Death and the Lunar Nodes

Very informative! Change is in the air. Theo's article is insightful. Thanks for sharing!

Very interesting and well crafted piece by White. The list of passings is joined by Mollie Sugden, Gail Storm and Karl Malden over the past few days. As opposed to Vedic practice, and maybe some 'traditional' thought, as a practicing astrologer it is my belief that 'predicting' death, anyone's death, is out of order with Universal Law. In the past I have posted the distinct possibility of some kind of transition with certain notables ( last year Charleton Heston to the day ) but hesitate to identify death since the soul has free will, and chooses to depart this plane of existence on its own terms. The changes that White pre-sages though, may not be positive ones, and the specter remains that souls are departing before collective karma reins amok.

I have to protest your very one-sided and biased view on traditional astrology.
It is clear you have not studied the subject and merely use it to promote your very modern and one-sided view.
You state quite clearly that it is one-sided as you say: “In my personal theology, the chart is the karma that we are given, and our dharma, or soul work, is to maximize the potential of the chart and integrate the individual pieces that are often in conflict. As we begin to make conscious choices rather than using reactive impulses in our day-to-day life, we are able to change our destiny and create a magnificent life. This has been my experience as someone who has Saturn conjunct the Sun, Moon conjunct Pluto squared by Venus and Jupiter, and lots of other "bad" stuff in my chart, and this is what I teach my clients and students.”

I’m quite sorry to hear that you teach this. It is your right of course, but it flies into the face of astrology proper. Astrology is much more than merely a tool to promote new-age views,
Interestingly enough, your view of astrology is just as fate-wrought, as the things you blame tradition astrologers for.
Most of all, you seem not to be able to take an objective position. Why should your personal theology decide how astrology works? What you indicate is that you merely choose to view astrology from one perspective alone… your perspective.
Now that is a big problem. Your clients do not come to you for your personal view on things, they come to you for info on their charts, not to hear a sermon about how they have mismanaged their infinite potential thus far, and need to be set straight by you, or your take on their charts.

Traditional astrologers do not indulge in death predictions, I have never found many that do. But I do find that astrologers like yourself tend to paint a dreary picture of the art from whence came the very fabric of what you purport to teach.
Shame on you.

Viator

Lynn, several comments in return.
First if you have studied traditional astrology, the questions is what kind. The stuff from before 1700? That’s the real deal, not the stuff that came from after that period. You should then be aware that the difference is what I would call ‘more realistic’ astrology, as opposed to the new age worldview that merely views a chart as a potential. However satisfying that worldview might be, both to you and your clients, it flies in the face of actual circumstances and facts in the clients life (that bring them to you as clients in the first place). Suggesting traditional astrologers are simply about doom, is quite unfair. Using Jungian speak I would say that traditional astrology is ‘the shadow’ of your modern practice. You clearly haven’t integrated this shadow, because you’re demonizing it.
Second, your ‘sermon’ might not be in your consultations Lynn, it is there in your astrological worldview. Whenever a planet is viewed as ‘potential’, the possible expressions of it are limitless, also implying that whatever the client has done so far, it can always be done better. It is the-American-dream-astrology: everything is possible, for anyone, anywhere. This is not reality.
Suppose someone’s Venus – or whatever - is implying that the client will never have satisfying relationships, what are you gonna do? Now, whenever I suggest such a thing, modern astrologers get very annoyed, saying that this is not true astrology, or it is the result of my limited and unenlightened worldview. But when Venus is seen as merely a ‘potential’ to use/exploit at will, then yes anything is possible in love, even satisfying relationships. The client merely has to ‘learn to express Venus in a different fashion’. This flies in the face of the ancient astrology, which made much effort to establish how a planet would function.
This simplistic worldview results in very poor astrology, as a science. All the circumstances needed to ascertain how a planet will ultimately function and realize itself in a chart, can be discarded as so much nonsense. Which is mostly the stance of modern astrology. It is astrology-by-association, it is judgment-based-on-intuition, or judgment-based-on-personal-worldview. The biggest objection is that you as an astrologer are then no longer led by the science, you impose your worldview on it, which is quite un-enlightened. It is hubris.
The human consciousness argument doesn’t fly. It is always used as an excuse. Prove in which way human consciousness has progressed?
Kind regards
Viator

Lynn
That astrology is not a science is an opinion that modern astrologers entertain. But traditional astrology is a philosophy of humanity, and is a science that puts this philosophy in practice. It does so with the horoscope.

You say (and by the way, thank you for being candid)

“This is the perfect example of where traditional astrology does not serve the client. I am the perfect example. I have Venus in Scorpio and it is squared by Pluto. With Mars in the 7th house. Now obviously traditional astrologers would not be looking at the Pluto square, but it is there nevertheless. I expect that you would tell someone like me that I will never have satisfying relationships. And certainly this was true for the first 40 years of my life. But now I have been married for 10 years, in a very satisfying relationship.”

First of all, this is insufficient data to be able to explain why your relations where unsatisfactory for the first 40 years of your life Lynn. Venus in Scorpio is just one of the possible significators for relations, Mars in the 7th is yet another, but to be sure about its influence we need to know the sign; we need to know whether or not you are a day birth, etc., etc.
This is what I mean when I say there is a lot of technique out there needed to ascertain this. Venus alone is not enough.

But the main question is whether or not you can account for the reasons why after 40 years of unsatisfying relations things turned out better. I think there would have been several events happening over a period of time - and these can be inner events – that would have marked the period where you moved into your better relation.
Now I’m fine with you claiming you had all sorts of fantastic insights into yourself that made you change your way of relating, but as an astrologer, you need to be able to pinpoint the caesura. Should you have consulted an astrologer, (s)he should have been able to say when it would change. And no, transits are insufficient as a stand-alone technique in this.

Again, often clients need to hear when the situation changes, not what they are doing wrong in order to explain why things aren’t working out the way they want it.

Again you claim humans are evolving, yet you offer no proof. You’re merely saying people learn from their experiences. That’s not evolution, that’s learning.

Viator

my sister almost died back in 2007, with a sudden subdural hematoma. no one saw it coming. i have been looking for various signs in her chart reflecting this. and the node thing seems to be the closest explanation.

looking at her natal chart and transits on the day of her accident, i see:

- transitting north node conjunct natal jupiter, and
- transitting pluto conjunct natal north node

Cindy the correlation of the opposition of Jupiter and Pluto is interesting with your sister having almost died (Pluto) and then having been rescued (Jupiter), potentially to fulfill her destiny (Nodes). I'm sure that as Viator says there were other factors involved but in the context of this comments section not everyone is an experienced astrologer, and we like to give these people an opportunity to experiment and discuss things without jumping all over them.

Thanks Yoshi, these are excellent points. I'd also like to add that the choices that the individual makes in a lifetime has tremendous bearing on how the chart unfolds. For example, a client has Mars conjunct Pluto and has experienced abuse in her life. She repeatedly attracts situations and relationships that will play out this dynamic of abuse. Once this pattern is called to her attention, she can make the choice to change that pattern in a conscious way, and delve more deeply into the fears that keep her locked in the negative pattern. Or she can continue to react instinctively from the emotion of the chart and remain stuck forever. THIS is where free will comes in. The karma is in the chart - that is fated. But what we do with the chart becomes our destiny.

Hi Cindi and Yoshi

As a final comment: the method shown here is merely playing tags.
An event perspires, some transits are active, conclusion: they must be responsible for what happened! Somebody almost died, hey, that’s Pluto! But she didn’t die: hey that’s Jupiter! It must be her destiny; hey that’s the nodes!

Nobody has to be an experienced astrologer, but you can at least show some respect to the métier you’re presenting here.
Don’t make it a game of tags and then claiming that’s proof of anything.

Now I’m of to France.
Fare well

Viator