Autumn 2021 - Upcoming Webinars

Nightlight Astrology

Saturday 6 November 2021, 12:00pm–2:30pm Eastern Time

"Pluto in Aquarius - Pathways of Power"

Pluto begins its move from Capricorn into Aquarius in March 2023, yet intimations of its ingress currently percolate in our collective and personal lives via Saturn's presence in Aquarius. Considering that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all made their way through Aquarius during the 1990s and early 2000s into 2012, Pluto's entrance into Aquarius is like the long Third Act of a drama that began decades (if not centuries) ago.

In astrology we typically associate Pluto with power. Each planet represents different kinds of power, so what makes Pluto's power unique? This webinar explores Pluto's pathways of power in the sign of Aquarius, at the historical and societal levels, and perhaps most importantly at the soul (psychological) and archetypal levels. We will look at what Pluto has been up to in the sign of Capricorn (activating the Cancer-Capricorn axis), and how Pluto activates the Leo-Aquarius axis. With on-point guidance along the way via the words of Jung, Hillman, a Nobel Laureate or three, and perhaps even a fairy tale, this webinar will start preparing us for the profound shifts ahead.

MISPA (Mercury Internet School of Psychological Astrology)

Sunday 7 November 2021, 15.30-18.00 GMT

“Astrology & Fairy Tales - Spinning Straw into Gold”

Fairy tales have gained a reputation in modern times as being a step removed from so-called “reality,” largely due to the wish for a happy ending that never really seems to arrive in “real” life. As reflections of psychic reality, however, fairy tales suggest that the soul seems far less interested in happy endings than in expressing through these varied tales the wider dynamic range of its inherent, archetypal complexity – the same archetypal complexity reflected in an astrological chart.

This webinar explores the nature of fairy tales, their roots and role in history and culture, and how they can enhance our astrological imagination, turning charts themselves into fairy tales. Whether entering the dark forest or an enchanted wood, or longing to go to the ball, fairy tale imagery aligns with the planets, signs, houses, and aspects familiar to all of us. Specific examples will help start spinning the straw of a chart into golden threads of insight. Along the way we will also look at how fairy tales can be particularly relevant as Jupiter, Saturn, and eventually Pluto all make their way through the sign of Aquarius now and in the coming years.

The Double Life of Mercury in Gemini squaring Neptune in Pisces

Mercury in Gemini recently turned retrograde and today (June 4) squares Neptune in Pisces for the second of three times in a sequence lasting through early July. A theme continues that began when Jupiter entered Pisces on May 13: the unconscious stirs. The unconscious. That place of images unseen, dreams yet to be dreamt, stories yet untold, mysteries perhaps never to be solved. With Mercury in Gemini squaring Neptune in Pisces, the goal is perhaps not the common pursuit of ‘making the unconscious conscious,’ but rather hanging out with the imagination, the language of the unconscious, the soul’s style of communicating. Yet, as Jung noted, “Most people find it quite beyond them to live on close terms with the unconscious.” What to do?

It should be no surprise that L. Frank Baum, the author of “The Wizard of Oz,” was born with Mercury in Gemini squaring Neptune in Pisces. We could say that “The Wizard of Oz” is an archetypal template for Mercury in Gemini squaring Neptune in Pisces. What we are experiencing for six weeks he lived and embodied for over six decades.

Gemini and Pisces are considered “double-bodied” signs. Double-bodied, as in the twins of Gemini and the pair of Pisces fish. Double-bodied signs hold the great archetypal duos together. In myth, one twin is mortal while the other is immortal. One twin guards the entrance to the Underworld while the other explores the dark depths. Time and eternity. Above and below. You do not get one without the other. The fish of Pisces keep the limited reality of earth-life entwined with the boundless reality of the imagination, the facts of life woven into the fantasies and healing fictions of the soul, prose imbued with poetry, the black and white world painted and permeated and renewed with color. Mercury in Gemini squaring Neptune in Pisces keeps Kansas twisted with Oz, by means of a twister. Dorothy is knocked unconscious (there is that word again) and awakens to a new world, a world packed with munchkins, flying monkeys, talking trees, et al.

Among the vivid characters, Oz features a good witch and a wicked witch (the Gemini twins). In one scene, after having cast a spell over Dorothy and her friends who find themselves in a poppy field fast falling asleep, the green-faced wicked witch peers into her crystal ball as fresh snow falls and breaks her spell. The witch scowls and snaps, “Somebody always helps that girl!” This is quintessential Mercury-Neptune, not to mention Jupiter in Pisces. Not only is help possible, but help arrives, in its way and in its time, the kind of help literally impossible in an only-literal world, the kind of help that requires imagination, is imagination.

Without imagination, we remain stuck in Kansas—grey, desolate, dusty, depression-era Kansas. I like Salman Rushdie’s response to Kansas: “And this is the home that “there’s no place like”? This is the lost Eden that we are asked to prefer (as Dorothy does) to Oz?” As an author immersed in magical realism, he has the right idea. Jung, in his later years, had a mystical experience so extraordinary that he rather resented having to come back to Kansas, I mean earth. From that mystical moment on, he referred to limited life on earth as the “box system.” L. Frank Baum called it Kansas. I call it boring! It can be easy to separate the twins and pick a favorite, or cut the cord tying the two fish together. Double-bodied images get boxed up and marketed online as single-sided signs. But the oft-“forgotten” double does not really go away, it stirs within the unconscious. “The Wizard of Oz,” as spokes-tale for our Mercury in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces sensibilities, asks us to re-double our efforts, long for more, reach somewhere over the rainbow, keep the other world close at hand, and follow the yellow brick road of life.

Jupiter in Pisces - Magnify the Mystery

Originally posted 5/13/21 on Instagram.

Jupiter enters Pisces on 13 May 2021. When Jupiter enters Pisces, much stirs within the unconscious, both personal and collective. The movie "Shakespeare in Love" was released in 1998, with Jupiter in Pisces. As events in the movie unfold, burdened with endless complications, the question is often asked, how will it all turn out? And the oft-repeated answer comes: "I don't know. It's a mystery!"

In astrology, keeping the mystery close at hand can make all the difference, as it allows the soul opportunities to play her hand, pull a rabbit out of the hat, open a pathway unseen thus far, give us a wink. J.R.R. Tolkien was born with Jupiter in Pisces and imagined Zeus-like giant eagles elegantly and majestically swooping in to lift Frodo and Sam to safety when all seemed lost 'at the end of all things.' When Jupiter moves through Pisces, magnify the mystery! The backdrop of mystery allows Jupiter to spread his expansive eagle-wings ever-wider.

There is something of a Mona Lisa smile within Jupiter in Pisces. Not surprisingly, Leonardo da Vinci was born with Jupiter in Pisces. "There shall be wings!" he proclaimed, as he studied birds and created wings with which to fly, long before the invention of the airplane. Speaking of airplanes, Wilbur Wright was born with Jupiter in Pisces, and the first successful airplane flight on December 17, 1903 occurred with Jupiter in Pisces. Imagine the possibilities! But remember, when asking how it will all turn out: "I don't know. It's a mystery!"