, the world’s first truly healthy French fry. Why can’t the same resources be used to create healthy products and services? A graceful heart lines extends to Athena’s index finger, revealing a romantic and sentimental nature. Check out the long gracefully curving vertical lines within his ball of thumb, Athena has a healthy and loving support system.

“Why not make products more expensive and exploit less people on the way?” I asked. Athena loved the idea, but rationalized needing more personal financial stability before giving money away. “More expensive means more grease”, he told me. Higher prices mean more time and money spent romanticizing and glamorizing products and services. More for less is a great concept, but doesn’t come cheap. “It’s the grease”, Athena said. Why pay more for caffeine at $tar Buck$?  Why buy expensive designer brand names when you can get the same generic item for much less? Revolutionary new products and services do happen ~ like when Kleenex became generic for tissues, ubiquitous in the marketplace, and highly profitable. Most products are variations on a theme.

In Libran style, Athena started over again with fresh enthusiasm, new ideas, and a dollop of grease. Last time I heard, he was offering virtual alternatives to utilitarian products that make good economic sense. Pinocchio is wheeling and dealing and mastering his Libran nature. He and Jiminy are friends, but no longer consult for $.

The most challenging task in reading hands is learning to judge hands. One person’s long is another’s short. Your firm might be my soft, depending on the person. Rigorous practice is necessary to truly observe and judge hands.

Few of us are pure types. Many behave contrary to our sun signs. My brother, Gary, is Pisces, a mutable feeling type. He’s Neptunian, but his Libran hands reveal a cardinal thinking type. Gary is a geriatric psychiatrist. Lucky for him, I used to threaten I’d go completely crazy with age, but then as a Gemini, I decided not to get old. Gary’s Libran temperament graciously emerges and gracefully merges with his Pisces sun to sooth the most stressful clients and situations. Pisces gives Gary natural empathy and the intuition that many Librans lack. He’s an awesome psychiatrist, partner, father, brother, son, friend, and human being.