The Conscientious Astrology Writer

Perhaps the biggest challenge for a conscientious astrological writer is to communicate which arrangements of planets, houses, signs and aspects are meaningful to humanity as a whole and which are germane only to an individual.

Let me give a specific example. About 1970, Isabel Hickey wrote unequivocally in Astrology: A Cosmic Science, that if a man has Moon conjunct Saturn and the majority of his planets are in feminine signs, then he must be homosexual. I had no idea where the heck she got that. But the damage was done. One of my best friends at the time had that signature. He was so distaught, that he gave up the study of astrology. Although, I long had the sophistication not to believe everything that I read in books, my friend was not so lucky, You see, I, too have that signature­-- as does my son. And all three of us are exclusively hetero.

I was not a fan of Mrs. Hickey's for this and other reasons. When my wife and I attended an astrology convention in 1983, we met a nice man who thought the world of Isabel Hickey. A quick look at his chart showed that he had the Moon conjunct Saturn and the majority of his planets in feminine signs. Before I got the chance to ask him how he felt being labeled as homosexual, it dawned on me that not only was he gay, but that his chart most likely was the template that Isabel Hickey had used. Putting two and two together, I concluded that Mrs. Hickey probably invented that rule on the spot just to make that man feel better about himself. So I'm sure that that signature worked for him, but not necessarily for anyone else.

So the astrological writer must be extremely careful not to allow an ad hoc signature to morph into something bigger.

I ran into a similar situation when I was giving a lecture. I frequently have the problem in which someone will take one of my off-hand remarks and try to make a federal case out of it. When I rectify a chart, I tend to single out what makes a person special, uncommon, or even unique. I like to take a solar chart and rotate it so that the most plausible combination of planets and houses is displayed. Then by using solar arcs, transits and progression, I'll adjust that chart to fit the timing of known events.

My paternal grandparents were both born in Ukraine. They were married 58-1/2 years from 1896 until my grandfather died in 1955. They had 7 children and outlived 4 of them. That is a rather uncommon fact. In dealing with my grandparents' charts, I developed an ad hoc signature for them. Both of my gransparents had charts that contained a group of four planets that were close enough to be put in the same house. That house would be the 12^th because it is the 8^th from the 5^th. This is when people would confront me. I had to make things clear that if you have any planet in the 12^th house, it does not mean that your child would die. However, if, God forbid, you were to outlive a child, then the astrological reasons would be known.

After I developed plausible charts for my grandparents, I corrected the birthtime based on known events, such as their emigration to the United States in November, 1913.

Don Borkowski

October 9, 2012, 8:13 p.m.

Sheridan, Oregon

dgborkowski@msn.com

Sex, Sex, Sex

Before any serious discussion of sex can take place, it must first be established what component of sex is being addressed.

I date my involvement with astrology since June 7, 1971. My first teacher/mentor, Press Roberts, LPN, had such a profound influence on me that most of my astrological beliefs/philosophies were established upon what I learned from him. A couple weeks after meeting him, Press asked me which house I thought sex came from. I replied sheepishly, “The... uh ...5^th?”

Press then answered most dramatically, “Don't shit yourself, boy. It's the 8^th. I've never forgotten that. Many years later, I enrolled in Noel Tyl's Master's class. And I have felt conflicted since then as Noel feels just as emphatically that sex comes from the 5^th house as sex is how children are made and because sex is, or should be, connected to love.

Cutting to the chase, I feel that the emotional component of sex would definitely be the 5^th house, but that the physical component of sex would come from the 8^th house. Examples abound. Back in 1992 when Bill Clinton first became part of the national conciousness, and long before anyone had heard of Paula Jones or Monica Lewinsky, I took a look at his chart. Bill Clinton has the Moon in Taurus in the 8^th house. So I told my wife that this guy loves oral sex with women. When she said that I had a dirty mind, I replied that it was all in the keywords. The 8^th house is physical sex. The Moon is women. And Taurus rules the mouth. What a strightforward example of how keyword astrology can work!

Even Noel, himself, has written that he has taken Viagra© on occasion. His (convoluted) explanation was that he has Neptune (of weakness) in the 4^th house, which is the 12^th dynamic of the 5^th house. I would have said that his 8^th house was ruled by Saturn,which is in opposition to Neptune. This introduces Neptune into his sexual profile more quickly and directly.

By definition, the 5^th house and the 8^th house will always be square to each other in the mundane sense. When studying the philosophical meanings of houses and their interrelationship, it is best to think of houses in an equal house system. Then it becomes blatantly obvious that it would take the transiting Sun 9 months to travel from the 8^th house to the 5^th house. As 9 months is the typical duration of a pregnancy from intercourse to birth, the assignment of the 8^th house to sex becomes much easier to accept.

Recently a top local psychic gave me the good advice to stop comparing myself to other people. For the longest time, I was embarassed that I was the oldest of my peers to lose his virginity. I'm bringing this out in the open in accordance with my psychic's advice. Actually, I had 3-1/2 years of astrological experience when it happened, which meant that I made it a point to look at the clock. As I wrote earlier, I had felt conflicted about which astrological house truly represented sex. In my horoscope, Venus rules the 5^th house, but is tenanted in the 8^th. Studying my own chart wouldn't settle any questions. In fact, when I first had sex, February 21, 1975 at 10:10 pm PST in Sellwood, Oregon, the midheaven was exactly conjunct my natal Venus!

Don Borkowski

dgborkowski@msn.com

October 1, 2012, 3:17 pm

Sheridan, Oregon

Health and HIlary Clinton

In light of Dick Cheney getting a heart transplant, I decided to look at some other politicians from a health perspective. From the orientation of critical illness, I am most concerned by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's chart. Hillary Clinton was born October 26, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. There has been some debate about a.m. versus p.m. and how close to 8:00 her birth was. Knowing that Chelsea was delivered by C-section, I feel confident in altering Hilary's birthtime by adding a single minute, to get 8:01 a.m. Chelsea has Mars Rx at 4:36 Virgo and Jupiter Rx at 4:50 Virgo. So the tweak made Hilary's MC just a wee bit closer at the time of the delivery.

If Hilary Clinton were a male, I think that she would be a prime candidate for prostate cancer. She has Scorpio on both the 12^th house of critical illness and the ascendant--the health center of the horoscope. Pluto, the ruling planet is conjunct both Mars and Saturn, which suggests both irritations and blockages. Her Sun in the 12^th house also suggests a systemic weakness in those body parts associated with Scorpio. She has Jupiter in the first house, both as a final dispositor and peregrine. I think Noel Tyl's evaluation of health is pretty good, with some exceptions. Personal experience has led me to consider Scorpio, rather than Libra, to be the ruler of the bladder. Since Hilary does not have a prostate, I think she is at high risk for bladder cancer.

When cancer is analyzed astrologically, Jupiter presents a true conundrum. Jupiter in the 1^st house does preserve the basic health. Yet with Jupiter as both a final dispositor and peregrine, there is a risk of uncontrolled cellular growth running away with the organism, which is exactly what cancer is.

Then there is the issue of Hilary's Pisces Moon. Although, I don't particularly like Hilary, it breaks my heart when I discover that someone that I do like has a Pisces Moon. I've seen far too many people die of cancer at far too young an age, if they have the Moon in Pisces. We've all seen far too many Pisces Moons get hooked into some kind of addictive behavior. To name just a few are Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Rush Limbaugh.

Back on June 17, 2009, Hillary Clinton fell and broke her elbow.  Still some people might think that the fact that she broke her elbow would give credence to the evening (Gemini rising)chart, I think that looking at the transits (and other predictive tools) might give us more insight in general.  The first thing I noticed was transiting Uranus squaring its own place.  Uranus is easily associated with things that happen suddenly, and accidents certainly happen suddenly.  Hillary's natal Uranus is in Gemini, and will function as such regardless of what her ascendant is.

At noon, her TP (tertiary progressed) Moon was 23:04 Taurus, which is close to some midpoints involving the North Node, the ascendant and Mercury.  As I don't have the time that she fell, the incident does seem more consistent with a morning birth.

Perhaps it's too early to voice my concern, but at the end of 2017, Saturn. Mercury and the ascendant will all all arc to Hilary's Sun while Neptune arcs to her Moon. If she were to develop bladder cancer, I suspect that time to be the most ominous.

                                                                                 Don Borkowski

dgborkowski@msn.com

A Simple Synastry Snapshot

I took up the serious study of astrology back in the “What's your sign?” days of the early 1970s. And even with the sophistication that the passage of 40 years can bring, sometimes looking at synastry from a macrosmic level can be revealing. The term, “macrcosmic” or “macro” level is one that I use when I just want to discuss basic, overall principles, rather than quibble over details that would normally just get in the way.

Recently, I have been looking back at my involvement with astrology and noticed that many of the people who have been the most supportive and encouraging of me have had the Moon in Leo. Just off the top of my head, I can think of Press Roberts, Edith Custer, Joan McEvers and Noel Tyl who fit this description. In the course of conversations with various friends in the astrological community, nearly everyone would have a different point of view regarding these people. So then it became obvious that these people were whom I needed for my fulfillment, whether or not my friends needed them for their fulfillment. On a macro level, their Moons were nurturing my Leo Sun. The next question that I needed to ask myself was, “Does this principle work in the other direction; in other words, does my Virgo Moon nurture anyone with a Virgo Sun?” My father was a Virgo with a Cancer Moon and a Libra ascendant. Basically, I had a good relationship with my father, despite the clashes between my realism and his idealism.  Interestingly, when I was in college, my best friend was a Virgo with a Leo Moon.  To a greater or lesser degree with both supported and nurtured each other.

Besides the Sun, the other two major building blocks of the horoscope are the Moon and the ascendant. I have noticed that if a person has troubles with a given Sun sign, people with the Moon or the ascendant in that sign are often more difficult to deal with—with one exception. For some reason, Aquarius ascendants are easier to deal with that Aquarius Suns, but Aquarius is the only sign that exhibits that phenomenon.