Hi Jen and Open,

I've dabbled in the study of astrology over the years. My soul's pull to explore astrology has been more about feeling into the archetypal energy patterns of the planets and how they mirror parts of me rather than getting caught up in intellectually analyzing and dissecting astrological degrees, aspects etc. or in using astrology as a predictor of events as many people do. As above, so below. When feeling into my birth chart or current astrological phases, I gain flashes of insights into my soul's journey and what I'm learning, past lives included, and how the heavens reflect and mirror this.

For example, I've observed when Mercury is retrograde that I sometimes attract people from my past. During the current Mercury retrograde phase, a childhood friend contacted me to arrange a get together. She is moving from eastern Canada to B.C. and will live close to me. It has been so heartwarming to recall and renew the healing love, kindness, fun, and joy I experienced with her and her family while growing up. The love we shared back then is returning to bless us again, and the sky mirrors this.

The Moon (emotions) features strongly in my birth chart and is at the apex in the 9th House (the handle of a bucket pattern), the House that represents karma, higher mind, and higher learning. The moon and I have danced intimately together in a very challenging embrace throughout this lifetime. I have "hard" and very dense aspects in my astrological birth chart to the Moon with Saturn and Pluto that mirror my karmic journey (like Sisyphus rolling the rock up the mountain) in breaking through the repression and tyranny of my intellect and denial of my emotions, so I can feel into, surrender, and release my emotional blockages and distortions. And EXPRESS (I still have to breathe higher consciousness into my contractions before expressing in this forum).

Open, you mention the challenges of Moontime. I have felt this dynamic so intensely and have throughout my life and feel it relates to my ambivalence and sense of abandonment and betrayal about birthing and incarnating into this third density in this lifetime and in past lifetimes, as well, here on planet earth. I have felt these emotions to such a degree at times that it felt like I could burst wide open and blow up. I'm feeling these cyclic emotions relate to prior lives out there in the cosmos and to repressed anger about the downgrading of humanity on planet earth through OC intervention and subsequent, traumatic birthing of my children in this and other lifetimes. I'm still making my way down the rabbit hole to release these powerful emotions and become whole. Overall, with regard to astrology, it my feeling that the planets don't "cause" any behaviour. Rather, the planets and their aspects mirror our karmic journeys. My fascination with astrology has helped me to gain many valuable insights into my soul's journey. I appreciate the discussion. Thank you!

Catherine